Is Russia Mongolia after all? Or Byzantium? Or the Western countries that Peter dreamed of? In short, it is not Russia yet.

This is a historical doubt before Russia.

Should the East and Central Asia still be the direction of Russia's expansion?

Although Russia is still in chaos and still does not have an orderly strategic direction and diplomatic strategy, on the issue of the East and Central Asia, many ministers in the Russian court have begun to vaguely feel that eastward expansion is a wrong strategy.

In the battle north of the Altai Mountains, the Qingzhou Army after the military reform did not scare Russia, and Dashun made Russia feel desperate for its logistical capabilities, which frightened Russia.

From Moscow to Ili is much closer than from Beijing to Ili.

No matter how strong the Qingzhou Army can fight, no matter how strong the combat effectiveness of the new-style army after the reform of the Dashun Army is, it will be useless without logistics.

In the first battle of the Altai Mountains, the Russian elite saw that Dashun could assemble a field force of 10,000 or 20,000 men on the Irtysh River as long as he was willing, and it was enough to ensure its logistical supply.

Of course, it costs money. But Dashun seems to be able to afford it, at least at this time, the Chinese Empire is the most magnificent and heaviest crown in the whole world, with the most gold and silver on it.

The previous envoys to China were full of praise for China's wealth, but they only saw the capital, and they had not even been to Suzhou and Hangzhou.

Under these circumstances, the attitude of advocating compromise and concession to Dashun gradually became the mainstream of the Russian court.

Instead of losing the Irtysh River in a war with China, losing Buryatia Mongolia, losing the fur trade in Kamchatka, losing the Sino-Russian trade in the Selenga River, which brought a lot of income to Russia every year...... It is better to take the initiative to make concessions and back down on the issue of demarcation in the northwest.

Several forts were dismantled and assigned to a buffer zone where neither side was garrisoned.

Or, by the eloquent diplomat, Count Derey Ivanovich Osterman, lead the way to the south and sign a Sino-Russian non-aggression pact, and let Dashun go to the Netherlands, Spain, and Japan.

Peter the Great was so ambitious that he personally met with the Japanese merchant Denbei who had drifted to Kamchatka, and established a Japanese language school in Russia in order to open the mouth of the sea in the East and carry out maritime trade with Japan in the future.

And now, this ambition is no longer possible, and ambition has become a delusion of the past.

stop the loss in time to end the Fourth Russian-Turkish War, and take advantage of Sweden's lack of preparation to preemptively attack Sweden; Or put aside the Swedish question and wait for the Allied Holy Roman Empire to defeat Turkey in the Balkans and conclude a treaty that would give them complete access to the Black Sea...... On these two matters, the Russian court did not yet reach a consensus.

But the decision to make Count Ostermann visit China as ambassador plenipotentiary was soon settled in the chaotic court.

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In February of this year's Western calendar, it is the time of the New Year in Dashun.

When the monsoon blows, the envoys of several different countries on the sea or land in Europe go to the same destination with different purposes.

France sent a good group of shipbuilders, several civilian officers and designers of the Admiralty, to China by ship.

There, they will complete the implementation of the Sino-French secret treaty and help Dashun build the most classic French 74-gun battleship in the history of the world's sailing navy.

As soon as they are built, they will have access to new rifled gun technology.

The French dream was finally placed on the European continent.

They were convinced that if Dashun declared war on the Dutch and cut off the East India Company's trade, the French would probably take the Low Countries. Cutting off the Netherlands' vital financial routes, the Netherlands will be vulnerable.

Ten Indias, ten Canadas, not as much as the lowlands that many French people dream of, for that, can give up everything overseas.

Although, the merchants don't approve of it, but that's not important.

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The British bought about 15,000 pounds of various gifts and sailed to China.

There, they were to defend themselves by the untruths that the French must have slandered them, and hoped to obtain the right to berth in the port of Dashun in the upcoming Anglo-Spanish War, which, in theory, as a neutral country, forbade either side of the British and the West to berth.

But Dashun's special status in Asia can make international law a fart.

The British wanted to fool the Chinese side and allow Britain and Spain to anchor in China for supplies during the war, which seemed reasonable, but in fact it was just pulling the shelf.

Because, the British in Southeast Asia, they have long been driven away by the Dutch, and there is not a single port. And Spain has the Philippines, and there is no need for the port of Dashun at all.

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Portugal also sent its own mission, but the Portuguese were clever enough to reaffirm Portugal's tributary status, not a diplomatic state.

A tributary state, and perhaps a possibly other part of Macau.

But if it becomes a diplomatic country, it is difficult to say whether Dashun will drive them away. This visit of the French delegation to China brought a great shock to the Portuguese, who had been dealing with China since the Ming Dynasty, and the letters of the Pseudo-Ming to the Holy See asking for help and being baptized in the court were also transmitted by the Portuguese, who never imagined that one day China would actually consider the word "diplomacy".

This change made the Portuguese panic.

The ban on Christianity in Dashun was severe, and Portugal, as a Catholic country, was too active on the issue of missionaries. After the ban on Christianity, a large number of missionaries fled to Macao, and some "martyrs" continued to preach in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian at the risk of being arrested and tortured by officials, which also worried Portugal.

They were afraid that Dashun would vent his anger on Macau, especially Dashun's switch trade policy, which made Macao, a special existence when the Ming Dynasty closed the country, extremely embarrassing.

For Dashun, in trade, it is dispensable. Guangdong, Fujian, Songjiang, and Ningbo do not need to start from Macao.

In terms of religion, Macau has become a heart disease of Dashun. The Catholic ceremonial controversy had completely angered the emperor and Confucian officials of Dashun, and they were not allowed to worship their ancestors, the emperor, or Confucius...... This was a declaration of war both against Confucianism and against secular emperors.

Trade was dispensable, religious and heart-sick, and the Portuguese panicked.

Diplomacy or tributary?

Interests are paramount.

The Portuguese wanted to continue to maintain their status as a tributary, fooling Dashun, who never asked Portugal for tribute anyway.

In fact, they didn't understand the meaning of a tributary state, and even if Macau had existed for so long, they didn't know that tributary meant the same status as North Korea. The change of the Portuguese royal family is to be canonized by the Dashun government, and before it was just pretending to be deaf and dumb and not asking, if you really want to get serious, it is not the same thing.

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The Dutch did not send an envoy to China, because the Netherlands was now in an interregnum, there was neither a king nor a ruling party, and the provinces were in their own hands.

However, the seventeen gentlemen of the Dutch East India Company were also concerned about the diplomatic situation of Dashun, and under the influence of a letter from the governor of Batavia, they decided that Dashun was going to war with Russia.

In the eyes of the seventeen gentlemen of the Dutch East India Company, this was a great opportunity.

In their instructions to the governor of Batavia, they believed that they should seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to start a war with Russia, take advantage of Dashun's lack of time to react, and completely solve the redundant and useless Chinese problem in Batavia.

It is best to quietly send them back to Ceylon, Ambon, Banda and other places, and let these Chinese go to Ceylon to repair forts.

At the time of the war between Dashun and Russia, these Chinese were purged. Because of the unprofitability of the sugar trade, these people are likely to become "unstable" in Batavia.

If it can be cleared in time, even if Dashun reacts in the future, it is impossible to choose to attack Batavia. Because there are no more Chinese there, it is impossible to control the defeat, and there is no possibility that the Chinese will lead the way when Dashun attacks.

It's just that such instructions can't be written too clearly, and if something really happens in the future, someone has to take the blame.

So there were no clear instructions, just some cryptic words, supporting the decision of the governor of Batavia.

In particular, he praised the Governor of Batavia's proposal to "legalize smuggling", arguing that since corruption and smuggling in Batavia are inevitable, then if they are changed from illegal to legal, then there will be no corruption and smuggling.

Only in this way can the close ties between the Dutch employees of the company and the Chinese be severed.

As long as the smuggling is illegal, then smuggling and smuggling are inevitable, and this will inevitably make the employees and Chinese maritime merchants related.

This was the first step in expelling the Chinese.

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Naturally, the Swedes also sent their envoys.

However, as far as Sweden is concerned, this is not the first time that it has sent an ambassador plenipotentiary to China, in fact, as early as six or seven years ago, when Kaulin formed the East India Company, Sweden authorized him to be the plenipotentiary ambassador for negotiations with China.

It's just that that time it was just for trade, and Dashun's trade environment is a special free trade, there is nothing to talk about at all, and there is nothing to talk about.

As for the last time I went to Guangdong, I wanted to meet the emperor as an ambassador plenipotentiary? Cowlin had experience working for other East India companies, and of course understood that it was an unrealistic fantasy, and whether he could meet the Cantonese Jiedu envoy was a question.

But this time is different.

This time, you can really meet the emperor, or at least you can meet high-ranking officials at the level of earl and above.

The conspiracy in Stockholm and Gothenburg worked, and Carl Gironberg was sure that he could run the Reichstag, and in his capacity as Minister of State, he gave the envoy a negotiating floor that only the Minister of State and the King could authorize.

And assured that when he returned to Sweden, the parliament would pass amendments to the bill.

Bribery, lobbying, may not mean the same thing, but at least in Sweden at this time, it is about the same.

The Swedes were stirred up populist revenge sentiments, and the Swedish shares of the East India Company were not large.

The interests of the corporation may not be the interests of Sweden, but they can be pretended to be the interests of the Swedish people.

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In the vast expanse of Siberia, walking the Russian legacy.

This is not the first Russian envoy corps, after the Battle of Heilongjiang a few years ago, Russia sent an envoy corps, and Dashun also came to attend the coronation of the Tsar.

But this time, something is different.

Count Osterman is not a duke, but he is much more powerful than those dukes in Russia, and he was originally going to send a duke there, but at this time he was replaced by an earl, which shows that he attaches more importance to it.

Historically, when Empress Anna was orphaned before her death, it was this person and her mistress who were present, and they could be described as important ministers.

Whether it is the Westernization Party, the Old Guard Party, or the German Party, this time it is surprisingly unanimous.

Whether it is the trade volume of the Selenga River, or the military strength of the Dashun army after the reform, or the unsmooth war against Turkey, or the threat of Sweden......

In short, in the attitude of the East, the Russians put aside their partisanship and confirmed the bankruptcy of Peter's plans for the East.

Unlike the old Count Tolstoy who was forced to death by Liu Yu last time, this time Count Ostermann did not go to take the blame, but to do real diplomacy.

All parties in Parliament, as well as the Tsaress, explicitly authorized him to make concessions on the demarcation of the border in exchange for peace in the East.

Unfavorable treaties are like having children.

The first time, there were many difficulties and dangers, and there was a lot of pain; Once raw and twice cooked, there are more raw and smooth.

This time, there is no need to take the blame.

On the contrary, in the extremely bad diplomatic situation, if a non-aggression pact can be signed between the two sides, even if some land is given up, it will be a great merit.