"Didn't you say before that Lopnov was willing to sell three million square kilometers of land for two million taels of silver? promised him, but the price would be reduced to 1.5 million taels. ”

For Zhang Lingyang's orders, Chen Yiming strictly carried them out.

After several verbal battles, the price was finally set at 1.7 million taels of silver.

As long as the Emperor of the Rus' state, Alexander II, signs and seals the agreement, it will be officially valid.

Originally, Zhang Lingyang planned to buy the entire West Siberian region.

With the current transportation conditions, even if Da Zhou buys the entire Western Siberia, those lands will be eroded by the Rus' State in the future, so Zhang Lingyang only bought 3 million square kilometers of land.

However, this deal is definitely profitable, and even unprofitable.

After the agreement was formally signed, not only the three million square kilometers of land in eastern Western Siberia, but also Central Siberia and the entire Far East would become the territory of the Great Zhou.

Because now the Rus' state has expanded eastward only to Western Siberia, and has not set foot in Central Siberia.

Therefore, as long as the territory of eastern Western Siberia was purchased, even if the eastward expansion of the Rus' country was completely blocked, forcing the Rus' country to expand to the west and south in the future.

After all, the Rus Kingdom had just been defeated by Da Zhou, and for a while, he didn't dare to make any more moves with Da Zhou.

As a result, the land area of the Great Zhou Dynasty suddenly doubled, or even more.

Although there is no one there, Zhang Lingyang knows very well that the entire Siberian underground is buried with oil, natural gas, coal, iron, copper, gold and silver and other mineral deposits, which are very rich.

It is only because it has not been discovered that the Rus Kingdom will be sold to Da Zhou at a low price.

The route of Lopunov's return to China was from the capital of the Great Zhou, north over the Great Wall, then through the Varat steppes and Western Siberia, over the Ural Mountains, and finally returned to Moscow after a long journey of more than two months.

The reaction to the agreement brought back by Lopunov was mixed. There are those who are in favor, and naturally there are those who are against, and those who oppose them still occupy the majority.

Because in their opinion, the sale of three million square kilometers of land for 1,700,000 taels of silver is a loss, and the emperor of the Rus' state, Alexander II, also thinks so.

But in the end, it was his brother-in-law, and Alexander II did not embarrass him on the spot.

It wasn't until late in the evening that Alexander II summoned Lopunov into the palace and scolded him for a while.

"What did you think at the time? Three million square kilometers of land, you only bought 1,700,000 taels of silver? Are you a pig brain? ”

It was not until Alexander II's scolding was dry and stopped that Lopinov explained: "Your Majesty the Emperor, I am doing this entirely for the sake of our Rus' Empire!" ”

"For the sake of the Empire?" Alexander II scoffed, "Why don't I feel that way?" ”

Lopunov said: "Your Majesty the Emperor, think about it carefully? The whole of Western Siberia is empty, and it is worthless for us to ask for it, and we will be harassed by the Warats, so it is better to sell it to Da Zhou? ”

"But you're selling it too cheaply, aren't you?" Alexander II was discouraged, but still a little uncomfortable.

However, Lopunov said: "It seems to be a little cheap, but in fact, in the end, we still make it." ”

Seeing Alexander II's puzzled gaze, Lopunov continued to explain: "Your Majesty, Emperor, do you want to? What is most lacking in our Rus Empire now? ”

"It's money!" Lopunov affirmed: "In recent years, our Rus' country has continued to borrow from other countries, so that now, the domestic mineral resources have been mortgaged, and now the civil servants can't even pay their salaries.

At this time, how can anyone be willing to give us a loan to the Rus Empire? Therefore, the money provided by Da Zhou can be said to solve our urgent need.

Besides, what is there in Western Siberia? If this agreement is not signed, the Great Zhou will send Warat cavalry to constantly harass our borders.

If it had been in the past, we would have only needed to send a small force to destroy the Warats. But now the Warats have the weapons provided by the Great Zhou, and they are not inferior to our Rus Empire in terms of firepower.

In addition, the war horses of the Warats are full of stamina, even if we are not defeated by our army, we will not be able to catch up with the Warats.

If this agreement is not signed, it will be harmful to our Rus' Empire. ”

Most people in later generations thought that European horses were much better than Mongolian horses. In fact, in terms of explosiveness, Mongolian horses naturally cannot be compared with European horses. But when it comes to endurance, European horses are out of reach.

It's all about the terrain.

The Warat Grassland can be said to be the largest grassland in the world, and the horses raised there are naturally not comparable to other horse breeds.

That's why Lopnov just said that the Rus country had no way to take the Vallat cavalry.

What can you do if you can't catch up?

After repeated persuasion by Lopunov, Alexander II finally nodded and agreed to sign and seal the agreement.

Now that the whole of Western Siberia has been completely chaotic, not to mention the advantages and disadvantages of the Rus and the Warat cavalry, the Rus country simply does not have the money to organize large-scale troops to encircle and suppress the Warat cavalry.

If there is no cessation of war at this time, let alone the three million territories in the east, I am afraid that the whole of Western Siberia will be out of the control of the Rus' state.

In addition, the border conflict between the Rus' state and the Ottoman Turkey to the south has broken out, and one carelessness can lead to a major war.

At this time, Alexander II naturally did not want the Warat cavalry to drag him in Western Siberia, and he also hoped to get a sum of money as soon as possible to maintain the normal operation of the government.

Of course, Alexander II also had to prepare a military budget in case of war with the Ottoman Turks.

The climate in the southern part of the Rus' country is much milder than that of Western Siberia, and it is also the important grain producing area of the Rus' country, and Alexander II naturally sees it as heavier than that of Western Siberia.

Despite the opposition of the majority of the nobles, Alexander II resolutely signed his name and stamped the armistice agreement, which was considered to be completely effective.

A few days later, Alexander II ordered Lopunov to go to the Great Zhou again, firstly to urge the Warats to stop harassing the borders of the Rus' country, and secondly, to complete the delivery as soon as possible so that the 1,700,000 taels of silver could be transported back to the Rus' country.

In this era, 1,700,000 taels of silver is not a small amount. This is true even in Europe......

。 m.