I

Fei Ruhe and Zhang Tieniu left Nanjing quietly.

Fei Ruhe went to Shaanxi and took control of the Shanxi, Shaanxi and Monan troops. Zhang Tieniu went to Hebei and took control of the troops in Hebei, Liaoning and Modong.

They had nearly a year to mobilize troops, recruit civilians, and coordinate supplies. Local officials must cooperate. Datong Bank, Datong Navy and Southern Maritime Merchant will also transport overseas grain for them.

In addition, Li Zheng's Anton Protectorate will also cooperate in the battle.

Fei Ruhe's West Route Army is expected to send 80,000 troops, including 30,000 infantry and 50,000 cavalry (including Mongolian cavalry). There are also 150,000 civilians and 300,000 mules and horses.

Zhang Tieniu's Middle Route Army is expected to send 100,000 troops, including 40,000 infantry and 60,000 cavalry (including Mongolian cavalry). There are also 180,000 civilians and 300,000 mules and horses.

Li Zheng's Eastern Route Army is expected to send 6,000 troops to march directly to Nerchinsk along the Heilongjiang and Shilka Rivers, occupying the intersection area of ​​the Shilka River, Yinguoda River, and Onen River to prevent the enemies in the Hulunbuir Grassland from escaping north. If you have the energy and time to spare, attack the Cossacks and regain the Lake Baikal region!

This battle cost at least 40 million taels of silver in military expenditures. Not to mention so many mules and horses, hundreds of thousands of civilians also had to be paid!

If the operation goes well and takes a short time, it may be possible to get it done with 30 million taels.

…

While China was preparing for war, the Russian mission had already returned to Moscow.

Tsar Alexei I is facing various dilemmas, or has been facing dilemmas.

When he first came to the throne, he was controlled by the powerful minister Morozov and was forced to become a brother-in-law with this powerful minister.

The powerful ministers raised the salt tax higher than the price of salt, and canceled the salaries of blacksmiths, carpenters, shooters, and city clerks, allowing these people to work for the government without receiving a salary. Then, the shooting military tax and the post tax were recovered.

A series of outrageous actions eventually led to a citizen uprising in Moscow. Craftsmen, businessmen, soldiers, and nobles united to rebel.

Many powerful nobles were killed, and Alexey I took the opportunity to launch an attack and exiled the powerful minister Morozov to a monastery.

The tsar was finally in control.

He recalled officials who had been exiled by powerful ministers, exempted tax arrears, convened a meeting of the gentry, and formulated the "Conference Code". He also restructured government agencies, improved the tax system, established a new-style army, comprehensively studied European culture, curbed the expansion of church power, founded the first new-style school in Russian history, and took the opportunity to annex Eastern Ukraine.

Everything was going well, but the treasury had no money.

The Ottoman Empire also ended the chaotic queen era and launched another attack on Russia. While he was fighting the Ottomans, he was also fighting Poland and Sweden. The continuous wars made Russia extremely poor.

His daughter Princess Sophia, Wei Xiaobao’s lover, is three years old this year.

As for his son Peter the Great, he is not yet born.

The leader of the mission, Bayikov, met with the Tsar in the palace, and beside him stood the wise minister Olgin Nashogin.

Nashokin was a very powerful prime minister, proficient in mathematics, Latin, German and Polish, and had long-term dealings with Western European countries. He felt that Russia was too backward and had to learn from it, even from its enemies.

Later, Peter the Great was able to successfully reform, which was inseparable from the solid foundation laid by Nashokin.

Baykov, who returned from Nanjing, knelt down and knelt down to bow to the tsar and prime minister: "Your Majesty, the capital of Khitan is not in Khanbali (Beijing). It has been moved to a big city called Nanjing."

"Where is Nanjing?" Alexey I asked.

Baykov took out the map he got from China. It was still a civilian version, with no mountains, rivers, or rivers marked on it. He was allowed to come to the Tsar, pointed to the map and said: "Your Majesty, Nanjing is here."

The Tsar and the Prime Minister looked around the map for a while.

Baykov said: "Twenty years ago, the Khitan Kingdom fell into civil strife, and the emperor committed suicide in Khanbali. The current Khitan emperor is called Zhao Han. He raised troops from here (Jiangxi), defeated all enemies, and established an empire called 'Datong'. 'The Khitan Dynasty. Then, it expanded its territory crazily, and the Khitan territory became unprecedentedly large."

Prime Minister Nashokin asked: "Are there so many vassal states and territories overseas? Expanding like this will probably be too much for the finances."

Baykov said: "On the contrary, the emerging Khitan Datong Dynasty is the richest country I have ever seen, with a national inventory of silver coins that cannot be used up for a hundred years. Moreover, the lives of the Khitan people have not been affected by the war. I There is not even a beggar to be found in Nanjing, and even the humblest slave lives better than the Moscow craftsmen.”

"How is this possible?" Nashokin was extremely shocked and couldn't understand it at all.

Alexei I asked: "How did the Khitan emperor do it?"

Baykov said: "The Khitans are very numerous. The city of Nanjing alone has a population of over a million. There are more than a dozen such cities (bragging). And there are nearly a hundred large cities with hundreds of thousands of people. The Khitans Although the population is large, there is no head tax, only land tax and industrial and commercial tax. Silver from European countries is flowing into Khitan, because Khitan is rich in silk, porcelain and spices."

Nashokin murmured to himself: "What kind of powerful country is this?"

Baykov said: "The Netherlands has been driven out of the Far East by the Khitans. It is said that they have been defeated many times and have no power to fight back. The powerful Spain was also defeated by the Khitans, and more than half of Spain's colonies in the Far East were annexed by the Khitans. .”

Nashokin was dumbfounded.

Because the Dutch navy was very powerful, Russian furs were also sold through Dutch merchants. The Russian prime minister admires the Netherlands very much and is currently hiring the Dutch to build the Russian navy. The main ship is a three-masted sailing ship, and the remaining warships are all small gunboats. All naval regulations are copied from the Netherlands.

"The powerful Dutch Navy was actually beaten to the point of being unable to fight back?" Nashokin said in disbelief.

Baykov said: "When I returned to China, I saw dense Khitan merchant ships in a port called Shanghai. There are countless such ports. If the Khitan emperor wants to fight, he can recruit thousands of merchant ships to fight at any time. And , I met the British prince in Nanjing. The exiled British prince married his sister to the Khitan crown prince. I also met envoys from France, Persia and many other countries. They were all sent by the king to Nanjing to meet with the Khitan emperor. .”

Nashokin asked: "In a country as vast as Khitan, is there no rebellion among noble lords? Perhaps, we can instigate civil strife in Khitan."

Baykov said: "Although Khitan has nobles, there are no lords who control the land. The emperor has unlimited power, and there is a parliament (cabinet) under the emperor. The speaker and members assist the emperor in ruling the country, and under the parliament, there are military, Taxation and many other departments. They divided the country into several governorates (provinces). The governors were completely appointed and dismissed by the emperor, and each governor had a term. At the end of the term, he must be transferred to other places. All generals also took orders. emperor."

Alexey I said: "Generals obey the emperor's orders, so they must maintain a huge standing army. How big is the Khitan's standing army?"

Baykov said: "The first-level standing army (regular divisions) is hundreds of thousands, the second-level standing army (inspection troops) is hundreds of thousands, the third-level standing army (police force) is hundreds of thousands, and there are reserve troops (peasants and soldiers). million."

The Tsar and the Prime Minister looked at each other.

Nashokin became more and more confused: "How many people are there in the Khitan? What about the millions of reserve troops?"

"The Khitan population has already reached hundreds of millions," Baykov said. "As for the millions of reserve troops, they are all peasants. The Khitan emperor was originally just a commoner. He led the peasants to launch a rebellion and took the land of the nobles and landlords. All of it was given to farmers for farming free of charge. Therefore, all farmers supported him and were willing to serve as reserve troops for him free of charge and conduct military training when they were not farming."

"He gave all the land to farmers?" Alexey was stunned.

In Tsarist Russia, where more than 90% of the population were serfs, this shocking news was more terrifying than China's millions of troops.

Nashokin asked: "Does the Khitan have no serfs anymore?"

Baykov nodded: "Yes, not only are there no serfs, but there are also no other slaves. The Khitan emperor was a philosopher. He believed that all people are born equal, and no one is nobler than anyone else. Even the workers who dig out dung are different in personality from each other. The emperor is also equal. Therefore, his title is the First Emperor of the People's Republic of China, which literally means the Peasant Emperor."

"Is there no one who opposes him?" Alexey asked. "He distributed the land to the peasants, but who was appointed as an official? How could such a large empire find enough literate talents?"

Baykov said: "Those who opposed him were either killed or exiled. As for literate people, this is what Khitan lacks most. Even Khitan farmers, regardless of boys and girls, can get free education Go to school. The Khitan has an imperial examination system, which involves examinations at all levels to select and appoint officials based on people's talents, learning and moral character. Even the descendants of nobles must take the imperial examination and cannot be directly awarded official positions."

The Russian monarchs and ministers were stunned. They could not understand or even imagine this system.

Baykov continued: "So Khitan officials are all people with outstanding knowledge and moral character. Very few Khitan officials are corrupt. I heard that those who embezzle a few hundred copper coins will be exiled. There is a proverb in Khitan that officials If you cannot seek benefits for the people, you should resign and go home to plant sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are a root food from the Americas. Therefore, Khitan civilians love and respect their officials and emperors. The last Khitan emperor was taxed too heavily. , who committed suicide after the peasant army captured the capital."

Nashokin advocated learning from foreign countries and learning from his enemies. When he heard this, he said: "Your Majesty, please send another envoy to Khitan, and send some outstanding young people there. Only by learning from Khitan can Russia be strong." . If we can reach one percent of the Khitan, we will be enough to defeat Poland, Sweden and the Ottomans."

Alexey I followed suit and said, "I'll leave this matter to you to arrange."

Alexey used to envy the French King, but now he began to envy the Khitan Emperor. He even felt a hint of admiration in his heart: "Tell me more about the Khitan Emperor."

Baykov held up a book: "This is "The King of Kings - The Biography of the Khitan Emperor" written by the French envoy. I copied a copy in Latin."