The wooden house is leaky.

After Liu Yu pushed the door in, the cold air brought made the flames in the fireplace scream, like a wild ghost fire in a cemetery meeting a Taoist priest's wooden sword.

The Duke of Qi followed, and the old Count Tolstoy lay on the bed, covered with a fluffy and smooth fur.

After seeing Liu Yu, the old earl didn't even have the strength to greet him with the elegance of a nobleman, but he rolled his eyes, stretched out his finger, and motioned to his entourage to lift down the whining kettle burning on the fireplace and make two cups of tea.

Before the tea was finished, there was a violent coughing sound that wanted to tear out the lungs.

His red-white face was covered with sweat, and sweat struggled through the folds of the eighty-two-year-old.

Every breath felt like pulling a battered bellows, a sound that must have been familiar to the blacksmiths in the battalion, and looked like it was going to end.

Liu Yuxin said that this is the matter? Well, this is also an equal treaty in my hand, and that's it when I sign an equal treaty?

Not really, as if you were signing it for the first time. Didn't you just sign with the Turks once before and lose the mouth of the Don River? It seems that you were also in charge of Turkey at that time, right?

Thinking of the old man's great-grandson, Liu Yu thought to himself, maybe how Tolstoy would arrange himself in the future.

There is a way that the country's unfortunate poets are prosperous, realist literature has one stone, the Rakshasa has five buckets, the Gallic chicken occupies three buckets, and the rest of the countries are divided into two buckets. Maybe Repin will be able to paint a famous painting in the future, Count Tolstoy's reply to the Chinese?

In the confusion of thoughts, Qi Guogong took the lead in greeting, and Liu Yu could only translate Qi Guogong's greeting.

After a little politeness, I couldn't wait to take out the papers.

The old earl was neither surprised nor angry, but just blinked calmly and motioned for Liu Yu to flip in front of him and let him confirm it one last time.

Whether there are any mistakes, whether there are any unclear places.

The retinue and adjutants were beside them, but the old earl did not need their help.

Instead, let Liu Yu hold it up in front of his eyes.

The Latin version was finally confirmed, and a hoarse voice uttered a word.

Someone understood the word, took out a reddish candle and approached the fireplace. Pull out a still burning stick from the fireplace and light the red candle.

The old arm trembled and stretched out from the fur, the ring that represented his identity and mark, and tried to hang on the shriveled oak-like fingers, trying not to fall.

The guards took whale oil, dipped some in it with a very fine brush, and applied it to the ring engraved with the seal.

Tilt the candle and drip the melted wax oil onto the place where it is signed.

The old earl's hand stretched forward, trying to imprint the seal on the melted wax before it solidified, but it was too late.

When it was stretched out, the wax solidified.

If it is three times, Liu Yu can't wait.

As soon as the wax was dripping, he grabbed the old earl's wrist and flipped it vigorously, pressing the ring on his finger heavily against the melted wax.

A clear imprint leaped onto the paper, next to which was the seal and signature of the Duke of Qi.

This almost barbaric behavior frightened the Russian guards, who were called barbarians.

The old earl looked at the clear wax marks, as if a fish had been thrown out of the water into a pot where the water was not yet hot, and exuded its last strength.

did not accuse Liu Yu of being rude, returned to the light, and said another word at Liu Yu.

"Please hurry. Thank you for your help. ”

This time, the words are very clear, but one word of Zhongqi is weaker than the other, and it seems that it will not work.

Liu Yu understood.

Reaching out and snatching the candle from the attendant's hand, he clipped it in his hand, and lifted his sable fur to block the wind that came in everywhere, so that the flame of the candle burned more vigorously.

Repeating the action just now, feeling the old earl's hand getting stiffer and stiffer, Liu Yu grabbed his hand and pressed the candle mark on the remaining five pieces of paper.

After pressing the wax oil, the old man actually squeezed out a little strength and nodded at Liu Yu to express his gratitude.

Then the brown eyes turned slightly, staring at the paper in Liu Yu's hand, Liu Yu then understood, and took the six pieces of paper to the old earl's eyes in turn.

The old man carefully and carefully checked the seal for the last time, used his last strength to show his last stubbornness, turned his head, and no longer looked at Liu Yu.

The old earl on the bed may have known that he had reached the last moment, and he did not avoid Liu Yu by the excitement of returning to the light, perhaps because he was afraid that there would be no time, so he stretched out his finger and pointed to a few pieces of paper on the table next to him.

There were only a few sheets of paper, and the words on them added up to maybe two or three pages, and the first page had the title written on it.

Memoirs of Adrianople diplomacy.

His last strength was not used for his final prayers, but for the last words of his life.

"Please bring it back to Petersburg."

Then, the arms drooped, the chest kept collapsing downward, and there was a slight gasping sound in the throat.

"Uh......"

Liu Yu looked back at Qi Guogong, who was also looking at him.

The two of them stared at each other for a while, and then took off their hats.

The dead are the greatest, and although the death of the old earl has nothing to do with them, it has always caught up.

According to the etiquette of the dynasty, there should be three incense sticks, and now that it is standing outside the national border, it will follow the customs.

Take off your hat, bow in greeting, and quickly slip away.

The guards did not stop it, it seems that the old earl had already guessed that there would be such a scene, and arranged it in advance.

It wasn't until he retreated into the boundary pillar that Qi Guogong breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and felt palpitations.

Forcing people to death in negotiations is really the first time Qi Guogong has seen it.

"Normal, normal, you are really ...... Hey, what shall I say? ”

Liu Yu was stunned and said: "Could it be that Cheng Guogong shouldn't have said it, fortunately I made a decision, otherwise I wouldn't have had a chance to complete the signing?" ”

"That being said, but ......"

"Guogong rest assured. This old man was sober the whole time, and there was no problem. Besides, when he was born, Taizu had not yet collapsed in Jiugong Mountain. People are born, old, sick and die, seventy can be called ancient, and he is more than eighty. Moreover, this is not the first time he has signed such a treaty. I'm also thinking about the Rakshasas. ”

"How?"

"He's going to die, who will come to the rakshasa? Peter is dead. If Peter is alive, whoever loses the battle will sign it, and it is a big deal to fight back in the future, and no one will dare to say anything if the prestige is there. Now that Peter is dead, his wife is dead, and the Rakshasa courtiers are busy with party strife, who will come to this troubled water at this time? He died, and the people in Petersburg were afraid that it would be too late to rejoice. ”

Qi Guogong shook his head slightly, although the truth is such a truth, but this kind of thing is really the first time I have seen it, and I always feel that it is a little too persecutive, and it is really not the temperament of the Heavenly Dynasty.

Back in his tent, he carefully packed the three pieces of paper into a wooden box and carefully stored them.

When the paper was put into the wooden box and the lid was closed, Liu Yu and Qi Guogong breathed at the same time.

It's finally over.

It's like a dream, the bottom line of the imperial court is Heilongjiang, but the two of them blackmailed the border to the north for thousands of miles.

Now that the treaty has been signed, it is difficult to go back.

"In this way, you only need to wait for a new envoy sent by the Rakshasa to follow you into Beijing. The rest of the boundary pillars and so on, just leave someone here to deal with it. ”

Qi Guogong stroked the box again, as if playing with a rare treasure.

After a while, he said: "This treaty is everything else, but there is one thing I don't quite understand." Since it is an open port, isn't it for the purpose of collecting taxes? This tax rate is so low, how much money can be charged? ”

Qi Guogong didn't know that the emperor's internal money was going to reach out, and Liu Yu didn't say anything, but just smiled: "Guogong, how can there be two companies that sell the same thing, and they don't reduce the price but increase the price?" Tea and rhubarb cannot be produced by the Russians, but in the future, the Russians may be able to produce cotton cloth and so on. Now that the tariffs are low, in the future, the Russians in Siberia will inevitably use more Chinese cloth. ”

What does Russia have to sell to the Celestial Empire? The guns of the Tula Arsenal are not enough for himself, and Liu Yu really can't think of anything that needs to be taxed by the Russians.

Qi Guogong still didn't understand this simple mercantilist tariff problem, and asked rhetorically: "What is the benefit of the country if such a businessman benefits?" ”

"The country is not just a government treasury. In the future, if they trade with Westerners, raw silk, tea, etc., will have to be subject to export taxes, and they will not be able to produce them anyway. ”

"But there are other things that can't be heavily taxed, and that needs to be treated differently. For example, porcelain, the rebellion at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the turmoil in the south of the Yangtze River, I am afraid that Japanese porcelain will take the opportunity to export to the West, which needs to be investigated and selected how much tax to collect, so that it is difficult for Japanese porcelain to compete for the benefits of our dynasty. ”

Liu Yu roughly explained, and said: "Moreover, if heavy taxes are collected here, the Russians will not be able to profit from the operation of Europa, and they are afraid that the border port will be ruined." Although the tax was less, it was beneficial for the dynasty to have merchants come and go, and the population was stationed along the way. You can't just count the silver, if you only count the silver, the northland will lose money. ”

Qi Guogong pondered for a while, nodded and said, "Well, it makes sense." The disaster of shrinking the edge, the previous dynasty is a lesson, and it cannot only be counted as the surface of the silver coin. However, the first work that the court looks at must be the work of expanding the land. These things may not be cared about. ”

Liu Yu shook his head and said: "In terms of thirty years, expanding the soil is the first work. ”

"In terms of a hundred years, I think that it is better to send envoys to each other as the first merit."

"If the military revolution is unfavorable and Western learning is not prosperous, even if the land is obtained at this time, how can you know that you can't lose the soil after a hundred years? Therefore, what I am most concerned about in this negotiation is the exchange of envoys. I also asked Guogong to help his little nephew facilitate this matter after returning to the court. ”

Qi Guogong knew that Liu Yu had always cared about this matter, and he had said something like "not enough to sell" before.

Now that the treaty has been signed and completed, Liu Yu has made a great contribution. Since there was such a request, Qi Guogong agreed to it.

"I don't know much, but I can trust you. If you care so much, I will do my best to bring it to the end when I return. Moreover, in Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty, there was also a Hu Renfang. I have a heart for the Tang Dynasty, so I have to do it. You are weak and can't bear it, so I'll fight it. ”

Liu Yu solemnly bowed, and Qi Guogong also accepted it, which can be regarded as a wordless contract.

Two months later, into the New Year, the Count of Savoy, who had negotiated on the Russian side, finally reappeared.

Russia really went into chaos, not only was Menshikov, who had previously been in power, taken down, but the little tsar was determined to move the capital from Petersburg back to Moscow.

Qi Guogong has also said a lot of things about Rakshasa these days, and he is very happy: Peter moved the capital, Yongle moved to the north, and Zhao Kuangyin wanted to move to Luoyang. Liu Shouchang has been worried about the Rakshasa reform, the matter of enriching the country and strengthening the army, rest! The little tsar is only 11 years old, what does he know? The government of the DPRK will be controlled by the old party in Moscow, and the country will have no worries in the north for decades!

Count Sava did not mention the border treaty again, but sent the first official letter to the Duke of Qi after the signing of the treaty: Tsar Peter II will hold an enthronement ceremony next year, hoping that Dashun will fulfill the treaty and send a delegation to Moscow to watch the ceremony.

And he will also lead a huge mission of 1,500 people, following Qi Guogong and Liu Yu, to the capital to negotiate trade details, envoy stationing and other issues. The tea and rhubarb trade, which previously accounted for 5% of Russia's total import and export trade, must be restored as soon as possible.