I

   Chapter 962 958 [Tsar]

  Fei Ruhe and Zhang Tieniu left Nanjing quietly.

  Fei Ruhe went to Shaanxi to control the Shanxi, Shaanxi and Monan troops. Zhang Tieniu went to Hebei to control the Hebei, Liaoning and Modong troops.

  They had nearly a year to mobilize troops, recruit civilians, and coordinate supplies. Local officials must cooperate. Datong Bank, Datong Navy and Nanfang Maritime Merchants will also transport grain overseas for them.

  In addition, Li Zheng's Anton Governor's Mansion will also cooperate in the battle.

  Fei Ruhe's West Route Army is expected to dispatch 80,000 troops, including 30,000 infantry and 50,000 cavalry (including Mongolian cavalry). There are also 150,000 civilian husbands and 300,000 mules and horses.

  Zhang Tieniu's Central Route Army is expected to dispatch 100,000 troops, including 40,000 infantry and 60,000 cavalry (including Mongolian cavalry). There are also 180,000 civilian husbands and 300,000 mules and horses.

  Li Zheng's East Route Army is expected to dispatch 6,000 troops to take Nerchinsk directly along the Heilongjiang and Shileka Rivers, occupy the confluence area of ​​the Shileka River, Yinguoda River, and Onen River, and prevent the enemies from the Hulunbeier Grassland from fleeing north. If you have spare energy and time, attack the Cossacks and recover the Baikal area!

  In this battle, military expenses cost at least 40 million taels of silver, not to mention so many mules and horses, and hundreds of thousands of civilians have to be paid wages!

  If the battle goes well and takes a short time, maybe 30 million taels can be done.

  …

  When China was preparing for war, the Russian mission had already returned to Moscow.

   Tsar Alexei I is facing various difficulties, or has been facing difficulties.

  At the beginning of his ascension to the throne, he was controlled by the powerful minister Morozov, and was forced to become a brother-in-law with the powerful minister.

  The ministers of power raised the salt tax higher than the price of salt, and canceled the salaries of blacksmiths, carpenters, shooting soldiers, and urban civil servants, so that these people did not get paid to work for the government. Then, the shooting army tax and post tax were pursued.

  A series of coquettish operations eventually led to an uprising of Moscow citizens, and artisans, merchants, soldiers, and nobles united to rebel.

   Many nobles in power were killed, and Alexei I took the opportunity to launch an attack and exiled the powerful minister Morozov to the monastery.

  The tsar is finally in power.

  He recalled the officials exiled by the powerful ministers, exempted the arrears of taxes, convened a meeting of the gentry, and formulated the "Conference Code". It also reorganized government agencies, improved the tax system, formed a new army, comprehensively studied European culture, curbed the expansion of church power, established the first new school in Russian history, and annexed Eastern Ukraine.

  Everything is thriving, but unfortunately the treasury has no money.

  The Ottoman Empire also ended the chaotic era of queens and launched an attack on Russia again. While he was fighting Ottomans, he was fighting Poland and Sweden. The continuous wars made Russia very poor.

  His daughter, Princess Sophia, who is also Wei Xiaobao's lover, is three years old this year.

   As for the son Peter the Great, he has not yet been born.

  The leader of the mission, Baykov, had an audience with the Tsar in the palace, and there was still the virtuous minister Olgin Nashokin standing next to him.

  The prime minister Nashokin is very powerful, proficient in mathematics, Latin, German and Polish, and has long been dealing with Western European countries. He felt that Russia was too backward and had to study hard, even from the enemy.

   Later, Peter the Great's successful reforms were inseparable from the solid foundation laid by Nashokin.

  Baykov, who returned from Nanjing, knelt down and bowed to the tsar and the prime minister: "Your Majesty, the capital of Khitan is not in Khan Bali (Beijing), but has been moved to a big city called Nanjing."

   "Where is Nanjing?" Alexei I asked.

   Baykov took out the map he got from China, which was still the civilian version, without marking mountains, rivers and rivers. He was allowed to come to the Tsar, pointed to the map and said, "Your Majesty, Nanjing is here."

  The tsar and the prime minister looked around the map for a while.

Baykov said: "Twenty years ago, the Khitan Kingdom fell into civil strife, and the emperor committed suicide in Khan Bali. Today's Khitan Emperor is called Zhao Han. He raised troops from here (Jiangxi), defeated all the enemies, and established a country called 'Datong'. 'The Khitan Dynasty. Then, it expanded its territory crazily, and the Khitan country was unprecedentedly large."

  Prime Minister Nashokin asked: "Are there so many dependent countries and territories overseas? Expansion like this, I'm afraid the finances won't be able to bear it."

Baykov said: "On the contrary, the emerging Khitan Datong Dynasty is the wealthiest country I have ever seen. The national stockpile has enough silver coins for a hundred years. Moreover, the lives of the Khitan people have not been affected by the war. I In Nanking, not even a beggar can be found, and even the humblest servant lives better than a Moscow craftsman."

   "How is this possible?" Nashokin was so shocked that he couldn't understand it at all.

   Alexei I asked: "How did the Khitan emperor do it?"

Baykov said: "There are a lot of Khitan people. Nanjing alone has a population of one million. There are more than a dozen such cities (bragging). And there are nearly a hundred cities with hundreds of thousands of people. Khitan Although the population is large, there is no poll tax, only land tax and industrial and commercial tax. Silver from various European countries is flowing into Khitan, because Khitan is rich in silk, porcelain and spices."

   Nashokin muttered to himself: "What kind of powerful country is this?"

Baikov said: "The Netherlands has been driven out of the Far East by the Khitan. I heard that they have been defeated many times, and they are completely powerless to fight back. The mighty Spain was also defeated by the Khitan, and more than half of Spain's colonies in the Far East were annexed by the Khitan. .”

   Nashokin was dumbfounded.

  Because the Dutch navy is very powerful, Russian fur is also sold through Dutch merchants. The Russian prime minister admires the Netherlands very much, and is currently hiring the Dutch to build the Russian navy—the main ship is a small three-masted sailing ship, and the rest of the warships are all small gunboats. The naval regulations are all copied from the Netherlands.

   "The powerful Dutch navy has been beaten so incapable of fighting back?" Nashokin couldn't believe it.

Baykov said: "When I returned to China, I saw densely packed Khitan merchant ships in a port called Shanghai. There are countless such ports. If the Khitan emperor wanted to fight, he could recruit thousands of merchant ships to fight at any time. And , I met the British prince in Nanjing. The exiled British prince married his younger sister to the Khitan crown prince. I also met envoys from France, Persia and many other countries. They were all sent by the king to Nanjing to meet the Khitan emperor. .”

  Na Xiaojin asked: "In a country as vast as Khitan, is there no noble lord who rebelled? Perhaps, we can provoke civil strife in Khitan."

Baykov said: "Although there are nobles in Khitan, there is no lord who controls the land. The emperor has unlimited power, and there is a parliament (cabinet) under the emperor. The speaker and members assist the emperor to rule the country, and under the parliament, there are military, Taxation and other departments. They set the whole country into several governor districts (provinces), the governors are completely appointed and dismissed by the emperor, and each governor has a term of office, and must be transferred to other places when the term expires. All generals also obey orders emperor."

   Alexei I said: "The general obeys the emperor's orders, so a large standing army must be maintained. How many standing troops are there in Khitan?"

Baikov said: "The first-level standing army (regular divisions) has hundreds of thousands, the second-level standing army (patrolling soldiers) hundreds of thousands, the third-level standing army (police force) hundreds of thousands, and the number of reserve troops (farmers and soldiers). million."

  The tsar and the prime minister looked at each other.

  Na Xiaojin became more and more confused: "How many people are there in Khitan? What about the millions of reserve troops?"

"The population of Khitan has already reached hundreds of millions," Baikov said. "As for the millions of reserve troops, all of them are peasants. The Khitan emperor was originally just a commoner. All of them are distributed to farmers for farming without compensation. Therefore, all farmers support him and are willing to serve as a reserve army for him without compensation, and conduct military training when they are not farming.”

   "He gave all the land to the peasants?" Alexey was dumbfounded.

  In Tsarist Russia, where more than 90% of the population is serfs, this shocking news is more terrifying than China having millions of troops.

  Na Xiaojin asked: "Is there no serf in Khitan?"

Baykov nodded: "Yes, there are not only serfs, but also other slaves. The Khitan Emperor is a philosopher. He believes that all men are created equal, and no one is nobler than the other. Even the dung diggers are different in personality. The emperor is also equal. Therefore, his title is Minshi Emperor, which literally translates to Peasant Emperor."

   "Is there no one against him?" Alexei asked, "He distributed the land to the peasants, but who will be the official? How can such a large empire find enough literate people?"

Baykov said: "Those who opposed him were either killed or exiled. As for literacy, this is what Khitan lacks most. Even Khitan farmers, regardless of boys and girls, can Go to school to study. Khitan has an imperial examination system, where officials are selected and appointed according to their talents, learning and moral character. Even descendants of nobles must take the imperial examination and cannot be directly awarded official positions."

  The Russian monarchs and ministers were all dumbfounded. They could not understand or even imagine this system.

Baykov continued: "So officials in Khitan are all people with outstanding knowledge and moral character. Few officials in Khitan will be corrupt. If they hear that they embezzle hundreds of copper coins, they will be exiled. There is a proverb in Khitan that officials If you can’t seek benefits for the people, you should quit your job and go home to grow sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are a kind of root food from America. Therefore, Khitan civilians love and respect their officials and emperors. The last Khitan emperor was taxed too heavily , committed suicide when the peasant army broke through the capital."

Nashokin advocated learning from foreign countries and his own enemies. When he heard this, he said: "Your Majesty, please send another mission to Khitan, and send some outstanding young people there. Only by learning from Khitan can Russia be strong." .to reach one percent of Khitan, we are enough to defeat Poland, Sweden and Ottomans."

  Aleksey I was kind, and said: "I will leave this matter to you to arrange."

  Alexey used to be envious of the King of France, but now he is starting to envy the Emperor of Khitan. He even felt a bit of admiration in his heart: "Tell me all the news about the Emperor of Khitan."

  Baykov held up a book: "This is "The King of Kings-The Biography of the Great Khitan Emperor" written by the French envoy. I copied a copy in Latin."

  (end of this chapter)