It's the first day again, and Da Luo Luo Jia asks for a guaranteed ticket, can you give Luo Luo a big guaranteed ticket? Please.

Crown Prince Alexander's words were very light, but they made Emperor Zhu not in a good mood all day. He clearly remembered that there was an outstanding tsar in Russian history who abolished serfdom named Alexander II, and it seemed that this Alexander was the one who was. Nikolaevich too. I wonder if China's early rise will stimulate Russia? If Crown Prince Alexander had been able to convince Nicholas I to abolish the reform of serfdom before the conquest of the Turkish Empire, it would have been difficult for the Ming to expand to the north and northwest.

In the days that followed, Zhu Jishi held several rounds of negotiations with the Russian crown prince, but in the absence of the British ambassador, Robert Brown. Churchill was present, so the negotiations between the two sides were much more frank. Crown Prince Alexander said that he could consider handing over Sakhalin Island to the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time recognize the Ming Dynasty's sovereignty over Khalkha Mongolia and Xinjiang, and then survey the northwest and northern borders after the Ming Dynasty fully realized its unification.

At the same time, Alexander also proposed a "pan-continental alliance system". wanted to sign a continental alliance that included Russia, Austria, and Prussia, and vaguely told Zhu Jishi that the Russian Empire could recognize that the Ming Empire had the right to act freely in East Asia, and the Russian Empire could support the Ming Dynasty's suzerainty over Japan, Vietnam, Siam, Burma and other countries......

And Zhu Jishi also showed a heart-warming expression, but it was still like Alexander said: The Ming Dynasty cannot give up its traditional friendship with France and Britain, which is the basis for the continued progress of the Ming Empire. Without the support of Britain and France, the reforms of the Ming Empire would not have succeeded.

On the issue of the "Russo-Japanese War," Zhu Jishi put forward a "good-willed" advice: Russia's strength in East Asia was very weak, and it was simply not enough to invade Japan, and the nationalist sentiment in Japan was very high, and their shogunate and imperial court would not and did not dare to make any concessions to Russia, so Russia's persecution would eventually be fruitless. However, it was agreed to facilitate a meeting with a Russian envoy in Yokohama with senior officials of the Japanese shogunate.

In short, Zhu Jishi did not show too much hostility during the negotiation process with Alexander, nor did he make Alexander feel that the Ming had too much interest in Siberia.

Moreover, during Alexander's visit to Mingming, newspapers in Yingtian, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong all published a lot of negative news about the "development of Northeast China." The newly established collective farms were in a difficult situation. The newcomers are not adapted to the harsh climate of the Northeast. There is not even a single figure in front of the immigration recruitment points in Henan, Shandong, Beizhi, Shanxi and other places, and the local government has no choice but to pull the prisoners in the prison to make up the number in order to complete the recruitment target.

At the same time, the interest of the Ming people in going to the South Seas and the Americas is increasing, and the former is mainly driven by the rubber plantations and palm tree orchards of the Grand Duchy of Lanfang entering the harvest period. These two things are so easy to make money! So a boom in investment in rubber plantations and palm plantations was staged all over the South Seas. So there was a need for labor everywhere. Wages are also rising. A tree cutter earns twenty silver dollars a month!

The latter was due to the news of the discovery of a large gold mine in California (discovered in 1848) to China, and because Nanyang had already established the Shanghai-Yokohama-Hawaii-San Francisco trade route, thousands of Chinese with dreams of making a fortune began to pour into the Americas. Meantime. Some Taiping Heavenly Kingdom elements who were "exiled" by the Ming court also left China one after another to start a new life in the United States.

This situation made Crown Prince Alexander, who was visiting China, feel a little relieved. Although Eastern Siberia is vast, it is too desolate and cold after all, and the Chinese still yearn for a warm and humid land, right?

At a time when Russian-Chinese relations are tending to ease, Russian-Japanese relations are still very tense. A military advisory group led by Zheng Hong, King of the Ming Dynasty, had arrived at Edo Castle and moved into the newly built Western-style Yokohama Domain under Edo Castle. After arriving in Edo, Zheng Hong spent these days discussing coastal defense matters with the shogunate's high-level officials, helping the shogunate to reorganize and equip the new army.

Accompanying Zheng Hong around to inspect the new army of the shogunate were Matsudaira Saimin of the shogunate army, and Saiyu of the army and Beesuga Kiyu. These two men were actually the younger brothers of Tokugawa Iekei, the fourteenth and fifteenth sons of the previous shogun, Tokugawa Ieki, and were succeeded to Matsudaira Saitaka, the lord of the Tsuyama Domain, and Wasuka Saimasa, the lord of the Tokushima Domain, respectively. Because he was the brother of Tokugawa Iekei, he received special trust and was entrusted with the task of forming a new army. However, these two people don't have much ability to do things, and they don't know much about the new army, so the specific ones who do things are the two infantry officers, Matsudaira Rongho and Sakuma Zoyama, of which the former is also a member of the Tokugawa family, and is from the Takasu Matsudaira clan, a branch of the Owari family, one of the three Tokugawa royal families.

The Shogunate Army was chaotic, with two divisions under the command of two infantrymen. However, there were no infantry brigades or infantry regiments under the divisions, but various names such as "gun teams", "iron artillery teams", "artillery teams", "small gun teams", "withdrawal teams", "cavalry teams", "yuan infantry teams", "peasant teams", "town soldiers teams", "Yokohama infantry teams", "training teams", and so on.

The shogunate also established a military academy in Numazu, near Edo, which was headed by the shogunate Koguri Tadashun, who was dedicated to training officers of the new army.

The Forces nouvelles did not have a dedicated logistics department, but designated the Yokohama clan and the royal merchant Sagamiya Masagoro to be in charge of the logistics of the new army. Among them, the Yokohama clan was responsible for purchasing weapons and ammunition for the new army, and Sagamiya Masagoro was responsible for the army's rations, horses, and uniforms.

On the playground of the Yoyogi military camp, Zheng Hong and Sakuma Xiangshan walked side by side, followed by a large number of attachés wearing the military uniforms of Ming and Japan - the military uniforms of the Ming army were Western-style, very simple and practical. The military uniforms of the Japanese army are Japanese-style, with fat and loose clothes and pants with straw sandals and Japanese-style hats, and the weapons of ordinary infantry are not only a smoothbore gun or rifle, but also katana of different styles, of which the katana is provided by the soldiers.

The playground was full of officers and soldiers who were being trained, including infantry, horse and artillery teams, and the content of the training was mainly queues, target shooting, and hand-to-hand combat. The new army of the shogunate was very neat, that is, the officers and soldiers looked a little shorter in height and were not very spirited. The target shooting is not live ammunition, but it is just a reloading and shooting action, and it looks very skillful. However, hand-to-hand combat training is not to practice stabbing, but to train kendo, and some characters who are probably "swordsmen" are taught on the spot.

Their horse corps is not Western--all Eastern countries have such a misunderstanding when they build Western-style armies, thinking that Westerners are just foreign guns and artillery, and they can't work hard immediately, so infantry and artillery are relatively easy to Westernize, and cavalry is often still old-fashioned. As a result, when they encountered the cavalry of the Western army, they immediately threw off their armor and threw their armor. Of course, the current Japanese shogunate does not think that the Western cavalry is very powerful, so their new army horse team is still the set of "mother's clothes", composed of skilled flag warriors, riding Japanese ponies, emphasizing individual martial arts and bravery, and not paying attention to team cooperation. Seeing that their queue is similar to that of the Eight Banners Horse Team, it is estimated that Zhu Jishi's guards cavalry will be defeated immediately.

Zheng Hong said with a smile: "Mr. Sakuma, the new army of the shogunate is still very good, two divisions, a new army of 24,000 people, if it is enough to defeat the same number of Russian troops on the rugged and complex terrain." Now the question is how to trick the Russians out of the boat, if they don't go ashore, this army will be useless! ”

Sakuma Xiangshan nodded silently: "The trouble is here, how can they go ashore?" Now that the number of the new army is limited, it will not be able to defend the whole of Japan at all, and if the Russians harass them from all sides, it will be very difficult to deal with, and if the war continues, the finances of the shogunate and the feudal domains will go bankrupt, and then there will be chaos without a fight. ”

As he spoke, he suddenly smiled and said, "But I have a way to trick the Russians into a place where we can reach ......" (to be continued......