Chapter 496: The upper beam is not right and the lower beam is crooked
It has never been a rare thing for the upper beam to be crooked and the lower beam to be crooked. If you don't obey the rules, don't expect the people below to abide by the law. Perhaps for Grand Duke Constantine, he felt that he had sufficient reasons to "appropriate" food, and he should not
Being condemned is really not a big deal.
But for the people below, they will not accept this set of fallacies. For the people below, they only see you taking the lead in breaking laws and disciplines. As for the so-called high-sounding reasons you mentioned, they are bullshit!
Why can't the monk touch me?
Everyone will have such thoughts, not to mention the Russian officials who are not honest to begin with. For them, since you, Grand Duke Constantine, have taken the lead, then naturally we have to follow. At worst, you eat meat and we drink.
Soup!
Not only these grassroots minions, but also Viscount Prozolov, didn’t think so too?
Naturally, he hit it off with the warehouse manager. Anyway, with Grand Duke Constantine blocking the way, isn't it normal for him to take everything and for us to take some as well! Just think of it as labor fees for the governor-general!
So the door was opened all of a sudden. Perhaps Grand Duke Constantine's intention at first was to demolish the east wall to repair the west wall and divert a little food for emergency use. But as he took the lead, Viscount Prozolov followed suit, and the following management
All the ghosts in the warehouse will naturally reach out together.
Maybe the quantity wasn't very large at first, just a bit of welfare, but once this bad habit was opened, it couldn't be shut down. Soon the warehouse managers began to take action and try every means to "appropriate" the grain.
If there were statistics, Archduke Constantine would have been able to see that the food that far exceeded the upper limit of his ability to demolish the east wall and mend the west wall had disappeared in a very short period of time.
Anyway, even if he reacts now, he won't be able to fill this big hole. What's more, he still knows nothing and thinks he is clever and has a way, waiting for Alexei to give in!
It's just that Alexei couldn't give in. Even because of the Bulgaria issue, he was under unimaginable pressure. Big bosses kept hinting at him to give in, but he just carried it.
This immediately made many big bosses, including Nicholas I, very depressed, because they all underestimated Alexei's resilience and did not expect that the other party would fight to the end.
At this time, there were not many choices before Nicholas I. Either they could simply remove Alexei from office, or they could only let this matter go by with a big thunder and a small rain.
The latter option was naturally not what Nicholas I wanted to see. A group of conservatives, including Count Uvarov, also tried their best to fan the flames and speak ill of Alexei, with the intention of killing Alexei in one fell swoop.
.
But Count Rostovtsev came in handy at the critical moment. He convinced Nicholas I in a few words. The reason was very simple. Wallachia must maintain stability, and changing the governor now would easily cause chaos. Not to mention that it was absolutely possible.
Write down this account, and wait until the Bulgarian incident is over and then slowly settle the accounts with Alexei.
In addition, Count Rostovtsev also secretly told Nicholas I that many people were very disdainful of Grand Duke Constantine's behavior and believed that he did not behave as a prince should and lowered the royal family.
style.
Well, this is what Nicholas I was most afraid of hearing, because he also knew that the things that Grand Duke Constantine did were really not worthy of publicity. If it were made public, I'm afraid it would be infamy for thousands of years, and it would even hurt him as a father.
So, it’s better not to go too far.
So after all the fuss, Nicholas I chose to swallow his anger for the time being, but he also secretly made up his mind to remove Alexei from his post after taking care of Bulgaria, so that he would know the consequences of offending the royal family.
As a result, Grand Duke Constantine's biggest reliance was in vain. Even Nicholas I turned a blind eye to major issues. Naturally, don't expect to rely on this to control Alexey.
Then, in late November, as Menshikov's negotiations with Turkey reached a stalemate, the Turks still refused to surrender, almost declaring that war was inevitable.
Anyway, Nicholas I has made up his mind to use troops as soon as the ice thaws. If he can't get it at the negotiation table, he will get it with cannon and bayonet!
Under the guidance of this policy, Russia was naturally preparing for war with all its strength. The first batch of about 80,000 advance troops entered Moldavia and Wallachia from the direction of Ukraine, and began to adapt to the environment and make relevant preparations.
It should be said that 80,000 people is not a particularly large number. When quelling the Hungarian Revolution, Nicholas I sent nearly 500,000 people with a wave of his hand. 80,000 people was just an appetizer for Russia.
It's just that this appetizer cost Grand Duke Constantine his life. The food in his warehouse was misappropriated, and he didn't expect that the war would enter a state of preparation so quickly and pour into Moldavia.
With tens of thousands of mouths to eat, it must be very busy!
"Why is there so much less food!"
When Archduke Constantine received the report that the reserves in the warehouse had bottomed out and could only last for ten days and a half at most, he was naturally shocked. Because according to his memory, it seemed that he had not embezzled anything.
So much food, right?
Viscount Prozolov naturally knew what was going on here. After all, he had benefited from plucking the feathers of the goose, but he could not say this clearly, otherwise Grand Duke Constantine would have to explode on the spot.
He could only try his best to explain: "Your Highness, you may not have embezzled that much food, but think about it, if you want to keep such a big thing secret, you can only block the mouths of those Youyou, so you must... you understand
Yes, they are only safe if they sit in the same boat with us..."
Did Grand Duke Constantine understand?
He understood, but he felt relieved in his heart! Because it was obviously not what he said before, and why did the bastards below take so much advantage? Damn, they misappropriated almost as much food as him. Isn't this fatal?
What!
However, he also knows that this matter cannot be publicized. If he wants to settle accounts with those bastards below, it will definitely explode. If such a big scandal breaks out at this juncture, you can imagine that Alexei and his good big brother will be shocked.
Will not miss the opportunity to add insult to injury.
After thinking again and again, Grand Duke Constantine asked with a gloomy face: "What should we do now? The military will not give up without food!"