"Perhaps there will be many people who will question what I say next, refuse to believe it, doubt me for being alarmist, or even think that I am talking nonsense, but I want to tell you all, these are facts, cruel and cold facts, if We let it go, despise it, or even ignore it. Maybe our generation can’t see it, but our descendants will definitely be punished..."

Feng Ziying keeps saying that she is not an alarmist, but in fact she is an alarmist, but it is necessary.

There is no harm in exaggerating appropriately, because the group in front of them still has a very shallow and insubstantial understanding of the outside world. In their minds, the vast outside world, especially the threats from the West, are still a scabies disease and are not worth mentioning. Without waking them from their slumber, it would be difficult for them to respond to what in a few decades would become the most realistic threats looming over their country.

“…, the former Golden Horde began to split as early as two hundred years ago, forming the Kazakh Khanate, Kazan Khanate, Crimean Khanate, Astrakhan Khanate, and Shibier Khanate. (Siberian Khanate) and other khanates where people of different sizes lived a mixed life of nomadic and settled life,…”

There is no other way. To wake these people up, we must first help them learn about the current world situation.

They know that the Golden Horde (Kipchak Khanate), after all, the Great Zhou Dynasty came as a continuation of the previous Ming Dynasty, and the previous Ming Dynasty came after overthrowing the Yuan Empire, and after the Great Yuan Empire reached its peak, it split into several great khanates, and the Jin Dynasty The Horde is considered to be the most vast territory among them, and everyone here knows about it, but after all, it is too far apart. Although everyone knows about it, they don't have much impression, and it happened hundreds of years ago.

 Everyone was silent and listened to Feng Ziying's introduction.

Feng Ziying has always been targeted. Since we start from the history of the Northern Yuan Dynasty hundreds of years ago, this must be the reason.

“As for the locations of these khanates, you can take a rough look at this map…”

Feng Ziying took the map he drew by himself, processed it according to the standard map by the Staff Department of the Ministry of War, and put it in the Staff Department of the Ministry of War, and brought it over this time.

 Actually, this is just a rough map. Its accuracy is difficult to say. It is entirely based on Feng Ziying’s memory. It may be very different, but the general direction will not be different.

"This is our court. Look, here is the westernmost end of Ganning Town - Jiayuguan. Here is Shazhou. Further to the west, you may also know that this is Turpan. It is currently controlled by the Governor of Turpan of the Yarkand Khanate. Further to the west is the headquarters of the Yarkand Khanate. Maybe everyone’s impressions only stop at this area, but I want to say further to the west and north,..."

With a map as proof, everyone's understanding will be much easier. At least from the map, we can feel the spatial distance between places and the approximate time required to reach them.

"As I said just now, there is one Shibier Khanate. Its location is in this area. Well, it looks very vast. It is just north of the original Oaradi, which is the vast area north of the current Yarkand Khanate. , to the west of the Shibier Khanate should be the already destroyed Kazan Khanate, which was also part of the original Kipchak Khanate. Who destroyed it? Russia."

 Feng Ziying emphasized her tone when mentioning the word Russia.

 In fact, many people here have heard of this term. Russia is a big country thousands of miles away from the Great Zhou Dynasty, with an aggressive nature.

Thanks to the popularity of "Today's News" and "Internal Reference", many civil servants now are not ignorant of the outside world, but are limited to their thinking and understanding. They do not have a deep understanding of it, especially the lack of maps, so they cannot Know these situations more intuitively.

"As you can see on the map, the area of ​​the Shibier Khanate is about half of our Zhou Dynasty. However, their population is relatively small because the climate is bitter and cold. It is roughly the same as ours in Liaodong. There are too many forests and swamps. , it is estimated that the population will not exceed one million people, and the possibility of three to five million is relatively high... In fact, the population of Russia before this was not large, probably five to six million people, but this country started from the monarch When it comes to soldiers and even some local nobles, they are aggressive,..."

"It only took fifty years for the Shibier Khanate, which accounted for more than half of the area of ​​the Great Zhou Dynasty, to be invaded and annexed by Russia. The specific time should be about twenty years ago. The Shibier Khanate perished. All the people became slaves of the Russians, and a hundred years before that, Russia also annexed the Astrakhan Khanate and the Kazan Khanate, which were several times larger than itself..."

"Now, the Russians have extended their claws further east, that is, to the north of the Mongols, and even to the north of Liaodong. I can assert that if we do not take measures early, the Russians' aggression will be Within fifty years, we will set foot on the Mongols and our northeastern Liaoning. At that time, the Russians may form a huge encirclement from the Yarkand Khanate in our west to our northeastern Liaodong..."

"I would like to remind you that Russia is different from any other country we have come into contact with. They are not like the Spanish, Dutch and English people who came from Southeast Asia. They are not here. They need Coming across the ocean, it also took a lot of effort to conquer the natives of Southeast Asia. Although Russia is far away from us, it is connected by land. They adopt this method of cannibalism and continue to expand viciously, toward our great circumference. Step over step by step,..."

"And they are completely different from the Kipchak Khanate, Mongolia and Jianzhou Jurchens. They are also proficient in iron smelting and have advanced casting and firearm-making technology. They are far better than countries like Korea and Japan. At the same time, they have always been Being in the north, they are more adaptable to the cold climate of northern forests, grasslands and swamps than us Han people, so they can continue to expand in an orderly manner..."

Hearing Feng Ziying speak so confidently, everyone was a little embarrassed to reply.

You have to say it's impossible. Feng Ziying spent so much energy to elaborate on it. It seems that there is no need to be so alarmist or unfounded.

You might say it's possible, but it's thousands of miles away. It would take a month or two for a horse to reach Jiayuguan, the westernmost point of the Great Zhou Dynasty, not to mention how many rivers, mountains and forests separate it.

However, Feng Ziying vowed that within fifty years he would set foot in the surrounding areas of the Zhou Dynasty, not only Turpan in the west, but also Liaodong in the northeast. This is a bit incredible.

“Grand Scholar Feng, according to you, the Russian invasion is inevitable, and neither the Yarkands nor the Mongols can stop them?”

Chai Ke took the initiative to ask.

"Whoever underestimates the greed, tenacity and shamelessness of Russia under the Tsar will eventually suffer a big loss." Feng Ziying's attitude was extremely firm and clear. "For such a country, the best way is not to be a neighbor, but if you can't avoid it, , then we can only deal with it with the most powerful force. Whenever he stretches out his claws quietly, he must cut off his claws and make him feel pain. Only in this way can he be stopped. Keep in mind his ambitions and never let down your guard against him!"

"So the army in Liaodong cannot be reduced? Even the army in Ganning Town must be strengthened?" Chai Ke asked with a smile: "I remember you mentioned before, Bachelor Feng, that in view of the importance of Nanyang to the Great Zhou Dynasty, the water The division fleet will be greatly expanded. The Denglai Navy, Fujian Navy, and Guangdong Navy will all be expanded on a large scale. The warships will all be updated to Western-style sail warships. But now the only one that is really under the jurisdiction of our Great Zhou Dynasty is There is also Palawan, Old Port, and Managa in East Fan. Although we Han people are there, the Westerners and local indigenous people have considerable influence. If we want to deeply intervene, the investment will be huge. These You need to comprehensively consider whether it is worth it.”

Huang Ruliang actually doesn't agree with Feng Ziying's view. The internal and external troubles have been roughly solved, but the imperial court still maintains nearly one million troops. If it does not disarm, it will not be justified in any case. Now it has to expand the navy. After all, The Ministry of Revenue’s investment in the military may increase instead of decreasing. How can this be possible?

But Huang Ruliang also knew that merchants, including those from the south of the Yangtze River, were paying more and more attention to the management of Nanyang, because the silk, tea, porcelain, medicinal materials, paper, salt from the south of the Yangtze River, and the iron and iron products from the north were exported to Nanyang, as well as the Western Yi who relied on Nanyang as a transit hub. Human exports continue to grow, especially the three major categories of porcelain, tea and silk. The exports, especially the transit exports from Luzon and Manchuria, have become the most important source of income for these three categories of materials in Jiangnan.

In addition to the import of large amounts of white smoke, large quantities of copper, tin, precious wood, spices, and rice from Nanyang were also imported. Dagu has quickly replaced Yuguan and Dengzhou as the most important port for importing Nanyang materials in the north.

The merchants have made a lot of money, and they are no longer satisfied with relying entirely on trade. Nanyang is a land without a owner, and the domestic population pressure has also forced the court to consider the policy of relocating immigrants. Liaodong and Dongfan are the first choices. , Nanyang is the second choice, followed by Ezo and the current Nuergandu jurisdiction outside Liaodong.

When people enter places like Nanyang, they can extract and process various local resources nearby and then import them into the country. Merchants can further gain access to the market and make greater profits at the same time. However, in the face of the disputes between the Xiyi and the local indigenous people, , if there is no military escort, the interests of businessmen will definitely be violated.

Because of this, Chai Ke, as a Huguang scholar, can question and make suggestions, but Huang Ruliang must be steady, at least not too fierce in attitude, otherwise the Jiangnan businessmen group will affirm or change their attitude towards him. (End of chapter)