Chapter 496: Restless Europe

It will take at least several months for everything that happened in the Far East to reach Europe thousands of miles away, so let's turn our attention back to Europe.

The wave of strikes by British miners is still brewing. Even if the mine owners have detained some "leaders of the trouble", it will be of no avail.

England is facing the biggest coal crisis since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. In addition to coal workers, workers from other mines have also joined this massive demonstration.

This has plunged the British economy, which has just improved, into a cold winter again, and even had to purchase coal from Scotland.

However, the cost of doing so is extremely uneconomical. Although the price of coal is cheap, the freight is frighteningly high. Coupled with England's astonishing consumption, the whole situation seems very ridiculous.

Almost all British newspapers are criticizing "Coal Ash" one-sidedly. They believe that this is a complete act of treason, a manifestation of ignorance and low intelligence, and a believer of Mammon and Belphegor.

(Mammon and Belphegor are the embodiment of greed and laziness in the Bible)

Some people in the European continent cheered for them and even called on people to donate money and materials, and then the two great men received a donation that was so much that they couldn't believe it.

It's just that the source of this money puzzled them, but it was true that the two were very poor. This money was enough for them to live the rest of their lives without worries, and even their descendants would no longer need to work.

But the reason why great men can become great is that they are different from ordinary people. The two resisted the temptation and began to help the British miners.

So when the miners were driven to the streets by the mine owners, a sum of aid funds solved their urgent needs.

These miners actually had nothing. Because their houses were built on the land of the mine owners, they were judged by the government to be the property of the mine, so the residents were driven out of their own houses.

This action forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes, and the methods used by the miners were even more outrageous; whether they were old people, children, or pregnant women, they were all driven out in extremely violent ways. There were even pregnant women who were dragged out of bed by their hair and pushed into dirty, smelly ditch.

Obviously, this inhumane behavior was instigated by someone. Their purpose was to cause riots and turn the strike into an atrocity, so that they could forcibly disperse the participants.

Given the powerful influence of the Chartists at this moment, Whitehall did not dare to easily announce the end of the strike, and could only resort to this last resort. After all, the number of miners was much smaller than that of the Charters, and the place they were located was also more remote.

If they were placed in the city of London, they would never have the courage to do so.

Thanks to donations from the European continent, the miners who participated in the strike lived much better than in history, at least there was no large-scale freezing and starvation.

But this situation did not last long, because some groups had no bottom line, and soon this country that advocated free trade banned merchants from selling goods to miners.

At the same time, starving people were recruited from Ireland and Wales to replace them. The restoration of internal circulation was the real firewood for these warriors who dared to challenge serious injustice.

However, some news that had been suppressed before also broke out at this time, such as the use of child labor in some mining areas and the large-scale deaths.

Of course, the boss must not know about this scandal. It must be the temporary supervisors below who are making trouble for petty profits.

As a result, a group of unlucky people who openly violated the law and caused major accidents were sent to the gallows.

As for ignorant child laborers such as David, Jim and Kate, they were exempted from investigation. They will be sent back to their homes, or to poorhouses and poor people's training centers.

Since Russia in the Near East joined the Austrian trade system, the Tsar's wallet has swelled.

The first thing that Nicholas I, who had money, thought of was to engage in military industry. Before, there was only one Ivzhsk Arsenal in Russia, which was established during the reign of his brother Alexander I to deal with Napoleon.

Due to the long-term lack of funds and backward technology, the annual output was only at the level of 25,000 rifles, 5,000 long swords, 200,000 bullets and 30 cannons.

At the same time, the production capacity of the Enfield Arsenal in the UK was almost twice that of its Russian counterparts, and there were three military factories of the same level in Great Britain (including the Calcutta Arsenal in India).

Similarly, Russia's production capacity was not as good as that of France and Austria, and even worse than Prussia, and was only slightly stronger than the sick man of Western Europe, Spain.

However, with the support of its ally France, the former owner of Iberia was making rapid progress in military production.

This made Nicholas I unable to sit still, so he spent a huge amount of money to build two more arsenals, namely the Shetroretsk Arsenal and the Tula Arsenal.

St. Petersburg was very cautious about the military industry, so all arsenals were built in its hinterland.

Although the production capacity of Russian arsenals is relatively weak, the state has strong control, while the arsenals of France and Prussia have a strong private enterprise background, and the existence of Franz in Austria has led to a half-public and half-private situation.

The Enfield Arsenal in the UK is also known as the Royal Small Arms Arsenal. Historically, British weapons represent the highest level in the world, but now they lag behind Austria and Prussia.

The sharp increase in production capacity caused by the Tsar's massive military industry is something worthy of praise in itself, but the cost is also huge.

For this reason, the Russians came up with the idea of ​​"friendly neighbors" to the Ottomans. After all, a czar's life would be incomplete without engaging in several Russian-Turkish wars.

The evaluation of a tsar by later generations often depends on how many Russian-Turkish wars he launched. Nicholas I naturally knew this.

So a serf living on the Russian-Turkish border complained, "The sheep raised by the Ottomans crossed the border again, but this time they were not eating cabbage, but cotton."

This immediately attracted great attention from the Tsarist Russian government. After all, it was an imperial system. As long as His Majesty the Great Tsar felt it was important, then small things would become big things.

Some ministers proposed setting up isolation zones, some proposed sending troops to the border for training, and others proposed raising more shepherd dogs for biological control.

Naturally, these weird things could not please His Majesty the Tsar, and instead made him almost angry to death.

“With these idiots, I can’t see Russia’s future.”

Nicholas I turned his head to Prince Mainkov and Duke Lyubai, and they immediately began to think hard.

The Tsar raised his forehead again.

"Damn idiot! Do you have to make me drive animals like me before you can take the initiative to think?"

"Alexander Nikolayevich, tell me what you think."

However, at this time, the Russian Crown Prince was still staring at the new court lady in the corner and did not hear his father's question.

Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich (Alexander's younger brother) on the side quickly tapped his brother twice with his elbows. At this time, Alexander looked at his father who was glaring at him in confusion.

Nicholas I was speechless for his young child, but since the crown prince had to maintain his majesty in public, it was not easy for him to go into details, so he could only ask other people present.

"Does anyone have any other comments?"

At this time, a young officer stood up.

"Since the Ottomans can't control the livestock on their land, they should hand over the land to us for management! But our Russian Empire is a civilized country. We can first send envoys to Constantinople to ask for compensation, depending on the other party's reaction and The international situation will be decided again.”

This answer made Nicholas I very satisfied and asked with a smile.

"Young man, what is your name?"

"Your Majesty, my name is Andrei Uvarov."