On July 18, the 5th year of the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, the night was dark, and the traces of the Eight Banners that had entered Eastern Mongolia - the Russian coalition army had still not been found, and Han Si, who was supervising the army's march towards Mongolia, had been ordered to completely annihilate the department no matter what! From Darkhan City to Zhangjiakou, all martial law is awaited. At this time, in the Chengde Summer Resort, in the Ten Thousand Pine Wind Palace, the civil and military ministers gathered and were holding a pre-imperial meeting.

Liu Jiong made a report to Zhu Jishi on the encirclement and suppression operation with a stern face, Han Si will be the commander-in-chief of the encirclement and suppression operation, and he has the right to control the Ming army south of Tengger City.

Zuo Zongtang chuckled: "At most, there are 10,000 people, and they can hide on the grassland for a lifetime?" As long as it is exposed, it is the end of the world. ”

Zhu Jishi snorted: "The Russians deceived people too much, and they actually sent troops to Mongolia to start a war with me without declaring war!" Do you think I'm going to be beaten and not fight back? ”

He looked at Zuo Zongtang: "Zuo Xiang, can you submit a declaration of war to the Russian ambassador?" ”

Seeing that Zuo Zongtang wanted to speak and stopped, the Minister of the Navy Wang Dehu seemed to have something to say, Zhu Jishi frowned, and he already knew what was going on.

Admiral Minister Wang Dehu said: "Your Majesty, Russia still has a fleet on Ryukyu Island, and the latest intelligence shows that there are three third-class battleships, four fourth-class battleships, six cruisers and ten frigates, and the rest of the ships are missing......

"Why, can't the Navy deal with them?" Zhu Jishi asked coldly, "After all these years of construction, the Ming Navy alone has 7 third-class battleships, 15 fourth-class battleships, and more than 30 cruisers, which is second to none in East Asia. ”

Wang Dehu smiled bitterly: "Your Majesty." If it's out there to fight. The navy has the strength to fight. But the problem is that once these Russian ships leave the Ryukyus and hide in the deep sea, we will be in big trouble, and our trade with the Americas, Australia, and the South Seas will be affected. Therefore, the Navy's proposal is to declare war with Britain and France, and with the British and French fleets in Asia, our Navy can sit back and relax......"

Zhu Jishi was stunned for a moment, and then his face became gloomy.

"Wang Laohu, I spend tens of millions of yuan every year to raise the navy to raise such a result!"

Zhu Jishi was really a little angry, and the navy actually said that it couldn't deal with the Russian fleet...... Wait for Britain and France to declare war together! But when did Britain and France declare war? The timetable given by Princess Mathilde is from February to March next year. I'm afraid it's already May or June! How could the war with Russia drag on until that time?

"Is there no way to destroy the Russian fleet in the Ryukyus?"

Wang Dehu stared at the ground with his eyes, and said in his heart, where is the Russian fleet in the Ryukyus so easy to fight? The Russians haven't done anything else in the Ryukyus in the past few years, just to prepare for war, the port of Naha has long been impregnable, and no less than 10 coastal forts have been repaired, if they can bite down?

"Will the ironclad work? I remember that 6 steam ironclads have already been handed over to the navy, right? ”

Of course, the "steam ironclad ship" mentioned by Zhu Jishi is not an ironclad giant ship like Dingyuan and Zhenyuan. Emperor Zhu was just a doctor who could make a cameo appearance as a chemist, and he didn't know how to build ships and machinery, although he ordered the Nanyang Shipbuilding Company to build ironclad ships, and he also drew sketches. However, it does not mean that Nanyang Company will be able to come up with advanced weapons that surpass this era.

In fact, the ironclad ships they built were not advanced at all, but they had solid armor. But warships with poor speed and seaworthiness can only maneuver around inland rivers in the near sea. And the rotating turret he asked for was not out sooner. There are also no breech guns, so the firepower is not very strong, except that it can be beaten, there is no advantage.

"Your Majesty, the ironclad ship can't go out to the far sea at all, and it can't reach the Ryukyu ...... at all."

Wang Dehu was very dissatisfied with these 6 iron turtles, if he could choose, he would rather have 6 third-class battleships, the cost of which was more expensive than the third-class battleships.

"Why can't you get to Ryukyu? The Japanese can use punts to travel between China and Japan, but are my ironclads worse than punts? ”

Zhu Jishi gritted his teeth and said, he was angry with Wang Dehu, a stupid person, he had something as awesome as an ironclad ship, how could he not deal with the Russian fleet in the Ryukyus? It's only a lot of travel from Dinghai to Ryukyu, and it's not to Australia! It's really not good, just find a few steam sailboats to tow the ironclad ship?

"Go and recruit those six ironclad captains to Chengde, I want to hear what they have to say!"

Zhu Jishi really wanted to meet the new generation of the navy, and he no longer had much hope for the old navy such as Wang Dehu, Zhao Daheng, and Xue Dingyue. These people were all pirates, had no formal naval education, and had rigid brains, even if they had the most powerful navy in the world to command them, they would not be able to win any battles.

"Your Majesty, what about declaring war on Russia?" Zuo Zongtang hurriedly asked.

"Wait, wait until the Navy's Ryukyu battle strategy is decided." When Zhu Jishi said this, he had already made up his mind to declare war on Russia as soon as possible.

However, at this time, Luo Junqi, who was supervising the battle on the front line of the city, did not know the determination of Emperor Ludao, nor did he know that the Russian army had penetrated deep into the hinterland of Mongolia and was playing hide and seek with the Ming army. Therefore, he still made a request to the Russian nationals and Russian diplomatic offices in the city to evacuate the war zone in accordance with the original plan.

"Your Excellency the Governor, you can leave the Trading City with confidence, you can rest assured, as long as I Yixin is here, the Trading City will be able to hold on! When it comes to winter, even by this time next year, there will be no problem. However, if you are not afraid of 10,000, you are afraid that it will not? Although the trading city is easy to defend and difficult to attack, there are still 20,000 Eight Banner soldiers and 2,000 Russian soldiers, and it is certain that it can be defended, but there should be preparations in case of emergency. Let's put it this way, if there is really any case, our bannermen guarding the trading city will definitely have no way to live, but what about the bannermen in Russia? Especially how to live for those banner people, women and children, you have to give an accurate sentence, so that everyone will be blind to death and death! ”

It was Yi Xin who spoke, and these days, there have been some rumors circulating in the trading city. It is said that the bannermen, women and children who arrived in Russia were treated as serfs by the Russians and distributed to the noble farms of Western Siberia! This matter makes the Eight Banners in the city a little worried, because the cruel war in the past few years has caused the number of men in the Eight Banners to plummet, and they are still alive Banner men, who don't have a bunch of women and children to support? They are carrying it here in the trading city, and they say on the surface that it is for the revival of the Qing Dynasty, but in fact, it is not for these women and children to live well?

If these women and children are all slaves for the Russians, then what are the big guys trying to do in the buying and selling city? Is it just to let the wife and children of the family be serfs? It's better to surrender to the Ming army, there are no serfs in the Ming Dynasty......

Of course, Yi Xin absolutely does not believe such rumors. Again and again, he ordered to track down the source of the rumors, but after checking and checking, it was not found that the evil Ming hostile force was found, but that it was found that the Russian merchants and soldiers in the city were bought and sold.

According to these Russian masters, 90% of serious Russians are serfs, and you Asians who have lost their country and fled to Russia still want to climb to the head of the Russian master and become a free man!? What is this not a dream? Russians don't have a tradition of being kind to their friends to their own people!

So today, when I heard that Muravyov was going to take a part of the Russian officers and soldiers to escort the Russian expatriates and some of the noble women and children of the Eight Banners who remained in the trading city to Irkutsk, Yixin had the courage to come and ask for a message - he also had a woman with a big belly in his family who was going to leave the trading city!

But what can Muravyov say? Although he was against serfdom, he was only a governor of Eastern Siberia, and he was the number one man in Eastern Siberia, but he did not have much room to speak in Petersburg. Moreover, Muravyov was against treating Russians as serfs, not Asians......

However, as far as the Yixin family is concerned, he, the governor, can still give a guarantee: "Your Majesty the Great Khan, please rest assured, you and your brother's wife and children will definitely be taken care of by the Russian Empire, and if there are no conditions for the establishment of a government-in-exile, I will ask His Majesty the Tsar to make them nobles and give them a manor, and they will never be allowed to suffer." (To be continued......)