I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 159 Ten Years
  In Russia, married girls are also thrown out.

In Yekaterina's mind, all the people in the world combined are not as important as George. A woman's love is so blind.

On the way to Vladivostok, George confirmed with Ye Luoxin that education would be the top priority for the development of Vladivostok.

Immigrants can do things like poaching people at any time.

The real centenary plan must be education.

How George educates boys is beyond Ekaterina's control.

Ekaterina still has some experience in girls' education.

Ekaterina had attended a girls' school and knew the pros and cons of a girls' school in St. Petersburg. After communicating with Dalia, after Ekaterina came to Vladivostok, she began to prepare for the establishment of a girls' school in Vladivostok.

The girls' school in St. Petersburg offers courses including foreign languages, Russian, mathematics, art, dance, music, handicrafts, geography, history, architecture, and introductory courses on the evolution of emblems.

The purpose of these courses is to train girls' school students to become future matrons of Russian families.

The purpose is good, but the process is too painful.

When Dalia's two daughters went to a girls' school, they didn't even have enough to eat. The girls were so hungry that they cried at night. This was a girls' school after the serfdom reform.

When Ekaterina and Dalia went to school, Russia's economy was even more backward and conditions were even worse.

Although Vladivostok's economy has just started, food is still abundant, nutrition can be guaranteed, and conditions are better than St. Petersburg.

Ekaterina didn't need to ask George, her money was enough to build ten schools.

George emphasized on the ship that "a century-old plan is based on education."

Since it is a century-old plan, the foundation must be laid firmly, so the importance of quarrying in Vladivostok has skyrocketed recently.

Ekaterina did not like simple wooden houses. She required that the girls' school should be a sturdy and durable reinforced concrete building.

There are steel bars in Vladivostok, but the production is insufficient. First of all, it must meet the needs of the port. Mikhail wants to build a municipal government office building but cannot get steel bars, and Ekaterina has no chance.

So Ekaterina took a fancy to the rocks on the surrounding mountains.

There are many mountains around Vladivostok. The Sikhote Mountains are also called the Neixinggan Mountains. There are basically as many rocks as there are.

Vladivostok now has a gunpowder factory, which can produce its own gunpowder. The speed of stone mining has been greatly accelerated, and transportation has become the most important issue.

After the onset of winter, the sea outside Vladivostok enters a period of ice, making it impossible for ships to pass, and transportation can only be carried out by land.

"We will start building the railway after the spring of next year, starting with the section between Vladivostok and Khabarovka. The steel plant will start stocking up rails now. This work must be completed next year." George didn't want to wait any longer. Proper push will have better results.

The Russian Empire began discussing whether to build the Trans-Siberian Railway ten years ago.

As of now, we have concluded that repairs must be made, so we started to discuss when and when to start construction.

The efficiency of the Russian Empire, without external impetus, will be discussed for at least another decade.

The construction period of the Trans-Siberian Railway will take at least ten years.

How many more decades can George wait?
  The empire still has several decades left.

So even if the empire doesn't allocate funds, George will start repairing it.

Although it costs a bit more to build the railway with our own money, at least there is no restriction from the Ministry of Transportation.

George also hopes that the construction of the railway will further stimulate the scale of the steel plant and quickly increase steel production to a level that can basically meet the needs of Vladivostok.

Now the steel plant only has one set of steel-making equipment, and the output is still very low. Not to mention building railways, it cannot even meet the demand for building ports.

The good news is that one set from the United States is already on the way, and two more are being produced in American factories.

The steelmaking equipment that George jumped in from the Ural Machinery Plant has also been put on the agenda.

Kanunnikov's improvement work has been basically completed. Vladivostok will be able to produce its own steel equipment next year. By then, Vladivostok's steel industry will enter a period of rapid growth.

"The railway between Vladivostok and Khabarovka is 733 kilometers long. We may not be able to complete it within next year." Mikhail is really not shirk. Building the railway is not a simple and easy task. It might happen overnight.

Rail output is only one aspect.

The key is that there are too many projects to be launched next year, and Vladivostok has too few resources. Even if everyone is divided in half, it will not be enough.

Vladivostok has seen many workers return to their hometown this winter, and they should be able to bring back more workers next year.

Including the Cossacks from Odessa and the labor imported through other channels, the labor force in Vladivostok may exceed 50,000 next year.

Fifty thousand people sounds like a lot, but there are too many places to hold the people in Vladivostok, and it's really not enough.

George asked the steel mills to increase production.

Even if the equipment problem is solved, there must always be workers to operate it.

Next year the machinery factory will put into production steel equipment, and it will also need more workers.

Mu Linde's business in the Qing Empire has already achieved results, and the first batch of orders for Bodin rifles was one thousand.

This is only the first batch of orders. If this batch of Bodin rifles can meet the requirements of the Qing Empire, then the orders from the Qing Empire will increase exponentially. Arms have always been huge profits. How many Bodin rifles Russia has available for export depends on how quickly the Russian army can change its equipment. What if the order from the Qing Empire comes, but George is out of stock?
  Therefore, the Vladivostok Arsenal had better start preparing to produce Bodin rifles now to avoid being caught off guard.

George also requested that cement plants and glass plants be put into operation next year. There are also engine plants and generator plants in the long-term plan. These plants require a large number of workers.

Speaking of generators.

After George arrived in Vladivostok, he cut off a small river next to Yuriev Palace and built a small reservoir. After installing the generator in the machine room, George had a hydropower station.

The description of a hydropower station is actually inappropriate, because the power that this generator can provide can only light fifty light bulbs, which is pitiful.

But even so, this is a hydropower station.

And it may be the world's first hydropower station, which is of extraordinary significance.

"It doesn't matter, more workers will arrive in Vladivostok next year." George is increasingly confident about the future of Vladivostok.

Mulinder's task is not just to sell products for Vladivostok.

The current workers in Vladivostok are all imported from Germany’s sphere of influence.

Even in the north of the Qing Empire, Germany's sphere of influence was pitifully small, and the vast inland areas of the Qing Empire had not yet penetrated deeply.

The coastal areas of the Qing Empire were never densely populated areas.

The truly densely populated areas were all in the interior of the Qing Empire.

The early Qing Dynasty followed the Ming Dynasty and implemented a strict maritime ban system, which was only loosened in modern times.

Such a short period of time was not enough to reproduce a large population, so the labor force of the Qing Empire was concentrated in inland areas.

When the population increases, land annexation will inevitably be serious, resulting in a surplus of labor and people's livelihood.

Although Mu Linde's position was not high, his understanding of the Qing Empire was unparalleled in Vladivostok.

George promised to pay Mulind one ruble for every laborer he sent to Vladivostok.

A few days ago, Mulind sent a telegram to Vladivostok to ask when the first batch of workers would be able to board the ship.

George is not in a hurry. Even if these workers arrive in Vladivostok, they will not be able to play a role now.

George established two departure camps in German-controlled areas. All workers going to Vladivostok must stay in the departure camps for two months to supplement nutrition, develop hygiene habits, and popularize relevant laws to make workers more in line with Vladivostok. requirements.

George did not want the workers to be arrested as vagrants by the Vladivostok police just because they went out for a walk after work after arriving in Vladivostok.

The law is secondary. The key is hygiene habits, which are the most important.

There is a saying that the Chinese in the Qing Dynasty during this period had poor hygiene habits due to the Qing Empire's long-term policy of obscuring the people.

After workers arrive at the departure camp, they must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected in accordance with the camp's requirements. The departure camp is not forced to cut their braids, but they must ensure that there are no parasites or the like.

In order to avoid the emergence of infectious diseases, all belongings of workers need to be strictly disinfected.

The vast majority of workers don’t actually have any personal belongings except the clothes on their bodies. Many of them are even half-clothed. They are barefoot in the winter and don’t even have shoes.

In addition to cattle and sheep, the most purchased things Vladivostok has purchased from Khalkha in recent years are various animal skins, especially sheepskins.

After the workers arrived at the starting camp, in addition to a new set of cotton-padded clothes for each person, sheepskin boots, sheepskin jackets and sheepskin hats were indispensable. As these three items were distributed, the workers became more and more looking forward to their trip to Vladivostok.

Sheepskin is very cheap in Khalkha.

Prices in the Qing Dynasty are very expensive.

The cotton-padded clothes were okay, although they were in tatters and had cotton lint exposed everywhere, at least I could put together a set.

Those who couldn't even get this together were frozen to death.

Sheepskin jackets were a luxury item only available to landlords in the inland areas of northern Qing Dynasty.

If a poor family has a sheepskin jacket, it must be a family heirloom.

Currently, nearly 8000 workers are waiting in the Qing Dynasty's departure camp.

In addition to cultivating hygiene habits and understanding Vladivostok laws, they also need to receive preliminary training in related aspects.

People are different, and their brains react faster. After arriving in Vladivostok, they directly entered the factory as a technical apprentice.

Those whose brains are slow to react can directly do physical work.

Those who are smart deserve to be trained. In the future, Vladivostok will need a large number of high-quality talents. The younger the better, start training them from a young age, and they will become the backbone of Vladivostok when they grow up.

With this multi-pronged approach, George can basically be sure that Vladivostok’s current shortage of people can be completely resolved within three to five years at most.

When George was in St. Petersburg, he promised Nicholas that he would give you ten years to give you St. Petersburg in the Far East.

Although Nicholas trusted George, he actually disapproved of George's promise.

Now it seems that it may not take ten years.

(End of this chapter)