Zhou Chun sighed: "You are also the queen of Assam and the queen of the Urals, and you don't seem to care about your country!" ”

The female tsar said: "You don't know how busy I am, do you think that everyone is like you and can take care of nothing?" ”

Zhou Chun snorted: "I call it selecting talents and appointing talents, and ruling by hanging arches." ”

The Tsaress said: "Speaking of railways, you won't be like building railways from Assam to the Urals, right?" That's impossible! ”

Zhou Chun snorted: "What is impossible, I just have this plan, and use the railway to connect Assam, Ural and Dobroga!" ”

The female tsar said: "Won't you be sick?" ”

She was always worried that her husband would become insane in the future.

Zhou Chun said: "What do you know. You don't know, African companies have built a trans-rail railway in North India. Along the northern plains of the Ganges and the Himalayas, the Indus River connects with Bengal. In order to build the railway, the African company almost fought a war with the British. ”

"And this?"

"What do you think? It's not a peaceful world, especially where the British are located. ”

The female tsar did not say it in her mouth, but she sighed in her heart that the places where the Chinese are not peaceful, and the places where China and Britain come into contact are too peaceful.

"Then what about later, didn't you fight?"

"African companies want to build railways from the northern plains of the Ganges, but they are bounded by the main stream of the Ganges River with the United Kingdom. As a result, there is an area of less than 100 kilometers in between, sandwiched between the upper reaches of the Ganges and the upper Indus (tributaries), through which railways either pass through it or can only be built in the Himalayas. This middle ground is actually between the tin guests and the British-ruled areas.

The Sikh Empire has been very divided in recent years, and the British have supported many puppets in their country. But the Sikh Emperor has always relied on the support of African companies, which in fact acquiesced in this split. Their land is constantly divided among ministers, and they have long been unable to protect themselves. Sandwiched between China and Britain, the African company had to build a railway through the Sikh Empire, and the tin guests did not dare to stop it. The African company offered the British to buy a plot of land to build a railway, but the British did not agree.

African companies have even considered detouring the railway into the mountains, but surveys have found that it is almost impossible to bypass the source of the Ganges, essentially by crossing the mountains. In the end, the railway was stuck in an area of less than 100 kilometers and could not be connected, and the two large areas of the African company, Bangladesh and the Indus River, are both rich and populous areas, and the two places cannot be connected by rail, and the economic losses can be compensated by sea, but the strategy is too passive.

So they began to think about instigating a border war, redrawing the border between the British and the Sikhs, and supporting the Sikh Empire to advance its territory from the Yamuna River to the main stream of the Ganges, and the vast fertile land between the two rivers successfully impressed the Sikhs. African companies provide arms and even promise to send troops to support them if necessary. Eventually, the British Raj backed down, and they settled by knocking out the African Company for three million pounds, selling a piece of hillside land of little economic value to the African Company and allowing them to build the railway. ”

Now the railway has been connected, from the mouth of the Indus River and Karachi to Dhaka, the mouth of the Ganges. I have approved the construction of the Assam Railway, and I have reached an agreement with the African company that the Assam Railway can be built and operated by them. But in wartime, we can use the railways of African companies to transport troops and strategic supplies. ”

The tsaress listened with confusion: "You want to build a train from North India to the Urals!" I'm afraid that's not realistic, right? ”

But the female tsar was also interested, because the connection of the Urals with India means that Russia is connected to India, which is a great economic value. Isn't it because Britain has the international status they have today because they own India? Even if India is not controlled, and trade with India can be rapid, the economic benefits to Russia will be huge. One tropical power, the other cold zone power, the economic complementarity of the two countries is self-evident.

Zhou Chun said: "Of course I don't have the ability to do this. Selling the entire Urals could not afford to build the railway. But African companies can fix it, and only they have the ability to fix it. ”

"From the Indus River to the Urals, it was necessary to pass through the entire Central Asian region, and the consent of the Qing Empire was required. Have you solved this diplomatic problem? ”

The female tsar was still very clear about geography, especially the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which was once a neighbor of Russia, this country was still very closed, always full of vigilance against the outside, and the population had grown to forty or fifty million, and everyone wanted to open this market, but no one could do it. There are some local commercial forces in this country, but they are subject to all kinds of restrictions and guards, and foreign commercial forces, only Chinese, Greek and South African commercial forces can share some benefits here, but they are limited to trading at the ports, and it is impossible to go deep inland.

Zhou Chun shook his head: "This is difficult, so I entrusted it to Greece." ”

"Greece has so much influence? What China can't do, Greece can do? ”

The Tsaresses exclaimed.

Zhou Chun shook his head: "You are wrong, it's not that China can't do it, but it's unwilling to do it." This matter is dispensable for China, but it is important for us, including Russia and the Urals. ”

The female tsar nodded: "You just do it, I support you!" ”

This is in Russia's favor, and Russia's greatest geopolitical disadvantage has always been to stay away from the main commercial routes of the world. At a time when the main trade route was in the Mediterranean, Russia had not yet escaped Mongol rule, and the countries that benefited at that time were Italian city-states such as Venice and Genoa. When Russia broke free from Mongol rule, southern Russia fell under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, and the great sea route was opened, and the main shipping route of the world was transferred from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, benefiting first Portugal, Spain, then the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, and these countries also rose to prominence.

Russia's real geopolitical turning point is China's construction of the Black Sea Railway, the opening of the Suez Canal, and the return of the Mediterranean Sea to the main route of world trade. But at this time, Russia lost control of the Black Sea because of many wars, especially when Britain fooled China into fighting a great war, and even the North Caucasus was lost. But this is not necessarily a bad thing for Russia's geography, because the Black Sea region has become a real world main shipping lane, at least on a par with the Suez Canal, because Chinese territory has direct access to the Black Sea, and China has become a Black Sea country.

After Speransky's reforms, the rapid development of the Russian economy was inseparable from the transfer of this main trade route.

If a railway from India to South Russia can be built, it will greatly strengthen the centrality of the Black Sea region, because it is not only the border with China, but also connects India, and the two most populous regions in the world will converge in the Black Sea, and the Black Sea will become the center of the world, at least the center of Europe, and Russia, the largest European country close to this center, cannot not benefit.

"Are you going to do it to Austria when?"

Zhou Chun asked.

The female tsar was still hesitating: "It's better to wait until summer to see, the situation in Austria does not seem to be as bad as imagined." You've seen it yourself, do you think there's something wrong with them? ”

Zhou Chun shook his head: "The situation is better than we thought. The national contradictions were not so serious, especially in Vienna, where there was no revolutionary call-up. Czech, Austrian, Hungarian, and even Jewish nobles who converted to Catholicism, German, Bohemia, and Jewish merchants, literati, artists, and ordinary citizens were all united in the city. Most of the cooks in the city were Czechs, and most of the servants were Poles. People think more about parliament and laws than national independence.

I went to Hungary, and Hungarians are very conservative and they are very xenophobic. There were too many Hungarian aristocrats, and the countryside was basically the domain of the aristocracy. I have been to several noble families whose ancestors date back to the time of the Magyar nomads as small chiefs. When the Mongols invaded, they fought against the Mongols, and the Ottomans ruled the area, but none of them could eliminate the rule of these nobles over the area. I saw that the banknotes printed in the Austrian Empire had the languages of various ethnic groups, but on the banknotes printed in the Kingdom of Hungary, there were only Magyars, not even German. Other ethnic groups in the area complained greatly, but they couldn't do anything about it. There are many passengers going abroad at the port, many of whom are preparing to emigrate. This is true of both Croats and Serbs, most of whom intend to go to the United States. ”

"Is it possible to instigate an uprising of the Serbs? Or let the Moldovans become independent? ”

"It's hard for the Serbs to do anything, their military is too weak. If Moldova became independent, I think Russia did it. However, it is better not to do so, because the Moldovans, Wallachians and Transylvanians are one people, they speak the same language, and once they become independent, they will most likely demand the merger of Wallachia and Transylvania. The Taransylvanian plateau was now in the hands of the Hungarians, and it was impossible for this people to surrender their land. Unless there is really a big war with Austria, it is better not to use the national power of the Moldovans. ”

The two did not wait long before good news came from Greece, and he did not know what the Greek king did, and he successfully persuaded the Manchus to agree to build their own railways with the Indian railways. But not according to Zhou Chun's vision, but in the way that it extended from India to Persia.

The best route envisaged by Zhou Chun is, of course, from North India to Afghanistan via Peshawar, and then across Afghanistan into the hinterland of Central Asia, connecting with the Chinese railway in Kazakhstan, so that it only takes about 3,000 kilometers to travel from Assam to the Urals, and can be reached within a week by train.

However, what the Manchus promised was to build a railway from the Indus River to the two river basins, although the Manchu Qing's railway mileage was not long, but there were several strategic railways, from Shiraz to Hurosan, Kabul, and the two river valleys, but in the Central Asian steppe region, there was no railway, let alone with China, obviously the Manchu emperor had been worried that the Chinese army would quickly enter the territory of the Manchu Dynasty.

In this way, it is almost like crossing the two river basins along the Persian Gulf and then reaching the Caucasus. Passing through the edge of the Persian plateau, it is less difficult to build, and it is far from the heart of Persia, such as the capital, but the distance from Assam to the Urals is nearly half the distance, and it may take ten days to take a train.

Zhou Chun had no reason to refuse, and he felt that the economy of the railway might be better, because it communicated the coastal ports of the entire Persian Gulf, and if the Manchus could be persuaded to open a few more ports, the railway's profitability would be guaranteed.

Zhou Chun quickly negotiated with the African company, but the African company assessed that the railway could not be profitable. More than a thousand kilometers of railways around the Persian Gulf, it makes no sense at all. They believe that the coastal freight of Persia and India must be transported by ship, and if the passenger is carried out, the markets of these two countries cannot support profitability. They won't build the railway unless they give them a subsidy.

This made Zhou Chun very annoyed, and subsidized the African company, and if he had money, he would repair it himself. The cost of militarization in the Urals is too great, and even with Assam's financial subsidies, it is still not enough to make ends meet, and it is impossible for him to come up with money to subsidize African companies.

It was easy to open up diplomatic channels, but because of the cost, it got into trouble. This Russian-Indian railway has had twists and turns from the very beginning.