Chapter 429: Meeting a Pit Teammate at Death’s Doom

  Chapter 419: Meeting a Pit Teammate at Death’s Doom

St. Petersburg, Randall’s Quilt Factory. Workers in the workshop are busy, now they are rushing to make a batch of military uniforms, winter is coming soon, cotton clothes are a necessity.

If one looked closely, one would realize that there was something wrong with this batch of cotton clothes. The fluffy stuff was obviously not any cotton, and the pieces of rags interspersed with it were still clearly visible.

Nicholas Cage was the owner of Randall’s Quilt Factory, and seeing the report of the raw material emergency had given him a headache for some days.

Initially Randall’s Quilt Factory’s products were all made of cotton, the main market was still the folk, even though it was the most inferior cotton, that was also the real cotton clothes.

But with the outbreak of the war the situation changed, after the sea route was cut off, the supply of raw materials became their biggest problem.

After receiving military orders, this situation became even more serious. In order to make up for the lack of raw materials, Randall’s Quilt Factory used substitutes.

For example: churning up used clothes, acquiring some used cotton clothes to be rebuilt, and gauze thrown away by hospitals ……

However, it was still a drop in the bucket. But it’s not Nicolas Cage’s style to have money and not make it.

“Yadier, inform to go down to increase the straw content, we have to fulfill the order with the raw materials we have now.”

Yadier said timidly, “Mr. Cage, the straw we’ve added is already a lot, if we continue to increase it, I’m afraid something will go wrong!”

There was nothing strange about adding straw to a cotton shirt, but now with this addition, it was not a cotton shirt, but a straw suit.

Aside from the outer layer of cloth, the inside was all shredded straw, and it was almost inevitable that it would be discovered.

No wonder Yadier wasn’t worried, this was a military uniform, and with the Russian winter being so cold, it would cause a lot of trouble when the time came.

Nicholas Cage said as if nothing had happened, “Don’t worry, the battlefield is in the Polish region. It’s all warm winters over there, the soldiers’ strong bodies can’t freeze!”

Despite a few apprehensions in his heart, as long as he thought about his backstage, he was relieved. Producing unqualified uniforms, when had the uniforms he produced ever been qualified?

Fading, shrinkage, fragility, all normal, Nicholas Cage was already used to it. Anyway, they were able to deliver, it didn’t matter at all if they were substandard or not.

This time, playing a bit too much, after a pause Nicholas Cage added: “Thicken it up a bit!”

No problem, straw can also keep you warm, anyway, gray livestock is worthless, make do!

……

It wasn’t just Nicolas Cage who made the same decision, many suppliers chose to settle for second best.

Conformity, don’t dream about it, we all have money to make?

The cost of industrial production in Russia is already high, and the bureaucrats eat so hard, how can we make a profit without lowering the cost of production?

……

The change of suppliers was a direct reaction to the battlefield. The earliest victims were the Russian troops in the Baltic region, whose supplies were mostly supplied by the St. Petersburg industrial zone.

Colonel Gerald was the Quartermaster of the 8th Division of the Russian Baltic Corps, a fat job, and he made a lot of money using his position.

However, Colonel Gerarid was now afraid. Prior to this, Austria supplied more than seven layers of supplies, and the quality of these products may have been questionable as well, but it did not affect their use.

Now the situation has changed, in the last month to receive supplies in the domestic goods have skyrocketed, has more than half of the entire logistical supply system.

It can be said that as long as the country can buy, the bureaucrats of the tsarist government are prioritizing domestic products, which makes the officers of the logistics department headache.

If only twenty to thirty percent of the supplies were substandard, they could still think of something. For example: report battle losses directly, or mix and match to make do, the Russian army also eat empty pay anyway.

Took the favor fee, they will be things to smooth things out, now a glance at all the garbage products, how can this be done?

What can we do? If the soldiers at the front make a fuss, who can afford it? If something goes wrong, they, the quartermasters, will be held responsible.

The Russian army also has rules that prohibit receiving substandard products. However, it’s not possible to not receive it, and if you block it back at this time, aren’t you making the big shots behind you look bad?

Gerald ordered, “All scrutinize it, see how much of this is usable, give me a tally!”

Now he just expected that the bureaucrats in the back had some sense of propriety, more or less there must always be some that can be used.

Time passed by, the results of the inspection made Jelali Shangde shocked, the cotton clothes and quilts with straw are not to mention, at least they can keep warm.

Weapons and ammunition failed, these things are also good to do, direct battle damage, anyway, these things on the battlefield consumption is not standardized.

The most troublesome thing was the food, the canned food supplied to the bottom officers was moldy inside. Colonel Gerald opened one and actually found small animals moving inside.

The ordinary soldiers’ food, not to mention, hairy maiden potatoes, corn that has changed color, black bread that can be used to repair the fortress ……

There is only what can’t be imagined, not what can’t be done. The only thing that pleased Gerald was that three months of supplies were sent at once.

Aside from the substandard goods, it was just passable. The number of people now calculated for the supply was issued at full strength, and after a long battle, the actual number of people in the 8th Division was less than seven layers of full strength.

If more men died on the battlefield, or if more supplies were taken from the enemy, and more battle losses were reported, this winter would be barely manageable.

……

For the Russians, the only one who can defeat them is themselves. The Tsar’s government was strong enough to cope with the situation, even if it was surrounded by enemies.

Unfortunately, Alexander II ignored the horrors of false political signals, and the cooling of Russian-Austrian relations led to an increase in tariffs, partly by bureaucrats trying to suck up to them, and partly for the sake of profit.

Even though there were rebates to be had in the Russo-Austrian trade, it was not possible to resist the high rebates given by the Russian capitalists!

For the same goods, the Austrian capitalists gave at most 20% to 30%, but in the case of the native Russian capitalists, this figure could be reversed, and the bureaucrats got the biggest share.

As for the increase in costs, just cut production costs. As long as you are willing to sacrifice the quality of the product, you can not control costs?

Alexander II never dreamed that the reformist officials he had promoted would be corrupted in such a short time.

Procurement of Austrian goods in front, on the one hand, because the bureaucrats are still a little bit of integrity, clear logistical supplies on the importance of the war, however, people are not satisfied, kickbacks received more, naturally become more greedy.

On the other hand, it is still because Russia’s local production capacity is not enough, even if the bureaucrats do not care about the death of the soldiers on the front line, but the amount can not be less, can only be purchased.

As time went by, the Russian capitalists also increased their production capacity, and now the political changes allowed the bureaucrats and capitalists to see the opportunity.

Until then, there were a few temperate officials to restrain them, and they had not dared to act recklessly. Now misinterpretation of Alexander II’s political signals made these officials choose to remain silent.

The consequences were naturally not as simple as the bureaucrats thought; layers of deductions had become the customary practice of the Russian army, and those who could maintain their sanity in the face of profit would always be in the minority.

If the upper echelons were rotten, could we expect the lower echelons of officials to be clean and honest?

This time Franz did not quietly be a spectator, but pushed. To the czarist government bureaucrats, provided a space to give full play to.

In his opinion, the Prussians sent a merchant fleet, can give now the Russian army with the biggest kill. Wave the bills directly at the quartermaster and say: buy, buy, buy. Far more than in the battlefield to die, to gain high returns.

As long as there is money, even the enemy can become a guest of the Russians, there is no enemy in front of the interests.

Franz recognized the corruption of the Russian army’s logistical system, and the Austrian capitalists took credit for it. In order to get more orders, everyone was also doing their own thing.

But this was only the trigger; it was essentially the Tsarist bureaucracy that had long been corrupt. Due to the lack of effective supervision, Russian bureaucrats have always had a comfortable life.

Initially, the government in Vienna even sent people to supervise the exported goods, worrying about smashing the brand and losing the big market.

Now there was no need, and in retaliation for the Russians’ tariff increases, Franz chose to ignore them.

Indifference could be more than just deregulation of domestic goods, but also, for example: allowing shoddy products to appear in the Russian munitions system.

Simply put, this meant that inferior goods produced locally in Russia were labeled as Austrian military products.

Prior to this, the Vienna government was cracking down on it, and even sent out specialized personnel to monitor it, and when it was discovered, the Russian Foreign Ministry was called in to deal with it.

Involved in the diplomatic level, the bureaucrats of the tsarist government did not dare to mess around, after dealing with a few scapegoats, the rest of the people would not dare to mess around.

In accordance with the usual practice, the Austrian production of goods do not need to inspect at all, the rate of defective products within the controllable range; while the local production of munitions, you need to select the qualified products mixed in the defective products.

There is no doubt that the munitions exported from Austria are more expensive. Now that there are no constraints, the capitalists naturally don’t mind the impersonation.

As long as a portion of qualified samples were provided, accompanied by a thick red envelope, and handed over to the official in charge of inspection, all problems were solved.

This is absolutely not Austria pit teammates, completely Russian bureaucrats to death. Franz had already sent people to collect evidence, just waiting for the incident to be revealed.

(End of chapter)