In 1879, the most grand masquerade ball in Queen Alessandrovna in Russian history was successfully held. In addition to thanking Mrs. Elena Palovna for leading the campaign, two people also need to thank them, one is the Earl of Nikola Gerasimov, the Minister of the Palace Affairs Office of St. Petersburg, and the other is General Shuvalov, Chairman of the Council of Imperial Ministers.

Queen Alessandrovna, who has been bedridden since the beginning of the year, has returned to St. Petersburg from Moscow in October. The humidity has made Queen Alessandrovna harder on her sickbed. How can her Majesty recover soon, or at least relieve her illness, become the top priority for the Earl of Gerasimov, the Minister of Palace Affairs.

As the attendant of Emperor Ekaterina, the ancestors of Count Gerasimov moved from Stedetin in the Baltic to St. Petersburg more than a hundred years ago. With the conversion to Orthodox Church, Count Gerasimov's living habits were actually very Russianized, but Count Gerasimov still stubbornly believed that he was still a proud German in terms of blood, but he was just a German who believed in Orthodox Church.

Not only in terms of blood, Count Gerasimov was also full of pride in Prussian culture and German in terms of culture and language. As early as the Russian court in the 18th century, especially the era of Catherine the Great, the entire Russian court was the most fashionable in speaking German and was proud of reading and publishing German books.

In order to get rid of Russia's ignorance and backwardness as soon as possible, Catherine the Great recruited many small nobles and technical personnel from Germany to Russia. By St. Peter in 1879, more than 50,000 Germans still lived here, accounting for about 7% of the total population of the Russian capital. Most of these Germans belonged to the Russian aristocrats and technical classes.

Especially in the Tsarist Russian army, which was dominated by aristocrats, the Germans had always had a tradition of occupying a prominent position. For example, during the Patriotic War in 1812, except for a few Russians such as Marshal Kutuzov, most of the officers at the first-level and staff of the Russian army were Germans, or Prussians.

If General Shuvalov's family traces its roots, they are closely related to the Prussian military Junker who moved to Russia.

Of course, no matter how glorious the history is, it will eventually fade. After the French Revolution, with a large number of Bourbon nobles pouring into Russia, especially after joining the upper aristocratic circle of St. Petersburg, French once again became the most fashionable aristocratic language in Russia, and German could only come to the fore.

Not only German nobles and technicians moved to Russia, but also ordinary German farmers. From Kazan to the banks of the Volga River in the Black Sea, nearly 2 million Germans who believed in Protestant Mennonites were living, but compared to their noble compatriots living in St. Petersburg and Moscow, they were more like victims of being deceived by Russian fairy tales.

Ekaterina the Great introduced Mennonites from Germany to Russia, and valued that they believed in peace and did not love war. In the words of the Great Emperor, the Mennonites were stocked on the Volga prairie, a group of sheep who were good at farming and docile. In order to make this group of Germans willing to come to Russia rather than North America, the Great Emperor generously promised these German immigrants that Tsarist Russia would permanently exempt them from military service and most of their taxes, allowing them to believe in freedom and retain the habit of speaking German.

History has once again proved that believing that the Russians' vows is undoubtedly equivalent to suicide. Since 1871, Alexander II has openly begun to break these promises, from the cancellation of tax incentives, to forcing Mennonites to serve in the military, and to ordering the Germans to speak Russian this year.

Although these peace-loving Mennonites were looked down upon by the warlike Prussians in Germany, they all belonged to Lutherans after all, but they were just different in sects. Therefore, these Mennonites who lived on the Volga River soon ran to St. Petersburg and asked for help from their German noble compatriots.

Some German nobles turned a blind eye to this, but some were still willing to help their fellow tribes. Earl Gerasimov, the Minister of Palace Affairs, was one of them. The upright Earl Gerasimov could not stand Alexander II's ruthlessness towards the queen, nor did he stand with his betrayal of his ancestors' oath to the Mennonites. He had long thought about how to re-establish the glory of Germany in the Russian court.

But the Russian Empire was the Romanov family empire and the empire that Alexander II had the final say. As long as Alexander II himself was unwilling to change the status quo of Russia, so the German nobles in the Russian Empire needed to unite and do everything possible to influence the Tsar.

The Duke of Pavlovnapa, who was pro-Germany's flag bearer, was anxious about the urgent need of the leader of the German girl group, Mrs. Elena Palovna, and wrote a letter to Prime Minister Bismarck at the end of the letter to Prime Minister Bismarck. At the end of the letter, he asked the old prime minister to think of a solution for himself.

What could the old prime minister do to find Joey in the Prince's jealous and intriguing Tsarist Russian harem? In desperation, he had to find Joey in the Prince's uterus, hoping that the little guy he liked could give him a new idea.

Joy had any advanced experience in palace fighting. Joy didn't know where to start with how to defeat Mrs. Dorgorukova, the mistress of Alexander II, but Joy could absolutely agree with strengthening Germany's influence within the Russian court.

Naturally, Joey's eyes fell on General Shuvalov. In addition to being the highest official position in the Russian Empire and famous pro-German faction, it was also because of his close economic interests with the German Empire.

General Shuvalov, who served as chairman of the Imperial Ministers' Conference in May this year, is not only a brilliant political star, but also a rising business giant in the Russian economic circle. The first thermal power plant in Russian history, the St. Petersburg power plant, and the St. Petersburg power network, St. Petersburg Electric Power Company... Currently, all industries with electric characters in Russia basically belong to General Shuvalov and his family.

Of course, those who understand the inside story know that these are based on the product output of Siemens, Germany. Not to mention that each screw is imported from Germany, even the coal used in thermal power plants comes from the Ruhr area of ​​Germany, not to mention the technical workers who lay the power grid.

Russia has no power industry base at all, so it is natural to import a full set of German equipment. However, importing German coal is the result of Joey's vigorous implementation of German standards. According to Siemens' explanation to General Shuvalov, the coal required for German thermal power equipment is dye coal. According to German standards, there are strict regulations on the calorific value, ignition temperature, grinding, particle size, chemical composition, characteristics at high temperatures, and resistance ratios.

Well, to be honest, not only General Schwarov, but also people in the non-thermodynamics industry, don’t understand what the German engineers are saying. The only feeling is that they are professional and too professional. No matter how you look at the Germans have transplanted their professional attitude towards military production to industrial production.

In addition to adhering to the ultimate professionalism of doing everything, the German manufacturers in 1879 also had a little more customer service spirit that did not belong to this era. German manufacturers who were close to Joey like to stand from the perspective of customers and provide customers with more additional benefits from customer concerns.

For example, regarding the St. Petersburg power plant's need to import German coal, Siemens said considerately that as long as General Shuvalov approved, Siemens will hire German and Russian mineral experts to find coal mine resources in Russia that need to meet German electricity standards. It even stated that if the Russian fuel coal found is of better quality, Siemens will be willing to import large quantities.

If General Shuvalov is willing to cooperate with Siemens and vigorously promote the power industry in Russia, Siemens also tactfully implied that after the complete machine imported by Russia reaches a certain number, Siemens will export its products to Russia in the form of parts and is willing to cooperate with General Shuvalov to set up a joint venture assembly factory in Russia to help the Shuvalov family earn more...

Oh, the correct statement should be to vigorously accelerate the process of Russian electricity industrialization.

There has never been a shortage of hypocrites in history. This practice of making money in silence and gaining a reputation for supporting the Russian national industry in China is quite in line with General Shuvalov's little thoughts.

In fact, in addition to Russia's power industry, General Shuvalov also monopolizes Russia's pharmaceutical industry, especially the emerging vaccine industry with huge profits, especially the exclusive Russian monopoly on Germany's whooping cough vaccine.

The only thing that made General Shuvalov regret was that the German Suvail Company, which is responsible for the Russian market, was unwilling to promise to set up a production factory for whooping cough in Russia, and at most it would be willing to set up a few drug transfer and storage warehouses that meet German medical standards. Moreover, the cost of building a warehouse would also require General Shuvalov to pay for it.

Originally, I thought several warehouses were just simple buildings made of bricks and thatch. But when Suwei Company handed the German standard drug warehouse quotation to General Shuvalov, looking at the medicine warehouse composed of high-grade concrete, a large amount of steel, steam refrigerators, electric fans, lighting equipment, etc., Shuvalov finally felt how expensive German standards were.

But looking at the small bottle of whooping cough, which was more expensive than equal volume of gold on the black market, General Shuvalov decided to hold back his breath.

Professional, caring, huge profits, but expensive... This is what the German standard feels to General Schwarov.

Core technologies must be kept in Germany, while assembly, sales and warehousing can be placed in other countries. This is the bottom line that Joey has drawn to German companies he cooperates with. Thanks to Joey's experience in dealing with certain centralized countries in his previous life, Joey clearly knows that doing business with countries like Russia. As long as you have the support of top-level Tsarist Russian officials, you can basically do a business that makes money by making money.

Of course, the Germans did not do business of making money by making money, and General Shuvalov became more and more demanding from his arrogance when he first obtained a high position. Therefore, Joey recommended the second person in the pro-German Russian Empire to Prime Minister Bismarck, and asked him to stand up for the Germans in Russia.

Joey really didn't know what specific disease Queen Alessandrovna suffered. According to Duke Pavlovnapa, the queen's symptoms were coughing and frequent low fever, but this symptoms may be caused by a variety of diseases or inflammations. Of course, the biggest possibility is a respiratory disease.

This is an era without X-ray equipment, antibiotics, or even the simplest sulfonamides. So with an irresponsible attitude of being a living person, Joey’s advice was only to create a clean and warm living environment for His Majesty, as well as drink more Coke or Sprite with lemon juice, plus sucking more pure oxygen.

From the perspective of modern medicine, what Joey said is a bit serious, but it can only be said to be a post-disease recovery category. According to the normal medical diagnosis process, routine blood tests, chest x-ray examinations and sputum culture are required, and the same pathogens are isolated twice in a row to confirm whether it is a respiratory disease. Various antibiotics are required for specific treatment.

But now Joey is a person who is hailed by Professor Koch's favorite student and is hailed as a child prodigy by the German pharmaceutical industry. Prime Minister Bismarck naturally accepted all the suggestions made by such a person.

Looking at such an honest old prime minister, Joey couldn't help but blush when he knew what he was. The only thing he could do was to help Siemens design an electrical appliance that could be heated with electricity, and to require the pure and pure oxygen provided by Linde Gas, and to let Mr. Berens design another oxygen mask full of industrial art.

At the end of October, the above things were also transported to the Winter Palace. Earl Gerasimov began to meticulously implement the solutions provided by his German compatriots. Taking advantage of General Shuvalov's opportunity to connect the power grid to the Winter Palace early, a heating core composed of a curved resistive wire on a ceramic base, with a silver mirror reflector behind it. The most primitive electric heater began to appear in the Winter Palace in large quantities. The unpleasant smoke produced by heating wood and coal was swept away in the Winter Palace.

The air in the Winter Palace is no longer full of damp, cold and moldy smell, but becomes clean, pleasant and warm.

Coke, which originally contained coca, could treat coughs, and combined with a large amount of lemon juice rich in vitamin C, also accidentally relieved Queen Alessandrovna's cough symptoms and enhanced her physique.

Finally, the pure oxygen provided by Linde Gas Company not only relieves the queen's chest tightness and difficulty breathing, but also makes it easier to fall asleep due to intoxicating oxygen. The queen, who has received sufficient rest, her body gradually recovers.

There is no advertisement that can be more convincing than a person standing in front of you, not to mention that this person is still the Queen who has been bedridden for many years and is even on the verge of death.

Therefore, the halo on German products has an additional religious atmosphere of "magical life-saving".
Chapter completed!