Grand Duke Nikolayevich said with a sad face: "Your Majesty, and you, this time our Cossack army returned with a fiasco, not because our Cossack soldiers were not brave enough, nor because they were not trained enough, on the contrary, I heard that this time the Cossack army can be regarded as a group of veterans, but it is still a fiasco, the reason is that the weapons of the Easterners are much more advanced than the weapons of our Cossack army!"

Not to mention the Krupp cannons that defeated the British expeditionary fleet, their hairy rifles alone were more than three or four times longer than the muskets in the hands of our troops, and the accuracy and frequency of fire were far higher than those in the hands of our soldiers.

It is no wonder that this time the Cossack soldiers were defeated, even the Siberian governor was killed on the spot, and nearly half of the muskets used by our soldiers were flintlock muskets that were withdrawn in the Crimean War, and even firing muskets could not be fully satisfied, let alone rifled rifles today. But even the rifled British army was defeated by the advanced muskets of those Eastern armies, not to mention our old muskets from decades ago!

Your Majesty, I therefore make a special suggestion that the weapons of our army should also be reloaded in batches. ”

War Minister Miryutin sighed: "Your Majesty, what the Grand Duke said is extremely true! The weapons of our army, especially the muskets and artillery equipped with the army, are very backward, and we suffer a great loss when we engage the enemy!

The navy presided over by the Grand Duke is quite good, and a lot of funds have been allocated over the years. However, our army has allocated even less funds than in previous years, and apart from giving soldiers some salaries and winter clothes, it is simply unable to replace weapons, and it is even difficult to repair them. It is really too little military spending that has been allocated. ”

The tsar pondered for a moment and said: "I am also helpless, now the whole country is in the most critical matter of serf reform, not only many noble landlords do not understand, deliberately rebel and even riot, even those serfs also rebelled, causing a lot of turmoil in the whole country. Add to this the impact of the fiasco in the Crimean War, as well as the loss of all of Kazakhstan and Siberia, which makes our situation even worse. The financial revenue and expenditure have plummeted, and there is no way to do this!

Nikolayevich, your program for the reform of the Navy can only be suspended for a moment. Give all the unused funds to the War Department and meet the Army's basic equipment expenses first. Wait for two years, our economy will improve, and our fiscal revenue and expenditure will be higher, and then we will allocate funds to your navy! ”

The Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, pale, pale, could only nod silently.

The tsar added: "Now there is a popular fuel called holy oil in the market of Western Europe, the price is much cheaper than whale oil, it is safe and reliable to use, and it is very popular. I asked people to check it, this so-called holy oil is a kind of oil refined from the Chinese Empire, and we have an oil field called Baku next to the Caspian Sea, which has always produced oil, this is a treasure trove! I have asked the people in the Ministry of the Interior to take care of this matter, produce more oil, and increase the country's fiscal and tax revenues. ”

As soon as the Tsar had finished speaking, an assistant came in and reported: "Your Majesty, there is urgent news from the East. ”

The tsar said directly and casually: "What's the matter? ”

"Your Majesty, the person sent to the Eastern Holy Capital to assassinate the Emperor of the Chinese Empire has already made a move, but failed. Now that it has been found out by the other party, the intelligence agency of the Chinese Empire has launched an investigation, and the person who wants to do it has been captured by the other party, and it is likely that the governor of the Grand Duchy of Finland will be exposed, so as to further lure us out. The assistant briefly reported: "Your Majesty, as well as the Grand Duke and all the lords, everyone should be careful recently, we are worried that the secret services of the Eastern Empire will take retaliatory action!" ”

"What!? The plan to assassinate Feng Yunshan failed! Not only did the assassination not succeed, but was even found out? The Tsar's color changed on the spot, and then his eyes were fixed on his younger brother next to him, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich.

And Konstantin Nikolayevich was also shocked and asked: "Then is Feng Yunshan injured?" ”

The assistant shook his head, not knowing.

The tsar was furious and said: "Konstantin Nikolayevich, you are solely responsible for this matter!"

At the beginning, I listened to your suggestion, and I agreed to you to send someone to the east to assassinate that Feng Yunshan. And you promise that you will definitely get rid of it, and there will be no consequences.

Now that you are like this, tell me, how should I punish you? ”

War Minister Mi Liujing hurriedly persuaded: "Your Majesty, the Grand Duke is also for the good of the whole country and for the sake of Your Majesty's worries. What's more, it is normal for the assassin to fail, and it is normal for the whereabouts of those assassins to be exposed, even if the Chinese Empire knows that this matter is instigated by us, so what, are you still afraid that they will not be able to ......?"

"Bastard!" The Tsar slapped the leather chair, stood up with a swish, and said angrily: "The failure of the assassination is very undeserved. Now we still let the other party know that this matter is our mastermind, which is extremely disadvantageous to us!

As the assistant said just now, the other party will definitely send spies to assassinate us, so that everyone here will be in danger. And that's not all, the most important thing is that the Cossack troops we sent attacked them and suffered a crushing defeat, and even many soldiers were captured by them. At this critical juncture, we cannot afford to be exploited by it!

Moreover, there has been news from London, England, that once they talk about a peace truce, then the Chinese Empire will go all out against us, Russia, and now that this excuse has appeared, how should we deal with it?

Although I am not afraid of their attack, it is now a critical period when the whole of Russia is carrying out serf reform, and as you have just said, our army is also backward in weapons, and it is very unwise to engage the Chinese Empire alone at this moment. ”

Speaking of this, the tsar glared back at the Minister of War Milyutin, turned to Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich, and said: "Nikolayevich, tell me yourself, what to do with you?" ”

Konstantin Nikolayevich smiled bitterly and said gloomily: "Your Majesty, the minister is guilty!" The minister requested that the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy and the Chairman of the State Council be removed from his posts, and that the titles of Marshal of the Navy, Chairman of the Russian Geographical Society, and Grand Duke be removed. ”

The tsar was also a little surprised when he heard this, he thought that Konstantin Nikolayevich would beg for mercy at most, and he would be able to remove him from his posts as marshal and commander-in-chief of the navy step by step. Unexpectedly, his younger brother did not argue at all, and directly took the initiative to say that all the positions he held were dismissed, and even the fictitious position of chairman of the Geographical Society was removed, and he couldn't help but apologize, and said: "Nikolayevich, you are my own brother, how can I do this to you!" However, in order to convince the courtiers of all Russia, you should not hold the posts of commander of the navy and marshal of the navy. The rest is the same, there have been a lot of serfs and local landlords in Poland lately, so you can go to Poland and become the governor-general, and take care of Poland for me. ”

Grand Duke Nikolayevich nodded and thanked the Tsar.

The ministers next to him knew that the tsar had always been dissatisfied with the Grand Duke, worried that the Grand Duke would be better than him and steal his limelight, so they took advantage of such a mistake of the Grand Duke to play the topic and remove the Grand Duke from the post of commander of the navy with real power. Thinking of the Tsar's cold-bloodedness and ruthlessness, even ignoring brotherhood, and being so wary of people, I couldn't help but feel quite disheartened, and I was speechless.

The tsar felt a little better in his heart, and began to arrange how to deal with the retaliation of the Chinese Empire: "As for the navy, I will send someone to take over as soon as possible." As for the army, it has recently been strictly inspecting the situation of the serf rebellion, especially those nobles who colluded with the serf rebellion, and they were found and suppressed together. Oh, by the way, the Chinese Empire just mentioned may send spies to retaliate, so that all the soldiers pay attention, strictly prohibit the entry of people with oriental faces, and in addition, those who have contact with the orientals must be strictly censored.

Duke Gorchakov, you are the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and now that we have lost the war, and the British army has also been defeated and fled back to Europe, there is no way, we have to accept the result of this defeat. We can only continue to contact the Chinese Empire and try to reconcile. ”

Gorchakov said: "Your Majesty, it may be difficult. It's okay if we just attack the opponent, but the point is that we attacked twice in a row! It's okay to attack the other side twice, but the key is that we sent someone to assassinate their emperor! This, how does this reconcile? ”

"Give it a try." The tsar said proudly: "As long as it drags on for a year or two, when the serf reform is initially completed, we will stabilize and restore some strength, and we will not be afraid of the attack of the Orientals!" ”

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