Dmitry Koperov thought as he laboriously translated his thoughts into Mongolian, speaking intermittently to Li Zicheng, sometimes gesturing with his hand as if to increase the other party's comprehension.

“… Since the death of the Honorable Patriarch Filarette, power in our country has returned to the hands of the Duma (All-Russian Assembly of Gentry). Although the Duma lords were willing to maintain friendly relations with your country, they believed that the law of 1619, which forbade foreign caravans from entering the territory of Russia for retail trade, must be enforced. That's why your caravans are being held back. ”

Li Zicheng didn't care about other caravans being left in Tomsk, he was just unhappy that his caravan was being treated in the same way.

"But we are no ordinary caravan, we have the Emperor's envoy in our ranks, and the mission of this caravan is to go to Moscow to convey to your Tsar the goodwill and gifts of our Emperor, should we also be detained here?"

Dmitry Koperov waved his hands to comfort Li Zicheng and said: "You don't have to be too excited, we naturally don't dare to stop the emperor of your country from sending an envoy to greet the monarch of all Russia.

We have arranged a procession to escort your envoy to Moscow, and of course the accompanying caravan must stay. We hope that your envoy will be able to meet with our military and political chief, Duke Ivan Fedorovich Tadev, before he departs, and that it would be better to properly solve the problems facing your caravan. ”

After thinking for a while, Li Zicheng knew that the question raised by Dmitry Koperov was not something he could decide, so he agreed with the other party to meet with the military and political chief of Tomsk, and then took his leave and left.

As for Gao Hongtu, a scholar of the East Asian Tongwen Museum who represented the Ming Dynasty in Moscow this time, although there was such an accident as soon as he arrived at the Russian border, he did not feel panicked, but after thinking for a while, he accepted the suggestion brought back by Li Zicheng and prepared to hold a meeting with Duke Ivan Fedorovich Tadev, the military and political chief of Tomsk.

So in the evening of the same day, Gao Hongtu took the Russian interpreter in the caravan to a private dinner prepared for him by Duke Tadev.

At the banquet, Duke Tatev euphemistically expressed to Gao Hongtu that in the future, Chinese caravans could only trade in Tomsk, and could not enter the Russian interior for trade. Of course, as the military and political chief of Tomsk, he was happy to provide all kinds of conveniences for the Chinese caravans.

After listening to it for a long time, Gao Hongtu asked Duke Tadeev, "Then Your Excellency Duke, can I know who gave this order?" ”

Looking at Duke Tatev's look of embarrassment, he added: "I don't mean anything else, but when I go to Moscow, I want to know who is Ming's friend." Of course, we will not forget the friendship you have given you, Your Excellency the Duke. ”

After listening to the words relayed by the translator, Duke Tatev hesitated for a moment and said: "Well, this is not a secret. I can't name them directly, but I can tell you that they have a very close relationship with the Duma secretary, Mr. Fyodor Likhachev..."

At this banquet, Gao Hongtu and Duke Tatev finally reached a certain consensus on the caravan trade, and determined that the caravans from China would stay in Tomsk for trading in the future.

The only thing that worries Gao is whether Tomsk has a source of funding for Sino-Russian trade. With the promise of the Chinese emperor's envoy, Duke Tatev finally put his mind at ease.

Tomsk was not the only frontier city facing the east, and Duke Tatev was most worried that these Chinese caravans would take a detour to other cities to try their luck, although under the strict orders of the Duma meeting, these Chinese caravans could not continue to Moscow when they arrived in that border city.

But for these border cities, where these Chinese caravans choose to trade is an unexpected variable for the local economy and taxes. As long as these Chinese caravans can be fixed in Tomsk for trading, for the Duke of Tatyev, this will not only be a source of large tax revenues, but also a good opportunity for Tomsk to overtake Topolsk and become the central city of the Siberian Plain.

Therefore, Duke Tatev not only introduced to Gao Hongtu that he could transfer most of the furs of Siberia to Tomsk for trading, but also agreed to let the Daming Bank set up a branch in Tomsk to finance and remit money for Chinese caravans.

At this time, the Russians did not know much about China as much as they did about Russia. Moreover, the Russian caravans were completely unable to enter China through the Mongol-controlled area, so the Russian officials in Tomsk, in a rare gesture of compromise with the Chinese envoys, made a compromise gesture to ensure that the Sino-Russian trade route would not be cut off.

As for Gao Hongtu, his mind was not on the trade between the two countries, but more on establishing political ties with Moscow, so as to eliminate foreign interference for the Ming Dynasty's conquest of the Western Regions.

Therefore, in the absence of any desire for the talks to break down, the two sides had basically reached an agreement on trade issues by the end of the banquet.

And at the end of the banquet, Duke Tatev took the interpreter from the two of them, and asked Gao Hongtu in extremely jerky Latin: "I heard that your envoy can also speak Latin, I wonder if you would like to talk to me alone for a while?" ”

Gao Hongtu was silent for a moment, and Fang replied in Latin: "Of course, Your Excellency the Duke." ”

Duke Tatev then looked at him and asked, "I would like to ask you one thing, as a representative of the Emperor of China, I would like to know what your country thinks of the Tatars between our two countries?" ”

Gao Hongtu glanced at Duke Tatev with great vigilance, and then replied calmly: "China has a friendly attitude towards all peace-loving Mongolian tribes. Also, I think there seems to be some misunderstanding on the part of His Excellency the Duke. First of all, the Tatars are not all one. Secondly, most of the Mongol tribes south and east of Tomsk were vassals of our Ming Dynasty. ”

Duke Tatev pondered for a while, then cautiously asked, "So that means that the Tatars to the south and west of us have nothing to do with your country?" ”

Gao Hongtu was stunned for a moment, and said in an uncertain tone: "Your Excellency Duke, you know that the Mongols are nomadic people, and they graze in the steppe in the east today and in the steppe in the west tomorrow, this is not something that can be said clearly in a short time. ”

Duke Tatev suddenly realized that the Chinese envoy did not seem to be very familiar with the geography of the region, so he said unceremoniously: "The Tatars can be nomadic everywhere, but the land cannot be nomadic everywhere.

We believe that in order to ensure that there is no unnecessary misunderstanding between Russia and China, it is necessary to divide the ownership of land in this area.

For example, if you take Lake Balkhash and the upper reaches of the Irtysh River as the dividing line, the west of this line belongs to Russia, and the east side belongs to China. ”

Duke Tatev unceremoniously included the large number of Oirats living in China, and the empty Kazakh steppe in Russia.

It is clear that his suggestion was ill-intentioned, and the Russians were very enthusiastic about the steppes of southern West Siberia. It's just that under the resistance of the Oirat and the Kazakhs, Russia did not have such forces to move south.

The appearance of the Chinese gave the Russians a glimmer of hope. In the past two years, they have finally confirmed one thing, that is, China must not be far from the Oirats, and if China can send troops to contain the Oirats, then Russia will be able to annex the vast Kazakh steppe. And if both the Oirats and the Chinese lose, it will be even more good news.

But for Gao Hongtu, Duke Tadev's suggestion was exactly what he wanted. His current visit to Moscow is to maintain friendly relations between Beijing and Moscow; The second is to convince Moscow not to become the backing of the Oirats, thus causing problems for the Ming to annex the Oirats.

Now Duke Tatev wants to unite with the Ming to divide up the places of Oirat and the Kazakhs, which saves him a lot of effort. Although he had not yet figured out the exact location of this Balkhash lake and the upper reaches of the Irtysh River, this did not prevent him from accepting the duke's advice.

Of course, as a top student of the East Asian Tongwen Museum, Gao Hongtu also left a back door for himself, and he responded to Duke Tadev: "I agree with you in principle that there should be a dividing line between China and Russia to ensure that the two countries do not offend each other.

As for whether to use Lake Balkhash and the upper reaches of the Irtysh River as the dividing line, it still depends on the tribes living at both ends of the dividing line, and which side will be chosen at that time. The Ming Dynasty will not push its own people out of the door, and I think the same should be true for Russia, right? ”

As a military aristocrat stationed in a border city all the year round, Duke Tatev naturally did not worry about the challenge in Gao Hongtu's words, he smiled and nodded and said: "Naturally, the dividing line of all countries ultimately depends on the strength of the country, and I think it is enough to reach the current consensus." As for where the dividing line between Russia and China will be, I think it will be drawn when you make official contacts. ”

Gao Hongtu, who returned to the caravan camp, thought for a night, then called Li Zicheng over and said, "For the next trip, since there are Russians to escort you, you don't have to move on." But when you return with the caravan, please bring this letter back to the Governor's Mansion of Ganning..."

Although Li Zicheng felt a little dazed, it was good news that he could not go to Moscow. He gladly accepted Gao Hongtu's order and took the letter handed over to him by the other party into his arms.

Although the Chinese merchants trapped in Tomsk were not angry that the Russians had intercepted the goods, under the persuasion of Gao Hongtu, someone finally threw away the goods at two-thirds of the market price in Moscow.

Tiny Tomsk soon turned into a bustling bazaar, with furs gathered from all over Siberia quickly exchanged for crates of Chinese goods such as tea, silk and porcelain.

Although these Chinese caravans lost a lot of money, being able to go home early this year was a surprise for the fellows of the caravan.

Of course, it was Tomsk and other Russian merchants who came to trade with Tomsk, who not only made a fortune from these Chinese caravans, but also washed the skin of corruption for officials from all over Siberia.

According to Russian decree, even the military and political governors of the Siberian strongholds could only carry 500 roubles of silver and 500 roubles of fur when they left their posts and returned to Europe. But now, the embezzled skins of these military governors have been exchanged for tea and other Chinese goods and entered Europe, which is perfectly legitimate wealth.

Tomsk, nearly 3,000 miles from Urumqi, began to gradually develop from a border military fortress to a major trading town in Siberia.