Dominate the Country

Time has always been so graceful, and it does not change its pace because of anything.

Europe?

North America?

Far East?

Southeast Asia?

Arabia, India...

No matter how many things there are, they are just dust attached to time, moving with time, but they cannot slow down the pace of time for a moment.

...

In July, the golden sun shines on the earth. The two teams that came from afar finally ended their long journey and met outside the city of Nanjing.

This is the heart of China, where the two Russian teams merged into one.

They are the two Russian military missions in the northwest and northeast, led by Potemkin and Faraleyev respectively.

It was July, and it had been several months since the war.

When they met for the first time, Potemkin and Faraleyev had unusual doubts about each other's feelings.

Faraleyev did not expect that Potemkin's appearance was so... gorgeous. Well, yes, facing Potemkin dressed in gorgeous clothes, he could only use the word "gorgeous" to describe him.

You can no longer see the embarrassment and fierceness of a defeated general from him.

As the favorite of the Queen, Count Potemkin, who was promoted to Lieutenant General smoothly, seemed to have forgotten the damage and loss of reputation caused by the war. The whole person is like a peacock with a flower screen at the St. Petersburg Palace Ball. Gorgeous dress and elegant temperament. This is more of a Russian nobleman who came to China for fun, rather than a soldier who just finished a war with China and came to sign a defeat agreement.

And what about Faraleyev in Potemkin's eyes?

A warrior who accepted defeat!

A warrior who admitted and accepted defeat, he did not lose his courage, nor was he furious, but realized his own shortcomings and saw the enemy's advantages clearly. All his fighting spirit will continue to accumulate in the next period of time, until the war comes again, and then it will burst out suddenly.

Both of them gave each other absolute surprise.

One was that he did not expect that Potemkin, who had a smooth life, would so "easily" heal his shame and face everything that was coming with a calm heart; the other was that he did not expect that Falaleyev, who also had a bad reputation in the army, would so "easily" admit defeat, and while admitting that China was strong, he continued to maintain a high morale.

"China is really huge."

Potemkin's mind was very smart. From the "China" he saw along the way, he thought of Falaleyev's current "surrender". It is not difficult to imagine that Falaleyev must have seen many soul-stirring scenes on the way to the Chinese capital.

In the state guesthouse of Xuanwu Lake, in a conference room where the Russians lived.

A simple world map was hung on the wall, and China's location was printed in the middle of the entire map, so that the shape of the entire map was a bit strange. China's territory was painted with bright red, and the entire country seemed like a huge crabapple leaf. No, not just a crabapple leaf, with Lake Baikal, it would become an isosceles triangle.

From the most northwestern Lake Balkhash to Lake Baikal, and then to the Greater Khingan Range, it is simply a straight line in an oblique direction.

Looking at the whole world, only the slightly narrow and long Russia can compare with this behemoth.

But everyone knows what the Russian land is, and what the Chinese land is, that is the difference between rotten copper and gold. Potemkin has seen it very clearly, and he is scared.

"I went from worrying at first to numbness later, and then I was about to despair."

"Here, Yili. It has fertile land, pastures and warm climate that are no less than those in the Don River Basin."

"The Chinese have managed this place very steadily. At least 200,000 people live here, and this number is gradually increasing."

"The food produced here can easily supply the entire Xinjiang population. I saw that the Chinese are still building iron and gunpowder factories in Yili. It will not take long before a military factory with good production capacity will be born in Yili. By that time, the Chinese will become stronger. Yili alone is enough to support the Chinese garrison in Xinjiang!"

"On the way east from the Yili River Valley, every time I sleep, the scenes I saw in Yili will appear in my mind..."

"It would be great if such land could belong to Russia."

The room was not only filled with Potemkin and Faraleyev, but also Tsebokdorji and Malinovsky, the Russian representative to China. The four of them were considered the top leaders of the entire mission.

Therefore, it is unimaginable how important Cebek Dorji's existence is.

Now Cebek Dorji hides himself in a corner, hiding in the least noticeable position. He is afraid that if he can't help showing a smile on his face, it will be bad.

"But when I saw Urumqi, I found that some of my ideas were wrong."

"Xinjiang was a desolate place in the hands of the Junggars, but it doesn't mean that there is really no brilliant civilization here."

"There are a lot of lands that can be cultivated here, not just Yili."

"Urumqi also has a name named by the Tatar emperor, Dihua. Then it was renamed Urumqi by the current Chinese emperor."

"The Nanshan Ranch here is very beautiful. Now that ranch has become a base for the Chinese to breed military horses. The Chinese did not hide their disadvantages in the horse issue."

Cebekdorji felt that it was time for him to interrupt. Even if he shrank aside, he had to show his presence appropriately: "Mongolia also has their military horse breeding base, and there is more than one."

Potemkin paused and showed a slightly bitter smile to Cebekdorji, "Of course. It's not just Mongolia, it's the same in Xinjiang. They have three huge breeding bases in northern Xinjiang alone."

"I have been to Dihua. When I followed the Tatars to retreat to Kazakhstan, I went to Dihua. But looking at Urumqi now, it is completely two different cities. Were the Junggars and Tatars too stupid in the past, or were the Chinese too creative?

In my opinion, Urumqi is no less than Orenburg. What does this mean?"

"Then you all know that after leaving Xinjiang, we enter Gansu, a very poor province in China, which is the area where Chinese people have been active for many years in the traditional sense. The population of Gansu is close to four million."

"Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu Province, has at least 100,000 people living here. It is not much less than St. Petersburg."

"Then there is Xi'an!"

"The capital of Shaanxi Province in the west of Gansu, with a population of more than 200,000."

"Henan is the heartland of China. It is said that the evolution of the name China is closely related to this land. We did not pass through Lushan, but entered Kaifeng from Luoyang, but we did not enter Kaifeng City, the capital of this province with a population of more than 10 million after many years of war. But we passed by Chenzhoufu!"

Potemkin read out the three words Chenzhoufu in Chinese, word by word, and Tsebokdorji had to admire Potemkin's seriousness and concentration. Potemkin does not speak Chinese, and the pronunciation of Chinese sounds awkward to Russians.

But from Yili to Dihua, Lanzhou, and then to Xi'an, Luoyang, Chenzhou, the names of these places Potemkin said were very accurate.

Tsebokdorji suddenly became more vigilant about Potemkin. Such a person really can't be underestimated.

"In Chenzhou Prefecture, I saw wheat fields as vast as the Polish Plain. It's not that this place is as vast as Poland. It's the agriculture here. There are neat farmlands everywhere, and the feeling of no end in sight. This phenomenon already existed in Kaifeng, but the feeling of Kaifeng is far less impactful than that of Chenzhou.

From Chenzhou to the Yangtze River, all along such a vast road, there are neat farmlands.

I can swear to God that I have never seen so many farmlands." Food has always been an important factor restricting Russia's development.

For Potemkin, the most important thing is the Chinese villages one after another in the endless farmlands.

This density is too high.

The same is a plain, the population of the densely populated Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth is much different from that of China's developed agricultural areas. Although Potemkin's estimates are all based on his own observations, there will definitely be mistakes.

And Potemkin also knows that Chinese farmers are not serfs like Russian serfs. The civilians here have higher production enthusiasm and freedom than Russian serfs. It may not be easier than serfs in terms of the convenience of conscription, but think about the huge population base of the Chinese.

Who in this world can force China to the point of forcibly conscripting men?

So without considering the military, such civilians with higher freedom can create wealth far more than serfs. And the water conservancy facilities here are much richer than those in Russia.

"When a person finds that his opponent is one head taller than him, he will chase him; when a person finds that his opponent is one hill taller than him, he will be very jealous. But when a person's opponent is one Elbrus taller than him, there is only endless respect and admiration." Mount Elbrus is located in the Caucasus region on the border of Russia and Georgia at the junction of Europe and Asia. With an altitude of 5,642 meters, it is the highest peak in Europe.

Potemkin experienced this process. When he was in Yili, he felt that his opponent was only one head taller than him, and he was trying hard to catch up.

After passing through Gansu and Shaanxi, he felt that his opponent was on the hill in front, and he was very jealous.

But now everything has disappeared.

Imagine the current Russia, and compare it with China, where the countryside is full of happiness and tranquility. The gap between Russia and China at this moment is really as big as Mount Elbrus.

Moreover, in Lanzhou and Xi'an, Potemkin also saw the railway that the Chinese were building.

God bless Russia, that was beyond his imagination.

The Chinese were actually planning to build a road made of rails, and they had already built one. Right on the Mongolian grasslands, at the same time they were at war with Russia, a railway connecting the Chinese farming area and the Mongolian nomadic area was still built for thousands of miles.

Talking about this topic, Falaleyev was the most touched by it. Since he got on the train in Kulun and traveled all the way to Zhangjiakou, the fast speed and relatively stable carriage environment along the way shocked him.

Compared with the speed that is far beyond the speed of infantry, there is also a relatively stable carriage environment, which allows soldiers to maintain their physical strength and energy to the maximum extent. Who knows, the soldiers in the car will be able to join the battle as soon as they hit the ground.

Compared with ordinary carriages, the carrying capacity of railways is so huge.

With this railway, Mongolia has become an inalienable part of China.

Their army can give full play to their advantages, use the railway to raise enough military supplies as quickly as possible, and then use artillery fire to crush everything.

"That's not a railway at all, that's a chain. A chain that will forever lock Mongolia to China."

And now China is building the second chain!

Potemkin was not Falaleev. As mentioned above, he was a man of great political wisdom. Possessing good internal affairs skills. He could estimate the cost of a railroad stretching thousands of miles.

If this astronomical amount of wealth is used in pure military offensive, it may be impossible for Chinese soldiers to break into Moscow, but swallowing up the entire Siberia is not possible, but certain.

The huge gap in national power between China and Russia can be well reflected from this incident.

"Let's talk about the most obvious gap, iron production. God, how much iron do these two railways use? Russia's steel production last year was only 550,000 poods. And the weight of one pood is converted into The Chinese unit is twenty-seven pounds!”

"And what about China? Just this one railway track -" can equal Russia's steel production for decades. Potemkin was really frightened.

Is the power gap between China and Russia too big?

It was like being hit in the head. Potemkin had no idea that the rails were "fake" and that they had other tricks up their sleeves.

Ever since the railway began to be laid, the extremely high consumption of steel immediately sounded the alarm for Chen Ming. This cost is really too much. Not to mention the construction of long railway tracks that stretch for thousands of miles, but also the laying of intra-city transportation rail lines in big cities such as Nanjing, Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou. That is a huge project.

Therefore, it is imperative that the railway tracks connecting Mongolia be replaced with wooden tracks. So when the rails in Nanjing, Shanghai and many port areas began to be laid, the wooden rails in the testing grounds were also constantly improved. For example, some woods have poor durability and will be damaged soon, so countless kinds of woods are used. Let's do an experiment together. Moreover, the experimenters spontaneously covered the surface of the wooden rails with a layer of iron to increase their service life.

And during the laying of the line in Mongolia, the experimenter, consciously or unconsciously reminded by Chen Ming, successfully designed convex rails and cast iron wheels with protruding outer rims, which can be said to be the prototype of modern railways.

Potemkin, who didn't know enough about the details, thought all the railroad tracks were made of iron. This was a perfect joke.

In the palace, Chen Ming laughed loudly after getting the secret report from Cebek Dorji. "My stomach hurts from laughing." Was Potemkin really frightened? But Chen Ming quickly recognized this opportunity, "Tell the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Security to let them put on a show. Don't let the Russians see through it before the treaty is signed."

Iron tracks, the rail carriage line from Nanjing City to Yishuier are made of iron, but is it Mongolia? How is that possible? Not to mention that the current Baotou Smelting Company has just officially started production. Before there is a formal breakthrough in smelting technology, even if the world's steel production is gathered together, it will not be possible to build a railway from Zhangjiakou to Kulun.

The secretary of the attendant's office immediately drafted the document, sealed it, handed it to Zhang Dayong to read to Chen Ming, and then immediately retreated to deliver the order.

Chen Ming continued to read Cebek Dorji's secret report with a smile on his face.

This nail is buried so deep and so well. As long as Potemkin continues to regard Tsebokdorzi as one of his own, the Russians will be transparent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs throughout the entire negotiation.

Chen Ming stood up and walked to a side room in the back hall. There were shelves hanging on the walls, filled with Greg-style weapons. There are new ones and old ones, long ones and short ones. Chen Ming took a Mongolian knife, which was quite short. Because this thing is used to eat meat, slaughter cattle and sheep, and is sometimes used as a production tool, it is often worn on the body.

This knife is quite new, less than two years old.

It is made by a group of the best swordsmiths in China.

Chen Ming asked them to build a lot of various weapons. He liked them very much.

Many Mongolian knives were made, but one was the most gorgeous, which Chen Ming prepared for Wobasi.

The knife he took out now was in the row directly below the one in Wobasi.

"Give this knife to Tsebok Dorzi!" He is now a knife inserted into the Russian's chest. Chen Ming is looking forward to the day when this knife will actually be held in his hand.

When double happiness comes, happy things will always appear one after another, just like unlucky things will happen one after another.

The Nanyang operation started. Although it was a little unexpected, it made the whole plan more perfect.

Chen Ming wants to use Nanyang's actions to create some pressure on Watson.

He wants Watson to understand one thing——

China respects Britain, but China is by no means afraid of Britain.

For some things that are beneficial to China, China does not need the consent of the British and will do it itself. Just like what is about to happen in Nanyang.

Chen Ming has reason to believe that Watson has already given the Dutch a hint. But he doesn't care!

Seeking the approval of the United Kingdom is just to respect the interests of the British and respect the British's right to speak in the Western world. It is definitely not to consider the power of the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Watson must not make a mistake on this point.