In the Kremlin Palace in Moscow, the capital of Russia, Tsar Ilvolod angrily said to the ministers around him after receiving a report on the war situation: "When I go back to transport military supplies by enemy airship, I still fight with the enemy like this, and it is all waste." After walking back and forth on the ground for a few steps, he sighed, turned back to the people below and said: "Immediately inform the troops on the front line, retreat back to Moscow, we will hold Moscow, and prepare for peace talks." With that, he sat down in his chair dejectedly, closed his eyes tightly, and said nothing.

When the Russian army entered Moscow, there were less than 170,000 men left, and a large number of Russian soldiers died or were taken prisoner.

And Li Long looked at the list of the dead of his army and was also very distressed, more than 1,400 soldiers were killed, most of them were people from the Fifth Army, and nearly 30,000 soldiers were wounded, of which 4,000 were no longer able to go to the battlefield, plus more than 1,000 people with frostbite and disease, it was not a small number, and he had to send people to cremate these bodies and transport them back to China, and he also had to arrange for people to escort the disabled soldiers back to China.

Just when Li Long was distressed, the guards immediately reported that the three chiefs of Tu Lie, Habis, and Bu Menggo were coming, and when Li Long heard this, he immediately let the three in, and as soon as the three of them came in, Tu Lie immediately said: "Commander, give us a gun, if we shoot this time, the loss will not be so great." It is said that we Mongolians are also part of the Chinese nation, and we should be given guns. "Actually, everyone understood in their hearts why they didn't shoot the Mongol soldiers, but they couldn't say that.

Li Long said, "Okay, I'll think about it." Tulie and the other three nodded.

After Li Long received Li Long's request for rifles to Mongolian soldiers, he considered that most of the families of Mongolian soldiers had moved to the mainland, and after three years, these hard-working Mongolian soldiers had been integrated into the role of soldiers of the Ming army under the generous military salary and various bonus rewards and various rank reward systems, and their loyalty had been greatly improved, but it was still not safe to send guns directly, and they still had to learn to use guns, so Li Long immediately issued an order, and the Mongolian army was rectified on the spot. The five armies of the entire group army will be scattered and reorganized, except that the division and army commanders will remain unchanged, all the brigade commanders below the soldiers will be reorganized, and all Mongolian officers and soldiers will be scattered and mixed into the troops of the Han and other ethnic groups, and the title of Mongolian army will no longer exist, and airships will be sent to transport guns and distribute guns to all Mongolian soldiers.

As for Li Long's Beijing Military Region, they could not implement such a policy, because they were not just dealing with some barbarian tribes who resisted like the Fourth Army, and they were now fighting a tough battle with the tough Russians, and they had no time to reorganize at all, so they could only fire guns on the spot and reorganize them later, but in order to solve the problem that the Mongol soldiers could not be proficient in using guns, Li Long ordered all the Mongolian Fifth Army to be divided into four parts and transferred to the First to Fourth Armies, which would also be beneficial to the reorganization in the future, and the three of Tulie, Khabis, and Bumengo continued to command the battle. After this battle, they will transfer the soldiers of the Han, Mongolian, and Zhuang ethnic groups to them.

Klimt meritorious service under the leadership of several soldiers who discovered the Tsar's envoy and his party, the Tsar's envoy and translator and a few entourages went to the military headquarters of the Beijing Military Region of the Ming Dynasty, and they were received by an adjutant Li Xin under Li Long, and now Li Long did not meet at all, he was going to various places to be busy issuing guns to the Mongol soldiers and breaking up some of the soldiers to reorganize the affairs of his four armies, when Li Long left, he explained to the adjutant Zhang Ming a sentence: "Just let their Grand Duke surrender, they want to say more than half a word and blast out."

As soon as the tsar's envoy saw Li Xin, he arrogantly said that he was negotiating on behalf of their noble emperor, demanded to see the highest commander of the Ming Dynasty immediately, and demanded that the Ming Emperor's ** team withdraw his troops immediately, and demanded that the Ming army return to them a large area of land in the Urals, Siberia and the lower reaches of the Volga River.

After listening to the translator's words, Li Xin smiled and muttered to himself: "Who is this who lost the battle?" ”

He immediately said to the Tsar's envoy: "The only way out for you now is to surrender, otherwise it will be a dead end." The Tsar's envoy immediately shouted at the interpreter and asked to see the supreme commander of the Ming army.

Li Xin immediately said that these words were the meaning of their supreme commander of the Ming Dynasty, and the tsar's envoy was still making trouble, and Li Xin immediately blasted out the shouting tsar's envoy.

When Tsar Ilvolod heard the reply of the envoy he sent, he immediately felt that their situation was more serious than imagined, and it was not a question of belonging to Siberia at all, even the large lands of the Urals and the lower Volga were in danger, and it was also a question of whether Russia could exist or not.

When Tsar Ilvolod immediately sent an envoy to the camp of the Ming army, and there was no reception for their Ming army, the few people brought by the Tsar's envoy were bombarded back by a platoon commander on the front line of the Ming army with a few soldiers.

Such a shame made Tsar Ilvolod angry, he no longer sent messengers, but with the unfavorable situation of the war, it was necessary to rely on a large number of troops to stop and defeat the pace of the advance of the Ming Emperor's ** team, Ilvolod once again mobilized all the men over the age of fifteen and all the serfs in the entire empire combined with the defeated soldiers to form an army totaling more than 1.9 million, and attacked the defense line of the Ming Emperor's ** team in three ways, and the Northern Route Army of 300,000 people crossed the Ural Mountains into Western Siberia, 500,000 people on the south route entered the western part of Kazakh Province of the Ming Empire, and the remaining 1.1 million troops gathered on the road to attack Yekaterinburg, the defensive fulcrum of the Beijing Military Region of the Ming Empire, with a thunderous force.

After a long journey of more than ten days, the Russian army completed the encirclement of Yekaterinburg, and the two main divisions of the Beijing Military Region of the Ming Empire were besieged in Yekaterinburg by 600,000 people. However, due to the brutal purge strategy implemented by the Ming Emperor after the occupation of Yekaterinburg, all the Russians in the city were either killed or taken captive, and Yekaterinburg has been completely reduced to a military fortress. Therefore, several attacks of the Russian army were not echoed by the Russians in the city, and under the fierce attack of 600,000 Russians, the Russian army suffered heavy casualties under the superior artillery fire of the Ming Empire and rows of rifle bullets, and the corpses piled up to form a huge hill of corpses, and the blood at that time flowed under the walls of Yekaterinburg, forming a small river of blood.

With the increase of ironclad ships, the eight fleets of the Ming Empire began to have new changes, a total of 238 warships under the command of Zheng Zhilong, commander of the naval fleet and commander-in-chief of the navy, and the most powerful "giant treasure ship invincible" class (55,000 tons) of the latest steel-armored battleship newly launched to the sea, this battleship is also Zheng Zhilong's flagship "Zheng Zhilong". There are two steel-armored battleships of the "Dabao Ship Invincible" class (22,000 tons), both of which are equipped with new cannons and rotating guns. The Zheng Zhilong was equipped with four 200mm caliber long-range giant guns with a range of 10 kilometers, and eight 100mm caliber close-range guns with a range of five kilometers. Sixteen small-caliber cannons. Others were medium ships

Zheng Sen, deputy commander-in-chief of the Ming Imperial Navy, commander of the First Fleet of the Navy, commanded 113 warships, one "Dabaochuan Invincible"-class steel-armored battleship, and also his flagship "Zheng Sen", "Baoship"-class steel-armored battleships, five other medium-sized warships

The other six fleets each had one Great Treasure Ship Battleship as their flagship and five Treasure Ship Battleships. The rest are all treasure ships made in unison

The navy of the Ming Empire can now be said to be the world's largest huge naval fleet, although in terms of quantity, it is less than the Netherlands, Britain, Spain, Portugal and other countries with thousands of armed ships, but in terms of quality, the fleet of the Ming Empire is already the most powerful. Naval fleets are now galloping across the South Seas and the Indian Sea, and are now plundering people and goods along the coasts of Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and the Arab States.

Li Long thought of the powerful navy of the Ming Empire, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly, and at this time, Zheng Zhilong, who was standing on the side, said: "Most of the troops of the Beijing Military Region of the Army are scattered, and the Ming Army has also looted everywhere. ”

Li Long said: "The pressure is not small, it is simply Mount Tai!" How big is Russia now? How many people are there? More than 1.9 million troops were mobilized to fight back against our army, hehe, this is the largest foreign enemy army that our army has encountered since its establishment. These troops are Russia's exhaustion of national strength, and if these 1.9 million troops are killed, Russia will be extinct. ”

Zheng Zhilong said cautiously: "Commander-in-Chief Li, the last general said something that should not be said, this battle is too risky, our army should not be in such a hurry to start a full-scale war with Russia, at least we should send troops north first, I think that maintaining an army of 500,000 people in Russia has the possibility of defeating Russia." ”

Li Long shook his head and said, "500,000? Joke! The Second Army has to defend our occupied territories, and there are still enemies in the west, Bukhara has not yet expressed its submission, in fact, it is secretly recruiting troops to prepare for war, and it is also secretly colluding with Siwa and Turkmenistan to unite against us, and the Second Army must hold the frontier to prevent the other side from counterattacking into our empire. ”

Zheng Zhilong worried: "But the Beijing Military Region only has 6 divisions, plus heavy losses, and now the total strength is less than 60 people, less than one-third of the Russian army!" The difference in strength is too great. ”

Li Long smiled and said: "In this battle, the risk is indeed big enough, but the benefits are also huge!" General Zheng Zhilong, have you thought about what kind of great changes will happen to the world if our army finally wins this war? ”

Zheng Zhilong thought seriously for a moment, although he was the commander-in-chief of the navy, he had also fought many land battles, and he replied: "If our army finally wins this battle, Russia will be disintegrated and completely reduced to a second-rate country in Europe. In this way, our empire will be able to attack and defend at the same time, and if we want to, we can completely wipe out this powerful country at any time, and before we destroy them, we will be able to free up our hands to deal with the countries of Central and Western Asia. ”

Li Long slapped the case heavily and said excitedly: "That's it!" Once our army finally wins this battle, Russia will be finished! Once we have eliminated the threat from the land, we will be able to concentrate our forces on Central Asia and then march into the Americas, and then we will not be far from our empire dominating the world......"

Zheng Zhilong said: "But Commander-in-Chief Li, what if our army is defeated? Li Long said indifferently: "The weapons we use are more advanced than the Russian army, even if the Russian army recovers the Yekaterinburg line, with the current financial and logistical resources of the Russians, it is absolutely impossible to support an army of 1.9 million to carry out an expedition of thousands of miles to attack us, causing us heavy losses, and there is also the resistance of the Ming army, and the Beijing Military Region has more than 600,000 regular troops, most of them are cavalry, they can quickly intersperse operations, these 1.9 million Russian troops seem to be powerful, but in fact, they are some peasant army, Compared with our Japanese army, it is estimated that there is no advantage except for being physically stronger. If it doesn't work, we still have 900,000 troops in the Xijing Military Region in Central Asia, as well as millions of troops in the Nanjing Military Region and Tokyo Military Region in China, as well as 2.3 million troops in the Japanese Imperial Allied Army, and hundreds of thousands of troops in the Korean Imperial Allied Army. ”

Zheng Zhilong suddenly proposed: "Which is, which is." Since Russia's existing financial and logistical resources cannot support its 1.9 million troops to carry out an expedition of several thousand miles, why does our army not implement the strategy of clearing the wilderness and retreat in great strides? In this way, the superiority of the Russian army in terms of strength will completely become their biggest disadvantage, that is, it will consume Russia to death. ”

Li Long smiled: "You mean the two divisions besieged in Yekaterinburg, right?" Of course, our army can withdraw before the Russian army encircles, but the question is, if Russia is not given a little hope, what if he withdraws after recovering Yekaterinburg? Since we want to play, we must completely mobilize the whole of Russia, play a big one, play with them, and let their 1.9 million people fall into the quagmire and not a single one can go back. ”

600,000 Russian troops have been besieged around Yekaterinburg for more than a whole month! After more than 100,000 deaths, the Russian army now has less than 500,000 people left, and with the coming of winter, more and more difficulties make the Russian army.

The brilliant military victories in the early days had long since disappeared without a trace, and the Russians gradually realized that the Ming Empire deliberately left two divisions in the fortified Yekaterinburg in order to attract hundreds of thousands of Russian troops here, and use these two divisions as bait to exhaust all the strategic resources of the Russians.

Grand Duke Ilvolod received one disturbing message after another in the palace,

"Grand Duke, the logistics officials say they can't raise enough food and grass and ask for a grace date." "Grand Duke, winter is coming, and the logistics department should be notified to step up preparations for winter clothes." "Grand Duke, the letter from the Ministry of Economic Affairs said that this year's cotton production has been reduced in a large area, and the army's winter clothing is only a problem." "Grand Duke, the offensive offensive of the Poles has increased again, and the marshal of the Russian army on the Polish Front has asked the High Command for reinforcements."

Ilvolod frowned, patiently listening to the ministers constantly read the annoying news to him, these are not the worst, there is not enough food, you can last for a while if you save some food, you don't have to wear clothes, you can survive a while, the situation in Poland is not good, just let the army retreat. These are minor problems, and the real big trouble is yet to come.

"Grand Duke, the 200,000 Russian troops on the southern road into the Kazakh Province of the Ming Empire and the 300,000 Russian troops who crossed the Ural Mountains into Western Siberia have been defeated by the first army of the Ming Empire in Kazakh Province of the Ming Empire and hundreds of marauders of the Ming Empire in Western Siberia and the Beijing Military Region, and now the Ming Empire has crossed the Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea and invaded the hinterland of our country on a large scale. Urgent letters were sent from all over the country, asking for additional reinforcements from the cavalry corps. ”

Ilvolod was so angry that his face was pale, his teeth were clenched, and his eyes showed a terrifying murderous intent, this group of idiots, more than 100,000 or 200,000 troops were defeated by the Ming Empire so easily, and they were also counterattacked by the Ming Empire! And the face to ask the emperor for help?

Ilvolod really wanted to drag all the defeated officers out and behead them at once. He gritted his teeth for a long time, threw out a sentence hatefully, and said: "Tell them that they want reinforcements, okay, let me and the Tsar Guard go to them as reinforcements!" Tell them that if they can't withstand the attack of the Ming Empire, I will let their entire family go to hell! ”

The Minister of War shook his head slightly, and reminded him stubbornly: "Grand Duke, it is better to send a few cavalry regiments appropriately according to your humble duties. Intelligence shows that the main force of the Ming Empire's counteroffensive in Central Asia and the Arctic is six reinforced divisions, and several cavalry corps of the Northern Front Army and the Central Asian Front Army were ambushed by the Ming Empire Army in the early offensive campaign and lost all of them, lacking cavalry support, and it is difficult for them to hold the defensive line. ”

With a cold snort, Ilvolod also calmed down completely. The Minister of War is right, the equipment of the Russian army is not as good as that of the Ming Emperor's ** team, plus there are no strong fortresses on the north and south lines to rely on for defense, if the outdated Russian infantry is allowed to fight with the well-equipped Ming Imperial cavalry, it is tantamount to letting the Russian soldiers commit suicide. And once the north and south lines collapse at the same time, let the cavalry corps of the Ming people come and go like the wind and break into the vast Nordic plain, the situation in Russia will immediately erode out of control, not to mention the Central Asian Front and the Northern Front Army, even the Central Front Army is afraid that it will be difficult to retreat. The Minister of War carefully observed Ilvolod's face and said cautiously: "Why don't you send the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Corps to reinforcements respectively?" ”

Ilvolod sighed and said: "Since the Ming Empire has invested all the cavalry in the north and south, our cavalry corps does not have to stay in the central front for defense, and immediately send an order to let the first, third, and sixth cavalry corps reinforce the southern front, and let the second and fourth cavalry corps reinforce the northern front." ”

The Minister of War said, "The minister will send someone to deliver the order." With that, he immediately ran down. Ilvolod sighed dejectedly, and sat back in his chair, but his cold eyes were stunned at the map, and his eyes were staring at the red point, which was this red point, and he was stunned to drag the Central Front Army of more than 1 million troops! The eight armies of the entire Front took turns to attack, attacked continuously, and even removed six commanders, but they still failed to capture Yekaterinburg!

Ilvolod didn't know how many casualties the defenders of the Ming Empire in Yekaterinburg were, but he knew the casualties of the Russian army! Since the siege of Yekaterinburg, in more than a month, the Russian army has paid a heavy price of 210,000 casualties, of which 150,000 were killed in battle, an average of more than 3,000 killed per day.

Fort Yekaterin, like a massive meat grinder, coldly and efficiently strangles the lives of Russian soldiers. Ilvolod let out a long sigh, looked away from the map, saw the snow floating outside, and said dejectedly: "It's already snowing?" Winter is really coming......"

The Minister of War's expression moved slightly, and the Minister of War, who was good at observing words and expressions, judged from the Tsar's light words that Ilvolod already had the idea of withdrawing his troops! The tsar was tired of this war, he didn't want to fight with the Ming people in a senseless fight anymore, in fact, it was also the tsar who lost confidence, he didn't think that with the capabilities of the Russian army, he could conquer Yekaterinburg. But the Tsar was afraid of face and refused to speak his heart directly in front of his subordinates. The Minister of War coughed lightly and said, "Grand Duke, the minister wants to say something that should not be said. ”

Ilvolod said, "Say it. "Grand Duke, in order to have a decisive battle with the people of the Ming Empire, the empire has evacuated the garrisons and border wehrmacht forces in various places, and only retains a small number of garrisons on the Polish front, which I think is very dangerous! According to the National Police Department, serf owners and some forces in various localities are showing signs of instability that are ready to move, and if such a situation is allowed to develop freely, once the various forces are allowed to contact each other and converge into a countercurrent, the consequences will be unimaginable. ”

Ilvolod stared silently at the Minister of War and said; "What do you mean ......" "Withdraw your troops!" Negotiate peace with the Ming Empire again. ”

The Minister of War said calmly, "There is no point in continuing this war, and it will even endanger the life and death of the Empire." ”

Ilvolod was silent and did not immediately show his attitude. The Minister of State on one side immediately retorted: "The joke is that the empire is willing to withdraw its troops to negotiate peace, are the people of the Ming Empire willing?" The people of the Ming Empire have always been savage and predatory, and now that they have won on both the northern and southern fronts, are they willing to give up such a good opportunity to plunder? I thought it was impossible. ”

The Deputy Minister of State also immediately chimed in: "Yes, the only way to deal with these barbaric people of the Ming Empire is to use the army to destroy them. ”

The Minister of War did not directly debate with the Minister of State, but only knocked on the side of Ilvolod and said: "Grand Duke, the situation is already obvious, the people of the Ming Empire have run Yekaterinburg into a strong military fortress, this fortress is like a sharp steel knife against the eastern frontier of the empire, it may stab into the hinterland of the empire at any time, if possible, the empire will of course uproot this fortress at all costs!" But the problem is that under the siege of our 1 million Central Front for nearly two months, Yekaterinburg has always been difficult to overcome, and no one knows how long the Ming Empire can hold out, but the minister knows that our army has not been able to support it for too long, the military rations are not continuous, the soldiers' winter clothes have not been found, and the government's finances are on the verge of collapse, not to mention that a large number of soldiers are killed every day, and we simply cannot bear such large casualties. ”

"Enough!" Ilvolod rudely interrupted the Minister of War's words and said sharply, "Don't say anything, this time I will go to the front line in person, immediately order, gather the army, I will lead more than 80,000 reinforcements to set off to prepare for another siege battle, I will drive the expedition in person, the Tsar Guard will act as the vanguard, rush to the front of all the armies, and fight to the death with the people of the Ming Empire." ”

An airship observer in Yekaterinburg reported to Zhang Songsong, deputy commander of the Beijing Military Region and commander of the First Army, Cai Shiding, commander of the First Army and First Division, and Zhang Songsong, commander of the Second Division of the First Army: "According to our reconnaissance, during the first offensive operation, the Russian army had at least six group armies totaling more than 900,000 people, including six cavalry corps totaling more than 120,000 cavalry. In the third and fifth offensive operations that followed, reinforcements were mobilized in two batches from the rear, with about 80,000 troops in one group army. The Russian army has been engaged in battle with our army for six months, and it is conservatively estimated that the casualties should be more than 180,000, and the five cavalry corps with the most complete formation were transferred to reinforce the northern and southern fronts three days ago, and the current strength of the Russian army assembled on the periphery of Yekaterinburg should be around 800,000. ”

The words of the airship observer fell, and the chief of staff of the second division on the other side also continued: "As for the grain and grass of the Russian army, because the road from Yekaterinburg to the hinterland of Russia is in good condition, there will be no problem with the supply of grain and grass for the Russian army before the arrival of winter rain and snow. ”

Zhang Songsong nodded and said: "In this way, the Russian army still occupies an overwhelming advantage in terms of strength, and there is no problem with the supply of grain and grass for the Russian army, the only factor that may prompt the withdrawal of the Russian army is the instability of the north and south fronts. ”

Cai Shiding, commander of the first division, continued: "The problem now is that the defeat and retreat of the Russian army on the north and south fronts has become a fact, and the remaining four main divisions of our Beijing Military Region are also massing on a large scale in the direction of the breakthrough. The situation is very obvious, although the Russian army has sent reinforcements from five cavalry corps to the north and south, it is by no means pinning its hopes on these five cavalry corps to turn the situation around and turn defeat into victory, but only to delay the offensive of our cavalry corps and ensure the passage of its central front retreat. ”

Zhang Songsong, the commander of the second division, said: "What Division Commander Zhang said is extremely true, I am afraid that the retreat of the Russian Central Front is inevitable, but it is a pity that our army is insufficient and it is difficult to divide troops to block it. The chief of staff of the first division clapped his hands and sighed: "Even if there are troops to be divided, there is no ideal blocking position, and this blocking and extermination order from the headquarters is really embarrassing." ”

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about, there are not enough conditions to retain the Russian Central Front, so we can create conditions!" Zhang Songsong pointed to the map and said with a smile, "Look, the current situation is that the Chinese and Russian armies are in a stalemate, the northern, central and southern three lines are staggered and chaotic, on the whole, our army has an advantage on the north and south fronts, and our army is in a defensive posture on the middle line, the key to the victory or defeat of the battle lies in which side breaks through the weak side of the other side first, once the north and south lines of the Russian army collapse first, the Russian army will fall into passivity on the whole front, the same reason, if our army loses first in the middle, our army will also be in a desperate situation, not to mention advancing deep into the Russian hinterland, In a chain reaction, even Central Asia and Siberia will be lost. ”

Cai Shiding heard the song and knew the meaning of the strings, and lost his voice: "Listen to what you mean, do you have to put on the illusion that my Yekaterinburg front army is exhausted, and induce the Russian Central Front to strengthen the offensive, with the intention of getting lucky?" ”

Zhang Songsong stroked his palms and smiled: "That's exactly what it means!" Brother Cai, if you are the Tsar, this time you have a million troops, and you are almost pouring the strength of the country into a decisive battle with our army, you don't want the Russian army to win a complete victory? No, it is impossible! The Russian Grand Duke Ilvolod wanted the Russian army to win more than anyone else, but he was not willing to give up any chance of victory. ”

Cai Shiding nodded, and then frowned: "But the question is, how to create the illusion that our army is exhausted?" It is necessary to act realistically enough, but also to avoid acting fake and true, this scale is only difficult to grasp. ”

Zhang Songsong, the commander of the second division, said: "That is a purely tactical problem, and there are many options for our army to choose from, such as abandoning the defensive position in a certain direction of Yekaterinburg, putting the Russian army into Yekaterinburg to fight with it in the streets, or sending a small force to take the initiative to break through, creating the illusion that our department is unsustainable and seeking to break through, etc." ”

Li Long frowned, his expression was heavy, and he said to Liu Guotao, Minister of Finance: "In this way, the army's military expenditure has seriously exceeded the standard, and it has even affected the construction of new warships in the navy?" ”

Liu Guotao spread his hands and said: "This is also a matter of no way, in the past two years, there have been vicious battles with various places, and now the various fronts are getting longer and longer, and even the Russian battlefield has extended to the west of the Ural Mountains, and the cost of transporting logistics materials from the rear to the front line is very expensive!" In terms of individual food and ammunition, an ordinary infantryman's salary on the front line plus the cost of food for basic living plus transportation costs is about half a silver coin per person per day, which is five cents, and if you fight, plus the cost of ammunition and freight, the regular army will spend at least one and a half silver coins per person per day, and even if the coercion army does not have many firearms, it will cost an average of six to eight cents, so that we have more than 40 main divisions, nearly one million regular troops and 2.3 million coercion troops. The daily military expenditure required in non-war times is nearly 1.65 million silver coins, and in wartime it reaches nearly 3 million silver coins, which is 600 million or 700 million silver dollars in a year! My Commander-in-Chief, that's not a small amount! Last year, military spending accounted for 80 percent of the government's budget, and this year it will be far exceeded. ”

Hearing such an exaggerated figure, Li Long frowned and said, "Speaking of which, the problem is already quite serious. ”

Liu Guotao said helplessly: "If the problem is not serious, I will not come to you, if it is really tens of millions, how can the Ministry of Finance make up it, after all, the army just plunders property and population, there are tens of millions of silver coins in income, but hundreds of millions of accounts, brother, I really can't do anything." ”

Li Long said: "Let me think about it?????? What is the situation of the domestic labor market? Is there a big demand? ”

Liu Guotao said: "There is a general shortage in the labor market, due to the influx of a large number of sweat-sweated laborers, people with a little money have set up factories and mines in various places, under the general situation of China's vigorous economic development, these small factories and small mines have expanded rapidly after the primitive accumulation in recent years, and now they need more sweat-sweated laborers." Coupled with the labor shortage in government departments and public mines, as well as the construction of roads and highways, as well as the labor shortage in Southeast Asia, it is conservatively estimated that the current labor shortage in the whole country is more than 500,000. ”

Li Long said with some disappointment: "Damn, the labor gap is only so little? It seems necessary to widen the labor gap. ”

"What, to widen the labor gap?" Liu Guotao lost his voice and said, "That will undermine the stability of the labor trade, and make many illegal elements take the risk and sell the natives, Koreans, and Japanese people of Southeast Asia that we have occupied into the interior!" According to the statistics of the National Police Department, as of the end of last month, the number of illegal labor cases has increased by more than 30 times compared to last year, and now there are 7 million slave laborers in our empire. ”

Li Long said: "Crime is not a problem, all I need is a huge labor shortage, only in this way can I raise enough military funds in a short period of time, which can not only ensure the operation of the army, but also maintain the construction of the navy." ”

Ignoring Liu Guotao's stunned expression, Li Long said thoughtfully: "It seems that it is necessary to launch a resettlement land policy!" Those big landlords and old fortunes in China have a very deep land complex, and we have always been haunted by the large amount of land we originally purchased from them. Hehe, the assets owned by these landlords and old fortunes are a huge treasury, and if they are done well, they can greatly stimulate the domestic labor trade. ”

Liu Guotao said with a wry smile: "Your idea is certainly good, and there are indeed not a few funds owned by the big businessmen and old fortunes in China, according to the statistics of the central bank, the dead money of these landlords and old fortunes in major banks is billions of yuan, but the problem is that all the land in China has been leased to the landless farmers, where to find so much land to sell?" ”

"No land?" Li Long looked at Liu Guotao with the eyes of an idiot, "Joke! The army has fought vicious battles in the past few years, but has it been in vain? The Far East and Siberia add up to at least 10 million square kilometers! With so much unclaimed wasteland, how can it be said that there is no land? Even if the Ming army and their families occupy a lot of land, they still occupy a small amount of land at most, and there are many more places that they do not occupy."

Liu Guotao slapped his forehead and said, "Yes, why didn't I think of this layer?" ”

But immediately, Liu Guotao frowned again and said: "But these landlords and old wealth have a very strong sense of locality, unlike those Ming troops who are desperate for money, I am afraid it is not easy for them to uproot themselves in the wild Far East and Siberia." ”

Li Longyin smiled: "Hehe, it depends on whether the land price we give is attractive enough!" For these stubborn old rich people who regard land as their life, the temptation of land is fatal! Even if they are far away, they can't resist the temptation to own a lot of land. ”

Liu Guotao said with a smile: "The commander is the commander, it is worthy of teaching us to play the economy, these old stubborn minds have been touched by you, and it seems that it is only a matter of time before you empty your money bag." ”

Li Long said: "Then again, this is also a win-win or even a win-win situation!" You think, if immigration ends up in the climate, the treasury will certainly have access to a large amount of money in a short period of time, and these landlords and old fortunes will also own the large tracts of land of their dreams, even more than their ancestors once owned! Moreover, the influx of these landlords' old wealth and the necessary large number of laborers will quickly make these wild lands prosperous, which can really be described as killing three birds with one stone. ”

Liu Guotao suddenly realized and shouted: "I understand, speaking of which, Commander-in-Chief, your purpose is to expand the labor gap!" You're really yin enough, selling land cheaply is just a bait, the real killer is still to come, taking advantage of the massive shortage of labor and the opportunity to definitely increase the price is your real purpose, right? ”

Liu Guotao said with a smile: "But this is not a bad thing, although the landlords and old fortunes have to spend a lot of money in order to hire enough labor, but those cheap sweat-earned workers can also create ten times the return for them!" If you think about it, it's not just the country that will profit in the end, the population looted from Russia can be sold for a good price, and then I am encouraging the Ming Army to sell the right to use the land for the remaining few years to the landlords and old fortunes at a low price, I think they want it. ”

Liu Guotao's expression became solemn and said: "The commander-in-chief's idea is indeed exciting, but we also have a lot of work to do. Once the wave of emigration is formed, with the influx of landlords and a large number of laborers, large estates will inevitably appear in the Far East and Siberia, and it will be a question of what these estates produce! How to transport and sell the crops produced is another problem, as well as labor management and local security! In addition, the problem of weapons in the hands of the pioneers who have begun to close down must be solved, and I am afraid that dealing with these problems will not be able to be completed in three or five years. ”

Li Long said: "These problems are not the main problems, there are many crops that can be planted, including grain, cotton, medicinal materials, etc., you can even plant trees, you can also graze, as for transportation, just build a few roads, the Far East and Siberia are mostly plains, building roads is not a problem, selling is simpler, easy to use for domestic sales, domestic sales can not be exported to overseas." In short, these are all things that the agricultural sector, the transportation sector, and the foreign trade sector are considering, and they have nothing to do with me. I have only one thing to consider, which is to develop the wild land on the frontier and greatly enrich the treasury, and we must do it for the sake of the treasury and military expenses. ”

Liu Guotao rolled his eyes and sighed: "Has the commander-in-chief calculated, if your idea is really put into practice, how much money can be raised?" ”

Li Long shook his head and said, "I'm not an immortal, how can I calculate it?" Naturally, this has not been counted

Liu Guotao casually took out a small gold abacus from his pocket, pulled out the abacus and calculated. "In the Far East, the Siberian region and the sparsely populated Mongolian steppe, the ownerless land is more than 10 million square kilometers, excluding forests, deserts, mountains, uncultivable tundra and the areas occupied by the Ming army, the grasslands and land that can be reclaimed and used now are more than 2 million square kilometers, that is, more than 1.2 billion acres of land, by the way, how much do you plan to sell for an acre of land, commander-in-chief?"

Li Long said: "I sold it at a loss, a silver coin is 1 acre!" ”

Liu Guotao shouted: "God, it's so cheap! Those landlords and old fortunes are unhappy? But even at this price, the sale of land can raise a huge amount of more than 1.2 billion silver coins! ”

"More than 1.2 billion silver coins? Not much. Li Long said, "But it's a lot, almost enough for the army to last five or six years." In fact, Li Long also knows that Liu Guotao's guy is a bit of a false account, because the army can still raise a certain amount of food and materials in the local area, so the actual use of the army is much less than what he reported, so much money is enough for all the expenses of the army for three months, and if there is a war, it will be less, and it may be able to spend four months.

Liu Guotao said: "My God, a silver coin 1 acre? The price is so tempting! Some big landowners have saved tens of millions, so won't they be able to buy a country? ”

Li Long said: "As long as they have money, they can buy as much as they want, and the government will never restrict it, but there is one rule, the forest is not sold, and the underground mineral resources are not sold!" Only sell land suitable for farming! Moreover, the right of use is theirs, the ownership is the state, and the state reserves the right to forcibly buy back at three times the price. ”

Liu Guotao quickly pulled out the abacus and continued to calculate: "Under normal circumstances, a laborer can be responsible for the cultivation of about 10 acres of land, and 120 million laborers are needed for 1.2 billion acres of land...... Wow, there is no way to calculate this account, 120 million laborers, where to find it? It's impossible, and it's outrageous that such a big gap. ”

Li Long smiled: "You have a problem with this algorithm, not all land needs so many laborers, such as grassland, an average of tens of thousands of acres of land only need one laborer!" Moreover, once it is a rough planting on a large farm, it is possible for several people to be responsible for hundreds of acres of land, and the gap of 120 million people is a bit exaggerated, and the gap of several million should still be normal. However, it is not immediately necessary to have millions of laborers, the development of the frontier areas needs a process, a process of gradual prosperity, if the gap of millions of workers is spread over ten years, then the annual shortage is only a few hundred thousand, right? However, when the time limit for the use of land by the Ming army is up, we will have more land to sell. As for labor, don't European countries have populations, and we can use them."

Liu Guotao couldn't help but give Li Long a thumbs up, and sighed: "Hey, I'm convinced, my little brother is convinced, you can think of such a bad move, there are still things you can't do in this world?" is worthy of being a big capitalist, more than a billion debts can be cleared, commander-in-chief, after you pay off your debts, usury, loans, loans, etc., you have earned a lot now, can you privately sponsor me to spend some money? ”

Li Long smirked: "Why else am I the commander-in-chief, and you are only the Minister of Finance?" Say how much? ”

"Give a few hundred million flowers."

After that, the government of the Ming Empire began to encourage immigration to the Far East, Mongolia, Siberia and other regions throughout the country. The Government has also set up a Immigration Bureau for this purpose, which is responsible for the immigration of the population in the country. Wu Weiye of the Ministry of Land and Resources announced that the state will sell a large number of ownerless land in the Far East, Mongolia and Siberia at an ultra-low price of 1 silver coin per mu! The only restriction is that the minimum purchase area must be more than 100,000 mu.

Generally speaking, the Far East has the highest land prices due to its convenient transportation, followed by the Mongolian steppe, and the cheapest in Siberia. For ordinary wage earners and farmers, the minimum purchase area of 100,000 mu is an astronomical amount. In fact, there is a hidden trick of Li Long!

The minimum purchase area of 100,000 mu restricts the possibility of the vast number of ordinary people in the interior pouring into these areas to seek a living, which not only puts an end to the possibility of large landowners who have the financial resources to buy a large area of land to hire people from the country, but also ensures that the interior retains sufficient labor force for the employment of major factories and mining enterprises! In order for large landowners to reclaim their land into estates and continue to operate, they had to pay high prices to buy sweat-earned slave labor from the labor market that had no human rights.

On the day the decree was promulgated, a long queue formed outside the temporary office of the Ministry of Land and Resources, and large landowners living in the capital, Changsha, took the lead in action, and in the following weeks, large landowners from all over the country joined the ranks of rushing to buy cheap land. For these old diehards who have a lot of money and are unwilling to invest it in factory and mine operations, it is a real surprise that the empire sells a large amount of land at such a cheap price! In the face of the temptation of large areas of cheap land, the old diehards dissipated their complaints about the land being forcibly acquired by the empire in an instant, and they sang the praises of the merits of the empire.

Buying land in the Far East, Mongolia or even Siberia is a bit farther, but it doesn't mean they have to live in Siberia! Having purchased land in Siberia, it is possible to hire a reliable housekeeper to manage the business there, and at most employ dozens or hundreds of sweat-earners. The total investment will not be too much, always within hundreds of thousands, but it can leave an inexhaustible source of inherent assets to future generations.

The sale of the Ministry of Land Resources eventually triggered a panic buying frenzy, and in just a few weeks, the first batch of 300 million acres of land launched by the Ministry of Land Resources was snapped up! The panic buying frenzy eventually spilled over into the normally stable labor market. After purchasing land, many large landowners immediately placed orders for labor in the labor market, and within a few years, the gap between the domestic labor market and the slave labor market widened rapidly, and the market price of labor also changed three times a day and rose rapidly.

Ordinary Han Chinese laborers were used as overseers, while slave laborers were used as jobs, and the price of slaves doubled in a month.

On the eastern side of the distant Ural Mountains, Ilvolod stood on the walls of the outer fort of Yekaterinburg with great ambition, and behind him, the ministers and generals sang the praises of merit and virtue, and praised the Grand Duke for his great victory, he could not take Yekaterinburg until he came, and he broke through the outer fort first when he came, and in the midst of the praise, only the Minister of War frowned and looked worried.

Ilvolod noticed Paul's abnormality and couldn't help asking, "What's on your mind?" ”

"Grand Duke......" The Minister of War hesitated again and again, and said stubbornly, "The minister thinks that the rout of the Ming people is very suspicious......"

"Shut up!" The state secretary on one side immediately shouted, "What do you mean? Under the personal command of my wise and powerful Mikhailovich the Great, the heroic Russian army has conquered the outlying fortresses of Yekaterinburg, and seeing that victory is imminent, what is your intention in saying these words that disturb the morale of the army? ”

The Minister of War's expression changed and he was silent. Ilvolod waved his hand and said angrily: "His caution is good, but this time, the rout of the Ming Empire does not look like a fake!" In fact, after more than two months of continuous combat, although our army suffered heavy casualties, the Ming Empire suffered a lot of losses. It's not enough to win. ”

The Minister of War was relieved and said, "What the Grand Duke said is extremely true. Ilvolod nodded heavily:

"The top priority at the moment is to seize the opportunity to expand the results of the battle, completely wipe out the remnants of the stubborn enemy in the inner fort, and at the same time, order the Sixth Cavalry Corps, which is on standby in the rear, to quickly assemble and prepare to advance from the direction of Yekaterinburg to the hinterland of Siberia, and do everything possible to cut off the connection between the northern and southern armies of the Ming Empire."

"At the same time, it is also necessary to inform the armies of the Southern and Northern Fronts that a major counteroffensive of our Central Route Army is imminent, so that they must hold out no matter what," said the Minister of War. Ilvolod nodded and said, "Well, go ahead and do it." ”

On the watchtower of the inner fort of Yekaterinburg, Zhang Songsong put down his binoculars and punched the wall with his fist: "What a godsend!" Cai Shiding looked at Zhang Songsong in confusion, not knowing that he would suddenly become so excited, and asked: "Deputy Commander Zhang Songsong, why are you so happy, everyone is happy to say it." ”

Zhang Songsong stretched out his hand and pointed to the outer fortress wall in the distance and said; "See, the guys?"

"See!" Cai Shiding nodded and said, "Isn't it just a group of senior generals of the Russian army, since the start of the war, we have killed many Russian generals, do you need to be so excited?" I've never eaten a pig, I've always seen a pig run. ”

"Hey, that's no ordinary Russian general!" Zhang Songsong said hesitantly, "If you can't figure it out, there is the Russian Tsar Ilvolod." ”

Cai Shiding's expression moved, and he immediately picked up the telescope to observe carefully, and asked, "How can you see it?" ”

Zhang Songsong said: "Since the beginning of the war, have you ever seen so many senior generals gathered in front of the Russian army? It's a big piece, and there must be dozens of them! Judging from the uniforms, these high-ranking officers must be above the rank of chief and deputy commander of the group army! What does this mean? What does it mean that so many army commanders are gathered together? ”

Cai Shiding's hand holding the telescope trembled suddenly, and even his voice became a little trembling, and he roared in a low voice: "Good girl, after you say this, it seems that this is really the case!" Niang Xipi, what a big fish wow......"

Zhang Songsong's expression was cold, and his voice was as cold as iron: "As long as Ilvolod is killed or captured, the Russian army on the front line will collapse in an instant, and the seemingly huge Russia will not be far from falling apart!" In this way, Commander-in-Chief Lee's land strategic objective in the northwest direction will be fully realized. ”

Cai Shiding took over the topic and said excitedly: "God has given us such an opportunity to garrison the Yekaterinburg Front, how can we easily miss it?" Zhang Songsong said coldly: "Map! ”

A staff officer quickly brought the map and spread it out on the ground in front of Zhang Songsong and the two division commanders. After everyone discussed, Zhang Songsong wanted to send his elite regiment to fight, "Raise soldiers for a thousand days, and use soldiers for a while!" Master Li Hua said: "Deliberately left their regiment until now, the purpose is all about this, it is really called a battle!" ”

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