I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 137 Green Rapid Cannon
  The right to speak is a very magical thing. History is a little girl who can be dressed up by anyone. As long as you have enough strength, you can change history.

George's purpose of protecting Han culture is to study Russian history.

Many people may not know that the Russian language did not appear for a long time. Until the 18th century, the common language of the Russian aristocracy was French.

The reason why Pushkin has such a high status in Russia is that Pushkin standardized the use of Russian. He is known as the founder of modern Russian language and writing, so Pushkin is the "Father of Russian Literature."

Pushkin was born in 1799 and died in 1837, just a few decades ago.

Therefore, the long history of Russia is seriously lacking in written records. If you want to study the history of Russia, you must refer to the texts of other nations.

What makes George helpless is that not only the history of Russia lacks written records, but the history of all countries in Europe also lacks written records.

Even the collections in some European museums are fake.

The director of the Louvre Museum in France personally admitted in a documentary: Many Greek sculptures in the Louvre Museum are just technically sophisticated imitations, and no one knows where the real ones are.

This problem is very serious.

Not only does no one know where the real thing is, but no one is even sure whether the real thing exists.

In 2020, 16 Dead Sea Scroll fragments in the Museum of the Bible in Washington were all confirmed to be fakes.

Think of the woven baskets that were dug up after being buried for thousands of years and still have lifelike details, as well as Egypt’s so-called ban on age identification of cultural relics in order to protect cultural relics——

Has the authority of Western history reached a point where it is no longer possible to even question it?

As a Russian, George was indignant.

Think about how Europeans treat Russia?

What the hell am I going to do?
  Mikhail didn't have as much indignation as George. He only knew that he would do whatever George asked him to do.

So the Japanese immigrants in Vladivostok were in bad luck.

George ordered Mikhail to make a detailed register of the immigrants in Vladivostok two years ago, especially their place of origin, which must be clearly registered.

Now these records are finally working. The sailors of the Siberian Fleet followed the pictures, arrested people at their homes, and sent them all to the mines for mining.

The movements of the Koreans were also strictly restricted.

Prior to this, immigrants, whether from Europe or from East Asia, could move freely in Vladivostok without any restrictions.

How can this work?
  Vladivostok is the seat of the Siberian Fleet headquarters. The Siberian Fleet has several ships parked in the port for people to see clearly.

Even the caliber of the artillery on the fort was clearly visible.

If there is a fight with the Japanese in the future, the Japanese will take over everything.

George's request is also simple.

Now that the hired workers have come to Vladivostok, they must work honestly and cultivate the land they need and dig the mines they need, and Vladivostok officials will pay them every penny.

Those so-called adventurers, gold diggers, and speculators will die wherever they go. George does not need their help in developing Vladivostok. Vladivostok is not a cesspit, and not everyone wants it.

"If this continues, it will be difficult for us to obtain immigrants from Europe." Mikhail expressed deep concern about the future of Vladivostok.

"No, next spring, a large number of immigrants will arrive in Vladivostok in batches." George does not want Europeans, but only high-quality Europeans.

At the very least, they must be honest Europeans, not the damn criminals they are today.

George's biggest gain from the Rivno exercise was not the trust of the Tsar, but the recognition of Russian military generals such as Sergei, Nikolay the Younger, and Brusinov.

Although Brusinov was defeated by George many times, Brusinov did not hate George. Instead, he regarded George as a mentor and friend, and he had a close personal relationship with George.

Needless to say, Sergey and Nikolay Jr. are relatives and business partners of George. They share the same prosperity and loss with the Russian Empire, and are naturally aligned with each other.

What the Tsar could not give to George, Sergei and Brusinov could.

Sergei was the governor of Moscow and commander of the military district.

Moscow is the most important military district in Russia after St. Petersburg.

Sergey has agreed that when the veterans retire next spring, he will assist George and try his best to trick the veterans of the Moscow Military District into coming to Vladivostok——

Wrong, it’s not a scam, it’s a real five-day tour of Vladivostok.

As mentioned many times before, the reason why Russians are reluctant to come to Siberia is not that Siberia is unattractive to Russians, but that the protection provided by the empire is not perfect enough.

George can't control Siberia, but in Vladivostok, George can still make decisions with one word.

George's most important task this winter is to urge Mikhail to build a house in preparation for welcoming veterans.

"1000 buildings? Free?" Mikhail screamed, unable to understand George's generosity.

"If not, how can we make them stay willingly?" George did not hesitate to pay. Without the sycamore tree, how could he attract the phoenix?

George doesn't hate the Cossacks, nor the Koreans, nor even the Japanese. What George hates are those careerists who are deliberately ambitious.

Behind every Cossack soldier, there are several, even a dozen brothers and sisters.

Only one Cossack from each Cossack family could join the army.

Imperial ministers racked their brains every day to develop Siberia, but little did they know that there were millions of Cossacks in Russia waiting for food, suffering from no way out.

George doesn't need much. He only needs one hundred thousand Cossacks to arrive in Vladivostok, and George can form an army sufficient to protect Vladivostok. Then George can farm, collect grain, mine, cut trees, fish, and raise pearls with peace of mind——

Counting on the Siberian Fleet, there is a high probability that it will not be able to provide protection for Vladivostok.

Mikhail said that the generals of the Siberian Fleet were deliberately planning to move the Siberian Fleet headquarters further south.

That's good, go ahead and move, it's best to move far away and never go back to Vladivostok.

"Then there's no need for us to do this. Just like the Chinese workers today, isn't it okay to live in a house with ten people?" Mikhail's heart ached. He and Julian had worked so hard to earn this little money from selling wine. , were all ruined by George.

"1000 buildings is just the beginning. Don't feel bad. I guarantee that the money we spend now will be doubled in the end." George reassured Mikhail.

What really made Mikhail make up his mind was George's next words: "Countless times!"

Well, at least so far, George has made no mistakes.

Mikhail chose to trust George.

For three years, Mikhail accumulated enough wood to fill ten lumberyards.

After the wood is cut, it cannot be used immediately. It needs to be dried in the shade to ensure that the wood does not deform.

Even Mikhail didn't know how many square meters of wood there were in these ten yards.

This summer, the wood has already started to help George make money.

Not only did George need wood, Japan had an even greater demand for wood.

The four islands of Japan are located in seismic zones, and earthquakes of various sizes occur constantly. In order to minimize the damage to buildings caused by earthquakes, most Japanese houses are built with wood.

Japan itself is a small country and does not have that much wood for building houses, so Japan needs to import a large amount of wood to meet domestic demand.

Vladivostok has nothing but a lot of resources.

So starting this summer, Japan became Vladivostok's most important customer.

Not only wood, but also the high-quality coal produced in Vladivostok is also welcomed by Japan.

What George didn't expect was that even the Qing Empire came to Vladivostok to buy coal.

"What's so surprising about this? When officials from the Qing Empire came to buy coal, I gave them the highest rebate." Mikhail knew how to do business, and his main job was to play with people's hearts.

"Do the Japanese also want rebates when buying coal?" George was curious.

Mikhail looked at George strangely.

What's the matter? Russian officials don't take kickbacks when they make external purchases, right?

When Mikhail sells wine to the Grand Duke, he has to give a kickback to the person who handles the purchase.

George didn't know if this counted as siding with the enemy.

It shouldn't count. Although the current relationship between Japan and Russia is not in the honeymoon period, it is not in a state of war either.

"There is a new business, I'm not sure if I can do it?" George remembered the advice he gave Milyutin in Rivne last year.

When George visited the four Balkan countries last year, George discussed changing equipment with Milyutin on the road. George proposed at that time that the equipment eliminated by the Russian army could be sold to other countries in need.

The Qing Empire's demand for weapons was no less than that of Russia. The Bodin rifle eliminated by Russia must have been very popular in the Qing Empire.

"How will you know if you don't try it." As long as he can make money, Mikhail is interested.

In winter, even though traffic is cut off, telegrams can still be sent.

Mikhail sent a telegram to Henry in the Qing Dynasty, asking Henry to test the attitude of the Qing Empire and see if Russian weapons were marketable in the Qing Empire.

Henry called back quickly.

Although the Qing Empire's army suffered greatly during the war, the Qing Empire's strength was not weak. The rifles equipped by the Qing Army not only used fixed bullets, but also were repeating rifles.

Repeating rifle?

George was surprised. This didn't seem to fit with his understanding of the Qing Empire.

It's really a repeating rifle.

The Qing Empire's self-production rate of equipment was not high, and most equipment was purchased from external sources.

Britain and France were obsessed with the Qing Empire, and there was a risk of war with the Qing Empire. It was difficult for the Qing Empire to obtain the most advanced equipment from Europe.

So the Qing Empire came to the United States.

In 1862, the American Spencer invented a tube-fed repeating rifle with a magazine capacity of 10-13 rounds. After firing, there was no need to reload one round at a time. You only needed to replace the tube. Keep shooting.

Spencer's rifle has a rate of fire of 21 rounds per minute.

The heavy machine gun that George valued most was actually owned by the Qing Empire.

In 1874, the Qing Empire purchased dozens of Gatling machine guns from the United States to equip the Qing army. Due to translation, Gatling was called the Gatling gun by the Qing Empire.

(End of this chapter)