Rumyantsev learned about the truth, and St. Petersburg was not far from being informed. One day in late February, the news spread to St. Petersburg, the heart of Russia.

St. Petersburg was quite cold at the moment, Suvorov's victory was a thing of the past, and the tension of the war against Sweden was the new problem.

After the previous defeat, the Ottoman Empire was demoralized and would not launch a fierce attack to the north for a short time. But Sweden is making waves again.

After the initial damage of Sweden's navy and army, Gustav III of Sweden took advantage of the strong anti-aristocratic tendencies of the people to convene a grand council, depriving the parliament of all powers except taxes, and went to the front line to direct the Finnish campaign. The pressure on Russia on the Western Front has increased suddenly.

And now the news that Rumyantsev has arrived is inevitably another punch for some Russian nobles.

St. Petersburg now doesn't even have the heart and strength to relate to France.

Last winter, on Christmas Eve, a riot broke out in Paris that shocked Europe. The Palace of Versailles, where King Louis XVI lived, was attacked by several Parisian women and thousands of National Guard soldiers a month after the riots in Paris. Several guards were killed, and the queen took refuge with her children in disheveled clothes at one point. That night, Louis XVI and his family were forced to move into the Palais de Tierry in Paris, and their freedom of movement was greatly restricted.

Louis XVI was forced to take a compromised stance and introduce a constitutional monarchy, repeatedly expressing his support for the Constituent Assembly in public, and submissively signing most of the decrees. But these are superficial articles, and my true thoughts in his heart are by no means like this.

And the whole of Europe was also against the government in Paris, and the powerful France was in chaos in just two or three months. If it continues like this, the Gallic Rooster will definitely not be a match for John Bull.

London's magnates fall asleep smiling when they sleep.

But Russia was so far away from France, and St. Petersburg was always troubled by the war, and in European politics they were like a solitary hermitage, isolated from continental affairs.

Chen Han may not have received this news yet, but whatever he is, Russia is now facing great danger. Catherine II had already made a request to Vienna through official channels, requesting Austria to send troops into the Western Front of Russia.

The news that Rumyantsev delivered was only another big stone in the hearts of the people of St. Petersburg, which had already weighed down a small mountain.

But for the endurant old Maozi, this damage can only be that there are more lice and are not afraid of bites, and it cannot be the last straw that crushes the camel.

Catherine II was a very strong woman, she was not Nicholas I, who committed suicide after losing the war, nor Alexander III, who was frightened by the assassination of her father and hid as a hermit in the palace of Gatchina on the outskirts of St. Petersburg.

Even though the war has cost Russia a lot of money, and the situation has made Russia increasingly difficult, Catherine II's bones have not yet been bent. There is still the last hope in her heart—the hope of turning the tables.

Even if Russia has little hope of winning the war against China, as long as the Ottomans and Sweden are defeated, Russia can concentrate its forces in the east and assume the posture of a decisive battle with China in the Ural River Valley.

The Chinese are very powerful, but the Kazakh steppes and Western Siberia are close to the frontier provinces, and in China they are absolutely remote border provinces, even if the roads have been built for many years, in terms of the flow and convenience of transportation materials, compared with the transportation route from Russia to the Ural River Valley, it is also a big difference.

The latter is just a stone's throw away from the Volga and Don valleys, the best of Russia, and the vast expanses of Russia run through the vast lands, allowing Russia to greatly reduce the time and cost of transporting troops and materials to the Ural Valley.

Catherine II felt that she could muster at least 200,000 troops, and if the military budget was sufficient, if Austria was still an ally of Russia at that time, then 300,000 would not be impossible.

300,000 troops fought a decisive battle with the Chinese in the Urals.

- This will not necessarily lead to the end of the Romanov dynasty and the fall of the Tsarist royal family to the current Bourbon royal family. But this will definitely ruin Russia's family and demoralize.

Catherine II bet that the Chinese would not come to this fateful Armageddon with Russia.

Because there is no need.

Even if the Chinese ate all the 300,000 troops in one bite, they would not be able to establish their rule in the Volga and Don river valleys across the Kazakh steppe. And with the Kazakhs and Mongols alone, even if Russia loses 300,000 troops, they can't bully.

If the Chinese fight a war, they will also pay a big price. Even if their national strength is stronger than that of all of Europe combined, this trick will still make the Chinese flesh hurt. And it's a 'deal' that's doomed to lose money.

There are people who do the business of cutting off heads, but no one does the business of losing money.

If the Chinese have extended their territory to the edge of the Caspian Sea, they have enough motivation to take the Ural River basin and then the Volga and Don basins. But this is clearly not the case now!

The latter is an enclave for China, or a 'wedding dress for others'.

No matter how much China has an army of millions and hundreds of millions of pounds in taxes and taxes, it is impossible to throw money into the bottomless pit without money. No empire, no empire, would risk serious losses to seize an enclave thousands of miles away.

And if the Volga and Ural regions are taken by the Chinese, will the Kazakhs and Mongols be at ease? They will certainly think that sooner or later the Chinese will annex them - in order to bring the enclave together. This will have a devastating impact on the situation of the Chinese today.

Therefore, Catherine II dared to come and gamble with China.

She also knows that while the Chinese government has abundant wealth, the Chinese government spends more money. Every year, they send large numbers of immigrants and materials to North America and the inhospitable island further south of the South Seas, and it is impossible to know how much money is spent on the construction of a 'state' thousands of miles away from the mainland. At the same time, they have also greatly promoted compulsory education in China, and the scale of the latter has expanded from the original 'Liangjing + Lushan' to all the provincial capitals of the 18 provinces of the original Han region. Moreover, local governments in Yangzhou, Suzhou, Tianjin, Yantai and other pockets have also joined in - the central government only allocates 30%, most of which goes to local preparations, plus social donations to help students.

Anyway, these news are constantly being instilled into the ears of the common people and nobles of the entire European continent through the mouths of merchants from various countries in the East and West. Including the 'annual agreement' between the royal family and the cabinet of Chen Han, only one hundred of the treasury revenue is taken. This is a very peculiar rule! The numbers are too small.

This tiny percentage is not very remarkable in China before the new tax was introduced, but it is by no means pitiful - more than 10 million Chinese dollars, 230,000 pounds a year. In Europe, it is already very generous. It's just that this number is a little smaller than that of China's behemoth. Judging from the statistics carried out by the Chinese themselves, the cost of the entire royal family is not less than one million pounds a year. One percent of the revenue of the state treasury is at most a fraction of what it gets.

Just talking about 'fiscal deficit', the Chinese royal family is as big as China's size, and it is staggering.

However, the Chinese royal family has a deep heritage, and the annual profits generated by the enterprises under their names are all in the unit of '100 million', and they can easily bear such a huge 'fiscal deficit'.

But all of this changed dramatically after China's new tax and fiscal policy was implemented.

In the past, the expenses of the Chinese royal family were small in the 'treasury income' and the large part in the 'corporate income', but now the two sides have switched one by one.

Although the Chinese royal family is still 'losing money', and the Chinese royal family is still maintaining an 'extremely luxurious' life, everyone can see the changes inside.

China's fiscal revenues are skyrocketing, but so is China's fiscal spending.

As a wise king, Catherine II could not say that the Chinese had made that 'compulsory education' in vain, and she was well aware of the importance of knowledge. In her early years, Catherine II was hailed as "the most enlightened monarch of Europe" by countless thinkers.

He supported literati painters and thinkers, and was close to Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu and other great thinkers. In the impression of outsiders, it is completely a 'young empress'.

Although Catherine II, who revealed her true colors after the Pugachev uprising, appeared reactionary, you can't erase the intellectual and insightful side of the people. After all, he was the master who had 'dealings' with Voltaire, Diderot, Montesquieu and other dishes, and if there was really no ink in his stomach, he would not be the 'most enlightened' monarch in Europe even if he put on a show.

Therefore, the knowledgeable female tsar knew very well that a large amount of money in China's finances could not be transferred to the war casually, and that it was money that had a fixed position. Although China's finances are incomparably abundant, their finances cannot only serve military spending, and they are not Russia.

In today's Russia, its own fiscal taxes have long been exhausted, and the war is fought by war bonds and national debts.

At the same time as reporting to St. Petersburg, Rumyantsev was once again shouting loudly for 'reinforcements, reinforcements'. Catherine II had a headache when she thought about it.

China just died the emperor's grandmother, not the terrible emperor directly.

As long as the wind and snow on the Eastern Front battlefield subside and the cold winter fades, it is obvious that the Chinese will start the war again, and even more fiercely. Because after a winter of hiding, they must have more abundant supplies.

Rumyantsev was not wrong to call for 'reinforcements', and he did not say to St. Petersburg before that after giving me the first batch of reinforcements, I would definitely keep the Ural Valley.

Rumyantsev is talking at least, two 'least' - at least 100,000 rockets for him, 30,000 regular troops, and at least 50,000 young men in Western Siberia and the Volga Valley; Then he will be able to keep the Chinese at bay in the Ural Valley.

Now Rumyantsev has come to St. Petersburg for help. However, in St. Petersburg, where the fighting on the Southern Front slowed down a little, and the fighting on the Western Front became tense again, where was there still a large number of troops for Rumyantsev.

"Notify the Ministry of Finance to issue the third batch of treasury bonds. Tell Denmark that the time has come for them to enter the war. ”

Catherine II did not take Denmark very seriously. Denmark is no longer the number one Nordic power it was back then. After Sweden's independence, Denmark's wars for more than 200 years ended in defeat, resulting in a shrinking territory. At the moment, Denmark had a sizable navy and a strong merchant fleet, but its weakness on land made the small country almost a vassal of St. Petersburg under the power of Russia.

That's a trumpet of Holland. But in the previous 100 years, there was not a single 'London' as an ally.

Catherine II's choice was clearly to continue the war. After all, Russia still has the support of the Netherlands, Britain, Prussia, Spain, Denmark, Austria and other countries, and most of Europe, so there is no problem in the short term in terms of war funding.

And as long as there is money in St. Petersburg, there is never a shortage of gray cattle in Russia.

Europe is at peace today. Countless pairs of eyes are watching Paris, watching the situation in France evolve, and all the major European countries, except for Russia and Austria, are no longer at war.

They will provide a lot of money for this war.

The world situation has evolved to the present, and the war of this Sino-Russian war has faintly changed its flavor. It is no longer a contest between two behemoths, China and Russia, but a bit of a contest between East and West, between yellow and white races.

It would be impossible to say that China's expansion in recent years has not had an impact on Europe. Whether it's Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, London, or Paris, everyone is faintly wary of China. After all, all these benefits that China has captured are snatched from their bowls.

It is true that there are 'people' in these countries who do not want to see Russia continue to be strong, but they also prefer to see China hit the nail. And supporting Russia's continuous war with China can not only weaken Russia's strength, but also make the Chinese feel the 'strength' of the white race, killing two birds with one stone, killing two birds with one stone, why not?

And Suvorov's big victory last year really gave many Russians an unrealistic delusion, and also made many Europeans see 'hope'. As Catherine II thought, if the Ottoman Empire was solved first, Sweden was never a problem, and then Russia would not have the strength to fight against China.

Russia uses all its strength, and there is financial support from so many countries behind it, while the Chinese only use one arm in Western Siberia, which is not necessarily without the power to fight. And it wasn't just Catherine II who did that.