I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 750 Blow them all up
Catherine was the last core member of the royal family from the era of Alexander II, as all the kings and queens of her time had passed away.

On February 2, George escorted Catherine's coffin to the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, where all the tsars since Peter I, except Peter II and the missing Nicholas, were buried.

Although Catherine did not want a grand ceremony during her lifetime, more than 200 members of the royal family came to St. Petersburg from all over Europe.

On February 2, Catherine's coffin arrived in St. Petersburg, and hundreds of thousands of St. Petersburg residents spontaneously took to the streets to see her off.

The Patriarch posthumously recognized Catherine as Queen, and her tomb is next to that of Alexander II.

Before Catherine's funeral was over, Guchkov received a report that in some areas of Warsaw, people were secretly celebrating Catherine's death.

Guchkov did not report to George and ordered his men to deal directly with him for treason.

Just after Catherine's funeral, Witt suffered a stroke and was rushed to the hospital.

George went to the hospital to visit Witt. Witt's right side was paralyzed and he could no longer speak. He could only communicate with George using his left hand.

Witte was also the only surviving senior official from the time of Alexander II.

Werther was born in 1849, two years younger than Catherine.

George had no time to be sad. Even if Witt recovered, he would not be able to handle government affairs. George decided to hold a general election immediately.

Not a general election, but a vote in the State Duma.

The two most popular candidates were Felix and Guchkov, and Felix was successfully elected with a slight advantage.

Guchkov was disappointed, but not surprised by the result.

During Guchkov's tenure as Minister of Justice, Russia improved its Criminal Code, increasing the number of crimes punishable by death to 82, which frightened countless people.

The Russian judicial system under Guchkov tended to impose the maximum sentence when sentencing cases, with a sentence of three to seven years, and generally seven years, so hiring more lawyers would not help.

Compared with a cruel official like Guchkov, the philanthropic Felix is ​​a great philanthropist.

Felix has indeed done a lot of good deeds, and the Yusupov family has also set up a foundation. Last year, the Yusupov family foundation donated one million rubles each to the drought and snow disasters.

But if you think Felix is ​​a good person because of this, then you really don’t know people well.

The first thing Felix did after taking office was to restrict foreign investment in Russia.

In order to promote Russia's development, Witte had an open attitude towards introducing foreign investment and formulated many favorable policies to attract foreign capital to invest in Russia.

Felix's reason is that Russia does not need to make concessions to foreign capital, and it is up to them to come or not.

Russia itself is not without capital. Yuriev, Yusupov, Dolgorukov, plus the invincible Romanov, any one of them is a powerful giant. When Rockefeller came to Russia, he had to pay his respects to the four first.

Capital is profit-seeking. As long as investing in Russia can make money, it doesn’t matter whether profits are given or not.

In other words, Russia has passed the most difficult stage.

As I said, whether it is difficult or not depends on who you compare it with.

After Stanley Baldwin came to power, the British economy improved slightly, but there were still many obstacles to returning to its peak state.

After the end of the World War, France was mired in the Rif War and had deployed more than 20 troops in Morocco.

The price of bread in Berlin is still rising, successfully breaking through 1 trillion marks in January this year.

What’s worse is that bread in Berlin is not only more expensive, but also smaller, at least one-third smaller than the year before.

Think about it, in 1912, Germany built four new Bavaria-class battleships at a total cost of only 2.3 million marks. Just ten years later, it seems like a lifetime ago.

Due to the existence of the United States, Russia's economy cannot be said to be the only one that stands out, but it is definitely far ahead in Europe.

Russia's 1.8 million people are Felix's greatest reliance.

Unlike Russia and India, the Indian civilians have no purchasing power, and the upper castes with purchasing power account for less than 10% of the total population.

Russian farmers have very strong consumption power. Since every household owns a large amount of land, Russian farmers' demand for agricultural machinery is constantly increasing. Many Amur farmers have even started to purchase a second car, which has a huge impact on the development of the Russian economy.

On April 4, the Grand Principality of Yuriev again invited Alexander to be king, and this time George did not stop him.

During Catherine's lifetime, the Grand Principality of Yuriev invited Alexander to be king many times, but George never agreed.

In her will, Catherine explicitly mentioned that she hoped to see the Yuriev family expand throughout the world.

George asked Alexander for his opinion. Alexander was eager to try. He also wanted to become a king like Boris and did not want to live under George's protection all the time.

Then try it.

Since he has chosen to be king, he must take on greater responsibilities. Think about how much turmoil Alexei's health problems caused. It is time to resolve Alexander's personal problems.

As a king, Alexander did not have the freedom to choose his spouse.

In today's Europe, marriage with the British royal family seems to be Alexander's only option. If Alexander proposes to a British princess, even if the princess herself disagrees, the British will tie up the princess and send her to Constantinople.

Anne still preferred to marry the Hohenzollerns. Although William II had abdicated, the Hohenzollerns, like the Romanovs in Russia, still had a huge influence on Germany.

Anne's reasoning was that since the Austro-Hungarian Empire had perished and the root cause of the conflict between Russia and Germany had disappeared, it was time to repair relations with Germany.

Alexandra reported that Alexander had recently been having a hot relationship with a female military doctor at the Constantinople Military Hospital and that the two had gone on several dates.

Anne was surprised and went to the hospital with Alexandra under the pretext of seeing a doctor to observe the girl, who was also named Ekaterina.

The girl is of Chinese descent. Ekaterina is her Russian name and her Chinese name is Shen Jun.

Anne knew the meaning of "jun" and thought that Shen Jun was from a noble family in Dongda.

After learning about Shen Jun's specific situation, Annie learned that Shen Jun came from a civilian family in Vladivostok.

Anne was disappointed that commoners did not qualify as royal bloodlines.

Because Catherine was not of royal origin, she was not recognized as the queen until her death, and was qualified to be buried next to Ya Er. Shen Jun was not even a noble, and was of Chinese descent, which was not in line with European traditions.

"The four empires that best embody European traditions have all perished. Why do we still cling to tradition?"

George doesn't care about tradition.

There are now more and more Chinese people in Russia. In Amur, the number of Chinese people exceeded that of Russians even before the outbreak of the world war.

Among Amur students, Chinese generally have better academic performance than Russian students, and their jobs and salaries after graduation are also generally better. As a group, the Chinese are having an increasing influence on Amur.

This situation has caused some controversy in Constantinople, and some members of the State Duma have proposed imposing some restrictions on naturalization.

If Alexander must sacrifice his marriage, George would rather let Alexander marry Shen Jun, which will directly promote the integration of Amur.

"That's right! We want to break tradition!"

Alexandra shouted.

"you shut up!"

Anne took immediate action and slapped Alexandra on the forehead.

The main reason why Alexander is still single is that he loves to play and has not grown up yet.

Alexandra was the real rebel, causing Anne and George a lot of trouble.

"Just wait, I'll marry a beggar tomorrow—"

Alexandra dared to challenge.

"Okay, I'll get beggars from all over the world and let you choose any one you want."

Anne was cold as ice.

Alexandra greased her feet and ran away quickly.

"What are you looking at? It's all your fault!"

Anne is now dissatisfied with everyone, not even the God of War.

"I have a meeting to attend, so I won't be back for lunch—"

George will escape.

"If you have the guts, never come back!"

Anne was furious. The middle-aged woman couldn't afford to offend anyone.

George called Alexander over and asked what he meant.

"I was just about to tell you that Katya is pregnant--"

Alexander still caused a death.

Annie immediately forgot about tradition and took Shen Jun home to take care of him personally.

"Katya is a doctor. We can take care of ourselves."

Alexander has grown strong enough to fly solo.

"Ah--"

Anne looked around for a handy weapon.

Alexandra handed Anne a feather duster.

Anne took it and tried it, and accidentally drew Alexandra.

"I'm sorry, but I did that on purpose!"

Annie felt justified in beating the child on a rainy day as she had nothing else to do.

"Okay, okay, as long as you don't mind, you can take care of it if you are willing."

Seeing that the situation was not good, Alexander left the eldest sister alone to fend for herself.

On June 6, Alexander took a train to Vladivostok and then took a ship to the East Indies.

The work of dredging the canal has been extended and will not be completed until the middle of next year.

This caused strong dissatisfaction among the Rothschild family, who believed that the Dolgorukov family, who was responsible for the construction, was suspected of deliberately delaying the construction period.

Sergei felt aggrieved, and he also wanted to complete the dredging work as soon as possible and collect the money.

Americans are in no rush.

After the closure of the Suez Canal, freight rates to Europe and East Asian colonies skyrocketed, which was very beneficial for US exports to Europe.

When the canal was halfway through being dredged, the construction team discovered a tomb suspected to be that of a pharaoh at the bottom of the canal.

"Even if God's tomb is somewhere, blow it up!"

William spoke out in a blunt manner at the board meeting, demanding that the project be accelerated.

What William didn't expect was that his plan to blow up God's tomb would be exposed by The Times the next day.

The question is, how did the reporters find out about this?

(End of this chapter)