Time flies.

At the end of the first decade after the 18th century, the world, at least almost all of Europe, was still under the shadow of war.

Because the Spanish Habsburg dynasty was extinct and the throne was vacant, the Bourbon dynasty of France and the Habsburg dynasty of Austria competed for the throne of Spain, which triggered a major war involving most of the countries of Europe. The war was essentially a situation in which France once again dominated Europe in order to contain the annexation of Spain. This led to the formation of a new grand alliance between half of Europe and France.

The war, which lasted for fifteen years, was undoubtedly extremely tragic for the countries of Europe, and the methods of war were very different from those of the previous century. The War of the Spanish Succession represents a major war like no other in military history. Although the industrial revolution of the Ming Dynasty had just affected Europe, during the war, the Ming Industrial Revolution brought great progress in military affairs, the warring sides used rifled rifles to fight, and at the end of the war, the paper-shell backloading guns were also put into the battlefield, the use of railways and steam ships to achieve rapid troop mobility and assembly, the use of steam warships for naval warfare, and even the ironclad ships at the end of the war.

The war resulted in the deaths of more than two million people on all sides, although France won the war. But it paid a high price, its military power was seriously weakened, and France lost its hegemony for a time. But it is still a major European power. The war triggered a revolution in military science and technology, and at the same time formed a new international political pattern - for the first time, the Ming Dynasty confirmed the dominance of the Ming Dynasty over Europe through military mediation.

Although during the war, a large amount of surplus arms were sold to European countries, but it was also the Ming who ended the war. While both sides of the war were still trying their best on the battlefield to defeat each other, none of them noticed that the Ming had infiltrated Europe from the other direction.

In the second year of the war, after six years of construction, the Ming finally built the railway into Moscow, leaving an extension to the north, which continued north after Russia seized the access to the Baltic Sea during the Great Northern War. At the same time, the establishment of the Ming-Russia Bank, which was jointly established by the two countries, was actually controlled by the Ming Dynasty, and had the privileges of building railways, opening mines, setting up factories, and collecting taxes on behalf of Russia. Since the day it was founded, this bank has been a tool for the Ming Dynasty to borrow land to build roads.

Over the next dozen years, new railways appeared on Russian soil, reaching deep into the heart of Russia.

In the early spring of 1717, Duke Andrei, returning from the new capital of St. Petersburg, went to the territory of Tula, which had been under the supervision of his son while he was in St. Petersburg. Like everyone else, he chose the train, which was the fastest way back to Tula.

The train roared south, he sat in the luxurious carriage, the early spring sun shining through the window on the table, he looked out at the grass from time to time, and looked out at the blue sky through the birch forest, although the scenery was charming, but his expression was a little melancholy.

"You see, the land on both sides of the railway line seems to be the land of Russia, but in fact, it belongs to the Ming Kingdom......"

Staring at the ground outside the car window, Andre sighed softly.

"When the railway was built, the Ming-Russian Railway Company in the name of building, managing and protecting the railway, a large number of cheap purchases of our land along the railway, on the basis of the original demarcation of land continue to expand the area, although the two sides of the railway line are very windowed, but once there is a railway station, more than tens of thousands of Russian acres, less than thousands of Russian acres, all belong to the railway, they buy land in the name of the railway, build a city to attract investment, ten years ago, His Majesty the Tsar has recognized their conspiracy, we tried to restrict the entry of serfs, but a large number of Ming people came, Now there are their officials, courts, police, it looks like another Ming country at all, how many places like this are there? ”

As they spoke, they drove past a small station, which, though only a small station, was also a town, where you could see everywhere the Ming people living there.

"They have built educational facilities such as primary schools and public schools, as well as parks, libraries, hospitals, and cultural and health institutions, as well as newspapers and exchanges in about 130 cities along the railway, and those places are undoubtedly the most prosperous and lively places in the local area.

Pierre looked at the Count and said.

"At present, there are more than 1.5 million Ming people living in Russia in these railway annexes, and there are more than 2 million Russians living in the dependencies, and the nobles and wealthy people along the routes are willing to live in the dependencies, because there are beautiful parks, running water, sewers, and no dirty streets and villages......"

Staring at the birch forest in the distance, Andrei nodded silently, his expression was a little worried, in fact, every far-sighted Russian would be worried about the infiltration of the Ming Kingdom in Russia.

"This winter, our ambassador asked His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in Zhongdu to redeem the railway in installments,"

"I heard that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince did not refuse, and even expressed his willingness to conduct further negotiations on this issue, but why was there no news later."

Pierre asked rhetorically, somewhat puzzled.

"No money."

Andrei said.

"According to our calculations, at present, they have 6,276 versts of railway and 726,500 acres of attached land in Russia, excluding 30 Russian feet of route land on both sides of the railway, and we need to pay a total of 370 million rubles!"

"We should be able to afford it."

"Of course, at this price we can afford it, and even if we count the interest, we can pay off the loan in 50 years, but God can testify that the merchants of the Ming Kingdom are extremely treacherous, and they have come up with a set of land appreciation to tell us that our calculation is wrong."

"What's the price they're offering?"

"7.97 billion rubles, a full increase of 20 times, mainly due to the appreciation of the dependent territories, at this price, we simply cannot afford it, even the interest on the loan, it is unaffordable, so there is no need to negotiate."

As one of the advocates for the repossession of the right of way, Count André has been trying to reclaim the right of way, and for the past few years, he has been trying and trying, but now, he is disheartened.

"Now, not only can we not take back the railways built in the past, but even they have to build a new railway-the Russian right of way, not us, in the Ming Russian Bank, in the railway company, we gave it all to them in the original negotiations, and even during the Great Northern War, in order to obtain a loan, they also mortgaged the customs to the Ming State, and now, they control all aspects of us......"

Staring out the window, Count Andrei fell silent, he didn't know how to get out of it all, but one thing was for sure, he clearly saw that the railways were like shackles, tying Russia to death.

"His Majesty the Tsar tried to introduce Ming capital and technology to change the backward face of Russia, but no one thought that the Ming Kingdom wanted to seize everything from the beginning, 70% of our coal mines belonged to them, 80% of the factories were in the annexed territories, and most of them were also their enterprises, and even almost all the universities - all of them were also in the dependent territories, no, now there is a university of ours in St. Petersburg, but there are still Chinese textbooks there, and the professors still speak Chinese...... Damn, he gave Russia to the Ming people. ”

Pierre muttered casually, as if he didn't hear what he said, Andrei just looked out the car window silently, he also felt so in his heart, the tsar really gave up Russia to Mingguo.

"Actually, you can't say that, sir......"

Suddenly, a string of somewhat stiff Russian words reached their ears, a man from the Ming Kingdom, who was originally reading the newspaper, and no one seemed to see him.

"We have never tried to control anything by rail, but we have always allowed the Russians to enjoy the gospel of scientific progress through railways, and in the past Russian grain was rarely exported, but now your grain can be exported all over the world, isn't this thanks to the railway?"

The Ming man said with a smile on his face.

"And the new schools, hospitals, all of which have benefited millions of Russians, all of which were brought by rail, is there to complain about this?"

"Sir, that's your railway, through which you have robbed a lot of the wealth belonging to the Russians, and those railways are like a country within a country, where you enforce your laws......"

"Extraterritoriality? This is for the sake of fairness, after all, the people of the Celestial Empire are accustomed to the laws of the Celestial Empire. ”

In the argument between Pierre and the Ming people, Andre just sighed silently, such an argument had no meaning at all, and it had no effect, and when the envoy to the Ming Kingdom returned home, he only said one sentence in the face of everyone's inquiries.

"Unless we defeat the Celestial Empire on the battlefield, we will never be able to take back the railway!"

Never...... Defeat the Celestial Empire.

Not to mention the Celestial Empire, even together with the Roman Empire, a member of the "Western Xia", a few years ago, Russia tried to seize the Don River estuary and the Black Sea coastal land from the Roman Empire, but suffered a big loss, and even had to cede tens of thousands of square meters of land to them in exchange for an armistice.

A Roman Empire with civil strife could not be defeated, let alone a much more powerful Celestial Empire?

"I hope that in the future, the Celestial Empire will take the initiative to give up some power, right?"

Duke André thought of another piece of news he had learned from the delegation - it seemed that the nine-year-old Princess Elizabeth had conquered the thirteen-year-old imperial grandson by virtue of her charming appearance, and it seemed that the empress was also very fond of her, and she had also met the emperor of the Celestial Empire, who lived deep in the palace.

"Perhaps, in a few years, Princess Elizabeth will be able to marry the great-grandson of the emperor of the Ming Kingdom, and maybe in the future, under her influence, the Celestial Empire will agree to make some concessions on the railway issue, who knows?"

He looked around and looked at the Mingguo passenger in the carriage, and Andre suddenly thought in his heart.

"And now many nobles are willing to let their sons marry Ming people, and their daughters marry Ming people, who knows, maybe one day, Ming people in Russia will also become part of Russia...... Like, my ancestors, weren't they also Mongols? ”

André said this to himself in his heart, as if he wanted to use this to ease his inner worries, the train was still going south, this railway was built all the way to Azov, which was the city of the Roman Empire, and it was not the only railway to Rome, and there was also a railway from the Western Regions through Persia into the Roman Empire, all the way to Constantinople.

These railways laid on the land of Asia and Europe are like blood-sucking monsters in various parts of the territory, sucking local economic resources. Railways may have made life easier for the people in the area, but they have pushed these countries to the edge of semi-colonies......

For all this, although Andrei felt vigilant, but the vision of the times made him unable to see the threat of the railway at all, and even he would have some illusions that should not exist in his heart, finally, when the train arrived in Tula, when the train had not stopped, he saw his son on the platform outside the window through the window, Philip in a Celestial Empire-style robe, standing there, he looked like there was no difference except for his appearance and the Celestial Empire.

"Perhaps, he should be allowed to study in the Celestial Empire......"

Andrei silently thought in his heart that many nobles would send their sons to study in the Ming Kingdom, but he was unwilling, because almost everyone who came back from the Ming Kingdom would talk about the advanced Ming Kingdom, talk about the development there, and they would set up the "Holy Religion Fellow Society" to be proud of speaking Chinese, they drank tea, composed poems, appreciated the literary works and paintings of the Ming Kingdom, and completely forgot their identity. It is precisely because of this that he does not want his son to study in the Ming Kingdom, but even so, it does not stop him from emulating the life of the Ming people. Just like it is now.

Finally, when Count André got out of the train after the train had stopped, he saw his son saluting like a Ming man...... In the face of all this, he couldn't help but have some mixed feelings in his heart, and he didn't know what to say.

"Father, what are you thinking?"

The respect in his son's words made Count André smile, and then said.

"I'm thinking, haven't you always wanted to study in the Celestial Empire? Maybe ......"

Just when Andrei wanted to surprise his son, suddenly, there was a shout not far from the platform, the shout came from the telegraph room, and then the nearby Ming people surrounded him.

"What's wrong......

Just as Andre was about to ask, in the confusion he heard those people say.

"Your Majesty has abdicated......"

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