I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 129 I don’t
  Since last winter, legends about "holy water" have been circulating among the aristocratic circles of St. Petersburg.

The cause was that at a palace ball, Queen Maria was the most beautiful person in the audience. Grand Duchess Alexandrovich asked the queen's personal maid and found out that the queen used a skin care product called "holy water", which had remarkable effects.

At the beginning of this year, good news came from Gatchina Palace that the queen was happy.

The Grand Duchess of St. Petersburg suddenly went crazy, especially those who were already old and lustful.

Heroes come to an end, beauties grow old, and most of all, they cannot be retained in this world.

As the grand duchess grew old and faded, the grand duchess transferred their affection to the young girls. The grand duchess, with their white heads and lanterns, stayed alone in the cold palace. How can one describe how miserable they are.

The last time the queen had a baby was six years ago. Not to mention old clams with pearls in their eyes, but this is rare in Russia.

Who doesn’t want to regain his husband’s favor?

So since the news of the queen's happiness came out, all the grand duchess in Russia were frantically looking for this thing called "holy water".

There are no secrets in the Russian royal family. Everyone knows how many illegitimate children the princes have.

It’s also no secret that George commissioned Faberge to design the packaging.

George was in Rivne, and the Grand Duchess could not find George, so they sought Nikolai through various connections every day, just like a prince crossing a river.

Even little Nicholas sent a telegram to George to seek family harmony and asked George to get him some "holy water."

George's only worry now is that the production of "holy water" is too low to meet the needs of the Grand Duchess.

The output of "holy water" is high or not, depending on the production speed of packaging bottles.

The packaging bottles designed by Fabergé have very high requirements on craftsmanship and cannot be mass-produced industrially, so they can only be polished by hand.

George is not too slow. If the Grand Duchess can't wait, you can buy blessed water——

Blessed water has been officially sold in France, and demand exceeds supply.

Catherine got Pearl Frost earlier than the Queen.

As a woman, Ekaterina is more sensitive to the market demand for cosmetics than George.

So while George was still working hard to recruit people to design packaging, blessed water had already been sold in France.

In 1884, Parisian beef cost 2 francs per kilogram.

Catherine's Blessed Water, 1 franc per gram.

Don’t think it’s too expensive. You can’t often buy it at this price. After all, this is a product of the Russian royal family. Legend has it that Princess Yurievskaya was favored by the Tsar because of the blessed water.

Ekaterina was already well-maintained, so everyone who met Ekaterina was convinced of the effect of blessed water.

By the end of last year, profits from blessed water had exceeded three times that of champagne.

That's why Ekaterina had the confidence to go to the United States to order machines.

After Catherine learned that George had established a research institute at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, she urged George to move the research institute to Paris. Compared with Russia, Paris has a broader market.

Even though France lost the Franco-Prussian War, Paris is still the undisputed financial center of the world. Rich people from all over the world flock to it. Many Russian nobles go to France for vacation every winter, and the royal family is no exception.

George did not dare to disobey his mother's words.

Makarova and Shadelin are not opposed to going to Paris either.

Nina is even more excited. She has been yearning for Paris for a long time.

If George doesn't yearn for it, Rivne is George's paradise.

While in St. Petersburg, George's every word and action were closely monitored by the Tsar.

What George does must consider the honor of the royal family and public opinion.

George also worried about the Assassin's bombs every day, and spent most of his time in Oak Group, or Oak Park.

Rivne, a hundred miles in radius, has now become a no-man's land, except for the officers and soldiers of the Oak Regiment, including the Cossacks from Lake Ladoga.

Speaking of Cossacks.

Since the Lake Ladoga Cossacks arrived in Rivne, Yeroshin, Demit, and Vasily chased George every day and asked if more Cossacks could settle in Rivne.

Everyone saw how George treated the Cossacks.

The Lake Ladoga Cossacks arrived in Rivne with nothing but their clothes.

George bought them horses and cows from Romania, ordered new clothes for them from St. Petersburg, and even founded a school and a hospital, the only ones in Russia.

Russia's education is good, although it is not perfect. Russians have the opportunity to receive education, and those with outstanding grades can also receive higher education.

Russia did not have its first formal hospital until 1707. Before that, most Russian hospitals were monasteries. Russian doctors were considered to be magicians. Real doctors only served the aristocracy. There was no medical treatment for civilians getting sick. Opportunity to get treatment.

Rivne holds drills every year, and accidental casualties are inevitable. A hospital will be built in Rivne to meet the needs of the drills.

It can be said that Rivne is the only town in Russia that has both a hospital and a school.

The Cossacks also fought hard. They faced the new life with unparalleled enthusiasm.

The men farmed day and night. Even though the residents of Rivne moved away, the land was still there. There was no need to open up wasteland and they could sow seeds directly.

The women are responsible for taking care of the family, the children go to school, and the girls working at the train station mop the floors of the waiting hall and ticket hall to be spotless every day, even though there is not a single passenger after so many days.

The young men are conscientious and eager to number all the rats in Rivne. Their work scope has expanded to the entire town, and the two intersections entering and exiting the town are manned every day.

Everyone saw the changes in the Cossacks.

As a result, more and more soldiers requested that their families come to Rivne.

There are more than 2,000 people in the Oak Group, with at least 2,000 families behind them.

In Russia nowadays, it is normal for a family to have more than a dozen people. If George lets go, Rivne will develop into a small town with a population of tens of thousands in just ten days.

With a population of tens of thousands, it is no longer a small town.

George didn't dare to let go.

In a small town with only a few hundred people, the Ministry of Internal Affairs could just turn a blind eye.

In a city with tens of thousands of people, the Ministry of Internal Affairs cannot ignore it. George will lose control of Rivne by then.

The reasonable demands of the soldiers cannot be ignored, as that will dampen the enthusiasm of the soldiers.

So during the internal assessment of the Oak Group in July, George decided that the top ten family members in each assessment would be eligible to settle in Rivne.

The assessment in July also became the best result among the previous assessments of the rubber group.

On the 200-meter fixed target alone, 350 soldiers from the Oak Regiment got perfect scores.

Alfred finally found out how many accurate shooters there were in the Oak Corps.

"George, this won't work-" Alfred hoped that George could hand over some of the precision shooters to the military department, and the military department would assign them to various regiments to serve as shooting instructors.

I have worked so hard and fed countless bullets to become a precise shooter, but you want to leave with just one word. What a shame!

George would not be so straightforward and asked Alfred to seek the opinions of the precision shooters.

If the shooter is willing to transfer, George is willing to let him go. Alfred went happily.

Marksmanship instructors are also officers. Generally, they start as second lieutenants. Excellent marksmanship instructors can even become captains.

To become an officer in Russia was to enter the ranks of the nobility.

Alfred felt that it was impossible for precision shooters to resist the temptation of becoming an officer.

The reality was far different from Alfred's imagination.

Alfred said it all, but only a dozen precision shooters were willing to leave the Oak Group, which was not what he imagined.

Alfred had been full of confidence before. As long as he gave out his promise, not only all the Oak Group's precision shooters would follow him, but at least George would have to beg him to leave a few for the Oak Group.

Unexpectedly, only a dozen people were willing to leave the Oak Group.

Is the attraction of the oak group so great?

"Follow the legion commander and you will have meat to eat -" Yankov was the shooting instructor of the Oak Regiment and Alfred's first target.

Yankov is already an officer and George's captain of the bodyguard, and his future is bright.

Even if Alfred really tells the truth, Yankov will not leave the Oak Group.

"Can't we eat meat at Gatchina Palace?" Alfred didn't understand. The position he offered to Yankov was shooting instructor of the Gatchina Palace Guards, with the rank of lieutenant colonel.

George's current military rank is colonel, one grade per year, and sometimes he skips a grade.

Yankov didn't speak, and let Alfred talk about everything without even raising his eyebrows.

"Sooner or later you will regret it!" Alfred did not hang himself on a tree, but turned to look for Larson, the first placer in the July assessment.

Larson spoke less, and kept repeating: "I don't!"

"Go to other units of the Guards, and you can become an officer." Alfred tried to be amiable.

"I don't—" Larson cherished his words like gold.

"At that time, your family can also go to live in St. Petersburg -" Alfred changed his strategy.

"I don't-" Larson was speechless.

"Don't you want your family to live a better life?" Alfred became increasingly angry.

"I do not--"

"Damn it, could you say something else?"

"Don't think about—"

Have you changed it?
  Changed.

Didn't change it either.

Like the Russian bayonet, it is stubborn.

Alfred was devastated and came to George for a drink.

"Don't they know that you are going to Vladivostok sooner or later?" Alfred felt sorry for these Cossacks. After all, they still trusted others.

"You overlooked one thing. They will retire before I can go to Vladivostok -" George was half-sent. Even if he went to Vladivostok, these Cossacks could still take them away.

I have mentioned many times before why Russians are reluctant to go to Siberia.

If Russian officials could provide new immigrants with complete protection and relieve their worries, wouldn’t Russians be willing to go to Siberia?

Impossible, I am afraid that the Russian poor peasants and Cossacks will overcrowd the train bound for Siberia.

Think about it, you are tax-free for 30 years. After the tax-free period ends, you can buy the land for 3 rubles an acre.

Only George has a title, otherwise George would be willing to go to Siberia to open up wasteland.

"How can such excellent soldiers be allowed to retire?" Alfred was angry. This is such a waste.

"Then where are you going to place them?" George didn't understand what the Russian officers were thinking.

Accurate marksmen are rare.

However, Oak Tuan has proven with facts that precision shooters can be trained in batches.

So why not train new precision shooters instead of focusing on the three melons and two dates in George's hands.

The Duke who is the commander of the Russian army is not George.

Little Nikolay and Sergey, don’t they have any land that can be reclaimed in their manors?

Although Oak Park does not collect taxes, the tenant farmers and veterans in Oak Park took the initiative to fill the warehouse prepared by Dalia after the harvest season. There was not enough fresh eggs to eat every day, so Dalia could only pickle them. Dalia buys 20 meters-high large tanks at a time.

This spring, Dalia discovered to her dismay that not even half of the food prepared last winter had been eaten.

Part of the food the Cossacks ate when they came to Rivne came from the oak orchard.

This means that military trains can be used, otherwise the transportation cost of eggs would be higher than the price of the eggs themselves.

"Place it in the Guards, local troops, navy-" Alfred closed his mouth as he said this, thinking of this possibility.

It's not possible, as long as you are willing, it is a certainty!
  "Why is this happening-" Alfred smiled bitterly, it didn't make sense.

George smiled and did not explain. There were many unreasonable things in Russia. Everyone could find the problem, but no one could solve it.

Not even when God comes.

Unless the Tsar does a top-down cleanup.

And it’s not something that can be done once and for all, it has to happen every once in a while.

"George, I will formulate a report on what I saw here and hand it over to Gatchina." Alfred said bluntly, he believed that George could understand.

"It's better to focus on the Cossacks." George not only understood, but was also willing to help Alfred revise the report.

George did not pay much in Rivne, and the soldiers of the Oak Regiment rushed to immigrate his family to Rivne.

If the empire can do the same in Siberia, then I believe that developing Siberia will no longer be an impossible task.

The price is actually not high.

Although Russia has a snowy period for half a year every year, it is enough for building houses and hoarding food.

George is very experienced in building houses. As long as the materials are prepared in advance, a house that can accommodate a family of five can be built in a week with only ten people.

Based on this calculation, only a construction team of 100 people is needed to build a town that can accommodate 1,000 people within six months.

"George, it's up to you to write the report." Alfred was habitually lazy, and when George offered him the credit, he didn't even bother to open his mouth.

"Don't be stupid, do you want to be the captain of the bodyguard for the rest of your life?" George hated the fact that iron cannot be made into steel. The tsar's captain of the bodyguard was outside, so he had to find a division commander no matter what.

After the report is written, it may be the governor.

(End of this chapter)