I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 714: Secret Appointment on Honeymoon
George didn't care whether the French were used to Russian pie; the purpose of the expo was to promote commodity trade and show other countries a brand new Russia.

Russia was in chaos during the imperial era. On the one hand, it was the world's largest resource-rich country, and on the other hand, it imported large quantities of materials from European countries. Siberia was known for having endless trees to cut down, but the Russian Empire still had to import timber from Britain, which was simply the opposite of what was expected.

The same is true for food. Russia exports grain to Europe on the one hand, and imports butter and eggs from Europe on the other. It seems that the Russians cannot do well in anything related to industry.

This is actually not surprising.

Although Russia has abundant resources, its development efforts are seriously insufficient. Timber from Siberia cannot reach St. Petersburg due to high transportation costs.

As for why transportation costs remain high, this is another question.

After the railway between St. Petersburg and Moscow was restored, the transportation cost was cut in half compared to the Imperial Russian era. It was a miracle that Felix still made money.

Felix estimates that once the entire Trans-Siberian Railway is reopened to traffic, transportation costs will drop by at least 60% compared to the imperial era, and Russia will no longer need to import timber from abroad.

Compared with the imperial era, Russia's export commodities have also undergone tremendous changes.

Before the outbreak of World War II, the Russian Empire was in financial difficulties. By 1914, loans from France alone reached 113 billion francs.

By the end of 1919, Russia's foreign debt amounted to 185 billion rubles.

On December 12, Clemenceau led a French delegation to Constantinople.

Clemenceau came to collect debts.

In another month, France will hold a presidential election. Clemenceau is full of confidence and hopes to be elected as the president of France and lead France forward.

If Russia paid off France's foreign debt, it would make Clemenceau's resume even more dazzling.

Georges settles accounts with Clemenceau.

Most of the money Russia owes France is in the form of bonds issued through the capital market. It is money owed to the French, not the French government. These are two completely different things.

The money Russia owed to the French government had been almost fully repaid through barter trade during the World War.

Now the French government owed George money.

During the World War, France purchased weapons and ammunition from the Amur alone, with a total value of more than 110 billion rubles, and now there is still a balance of about 20 billion to be paid.

Seeing that he could not get the money, Clemenceau immediately changed his strategy.

The situation in France is now very dangerous, and a large-scale economic recession is expected to occur in France within the next year.

In other words, an economic crisis.

Clemenceau wanted to emulate Russia and use reconstruction to stimulate investment and drive economic recovery.

The problem is that the French government cannot come up with the money for reconstruction.

George suddenly realized that you were here to borrow money.

The situation in Russia is similar to that in France, where the government has no money but the capital has money.

Compared with reconstruction in France, French capital prefers to invest in Russian natural gas pipelines.

Well, since French capital is investing in Russia's reconstruction, why can't Russian capital invest in France?

George wanted to vote.

But when he thought of the Second World War 20 years later, George's eyes immediately became clear.

The French were lucky this time because the Russian Empire provided support, which allowed France to survive.

If Clemenceau were smart, he should try every means to establish good relations with Russia now, so that Russia would continue to take the blame for France 20 years later.

This 20 years was not said by George, but by French Marshal Foch.

After the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Foch was pessimistic and believed that the Treaty of Versailles would not bring peace at all, but was a 20-year armistice agreement.

When the next generation of Germans grows up, they will certainly take revenge on the Allies for their betrayal.

Now we can see some clues.

Representing Germany at the Expo was George's old friend Prince Karl.

Compared with Clemenceau, Prince Karl was much more frank. Not only did he sign a trade agreement with Russia early on, but he also bought a lot of Russian bonds on behalf of the German Junker aristocracy.

Isn't it amazing that Germany, which was already exhausted during the World War, still had money to buy Russian bonds?

This is not surprising.

It is the German government that is running out of steam, not the Junker aristocracy.

Karl even said that if Russia is willing to deepen cooperation with Germany, Germany can provide loans to Russia.

The cooperative approach is also beneficial to Russia.

The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany was not allowed to develop a military industry.

After the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Friedrich Ebert, the first president of the Weimar government, said worriedly: If they take away all our weapons, then once the war breaks out again, our children will be able to pick up sticks and fight them.

Just as Foch feared, almost all Germans believed that Germany lost the war not because of any fault of its own, but rather because it was misled by Wilson's Fourteen Points and betrayed by the Allies.

In addition to increasing grain imports from Russia, Carl's trip also wanted to test George's attitude.

Just before this, the famous Krupp had moved part of its arsenal to Denmark.

Although Krupp could continue to produce weapons, they could not be shipped back to Germany. It could only be considered that part of its production capacity was retained, but the problem was not fundamentally solved.

Karl hoped to open a factory in Russia and send technicians and hired officers to Russia in the name of foreign workers. There was no problem sending technicians. Although the German ruling class was arrogant, German technicians were still quite reliable, especially those in the military industry.

When the World War broke out, Germany had very few planes and few armored vehicles.

By the end of World War II, Germany's aircraft production had reached more than 1000 aircraft per month.

This is because Germany lacks raw materials, otherwise the output would be higher.

The speed of progress of German automobiles is also very fast. Although it is not as fast as that of Russia, it has surpassed France and is on par with the United States.

George was concerned about the mercenary officers.

Karl meant that by sending officers to Russia, the German officer corps would be kept free from the influence of the Treaty of Versailles.

Although Carl vowed that he would never go to war with Russia again, George knew where the future was headed.

Carl may be sincere, but Mustache is no relation to George.

After all, this matter was of great importance, so George decided to pool ideas.

"This is fantastic! We should do our best to help the Germans regain their strength."

Little Nicholas forgot the pain after his wound healed and never thought that Russia might be hit back.

"When cooperating with the Germans, you must be careful not to end up with a tiger that could harm you."

Igor is a shrewd man who always considers defeat before victory.

"As long as we don't make any mistakes ourselves, we can naturally make the Germans back off."

Felix insists that development is the only way forward.

"This may help us penetrate Germany."

Guchkov, who had come back from the brink of death, had completely turned evil. The things he had done before might have been to please George, but now...

All I can say is that subjective initiative is terrible.

"If the Germans can pay enough, then it's fine."

Witt was curious and wondered how much more money he could squeeze out of the Germans.

The Russian bonds purchased by Germans some time ago have totaled more than 1.5 million gold marks.

Karl promised that as long as George was willing to help, Germany could also provide Russia with an interest-free loan of 3 million gold marks.

What George was thinking about was not how much money he could squeeze out of the Germans, but he hoped to break the colonial system established by Britain and France through Germany.

As the Russian economy develops, Russian industry's demand for overseas markets will grow.

The Commonwealth is an independent entity, and it is difficult for Russian industrial products to enter the Commonwealth market.

French colonies also had no need for Russian industrial products.

Since the end of World War II, the United States has once again begun to claim that America belongs to Americans, making it clear that it will continue to implement the Monroe Doctrine.

Although Russia still has a huge influence in the Balkans, Korea and Japan have their own plans, and the University of Tokyo is in a civil war, who would complain about having too many markets?

“How many workers are expected to return to Korea and Japan next year?”

George wanted to gain more benefits for Russia and squeeze every bit of surplus value out of Germany.

"It's hard to say right now, but Goryeo's calls for us to withdraw our troops are getting louder and louder, and the Goryeo king and government haven't made a statement yet."

Werther is still so naive, and not expressing his opinion is itself a statement.

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Russia had been stationing troops in Goryeo to protect its security.

Li Tuo probably now feels that Goryeo has obtained hundreds of thousands of elite troops from Russia through the world war and no longer needs Russia's protection.

Thinking more deeply, since both Russia and Britain have begun to withdraw their troops from Japan, Goryeo might also be able to embark on the path of expansion.

Coincidentally, the Japanese think so too.

So it is hard to say how many workers will return to Russia next year.

George decided to increase cooperation with Germany.

When Germany surrendered, it still had more than 200 million troops capable of fighting.

Germany has not yet started to rebuild. There is not enough food in the country and there has been famine for years. Sending German troops to Russia in the name of workers will not only reduce the pressure on Germany, but also provide more labor for Russia's construction, killing two birds with one stone.

As for training officers for Germany, that is actually not a big deal.

The biggest feature of Russia is that it has a thick health bar and is invincible. Napoleon failed to conquer Russia back then, and George doesn't think that the mustache guy has the ability to conquer Russia.

If it weren't for Russia's poor performance in the Soviet-Finnish War, the little mustache guy would not have dared to take action against Russia.

George really wanted to see how far Guderian and Rommel could go in this time and space.

On December 12, Witte signed the Constantinople Agreement on behalf of Russia and Karl.

The agreement contains 14 articles in total, and only the first 6 articles can be made public. The second half is a confidential agreement and will not be made public.

(End of this chapter)