September 8, 1726, St. Petersburg.

In the splendid summer palace hall, many Russian leaders and figures, including the Imperial Emperor Catherine I (in 1721, Tsar Peter I of Russia changed the name of the country to the Russian Empire), the Imperial Grand Duke and Chairman of the Army Council Menshikov, the Chief Minister of the Imperial Privy Council Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy (the great-grandfather of the great Russian writer Tolstoy) and many other Russian leaders gathered together to have a heated discussion on the current dire security situation in Russia.

"The invasion of the Kingdom of Sweden, which gathered and mobilized 60,000 to 70,000 troops, was menacing, and in less than half a month, it invaded more than 100 versts (1 verst is about 1.0668 kilometers) within the territory of the empire, and swept more than ten fortresses and fortresses on the border." Menshikov said in a deep voice: "At present, the Swedish army has attacked the line of Lake Ladoga and Revola, which is less than 30 kilometers from St. Petersburg. However, in view of the defeat of more than 10,000 shooting troops on the front line, and the loss of nearly half of their weapons and ordnance, it is not yet known whether the temporarily constructed defensive line can withstand the Swedish army. Therefore, we need to be fully prepared to consider temporarily moving the center of the empire to the rear. ”

"Does Your Excellency the Duke mean that we must immediately abandon St. Petersburg and retreat to the hinterland?" Count Tolstoy said with some dissatisfaction: "Although the Swedish army is fiercely attacking, it has defeated more than 10,000 border defenders in a few days, and advanced to St. Petersburg less than thirty kilometers. But let's not forget that in the rear of the Swedish army, the resistance of the Vyborg fortress continued, and the scattered armies were still launching sporadic attacks on the Swedish army, and in St. Petersburg, there were still more than 4,000 well-armed guards, and if the city was defended, the Swedish army might not be able to capture the well-defended St. Petersburg. In addition, we can mobilize the citizens and recruit armed volunteers, and I believe that with more than 60,000 inhabitants of the city, we will be able to hold the capital of our empire and repel the invading Swedish army. ”

"When did I say I was going to give up St. Petersburg?" Menshikov's face sank and he glared at Tolstoy, "I'm just worried that the war situation is unfavorable, His Majesty the Tsar and many ministers are gathered in St. Petersburg, in case the Swedes take advantage of it, then the entire Russian Empire will fall into a situation from which it will never recover." You must know that in addition to gathering tens of thousands of troops to launch a fierce offensive against the empire by land, Sweden has also assembled dozens of warships in the port of Turku, which will launch a surprise attack on St. Petersburg from the sea at any time. At that time, with the Swedish Army besieging the city in the north and the Swedish Navy flanking in the west, it was inevitable that we would lose sight of one or the other, and then the enemy might break through the defensive line. My suggestion was that His Majesty the Tsar and the central government should withdraw to Novgorod (now Veliky Novgorod) and then return to the capital after repulsing the Swedish army. ”

"Since Your Majesty and the Central Authority are the first to withdraw to Novgorod, who will hold St. Petersburg?" The Privy Councillor, Count Alexei Chekunkov, looked at Menshikov and asked softly.

"St. Petersburg was held by the commander of the Guards, General Sergei Kravtsov." Menshikov nodded slightly to Tsar Catherine I, and then said: "In addition, please issue an emergency mobilization order for your Majesty, asking the local overseers and county governors to recruit armed volunteers and leave for St. Petersburg." When the armies converged, they fought to the death with the Swedish army. ”

"Are we going to urgently recall the troops sent to the Caucasus as well in response to the Swedish invasion?" Tsar Catherine I asked: "In addition, will several Cossack regiments located in the Ukrainian regions also have to be transferred back in case of emergency?" ”

Catherine I, as the former queen, followed Peter I to fight in the north and south for many years, and did not show too much panic and helplessness in the current large-scale attack of the Swedish kingdom. I still remember that in the Battle of Prut, she and Peter I were surrounded by tens of thousands of troops of the Ottoman and Crimean Khanates, and life and death hung by a thread, and such a dangerous situation never made her cowardly and cowering, let alone sit still.

The current situation is nothing more than a sudden launch by the Kingdom of Sweden, which caught Russia by surprise, and was quickly broken through the border defense line by the other side and attacked near St. Petersburg. Although this situation may seem critical, it is not too risky.

You know, this St. Petersburg city, but after Tsar Peter I occupied the territory at the mouth of the Neva River, in order to avoid the comeback of the Swedish army, the original field fortifications were gradually built into a strong hexagonal fortress. Later, in order to build the capital of the Russian Empire, it took more than 20 years and hundreds of thousands of people to requisition this magnificent city.

The whole city was later expanded several times, with the addition of numerous buildings, such as the Petersburg Cathedral, the Bell Tower, St. Peter's Gate, Peter the Great's Boathouse, the Mint, the Arsenal, the Kronvelk Battery, etc. There are also several supporting fortresses in the outer fortress, equipped with a total of more than 100 cannons, and if you add thousands of elite guards to defend them, they can be described as impregnable, and will definitely make the attacking Swedish army drain all their blood.

"Your Majesty's advice is very good." Menshikov nodded and said: "Compared with the gains and losses in the Caucasus, the importance of Karelia and St. Petersburg is self-evident. Therefore, those troops that were intended to be sent to the Caucasus needed to be recalled immediately in response to the invasion of the Kingdom of Sweden. As for the several Cossack regiments located in the Ukrainian regions, they cannot all be transferred to the north for the time being. At this time, in the crisp autumn season, the Crimean Khanate was once again ravaging South Russia and Ukraine, and the Cossack corps was still needed to protect it. In addition, the Ottoman fleet was active frequently in the Black Sea region, and it was necessary to attack and plunder the fortress of Azov. ”

"Will the Polish-Lithuanian kingdom raid Courland and South Russia in the event of a major Swedish attack?" Catherine I asked.

In that year, Peter I launched the Great Northern War against Sweden in order to unite Denmark and Poland, and drew a lot of pies for them, such as promising that after defeating Sweden, Poland and Denmark could completely recover those territories that had been seized by Sweden, such as supporting Poland to become a maritime power like Sweden and dominate the situation in the entire Baltic Sea.

But who would have thought that after the end of the war in 1721, Russia would leave Denmark and Poland aside and directly sign the "Ništat Treaty" with Sweden separately, and obtain most of Swedish Estonia, Livonia, Ingria, Kaxholm and Karelia.

In this war, most of the battlefields were located in Poland, and after many years of repeated fighting, they were almost wiped out into nothing, and the Poles lost a lot of soldiers and materials for this, but as a result, there were hardly any favorable terms for Poland in this treaty.

The land that was originally promised to Poland was all in Russia's pocket, and the poor Poles were allowed to make wedding dresses for others in vain. This also led to indignation throughout Poland, which had a very poor sense of Russia and a deep hatred for it.

Therefore, Catherine I had this question, fearing that Poland would take the opportunity to launch a war against Russia in retaliation for her sincere feelings being ruthlessly deceived by the Russians.

"Probably not." Menshikov replied affirmatively: "Last year, King August II of Poland tried to attack the Ottomans together with the Austrians, but was rejected by the parliament. In a fit of rage, he stayed in Dresden (the capital of the Electorate of Saxony) to build his royal palace, no longer served as a councilor, and all the Polish troops were not fully mobilized at all. Moreover, Poland's weak military strength alone would not dare to attack the Empire. ”

"And what about the Kingdom of Prussia?" A Privy Council minister asked.

"Prussia was arguing with Hanover and Saxony over their borders and transit taxes, and at one point was about to provoke a war in the German region. At this time, Prussia should have no time to covet the territory of our Duchy of Courland. ”

"Has the Duke forgotten the Ottoman Empire?" Tolstoy suddenly interjected: "Since the Crimean Khanate will send Tatar cavalry to harass Ukraine and South Russia, then they must be at the behest of the Ottoman Empire. If we hadn't prepared our defenses in advance, we wouldn't have taken the opportunity to attack the Empire's southwestern frontier from Moldavia? ”

"No!" Menshikov said arbitrarily: "The Ottomans are fighting the Austrians in Wallachia and should not open a second front to attack the Empire." I believe that the Tatar cavalry of the Crimean Khanate ravaged the Ukrainian and South Russian steppes in order to prepare for the Ottomans' frontal battlefield in case we took advantage of the situation to invade Moldavia and the Azov region. ”

"However, the news from the Ottomans is that the military operation launched by the Crimean Khanate is at the request of the Qi people, to cover their offensive in the Caucasus from the flank, and at the same time to disperse our forces." The deputy chairman of the military council, Baron Anton Kotyakov, voiced his concerns, "two months ago, the imperial army suffered a crushing defeat in the Azerbaijani region at the hands of the Tsip-Polish coalition army, losing almost all the territory in the southern foothills of the Caucasus Mountains. If we were to transfer all the troops that were supposed to support the area to the vicinity of St. Petersburg, would we allow the Qi-Persian alliance to take advantage of the situation to attack the northern foot of the Caucasus and then sweep the Volga River valley? You know, the Turks there have never been very peaceful, and they are easily bewitched and instigated by the enemy. Once the empire is weak, it is difficult to guarantee that it will not poison the entire southern region with the Qi-Persian alliance. ”

As soon as Kotyakov's voice fell, the hall suddenly fell silent, and everyone's faces showed a look of depression and frustration.

Originally, it was thought that taking advantage of the civil strife in Persia, it would be possible to seize the southern foot of the Caucasus, thereby gaining a certain strategic advantage on the Caspian coast, and at the same time threatening the Ottoman Empire from the flank. So, in August last year, the empire sent more than 30,000 troops to cross the Caucasus Mountains and invade the Azerbaijani region, and the troops did not meet any resistance until they reached the line of the Aras River and occupied the western bank of the Caspian Sea.

Unexpectedly, the Qi State dispatched more than 15,000 troops to help the Safavid Dynasty of Persia quickly defeat the Handaki Dynasty established by the Gilzai people in Afghanistan and recover the capital Isfahan, and then divided the army into two routes, all the way to the direction of the defeat of the Gilzai, and continued to pursue until the eastern part of Persia and the border areas of Afghanistan; The other route went directly north, first defeating the Persian puppet regime established by Prince Tahmasp in Tehran and quelling the rebellion there. Immediately, the army enveloped more than 10,000 rebels who had surrendered, and slaughtered all the way to the northwest, successively recovering Qazvin, Zanjan, and Tabriz, and finally stationed in Ardabil, far away from the invading Russian army.

The Persians sent emissaries to the Russian garrison in Sylvan (present-day Sylvan City, Azerbaijan), demanding that the Russians immediately withdraw from Persian territory and avoid an armed conflict between the two countries.

The commander-in-chief of the Russian army, General Valery Falkov, directly rejected the demands of the Persians, saying that they had entered the Azerbaijani region at the invitation of the local princes to protect the local Orthodox believers and maintain peace on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

What are you kidding, you finally took advantage of your Persian civil strife to occupy the southern foothills of the Caucasus, and fulfilled the long-cherished wish of Peter I that was not fulfilled back then, how can you easily withdraw?

Don't think that you Persians, with the support of the Qi people, will be able to dictate to our Russian Empire, have the ability, and also use force to take this region back!

Besides, the hands of the people of Qi are inevitably too long. In the Far East, Qi vigorously supported two local indigenous kingdoms, and continued to expand in both north and west directions, almost taking the empire a hundred years to occupy all the Siberian regions, and the Lena River valley and the Angara River valley were almost out of place for the Russians, and the lucrative fur trade was directly reduced to less than two percent of what it used to be. And looking at such a posture, it seems that the barbaric Bohai State is about to arch little by little to the line of the Yenisei River and threaten the Tomsk Military District.

Why, now, in the name of the Persians, they want to include the Caucasus-Caspian region into their sphere of influence?

After the Russian army refused to withdraw from the southern foothills of the Caucasus, the Qi-Persian coalition did not launch an offensive at the first moment, but slowly advanced the front to the south bank of the Alas River and formed a military confrontation with the Russian army across the river.

Over the next few months, skirmishes were frequent, seemingly cautiously testing each other's strength.

In winter, the Qi-Persian alliance took advantage of the freezing of the river and launched a large-scale attack. It is reported that the coalition forces used more than 100 artillery pieces to successfully cross the Arras River under the cover of an overwhelming barrage of bullets, and routed the two corps of the Russian army in front of them, causing more than 3,000 casualties of the Russian army.

The front-line officers of the Russian army who received the enemy reported that the artillery fire of the coalition army was very fierce, and it was fought quickly and accurately, which was even more terrifying than the artillery units of the Swedish army encountered in the Great Northern War before. In the line infantry engagement, the coalition forces are also tactically skillful and tacitly coordinated, which can be called elite. Even in the hand-to-hand battle, the opponent's bayonet fight was extremely fierce, and the Russian army was defeated.

After the Russian army broke through the Arras River front, it retreated more than 40 kilometers all the way to the Kura River before stabilizing the defensive line, but discarded most of the ordnance and materials.

In the spring of this year, after receiving a large amount of logistical supplies, the Qi-Persian coalition continued to press forward and once again approached the Russian front.

In order to turn the tide of the war in the Caucasus, the Russian army transferred more than 18,000 troops from Moscow, Karelia, Minsk and other regions to reinforce the front line from April to May, bringing the size of the Russian army to more than 45,000.

But unexpectedly, the coalition forces suddenly launched an offensive on July 6 after repelling several rounds of counterattacks by the Russian army. The enemy still covered the Russian positions with extremely heavy artillery fire, and the bombardment lasted for more than 30 minutes, tilting countless shells, destroying all the defensive lines built by the Russian army. Immediately, the coalition forces with more than 6,000 Persian cavalry as the assault force, broke through the chaotic Russian front, and the line infantry then lined up in more than a dozen neat squares, and in one fell swoop, they defeated the blocking force hastily organized by the Russian army.

In the battle, the Russian army was completely defeated, and tens of thousands of officers and soldiers were shocked by the ferocious firepower of the coalition forces, and they gave up resistance one after another. At about 8 o'clock in the evening, the coalition forces stopped the pursuit and began to gather their troops and clean up the battlefield, so that the Russian officers and soldiers who had escaped by luck could take a temporary breath.

In this battle, the Russian army lost more than 18,000 troops, and all the equipment and grain were also lost, and they were unable to fight again. The commander, General Valery Falkov, led the remnants of his army directly over the Caucasus Mountains and withdrew to the fortress of Mozdok on the banks of the Terek River in the northern foothills of the Caucasus in one fell swoop, before stopping the defeat.

In order to stabilize the situation in the Caucasus and prevent the coalition forces from invading the southern Russian region, Menshikov ordered the urgent transfer of more than 10,000 troops stationed in St. Petersburg, Karelia, and the Volga valley to the south half a month ago, hoping to block the invasion of the coalition forces.

But they never expected that the Swedish army, which had been fighting with the Kingdom of Denmark for the past year, suddenly turned its guns and launched a swift attack on Russia, so that the current situation became out of control.

"In order to be able to concentrate on the Swedish invasion, we need to make peace with the Persians." Menshikov pondered for a long time and said slowly: "To be precise, we need to temporarily show weakness to the Qi people behind Persia and recognize their special rights and interests in the Caucasus and Caspian regions. Yes, we are going to immediately send peace emissaries to ease the tension in the south, we must concentrate all our forces and give priority to defeating the Swedes. Because they are the real and greatest threat to the Empire. ”

The palace ministers in the palace have bowed their heads and said that the Caucasus is just a scabies, far from the hinterland of the empire, even if it is captured by the coalition forces for a while, it has nothing to do with the overall situation, and the Reddy people are here to ask for the life of Russia, so the empire cannot go all out.

"By the way, the envoys from the Eastern Qin State have been staying in the territory of the empire for more than half a year, should we give them an official reply to their suggestions?"

Just as the court meeting was coming to an end, and the ministers were about to say goodbye to His Majesty the Tsar, Vitaly Savelyev, the Privy Council minister in charge of foreign affairs, suddenly asked.

——

(End of chapter)