Why is an exe file compiled by gcc so big?

I wrote a very simple code and compiled it with gcc. After compilation I saw exe is 48kB. Why is it so big? Is it possible to decrease it's size? Should I use some kind of compilation parameters?

gcc .\001_simpleMain.c

int func()
{
    return 0x1234;
}

int main()
{
    func();
    return 0;
}