Fei Ruhe and Zhang Tieniu quietly left Nanjing.

Fei Ruhe went to Shaanxi to control the troops in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Monan. Zhang Tieniu went to Hebei and commanded the troops in Hebei, Liaoning and Modong.

They had nearly a year to mobilize troops, recruit people, and coordinate supplies. Local officials must cooperate. The Datong Bank, the Datong Navy, and the Southern Maritime Merchants would also transport overseas grain for them.

In addition, Li Zheng's Andong Protectorate will also cooperate in the battle.

Fei Ruhe's Western Route Army is expected to send 80,000 troops, including 30,000 infantry and 50,000 cavalry (including Mongolian cavalry). In addition, there are 150,000 people and 300,000 mules and horses.

Zhang Tieniu's middle route army is expected to send 100,000 troops, including 40,000 infantry and 60,000 cavalry (including Mongolian cavalry). In addition, there are 180,000 people and 300,000 mules and horses.

Li Zheng's Eastern Route Army is expected to send 6,000 troops to take Nebuchu along the Heilongjiang River and Shilka River, and occupy the confluence of the Shilka River, Yinguoda River, and Onen River, so as to prevent the enemy in the Hulunbuir grassland from fleeing north. If you have the strength and time to spare, attack the Cossacks and recover the Baikal region!

In this battle, the military cost was at least 40 million taels of silver, not to mention so many mules and horses, and hundreds of thousands of people also had to pay salaries!

If the operation goes smoothly and takes a short time, it may be 30 million taels that can be done.

……

While China was preparing for war, the Russian mission had already returned to Moscow.

Tsar Alexei I was facing various dilemmas, or rather, they were constantly facing dilemmas.

At the beginning of his ascension to the throne, he was controlled by the powerful minister Morozov, and was forced to make a brother-in-law with this powerful minister.

The ministers raised the salt tax higher than the price of salt, and abolished the salaries of blacksmiths, carpenters, archers, and city clerks, so that these people did not take a salary to work for the government. Then, the shooting military tax and the post tax were recovered.

A series of riots eventually led to an uprising among the citizens of Moscow, in which artisans, merchants, soldiers, and nobles joined forces to rebel.

Many of the powerful nobles were killed, and Alexei I took the opportunity to take advantage of the situation and exiled the retainer Molozov to the monastery.

This tsar is finally in power.

He recalled officials who had been exiled by his ministers, exempted them from tax arrears, convened a council of gentlemen, and formulated the Code of Laws. He also reorganized the government institutions, improved the tax system, formed a new army, comprehensively studied European culture, curbed the expansion of the church, founded the first new school in Russian history, and waited for the opportunity to annex eastern Ukraine.

Everything is thriving, but unfortunately the treasury has no money.

And the Ottoman Empire, too, ended the chaotic era of queens and relaunched its offensive against Russia. He fought against the Ottomans on the one hand, Poland and Sweden on the other, and the continuous wars caused Russia to be impoverished.

His daughter Princess Sophia, who is Wei Xiaobao's lover, is three years old this year.

As for his son, Peter the Great, he has not yet been born.

The leader of the mission, Bayikov, met the Tsar in the royal palace, and next to him stood the virtuous minister Holguin Nashokin.

Nashogin was a powerful prime minister, fluent in mathematics, Latin, German and Polish, and had long dealings with Western European countries. He felt that Russia was too backward and had to study carefully, even from the enemy.

Later, Peter the Great was able to succeed in reform, which was inseparable from the solid foundation laid by Nashokin.

Bayikov, who returned from Nanjing, knelt down and bowed to the tsar and the prime minister: "Your Majesty, the capital of the Khitan is not in Khan Bali (Beijing), and it has been moved to a big city called Nanjing. ”

"Where is Nanjing?" Alexei I asked.

Bayikov took out the map he got from China, and it was still the civilian version, without marking mountains and rivers. He was allowed to come to the Tsar, pointed to the map and said: "Your Majesty, Nanjing is here." ”

The Tsar and the Prime Minister looked around the map for a while.

Bayikov said: "Twenty years ago, the Khitan state fell into civil strife, and the emperor committed suicide in Khan Bali. The current Khitan emperor is called Zhao Han, and he raised troops from here (Jiangxi), defeated all the enemies, and established a Khitan dynasty called 'Datong'. Then, the territory was frantically expanded, and the Khitan territory was unprecedentedly huge. ”

Prime Minister Nashokin asked: "Are there so many vassal states and territories overseas?" I'm afraid that the fiscal expansion like this will not be able to bear it. ”

"On the contrary, the emerging Khitan Datong Dynasty is the richest country I have ever seen, with a treasury of silver coins that will not be used up for a hundred years," Baykov said. Moreover, the lives of the Khitan people were not affected by the war. I could not find even a single beggar in Nanjing, and even the most humble slave lived better than the Moscow craftsmen. ”

"How is this possible?" Nashokin was shocked, he couldn't understand it at all.

Alexei I asked: "How did the Khitan emperor do it?" ”

Baykov said: "There are very many Khitans, and there are more than a million people in Nanjing alone, and there are more than 10 such cities (bragging). And in large cities with hundreds of thousands of people, there are nearly 100. Although the Khitan population was large, it did not levy a poll tax, but only collected land tax and industrial and commercial tax. Silver from all European countries is flowing into the Khitan, because the Khitan is rich in silk, porcelain and spices. ”

Nashokin muttered to himself: "What kind of powerful country is this? ”

Bayikov said: "The Netherlands have been driven out of the Far East by the Khitans, and I have heard that they have been defeated many times, and they are completely powerless to fight back. And the powerful Spain was also defeated by the Khitan, and more than half of Spain's colonies in the Far East were annexed by the Khitan. ”

Nashokin was stupid.

Because the Dutch navy was very strong, Russian furs were also sold through Dutch merchants. The Russian prime minister, who has great respect for the Netherlands, is currently hiring the Dutch to build the Russian navy - the capital ship is a three-masted sailing ship, and the rest of the warships are all small gunboats, and the naval regulations are all copied from the Netherlands.

"The powerful Dutch Navy was beaten to the point that it had no ability to fight back?" Nashokin was incredulous.

Baykov said: "When I returned to China, I saw a dense crowd of Khitan merchant ships in a port called Shanghai, and there are countless such ports. If the Khitan Emperor wanted to fight, he could call up thousands of merchant ships to fight at any time. Moreover, I met the British prince in Nanjing. The exiled British prince married his sister to the Khitan crown prince. I also met with envoys from France, Persia, and many other countries, all of whom were sent by the king to Nanjing to meet the Khitan Emperor. ”

Nashokin asked, "With such a vast land as Khitan, is there no rebellion of noble lords?" Perhaps, we can provoke Khitan civil strife. ”

Baykov said: "Although the Khitan had nobles, there were no lords who controlled the land. The emperor has unlimited powers, and there is a parliament (cabinet) under the emperor. The Speaker and the Parliamentarians assisted the Emperor in ruling the country, and under the Parliament, there were various ministries such as military and taxation. They made the country a number of governors (provinces), and the governors were appointed and dismissed by the emperor, and each governor had a term of office, at which time he had to be transferred elsewhere. All the generals also obeyed the emperor. ”

Alexei I said: "The general obeys the orders of the emperor, then it is necessary to maintain a large standing army." How many standing armies did the Khitan have? ”

"There are hundreds of thousands of standing troops (regular divisions) of the first level, hundreds of thousands of standing troops (patrol troops) of the second level, hundreds of thousands of standing troops (police forces) of the third level, and millions of reserve troops (peasants and soldiers)," Baykov said. ”

The Tsar and the Prime Minister looked at each other.

Nashokin became more and more puzzled: "How many people are there in Khitan?" And what about millions of reserves? ”

"The Khitan population has long been in the hundreds of millions," Baykov said, "and as for the millions of reservists, all of them are peasants. The Khitan Emperor was originally just a commoner, he led the peasants to launch a rebellion, and distributed all the land of the nobles and landlords to the peasants for cultivation without compensation. Therefore, all the peasants supported him and were willing to serve as a reserve for him free of charge, and to conduct military training when he was not farming. ”

"He gave all the land to the peasants?" Alexey was dumbfounded.

In Tsarist Russia, where more than 90% of the population is serfs, this shocking news is even more terrifying than China's millions of troops.

Nashokin asked, "Isn't there any more serfs in the Khitan?" ”

Bayikov nodded: "Yes, not only are there no serfs, but there are no other slaves. The Khitan Emperor was a philosopher who believed that all men are created equal and that no one is superior to the other. Even the workers who dig dung are equal to the emperor in personality. Therefore, his title is the First Emperor of the People's Republic of China, which translates to the Emperor of the Peasants. ”

"Isn't there anyone against him?" Alexei asked, "He gave the land to the peasants, but who would be the officials?" How can such a large empire find enough literate talents? ”

Bayikov said: "Those who opposed him were either killed or exiled. As for the literate, this is what the Khitan lacks the most. Even Khitan peasants, boys and girls, had free access to school. The Khitan had a system of imperial examinations, in which officials were selected and appointed according to their talents and morals. Even the descendants of the nobility had to take the imperial examinations and could not be directly conferred official positions. ”

The Russian monarchs and ministers were so confused that they could not understand, or even imagine, such a system.

Bayikov continued: "Therefore, the Khitan officials are all people with excellent knowledge and moral character. Few Khitan officials were corrupt, and if they heard that they had embezzled a few hundred copper coins, they would be exiled. There is a Khitan proverb that if an official cannot work for the welfare of the people, he should resign and go home to plant sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are a root food from the Americas. So the Khitan commoners, loved and respected their officials and emperors. The last Khitan emperor committed suicide because the tax was too heavy and the capital was broken by the peasant army. ”

When Nashokin advocated learning from foreign countries and from his enemies, he said: "Your Majesty, please send another mission to the Khitan, and send some excellent young men there." Only by learning from the Khitan can Russia become strong. One percent of the Khitans would be enough for us to beat Poland, Sweden and the Ottomans. ”

Alexey I was as good as a stream, and said: "This matter will be arranged by you." ”

Alexei used to envy the French king, but now he began to envy the Khitan emperor again, and even a trace of admiration welled up in his psychology: "You tell me more news about the Khitan emperor." ”

Bayikov held a book: "This is the "King of Kings - Biography of the Khitan Emperor" written by the French envoy, and I have copied a copy in Latin. ”

(End of chapter)