On the vast blue sea, an old British cruise ship is slowly moving forward, driven by the strong sea breeze, the tall sails are spectacular, and the British flag flying on the mast is also dancing up and down with the sea breeze.

The ship, named Shire, was originally a warship of the Royal Navy, which was later sold to the British East India Company and converted into a cruise ship. But even so, the dense gun emplacements under the side of the cruise ship are still warning every ship on the sea that it is not a sheep to be slaughtered.

The Charles departed not from England, but from France, carrying a few mysterious guests, passing through the Atlantic, rounding the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean, and then, after a short stop in Basra and replenishing fresh water, turned to the east, and, after a long voyage, gradually entered the Strait of Malacca.

"I'm about to arrive at that magical empire......."

"Maybe it's not amazing, maybe Marco Polo is just a sophisticated liar......"

"But no matter what, we're on a mission, aren't we?"

In the slightly luxurious cruise ship, three Westerners are warming themselves in front of the fireplace in the lounge, most of them with a little warm smile on their faces, but the confrontation in the words reveals a little dissonance.

In fact, the identities of these three men were very extraordinary, one of them was the white-haired old man who was the British ambassador to Ninchu Pierre Gubert, while the other was a slightly bloated middle-aged man was Alfre Koeman, the French ambassador to Ninchou, and the last fair-skinned middle-aged man was Count Eriksson, an envoy sent by King Frederick I of Sweden.

The reason why the three of them went to the East on a cruise ship was due to the fact that Ernst's previous work, together with the reports of the envoys of many countries in Asia, prompted the decision of Great Britain, France, and Sweden to send envoys to China, to promote direct trade with China, and to achieve many other projects, and for these three countries, they had a common interest in the visit.

Speaking of the current situation in Europe is not clear, although the smoke of the Great Northern War has gradually dissipated, but the hatred has not diluted, especially the situation between Sweden and Russia, but it is becoming more and more tense, if it is not for the efforts of the newly succeeded King Frederick I of Sweden to calm the domestic contradictions, I am afraid that another big war with Russia will start again.

For the rest of Europe, they were also inevitably affected by the Great Northern War. King George I of Great Britain and Hanover formed an alliance against Sweden with Denmark, Norway, Brandon Prussia and, most importantly, Russia, and succeeded in weakening Sweden's power in Europe.

In the Treaty of Stockholm in 1720, Hanover-Great Britain and Brandenburg-Prussia made a separate peace with Sweden and successfully divided Sweden's territory in North Germany, while France, with a certain anti-Russian tendency, chose to mediate to avoid the complete collapse of Sweden's power on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, which made Sweden's relations with France closer at that time.

Therefore, when Ning Chu, as a new force but a major strategic enemy of the Russians, appeared, King Frederick I of Sweden, who had just succeeded him for a few years, immediately couldn't bear it anymore and chose to send an envoy to China, so he happened to take the Shire to Nanjing together with the envoys of Britain and France.

This voyage, which shocked the countries of Europe, was hailed as a 'pioneering journey' to the Far East, but it was not clear whether it was friendship or hostility.

However, in the eyes of the world, the Russian Empress Catherine I, after hearing about this, only contemptuously said to the British ambassador to Russia, "Great Britain does not need to be so concerned about a barbaric and backward country." ”

For the rise of Ning Chu, the entire Russian Empire was quite annoyed, especially when the Qing Empire was completely swept away by Ning Chu like a garbage heap in just a few years, which made the nobles of St. Petersburg feel like they were on pins and needles, as if they were just a sick coyote around them, but now they have become a live tiger that can really eat people.

Perhaps arrogant, perhaps hostile, St. Petersburg did not think of sending an envoy to Nanjing, not even paying more attention - for now, they are still trying to find more room for expansion in the Swedish direction.

However, in fact, at this time in Europe, except for Russia, other countries had a vague impression of the East, and they were even more unclear about an empire like Ningchu, and the vast land of China and a large population also made Europeans very cautious - this is a large eastern country that can sit on an equal footing with England and France.

"The Russians seem to have made a good harvest in the Far East, maybe we will be able to see a big war in the Far East in the future, but compared to those gray cattle in Russia, I am really not optimistic about Ning Chu's efforts."

The British ambassador to China, Pierre Gubert, was a typical British knight, who looked at Alfrey and Count Eriksson and talked eloquently, but in fact he was also testing each other's intelligence.

Count Eriksson frowned, unlike Britain and France, this time King Frederick I of Sweden sent him to the Far East, obviously with a special purpose - to assess Ningchu's military potential as soon as possible, and to cooperate with it in the relevant military aspects as much as possible, so as to contain or even defeat the Russian forces in the Far East.

In the words of Frederick I, even if he loses the last silver coin on his body, he will support Ningchu to fight Russia - although Ningchu and Russia have not officially started a war, he believes that this day will come soon.

You must know that Sweden, which has experienced the tragic Great Northern War, is almost a real big loss, and the former ambition is naturally gone, but the hatred for Russia has become more and more intense, and almost every Swede wants to see Russia unlucky.

Therefore, upon hearing this assertion of the British Ambassador Pierre, Count Eriksson was somewhat instinctively disgusted, and said: "Ambassador Pierre seems to have never been to China, how can we conclude that they are not opponents of the Russians?" ”

The French ambassador on the side, Alfred Coman, liked to watch the British eat deflated, and he smiled at the moment: "Maybe Ambassador Pierre is a master of prophecy....... It's just that whether we can see this scene or not, we still need God's guidance. ”

Pierre didn't care about Alfre's ridicule, but sighed and said: "Actually, I didn't discriminate against Ning Chu in the slightest, and it wasn't that according to the collected information, this is a very great empire, and it has all the conditions for its rise, and now it is in the most critical period of change!" ”

"They had a very great emperor, who did not have the slightest arrogance, who invited Ernst to come to Europe a few years ago to collect talents, and succeeded in taking away many key scientific and technical materials and basic educational materials, and humbly studying together, so that the country has changed more and more in recent years!"

"The emperor of this country opened a newspaper, carried out land reform, carried out educational reform, and vigorously strengthened education, encouraged scientific research, and carried out all-round reform of the army, winning every crucial war, just like Peter the Great in the East, making Ning Chu grow to an almost awe-inspiring state!"

"However, this does not seem to be at all consistent with your previous judgment!" This information was not a secret, and that was why the king had sent him an envoy, so it was not very strange that Count Eriksson was even more strange about the inconsistent attitude of Ambassador Pierre.

"Time."

It was not Ambassador Pierre who answered the question, but the French Ambassador Alfre, who had just sat down, he dropped two words lightly, and then stared at Pierre with interest and said: "Peter the Great has died, but he has left a very powerful empire, and Ning Chu in front of him, no matter how deep his foundation, can hardly really compete with such an empire." ”

Ambassador Pierre nodded and said, "That's right, maybe if you give that Peter the Great of the East another ten years, he can really compete with Russia in an all-round way, but at the moment, he has no way to change the general trend." ”

..........

Ning Yu naturally didn't know about this conversation at sea, and he didn't want to wait for the so-called ten years.

How to attack Russia is actually a difficult question to answer in this era, because of the strategic depth of Russia's terror to the extreme, anyone who tries to answer it will eventually end up with the exam questions.

From the legendary commander to the mad painter, they all wanted to answer this exam question with a perfect score, but they almost fell into the sand because of the same question.

If you take into account that the legendary commander and the mad painter have not yet been born, Ning Yu is now the first person in the world to really answer the question, and for him, there is only one answer, cannibalization-differentiation.

It is an unrealistic question to completely occupy Russia, or to completely defeat Russia, and Ning Yu will not think about it at all, but it is still very possible to dismember it into several pieces and then swallow the largest piece of the north, especially without the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Of course, all this is based on a head-on defeat of the Russians, and if it is impossible to win, then any other ideas are superfluous.

As for saying no-fight? Ning Yu did not have this choice from the beginning, because if he wanted to fight for the territory of the north, he would inevitably clash with the Russian Empire that was advancing eastward, and with the factor of remnants of the Qing Dynasty, the last trace of peace between the two sides disappeared, and only the countdown to war remained.

Fortunately, in this era, he can become the enemy of all empires, even if Russia is strong at the moment, but across the vast Han Sea, it is difficult for him to put more forces in the Far East, and at present, he can put 1,500 people in Yunchun and Vladivostok, and he has done his best, and there are 10,000 people scattered in the Kyakhta direction.

On the contrary, Ning Chu already had a certain foundation in the north, and after solving the Mongolian problem, he could rely on the Mongolian tribes to provide logistical support, and at that time, there were many troops concentrated on the Far Eastern front, and it was no problem to maintain the need for 50,000 or 60,000 soldiers......

In order to better deal with the war against Russia, not only did the cabinet begin to prepare the storage of strategic materials, but even the Privy Council also launched a strategic deduction of the war against Russia, and formulated a number of related combat plans, the purpose of which was to use more preparations to have a greater victory rate in the future major war.

Ning Yu stood under the palace with his hands in his hands, looked at the goose feathers and heavy snow falling outside, and said softly: "Huaxia is in a critical period, if it is said that the expulsion of the Tatars to complete the unification is the beginning of the great cause, then the next twenty years will be the wind and clouds of the world, and Da Chu must no longer blind his eyes and ears." ”

"I have hundreds of millions of reputations and bodies, so I naturally don't care what future generations will say. But now, I will be the master of a generation, leading Huaxia to climb to the top of the world, are you willing to help me? ”

Cui Wancai nodded and said: "Your Majesty's policies, at first glance, it is confusing, but now it makes people feel a sense of sudden enlightenment. ”

The rest of the ministers are also average, shouting deeply, it's not that they have to be licking dogs, it's really that Ning Yu's achievements are really too great, and it can even be said that among the founding kings in Chinese history, there are not many emperors like Ning Yu who have achieved the country's integrity, governance and virtue.

On the one hand, with the efforts of Ning and Yu for several years, the Fu Han army recovered most of the current territory of China in almost the fastest time, and it was not far from the great unification, and in this process, there were not too many casualties at all, and the impact and damage caused by the war on the people was also very limited.

On the other hand, under the current rule of Ning Chu, the living standards of the common people have also made certain progress, in addition to increasing the area of newly cultivated land, the development of the industrial and commercial industry has also absorbed a large number of people, although it has not been long before the start of the industrial plan 1.0, but the factory area in Nanzhili has already shown the potential of the industrial age.

Finally, the determination of the "King James Constitution" and the suppression of the domestic gentry class made the folk customs suddenly change the decadence and corruption of the Qing Dynasty and began to gradually become positive, and the elevation of the status of the military class and the reform of education also made the lifeless folk customs be re-injected into the Han and Tang dynasties, and more people began to devote themselves to external development.

In the words of Wang Jingqi, editor-in-chief of "Qingliu Daily", in the newspaper, "This is destined to be the best era and the worst era." It's best because each of us can find our own place in Da Chu, and we don't have to be a slave anymore; The worst is because of His Majesty the Emperor, there is no other person to praise in this era—"

"Long live Your Majesty, your glory shines throughout China!"