Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2258 Suo'etu envoys Russia ([-])

On October 1694, 10, after a long journey of one and a half years, the delegation of the Qing Dynasty arrived in Nizhgorod Province not far from Moscow (roughly equivalent to the Nizhny Novgorod State of the Russian Federation in later generations) .The difficulties and obstacles they faced along the way really cannot be described in one word!The harassing of horse bandits on the prairie and the difficulties of Russian officials delayed them a lot of time and sacrificed a lot of manpower.In addition, it is also very difficult to purchase the necessary travel materials, often have to wait for a long time, and the price is also very expensive, which makes their mission exhausted.

Fortunately, it is now in Nizhgorod Province, and then to the northwest after Vladimir Province is Moscow.The journey is about to reach its end, and all the hard work seems to be worthwhile.

Coincidentally, Tsar Peter of the Russian Empire is now inspecting industrial and agricultural production in Nizhny Novgorod, the capital of Nizhgorod Province, not far from Sergach County, where the Soetu Mission is resting.However, he didn't plan to meet them at this time. It was not easy for the Qing mission to come, so he decided to welcome them with a grand ceremony after returning to Moscow.

Nizhgorod Province can be regarded as the core province of Tsarist Russia.This province, together with the nearby provinces of Vladimir, Ryazan, Tula, Perm, Kaluga, Tver, and Yaroslav, is just around the capital Moscow, with a large population and a developed economy (relative to other In terms of provinces and regions), there are also many industrial facilities, which have always been the core of Russia.

It has been several years since Peter took the throne. Before that, he had been hiding in the suburbs of Moscow to train the new army. The daily affairs of the country were basically entrusted to his uncle, Duke Naryshkin.This time, on a whim, he planned to go to the surrounding provinces to see the social development and see if his officials could do anything, but he seemed a little disappointed in the result.

"In the past five years, not a single factory in Sergach County has been developed, and it is still only a purely agricultural county? All factories in Semyonov County employ only 75 workers? The best situation is under promise. There are only a thousand workers in Fugorod City and Balachna County combined? Half of them are handicraftsmen. Is this the industrial province of Nizhgorod you told me? Shameless! Shameless!" After ruthlessly tearing off a page of the report, Tsar Peter took a sip of tea, suppressed his anger a little, and continued to read.

"Shuya County, Vladimir Province (later Shuya City, Ivanovo Region, Russian Federation) has achieved great industrial development in the past ten years. About a quarter of the county's population is engaged in industrial production, and all workers The value of the products created exceeds 40 rubles, which far exceeds the total industrial output value of 13 rubles in the second-ranked Vyaznikov County. Very good, who is the county magistrate of Shuya County? Is it a nobleman? Let him three days later Come to see me in the palace, and I will not hesitate to reward such a capable official."

Peter naturally knew that there was a lot of water in the report.The statement that "a quarter of the county's population is engaged in industrial production" can only be made up by stupid officials with little knowledge, and he will never believe it. The industrial output value of 40 rubles is also very suspicious, because it is not proportional to the corresponding tax. These officials will not make a full set of fakes, which is really ridiculous!However, Shuya County must have worked hard to achieve its current achievements, and its county magistrate must also be a capable talent.For such people, Peter plans to vigorously promote them, so that more people can see that the development of the industrial economy can promote them, so as to stimulate their potential.

"Yaroslav Province has such a good geographical location and convenient transportation (there are roads and canals leading to the seaport Arkhangelsk, St. Nicholas and the capital Moscow), so why is there no improvement in development? Let's not talk about industry, nor agriculture. It’s a mess, what did these officials do? Look, look! I won’t talk about Yaroslav City, the per capita livestock in Yaroslav County is 0.94, the per capita livestock in Rybinsk County is 1.31, and the Rostov Livestock per capita in the county is 1.2, Danilov County is 1.07, Myshkino County is 0.57, Lyubim County is 0.61, Uglich County is 0.86, Poshekho County is 0.72 livestock, 0.72 livestock per capita in Mologa County, 0.4 livestock per capita in Roma-Borisogrebosk County! I don’t want to talk about the latter, it’s worse than these! The last three county magistrates were immediately dismissed , I don’t care who his backer is, and how much money he paid for the county magistrate, but it turns out that they are not qualified for this position, so they should be dismissed immediately, and don’t make me say it a third time!” Peter said angrily.

He was really angry and even a little scared after reading these reports.Russia seems to be powerful, with a vast territory, a large population, and a strong folk culture, but the foundation of the country is still a little unstable.Now that Western countries are rapidly developing industry and commerce, a small kingdom of England may produce more weapons than the whole of Russia, not to mention the wealth created.The advantage of Russia is nothing more than the vast land, rich resources and large population!

Since the Romanov family ended the era of chaos in Russia and ascended the throne of the Tsar from the first day, they have been constantly carrying out modernization reforms, and spent a lot of money to introduce advanced Western technical personnel.And Russia is also very generous in treating these talents. Not only are the salaries very high, but they also often give meritorious persons titles and land, thus slowly accelerating Russia's modernization process.

But now it seems that everything is not enough, far from enough!The industry in the provinces of Vladimir and Nizhgorod has been laying foundations since the time of Tsar Alexei. For this reason, the imperial finance has invested more than 20 rubles in the purchase of machinery and the introduction of technical personnel for many years, but now it is really What a disappointment.

Peter had some vague impressions before that the wine industry, logging industry, and furniture industry in Nizhgorod Province are developing rapidly, and their products are sold in many provinces, mainly concentrated in Nizhniy Novgorod City and Nizhniy Novgorod County and Barachna counties; Vladimir province has ironmaking, metal processing and felting industries, mainly concentrated in Shuya and Vyaznikov counties; Yaroslav province's industry is mainly leather processing , food processing, and some utensil manufacturing.It looks good, but there are big problems in the layout of these industries. Where there is industry, there is no raw material, where there is market, there is no industry, and the traffic problem between counties is very troublesome, resulting in very low production efficiency.In particular, the felting, leather processing and grain processing industries, which are related to the ability to "earn foreign exchange through export", have been greatly restricted, which is very regrettable.

From this point of view, in order to develop industry, it is not enough to have technology, capital and talents-in fact, Russia is also lacking in these three points-it must also do a good job in road construction, but this will cost a lot of money, let Peter Very hesitant.You know, he has just approved the expansion and armament of the inland river fleet in Tambov. At the same time, he is also speeding up the update of army equipment. He plans to organize a southern expedition soon to deal a severe blow to the arrogance of those Green Cultists.These must cost a lot of money. Russia does not have the ability to organize an expedition of [-] troops while investing in domestic transportation infrastructure. That is unrealistic.

His uncle Naryshkin once persuaded him not to launch a war of invasion of the South for the time being, and to spend precious funds on domestic construction.He now has a big plan. If it is carried out well, Russia will definitely become rich and powerful.Peter still remembered that his uncle said in a sincere tone: "Give me 20 years, and give you back a different Russia." This sentence once moved Peter very much, and he almost agreed to his uncle.But the playmates and generals around him are also constantly urging him to go south and establish a "manly achievement", which is also in line with Peter's appetite.Peter was originally inclined to this, but after wandering around Nizhgorod, Vladimir, Yaroslav and other provinces, he really hesitated.

Is it really appropriate to spend millions of rubles in cash, as well as a large amount of weapons and ammunition, food, livestock, tools and medicines to fight a war whose outcome is unknown?Perhaps, as my uncle said, if I win the war, I will only get some unstable land that bury the root of the war. If I lose, I will lose my troops and lose my face.What's more, the Turks, Tatars, and Kalmyks in the south were not alone. Behind them stood a looming figure of a giant, which made Peter feel great pressure.

The strength of this giant is undoubtedly extremely powerful, and its various technologies are also very advanced, which can be seen from the Arkhangelsk province where they invested heavily.Arkhangelsk, a large northern province—well, "big" only refers to a large area, but not necessarily a population—under the investment of people from the east coast, there is a mechanical processing factory upgraded from a gun repair shop. There is a shipyard with a fairly good scale.In addition, relying on these two large factories, several supporting manufacturers invested by Dutch capital and Russian businessmen have gradually gathered together. The economy in the northern provinces is not bad.

Last time, a businessman on the east coast said that he planned to invest in the mining industry in Perm Province, where a variety of metal deposits were newly discovered. This will obviously bring about a second prosperity for the Russian economy, but it is a pity that they interfered with the situation in the Black Sea.But in any case, capital and technology on the east coast are very important to Russia, and its investment efficiency is also the highest. It is really difficult for Russia to give up, unless they are willing to sit back and watch the economy of the northern provinces, which had already been improving, sink again.

What a dilemma!Tsar Peter finds himself really having a hard time making decisions now.He could guess one or two purposes of the Suo’etu Mission from the Qing Dynasty to Moscow, but there were two. The first was to wipe out the Mongolian forces in Junggar and carve up its huge land and population. The second was to see if it was possible to come from Here Russia was helped to fight the East Coasters in Manchuria, Mongolia and the Amur Valley.

The first of these two requests, Peter felt that it was beneficial to both parties, so there was no problem in agreeing.But the second one, basically there is no possibility of agreeing!The people on the east bank have a huge influence in the Far East, and the Russian Empire is already on the defensive. If they annoy the other party, it will only bring disaster to the Russian Empire, and there will be no benefit at all.Of course, there is no need to reject the Qing people at the beginning. It would be better to tactfully refuse after extorting some benefits from the other party.

When it comes to the East, the ruling and opposition parties in Moscow have basically reached a consensus, that is, to keep east and west, that is, to give up expansion in the East, and to do everything in Europe.The first step is naturally to go south to defeat the Turks, occupy Western Ukraine and the North Caucasus, and then move on to others.

Of course, they are currently encountering considerable difficulties in Ukraine and the North Caucasus.Princess Sophia failed two expeditions to the South during her regency, not to mention the loss of soldiers and her own future.Now that Tsar Peter is in power, although Russia's military power has increased significantly compared to before, it is still not sure to win the battle, and it is not clear how far the people on the east coast will intervene, which is more difficult.

Therefore, another view is slowly becoming popular in Moscow now, that is to set the direction of expansion in Sweden and Poland, and attack whichever direction presents an opportunity.The country of Sweden has been weakening for many years, and it has long since lost its bravery a few decades ago. Moreover, the German territory on the south coast of the Baltic Sea is also very unstable, and it has a big enemy with the newly rising Brandenburg-Prussian Principality , so it would be great if we could contact the Prussians to attack the Swedes together.

The same is true for Poland.The country is in great chaos, and King Jan Sobieski is terminally ill, and the whole country is in a state of disunity.Moreover, they are still entangled with the Turks now, and they want to recover the Podolia province that has been occupied by the Turks for many years, and a war is likely to break out.Therefore, if the opportunity can be seized, it is still possible to make a breakthrough in the direction of Poland-if necessary, contacting Ottoman and Prussia to carve up Poland is also a feasible strategy.

From this, we can clearly see that there is a high probability that the Soetu Mission to Russia will not be able to obtain satisfactory results.At best, they could only agree on the elimination of the Junggar Mongolian forces.As for the rest, are you kidding me?

(End of this chapter)