Not all countries are as sensitive as this era of dramatic changes in weapons and tactics.

For example, Austria and other countries.

At a time when the barbed wire squatting pit flow had begun on the eastern battlefield, the Austrian Army was still using flintlock pistols and fighting the tactics of lining up to shoot.

So Kutuzov's proposal has room for maneuver.

But fighting a war with a European country will affect the whole body.

Relations between European countries are complex, and Tsarist Russia has always wanted to integrate into Europe and be recognized by European countries – whether it is Tsarist Russia in the 18th century or Tsarist Russia in the 21st century.

But alas.

Both in the 18th and 21st centuries.

The nobles of Europe called Tsarist Russia a Slavic barbarian.

And it must be portrayed as vicious and aggressive.

It's a shame.

Both the Tsar of the 18th century and the Silly Emperor of the 21st century were quite pro-Western.

However, everyone took the initiative to go into shock.

Not only did the West not accept it, but stabbed Crimea directly, under the soft belly of the new tsarist Russia.

Helpless.

The new tsar had no choice but to cry and go to a certain eastern power that he did not look down on to huddle together to keep warm.

India: Exactly below.

Still, the Slavic people's greed for land made the new 18th-century tsar desperate.

"Your Majesty, while the Austrians are still using the weapons and tactics of more than ten years ago, give them a ruthless blow. Maybe we'll be able to take the two territories of Galicia and Rodot Melia. In this case, it will be explained to the country. ”

Petrovich made an estimate in his heart.

Lost the barren Eastern Siberia, gained Moldavia in the Balkans, annexed half of the Caucasus, and tore off a mouthful of Galicia and Radot Melia from the stupid emperor of Habsburg, although not comparable in size to Eastern Siberia.

But these were all acquired near the core of Russia, and in every way the value of these lands was far greater than that of Siberia.

"But we don't have a lot of troops on hand." Petrovich frowned.

"I think we can evacuate 30,000 to 40,000 people from the Caucasian battlefield, 30,000 to 40,000 from the eastern Balkans, and 30,000 to 40,000 from the military districts, and we can gather enough 100,000 troops to catch the Austrians by surprise!"

'Wait, to withdraw troops from the Caucasus? Isn't this spitting out the swallowed territory of the Caucasus to the Turks again? ’

Petrovich said.

"My Majesty, times have changed, we don't need to maintain too many forces on a battlefield that no longer tries to attack, with the current defense system, 10,000 people are enough to defend against the attack of the Turks!"

Kutuzov said.

"And the Turks knew that they would not be able to break through the barbed wire and trenches! This is our only chance! ”

The tsar was somewhat silent.

More than a year of war has been fought, proving one thing: defense is omnipotent!

Both sides suffered heavy casualties, regardless of who was the main attacker, while the defending side won at a very small cost.

"Well, then send 100,000 troops and go to trouble the Habsburg fools! But they are allies of the Britons."

"It doesn't matter, the Britons now have no power to use on the continent, and the poor relations between the French and the Habsburgs also make it unlikely that the Austrians will be supported by the continental powers."

"What about the Prussians?"

"Prussia? It would be nice if we didn't bother them,"

Kutuzov said with his hands outstretched.

Although it has been fighting in the Balkans for more than a year, there has not been much of a breakthrough.

But Kutuzov also knows how modern warfare is fought.

Neither the Austrians nor the Prussians had yet to experience the baptism of "modern warfare".

So.

He believes that the Russian army can make progress on the battlefield in Central Europe.

And for the Ming Empire.

The movements of the Russians are also no secret.

Large-scale troop movements take time to prepare.

At the time when the Russians were sending troops from the Caucasus.

The intelligence system of the Ming Dynasty passed the new movements of the Russian army to the Jiangbei Palace in the central capital.

"The Russians are going to do something to Austria."

The Ming Ministry of Foreign Affairs Shang Shulin made such a judgment in the imperial conference room.

Peng Jun frowned slightly.

Compared with the "European intellectuals" like Lin Dagong who came back from Europe.

He, a native of Hunan, is really a little confused about the complicated relations with European countries.

Therefore, when encountering foreign affairs, Grand Duke Shang Shulin of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will definitely attend.

And when the time comes, Dagong Lin will definitely be the prime minister.

In addition, now Emperor Zhu's various changes have completely broken through the framework of "middle school-oriented".

Whether it is Chinese or Western, it is now used as long as it is suitable.

Although Peng Jun is a Confucian student of the Xianghu faction, he is still a little uncomfortable with this.

Fortunately, the Xianghu faction is essentially bureaucrats.

They are not some of the present saints who "continue to learn for the sake of the past."

Therefore, even if the ideas are not completely consistent with Emperor Zhu, they can still seek common ground while reserving differences and endure each other as officials.

For example, in the previous war against Russia, many officials of the Xianghu faction were opposed.

They are not saying that they are not considering the national interests of the Ming Empire.

The main thing is the fear that the war will be protracted, the front will be too long, and it will be dragged down by the Russians with a protracted war.

But for now.

This worry is a bit unnecessary.

And now the Ming Dynasty has carried out large-scale reclamation in the Northeast, and now the Northeast has a population of more than 3 million.

More than half of them are young adults, and even if they draw one out of ten, they can form an army of nearly 200,000!

Not to mention.

The social structure of the Ming Dynasty in Northeast China was based on the structure of large and small collective farms.

There was no local gentry class in the Han region.

The ruling power of the Ming Dynasty can be directly implemented to everyone!

It has a strong power in the vast Northeast Great Plain, the Heilongjiang River Basin, and the inner and outer Xing'an Mountains.

Another benefit is that the grassland tribes are also unprecedented obedience - can you not be obedient, in the past, the Ming Dynasty wanted to control the grassland tribes and send troops from the Guannei, but now the grassland tribes can be slaughtered more than once by directly transferring military households from the collective farms in the northeast.

With the support of the grassland tribes, the loyalty of the surrendered Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banners adapted from the expedition to the west was also guaranteed.

With the establishment of collective farms in the Great Northwest, there were large numbers of immigrants from both the East and the West.

Fighting in the northern steppes and in the northwest, the logistics to support an army of more than 100,000 were no longer a heavy burden that could crush any Central Plains dynasty.

And so.

These Xianghu bureaucrats are now all supporters of the war.

"Tsarist Russia is going to do something to Austria? How will France react? ”

Emperor Zhu asked with interest.

"The emperors of the Habsburg dynasty were the most vehemently opposed to the monarchs of the French Republic, and their relationship with France was not harmonious, so the ministers thought that France would wait and see what happened in the early stage, but they would not let Tsarist Russia get too much territory in Central Europe, after all, Galicia, Rodo, Meria, Bulgaria, these places, but they are the most fertile land in Central Europe, and the value of their land far exceeds that of Eastern Siberia, and the new tsar of Tsarist Russia is targeting these territories, and the reason is also because they lost Eastern Siberia, If the new tsar wanted to gain domestic support, he had to take some territory. ”

Lin Dagong said.

"Lost in the East, made up for the West." Emperor Zhu couldn't help but laugh when he heard this.

"Since Tsarist Russia is going to expand to the west, the camp to the west will also be moved, this time. Let's take the Yenisei River as the border between the two countries, anyway, the Russians don't have a few strongholds in Siberia now, as long as they uproot the few remaining strongholds east of the Yenisei River, this land east of the Yenisei River is my Daming. ”

Zhu Daohua's hand slid on the map.

The tips of your fingers follow the Yenisei River all the way north to the Arctic Ocean.

Don't look at the map, the map of Russia is so big.

But in fact, they do not have a strong control over their territories in the East.

Especially in the huge tundra of western Lea, where it is difficult for human beings to survive, let alone garrison large armies.

Therefore, it is also easy for Daming to take these territories.

The expulsion of a series of Russian strongholds along the Yenisei River would make it possible to claim on the map that the large area of land east of the Yenisei River and west of the Lena River belonged to the Ming Dynasty – as for the local natives.

As everyone knows.

In the world of the 18th century.

Indigenous people have no human rights.

This world is the hunting ground of those "civilized nations".

"In this way, the Ming Dynasty has finally become the country with the largest territory in the world."

Emperor Zhu said jokingly.

Although it is said that the map opens the territory.

But he was the Founding Emperor.

His map is different from anyone else's map.

His hand slid across the map.

That means that Daming will really have millions of square kilometers of territory!

Although these sites are now some seemingly worthless tundra.

But Emperor Zhu knew.

In the future, these resource-rich areas will be available but not available.

It is said that China is vast and rich.

But it's true.

But not necessarily.

Take, for example, the most important black gold of the industrial era: oil!

In later generations, China will be an out-and-out oil-poor country.

It costs a lot of foreign exchange every year to import oil from abroad.

And under the permafrost of Siberia.

Coal, oil, metal ore and other resources are quite abundant.

Now just by dispatching a partial division, you can cut a piece of it while Tsarist Russia is about to make a move against Central European countries, so why not?

Hear Emperor Zhu's jokes.

Peng Jun showed a strange look on his face.

Emperor Zhu was probably different from all the other Chinese emperors in history.

He was not the emperor of the Central Empire.

It is similar to a monarch in the Seven Heroes of the Warring States.

It's just that.

The five days of the Seven Heroes have changed from the Central Plains to the whole world.

Qixiong is no longer Qin, Chu, Han, Zhao, Wei, Yanqi.

but the Ming Dynasty, Britain, France, Tsarist Russia, Austria, Prussia, Spain.

Before.

For the Chinese scholars.

They don't need to study Europe, the Americas, the world situation, the diplomatic balance, and so on.

After all, these places are too far away.

China doesn't need to spend much experience on them.

China only needs to do a good job of its own internal affairs - as the so-called China is safe, then the four provinces will obey themselves.

However, Emperor Zhu obviously had a different idea from those scholars and doctors.

He is even criticizing this "isolationist" thinking.

He believes that this kind of thinking is completely outdated and unrealistic.

The world is no longer the time to live behind closed doors.

And this door can't be closed.

If you don't open it yourself, you will be violently opened by others.

Now is not the time of the Sui and Tang dynasties.

At that time, China did not have a population of 40,000,000, and there were still a large number of areas in China such as the Jiangnan, Lingnan, and Sichuan basins that could be developed and utilized.

So there's no need to expand blindly at all.

And now, the land that can be reclaimed in the Han land of China has basically been reclaimed.

There are too many people, and too little land.

The average arable land is less than three acres.

And it is counted together with a variety of low-yielding drylands.

The per capita grain is only three or four hundred catties per year.

The whole country is full, not to mention full.

It's not bad if you don't starve.

The country has a population of 40,000,000.

At least half are malnourished.

In this case, if there is no external expansion, how can we maintain the operation of the dynasty and how can we achieve long-term peace and stability!

So.

Foreign expansion is the basic national policy of the Ming Empire at this stage.

In this regard, Emperor Zhu has long been angry with high-level cabinet officials.

This is not negotiable.

That's the big principle.

And under this big principle.

How to expand.

In which direction to expand.

These are of course negotiable.

Expansion is not simply about sending troops to fight.

It also requires a combination of rigidity and softness.

It would be too much to expand by force, and it would easily provoke the union of Europeans.

If the Europeans unite, then the expansion of the Ming Dynasty in some directions will not be too smooth.

So.

Now Emperor Zhu is taking a rigid expansion in the west and north.

War with the Russian Empire - on the one hand, this country does have a lot of territory, and secondly, this country is aggressive, and in the case of dominance, Emperor Zhu will not let this country have a chance to breathe.

A single battle gnaws a large piece of territory.

At that time, it may not be impossible to drive the Slavs back to Europe once and for all - with the availability of rail transport, the 10,000-mile transport line is no longer a difficult task.

Also in the New World.

The Ming Empire will not send a large army to take the initiative in that direction - it makes no sense.

Because you may not even be able to find an opponent.

So.

In the direction of the New World, a strategy of encroachment is adopted, through continuous immigration, to gnaw a piece of territory in the New World first.

On the one hand, alleviate the pressure on the local population.

On the other hand, it is also accumulating strength in the New World, waiting for the time when the war is ripe!

Now even if the Ming Dynasty sends a large army to the New World and defeats Spain, Britain, and even the United States, what is the point?

There is not enough of a population.

It is difficult to occupy such a vast territory.

Population is the key.

(End of chapter)