Due to the blockade of China and the deterioration of transportation conditions brought about by the war, the food crisis began to prevail in British India, and the food crisis fueled rebellion, and the unstable factors under the high-exploitation system could not be suppressed by violence at all, and as a result, after half a year of war, there was widespread rebellion in various parts of India.

These rebellions further exacerbated the chaos, making food trade more difficult between regions, highly economical agricultural production, highly dependent on division of labor and cooperation, and widespread famine in cotton-growing, indigo-indigo, and sugarcane-growing areas, forcing the peasants to join the rebellion. The 200,000 troops, which seemed to be strong, were a little unable to make ends meet at this time to maintain law and order, let alone resist the enemy attacking from all sides.

British India was on the verge of collapse.

The South African colony had been conquered, and the British were left with only one colony in East Asia, Tasmania, which was their place of exile. But it is only an isolated island, and the Chinese are not even interested in attacking.

Faced with this state of affairs, the British, through Russia, put forward the conditions for peace talks, which were introduced to China from Russia.

The Russians were no longer able to hold out at this time, and their army was only used to engage the Prussians, but there was basically no war to fight, because the Prussians, after a superficial attack on Finland, retreated to block the Polish counterattack and suppress the Polish uprising in their own country.

The Russian army also began to suppress the rebellion of the serfs in their own country, and a large number of politicians who were active in Speransky's time once again stirred up trouble, including some of the old feudal nobles who had fled from the Siberian penal colonies, some of them were big merchants, and some were serfs at all. The local merchant class and feudal landlord class were led to a large number of rebellions against the Tsar's rule.

These revolutions, led by the top, were more threatening than mere peasant uprisings, and caused headaches for the Tsar. The economic collapse brought about by the war, which caused the collapse of society, and the collapse of society brought about a political crisis, which was more dangerous than war.

Therefore, Russia was inclined to accept peace talks, but China refused at this time.

China's refusal is normal, and it is unlikely that any country in such a favorable situation will accept peace talks, unless the other side gives them enough benefits to make them tempted, but the concessions of the British are obviously too small, and they are only willing to give the colonies of Ceylon and Sumatra to China, and even South Africa wants to take it back, but they are generous to Russia and are willing to recognize Russia's legitimate power in the Black Sea.

The Tsarist sent representatives to repeatedly ask China for peace talks, which made Zhou Lang feel very helpless. In this war, he originally planned to fight him for three or five years, and even if there was a draw in the end, it would not be without gain. As far as China is concerned, relying on its huge size, it can avoid most disputes, it is difficult to have a war with outsiders, and the long-term peace of the army is very dangerous. It has been more than eight years without experience in war, and such an army has encountered a real crisis, and anything can happen.

But the attitude of the allies must be considered, he is not Napoleon, he knows very well that strength does not solve all problems, if Napoleon's political policy was a little more flexible, he would not have fallen to the level he is now.

The Russians really can't hold on, if such a big empire as Russia really collapses, it will create a huge geopolitical vacuum, and the consequences are unpredictable. At best, China annexed the Russian Far East, but the more valuable European territories were difficult to access.

Neighboring countries are likely to divide the Tsar's legacy, Poland may get a large slice of fat, but Ukraine will most likely be annexed by Austria. Poland is not worried, once Austria controls Ukraine, it will border China in the Kazakh region, and what kind of chain reaction will be caused by Austria's eastward expansion, Zhou Lang could not have predicted. Because compared with the backward serfdom of the tsars, Austria, which had already achieved universal education, was obviously more dangerous. Having acquired the population and resources of Ukraine, it is difficult to say that the Austrians will continue to sink, as they did historically.

If the fight continues, the Ottoman Empire may also collapse, and the Ottoman collapse will be more troublesome. It is difficult to say what kind of impact the whole Muslim world will have on western China if it is out of control, and the biggest beneficiary will be the Manchu Empire, which has now made Zhou Lang pay some attention, and even they have controlled Afghanistan, so it is not a problem to control the legacy left by the Ottoman Empire.

The current Manchu Qing can still maintain sinicization politically, if the Ottoman Empire is annexed, it is obvious that they are willing or unwilling, they must be Huihua, a Huihua Eight Banner Empire, it is really too dangerous. If it is used by Britain again, it will become the biggest destabilizing factor in China's neighborhood.

Zhou Lang had to sigh that with today's national strength, it is impossible to stabilize even the surrounding areas, the geographical disadvantages of China and the United States are really too great, the Americans hardly have to do anything, there are no challenges in the surrounding areas, China is in a mature ancient region, it is always difficult to avoid this kind of threat.

So Zhou Lang was forced by the situation and told Russia that peace talks could be made, but the fighting could not be stopped.

And if you want to talk, you must come to China to talk, not only Britain, but all the powers with relevant interests are invited to participate, Zhou Lang wants to take the opportunity to launch a world system under the rule of China, to replace the Vienna system after the Napoleonic Wars, in this system, not without China, but with China as the core.

Britain was not pretentious this time, and France, Austria, and Prussia all agreed to send representatives.

On the one hand, it is to save time, the situation of various countries is not very good, France and Austria withdrew from the war as soon as possible, but the economic crisis is serious, the global war between China and Britain and the two world empires has seriously affected world trade, and the economic foundation of the two countries is still in the initial stage of the industrial revolution, and it cannot withstand the blow. On the other hand, European countries also need to take a hard look at the situation of the sudden rise of China, and what better way to do that than to cross the country's long territory.

So the countries landed from the Crimea, and then they were pleasantly surprised to get on the legendary train, before the war China's train had just been repaired to the Kazakh steppe region, during the war the line was extended to the Crimea, through the border with Russia Ural River and Russia's mother river Volga River, along the north shore of the Caspian Sea to the Crimean Peninsula, it is precisely because of this railway, China's 300,000 troops can fight here for a long time, and even rotate the war troops to one side, each army fought here, Gained some real-world experience. Even some auxiliary units have been tempered.

I thought that I needed to enter the core area of China to see a large number of Chinese, but as soon as they entered the Kazakh steppe, they saw a large number of Chinese, their clothing is completely different from the Europeans, and it is also different from the image of the Chinese in European comics, it is rare to see people with braids, if there is, it must be Manchu merchants from neighboring countries.

Along the way, small towns were formed, with bustling bazaars where Chinese farmers peddled their produce and handicrafts, and herders from the pastoral areas sold their furs and livestock.

Diplomats from all over the world know that after occupying the Kazakh steppe, the Chinese began to implement a "real border policy", which is actually a simple colonial policy to encourage immigrants to settle. The Russians did the same in the steppe areas, but the Russians did far less than the Chinese did.

The Chinese government sent a large number of agricultural experts to inventory the land resources here, enclosed or ransomed the land suitable for farming, and then recruited Chinese families to open up the land, forming a large number of yeoman farming families, concentrated near the river, forming a stable Chinese community.

Commercially, the construction of the railroad led to the formation of commercial towns, most of which overlapped with the settlements of the past.

Deep inland, the vast steppe regions are still inhabited by Kazakh herders, but they are no longer the nomadic tribes of the past. China sent animal husbandry experts to help former tribal leaders and wealthy herders settle down. Provide material assistance to help them build settled pastures.

The original Kazakhs did not value land, their most valuable wealth, the first is people, the second is livestock, the land is almost all public, there is no concept of private property. In addition to the large and small chiefs of the tribe, there are also some wealthy herdsmen, who do not have fixed pastures, but they have their own cattle and sheep and livestock, and hire people to graze.

Now all this has changed, the land has become privately owned, the nomadic areas of the tribes have been assigned to them to establish pastures, and the ownerless wastelands have been taken over to the government. The grasslands have become commercial pastures, and the former tribal khans, thousand-household chiefs, and hundred-household chiefs have become commercial ranchers, and the herdsmen are still herdsmen, and the poor are still poor, but it cannot be said that there is no progressive significance.

In the past, princes and nobles, tribal leaders, and heads of thousands and hundreds of households not only owned pastures and livestock, but also enjoyed feudal privileges, and could force herdsmen to perform all kinds of labor and graze livestock for them without compensation. The low-level wealthy herdsmen are hired to graze, a herd of sheep is mostly 500 to 600, and 3 herdsmen are hired, and the remuneration of 1 herdsman for 1 year is about 12 goats, 2 cotton coats, 2 sets of single clothes, 1 set of leather pants, 190 kg of grain, and 3 bricks of tea. The vast majority of the income generated by the herd goes to the herdsmen.

Now that all feudal privileges had been abolished, the privileged class could not force the herdsmen to work, and it is said that there was a fierce revolt that caused a large number of tribes to migrate south to join the Eight Banners of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

After a decade of practical border policy, the pastoral areas were commercialized, and the reclamation areas formed small self-cultivated farms, attracting more than a million Chinese peasants to settle down, and now the ethnic structure of the Kazakh region has become dominated by Han Chinese.

After passing through the simple and rough Kazakh steppe and entering the Ili region, the Chinese became more numerous. Due to the operation before the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the development here is better than that of the Kazakh steppe, and a large number of valuable minerals are mined, mainly gold and copper mines, and low-value minerals such as coal mines have no mining value. But cotton farming is already on a large scale, and with the exception of the Gobi Desert, the density of the population makes the diplomatic community feel similar to that of Europe.

After crossing the Hexi Corridor, they really saw the original appearance of China, the fields are even strange, almost no idle land can be seen, the Chinese have long stopped using fallow, the land is cultivated all year round, basically similar to the rotation of cultivation begun in the United Kingdom, are alternately cultivated with different crops; Villages are dotted around, and some even have fortifications, made of earthen walls. The center of the village must be a city, usually a county seat. Unlike the European model of castles and manors, classical Chinese fortifications seem to have been more commoner, not just to protect the nobility and the nobles' domains. The earthen forts in the countryside were used to protect the villagers, and the walls of the city were used to protect the citizens, compared to the fact that there was no elite class here.

On the whole, they don't feel that China is as rich as it is said, that the people in northwest China are not even as wealthy as the people in Western Europe, and that commerce is not as prosperous as in Europe, but the further they go east, the smaller the gap becomes. When they arrived in the surrounding areas of Nanjing, it was already clear that the residents here were more comfortable than in Europe.

The speed of the train is so fast that the diplomatic corps regrets that they cannot have an in-depth understanding of Chinese society, and the information obtained through words always feels like a veil is separated.

But they can learn about the situation in Nanjing, and many of them are full of curiosity about the city, so that the mouths of the consuls and some visiting scholars or businessmen are always full of the most unstinting praise of the city, especially the French, many French scientists who have worked or still work in China, and their praise for the city has reached a kind of fleshy height.

French scholars say that this is a great city that combines ancient wisdom and modern technology, and this city represents the future of mankind, and everyone is curious, is this really the case?