"What happened a month ago? Why haven't we heard anything at all? Aleksandrovich's face was full of incredulity, and he looked at Marshal Ivanovich Baryatinsky.

Ivanovich Baryatinsky was also very strange, and he yelled at the officer who reported the news: "You give Your Majesty and me a reasonable explanation? What did the intelligence services do? What about the guards stationed on the defense line of the Ural Mountains, as well as the Cossack army, are they all dead? ”

The officer said with a sad face: "Your Majesty, and the marshal, the eastern army is advancing too fast and fiercely, and the army on the front line is simply unable to resist it, and it will collapse at the first touch, and most of the army is blocked by the rapidly advancing eastern army, so it has to retreat to the area of Kazan and Tula." But they all said that they had called for help from St. Petersburg, but there has been no news! In desperation, as the enemy army approached again, many of the Imperial soldiers were at a loss, and in panic, they looted some belongings everywhere and scattered. ”

Ivanovich Baryatinsky kicked the officer away and said to Aleksandrovich with some shame: "Your Majesty, it is obvious that the defeated troops on the front line do not know the situation and directly and habitually report the military situation to the St. Petersburg side, so it caused a delay!"

This is also to blame on my subordinates, I already knew that the Chinese Imperial Army in the east was coming to attack us, but I did not collect the intelligence of the front line in time and deal with it in advance, which is really a serious mistake!

Rebe is the group of Cossacks, very withdrawn, and probably by now, there are still many Cossack troops who do not know the news that His Majesty has ascended the throne in Moscow. ”

Aleksandrovich could not reproach Ivanovich Baryatinsky, who, after all, was young and was somewhat frightened when he heard the news of a large-scale invasion of the Eastern army. Everything still has to rely on the marshal in front of him, so he can only endure and say: "Marshal, don't mention the past again, the most important thing now is, how do we deal with it?"

Alas, it was thought that it would be possible to concentrate forces and eliminate the rebels in St. Petersburg, and then it would be possible to unify Russia. Unexpectedly, the civil strife has not been calmed down, and now there is a foreign enemy coming! ”

Ivanovich Baryatinsky said: "Your Majesty, don't worry! Those enemy forces in the east, although they are strong, but after all, the road is far away, and they are not adapted to the climate and environment here, and it is already the limit to break through the Ural Mountains.

Your Majesty, as long as we win over Poland and Finland and other rebels, if we can't do it, we will first promise them to let them become independent and exchange a promise not to help St. Petersburg, in this case, we will seize St. Petersburg first, as long as we pacify the rebels there and then integrate the army of the Russian Empire, I believe that we will make the Russian Empire strong again.

When the time comes, are you afraid that you won't be able to defeat the enemy army that is coming? ”

When Aleksandrovich heard this, it seemed to make sense, although he had received an aristocratic education for many years, but after all, he was young, and he had already lost his mind when he encountered a series of changes such as his father's assassination and his uncle's coming to fight for the throne, and if it weren't for the support of half of the officers, maybe he would have left Russia and fled to his mother's homeland Prussia.

However, at this time, he suddenly remembered a prince of the Eastern Empire who was under house arrest by his father, so he hurriedly said: "Marshal, where is the prince of the Chinese Empire captured by his father now?" Escort him to the front line of the battlefield, and those enemy troops of the Chinese Empire will not dare to let go of the attack? ”

Ivanovich Baryatinsky said a little speechlessly: "Your Majesty, my subordinates sent people to look for the Chinese prince when His Majesty came to Moscow and did not ascend the throne, and he has long been missing.

These are just side ways, the most important thing is that our own army has combat effectiveness! To be honest, judging from the Crimean War and the previous two battles with the Chinese Empire, the reason why our Russian Empire suffered a crushing defeat was not that our army was unwilling to fight to the death, but that the weapons and equipment were too poor, especially the Chinese army, which had only been formed for a few years? Their military discipline, level of training, and tactical thinking are far inferior to those of our Guards, and even compared with the Cossack cavalry with ruined military aircraft, they are not much better, but their weapons are more than ten years more advanced than our army, and our brave and poor army, using the old muskets that were shoddy and shoddy from decades ago, have been shot by enemy muskets before they have even rushed to the firing range, how can this win the battle?

Therefore, Your Majesty, if we want to fundamentally solve the problem of losing a war due to weak military strength, we still have to spend more military spending, develop new weapons, and put equipment into use. ”

Although Aleksandrovich did not become the tsar for a long time, he also knew that his Russian Empire was now in trouble, and the finances had fallen into bankruptcy, and it was precisely because of this that his assassinated father would carry out serfdom reforms, after all, while abolishing serfdom, he could also earn a lot of money when selling the country's land to serfs as fiscal and tax revenue. But now that serfdom has continued, there is no chance of selling land to those serfs. The Cossack army was also defeated and fled back to Russia, not daring to go to the Kazakh Khanate and Siberia to loot the tribes there and plunder the wealth, and the Russian Empire had no source of wealth.

The only way seems to be to capture St. Petersburg, which has been the capital of the Russian Empire for hundreds of years and has accumulated countless wealth, and it is really impossible to punish the nobles who betrayed themselves and obeyed the pseudo-tsar this time, and force them to give up all their property.

Aleksandrovich told Ivanovich Baryatinsky about his idea, and after getting the latter's approval, he couldn't help but be very overjoyed, and said another idea as if offering a treasure: "Marshal, for these invading troops from the east, we can't do it, we can ask the European countries for help!" I believe they don't want to see powerful Russia occupied and invaded by foreign enemies from the east, right? It's a big deal to give up some benefits to them.

In particular, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire have always had close relations with our Russian Empire. Asking them for help, or even borrowing some troops and war funds, should not be a problem? Anyway, the Russian Empire has been married to Prussia for generations, and I will choose a queen in the future, and I will also choose a princess from the Prussian royal family, plus the Kingdom of Prussia has always been friendly and friendly with our Russian Empire, and for many years, our Russia has been expanding everywhere but has not attacked them Prussia, they are like our little brothers, and now that the eldest brother is in trouble, they should not see death and not save them, right? ”