In other words, the current situation within the Russian Empire can indeed be called a little delicate, especially in the matter of how to deal with the people of the East Coast.

The Russians are not stupid, they are not deaf and blind, in fact they can be called well-informed in Ukraine. Even in Western Ukraine, which was under Ottoman control, there were a large number of informants. Many of these informants were even Cossack officers, who had either been bribed by Russia to secretly pledge allegiance to the Tsar; or bought by the Eastern Ukrainian hetman Samoilovich with the aim of creating a united Ukrainian Cossack state; Or out of Orthodox religious sentiments, simply against the Ottoman Turks, in short, there are too many "two-faced" people there, and everything in Ukraine is actually not a secret to the Russians, including the actions of the East coasters, who are already deeply involved in it.

The Russians now have conclusive evidence that the port of Haji, the leased territory of the East Coast Republic of China on the Crimean Peninsula, has become the stronghold of a generation of anti-Russian activity in the Black Sea, where a large number of soldiers, intelligence agents, and bankers operate to advise the Ottoman Empire, help the Crimean Khanate increase its power, and do everything to prevent the Russian Empire from taking all of Ukraine and then drinking the Black Sea.

The Moscow side used to be very confused, they did not understand why the people on the east coast were so unfriendly to them, and they tried to create obstacles. Are they also interested in the fertile Ukraine? This is really crazy, their land is thousands of miles away in the Southern New World, how can they think that they can get land on the northern shore of the Black Sea?

Later, with the further deepening of exchanges between East and Russia, as well as the return of a few Russian officials and scholars who visited the East Coast, the Russians gradually understood why the East Coast people are so obsessed with interfering in the situation in Ukraine: It's not all for their own interests! For the benefit of trade in the Black Sea!

Of course, what those Russian scholars or officials know is not accurate, or only scratching the surface. They were naïve enough to believe that the people on the eastern coast had invested heavily in the Black Sea trade, building three major trade routes, including the Dnieper, Don and Danube, which had made a huge profit every year and greatly increased the influence of the state, so they were very uneasy about the occupation of Ukraine by the Russian Empire.

Therefore, Moscow has communicated with the people on the east coast several times in order to calm their supposed "anxious feelings" of the people on the east coast. They were even willing to sign an agreement with the East Bank Republic, endorsed by the Tsar himself, guaranteeing that the interests of the East Bank Republic of China in the Three Rivers trade would not be compromised. Not only are they not damaged, but the Russians are willing to carry out deep cooperation with the East Coast to make these trades bigger and stronger, and the profits will be shared by both sides.

To the embarrassment of the Russians, however, their proposals were invariably met with a cold reception from the East Coasters. Diplomats on the east coast showed no interest in their grand trade ideas, and maintained little more than superficial politeness, insisting that Ukraine must be "free" and "open" and that the Ukrainian Cossack hetmanship must maintain its independent status and be jointly supervised by all parties.

Undoubtedly, these conditions were unacceptable to the Russian Empire. The Russian Empire, which claims to be the successor of the Eastern Roman Empire, is determined to win Ukraine, because this is the national strategy that they have been working on for many years, drinking the Black Sea and recovering the Baltic Sea access to the sea, which is the highest pursuit of successive tsars, and it is also the political correctness of the All-Russian Gentry Conference. From this point of view, can diplomatic relations between East and Russia be good? Impossible!

So as you can see now, the people on the east coast have closed some commercial establishments in Moscow and Arkhangelsk, withdrawn from joint ventures such as the Arkhangelsk Gun Factory and the Little Star Shipyard, and interrupted military exchanges between the two countries, and cultural and commercial exchanges have also been affected by this, and basically the relationship between the two countries has regressed for more than ten years.

These were all things that had happened the year before and the previous year (1686), and the Russians were furious, but they did not attack the people on the east coast because of the fierce political struggle that was going on in Moscow at that time. But in any case, these measures of the East Coast people are actually very embarrassing to the Russians, they always feel that the Russian Empire has been good enough for the East Coast, and all they have given is super-national treatment, and they have of course selectively forgotten such as arbitrarily confiscating the goods of the East Coast merchants, arbitrarily raising tariff rates, favoring their own merchants in trade disputes, and forcing East Coast technicians to naturalize themselves into Russia, but in the end, they ended up like this, this East Coast people are really too hateful, too unreasonable!

However, even if it is very angry, Moscow still does not have a definite charter on how to deal with relations with East Europe. Even though there are more and more people who advocate being tough on East Timor, there are still many people who call for a calm approach, so this is the "delicate situation" that we talked about earlier. The Russians, in fact, are still somewhat reluctant to abandon the East Coast, a trading partner that can provide a large number of high-quality goods at favorable prices, even if the relationship between the two countries is close to freezing.

Of course, everyone knows that as the Russian Empire's invasion of Ukraine and the Crimean Khanate get closer, tough voices against the East will inevitably dominate. And as soon as the people on the East Coast officially make an action that is unfavorable to Russia, then neither the court nor the Duma will inevitably make the only choice, which is to completely sever diplomatic relations with the East Bank!

Just a month ago (May), the regent Princess Sophia's lover, Duke Golitsyn, known as the most beautiful man in Moscow, had been officially named the commander of the army, replacing the experienced veteran Romodanovsky, and drove with 100,000 Russian troops to a place close to the Crimean Khanate, and the war was already on the verge of breaking out.

In this operation, the Russian army will dispatch about 100,000 people, in addition to the 50,000 East Ukrainian Cossacks who assisted, with a total of 150,000 troops. However, there are also people in the Russian Empire who are proficient in military affairs who pointed out that the mobilization of troops was very hasty, especially since all kinds of materials needed for the war of the army were still not fully raised, which would have a negative impact on the morale of the troops.

In addition, the veteran Romodanovsky, who had been dismissed and returned to his home country as the former minister, also complained, believing that the new Golitsyn did not understand military affairs at all and would take the Russian army to the ditch. The veteran general, who was a senior aristocratic background, did not give face to the adulterers of Golitsyn and Sophia, accusing Sophia of not using the 100,000 imperial army as a tool for her political struggle, and rashly launching a war with such insufficient material, intelligence and diplomatic preparations, and was likely to encounter a crisis of defeat, so he strongly opposed this military operation.

"As soon as the 100,000-strong army is annihilated, then the whole south will be empty, and it is unacceptable that a large number of Tatars will pour into the provinces next spring to plunder." This was stated by Duke Romodanovsky at a meeting of the Duma.

Regrettably, however, he has now lost the right to decide, and Golitsyn, a scholar and sycophant who is fluent in many Chinese, is the commander of the army. He had already received an order from Princess Sophia to raise troops as soon as possible, and with Samoilovich's 50,000 Cossacks, he would rush to the Crimean Khanate with an unstoppable force, making sure to push the front to the shores of the Sea of Azov or the Black Sea.

The movements of the 150,000-strong army cannot be hidden from anyone! When the news reached the Crimean Khanate, the Great Khan of Grei issued a second assembly order, ordering the lords of all regions to quickly lead their troops to follow, all the way east, and set up the Golden Horde on the grassy plains on the northern shore of the Sea of Azov, ready to fight the Russians to the death.

The Great Khan also brought with him 30,000 new troops that had been trained at great expense. Armed with rifles and artillery imported from the east coast, this army also broke through the traditional steppe traps and had more elements of modern infantry combat, making it a strong force in the Crimean Khanate and the trump card of the Russian army.

In addition, it has to be mentioned that the East Coast Republic of China also sent the "Black Sea Detachment" (commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun) with the Portuguese garrison as the main body, with a total strength of about 5,500 people, including 3,000 "volunteers" temporarily recruited in Portugal and Italy.

According to the plan, they will not be directly involved in the war with the Russians. They were to go to the fortress of Perekop near the Tatar trenches and garrison there for defense, so that the Crimean Khanate could move its elite troops eastward to fight the Russians in the steppe.

There is no doubt that this arrangement is somewhat unacceptable to Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun, but it is also the result of a compromise between him and Special Envoy Gao Wengang after arguing. Gao strongly objected to Mao Jun taking these more than 5,000 people into the center of the battlefield, because he believed that if the battle was lost and the entire Crimean army was defeated, the army would be crushed to the ground. After all, on the battlefield where two or three hundred thousand troops are fighting, your thousands of people are just a small army, and maybe they will become cannon fodder and consume in a few days, which will greatly affect the ability of the people on the east coast to interfere in the Mediterranean, which is what Gao Wengang is more afraid of.

And from another hidden point of view, he is a civilian after all, and he still has a trace of illusion in his heart about restoring relations with Russia. As everyone knows, after you have shipped a large amount of arms to the Crimean Khanate on the east coast and helped them train many officers, do you expect the Russians to give you a good face? Impossible!

But Gao Wengang is so stubborn, he insists on not going to war with Russia head-on, as if he doesn't do so, the two countries won't officially tear their faces. Mao Jun was very unimpressed with this, he was more belligerent in his bones, and he was very eager to confront the Russians head-on, but considering that he would continue to work with Gao Wengang in the future, it was not good for the two sides to fall out, so in the end, he pinched his nose and agreed, and agreed to go to the Tatar trench to guard the fortress. However, he also left a secret door for himself, and obtained Gao Wengang's consent, that is, once the Crimean Khanate was unfavorable and needed help, he would rush to the battlefield with more than 5,000 people and act on camera.

To put it bluntly, when the Crimean Khanate was defeated, find a way to help them intercept it and gather as many troops as possible. The most important thing is that the Great Khan himself must run back safely, otherwise the situation will become unmanageable. After all, the Russians have assembled a large number of troops this time, and no one dares to say that they can win the other party, so they can only take one step at a time.

In mid-June 1687, the Russian army crossed the border line between Eastern Ukraine and the Crimean Khanate and entered its northeastern region. The Crimean Khanate reacted quickly, and the main forces began to move eastward along the coastline, killing in the direction where the Russian troops were. At the same time, the Ottoman fleet in Port Kaffa, which received the news, was also dispatched as soon as possible, and a large number of transport ships loaded with food, medicine, weapons and ammunition set sail across the entire Sea of Azov towards Port Azov, their military town near the mouth of the Don River.

This fleet is small and weak, but because the Russians don't have a strong fleet (I've heard that they build warships on the upper Don River, but this would obviously be far from complete), they can sail unhindered across the Sea of Azov, supplying a total of more than 90,000 troops (nearly 70,000 troops of the Crimean Khanate, more than 10,000 Cossacks in Western Ukraine, and more than 10,000 defenders of Port Azov), which is much more efficient than the poor logistics system of the Russians.

After carefully analyzing the situation, Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun judged that the main force of the Russian army should be heading towards the port of Azov, rather than attacking the northern shore of the Black Sea and western Ukraine as he had feared. It seems that they want to open up the mouth of the Don River more than the fertile Black Sea coast, so the Azov fortress near the mouth of the river, which connects the Sea of Azov and the Don River, is very glaring. Considering the strong defense of the Azov fortress and the large number of defenders, the Russian army almost rushed to take the city in a battle.

"This is a typical bad strategy made by people who don't understand military affairs!" Mao Jun had a very low opinion of the commander of the Russian army, Duke Golitsyn. He couldn't imagine that just a few years after the Battle of Vienna, there was still someone who wanted to gather more than 100,000 troops under a fortified city with such a short memory. Isn't the lesson of the Turks deep enough, not painful enough? More than 100,000 troops were defeated in a battle under the city of Vienna, and then they were chased and killed, and a large area of land was lost.

It can only be said that the Russians themselves died! Lieutenant Colonel Mao Jun sighed a little, he was now a little eager to pull his troops to the Don River, although this may have violated his previous agreement with Gao Wengang.

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