Struggle in Russia

"Extraordinary! Extraordinary! Charles-Louis Napoleon launched a coup, and France announced the amendment of the constitution to extend the term of the president!"

The hoarse shouts of the newsboys did not arouse the slightest interest in the passing crowd. Not only because France and Paris are too far away from Bucharest, but more importantly, the residents of Bucharest are busy with their livelihoods and don't care about the trivial things in far away France.

Crowds of farmers carrying shovels and hoes gathered on street corners, looking eagerly at the municipal bulletin board not far away. It's not that they are particularly concerned about municipal policies, but that at 7:30 every day, the small officials of the city government will walk to the bulletin board and start picking people.

The railway line from Bucharest to Chisinau was officially started, and the line from Bucharest to Ploiesti started first. In this cold spring, it is particularly important for every hungry farmer to have a job to support his family .

The farmers who received the news early were looking forward to it, hoping that the city government would hire more people and that the wages would be higher. For them, this job was really important.

For farmers in Wallachia, the past few years have been hopeful. Beginning in 1849, Grand Duke Kogalniceanu announced the partial liberation of serfs, confiscating the land originally belonging to the church and anti-Russian elements and distributing them equally to friendly serfs.

All serfs who support Grand Duke Kogalniceanu and Russia can get a piece of land that is not particularly large. This was a great joy to those serfs who had long been looking forward to the land.

Anyway, after the promulgation and implementation of this policy, anti-Russian sentiment has subsided a lot in Wallachia. Only the most extreme and most Russia-hating diehards will continue to fight against the Russians.

Of course, these people did not end well. They were either shot dead by the cunning Russian military police or arrested. What awaits them is a cruel future. They will be deprived of all property and personal freedom. They will either die in a dark coal mine, or be auctioned off as goods to Wallachian pro-Russian aristocrats who are in desperate need of serfs.

Yes, you read that right again, Wallachia did not abolish serfdom, but amnesty the serfs who supported Russia. For those who are stubbornly against Russia, they will be deprived of their freedom and property and demoted Used by serfs.

This point has been widely agreed, which relieved those Wallachian nobles who supported Russia who had doubts about Alexei's reform, and also let the conservatives in Russia who have been staring at Wallachia relax their vigilance . As long as serfdom is not directly abolished, everything is fine.

It is said that Nicholas I was very satisfied with Alexei's adaptation to local conditions, and praised him more than once for being a good governor.

Of course, only Alexei and Li Xiao knew that it was helpless and forced to do so. Only when reforms are started can we find that the resistance is far greater than imagined.

If they do not adapt to local conditions, what awaits them will be destruction.

The topic is far away, let's go back to the railway. In fact, Li Xiao has long wanted to build railways. He is too aware of the importance of railways to this era. He bluntly said that this is the lifeblood of the economy. If you want to get rich, you must first build roads. What's more, Heze in the lower reaches of the Danube is full of inconvenient transportation, and the Russian army can be spit from Ukraine to Wallachia.

If there is a railway that can connect Russia and Wallachia, it will not only be of great economic significance, but also its military role cannot be underestimated. With this railway, the Russian army assembled in Ukraine can quickly reach the front line of confrontation with Turkey, reducing Turkey's geographical advantage to a minimum.

It’s just that it’s not easy to build roads, because Nicholas I and his confidants are a bunch of old stubborn people, and they don’t like the new thing of railways. It has been more than ten years since the first railway appeared in Russia, but Russia is so How many railways have been built in a long time?

Less than a hundred kilometers!

Do you dare to imagine that a hundred kilometers of railways have been built in more than ten years! What kind of turtle crawling speed is this!

Of course, the slow repair is mainly due to lack of attention, and no one is willing to invest money.

Naturally, it was useless for Alexei to ask for money to repair the railway. Because conservative and stubborn old stubborn people are not even willing to repair the railway in their own home, how can they pay for the railway repair in Wallachia?

So this important railway can only be funded by Alexei and Li Xiao. Fortunately, they have made a lot of money in these years, and they have also made some friends, such as William I, such as Gelson.

Compared with Russia's indifference to railways, the Prussians are another extreme towards railways. They are really full of enthusiasm.

Although King William I was not particularly enthusiastic about helping foreign countries build railways, who made the request from a good friend like Li Xiao? For Li Xiao, he is still very emotional, so he provided technical support and financial support without saying a word. In addition, Gelson and his son also subscribed for a quarter of the shares when they heard the news. The railways in Asia and Moldavia were able to start.

That's how the opening scene began. Countless Wallachia farmers waited for the railway to start working to earn money. Their enthusiasm could melt the severe cold of early spring.

"Looking at these farmers, I feel that our choice is correct!"

Alexey pointed at the farmers outside the window and laughed, because the construction of this railway really put him under a lot of pressure, not only the huge financial pressure, but more importantly, the strong opposition from the old stubborn and conservatives in the country. The guy even threatened to tear down the railway and burn the sleepers as firewood.

"Of course! In a few years time everyone will praise our decision!"

Li Xiao was much calmer about this. He was born in the Great Heavenly Dynasty, and he had seen much bigger scenes of infrastructure construction than this. For the infrastructure madman, this is simply drizzle!

The only thing that made Li Xiao a little uneasy was that the railway was built a bit late, because he knew very well that 1852 was a critical year, or a big turning point. At the end of this year, Napoleon III will be restored and proclaimed emperor, and the Crimean War will break out a year later.

The time left for them to repair the road is only more than a year, which is too short!

Li Xiao actually wanted to start construction earlier, but because he had no money, and because he had to do all kinds of work, it was a great fortune to be able to start construction now. The only thing he can be thankful for is that this railway does not have much official status. Russia's shares, most of them belonged to several of their friends and William I and Gelsen. Even if Russia was defeated in the Crimean War, it would not particularly affect the subsequent earnings!