I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 125
  Yekaterinburg was built on the order of Peter the Great and named after Catherine I. It is the economic, financial, and cultural center of the Ural region, as well as an important transportation hub.

Nicholas and his family died in Yekaterinburg.

Yekaterinburg is the third largest city in Russia, after St. Petersburg and Moscow. It was already mid-October when George came to Yekaterinburg.

On George's way to Yekaterinburg, the railway traffic was temporarily suspended due to heavy snow, and it was not restored until a week later.

George finally understood why Russian freight was so expensive. It was not all because of the greed of private railway company owners. Russia's special situation was also one of the important reasons.

The factory that George bought is located between Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk. There are coal mines and iron ores nearby. Raw materials can be obtained locally and the raw materials are easily obtained.

The factory had been abandoned for ten years. Work was resumed for a time during the 10th Russo-Turkish War, but was completely abandoned after the war. The factory management was dispersed and transferred to the three major companies, and the workers were laid off.

The day before George arrived in Yekaterinburg, the largest workshop of the steelmaking plant was crushed by heavy snow. The snow inside the steel plant was two meters thick. George had to give up. In this situation, let alone resumption of work, he could not even enter the factory.

George is not disappointed either. Yekaterinburg not only has a smelting plant, but it is also an important manufacturing center in Russia.

The steelmaking equipment George needs can be manufactured in Yekaterinburg.

George hoped to order steelmaking equipment from the Ural Machinery Plant on the grounds of resuming production.

Ural Machinery Factory's orders have been scheduled for two years, unless George is willing to wait.

What else could George do? Wait.

The steel plant was not built in a day or two, and George was mentally prepared for it.

George is not prepared to resume production at the bomb factory. After these equipment are built, George will be sent directly to Vladivostok.

Ekaterina did not find a steel plant for sale in France and had to go to the United States to look for it.

Ordering steel equipment from the United States also requires waiting.

There was nothing that could be done about it. In the second half of the 19th century, all countries were frantically increasing their steel production capacity, and George couldn't even buy old equipment.

Back in St. Petersburg, it was already November.

After Nikolai learned about the situation in the factory, he immediately apologized to George. He did not know the specific situation in the factory.

If George is not angry, it is just a matter of luck. If he has bad luck, George does not blame Nicholas.

The advancement of magazine-type rifles is not going smoothly. If the three major arsenals want to produce magazine-type rifles, they need to modify existing equipment.

The best way is to build a new arsenal, but building a new arsenal also requires equipment and workers.

The military department paid attention to the Obukhov Steel Works, which mainly produced equipment for the navy.

George had not known before that the Obukhov Steel Plant, which produces 305 mm large-caliber naval guns for the Navy, was actually privately owned.

Factories that produce naval guns can be privately owned, so it doesn't seem outrageous for George to build an arsenal.

Nicholas supports George's "entrepreneurship", and he also wants to see whether the middle class that George mentioned can be realized in Russia.

In recent years, there have been more and more urban riots in Russia, with workers being the main force.

Improving workers' treatment was the main way to ease class conflicts, but the tsar could not order factory owners to improve workers' treatment through administrative orders. The main resistance came from within the royal family.

George knew that he would rope in Nikolay and Georgi to sell champagne, and Russian businessmen were not stupid either.

The princes of the royal family were the most powerful group in the Russian Empire, so they became shareholders of Russian companies one after another.

If the factory improves the treatment of workers, it will affect the profits of the factory and then the income of the princes.

Therefore, it does not matter whether the factory owners oppose it or not. The interests of the princes must be protected.

This is also the reason why the tsar did not dare to touch the three major powers. There were too many interests involved.

George does not think that increasing workers' income will affect the factory's profits.

There are many ways to increase profits, but exploiting workers is the stupidest.

On the contrary, improving workers' treatment will stimulate workers' enthusiasm to a greater extent, improve labor efficiency, and provide more profits for the factory. Such a simple truth is not complicated.

It was difficult for George to build a steel plant, but it was easy to build an arsenal.

In 1883, Russia's annual steel production was 60 tons.

In actual production, Russia's steel production has never exceeded 75% of maximum production capacity.

The key reason is that the efficiency is not high.

The same goes for the three major arsenals.

In the 1970s, Russia began to change its equipment. For ten years, this work has not been completed, and the output of the three major arsenals has also not reached the ideal state.

George sent a telegram to Mikhail, asking Mikhail to send 3000 of the 500 Chinese workers hired this year to St. Petersburg.

George wanted to show Nicholas and the Tsar what real industrial production was.

"Chinese workers use machines?" Nicholas doubted whether the Chinese workers could complete the task.

"Probably not——" George said politely.

It’s not that it should be, it’s definitely not going to happen.

George didn't know what the literacy rate was in the Qing Empire, but in the Qing Empire, it was illegal for private students to run private schools, which could range from being exiled to being executed.

It's no use.

There are no Chinese characters on the Russian machines, they are all in Russian, and Russian workers don’t understand them.

If you could understand it, you wouldn't be a worker anymore.

"Then what do we need them to do?" Nicholas didn't know how hard the Chinese workers worked.

"If you don't know how to use it, you can teach it. They may not be the best workers, but they must be the best students." George still has confidence in the IQ of the Chinese.

"Impossible. Ignaev said that the Qing people are extremely ignorant and cannot be disciplined. Moreover, they are not hygienic and cannot be touched." Nicholas has deep prejudices against Chinese people.

Ignaev had served as Russia's ambassador to the Qing Dynasty and was no stranger to the Qing Dynasty, but he was far from understanding it.

"Ignaev is talking nonsense. The ignorance of the Qing Dynasty is not caused by the Chinese." George's injustice has its owner, and its debtor has its owner.

"History of the Ming Dynasty: Biography of Yang Jizong" records: "At the beginning of Chenghua, Wang Ao recommended him to promote Jiaxing Magistrate - Daxing Social Studies. If the children of the people did not become scholars at the age of eight, their fathers and brothers would be punished.

This means that schools are held in Jiaxing. If people in Jiaxing do not study until they are eight years old, their guardians will be punished.

The situation in Jiaxing cannot represent the entire Ming Empire. But it can also fully prove the official attitude of the Ming Empire towards education.

George did not argue with Nicholas. When the 500 Chinese workers arrived in St. Petersburg, Nicholas would naturally understand who was responsible for the current situation of the Qing Empire.

It takes two months to take a boat from Vladivostok to St. Petersburg.

The Oaks got their first batch of magazine-fed rifles before Christmas.

Along with the magazine-type rifles, 10,000 rounds of new ammunition arrived at the Oak Group.

George's meager military knowledge was considered an expert in this era.

The new bullet adopts George's suggestion, with a central charge and a pointed bullet, which can not only ensure range and accuracy, but also have strong lethality.

Generally speaking, round-nose bullets are more lethal than pointed bullets.

However, during the flight of the round-nosed bullet, the trajectory is unstable and the speed is slower, which has a greater impact on accuracy.

The new type of bullet adopted by the Russian military has a warhead that is light in the front and heavy in the back, light in the head and heavy in the foot.

When a pointed warhead hits the human body, it is easy to lose stability and roll violently. The damage to the human body will be doubled, the "cavity effect" will be more obvious, and the lethality will be greater.

Tests have shown that when this kind of bullet hits the human torso, it will cause extremely serious damage to the internal organs of the human body, and will not kill two people with one shot.

Due to the use of smokeless gunpowder, the new bullet is much smaller than the bullet using black powder, and the magazine is also reduced. The magazine capacity is still five rounds, but the weight and cost of the rifle are reduced.

The first batch of rifles sent to the Oak Regiment totaled one hundred, and George issued all of them to precision shooters.

Good news came from Moscow. One hundred telescope lenses produced by Schwabe Company for the rubber group arrived. George continued to rub the sights in the manor and prepared his own lens factory.

Optical instruments are widely used not only in the military, but also in the fields of scientific research and people's livelihood.

Russia currently has only one optical company, Schwabe, which is completely unable to meet Russia's needs.

In fact, George's first factory is already in preparation. It is not food processing or arms, but glass.

As an essential magic weapon for people who travel through time, glass plays an extremely important role. George not only needs optical instruments, but cosmetics also need various glass bottle packaging.

George paid more attention to sunglasses.

George needs sunglasses not to wear something, but because Russia has winter for half the year every year, and the long snow season causes snow blindness to occur frequently. Therefore, sunglasses are not only a decoration but also a necessity for Russia.

What's even better is that glass is not taken seriously in Russia. There are no large-scale glass factories in Russia. George's production of glass will not conflict with the interests of the princes.

It's okay to have conflicts. The combination of George and Nicola is invincible in Russia.

Although the winter in Russia is difficult, it does not mean that you have to leave home. The snow in the wilds of Siberia can reach 20 meters at its thickest. The snow in St. Petersburg is cleaned every day, and the traffic is still very smooth.

The Oak Corps was not far from the Gatchina Palace, so George asked the soldiers of the Oak Corps to sweep away the snow between the Oak Corps and the Gatchina Palace, and came back to add chicken legs in the evening.

Ya San got an unexpected bonus after seeing it, and asked someone to deliver a cart of vodka that night.

What else is there to say? The bonfires are lit, dancing and singing begin, and even the flying snow in the sky cannot stop people's enthusiasm.

In this heavy snow, 1884 came quietly.

At the end of last year, a war broke out between the Qing Empire and France, which aroused widespread concern.

Russia was also concerned about this war. When the Qing-France War broke out, Milyutin hoped that George would go to the Far East to serve as a military observer, but George refused.

The Qing-French War was nothing to watch, with novices pecking at each other and chicken feathers everywhere. George had a heavy workload this year and had no time to go to the Far East.

Around Christmas, the cosmetics factory also began to enter the preparation stage, and Julian was so busy that he hit the back of his head with his heel.

With Nikolai's help, Yuriev's company obtained the exclusive right to sell champagne in St. Petersburg, for which George paid 200 million rubles a year.

Nicholas, the young dragon, finally showed his fangs, and there was no one to compete with George.

Nicholas announced to the outside world that no matter which company gets the exclusive rights to champagne in St. Petersburg, the royal family will only buy champagne from Yuriev's company.

Yasan also announced to the outside world that Russia will strengthen the management of the Champagne industry. Once tax evasion and smuggling are discovered, they will be dealt with seriously in accordance with relevant regulations. For a time, the whole of St. Petersburg was in turmoil and everything was in jeopardy.

It would be fine if it was just champagne.

If the crackdown on tax evasion is expanded to other industries, many people in Russia will cry.

This is not to say that Russia has not cracked down on tax evasion before, but that many laws in the empire are not strictly enforced and there are many loopholes that can be exploited.

For the same imported champagne, when the customs declares taxes, the difference in tariffs levied by the customs is more than double between 15 rubles for a bottle and 36 rubles for a bottle.

Russia's tariffs are progressive. The higher the price of imported goods, the higher the tax rate you need to pay.

Before the Champagne Monopoly, a lot of Champagne sold on the St. Petersburg market was imported under the name of ordinary wine. This caused the empire to lose a lot of tax revenue, and all the money was made by wine merchants and their protective umbrellas.

Although Yuriev Company's champagne is expensive, it has always paid taxes according to regulations, and every penny is worth.

Previously, wine merchants in St. Petersburg also laughed at Yuriev's company that it would not make any money.

Now they are completely dumbfounded and honest people deserve to be rewarded.

The first batch of Chinese workers arrived in St. Petersburg on February 2. 15 people set off from Vladivostok, 500 people arrived in St. Petersburg, and the remaining 495 people died of illness or accidents on the way.

What made George particularly unacceptable was that two people actually jumped into the sea and died. George didn't know why they jumped into the sea.

After the workers arrived in St. Petersburg, they were taken directly to Oak Manor and placed in houses that Oak Park had previously built for Guardsmen.

George spent most of his time in the Oak Regiment, and the guards also lived with George in the Oak Regiment. The house in the Oak Park was vacant and was used to house these workers.

Workers do not have high requirements for living standards. Soldiers in Oak Park share a room with two people. Workers can live in more rooms. If there is no bed, they sleep directly on the floor. It is winter anyway, so squeeze in to stay warm.

These workers had been working in Vladivostok for more than three months before coming to St. Petersburg. Their mental state was not very good. The two-month sea voyage had a certain impact on their health. They were also afraid of the Rakshasa Kingdom. Make them worried about the future.

George had nothing to say, and he did not go to any of the workers to show off.

The first dinner after arriving in Oak Park was very sumptuous. Each person had a bowl of vodka and a bowl of beef stew with potatoes. There was only one bowl of vodka and you could have more after you finished the beef stew with potatoes.

For many people, New Year’s Eve dinner has never been so sumptuous.

With a new set of clothes, a new pair of leather shoes, and a sheepskin hat, the workers' mood immediately became much more stable.

With good food and drink, and new clothes to wear, it's not like he was brought over to be treated as a piglet.

The winter in St. Petersburg is very cold, and the clothes are very warm. Each person also has a sheepskin jacket. Many people hold it and are reluctant to let go, let alone wear it. They have never worn such good clothes.

(End of this chapter)