I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 165
  George is really unwell. He was driving in the car yesterday afternoon and occasionally caught a cold. In order to get rid of the illness, he was eating hot pot with Ekaterina.

It's just a minor cold, so you don't need to take medicine. Just eat hot pot to get fever and sweat a little and you'll be fine.

Ekaterina likes hot pot very much.

However, the smell of the hot pot was too strong and would leave an unpleasant smell on the clothes, so George had someone build an exhaust flue to suck the fumes from the hot pot directly to the outside, which solved the problem perfectly.

In Oak Park, George sometimes eats hot pot.

But there are no qualified condiments in St. Petersburg, so the hot pot is not authentic.

Vladivostok was so close to the Qing Empire, and George's foodie spirit finally broke out. He sent people to the Qing Empire to purchase the most fragrant chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns. After countless studies, he finally made the hot pot base that George remembered.

"George, if you can put your intelligence into studying, you can become the president of the Imperial Academy of Sciences -" Ekaterina's requirements for George were no different from those of ordinary mothers.

"Let's build an Academy of Sciences in Vladivostok!" Mikhail was sweating profusely after eating. It was freezing and snowy outside, and Mikhail was only wearing single clothes.

Although Vladivostok is cold, the indoor heating is very sufficient. As long as you don’t go outdoors, the indoor temperature is almost the same as in spring.

"Don't you guys think this is a good business?" George was no different from a child with poor academic performance. He was eating, so what about studying? We'll talk about it after eating.

After eating, he disappeared.

"What kind of good business? Open a restaurant?" Mikhail looked down upon this small amount of money.

Forget about selling wine and arms, Mikhail really doesn't want to open a restaurant.

"What do you mean, we want to provide better services to the residents of Vladivostok." George kept in mind the lessons of Big Brother and must not be top-heavy.

While heavy industry is important to Vladivostok, light industry and service industries are equally important.

To use a cliché, even if Vladivostok develops into St. Petersburg of the East, it will have much to do with ordinary people who work nine to five to earn some hard money to support their families.

The relationship is big.

Whether Vladivostok is strong or not is directly related to whether the people of Vladivostok read about the miserable world in newspapers or experience it first-hand.

From the perspective of ordinary people, George hopes that even ordinary people in Vladivostok can find their own happiness in Vladivostok. They can have a small family with a wife and children, and they can have a drink with friends after get off work, or have sex with them. Let’s listen to a play and watch a play or something together with my wife.

In the past, Vladivostok had no ability and could only give priority to the development of heavy industry.

Now that the foundation has been laid, light industry and service industries must also pay attention.

To put it bluntly, even if he does not consider those foreign workers, George must also consider the increasing number of high-quality talents in Vladivostok.

As long as George is willing to spend money, there are many people willing to work for Vladivostok.

But working in Vladivostok and settling in Vladivostok are completely different concepts.

George does not want high-quality talents in Vladivostok to make money in Vladivostok and return to Europe for consumption, which would run counter to George's original intention.

So don’t underestimate restaurants, which are less profitable businesses than arms. This has a greater effect on improving the happiness of Vladivostok people than arms.

"Isn't it the businessman's responsibility to provide services?" Mikhail is still far from being a qualified city manager.

"No, no, no, this is my responsibility as a lord -" George took on the important task bravely. This kind of thing can be done with the words of a businessman.

The key is that the starting point is different.

The purpose of George opening a restaurant is to provide better services to the citizens of Vladivostok, so it doesn't matter whether it makes money or not. The key is whether the food and services provided by the restaurant are of high quality and low price.

Hot pot is also different from hot pot. Rich people eat it for the atmosphere and taste, while ordinary people eat it for affordable prices. There is a lot to do.

"That's right, there aren't even a decent restaurant or theater in Vladivostok now. This is so outrageous -" Ekaterina also didn't realize the seriousness of the problem.

Vladivostok lacks not only restaurants and theaters, but also almost no commercial atmosphere at all.

There are hundreds of staff members at the Yuriev Palace. No matter what kind of services George and Ekaterina want to enjoy, they don’t even need to leave the Yuriev Palace.

But what about ordinary people?
  George and Catherine were out of clothes, and the Yuriev Palace had a court tailor.

Where do ordinary people go to make clothes?

This problem is not too serious now, because the clothes of Vladivostok workers are uniformly distributed by the factory.

But as the population of Vladivostok increases, this problem will emerge sooner or later. If you don’t prepare in advance now, you will inevitably be caught off guard.

"Clothes are easy to handle. We can open a garment factory."

Ekaterina is not very interested in restaurants yet.

But when it comes to clothing, Ekaterina is as interested as cosmetics.

Where are the best clothing fabrics in the world?
  Not in Britain, not in Russia, but in the Qing Empire.

It's that simple.

"What is Sichuan brocade? What is Yun brocade? Is linen the same as cotton?" Ekaterina had no idea that the Qing people could come up with so many tricks with just clothing fabrics.

Before the Industrial Revolution, the European textile industry——

hehe. Your ancestors were so developed, why didn’t they even have decent fabrics?
  Do you really have no requirements for living standards?

If there was really no requirement, then why would Eastern silk be more expensive than gold after it arrived in Europe?

Oh oh oh, your European climate is not suitable for growing cotton, so you don’t even have cotton cloth, except hemp and leather.

"Why are they all embroidered, but there are many different types?" Ekaterina's clothes were also carefully made by the palace tailor, and the quality was just right.

Anyway, there is no comparison with the embroidery workers of the Qing Empire.

"Because each has its own characteristics and specializes in different crafts." George is worried that if this continues, Vladivostok will become a thief sooner or later.

But it doesn’t matter. The Chinese have been here for eight thousand years, and too many things have been stolen. Even if Vladivostok didn’t steal, there would still be a big country in the universe.

In the past, people talked about the history of civilization for five thousand years.

Until the Jiahu bone flute appeared, it would be inappropriate to say that it was 5000 years ago.

A race that has begun to play music. If this is not civilization, what is civilization?

"Miha, send people to the Qing Empire and bring people who know these crafts to Vladivostok. No matter what requests they make, satisfy them!" Ekaterina was full of domineering, and she had money. Confidence.

"I'm afraid this won't be easy. Some ancient families in the Qing Empire attach far more importance to inheritance than we imagined." Mikhail sighed, and there were times when the money offensive couldn't stop them.

The year before last, George asked Mikhail to go to the Qing Empire to find doctors, especially famous doctors, and ask them to open a clinic in Vladivostok or work in a hospital in Vladivostok.

Mikhail thought this task was not difficult.

Unexpectedly, Mikhail realized how difficult it was only after he came into contact with doctors from the Qing Empire.

Doctors have always been a profession with a relatively high social status, and their income is quite generous. They have a huge reputation in the local area. It is difficult to persuade such people to leave their hometown and come to Vladivostok.

Mikhail spent a lot of money and only bought some so-called prescriptions from the Qing Empire.

After verification, most of these prescriptions are not suitable for promotion.

This is also normal.

Mikhail's men are all foreigners. How can those ancient families who really have something sell their family's livelihood to foreigners?

Therefore, the hospital in Vladivostok, so far, can only repair bones and treat colds.

Of course, it’s just that it can be recovered. How it can be restored depends on God’s will.

As for the cold——

Haha, this disease is terminal and there is no cure. It will heal on its own in a few days whether it is cured or not.

Unless there are complications.

"Don't always look at those ancient families that have been passed down for many years. If the imperial doctor can't hire one, doesn't it mean that there are no apprentices? If the master of Su embroidery can't hire, isn't there any less skilled embroiderer?" George Careful guidance, these ancient industries, often require three years of apprenticeship and two years of service. It is not easy to learn, and it will take a long time to gain a reputation.

How much money could a young doctor who had just graduated from the Qing Empire earn in a year?

Taking the capital of the Qing Dynasty as an example, it only cost a few dozen taels of silver a year, which is less than a hundred rubles.

Mikhail doesn't need to pay much, 500 rubles a year, and there are many people willing to come to Vladivostok to work.

If the service industry that George requested can bloom all over Vladivostok, then George will be confident that as long as people come, George can keep them.

So poaching people is really a technical job.

"I think it's better to tie the person up directly." Mikhail didn't want to go to such trouble.

Vladivostok went to Europe to recruit people and used the same method as George said.

Vladivostok also cannot poach those highly skilled masters from European factories.

But you can’t poach the master, you can poach the master’s apprentices. As long as you can dance well with the hoe, there is no corner that you can’t poach.

After arriving in the Qing Empire, Mikhail was no longer willing to do this.

What's the matter, my uncle, the great Duke Yuryevsky, offered you a high salary and invited you to work in Vladivostok. Not only are you unwilling to go, but you also dare to embarrass me. How brave!

Even the princes of the Qing Empire dare not refuse me, who gave you the courage?
  "You are the uncle of Super Duke Yurievsky, not a kidnapper!" George was stunned and began to doubt whether it was a good idea to make Mikhail the mayor of Vladivostok.

There is no doubt that Mikhail's management level is not as good as Dalia's.

There was no breakthrough on Mikhail's side, but Dalia gave George a surprise.

It was not that the Qing Empire had no talents, but that too many talents were buried and had no chance of success, so they were not known to the outside world.

After one year of study last year, nearly 150 people at the Vladivostok Machinery Factory became qualified workers this year and officially became technicians at the Vladivostok Machinery Factory.

The wife of a technician was the daughter of a doctor and became the first Chinese doctor in Vladivostok.

(End of this chapter)