The reason why Count Sarahulla was so confident in Ivan Sergeyevich's design was that the design of the bastion used by the other party was almost the most advanced in the world - the Vauban-style bastion.

The so-called Vauban fortress refers to the most proud fortress design fortification of Vauban by the military strategist who has just passed away for 16 years, and the Vauban type fortress designed by him is built according to the terrain, the internal structure is so complex that it is dazzling, and its defensive ability is even more adapted to local conditions and is very powerful.

Before Vauban was born, European fortifications had begun to undergo great innovations due to the advancement of artillery, because in this era, the role of artillery made a large number of walls useless - stone cannonballs could easily break through walls, and metal cannonballs could penetrate the parapets between pillboxes, and even the tallest castles could not avoid being breached.

Therefore, in this era, the Western military architectural design gradually changed its thinking, in order to avoid the ballistics of artillery, they chose to abandon the tall and strong parapet walls and towers that reached into the sky, so that the castle was closer to the ground, with a better concealment effect, and in the construction of the castle, strict geometry was also incorporated - all the side fortifications in the castle were basically composed of trapezoids and triangles, forming a more stable and solid structure.

By the time Vauban came to prominence, the design of Western bastions had entered a new era, and with the arrival of Vauban the design of bastions began to develop in the direction of extremes, with convex walls and impressive parallel trenches...... A lot of new thinking was applied to the construction of the fortress, and at the same time, it achieved excellent results, because everyone had nothing to do with his fortress.

Since you can't beat him, let's join him.

Under the influence of this thinking, many places began to learn from his Vauban fortress, forcing de Vauban to create a Vauban-style attack, that is, to attack the castle he designed.......

With the spear of the son, the shield of the attacker. This phrase was perfectly interpreted in Vauban, so that after his death, the Vauban-style fortress was still very popular, and even the experts of the Russian Empire worked very hard to learn this method of building the fortress, and Ivan Sergeyevich was an outstanding representative of it.

"Lord Count, according to current estimates, Vladivostok will be able to initially reach a scale by the second half of next year, and will have a certain defensive capability." Ivan Sergeyevich, after introducing the details of the fortress, finally added a summary.

"The second half of next year? Can't it be earlier? ”

Count Sara Vulla frowned, he didn't dare to bet that Ning Chu would not start a war in the first half of next year, how could Vladivostok, which was halfway repaired by then, be able to resist Ning Chu's attack?

Ivan Sergeyevich patiently explained: "Your Excellency, at the moment we do not have enough manpower, and the current Tatars alone are not enough to speed up the progress of the project, and I am not confident that it will be completed in the first half of the year unless other Russian soldiers are also involved in the construction of the fortress." ”

Count Sara Gulla smiled and said, "Lack of people, I will send you a new batch of laborers at once, those damned Tatars have thousands of them, and it is enough to build the fortress....... Anyway, it's all Tatars, and it doesn't matter if they're dead, just catch some when the time comes. ”

Hearing the understatement in Count Sara's tone, Ivan Sergeyevich couldn't help but have a smile on his face, and said: "Since that's the case, then I understand that there are too many damn Tatars, they are like locusts everywhere, and it's a good thing to be able to consume more." ”

For these two people, whether it is the Eight Banners or the Han Chinese, in the eyes of them Russians they are only insignificant Tatars, who are not qualified to occupy such a good land, and as for life, it is even more worthless.

On the contrary, for them, the power of the Russian Empire to extend to the Far East is very limited, it can be said that in addition to the 1,500 people brought from St. Petersburg at the moment, there will be no more people, and in order to supply these 1,500 people, it is necessary to mobilize the forces of the entire Far East and even in the Kyakhta direction, and such a precious force naturally cannot be used to build cities in the ice and snow.

"In that case, when the time comes, the construction of fortifications in other parts of Vladivostok will begin, and the construction period should be able to catch up with the first half of next year. If nothing else, I'll go back first. "Seeing that the labor affairs were settled, Ivan Sergeyevich was very satisfied.

Count Sarahula waved his hand and said with a smile: "Let's not be busy leaving, I brought back some vodka from St. Petersburg before, so you might as well have a few drinks together before leaving." ”

"Vodka? That's good stuff! ”

Ivan Sergeyevich's eyes lit up, and his nose even twitched, as if he wanted to smell vodka, after all, for the Russians in the Northland, for this kind of demonic invention, no matter what can be done, it can not only make people warm in the cold winter, but also soothe the lonely heart.

However, the Russians in the Far East today cannot drink vodka, not to mention other alcohol, because in the desolate and lonely Far East, food is always the most important material, and if precious grain is used to make wine, even Count Sarahulla will not tolerate it.

But for an alcoholic like Ivan Sergeyevich, the days without alcohol made him lose half of his vitality, and the itching of his liver and lungs made him almost crazy, which is why Count Sara Hura claimed to have vodka, he was so excited.

"To celebrate the accession of Her Majesty the Great Empress, cheers!"

The sparkling liquor collided in the glass, and everything seemed to be so beautiful. Just a few years later, the last impression of this day on Count Sarahulla was the last peaceful winter.

.........

The bank of the Qinhuai River can be called a ten-mile pink tent, large and small restaurants are lined up, many of them are the famous gold caves in Beijing, there is always a lot of traffic on weekdays, so lively.

Among them, there is a very conspicuous pavilion, called Soft Cui Lou, but today it is decorated with lanterns everywhere, which looks very conspicuous, with the traditional Chinese attic design, which makes people feel unaware of it at a glance.

But if people really walk in, they will actually be surprised, because there are not too many Chinese people in the soft green building at this time, but there are blond and blue-eyed Westerners everywhere, and they are almost all famous figures in the city of Nanjing, but today they are all gathered here to welcome the new British ambassadors, French ambassadors and Swedish ambassadors.

In the past, when Western countries had not yet sent envoys to Ningchu, almost a lot of related diplomatic work was directly carried out by the commercial representatives of European countries in Nanjing, among which the Frenchman Wei Desheng was a national broker serving many governments, and there were several such people in Nanjing, so naturally they would not miss this key banquet.

In addition to these Westerners, there were also the gentry of the great clans and the officials of the imperial court in the Jiangnan area, who of course gathered not to welcome these Westerner ambassadors, but because the emperor would come to the banquet tonight to meet with several ambassadors.

As for why he didn't choose to meet a few ambassadors in the court, but met in private like this, everyone didn't quite understand, but everyone knew one thing in their hearts, that is, when the emperor chose to do this, there would naturally be an emperor's reason.

Song Enming, the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, held red wine in his hand, looked at the British ambassador Pierre Gubert, the French ambassador Alfre Koeman, and the Swedish ambassador Count Eriksson, and said with a smile: "Welcome several ambassadors to Nanjing, I hope you can have a good memory in Nanjing." ”

British Ambassador Pierre Gubert actually didn't really want to come to the banquet as soon as he got off the ship, he was willing to spend more time to really understand the current Ning Chu, rather than following the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in front of him to say polite words, but what to say somewhere has become the instinct of this kind of person, and said softly: "Thank you, I believe that in Nanjing, you can gain something different." ”

The French ambassador, Alfrey Koman, shrugged his shoulders and said, "Thank you very much for your kindness. ”

As for the Swedish ambassador, Count Eriksson, who already had a mission on his part this time, his attitude was much more enthusiastic, and he said: "In any case, Nanjing will not let me down, will it?" ”

Song Enming smiled slightly, neither looking too enthusiastic nor fake, he said softly: "Dachu is a friendly and peaceful country, and naturally welcomes the arrival of friends. ”

British Ambassador Pierre Gubert nodded meaningfully, he didn't know anything, through the previous information, he had a deep understanding of the real contradiction between Ning Chu at present, and he already had a very accurate judgment in his heart, that is, the war between Ning Chu and the Russian Empire would not be too far away, so when he heard Song Enming's words at this time, he heard some other meanings at the moment.

Seeing that Pierre Gubert had nothing else to say, the Swedish ambassador, Count Eriksson, hurriedly asked, "His Majesty the Emperor will be here tonight, right?" ”

"We have no right to inform Your Majesty's whereabouts, and your envoy should not inquire at will, this is a very dangerous move in our country."

Song Enming replied seriously, but it was a nail that Count Eriksson touched without being soft or hard.

Seeing that Song Enming was reluctant to answer, everyone's interest decreased slightly, when a banquet did not have the host he should be there, no matter how luxurious it was, it would lose its original meaning.

But fortunately, the news was still very accurate, and it didn't make the Westerners wait too long, Ning Yu walked into the banquet hall under the protection of the guards, and suddenly everyone's eyes focused on it, but Ning Chu's courtiers naturally bowed humbly, and other Westerners also began to salute scattered.

Ning Yu took a look at the people present, although the atmosphere was very monotonous on the whole, but he didn't come for the banquet this time, so naturally he wouldn't use this again.

"You don't have to be polite, I came here today to have fun with the people, and I also came to meet our friends by the way."

"Thank you, Your Majesty the Great Emperor!"

The Westerners saluted, and in their world, attending a party with the king was not a very noteworthy thing, and there was no need to be overly nervous about it, and the Emperor Ningyu in front of him was obviously very approachable like the emperor they had seen before.

Then Ning Yu shook hands with everyone and greeted each other, which was a preliminary acquaintance with these Western ambassadors who would be stationed in Nanjing for a long time in the future, and everyone had a friendly smile on their faces, and everything seemed to be so harmonious.

For a banquet, no matter how many people come, they will eventually form circles, big circles and small circles, and small circles and core circles, and Ning Yu, as the emperor, naturally does not need to say much, in addition to Song Enming, the secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the translators, there are only three people: Pierre, Alfre, and Erikson.

Ning Yu's gaze stayed on the faces of the three of them for a moment, and said with a smile: "The three of them have come to Da Chu from thousands of miles away, presumably they should have some diverse cognition of Da Chu, I don't know if a few of them can speak out?" ”

"Huaxia is a great and unique place, the culture is brilliant and introverted, the people are well-educated, and even the city is so beautiful." British Ambassador Pierre Gubert was still the first to speak, as if the three of them had been divided into speaking orders by national power rankings.

Ning Yu did not affirm or deny these words, but looked at Alfrey and Eriksson and smiled: "What about you? ”

The French ambassador, Alfred Coman, said softly: "Your Majesty, the Great Chu I see is a great country in the East with great potential. ”

Ning Yu was still noncommittal, and looked at the Swedish ambassador Eriksson, his expression still unchanged.

The Swedish ambassador Eriksson thought longer than Pierre and Alfre, and he pondered for a moment before he spoke: "Although I don't know much about China, I think that Sweden and China need to deal with a common enemy in the north. ”

The meaning of the words has basically been shown nakedly, I am here to find allies, hurry up and join the big anti-Russian coalition!

Interesting..... Really interesting.....

Ning Yu had a smile on his face, the reason why he took great pains to set up this banquet with a Western flavor was actually to really get to the bottom of it, not just say some wasteful nonsense in the court, because many things really can't be done in a high-sounding state.

"In addition to wanting to hear your true thoughts, I have invited you to the banquet today, in large part because I hope to promote friendship between several countries."

Ning Yu said slowly: "There are common interests between our countries now, and naturally there is room for friendship, and as long as friendship can be reached, it can truly change the pattern of the world." ”