Chapter 12
It took a week to receive the reports, and despite the costs, the country could still afford it just fine. No changes were being made to anyone of them except the railway projects. Vladimir did not want any direct line to come straight to the capital. Any line that wishes to come to the capital must make a stopover and change trains first.
After signing and confirming the reports, construction began the next day. For the railway, the major cities will be first, then towns and villages. Shorter distances than longer ones, and most of these will be carried out at the same time. Some wealthy businessmen were willing to invest.
It was a lot at first but after hearing there is no immediate gain and its long term many dropped out but for those that continued to be a part of it; the Tsar promised them three to four years they won't regret their choice and will be having more money than those that backed out.
The research departments will be at Saint Petersburg University. The military research will have its land and buildings out of the city. Vladimir gets up off his throne and walks out of the throne room. The guards at the door salute him as he walks past, then closes the door behind him.
He makes his way to the front of the palace, being followed by four guards. As the main gates open, he looks at the Palace square. The first thing to catch his eye is the brown Alexander Column, which was originally was raised after the Russian victory over Napoleon and France and named after Tsar Alexander I.
He then looks at the Neoclassical building in a bow shape across from him. It's the General Staff Building.
'If I'm correct, the General Staff is in the west wing and the Foreign Ministry and Finance ministry are in the east wing,' he thinks to himself.
He looks at one of his royal guards "get me five of guard cavalry and my horse" he nods and quickly moves off. 10 minutes later five guards come and greet him "long live Tsar," they say in unison and they receive a nod from the young Tsar "I want to go the Admiralty Building," he tells the cavalry while being helped up on to his horse. Once done, he grabs and holds the reins.
His guards surround him with two in the front, one on each side, and one behind with him in the center. They move off and Vladimir couldn't help but admire the arch of the General staff building as he passes under it and goes to the main road.
Clop clop is the sound of the horses' hooves hitting the road as they walk to the Admiralty building, which didn't take long since it's just down and across the road. While getting their many people pointed and waved and Vladimir of course waved back and he even noticed a few elves wearing clothes like the regular citizens and some wearing dresses from where they're from 'plus we never had elves before so they're not Russian and they seem to like the clothing here and the food' he see some even in cafes and restaurants.
After getting on to the compound of the Admiralty building, he heads straight to the main office of the admiral. He was almost there but the admiral herself is waiting and salutes then say "Admiral Sasha Ivanov greets his majesty"
"good day, Admiral. I just wanted to see a bit of the city so I came here first and also wanted to see how things are going," He signals one of his guards to get him down.
"of course your majesty. Follow me to the dry dock" Vladimir follows and walks side by side with her and the guards a few feet behind.
"currently things are on track, my Tsar. We had put up recruitment posters around the city and sent more to other cities nearby." As they near the dry dock men can be seen moving wood, cutting, bending, and other things
"We are in the process of building more ships as you requested and by the end of the month we will have more sailors to be on ships and reserve,"
"thank you for your hard work, Admiral," he says and receives the reply "thank you your majesty" After going over a few more things he left shortly after to visit the barracks.