The Manchu negotiations with the Russian expeditionary force were not something that could be resolved for a while, and the Manchus were secretly negotiating with Russia while occupying Western Siberia, in fact, the Military Intelligence Department of the Chinese Empire had known about it for a long time, and reported it to Jin Qi, who in turn reported it to Zhang Qiang.

But Zhang Qiang did not react, because he knew that now was not the time to force the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese Empire did not even digest a single Dongberia, sent an exploration team in the summer, and withdrew to Chita in the winter, and the entire area of Dongberia had less than 500,000 people.

In order to ensure the livelihood of these 500,000 people, it took a lot of money, and the road opened up in the summer only reached the middle of East Siberia, which was only a main road, starting from Heilongjiang, passing through Shilitun in Jiangdong, Vladivostok, and then turning a corner to reach Chita, from Chita to leave the coastline for 100 kilometers, passing through the various settlements of the previous Manchu Qing into East Siberia, and finally stopping in a relatively large town, which is already the easterly center of East Siberia.

From here, there is then another way back to the sea, from which in the summer the place can be replenished, transported and evacuated.

Next spring, a large road will be extended from here to return to Lake Belga in Middle Siberia, in fact, where it is closer to the Heilongjiang River from which they started, there is already a road to Lake Belga, and there is even a horse-drawn railway, where the post road leads.

After the complete withdrawal of the Qing Dynasty from Central Siberia, the Huaxia Army sent three garrison brigades, 20,000 people to enter the area, mainly around the two banks of Lake Belga, to carry out construction, the initial construction is to ensure the smooth flow of the road, the original construction of settlements along the way, as well as the merchant station, also settled in the summer the common people and garrison brigade soldiers and horses, where the cavalry of a field brigade entered, within a radius of 50 miles to suppress bandits, to ensure the safety of the place.

The people and people who have been evacuated from Dongberia have been evacuated one after another, and there are about 500,000 people, and these 500,000 people have been exhausted just to support the lines and garrisons around the city, and in order to ensure the livelihood of these 500,000 people, at least one million people must be busy in the front and rear.

East Siberia is half deep, and Middle Siberia is actually only deep into Lower Middle Siberia, and it has just entered a small and half of it, which consumes a lot of manpower and powerlessness.

Every year, in order to ensure that the Qing Dynasty can win the Russian expeditionary force and the Western coalition army, the Chinese Empire spends at least 50% of its financial expenditures, 10 million people and 5 million soldiers and horses, even if it has been accumulated for 30 years, the Chinese Empire can not stand it.

This is why the Chinese dynasties have always set up a capital outside the Great Wall after repelling the invading alien races, stationed one or two thousand people, and let the aliens manage themselves, and the officials just show their existence and collect taxes to ensure that there is no rebellion or security.

It is really disproportionate to the expenditure and recovery, not a big loss, but a huge loss, until now, except for furs and giant trees, some animal meat, and some medicinal materials, there is nothing that can make the Chinese Empire interested, or can recover the cost, obtain greater profits, at first these profits also made the merchants or the Chinese Empire government feel that the benefits are rich, that is because the cost of food, materials, weapons and ammunition, guns and cannons, as well as transportation and construction costs paid to the Qing Dynasty are not taken into account.

Later, the cabinet calculated every year, from the beginning of the war to expel the Qing Dynasty, to the initiative to ask the Qing Dynasty to withdraw, the food and materials paid to the Qing Dynasty, and a series of materials and money, manpower, material resources, astronomical amounts, if it is only the profits obtained from the above things, the benefits to the Chinese Empire, then another hundred years will not be able to recover the cost paid by the Chinese Empire.

And as long as the Qing State does not withdraw to the west of the Ural Mountains, what should they do, they don't need the Chinese Empire to care about their eating, drinking, wearing, equipping, and fighting, and only then will they stop losing money, and as for how to build in the future, whether they want to build Siberia, that is a matter of the future, and it is also a big expense to send people to occupy it, and it is also a big expense to maintain it every year.

If this transaction is only 10,000 basic profits in the end, then the loss will be 1200 at the beginning, but after the war, the Huaxia Army will invest 20 or 30 more, every day, every year of construction, basically ten years later, it will lose 10,000 or 20,000, and then it can earn 30,000 or 40,000, in short, there is a profit, now it is a loss of 5,000 or 5,000 a day, and the profit earned is two or three hundred, and in the winter it will be fifty or sixty, and the loss will reach 10 million after ten years, and the compensation obtained, or what can be earned in the end, is only five or six hundred, The total amount can reach a few thousand.

As early as the Han Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, and even the Yuan Dynasty, the south was actually a barren land, a place for exiled prisoners, although it was a little hot, but it could still inhabit people, but most of Siberia could not live more people, and the cold made people and crops unable to survive, and it could not turn it into a prosperous city.

Therefore, with the productive forces of the present or previous dynasties in the era of agricultural economy, Siberia finally gained little, but the cost was huge, so it was all abandoned, and only Russia was originally only a city, within a radius of thirty or fifty miles, from a vassal state to a principality, to occupy the entire land in a radius of several hundred kilometers west of the Ural Mountains, because the original land was too small, so the desire for land never ended.

Just like the Chinese's pursuit of wealth, greedy and greedy, always consciously not enough, afraid that it is not their own, the size must be grasped in their own hands, because they are afraid of poverty, and they have been poor for more than 2,000 years.

However, although the cabinet and even the entire imperial court wanted to give up Siberia, Zhang Qiang's insistence made everyone helpless, and they had to do this thing that seemed to be a serious loss and might even drag down the Chinese Empire.

Zhang Qiang was also angry at the Russians' occupation of China's land in later generations, and in this life, he has the ability to do so, so why not take it back?

Now, although the Chinese Empire has grown from strong to difficult, he still does not hesitate to promote this matter, and all opposing voices have disappeared naturally under his oppression, or turned to private discussions.

This is not Zhang Qiang's business, as long as he is in Siberia, as well as Southeast Asia, the South China Sea, Malacca, Australia, Indonesia and other overseas lands that everyone still complains about, Zhang Qiang does not want to give up.

Under such circumstances, Zhang Qiang promoted the occupation of Siberia, and now has obtained Central Siberia and East Siberia, and Western Siberia has also opened roads, established liaison trading stations, post roads, and all the way to the Ural Mountains on the front line, 300,000 people and 300,000 garrisons are arranged along the line, although the main purpose is to transfer materials to the Qing Dynasty and open the road, but this is also the passage into West Siberia in the future.

(End of chapter)