The Ming cruiser sank the Constantine, which had been on its way south only two years later.

The brig set sail from the port of Ayan on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk.

Its commander, Lieutenant Gavrilov, was ordered by Baron Wrangel, the general manager of the Russian-American Company, to reconnoiter the hydrographic data of South Sakhalin Island and the Heilongjiang estuary......

"Russian visiting fleet?"

Li Cheng was stunned for a moment.

"Yes, according to them, the tsar sent a general named Putiyatin, with a fleet of two cruisers and a transport, which had already set sail from St. Petersburg two months earlier, and was expected to arrive in Canton in half a year. The ship was to join him and act as a guide to the south, and they were to meet His Majesty the Emperor and present the Tsar's credentials to seek friendly relations between the two sides, and then the fleet would continue north to the Wa Kingdom and perform the same mission. If you are interested, they can join your country in attacking the Tatars in Manchuria and Mongolia, as long as they hand over the north of the Amur River and Sakhalin to them at that time, and they can even launch an attack in Central Asia, flanking the Tatars from the Tianshan Mountains to the east, and after the destruction of the Tatars, they will only need to the west of the Ili Valley. ”

Webster said.

Next to them was a dying Russian, Lieutenant Gavrilov, who had actually come with a friendly man, trying to unite with the Ming fleet and move together to get supplies.

However, I didn't expect that people didn't ask about it and it was a cannonball, but he didn't even have a chance to speak, so he let these barbarian guys sink the ship, fortunately, he and eight sailors escaped, but they were fished up and taken prisoner, and the accompanying interpreter also died, fortunately, someone among the Americans knew Russian to be able to explain clearly, at this moment the captain was looking at Li Cheng with expectant eyes, and at the same time trying to squeeze out a sincere smile......

"Hold on!"

Li Cheng waved his hand in disgust and said.

Lieutenant Gavrilov looked blankly at the two Ming soldiers who were walking towards him, and kept shouting to the interpreter in Russian with an anxious expression.

"He said they were friendly messengers!"

The translation is paraphrased in English.

"Tell him that there is no friendship between the Ming and Russia, and that they will go to the prisoner of war camp to work as coolies until their emperor pays a fine for them."

Li Cheng said in English.

Poor Lieutenant Gafrilov was dragged away just like that, screaming.

Immediately afterwards, Li Cheng turned his head and said to his secretary in Chinese: "Send a report to His Majesty the Emperor, it is obvious that we have forgotten something, we should give the Russians an official ultimatum, asking them to return the territory belonging to the Ming Dynasty, otherwise the Ming Dynasty will declare war on Russia, as for the Russian strongholds in the Pacific Ocean will be the target of the Ming Navy, and all Russian merchant ships will also be prohibited from passing through the waters controlled by the Ming Dynasty, this ultimatum will be sent directly to France, and our minister in France will hand it over to the French government for forward."

Your Excellency the Additional Special Envoy, "

He turned to Webster and said in English, "Your Excellency, you should call in your guide in advance. ”

"More than happy to oblige."

Webster said.

Then he said to Biddle: "Commodore General, I think our old iron-hulled should go to the Sea of Okhotsk and find a few whaling ships willing to come and lead the way for our friends, and the loss of their delay in the whaling will be paid by the US government." ”

Commodore Biddle smiled and saluted, then walked to the side of the ship, boarded the dinghy, and sailed to the Constitution.

A few minutes later, the Emperor received a telegram.

"This Li Cheng is still very knowledgeable, we are indeed negligent in this matter, we have to be upright, saying that whoever wants to be beaten must be beaten, and they must also be notified before beating anyone, so we will send a telegram to Paris according to his wishes, and let Chen Xin draft an ultimatum according to the meaning of the telegram and forward it to the Russians through the French government. Give them half a year, withdraw from the northern territories that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty within half a year, the direction of Central Asia can be suspended, and the west of the North Sea can also be suspended, we are not unreasonable, after all, this is a historical problem, which is caused by Jiannu, and can give them more time, but the part east of the North Sea, they must withdraw all immigrants in half a year, and then transfer these places to the Ming Dynasty, if they do not withdraw within half a year, then the Ming and Russia officially enter a state of war. ”

Yang Feng said.

This is fine, this is more straightforward, with such an ultimatum, then Nicholas I will definitely not engage in Xianfeng again, on the contrary, he has to vigorously support this good thug.

After all, there is Xianfeng in the middle, he doesn't need to pay attention to Yang Feng's pass at all, at this time, whether it is Northeast Mongolia or Northwest, but it is still under the control of the Qing Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty and the Russian-controlled area do not have a land border at all, and because of the climate, the Ming army can not really land in the north, even if it lands, it can only be in Heilongjiang, and Heilongjiang is still the Qing Dynasty's control area, as long as these places are still under the control of the Qing army, the Ming war against Russia has no practical significance.

The two sides are simply not close to each other.

At most, the Ming army can hit the Russian colonies on the Pacific coast, although it can cause a little loss to Russia, but this loss is insignificant, Nikolai doesn't care about the death of thousands of gray animals!

It is said that the annual mortality rate of those colonists of the Russian-American company is much higher than that of the war.

But if there is no Xianfeng, then Nicholas I will have to face the Ming army directly, whether the Ming army sweeps the Far East from the northeast and Mongolia, or the Ming army goes straight to Omsk out of the Tianshan Mountains, it is not something that Nikolai can afford, and in the era of the Great Trans-Siberian Railway, it is impossible for him to compete with the Ming army for the Far East. Because of the distance, the forces that the two sides can invest there are not the same level, and it is impossible for him, who is 5,000 kilometers apart, to fight with Yang Feng, who is 1,000 kilometers away. Even in Western Siberia, the Ming army's ability to project troops was stronger than his, although the distance from Dihua to Omsk was farther than from Yekaterinburg to Omsk, but it was not at all a difficult level to sail down the river in Burzin and march with his army across the Siberian wilderness.

It can be said that without the barrier of Xianfeng, he would not be able to fight against the Ming Dynasty east of Tyumen.

The shipping of the Irtysh River starts in Altay.

The Ming army went north by land from Dihua, got on a boat in Burqin, and could rush down the river until Tyumen, the Ming army did not need to fight with him in the Far East at all, as long as Xianfeng was destroyed and the Tianshan Mountains were controlled, they could go down the Irtysh River, and cut off two-thirds of the current Russian territory at once, so that Russia's expansion for more than 200 years would come to naught at once, everything was as simple as that, as long as Yang Feng got Xinjiang, the Irtysh River would become a knife that ran through the north and south of Russia, If this sword falls, Russia will have to lose two-thirds of its territory.

Nicholas I had no other choice.

And at this moment the first Ming cruiser had already arrived in Edo.

At this time, Edo had not even repaired the original historical Odaiba on the side of the sea, and the fort was also stimulated by Perry, and the only thing that could counterattack was a small number of cannons on Edo Castle, so it can be said that the entire coastal defense of Edo was completely Luoben. The Ming cruisers were not Perry's paddle steamers with a displacement of more than 3,000 tons and a draft of 5.8 meters, these small ships with a draft of no more than 3 meters of 5 or 600 tons were able to get as close to the coast as possible, and even took advantage of the high tide to directly enter the mouth of the Arakawa River. At this time, the coast was only as far as Tsukiji, and the two single-mounted four-inch guns at the beginning and tail could easily hit the shells to Edo Castle, which is the modern Tokyo Imperial Palace, and the northern area of Tsukiji, which was dominated by samurai and monk residences, could be said to be completely covered by the Ming army.

"Boom or not?"

Wu Ruxiao looked into the distance tangledly.

The arrival of these black ships was causing chaos in Edo, where the common people were fleeing in terror, the samurai were hastily mobilizing, and the men, women, and children were crying and screaming in the small wooden rooms that looked like toys and the wooden bridges that crossed the waterways.

"Generals, battleships and battlecruisers could not get close to range."

Said the chief of staff next to him.

"That doesn't matter!"

Wu Ruxiao waved his hand casually and said.

Edo Castle and Kagoshima are not at the same level, although it eventually became a Japanese imperial palace, but it was degraded, at this time Edo Castle was at least three times the size of the modern Tokyo Imperial Palace, and it only refers to the scope of the city wall and moat defense, if you even count the attached residential and commercial temple areas, it is also a large city within a radius of more than ten miles, not to mention four-inch cannons in theory, even six-inch cannonballs to bombard such a city have no practical effect.

But if you replace it with an arson bomb......

Well, the city burns on average once every three years.

And it was not a fire, to be precise, it was burned to the earth for a total of 90 times in 260 years, and it is said that because the temple thought that the clothes worn by a young girl were unlucky, so it was burned, and finally accidentally caused the Ming calendar fire, which burned for three days, burned two-thirds of the city, and burned more than 100,000 people.

"Boom, it's all here, it's nothing if you don't bomb, order the maximum elevation angle of each ship's four-inch main gun to aim at the main pill, and shoot a salvo first!"

Wu Ruxiao quickly made a decision.

As his order was issued, the sixteen cruisers that had approached a thousand meters of the harbor at this time, a total of thirty-two four-inch main guns, raised their muzzles to the maximum, and the bore of the guns was also quickly filled with the largest number of propellant packs, and they were all aimed at Edo Castle Honmaru, that is, the northeast corner of the modern Tokyo Imperial Palace. Because of its eye-catchingness, all 32 cannons were aimed at the northwest corner of the Honmaru, where the Edo Castle Castle Tower was located, but this supposedly seven-story castle tower was also destroyed in the Meiri fire, and it was not rebuilt due to limited financial resources, only a pedestal and some ordinary buildings, but because it itself overlooks the entire city, it can still be regarded as a commanding height.

"Fire, just one round, don't fight too much, it's still troublesome to kill Tokugawa Iekei!"

Wu Ruxiao said.