I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 254 Clouds of War

Chapter 254 Clouds of War

While in Vladivostok, the Vladivostok city government had a headache because of the misbehavior of the Siberian Fleet sailors.

On the territory of the Russian Empire, the sailors of the Siberian Fleet were still unscrupulous.

In Jeju, don’t expect the sailors of the Siberian Fleet to abide by the law.

George decided at the beginning of the year to use Jeju as a fruit base in Vladivostok. This work has now been started, but the progress is not obvious enough.

When oranges grow in Huainan, they become tangerines, and when they grow in northern Huaibei, they become tangerines. The development of agriculture requires not only execution, but also suitable seedlings.

Whether it is suitable or not will take time to be verified.

George sent people to collect various fruit seedlings in East Asia and transplanted them to Jeju for planting, hoping to find suitable varieties.

This is a long project and the benefits cannot be seen in a short time.

Fortunately, with the addition from Aceh, the market in Vladivostok will be more plentiful with supplies this winter.

George is not in a hurry. Breeding work must be done slowly, and technical personnel must be trained slowly. As long as you persevere, you will always see results.

There is still good news.

In June of this year, Tesla completed his alternator, and the Siberian Electric Company could finally launch a general attack on the Edison Electric Company.

George's automobile factory in Delaware, USA, will be completed by the end of the year and will officially start production next year.

It is different from the high-end cars produced by the Vladivostok Automobile Factory.

The affordable cars produced by the Delaware Automobile Factory abandon all flashy premium designs and focus on practicality. Simply put, they just need to be able to move.

George prepared several different plans for the Delaware automobile plant.

There were no competitors for automobiles in the U.S. market. During this period, the focus was on quickly launching a large number of cheap products to occupy the market.

If wealthy people need high-end cars, the Vladivostok Automobile Factory can export them directly to the United States to meet the needs of different groups of people.

When a competitor appears in the market, the Delaware automobile factory will begin differentiated competition against the new automobile factory, all with the purpose of killing its opponent.

In order to maintain technological leadership, George has focused on the cultivation of technical teams from the beginning. It was by virtue of its technical advantages that the Vladivostok Automobile Factory defeated its German competitors at the World Expo.

After returning to Vladivostok after an absence of half a year, George was no longer surprised by the changes in Vladivostok.

Anne was full of praise.

It’s not that Anne is ignorant, but that Vladivostok is developing so fast that even Anne can’t keep track of it.

"I have lived in Sigmalingen for more than ten years, and Sigmalingen has hardly changed. What it was like more than ten years ago is still what it is now—"

George had seen what the real speed of development was. Compared with the scenes in his memory, Vladivostok was still almost boring.

"This is normal. In recent years, Vladivostok's resident population has almost doubled in two years. If you go to New York, you can feel that New York is developing at a rapid pace."

George is not arrogant. Compared with the United States, Vladivostok must continue to work hard.

Only now did George realize the importance of population.

If the population of Sigmaringen doubled in two years, the speed of change would also be visible to the naked eye.

Compared with Vladivostok, Yuriev Palace has changed little.

It cannot be said that there have been no changes, I can only say that the changes in Yuriev Palace are invisible from the outside.

At least the lighting system of Yuriev Palace has now been changed from direct current to alternating current.

With alternating current, the construction of power stations will also be put on the agenda.

The embarrassing thing is that George Kong had the idea of ​​building a power station, but he did not have the corresponding technology and equipment.

"Providing electricity to the entire city?"

Mikhail frowned. George's idea was beyond Mikhail's imagination.

Whether it is direct current or alternating current, it can only provide power supply to a single building.

If it were to provide electricity for the entire city, Mikhail didn't know how big the workload would be.

"Yes, across the city, this job is important and it needs to be done no matter what."

George knew the importance of electricity to development.

The steam age drove the emergence of the first industrial revolution, more than a hundred years ago.

The discovery and application of electricity will promote the emergence of the second industrial revolution, and mankind will soon enter the "Electricity Age".

The first industrial revolution gave birth to an empire on which the sun never sets.

Who will be the beneficiaries of the second industrial revolution?

George wanted it to be the Russian Empire.

"We have too many important tasks now, and we have to do them one by one."

Mikhail was in a devastated mood.

After Mikhail arrived in Vladivostok, he was driven like a donkey by George with a whip and had no time to rest.

The most important task in Vladivostok last year was railway construction.

Will it be replaced by a power station this year?

The key is that he doesn’t even have the technology to build a power station, so George vows to build a power station. How to build it?

"I'm not asking you to build the power station overnight. Let's start with the preparations."

George is not unconcerned about technical issues.

Tesla has solved the biggest technical problem, and now it is the application problem that needs to be solved.

George did not expect to push Vladivostok into the electric age overnight. This was simply impossible. Not to mention anything else, the wire problem alone is enough to make the technicians in Vladivostok have a headache.

Plastics had not yet appeared in this era, and the insulating materials used for wires were silk and cotton.

In order to improve the waterproof performance, the wires must be impregnated with natural resins such as shellac, vegetable oil, and asphalt to achieve better waterproofing effects.

With such a complicated production process, the cost of wires naturally remains high.

Therefore, if George wants to provide power supply to the entire Vladivostok, he still needs to wait for the comprehensive progress of technology. Only generators are far from enough.

With generators, the storage of electricity is also a big problem.

So the second task George gave Tesla was to research batteries.

Don’t get me wrong, George didn’t need batteries to develop an electric car.

The Russian Empire and the United States are currently the countries with the highest oil production. In the automotive field, the Vladivostok Automobile Factory has an unshakable first-mover advantage, at least in the short term.

That's why George wouldn't dig his own grave.

Although the battery will not be used in electric vehicles, it can be applied in a wide range of fields.

George vaguely remembers that when he was a child, the only electrical appliance in his home was a flashlight.

Speaking of flashlights——

Compared to providing electricity to an entire city, flashlights seem more realistic.

If you want to produce a flashlight, you need dry batteries first.

George didn't know when dry batteries were invented, nor did he know how dry batteries were made, so George sent his idea about the flashlight to Tesla and asked Tesla to solve this problem.

Technical problems require professional technicians to solve them slowly.

What George wants to do is to use existing technological advantages to attack competitors.

The biggest rival of alternating current is direct current.

Compared with alternating current, direct current has a first-mover advantage and has been sold all over the world.

George wanted to break the Edison Electric Company's monopoly on electricity, and he had to start with the production of AC motors.

Compared with other products, the technical confidentiality level of AC motors is not high, so George placed the production of AC motors in Vladivostok.

Don't worry about orders. Orders from the Russian Empire alone are enough to keep factories producing AC motors busy for several years.

The relationship between George and Nikolai only had a crack, not a complete breakdown, otherwise there would be no need to build the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Entering winter, the Trans-Siberian Railway was forced to stop construction, which was actually a good thing for Vladivostok.

By building the railway between Vladivostok and Khabarovsk and Yuriev, Vladivostok developed a consistently reliable corps of railway workers.

The output of the Vladivostok Steel Plant seriously failed to keep up with the demand of the Trans-Siberian Railway. In the middle of this year, Mikhail had to increase purchases from the United States so as not to affect the construction of the railway.

The output of the Vladivostok Steel Plant has continued to increase in the past two years. After Yuriev's steel plant was put into operation, Amur's steel output has increased to 15 tons.

Although the production of steel is increasing rapidly, the demand for steel is also increasing rapidly.

Although the Trans-Siberian Railway is important, automobile production is related to Vladivostok's sustainable development capabilities. Therefore, the Vladivostok Steel Plant must give priority to meeting the needs of the Vladivostok Automobile Plant.

Amur's urban construction also requires a large amount of steel.

There are also arsenals and shipyards in Vladivostok.

So Vladivostok’s demand for steel is insatiable.

Speaking of shipyards, the Vladivostok Shipyard built a commercial ship this year, finally changing the embarrassing situation of only building fishing boats.

This is a river transport ship used for water transport between Vladivostok and Khabarovsk.

Compared with railways, although water transportation is slower, it is more economical and cannot be ignored.

Inland water transport ships are an attempt. Next, the Vladivostok Shipyard will try to build ocean-going cargo ships, cruise ships, and even warships.

As Aceh stabilizes, Vladivostok's demand for shipping becomes more and more serious.

The large ships currently owned in Vladivostok are all ordered from major European shipyards. This is definitely not possible.

The proportion of Vladivostok's exports will become larger and larger in the future, requiring more and more ships.

Forget it if there is no shipyard in Vladivostok.

Since there are shipyards in Vladivostok, George will not ignore the development of the shipbuilding industry.

Apart from anything else, if the Vladivostok Shipyard can build warships, even if they are only sold to Japan and the Qing Empire, it will be enough to support the Vladivostok Shipyard.

Two years ago, the Qing Empire sent a fleet to Japan in order to deter Japan, triggering the Nagasaki Incident.

The Nagasaki incident seriously stimulated the pride of the Japanese people. With the support of an island country, Japan began to develop its navy.

The Qing Empire was not idle either. On December 1888, 12, the Qing Empire's Beiyang Navy was officially established on Liugong Island. At this time, the Qing Empire's naval strength ranked ninth in the world and first in Asia.

The Russian Empire's naval strength currently ranks third in the world, second only to Britain and France.

But when it comes to the Siberian fleet specifically, it's too miserable.

The current Siberian fleet is not even as good as the fledgling Japanese navy.

(End of this chapter)

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like