"Bell... Clang... Bell ......"

"Put!"

"Bang bang bang!"

At the end of June, with the ringing of the port bell and the sound of the deputies' welcome salute, Quang Binh County, Kunlun Prefecture, the Southern Kunlun Inspectorate, also ushered in the third huge fleet to the Western Ocean.

On the port, Yan Yinshao, the prefect of East Kunlun, led a thousand Ming troops stationed in Guangping County to welcome the Western fleet.

"With such a huge fleet, it's almost the same as saying that it is a fleet to destroy the country, and His Royal Highness actually said that it was used to promote the prestige of the country, which is really ......"

A Ming army garrison beside Yan Yinshao couldn't help but speak, and Yan Yinshao himself stroked his short beard:

"It is rumored that the Tianjin shipyard is developing a steam warship that can walk without the need for wind."

"If this kind of warship can be launched, the time to return to Beijing from here will be shortened to three months."

"Walking without wind? Is this possible? The garrison was a little surprised, and Yan Yinshao also bowed slightly:

"It shouldn't be a problem, after all, there are already trains in operation in the country, and trains can be used without the help of animal power, so the same should be true for steam warships."

Yan Yinshao and the others said, and at this time, the huge fleet also stopped in the sea area outside the port of Guangping County.

Since the port of Quang Binh County could only accommodate less than 100,000 tons, the Lower Western Fleet sent 30 supply ships of 9,000 materials to the port for replenishment.

Huang Fei and Xu Xiake, as well as more than 2,000 craftsmen and more than 5,000 immigrants who migrated from the ship.

When the ship entered the harbor, the ladder was lowered, and the immigrants and craftsmen, as well as some Ming soldiers, disembarked one after another.

Xu Xiake and Huang Fei disembarked under the escort of the Ming army, and Yan Yinshao stepped forward to greet them when they saw this.

"Yan Yinshao, the prefect of East Kunlun Mansion, has seen Huang Dudu and Xu Shilang."

"Yan Zhifu ......"

In the face of Yan Yinshao's tricks, Huang Fei and Xu Xiake made a fool of themselves, and they didn't dare to slack off.

Although Yan Yinshao is only a prefect, he is a descendant of Yan Hui and Yan Zhenqing after all, and he is also the leader of the Yanshan faction in the early days.

Although he is only a prefect at the moment, everyone knows that once he is transferred back to the capital to serve as a Beijing official, his future will not be worse than the two of them.

The two of them have a request for Yan Yinshao right now, so naturally they will not be rude to him.

"Governor Yan, this is the supply that the fleet needs, I wonder if Guangping County can make up for it?"

Xu Xiake was in charge of the fleet's diplomacy and logistics, so he handed over the supply book needed by the fleet to Yan Yinshao.

Yan Yinshao took it and looked at it, and also realized how big the scale of the Western Fleet was during this period.

"200,000 stone rice, 600 tons of vegetables, 300 tons of fruits, 8,000 tons of water ......"

He read out the supply needs in the book one by one, and the price of the supplies that needed to be supplied in the entire book reached the price of 120,000 taels of silver.

For such materials, if it is an ordinary county seat, it will naturally be unsatisfied, but it is not difficult for Guangping County.

At present, there are only more than 7,900 soldiers and civilians in Guangping County, but there are as many as 220,000 laborers, and the fields cultivated by the laborers have reached 620,000 mu.

In addition to 300,000 acres of these fields, which are used to grow sweet potatoes, potatoes, jade wheat and other crops to cooperate with the rice used in India to feed the labor reform workers, the remaining 320,000 acres of cultivated land have been planted with rice from the Ming Dynasty.

As for fruits and vegetables, thanks to the climate of East Kunlun Province, although it is necessary to improve the land to cultivate rice and wheat here, it is not necessary to grow fruits and vegetables.

Under the condition of satisfying the food needs of the military and civilians of Guangping County, it is very easy for Guangping County to take out 200,000 stones, rice, wheat and other materials.

"These are not problems, I will order the labor camp to pick and transport them to the port within 10 days."

Yan Yinshao agreed first, and then asked curiously to his old acquaintance Xu Xiake:

"Did Xu Shilang visit Persia and Lu Mi this time?"

"No ......" Xu Xiake showed a regretful expression:

"Before the good season, there were storms in the Mersentin Sea (Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman), the Karapi Sea, and the Western Red Sea, and the visit had to be interrupted."

"Not only did I not be able to visit these two small countries, but I also failed to go to the capital of Rui in the Western Red Sea, and I was able to visit His Royal Highness King Rui."

"The supply of the fleet is insufficient, but fortunately, the development of Gui is good, we immediately went south after a hasty supply in Gui, and worshiped the three highnesses of King Yi, King Zheng and King Min along the way, and the hasty supply can barely reach Guangping County."

"The old man is going to divide the fleet into twelve after going to the Little Western Ocean, and successively fight against Dark Elia, Francza, and Furlong...... Rhodori and other nine countries visited. ”

Compared with the current pattern of hundreds of countries on the European continent, Xu Xiake only pronounced the names of nine countries.

Obviously, in his opinion, there are other countries that are not worth visiting at all.

These nine countries, if translated according to the later titles, are also England, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Poland-Lithuania, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire.

Since Tsarist Russia does not yet have access to the Baltic Sea, it is not on the list to visit, and its national power is not very strong.

"If such a fleet goes to Europe, I am afraid that it will put a stop to the wars that are breaking out in European countries for a while."

After listening to Xu Xiake's words, Yan Yinshao looked into the distance and looked at the huge fleet that was parked at sea.

Xu Xiake smiled slightly, not denying it.

"By the way, I haven't asked Governor Yan yet, what is the current situation of Huai, Tang, and Ji, and can you supply some supplies for the fleet?"

Xu Xiake remembered the matter, after all, the main role of the Southern Kunlun Supervision Envoy was to inspect the Levian domains and grasp the details of the domains.

Normally, Yan Yinshao, as one of the two colleagues of the Supervision Department, should have a better understanding of the situation in various countries.

"Supply ......" Listening to Xu Xiake's inquiry, Yan Yinshao first nodded, and then shook his head again:

"It's not a problem to supply a small amount, but it's not a problem to estimate it if it's too large."

"On the first day of the first month of June, various countries sent people to Kunlun County to send the "Fish Scale Atlas" and the "Yellow Book", and the lower officials also wrote a letter to learn about it."

"At present, the Tang State has the largest amount of cultivated land in the Tang, Kyrgyzstan, and Huai Kingdoms, with more than 5,600 military and civilian people, more than 75,000 labor reformers, and less than 150,000 mu of cultivated land."

"The military and civilian populations of Kyrgyzstan and Huai do not exceed 4,000, and the number of labor campers does not exceed 60,000, and the cultivated land is 120,000 and 134,000 mu respectively."

"With the local yield per mu being less than nine buckets, I am afraid that the supplies that can be brought to the fleet are limited, at most they are supplies for more than ten days."

"In addition, in the northwest of Kyrgyzstan, the country of Achanawo (Gambia), which was originally ruled by the Franji country, was attacked by the fleets of Hongmaoyi and Dark Elia, and suffered heavy losses, and it is estimated that it will not be able to supply the fleet."

"If the fleet wants to replenish, it can only sail five thousand miles in one breath and go to Agadir in the country of Marocco (Morocco) to resupply."

Yan Yinshao brought bad news to Xu Xiake and Huang Fei, that is, the news of the attack on the country of Achana.

The kingdom of Achana was ruled by the Portuguese for nearly a hundred years, and it can be said that it was an important supply point for South Africa to Europe.

Now that he was attacked, he naturally couldn't supply the fleet in the Western Ocean with heavy losses, which meant that Xu Xiake and they had to walk more than 3,000 miles to reach the next supply point.

Such news made Huang Fei and Xu Xiake's faces look very ugly, and the two simply said goodbye to Yan Yinshao, and then began to discuss the issue of supply.

While they were discussing, Yan Yinshao was unhurriedly looking at the fleet that went to the Western Ocean for the third time.

After a long time, Huang Fei and the two discussed the matter.

They were ready to make their final supplies in Changning County, South Kunlun Province, and stockpiled enough supplies to sail to Europe.

Knowing his choice, Yan Yinshao didn't think anything of it, he just turned around and took Huang Fei and Xu Xiake, as well as many generals in the Western Fleet, to visit Guangping County.

Because Yan Yinshao was deeply influenced by the Confucian culture of his family, the three counties of Dongping, Xiangwu and Guangping presided over by him were designed with Chengzhong South Street as the main axis and the bell and drum tower in the center of the street as the highest point.

He built the three counties in strict accordance with the many ritual systems of the "Daming Huidian" and the "Zhou Li", even if the current imperial court did not allow the establishment of a Confucian temple, Yan Yinshao still found a temple that could be erected.

The Chenghuang Temple and the Land Temple are the standard configuration of the three counties of East Kunlun Prefecture, the two temples and the West Street are high, and the county Ya chooses the East Street to be high.

The temple and the Ya one east and one west, symmetrically distributed, expressing Yan Yinshao's desire to "rule together with man and god".

Guangping County covers an area of 9,000 acres, with a total of four main streets, eight small streets, and 72 small lanes, which are intertwined with longitude and weft, and the main and secondary are distinct.

According to the concept of Fang City planned by Zhu Youzhen, Guangping County, which Yan Yinshao presided over the construction, is also lined with shops and storefronts.

The ancient dwellings in the city are lined up one after another, the courtyards are heavy, the central axis of the buildings, shops, buildings and other buildings is strong, symmetrical and rigorous, and the ethical concept of orderliness and respect and inferiority is reflected in the configuration of the houses.

Yan Yinshao and his entourage walked in the city, the buildings in the city are basically made of stone and wood structures connected by cement, and the style is based on the climate, adopting the architectural style of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces.

I have to say that compared with the small Western vassal states, the kind of houses produced by the collision of the local style of the Ming Dynasty and India, Yan Yinshao's Confucian concept makes the style of the Ming Dynasty untouched in the East Kunlun Mansion.

Coming here made Xu Xiake feel like he had returned to his hometown, and even Huang Fei, who likes to pick thorns, has always appreciated it.

However, after traveling a lot, the two also discovered the shortcomings of Quang Binh County.

"There are still too few people on this street."

"yes......"

Xu Xiake's sigh attracted Huang Fei's approval.

In this regard, Yan Yinshao also explained: "Guangping County was originally designed to accommodate 90,000 people, but now there are only more than 7,900 soldiers and civilians here, and 3,000 of them do not live in the city all year round, so it seems a little empty. ”

"In addition to Guangping County, Xiangwu County and Dongping County were also county seats large enough to accommodate 60,000 people at the beginning of the design, but the population was less than 10,000."

"In addition, there are 15 towns scattered between the three counties, but the people are less than 10,000, which can be described as sparsely populated."

"This is not only the case in East Kunlun Mansion, but also in South Kunlun Mansion, so a few days ago, the Wu Supervision Envoy sent a note to the imperial court, hoping that the dynasty can move no less than 200,000 people to live in the two prefectures under the jurisdiction of the South Kunlun Supervision Envoy."

Yan Yinshao said this, but he also knew that this request was difficult to achieve.

The Southern Kunlun Inspectorate, located in the south of Leviya, had to compete not only with the feudal lords of the Lesser Western Ocean, but also with the feudal lords of Levia.

In terms of the aesthetics of the Ming people, the local natives had no other use than to use them as labor reformers.

According to the power of the Ming Dynasty, unless the migration to other places is stopped, there is no strength to move 200,000 people to South Kunlun in one fell swoop.

But even if there are not 200,000 people, it would be good to be able to move 100,000 people.

Since they are far away, they are not afraid that this group of immigrants will flee after migrating.

The current situation is different from the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, in the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yunwen, and Zhu Di kept moving, and the reason why the people kept fleeing was that the world was in ruins waiting to be rebuilt, and there were large tracts of cultivated land everywhere, and there was more land than people.

Even if they fled to other prefectures and counties, local officials would shield them for the sake of political achievements, reporting the escaped immigrants and the fields recultivated by the immigrants as the merits of the increase in population and arable land under their rule.

But now it is different, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, it was ten acres of land to raise one person, and now the territory of the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty is seven acres to raise one person.

In addition, due to the great drought in the world, more than 200 million acres of dry land cannot be cultivated, and the actual situation is that five acres are raised by one person.

Immigrants from all over the world basically start their land when they come, so they don't have to worry about immigrants running away because their lives are not as good as before.

The people who came to the Southern Kunlun Supervision Embassy only endured the loneliness of the first year, and then became accustomed to living in the local area.

Yan Yinshao explained the benefits of the Southern Kunlun Supervision Envoy Division, and Xu Xiake and Huang Fei couldn't help it.

After all, they don't count what they say about immigration, they have to say what King Qi says.

Yan Yinshao could only sigh helplessly when he saw this, and then took Xu Xiake and they continued to visit Guangping County.

While they were wandering around Quang Binh County, more than 15,000 miles away, a densely populated castle appeared on the vast plain.

On this plain with fertile grass and beautiful water, this city with a population of more than 200,000 people is extremely abrupt.

In this Eastern European city, a complex of buildings in different styles such as Byzantium, Baroque, Greek and Roman stands out.

The castle wall composed of this group of buildings is more than 600 zhang long, two zhang thick, nearly five zhang high, and there are eighteen towers on the wall, which are distributed on the triangular palace wall in a staggered manner.

One of the most striking is a tower that is constantly ringing bells.

"Bell...... Clang...... Bell ......"

The melodious sound of the bell caused the entire busy city dweller to stop their movements, and it is clear that this bell should not be there at noon, because it represents the word "urgent".

While the residents were watching, a bearded officer, who was only about five feet tall, with sunken eyes and a large nose, walked through the palace gate.

He walked through the corridor of the city wall and was greeted by a square paved with red stone.

In the square stand three golden-domed cathedrals, and next to them is a palace full of vicissitudes.

The Kremlin, the political highland of the Eastern European Plain, is where today's Romanov Tsars handle state affairs.

Among other exotic buildings, it stands out because it is a palace built entirely in Slavic tradition.

The Romanov dynasty, which was also the most powerful dynasty in the history of the Slavs.

In the past, it was only one of many principalities in Northeast Rus', but in the course of almost a hundred years it turned into a powerful unified state, Tsarist Russia.

After the unification of the country, the power of the Grand Duke of Moscow also changed, and he went from being only the most powerful of the princes in the past to becoming the sole monarch of the whole of Russia.

The other princes served him and became his subjects, and his name changed from Grand Duke to Tsar.

By the 17th year of the Apocalypse, it had survived under the name of Tsarist Russia for 90 years, and its territory had reached a new height in the first month of the 17th year of the Apocalypse.

Its territory extends from the North Sea in the north, the Caucasus Mountains in the south, the upper reaches of the Dnieper River in the west, and the Lena River in the east.

If you don't know the size of its population and army, as well as the country's finances, many people will be bluffed because of its sheer territory.

If this is understood, the true face of this kingdom will be revealed.

The Romanov dynasty, with its vast territory, had a population of less than 10 million, but the dynasty's land system was feudal and large-land.

The land of the entire dynasty was owned by the royal family, the nobility, the church and the state, and the serfs made up more than ninety percent of the population, and the serfs were divided into three categories according to their dependencies:

Serfs on the lands of aristocratic landlords, monasteries, churches were called private serfs, serfs on state land were called state serfs, and serfs attached to the land of the tsar's court were called court serfs.

Serfs were forcibly fixed in the landlord's estate, dependent on the landlord for generations, and the landlord could buy and sell them or give them away.

Serfs received a small piece of land from the landlord and had to perform labor or pay rent for the landlord, in addition to paying various kinds of goods to the landlord.

It is precisely because of this system that it succeeded in bringing the army of Tsarist Russia to more than 100,000 people.

In Europe, a kingdom with a standing army of 20,000 or 30,000 is already a military power, but Tsarist Russia, with an army of more than 100,000, is not strong enough.

With a budget of less than 20 million rubles, it is simply not enough to support these hundreds of thousands of troops.

Of the 50,000 noble cavalry known as the sons of Devo and Poye, 30,000 were actually battle minions, and only those 20,000 were able to put on chain mail.

Excluding them, there were less than 30,000 shooting guards who could be equipped with armor.

As for the Cossack cavalry and the vassals of the various nobles, their equipment was as rudimentary as the guards of the Ming army.

In other words, the entire kingdom can participate in the battle, which can be called elite, in fact, there are only 50,000 people, and the rest are hired and forcibly conscripted rangers.

Even if only such a few elites are cultivated, they still drain the entire kingdom's finances.

In years of war and defeat, the entire kingdom was ravaged by wars, taxes, famines, plagues, Tatar raids, and tsarist policies, with trade plummeting, population dwindling, and towns deserted.

The sharp decline in the population was mainly associated with the flight of citizens, who mostly spontaneously formed expeditions to the eastern part of the Ural Mountains.

When the economic environment of the whole kingdom was not very good, Tsar Mikhail I succeeded to the throne.

He himself has a weak personality, has no independent personality, obeys the words of his mother and the ministers around him, and does not have the willpower of a ruler at all.

Thus, although Mikhail was nominally the tsar, in reality the power was in the hands of the great nobles of the court.

The aristocracy exploited the serfs and burghers, coveted the Baltic Sea to the west, and the financial pressures of the war led them to the citizens who fled east of the Ural Mountains.

Because of the internal turmoil, more and more people are fleeing, and more and more people are going to the East.

After the conquest of the Kazan Khanate and the Siberian Khanate, the stumbling block to the eastward expansion of Tsarist Russia disappeared.

The opponents that Tsarist Russia encountered in North Asia were basically primitive tribes, which were basically conquered by countless expeditions without resistance.

Siberia may not have many deposits that could be mined cheaply, but it had furs that were scarce in Europe at the time.

Many furs were paid as taxes, and by the seventeenth year of the Apocalypse, the Siberian Administrative Region had become the largest source of furs in Tsarist Russia.

Although the profits it provided were not much, they were enough to solve many problems for Tsarist Russia, which was in financial distress.

In the eyes of the great nobles who wielded the true power of the state, the Siberian administration would provide a steady source of money until it was not needed by Tsarist Russia.

However, such illusions were shattered with the entry of a fast horse into the city.

When the head of the Miroslavsky family, who was in charge of the shooting corps, Yin Lia, entered the old Andreevsky Hall, the middle of the richly decorated palace was already filled with many nobles waiting for him.

How ironic is an extremely important meeting without the participation of the Tsar......

It's a pity that the nobles are used to this situation, because the power is always in their hands, not the tsar as a puppet.

"Is the matter in Siberia investigated clearly? Did we attack the Ming Kingdom first, or did they attack us? ”

A big nobleman fidgeted and asked, compared to the group of guys in the Siberian administrative area, they knew the strength of the Ming Dynasty better in Eastern Europe.

Spain, Britain, France, and the Netherlands were all expelled from the Far East by the Ming Dynasty, which is enough to show the strength of the Ming Dynasty.

Now that they had clashed with the Ming Dynasty and lost the vast area east of the Yenisei River in a very short period of time, they were heartbroken and worried.

】

They feared that the Ming would continue to send troops to continue the offensive from the east to the west, and they were also worried about the financial problems of the kingdom after losing the Siberian administrative region.

These problems are mixed together, which makes everyone nervous, after all, they still need to guard against the Crimean Khanate in the south at the moment, and they really can't spare their hands to resist the Ming.

Moreover, with the strength shown by the Ming Dynasty in this battle, if the two sides fight, then the Ming army may capture Ob City without waiting for the kingdom to mobilize cavalry and shooting corps to go to Ob City.

Now they need Yin Lia in front of them to give them an answer, but for the answer they want, Yin Lia's answer is:

"Golovin has led troops to block the attack of the Ming army in Mangazea, I think the situation has been controlled, maybe Golovin can counterattack, and we can also negotiate trade with the Ming after the victory of the counteroffensive......"