Chapter 1264 In East Africa

Time flies to 1917.

The streets of Rhine City are bustling with traffic and people flow continuously. In just a dozen years, Rhine City has become one of the new big cities in East Africa.

Crown Prince Alexei of Tsarist Russia and his two sisters were visiting the Rhine City under the leadership of Maxim, the fourth prince of East Africa.

Prince Maxim was born in 1887 and was the youngest son of Ernst. Even so, he was much older than the children of Nicholas II.

Among the tsarist princes and princesses who came to East Africa this time, the oldest is the third Russian princess Maria, who was born in 1899 and is currently eighteen years old.

This time the Russian royal family went to East Africa, led by Princess Maria, who took care of her sister Anastasia and brother Alexei.

Maxim took them to wander the streets of Rhine City. He said to the adult Princess Maria: "Rhine City is a new city, so its size cannot be compared with St. Petersburg, but our capital in East Africa is There are also advantages that St. Petersburg cannot get. It is like spring all year round and it is in the middle of the land. St. Petersburg is just the opposite. "

St. Petersburg is a relatively warm area in Russia, but it is already close to the Arctic Circle, while the Rhine City in East Africa is close to the equator.

Geographically, they can be said to be completely different from each other, but they both show different climate differences at the same latitude.

Just like St. Petersburg, the name can easily make people think of the snowy sky, while the Rhine City can easily make people think of the scorching sun, but the real situation in the two places is not like this.

The winter in St. Petersburg is only a few degrees below zero, which is hard to imagine in other areas of the same latitude in Russia. However, the climate of the Rhine City is common in East Africa, and the plateau area is basically similar to the Rhine City.

Maria said: "This is indeed beyond our expectation. At this time, the snow has not melted in St. Petersburg or other places in Russia, but it is summer in East Africa. But except when we first arrived in East Africa, we were in the Rhine City But I didn’t feel the heat.”

Maxim said: "That's because the climate in coastal or plain areas is different from that in inland plateaus. In coastal areas such as Dar es Salaam, the temperature is generally higher than inland."

"This is affected by altitude and terrain. Just like St. Petersburg, although it has a temperate continental climate like many areas in your country, it is affected by the Atlantic warm current and ocean, so the temperature is higher."

"And we East Africans, if it's just because of the climate, we like to stay in the inland highlands, where the climate is cooler."

Although it is summer, the highest temperature in Rhine City today is only 26 degrees, and there have been showers in the past few days, making it impossible to experience the heat of summer.

Princess Maria likes this kind of climate very much. She said: "The temperature and air in Rhine City are much better than St. Petersburg. This is a novel experience for us."

"If I were in St. Petersburg in the past, I would prefer to stay in the house and feel the warmth of the stove during this time. But in the Rhine City, it is more suitable to go out and play."

Prince Maxim said with a smile: "In that case, the three of you can stay in Rhine City for a while. This invitation to East Africa is originally a need for the two countries to deepen their relationship. The only pity is that your parents and two A sister has not arrived."

Having said this, Princess Maria's face darkened slightly, and then said: "Now my father and mother are unable to escape, and my sisters are also in the hospital on the front line, that is, Anastasia and I, and Ali." Kexie is too young to be of much help, so he was entrusted by his father to come to East Africa to relax. "

"I don't know when the war will end. Before we left St. Petersburg, we heard some news that the war on the front line was very unfavorable to Russia. Although my father didn't say it, I could feel his anxiety."

This is probably one of the reasons why Nicholas II agreed to East Africa's request and sent his two daughters and only son to East Africa.

Starting last year, the situation in the European war began to become unfavorable to Russia. Especially by the end of last year, the Russian army on the front line could be said to have been retreating steadily and lost a lot of land.

St. Petersburg's material supply situation also began to face a crisis. On the one hand, it was the German navy's blockade of the Baltic Sea, and on the other hand, it was the fall of Poland and other original food-producing areas.

All this led to anti-war activities in St. Petersburg becoming more frequent, which may in turn make Nicholas II feel a crisis.

Another factor is that East Africa invited the Russian royal family, which is good news for Nicholas II at present.

With the two allies of Britain and France unreliable, East Africa has become a major boost to Russia. The export of materials from East Africa has alleviated Russia's material gap to a certain extent.

This is also easy to understand. Although Britain and France are allies of Russia, the support they can give Russia is quite limited.

After all, facing the pressure from the Allies, the two countries had a huge shortage of supplies, and it was impossible to allocate part of them to meet Russia's needs.

What's more, the size of Russia is not something that Britain and France can afford to support. The industrial development of the two countries has been sluggish in recent years. Even the combined military production capacity of the two countries can barely compete with Germany.

Germany also had Austria-Hungary as an ally. Although Austria-Hungary was the weakest of the five major European powers, it also greatly shared Germany's pressure.

Of course, it is not ruled out that Britain and France hoped that the Allies would fight Russia to the death as much as possible, and at the same time they were worried that Russia would make too much progress in the war. This is similar to the situation in the previous World War II, so the Allies were not a monolithic entity.

In response to Princess Maria's complaints, Prince Maxim could only pretend to be helpless and said: "I hope the war will end soon!"

In fact, the country that most hopes that the European war will continue is East Africa, so what Maxim said could not be true.

In the wars of the past few years, East Africa can be said to have made a lot of money. The whole people have enjoyed the dividends brought by the European war, and overseas orders have continued, so East Africa naturally hopes that this war will continue.

The economic benefits are felt by the people of East Africa, and overseas, East Africa is even more like a punch to a kid. In the process of European powers being deeply involved in World War I, East Africa's colonial expansion has made rapid progress, and West Africa has quickly opened up the situation in Southeast Asia and America.

Maxim, the fourth prince of East Africa, was also very clear about this, but he could not gloat in front of the three Russian royal family members.

So Maxim changed the subject and said: "Now that we are in East Africa, don't think about those troubles. You three siblings can enjoy the scenery of our East Africa."

"I will be your tour guide this time. This will be an unforgettable life experience for you. As world powers, East Africa and Russia can be said to be completely different styles."

"Here, you can see a lot of scenery that you can't see in Russia, or even in Europe."

Among the many world powers at this stage, only East Africa is in the tropics, and the Russian nobles generally move around in Europe.

Maria, Anastasia and Alexei are all young, so they have even less experience leaving Russia.

And this time in East Africa, they went all the way south, took the railway from St. Petersburg to Crimea, and finally arrived in East Africa. The journey was thousands of miles along the way.

It can be said that this trip to East Africa is also the longest journey they have experienced since they were born.

Maria was the oldest of the three and the only adult, so she and Maxim were the ones who talked along the way, while Anastasia was responsible for taking care of the young Alexei.

Alexei was a victim of hemophilia and was not very healthy. In addition, he was young, so the two sisters did not dare to relax their care for him.