While the Great Zhou was in full swing of preparations, the Rus' Kingdom was not idle.

After the conference, Foreign Minister of Ross again visited Hugo, General Manager of the Bank of France, and Winston, General Manager of the Bank of England.

The battle between the Rus State and the Great Zhou is of great importance to the Rus' State, and if this battle fails, it means that the territorial expansion strategy of the Rus' State has come to an end.

This is also a matter of no choice, the country of Rus is located in the eastern part of Europe, and it is relatively small and weak countries all around.

However, Ukraine, Poland and other countries in the west have close relations with Britain, France and other countries, and if the Rus' state expands westward, it will inevitably cause strong intervention by Britain, France and other countries.

Even France, which had always had friendly relations with the Rus' country, would turn against the Rus' country.

Therefore, the only way for the Rus' state to expand eastward was to go.

However, if it wanted to expand eastward, the Rus' state was trapped by financial and military strength, both of which were bound to obtain the support of Britain and France.

It has been explained before, so I won't say much about the financial resources.

When it comes to military power, it's actually a matter of weapons.

The industrialization process of the Rus' country was very backward, at least compared to the Western European countries, the Rus' weapons were extremely backward, so the Rus' country had to spend a lot of money every year to buy weapons from France.

There are many countries in Europe that can manufacture weapons, and if they may supply enough weapons to a large country like Rus', only France and England can meet the needs of France and England in the whole of Europe.

Especially for heavy weapons such as artillery, the industrially backward Rus' state had poor technology in manufacturing artillery.

Without the support of France, the Rus' country would not have been able to obtain qualified and advanced artillery.

Therefore, the Rus' country had to adopt friendly relations with France.

In fact, the Rus' country can also maintain friendly relations with England, but in the long run, England is the common enemy of the Rus' country and France, so the Rus' country abandoned England and chose France as a natural ally.

As we all know, England in this era is already an empire in the true sense of the word, with its colonies occupying nearly a quarter of the world's land, and the colonies occupied by England are all resource-rich places.

From this point of view, the interests of England inevitably hurt the interests of France, the Rus' and even other European countries.

Although the Rus' country is not too obviously affected now, it has in fact been affected.

Therefore, for the sake of the other side's global hegemony in England, especially maritime supremacy, the Rus' state had to form an alliance with France.

The foreign minister of the Rus' country urgently asked to see Hugo, the general manager of the Banque de France, and unsurprisingly had a closed door.

Also, Hugo is very angry now, the fat that was already close to his mouth was robbed by an Italian bank, and it is strange that Hugo is not angry.

Hugo now has no time to take care of the ally of the Rus' country, and what he has to do now is to quickly investigate which country is behind the evil, otherwise, with the help of the Venetian Commercial Bank, he will dare to compete with the Bank of France.

Winston, the managing director of the Bank of England, was actually very angry.

The reason why the borrowing conference of the Rus' country was able to be held smoothly was that England also made great efforts in it.

Otherwise, just by virtue of the national credit of the Rus' country, there would be so many bankers participating?

The previous plan was good, and an understanding agreement has been reached with Hugo, the general manager of the Bank of France, and it is time to divide the fruit.

I didn't want to be in the end, and the Rus country opened its mouth and slaughtered the Bank of England like a fat sheep.

No matter who you are, I'm afraid that your heart won't be happy.

Winston decided to hang Lopunov for two days so that he could reflect on his mistakes, so Winston directly refused to visit Lopunov.

After being shut down twice a day, there was no doubt that there was an evil fire in Lopunov's heart.

Lopunov knew that the price he proposed at the loan conference was actually reasonable, and it was not a lion's mouth. But there is no doubt that the Bank of England is reluctant to pay so much cash.

Not to mention the commercial value of the copper mine in the southern Ural Mountains, can its strategic significance be measured in monetary terms?

If it weren't for the demand, let alone two million gold francs, even if it was five million gold francs, the Rus would not have mortgaged it.

But in the end, the situation is stronger than the people.

Without the support of Britain and France, the Rus' state would not have been able to win the war against the Great Zhou, and would not have even been able to organize enough armies to carry out the crusade to the east.

In terms of weapons, especially in terms of advanced weapons, the Rus Kingdom is really too scarce, and it can't let the soldiers go to fight with Da Zhou with bare guns, right?

Returning to the embassy of the Rus' country in the eastern suburbs of Paris, Lopunov decided to postpone it for two days and visit again after Hugo, the general manager of the Banque de France, had subsided.

It's a big deal, the iron ore in the middle of the Ural Mountains is no longer mortgaged to the Venetian Commercial Bank, anyway, the contract has not been officially signed yet, even if he regrets it now, who can say what?

As for Hugo, the general manager of the Banque de France, he is now fully investigating the matter of the Banque de France Commercial Bank of Venice.

At this time, Italy was divided into more than a dozen states, of which Venice, Milan, and Genaine were under the protection of France, while Pordenone and Bologna were under the protection of the Austrian Empire.

Hugo's findings were not long in coming.

It turned out that it was the Austrian Empire behind the scenes, and more specifically, the Austrian bankers had actually taken control of the Commercial Bank of Venice, so the Commercial Bank of Venice suddenly came out of nowhere at the Rus' Loan Conference a few days ago.

Speaking of the Austrian Empire, I have to say that the current Austrian Empire is also a big country in Europe, and its international influence is not much inferior to that of Britain and France.

In terms of national strength, the Austrian Empire is naturally inferior to Britain and France, but Austria has a long history of royal inheritance, and it can be said to be the most rooted royal family in Europe.

The Habsburgs, the Austrian royal family, were born out of the Holy Roman Empire and have been the most influential royal family in Europe for thousands of years.

It is also for this reason that although the national strength of the Austrian Empire is not as strong as that of Britain and France, the influence of the imperial family is not comparable to that of Britain and France.

In this regard, Europe is very similar to the Great Zhou, which attaches great importance to blood.

The common people may not pay much attention to it, but among the nobles, bloodline is really important.

At least, in the minds of the European aristocracy, the Habsburgs surpassed the Louis and Tudor families of France.

It is also for this reason that Austria, as a country directly under the Habsburg family, is very popular in Europe. In Eastern Europe in particular, many small kings were direct members of the Habsburgs......