Chapter 839 The French Version of the Large Rollover Scene

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

"Franz has always been a hawk without seeing a rabbit. This time he agreed so readily without mentioning any conditions. Do you think there is some conspiracy here?"

No wonder Alexander III is suspicious, it is true that in recent decades, the Russian Empire has suffered a lot from dumb losses, which has caused him a psychological shadow.

Foreign Secretary Oscar Jimenez replied: "Your Majesty, you are overthinking. It seems that the Austrian government has helped us, but in fact they are helping themselves.

The British wanted an arms race, and they themselves went to France and Austria. Now the three countries of Britain, France and Austria are already in a difficult situation, and they cannot stop at all until the winner is determined.

With or without the Afghan issue, the Austrian government will passively join the arms race.

Supporting us now, not only caused trouble to our competitors, but also sold us a favor. "

There's nothing wrong with it. It's true that the Vienna government promised to help contain the British. In fact, they don't need to do anything other than shout twice.

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

Even if the British wanted to suspend the game because of the Central Asian issue, France and Austria, which had already participated, could not agree.

Britain, France and Austria have been competing for decades, and no one thinks they are worse than others. If you say stop, stop it. Where does this put everyone's face?

The enemy of the enemy is a friend. Although this sentence is not completely applicable, on the issue of fighting the British, there is absolutely no obstacle for Russia and Austria to join forces.

After listening to this reasonable explanation, Alexander III's uneasiness eased a little, and then he had a headache again.

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

Afghanistan is divided by the Central Asian Khanate, and we have paid less attention to Afghanistan in recent years because of the European War.

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

The Afghan government will not necessarily resist if the British take a soft approach. After all, we can give them too little support. "

Hearing the tsar's complaint, Oscar Jimenez secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It's good that the tsar can be rational, but if he doesn't care about it, he will be in big trouble.

Now the Russian Empire really does not have the ability to fight the British in Afghanistan. To seek Austrian support, in essence, it still wants to solve the problem through negotiation.

"Your Majesty, rest assured. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is making diplomatic efforts. If we can get the support of the French, it will not be a big problem to maintain the stability of Central Asia.

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

It has been a few years since the end of the Russian-Prussian War, and the Russian Empire has recovered somewhat, and the most critical moment has passed.

The problem now is not wanting to fight, not "can't fight".

Perhaps it is not an opponent of the British in Afghanistan, but it is still capable of solving the few younger brothers supported by the United Kingdom.

No military action was taken, and the most important thing was that there was not enough money in the pocket. Alexander III was a rationalist, and naturally he would not blindly confront the British before he was ready.

...

Accompanied by the whistling of machinery, flying dust was set off, and a group of uninspired laborers started another day of work under the urging of a leather whip.

Suddenly, a large group of guards appeared. After the managers came forward for a brief exchange, they mercifully ordered the workers to rest for the time being.

The guards dutifully inspected the construction site, confiscated "kill weapons" including shovels, and expelled the laborers to an open space.

There is no doubt that there is a big man coming, and any hidden dangers must be checked out.

Including flying dust is also one of the hidden dangers, and it may stain the clothes of the big people, so they must be allowed to fall first.

Time passed by in a hurry, and it was noon in a flash. The sound of galloping horses remembered that from a distance, one could vaguely see the flying dust stirred up by the galloping cavalry in the distance.

Approaching, Allingren, who was in charge of the scene, became excited. Pointing forward with his finger, he asked the captain of the guard in a low voice, "Your Majesty, are you here in person?"

There were only three indifferent words in response to him: "I don't know!"

This is really not known. The specific time of the emperor's trip is not something that people like them should know.

Especially for this kind of inspection, many places are temporarily determined and notified, and it is still unknown whether or not to go in the end.

Looking at the approaching troop, Allinglen breathed a sigh of relief, seeing that even if it wasn't the emperor himself, he was a big man accompanying him.

...

A blond old man in his fifties pointed to the construction site and said, "Your Majesty, this is the Sharif 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 will get rid of the embarrassment of relying on the sky.

At the same time, it can also protect the downstream towns and farmland from the threat of floods, which is one of the key projects in the agricultural plan. "

Napoleon IV nodded slightly, looked at the river that was rushing to the sea and never returned, and looked at a ragged, barely tidy team in the distance.

He frowned and asked, "What's going on here? Why did the work stop suddenly? Could there be a strike movement here?"

See the emperor's face is ugly

, The old man in charge of the introduction hurriedly explained: "No, how could there be a strike here, they should be having a half-time break.

Your Majesty, you see that these soils are all newly dug, and they were all still working just now, why don't you call the project leader here..."

Napoleon IV waved his hand and interrupted: "As I said, don't make this mess of formalism.

The farm project is related to the future of France, and if it is delayed because of my visit, it will not be beautiful.

The scene is here, and the progress can be seen at a glance. I don't know much about the project, so I won't cause them any trouble.

Let them resume construction immediately, and we'll move on to the next location. "

After he finished speaking, Napoleon IV turned his horse and left, making Allingren, who was waiting so hard, hurt himself.

The opportunity to get close to the emperor just flew away.

After the guards withdrew, Allingren immediately waved his whip, walked among the workers, and scolded: "You bastards, get up and work for me immediately."

As if to vent his dissatisfaction, Allingren also used a whip to ruthlessly entertain a few laborers who were slow to respond.

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

Visiting Algeria was entirely the whim of Napoleon IV.

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

Facts have proved that his judgment was correct. The progress of the big farm program is far below the figures reported by officials.

For example, this is the Sharif River dam, which has just been constructed, and the information reported is that the project is nearing the end.

There are many similar cases. In theory, in 1887, state-owned farms could transport 1.2 million tons of wheat and 580,000 tons of corn to the mainland...

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

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

Where the problem lies, it goes without saying that you know. After smuggling grain from the international market back to China, it entered the grain market under the banner of self-produced by state-owned farms.

Because of the tariff barriers, the officials who deal with them can make a lot of money as soon as they enter and exit, which is far greater than the honest operation of the farm.

Under the trend of interest, similar things are still increasing. Almost all projects linked to the farm have shown astonishing speed.

The most impressive is a farm named Tales. From the establishment of the project to the harvest of grain, it took less than half a year to open up 50,000 hectares of land, and also achieved a bumper harvest of thousands of kilograms per mu that year.

Greed is the devil. In order to obtain greater benefits, the bureaucrats who deal with them are not even professional in data fraud.

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

Needless to say, this kind of project report, which is full of loopholes and regards the high-level government as a fool, was naturally caught by the French government.

Napoleon IV has always hated this kind of digging the foundation of the country.

The main purpose of state-owned farms built with huge expenditure is to achieve food self-sufficiency and reduce foreign exchange outflows to balance the trade deficit.

Now it has become a machine for bureaucrats to make money. Napoleon IV committed suicide to Algeria in a rage.

No matter how fake it is, you won't be able to make so many projects overnight.

Then, projects such as the Sharif River dam, which falsely reported progress, overturned one by one in front of Napoleon IV.

As one lie after another was exposed, Napoleon IV's mentality was about to collapse.

If you can hold back and don't take down these bureaucrats on the spot, even if you have self-discipline, don't even think about the good face.

...