Zheng Yong's family has been in Arkhangel for a long time. It was August, and it was the most beautiful season in Moscow, Zheng Yong's wife Veronica and a pair of children were happily playing around with the daughters of some local leaders, but Zheng Yong himself was still staying at the East Coast Commercial Station by the dock to discuss with the local stationmaster Schneider how to open up the Moscow market, how to expand contacts and collect intelligence locally.

Perhaps the bad luck of the East Coasters had run out in Poland, and now they were not in the Moscow State, for not long after the establishment of this caravanserais, a great deal came to the door: Boris, a Moscow merchant who had led a caravan from Astrakhan to Kaffa, was transferred by the Tsar to Arkhangel to negotiate with the East Coasters for the purchase of a large number of ordnance.

It is said that since the Cossacks set off a huge uprising in 1648, the Polish army has been defeated in successive battles, and the standing army has almost been lost. At that time, the Cossack rebel army led by Khmelnitsky had reached Lviv, and the crown territory of Poland's core had been opened to the Cossacks and Tatars, but the Tatars, who were afraid that Poland would be excessively weakened by the Ukrainians, decided to make peace with Poland and threaten the Cossacks who had fought side by side.

Faced with various real threats (the Tatars turned against him, tens of thousands of cavalry were eyeing him, the Polish parliament was also organizing the private army of the nobles to assemble and prepare for a decisive battle), and he was always seeking "recruitment" from the Kingdom of Poland, so he soon signed the Treaty of Zborov with the Poles in August 1649. The Poles officially recognized the independence of the Cossack hetmanate, and the two countries were reconciled.

But it was clear that the matter did not end there, as the Poles were not content to be defeated. Especially those Polish landlords who fled back from the Ukrainian regions, as well as Polonized Ukrainians. The Polish parliament has been urging the Polish parliament to send troops to regain the lost territory and suppress the Ukrainians who are revolting. The Polish aristocracy preferred to send troops, so they began to actively hoard war materials and prepare for war.

On the other hand, the upper echelons of the Cossack rebel army, headed by Khmelnitsky, became the rulers and large landowners of the country after the formation of the Cossack Hetmanate, and their interests were already contrary to those of ordinary Ukrainian peasants. And according to the content of the Zborov treaty. The Cossacks were no longer allowed to arbitrarily confiscate the property of the Poles, and the Cossack Emirate recognized a Qiē interest of the Polish landowners in the territory. The fugitive serfs had to return to the farms to continue serving the landlords. This caused many rebel soldiers to blow up their nests, because they did not understand why the country they had fought so hard to establish now demanded that they continue to return to the manor to be serfs for the Polish lords? Isn't that!

So. Khmelnitsky and other Cossack rebel elites lost the morale of the army and the people, and the soldiers of the rebel army no longer trusted these officers and were no longer willing to fight for them in a vague way. However, at this time, Khmelnitsky had already deteriorated, and he was born in the aristocracy, and he had no good feelings for the rebel serfs, and he only used them before, but now he has achieved his goal. Naturally, they no longer want to see the existence of the Zài rebels in the country, because this may threaten the rule of these upstarts.

As a result, he received little reply from the rebel soldiers who had gathered to question him. Instead, they launched a brutal crackdown and sold them all to the East Coasters, making a lot of money. However, Khmelnitsky's violent actions, instead of frightening the rebel soldiers, who were once again left with nothing, caused them to fight back, and the situation in the Cossack Hetmanate, which had just calmed down, was renewed. Civil war is on the verge of breaking out.

At this time, the whole Muscovy, which was adjacent to the nascent Cossack Hetmanate, was also wide-eyed. Closely watching every move of the Ukrainians. In the spring of this year, the Tsar ordered the gathering of thousands of soldiers to be stationed in Putsyvry, south of Voronezh, nominally to prevent unrest in the Cossack Hetmanate from spreading to Moscow, but in reality to intervene in the situation in the country at any time.

It is worth mentioning that these thousands of soldiers mobilized by the Muscovites are not all, according to the tsar's plan, the number of this force, which is ready to intervene in the situation in Ukraine at any time, will end up between fifteen thousand and twenty thousand people. And if the Polish royal army is also involved in the situation in Ukraine, that number may continue to grow – since the defeat in the Smolensk war two decades ago, the entire Muscovy has been looking forward to a final disgrace.

This force, numbering more than 15,000 men, will be drawn from all parts of Moscow, and the armament of these old-style armies is undoubtedly extremely poor, and most of them are still cold weapons, and the few muskets they are equipped with are basically old-fashioned arquebuses, and the caliber of the artillery is pitifully small, and it is generally one or two eras out of touch with Western Europe.

Muscovy, from the Tsar to the military officials, was naturally well aware of the state of the old army, which was in large numbers in the country. They have been trying to improve the situation all these years, so that when their government finances have improved a little better—the economy of Tosio has recovered, the exports of furs, timber, shipgear, cables, wax, and tar from Muscovy have greatly improved, and the government's finances have improved considerably—they intend to reequip this army at the first opportunity, so that they may have sufficient capital to intervene in the situation in Ukraine and satisfy the insatiable desire of the whole government for new land.

When the Muscovites came to the door, Zheng Yong, Schneider and others were naturally extremely happy, because their trading station had not yet opened much. In the warehouse of the East Coast Merchant Station in the dock area (temporarily rented, the site of the East Coast Merchant Hall has been determined, the land has also been purchased, and is now under construction), there is really a batch of munitions, about 7,000 flintlock rifles, 4,000 sabers, 8,500 standard spears, 2,000 pairs of cuirasses, 1,500 saddles, and many military kettles, pickaxes, shovels, bandages and other gadgets, with a total value of about 190,000 yuan.

These weapons were temporarily transferred from the Riga trading post, where they had been stored for months. After all, it is not easy to do business in Muscovy, which is on the edge of the wilderness of Europe, and it is not easy to do business, and it is good to sell military materials, spirits, tobacco, cheap textiles, metal utensils, etc. Zheng Yong and others brought these things with them when they came to Arkhangel from Riga on the old ship owned by the trading station, and some of the thick cotton cloth, spirits, and metal farm tools in it have been sold out, and although the sales of weapons and military goods have gone through some twists and turns (some British and Dutch merchants protested against Muscovy's decision to buy high-quality and low-cost East Coast ordnance), the Muscovites, seeing the tense situation, resolutely resisted the pressure of some Dutch and British merchants and ate all the ordnance brought by the East Coast people from Riga. It is used to arm troops stationed in the south and ready to intervene in the situation in Ukraine.

The reason why the Muscovites made up their minds so quickly, and did not hesitate to offend the English and Dutch merchants who had first cooperated with them, was naturally considered from an economic point of view. Now that the situation in Ukraine is becoming more and more tense, Khmelnitsky has lost the morale of the army and the people at home, and the Polish royal army, which is facing the treacherous resumption of the war abroad, has now lost consecutive battles and has almost reached the end of the road. The only people he could rely on now were the Moscow Tsar, the Crimean Sultan, and the Ottoman Sultan - of course, Khmelnitsky and his core men would rather surrender to the Muscovites and even the Polish army than to the Tatars and Turks.

And he himself did just that, begging the Tatars to intervene in the situation (with the intention of using them to frighten off the Polish army), and at the same time contacting the Muscovites, frequently asking the tsar for arms, supplies, money, and men, otherwise he would turn to the Muslim infidels. The tsar and his ministers were naturally not stupid, they were all lords who did not see rabbits and eagles, and in the face of no substantial benefits (such as the Cossack hetmen claiming to Moscow as vassals), they would not send troops on their own, but only put troops on the border and watched from the wall, waiting for the Cossacks and the Polish royal army to weaken each other.

However, the temporary absence of troops to support the Cossacks does not mean that the Russians are not ready for war. In fact, at present, they have deployed a lot of standing troops to the front line, war materials are also being intensively raised, and the opinions of domestic nobles and ministers are gradually becoming unanimous, that is: increase intelligence collection and effectively grasp first-hand information about Ukraine; frantically hoarding war materials and being ready for military intervention at any time; Cossack officers were bought off at great expense so that they would serve Muscovy instead.

These measures have been in place for some time, with partial mobilization in the southern provinces of Muscovy, and in the event of an escalation of the situation, Moscow's troops will enter the Ukrainian regions, while the rear will also carry out a second phase of mobilization to gather at least 50,000 troops in preparation for the battle with the royal army of Poland. As for their goal, it is to annex the entire Ukrainian region, and if things don't go well, then at least the left bank of the Dnieper, across the river from the Kingdom of Poland, and then slowly try to do it.

As for the imminent war between Poland, Moscow, Ukraine, and Crimea, the people of the East Coast are naturally happy to see it. To this end, the major trading posts of Riga, Arkhangel, and Kaffa began to operate rapidly, and began to pre-order large quantities of war materials from the country; At the same time, under Mo San's overall planning, they also contacted and hired ships on a large scale, preparing to buy all the slaves captured by the war, and then send them back to the mainland to build infrastructure, or send them to Xinhuaxia Island, which has a very high mortality rate, to pioneer the land.

Why not be a strong man who can afford to pay too much (war materials seem to the people of the East Coast to be more or less expensive), and who can also raise the status of the Republic of the East Coast in the region and provide the conditions for future intervention in the international affairs of the region? (To be continued)