Chapter 542: Improving Public Order and Expanding the Military

As a great power country, the huge changes in the Italian government quickly spread to the ears of other countries.

Looking at the detailed information about Mussolini's rise to power and the current situation of the Italian government in his hand, Arthur didn't know what to say for a while.

Being able to grow from a newspaper reporter to the Prime Minister of Italy, there is no doubt about Mussolini's ability.

No matter what changes and influences Mussolini brought to Italy in history, this was the choice of the Italians themselves.

For current Italians, Mussolini's taking office is expected to end the political chaos in Italy in recent years and bring Italy back on track.

As for Mussolini, as the new prime minister, he was appointed by relatively special means. His first move is bound to attract the attention of many political parties and even the king. The success of the move will also determine the success of his next move. political prestige.

How to quickly achieve certain political achievements?

For a politician, the best evidence must be closely related to people's livelihood, and make people feel the real changes in the lives around them.

The current situation in Italy is good news for Mussolini. Because the previous cabinet governments did not pay attention to the civil situation, the public security environment in Italy was simply terrible.

For Mussolini, as long as certain changes are made, people can easily feel the difference in their surrounding environment.

After setting his goal, Mussolini quickly took action.

The first is the improvement of the public security environment. Mussolini adopted a policy of harsh suppression against the mafia that could be seen everywhere in Italian cities, using black shirt troops to suppress them forcefully.

Compared with the large-scale Black Shirt Army, the Mafia is more dispersed and has no climate.

These street gangsters who only know how to kill people with swords are destined to be unable to fight against an army with regular weapons, even though it is a private army.

In some big cities in Italy, the Black Shirts quickly eliminated the Mafia. Mussolini also promulgated corresponding policies to arrest people involved in the Mafia.

This kind of thunderous method is indeed very effective. The Italian mafia either fled abroad or hid in the countryside and more remote areas. The gang forces in the city have almost disappeared.

It is worth mentioning that in history, when Mussolini was purging the Mafia, a large number of Mafia members fled to the United States, and the evil must be punished in the United States.

Although the mafia of this era has also thought about fleeing to other countries, except for immigration countries like the United States, which are relatively open, other countries require strict censorship, and it is impossible to continue to show off their power.

Australasia, in particular, has very strict requirements for the public security environment, and it is impossible to condone the Italian mafia to commit crimes in Australasia.

In fact, some mafia members who are not afraid of death have moved to some cities in Australasia under the guise of tourism and immigration.

Just when they wanted to earn extra income through kidnapping and extortion like in Italy, they were severely cracked down by Australasian officials, far more powerful than Mussolini's Black Shirts, and they immediately started again. A hasty escape.

In the end, most of the Italian mafia fled to the United States. After all, the security environment in the United States was not strict at this time, and the mafia still had a certain space for survival in the United States.

In addition to quickly rectifying Italy's security environment, Mussolini also did another major thing, which was to improve Italy's transportation environment.

Although the investment cost is actually not much, after all, the previous environment in Italy was really bad. A little change made the Italians grateful and virtuous, and they also believed that Mussolini was the one who really saved Italy. .

It was also in this environment that Mussolini established a large amount of authority in the government, also won the support of a considerable number of Italians among the people, and already had the foundation for dictatorship.

The Prime Minister of Italy has a term limit. In order to ensure that he can stay in the position of Prime Minister for a long time, Mussolini decided to amend the Italian electoral law to ensure that the Italian National Fascist Party can occupy at least one-third of the Congress. Two seats.

Of course, the promulgation of the new electoral law also requires the consent of King Emmanuel III. After all, the king also has considerable authority in Italy. If he joins forces with other parties that oppose Mussolini, it will not be possible for Mussolini now. Nigeria is also a problem.

As a savior who thought he had a thorough understanding of Italy's situation, Mussolini deeply understood Italy's real shortcomings compared to other powerful countries.

Although Italy seems to have many problems, including insufficient population, underdeveloped economy, weak industry, low military combat effectiveness, etc.

But in fact, the most fatal problem is that Italians lack large-scale coal and iron mining areas, which has restricted the development of Italian heavy industry to a considerable extent, and has also created the reality that Italy's industry is not strong and its economy is underdeveloped.

Take a closer look at all the industrial powers in the world. Whether it is the old powers Britain and France that became famous early, or the emerging powers the United States and Australasia that are catching up from behind, they all have their own coal and iron production areas, and they are very large in scale.

According to the situation of various countries last year, the United States still ranks first in the world in coal production, with annual coal production reaching 630 million tons.

The following are:

UK 270.7 million tons

Germany 130.5 million tons

Russia 95.35 million tons

Australasia 60.77 million tons

Austria-Hungary 47.33 million tons

France 40.4 million tons

Island countries 7.6 million tons

Italy 550,000 tons

Yes, you read that right. Even now, Italy's coal production is still not a fraction of that of the island countries, and it is even more insignificant compared to other powerful countries.

When the coal production of the top powers has exceeded 100 million tons, Italy's coal production unit is not only 10,000 tons, but the production figures have not exceeded three digits.

Such coal production means that Italy's industry will not be very strong.

Because coal is currently very important for industry and is one of the irreplaceable energy sources for industrial development.

Coal and iron are known as the two major elements of industrial development, and Italy has none of them.

What's more terrible is that the coal and iron ore production areas closest to Italy are in the hands of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Germany's Ruhr area is naturally not worth thinking about. Let's not talk about whether the Germans are so easy to defeat. Even if the Germans are weak, with Britain and France on the side, Italy will never have the opportunity to get a share of the pie.

Although the Czech Republic (Bohemia) of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is more likely to be acquired by the Italians, they have to break through the current Austro-Hungarian Empire, which is also a big challenge.

Let’s not talk about whether other countries will interfere. Judging from the performance in World War I, the combat effectiveness of the Italian army is obviously not as good as that of the Austro-Hungarian army.

In order to change this situation and seek opportunities for Italy to obtain coal and iron producing areas, Mussolini decided to train a strong army to change the fact that the Italian army is weak.

For Mussolini, increasing the combat effectiveness of the army is very likely to be achieved.

The Black Shirts have proved that the combat effectiveness of an army with faith will be greatly improved.

Only by building a strong army can Italy seek greater expansion and change the reality of its insufficient mineral resources.

In order to achieve his goal, Mussolini even made a very detailed plan.

At first, relying on powerful weapons and beliefs to create a strong army, and then looking for a favorable opportunity to choose a well-known army power to fight a war, either to win or to achieve good results, to strengthen the Italians' confidence in the country.

Only when the Italians have a high degree of confidence in the country can Mussolini's plan to transform Italy continue, and Italy's strength can be more than just a dream.

In Mussolini's mind, this plan will take at least 10 to 20 years to realize, and even because of waiting for the right time, the time to truly realize the plan may be extended.

But Mussolini is only 37 years old this year. Compared with the 50 or 60-year-old leaders of other countries, Mussolini is definitely young among the national leaders, and even his youth can be ranked among the top.

Even if he waits for 20 or 30 years, Mussolini's political age is still at its peak, and he can still realize his dream of seeing the revival of Italy with his own eyes.

The powerful Mussolini quickly used his authority to get Congress to agree to the issue of army reform.

The new Italian Army will be reformed and equipped with more powerful weapons based on the model of the Blackshirts.

Mussolini also decided to spend a lot of money to study the tanks and aircraft that showed their reputation in World War I. He bought the first generation of military aircraft that had been manufactured from Australasia and established the Italian Air Force first.

The size of the Italian Army in normal times was about 150,000 people. With the Blackshirts that Mussolini had expanded to nearly 100,000 people, the size of Italy's armed forces was about 250,000 people.

Although he had already mastered the power of the government, Mussolini had no intention of disbanding the Blackshirts. Instead, he secretly expanded the Blackshirts, which was likely to let them compete with the Italian army.

Italy's military expansion is absolutely unique among the many European powers. Except for the exception of the Russian Civil War, other countries chose to disarm after the war. After all, the government's finances could not afford a too large army.

Apart from Russia, France has the largest army in Europe, and the total number of troops remains below 500,000.

The total number of British troops even dropped sharply to about 350,000, and the total number of the army returned to the level before World War I.

Compared with Britain and France, Italy's military expansion is unusual, but it did not attract much attention from other powers.

After all, the combat effectiveness of the Italian army in World War I has been verified. Except for the Italian navy, the Italian army, including Britain and France, is not highly valued.

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