I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 55
  The sport that best represents the Russian character is not wrestling or boxing, but slapping.

For people in most countries, slapping is not considered a sport at all.

But it is this game originating from Russian folk that can stimulate the enthusiasm of the Guards boys to the greatest extent.

The slapping contest is indeed quite cruel. Killing one thousand enemies and damaging oneself eight hundred is not enough to describe it.

We have to die together.

But for the boys of the Guards, the slap competition is the most exciting game.

The most exciting?

Haha, George wants to play Russian roulette.

Think about it, forget it, this thing is more cruel than a duel, just slap him for fun.

Compared to Russian roulette, slapping is really just entertainment.

Winter is not suitable for outdoor activities and most activities are moved indoors.

The indoor training ground where George used to practice boxing became the venue for the slap contest.

Rebrov from the Crimea was a regular participant in the slap contest, and he and Sergei from the Urals dominated this entertainment, taking turns winning St. Louis as the title from George.

After Rebrov won the slap contest for the fourth time, George decided to change the event.

Sergey and Rebrov probably reached some kind of agreement. The two took turns winning the championship. It gave George the feeling that these two guys were working together to cheat George out of him.

It’s just a matter of cheating and drinking. The key is that people often get injured in the slaps. This is the real reason why George stopped the competition.

"Tomorrow we will have a shooting competition, and I will also participate -" George's purpose was really not to entertain, but to stimulate the enthusiasm of the Guards.

Only now did George know that the Guards did not have high requirements for shooting, and the training intensity was very low. The soldiers could not even fire a few bullets every month, and the intensity was not even as good as fighting with a bayonet.

The Guards emphasize courage and loyalty, and have less stringent requirements for discipline and skills.

George didn't know if artillery, which required relatively high professional skills, was the same as cavalry.

If the same, in the future——

no future.

"I bet that the Duke will win in the end, does anyone want to participate?" Major Alex from Moscow is the head of the George Guards and a noble official.

In 1724, Peter I promulgated the "Official Ranks", which officially divided Russian nobles into hereditary nobles and lifelong nobles based on their origins and merits. It stipulated that officers of the th grade and civil servants of the eighth grade and above could obtain the title of hereditary nobles.

This means that in the Russian Empire, as long as you become an official, you will automatically become a member of the aristocracy and gain a class jump.

Alex was born into a noble family and was not required to perform military service.

Many members of aristocratic families who did not have inheritance rights or were relatively low in the inheritance ranking regarded joining the army as the best way to get promoted.

"Call-"

There were boos all around. If George wanted to participate, then don’t compete.

"You can come and compete for the second place -" George has become involved with the Guards during this period. Except that he still has no beard on his face, George is already a qualified Cossack.

It's easy to have a good relationship with the Guards. If you can drink, 80% of the problems will be solved.

The Guardsmen had many different ways of drinking. They arranged the wine glasses as long as the elbow joint to the tip of the middle finger, and then drank them all in one go, which was called a cubit.

Place a glass of wine on each step of the stairs, and have a drink as soon as you go up one step. People who are poor drinkers usually get drunk before they finish climbing the stairs.

Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich invented a way to drink champagne, which was to stand naked outdoors in the cold winter, drink up a basin of champagne, and howl like a wolf while drinking. Voice. George was not opposed to drinking, but he was opposed to alcoholism. The Guardsmen did not drink only on major holidays, but drank every day, and they had to get drunk every time.

No wonder Russia is so large but has so few people.

George communicated this issue with Major Alex, hoping that Major Alex could restrain his men, at least not to drink while on duty.

"What does it matter? No matter how much they drank the night before, as long as they can still ride on the horse the next day." Major Alex disagreed. These Cossacks were indeed good at riding.

Since Alex said so, George stopped talking nonsense.

It was useless to say it. The habits developed by the Guards over hundreds of years could not be changed by the Tsar, let alone George.

Alcoholism is not a bad habit only among the Guardsmen.

Ye Luoxin said that during the coldest winter, St. Petersburg used horse-drawn carriages to pull corpses out of the city every day. These corpses were all drunk and fell on the streets. They were not discovered in time and froze to death.

At most, hundreds of people freeze to death in one night.

If it catches up with major festivals, more people will freeze to death.

None of this has anything to do with George. George can only guarantee that no one will freeze to death in his manor.

The snow fell so hard that it crushed a tenant's house.

Ye Luoxin brought people to help and settled the tenant's family in Yuri's house. Not long after, the tenant decided to marry his daughter to Yuri.

Yuri's current job is still George's coachman. He has income, a pension, a house, and land. In the eyes of most people, he is a good marriage partner.

As for Yuri's body, that's not a problem at all. Russian women don't expect Russian men to work at all.

George asked Ye Luoxin to send a hundred rubles as a congratulatory gift, but he did not participate because after the snow cleared, George had to continue to Gatchina Palace.

To George's regret, Nikolai's interest in boxing, like his other hobbies, did not last long.

Georgi's interests were not very high to begin with, and his and Nikolai's hobbies had shifted from boxing to ballet.

George's mission has now been changed from training to watching.

During the period before and after Christmas, the major theaters in St. Petersburg are full. As long as there is a new play, Nikolai and Georgi will never miss a show.

Perhaps because the assassin had not taken action during this period, Yasan and the queen did not restrain Nikolai and Georgi.

George had a headache.

Nicholas is 15 years old and is no longer a child who knows nothing. His purpose in watching ballet is not simple. His eyes often stay on the graceful figures of the dancers.

After watching the ballet "Giselle", Nikolai met the Polish dancer Malinka Slagowska.

Malinka graduated from the Royal Academy of Dance. She was young, beautiful and full of charm, and Nicholas was deeply attracted.

For three consecutive days, Nicholas asked Georgi and George to accompany him to watch "Giselle", and asked George to buy flowers for Malinka.

George saw through it but didn't say anything, and Georgi watched the fun and didn't take it too seriously, encouraging Nikolay to pursue Malinka.

This kind of thing is normal. The men of the Romanov family almost all started to know women from the theater.

George was in a dilemma.

Should I report this matter to the Tsar?

(End of this chapter)