Chapter 364: European Chaos

Ragus smiled in the face of a man who knew it, and the discussion continued happily. The next day Ragus consulted the Tsar, who said that it was inappropriate to divide the city for the Ming people, but if it was the area around the city, there was no problem. As for the lease period, it will be simpler, if the Rakshasa people defeat the Ming one day, not only will the concession be gone, but the Rakshasa people will also take back the place that the Ming has occupied.

So the two sides signed the "Mingluo Friendship Treaty", in the treaty, first affirmed that the Ming and the Rakshasa country are friendly countries, and the two sides must not go to war again. The area of 100 kilometers on both sides of the Volga River occupied by the Ming people was the permanent territory of the Ming Dynasty, and there was no dispute. In order to ensure respect for the Ming Dynasty, the Rakshasa people must not have a fortress with more than 500 troops within a hundred kilometers of the Ming border, and a total of more than 5,000 troops must be stationed within this range.

From Allashov (now called the Far West City) to the border between the Rakshasa Kingdom and Poland, the Rakshasa Congress set aside 200 square kilometers of land on the outskirts of ten cities as a concession and leased it to the Ming people for a period of 200 years. The concession was built and managed by the Ming Dynasty, and all administrative powers belonged to the Ming Dynasty. For the first 100 years of the concession, the Ming Dynasty did not need to pay rent, and for the next 100 years, the tax of the Rakshasa people in the concession was used as rent.

The war between the Ming Dynasty and the Rakshasa Kingdom was a misunderstanding, but the Great Ming did suffer great losses, so the Rakshasa people generously paid the Ming 15 million taels of silver, which was paid in 30 years.

The Ming people built a railway in the territory of the Rakshasa to connect the Ming and European countries, within the two hundred steps of the railway on both sides of the Rakshasa within the Ming Dynasty has jurisdiction, if the railway in the territory of the Rakshasa is damaged, the government of the Rakshasa must be responsible for compensation, and hand over the responsible person. The cost of using the railway for the Rakshasas would not be higher than that of other Europeans, and not more than twice the cost of the Ming people, but they would not be allowed to use the railway to transport troops and weapons.

Through this treaty, the Tsar finally recovered the land lost in the Second Minluo War, but the land in the Volga River valley became de jure the territory of the Ming Dynasty. Although it is necessary to compensate the Ming Dynasty with 15 million taels of silver, after it is divided into 30 years, it will also cost 500,000 taels per year. However, the Ming Dynasty promised that all the construction of the railway would be made of Rakshasas, and the daily wages of strong laborers would not be less than half a penny of silver, and the construction of the Ming Concession naturally required the hiring of a large number of Rakshasas. In this way, the Rakshasas in turn can make a lot of money by selling their labor, Ragus and the Tsar said that if the railway and concession of the Ming Dynasty are repaired, they need to pay at least 50 million taels of silver to the Rakshasas, so in fact, the Rakshasas are making a lot of money.

The "Mingluo Friendship Treaty" was sent to the capital to be decided by the emperor, and Zhu Youxiao was very satisfied with the treaty and immediately ratified the use of seals. According to the emperor's request, the first thing to do was to build a railway between Yuji City and Kazan City to connect the two places, and build a large number of forts near the railway to protect the railway and defend the new border of the Ming Dynasty.

Lu Xiangsheng received a new order and began negotiations with the Poles, asking them to allow them to build a railway to France. The Poles were not occupied by the Ming Dynasty, and they were friendly allies with the Ming Dynasty, so the Ming Dynasty gave extremely generous conditions: Poland's loan to the Ming Dynasty could be changed to interest-free, and the repayment time was extended from the original ten years to twenty years, if the Polish government was in need, the Ming Dynasty could also lend an interest-free long-term loan of five million yuan, and the maximum repayment could reach fifty years, and only needed to use Ukrainian grain as a guarantee.

After the railway was repaired, Poland could use this railway to transport troops and weapons, and the cost of transporting all supplies was no higher than that of the Rakshasas, nor higher than that of other European countries.

These conditions hit the hearts of the Poles at once, and the biggest problem in Poland now is the lack of money, and they are extremely wary of the Rakshasas. With the money of the Ming Dynasty, there are more weapons, more Cossack cavalry can be recruited, and the war with the Rakshasas has a few more chances of victory. What's more, the Ming Dynasty allowed the Poles to use the railway to transport troops, which was equivalent to a sudden increase in Poland's troops, which could be transferred to various places more flexibly and mobilely, which could be said to be of decisive significance for the victory or defeat of the war between the two countries. As for Ukraine's grain as a guarantee, it just means that Ukraine's grain should be sold to the Ming people first, and if there is surplus grain, who is not sold to it, then there is no problem at all.

The railway project continued to the border between Poland and Prussia. And Zhu Youxiao is not ready to negotiate with the Habsburg Dynasty and Prussia and other states now, because the railway construction here is obviously not a short time can be done, and the Thirty Years War is still going on, before the results come out, the negotiations between the Ming Dynasty and them can not be guaranteed to be implemented in the end.

The Thirty Years' War has now completed its Swedish phase, and the Peace of Prague has made the Habsburgs now victorious, but soon France will enter the war, and the entry of Denmark and Sweden will throw Europe into disarray. Zhu Youxiao felt that in the Rakshasa country, far away from the center of Europe, watching the Europeans kill their heads and look for opportunities at the same time, this should be the best response and maximize the interests of the Ming Dynasty.

The Thirty Years' War would officially end the Habsburgs' dream of a unified monarchy and give the European states de jure independence, while the German Confederation continued to divide until Prussia united it into a single state.

At this time of chaos in Europe, it is a good opportunity for the Ming to fish in troubled waters, and the exchanges with European countries are a game of chess that has been laid out a long time ago, and defeating the Rakshasa and befriending Poland and Sweden gives the Ming the opportunity to observe the chaos in Europe at close range, and find the right opportunity to intervene in this big melee.

As the emperor's most trusted minister, Lu Xiangsheng began his trip to Europe with Dai Chunfeng and a few interpreters after negotiating the construction of the railway with Poland. Zhu Youxiao gave him great power, as long as it was beneficial to the Ming Dynasty, he could make a full decision, and then report it afterwards.

Looking for opportunities in this troubled era, it is not a very difficult thing for Lu Xiangsheng, who is both civil and military, not to mention that he also has Dai Chunfeng, whom the emperor called a cunning fox, as an assistant, and his party is crisscrossing Europe, combining vertical and horizontal, winning over the countries that oppose the Habsburgs, and attacking Spain and other countries that cooperate with the Habsburgs, so that the trend of the Thirty Years' War began to deviate from the original history, and the farther and farther away. Of course, there is a book dedicated to their deeds, so I will not repeat them here.