I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 535: The Age of Giant Ships and Cannons
The Hebrews have always claimed that the Russian Empire began to impose restrictions on the Hebrews from the first day of its establishment.

But after 300 years, the Hebrews in the Russian Empire not only did not disappear, but instead grew to 500 million. This does not seem like they were being targeted at all.

The Russian Empire really began to take action against the Hebrews after the assassination of Yar II, and the Russo-Japanese War intensified again.

Over the past few decades, more than 200 million Hebrews have left the Russian Empire, at least 75% of whom went to the United States.

George was also very curious about why there were so many Hebrew assassins in St. Petersburg.

George counted the assassinations that occurred in St. Petersburg in recent years and found that most of the Hebrew assassins came from other places or even from abroad, and were not Russians at all.

George hoped to use this opportunity to conduct a detailed census of the population within the Russian Empire.

This time it was not a simple population count; ethnic groups also had to be registered in detail, especially the Hebrews. George wanted to make sure they had nowhere to hide.

"It's impossible. The workload is too huge. We simply can't do it."

Stolypin was not confident. The Russian Empire was too large and had too many people. If a detailed registration was required, it would probably not be completed within 10 years.

"Give them some benefits so that they will report to you on their own initiative."

George had a way. The Hebrews were very greedy for money, so he had to take full advantage of it.

The Hebrews could not become officials or own land in the Russian Empire. Even if they joined the army, they could not serve as officers. Even in the business field where they were best at, the Hebrews were greatly restricted and could only become vassals of the Russian nobles.

All Stolypin had to do was spread the word that land would be distributed to the Hebrews, and that would be enough to make the Hebrews scramble for it.

"No, this is impossible!"

Stolypin's attitude towards the Hebrews was also very defensive.

Peter the Great once said: I would rather accept Arabs than Hebrews. I cannot allow them to become a hidden danger to the empire.

Peter the Great's attitude represents the vast majority of Russians.

"Do you know what gossip is?"

George didn't really want to give it to the Hebrews, he just wanted the Hebrews to take the initiative to come forward and acknowledge their identity.

"If you fail to keep your promise, it will damage the authority of the empire."

Stolypin didn't know what George was trying to do, but he could vaguely sense George's ill will towards the Hebrews.

George knew the Hebrews too well. If he hadn't made arrangements in advance, the damage the Hebrews would have caused to the Russian Empire would have been greater than anyone imagined.

Although the Hebrews accounted for a small proportion of the population, their destructive power was astonishing. Among the seven people who overthrew the Russian Empire, six were Hebrews.

After the collapse of the Red Russia, six of the seven oligarchs who controlled the Russian national economy were Hebrews.

George could only say that if a world war broke out, the Russian Empire would indeed need a lot of cannon fodder.

"The temptation of land alone is not enough to attract all the Hebrews—"

George's first move was a series of traps.

"When the registration process reaches a certain stage, the Hebrews will be asked to report themselves on the grounds that there are still Hebrews who have not registered. It will take at least several years for all Hebrews to be registered."

George didn't need to wait too long. Once a gunshot was heard in Sarajevo in 1914, the Ministry of the Interior could use the list to recruit soldiers.

"Once they have completed their registration, we will send them all to Siberia to open up wasteland and grow potatoes."

Little Nicholas shouted wildly, this is also a good idea.

"Let's do it this way. We should try our best to eliminate the hidden dangers."

Nicholas made the final decision. Stoly had a flat head and was the busiest man in the empire.

George was not busy. He and Tirpitz decided to hold joint exercises in the Baltic Sea in March.

In addition to the two Baltic fleets, the German Northern Fleet will also send warships to participate in the exercise. The exercise items include patrol, escort, search and rescue, supply, etc.

George hopes to increase his understanding of the German Navy through exercises.

Tirpitz probably had the same idea.

The exercise was proposed by George as compensation to Tirpitz.

Due to strong opposition from Britain and France, the deal between the Russian Navy and the German Navy fell through.

Tirpitz was very angry and mocked George to his face for being a little spineless when facing the British and French.

Coincidentally, during the Russo-Japanese War, William II once said that Nicholas had become a little soft-hearted after taking money from the French.

"This shows that the Royal Navy is feeling the pressure, and you can take that as a compliment."

When needed, George can also be a mother with milk.

The reason is simple: the British and French gave too much.

Stolypin's blackmail failed, and Britain and France finally agreed to borrow 2 million pounds, much less than Stolypin expected.

2 million is not a small amount, equivalent to about 20 billion rubles.

The Russian Empire borrowed money from Britain to rebuild its finances, but the total amount was only 9 million rubles.

An important reason for this loan was that a mere 9 million was not enough to complete the financial reconstruction of the Russian Empire.

The British also have conditions.

Money can be given, but the Imperial Russian Navy also took timely action to put enough pressure on the German Navy.

To put it bluntly, they were not satisfied with George's lying down and asked the Russian Empire to build more all-heavy artillery battleships.

George readily agreed, and thus the "Queen Maria" class battleship came into being.

Like the "Queen Maria" and the "Gangut", the main guns of the "Queen Maria" are triple-mounted 3-caliber 52-mm guns, with a total of 330 guns.

Compared with "Gangut", the defense of "Queen Maria" has been greatly improved, with the waterline armor and conning tower armor reaching an astonishing 300 mm. This also resulted in the maximum speed of "Queen Maria" being only a pitiful 23 knots, making it the slowest battleship in the Russian Empire.

It doesn't matter if the speed is slow. George's current goal is not to fight in the ocean, but only for near-shore defense. It would be best if he could be like an iron turtle and make it impossible for the enemy to attack.

Like the Gangut, a total of four Queen Maria ships will be built, two of which will be built at the Vladivostok Shipyard.

Needless to say, this was again George's selfish motive. If built at the Vladivostok Shipyard, a "Queen Maria" could contribute nearly 1000 million rubles in profits to the Vladivostok Shipyard.

The cost of "Queen Maria" was 2850 million rubles.

This cost is calculated by the St. Petersburg Shipyard, not the quotation from the Vladivostok Shipyard.

Little Nicholas also did not lose out. The Army Ministry purchased an additional 150 armored vehicles from the Vladivostok Military Industrial Group. At the same time, the Army finally had the ability to establish an Army Aviation Corps.

George went to see Nicholas and asked him to merge the Army Air Force and the Naval Air Force and put them under the unified command of the Navy Department.

Nicholas the Younger agreed to the merger, but demanded to be under the command of the War Ministry.

(End of this chapter)