Zhou Lang negotiated with Speransky very fiercely, and finally took a step back and accepted Speransky's request to allow the Romanovs to continue to rule Russia, and did not even ask Russia to change the tsar, and Nicholas I remained as the tsar.

But Zhou Lang demanded that Speransky must really grasp power, make the Russian regime more rational and peaceful, and not be a thug for people one at a time.

In fact, the reason why Russia participated in this war was not the result of Britain's instigation, and all political events are often a matter of mutual benefit, and simply saying who is the thug is is an emotional expression and does not conform to logic.

The contradiction between Russia and China rose to the first place after the Russians successfully restored their power in Poland, and the Russians could not accept that Chinese capital controlled Russia's railways and minerals, nor could they accept China's annexation of Kazakhstan, blocking Russia's southward progress. A large number of Russian elites even believe that Russia has put a Tatar yoke on its head again.

With such hatred of China, it is easy for war to break out in this era of rising nationalism, when power is too concentrated in the hands of the king.

It's just that Russia underestimated China's strength, China's standing army is small, and it does play a role in some confusion, China has always formed a regular army according to auxiliaries and soldiers, and even auxiliary troops have always been considered second-line troops, which makes Russia greatly underestimate China's mobilization capacity, this era is an era of nation-states have been formed, the biggest difference between national wars and dynastic wars for hegemony is the great improvement of mobilization capabilities, China's Warring States Period, all countries are soldiers at every turn, and in the era of great unification, it can not be doneIt is because one is a nation-state and the other is an empire, and the mobilization capacity is not the same.

The same is true in Europe, before the Napoleonic Wars, who could have imagined the fight of a million armies, Napoleon directly pushed the war between countries to the level of millions.

The Russians admit that their mobilization ability is inferior to China's, but Russia's pre-war analysis believes that its own country can mobilize millions of troops, and they believe that China's mobilization of troops will not exceed three million, because this is an unprecedented number, and Chinese has never armed more than three million troops in history, even if you count the military households abolished in the Ming Dynasty, it is only two million troops.

The Russians thought that they had mobilized a million troops, and Britain had provided 500,000 troops, which would be enough to fight China on the northwestern frontier, far from the Chinese capital, because China would have to face both the United States and Spain. However, Russia did not expect that during the war, China did not send regular troops to the Americas, and almost all of them relied on the strength of the American territories to fight this war. Nor did the army send to India. The most wrong thing is that the Russians really could not have imagined that the Chinese would mobilize nine million troops. And this army turned out to be not a rabble, and in the later stages of the war, it had accumulated enough combat experience to fight as a regular army.

But even if these things do not exist, if it is a government controlled by a cautious politician, it will never rashly start a war with China, so Zhou Lang proposed that Russia will form a rational government. He believed that Speransky's rule would guarantee a more cautious foreign policy in Russia.

Speransky accepted the mission, but he was not happy, and he became a puppet again.

Zhou Lang doesn't want to see that the puppet he supports has no fighting spirit, if he has no fighting spirit at all, the ruling will not be stable, if he is overthrown after not doing it for long, Zhou Lang's strategy will be abandoned, a regime that has overthrown the puppet is impossible to live in peace with the controller behind the scenes, and a Russia that is always hostile to China is very troublesome. It's not a hit, but it's a headache if you don't fight.

Zhou Lang believes that Speransky will have to stay in power in Russia for at least five years, so as to ensure that the old elite will be purged and replaced with a group of interest groups that are more closely related to China, such as commercial interest groups that profit from trade with China. These interest groups are naturally pro-China, and only with them being in power for a long time can relations between the two countries develop well.

So Zhou Lang had to cheer up Speransky, who had no fighting spirit: "This is also an opportunity for Russia's thorough reform, I believe that you have thought carefully about the reform, and this time you will definitely be able to achieve good results." ”

Speransky snorted coldly: "Do you think it is possible for the reform under the auspices of a puppet to be recognized by the people?" ”

Zhou Lang will never admit this: "Why do you think so? How could you be a puppet! You can rest assured that China will not interfere with your reforms, but will support them for the sake of the long-term relationship between the two countries. In other words, the new government formed by you will have absolute freedom! ”

"Freedom?" Speransky gave a sarcastic look: "Freedom under the subjugation!" ”

The conversation with Speransky was unpleasant, and the man was so resistant and repulsive to his mission that Zhou Lang feared that he might not be able to meet China's demands for Russia's future political direction.

But there was no better option, and it was certain that as long as Speransky was not supported to go to Russia to form a new government, the British, French, Prussian and other parliaments would send their government agencies to Russia.

Just yesterday, news came from Europe that Prussia and Austria had declared war on Russia, and the reasons were far-fetched, the Poles suddenly revolted, and the two countries demanded that Russia recognize the independence of Poland, but Russia refused, so they signed an alliance agreement with Poland, sent troops into Poland, and fought with the Russian troops who rushed to suppress it. It's as if when Belgium became independent, France helped Belgium fight.

As to whether this uprising was secretly instigated by the two countries, it is not known, anyway, there is no shortage of such people among the Poles, and most of them are in exile in Prussia and Austria, but it happened at the most tragic time in Russia, and the timing is too coincidental. Or rather, the two sides hit it off, the Poles needed to take advantage of the collapse of Russia and take the opportunity to become independent, and Prussia and Austria needed a war to divide up Russian territory.

As for why they instigated the Polish uprising, first, the two countries needed a bright reason, and second, they had to block the pretext for French intervention. As for whether Britain will intervene, the British themselves are unable to protect themselves, even if the navy is strong, it is impossible to defend against the threat of the Chinese navy, and it is impossible to blockade Prussia and Austria.

At this time, Speransky, with a politician in exile in China, announced the establishment of a Russian provisional government, declaring that the new government would be committed to ending the war by peaceful means.