Negotiations with the Prussians were very difficult, and both countries had too much appetite to demand first the disputed territories that the tsar had snatched from them, and then to cut off a large chunk of the undisputed territories.

Austria, in addition to Austrian Poland, demanded Western Ukraine.

In addition to the demands of Russian Poland, Prussia insisted on Finland.

The Ottomans also had a great appetite, relying on Moltke's Austro-Hungarian army in this war, and the Ottomans also felt that Russia was easy to bully, and they proposed all the territory of the lower Don River plain, from the south of the Donetsk Ridge, between the Dnieper and the Don River valley.

If he really promised to cede these territories to the empire, Yermolov's nobles would definitely not agree, in fact, the National Assembly would not agree, and Olga, the tsar, would not be able to control the country at all.

Olga was a very clever woman, and she did not bargain with Puo, and showed Yermolov the other party's request as it was, and after the other party saw it, he was silent.

The old marshal sighed: "These would not have happened!" ”

His voice-over Olga knew very well that if she hadn't launched this coup d'état, the three countries would have ceded Russian territory, and they could basically only be defeated, and it was not Alexander's fault to bring in the Ural army, but it was Olga's fault to launch the coup.

Olga is full of confidence, even if she pretends to be her, she can only be confident: "It can still be avoided now!" ”

Yermolov sighed: "What do you need to do? ”

Olga sighed: "We need unity. Count Gorchakov's Polish Front, your Black Sea Front, and the Ural Army that I can mobilize, are still formidable. ”

"I can convince Gorchakov to continue the resistance in Poland, but the morale of the soldiers has already suffered," Yermolov said. ”

Olga nodded, "If necessary, I hope you will go to Poland without any effort." Also, can you convince Alexander. My brother was too stubborn, and I didn't want to hurt him. ”

Yermolov said: "It is difficult for me to convince the tsar, but I can convince Gorchakov for the time being. The Council of Nobles hoped to make some assurances in exchange for their support. ”

Olga said: "What guarantee? ”

Yermolov said: "You and the heirs of the king of the Urals will give up the succession of the Russian tsar!" ”

Olga was silent for a moment: "Don't you think it's a pity, Ural and Assamese, these lands could have been the fruit of our marriage. ”

Yermolov said: "This is not my attitude, but the attitude of the noble council. ”

Olga said: "I can guarantee it! ”

Yermolov said: "It would be better to have an official statement. ”

Olga said: "Yes! ”

The Russian aristocratic community was clearly concerned about the infiltration of Chinese blood into the Russian imperial family.

At this time in China, the British had already communicated with the Chinese Imperial Court.

The Imperial Court regretted the coup d'état in Russia, but its attitude remained that it held high the banner of peace and hoped that peace would be restored to Europe as soon as possible.

The British made an invitation for China to join Britain in mediating the coup d'état in Russia.

Normally, Britain does not want China to expand its influence in the West, but it is already a fact that China's influence in Russia, at least in Russia, has been severed, and through the marriage with Olga, the two countries have become tangled. It would be better to draw China into the chariot of mediation than to let China move freely.

The Court asked whether it was necessary to use armed mediation to determine the bottom line of mediation. Britain is adamantly opposed, believing that it will escalate the situation, which is what they fear most, and that China will intervene in Europe by force.

The Court also inquired about the position of the two sides in mediating and that Britain hoped to stop this illegal coup d'état. China said that it could not accept this position, believing that the coup d'état was an internal disagreement of the Russian royal family, and that it was difficult for foreign countries to intervene, and that once they did, it was better not to have a biased position, but to focus on the purpose of maintaining peace.

It is difficult for the two sides to reach a consensus on the position of the mediation.

On the other hand, Prussian diplomatic circles also began to act, and Bismarck was extremely excited.

He thought things were better than anyone could have imagined before the war, and Russia, with a difficult defeat from the battlefield, had taken it into its own internal coup d'état, and demanded peace with Prussia.

Bismarck was a staunch supporter of Prussia's agreement with Russia as soon as possible, and he saw it as an unprecedented opportunity to receive large territories from Russia and to which Russia would be grateful. Rarely has this happened in the entire history of diplomacy.

The Prussian king was also intrigued, and he took the initiative to ask Bismarck what territories he could get. Bismarck told him that he could get the gratitude of Russia in the case of getting the whole of Poland, provided that Prussia was the first to show its support for the Tsar in the present predicament of Russia, so that the Tsar would make concessions and at the same time be grateful for Prussia's support.

The king asked Finland again, Bismarck was firmly opposed to Prussia's seizure of Finland, he believed that Finland was of little value, too close to the Russian sea outlet, and Prussia's navy was very weak, not enough to compete with the Russian Baltic Fleet, once Finland was captured, Prussia's power would be forced into a naval race, Prussia's national strength could not support a large army, but also maintain a strong navy. So he believes that even if Finland is captured, sooner or later it will be lost.

The king was silent for a moment, repulsed Bismarck, and never summoned him again.

Bismarck anxiously awaited the king's decision, and he hoped that the king would send him directly to Russia to negotiate with the tsaress.

The Foreign Secretary told Bismarck that Bismarck's attitude was very unpleasant to the king, who did not accept the fact that Finland could not be obtained, and was concerned about the reputation of a separate peace, and that Prussia and Austria were now allies, and that a separate peace would affect the national reputation of Prussia and the reputation of the king.

Bismarck told the Foreign Minister that Prussia must quickly reach a separate agreement with Russia before the great powers intervened, otherwise everything would be determined by the attitude of the great powers and Russia's gratitude would be lost. Moreover, it may not be possible to calmly divide the territory of Poland with Russia, and as for the question of reputation, it is not worth mentioning in the face of national interests.

Bismarck could not convince the king, but found that the king continued to order Prince Wilhelm to launch an offensive in Poland, and the Russian army was indeed affected, a large number of soldiers fled, and the combat effectiveness was greatly reduced. But they were still able to retreat and remain intact.

The Russian army has retreated to the east of the Western Dvina, the upper reaches of the Dnieper, and is already extremely close to Moscow, and will inevitably not retreat again, but rely on the Moscow Heights, Central Russian Heights and other terrain to hold on.

The Prussian and Austrian forces were already disjointed in the advance, and the North German coalition led by Prussia mainly attacked the northern front, reached the area of the West Dvina River, and confronted the Russian army across the river in the Gulf of Riga; The Austrian army advanced from the area of Lviv to the direction of Kiev, obviously the Allies have selfish intentions after repelling the main force of the Russian army, and they all hope to fight for bargaining chips for their respective countries at the negotiating table, hoping to occupy more land that may be included in their own territory, and Austria occupies Kyiv, which has enough reason to claim Ukrainian territory west of the Dnieper River.

The declaration of succession of the female tsar was read out in the House of Nobles, making it clear that she and the heirs of the king of the Urals would not inherit the throne of the Russian tsar, and that the future Russian prince would choose one of the two current princes of Alexander II, and in order to avoid suspicion, the two princes would be sent back to their mother, the princess of the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt.

With this condition, the tsar was also persuaded to compromise. The tsar offered to abdicate, but he refused to be imprisoned, and he did not want to go with him to the Grand Duchy of Darmstadt, he was willing to go to live in Switzerland. The Russian government will provide him with an annual allowance of 200,000 pounds.

All this was written into the agreement, and was notarized by the Patriarch and the noble councillors, and the foreign consuls were present to witness it, and the information was promptly reported to the national government.

At the same time, Yermolov met with Gorchakov, who retreated along the coast to the Western Dvina, because of where it was closer to Petersburg, apparently not at ease with Moscow.

Yermolov hoped that Gorchakov would return to Moscow with him to formally meet the Tsaress, who had already received the support of both the National Assembly and the House of Nobles, and had reached an understanding with Alexander II, that religion supported her, that two-thirds of the Russian provinces had pledged allegiance to her, and that if a civil war broke out at this time, Russia would inevitably be torn apart, and if it had adopted a cooperative attitude, Russia could have recovered its defeat.

Gorchakov sighed, complaining that the woman had not done everything, but was now asking her to solve the problem. Yermolov told her that complaining would not solve the problem. Began to discuss some military issues with him.

Gorchakov was in great difficulty at this time, and his losses in the retreat were greater than in the offensive. On the one hand, there is a large number of escapes, on the other hand, there is the problem of weapons of the Prussian army, he believes that the kind of rear-loading rifle equipped by Prussia does not have an absolute advantage on the frontal battlefield, but in the hand-to-hand encounter, the rate of fire advantage is very obvious, the front loading gun loading and firing a bullet, the opponent can already shoot four or five bullets, as a result, during the pursuit, a large number of stragglers, once caught up, it is difficult to escape.

In just over 20 days, he lost more than 200,000 soldiers, and the domestic political situation caused the soldiers to be unable to replenish, and now there are only 700,000 troops left in his hands.

Yermolov said that now one can only hope that the combat effectiveness of the Urals army will be sufficient to withstand the Prussian army. The problem in the Black Sea direction is not great, the Ottoman army has limited combat effectiveness, and despite its large number of troops, it is not enough to repel the Russian army in the Black Sea. It's just that the Austrian army is now concentrated in the middle of the breakthrough, they have begun to attack Kyiv, that area is very empty, and the queen has already transferred the Ural army to the front. Once Kyiv is lost, the entire region east of the Dnieper will not only be undefendable, but the Black Sea Front will become a lone army.

The two veterans believe that the current situation in Russia is not enough to fight on two fronts with Prussia and Austria, and that they should reach an agreement with one of them, even if they make large concessions, and then concentrate on one side to force the other country to compromise.

However, officers of their seniority have long understood that the outcome of war is often determined by factors outside the battlefield, so they must show strength before forcing one of them to accept peace, in order to protect Russia's interests to the greatest extent.

After the two of them discussed, they decided to strike a blow to the Prussian army approaching the direction of Petersburg that was enough to make the other party retreat!