I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 278 Vladivostok is the father

George is not ignoring higher education. The key is that there is a step-by-step process. The most important thing for Amul right now is to lay a solid foundation. Cultivating high-tech talents is a long process, and there is no point in rushing.

Cars, airplanes, submarines, alternating current, etc. are all emerging industries. Even if George wants to train them, he doesn't know how to train them and has no experience to follow.

Compared with weapons design, George pays more attention to basic industries such as metallurgy, petrochemicals, and materials.

Speaking of materials, George urgently needed aviation aluminum to build a bomber with a larger load capacity.

Aluminum is widely used in industry, but due to production capacity constraints, the price of aluminum was higher than gold and platinum for a long time, making it impossible to apply on a large scale.

In 1886, the electrolysis process of aluminum was conquered, making large-scale production possible.

In 1888, the first electrolytic aluminum plants were put into operation in France, Switzerland and the United States.

In 1889, Carl Bayer of Austria invented the Bayer process, which provided sufficient raw materials for electrolytic aluminum. Since then, aluminum has been widely used in various fields of industrial production.

The Russian Empire's aluminum reserves exceed 5 million tons, which are widely distributed in Siberia and the Far East. The electrolytic aluminum plant in Vladivostok will be put into operation next year, and Vladivostok's industrial capacity will reach a higher level by then.

But there's another problem here.

Although Siberia is rich in resources, transportation is the biggest bottleneck. If we want to develop Siberia's resources, we must first solve the transportation problem.

Before the opening of the Trans-Siberian Railway, Amur was unable to build a second railway, so the matter could only be put on hold.

Before winter arrived, George went to Sakhalin Island.

There are about 7 people living on Sakhalin Island, most of whom are Chinese and some are Yakuts.

Yakuts, like the Chinese, are of the yellow race. They are one of the ethnic minorities in the Russian Empire. They are widely distributed on Sakhalin Island and the Amur River Basin. They mainly make a living by hunting and domesticating reindeer. Most of the deer products on the Vladivostok market are All are from Yakuts.

Through the life of the Yakuts, you can see how rich the resources of the Russian Empire are.

Reindeer are full of treasures, antlers, deer blood, and other deer things are all sold on the market.

The Amur Governor-General's Palace purchases deer products from the Yakuts, all by weight.

In Sakhalin, vegetables and fruits are far more expensive than meat. A kilogram of venison only costs 25 kopecks in Sakhalin, but a kilogram of apples can be sold for 50 kopecks.

These are summer prices.

If it is winter, the prices of vegetables and fruits will double.

"In Siberia, there are only people who die of laziness, not people who die of hunger."

Kotuno, the chief administrator of Sakhalin Island who retired from the Futuan the year before last, was very happy. This was George's first time to Sakhalin Island.

Sakhalin is rich in resources. In addition to forests all over the island and inexhaustible fishery resources, oil, natural gas, and coal have been discovered one after another.

Last year alone, Sakhalin supplied more than 50,000 cubic meters of wood to Vladivostok.

George was originally worried that large-scale deforestation would cause damage to the natural ecology.

Only after arriving at Sakhalin did George realize that this was not the case at all.

Sakhalin's forest resources are so rich, tens of thousands of cubic meters per year, that they cannot damage the natural ecology. Even the rate of felling is not as fast as the natural growth rate.

Sakhalin's fishery resources are also extremely rich.

After the use of motorized fishing boats, Sakhalin's fishing capacity has been greatly improved. In the summer, if there is not enough fish to eat, it is used to dry the fish, and in the winter, it is used to make smoked fish.

In Yakut terms, the number of fish you catch depends on how much your fishing boat can hold.

If it is winter, then the size of the fish you catch depends on how big your ice hole is. The winter hunting that George had seen on TV in his previous life could be seen everywhere in Amur.

“Can Chinese and Yakuts live in peace?”

George is most worried about integration.

The Yakuts speak the Yakut language and there are communication problems with the Chinese.

Different ethnic groups have different living habits, and conflicts are inevitable.

At this time, the level of governance is more tested.

It's not just Sakhalin. George has only one request for the governors of the entire Amur. No matter who they are, they should be treated equally and everyone should truly be equal before the law.

"Why not?"

Cotuno could not think of a reason for the conflict.

Conflicts arise only when interests arise.

The area of ​​Sakhalin is too large. It covers an area of ​​76400 square kilometers and has a population of only 7. On average, there is less than one person per square kilometer. There will be no conflict at all. Cooperation is the way to go.

Like Amur, there are quite a lot of wild animals on Sakhalin Island, which pose a great threat to humans, especially brown bears and wolves, which will even break into villages and towns at night. Without cooperation, it is impossible to survive on Sakhalin Island.

The cruel environment forces people to work together. It is the most basic thing for every household to have guns and dogs. The proportion of military rifles is very high.

George walked into a random den.

The entrance to the Diwozi is very narrow and can only accommodate one person.

The interior is extremely spacious, with the living room covering about 40 square meters.

Connected to the living room is the kitchen and storage room. George walked into the storage room. The first storage room was filled with dried fish, the second was filled with potatoes, radishes, and cabbage, and the third was filled with various pickled vegetables and pickled eggs. .

There are seven people in this family. It can be seen that their life is still very prosperous. The children are well nourished, the clothes on their bodies are clean and decent, and even the dogs are kept fat and strong.

At George's Pier in the south of Sakhalin Island, logs waiting to be transported were piled up like a mountain, and almost none were less than one meter in diameter. George even saw a giant tree with a diameter of more than 5 meters, with so many growth rings that he could not count them.

But having too many resources is actually not a good thing.

What worries Kotuno most is that there are too many forest resources in Siberia, so the wood cannot be sold at a high price. The Amur Governor's Palace does not allow Sakhalin to trade directly with the Japanese. If it were not for strict laws, Kotuno would I have the heart to smuggle.

Combating smuggling is Cotuno's most important task.

Vladivostok’s resources are so rich that they are inexhaustible.

Japan in the south is a country with poor resources, and most of its industrial raw materials need to be imported.

George is not opposed to trading with the Japanese, but he will never sell resources at a low price. The price of resources sold to Japan is controlled to be slightly lower than that of merchants from other countries.

Even if George doesn't sell it, businessmen from other countries will.

Vladivostok is very close to Japan, much closer than the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, so Vladivostok products have an unparalleled price advantage.

Businessmen from Britain, France and the United States are not philanthropists. The shipping of industrial raw materials to Japan, plus freight, is simply unable to compete with Vladivostok products.

So Vladivostok is the eldest father of the Japanese.

(End of this chapter)