(Thanks to the brothers 'Guo Ruquan', 'C.Y.T', 'G0079', 'LEEYCHIN', 'Lauder' and other brothers for their monthly passes, and some brothers who voted for the monthly pass can't be seen because of the display reasons, thank you as well.)

Thank you to all the brothers who supported me. ）

Zakhrev and others were introduced into the city, found a mansion to properly house the rest of the entourage, and after Zakhrev was washed and dressed neatly, he was led by the guards to the study in the general's palace.

"Your Excellency, this is a letter addressed to you by His Majesty the Great Emperor of the Russian Empire." Zakhrev took out a letter from his bosom and handed it to Lian Zining.

Lian Zining didn't open it, but asked, "There is no national letter, only a private letter?" ”

"Yes, His Majesty the Emperor does not think that there is a need for a credential." A sly smile appeared on Zakhrev's face: "This time, it is not the cooperation between the empire and the Ming Dynasty, but a cooperation between us and you personally. ”

It's a wonderful person.

Lian Zining didn't say that I was a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty or anything nonsense, but just smiled and opened the envelope. The letter was very short, on the left was in Russian, which Lian Zining could not understand, and on the right was a translation into Chinese, and the content was very simple, roughly proving the identity of Zakhrev and others, and then expressing some friendliness.

Lian Zining put down the letter and asked with interest: "Your Excellency Zakhlev, this letter, there is also someone who taught you Chinese?" Who is it? ”

Zakhrev said with a smile: "The traces of the Ming people are simply distributed all over the country, and there are many in the Jurchens, and it is naturally easy for us to get a few." ”

Lian Zining nodded, and suddenly asked: "I heard that Yelena Regent was poisoned by a political enemy, and that year, His Majesty the Tsar was just eight years old?" ”

Zakhrev stood up suddenly, his face was full of incredulity, a look of hell, and he said in shock: "How do you know? ”

He soon realized his gaffe. Smiled apologetically: "I'm sorry, Your Excellency General. Forgive me for being too excited, but I am amazed that you know so much about the situation in my country. ”

"There are a lot of things, as long as you understand them with your heart. Naturally, you will know. Please don't mind, Lord Zakhrev. Lian Zining smiled slightly: "The sentence just now actually has nothing to do with our conversation, it's just a small temptation." You also know that our northern neighbor, the Jurchens, has always been cunning. It's not impossible to find a few Russians to pretend to be envoys and then come and fool me. ”

"Of course I don't mind." Zakhrev said: "If you have any questions, I will try my best to answer them." ”

Next, Lian Zining asked several tricky questions. It's all about some secret things inside the Russian Empire, and if you are not your own people who have a deep understanding of Russia, you will never be able to answer them.

Zakhrev couldn't help but be impressed by Lian Zining. He found out that this was young. His Excellency General Mingguo, who always had a gentle smile on his face, did not know much about Russia as much as he did, and there were some things that he had only vaguely heard. And he even knew it all.

This discovery made him look at Lian Zining's eyes with some fear.

How did this mysterious young man know this? Could it be that he has been keeping an eye on Russia?

Meanwhile. Lian Zining finally confirmed the identity of Zakhrev's official envoys.

After talking for a while, and finally cut to the chase, Lian Zining asked: "Your Excellency Zakhrev, we don't have to say anything, you came from afar, definitely not to catch up with me, let's talk about it, what's the matter?" ”

Zakhrev looked at him, his eyes were resolute, and he said word by word: "Our purpose is very simple, unite you, we will solve the Jurchen together!" ”…,

"Finish off the Jurchen?"

Lian Zining's eyes shrank, the corners of his mouth twitched, and he was silent.

Although he had already guessed a few points, when he heard this sentence, he still had indescribable excitement and shock in his heart.

Because of his own time and space history, since he crossed over, he has always regarded the Jurchens as the biggest enemy of the ancient Ming dynasty. In fact, Daming is far from being as powerful as it seems on the surface, with internal crises, increased civil contradictions, strong external enemies, and raging wolves. The surrounding strong enemies involved too many forces of the Ming Dynasty, although it had the largest army in the entire East Asian geography, but the territory of the Ming Dynasty was too large, and there were too many areas that needed to be defended, and the millions of troops were scattered everywhere, from fists to slaps, the forces were very scattered, and it was difficult to mobilize due to the reasons that were contained.

Maybe as long as a strong enemy can be ruthless, break through the barrier, go straight to the Beijing Division, and capture the city of Beijing, this empire will collapse with a bang!

Isn't that what Li Zicheng did in history? If it weren't for the 50,000 Guanning Iron Cavalry being restrained by the Manchu Qing, how could he have destroyed the Ming Dynasty so smoothly?

And the Jurchen is indeed a big trouble, and his heart is like a nightmare.

Until half an hour ago, Lian Zining was still thinking about how to resist the Jurchens. Seeing that spring is coming, summer is coming, the time for autumn is coming, and a new round of Jurchen invasion will come as scheduled, how can we protect ourselves?

It's just self-preservation.

And now, there is an opportunity to reasonably solve the Jurchen, and Lian Zining should be extremely excited to agree.

But he is a calm man after all.

Not to mention whether the Jurchens can be solved, even if the town solves the Jurchens, what about the future?

Is the Ming going to face this Russian Empire, which is ten times more terrifying and ten times more powerful than the Jurchens?

There are few people in this world who know better than Lian Zining the character of the Russian nation, this empire, this group of people, a people who continue to be aggressive and aggressive.

Throughout the history of the empire, it is a history of foreign expansion and aggression.

There are so many countries in the world, and there are also many countries at a certain time or a nightmare for a specific country, such as the Tang Dynasty in its heyday relative to neighboring countries, or Japan in the thirties and forties of the twentieth century relative to neighboring countries.

But Russia, the Soviet Union, which has been a nightmare for all its neighbors since its founding, is probably the only country.

In this respect, the Russians seem to be a reinvention of the Mongols, and their inheritance of aggression and aggression is far stronger than that of the orthodox Mongol descendants.

The only difference is that the Russian nation-state was born at the end of the Mongol Empire, the limit of Mongol expansion, and it can be said that the Grand Duke of Moscow, who was once an important member of the court of the Golden Horde, stood from the ruins of the Mongol invasion.

From Ivan the Terrible to the establishment of the Romanov dynasty, he conquered the Volga valley, the Urals and all parts of Siberia. In the mid-17th century, after the complete annexation of Ukraine, during the time of Peter the Great, after more than two decades of the Northern War, Russia finally defeated Gustav II's Sweden and gained access to the Baltic Sea. Transforming Russia from a landlocked country into a littoral state. In the decades that followed, it defeated the invasions of Polish and Swedish feudal lords.

During the time of Alexander I. Kutuzov, the Russian god of war, wiped out the invading Napoleonic army. In the mid-to-late 19th century, Russia successively ceded more than 700,000 square kilometers of land in the northwest of China and the "Ten Territories in the Northwest of Tangnu and Ulianghai" through unequal treaties such as the Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing, the Sino-Russian Treaty of Survey and Demarcation of the Northwest Boundary, the Treaty of Tacheng Boundary in the third year of Tongzhi, the Renewal of the Tacheng Boundary Treaty in the eighth year of Tongzhi, and the Treaty of Ili in the seventh year of Guangxu. Summing up. The land ceded from the Qing Dynasty amounted to 1.5 million square kilometers. …,

Even later in the Soviet era, Soviet Russia continued to invade, and after World War II, it actually controlled Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Poland, and even the whole of Eastern Europe, and went south, invading Afghanistan. The purpose of meddling in India's internal affairs is to gain access to the Indian Ocean.

Even in the 21st century, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia, which has been weakened to the extreme unseen in 300 years, is still acting in a very strong and domineering style.

Very starkly is the war between Russia and Georgia. It is not easy to figure out the twists and turns of disputes between countries, but Russia's approach is very Russian: immediately resort to force. Beginning with Tsarist Russia of the Romanov dynasty at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Russians have been doing this for four hundred years. The Russians were only brief-cut twice. That is, when the Bolsheviks began and died. The rest of the time, the Russians were forever expanding, or trying to expand.

On the eve of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, he was widely regarded as the only rational figure in the crazy court of Tsar Nicholas II, having served as Prime Minister and Minister of Finance. Foreign Minister Sergei. Count Witte said in public: "Russia's prestige exists only because of its military strength, and without military strength there is no Russia itself". More than 100 years later, the iron-blooded President Vladimir Putin said: "Russia has only two allies - the army and the navy."

It's a pretty scary. A nation and a nation that never stops on the path of aggression.

Far more terrifying than the Jurchens.

Lian Zining suddenly thought of the late Northern Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty to destroy the Liao, the result was that the Jin State beat the wolf of the Great Liao, and the remnants of the Great Liao beat the wolf of the Great Song Dynasty. As a result, Jin Guo completely saw the true face of the weakness of the Great Song Dynasty.

However, over the years, there have been changes in Jingkang.

And if he cooperates with Russia, will he be luring the wolf into the house?

How should these domineering old hairy men deal with it?

But the problem is that now the threat of the Jurchens is naked, direct, and close to the immediate eye, while the Russian Empire is still far away!

Thinking of this, Lian Zining couldn't help but feel excited.

Zakhrev had been carefully observing Lian Zining's expression, and he said with a smile: "Your Excellency, General, why don't we talk about it?" ”

Lian Zining nodded and said, "I also have some questions to ask." How many troops do you have in the north, how far are you from the Jurchen border, how many dragoons are there, how many Reitel cavalry, how many Cossacks? Also, you must know more about the Jurchens than I do, how many troops they have, how they are distributed, and what is the structure of the regime, we must communicate and communicate. ”

Zakhrev asked rhetorically: "How does Your Excellency General know that we know a lot about the Jurchens?" ”

Lian Zining glanced at him: "If there is no internal response, can you come here through the Jurchen territory?" ”

Zakhrev was convinced, and he was impressed by the young man's keen observation.

He introduced his Far Eastern troops, and then said: "As Your Excellency the General knows, the three Jurchens are divided into three major tribes, each of which has more than 100,000 troops, and the Haixi Jurchens border your territory. The remaining Jianzhou Jurchens and Beishan Jurchens each had about 100,000 troops. In addition, the Jurchen Khan also had about 80,000 Praetorian Guards. The distribution of the three surnames of Jurchen is in progress. The Haixi Jurchens are the southernmost part, the Jianzhou Jurchens occupy the central part of the country, which is what you Han people call the Demu Hewei, and the Beishan Jurchens live in the southern foothills and mountains of the Outer Xing'an Mountains. For several years. We have fought several battles with the Jurchens, which has attracted their full attention, and now most of the forces of the Beishan Jurchens have been concentrated at the northern foot of the Outer Khing'an Mountains, where they have built castles for defense. In addition, the soldiers of the Hercynian Jurchen did not move. But about 10,000 men of the Great Khan's Praetorian Guard were sent to reinforce it. ”…,

Lian Zining muttered: "Although the Haixi Jurchens have suffered heavy losses under me, they can still muster together at least 50,000 soldiers, and the strength of the Jianzhou Jurchen headquarters has not been damaged, that is, if they really want to fight." You only need to face the Beishan Jurchen Division. And I need to face the most powerful of the three, the Jianzhou Jurchen and the Haixi Jurchen. ”

Zakhrev smiled and said, "Your Excellency, you are right, if we can reach an agreement." When the time comes, we will naturally launch an onslaught from the Northlands. Contain a large number of Jurchen troops, and I have heard that your soldiers are extremely elite and can be used as ten. ”

Lian Zining waved his hand: "This is an overreputation." That's it, since you're going to cooperate. I'll tell you the truth, my soldiers should be equivalent to 80,000 Jurchen soldiers, no more, it won't work. ”

He is hiding this clumsily, Wu Yijun's strength is almost growing at a rate of thousands of miles a day, and the improvement of strength is mainly concentrated in three aspects. The first is the massive growth of firearms, the power of the medium Franc cannon is far greater than that of the small Franc cannon, and in a large number of reloads, the small Franc cannon has spread to all the guards, and a large number of stocks have been hoarded, if a new guard is built, it can be equipped immediately. And the flintlock pistols were also equipped with all the musketeers, and they were also well stocked, which created the conditions for a large expansion of the Wu Yi army.

The second is the enrichment of the combat experience of the soldiers brought about by the non-stop war, and the consequent increase in combat effectiveness.

Third, it was the addition of a large number of wild Jurchen soldiers, whose entry not only brought Lian Zining a large number of war horses and nearly 10,000 cavalry, but also a powerful assault force.

Fourth, and most importantly, is the increase in numbers -- the current Wuyi Army already has four guards, of which three infantry guards are 6,800 each, and the cavalry guards are the standard 5,600 men, and the fifth, sixth, and seventh guards are also being formed.

Seeing that spring is about to begin, the 1.5 million untouchables that the household department promised to move over should also be coming soon, and after they arrive, plus the population of these cities near Xishenwei, the soldiers will not be a problem. As long as the money and food can keep up, if he really wants to start a war with the Jurchens, Lian Zining can immediately assemble a force of more than ten guards, or even more.

Wu Yijun's strength is far from being as simple as it seems on the surface.

"The words of 80,000 soldiers don't seem to be enough." Zakhrev said: "Our army can be equivalent to about 150,000 Jurchens, and the Jurchens you need to resist must at least double the number." ”

Lian Zining smiled slightly: "The number of troops is not an absolute factor in determining the outcome of the war, there are many cases in the history of our country where less wins more, 970,000 lost to 60,000, 800,000 lost to 30,000, these are all over, you may not know this." More than 200 years ago, the Mongol army marched westward, when the Russian Empire was still Muscovy, on the Danube, the Mongols defeated the 200,000 coalition troops of many countries in Europe with only 50,000 troops, you should also know. We Han people fight wars, and the strength of the army is never all. ”

Zakhrev nodded, and wanted to say something, Lian Zining waved his hand and said: "Don't talk about this, let's talk about the spoils first!" ”

"Spoils?" Zakhrev couldn't help but be stunned.

"Naturally, the spoils are divided." Lian Zining: "If you can't even talk about the distribution of spoils, there is no need to talk about the rest." ”

Zakhrev has nothing to say, he knew before that the officials of the Ming Dynasty all love face and don't care about money, but he didn't expect this adult to share the spoils one by one, full of greed.

What an outlier.

Fortunately, he had thought about these questions before he came, took out a piece of paper from his bag, unfolded it, and pushed it in front of Lian Zining. ‘…,

Lian Zining took a look. But it is a map, and the scope of the map is obviously the entire vast area north of the Songhua River. It spreads to the south of the Chukotka Peninsula in the north, the Sea of Okhotsk in the east, Lake Baikal to the west, and the Songhua River to the south. The craftsmanship of the map and the accuracy of the drawing are quite good. It's a little worse than the Ming Dynasty, but it's already very fine compared to this era, with mountains and rivers, forests and swamps, and even the location of every small town marked.

Lian Zining couldn't help but sigh at the Russians' desire for territory. In such an era when there are no satellites and no high-altitude observations, it will take at least thousands of years to produce such a map by manpower. And most of this territory is within the territory of the Jurchens. The fact that this group of Russians can be made so finely shows that the infiltration of the Jurchens is already quite terrifying.

"Your Excellency, please see, this is where we are stationed. Nebuchu. Zakhrev stood up. Reach out and point to the top of the map, the bottom coast where the Chukotka Peninsula meets the mainland.

He moved his finger downward, and pointed at the place south of the Outer Khing'an Mountains and the junction of the Demu Hewei, and then went all the way to the east. Draw a straight line, just as the continental nations did on the African continent in the late nineteenth century. A straight line cuts the entire map, and finally stops at the south of the mouth of the Heilongjiang River.

Lian Zining stared at the map and was silent for a long time.

To be sure, Zakhrev offered quite generous conditions, and according to his division, two-thirds of the entire Jurchen lands were occupied by himself, and only the southern foot of the Trans-Khingan Mountains became Russian territory.

This is not in line with the habits and character of the Russians, who are eager to snatch all the good things, not to mention that this time, it is obvious that they are doing more.

Lian Zining raised his head and saw Zakhrev's face with a sincere smile, he naturally understood the intentions of the Russians - anyway, if the Jurchens are destroyed, you will be the next one, you will take care of this land first, what are we afraid of?

Lian Zining instantly made a decision in his heart.

He pointed his finger at the mouth of the Heilongjiang River.

He keenly observed that the corners of Zakhrev's eyes twitched.

"You want this to be an estuary, right?" Lian Zining asked.

Zakhrev was no longer surprised by Lian Zining's understanding of Russia's interior, and he nodded: "Yes, this is our dream outlet to the sea." ”

The mouth of the sea is not just a section of the coastline can be used as a port, to be a port, in terms of hydrology, geography and other aspects have extremely high requirements, relative to this era, a good port must be natural. It is necessary to have a bay that is large enough, the wind and waves are small enough, and the sea is deep enough, and it is necessary to have a gentle coastline and a strong and stable coast, even for fresh water.

On the long coastline of the Northeast, there are not many natural harbors, and the Heilongjiang River Estuary is definitely one.

"I can't give it to you here." Lian Zining said in a deep voice.

Zakhrev's face immediately became gloomy, and he said with a displeased expression: "Your Excellency, General, your appetite is too great, we have divided most of the fertile land to you, and we occupy the bitter cold land in the north, and you refuse to give us this port?" That's too much to ask! ”

Lian Zining was not angry, but said tepidly: "Your Excellency Zakhlev, you know so much about our Ming Dynasty, then do you know what the ground under our feet now is called in the administrative division of our Ming Dynasty?" ”

"Nu'er Gandusi." Zakhrev was stunned for a moment.

"That's right, it's the slave Gandusi!" Lian Zining took a deep breath: "I am in the seventy-three provinces of the south and north of the Ming Dynasty, and this land is called Nu'er Gandusi, and in the past, Nu'er Gandusi was much larger than now, but most of the land was cut away by the Jurchens." The former Nuer Gandu Division, the capital, is at the mouth of the Heilongjiang River. So got it? Here, for our Ming Dynasty. It has a very special meaning. ”

He paused and said, "You must know that our Emperor and the imperial court value face the most, and what they don't care about the most is money. Therefore, the restoration of the former capital of Nuer Gandusi is of extraordinary significance to me, and I need this credit! Your support is my biggest motivation. )