This was no empty boast. As Nicholas II's children, the three of them were clearly far more knowledgeable than ordinary people. Although Russia's economy and industry ranked relatively low among the great powers, that was only in comparison with the other great-power nations.
Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei had also lived in Saint Petersburg for many years. As Russia's most economically developed region, Saint Petersburg did not lag behind other European countries in construction.
Yet this journey to East Africa still allowed them to see, with their own eyes, the enormous gap between Russia and East Africa. To explain this, one had to start with the route they had taken to East Africa.
To avoid the war zones, the three had not chosen to depart from the Baltic Sea. After all, going west across the Baltic Sea meant passing through German waters.
Ukraine and Eastern Europe were also on the front lines, so when they traveled to East Africa, they had chosen to depart from ports on the eastern Black Sea.
Traveling from Saint Petersburg to the Black Sea coast inevitably meant passing through Russia's interior. The farther east they went, the worse the level of economic and industrial development became, allowing the three of them to witness Russia's true national conditions to some extent.
Then, after arriving in East Africa, everything they saw and heard along the Central Railway stood in stark contrast to the reality they had witnessed within Russia.
Of course, this gave East Africa something of an unfair advantage. The regions along the East African Central Railway had always been East Africa's most economically developed areas, making it somewhat like Tian Ji's Horse Racing.
Naturally, Maria and the others could not have understood the hidden intricacies involved, since they lacked an understanding of East Africa's national conditions.