Bulgarian Empire

Chapter 37: Domestic Affairs

After the forming of the interim cabinet, Ferdinand purged the dissidents in the name of anti-corruption. He greatly nurtured his cronies and tried to dilute the influence of the Liberal Party, in which Boris Christoff was instrumental. The credit goes to Boris Christoff!

Boris Christoff, who is the head of the anti-corruption bureau, takes all the credit. Christoff, who is now busy every day, is happy and bitter. His ideal has been realized, but the life of leisure is gone.

He was a great hero in the eyes of the people, a butcher in the eyes of the officials. Ferdinand gave Boris Christoff full trust. As long as his eyes were on them, not many could get away.

He is iron-faced and selfless, no matter who pleads for mercy without selling face. Ferdinand is no different. Even the intelligence officers under Hoover were also caught in the crossfire. He sent a few unlucky people with dirty fingers to jail.

Hoover simply goes along with it. They can go to prison to lurk and monitor the criminals and serve the crime. As Bulgaria is now in the midst of building a large infrastructure, these criminals will most likely be sent to work as hard labor.

The anti-corruption bureau led by Boris is now sending people to the court every other day, and the efficiency is shocking. It has caused the Bulgarian courts to organize a special temporary court to judge corrupt officials.

The media also gave him the nickname "official butcher", and Boris Christoff became the most famous person in Bulgaria. Christoff became the most popular person among Bulgarian citizens.

The effort of Boris Christoff was not in vain. In addition to the arrest of many corrupt officials, the public has once again regained trust in the government.

To better develop the economy, Ferdinand merged the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Economy. The promotion of local officials and economic development had become important indicators.

Ferdinand merged the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education, which was created in response to the actual situation in Bulgaria. The water sector, which was under the Ministry of Interior, was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture.

It resolved thanks to the huge legacy left by Stambolov's cabinet, Bulgaria's chronic financial crisis. It gave Ferdinand sufficient strength to accelerate the industrialization of Bulgaria.

In agriculture, due to the "confusion massacre", a large amount of unowned land was nationalized. At the same time, a part of the cache of land was seized and forcibly seized by the government. The landlords' class has been in ruins ever since. The government is now in direct control of one-third of Bulgaria's land.

Ferdinand set a maximum rent tax on the land to relieve class conflicts, which could not exceed thirty percent. The owner of the land was charged with paying the agricultural tax.

Ferdinand decided to promote the upgrade of agricultural industry technology by gradually creating farms and adopting mechanized operations in the plain areas.

...

During the ministerial meeting at the end of 1889, Konstantin Stoilov said with a flushed face: "Your Highness, the domestic economy is now doing well. 50 million Leva of new investments were made in six months!"

Ferdinand smiled and nodded, gesturing for him to continue. Secretly, he thought to himself, "Great shit, a large part of them are my own investment or government investment. The real private capital is tiny!"

Konstantin continued, "Since June, up to now, there have been 1,035 new factories of all sizes in the country. Among them, there are twelve large factories with capital over one million and employing more than one thousand people!"

"The government invested a total of twelve million eight hundred and fifty thousand Leva, mainly in the Great Railway Project as well as in the construction of supporting roads, and part of the infrastructure! So far, the overall progress is going well!"

"Next year, we will continue to promote industrialization. We are also prepared to continue to increase investment in government infrastructure projects. The main project is to continue to complete the railroad program, as well as urban supporting construction, to create favorable conditions for industrial and commercial development!"

Ferdinand knew that he was laying the groundwork to secure the budget for the coming year, smiled, and said, "Good, the government are working to be sure!"

After Ferdinand finished, he turned his attention to Minister of Defense, Sava Mutkurov. To control the military power, Ferdinand carried out a major restructuring of the army. He promoted most of the former senior generals in the military to the Ministry of Defense.

Sava Mutkurov became the Minister of Defense under old seniority plus the early to defect. In Ferdinand's view, a Ministry of Defense official comes out of the military. How civilian-born should be experts? It is considered waste!

Sava Mutkurov is still grateful to Ferdinand. Don't look at him as a liberal, but civilians always filled the position of Minister of Defense. There is no part for him at all.

When he understood Ferdinand's meaning, Sava Mutkurov said, "Your Highness, our army has just undergone a major overhaul, and the current problem is that the weapons and equipment are mostly outdated. Forget about the European powers, even compared to Greece and Serbia, there is still some distance in firepower!"

"At present, our military industry is still slowing down. The arsenal machines and equipment have fallen behind and need to be updated urgently. Moreover, they can only produce guns and ammunition and small-caliber artillery.

Ferdinand said cautiously after thinking about it, "The problem of the arsenal does urgently need to be solved. It can be given priority in next year's financial budget. But the issue of army training, you must hurry up and create an elite division as soon as possible!"

"Don't worry, Your Highness! We will do a good job with the issue of the drill and discipline!" Sava Mutkurov assured.

Aware that it was his turn to speak, Yakov Petrinov spoke up and said, "Your Highness, due to the unrest in the first half of the year, this year's agricultural production has been affected somewhat. The area under farming has decreased by 3 percentage points compared to previous years."

"But with the spread of new agricultural techniques, there has been an increase in yields per acre. Even yields in some areas have increased by more than 8%! Overall, it's on par with last year."

Ferdinand smiled and said, "Good! Keep up the good work and try to take it to the next level this year!"

The last person to stand up and speak was Chekhov. Although the Minister of Education had the lowest authority, the cabinet ranking was the opposite.

It is Ferdinand's art of power. The biggest real power, Konstantin, could not even enter the cabinet. The smallest real power, Chekhov, was instead ranked highest in the cabinet.

Chekhov cleared his throat and said, "Your Highness, this year's education is progressing rapidly. The second year of university students also enrolled successfully. Also five new higher education institutions in the country have started enrolling, including two teacher training colleges, one medical college, and the remaining two are general technical colleges! Basically, we can meet the educational needs of Bulgaria."

"The literacy education promoted to the society is also progressing very well. The total number of illiterates has dropped by ten percentage points. It is expected that within ten years, illiteracy can be largely eliminated!"

Ferdinand nodded in content. Chekhov's ability to make his own decisions was lacking, but his ability to execute was excellent.