Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 767
Changxing Marquis Mansion.

The heavy snow is covered with snow, but it can't suppress the festive atmosphere of the New Year. Today, the Hou Mansion is also hung with red lanterns, and festive couplets are posted everywhere.

Wu Yi, a scholar of the cabinet, and his wife Yipin ordered Mrs. Zheng Guo, Mrs. Shen, to return to the mansion, and the sons also came back to pay New Year's greetings.

"Father, we just heard outside that the emperor declared war on Tsarist Russia and Yarkand. I know this Yarkand is in the south of the Tianshan Mountains in the Western Regions. Where is Tsarist Russia? How can you say that he invaded the Nuergan area of ​​our Daming, plundered and hurt people?" Sauron, Daur and other people?"

Wu Yi's youngest son Wu Rui asked as he greeted his father and helped him hold the cloak.

"Let you have time to read more books and newspapers, but you spend all day riding horses, archery and playing bird guns. Although Tsarist Russia is thousands of miles away, it has been mentioned in newspapers in recent years."

Wu Rui smiled and shook his father's arm, "How can I remember those barbarians who are thousands of miles away, please tell me, father."

"The eldest brother said that Tsarist Russia is in the far west, and Torghut, one of the four tribes of Oirat Mongolia, moved west to the Volga River on the north bank of the Caspian Sea, and Tsarist Russia seems to be to the north of them, but the second brother also said that the Karka desert is north Mongolia is also at war with Tsarist Russia, and Tsarist Russia is to the north of them."

"Now the emperor said that Tsarist Russia has come to Nu'ergan. Why are they going around here and there? Where are they?"

Wu Yi felt sorry for his youngest son, so he pulled him into the room and sat down, warmed his hands on the stove, and said, "Pour me a cup of hot tea first."

Mrs. Shen poured tea for her husband and sat down together without rushing back to the room.

"came back?"

Wu Yi's father, Wu Chengxu, came in wearing an imperial sable fur. Before Sui Yu, after a few years, he has worked hard and made great achievements. Now he is also a third-rank official, and he also has the title of Earl of Loyalty for life.

"Well, after the court meeting, His Majesty left his son to chat with the cabinet and the Prime Minister's Office."

The old man nodded and didn't ask any more questions. Both of them are important officials of the imperial court, but they would never inquire into each other's duties in normal times.

"Grandpa, I'm asking my father to tell me where the Russians are."

The old man smiled.

Wu Yi asked his wife to bring tea to his father while continuing to talk.

"Actually, this Tsarist Russia starts with Kievan Rus. In the far west of the Western Regions, there is a place called the Eastern European Plain. There is a group of Eastern Slavs there. They are a nation that is good at mobility.

In the beginning, they were scattered tribes. Later, the Varyags in the north established a country called Ross in the north.At that time, the tribes of the Eastern Slavs continued to attack each other. Rurik, a Russian, was invited by the Slavs to come to the Eastern European plains to resolve the civil strife among the Slavs. Rurik Dynasty,
At the beginning, Rus' territory was only a small piece of land in the north. Later, his heirs unified the southern tribes and moved the capital to Kiev in the south, so the country was unified and became Kievan Rus. "

"From Kievan Rus to the Principality of Moscow, their kings are all descendants of the Nordic Rurik, so they can also be called the Rurik dynasty. The last king is Ivan IV, and later generations are called Ivan the Terrible , when he was three years old, his father III died, and his mother, Emperor IV, regented, and formed a Regency Council with seven great nobles.

But she abolished the Regency Council and poisoned the three younger brothers to death. When the fourth king was eight years old, she was also poisoned to death. After her death, her younger brother defeated his opponent and continued to control the government,"

"Father, how do you know so much?"

"Read more newspapers and more books."

The boss Wu Chang said with a smile, "I don't believe that the newspaper can write so clearly, it must be the information collected by the factory guard."

Wu Yi smiled, "If you want to talk about Ivan IV, he is not a simple person. He is the subjugated king of the Rurik dynasty, but he is also the first tsar of Russia.

He lost his father at the age of three and lost his mother at the age of eight. He was extremely cruel since childhood.

When he was 13 years old, he ordered the guards to arrest the uncles who were in power, and then let the dogs kill them, and displayed their corpses at the gate of the palace.

Four years later, Ivan IV, who was only 17 years old, held a grand coronation ceremony in Moscow and upgraded the title of Grand Duke to Caesar. "

"Father, what does Caesar mean?" Wu Rui asked.

Wu Chang said on the side, "I heard that His Majesty once said a word to the people taught by Jesus, give God what is God's, and Caesar what is Caesar's. Is this Caesar?"

"Caesar, that was a former country in the West that existed at the same time as our great Han. Caesar was once an outstanding military commander in the Roman Republic. Later, his power grew and he became a military dictatorship. This caused dissatisfaction among many old nobles, and they assassinated him. After his death, his adopted son founded the Roman Empire and became the first imperial emperor.

Caesar is also considered the founder of the Roman Empire, so he is regarded as the uncrowned king of Rome, known as Caesar the Great.

So later, a Roman monarch used his name Caesar as the title of emperor.

Ivan IV used Caesar, the Russian tsar, as his new title, which also changed himself from a grand duke to an emperor.

More than 400 years ago, Batu of Mongolia conquered the West and destroyed the Rus Principality, which once dominated for a while. Some Rus people fled to Moscow to live, and later established the Moscow Principality. Soon after their establishment, they surrendered to the Mongol Golden Horde. , and collected taxes for them, and by collecting taxes for the Mongols, they became very rich.

It wasn't until 200 years later, when the Principality of Moscow came to Grand Duke Ivan III, that it seriously defeated the collapsed Mongols and became truly independent.

Ivan IV transformed himself from Grand Duke of Moscow to Tsar of Russia and began his reign of terror.

Carried out brutal killings of disobedient nobles and dissidents. In just seven years, more than 4000 nobles were killed. As for the civilians who were killed, it is difficult to count

"Terrible Ivan, people are frightened by the news."

The young masters of the Wu family couldn't help but marvel when they heard this, "How can there be such a terrifying person in the world, they are too cruel."

Wu Yi nodded, "Ivan is a lunatic, he has married eight wives, but almost all of them died happily, or were executed, or deposed and forced to become a monk, and some even died on their wedding night.

Later, he was even dissatisfied with his daughter-in-law's dress and beat her violently, causing her to have a miscarriage. The prince came to argue with him, but the enraged Ivan directly beat the prince to death with a scepter. "

The Wu family was dumbfounded.

"Because of beating the prince to death, Ivan became even more insane, and died of madness three years later. The throne fell into the hands of his mentally retarded second son, but the government was controlled by powerful officials.

After the mad king died, the stupid king had been the puppet emperor for many years. When he died of illness, he had no children and no heirs.

The powerful officials took the opportunity to usurp the throne, and the surrounding Poland supported a false prince and sent troops to Tsarist Russia.

The usurper died of illness within a few years, and his son and stepfather were poisoned to death not long after.

The puppet king of Poland even broke into Moscow. The nobles united to repel Poland and killed the puppet king.

Later, the coalition forces repelled the Poles again, but no one wanted to be the tsar anymore. At this time, Tsarist Russia could only control the surrounding areas of Moscow.

They held a meeting of gentry, and finally elected a 16-year-old boy Mikhail Romanov as the tsar.

He was the son of Ferdo, the head of the Romanov family and archbishop of Filaret, and the grandnephew of Anastasia Romanov, Empress Ivan IV.

The young masters of the Wu family were bewildered.

"Why do you want to find an irrelevant young man to be the new emperor? Isn't it normal that the leader of the aristocratic coalition that drove away the Poles will be the new emperor?"

"Because the last great aristocrat who led the coalition forces to drive away the Poles and then became emperor was killed by the Poles counterattack within a few years of being emperor.

Russia can only effectively rule a small area around Moscow.

The Ukrainian Cossacks even supported the son of the false Dmitri II as the tsar.

There is no money in the national treasury, bandits are everywhere, and tigers and wolves are around. At this time, no nobleman is willing to be the emperor.

The Romanov family is not only a relative of the emperor, but his father is also the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church. When everyone didn't want to be Tsarist Russia, everyone elected this 16-year-old boy.

But when the representative ran to ask him to take the throne, both he and his mother refused to take the throne.

In such chaos, there is only one tsar ruled by Moscow, and even a 16-year-old boy is unwilling to be a tsar.

In the end, he was forced to put the ducks on the shelves, cooked raw rice and cooked rice, and forcibly embraced him as the tsar.

The young tsar drove ducks to the shelves, and the government was controlled by the great nobles. Later, his father, Elder Filaret, was welcomed back from Poland and served as regent behind the scenes.

Mikhail was weak and sick, but he also reigned for 49 years until his death five years ago.

Although Mikhail was just a puppet tsar for a long time, such a tsar was not all a bad thing for Russia at the time, it was much better than the mad king, at least he didn't mess around.

The nobles spared no effort to unite to quell the civil strife.

The Supreme Emperor even ruled Tsarist Russia with an iron fist. Step by step, he pushed the big nobles out of the decision-making layer, and gradually stabilized the turbulent Russia.

He strengthened taxation and enriched the national treasury. It was also in his era that Tsarist Russia turned to the east after being trapped in the west, and went eastward to develop Siberia with all its strength, and accelerated the pace of conquest of the vast Siberia. A lot of financial income.

Later, the Supreme Emperor died of illness, and the great nobles made a comeback, but the Tsar willingly handed over his power and gave up power, so that Tsarist Russia would not be disturbed again.

On his deathbed five years ago, he issued an edict to make the prince Alexei the tsar, and the great nobleman to be the auxiliary minister.

In the era of this weak tsar, Russia not only ended the civil strife in the past 50 years, but even sent troops to Poland several times, regained many territories, built the Great Wall of Crimea, conquered a large area of ​​Siberia, and greatly enriched the country. financial.

However, in the era of Mikhail, Tsarist Russia was still in danger, and many lands were still occupied by Sweden and Poland. It was able to turn its head and develop to the east, not only invading Turghut and Kazakhs, but also robbing Oirat and Khalkha Mongols of territory, trying to conquer them, and further expanding into the Far East of Siberia.

In the past few years since the new emperor took office, due to lack of money, the auxiliary ministers revised the new salt tax law and greatly increased the salt tax. As a result, salt merchants rioted, but on the contrary, it intensified Tsarist Russia’s dependence on the Far East and Siberia. pioneering efforts.

The tsar even dared to propose to the emperor of the Eastern Ming Empire to monopolize the Heilongjiang River Basin, and threatened the Ming Dynasty not to interfere in the affairs of the Mongols, Kazakhs, and Tsarist Russia.

Wu Yi was a Jinshi in Chongzhen for 16 years, and his knowledge is very good. Although he is only in his early forties, in the past few years, from the Governor of Water Transport to the Governor of the Local Government and then to the Bachelor of the Cabinet, he still has a unique perspective on problems.

It is not surprising that the emperor directly declared war on Tsarist Russia at the Zhengdan Great Court Meeting.

"It turns out that Tsarist Russia used to be just the little brother of the Mongols, a little boy who is still being beaten by Poland, Sweden, etc., and dared to come to our Beijing city to be presumptuous!" Wu Chang is now studying in the Hongwen Library, and he is also a classmate of the prince. , Hearing this, I couldn't bear it anymore, "Tomorrow, I will go to the Honglusi Hotel and smash rotten eggs for these arrogant Tsarist Russians!"

"Romanov, just call the Roman Dynasty of Cowards," Wu Sheng shouted.

The old man Wu Chengxu was holding a teacup, "Originally, we have long-distance friendship and short-term attack, but this Tsarist Russian is so arrogant and dares to challenge our Daming thousands of miles away. This is absolutely unbearable. By the way, Tsarist Russia's fur business and taxation in Siberia here is really serious for a year." can account for one-third of its national finances?"

"Well, that's true, and they have also stepped up their exploration and conquest of the Far East. Now they want to occupy the Heilongjiang River Basin, which is a good place to cultivate and develop vigorously. Too many, after all, more and more people are coming to the Far East, although hunting and trading make money, but there are many people who need food, and there is no food to support too many of them.”

The old man nodded, "Your majesty's eyesight is still very keen, and he can see the details clearly at a glance. Heilongjiang must not allow the Tsarist Russians to gain a foothold. It’s not just a matter of face to get rid of them, the profits of this fur trade are indeed attractive.”

"How can such a cornucopia be easily taken away by the Tsarist? No matter how far away it is, you have to fight with them. No matter how far away, can this Tsarist come so far?"

Wu Yi also supported his father's idea.

"And I think it's not just that simple." The old man took a sip of tea and said, "Now this Jianlu is fleeing north to the Horqin Mongols, and this wild Jurchen from the lower reaches of Heilongjiang has nothing to do with Jianlu. It's too close, and many of the tribes on the north bank of the upper reaches have never joined Jianlu. Now they are invaded and plundered by Tsarist Russia, and they ask Ming Dynasty for help. Isn't this a good opportunity to intervene?
Take advantage of this opportunity and send troops to intervene. At that time, we will beat Tsarist Russia away, destroy Jianlu, and canonize the tribal leaders in the upper and middle reaches of Heilongjiang, the north bank, and even the north of the Outer Xing'an Mountains, and bring them into our Celestial Dynasty. With the establishment of fur purchase stations, and even the establishment of post stations and military forts, wouldn't these places and the population of these tribes be brought under the rule of Ming Dynasty? "

"Father's sword is not old, and his vision is sharp." Wu Yi didn't expect that his father was not in his position, but he could also infer the court's strategy based on what he said just now, and it was very accurate. This is exactly what the emperor agreed with their ministers. Northeast future decision-making.

The old man took a sip of his tea with a calm expression on his face.

"When I'm off work, I really like reading books and newspapers. Besides, I've been working in the imperial court for five years. I can still guess a little about how saints do things."

Wu Yi smiled, it was disrespectful to speculate on the holy will, of course it was nothing for the whole family to chat behind closed doors.

"Wu Chang, Wu Sheng, Wu Xiang, Wu Rui, you brothers will learn from your grandfather more when you have free time, and don't go riding horses and shooting guns. This great Ming Dynasty can't be cured only by horseback."

"Father, I think there are still many opportunities to make meritorious service immediately in the future. Doesn't this slave still fight with the Western Regions? I want to be an immediate admiral in the future!" Wu Rui said.

Wu Yi patted his son on the shoulder, but didn't reprimand him, and his son was right.

"Okay, if you want to do it, you have to do it well. In the future, you will earn a duke and duke title!"

"Okay, I'll make you a Marquis right away!" Wu Rui looked confident.

(End of this chapter)