The seven armies successfully retreated to the place of departure, but there were less than 30,000 people, and most of them were cavalry, and most of the infantry disappeared into the vast desert, which was a complete defeat.

After Zhou Lang was shocked, he began to re-examine the gap between his army construction and that of the Europeans, but it was still difficult for him to understand the key points. He cleared up the military adviser Fischer, who was also vague, saying only that the Russian army had always been the best in Europe. And take a few years ago in the war of the anti-French alliance, the Russian army under the command of Suvorov was able to defeat the French expeditionary force as an example, because the French expeditionary force was almost invincible in the hands of Napoleon, defeated all the enemy troops in Austria and northern Italy, although Suvorov did not meet Napoleon, but defeated many famous French generals, Moreau, Macdonald and Joubert were defeated by his men successively, Fischer told Zhou Lang that Suvorov's Russian army had a high level of training and high morale according to some news from Europe.

It's all a bit of a void, Zhou Lang couldn't help but sigh, it seems that an officer of Fischer's level is no longer able to provide him with more advanced professional advice.

His army also needs to move to a higher level, in the past, the focus was on the tactical level, and the knowledge and level of these officers were still competent, but now it seems that they obviously do not have the quality of famous generals at the strategic level, and the generals in Zhou Lang's army often seek experience from the ancient Chinese art of war at the strategic level when conducting complex operations.

The Europeans themselves are now killing blood and bones, and it is obviously impossible for their famous generals to be sent to China as consultants, since the other party does not send people, Zhou Lang will send people himself, this time he was defeated by the Russian army, and the defeat is confused, if he does not find out the reason, he will not be reconciled, if he is really inferior to the other party, then go to learn, learn from the other party's strengths, and make up for his own shortcomings.

Zhou Lang wants to compete with these great powers for hegemony, not for personal glory, but for the living space of the nation and the fate of the entire country.

But the battlefield was too chaotic, this kind of almost rout war, really made Zhou Lang confused, the battle report compiled by the defeated army was vague in details, and it was completely impossible to analyze whether the reason for the defeat was due to the technical level or the command problem.

Without waiting for Zhou Lang to figure out this problem, the Russians came to the door, not with troops, but for negotiations.

Fight a war, negotiate with you, ask for benefits, Westerners' style, Orientals are endless.

Zhou Lang was willing to talk to the other party, and now he didn't need to come forward in person for negotiations, and Lin Di pulled up a team of junior diplomatic teams.

The negotiations were recorded in detail by Zhou Lang, and the Russians demanded that the two sides maintain their current control areas and then sign a peace treaty.

China had to recognize the Qing Dynasty's right to rule over Mongolia and Ili, and the Russians were based on the idea that it was not inherent to China beyond the Great Wall, and that the Qing regime was willing to give up the territory of Inner Mongolia, which had greatly increased the territory of China, and on this basis, it was in everyone's interest to restore peace and trade, and Russia was willing to mediate.

The Russians were anxious to resume trade, the Kyakhta trade was too important for their finances, France was already showing a momentum of hegemony under Napoleon, the Russians did not want to see this, they were already thinking about containing France, and were secretly in contact with Denmark, Prussia, Austria and Sweden to discuss alliances, and in the event of another war with France, Russia needed strong financial support. The relationship between Britain and Russia has become very stiff because of the ownership of the island of Malta, and it is difficult for Russia to get financial support from Britain, which makes the importance of Kyakhta trade even more prominent.

However, since Zhou Lang's Northern Expedition, Russia's Kyakhta trade with China has been cut off, and if the two sides are allowed to continue fighting, the Russians cannot judge how long it will be before peace will be restored in China.

In addition, Russia also wanted to take the opportunity to expand into China, and they put this regime under the protection of Russia by signing a protection treaty with the Qing regime, and if the Qing Dynasty continued to control the outer Mongolia, it would be equivalent to Russia greatly pushing the Kyakhta trade south by hundreds of versts.

Under the behind-the-scenes guidance of Zhou Lang, Lin Di put forward three demands to the Russians, first, it was okay to resume trade, and asked Russia to quickly hand over the foreign vassal Mongolia, as for the control of the Great Zhou, so as to ensure the safety of the trade route, the Great Zhou was willing to restore the Sino-Russian trade to the previous state, and would not impose restrictions on the scale of trade and the types of goods. Second, Russia must release the officers and soldiers of the Great Zhou captured in the war, otherwise the Great Zhou will not continue to negotiate with Russia in the next step, and will regard the relationship between the two sides as a state of war. Third, Russia must immediately abandon its support for the Manchu regime, otherwise the Great Zhou would regard it as hostile and would not consider resuming trade relations with the hostile countries.

The Russians explained that their previous military actions were to fulfill their obligations to the Qing Dynasty and did not wish to continue the war with China, but that if the Great Zhou were unwilling to negotiate at the current Line of Actual Control, the Russian army would have to continue to fight China on the side of the Qing Dynasty and continue to advance southward. As for the release of the prisoners, it had to be after the end of the war.

That's the threat.

Zhou Lang asked Lin Di to reply to the Russian representative that since the other side was unwilling to release the prisoners, then the two sides would be in a state of war from now on, and China would not consider any trade issues until the war was over. China hoped that the Russian army would be gentlemanly and kind to the Chinese prisoners, and Lindy promised that after the end of the war, he would exchange prisoners in a reciprocal manner, and was willing to pay a ransom for the Chinese prisoners.

Continue to fight, this is a must, Zhou Lang must find this field. The situation of the Russians occupying Outer Mongolia is absolutely unacceptable to him, before Russia has not declared war, has exchanged fire with the Chinese army, the two sides have actually entered a state of war, symbolically talk, Zhou Lang wants to save the prisoners back, not out of human considerations, but after these people come back, Zhou Lang can find the reason for the defeat, whether the experience of war is the experience of victory or defeat, is as precious as gold, because these experiences need to pay for life in exchange.

Restarting the war, Zhou Lang was much more cautious this time, sent Zhao Wen to lead the troops, and dispatched his own battalion and artillery troops, and mobilized six armies to hand over to Zhao Wen, asking for only one, to annihilate the Russian army at any cost.

Six war corps, totaling 72,000 men, plus the commander battalion and artillery units, the battle force is close to 100,000 people, if they cannot be annihilated with five times the strength of the Russians, Zhou Lang must immediately stop military operations and reorganize the army.

All the battle reports collected from the defeated army were taken to Zhao Wen and others for study, and at the same time, Fischer participated in it, and tried to fight a beautiful battle in this confrontation with the first-class European army.

It is believed that the news of the defeat of the Russian army will also reach Europe, so that the Europeans will realize that in the far east, there is a military force that can compete with their first-class army, and this prestige will reduce a lot of trouble in the future competition.

As for the auxiliaries, there were very few sorties this time, and the Mongol cavalry also retreated to the rear to rest during the war.

Due to the lack of transportation forces and the lack of his own mobile forces, Zhou Lang demanded that the preset battlefield be selected on the side close to his side, and strive to lure the Russian army to fight in the Horqin area, instead of going forward to the Kulen area.

The Russians didn't know if they were really in a hurry or too confident, and after Da Zhou declared a state of war, they really did as they threatened, and the army began to move south.

With the cooperation of nearly 100,000 Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banners, they slowly moved south, but instead of attacking Horqin, they tried to approach Zhangjiakou along Zhangku Avenue.

The purpose of the Russians was too clear, that is, to open up the Kyakhta trade route. Zhangku Avenue is a trade line and a transportation line. It has a very long history, and it has been used for trade during the Song and Yuan dynasties. During the Yuan Dynasty, the government began to intervene in the operation, and the post stations were built along the way, the Ming and Qing dynasties continued to widen, and the Ming Dynasty built the official horse road for the Northern Expedition to transport materials, and officially became the official road that could pass the carriage, and the commerce of the Qing Dynasty and the grassland was more developed, and the Kyakhta trade mainly took this route. Zhangjiakou has also officially become a prosperous land port.

By opening up this trade route, Russian caravans did not need to wait for Jin merchants to deliver goods in Kyakhta, and could directly go south to Zhangjiakou for trade.

Seeing the Russians taking this line, Zhou's army quickly adjusted its deployment, and Zhou Lang agreed to Zhao Wen's plan to retreat in large strides and lure the enemy army to the vicinity of Zhangjiakou to be annihilated.

As for the political influence caused by the abandonment of Inner Mongolia, it was temporarily put aside, and only those who were able to win the war against Mongolia could return to their hearts. The grassland has never been a place that pays attention to cultivating benevolence and virtue, but a place where only fists are recognized.

Zhao Wen shrank his forces and went all the way south, while the Qing and Russian coalition forces pressed all the way.

Just when everyone, including Zhou Lang, thought that Zhao Wen would retreat all the way to Zhangjiakou, north of Chahar, he suddenly attacked the Qing army.

The purpose was to defeat the Manchu Qing troops who provided supplies and logistics for the Russian army, but this sneak attack was unsuccessful, and Zhou Lang's handsome battalion also suffered considerable losses, with three thousand elite handsome battalions losing more than eight hundred.

After the war, Zhao Wen wrote a letter to plead guilty. He told Zhou Lang a bad message, after this battle, he judged that the Manmeng Eight Banners had been reborn, although it was still inferior to the Zhou army, but compared with the past, the strength was greatly enhanced. Moreover, the combat method is much tougher than in the past, with frontal hard rushing as the mainstay, supplemented by harassment.

It was also found that there were a large number of Russians in the Qing army, who were identified as officers or advisers, indicating that the Qing army was now commanded by the Russians or trained by the Russians.

According to this, Zhao Wen judged that the reason why Gou Quan pursued the Qing army all the way to Kulen last time and was defeated was probably not that the Russian army was really that strong, but that the Qing army was showing weakness, and it was the Qing army that lured Gou Quan to Kulun, and then the Russian army acted as a sharp knife, and the Qing army cooperated to completely defeat Gou.