On 31 January 1683, Gawain arrived in the port of Kajibeyi in heavy snow and stayed at a local trading post run by the Genas.

"Next to the Gena* is the Venetian trading station, hehe. It is also interesting that this pair of old enemies, who have fought for countless years, fought from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea, but did not expect that they would live next to each other. Wearing a thick mink coat, Gao Wengang stood on the vast snowfield outside the business station, Gao Wengang said with a smile.

Not far ahead is the once-turquoise Black Sea, but it will be covered in a thick layer of snow and ice. There was no one on the ice, and occasionally a sleigh rowed by, and then it was silent again, so quiet and quiet that people forgot that hundreds of thousands of soldiers from various countries were fighting hundreds of kilometers away.

Of course, this is already the territory of the Crimean Khanate, although it is a border, but because of the good geographical location, more than 3,000 foot cavalry are stationed to guard against the attacks of the so-called "bandits" who flow from neighboring countries - don't doubt this, although the Crimean Khan and the Duke of Moldavia are both vassals of Sultan Mehmed IV, but this does not mean that there is a harmony between them, there are no major conflicts, but small actions are continuous - so the environment is quite comfortable, and at this moment because of the battle of Vienna is required to send troops, send food, The Principality of Moldavia, which sent money and made a mess, was very different.

The manager of the Gena* Asian trading station is a member of the Doria family, and Paul Doria's nephew Victor has been serving here for several years, which can be regarded as a kind of experience and gilding. As a young man close to the inner circle of the family, Victor has mastered too many transactions related to the Doria family and even the Republic and the people of the East Coast, so he is still relatively polite to Gao Wengang, sparing no effort to entertain him, and will not hide anything he has to say.

"Mr. Special Envoy, of course we can sit comfortably in the house, drinking coffee while the fire is roasted, and watching the beautiful snow in the wilderness. But at this time, the Ottoman army far away in Vienna will probably hate this icy and snowy climate, right? I don't know if the supply of supplies from the front line is sufficient or not, I feel that it is difficult, and when it snows, there is nothing, this is the power of the 'Winter General', the Ottomans are too confident. Victor also stood behind him, looking at the strange snow scene in the distance, and said to Gao Wengang: "The new Grand Viqi is not prestigious, and the Sultan also wants to establish his authority, a hastily facilitated war of the country, a complete tragedy, what else can we say?" ”

"The defeat of the Ottoman Empire will not do your country any good, right? You know, the Russians are still eyeing it. You have invested so much on the northern shore of the Black Sea that, in a way, it and Sicily can even be called your country's two major food supply bases. Aren't you worried about this important position? Not to mention that you have also set up trading stations in Kajibey, Kafa, Azov and other places, and you have certain commercial interests, are you really not worried at all? Gawain just turned around, looked at Victor, and asked with a smile.

"Don't worry at all, it must be fake." Victor honestly replied, "But seriously, what's the use of worrying? Unlike the Venetians, we have no territorial disputes with the Ottoman Empire, our interests here are only investment and commerce, and even because relations between the two countries are still acceptable, our investment in the Black Sea is much greater than that of the Venetians. We can only sit and wait, wait for new news to come, to wait for the situation to become clear. And until then, we are mentally prepared to accept all possible consequences. ”

"It's a positive state of mind." Gao Wengang approved. When he first arrived here, he already had a preliminary understanding, and learned that the Great Khan of the Crimean Khanate refused the call of Sultan Mehmed IV, and did not send troops to Hungary and Austria to fight, but chose to protect the territory and the people - do not doubt that the Crimean Great Khan of this era had the capital to do so, their independence was already very strong, and before the battle of Vienna in history, the cavalry they sent did not obey the orders of the Grand Viqi and the Sultan, did not participate in the battle, and returned to the country - this attitude, In itself is indicative of a concern, a concern about the Russian Empire, a strong enemy from the northern borders.

To this end, the Great Khan of Crimea also sent people to the territory of Western Ukraine to negotiate with the hetman chief who is now in power (the former Grand Duke of Western Ukraine, Khmelnytsky, the Younger, was unable to control the situation and had been executed by order of Sultan Mehmed IV). They were ordered by the Ottoman Sultan to spy on the Cossacks of Western Ukraine, so they were not polite at all, and they came to the door with a high-spirited warning, asking the Western Ukrainian side to strengthen their troops and prepare for war to prevent Samoilovich's Eastern Ukrainians from killing them.

As for the centaurs from Russia, the Great Khan of Glei no longer expects much help from Western Ukraine. In fact, if the Russian troops stationed in eastern Ukraine move west or south, these Western Ukrainian Cossacks, who have long been terrified, will not be of much use. Rather than counting on them, it is better to say that the tens of thousands of cavalry of the Crimean Khanate and the more than 10,000 Ottoman garrisons on the northern shore of the Black Sea are more reliable, and they are the backbone of the Russian invasion.

Some people may say, didn't the Russians have already signed a twenty-year peace agreement with the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate, how can they still go to war? Hehe, if you ask like this, it only shows that you underestimate the barbarism and shamelessness of the Russians! Unlike later generations, the truce agreements of this era still have some effect, and many countries still abide by them. For example, after the Fourth Austro-Turkish War, Austria and Turkey signed a truce for 20 years, and the Ottoman Turks waited until the expiration of the agreement in 1683 to send the declaration of war to Vienna - which proves that they did not shamelessly declare war - but a country like Russia does not necessarily abide by this kind of thing (historically they have openly torn up the armistice and launched the Russo-Turkish war in the middle), and the old tsar has just died of illness and the new tsar has succeeded to the throne, and they have plenty of incentives to do so. And this has always been one of Russia's basic national policies, and there will not be much resistance at home.

"Well, as you said, we can't do anything right now, so let's wait and see what happens next." Gao Wengang walked into the house and said helplessly. Now he can only wait, of course, this does not mean that he has to wait here, in fact he will only rest here for a day or two, and then he will continue to set off for the Crimean Khanate by land, and it is his retinue who will stay here to wait and collect news.

On March 5, 1683, after more than a month of arduous trekking, Gao Wengang and his party finally arrived in the territory of the Crimean Khanate. Here, as if by the sudden arrival of good fortune, they soon heard the news of the Great Khan of Gree, who was at this time leading people on a hunting patrol on the northern shore of the Black Sea - called hunting, but in fact it was to reorganize the army and strengthen the guard.

After learning of the whereabouts of Gao Wengang, the plenipotentiary envoy to the East Coast, the Great Khan also met with him as soon as possible. At the Great Khan of Grei, the tall envoy was received with great pomp, a far cry from the neglect he had received in various places, and it seemed to him that the reason why the Ottomans were so slow to respond and not so enthusiastic about the advice of the people on the east coast probably had something to do with the fact that they had not yet felt the pain in their skin? After all, they have been strong for so long, and they have looked down on Europe for so long, whether they have this qualification or not, it is quite possible that their thinking will not change for a while. They will probably only be touched by a relatively heavy defeat and faced with a severe strategic environment embattled, right?

Gao Wengang even guessed that after experiencing the unhappiness and even defeat of the siege of Vienna, the Ottomans would probably have a clear understanding of their own strength, right? At that time, it should be much less difficult for people from the East Coast to come to talk about things again. I just don't know how much land will be left in the Balkans, the most elite of the Ottoman Empire. You know, new lands like Hungary, Transylvania, Moldavia, etc., which are not many years old, have unstable people's hearts and weak foundations, and if they can't keep them, they will be taken away by others, which will hurt the muscles and bones. Even if Christian ghettos such as Serbia, which had ruled for many years, were taken up by others, it would take a lot of effort to get them back.

At this time, the strength of the Ottoman Empire will be greatly reduced, and its value will also be greatly reduced, which is undoubtedly not in the interests of the East Coast Republic of China. Therefore, this is why Gawain just met with Alberto Morosini in Zakynthos before, and asked the Republic of Venesia to "take it easy" and not take the opportunity to fight the Ottoman Empire to the death, after all, they have a naval advantage, and the Ottoman Empire is not easy to deal with. In order to wake up the Venetians, Gao Wengang pointed out that once the Kingdom of Austria is strong, it will also pose a great threat to the Republic of Venetian, hoping that this will touch the Venetians, so that they will not make the Ottoman Empire too miserable and lose too much strength.

Well, let's turn our attention to the side of the Crimean Khanate again. Here, Gao Wengang finally got the news that he had not received on the road, and that was the final result of the Battle of Vienna. The Great Khan of Gree, who had already collected information through the scouts, told Gao Wengang that the 150,000-strong army led by Mustafa Davizi had finally failed! It is necessary to divide troops to block the reinforcements of the German princes, and to divide troops to guard against the Ottoman army of tens of thousands of Austrian troops led by Charles V, and there are very few troops that can be used to attack the city, coupled with the severe cold climate in winter, the personnel are seriously frostbitten, and the lack of military food, materials, and artillery, and the more than 100,000 troops who have been unable to attack for a long time are forced to retreat. At this time, they had already lost more than 20,000 elite soldiers in the siege battle, and no less than 10,000 were killed or wounded under the command of "General Winter".

Retreating in front of the enemy was never a simple task, on the contrary, it was a very test of the overall quality of the troops and the level of the commander, and the Ottomans were undoubtedly extremely lacking in this. Their retreat, with its complex composition, low morale, and lack of supplies, was a disaster from the start, and when the Polish king Jan Sobieski flanked them with the famous Polish hussars, the Ottomans' already somewhat chaotic retreat order immediately collapsed, and the generals and lords began to fight on their own, and the army commander Mustafa Davizi did not even know where his men were and what they were doing, and the good retreat turned into a rout of astonishing proportions.

In the midst of this rout, the allied forces of Christendom, who had been waiting for their work and supplies, did not waste the perfect opportunity given to them by God, and began a light pursuit of the tail, striving to expand the results of the battle. In this unprecedented pursuit, the Polish cavalry once again played a decisive role, repeatedly crushing all resistance of the Ottoman infantry group with fierce charges, leaving it in constant disarray, and then divided, surrounded, and annihilated by the German coalition of more than 50,000 men (led by Charles V, Duke of Lorraine and Prince Eugen) who pursued from behind.

After learning this expected news, Gao Wengang was also a little speechless for a while, thinking in his heart how many men and horses and materials the Ottomans had lost this time, how much land they had lost, how far the Austrians would chase and kill, and whether the Venetian fleet had been dispatched! Thinking about these things hurt his brain a little, but he didn't have a clue, so he could only take one step at a time.

After that, Gao Wengang was even more determined to contact the Russian side, on the one hand to test their tone - he did not believe that the tsar had not received similar messages - on the other hand, to exhort Russia to be cautious, not to brazenly tear up the armistice agreement that had just been signed and provoke a war with the Turks. It is a pity that the envoys he sent to eastern Ukraine and the Don Valley respectively have not returned, perhaps because the situation in Moscow is somewhat chaotic now (the old tsar has just died of illness, the young new tsar Peter is not on the throne, and the court is in charge), the Russian local officials only promised to return the letter to Moscow, and there is no guarantee of any response. However, as soon as Gawain saw their unenthusiastic appearance, he guessed that most of them were inconclusive, and the influence of the East Coasters on the question of whether or not to start a war with Ottoman Turkey on the Moscow side could not be said to be absent, but the priority must not be very high, and it was not even as influential as some of its old ministers.

The Russians probably thought that instead of talking to the people on the east coast about Ukraine and the Black Sea, it would be better to talk about trade in the colonies of the Far East.