I want to be emperor

Chapter 579 Tsarist Russia Advances East
Since Chengshun completely wiped out the Eastern captives in eight years and began to sweep across the entire Northeast region, the Great Chu Empire began to focus on the western front, especially the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region, in terms of external expansion.

The most obvious feature is the establishment of Kangba Province and Kangxi Province, followed by the establishment of Qinghai Province in December of the eighth year of Chengshun.

These three provinces are all established in the plateau region, which fully embodies the Great Chu Empire's ambitions for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau region.

The Great Chu Empire not only wanted this area to be superficially subjugated as it had been in the past thousands of years, but also wanted to completely bring this area under its own rule.

Under this policy of the Great Chu Empire, the Heshuo Special Department, which had just entered the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, had not had time to gain a firm foothold, but was pressed by the Great Chu Empire step by step.

Even though limited by the extreme local terrain, the Great Chu Empire was unable to launch large-scale battles in these places and move many artillery pieces up to fight, but even relying on small-scale battles, it has made great progress in encroaching step by step. .

In the Kangba region, the actual control area of ​​the Great Chu Empire has moved westward from the Dadu River Basin in Sichuan to the banks of the Jinsha River.

In the Qinghai area, it also occupied a large area through several small and medium-scale battles.

More importantly, the continuous closure of the Great Chu Empire has made it impossible for the Heshuo Special Forces, which had just occupied the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau area, to be unable to support it. The huge pressure brought by the Great Chu Empire is simply not something a small tribe can bear.

How should I put it, with the national power of the Great Chu Empire, even if it is delayed, they can be dragged out of bankruptcy.

Under such circumstances, Pegatron had no choice but to give in.

Of course, the Great Chu Empire didn't push them too hard, but allowed them to continue grazing in the Qinghai area, and at the same time promised to hand over the Zhungeer's pastures to them in the future after they went west.

This not only gave them an initial stability, but also gave them a hope.

In the end, it was marriage, canonization and other means, and finally the Heshuo Special Department surrendered.

Although no formal agreement has been reached yet, the matter has basically been finalized, and the next steps will be some detailed issues, and the two parties will naturally continue to negotiate in the follow-up. The group went to Jinling City.

The tribal leader Gushi Khan, that is, Turubaihu personally led a delegation to prepare for the canonization, and his eldest son stayed behind in Lhasa.

There are also two granddaughters of Gushi Khan in the mission. They are the marriage candidates and will marry into the harem of the Great Chu Empire and become one of Luo Zhixue's concubines.

From the moment Gushi Khan personally went to Jinling City to accept the canonization, it basically meant that the Heshuo Special Department completely surrendered to the Great Chu Dynasty.

The Heshuo Special Department chose to surrender completely, which made many local chieftains and even religious personnel very unhappy...Because after the Heshuo Special Department surrendered, the future can be expected, but for the local dignitaries in the plateau area, this is not the case up...

Because the Great Chu Empire did not have the habit of retaining these local dignitaries, and did not recognize any serf system. After the Great Chu Empire completely moved in, the local dignitaries either fled or gave up their privileges and chose to become the first ordinary officials in the Great Chu Empire. , or persevere to the end.

Regardless of which one, they are not happy!

It is a pity that the opinions of the local dignitaries are no longer important at this time.

Because it is impossible for them to resist the pressure of the Great Chu Empire, not to mention the Great Chu Empire, even the Heshuo Special Forces cannot stop them.

In this case, their future is worrying.

It's just that not many people care about their fate anymore.

Under the general trend of history, if they are willing to give up their rights and take the initiative to surrender, then the Great Chu Empire will also follow the example of the previous chieftains for the sincere local dignitaries, giving them official positions and allowing them to retain Some personal property.

If you don't want to, you can either get out or perish, there is no other way to choose.

As for the stubbornness...the Heshuo Special Forces were able to beat them to death, let alone the Chu army.

In addition, the surrender of the Heshuo Special Forces does not mean that they will move to Qinghai directly. They still need to wait until the Chu army enters Tibet and hand over the local defense to the Chu army.

To put it bluntly, the Heshuo Special Department actually sold the local dignitaries... and then exchanged for a series of preferential conditions from the Great Chu Empire.

Under such circumstances, the Heshuo Special Forces will continue to suppress the snow area until it is fully handed over to the Chu army, and during this process, it will also cooperate with the Chu army to carry out the purge operations. The eldest son of Gushi Khan is still in Lhasa to control the army. Suppress the local natives.

On the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the overall situation has been decided!

Even if Gush Khan was assassinated on the way to Jinling City, or died of illness, it would not affect the changes in this area.

It's just that it will take several years to completely bring this area under control. The traffic in the main area is too bad. If the Chu army wants to enter Tibet, it will take a year and a half just to walk.

Then after entering Tibet, troops will be dispatched to various places to clean up, liberate the serfs in various places, and establish local administrative rule at all levels. Because the mountain roads are difficult to travel and the distance is estimated to be several years.

But still the same sentence, some small problems can no longer affect the overall situation.

For this reason, Luo Zhixue also shifted his sight from the plateau area to the northwest.

The northwest is the real border trouble of the Great Chu Empire.

The ambitious Zhungeer tribe has annexed most of the Yarkand Khanate, even with the material support of the Great Chu Empire, but in terms of the current situation, if the Chu army does not directly send troops, it will take half a year in the short term, or a long period of time. In one year, the Yarkand Khanate may become history.

Zhungeer annexed Yarkand so quickly, in fact, it also had a great relationship with the strong rise of the Great Chu Empire and directly regained Monan.

Zhungeer felt the huge pressure brought by the Great Chu Empire, so he had to accelerate the pace of external expansion, trying to occupy more places as soon as possible, and hoard more power to resist the future westward expedition of the Great Chu Empire.

For this reason, Zhungeer also actively negotiated with another branch of the Heshuote tribe, that is, staying in the inherent pasture of the Heshuote tribe, that is, the nephew of Gush Khan in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, and the eldest son of Baibagas, Eqier Tucher Chen Khan's troops were married.

Today, the Zhungeer Department has in fact merged with this Heshuo Special Branch, and the two sides are fighting against the increasingly powerful Great Chu Empire, which poses a huge threat to them.

Speaking of it, the reason why the two of them were able to unite so quickly is also inseparable from the Great Chu Empire itself.

The food of the Great Chu Empire is too ugly... As soon as the front foot killed the captives in the east, the back foot began to make troubles in the west. It is to completely occupy and rule, and to submit is to accept only complete surrender.

This made it unacceptable for Batur Huntaiji of Zhungeer and Oqiertuchechen Khan of the Tianshan Branch of the Heshuo Special Department.

Furthermore, there are reasons for the Tsarist Russians!

During this period, Tsarist Russia had expanded eastward to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. They had already reached the Sea of ​​Okhotsk all the way east in the ninth year of Chongzhen, and at the same time established military strongholds in some areas along the way.

Mainly, several colonial strongholds were established in the Lena River Basin...

As for the south, it has penetrated into the northern basin of Lake Baikal, and the city of Kiliansk in the northern part of Lake Baikal was established in 1631, which is the fourth year of Chongzhen.

In recent years, the Tsarist Russians have been encroaching on the territory of the three tribes of Mongolia in the north by means of encroachment in the north, expanding to the south, and at the same time continuing to strengthen actual control in the east,

And the continuous invasion of the Tsarist Russians is also the reason why the three tribes of Mobei Mongolia first defected to the Dongyao, and then returned to the Great Chu Empire without hesitation after the destruction of the Dongyao. On the one hand, it was to avoid fighting on both sides. Or the support of the Great Chu Empire.

At the same time, after the Great Chu Empire wiped out the captives in the East, their soldiers headed north quickly. After crossing the Heilongjiang River, they headed north again, and finally met the Tsarist Russians...

The first actual contact between the two sides was in the autumn of the eighth year of Chengshun, in the area east of Lake Baikal. At that time, the Chu army established a small military stronghold here, and then found that there were barbarians nearby...

When I met a barbarian, there was nothing else to say, so I went straight to it...

Well, the Chu army at that time thought that these barbarians were all kinds of messy local tribes or something, but found that the opposite side also pulled out a bunch of guns!
After the two sides fought, each other realized that they had faced a powerful opponent.

Naturally, the contact this time was not friendly. The small-scale armies of the two sides fought in the wilderness... But it did not cause any large-scale war. Even if the two sides wanted to fight, they would not be able to fight... At most, it would be a battle of hundreds or thousands of people, and it would still be a battle dominated by cavalry.

It is also because after the actual contact with Tsarist Russia, the Great Chu Empire quickly sent troops northward to continue to seize areas that the Tsarist Russians had not actually controlled, and set up military strongholds along rivers and other places with relatively convenient transportation to strengthen actual control.

The other side also started looking for an ally... This ally is Mobei Mongolia.

As the saying goes, the enemy of the enemy is my people... At that time, Mobei Mongolia had also been bullied by the Tsarist Russians for many years, and they were always looking for thighs in order to protect themselves.

I had looked for the Dongyao people before, but the Dongyao people were too busy fighting against Da Chu and had no time to help them.

Later, they also ran to contact Moxi Mongolia, trying to form some kind of Mongolian alliance to fight against Tsarist Russia, but it was useless after the alliance was reached, Zhungeer turned around and ran to fight the Kazakh Khanate and ate a lot of meat , and then attacked the Yarkand Khanate, and now it is almost annexing the Yarkand Khanate.

Also through the way of marriage, the special Tianshan branch of Hehe Suobu was won. It is said to be an alliance, but in fact it is based on the Zhungeer Ministry.

Zhungeer is using the name of the alliance to play his own big expansion.

In this way, Mobei Mongolia could not find any external force to resist Tsarist Russia, and finally could only turn its attention to the Great Chu Empire.

In order to fight against Tsarist Russia's eastward invasion, the Great Chu Empire did not dislike the Mobei Mongols who once took refuge in the Eastern Captives. Instead, they readily accepted them, gave them canonization, and more importantly, gave them practical support, including providing matchlock guns and light artillery.

Naturally, the Great Chu Empire did not want to be a good person. It was purely to let Mobei Mongolia continue to hold back the power of the Tsarist Russians, so that these Tsarist Russians would not directly cross Mobei Mongolia and continue to expand eastward to the Heilongjiang River Basin.

At the same time, the Tsarist Russians were not idle... Seeing that they met the Great Chu Empire in the east, they turned around and ran to support the Zhungeer Ministry, trying to cause trouble for the Great Chu Empire by supporting the Zhungeer Ministry.

Such a background has led to chaos in the Northwest region, and even the entire Western Region.

Today's situation in the Northwest has all parties involved. On the surface, it seems to be the Yarkand Khanate and Zhungeer, but in fact there are various forces involved behind it, and the situation is relatively chaotic.

For this, Luo Zhixue looked a little annoyed... It wasn't these messy enemies that bothered him, but the distance was too far away...

If the distance was a little closer, even in the Northeast region, Luo Zhixue would have enough confidence to line up hundreds of thousands of troops, and then no matter if it was the Zhungeer tribe, the Tsarist Russians, or other messy forces, they would all be sent to him. Packed up.

However, the distance is too far!
Looking at the map of the Western Regions, Luo Zhixue looked forward to the train even more!

Looking away from the map, Luo Zhixue murmured: "It's a pity that the steam engine hasn't been developed yet. If the steam engine is developed and there are trains, then the entire Western Region issue will not be a problem."

In fact, Luo Zhixue had people start researching the steam engine very early on, but it is a pity that he still failed to make the steam engine out for the time being.

In other words, a practical steam engine has not yet been produced.

As for setting up a machine to boil water, it's not difficult, it's been there for a long time...but it has no practical application value.

Looking at the rocks in the northwest region, and thinking about the train, Luo Zhixue felt that the steam engine research and development progress is too full, it is necessary to take a look, encourage one or two, and give them a little pressure by the way, if possible, he can give them on the spot some inspiration.

Luo Zhixue doesn't use any professional steam engine, but at least he studied physics in school, and he also knows about the Watt steam engine. I can't remember the details, but some vague things are enough to inspire those R & D personnel.

Thinking of this, Luo Zhixue immediately called in the imperial secretary of the secretariat outside, and ordered him to go to the Royal Institute of Technology for inspection tomorrow, mainly to look at several key research and development projects, in addition to steam engines, there are steel projects and machine tool projects.

These three research and development projects are all key projects that the whole country has invested in research and development in the Great Chu Empire, and they are also the most basic industrial projects.

Machine tools are the mother of industry, and the importance of machines that make machines goes without saying.

And steel is the basic raw material for maintaining the industrial revolution. Without steel, machines cannot be built, and without machines, production efficiency cannot be improved.

The steam engine is to provide power for the machine to achieve a leap in production efficiency.

Luo Zhixue placed high hopes on these projects. Whether the Great Chu Empire could completely become an industrial country depended on these R&D projects.

(End of this chapter)