The coughing finally stopped under the pressure of a cup of black tea.

The old Count Tolstoy thanked Liu Yu very aristocraticly, and said a few words to the opposite Duke of Qi.

The translator posted it in Qi Guogong's ear and relayed the muttered sentences.

"The winter here is really cold, and I occasionally feel cold along the way, and I can't stop coughing. Thank you for the tea, tea is a good drink and is great for driving away the cold of Selenginsk. ”

This is still quite elegant, Qi Guogong smiled secretly in his heart, thinking that this old man has good means, but just saying these words can inevitably mean that there is no silver three hundred taels here.

Your cough is obviously Liu Shouchang's condition that touched your sore spot.

However, this old man is an opponent, and he can think of a way to deal with it while coughing, so as not to be seen as a gaffe.

It's just that you're old after all, and you can't go back.

Qi Guogong saw through it and didn't say anything, thinking that if this is the case, then it seems that the initiative in this negotiation is in our hands.

You need to add another fire.

So Qi Guogong, who had never spoken much, also took the initiative to greet him.

"The Earl is feeling cold, so it is better to stop for a few days before talking. Come on, send some tea to the Rakshasa Mission. If you have a medicine such as Chuanbei loquat ointment, take some along with it. ”

After the translation, the old Count Tolstoy thanked him, shook his head and thought that it was not in the way, and that the conversation could continue.

Qi Guogong nodded, thanked him in return, and continued to drink tea leisurely.

In just a moment's confrontation, he had already tested the attitude of the Rakshasas: the Rakshasas were in a hurry now, anxious to talk; Liu Yu's sky-high asking price poked at the weakness of the Rakshasa people.

Quietly glanced at Liu Yu, with the cover of the table, and watched Liu Yu's hand make a "not in a hurry" gesture below.

Qi Guogong knew in his heart, yawned, continued to be lazy, and squinted to drink tea.

The conditions on the table were there, and the old Count Tolstoy's hands trembled a little, and quietly hid under the table.

The old hands were covered with blue-purple veins, as if they were flowing with mud from the thawing spring permafrost of Siberia, devouring the last shred of hope for hot life.

Looking at the conditions submitted by Liu Yu for the sky-high price, he was full of despair.

What frightened him was not the vertical line that ran from the Lena River to Lake Baikal; Nor is it the line of latitude drawn westward from the mouth of the Selenga River.

It's all sky-high asking things, and the first draft is all for overturning, it doesn't matter.

The first draft drew the line to the Lena River, which means that the bottom line of Dashun is at least thousands of miles away from the Lena River.

What really made him panic was the three inconspicuous conditions sandwiched inside.

First, the Russian state must not interfere in the internal affairs of Poland and must not support the hereditary monarchy of Poland. After the death of the King of Poland, the Polish Electoral Monarchy should be supported. Otherwise, Dashun will send troops to support the Polish throne and should not be controlled by the Russian state.

Second, Russia should abandon its claims to the mouth of the Don River and Crimea. If there is another war with the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Tatars because of this, Dashun will send troops to support.

Third, the Warat Mongol tribes that moved west to the Volga River should have the right to return to the snow-capped mountains for pilgrimage, and the Russian state must not obstruct them. The Volga Mongol tribes should not submit to Russia, and Russia should allow them to send envoys back to the Mongolian plateau to participate in the development of a new Mongol code. From then on, the Mongol Warat tribe no longer provided troops and tribute to Russia.

The first draft is all nonsense, all conditions that can be discarded, and all bargaining chips in exchange for tangible benefits.

It is precisely because of this that these three are terrible.

The old Count Tolstoy saw from these three that this ancient Eastern empire was not as closed as he imagined. It's not that he doesn't know anything about the outside world as he thinks.

They have learned how to take advantage of the international situation and work together vertically and horizontally.

Or, just to awaken the memories of their ancestors from two thousand years ago from their bones and blood.

And this, for Russia, which has enemies on all sides, will be a geopolitical disaster.

Dashun, of course, could not hit Moscow.

Dashun, of course, does not care about Poland and the Crimea.

Even the Count doubted that Dashun could speak Turkic and Polish.

But Dashun made his attitude clear: we are not ignorant of Western affairs.

Russia can't always face a three-front war, and if we can't get back what we want this time, then we will get it back when the Polish throne and the Crimea go to war.

It doesn't matter whether Dashun is really allied with France and the Ottomans.

As a diplomat and head of the secret police in Peter's time, the elder Tolstoy knew that geopolitics dictated that these three countries could become natural allies, common enemies without any alliances.

This attitude was put in front of Russia by Dashun as a bargaining chip, so that Russia had to make a choice.

The events on the banks of the Heilongjiang River have proved that at least in the direction of Lake Baikal, if Dashun wishes, it is possible to organize a field force of 10,000 people.

Field troops of 10,000 people, in Moscow, in Ukraine, in the Baltic and even in the Black Sea, are not worth mentioning.

But in Siberia, where the projection of troops is almost at its limit, that would be a disaster for Russia.

Russia now does not have the financial resources to organize a regular field force of five thousand men in the East.

The Cossacks, without the support of regular regiments and artillery, simply did not have the ability to fight a field battle with the army of a normal country. The Cossacks were good at expanding the borders and encroaching, and were natural hussars, but because of discipline problems, they were not qualified field troops.

Dashun has proved that those fortresses that can suppress the tribe of more than 10,000 people with 500 people stationed in Dashun are not reliable in front of Dashun's field troops.

Dutch-style regular bastions worked, but Russia could not afford to build them on the border.

Peter's reforms lowered the average height of students in Russia by four centimeters in a few decades, and under the Songun system, taxes were levied even on beards and hot baths. The high-equipped fortress required enough silver for Russia to build another capital ship. Throw the capital ships that can gain sea supremacy in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea to the Siberian border as fortresses?

The high-equipped fortress can't be repaired, and the low-equipped one can stop the nomads, and can't stop the cannons and the Dashun who can do civil engineering.

Dashun's infantry tactics were not high, and on the whole it was still at the level of a thirty-year war with a mixture of hot and cold. But artillery, not bad. There are a lot of them, and there is enough money and manpower to deliver them to the Mongolian plateau.

Those officials involved in the survey of the boundary at least know trigonometric functions and latitude and longitude. Artillerymen who know trigonometric functions will not lag behind too much.

Judging from the feedback from the front, Dashun's heavy infantry is not bad, although in this era of removing armor and pursuing queue mobility, this is backward, wrong, and anti-anachronistic.

It can be used for small-scale inferior fortress offensive and defensive battles, but it is very effective.

The analysis of the battle situation at the front line by the old earl and the important officials of the court was basically the same: a mixed infantry of the Thirty Years' War level, a strong elite heavy infantry in hand-to-hand combat, a large number of artillery of slightly inferior quality, excellent siege ability and strange flight reconnaissance skills, and logistical and financial capabilities that were the envy of Russia.

If it drags on for a long time, it will be bad for Russia. Swift peace is needed.

Before the old count came, Russia's bottom line was Heilongjiang, and it was appropriate to make concessions on the Shilka issue.

And now, these conditions, which seem to be pure blackmail, have completely lost the meaning of the bottom line he set before he came.

With white sails sailing across the sea, and a broken world united, diplomacy is no longer a matter between two countries.

Dashun understands when Russia will be vulnerable. What you can't get back now, you will naturally get back when you're vulnerable.

Big deal, let's not talk about it, Darth Vidania. When you go to war with Turkey, stab Baikal in the back, what do you do?

If you are brave, you can gamble.

In fact, Dashun has no intention of continuing to fight, but is just diplomatic blackmail.

The old earl is also a gambler, he won a bet when he was young, and when he was old, he lost the bet to help Elizabeth ascend the throne, and his courage was still small after all.

He put on his glasses, and he could see ten lines at a glance, but he carefully read the conditions with a feeling of old age, and quickly thought about countermeasures in his heart.

Half an hour later, the old earl finally spoke.

"Your country's conditions are unreasonable. Isn't it possible to distinguish to whom the land of the two countries belongs by debating reason? The conditions of your country are completely unreasonable. ”

When Liu Yu heard this, he thought to himself that when you were young, you were also a talkative and laughing diplomat in Western European countries, and I can't talk about you when you are reasonable and talk about Grotius's set of international law. There are a lot of terms I haven't learned.

"No argument today."

"Argument, that's what historians will do in the future. All we have to do is sign a treaty. The merits and demerits will be left to future generations. ”

Since he was not ready to reason, Liu Yu's tone also sharpened.

"If the truth is useful, Costantinier should have been called Constantinople at this time. Now you are reasoning with me, then with whom will Perm, Ryazan, Siberia, Kazan, which you have annexed, go to reason with? ”

"Besides, I have finished speaking to your Count of Savoy. If you can gather an army of 10,000 people and go to Heilongjiang, then naturally I will not sit here and talk to you today. If you can't, what's the use of saying that? ”

"This is our request, and I hope to see your response as soon as possible to prove your sincerity. Winter is coming, the fortress is short of vegetables, the siege is prolonged, and scurvy will kill the Cossacks. It's also unrealistic to send troops here from Europa, and I hope you will think carefully. ”

"If Peter can fight a protracted war with Sweden for an outlet to the sea, the Son of Heaven is also willing to fight a protracted war for the sake of prudence. I have a lot of resources, at least I don't need to melt all the temple bells to cast cannons. ”

"Flintlock guns, field artillery, these are things that silver and gold can solve. It just so happens that we are not short of money, and the French, British, and Dutch are not short of ships that can reach Southeast Asia. ”

"Within three days, I need to see your response."

Leaving behind the other party's unacceptable negotiation requirements, Liu Yu made a look of not talking, and the initiative was in his hands, even if he was now the person who most wanted to end the negotiations quickly, he had to make an aggressive posture.

The old earl was helpless by the "wealth" that Liu Yu fooled.

This is not a time to covet riches, but a time to fear them.

With money, you can really do whatever you want.

Three days later.

The old Count Tolstoy came up with Russian conditions: Heilongjiang as the boundary.

Liu Yu secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and when he came up, he directly came up with such conditions, which meant that the other party could give in more. And he has already reached the emperor's bottom line.

Therefore, he did not accept it, but continued to use a persecutive tone to deny this condition.

Six days later.

Russia relented again.

The Heilongjiang River is bounded by fifty versts to the north. As the source of the Heilongjiang River, the Erguna River also falls under the above conditions.

Liu Yu still didn't let go, but in order to show his sincerity, he originally followed the vertical line drawn along the Lena River and crossed it to the east along the latitude line.

Twenty days later, news came again from the Eastern Front.

Russia's last fortress in the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River failed to break the siege.

The 800 reinforcements who arrived from Yakutsk and the 1,000 Korean musketeers, 500 soldiers, some elite sailors, and some elite Beijing battalions and local tributary tribes besieging the city took place in the largest field battle in the history of the battle.

The Russian army lost four hundred, and the defenders failed to break through and surrendered. The casualties on Dashun's side were roughly equal.

This proves the judgment of the old count and others: without the superiority of field artillery, the mixed hot and cold thick phalanx of Dashun can at least remain undefeated in the face of the Cossacks.

In the Eastern European Plain, a battle of 50,000 men, the Dashun army was low mobility, heavy, too thick, easy to be shelled, and prone to disjointed weaknesses, which would lead to a major defeat.

But this kind of small battle with a scale of more than 1,000 people, the disadvantage is not great, and it can be compensated by relying on the number of people and the number of artillery.

A fortress on the Shilka River was still under siege by the Dashun army, and there was no siege, and a large number of local tribes chose to side with the Dashun that seemed to win. A harsh winter is coming, and within three months of such weather, the besieged fortress will lose most of its fighting power due to scurvy.

When the news came, the Russians took another step back.

Perhaps inspired by Liu Yu's direct demarcation of the boundary with the line of latitude, the Russians retreated to Liu Yu's initial idea. It is bounded by 50 versts north of the Heilongjiang estuary, and connects the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River to the west along this latitude line.

In return and sincerity, Liu Yu crossed out the Crimean issue with a pen, saying that he had just heard about the Crimean Tatars' plundering of the Russians as white slaves.

Shocked by the news of the legal ban on slaves and untouchables, Dashun decided not to support the Crimean Tatars. He also said that he would send an envoy to Crimea to educate the Tatars and reason with them, and that it was not good to take people as slaves.

By the way, send some Lama from the capital to "drop by" to the Turkut Department to offer condolences and condolences.