Zhou Lang believed that his son's judgment was not emotional, because the warning sent by the Manchu consul only said that it was possible and hoped to make a plan, but it was still far from taking action, because the Manchus did not act, and the reason why the Manchus judged that the Manchus could act was because the British activities in Shiraz began to be active again, and the Manchu exchanges with the British became close again.

It was clear that the British hoped to completely gain an advantage in Central Asia by drawing the Manchus into the war, and the British wrote more and more generous checks, in addition to being willing to provide most of the military expenses for the Manchus to participate in the war, they also began to attract the Manchus with Indian land, and he promised that after the Manchus sent troops to repel the Chinese from Central Asia, the British Indian army was willing to join forces with the Manchu army to destroy the Chinese army in the Indus Valley, and then divide the territory of the two countries with the Indus River as the boundary.

The territory of the Indus Valley is a powerful attraction for the forces occupying Afghanistan and Persia at any time, and Persia and Afghanistan have historically been the main forces invading the Indus Valley. It is because it is rich, and under the management of the Chinese, it is richer than in history, with a population of more than 40 million, twice the size of the entire Manchu Qing, and after occupying here, the Manchu Qing will be stronger. Moreover, it is also an excellent agricultural land, which is enough to completely rid the Manchu economy from the nomadic element and transform it into an economy with an absolute predominance in agriculture, which is the direction that the Manchu bureaucracy has been working towards.

However, the system of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the power was highly concentrated in the hands of the emperor, the power of military decisions was very little affected by the bureaucracy, and the Military Machinery Department was almost the emperor's secretary team, because since the Shunzhi era, the emperors experienced by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong were relatively strong monarchs, resulting in the bureaucratic culture, the factor of the game between the ministers and the emperor has long been lost, everything is the dictatorship of the cadres, and the courtiers call themselves slaves, so the emperor's ideas are very decisive.

And the emperor's thoughts, the British could not change.

Daoguang watched everything closely, and to be honest, he almost changed his mind many times, especially after seeing that the Chinese had lost all of Kazakhstan, and he had a long discussion with the minister. In the event of this war, how much benefit will it be for the Qing Dynasty to completely withdraw Chinese forces from Central Asia. Once China shrinks back from the Western Regions, as it did after the Battle of Hengross, Central Asia will be the power of Russia and the Qing Dynasty, which is undoubtedly extremely high, and in the eyes of the Manchu monarchs, Russia will never have as much pressure as China has brought them.

But what benefits can the Qing Dynasty gain by participating in this matter? Russia would benefit most from expelling China from Central Asia, and the Indus Valley promised by the British was very attractive but not so easy to take. At present, the British war in India is not going well, the British India and the African companies are fighting in India, and India is completely blockaded by the Chinese sailors, and the economy is withering. They can't even beat a commercial company in China, where did they get the courage to brazenly say that they want to hand over the entire Indus River to the Qing Dynasty.

So the discussion was also fruitless, and the ministers would only kowtow to the emperor for a holy judgment.

Under the British diplomatic activities, Chinese diplomats are not inactive, and they are also making various promises.

The largest of these was an implicit support for the Manchu annexation of the Khiva Khanate.

The Khiva Khanate was located between the Aral Sea and the Amu Darya, sandwiched between the Kazakhs and the Manchus in China. It was a small country that was declining, and according to the tradition of the steppes, paid tribute to both China and the Manchus, and survived in the cracks. In terms of the strength of influence here, China is still higher than the Manchu Qing Dynasty, because the Manchu Qing Dynasty's commercial power is weak, and China's commercial power penetrates more powerfully.

However, there were some disputes with the Manchus, mainly the problem of escapes, many of the Manchus in the territory could not bear the oppression of their masters, and would run to the Khiva Khanate, although the other party would send back most of the time as long as the Manchus demanded, but there were also some hidden things that have not been discovered.

The Manchus wanted to annex this place for their greatest purpose, mainly for strategic value, to occupy the Khiva Khanate, and all they got was a few oases in the desert, but they could control the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers in the hands of the Manchus. Chinese control of this area would allow direct access to the Manchu region, the most important region of the two rivers in Central Asia, through the Khiva Khanate.

Therefore, the Manchus planned to get here first, and sent 30,000 troops to easily occupy the Khiva Khanate.

Then continue to wait and see.

Central Asia has been scorched, the British army could not break through the Kazakh hill defense line from the front, Russia could not break through the Irtysh River fortress defense line, and China could not repel the Anglo-Russian coalition army, the battle was very fierce, but in addition to a large amount of materials and troops, both offensive and defensive sides could not achieve a breakthrough point.

This kind of stalemate is fought for the endurance of both sides, and it is for strong strength, and it is difficult to see changes in a short period of time, because both sides are big countries with endurance and strong strength.

In the Siberian direction, China's breakthrough is getting bigger and bigger, throwing the rear to more and more village soldiers, and the main forces are constantly advancing. In the good weather of the summer, it is a waste not to go on the offensive in Siberia. An army of 100,000 men crossed the Yenisei River and successfully captured Tomsk, 60 kilometers from the Ob River, and from Kobdo, east of the Altai Mountains, along the tributaries of the Ob River, which originates in the Altai Mountains, and captured the more important commercial artery Barnaul.

These important industrial cities of the Soviet era were still very small at this time, with a population of only 10,000 people, and in China they could only be regarded as small towns, Tomsk was dominated by exiled prisoners, and Barnaul mined minerals and did business, but they did not have a large enough industry to support too many people and could not stop the attack of 100,000 troops.

After capturing the area, the Chinese army advanced the front line to the Ob River. At this time, the Russians could not be careless about the direction of Siberia, because the Chinese army could now directly threaten Omsk through the Ob River system, although this distance was still too far away, but there was no geographical barrier, and once the Chinese captured Omsk, they would cut off their main forces along the Irtysh River south.

The Russians had to strengthen their defenses in the Ob River valley, but the offensive was not considered, and to attack in this direction, the Chinese were able to maintain a fleet of 2 million, but the Russians did not. Even in China, there are no more than 300,000 of the 2 million troops actually fighting, and most of them are used to maintain traffic. The Russians could not compete with China in Siberia without this manpower, as had been proven in the last war, so they did not intend to try.

Now the Russians are pinning their hopes on breaking through the Kazakh defense line as soon as possible and connecting the Kazakh region with the Ob River. Now their situation is tantamount to being torn apart, the Anglo-Russian coalition forces are confronting China in the Kazakh hills, and the Russian army has to face the Chinese army in the direction of the Ob River alone, and the pressure is too great.

The main reason is that the number of troops is limited, and after consulting with the British, the British promised to provide new military assistance, and Russia decided to mobilize more troops and form another 500,000 troops, bringing the total strength of the Russian army to 1.5 million. Ten years ago, this would have been an almost unimaginable figure. War after war has tempered the mobilization ability of the Russian government and the endurance of the Russian nation. But compared to China's 9 million troops, it is desperate.

But for Russia, this war is imperative, and it must be fought if Russia wants to get rid of China's control.

In the years leading up to the war, the Russian social elite began to realize that they were under Chinese control, that through the penetration of economic power, the Chinese controlled the Russian railways, the Russian mines, that Chinese goods flooded the Russian market, and that Chinese debt crushed Russia's finances. If Russia has never been able to let go of its hands and feet, and if it wants to get rid of this control, is there any other choice than to fight a war with China?

The support of Britain is a good opportunity, the British have facilitated the union of the United States and Spain, if you add Russia, the total population of more than 100 million, although it is still not comparable to China, but the gap is no longer irreversible, as long as the Western army can achieve technological superiority, then it can defeat the Chinese, and then force the Chinese to make concessions.

It is unthinkable to destroy China, so none of the countries participating in the war has such thoughts, and the only purpose of all countries is to force China to back down and interrupt China's expansion in all directions. Russia's aim was to regain control of Central Asia, having regained control of the railways and mines in the country. After achieving these goals, Russia is willing to continue to maintain friendship with China, and in the future Russia will never look to the east again, and then go all out to the west.

Russia believed that to achieve these goals, it only needed to win a few major battles, expel the Chinese army from the Central Asian steppes, let Kazakhstan, a steppe region geographically connected with the southern plains of Russia, return to Russian hands, and divide the border between China and Russia into the majestic Tianshan Mountains and the Altai Mountains in western China.

But the Russians did not expect the war to develop into the current situation, they did win several battles, but none of them were decisive, and did not annihilate the main forces of the Chinese army, and now it seems that even if several main Chinese armies are eliminated, I am afraid that this war will not end. The importance that the Chinese attach to the territory of Kazakhstan has surprised Russia. They went so far as to carry out a nationwide mobilization, arming 9 million troops, leaving their forces almost endless.

At that time, Russia began to regret it, and at that time the war had just begun, but at that time Russia was still full of confidence, they did not believe that the 9 million army could exert any combat effectiveness, and even more believed that it was 9 million peasants. But then they found that the Chinese did not heap people up, but patiently trained these soldiers recruited from the countryside for half a year before they began to send them to the front. And not to let these recruits who have no combat experience fight alone, but to supplement the casualties of the front-line troops.

Half a year after the war was fought, in fact, Russia began to seek a chance for peace, but the intentions conveyed through various neutral countries, I don't know whether the Chinese did not understand, or they did not want peace at all, they did not reply at all, but vigorously strengthened the front-line troops.

At this time, the Russians had a hard time riding tigers, and they had to continue to invest more, because now they had to fight for their survival.

Not long ago, the Chinese government began to declare that their minimum goal of the war: to destroy Russia!