St. Petersburg, received an affirmative answer from the Vienna government, but Alexander III was not happy.

"Franz has always been a rabbit and a hawk, and this time he agreed so happily without mentioning any conditions, do you think there is any conspiracy in this?"

It's no wonder that Alexander III was suspicious, but in recent decades, the Russian Empire has suffered a lot of dumb losses, which has made him psychologically overshadowed.

Foreign Secretary Oscar Jimenez replied: "Your Majesty, you have been overwhelmed. It seems that the Austrian government is helping us, but in fact they are also helping themselves.

The British wanted an arms race, and they themselves were going for France and Austria. Now Britain, France and Austria have all been riding tigers, and they can't stop until they decide the winners.

Regardless of whether Afghanistan has or not, the Austrian government will passively join this arms race.

Now support us, not only caused trouble to competitors, but also sold us a favor. ”

There was nothing wrong with it, the Viennese government had promised to help keep the British at bay, and in fact they had nothing to do now but shout verbally.

The arms race itself is going on, and many warships have already started construction, so we can't stop work and put it on hold, right?

Even if the British, who were distracted by the Central Asian issue, wanted to suspend the game, it would be impossible for France and Austria, which were already involved, to agree.

Britain, France and Austria have been competing for decades, and no one thinks they are worse than others.

The enemy of the enemy is the friend, although this sentence does not fully apply, but in the matter of striking the British, there is no obstacle at all to the joint efforts of Russia and Austria.

Hearing this reasonable explanation, Alexander III's uneasiness eased slightly, and then he had a headache again.

"Alas! Even with the support of the Austrian government, we are at a disadvantage in competition with the British in Central Asia.

Afghanistan was separated by the Central Asian khanates, and in recent years we have reduced our focus on Afghanistan because of the war on the European continent.

Afghanistan did not fall to the British, or because of the hatred left over from the last Anglo-Afghan war.

If the British take a soft approach, the Afghan government will not necessarily resist, because we can give them too little support. ”

Listening to the tsar's complaints, Oscar Jimenez secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It's good that the tsar can be sensible, if he doesn't care about it, it will be a big trouble.

Now the Russian Empire really did not have the ability to fight a war with the British in Afghanistan, and sought the support of Austria, essentially trying to solve the problem through negotiations.

"Your Majesty, rest assured. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is making diplomatic efforts, and if it can regain the support of the French, it will not be a problem to maintain stability in Central Asia.

What we need now is time, and if it drags on for a few more years, the situation will be completely different. ”

Some years have passed since the end of the Russo-Prussian War, the Russian Empire has recovered a little, and the most critical moment has passed.

Now the problem is not wanting to fight, not "not being able to fight".

It may not be the opponent of the British in Afghanistan, but it is still capable of solving the few younger brothers supported by the British.

No military action was taken, and the most important thing was that there was not enough money in the pocket. Alexander III was a sensible man, and naturally he would not blindly confront the British without being ready.

……

With the roar of machinery, flying dust was kicked up, and a group of spiritless laborers, under the spur of the leather whip, began another day's work.

Suddenly, a large group of guards appeared, and after a brief exchange between the administrators, they mercifully ordered the laborers to rest for a while.

The guards dutifully inspected the site, confiscated the "murder weapons", including shovels, and expelled the laborers to an open field.

There is no doubt that there are big people coming, and any hidden dangers must be investigated.

Flying dust is also one of the hidden dangers, which can stain the clothes of the big guys, so it is necessary to let them fall first.

Time passed in a hurry, and it was noon, and the sound of thousands of galloping horses remembered, and the dust stirred up by the galloping cavalry in the distance could be faintly seen in the distance.

Approaching, Alinggren, who was in charge of the scene, became excited. Pointing to the front, he whispered to the captain of the guard, "Your Majesty, is it there?" ”

The only words that responded to him were indifferent: "I don't know!" ”

I really don't know, the specific time of the emperor's trip is not something that they should know.

In particular, many places are notified at short notice, and it is still unknown whether they will go in the end.

Looking at the large army that was getting closer and closer, Alingren breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that even if this posture was not the emperor himself, it was a big man who accompanied him.

……

A blonde old man in his fifties pointed to the construction site and said, "Your Majesty, this is the Sheriff River Dam under construction.

Once the project is completed, more than 150,000 hectares of land downstream will be able to be effectively irrigated, and the embarrassment of relying on the weather for food will be freed.

At the same time, it can also ensure that downstream towns and farmland are protected from the threat of flooding, which is one of the key projects in the agricultural plan. ”

Napoleon IV nodded slightly, looked at the great river that had rushed to the sea, and looked at a ragged and barely neat team in the distance.

Frowning, he asked, "What's going on, why did you suddenly stop working?" Could it be that a strike movement broke out here? ”

Seeing the emperor's ugly face, the old man in charge of the introduction hurriedly explained: "No, how can there be a strike here, they should be in an intermission."

Your Majesty, you see that the soil is all newly dug, and they are still working just now, so why don't you call the project leader over......?"

Napoleon IV waved his hand and interrupted: "I said it, don't engage in this messy formalism.

The farm plan is related to the future of France, and if it is delayed because I came to inspect it, it will not be beautiful.

The site is here, the progress can be seen at a glance, I don't know about the project, so I won't mess with them.

Let them resume construction immediately, and we will move on to the next place. ”

After saying that, Napoleon IV turned around and got on his horse and left, leaving Alingren, who was waiting for him, secretly sad himself.

The opportunity to get close to the emperor flew away.

After the guards withdrew, Alingren immediately waved his leather whip, walked among the workers, and shouted: "You bastards, get up and work for me immediately." ”

As if to vent his frustration, Alingren also used a whip to entertain a few workers who were slow to respond.

Seeing that the boss began to act, the surrounding supervisors also joined in, and the construction site resumed its hustle and bustle again for a while.

The visit to Algeria was a whim of Napoleon IV.

The main reason is that the bureaucrats under them are not at ease, and they are afraid that someone will embezzle the public funds of the project, which will lead to the failure of the big farm plan.

As it turned out, he was right. The progress of the big farm plan is far below the data reported by officials.

For example, the Sheriff River Dam has just been constructed, and the information reported is that the project is nearing completion.

In 1887, state-owned farms were able to send 1,200,000 tons of wheat and 580,000 tons of corn to the country......

After the delivery of these agricultural products, France's food gap will be reduced by one-third, and the country's foreign exchange expenditure will be greatly reduced.

The reality is that the grain on the state-owned farms is in place, and even exceeded, and it is said that this year's grain harvest has been bumper. However, the country's foreign exchange expenditure has not decreased much, but has increased slightly.

Needless to say, we all know where the problem is. Grain smuggled from the world and returned to China, under the banner of self-production on state-owned farms, entered the grain market.

Because of the tariff barriers, the officials who handle it make a lot of money as soon as they enter and exit, which is far greater than the income from honestly running farms.

Similar things are on the rise in the trend of interests. Almost all farm-linked projects have shown incredible speed.

The most awesome thing is a farm named Tales, from the project to the grain harvest, it took less than half a year to open up 50,000 hectares of land, and also achieved a bumper harvest of 1,000 catties per mu in that year.

Greed is the devil, and in order to obtain greater benefits, the bureaucrats who handle it are not even professional in data falsification.

Presumably they think that as long as the money is in place, the people above will play dumb with them.

Needless to say, this kind of project report, which is full of loopholes and regards the top government officials as fools, was naturally found out by the French government.

Napoleon IV always hated this kind of digging for the foundations of the country.

The main purpose of the state-owned farms, which have been built at great expense, is to achieve food self-sufficiency, reduce foreign exchange outflows, and balance the trade deficit.

Now it has become a money-making machine for the bureaucrats, and in a fit of rage, Napoleon IV personally killed Algeria.

No matter how much you cheat, you can't change so many projects overnight.

Then, one after another, projects like the Sherriff River Dam, which had been inflated in progress, overturned before the eyes of Napoleon IV.

As one lie after another was exposed, Napoleon IV's mentality was on the verge of collapse.

can endure it, and if you don't take down these bureaucrats on the spot, even if you have self-cultivation, don't even think about it.

……