On the banks of the Moscow River, in the majestic Kremlin, Tsar Alexei sat on his throne, slowly sipping black tea (actually black tea) from Siberia, with a sad face.
Recently, the thirty-five-year-old tsar has been in trouble.
The war with Poland is finally over! Although Russia won the victory and officially incorporated Eastern Ukraine on the east bank of the Dnieper River into its territory. However, the treasury was empty, so empty. The young tsar was very poor, even worse than in the East.
The Emperor Guangwu, who liked to be militaristic and often had trouble making ends meet, was still poor. In order to solve the financial crisis, he had no choice but to order additional taxes and at the same time began to issue copper coins for the first time in the country.
There is nothing in the world that can bring money faster than coining money! Through coining money, His Majesty Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov successfully "solved" the financial crisis. After tasting the sweetness,
Continue to mint money until inflation has increased dozens of times, and the black bread that originally only cost one copper coin has increased to dozens of copper coins.
The people in Moscow could no longer survive and began to riot. This large-scale "Copper Coin Riot" was suppressed by the Tsar's troops not long after it broke out. Rows and rows of Dutch infantrymen with live ammunition, loyal to the royal family, the new regiment
and cavalry, marched into Moscow, and launched a bloody massacre against the hungry people, no, the mob. The official number was a thousand people killed, but only God knows the actual number.
As a result, Moscow returned to calm, and nothing seemed to have happened.
Is the situation really calm? The talented Tsar Alexei does not think so. He has read many books and knows that if the problem can be solved by relying solely on massacre, there will not be so many uprisings in history.
Frowning, he asked the imperial minister Afanasi Olkin Naxiaokin: "After the copper coin incident, how do people across the country evaluate me?"
Na Xiaojin lowered his head and replied with a low eyebrow: "The common people said that those unruly people had no regard for the law of the country and dared to riot. Your Majesty killed them right and well."
"Damn it!"
Tsar Alexei was furious, "I want to hear the truth."
Na Xiaokin wiped his sweat and said, "The common people do not understand the country's difficulties and His Majesty's painstaking efforts. Some people in Moscow call you a tyrant; among the Cossacks "Sechi" on the Don River, there are also people who are inciting to kill Boyar.
, nobles, officials and 'vampires of the village community'.
"Humph!"
Tsar Alexei snorted heavily from his nose. It seems that as he thought, the people in the country are boiling with resentment! No, the mood in the country must be appeased. The person who ordered the suppression of the Copper Coin Riot must not be me! And of course it is not me.
!
"Na Xiaojin, please draft a decree for me to immediately cancel the circulation of copper coins, or use gold and silver coins as the country's main currency."
"Yes, my Majesty!"
"In addition, I would like to inform the whole country that this currency reform was not my idea, but the work of those mediocre officials in the Statistics Department. I have dismissed the director of the Statistics Department."
"Yes, my Majesty." Na Xiaojin lowered his head this time and muttered in his heart. It seems that your Majesty is looking for a scapegoat in order to appease the people!
"In addition, I would like to inform the whole country that the deputy director of the army Yamen, Lejevich, suppressed the people without my consent. This is a heinous crime and he will be arrested and hanged immediately." Lejevich is a great nobleman in the Duma and the patriarch.
Nikon's confidant. Nikon has been a bit shameful recently. As the Patriarch, he actually advocates divine power over imperial power. I have warned him many times, but he has ignored it. I will kill his confidant today. Firstly, it can calm the public's anger; secondly, it can also be cut off.
Nikon's wings can shake the mountain and shake the tiger.
The tsar committed a murder, and he was still a high-ranking official. Na Xiaojin was so frightened that he did not dare to raise his head and broke out in cold sweat.
After Tsar Alexei said this, he did not end it, but tapped his fingers rhythmically on the imperial case. He was thinking about why some among the Don Cossacks instigated the killing of boyars, nobles, officials and "village communes"
"Vampire".
Today's Russia is rapidly strengthening the imperial power of the Tsar. Absolute imperial power means the deprivation of freedom. The "Conference Code" approved by the All-Russian Gentry Conference stipulates that the period for hunting down escaped serfs is indefinite.
Different from the increasing centralization of power in other regions of Russia, Ukraine and the Cossack region of the Don River still retain their independence. The tribal leaders at all levels are elected, not hereditary, and not appointed by the superiors. In order to win over the Cossack upper class, the Tsar
Grant the upper-level Cossacks titles and land, recognize their leadership status, and let them lead their tribes to open up wasteland and establish low-cost "outposts" to advance to the east.
The Tsar thought about it and felt that the upper-level Cossack nobles were still reliable, and the only ones who had objections were the untouchables at the bottom.
"Tell the Cossacks living in the upper reaches of the Don River, the lower reaches of the Don River, the Dnieper River, and the Volga River that as long as they perform bravely in the battle against the Ming Dynasty, they will receive my title and a large amount of gold and silver rewards," the Tsar said loudly.
He knew these freedom-loving horse-riding bandits very well. As long as he diverted their attention and encouraged them to plunder other countries, he would become a holy king in their eyes.
Na Xiaojin, who stood respectfully, was in admiration. His Majesty first issued copper coins indiscriminately and easily solved the financial difficulties. After provoking a civil uprising, he appointed officials to the Statistics Department and served in the Yamen. Those who were removed from their posts were removed from their posts, and those who were beheaded were beheaded.
It not only eliminated dissidents but also calmed the public's anger. Then, with a decree, the bandits, no, Cossacks living in the Don River, Dnieper River, and Volga River were deceived into attacking the Ming Dynasty. This effectively transferred domestic conflicts and stabilized the domestic situation.
This ability to turn one's hands into clouds and turn one's hands into rain is truly a king!
??
Tsar Alexei is indeed a hero, a very heroic kind.
At the beginning of his accession to the throne, there was a Duma controlled by the big aristocrats in the country, and an All-Russian Gentlemen's Conference with businessmen, monks, and scholars participating in politics. It was difficult to think that "I am the only dictator in the world"! Abroad, there was a powerful enemy Sweden in the north; there was a feud in the west.
Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania; to the southwest is Ukraine, which belongs to Poland; to the south is the Crimean Khanate, a Turkish vassal state that has always been hostile to Russia; on the southern steppe, the Don Cossacks are ostensibly obeying Moscow but are still independent from Tsarist Russia.
, is not reassuring. It can be described as internal and external troubles.
The young tsar is not a good one. He inherits the blood of the Romanov family. He can be gentle to others, but also cruel and ruthless. Once he seizes the opportunity, he will attack with all his strength and kill the enemy with one move.
He wanted to reform and make the relatively weak Russia stand out among the powerful European powers. The biggest resistance he faced was the Duma, a great aristocracy. Since Ivan IV implemented the special rule of the Tsar, the power of Russia's hereditary nobility has been weakened. But the great aristocracy has been weakened.
The aristocratic Duma is still the highest authority in the country. The coexistence of the tsarist autocracy and the great aristocratic Duma is Russia’s national condition.
In addition, in order to suppress the power of the great aristocracy, Ivan IV organized an all-Russian meeting of the gentry to allow businessmen, monks, and scholars to participate in political affairs, which also made him very unhappy. The Tsar, as the head of state of the Third Roman Empire (Russian
Self-proclaimed), I should be the sole dictator in heaven and on earth. Why do we have so many parliaments? Divide my power?
Alexey took action. First, he won over his teacher, the great serf owner Morozov, and let Morozov lead the reform. He also married Maria, the daughter of the great nobleman Grand Duke Miloslavsky, and Morozov also married Maria's sister (
Let’s talk about sister) Anna. In this way, the three of them became in-laws and became a family.
Then, reforms began and the 1649 Code was promulgated, which clearly stipulated how to deal with various phenomena in Russian social life at that time. It not only safeguarded the interests of the nobility and protected serfdom, but also stipulated that the period for hunting down escaped serfs was indefinite.
; Also requires nobles and monasteries to pay taxes.
In order to make the reform successful, he also tried his best to win over the Orthodox Church and became a devout Orthodox Christian. He supported Nikon, the abbot of the Kozheozhelski Monastery, to become the Patriarch and supported the latter in carrying out the religious reform, so that
The Orthodox Church became a major driving force for its own reforms.
In order to consolidate the imperial power, he gradually abolished the power of the All-Russian Council of Gentlemen to participate in political affairs; at the same time, he consciously changed the composition of the Duma of the great nobles. In addition to the hereditary nobles, some talented small and medium-sized nobles who were not from prominent families also became the great nobles.
Members of the noble Duma. As the number of small and medium-sized nobles continued to increase, their role in the Duma increased day by day. The big noble Duma gradually turned into a bureaucratic group that was completely subordinate to the tsar.
It is said that when the reforms have progressed to this extent, all power has been vested in the tsar, and he should be satisfied. But he is not satisfied. He feels that both local and central administrative agencies are far from meeting the needs of the tsar's hegemony under centralized power.
Therefore, reforms must continue. Some new yamen were established, mainly those closely related to the consolidation and development of the tsarist state power, such as the cadre yamen responsible for military and national defense, the fief yamen responsible for feudal territories, the yamen responsible for foreign affairs and
The envoy yamen that formulated foreign policy, as well as secret yamen, grain yamen, mercenary cavalry yamen, etc., established the Statistics Department and established a complete taxation system across the country. They also established the first school, the first charity, and the first
Orphanages and other social institutions.
Not only were they dissatisfied with the administration, they were also dissatisfied with the military system. The previous armies were mainly territorial shooting armies and armies of local governors.
At the local level, Russia implements a warlord system. The warlords in various places are basically nobles. They are appointed by the tsarist government as local administrators and are responsible for handling local military, administrative, taxation and judicial affairs. They control the local military.
Later, during the reign of Ivan IV, the Shooting Army was established. The Shooting Army was a permanent military force with a territorial nature. It had stronger combat effectiveness than the previous aristocratic armies, but it was still not a regular army.
Tsar Alexei believed that if he wanted to establish an absolute monarchy with imperial power supreme, enslave and suppress the people at home, and invade and expand abroad, the old-style aristocratic militia could no longer meet his needs. He must follow the example of the armies of Western European countries and establish a
A new, foreign-style army.
This army is called the "New Formation Regiment". After more than ten years of hard work, the strength of the New Formation Regiment has now reached 77,000. It is a semi-regular army. All expenses are provided by the state, including the infantry regiment and the cavalry regiment. Infantry Regiment
It is divided into musketeers and spearmen; the cavalry regiment is divided into hussars, dragoons, etc. Regardless of their origins, even if they are farmers, they will serve in active service for life. The shooting corps is recruited to fight in war and engage in peacetime.
Handicraft production and business.
Under the reforms of Tsar Alexei, Russia is emerging as an emerging power.