I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 15 Exceeding Expectations
  After living with the Tsar for 20 years, Catherine was familiar with how to gain a person's loyalty.

It is especially simple for the Cossacks.

Every Cossack has "loyalty to the Tsar" firmly engraved in his genes and will do so until death.

Some people say that the Cossacks are mercenary, but for the Tsar, the Cossacks are the most loyal group, because the Cossacks know very well that only in Russia can they get sufficient living space, which is determined by history and reality.

The Cossacks were originally nomads, similar to the Gypsies, another famous wandering people in Europe.

In order to conquer the Cossacks, the Tsar gave the Cossacks many privileges.

The Cossacks also gave generous rewards to the Tsar. The Tsar gained the Cossacks' loyalty without paying much price.

The Cossacks did not farm or do business. The only meaning of their existence was to fight for the Tsar, so there was no such thing as tax collection.

The head tax was insignificant, nothing compared to the value of the Cossacks.

Many people may not know that the largest source of tax in Russia is not the peasants' rations, but the vodka monopoly tax.

The spoils of war were snatched by the Cossacks themselves, not given by the Tsar. There was no loss to the Tsar whether they were handed over or not. What the Tsar wanted was victory.

In addition to weapons, the Cossacks even prepared their own horses and clothes without the Tsar spending a penny.

So in this trade of loyalty and privilege, who has the bigger advantage?
  Yeluoxin's family are all Cossacks.

"If you want to achieve your goal, you only need to offer a condition that the other party cannot refuse." Ekaterina taught her carefully. This was an area that George had never been exposed to before.

The "before" here refers to two lifetimes.

Let’s not talk about it for a while. Who in the 21st century would dare to talk about “unable to refuse”.

If someone really wants to make such a condition, I hope I can be your father, so that what's yours is mine.

Information in the 19th century was far less developed than in the 21st century, and people's horizons were not broad enough. Many people had never been to a place hundreds of miles away from home throughout their lives, and had no idea what the world was like a hundred miles away. Then the condition of "cannot refuse" is satisfied.

Now in 1881, the limits of ordinary people are within the circle of basic necessities, food, housing, and transportation. The difference is only in different levels.

The resources that George has can fully meet all Ye Luoxin's needs.

This way it's very simple.

"General Ye Luoxin can become the external affairs manager of Yekaterin Palace and be responsible for external affairs; his wife is from a noble family. Although she is not a prominent noble, she has also received a formal and systematic education. She is not an ignorant peasant woman who is illiterate; My two sons, Andrei and Peter, can be your attendants." Ekaterina was thoughtful and didn't pick and choose at all, just served the orders.

If you think about it this way, all the cats raised in Ye Luoxin's family can be brought over to serve as mouse catchers in the Yekaterin Palace.

Enough with the rats!

If there are no mice in the palace, just buy them from outside.

Anyway, problems that can be solved with money are not problems.

"Is it too much-" George's worries were the same as Anna's.

"When you look at something, you can't just look at the shortcomings. Think more about the benefits of it -" Ekaterina was very happy. George could ask this question, which showed that he was not heartless. Bad guy.

"The treatment in Yekaterin Palace is still very generous. All Ye Luoxin's concerns are here. The future achievements of his two sons will depend on how far you can go. All his concerns are here. , others want to bribe him, but they have no way to do it." Yekaterina was generous. If Ye Luoxin betrayed George, it would only prove that George did not give enough.

There is a widely circulated saying in the 21st century that men don’t care about loyalty, loyalty is because the stakes for betrayal are too low; women don’t care about decency, decency comes because they are not tempted enough.

This statement may seem profound, but in fact it is just an excuse.

If all men's loyalty could be bought with chips, there would be no war in the world. Ye Luoxin has a scar on his face from the corner of his eye to the corner of his mouth. It was blown up by a bomb while protecting Ya Er when the People's Opinion Party assassinated him.

Yaer suffered hundreds of assassinations in his life, especially in recent years, as the conflicts caused by reforms have become increasingly acute. Ye Luoxin has repeatedly used his actions to prove his loyalty to the Tsar.

There is indeed a traitor around the Tsar, otherwise the travel route would not have been revealed.

But the traitor is definitely not Ye Luoxin.

Otherwise, Yelokhin would not have been with the Tsar when he was assassinated.

Such a person, no matter how high you give him a bargaining chip, he will never betray his soul.

Therefore, only people who are not loyal enough in the first place will be bribed.

Rather than loyalty not mattering.

"Can we also get those veterans and orphans from Ye Luoxin's family?" George said clearly. He just hadn't been exposed to these before, so he didn't know anything about them.

Catherine may not understand the value of those veterans and orphans, but George knows it all too well.

Yeroshin was a Cossack who served in the Guards.

Therefore, the veterans of Ye Luoxin's family are probably Cossacks serving in the Guards, Ye Luoxin's friends, or subordinates.

Friends who have been on the battlefield together, life and death.

One of the four irons.

The potential of orphans is greater, because the lives of veterans have been fixed, and the upper limit is this, and there will be no big surprises.

Give those poor little guys a secure living environment, and they will regard Yekaterin Palace as their home and become George's most loyal partners.

Well, companionship is what defines George.

Catherine would be defined as a servant.

It didn't cost much to hire a tutor, and George could afford it.

If those poor little ones are given a systematic elite education, George dare not say, but at least they can be guaranteed to have a bright future.

Russians' IQs are not low.

Although Russia in 1881 could not be said to be very advanced, it did produce great writers such as Pushkin and Leo Tolstoy.

In science, Mendeleev, who formulated the periodic table of elements, was also a Russian.

George still remembers another time and space. Although the United States was the first to launch deep space exploration, the first person to enter space was the Russians. The first space station was also built by the Russians. What did the Americans do?

Oh, and the first human being to land on the moon and return successfully was an American.

Well, with this fig leaf, at least the United States didn't lose its pants.

But as for whether this fig leaf is transparent, it's hard to say.

"Son, you are so smart!" Ekaterina was overjoyed. George's performance completely exceeded Ekaterina's expectations.

(End of this chapter)