Understand.

Let's start with Russia, Europa's closest neighbor.

Captives from a fighting people?

Looking at the Russian prisoner kneeling on the ground, a smile flashed in Zhu Guoqiang's eyes.

In ten minutes, you quickly surrendered to a group of young soldiers, and you are also worthy of being called a "fighting nation".

Fighting nation, what nonsense.

What is the temperament of the Russians?

It is to bully the weak and fear the hard, and to coax them when they are cowardly, saying that they are tenacious, but it is just the tenacity of the whip, and when there is no whip, four or five million people surrender in more than a year, which is really enough to fight. It is not so much the tenacity of the fighting people as the fatherly smile that makes them have to fight.

If we want to talk about a fighting nation, we must be Chinese, and that is the real fighting nation. Think about the past, a handful of fried noodles, a handful of snow. The coalition forces of more than a dozen countries were defeated. This is the real fighting nation.

I really don't know how many people forget their ancestors, and they don't even want their own ancestors there, touting those white people.

Gotcha, it's far away.

"Dzerzhinsky."

It's a familiar name, as if you've heard it somewhere. Looking at the meek old Maozi who was kneeling on the ground, Zhu Guoqiang asked.

"Where are you from?"

Zhong Yunkuan can only barely speak Russian, not proficient, but there is no problem with basic communication.

"Yakutsk."

Dzerzhinsky, who was kneeling on the ground, was very well-behaved, and he couldn't help but be dishonest, from the uninhabited north, all the way south for thousands of miles, after crossing the Heilongjiang River, when passing through the fortresses along the way, everything he witnessed completely subverted his understanding.

Da Ming is more powerful than he imagined!

One after another, the bastions continued. And there were muskets that didn't need arquebuses, artillery that could fire grenades, and this city with a population of more than 100,000 people, and when he was amazed at the sheer size of the city, those Ming people also told him that there were more than a dozen big cities with a population of more than one million in Guannai.

O my God!

How powerful is Daming!

In fact, as an explorer, Dzerzhinsky, of course, knew about the "Ming Dynasty", and even they went all the way to the east in order to open up trade with the Ming Dynasty, but in any case, they never thought that the first contact would happen like this.

Of course, they couldn't have imagined that Da Ming was so powerful!

Out of the realization of his own weakness, Dzerzhinsky was naturally very polite, it was impossible to put his nostrils to the sky, and he was not ashamed to be cowardly, and he knelt on the ground and hurriedly replied:

"Your Excellency the General, we are from Yakutsk."

Kowtowing like a Mongol, Dzerzhinsky smiled and said:

"Your Excellency, I think there was some misunderstanding between us."

"Misunderstanding?"

Zhu Guoqiang sneered.

"Tell me, what is the misunderstanding?"

"General, we were ordered by the governor to look south for suitable land for cultivation, but we didn't expect to stray into the territory of the Ming Dynasty."

Dzerzhinsky said with a smile.

"Your Excellency, in the northern no-man's land, this kind of misunderstanding is inevitable, and I hope that your Excellency Haihan."

"Misunderstanding, is there indeed such a possibility?"

Zhu Guoqiang said with a smile:

"The Governor of Yakutsk has sent you to look for suitable land for farming, so that it is not suitable for growing food?"

Although he looked up some information about Yakutsk on the other side, Zhu Guoqiang still hoped to learn about the deployment of Russian forces in Yakutsk and the whole of Siberia through these captives.

Through Zhong Yunkuan's translation, Zhu Guoqiang fell silent when he learned that in the past ten years in the process of exploring Siberia, Bektov had established a series of cities such as Yakutsk, Chita, and Nerchensk, which had completely become the conquest of Siberia.

Historically, it was during this period that Russia completed its conquest of Siberia, and later generations once looked at this issue from the perspective of God: in 1644, the Ming Dynasty died, and the Qing army entered the customs to occupy China. Suppose the Qing Dynasty sent an expedition north, then Siberia is Chinese today. The area of land obtained by the Cossack expedition was already larger than the entire area of today's China. It's a pity that history can't be assumed.

But, now, history can change!

After learning from Dzerzhinsky's mouth that there are only a few hundred or more Cossacks in Yakutsk and other cities, Zhu Guoqiang thought about it and said.

"Dzerzhinsky, since it was a misunderstanding, and the explanation is clear, it is not impossible to release you, are you willing to bring a letter to your governor for me?"

"What?"

Eyes widened in surprise, Dzerzhinsky said.

"The General wants to release us?"

Surprisingly, neither Dzerzhinsky nor the others had any joy on their faces, and their expressions even became a little nervous.

"Why, aren't you happy to be released?"

"No, noble general, it's not that we don't want to be released, it's just that because we have surrendered, if we are released back, we will most likely be executed by the governor."

After all, in another world, after the Battle of Yaxa, there were also 100 Russians who stayed on the side of the Manchus for fear of being held accountable, became a member of the Eight Banners, and allowed them to marry the women of the bannermen.

You see, for the Manchus, all the barbarians could be their allies, but not the Han Chinese.

Why?

Because the Han people are their slaves. Can a slave be on an equal footing with his master? That's impossible.

"So, you don't want to go back to Yakutsk,"

That place is so cold, there may be no life when you go back, who wants to go back.

"In that case, are you willing to work for my Da Ming?"

After learning about the general's inquiry from the interpreter, Dzerzhinsky and others were overjoyed:

"We do, we do......"

didn't bother to retreat Dzerzhinsky, Zhu Guoqiang directly instructed Zhong Yunkuan.

"You pick a few smart and clever people from the school, and learn the Rus' language and script with them, how can you let others snore on the side of the couch, they have conquered such a large land in a few decades, far more than the Ming Dynasty, their ambition must not be vigilant, learn first, understand them, understand!"

"Yes, the minister understands!"

After Zhong Yunkuan and others retreated, Zhu Guoqiang told the staff in the palace about the current situation.

"Lord Shizi, are you preparing for the Northern Expedition?"

Yan Ermei hurriedly admonished:

"Lord Shizi, the current situation in the pass is unpredictable, and the Pingyu army has been preparing for entering the pass to suppress bandits, I am afraid that there is no spare strength to go north at present, even if we want to send troops to the north, I am afraid that we will have to wait until the matter in the pass is resolved."

"Yes, Lord Shizi, the most important thing is in the customs now."

Chen Changgeng looked at the prince and reminded.

"After all, the prince has already made a plan."

At the end of last year, Chen Changgeng resigned from the post of the chief of the palace and came to Dalian, and became the head of the general's mansion as soon as he entered the general's mansion.

In the face of his persuasion, Zhu Guoqiang was still a little unwilling, and sighed:

"I'm afraid I'm going to miss this opportunity!"

Seeing this, Chen Changgeng hurriedly comforted.

"Lord Shizi, didn't that Russ man say just now? Now Siberia has begun to enter the winter, from now until April next year, it is a cold winter wax moon, during this period, the northern Rakshasa people can not get any support, besides, from the Rakshasa to Yakutsk, the march will take at least half a year, and wait until next year, if the matter in the pass is almost solved, and then take advantage of the summer, directly send a partial division, expedition to Siberia, from the weather point of view, it is not suitable to send troops to the north at the moment. ”

"Indeed," Zhu Guoqiang nodded, and then said confidently.

"But for us Daming, in fact, these don't matter!"

Despite being very confident, self-confidence does not equate to arrogance. So then Zhu Guoqiang said cautiously.

"Of course, there is no harm in being cautious, after all, the way of using troops cannot only be dangerous, but also requires stability, as long as it is stable, there is no worry about defeating a strong enemy."

For the words of the prince. He agreed, of course. While he expressed his praise, he only heard the prince say with some sighs.

"It's almost the end of the year, and the next year will be the seventeenth year of Chongzhen."