At a time when Zhu Jishi was fully engaged in educational reform and colonization of the Northeast, the Russian Crown Prince Nikolayevich . Alexander's warship finally arrived in Hong Kong, which was under the rule of the British Empire.

The British Empire seems to have taken a supportive approach to the Russian crown prince's trip to Asia. Perhaps Whitehall Street wants to let the Russian crown prince see the prosperity of the Ming Empire, so that he can turn his main energies to the East, where Russia has a great deal of wealth to protect! In contrast, shouldn't the cause of carving up the Ottoman Empire be slowed down?

The first stop for the Russian crown prince to appreciate the prosperity of the Ming Empire was, of course, Hong Kong, although the capital of the Ming Empire had been moved to Yingtianfu. However, the economic development of this British-ruled island and the town of Kowloon under the rule of the Ming Dynasty on the other side did not slow down, but became more prosperous due to the opening of the Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway.

The docks are filled with a wide variety of goods, and the output and input are growing at a high rate almost simultaneously. The main imports are machines, woolen woollen woollen and chemicals produced in Europe. Spices, timber, rice, and oil from the South Seas. Cotton from India – Thanks to the presence of machine-based cotton mills in Guangdong, Indian cotton has now replaced opium as the most important commodity imported from India. The output was silk, tea, tung oil, coptis and other raw materials and agricultural products, as well as porcelain, lacquerware, cotton cloth, ironware, guns and ammunition and other industrial and handicraft products.

After hearing that China was now an arms exporter, the Russian crown prince, who was a guest at the Governor's Palace in Hong Kong, immediately became interested, and he asked Governor Bonham: "Is the scale of the guns exported by the Chinese large?" What about the quality? ”

Wen Xian smiled and said, "China's arms manufacturing industry is quite developed, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. You should know that the Emperor of China is the majority shareholder of Jason and Lan Fong Hong. Both companies are big arms dealers. In particular, the Churchill Company, a subsidiary of Jason, also had an explosives factory in Petersburg. ”

"I know this, but it's not easy to produce guns, especially rifles. Could it be that the Chinese were able to mass-produce such advanced firearms? ”

The Russian crown prince frowned, the Russian arsenal has now also developed rifles that use bottom expansion bullets, but because the process is more complicated, the production cannot be increased.

Wen Xian smiled and nodded, giving an affirmative answer. But he said in his heart: "What's so difficult about the rifle, isn't it just to pull a rifling?" The Indians in the Kolkata factory can do a good job. There are many large manual workshops in Foshan where technicians can also use lathes to produce qualified gun barrels. Isn't it because of serfdom that you Russians can't make their arsenals that you can make good things by letting serfs work in state-run arsenals? It's a big joke that this kind of country still wants to dominate the world......"

The British ambassador to China, Robert Murphy, came from Yingtian. Churchill smiled and said to the Russian crown prince: "Your Highness, you probably don't know that the Chinese have always been very good at making things, and before the invention of the steam engine, they must have been the country with the highest industrial output value in the world." But they're not good at inventing, uh, of course, with the exception of His Majesty China. But the Chinese are really good at imitation, and their workers are all ingenious and very, very hardworking. In the case of employing European engineers and using European machines. They can do as well as British workers. Because...... They are all free people! ”

Alexander. Nikolayevich's face turned red, even the workers of China are free men! And they also have a constitution and a parliament. The tax-paying bourgeoisie and landlords could participate in politics and make proposals to the emperor. But Russia has no constitution, no parliament, only serfs, 45% of the population is serfs, and 40% of the workers in the factories are serfs! I really don't know who is the barbaric Asian country and who is the civilized European country?

"In addition, His Majesty China knows how to develop the country's industry."

Qiu went on to add, "He has built a fairly strong and autonomous financial system, which has ensured that businesses and businesses have access to sufficient funds. At the same time, appropriate tariff protection policies had been adopted, full competition was encouraged at home, and regulations such as the Civil Code and the Patent Law had been enacted to regulate the market. More recently, he has enacted the Education Law, which has begun a radical reform of China's backward education system. By the way, at the same time as the promulgation of the Education Law, His Majesty of China also began to colonize Manchuria on a large scale, adopting a special colonial method called 'collective farms'......"

"Still colonizing Manchuria on a large scale!?" Alexander. Nikolayevich's face twitched slightly, and the Chinese clearly wanted to compete with Russia for Eastern Siberia!

……

The Far Eastern Plaza Hotel in Hong Kong was completely chartered by the huge delegation brought by the Russian crown prince, and the conference room on the ground floor was filled with large basins of ice, but the room was still stuffy. However, the doors and windows of the conference room were still closed. After attending the reception luncheon at the Governor's Palace in Hong Kong, the Russian crown prince did not rest, but sat neatly dressed in this conference room, sweat constantly rolling down his forehead, and he did not know whether it was because of the hot climate in Hong Kong or the severe situation in the East.

“…… Yes, Your Highness, the Ming Emperor had a very powerful army, and this army was especially outstanding in defense, and they adopted a completely new approach to warfare, forming an impregnable field defense system with barbed wire, trenches, cannons firing shotguns and flowering shells, infantry using rifles and grenades. I saw with my own eyes the power of this new defense system at the Battle of Ningjin, and I sent a report to Petersburg on it, suggesting that the Russian Army imitate this field defense system. ”

Muravyov also traveled from Siberia to Hong Kong to report to the visiting Russian crown prince on the latest situation in northern China, and he mentioned the battle of Ningjin, especially the new tactics adopted by the Ming army.

"Is there a way for the Russian army to break such a defense?" The Russian crown prince took out a silk handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead, and asked lightly.

"There is a way, but ...... It is necessary to commit more than twice as many troops and be prepared to suffer heavy casualties. Muravyov replied.

"There's no way!" The Russian crown prince said, "Lieutenant General, you mean that we can't defeat the Chinese in the Far East, right?" We simply have no way to throw a large army in the Far East...... Maybe 10,000 is the upper limit. ”

"Yes, Your Highness." Muravyov shook his head and said, "If the war takes place in the Far East or Manchuria, we will definitely lose!" It's just a question of how much to lose and how much time to lose! ”

"What a frustrating question!" The Russian crown prince sighed, "His Majesty the Tsar has made up his mind to start a war against the Ottoman Empire, and now there is only the choice of the time to start the war......"

"Your Highness, how long will it take us to win the war?" Muravyov asked with some concern.

"If only I knew the truth!" The Russian crown prince shook his head, "It is not difficult to defeat the Turks, but it is difficult to say whether Britain, France and Austria will intervene in the war. Although His Majesty thinks that such a possibility is not great, it can never be ruled out. In addition, His Majesty thought that England and France were likely to instruct China to attack our Eastern Siberia in order to compel us to turn to England and France for help, so that we would have to abandon the war against Turkey. Therefore, His Majesty hopes that we can give the Chinese who are coming to the East a little hardship......"

Muravyov pondered: "Your Highness, if we want to give the Chinese a little hardship, then we can't wait for them to come to attack, but we should take the initiative to find trouble with the Chinese." ”

"Take the initiative? Can you fight? The Russian crown prince asked suspiciously.

Muravyov smiled and said: "It depends on what battlefield!" The advantage of the Chinese is in the Far East, and ours is in Mongolia and Central Asia! My idea was to support the restoration of China's Manchu dynasty in Mongolia and Xinjiang, so that the Chinese would have to go on expeditions to recover these two remote provinces. In the east, the decisive role was played by the logistical supply of both sides, and the distance from Moscow to Xinjiang was roughly equal to the distance from Yingtian to Xinjiang. (To be continued......)