What is it?

For the hundreds of thousands of people in the forty-ninth city of Tongzhi, when they saw a wave of foreign soldiers entering the capital, they all looked at these high-nosed and flowery-eyed foreigners with the same goal. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

No wonder they are called "foreign devils", these ones don't look like ghosts!

People muttered in their hearts, and when they looked at the foreign devil who entered the city, they were even afraid that they would attack themselves, and even quietly sprinkled some black dog blood at the door of their home, even if they really couldn't afford it, they would bury some women's menstrual filth at the door of their house to block the evil spirit of the foreign devil.

It seems that these people are really "ghosts".

However, as the Russian minister to China, he did not know that he had become a "ghost" in the eyes of hundreds of thousands of bannermen in Beijing.

For countries, this can be called a diplomatic breakthrough!

As far as the Manchu Qing were concerned, foreign countries were "vassal states" and they were not qualified to negotiate diplomacy directly with the Qing Dynasty, and they used to only think of confined their diplomacy to local areas, for example, they set up the Minister of Beiyang Trade to make diplomacy local.

However, with the change of time, the possibility of such confinement is becoming less and less, especially now, in the face of the Qing government's request for law, the Czech Republic took the opportunity to put forward the request of "the minister to enter Beijing".

At first, the Manchu court wanted to refuse the matter, but when the ambassadors of Britain, France, and the Netherlands had already settled in Nanjing, after some arguments, they considered whether to use Russia, the United States, or the envoys of the two countries to enter Beijing.

In the opinion of the Palyuczechos, this is an opportunity!

As the Minister of the Russian Empire to the Great Qing State, he realized that the opportunity was now in front of him, and in fact, in his opinion, it was a critical moment in Russia's eastward expansion. It was precisely because of this that he once again invited these people in front of him to gather in his office.

He looked around, and in the light of the whale oil lamp, Ansbayev, a Cossack born, sat alone on a three-man sofa, he was shorter than Rudolph, and not of aristocratic birth like Rudolph, so he was always ashamed of himself and always kept his distance from him, and Rudolph, a baron of German origin, was also careful to keep his distance from him. And Lieutenant Commander Makarov sat opposite Rudolph.

"It's Monday."

Clearing his throat, Baryucz lowered his voice and said casually.

"Now, we are facing an unprecedented opportunity!"

As he spoke, he sat a little lazily in a beige leather armchair. As a Russian, he was now suffering from a hangover from last night's binge drinking, and his brow was furrowed in pain.

"Just yesterday!"

Baliucz deliberately paused, then looked at the two people in front of him and said.

"Wen Xiang of the Qing Empire has made a request to me, he hopes to use our strength to quell the rebellion in the south!"

When mentioning the rebellion in the south, Baryuczekistan couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, for a long time, for Russia, those Chinese rebels have brought endless "shame" to Russia, they not only "took advantage of the fire" to take advantage of Russia's war to seize millions of square kilometers of land, but also blocked Russia's footsteps into the Pacific Ocean.

If it weren't for the fact that Russia did not have the strength to reinforce the Far East after the Crimean War, I am afraid that a war would have broken out with it long ago. But what Russia needs after suffering heavy losses is time, and it needs time to make up for the wounds caused by the war.

"Put down the rebellion in the South? Sir, are you referring to the regime in Nanjing? ”

Rudolph said in a surprised tone.

"According to our intelligence, the Chinese Empire in Nanking had more than 300,000 troops, and their army was not a primitive army of the Tatars, but an army trained by Europeans with modern weapons!"

When it comes to weapons, Rudolph, who fought in the Crimean War, immediately thinks of the Enfield M1853 rifle, which is an extremely high-performance weapon that has caused too many casualties to the Russian army, although it only appeared on the battlefield at the end of the Crimean War. In China, he saw a much larger number of Enfield M1853 rifles, and in terms of weapons, even the Qing army surpassed the Russian army.

"The reason why the Tatars need our help is because the strength of their new army cannot be compared with that of Nanjing, and the total strength of their new army does not exceed 100,000 men, which is the basis for their need for our help, and in terms of weapons, their weapons are the best, and in the manufacturing bureau in Tianjin, under the guidance of American engineers, they use American machines to make the latest Enfield rifles and French 12-pounder guns, and they can produce hundreds of rifles and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition every day, Your Excellency, I think, In this case, they don't need our help at all, and we can't help enough! ”

In his heart, Rudolph even wanted to say that if Russia had the strength to help the Qing government, then the Chinese would not be able to still control Kamchatka as they do now. Russia was not only badly damaged in the Crimean War, but also lost many territories in the Pacific, including Kamchatka, which are now occupied by the Chinese.

To this day, Petersburg is still debating whether to send troops to recover these territories. But in the end, the opposition prevailed - Russia could not send a large fleet on an expedition, nor could it send thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Russian soldiers through the forests of Siberia to attack Kamchatka.

Even now, in the past few years, although Petersburg has sent thousands of troops to the Far East, the Governor-General of the Far East has not considered the question of recovering Kamchatka, in addition to the fact that there is a navy in the Wing Pavilion that is more powerful than the Russian Pacific Fleet, and there are more than 2,000 Chinese troops in the fortress of Kamchatka, which means that Russia needs to use more powerful forces to conquer Petropavlovsk, which the Chinese named "North Sea".

And this is precisely what Russia cannot give now, and it is precisely because of this that the Chinese will always occupy it.

"Enough help?"

Baryucz looked at Rudolph with a look of surprise, as if curious about his idea.

"My friend, when is it enough to help? Is it to bring in 100,000 Russian soldiers from Europe? ”

Even if Russia was willing to protect the Manchus, it would be difficult to do so, let alone mobilize 100,000 troops, even if 20,000 troops were to be sent to the Far East for an expedition, according to St. Petersburg at the time of the fall of Kamchatka, "it would be a disaster."

"It's impossible!"

Ansbayev, as a Cossack, immediately said.

"On our way to Asia, we encountered a lot of problems, we were only a team of more than 2,000 people, and it was a disaster for the towns along the way, many places could not even provide enough food, if it was 100,000 people, before they reached the Far East, I was afraid that they would starve to death on the way!"

That's the fundamental reason!

Although there are hundreds of thousands of Russians living in Siberia, they are scattered throughout Siberia, scattered among hundreds of cities and villages along the way, and they may be able to provide logistics to a thousand troops, but if a force of 100,000 people, even a large city like Yekaterinburg, cannot provide enough supplies, in which case, the only result that awaits them is starvation to death on the Siberian ice field.

"Indeed!"

Baryuczecho nodded in agreement.

"Not to mention, we don't have the strength, and even if we do, how can we shed our blood for these Tatars?"

"What do you mean, Your Excellency?"

Rudolph, as an officer, immediately asked in surprise,

"We offer limited help?"

Limited help? How limited will it be?

"As we all know, now ours has lost Kamchatka, lost Sakhalin, lost a lot of land that belongs to us......"

Looking at the two people in front of him, Baliucz said seriously,

"Unless one day we can build a railway to the Far East, or if we can mobilize a large expeditionary fleet, we have no possibility of recovering these lands from the Chinese, but, at least for the next ten years, there is no hope!"

What Baryucz said is true, as a naval officer, Makarov knows very well that in the Crimean War, Russia's old warships are simply not worth mentioning, not to mention, according to the information now available, the Chinese also have several ironclad ships that can be used for ocean-going operations, which means that the Russian Navy has been left far behind.

Unless in the next ten years, Russia can build a huge fleet of ironclads and steamships, the recovery of Kamchatka and Sakhalin is simply a dream!

"So what are we going to do now?"

Rudolph asked rhetorically.

"Tell the Chinese that we are willing to help them."

Baliuczecho explained.

"Of course, the initial help is to help them train, their army, I think Rudolph, Ansbayev, you should be able to do this!"

Of course they can do this, just by training the army.

"In the meantime, we will come to an agreement with those Tatars!"

Looking at the three colleagues in front of him, Baliucz unfolded a map from the table, then looked at them and said.

"Now, for those Tatars, the most important thing is to keep their control over China, so they are willing to pay any price, after all, for them, it is the most important thing to keep control of China, and this means ...... opportunity for Russia"

Opportunity!

For the Paluzechos, the current crisis of the Great Qing State also means opportunities for Russia.

He knew very well what the situation of the Qing State was now, and it was undoubtedly extremely unwise for him to help the Qing State maintain their rule now, and even in his opinion, Russia should get in touch with Nanking as soon as possible, so as to normalize relations between the two countries. Like the Americans, they maintained diplomatic relations with the Qing state, but they also sent ambassadors to Nanking to avoid marginalizing China diplomatically.

But now Russia is lagging behind the United States in this, after all, the Chinese only destroyed one American fleet, but they took millions of square versts of Russian land. Killed thousands of valiant Russian soldiers.

As a diplomat, he had to obey the orders of St. Petersburg. However, this did not prevent him from taking advantage of the special opportunity of the current crisis in which the Qing country was in crisis to strive for more interests for Russia.

The crisis of other countries, the opportunities of his own country, as a diplomat, he will never give up this opportunity in front of him.

"Your Excellency, do you want to exchange more benefits for your assistance to the Qing Kingdom?"

Makarov said, looking at Balyuczech.

"Indeed, if they need our assistance, we can ask them for more at this time, for example, in terms of money and other rights......"

As a naval officer, Makarov also knew about diplomacy. Diplomacy against the weak is the most basic diplomatic common sense.

"Money?"

Surprised, he shook his head.

"How much money can they come up with now, if it weren't for that loan from the Americans, maybe the Tongzhi Emperor in the Forbidden City is already in a real financial crisis, and now they can only barely rely on the taxes of a few provinces in Zhili, which can't even maintain the basic operations of the government, let alone the impending war."

At the mention of the loan offered by the Americans, the corners of his lips were slightly raised, and there was a hint of mockery on his face, as if he was mocking the Americans, satirizing their short-sightedness. They actually lent such a large amount of money to the Qing State, but they did not take into account the reality of the current situation in China at all.

"So it's simply impossible for them to give us any financial reward for sending troops. At least not yet! ”

Looking at the three colleagues in front of him, Baryucz said with a chuckle.

"In addition to the financial returns, we should now think more about getting returns from other aspects, and I think the above returns are undoubtedly more generous."

At this time, the Palyu Czech deliberately sold the guanzi. He didn't even pay attention to the confusion and curiosity in the eyes of the other three as they looked at him, and just continued.

"After all, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For the sake of the Russian Empire, we must seize this opportunity. ”

As he spoke, looking at the curiosity in the eyes of the three of them, Baryucz unfolded the map and pointed to an area on the map.

"This is our chance!"

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