Volume VIII 1157 people are poor and short

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The current Russian Tsar Alexander II is indeed a very influential tsar in Russian history, Peter the Great, Catherine II and this Alexander II are the three heroes of the Russian Tsar respected by later historians.

One of Alexander II's most important contributions to Russia was the abolition of serfdom that attracted worldwide attention. At the beginning of his succession, he deeply reflected on the merits and losses of the Crimean War initiated by his father.

Why did the Crimean War fail? Why did the Anglo-French expedition to deploy troops around the entire Mediterranean, while the Russians had a geographical advantage, end up in a fiasco?

Alexander II clearly realized that the essence of the problem was that there was a problem with the industrial and political system of Russia, which was completely behind the European powers.

At that time, 90% of the total population in Russia were all serfs, they were locked in the land and could not move, they did not have their own property, so they did not have any purchasing power, they did not have their own wealth to invest and trade, and the huge landlord class accumulated a lot of wealth in society.

From this point of view, the social system of Russia at that time was not as good as that of the Qing Dynasty, and the misery of the serfs was even more tragic than that of the tenants.

The fundamental element of the development of capitalism lies in the free movement of a huge group of hired workers, and it is precisely because of freedom that the most basic resource, population, will be dispersed with the magic wand of the market economy.

As a simple example, if a British businessman wants to invest in a steel mill, he can gather a large number of good workers as long as he rents land, has upfront capital, and can pay a relatively good salary.

But Russia can't even do this, and the capitalist who wants to invest will find that he can't recruit anyone if he has money, because he sees that ninety percent of the people are serfs.

Reform was imminent, and Tsar Alexander II opted for a relatively moderate system of redemption instead of the forced abolition system of the United States, as in the United States.

The state provided loans to serfs so that they could receive land from the landlords and at the same time have the status of free men, and then the serfs repaid the money to the state for a certain number of years.

This is a relatively moderate path of reform, at least without much bloodshed, acceptable to all parties. But the biggest drawback is that it requires a huge amount of start-up capital, which is so large that it even requires the Ministry of Finance to make false accounts, otherwise British and French bankers would not dare to give loans.

It was impossible to count on the Russian treasury to come up with such a huge sum of money, and they could only ask the bankers in London and Paris for help, and the high-interest loans flew to Moscow, and then to the vast Russian land.

The reform has now been carried out for eight years, and Russia has claimed that it has passed the most difficult period and that everything is developing in a good direction, but the high-level people of Stefansky's status are like Spiegel in their hearts, and the tsar is now almost unable to open the pot.

The interest paid to the British and French bankers every month is an astronomical amount, and it is necessary for Russia to tear down the east wall and make up the west wall, and even some remote provinces, and the ransom money given to the landlords is actually just an IOU.

The Treasury can only use lie after lie to paralyze Europe's bankers so that they can continue to lend money to Russia through the crisis, and according to the optimistic judgment of Moscow's top leadership, it will take at least a decade for Russia's finances to gradually balance.

Today, Molière, a bastard with a half-devil's face, actually uncovered the bloody scar of Russia, although he was so polite in every word, and used honorifics one after another, but the reality he revealed made the captain's face burn.

"That's enough!" he lowered his voice and shouted, "what do you want to do? You provoke me again and again, hit me, try to provoke ...... Why is that?"

Molière's grimace twitched, and he flicked the butt of his cigarette into the sea, "I don't have any intentions, I just want to give you this great wealth, do you think that if you send ten tons of gold back to Moscow, are you a hero of His Majesty the Tsar?"

"Even if my intelligence is wrong, I will give you a discount, and as soon as five tons of gold appear in the City of London, Russia's national credit will roll upward!

Don't you want to be the marshal of Russia? Don't you want Russia to get out of its financial crisis and then build a more powerful naval fleet?"

Stefansky rushed up and grabbed Molière by the collar and roared angrily: "Why should I believe you? What do you use to prove the truth of this information? War is not child's play, do you think I am the kind of person who takes risks lightly?"

Molière was not angry at all, he stood on tiptoe and let the general carry him, and said with a sneer: "You are not from intelligence work, so you don't understand our doorway, France has been operating in Asia for many years, and its power is second only to the British, is it difficult to get this bit of intelligence?"

"Not to mention, there is also a fine tradition of exchanging information in our intelligence community, and some of our French information will be shared with the British, and at the same time, the British will also help us when we are in trouble......"

"Our own French intelligence officers, as well as our British intelligence network, have confirmed this, and even ...... Even the Manchus in Beijing sent us a lot of important information, and isn't it credible that the intelligence of the three parties has been summarized?"

"Let go of your hand, my general, there Chinese an old saying...... Oh God, how do I love these Chinese proverbs more and more, they describe them so well......"

"Chinese said that people are poor, short-minded, thin-haired, and look how well they say, isn't that what Russia is now? Money, all evil money, but without this thing, the country would not be a country......

As soon as Stefansky's hand loosened, Molière stood on the ground again, and the Russian general sighed, "This matter is not up to me, I must discuss it with the top brass of the fleet...... In addition, I would like to remind you, don't think that you can calculate a fortune if you have the intelligence sharing of the three countries, to put it mildly, if the intelligence is so important, your Dakar will not be in ruins!"

"And the Battle of Iquique, don't you have no guess about the result? Of course, intelligence is important, but in the end, if you want to win, you still have to rely on the swords and guns in the hands of the warriors and the brave hearts!"

Molière took half a step back and bowed slightly respectfully, "Of course, the general's judgment is not wrong...... However, I hope that the Shogun will be able to hold the meeting as much as possible, because I will soon have a big gift package for you...... It's a pre-gold appetizer!"

"Appetizers, what's that?" Stefansky asked.

"No, no, no...... This qiē will not be handed over to you until you have approved my information and are willing to act, please believe that this land of Asia is full of all kinds of magic!"