The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 251: Russia’s Leaks
February 1731, 2, Moscow.

Compared with the Kingdom of Denmark, which can quickly change its thinking and prepare to make a "good friend" worth entrusting to ensure its own security, when the Russian Empire is facing a difficult dilemma, it wants to recruit a few more to reduce its own pressure. My little friend seems to be extremely slow and inefficient.

Over the past five years, Russia has suffered a series of blows and experienced arguably the most profound disasters in the history of the empire.

This disaster may have begun in August 1725. At that time, the empire was instigated by England and mobilized troops to invade the Caucasus, trying to take advantage of the civil strife in the Safavid Empire of Persia to completely control this strategically important region.

However, they never expected that the imperial army encountered a strong counterattack by the Qi-Persian coalition forces, losing troops and generals one after another, and the battle line was forced to retreat for more than 100 kilometers.

In order to reverse the war situation, the empire dispatched more than 18,000 troops from Moscow, Karelia, Minsk and other regions to reinforce the front line between April and May of the following year, and also recruited more than 4,000 Kalmyk troops from the lower Volga region. (i.e., the Torgut Division) cavalry allowed the Russian army to gather more than 45,000 troops in the Caucasus. From a numerical point of view, it formed a numerical advantage over the Sino-Polish coalition forces.

However, in early July, the Qibo Allied Forces suddenly launched the Battle of the Kura River, covering the Russian positions with extremely fierce artillery fire. The bombardment lasted for more than 7 minutes, almost destroying the defense line built by the Russian army. Immediately, the coalition forces used more than Persian cavalry as an assault force to overwhelm the Russian position in one fell swoop.

In this battle, the Russian army was completely defeated, losing more than 18,000 troops, all equipment and food, and was unable to fight anymore.

In order to stabilize the situation in the Caucasus and prevent the coalition forces from invading southern Russia, the empire urgently transferred more than 10,000 troops stationed in St. Petersburg, Karelia and the Volga River Basin to the south to prevent the coalition invasion.

However, they never expected that the Swedish army, which was still at war with the Kingdom of Denmark, took advantage of the mobilization of Russian troops to suddenly turn around and launch a rapid attack on Russia, penetrating deep into the heart of Russia in a very short time. , and surrounded St. Petersburg with troops, causing the empire's situation to take a turn for the worse and fall into a huge crisis.

Fortunately, the empire's territory was huge, and relying on its vast depth, it temporarily delayed the attack of the Kingdom of Sweden. At the same time, Saxony and Poland also responded to the empire's request for assistance, declared war on Sweden, and subsequently invaded Courland, slightly reducing the military pressure on the empire.

However, when the Sabo coalition forces captured Jelgava, the capital of the Principality of Courland, and continued to march towards Riga, expecting to jointly attack the Swedish army with the main force of the Russian army, they never expected that a new situation would arise on the Russian side.

For this reason, the Imperial Grand Marshal and Special Duke Menshikov proposed to withdraw from the Caucasus and cede the city of Azov and the surrounding territory of the lower Don River in exchange for an armistice with the Qibo coalition and the Crimean Khanate. In this way, all the power of the empire can be concentrated to deal with Sweden, the life and death enemy.

By 1730, the fierce offensive of the Kingdom of Sweden gradually stopped. It may be due to excessive consumption or insufficient troops. It seemed that there was a lack of stamina on the entire battlefield.

Tsar Peter II died suddenly (more than four months later than the same period in history), and the cause of death is still confusing.

Completely unaware that they had been tricked by the Russians, the Sapo coalition marched towards Riga in confusion, expecting to continue to gain an easy victory and enjoy the great glory of completely regaining Courland.

Peter II was hailed as the new czar. With the support of his ministers, he quickly stabilized the situation in the empire and stopped the decline of the entire empire on the battlefield.

After the death of the Tsar, a new political game ushered in the imperial court, including huge changes in senior figures such as the Privy Council and the Military Council.

Unexpectedly, the Russian army stopped continuing to attack, but King Carl XII of Sweden quickly seized a once-in-a-lifetime fighter plane. He used dozens of ships to maneuver more than 6,000 elite soldiers to the flank of the Sabo coalition through sea routes, and then Using a forced march, they quickly advanced and reached behind the Sabo coalition forces, thus achieving a perfect victory.

As the troops recruited from the rear gradually gathered in Moscow, the Russian army began to become stronger and began to try to launch a counterattack against the Swedish army.

As for responding to the Sapo coalition's offensive and allowing the Russian army to continue attacking Novgorod and disperse the Swedish army, it was naturally temporarily suspended.

In the second year of the war, Tsarina Catherine I died in grief and anger, which triggered a coup in the imperial court. More than a hundred palace ministers, nobles, senior military generals, and prominent nobles were purged. This further aggravated the defeat of the Russian army on the battlefield.

Nothing is important. First, establish a new tsar, stabilize the political situation of the empire, and then seize a good position in the new political structure. This is the current top priority.

There is no way to fight. The severely damaged Saxon-Polish coalition is expected to be unable to recover in a short time, so only Russia is left on the battlefield to deal with the highly motivated Kingdom of Sweden alone.

In addition, the empire is also facing a difficult multi-front battle. In addition to facing the Swedish Kingdom eager for revenge on the western front, it also has to face the powerful Qibo coalition forces and the ferocious Kremlin in the Caucasus and Don River Basin. Pincer attack by the Rimean Tatars.

August II, the commander of the Saxon-Polish coalition, sent an envoy to Moscow to discuss coordinated operations between the two countries. He suggested that both sides gather large armies to launch simultaneous offensives from the west and north to defeat the main force of the Swedish army in one fell swoop.

Let's wait for the war.

Although the empire's army was large in scale, it had an absolute numerical advantage over the Swedish army. However, the morale of the officers and soldiers in the entire army is low, and there is an extremely shortage of weapons. The empire's backward military production capacity alone cannot equip all soldiers with enough muskets. More than half of the soldiers hold cold weapons.

Therefore, starting from early May, the Sapo coalition broke into Courland again with more than 40,000 troops, aiming directly at Riga, while the Russian army assembled more than 60,000 troops, starting from Tver and heading in the direction of Novgorod. Come and fight, ready to fight until Sweden cannot care about each other.

After hearing about the disastrous defeat of the Sabo coalition, the Russian army immediately retracted across the board and quickly retreated to its original starting point, but continued to fortify the walls and clear the country, and carried out passive defense.

In addition, news came from Berlin that the Kingdom of Prussia seemed to have reached some kind of private agreement with Sweden. After acquiring the Swedish territory of West Pomerania, it took the initiative to withdraw its troops in the border city of Memel. Lu clearly chose to remain neutral and not get involved in the Russo-Swedish war.

Another important reason why the Russian army is unable to conquer is that the empire's candidate for czar has been unable to be determined, which has kept the empire's political situation in chaos.

If arranged in the order of imperial heirs, after the death of Peter II, Peter's children should become tsar.

But the problem was that after Peter II married the niece of Duke Dolgoruky, he seemed to be dissatisfied with the marriage. He was very cold to the queen and left her alone in the empty room, but he still spent the whole day with his young and beautiful woman. His aunt Elizabeth "fucked" together, resulting in him not leaving an heir after his death.

Since the young tsar had no heir, the only choice for the new tsar was from the children of Peter the Great and Catherine I.

The best candidate turned out to be Elizabeth Petrovna, the youngest daughter of Peter I, the aunt of Peter II who was very obsessed with her. As the highest secret committee for the selection of the Tsar, there are seven members. The leader is the first-class civil servant Duke Golovkin. The remaining four are from the Dolgoruky family, and two are from the Golitsin family. The empire is almost uniform. Conservative forces.

Therefore, in their view, Elizabeth was not the best candidate for the czar, just because she was the daughter of Peter I and represented the reform line pursued since Peter the Great.

Although Menshikov, the former important minister of the dynasty, was removed from power while he was ill and his family was exiled to Siberia, the Menshikov faction in the court still had a large number of people and still had strong political influence.

If Elizabeth ascends the throne, the conservative forces of Golovkin, Dolgoruky, Golitsin and other families will definitely be hit.

In addition, they were psychologically disgusted with Peter the Great's second wife, Catherine I, and their children, and even secretly called Catherine I a "maid" and a "foreign woman."

Therefore, although Elizabeth was the most legitimate heir, she was unanimously rejected by the Supreme Secret Council.

The next candidates are the elderly Peter the Great's ex-wife Lopsina, Peter II's wife Dolgorukaya, and Ivan V's second daughter Anna (Duchess of Courland).

The secret committee of seven people picked and decided that Anna was the most suitable. First of all, she is the daughter of Ivan V and the legal heir of the Romanov family; secondly, Anna has been living in Courland for the past twenty years and has no connection with the Russian royal family. Naturally, she has no political power of her own in Russia, and Courland Lan was also captured by the Swedes at this time. It can be said that it is rootless and easy to control.

Finally, in terms of age and qualifications, she is more reasonable than Lopshina (too old) and Dolgolukaya (too young).

Therefore, after more than two months of quarrels, on August 8, the Supreme Secret Committee announced its decision that Anna, Duchess of Courland and the second daughter of Tsar Ivan V, would inherit the throne and become the fourth in the Russian Empire. Emperor (Note 23).

In order to firmly hold the power in its hands, the Supreme Secret Council signed an agreement with Anna, requiring her to guarantee the power of the Supreme Council when she became Tsarina. The agreement stipulates that without the consent of the Supreme Secret Committee, the Tsar has no right to declare foreign war or make peace, and is not allowed to adjust tax rates or formulate new tax laws. Royal expenses must be allocated with the approval of the Secret Committee, and has no right to interfere with the appointment, removal, promotion or promotion of government officials. They could not own their own territory, had no right to deprive nobles of their lives or property without judicial trial, and had no right to appoint heirs.

This actually puts the emperor in a symbolic position in the empire, just like the virtual monarchy system in England.

Although the conditions were harsh, for Anna, obtaining the position of czar was not just a pie in the sky, but a huge pie filled with cream and meat floss, which happily hit her on the head.

Originally, after the Kingdom of Sweden launched a large-scale attack on the Principality of Courland, she fled back to Russia in a hurry without even having time to collect her belongings. As a result, she instantly lost everything, no power, no wealth, and she was just a poor refugee. , relying on the charity of the imperial royal family and nobles to survive.

Unexpectedly, after the death of two czars in the empire, the crown suddenly fell on her head.

Isn’t this picked up for free?
At that moment, Anna signed this agreement that restricted the power of the tsar without any hesitation.

When Anna succeeded to the throne of the Tsar, the first thing she did was to prepare to sue Sweden for peace in the name of the Tsar under the control of the Supreme Privy Council.

It was really impossible to continue the fight, not to mention that on the battlefield, the Russian army had no chance of winning against the well-equipped and high-morale Swedish army. Even the weak imperial finances made it difficult to continue the war.

Although the Caucasian War was ended through the Treaty of Oboshirvan at the cost of ceding a large area of ​​territory, the Kalmyks (i.e., the Turgut Tribe) located in the lower Volga River area have made a fuss again, not only cutting off It will continue to pay tribute and provide soldiers to the empire, and it will also establish an independent country and establish a so-called Kingdom of Astrakhan.

It is said that behind these Kalmyks there are Qi people and Persians.

Not only do they want to completely drive the imperial forces out of the Caucasus, they also want to drive the Russians out of the Caspian Sea, making the empire a purely landlocked country - if the Swedes capture St. Petersburg and completely block the Baltic Sea, Peter the Great in the past will ’s maritime strategy is bound to be ruined.

In addition, the security situation in distant Central Asia and Siberia is not optimistic.

After the Dzungarian Khanate, which once dominated Central Asia, suffered heavy losses from the Qin State in the east, in addition to continuously attacking the Kazakh Khanate to the west to make up for its own losses, it also invaded the Omsk Military District from time to time, plundered immigrant settlements, and captured the population. , in retaliation for the empire's cooperation with Qin in attacking them.

In the Yenisei River Basin, local governors also constantly requested Moscow to mobilize more soldiers and armed immigrants to fight against the increasingly aggressive Bohai and Tatar people.

According to various indications, the Tatars entrenched in the Khovd area (today's Tangnu Ulianghai) should have "merged" with the Bohai people in the Lake Baikal area and are competing with the Cossack expeditions and numerous fur traders in Siberia. Fur resources.

At this time, the Russian Empire was like a leaky house that needed to be "repaired" and "cleaned up" everywhere. Therefore, it was necessary to take a breath first, but not to let others kick the house down.

Before the ice and snow melted, the two missions could not wait to set off from Moscow.

An emissary team headed west to Riga to meet King Carl XII of Sweden and try to negotiate an armistice between the two countries.

Another team of envoys headed southwest, preparing to go to Paris, France via Poland, trying to meet with King Louis XV of France and request France to intervene in mediation so that the war between Russia and Switzerland could be ended with dignity.

Shortly after the two envoy teams set off, several more envoys drove out from Moscow, escorted by a group of cavalry, and rushed to the lower reaches of the Volga River in the southeast.

On behalf of His Majesty the Tsar, they will go to Astrakhan to renegotiate and establish the subordination between the Empire and the Kalmyks.

Could it be that these Kalmyks who were once protected by the empire were determined to establish an independent country, so that they could completely break away from the empire and live in peace from now on? ——
Note 1: After Peter I won the Great Northern War with the Kingdom of Sweden in 1721, he was awarded the title of "Emperor of All Russia" by the Russian Senate on October 10, and Russia officially became an empire in the true sense.

(End of this chapter)