My Italy

Chapter 150 Sad (please subscribe)

If Italy got the result it wanted and Abyssinia stopped its losses in time, then the Sudanese who invaded Abyssinia felt like they were in trouble.

The Sudanese Caliph Abdullah, who was sidelined, could only grit his teeth in the face of Italy's betrayal and the Abyssinians who were pressed by the entire army.

In fact, he should have thought of it after Italy signed the peace treaty with Abyssinia, because the Italians did not inform him of this situation at all. By the time he got the news, the Abyssinian army had already arrived.

In Azezo on the north shore of Lake Tana, the Sultan Caliph looked extremely bad.

"I actually believed the instigation of the pagans. It was greed that obscured my eyes."

That's right, if Abdullah hadn't had ambitions for Abyssinian territory, how could he have attacked Abyssinia with Italy.

But now Italy had achieved its goal, leaving the Sudanese alone to face the Abyssinian counterattack.

However, although he was facing the Abyssinians alone, Abdullah still had confidence. What gave him confidence was the 90,000 troops at his disposal. Because he knew that the Abyssinians had suffered heavy losses in previous battles with the Italians, with fifty to sixty thousand casualties. Now, the Abyssinians would not have a force superior to their own.

Abdullah was right as he expected. Menelik, who currently leads the army to Gondar, has only more than 80,000 people. However, although he has fewer numbers, he has weapons and even secret equipment supported by Italy. It was also his check of one hundred thousand pounds that played a role in giving him this secret weapon.

Menelik had seen this kind of equipment, which was the proof that he was confident in overcoming the Sudan. It seems that a war between the two countries is inevitable.

Now let us put aside the fighting between the two African countries and focus on Europe.

The news of Abyssinia's surrender cheered the city of Rome. Although many people did not even know where Abyssinia was, it did not prevent them from holding victory parades.

The motherland has won a victory and the Italian colonies have greatly increased. How can we not make people happy?

As for the cheering parade of the Italians, Britain and France, as old colonial countries, were a little bit playful about this.

French newspapers described the war in Italy as a story about a man who was going crazy with hunger, picked up a piece of bread, and stood in the street to show it off. He had never seen anything in the world.

The British Times reported that we do not want to comment too much on the colonial war in Italy. However, it spent nearly 8 million pounds to mobilize a large number of troops. It is not known how Italy plans to earn back this money from barren Abyssinia.

Well, the British report is more objective after all, while the French report is full of ridicule.

Well let's ignore the French attitude, the British are very right about one thing. This time Italy cost a little too much.

For this reason, Prime Minister Depretis found Carlo worriedly.

"Your Majesty, now that the war is over, the troops should be withdrawn."

Seeing that the Prime Minister was unwilling to wait for even a moment, Carlo put down his inner joy and asked curiously. "What's wrong?"

"Look at this bill. It's all the cost of this war."

Watching the Prime Minister hand a list to him, Carlo looked at it curiously. Carlo went straight to the end of the various expenses listed above. There were still words of 21.93 million lire left on it. It was so eye-catching that he was stunned.

"How come there is only so much left?"

It was rare that Carlo actually cared about the problem of too much spending, the Prime Minister said with an ugly face. "This does not include the cost of withdrawing the troops. If it is added, then I will have 10 million lire left, and I will be satisfied."

Well, the Prime Minister's words made Carlo look embarrassed. This was all because he was too generous this time, but he didn't dare not be generous when fighting the Abyssinians.

The report from Simeone made Carlo very happy that he did not follow the military's advice. If only 10,000 people were sent, it would be like sending a sheep into the tiger's mouth. You must know that according to Simoni's report, the Italian army lost more than 4,000 people in this war against Abyssinia. Although it also caused the loss of 50,000 to 60,000 Abyssinians, this also proved that this East African feudalism The country is brave and good at fighting.

Of course, for Carlo, being able to defeat the Abyssinians would be worth the expense. At least he avoided making Italy the laughing stock of Europe, which would have caused huge damage to the Italian people's self-confidence, which money cannot buy.

It's just that spending a lot of money is very satisfying, but after that, my heart aches a little bit.

Therefore, when faced with the Prime Minister's questioning, Carlo could only make decisions about him. "Now let me consider the issue of troop withdrawal."

"Your Majesty can no longer think about it. Now Simeone's army needs to consume a lot of supplies every day, which is all money. Besides, we have no money. If the army does not withdraw, Your Excellency Tejela will go crazy. .”

Facing the Prime Minister's words, Carlo looked at him in surprise. "That's impossible."

"How is it impossible? Finance Minister Tejela told me yesterday that the money in the national treasury has been reduced to the warning level. If there are still large expenditures, then we can only continue to borrow foreign debt. At present, our country has continued to lose money in the securities market. We have borrowed several foreign debts and have already consumed enough investors’ confidence. If we continue to borrow more, we may become the next Spain.”

The Prime Minister's words shocked Carlo. Spain is not a good player in the securities market. The country's foreign debt is like buying a lottery ticket, which is frightening.

Carlo certainly does not want to see Italy become like Spain, a country burdened with huge foreign debt.

At this time Carlo couldn't help but ask. “How much foreign debt do we currently borrow?”

Before this, Carlo didn't know much about Italy's foreign debt, but since the Prime Minister said so, he needed to know what he said.

In response to Carlo's query, the Prime Minister replied. "Currently, the total foreign debt borrowed by our country is 4.129 billion lire of foreign debt. In the past three years, we need to repay 873 million lire of principal and interest foreign debt. Within five years, we need to repay 1.571 billion lire of foreign debt. Most of the remaining foreign debt is It needs to be paid off within ten years, so our country is under great financial pressure and must save all expenses as much as possible. "

Facing the Prime Minister's words, Carlo was shocked. He did not expect Italy to bear so much foreign debt. This requires three years of fiscal revenue to fill.

Faced with this financial situation, what Carlo could say was that he could only speak to the Prime Minister. "Okay, I will ask the troops to withdraw as soon as possible after stabilizing the local situation."

After the satisfied Prime Minister left, Carlo called for an attendant. "Ask Mr. Alejard to come over and tell me I'm looking for him."

"As you command, Your Majesty."

After Carlo learned about the pressure on government finances, he planned to increase investment in industry. Only industry could save Italy's finances. Electrification is the focus of this investment.

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