I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 508 Escape
The current situation in Amur is much better than that in St. Petersburg.

On January 1, after three months of bargaining, Daosheng Bank sold the operating rights of the Middle East Railway to the Middle East Railway Company for 25 million rubles.

This was a win-win deal. After selling the Chinese Eastern Railway to the Chinese Eastern Railway Company, Daosheng Bank was able to lighten its load and shift its main business direction to the Qing Empire.

The Chinese Eastern Railway Company took control of the Chinese Eastern Railway, the South Manchuria Railway, the North Manchuria Railway, and all the railways in Goryeo, completely controlling the Kanto railway transportation.

George was still not satisfied, and pushed for the joint venture of the Middle East Railway Company and the Siberian Railway Company. At the same time, he invested huge sums of money to upgrade the Middle East Railway and improve its transportation capacity.

After the upgrade of the Middle East Railway is completed, the distance from Chita to Vladivostok will be reduced by 1000 kilometers. Immigrants from Russia and Europe will no longer pass through Vladivostok, but will go directly from Chita to Darini to board ships to East India.

Merchant ships in Vladivostok need the help of icebreakers to enter and exit smoothly in winter.

Darini is an ice-free port and can be used all year round. After the end of the Russo-Japanese War, George mobilized 15 Japanese prisoners of war to carry out large-scale construction in Darini. In just two years, Darini was built into the largest port in Kanto.

The Siberian Fleet is now based in Nagasaki, and the status of Fort Arthur has plummeted, serving only as a branch base of the Siberian Fleet.

The Siberian Fleet's branch bases are now spread all over the Far East, from Nikolayevsk (Temple Street) in the north to Bataan in the south, with a total of 14 Siberian Fleet bases along the line.

So 5 battleships are really not enough.

The keel of the battleship "Russia" has been laid at the Vladivostok Shipyard. It will be launched this summer and put into service next summer.

One of the four new all-heavy artillery battleships built by the Navy Department is being built at the Vladivostok Shipyard. The construction of this battleship has now started and is expected to be completed within two years.

The Baltic Fleet now has four battleships, enough to protect St. Petersburg.

Peter hoped to assign the all-heavy artillery battleship built at the Vladivostok Shipyard to the Siberian Fleet.

It was unfortunate that the Siberian Fleet was unpopular during the period when Alexei led the Admiralty.

The Navy Department is now headed by George and Peter, and the Siberian Fleet has finally become the new boss, so it's not too much to get some benefits.

George gave Peter two options, one of which was the all-heavy artillery battleship built by the Vladivostok Shipyard.

Another is an aircraft carrier that can carry fighter jets.

Also in January, Captain Schenkov of the Amur Military District successfully landed his Eagle fighter on the Victory seaplane carrier.

The "Eagle" is no longer a seaplane. It can not only be used for air combat, but also carry aerial bombs and perform ground attack missions.

The emergence of battleships equipped with all-heavy artillery sparked an arms race.

The emergence of fighter jets will transform the battlefield from a flat surface to a three-dimensional one, which will inevitably trigger a new arms race.

not always.

In George's opinion, the so-called "famous generals" of European countries are about the same level as little Nicholas.

This is not meant to belittle young Nicholas. Europe is simply too small and there is no room for detours. As long as the war cannot be ended in a short period of time, it will become a war of attrition, and no matter how sophisticated the tactics are, it will be useless.

These Europeans had no vision. Machine guns and submarines had already shown their prowess during the Civil War, but until the outbreak of the World War, machine guns still did not attract the attention of European countries.

It was not until World War II that submarines really came into play.

In George's view, if these European colonial countries cannot rely on their industrial advantages and weapons generation gap to crush each other, then they will just be weaklings fighting each other. The Russian Empire now has armored vehicles, submarines, and aircraft.

If George had successfully completed the military reform and persuaded Nicholas not to go all out as soon as the world war broke out, George had no idea how the Russian Empire would lose.

Peter was also a person who got bored easily. Once he got an aircraft carrier, he immediately forgot about the battleship.

George had no plan to build a new one. He first converted the "Victory" seaplane carrier into an aircraft carrier to verify the technology and accumulate experience at the same time.

The technical requirements for today's aircraft carriers are not even as good as those for battleships. In fact, the coal carriers of the Siberian Fleet can be modified to make do.

Due to space limitations, the Victory can only carry six fighter jets.

The next task for Amur technicians is to continue to strengthen the wing strength. If the fixed wings can be upgraded to folding wings, the aircraft carrying capacity will be greatly increased.

George did not hide the performance of the aircraft and went directly to Nikola, hoping to increase the air force.

George was researching airplanes and had competed with Nikola, who was also no stranger to airplanes.

When Nikolai supported Mozhaisky's research on aircraft, he only regarded aircraft as toys.

Nicholas was not surprised at all when he learned that George used airplanes in the field of warfare.

"During the Russo-Japanese War, seaplanes were only used for reconnaissance, which achieved good results. In fact, our aircraft could have been used for combat a long time ago, but in order not to expose the performance of the aircraft too early, we have kept it hidden until now."

George was actually forced into a desperate situation. If he didn't produce the aircraft, the market would be taken away by the Americans.

John Jr. bought an airplane from Vladivostok for 150 million rubles.

At that time, aircraft technology was not mature enough, and John Jr.'s plane crashed during a performance shortly after he bought it, and he lost all his money.

Little John did not give up and continued to buy several planes from Vladivostok. Until three years ago, Little John finally tried to build his first plane.

John Jr.'s first aircraft was not successful, and its performance was seriously inferior to that of the aircraft produced in Vladivostok.

However, after John Jr. started producing airplanes himself, he tried to install machine guns on airplanes.

In recent years, John Jr.'s aircraft have made rapid progress. The latest aircraft produced is almost the same as the one John Jr. originally purchased from Vladivostok, and has successfully obtained an order from the US Navy Department.

Since the US Navy began to purchase aircraft, George no longer hid it, so seaplanes only made a brief appearance in the Russo-Japanese War and then were about to exit the stage.

We can't say we should give up, as seaplanes are still valuable in some areas.

"George, it's not that I won't help you. You should know that the empire's financial situation is very tight right now, and it really doesn't have the ability to purchase aircraft."

Nicholas made a mistake. He was not helping George, but helping himself.

"Niki, let's build an airport in Tsarskoye Selo."

George didn't force it. If Nicholas built an airport in Tsarskoye Selo, George would give Nicholas a transport plane.

This transport plane was used by Nikola to escape.

(End of this chapter)