I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 48 Governor of Siberia
  The summer in St. Petersburg is so short, it feels like winter is coming before you even break out in sweat.

Entering October, the temperature is getting cooler day by day, and the rate of decline is very fast. The average temperature at the beginning of October is still around 10 degrees Celsius, and the lowest temperature at the end of October is minus 10 degrees Celsius.

This is not the coldest time yet. St. Petersburg is the coldest in January, with the average temperature being about minus ten degrees.

In early November, the first snow fell in St. Petersburg, beginning a long snow period that usually lasts close to five months.

The snow fell heavily, and the first snow fell almost half a meter thick. George was surprised, but everyone else was used to it.

This is where we are. In Russian winter, the snow in the wild can reach more than 20 meters at its thickest, which is almost as high as a seven-story building.

George finally understood why Dalia was hoarding so much food.

Dalia spent almost the entire summer stocking up on food.

Dalia's hoarding of food is measured in rooms.

Bacon filled the entire room.

Sausage, also in a room.

Dried chickens, ducks and geese, each in a room.

There were two cellars each of large pieces of beef and dried fish, two cellars full of potatoes, one cellar each of onions, mushrooms, and beets, and another cellar of cabbages and radishes. Mikhail sent another one before winter. Thousands of bottles of champagne came over, and Ye Luoxin also brought back ten carts of vodka from outside.

Dalia prepared so much food that George doubted it would be possible to eat it all in one winter.

Then George learned how much Russians eat.

Peter, a child who had just turned ten, could eat a whole pot of beef stew with potatoes and a bowl of beetroot soup, which was almost as big as Peter's face.

Ye Luoxin likes to eat barbecue the most. The barbecue is half the size of an adult's fist. Ye Luoxin can eat ten pieces in one sitting. George must have weighed three or four kilograms.

How can you eat barbecue without vodka?

Ye Luoxin's bottle of vodka every meal was just a gargle for him.

With so many high-calorie foods, it’s no wonder that Russians have a high rate of obesity.

It’s impossible to be fat. If you don’t have some fat on your body, you really can’t withstand the Russian winter.

After eating and drinking, the regular program of the Guards is wrestling.

There were still snowflakes floating in the sky. Ye Luoxin and the young men of the Guards were shirtless and were not afraid of the cold, so they fell on the open space of the manor.

It was impossible to sweep the floor, you had to wait for the snow to stop before you could do it.

No one cares about the snow on the road. After winter, horse-drawn carriages become inoperable. People begin to use horse-drawn sleighs, which are faster than horse-drawn carriages.

George also got Wangcai a sled to see if Wangcai could pull a cart.

Wangcai was very obedient. Although it was obvious that Wangcai was reluctant, after George got on the sled, Wangcai still pulled the sled and started running.

So George took a dog sled to Gatchina Palace.

There is also a sleigh in Gatchina Palace, and the sled is not pulled by dogs or horses, but by reindeer.

Deer is a very common animal in Russia, widely distributed around the Arctic Circle. Deer have been domesticated by humans in ancient times and have become the main production and means of transportation for local people. They enjoy the reputation of "the boat of the mountains and forests".

Nikolai and Georgi are skating, their favorite winter sport.

It can be seen that Georgi's skills are very good and he can easily complete spin jumps on the ice.

Nikolai had fewer tricks. He put his hands behind his back and skated on the ice easily and comfortably.

Seeing George, Nicholas warmly invited George to come up and play for a while.

George waved his hand and refused. He came without skates.

Georgi set his sights on Wangcai.

"It's amazing, this dog can actually pull a car!" Georgi knew that dogs can pull sleds, but Caucasian dogs are not sled dogs.

Wangcai saw that Nikolai's expression was quite enthusiastic and his tail was wagging. When he saw Georgi, his expression suddenly became serious and his eyes became alert.

"Wangcai doesn't like you -" Nicholas is still very talented in language, and the pronunciation of the word "Wangcai" is very standard.

"Wang - Cai - what the hell is this name?" Georgi didn't understand Chinese either.

"The language of the Han people in the Qing Empire." Nicholas explained casually, and George was already numb.

He really doesn't have any secrets here in Yasan.

"Do you like the Qing Empire?" Georgi was not surprised. The Qing Empire, like the Ottoman Empire, was another great enemy of Russia.

All Russians should like the Qing Empire, because Russia can always take advantage of it.

"It's not like I like him, I'm just curious." George had to find a reason for knowing Chinese.

This reason is quite normal. Members of the royal family know a lot of weird things.

Nobles like George don't need to make money to make a living. They have a lot of time to waste. They have to find a hobby to keep themselves busy.

At least it looks busy.

"When I become the Tsar, I will make you the governor of Siberia." Nicholas had not even figured out the administrative divisions of Siberia, so he began to make wishes.

In 1819, Siberia was divided into two administrative regions, with governor's offices in Tobolsk in the west and Irkutsk in the east.

Governor of Siberia——

It seems pretty good.

At least far enough away from St. Petersburg.

The sky is high and the emperor is far away. The governor of Siberia is the earth emperor in the Far East.

Construction of the Siberian Railway has not yet begun. The straight-line distance from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok is 9288 kilometers. In fact, it must be more than kilometers. If you ride a horse, it will take almost a full year.

Regardless of the fact that four legs can run faster than two legs, in fact, the speed of a horse cannot last long. If it is a long-distance march, the distance a cavalry can travel in a day under normal circumstances is only about 30 to 40 kilometers.

This is a plain. If it is a mountainous area, the cavalry cannot move as fast as the infantry.

"No way, Siberia is too far away, and I don't want you to go that far away." Nicholas said to himself, but George was reminded of it.

The Qing Empire in 1881 was terrible.

But the present is not so bad compared to the next few decades, because the future will be even worse.

In George's mind, it seemed that the Sino-Japanese War would break out in a dozen years, followed by the Eight-Power Allied Forces' invasion of China, then the Russo-Japanese War, and then the Anti-Japanese War.

Although George has the reputation of being a super duke, he is still a traditional Chinese at heart.

So what can George do for the Chinese in this era?
  "I'm going, I want to conquer the Far East for the empire!" Georgi has an ideal, which is also the dream of many Russians.

For the Russians, no amount of territory is too big and no amount of wealth is too much.

George didn't know much about Russia's ambitions in the Far East.

But George knew that Russia had a yellow Russian plan——

This plan seems to have been proposed by Nicholas.

Nicholas didn't know why, but he found that the look in George's eyes suddenly became sharp.

"Forget it, Vladivostok is not St. Petersburg." George will not make the same mistake as "Wangcai" again. Vladivostok is Vladivostok.

Not to mention Vladivostok, the whole of Eastern Siberia is now a backwater.

In 1881, Eastern Siberia, which had a total area of ​​412.28 million square kilometers, had a total population of only 11.7 people.

(End of this chapter)