Chapter 1672 Southern Fortress Complex
Another important factor affecting Mostar's meat exports is transportation routes. This is one reason why Mostar exports more pork to East Africa than Germany.
Germany could have imported meat directly from Yugoslavia without going through Mostar.
Germany itself is a neighboring country of Yugoslavia, and during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it built a nationwide road network centered on Vienna and Budapest.
This transportation layout still influences present-day Yugoslavia, especially the former Croatia and Bosnia.
Therefore, goods from Yugoslavia could be transported to Germany without needing to pass through Mostar or even the entire Kingdom of Dalmatia.
At the same time, Germany's own slaughtering and processing technology is clearly much more advanced than that of Mostar.
Therefore, resuming meat exports to East Africa became an inevitable choice for Mostar.
Mayor Hanwes said, "Restoring the meat processing industry chain may present a market that is larger than we have faced before."
He got up and went to a map that had been set up in advance, which covered the area mainly along the Mediterranean coast and in northern East Africa.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is where our city of Mostar is located. This line is the railway to Port Proche," Hanwes said, pointing to the red and white lines on the map.
He then began at the port of Proche, marking its location, pressing his finger on the deep blue representing the ocean, below which was a black dotted line indicating the shipping route.
"Starting from the port of Ploche, passing through the Adriatic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and finally through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea, to the Gulf of Aden..."
"This is the route map of our meat exports to East Africa in the past."
Mayor Hanwes said, "You could say it's part of our traditional trade routes with East Africa, but..."
He made a sharp turn from the Gulf of Aden towards the Mediterranean Sea and pointed to a certain place.
"This is Benghazi Port, which is the main point I want to make. As everyone knows, East Africa built the North African Railway to accelerate trade with Europe, and this railway is already open."
"Does everyone know what this means?"
Without waiting for anyone else to speak, Mayor Hanwes gave a clear answer on his own.
"This means that the trade distance between us and East Africa has been greatly shortened, and the North African Railway has replaced the Red Sea route, which has greatly saved the time for trade between the two countries."
The speed of sea freight is obviously difficult to compare with that of rail, so Mayor Hanwes is right.
"For meat, especially raw meat exports, a very important factor is time. The time cost of our trade and transportation with East Africa has been reduced, which means we can win more market orders."
"Especially with the acceleration of cargo transshipment in modern container freight."
As a country supported by East Africa, the main ports of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, especially those in the southern region, were mostly designed, built, or renovated by East African companies.
Therefore, the Dalmatian Kingdom maintained consistency with East Africa in its port system.
Mayor Hanwes said, "The only regret is that during the peak of our East African meat export market, the North African railway was not yet completed."
"But it's not too late now, or rather, the timing is just right. The North African Railway was put into operation at the same time that relations between Yugoslavia and us were deteriorating."
"If the North African railway were to open ahead of schedule, our previous losses would likely be even greater."
Undoubtedly, the opening of the North African Railway was conducive to expanding the total trade volume between East Africa and the Dalmatian Kingdom. If the North African Railway had been completed ahead of schedule, the city of Mostar at that time would not have been able to resist the temptation of the East African market and increase its meat exports to East Africa.
In this situation, Yugoslavia's sudden cut-off of supplies to Mostar would obviously be a greater trade disaster for the city.
Mayor Hanwes joked, "In that case, we should be grateful that the North African Railway didn't open before the empire collapsed."
"However, these disruptive factors are now largely a thing of the past. To boost the city's economy and restore trade with Yugoslavia is one of the priorities of our economic work."
"Another focus is on reopening trade with East Africa and exploring new trade routes."
For the Kingdom of Dalmatia, the North African Railway increased its options for trade routes in East Africa, rather than completely replacing the Suez Canal.
Therefore, businesses in Mostar need to restore traditional trade routes, and they also need to build new commercial routes centered on the North African Railway.
Mayor Hanwes's words naturally garnered the support of the vast majority of government officials and businesspeople.
Even without this economic conference, businesses in Mostar would inevitably resume their past transshipment trade and expand its scale, since capital is profit-driven.
This economic conference merely accelerated this process, giving businesses in Mostar more confidence on the one hand, and reminding Mostar officials of the priorities for the city's economic work going forward, so as to provide more convenient services to local businesses on the other.
Not only in Mostar, but in most of the major towns of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, discussions have recently revolved around this point.
This is true for cities like Knin, a northern border city; Fium, a port city; Split, the capital; Ploche, a port city in the south; and Dubrovnik.
Ultimately, the Dalmatian Kingdom was too small in area and not rich in resources, which made it difficult for it to achieve much success in agriculture and industry on its own.
Therefore, developing commerce, especially foreign trade, was the best option for the Kingdom of Dalmatia, and all of this was inseparable from Yugoslavia.
In this social atmosphere, trade between the Kingdom of Dalmatia and Yugoslavia not only recovered to its pre-Austrian-Hungarian state, but also increased at an astonishing rate.
In fact, this occurred after Yugoslavia and the Kingdom of Dalmatia reached a consensus on reconciliation and lifted the shackles on trade between the two countries.
This had a significant positive impact on the economy of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, because as an independent nation, Yugoslavia would place even greater emphasis on trade with the Kingdom of Dalmatia.
During the Austro-Hungarian Empire, regions like Croatia and Bosnia in Yugoslavia placed greater emphasis on their economic relationship with Hungary.
After all, at that time, Croatia and Bosnia were nominally part of Hungary, and even Bosnia was jointly administered by Austria and Hungary.
Therefore, Budapest has effectively become the economic center of Croatia and Bosnia, drawing in population, agricultural output, and various resources from both regions.
However, now that Yugoslavia is independent, it will establish a trade network centered on itself.
In the vicinity of Yugoslavia, excluding Germany's sphere of influence, Yugoslavia could only exert its influence in the west and south. In the west, apart from Yugoslavia's own ports, there was only the Kingdom of Dalmatia.
Therefore, after Yugoslavia opened up trade and economic activities with the Kingdom of Dalmatia, its import and export of goods actually became more dependent on the Kingdom of Dalmatia.
The shift in Yugoslav policy not only freed the Kingdom of Dalmatia, but also imposed shackles on its own enterprises, especially Bosnian and Serbian businesses and operators.
...
With the complete opening of the economies of both countries and the geopolitical competition among major powers, the Kingdom of Dalmatia and Yugoslavia instantly became the most economically vibrant regions in the Balkans in 1938.
The Kingdom of Dalmatia had the support of East Africa, while Yugoslavia also had the strong support of the Soviet Union and France.
The territories of the two countries, along with Montenegro, constituted the majority of the former Yugoslavia.
Meanwhile, in the southern mountainous region of Yugoslavia, a relatively complete and independent military-industrial system was being built under Soviet leadership.
The Dinara Mountains.
In the southeastern part of this mountain range, near Serbia, Soviet engineers were instructing Yugoslavs on the construction of a fortress.
"A drainage culvert needs to be built here so that rainwater can flow out of the fortress when it rains. At the same time, we should avoid damaging the surrounding terrain and vegetation too much. This will greatly improve concealment and reduce the chances of being bombed by aircraft or artillery..."
Soviet engineer Kolchev carefully reminded the Yugoslav construction workers.
Beside him stood a Yugoslavian officer who asked Korchev, "Mr. Korchev, why did you choose this location for the bunker?"
Kolchev replied, "Mr. Rovka, the choice of this location as the bunker's location is based on considerations of the entire system. You see, although the location here is not very high, its rocky terrain and vegetation perfectly conceal it."
"If you don't observe carefully, it's very easy to overlook this place and catch the enemy off guard."
"Moreover, there is a mountain path directly below this location, which is one of the only routes leading to the heart of the mountains..."
As Kolchev explained, Rovka's doubts were resolved one by one. He suddenly realized and said, "Mr. Kolchev, you are indeed a professional. According to what you said, if an enemy ever invades our country, we will definitely make them suffer."
Engineer Kolchev said proudly, "That's natural. I participated in the construction of many important defense projects in the Soviet Union, so I can say that I have quite a lot of experience in this area."
"I can say without hesitation that the entire Yugoslav defense system would give any major power in the world a headache."
"The only drawback may be the progress of the project, which is much slower than I expected."
Rovka said with some melancholy, "On this point, Mr. Korchev, you must understand the difficulties we Yugoslavs face."
"Yugoslavia was just an agricultural country, and there was a huge gap between it and the Soviet Union in terms of industry. Therefore, we had a large shortage of important materials such as steel and cement."
"Many of the materials used by Yugoslavia to build the Southern Fortress complex now have to be imported from abroad."
"Moreover, due to the lag in industry, we also lack large-scale engineering equipment and machinery, and many projects can only be carried out by manpower."
"Another reason is that the development started late, and Yugoslavia's transportation infrastructure was relatively underdeveloped, which further led to the delay in the construction period."
At the suggestion of the Soviets, Yugoslavia is currently building what is known as the Southern Fortress Complex. This project is extremely complex and massive, and it is being constructed almost entirely by manpower in the Dinara Mountains.
The Yugoslav government was completely different from the French government; they never expected to build a fortification like the Maginot Line to keep Germany out of their country.
Yugoslavia itself did not have the financial and human resources to build it.
It's true that France was short of manpower, but it still had a population of over 40 million, while Yugoslavia only had over 10 million. Not to mention that France, as a major power, had a much higher level of economy and industry than Yugoslavia!
At the same time, even if there were a project similar to the Maginot Line, the Yugoslav government had no confidence in relying on such a project to defend against Germany.
After all, Germany's artillery and aircraft were far superior to those of Yugoslavia. Lacking effective countermeasures, even the Maginot Line was merely a tough tortoise shell, which would eventually be slowly breached by Germany's steel teeth.
Therefore, the Yugoslav government preferred to retreat to the southern mountains after the outbreak of war with Germany, fight the enemy from the Dinara Mountains, and hold out until there were new changes in the international community, such as the Soviet Union or other countries declaring war on Germany.
Korchev said, "We in the Soviet Union are aware of Yugoslavia's difficulties, so we have done our best to design the southern fortifications according to your national conditions."
“With this fortified complex, you will have the ability to wage a protracted war against external invaders.”
"In addition to numerous and well-preserved fortresses, there are also supporting supply depots, arsenals, communication facilities, and so on."
"We will help Yugoslavia build up little by little, so that the southern part of the Dinara Mountains can become a mountain defense zone that can barely be self-sufficient."
"With multiple secret external communication channels, I find it hard to believe that such a defense system can be completely destroyed."
The southern fortress complex has more than one external communication channel, even for individual countries. These channels are generally not allowed to be used by large-scale mechanized troops, but only by small groups of personnel.
They are mainly distributed in the border areas of Yugoslavia and the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Montenegro, Albania and Greece.
Therefore, unless the Germans completely cut off all external communication in the Balkans, the Yugoslavs could still obtain external support through these hidden mountain trails.
In contrast to the optimism of engineer Kolchev, Rovka was clearly less confident, saying, "Let's hope the southern fortress complex never gets started!"
Although the Yugoslav government had effectively regarded Germany as a potential enemy and made numerous preparations, it was clear that war with Germany was something Yugoslavia did not want to see at the moment.
Kolchev, a Soviet citizen, could even empathize with Rovka's feelings, saying, "We in the Soviet Union are actually facing a threat from the Germans."
"However, we cannot give up just because of the gap between the two countries. The Adolf government in Germany was an extremely nationalist government, and Adolf himself made no secret of his ambition to lead Germany to expand abroad."
"We must abandon any illusions in the face of such an ambitious dictator."
(End of this chapter)
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