I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 20 Call, call someone
  It can be seen that Ekaterina is gradually getting over the grief of her husband's death. Paris is indeed a place where people can relax.

Ya Er is very good to Ekaterina. The property he bought for Ekaterina in Paris is a four-story garden house with a total of 8 rooms, six bathrooms, two living rooms, and a banquet hall. and servants' quarters.

Ekaterina got into the mood quickly. After learning that the annual rent for such a bungalow was as high as 2.8 francs, Ekaterina decided to rent out the house.

The real estate in Nice is a manor. Although it is not as expensive as Paris, it is larger and cleaner. Ekaterina is not a lively person, and she does not like the prosperity of Paris.

George's own vineyard produced a total of 2.2 bottles of champagne due to a bumper grape harvest last year.

Catherine also had plans for the vineyard.

When Ya Er was alive, the wine produced by George Vineyard was all produced for home consumption and not sold to the outside world.

Now that Ya Er has passed away and George doesn't drink, so much champagne every year cannot be kept in the cellar, so Ekaterina decided to sell some of the champagne to the outside world.

There is also a saying for selling wine.

As mentioned earlier, the largest source of tax in the Russian Empire was not the farmers’ rations, but the vodka monopoly tax.

Beginning in 1762, Russia began to implement a vodka monopoly system and auctioned the vodka operating rights of each province. This revenue once accounted for one-third of the Russian Empire's fiscal revenue.

In 1881, Russia’s revenue from wine sales alone reached an astonishing 2.25 million rubles.

Russians love to drink, the poor drink vodka, and the rich drink champagne. The little champagne produced in George's vineyard will not even make a splash when thrown into the Russian market.

If Ekaterina does not want to sell it, George will not object.

If it is sold to outsiders, then George will have something to say.

Most of the champagne produced in George's vineyard was drunk by Ya Er in the past.

Ya Er is the Tsar.

Therefore, the champagne produced in George's vineyard is strictly for the royal family.

There are many vineyards in France, and other vineyards are trying their best to establish a relationship with the royal family. Any royal family will do. As long as they can establish a relationship with the royal family, even the most ordinary wine can be sold at the price of the best champagne.

Russia is the most powerful country in Europe.

The Romanov family is the most prominent royal family in Europe.

What other vineyards only dream of, George has at their fingertips.

Therefore, if the champagne produced in George's vineyard is sold to the outside world with the nameplate exclusive to the royal family, let alone other countries, at least in Russia, George's champagne will be in short supply.

What Russian doesn’t want to taste the champagne the Tsar drank?

At best, it's curiosity.

To a large extent, this is the same enjoyment as the Czar!
  This kind of champagne doesn't have to be too expensive. It's twice as expensive as other champagnes. It's cheap enough for 20 rubles a bottle.

George is only responsible for coming up with ideas, and Ekaterina is responsible for executing them.

In order to prevent Ekaterina from doing nothing in France, it would be good for Ekaterina to learn to do business.

After Ya Er's funeral, there was Ya San's enthronement ceremony.

Alexander was busy enthroning these days, and classes in the Winter Palace were temporarily suspended. Nicholas and Georgi called George every day, either chatting or inviting George to go to a relative's house with them.

Yes, there are now telephones, magnet phones. Before you make a call, you have to shake it, then pick up the receiver and call the operator: "Hey, hey, hey, this is Prince Yurievsky, I want to talk to the Winter Palace - —”

Probably this is the process.

The call quality is very poor, and there is often a buzzing sound coming from the receiver.

It also often disconnects for no apparent reason. George used it only once and then stopped using it. Nikolai and Georgi enjoyed it and called every day.

So gradually rumors spread: Prince Yurievsky disliked new things very much.

George was really wronged. It wasn't that he didn't like new things, he just didn't like magnet phones.

The phone is a thief and will steal your time without you realizing it.

In my previous life, George's company required that the phone must be turned on 24 hours a day, waiting for the company's call at any time.

In this life, someone helped George answer the phone, and George was very happy.

"Hey, the Duke is not here. Sorry, I can't tell you where the Duke has gone or when he will come back. You can leave your name -" Peter liked to answer the phone very much and often stayed by the phone for most of the day, looking forward to it. The phone rings.

George had never accepted Nikolai and Georgi's invitation before. Because of Ekaterina's reminder, George decided to start learning to be a naughty boy.

Nicholas and Georgi couldn't wait and took the initiative to come to the door, because George didn't even know where Prince Peter's mansion was.

There are no elders in George's family. Nicholas and Georgi think that George is very happy and can do whatever he wants.

"Reading, exercising, or sleeping, I don't want to go out -" George is like a duplicitous academic who plays with his classmates at school and reviews his homework until 12 o'clock when he gets home.

"You will become a nerd if you continue like this!" The little kid made George angry again. This little guy has a magical ability that can always make George break his defense in a second.

"Uncle George, are you sad?" Nicholas was a kind man, but George's mood suddenly changed.

To outsiders, George seemed miserable. His father had just passed away, and his mother left George alone in St. Petersburg and went to France.

So what about the Duke? He doesn't enjoy the affection and warmth that a normal family should have.

The little boy is a standard naughty kid.

Nikolai chose others by himself. If he were replaced by George——

Nicholas did not dare to think further.

"The hall here is very spacious. We can have a banquet here to relax for Uncle George." When needed, George will become Uncle George.

Otherwise it's George, Nerd, and Hey.

"Okay, I'll call Peter and ask him to bring someone over." Nicholas was very interested. He had a special liking for banquets.

"Why don't I go out with you to play?" George couldn't bear to be a naughty child, so he wouldn't let a group of naughty children destroy the Yekaterin Palace.

So George finally got to ride his beloved sweat horse.

"When did you learn to ride a horse?" Nicholas realized later that he was four years older than George and was still riding a carriage.

"Do you still need to learn this stuff?" George finally couldn't hold it back and said Versailles inadvertently.

Nikolai's expression was complicated.

Nicholas also liked the feeling of galloping on a horse, but unfortunately he never had the chance.

The former crown prince died of meningitis after falling from a horse, and Ya San became the crown prince.

When they arrived at Nikolai's place, Ya San was on tight guard. Nikolai's so-called learning of riding was in the horse farm of the Winter Palace, where he rode a pony led by a groom and walked slowly at an extremely slow speed.

So Nikolai soon lost interest in riding horses.

George has no one to care about, and he can ride as much as he wants and as long as he wants. This seems to Nikolai to be too happy.

(End of this chapter)