Fast forward to September, and the Chinese envoy ship had arrived in Edo Bay, bound for Kyoto accompanied by the Tokugawa shogunate's elder, Matsudaira Yasufuku, and no one knew what the mission had spoken to the Tokugawa shogunate during its few days in Edo. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

At this time, the south of the Yangtze River in China still carries a mild warmth, but the breath of late autumn has swept the north. The first snow of winter has fallen in Inner Mongolia.

And even further afield, in the areas north of Lake Baikal and the Heilongjiang River, snowflakes like thumbnails have accumulated on the ground.

Chen Ming's attention was diverted from the Outer Northeast region in August, and he was staring at the preparations for the immigration of Nanmingzhou, and also staring at the dispute between the court and the people, and then the Japanese came to intervene. This is a big country, something that must be paid attention to happens all the time, and human energy is limited.

But it didn't matter if his eyes were fixed on the Outer Northeast, where the war was still going on. For example, the Fu Han army's preparations for the attack on Boli City.

"Boli is the key point of defense of the Eight Banners in the Heilongjiang area, located on the east bank of the confluence of the Ussuri River and the Heilongjiang River, with a population of at least 10,000 or 20,000. Although most of the surrounding areas are mountainous, there are enough plains to be cultivated land, but the pure area is enough for the life of the soldiers and civilians of the Eight Banners here, and there are abundant fishery, and the waterway can go directly to the upper reaches of the Songhua River. "It would be difficult for such a location to be kept in the hands of the remnants and run by them into a strong stronghold.

Huang Jie, who was in charge of the Northeast Operation, introduced Chen Ming like this. And this autumn and winter, the biggest task of his department is to get Bo Li.

The city was not only one of the defensive centers of the Eight Banners, but also the front command of the Russians. The Tsarist Governor-General of the Amur River was a new jurisdiction established by the Russians after the end of the Baikal campaign in response to the Chinese threat in the Far East. The Amur River refers to the Heilongjiang River, and its center is located in Nebuchu, but the actual command center is in Boli. The Governor-General, Baron Falaleev, stayed in Burleigh for three hundred days a year.

He and the governor of Transbaikal province, Akimovich, were the two most powerful Russian powers in the region east of Lake Baikal, although in many cases they did not have even a single regiment at their disposal.

After quelling the Pugachev uprising, Russia exiled thousands of insurgents to Siberia, some of whom reached the Far East, where they had been the backbone of Russian power throughout Siberia for some time. These people chose to fight in the face of the tsarist Russian army, but it does not mean that they will quickly fall to China.

Coupled with some reinforcements from Tsarist Russia to Siberia, the overall strength of the Russian army in Siberia is approaching the 10,000 mark unprecedentedly, but in the contest with the Fu Han army, they are still very hard.

The decision of the Dadu Governor's Office was to expel the remnants of the Eight Banners to the north of Heilongjiang within five years, and to drive them all to the north of the Outer Xing'an Mountains, so that Lao Maozi could raise them. It's been almost three years now.

Coupled with the insistence of the front-line troops represented by Huang Jie, Chen Ming also let Huang Jie fight. What if you lose? Just buy a lesson.

Baron Falareyev, who was a major general in the Russian Army before becoming governor of the Amur River, was able to smell the ambitions of the Fu Han army for the city of Boli, and he was actively preparing for the war.

Heavy snow and bitter cold have enveloped the place. The Chinese fought bravely, with fierce firepower and a stubborn will to fight, and although Farareev did not want to admit it, he had to say that the enemy on the opposite side was a very good opponent. But they were not perfect, and the Chinese soldiers from the warmer regions of the south were most afraid of the bitter cold here. And for any Slav, this cold is nothing at all.

The Amur River basin is much warmer than the Arctic Circle, with brighter sunshine and longer periods of warmth.

If Russia wants to get all this, it must rely on war, and after three years of war, the current battle of Boli City will be a very, very good opportunity.

As long as God suddenly rains a heavy snow when the war is fierce, the Chinese will suffer misery. "The bitter cold of winter, Russia's best ally, arrogant China, challenges Russia in winter, and they will surely suffer the punishment of the harsh winter." Falaleev is confident in this.

The Eight Banners garrison of Boli City is more than a thousand people, and this does not include the banner people who can be recruited at the last time, although the latter has no combat effectiveness at all, but the overall number is placed there. Then there were the Russian armed forces of four or five hundred men, among which there were Russian regular troops, Cossacks, former rebel soldiers, and hunters from the Far East.

The person who led the Eight Banners in Boli City was Fukangan, who was beaten by the Fu Han Army in Korea with an absolute superiority in combat effectiveness, and Fukangan, who had won the trust of the Eight Banners with the previous war, and his relationship with Farareev was quite good. The commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Agaltsov, was a cavalry major of Cossack origin. This is a good military man. He has a lot of experience in war, but he has a short temper.

The Fu Han army has been loaded with bullets and is ready to fly! But at this time, Farareev received a letter from St. Petersburg, and he had a headache. The Chinese actually hooked up with the Ottoman Empire, and a Chinese delegation entered the Ottoman capital Istanbul by land, and they were warmly welcomed by the Ottoman leadership. "It's terrible." It was too much of his expectation.

According to the internal reports of the Russians in the Ottomans, the cheap and numerous guns brought by the Chinese to the Ottomans, and the two sides formed an alliance, so it is self-evident which country each other's spearheads are directed at. There was a lot of pressure on the main war faction in St. Petersburg.

Farareev convened an emergency meeting of the Russians. Among the officers were the commander Agaltov, the quartermaster Fedorovich, the liaison officer Evgeny, and his own adjutant Alexandro.

"Gentlemen, the Chinese are in contact with the Ottomans, Russia's sworn enemies, and those distinguished gentlemen in St. Petersburg are under great pressure." Everyone here knows what the consequences for Russia will be if the Ottoman Empire joins forces with China.

"The Ottomans have just been defeated, and they do not dare to provoke a war at once."

"But China is powerful. In response to the war in Siberia, the empire had already paid a great price. You all know how much the empire spent to maintain the fighting in the Far East and on Lake Baikal. And it is very disappointing that the empire, which has paid a huge price, still does not see any hope of victory on the battlefield. ”

"This is our shame!" There was anger in Falaleev's voice.

Since the destruction of the Golden Horde by the Russians, Russia has suffered the most serious setback in its 200-year westward journey.

"The voices against the war in St. Petersburg are getting stronger. Fortunately, we had the unwavering support of Her Majesty the Empress, who continued to support the war by ordering the Orenburg Governorate to attack the Chinese across Lake Balkhash. But that's the best effort. If Orenburg's army failed to achieve a noteworthy victory, the Reich would have had to negotiate peace with China. Once again, the hopes of the Slavs to cross the Amur River to the south will be dashed. Because it was impossible for Chen Han to recognize the agreement signed between Russia and the Manchus.

The atmosphere in the room was very tense, and Farareev explained the current situation in Russia to everyone in a few short sentences.

Her Majesty the Empress could not ignore the voices of countless people even if she supported the war, and more importantly, everyone present knew that Russia's national strength was almost at its peak. Otherwise, how could Pugachev provoke such a massive rebellion?

The Orenburg region, the Urals, the Ural Mountains, Western Siberia, the middle and lower reaches of the Volga, the Russian Empire had a strong control over these places. And among the people of the uprising there were so many Yayik Cossacks and Cossack villages and towns on the Volga and Don rivers.

It is clear to everyone what this means, and everyone understands what Russia needs most now.

Her Majesty the Empress had the heart of an emperor, but the power of Russia could not support their armies in an indefinite war.

"We cannot pin our hopes on diplomacy. That's a coward's performance! And even if St. Petersburg agrees to negotiate with the Chinese, does His Excellency the Governor think they will prepare the negotiating table? No, it won't. What the Chinese want is war, and they will certainly start a war immediately, using war to gain Russian influence in Central Asia before the great Russian Empire has recovered from the wounds of the war with the Ottomans. They have the caliph of the heavenly world as an ally. ”

The reckless commander Agalitsov could not make such a big point, and the quartermaster Fedorovich was more of a businessman, and the person who said this was the liaison officer Yepgeny.

Yepgeny has always been the most staunch holder of the 'theory of China's strength' within the Russian military. He even said after a drink that Russia is not yet as strong as China, as evidenced by China's unimaginably large population of 20,000,000. With the Han people as the absolute main ethnic group of 20,000,000 people, how powerful will that war potential be?

Fararev was very disgusted with Yepgeny before, he didn't expect Yepgeny to talk like this, he used to think that Yepgeny was a 'master and faction'. Now it seems that he has 'misread' Yepgeny.

Farareev didn't know much about the situation in Xinjiang, China, but thinking that the Chinese had swept the whole of Xinjiang with a storm and clouds before, and completely subjugated all the natives there without bloodshed, his intuition told Farareev that the Chinese army entering Xinjiang was a very powerful force. And the Orenburg Governorate was devastated by Pugachev, and Orenburg was surrounded by Pugachev for half a year during the uprising, is the army there really capable of defeating the Chinese garrison in Xinjiang?

If this Orenburg offensive ends in failure, no, even if a draw is reached, Russia will have to choose peace. Because at that time, Russia no longer had the means to threaten China.

Just as China occupies a certain advantage in the Far East, and Baikal in the central part of the country, but in their northwest, which is closer to the center of Russia, Russian talent has an advantage.

If Russia does not take advantage of China in Xinjiang, which it occupies easily, there is no need to fight this war.

The war in Siberia is a drain of national strength, and the former Fararev thought that China had just changed its dynasty and should be the weakest time for its national strength, and he wanted to think that they could survive in Siberia and Russia for more than two years. As one of the leading Russian forces in the Far East, Fararev is well aware of how much money Russia has spent to support the Far East and the Eight Banners.

It's really a huge drain!

"We should fight with all our strength to meet the next battle of Boli. Yepgeny, you have to tell this to Fu, and let him tell it to his emperor. Go all out to fight this battle.

If Orenburg's army had lost the battle, the victory at Boli would have given them their last chance. ”

"Leave all distractions behind and fight with all your might. Teach the Chinese with bayonets and bullets, let them pay enough blood so that they will always remember this lesson. That's what needs to be done the most. ”

Falaleev's mood was a little agitated again. Because the outcome of the war here is also related to his prospects. The governor-general of the Amur River will not have a long lifespan, and if calm is restored between China and Russia, this institution will soon be transformed into a province, and there will be a real governor at the head of this province and Transbaikal province.

Falaleev would love to see if he could go further!

The war in the outer northeast became extremely fierce without Chen Ming noticing, and in the far northwest, the dispatch of the Russian army was reported to Gaopingshan by the people of Da Yuzi, and the Russian army, which was ready to go, had already advanced along the Irtysh River to a place that was unwilling to be separated from the Balkhash River and Zaisangbo.

At both ends of the head of the Abu Ben Khan in Zhongyuz, neither leaked the news of the Russian army to China, nor did he mix with the troops of the Russian army. I don't know what he was thinking.

As a superior, he should know that it is never a good idea to not get close to each other at this time, but it will only make him not a person inside and out. Maybe he is very confident in the strength in his hands, after all, Zhongyuzi is a powerful force that can pull out thirty or forty thousand horsemen. In this day and age, the Russians dare not underestimate him.

It's just that Chen Ming at this time didn't know what was going on in the northeast and northwest, and his eyes were now all on Japan.

The Mitsubishi Textile Company, a subsidiary of Wang Pingbei, has made a new move, and the influence of this action is rapidly spreading throughout Japan. Mino Pingbei received a low-interest loan of 1 million Chinese yuan from China's commercial and trade banks, which is a new measure launched by major Chinese banks to provide preferential services to partners.

Wang Pingbei, who is still wearing the vest of Mino Pingbei, is one of the largest partners of the Trade Bank in Japan. In addition, Mino Heibei also took this opportunity to use his shares in Mitsui Bank as collateral to take out a loan of 300,000 yen from the Bank of Japan, and all of them were exchanged for gold, instead of being repaid silver, that is, 60,000 taels [1 匁 = 3.759 grams], which was exchanged for 6,000 taels of gold in the Chinese unit of measurement, so that it could be exchanged for about 1.3 million Chinese dollars. If the Bank of Japan gives 'silver', it will be directly discounted by half. Half of the people you really can't be 'pure gold'.

A total of 2 million Chinese dollars worth of funds was announced by Wang Pingbei to expand the industrial scale of Mitsubishi Textile Company, which he had just put into production.

"Mino-kun really wants to spend two million Chinese dollars to expand the industry of his textile company?"

Yamamoto Ieshige, the Osaka executive who came to Nagasaki from Osaka, said to Wang Pingbei in an equal, even with a little respect. Because he is the leader of Osaka, another commercial center in Japan, and the second phase of Mitsubishi's industry has been clearly told by Wang Pingbei that it is not ready to be placed in Nagasaki.

Today's steam engine is not perfectly combined with the textile machine, only the spinning machine is driven by the steam engine, and the loom is still driven by water conservancy. Osaka is one of the most commercially prosperous and developed cities in Japan, and it is also one of the cities with the most abundant water resources in the whole of Japan.

The river area of Osaka is criss-crossed, the water area accounts for more than 1/10 of the city's area, and more than 1,400 bridges of different shapes connect the entire urban area into one, which is not only known as the "water capital", but also has the saying of "Osaka 808 Bridges".

Many of these rivers originate from Lake Biwa, and the Yodo River, which flows through the northern part of Osaka City, has the largest amount of water. Thanks to the convenience of water transportation, there were many markets along the Yodogawa River, and it was the main artery that supported Osaka's economy. Of course, the Yodogawa River is also a river that frequently floods.

"Yes. I did prepare 2 million Chinese dollars to start the second phase of Mitsubishi Boshoku's project. Wang Pingbei spoke with a taste of contempt for the world, this is the power of money.

The influence of China has spurred changes in Japanese society. Although many of the samurai class, and even important figures in the Tokugawa shogunate, including local daimyos, continued to uphold the honor of the samurai, rejected the development of commerce and the transformation of industry and commerce, and became conservative in the period of change in Japan, the power of commerce in Japan has been touched. Osaka is the commercial capital of Japan, and it is Japan's 'Gangnam'.

The change in Wang Pingbei's social status is a striking example.

In today's Japan, when you only have 10,000 yen, a big city like Yamamoto Ieshige will not look down on you; But when you have 100,000 yen, you enter the eyes of these big people; When your assets reach 500,000 yen, Yamamoto Ieshige can only be on an equal footing with you.

Now Wang Pingbei is not only an important partner of the Mitsui family, but also a guest of Tanuma Yoshiji, and even the shogun sighs at his business talent. Because Wang Pingbei's total assets exceeded 1 million yen. The total size of his business has reached 2 million yen. (To be continued.) )