Zhou Lang was sincere in helping Speransky stabilize Russia, and under that circumstances, the chaos in Russia was not good for China, and a large number of refugees fled to Chinese territory (newly ceded land), and if Russia collapsed, it could only be divided by European countries, and it was not good for China.

But Zhou Lang never really wanted to help Russia become stronger, the common people said, the heart of harming people must not have the heart of defending people, but at the political level, the heart of defense is always the first, the heart of harming people, there must be it, at least in this era of strife among the nations.

Everyone is playing a game called zero-sum, if others have it, you don't have it, and what you gain will be what people lose.

Zhou Lang really did not expect that in the situation of lack of labor in the country, famine everywhere, discord between monarchs, and all the unfavorable political situations that could exist, Speransky only took three or five years to stabilize Russia.

It is not known whether it was Speransky's outstanding ability, or the amazing endurance of the Russians, or a combination of the two, that caused the situation.

Famine, war, and civil war cost at least five million Russians, and despite five years of rapid recovery, the total population inevitably fell from 40 million to 36 million. But this did not affect the strength of a new Russia, because although six or seven hundred thousand young people died in the war, most of the people who died in the famine and civil war were old and weak, women and children, and although cruel, in terms of social economy, these people were indeed a burden, and the income they generated could not support the cost of their survival.

Another major factor in Speransky's success may be that there are millions of Russian troops, especially most of the Russian nobles have not been released, and in China they are doing hard labor, Speransky's reforms have not been hindered by a strong elite class, and the remnants of the aristocracy are basically those court nobles who live in the cities all year round, and most of the small and medium-sized nobles rooted in the countryside have been captured because of their service.

There were no opponents, and this was probably the greatest advantage of his reforms over all the Russian reformers of later generations.

In addition, Zhou Lang really did not expect that Speransky creatively used the method of arming the kulaks to cultivate a support class for him in the rural society. The wealth of the countryside was rapidly concentrated in the hands of the kulaks, and the assets in the hands of these people were more efficient than in the hands of the aristocratic landlords and the feudal elders, and the increase in the output of grain and cash crops in Russia in the past two years could be regarded as the embodiment of the efficiency of this privatization, which was dominated by the kulaks.

In the cities, a large amount of aristocratic capital was supported, and those nobles who were forcibly deprived of their feudal rights were full of resentment towards Speransky, some chose to leave Russia, while others remained in Petersburg and Moscow, and they lost their land, and they were forced to obtain profits through other industries, and at first they sold their property and waited for the tsar to restore their power, but the tsar remained silent, and after the magnates despaired, they could only engage in industry and commerce.

The Russian nobles generally received aristocratic education, and the big aristocratic families hired tutors, English teachers, French teachers, and most importantly German teachers for their children from an early age, so that the children of the Russian nobility could generally speak multiple languages, have art appreciation, and historical and literary skills. There are also quite talented people in music, philosophy and other fields, and compared with the aristocracy of other European countries, the level of knowledge is not low at all.

But this group of the most educated class was only a hedonistic class in Russia, they did not care about production, they did not care about the social economy, and they extracted the capital of pleasure through the huge serfs and land. It can be said that among European countries, the Russian magnates are most similar to the Eight Banners magnates of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Moreover, they are more wealthy than the elite of the Eight Banners, because the number of nobles is smaller after all, and serfdom is the basis of society in Russia, and the vast majority of people are serfs, which is equivalent to the situation that the vast majority of Chinese society is clothed.

These hedonistic classes, like the children of the Eight Banners, do not have any practical means of making a living, and the advanced knowledge they have mastered is often only the talk of their salon receptions, and the very few who are interested in studying science are often theoretical discussions, and there are very few practical inventions and creations.

Now that this group of people had lost their property, the top nobles, those who had the blood of the Tsarist family and were qualified to marry the royal nobles of the European countries, they quickly fled, took with them a lot of assets, and went to their in-laws, or to the free Holland and England.

The rest of the aristocracy in Russia was in vain, and with the exception of a small number of active earners, the vast majority of them were in a worse and worse economic situation. At this time, Russia's economy was declining, and prices were soaring, which increased the pressure on their lives. But these aristocrats are not overthrown, one by one to save face, obviously they have begun to sell their assets, but they still have to maintain their so-called aristocratic decency, they continue to consume expensive imported goods, British wool, French wine, Bohemian crystal, Chinese silk. still continued to sing songs night after night, paralyzing himself in the sheng song and swallow dance, unwilling to see the changing market outside the palace.

As a result, as their savings ran out, a large number of noble landowners went bankrupt, and their tsar did not help them regain their privileges.

How miserable were the large number of bankrupt aristocrats in a period of social transition? After the Republic of China, not to mention the tragic situation of a large number of children of the Eight Banners in Beijing selling their sons and daughters, just those princes. One by one, they bought antiques and sold their land, sold their land and sold their houses, and how many princes finally sold their palaces. After the money was exchanged, it was used for pleasure, smoking and gambling, just like these Russian aristocrats. Someone saw the children of the royal family pulling rickshaws on the streets of the Republic of China.

After the October Revolution, a large number of Russian nobles went into exile all over the world, many of them went to China, and they became White Russians. Most of the White Russian women fell into the dust, and it is said that many were noblewomen or noble women.

The Russian aristocracy also began to go bankrupt, and those middle nobles, or small and medium-sized nobles among the great nobles, were the first to go bankrupt. In the end, it was the turn of the great nobles to go bankrupt.

They have no face to pull rickshaws on the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg, most of them actually went to other provinces to make a living, and some fell into the pit and abduction, in short, in order to make a living, these self-proclaimed moral models of aristocrats also exposed the evil of human nature, and sought wealth by unscrupulous means.

However, the great nobles have privileges, and all those who can be called great nobles in Russia are all red and yellow belts, and they are all on the top of the tsar, and they can meet the tsar. He went to cry to the tsar and convey the desolation of the nobles.

The tsar was also sad and could not bear to sit and watch the miserable situation of these people, and the tsar personally negotiated with Speransky.

The tsar offered to compensate these nobles for the loss of their property, which in the past serfs were also part of.

But it is simply unrealistic to compensate according to serfs, and Speransky cannot afford to pay at all.

Unlike the emperors of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, after Kangxi, they restricted the increase in the number of coatings and forbade the Han people to serve the Manchus. The purpose is not out of morality, but a large number of Han people through the Manchurians, their land and personal hands to the Manchu masters, to achieve the purpose of tax avoidance, Kangxi and other emperors, is out of government financial and tax considerations, to limit the growth of the number of coatings. But in Russia, the serfdom has been strengthened during Catherine's time, and when Catherine died, the French Revolution broke out, and after a long war, there was basically no room for reform.

As a result, the number of serfs and land controlled by the Russian aristocracy was not only not restricted, but continued to increase. According to Russian statistics, in the twenties of the eighteenth century, the landlord with 20 serfs accounted for 59.5% of the total; Landlords with 21-100 serfs accounted for 31.8% of the total; Large and medium-sized landlords accounted for 8.7% of the total. By the 70s, landlords with 20 serfs accounted for 59% of the total; Landlords with 21-100 serfs accounted for 25% of the total; Large and medium-sized landlords accounted for 16% of the total. In 50 years, the number of large and medium-sized landowners doubled, while the number of small landowners with 21-100 serfs shrank by 6.8%.

Due to various realities, the better the economic conditions of the landlord, the shorter the period of service. In Russia, the average length of service of a demobilized officer without serfs was 26 years, that of a retired nobleman who owned 1 to 10 serfs and was self-employed was 24.5 years, that of a minor nobleman with 70-100 serfs was 22.7 years, that of a middle nobleman was 19.7 years, and that of non-commissioned officers and lieutenants without serfs had to serve for 23 to 29.5 years. A person spends his or her young years in the army, which is equivalent to a lifetime of service.

The nobles who were not captured for hard labor were basically large and medium-sized landlords. According to the division, the small lord nobles had 1 to 100 serfs, the middle lord nobles had 100 to 500 serfs, and the large lord nobles had 500 to 1000 serfs or more. So what Speransky needed to make compensation was these big aristocrats who once owned hundreds or even thousands of serfs.

The country's finances were already tight, but seeing the bankruptcy of one nobleman after another, Speransky was unwilling to push the nobles who still numbered more than 100,000 into a corner, because in the increasingly frequent riots, it was these bankrupt nobles who were the main force.

At the Tsar's intercession, Speransky took a new measure, which was to give land compensation to the nobles, but did not consider serfs to be property, saying that man should be born free.

Moreover, strict restrictions were placed on these compensations, not directly distributing money, but requiring the nobles to invest in the compensation, and the government to value various minerals and compensate the nobles. A large number of state workshops between Russia were given to the nobility as compensation. And they must hold it for a certain period of time, and they must not change their ownership for ten years, otherwise the government has the right to take it back.

In this way, Speransky forcibly transformed the aristocracy into the bourgeoisie. But this kind of hard-hitting transformation is costly and inefficient. Because the aristocracy lacked experience in industrial and commercial management, most of them lost money. Unable to make any profit from this, Speransky opened up the partnership system and allowed the aristocracy to partner with the capitalists, which succeeded in reversing the trend of the aristocracy continuing to go bankrupt.

At this time, the aristocracy, as an elite class, basically disappeared in Russia, two-thirds of them went bankrupt and went into exile, and only one-third were converted into bourgeois aristocrats, but only a small part of the really developed good, more than 300,000 nobles, only 10,000 were considered to have successfully transformed into bourgeois aristocrats, and the rest of those who were engaged in industry and commerce could only make ends meet, and could only be regarded as the middle class.

But this was already very surprising to Zhou Lang, because he thought that Speransky had done better than all the Russian reformers.

Russia's industry, commerce, and agriculture have surpassed the pre-war period in just five years, and their strength has recovered too quickly, which makes Zhou Lang jealous.

So he decided to limit it.