$7.2 million in the seventies of the nineteenth century, roughly equivalent to $8.3 billion in the twenty-first century, how much Alaska is worth in the twenty-first century is immeasurable, there is a data for reference, in 2015, Alaska's economic output value was about $60.5 billion.

Relatively speaking, Sakhalin's value certainly doesn't match that of Alaska, but it's not too bad, with oil, coal and gold underground, and abundant forestry and fishing resources on the surface, so if you can get your hands on it, it will definitely be a good deal.

"If price wasn't an issue, I think we should have a chance." According to the way of communication between nobles, Edward Scottly still left room for himself, but as soon as the words fell, Edward Sczeli saw Stuart's gloomy eyes, so Edward Sczeli immediately corrected: "No, there is a good chance, although I can't appear in St. Petersburg, but I have my way." ”

I don't know how much Edward Sczeli suffered here in Situ Lei, it seems that Edward Sczeli is very afraid of Situ Lei, but he is not much afraid of Li Mu.

This is normal, although Li Mu has a bad reputation, after all, he is still a person with status, and he will not be too outrageous in doing things, Situ Lei maybe, this old guy doesn't look at his usual kindness, he is the same ruthless when he moves, and he has no bottom line like Chu Wushuang, this is probably related to their previous living environment, before they met Li Mu, the living conditions of Chinese in San Francisco were very bad, Situ Lei and Chu Wushuang If they don't get tough, they don't know how to be bullied by others.

"Go, if you need help, go to Situ." Li Mu was happy to hand over Edward Szcelli to Situ Lei, the wicked have their own wicked grinding, and to deal with an old liar like Edward Sczeoli, an old rascal like Stuart is needed.

After sending Situ Lei and Chu Wushuang away, Li Mu calmed down and scrutinized it again, confirming that there were no serious mistakes, and then he was relieved.

It doesn't matter if there are mistakes, Situ Lei and Edward Scottelli are not vegetarians, if they find any problems, they will naturally find a way to remedy them, one of these two people is an old man, and the other presided over negotiations with the US government ten years ago, and it is not wrong to hand over this matter to them, and the effect may be better than Li Mu's personal action.

In mid-February, Bai Qi, who had been instructed by Li Mu, became more and more arrogant and secretly sent a batch of weapons to Sakhalin, so in the conflict in March, those wandering samurai who had always used knives as weapons used pistols, and the Russians suffered a big loss by surprise, and by the end of March, the Russians had basically been driven out of Sakhalin, and at the same time, some of the indigenous people on Sakhalin Island were unlucky.

Although Sakhalin Island is not inhabited by Han Chinese, there are some Ainu people, as well as some fishing and hunting peoples such as the Hezhe and Oroqen peoples, who used to live freely on Sakhalin Island, but now they live in the gap between the Russians and the Japanese, and even if the Ezo company does not target them, they will not last long.

In addition to those Russian prisoners who were driven out of Sakhalin, there was also a garrison of no more than 100 people stationed on Sakhalin Island by the Western Siberian Governor's Palace, which was actually composed of horse bandits and criminals, allowing them to bully ordinary people, they were barely competent, but they had to confront the employees of the Ezo company who had already numbered tens of thousands, sorry, even the current West Siberian Governor's Office did not have this strength.

In early April, the Governor of Western Siberia again issued a sternly worded statement to Tokugawa Tachino, demanding that Tokugawa Riken must immediately order the Ezo Company to withdraw from Sakhalin Island, compensate for the damage caused by the conflict to the Siberian Governor's Office, and hold those responsible accountable.

It was at this time that Eduard Scottelli arrived in the Far East, along with Eduard Sczeli's latest wireless telegraph from the Horse Telecom Company.

Well, if from the perspective of scientific and technological development, Li Mu has indeed made outstanding contributions to the development of science and technology, but Li Mu is also a qualified businessman, which requires that no matter what he does, profit must be the first element, so Li Mu did not put wireless telegraphy on the market for the first time, but with Junma Telecom Company as the team, began to lay the telegraph network throughout the United States, and even throughout the entire Pacific region, until this work is completed, Li Mu will begin to sell wireless telegraphy to the outside world, This is probably not in line with the original intention of scientific research, but it is in the interests of Li Mu.

The work had already begun two months earlier, with more than 100 engineers sent by the Horse Telecom Company to all parts of the United States, and the telegraph network connecting East Asia and the United States was the responsibility of the Pacific Company, for which Lawrence Lucas even changed the route of some of the migrant ships, and once the work was completed, the speed of transmission between the Far East and New York would be increased from twenty days to four hours.

In order to protect Edward Scottley's safety, Stuart personally arranged for Edward Scottly to have a mixed white and Chinese guard, and Edward Scottley was also renamed Judas Isgret.

Yes, it is the Judas in "The Last Supper", Judas in literary and artistic works betrayed Jesus, and Edward Sczeli betrayed Russia in reality, what they did was equally disgusting, Stuart did not hide his malice when he gave Edward Sczeli this name, Edward Sczeli should be very dissatisfied with this, but Edward Sczeli was helpless.

To say that Situ Lei's subordinates are really talented, and sent Edward Scottli-Judas Isgritt to the Far East, Situ Lei still asked people to disguise Judas a little, and the camouflage technique was very ingenious, and it was not really completely disfigured as Li Mu thought, but he used a little hair dye to change Judas's hair color, and trimmed Judas's beard and sideburns, and it turned out that Judas was actually a lot younger, Li Mu couldn't help but sigh after seeing it, unless it was Judas's acquaintance, Otherwise, he would definitely not have connected the red-haired middle-aged man in front of him with the former baron.

After arriving in the Far East, Bai Qi ordered Judah to be taken directly to Nevelsk on Sakhalin Island, which had been a Russian settlement but had been completely destroyed in the conflict, and Bai Qi planned to build a new city here as a starting point for emigration to Sakhalin.

"Judas Isgret, I am now appointed as the general manager of Ezo Company, you are appointed as the lord of Birch City, before winter, you will build a simple dock here where you can dock supply ships, and at the same time build enough living facilities for 5,000 people, if there are any difficulties, you better raise them now, of course, it doesn't matter if you don't mention it, if I can't see a brand new Birch City by then, then don't blame me for your trouble." Bai Qi's requirements have always been relatively high, but it is not impossible to complete the task, as long as you work hard and don't be lazy, there is still hope.

Neversk has a good basic conditions and can be selected by the Russians as a settlement point, Neversk has a natural harbor with good hydrological conditions, the nearby terrain is flat enough, and there is no shortage of wood and stone for construction, the only thing lacking is manpower.

But manpower?

Tokugawa said that he would definitely not send people, and the wandering samurai hired by Hakuki would not put down their swords to carry wood, and it was not easy to get enough construction workers.

Fortunately, this is the Far East, which is the place where there is no shortage of manpower in the world, Judas looked at the surrounding environment, and then looked at the old god in Bai Qi, sighed softly, after all, it was inevitable to be a villain: "Mr. General Manager, I am willing to build a new birch city for you, but before that, I must first have enough workers and sufficient supplies, and it is best to have a safe enough environment, otherwise I am afraid I am sorry." ”

In Japanese, the name of Sakhalin Island is Huatai Island.

"Haha, the 10,000 employees of the Ezo Company are under your command, is it enough?" Bai Qi boldly delegated power, anyway, in Huataicheng, there was only one Russian, Judas, and the rest were either Japanese or Chinese, and there were more than a dozen white people sent by Situ Lei to Judas's side, and those whites would definitely not obey Judas's orders, so Bai Qi was really not afraid of Judas doing things.

"That's enough—" Judas sighed and looked up in the direction of North Korea, since Bai Qi didn't give the construction workers, then Judas had to figure it out himself.

What way to get enough men in the shortest possible time, except to spend money to hire, can only plunder, give to people in vain, but not money, so Judah is left with only one choice.

While Judas was racking his brains on how to complete the task assigned by Bai Qi, Pan Tingzhen was worried about whether Bai Qi's arrangement of Judas was too hasty.

"Judas has a task on his body, and he is not here to supervise the work, but don't miss the arrangement in New York because of this-" Pan Tingzhen has been in a high position in recent years, and the so-called residence and qi are nourishing the body, and her temperament is becoming more and more calm.

Pan Tingzhen is also his own person, Li Mu did not hide his true intentions for Sakhalin, not to mention that Judah needs Pan Tingzhen's cooperation to complete the task, so before Judah arrived in the Far East, Pan Tingzhen already knew the relevant news.

To be honest, like most people in this era, Pan Tingzhen doesn't know why Li Mu is so almost crazy about horse racing, South America is okay to say, in order to give South American Chinese a broader living space, Sakhalin is completely incomprehensible, the Chinese in East Asia is not short of living space, do you want to buy Sakhalin back and return it to the Qing government?

Pan Tingzhen didn't think that Li Mu would be so kind.

In the past few years, Pan Tingzhen can be regarded as clearly seeing Li Mu's true intentions, in Li Mu's heart, the Chinese are Chinese, and the Qing government is the Qing government, these two are two different things, and they cannot be confused.

"Haha, it's okay, I asked a little bit about this guy's origin from Mr. Situ, don't underestimate this guy, this guy used to be a Russian baron, and he used to be the Russian ambassador to the United States, and it's not easy to do this little thing." Bai Qi had more confidence in Judah than Situ Lei and Li Mudu.

It is estimated that Situ Lei did not explain the origin of Judah clearly, otherwise Bai Qi probably would not dare to hand over the construction of Huatai City to Judah, thinking that Judah would dare to steal the Tsar's money, what else would he not dare to do.

"Baron—how did that end up in such a field?" Pan Tingzhen really didn't expect Judas' origin to be so big, to say that Pan Tingzhen has also seen a lot of down-and-out nobles, but it's really rare to be down-and-out like Judas.

People say that the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, this sentence is very suitable for the nobles, Pan Tingzhen has seen those down-and-out nobles in the past, even if they eat a pickle, they must first cut into thin strips that are long and short, and then put them neatly on the plate, this is the so-called aristocratic temperament, do not get tired of eating, and do not get tired of being fine, and the ugly thing is "the donkey does not fall down".

Pan Tingzhen has seen Judas before, and in Judas, Pan Tingzhen can't see the slightest so-called "aristocratic temperament", but it is similar to those old mercenaries who are mixed in with Bai Qi's hands.

"This is probably to ask himself, anyway, people are in our hands, they have to listen to our orders, Rim doesn't often say that people should make the best use of them, and I don't waste talents." Bai Qi still has a lot of words, and he doesn't think that there is anything harmful to calling a baron like this.

In mid-April, Judas ordered more than 3,000 wandering samurai of the Ezo Company to break through the Korean capital of Gyeongseong, and plundered nearly 5,000 young and strong women, and then broke Jince, Xinpo, and Anbian, and plundered nearly 20,000 young and strong laborers, and in less than ten days, Judas not only did not spend a penny, but also got tens of thousands of laborers, nearly 1,000 livestock, a large amount of grain and cloth, and hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

North Korea, a country that is actually very resilient, with 220,000 square kilometers of land, mountainous and barren land, but with a population of more than 10 million, thanks to the relatively advanced farming technology in East Asia, otherwise it would be difficult for North Korea to feed so many people.

Of course, even if the farming technology is advanced, it is not easy to feed so many people, these years, North Korea is also a large number of foreign immigrants, especially in West Siberia, Russia, which borders North Korea, according to the statistics of the West Siberian Governor's Office, in the past ten years, the number of Koreans and Russians who have immigrated to Siberia is about the same, you must know that Russia is under the premise that the government is tempting in every possible way, only then has such a little shabby data, the North Korean government does not encourage North Koreans to immigrate to Siberia, North Koreans do not enjoy any preferential immigration policies in Siberia, and even so, a large number of North Koreans leave their homes to seek a living in Siberia.

Judas's behavior objectively alleviated the population pressure on North Korea.