Chapter Fifty-Nine: The Arms Deal Everyone Rejoices

The Tsar led Count Petrov with muskets to the ministers who were in a meeting to study the situation on the Ukrainian side.

Seeing the Tsar come in, all the adults who hurriedly stood up, and saw Count Petrov, who had not been seen for a long time, holding a heavy guy in his hand, they all understood that this Count Petrov must have been busy with some secret things for the Tsar during this time.

The Tsar came to them and said: "My lords! Some time ago, Count Petrov had been negotiating with the Ming army. There are many things that we will not say in the meantime, but I now ask you to go out with me and test the musket that the Count has brought back. ”

The adults looked at each other for a moment, and then followed the Tsar and Count Petrov to the garden. Count Petrov still put on a show for the ministers. These ministers were all earls and marquises, and many of them had been on the battlefield. Not only did they watch Count Petrov's demonstration, but some of them even took muskets and personally tested a few rounds of ammunition.

As a result, the ministers all said on the spot that they would buy such muskets anyway. They knew what it would be like for the soldiers on the front lines to have such weapons.

Returning to the chamber, the tsar said to them: "This time Count Petrov, braving the wind and snow, has given us such an opportunity, and we will fight to buy such weapons anyway." However, the price of the new musket was too high, and each musket cost five thousand taels of silver. So I think it's better to buy their second-hand muskets, so that the price can be lower. ”

One of the marquis said: "Such a musket is very good, but we cannot afford it." I just don't know how much silver this second-hand musket Ming army costs? ”

Count Petrov replied: "If this kind of gun is to be sold to us, it needs the approval of the Ming court, and at that time, they will give us the price." The reason why I rushed back in a hurry was because we needed time. When the news of their agreement to sell our muskets comes, we will negotiate with them as quickly as possible. I just need His Majesty the Tsar to give me a mandate to tell me how many guns we want to buy, and the price floor that we accept. With such a bottom line, I can negotiate with them as soon as possible. Get your hands on the weapon as fast as you can. ”

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There's a lot of buzz below.

The Tsar knocked on the table, and everyone was silent for a moment, "Everyone, have you ever thought about what kind of situation we would face if the Ottoman Turks bought this kind of musket?" ”

This question has put all the ministers below under control. The tsar glanced around them and said, "The Ming Dynasty did not dare to agree to sell us weapons at once, because it was afraid that the Ottoman Turks would not be satisfied." It is precisely for this reason that no matter how much we spend, we have to do this business with the Ming Dynasty. It is to let the Ottoman Empire know that we have formed an alliance with the Ming Dynasty. ”

"Yes, yes!"

"That's right! Your Majesty is wise! ”

The ministers, of course, understood what the tsar meant.

One of the marquis said: "If we want to gain an advantage on the battlefield, I think we will have to buy at least a thousand of these muskets!" ”

Another earl said, "O God! A thousand muskets, that's five million taels of silver, not counting the price of bullets. I just don't know how much silver they can give us? ”

The Tsar said: "I have thought about this problem, we have used all our financial resources to buy these muskets, defeated the Ottoman Empire, and we will recover this loss from them." The main thing is that we can prevent the Ming army from forming an alliance with the Ottoman Empire. Otherwise, any silver we have will be the spoils of the Ottoman Turks. ”

"I estimate that the two of them will sell for three thousand taels of silver at most! If you can fight for cheaper, better! But the initiative is not in our hands. Said Count Petrov.

The Tsar said: "If you have no opinion, we will buy it according to a thousand muskets, and we will first estimate the price according to three thousand taels of silver." We grabbed 200 shotguns and 200 solid bullets each. We can't get that much silver out at once, but we still have gold. Count Petrov can talk to their generals again about payment, and if possible, we can also provide them with food and other things for their troops on the other side of the Urals. In short, you have to do it no matter what you do! ”

"Yes, yes!"

"Count Petrov, this time, it's up to you!"

“”

On this matter, these Russian adults are unanimous in opinion as never before. This all made Count Petrov a little uncomfortable. Because these adults are always willing to hype up things when they encounter them.

The Tsar said: "Count Petrov, you still have to work hard, hurry back to the Ural Mountains as soon as possible, and negotiate with them as soon as the news of them arrives." We are also trying to be patient in the Ukrainian direction and not to clash with the Ottoman Turks too soon! ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Count Petrov said, "There is one more thing, Your Majesty the Tsar should prepare, as soon as they promise to sell us such muskets, we will send some clever soldiers to the side of the Ural Mountains to be trained by the Ming army." They had been using muskets for a long time, at least to defeat the tough Mongols. Their experience with muskets is also what we need. ”

"Yes, yes!" The tsar said happily, "We will immediately select good soldiers and form a musket column." Don't go empty-handed when you go to the Ural Mountains, and try to bring our good things with you. We must continue to have a good relationship with their generals. This is done, you are a great hero of our Russia! ”

The Tsar's words made Count Petrov's blood hot, but he was also worried that the Ming Dynasty would not agree to sell the Russian muskets, in which case all his efforts would be in vain.

Count Petrov left the Kremlin and the next day he rushed to the Urals with his people.

When Count Petrov arrived at the camp of Jiang Ping, Jiang Jian met him in front of the camp. As soon as they met, Jiang Pai shouted: "My old friend, what you gave me, I did it for you!" ”

"Oops! O my God! Count Petrov went over, took Jiang Zhu's hand and asked, "Old friend!" Is what you say true? Tell me how much silver each musket is. I fought with them in Moscow for a few days. Those money-keeping guys don't want to buy it because it's too expensive. I told them, you haven't given a price yet, so don't say whether it's expensive or not. ”

"I have won you two thousand five hundred taels of silver for each musket. It's only half the price of a new gun, how about my old friend? Jiang Jian asked.

"Oops! What a coincidence, this is the bottom line they give! Count Petrov knew in his heart that he had five hundred taels of silver less than expected for each of them, but he could not say it.

The two people, who were both telling lies, held hands and came to the hall of the camp like old friends for many years.

The two drank some tea, and Jiang Pai said, "I sent someone to Hami and reported the situation to the family with a carrier pigeon. At the same time, I also sent a letter to my old friend in Yaogang. My family also took my request seriously, and my old friend also spoke. My family agreed to my request, but there were two demands, one was that the border agreement should be signed together, and the other was that this matter was a business done with you in my own name. Because the family is really unwilling to make enemies with the Ottoman Empire for no reason. Please understand this matter, Lord Earl. ”

In the former matter, Count Petrov felt that there was no problem, but in the latter matter, according to Jiang Jiao's approach, the tsar's goal of separating the Ming Dynasty and the Ottoman Empire through this business would be in vain. However, Count Petrov thought again, let's do business, get the musket, and when we go back, we will spread that this is the result of our cooperation with the Ming Dynasty. That's something that no one can tell.

Thinking of this, Count Petrov said: "Old friend, let's do it in a way that is convenient for you!" ”

"We've all been in battle, and we know you're in dire need of muskets. I have sent 2,000 muskets and some bullets by railroad from my house, and it will not be long before these things reach Hami. Jiang Ji said.

"Oops! Old friend, we can't afford to buy so many muskets at once, you know, we are preparing for war, and we need silver everywhere. "Count Petrov didn't expect that Jiang Ji would be in such a hurry to bring over two thousand muskets.

"No problem, I know you can't buy so many muskets at once, I'd rather let them send more than less. You can buy *** according to your needs. ”

"Oops! That's great! "Are we checking the price of muskets and bullets?" ”

"Of course!" Jiang Bao said, "In the future, no matter how many muskets you buy, they will be settled at two thousand five hundred taels of silver each." The bullets were two rounds of one tael of silver, and the primer was fifteen taels of silver. With a primer, you can reload bullets with black **. For each musket, we can sell you three hundred**. ”

"Oh, that's great!" Count Petrov said: "Calculate how much silver we need to buy a thousand muskets!" ”

Jiang Pai could see that the price he gave was far lower than the bottom line in their hearts, but Jiang Pai knew that the silver he earned now was enough. The most important thing is to get the border out as soon as possible.

At this time, Count Petrov's account had already been settled, "Your Excellency, we want two and a half million taels of silver for a thousand muskets, which is a big business that has never been done before. And the bullets were 400,000 rounds, which were 200,000 taels of silver. Three hundred thousand, that's twenty thousand taels. It adds up to two million ,720,000 taels of silver. ”

"Huh! The Earl's account is very fast! I don't think it's a problem for you Russians to come up with such a little silver! Jiang Ji said.

"Hey! You don't know that we have spent too much money in preparation for the war with the Ottoman Empire! Count Petrov said, "Shall we do this, we will pay you a part of the gold, a part of the silver, and you also need grain and grass in the Ural Mountains, and we can also give you a part of the grain and grass and other materials at a discount!" ”

Jiang Jian thought for a moment and said, "You'd better pay more gold, and it's easy for us to transport." Of course, we can also use some of the grain, but we don't use much of it. We'll just get it done. The main thing we need to do is to sign the contract for the border. Then we will immediately send people together to erect boundary markers on the border. In this way, I can also explain to my family. Otherwise, those ministers of the imperial court will find an opportunity and make suggestions to the emperor, asking us to attack Russia, and I won't be able to attack if I don't attack! ”

Count Petrov waved his hand and said: "We will draw up the text of the agreement together on this matter at once!" However, I think we have to do one thing from now on, we both send people to learn each other's language and culture, otherwise we will have to go through Mongolian dialect in negotiations, which is really awkward! ”

"Yes, yes! It's time to do it! I will immediately send a few people who understand Mongolian to Moscow to learn Russian, and you will send people to our side to learn Chinese. Jiang Jian also knew that he would be able to use Russian in the future. Dealing with the Russians a lot!

"There is one more thing, the general wants to help us, you can do this by yourself!" Count Petrov said with a glaring look at Jiang Ting.

"Lord Earl, if I can do it, I will help!" Jiang Ji said.

"Our muskets have arrived, you have to train our soldiers to use muskets, and you have to teach them the tactics of using muskets!" Count Petrov said.

"Oops! You, Lord Earl, have really embarrassed me. However, no matter how difficult it is, you have to help! Well, when I get it, I'll send a team of officers to your army as instructors and train soldiers for you, how about it? Jiang Jian was embarrassed for a moment, and then boldly agreed.

Jiang Zhu counted the amount of grain needed and converted it into a part of silver. The rest of the money to pay, Count Petrov had to return to Moscow to discuss with the Tsar, and at the same time the border agreement also needed to be signed and sealed by the Tsar. Count Petrov hurried back to Moscow. Even Jiang Ji could not help but be moved by the professionalism of Count Petrov.

The 2,000 muskets and ammunition sent to Jiang Jiao's side were personally arranged by Yang Jing to be transported to Xi'an by train, then to Lanzhou by car, and then to Hami on the train. Armed personnel escorted the entire journey.

Due to the change in the situation, Chen Yufeng, Ouyang He, and Liu Yun carefully studied the situation in the entire west.

Looking at the map to the west, Ouyang He said: "We went south along the west side of the Ural Mountain, and then along the west side of the Ural River to the south, and the border went straight to the Caspian Sea. We can go south along the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. However, we need to keep a little distance and don't come into contact with the Ottoman Empire just yet. Otherwise, the Ottomans would not have fought with the Russians and turned against us. Let's avoid it. We'll make a move when they're almost done! ”

Chen Yufeng said: "Knowing what the wood means, we must have an outlet to the sea on this side of the Black Sea. But the Ottoman Turks came into contact with the Russians through the area between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, and if we were to insert it here, we would separate the two families. In that case, the two of them will turn back on us. ”

Liu Yun said: "In terms of military strength, we can destroy both at the same time!" ”

"Huh! We are not afraid of war, but we must understand why we fight. Chen Yufeng said, "We defeated them today, and after a few decades, they will slow down again, and we will still fight." This will not work. It is impossible for us to occupy all these places as we did with the Mongols. Zhimu is still right, we are not greedy and greedy, we still have to choose a reasonable boundary, the Ural Mountains in the north plus the Ural River is a good boundary. To the west, we still have to occupy a piece of land between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Preferably south of the Greater Caucasus Mountains here. This place is bordered by the Caucasus Mountains to the north, and to the south is the border with the Ottoman Empire that we combine with this great desert. In this way, the Ottoman Empire was completely separated from Russia. Then we dig a canal to dig the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. ”

"I'm afraid it won't work!" Liu Yun said, "Uncle Kui and the people brought back the information said that the people on their side have measured it many times over the past few hundred years, saying that the level of the Caspian Sea is more than 30 meters lower than that of the Black Sea. If the water from the Black Sea were to pour into the Caspian Sea, the Caspian Sea would be much larger. It is going to flood a lot of coastal land. ”

"Hey, hey! The land is vast and sparsely populated, and the sea area is large, so it's nothing! The sea area is larger, and there will be more evaporation, and there will be more rain in the surrounding desert! Chen Yufeng said disapprehantly.

"I agree with Mr. Chen's opinion, the Caspian Sea is larger, and the distance to the Aral Sea is closer. We dig a canal through the Caspian and Aral Seas, which is short. After digging this canal, I will also be able to dig the canal between Lake Bashkol and the Aral Sea. So that to the west there is a canal from Lake Bashkol to the Black Sea. This is of great significance to the development of the western side. The Silk Road is no longer a difficult road! Ouyang He said.

"This project is very huge!" Liu Yun said.

"What are you afraid of, you let them take more prisoners when they fight. We get more tractors and cars. With food, it's only a matter of time before these things are repaired! Chen Yufeng is very confident.

Ouyang He followed and said: "We can just build the railway to Bashkol Lake, and the problem of canal transportation over there can be solved." ”

Zhang Zhimu followed Li Wei and them to an artillery firing test site north of Baotou to participate in their long-range rocket test. Prince Tori heard that Zhang Zhimu was coming, and rushed over to see Zhang Zhimu. However, Zhang Zhimu could see that Prince Tori's smile was squeezed out. Zhang Zhimu knew that Prince Tori was a straight man, and he followed Zhou Yuji to Mobei, and there was no fight, so he brought people back first. Seeing Prince Tori like this, Zhang Zhimu suddenly thought that Prince Tori was also smiling less when he was celebrating the New Year in the kiln.

"I said, Your Royal Highness, you are a person who never holds things in your heart, why do you see me now that you are not dead or alive, this is not the Prince Tori I knew before!" Zhang Zhimu was not polite.

"Hmmm! You're different now, you're a big shot now! "Prince Tori really has something on his mind.

"Look at you, can't you just say something? You have to make it look like a! Zhang Zhimu was a little angry and said deliberately.

"That's good! Let me ask you, are we good friends, good friends from a very early age? ”

"Does that need to be said?"

"So, you gave those Chahar people, Horqin people, many people paid salaries, and built such good houses for them, and gave them good tickets for the Spring Festival Gala, and enjoyed so many kiln treatments. But what about me? I'm either bad for money or angry! And that woman has entered your senate, and what I did for the kiln gang is much earlier than her! You're not fair! ”

"You have misunderstood this!" Zhang Zhimu said, "Those Chahar people and Horqin people, they have returned to the kiln gang and handed over their grasslands to us to manage, do we want to give a reasonable arrangement?" Give them a house, give them a salary, shouldn't they? As for Concubine Zhuang, she was the imperial concubine of the original Manchu Qing Dynasty and made a great contribution to our stabilization of Liaodong. For the return of Chahar and Horqin grasslands, he has made great contributions. Shouldn't we recognize her for her exploits? ”

"I know, I can't talk about you!" Prince Tori said, twisting his head.

"Actually, I'd like to find an opportunity to tell me what you Tumuts are doing. Now that the whole steppe has completely surrendered to us, and only you Tumut are left, what are you going to do? Zhang Zhimu asked.

"Are you going to annex our Tumuts too?" Prince Torrey asked.

"You're not like what friends talk about?" Zhang Zhimu said, "If that were the case, we wouldn't have waited until today!" ”

"I'm here this time just to settle our affairs with you. Otherwise, the people everywhere will live a good life, and we will be better than them, but we will fall behind in the future! Prince Tori said.

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New progress in "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty": the Battle of Yashan, the defeat of the Yuan army, the counterattack of the Song army, and the landing in Fuzhou.