New Shun 1730

After calmly analyzing the current situation, Elizabeth shyly apologized to Count Lestock for her anger.

Then she said: "Please tell Marquis Lachetadi that you are right. If I don't take action, I may be locked in the monastery."

"If the Chinese envoys arrive in St. Petersburg, please let him take full responsibility for the contact with the Chinese Marquis. And I will talk to the Marquis in person to know what the Marquis really wants."

Count Lestock was happy to see that Elizabeth had finally made up her mind.

Once the coup succeeded, she, a "guest official" and a "strategist" who lived under the door, would soon become an important figure in Russian politics. If she, a person of small noble origin, did not take such a risk, she might never have the opportunity to become an upper-class figure in the entire European court.

After Count Lestock left, Elizabeth did not talk about the coup with her lovers around her, but entered the room where the shrine and the statue of the Virgin Mary were placed, kneeling there as if praying devoutly.

But in fact, she wanted to calm down and think about the possibility of this coup.

After Queen Anna died, her lover, Duke of Courland Byron, became the regent.

But Byron had a bad reputation. He was the head of the "East Factory" and left a special term in Russian history, called the "Byron Era", which roughly means: "Foreigners (basically referring to Germans) dominate all areas of political and social life, greedily exploit the people, steal the country's wealth, cruelly persecute dissatisfied people, conduct espionage and denunciation, and rely on secret police and informers to rule."

When Queen Anna was alive, her left and right hands were Byron and Osterman.

Byron was in charge of the East Factory and Osterman was in charge of diplomacy.

Europe is different from East Asia. East Asia is a superpower and does not need diplomacy. The Li government with diplomatic functions is the least powerful of the six governments.

But Europe is different. Generally speaking, the foreign minister is the position in the cabinet second only to the finance minister.

However, due to the aggressive diplomatic attitude of Dashun and the anti-Russian attitude of the alliance with France and Sweden, Ostermann had to go to the capital of Dashun to preside over the negotiations on the Junggar boundary treaty.

As a result, when the empress died, only the left hand Byron was by her side.

Soon, Byron was overthrown by Marshal Minich, an old general in Peter's era, who led the Guards.

The old marshal's command ability was average, but relying on Russia's national strength, he still won a great victory in the Russo-Turkish War not long ago. But the situation in Russia is also special. Military leaders who stage coups are generally not stable.

When Ostermann came back, a group of people overthrew the old marshal again by conspiracy and exiled him to Siberia.

Within a year, three coups, in fact, the German Party had already had internal strife.

Some old ministers of the Russian Orthodox Party, the more power they have, the more they are fence-sitters.

Whoever wins, they will go with; on the contrary, some junior officers and low-level nobles feel that their power has been taken away by the German Party and are quite dissatisfied.

And those old ministers are now embarrassed because they stood on the side too early. For example, some important figures bet all their money on Byron when Anna died. No one expected that Byron would be overthrown by the military boss less than a month after he took power, making it difficult for some hereditary nobles or old ministers of Peter Gang who bet on Byron to protect themselves.

The remaining old families who did not bet on the coup will generally watch from the sidelines during the coup and will not get involved in the court struggle.

There are too many coups in Russia, and the old families have seen too many. Who knows what will happen tomorrow?

Besides, they are all big families, and they are basically hereditary. There is no point in trying to climb up. Just like the hereditary lords on the Dashun side, who would be stupid enough to participate in the court struggle unless they marry the prince?

However, it is impossible to expect them to help. However, once the coup succeeds, these old ministers will definitely support it immediately, which is not a consideration.

Count Osterman, who is in power now, is actually facing huge pressure.

The war between Sweden and Russia forced him to focus most of his energy on the war against Sweden.

Because during the Russo-Turkish War, Count Osterman opposed the war against Turkey, but Russia won. Russia can tolerate compromise with European countries, but it is indeed difficult to tolerate people who appear cowardly in declaring war on Turkey.

As the deputy prime minister, he needs to make achievements as soon as possible, especially to win the war against Sweden, so that he can gain a firm foothold and wash away the "cowardly performance" when he went to war with Turkey before.

In addition, his diplomatic trip to Dashun was not smooth, and he was forced to negotiate by Dashun and took away a lot of land - he needed to prove one thing even more: the reason why I compromised with China was to free up energy to better deal with the invasion of the Swedes.

This is almost the only excuse for his suppression of negotiations with China.

This excuse is that as long as he wins the war against Sweden, loses the east and makes up for the west, loses the south of the Omu River, and gets Finland, then he is "bearing humiliation".

But if he loses, then he is "losing power and humiliating the country ×2".

In addition, the War of the Austrian Succession was underway, and there were many diplomatic issues, which kept Ostermann very busy.

This led to a reduction in his suppression of internal opposition, and now he focused on war and diplomacy.

Byron was captured and the marshal was exiled. It seemed that his power was greater, but in fact he had no way to take over the "East Factory", navy, army, diplomacy and other affairs in a short period of time.

Three consecutive coups also made the political situation in Russia extremely chaotic, and the connection between the upper and lower levels became a problem. If Byron was still in power, with his control over the East Factory for ten years, Elizabeth did not think she had a chance, and would always be honest and pretend to be a princess who would never get married and have no offspring.

But the internal strife of the German Party weakened its strength, Byron was exiled, and the East Factory was not functioning well, which made Elizabeth's mind quickly active.

The Preobrazhensky Corps could bring two or three hundred people, which was not a large number, but the young men in it were very loyal to her.

In recent years, the soldiers believed that she was the best candidate for the Russian Tsar because of her kind image without putting on the princess's airs. Russians like to regard the Tsar as their parents, and the men are called "little daddy". When it comes to Elizabeth, the soldiers who are close to her have long called her "mother".

The Dashun envoys can bring at least 300 fully armed guards. These people are well-trained. If they help, the chances will be greater.

As long as they invaded the Winter Palace, arrested the one-year-old Tsar and his mother, and captured Osterman, the coup would be considered successful.

The people of the Dashun envoys did not even need to participate in the attack on the Winter Palace. They only needed to buy some time for her when necessary.

Moreover, Osterman would never have thought that Dashun would choose to interfere in Russia's internal affairs.

With the arrival of the Dashun envoys, she was safer, because firstly, Russia would not choose to launch another coup when the Dashun envoys visited - it had already been seen by Duke Qi, and another one would only lead to laughter.

Secondly, the Chinese marquis's diplomatic style was extremely strong, and France and China were behind Sweden.

The marquis came and only needed to put pressure on Osterman on Swedish affairs, so Osterman would be exhausted to deal with this difficult opponent.

Osterman, who had already been in chaos due to too many coups and had difficulty concentrating due to too many power grabs, had even less energy to monitor her actions.

She knelt in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary and thought for a long time. Although she still hadn't figured out why Liu Yu helped him, she had already accepted Dashun's suggestion to help.

What she wanted, she would wait until she became the Tsar.

But now, she had to become the Tsar first.

After thinking about it, she made a cross devoutly.

"Merciful Virgin Mary, I promise that if I take back the throne that should belong to me, I will not execute my political enemies, but will choose to tolerate and exile them."

"I swear that everything I do after becoming the Tsar will be for the benefit of Russia, and I will not betray my motherland because of any personal feelings."

"I will restore all the open policies of my father's time. When I leave this world, I will leave a strong Russia to the world."

"Please bless your pious daughter."

…………

In the Baltic Sea, several ships flying the Dashun flag were sailing towards St. Petersburg.

Liu Yu left Kang Budai in Amsterdam, with full authority to handle reception, hospitality, newspaper publishing and other matters. The invitation letters sent to various academies of science also required Kang Budai to help arrange etiquette issues.

He took the official personnel and guards to St. Petersburg to participate in the coup he had been waiting for for a long time.

For the Dutch, going to St. Petersburg does not count as going to Europe.

Because there is no maritime trade between China and Russia, and no agreement related to the Netherlands can be reached.

As long as Liu Yu does not go to Britain and France, the Dutch delaying tactics can continue to be used, and Liu Yu can also wait for the Dutch to delay.

This time going to St. Petersburg is also killing two birds with one stone.

It is to complete the diplomatic reversal and have a detailed discussion with Elizabeth to reach a non-aggression treaty between China and Russia-he did not bet Siberia on the war, he bet that the steam locomotive and railway of Dashun must be laid in Siberia earlier than Russia-Dashun has no need to compete with Russia in this era, the investment and return are not proportional, and it is far less efficient than holding back the steam locomotive. The increase in population in the Northeast requires a stable transportation line to activate the attraction of crossing Guandong and rely on the continuous expansion of population to the north.

At the same time, this Russian coup can also be used to force the Netherlands to declare war on France and promote William IV to come to power.

Because once the coup succeeds, the whole of Europe will know that it was China and France that led this coup, so what will Russia's diplomatic attitude be like in the future?

If the French-Russian alliance, Russia will defect and no longer support Queen Theresa, and France will be unstoppable on the European continent.

Then, once France is confident, it must be thinking about taking over the Low Countries, which is what France has been dreaming of.

This forces the Netherlands to stop sitting on the fence: before Russia's attitude is unclear, France still has some requests to the Netherlands, at least to give the Netherlands some face, hoping that the Netherlands will not stand on the side of Austria wholeheartedly.

France will not over-stimulate the Netherlands, so as to prevent the Netherlands from completely standing on the side of Britain and Austria.

But if Russia is pro-French and anti-Austrian, does France still need to give the Netherlands face? It will definitely march directly to the Low Countries, so what is there to be afraid of?

This is not a situation that will happen immediately, but a diplomatic logic conjecture that will inevitably be triggered after the Russian coup.

There is a chain of suspicion in the diplomacy of major powers.

France said that I will never attack the Low Countries, will the Dutch believe it? Especially after the pro-French coup in Russia, Austria may have gained a major enemy in the north. Even if France swore an oath, no one would believe it.

Once the news of the pro-French coup in Russia reaches the Netherlands, it will inevitably cause panic in the southern provinces of the Netherlands. The three northern provinces are all ruled by the Orange Party. If France wants to go, it must first take over the southern provinces.

The Federal Parliament will not increase its troops, so how can the people not panic? If the Federal Parliament does not do anything, then why is it still occupying the toilet without doing anything? Let the Orange Party come to power to stop France.

At that time, Liu Yu will also use Nanyang as a hostage on the Federal Parliament side, engage in diplomatic intimidation, and force the Speaker to sign the Kanhe Trade Agreement: Liu Yu only needs to promise verbally that it will not be made public and that it is a secret agreement, and the Speaker will also sign it.

But as long as the other party signs it, Liu Yu can immediately make a big fuss about it, and use the communication power of "yellow and color news" to make the whole Dutch know about it. The confidentiality in the secret room is for the big mouth to publicize it after leaving the secret room.

The Russian coup will also help to bring William IV to power... take the blame.