Two days later, Zeng Laojiu finally retreated to "Huo Qubing" Fort with his team.
Perhaps it was really the God of War’s blessing that we happened to meet another brigade delivering supplies.
Relying on Huo Qubing's fort, Zeng Laojiu finally drove away this group of Tsarist Russians.
Only then did he discover that the number of hunters in Tsarist Russia actually exceeded a thousand.
Such a large number of people is definitely not normal, and there must be people from Tsarist Russian officials behind it.
This time, a brigade led by Zeng Laojiu lost half its men, and many of them fell into the swamp.
Of course, the Tsarist Russians did not gain much either; they also suffered heavy losses.
Here in Xianbelia, the biggest problem is always the harsh environment. When you go out to fight, you must be prepared for non-combat attrition.
However, Zeng Laojiu still had to report such an abnormal situation.
After experiencing this loss, he will not explore westward for a while.
It is important to consolidate the string of fortresses along the middle line first.
The defensive strength of each fortress should be increased. It should no longer be so easy to give the enemy opportunities to defeat each one.
Holy Castle City, Royal Arsenal. King Alexander II in military uniform is inspecting the work here.
Tsarist Russia also developed its own breech-loading rifles and rear cannons. The Crimean War allowed them to fully learn the lesson of backward weapons.
What the Tsar came to see today was not these, but a sharp weapon that caused serious injuries to them in the East. Tens of thousands of Tsarist Russian soldiers shed blood in front of this deadly weapon.
This is a gun made of multiple tubes.
"Your Majesty, the demonstration is ready." Piotr Nowakworski, the head of the arsenal, said.
"Okay, let's go." Under the tight protection of the guards, Alexander II walked towards the testing site.
In a position made of sandbags in the experimental field, there was a firearm composed of seven thick pipes.
The appearance looks similar to the revolving machine gun of the Renaissance Army, but it is larger.
This rotary machine gun made by Tsarist Russia uses 12mm black powder copper-cased bullets. The caliber of the bullets is larger than that of ordinary breech-loading rifles today.
There is a solid bracket underneath it, so there is basically no need to consider recoil.
The magazine above the machine gun is like an oak barrel attached to the machine gun.
This gun fully demonstrates the simple and crude approach of the Tsarist Russians.
The demonstration began with several soldiers kneeling behind and on both sides of the machine gun.
One of them started to shake the handle. As the handle turned, a mechanical clicking sound came from the machine gun position.
The barrel of the gun randomly rotated, and fire began to emit from the muzzle.
A barrage of bullets was fired at a group of goats five hundred meters away.
A large number of blood holes instantly appeared on the white sheepskin, and some goats were even torn into two pieces by the huge bullets.
"Bah bang bang..." Alexander II took the lead in applauding.
The demonstration ended smoothly without any jamming. Factory director Piotr Nowakworski wiped his sweat silently in his heart.
The only problem with this gun is that it jams easily because of its delicate mechanical transmission.
And its rate of fire is very fast, and gunpowder residue is often adsorbed to the transmission device, causing it to jam.
Their solution was to make the gun bigger.
In this case, the parts inside will also become larger accordingly, making it less likely to get stuck and making it easier to clean.
After inspecting the arsenal, Alexander II returned to the palace under the escort of guards.
Recently, the number of guards around him has increased a lot, and multiple carriages have to be arranged to escort him when he travels.
This is because at the beginning of the year, Alexander II was assassinated.
Since he signed the Serf Emancipation Act, he has been under great pressure and feels that domestic conflicts should be alleviated.
His prestige should be greatly improved.
But the reality was not what he expected.
According to the decree of Alexander II, the personal dependence relationship between serfs and landowners was lifted, and they had the freedom to marry, move and receive education.
Then he also redistributed the land.
The landowners retained two-thirds and the serfs received one-third.
In the end, the serfs discovered that two-thirds of the land owned by the landlord was the best land, and one-third of the land allocated to them was the worst land.
There was still so little land given to so many serfs that it was not enough for them to cultivate.
What's more important is that serfs must compensate the landlord for their land, which means they must pay for it themselves.
This compensation must be paid by the serfs themselves.
The serfs naturally had no money in their hands, so they could only owe the money.
Then, looking back, they didn't have enough land, so they had no choice but to continue renting land from landlords.
These landowners suddenly became creditors. And these serfs sadly found that they could not repay their debts to the landowners.
Only then did the knowledgeable people in Tsarist Russia realize that internal problems could not be solved by relying on the Tsar.
So some of them stubbornly believed that the Tsar must be eliminated.
Just like the French did, only in that way can Tsarist Russia become stronger.
Those were the people who carried out the previous assassination of Alexander II.
Alexander II didn't realize this yet, he thought he had done a great thing.
Except that the lives of serfs have not been substantially improved.
The situation in Tsarist Russia is indeed much better than it was at the end of the war.
First of all, in terms of the external environment, the Great Empire and France successively offered him olive branches.
Borrowings from the two countries allowed Tsarist Russia to make up for its financial deficit.
Trade between Tsarist Russia and Western Europe has gradually recovered. Britain and France seem to be less concerned about Tsarist Russia.
With the outbreak of the Prussian-Danish War, Europe's attention was drawn to it.
The voices for uniting with Tsarist Russia to suppress the rise of Prussia are getting louder and louder.
The diplomatic environment in Tsarist Russia has never been better.
Over the past year, Tsarist Russia has developed its own breech-loading guns and breech-loading artillery.
Not only that, using loans from Britain and France, Tsarist Russia also transformed its own warships into steam power.
Everything seems to be getting better...
In the tsar's office in the Royal Palace of the Holy Castle, Alexander II was reviewing documents. He had changed into casual clothes.
Behind his desk is a huge portrait painted for him by a famous painter.
On the right side of the portrait is a map of Tsarist Russia and surrounding areas.
The area east of the Inesei River is dyed with a light red background.
Alexander II often stopped in front of this map.
On the left side of the portrait is a sculpture of a double-headed eagle, which is the totem of Tsarist Russia. However, one of the heads of this eagle is damaged.
It is said that His Majesty the Tsar knocked it down and broke it when he was angry. The palace steward was about to replace it, but Alexander II stopped him.
He hoped that every time he met with imperial officials, they would be able to see the red map behind him and the damaged double-headed eagle sculpture.
Alexander II was a very diligent Tsar. He spent about two-thirds of his day in the office reviewing documents or doing various inspections or inspection activities.
He is always energetic and has clear ideas. Under his leadership, the entire officialdom of St. Petersburg seems to have become more efficient.
"Your Majesty, Foreign Minister Gorchakov is here." the waiter reported.
"Let him come in directly." Alexander II replied without thinking. His eyes were always fixed on the document in his hand.
After a while, Gorchakov came in.
In the past two years, Gorchakov has been highly regarded by the new tsar.
He took over the mess of Tsarist Russia's diplomacy when it was at its lowest point.
It took two years to successfully change the isolated state of Tsarist Russia.
Of course, there are also influences from changes in the external environment. But Gorchakov can always seize these opportunities. This is his talent.
"Your Majesty!" Gorchakov saluted respectfully.
"Foreign Minister, is there any latest news?" The Tsar stopped what he was doing and glanced at Gorchakov.
The foreign minister has always satisfied him, and he understands Europa diplomacy as well as his own lover.
"Yes, Your Majesty." Gorchakov straightened up and, at the Tsar's signal, sat on a chair in front of him where he was doing his work.
"Thank you, Your Majesty. The British Minister just came to discuss some matters with me in private."
"The first thing is they want to replace our machine gun technology."
The Tsar's eyelids twitched, and his expression changed instantly.
"How did they get the news so quickly?" the Tsar said coldly.
"Your Majesty, maybe they are testing, because we are the only ones who have directly fought against the Renaissance Army, so they speculate that we have more technology. And the existence of machine guns has been spread for a long time. The British have also seen this kind of thing in the East.
."
"Then let them trade their technology. You come and talk to them. I want their armored ship manufacturing technology." The tsar calmed down a little.
"I understand, Your Majesty. I will go to Mr. Greg Rudlov of the Academy of Sciences. He should know what we need most."
Talking about work with Gorchakov always makes people feel relaxed, because he will automatically complete the Tsar's ideas.
Now that Europe has begun the construction boom of ironclad ships, Tsarist Russia naturally does not want to miss this shipbuilding competition.
As a top power in Europe, how could Tsarist Russia allow itself to lose at the starting line!
In order to acquire ironclad ship technology, Tsarist Russia has made a lot of efforts.
The Tsar even asked his wife to return to her natal family again, hoping to obtain ironclad technology from Prussia.
But Prussia seems to be very tight in this regard. Prince Adalbert also hopes to dominate the Baltic Sea by relying on the technological leadership of ironclad ships!
How can they leak these technologies now?
If the British offered technology in exchange, they could still consider it, but what does Tsarist Russia have?
money?
Prussia doesn't seem to be too short of money now.
This time the British took the initiative to find Tsarist Russia. The Tsar felt that this opportunity must be seized.
"Your Majesty, when the British chatted with me, they expressed their willingness to support us in recovering the territory in the east and restoring our influence in Central Asia." Gorchakov continued.
"Huh...support, what support do they have? We don't lack verbal support. They want us to fight the Renaissance Army to death. It seems that the Great Empire is very uncomfortable in India and Northern Amelia." The Tsar said
He said with a cold snort.
"Yes, Your Majesty, I was just about to tell you about things in India."
"Just in the first half of the year, the British sent two groups of expeditionary forces to India. The first batch of expeditionary forces was defeated. They almost lost the entire East Bengal region and the Ganges River Basin in northern India."
"These two places are the most elite places in the British Indian colony. There are four main groups of anti-British rebels. The Kingdom of Burma in the north, the Chinese who have fled to northeastern India, the princely states in the north, and the Tamils in the south
." Gorchakov introduced.
"Haha, there should be support from the Renaissance Army here. This Renaissance Army has identified the shortcomings of the British. It seems that the brightest bead on the Queen's crown is really going to be covered with dust." The Tsar sneered,
continued.
"Yes, Your Majesty, now that the second British expeditionary force has arrived, Calcutta can be saved. But they can still only huddle in the city of Calcutta. Now there is the latest news that a plague has broken out there. These
They have to suffer." Gorchakov was so mature and steady, and his words were full of schadenfreude at this time.
"Your Majesty, there is one more thing. The British and the Renaissance Army are still fighting for the central region of Canada. The Renaissance Army has made great strides. They have penetrated directly from Alaska to central Canada."
Hearing Gorchakov talk about Alaska, the Tsar's heart felt stinging again, and a sense of shame surged into his heart.
Not to mention the Far East, you can't beat them. Alaska is just a shame.
It was originally thought that this would cause a conflict between the Renaissance Army and the Great Empire.
But what?
It's been so long, why haven't these two families started to fight? The trade that needs to be done is still going on.
Well now, the Great Empire is still inciting Tsarist Russia to go to war with the Renaissance Army.
The Tsar did not want to be a gunman all the time.
"Foreign Minister, what do you think?" the Tsar asked.
"Your Majesty, the Great Empire's intention is very clear. It wants us to continue to contain the Renaissance Army."
"They definitely don't want to go to war directly with the Ba'ath Army. That way they might lose the Indian colony. Now that the Ba'ath Army has not directly sent troops, the Indian colonies are fighting like that. What will happen if the Ba'ath Army directly participates in the war? India
The northeast, north and northwest of the colony are all surrounded by the Renaissance Army."
The Tsar couldn't help but look back at the map.
Isn't that true? The plateau to the north and the northeast are all the territory of the Renaissance Army.
The Central Asia region to the northwest is now also the sphere of influence of the Renaissance Army.
"The best way for the British now is to abandon the Indian region and use its maritime superiority to compete with the Renaissance Army on the sea," the Tsar said.
"Yes, Your Majesty, but the British also have their own concerns. After the naval battle, if the Imperial Navy suffers too many losses, the French may be able to overwhelm them. The Renaissance Army's navy was the first to use ironclads. And
They easily defeated the Spaniards." Gorchakov also expressed his analysis.
From this point of view, it is the mutual restraint between the people of the European countries that has become a favorable factor for the Renaissance Army.
"Unless the European countries form a maritime coalition to attack the Renaissance Army together." Gorchakov raised a possibility.
The tsar nodded, this is indeed a plan, it does not require all countries to join forces, as long as Britain and France form a coalition together.
In this way, there is no need to worry about the imbalance of power in Europe after failure.
"Your Majesty, speaking of France, they did send a large-scale combined fleet to the East, but their purpose is unclear. Even Napoleon III, who is so happy about his success, is tight-lipped this time."
"Oh... this matter is interesting. Remember to follow up. I will ask the Intelligence Department to investigate later."
This news successfully aroused the Tsar's interest. Just now he was talking about the possibility of joint British and French troops.
Now it seems really possible. It's just that there aren't many conflicts between the French and the Renaissance Army yet.
If he gets three, he will definitely not go to war with the Renaissance Army. In that case, he will be a gunman for the Great Empire.
ps: This chapter is over, please vote for recommendations and monthly votes! It should be impossible for Europe and Europe to unite against the Renaissance Army. But it is possible for Britain, France and Russia to unite. Tsarist Russia will send troops from land to contain the Army of the Renaissance, and Britain and France will use the sea to contain them.
Can the Renaissance Army be able to resist the attack? Everyone is welcome to participate in analysis and comments.