Rise of Australia

Chapter 542: Improving public security and expanding the army

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 Italy's political chaos in recent years and get 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 the Black Shirts 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 power in the city has 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, which was far more severe than Mussolini's Black Shirts, and they immediately started to rush again. The road to 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 was actually not much, after all, Italy's previous environment was really bad. A little change made the Italians grateful and more trustworthy 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.

Italy's Prime Minister has term limits. In order to ensure that he can stay in the position of Prime Minister for a long time, Mussolini decided to amend Italy's electoral law to ensure that the Italian National Fascist Party can occupy at least two-thirds of the seats in Congress. .

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 political parties that oppose Mussolini, it will not be possible for the current Mussolini. It's 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 great powers.

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 6.3 million tons.

The following are:

UK 2.707 million tons
Germany 1.305 million tons
Russia 9535 million tons
Australasia 6077 million tons
Austro-Hungarian Empire 4733 million tons
France 4040 million tons
Island countries 760 million tons
Italy 55 tons
Yes, you are not mistaken.Even now, Italy's coal production is still a fraction of that of island countries, and it is even smaller than that of other powerful countries.While the coal production of the top powers has exceeded [-] million tons, Italy's coal production unit is not only [-] tons, but the output number has not exceeded three digits.

Such coal output means that Italy's industry will not be much stronger.

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

Coal and iron were both considered to be the two major elements of industrial development, but Italy had neither.

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

Of course, there is no need to think too much about Germany's Ruhr area. Let's not talk about whether the Germans are that easy to defeat. Even if the Germans are extremely weak and there are Britain and France on the side, Italy has no chance of getting a share of the pie.

Although the Czech Republic (Bohemia) in the Austro-Hungarian Empire is more likely to be obtained by the Italians, it still has to penetrate the current Austro-Hungarian Empire, which is also a big challenge.

Not to mention whether other countries would interfere, judging from the performance in World War I, the combat effectiveness of the Italian army was obviously inferior to that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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

For Mussolini, increasing the combat effectiveness of the army was very possible.

The Blackshirts have proven 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 insufficient mineral resources.

In order to achieve his goals, Mussolini even formulated a very detailed plan.

The first step is to create a powerful army based on powerful armaments, weapons and beliefs, and then to find a favorable opportunity to choose a well-declared army power to fight in a battle. Either win or achieve good results to strengthen the Italians' attitude towards the army. country’s self-confidence.

Only when Italians have a high degree of confidence in their country can Mussolini's plan to transform Italy continue. Italy's strong ability is not just a dream.

It would take at least 10 to 20 years for this plan to be realized in Mussolini's mind, and the time to actually realize the plan may even be extended because of waiting for the opportunity.

But Mussolini is only 37 years old this year. Compared with the 60-[-]-year-old leaders of other countries' governments, Mussolini is definitely young among the leaders of the country, and he can even be ranked among the best in terms of youth.

Even if he waits 30 to [-] years, Mussolini is still at his peak political age and can still realize his dream of seeing Italy's revival 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 based on the model of the Blackshirts and equipped with more powerful weapons.

Mussolini also decided to spend a lot of money to research the tanks and aircraft that had gained popularity in World War I. He purchased finished first-generation military aircraft from Australasia and formed the Italian air force first.

The size of the Italian Army in normal times is about 15, and with Mussolini's Blackshirt Army having expanded to nearly 10, the size of Italy's armed forces is about 25.

Although he had taken control of the government, Mussolini had no intention of disbanding the Black Shirts. Instead, he secretly expanded the Black Shirts, which was likely to cause them to fight against the Italian army.

Italy's military expansion is definitely unique among the many European powers. With the exception of the Russian Civil War, other countries have chosen to disarm after the war. After all, the government's finances cannot afford too large an army.

Apart from Russia, France has the largest army in Europe, with the total number of troops still remaining below 50.

The total number of British troops has even dropped sharply to about 35, and the total number of troops in the army has once again returned to the level before World War I.

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

After all, the combat effectiveness of the Italian Army had been verified in World War I. Except for the Italian Navy, the Italian Army, including Britain and France, did not attach much importance to it.

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(End of this chapter)