On the clangling train, Ye Zhao silently looked at the map of East Kazakhstan spread out on the table, and his eyes were fixed on a city called Aleksandsk.

This is a Russian immigration city in northern Kazakhstan, and at the beginning of this year, a railway was opened, and several hundred kilometers from the line of Kurgan and Petrobarovvlovsk of the Trans-Siberian Railway were built to connect this migrant city.

Geographically, Aleksandr should be located near Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on the banks of the Ishim River.

The straight-line distance between Aleksandr and Tianhu City is only more than 1,000 kilometers, and there are only large deserts and swamps separated by inhabited people, but it is only about 3,000 miles from the western nomadic areas to bypass the desert.

The Russians, will Alexandrik be used as a military front? Or did you go south from Orenburg and attack the Chinese territory around Turkestan?

The long border between the two sides makes it almost impossible to predict the direction of the other party's attack and defense when the war breaks out, and even Outer Mongolia, because of its proximity to the Trans-Siberian Railway, faces a huge threat from polar bears.

Ye Zhao frowned and thought deeply.

In the side passage, Gulshayir, who was dressed in bright red like flowers and bones, walked around curiously, looking at everything in the carriage, this was her first time on the train.

Ye Zhao glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, and smiled, if this guy is the most annoying, he is not allowed to touch her since that time, and he also lived in two rooms when he was in Tianhu City, and every time he said that he would sleep with her, she said with a sad face that it still hurts, so that she has no choice.

At this time, the door of the carriage opened, and the waiter came in to deliver hot water, and a newsboy seized the opportunity to follow the waiter and wanted to squeeze in, and then he was grabbed by the neck of the young man in black uniform standing in front of the door of the carriage, and the newsboy waved the newspaper and shouted loudly: "Outside the nickname, the report officer of the Zongren Mansion announced that the emperor will be stationed in the Dihua Palace this spring!" Extra! War broke out between Prussia and France......" The voice faded away, and he was grabbed and dragged away by the guards.

Ye Zhao smiled and said, "Go buy a few newspapers." ”

Gulshayir immediately came to his senses, chased him out like the wind, and shouted in his mouth: "Let go of him, let go of him!" "Her surname, where can she have half a penny to live? I wish there was something new.

In fact, only a skirmish broke out between the Prussian people, and the telegram was received by Ye Zhao yesterday, and from the analysis of intelligence, after Napoleon III's foreign policy was repeatedly hit hard, he also became cautious, even if a war broke out with Prussia, he would not have learned from his uncle in his previous life, and as a result, he surrendered in Serdan. The emperor was directly captured, which led to the establishment of a republic in the country, and at the same time, various contradictions were intertwined, and it was simply impossible to form a unified and powerful political axe against the Prussian invasion, and finally Prussia conquered Paris.

Gul Shayir put a stack of newspapers on Ye Zhao's table, sat down opposite Ye Zhao, yawned, stretched his waist and asked, "Grandpa Emperor, how long will it take?" "It seems that after the novelty of the train ride has passed, it is very boring.

Ye Zhao smiled: "Do you want to give you a horse and run with the train?" ”

Gul Shayir pursed her lips and turned her head to ignore Ye Zhao.

Ye Zhao opened the newsprint by himself, and the front page was the news of his residence in the Dihua Palace, and the press release officer of the Zongren Mansion also mentioned that the emperor intended to make this a routine, and every spring he would spare about a month to be stationed in Dihua and deal with government affairs.

The other newspapers reported the news in a big way, but none dared to comment on it, lest it cause trouble with the wrong intention. Only the official newspaper "China Daily" commented that this move symbolized the emperor's importance to the southwest and the declaration of sovereignty over the territory of the Western Regions, and also declared that the citizens of the empire in all regions were equal and were all subjects of the emperor.

Indeed, the imperial political affairs are gradually on the right track, Ye Zhao has been much more idle, and in the imperial society, as the supreme ruler, the political significance of stationing in the southwest is self-evident, and it will be an unprecedented encouragement for the ethnic groups in the southwest and even the Western Regions to integrate into the Central Plains society.

Moreover, this time the stationing in Didi is even more than just a declaration of political significance.

…… The Dihua station has long been under martial law, and the military and political officials in the northwest have come to greet them.

Northwest General Hariqi, Xinjiang Provincial Governor Bao Yuanshen, Xinjiang Provincial High Court Official Shen Jiaben, Xinjiang Provincial Provincial Council Chief Envoy Ma Kangxing, Dihua Military Region Admiral Xiao Mingdai and so on.

Ye Zhao's place of residence is the Red Mountain Palace.

The Hongshan Palace was built by Harwich for Ye Zhao, and when the construction was built, it was criticized by some Qingliu, thinking that Harwich was looting people's wealth and flattering, but Harwich didn't care at all, and still made the palace complete on schedule.

Although Ye Zhao reprimanded Harwich in his letters, he never publicly criticized Harwich, and seeing that Harwich had the support of the emperor, the voice attacking him gradually died down.

This happened at the beginning of the founding of the country, when Harwich had just recovered the northern region of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang Province.

In fact, there were also ministers who were close to Ye Zhao and said in Ye Zhao's ear, thinking that the emperor should reprimand Harwich for being honest and clean, but Ye Zhao was unmoved, and his reputation did not come from this way.

At this point, Ye Zhao is more appreciative of the Russian Empress Catherine II, the empress who imprisoned her husband Peter III through a coup d'état, is one of the most outstanding rulers in the history of Tsarist Russia, won two brilliant victories in the Russo-Turkish War, opened the outlet to the Black Sea, realized the uncontested cause of successive tsars, and turned the Ottoman Empire, which spanned three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, into the sick man of West Asia.

After defeating Sweden and partitioning Poland, Catherine II once said with great ambition: "If I live to be 200 years old, all of Europe will prostrate at my feet!" ”

Ye Zhao's admiration for her is of course not her crazy conquest**, but her attitude towards loyal courtiers, her husband under house arrest, the former Tsar Peter III, died mysteriously shortly after she launched a bloodless coup, all the evidence indicates that Peter III died in Alexey, Catherina's favorite retainer? At Orlov's hands, many people persuaded Catherine to bring Peter's murderer Orlov to justice, so as to clear her suspicion and leave a good name.

But she didn't do that, didn't have Alexey, who would play a great role in her seizure of the throne for the sake of her fame? Orlov and others died in the political arena. This also seems to reflect the other side of Catherine's surname, that is, she has a manly heart and pride, and she does not despise this kind of behavior at all. Since these people are working for her, she has an obligation to protect them, promote them, and share victory with them.

Ye Zhao naturally has an essential difference in values from this female tsar, but he treats his courtiers in the same way, and it is really boring to gain a good reputation by attacking the prestige of the courtiers who have made great achievements for him.

Harwich has a lot of bad habits, but if he wins the world, he immediately discards them like mustard, which is chilling.

However, Ye Zhao has also done a lot of things privately, since the palace has already started, it is not beautiful to give up halfway, it is to make Harwich reduce the scale, and then through the Zongren Mansion to buy the Hongshan Palace, the silver money is transferred to the provincial treasury of Xinjiang Province, and it is impossible to make all localities follow suit.

The Red Mountain Palace, built according to the Red Mountain in the city of Dihua, is actually a big mansion, Harwich originally intended to circle the entire Red Mountain as a royal garden, after being stopped by Ye Zhao, he built a three-entry deep house at the eastern foot of the Red Mountain, according to Ye Zhao's instructions, there is no royal palace layout, and under the instructions of Ye Zhao's letter, the house is shrinking more and more, and it is no different from the rich mansion when it is completed.

Ye Zhao has never been to this "palace", Harwich is even more discouraged, and gradually, the "palace" around is also favored by the merchants of Middle Earth, one by one deep mansions are built, and slowly a residential area is formed at the eastern foot of Hongshan Mountain, and the "palace" is also a public house.

Before Ye Zhao came to Dihua, he had already made it clear that he wanted to live in the palace that Harwich had built for himself, and Harwich was both frightened and grateful, and soon several houses around the "palace" were rented at high prices, but in fact, they lived in a guard battalion of the royal guards who arrived a day earlier than Ye Zhao from the capital.

Harwich also blocked the area around the Belvedere on the highest peak of the Red Mountain, making people think that the palace of the legendary emperor was between the peaks of the Red Mountain, so that in case of emergency, the two infantry battalions of the Belvedere Barracks could immediately reinforce the palace defense.

Naturally, Harwich had to be foolproof, but in fact he had entered the age of firearms, and in the city, a company of guards was more than enough to handle any challenge, let alone a well-equipped battalion of royal guards.

The two courtyards of the outer residence of the palace were stationed in the government affairs room, the secretary's room, the military coordination group, the intelligence group, and other counselor offices directly under the emperor, and the telegraph line had already been set up, and the signal corps set up a telephone line between the palace and the governor's yamen and the northwest general's yamen in one day, and this was the first time that Bao Yuanshen, the governor of Xinjiang Province, used a telephone in Xinjiang Province.

It's been a long time since I've lived in this kind of folk-style mansion, Ye Zhao is quite fresh, and he has already sent a telegram to call the concubines in Beijing to accompany him, but Rong'er has just returned from the south, so it is not suitable to move lightly, not to mention that Shawa is about to give birth, since she is not there, Rong'er will not leave with confidence; The matchmaker is entangled in military affairs, she must stay in the capital to sit in the Chinese army, Zhu Sisi has her own errands, Jin Feng went to North Korea after the year, she is very good friends with the North Korean concubine, and she also likes to go to North Korea to enjoy the vanity of the queen Taishang; Iori Reedi is in college, and Sava is about to give birth again, counting and counting, and there is only Hanahime left.

For Hua Ji, Ye Zhao has an extremely loving plot, and he also wants to take her out to relax, but just having Hua Ji is obviously not lively enough, so he took a telegram to Jin Feng and asked her to come to Dihua to accompany her.

In fact, Ye Zhao hopes that all the concubines will gather together, and live in the big mansion of the Red Mountain Palace for a while, and the relatively indifferent relationship between some concubines will be thawed, but this wish seems to be realized only in the coming year.

Of course, Ye Zhao didn't forget to send a telegram to Sava alone, and praised her very much, she has the third child, and she is the most fertile wife.

At noon, Ye Zhao held a small banquet in the restaurant of the former house, and five civil and military generals, Harwich, Bao Yuanshen, Shen Jiaben, Ma Kangxing, and Xiao Mingdai, were summoned.

After the banquet, Harwich stayed, sitting outside at the stone table and sipping tea, looking at Harwich's sideburns and white hair, Ye Zhao sighed with emotion: "We are all old." "Counting his age, Harwich is already a man of the sixtieth birthday.

The bamboo shadow is swaying, and the small courtyard is extremely elegant.

Harwich said with a smile: "The master has a long life, but he is a minion, and he has become more and more incapable of physical strength recently, and after this battle with Lao Maozi, the slave should also unload his armor and return to the field and enjoy the joy of the countryside." ”

Ye Zhao shook his head, tasted the tea, and after a while, said: "I will send you a word, 'The bamboo dies and does not change, and the flowers have a lingering fragrance.'" ’”

Harwich sighed softly and said, "The master understands the slave, but outsiders may not understand the master. ”

Ye Zhao said lightly: "Why bother what others think? ”

Zhao Sanbao, Harwich, and Han Jinchun, each town, have been seven or eight ** years in a flash, and there are many people who are blowing wind in Ye Zhao's ears, some propose to release the military power with a glass of wine, and some suggest that the three of them be transferred to each other, so as not to form a pattern of the three feudal domains of the king of the northwest, the northeast, and the southwest, but Ye Zhao has been unmoved. In fact, not to mention the friendship with the three of them over the years, it is the establishment of the emperor's [***] team and the education of loyalty to the monarch and the country, and it is difficult to have a situation of self-respect in the army, not to mention that everyone in the army knows that now it is not as good as before, and a team of tens of thousands of people can dance a knife and a gun to become a king, and now it is the rebellion of the entire group army, and it is difficult to escape the end of instant destruction.

Not to mention that the national strength of the empire is booming, even the rebel groups such as the Fairness Party are also shrinking, and there is no soil for the germination of rebel ideas.

It's just that some Wenchen likes to discuss the past and the present, and they are used to thinking blindly.

Of course, these three important ministers will definitely move, and in any case, entrenching in one place for too long will also have negative effects, such as mountaineering, or the struggle for the heir after the sudden death of the emperor, which are all unstable factors.

Tasting tea, Ye Zhao looked at the pagoda on the Red Mountain in the distance, the legend is that the Red Mountain is a red dragon flying from the Tianchi, which turned into a mountain rock on the ground, but still restlessly and slowly climbed towards the Maya Rik Mountain, if the two mountains once combined, the Dihua River was blocked, and the city would turn into a Wang Yang Ze country. As a result, Shang'an, the former Dihua capital, ordered to build a ninth-level blue brick "Zhenlong Pagoda" on each of the two "dragons".

"You, just sat on the grandfather of the country and wanted to pick a child?" Ye Zhao smiled and patted Harwich on the shoulder, and said, "Let's go, go around, I haven't looked carefully at the house you helped me build." "The year before last, Harwich was promoted to the third rank of the loyal Rui Duke.

Harwich hurriedly stood up, and when he heard the emperor talk about the house, he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed, and said: "In the end, the emperor broke his fortune, and the slave was really embarrassed." ”

Ye Zhao laughed and left first, and Harwich hurriedly followed.

"Xinggong" the first and second into the courtyard, each courtyard has six main halls, there are three wings on both sides, a total of 24 rooms, the third into the courtyard hall looks like three, in fact, there are five rooms inside, it is the structure of three bright and five dark, the whole courtyard is designed strictly, the construction is exquisite, the carved beams and painted columns, the style is extraordinary.

"Ding", a feathered arrow was nailed into the weeping willow trunk with full force, and the tail of the arrow trembled slightly, but it was Gulshayir who was stretching his bow in the backyard.

Seeing Ye Zhao and Harwich coming in, Gulshayir stuck out her tongue, pulled out her feather arrow, and ran to the inner room with a smoke, afraid that Ye Zhao would scold her.

Ye Zhao shook his head helplessly, Harwich was about to step forward to salute, but he was stunned at this time, and said: "Niangniang is brave, and the imperial concubine Niangniang has added a powerful arm." ”

Ye Zhao laughed, and said in his heart that this barbarian girl was afraid that she would get into trouble.

"Pachinko room?" Ye Zhao was stunned to find that there was a billiard table in the third wing room on the east side, Harwich didn't dare to speak, he heard that there was a pachinko table in the forbidden palace, but he didn't know if the emperor was happy about his move.

Ye Zhao smiled: "You are careful. Harwich breathed a sigh of relief.

After pacing two steps in the pachinko room, Ye Zhao said: "Someone suggested that if you wait for Tsarist Russia to declare war, then its preparations are sufficient, and our army will fall into a bitter battle, what do you think?" ”

Some generals in the army proposed to gather heavy troops to Tianhu City, attack Alexandria in the north, use Alexandrik as a stronghold, attack north, and defeat the main force of Tsarist Russia in a blitzkrieg.

Indeed, compared with Tsarist Russia, the Chinese [***] team has a stronger deployment ability, and can assemble in Tianhu City in a short period of time, taking advantage of the fact that the main force of Tsarist Russia is still on the Polish, Balkan, and Ottoman borders, and catch him off guard.

Hearing Ye Zhao's question, Harwich said: "The minions have also thought about this matter a long time ago, and it is better to take the initiative to attack passively and wait for the battle." ”

Ye Zhao shook his head, paced silently, and after a while, said, "British, don't be on guard!" ”

Harwich said: "The master's navy may not be afraid of it. ”

Ye Zhao patted Harwich on the shoulder and said, "Many dynasties declined at their peak, do you know why?" Blind arrogance, unable to face up to their own strength. ”

With the completion of the second Regent-class battleship, coupled with the new addition of various ironclad ships in the navy, and the further maturity of rapid-fire gun technology, many admirals believed that the empire no longer had to be afraid of the threat of the British, not to mention that in Chinese waters, even if it broke out of Malacca and entered the Indian Ocean, it was enough to compete with the British fleet.

"It's normal that there are strong and weak countries, and it's normal to have countries that are stronger than us today, and many times, courage is not a weapon. I am not afraid of a war with the British, but first of all, I ask, what is the war? Is the cost of this war worth it. ”

"Maximizing benefits at the lowest cost is the way to survive in international politics."

Harwich listened silently and bowed his head slowly.

Ye Zhao smiled again as he spoke, and said, "Come, I'll show you something." He took out a piece of paper from his sleeve and handed it to Harwich, saying, "Burn it if you see it." ”

Harwich hurriedly took it with both hands, only glanced at it, his pupils narrowed suddenly, and said, "This, this ......"

Ye Zhao smiled and said, "Even Lei Chong doesn't know. ”

Harwich stayed for a while, and said sincerely: "Master, you really have unpredictable opportunities, no, you are a living immortal, and the slave really doesn't know what to say." ”

Ye Zhao smiled and said, "Come on." With a gesture, Harwich understood, and hurried to the ledge oil lamp, got a match, and lit the fire to burn the paper.

(To be continued)