Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 869 Knowledge ([-])

Zheng Yong's family has been in Archangel for a long time.It's already August, and it's the most beautiful season in the Principality of Moscow. Zheng Yong's wife, Veronica, with her two children, is happily playing around with the female family members of some prominent local figures. Yong himself, however, is still staying in the East Bank Commercial Station by the pier, discussing with the local station manager Schneider how to open up the Moscow market, how to expand contacts locally, and collect intelligence.

Perhaps the bad luck of the people on the east coast has been used up in Poland, and now they are in Moscow. Because not long after the establishment of this trading station, a big business came to the door: once led a caravan from Afghanistan The Moscow merchant Boris, who arrived in Kaffa in Strahan, was transferred by the tsar to Archangel, and negotiated with the people on the east bank to purchase a large number of ordnance.

It is said that since the Cossacks launched a massive uprising in 1648, the Polish army has lost consecutive battles, and the standing army has almost been lost.At that time, the Cossack rebel army led by Khmelnytsky had reached Lviv, and the core Polish crown territory had been opened to the Cossacks and Tatars. However, the Tatars, based on their own interests, feared that Poland would be overly weakened by the Ukrainians. Therefore, it was decided to make peace with Poland, and in turn threatened the Cossacks who had fought side by side.

Khmelnytsky faced various real threats (the Tatars turned against each other, tens of thousands of cavalry were eyeing them, and the Polish Parliament was also organizing a private army of nobles to prepare for a desperate battle). Therefore, the "Zborov Treaty" was signed with the Poles in August 1649. The Poles officially recognized the independence of the Cossack Emirate, and the two countries stopped fighting to repair.

But the matter obviously did not end there, because the Poles were not willing to fail.Especially those Polish landowners and Polish Ukrainians who fled back from the Ukrainian region have been urging the Polish Parliament to send troops to recover the lost territories and suppress the uprising Ukrainians.The Polish nobles tended to send troops, so they began to actively hoard war materials and prepare for war.

On the other hand, the upper echelons of the Cossack rebel army headed by Khmelnytsky, after the establishment of the Cossack Emirate, they became the rulers and big landlords of the country, and their interests have deviated from those of ordinary Ukrainian farmers.According to the content of the "Zborov" treaty, the Cossacks could no longer confiscate the property of the Poles at will. The Cossack Emirate recognized all the rights and interests of the Polish landowners in the territory, and the escaped serfs had to return to the farm to continue serving the landowners.This suddenly caused many rebel soldiers to blow up their nests, because they did not understand why the country that they had worked so hard to establish now asked themselves to continue to return to the manor to serve as serfs for the Polish master?Isn't this nonsense!

As a result, Khmelnytsky and other Cossack rebels lost the morale of the army and the people. The soldiers of the rebel army no longer trusted these officers, and they were no longer willing to fight for them in a daze. They gathered and asked their superiors to report to them. Explain, why did you become a serf again?But at this time, Khmelnytsky had changed his character. As a nobleman, he didn't like the uprising serfs. Before that, he just used them. It may threaten the rule of these upstarts.

Therefore, instead of responding to the rebel soldiers who gathered to question him, he brutally suppressed them and sold them all to the people on the east coast, making a lot of money.However, Khmelnytsky's violent actions did not frighten the rebel soldiers who had nothing left again, but instead made them fight back. The situation that had just calmed down in the Cossack Emirate became turbulent again, and the civil war was on the verge of breaking out.

At this time, the Principality of Moscow, which is adjacent to the newly-born Cossack Emirate, is also staring wide-eyed, watching every move of the Ukrainians closely.In the spring of this day, the tsar ordered thousands of soldiers to be stationed in Puqivli, south of Voronezh, in name to prevent the domestic turmoil in the Cossack emirate from spreading to Moscow, but in fact it was to interfere with the country at any time situation.

It is worth mentioning that the thousands of soldiers mobilized by the Muscovites are not all. According to the tsar's plan, the number of troops that intends to interfere in the situation in Ukraine at any time will eventually be between 5000 and 2.And if the Polish Royal Army also intervenes in the situation in Ukraine, this number may continue to expand-since the failure of the Smolensk War 20 years ago, the Principality of Moscow has been looking forward to avenging its shame.

This army of more than 5000 people will be drawn from various places in Moscow, and the armament of these old-style troops is undoubtedly extremely poor. They are still mostly cold weapons, and the few muskets equipped are basically old-fashioned The caliber of matchlock guns and artillery is also pitifully small, generally out of touch with Western Europe by one or two eras.

From the tsar to the military officials in the Principality of Moscow, they naturally have a clear picture of the current situation of the large number of old troops in the country.They have been trying to improve this situation over the years, so when their government's finances improved a little bit-thanks to the economic recovery of Western Europe, the export of fur, timber, boats, cables, wax, and tar from the Principality of Moscow increased greatly. When the financial situation improved greatly——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————.

Zheng Yong, Schneider and the others were naturally extremely happy when the Muscovites came to their door, because their business station has not yet opened much.Located in the warehouse of the East Bank Commercial Station in the wharf area (temporarily leased, the site of the East Coast Commercial Center has been confirmed, the land has been purchased, and it is currently under construction), there are indeed a batch of arms, about 19 Flintlock muskets, [-] sabers, [-] standard spears, [-] pairs of breastplates, [-] saddles, and many military water bottles, picks, shovels, bandages and other gadgets. Probably in the early [-] yuan.

These weapons were temporarily transferred from the Riga trading station and have been here for several months.After all, doing business in the Principality of Moscow, which is located in the wild corner of Europe, is not easy to do anything else, only military supplies, spirits, tobacco, cheap textiles, metal utensils, etc. sell well.When Zheng Yong and others came to Archangel on the old ship owned by the trading station from Riga, they brought these things with the ship. At present, some thick cotton cloth, spirits, and metal farm tools in it have been sold out, and Although the sales of weapons and military goods have experienced some twists and turns (some British and Dutch businessmen protested against the Principality of Moscow’s decision to purchase high-quality and cheap east coast ordnance), the Muscovites resolutely withstood some of the Dutch and British for the sake of tension. Under the pressure of the merchants, all the ordnance brought by the people on the east coast from Riga was eaten up, and used to arm the troops stationed in the south, ready to interfere in the situation in Ukraine at any time.

The reason why the Muscovites made up their minds so quickly, and did not hesitate to offend the English and Dutch businessmen who first cooperated with them, was naturally considered from an economic point of view.Now the situation in Ukraine is becoming more and more tense. Khmelnytsky has lost the morale of the army and the people at home, and he is facing the perfidious Polish royal army who has restarted the war abroad.All he can rely on now is the Tsar of Moscow, the Sultan of Crimea, and the Ottoman Sultan—of course, unless it is a last resort, Khmelnytsky and his core subordinates would rather surrender to the Muscovites or even Poland. The king's army is also unwilling to take refuge in the Tatars and Turks.

And he himself did exactly that. On the one hand, he asked the Tatars to send troops to intervene in the situation (with the intention of using them to scare off the Polish king’s army), and on the other hand, he contacted the Muscovites and frequently asked the Tsar to support armaments, supplies, money, and personnel. , or he will turn to Christian heretics.The tsar and his ministers are naturally not stupid. They are all masters who do not see rabbits and do not scatter eagles. In the face of no substantial benefits (such as the Cossack chieftain surrendering to Moscow and becoming a vassal), they will not send troops without authorization, but just Chen Bing stood on the border and watched from the sidelines, waiting for the Cossacks and the Polish king's army to weaken each other.

However, not sending troops to support the Cossacks for the time being does not mean that the Russians are not ready for war.In fact, they have already deployed a lot of standing troops to the front line, and the war materials are also being intensively raised. The opinions of the domestic nobles and ministers are gradually converging, that is: increase intelligence collection efforts, and earnestly grasp Ukraine's No. First-hand information; crazy hoarding of war materials, ready for military intervention at any time; spending a lot of money to buy Cossack officers so that they would instead serve the Principality of Moscow.

These measures have been implemented for some time now. The provinces and regions in the south of Moscow State have already carried out partial mobilization. Once the situation escalates, the Moscow army will enter the Ukraine region. At the same time, the rear will also carry out the second phase of mobilization, gathering at least [-] soldiers. Prepare for a battle with the Polish king's army.As for their goal, it is to annex the entire Ukrainian region. If the situation does not go well, then at least the left bank of the Dnieper River must be annexed, separated from the Kingdom of Poland by the river, and then gradually figured out.

People on the east coast are naturally happy to see the imminent war between the regional countries of Poland, Moscow, Ukraine, and Crimea.For this reason, several major trading stations in Riga, Archangel, and Kafa started to operate rapidly, and began to pre-order a large amount of war supplies from the country; All the slaves captured by all parties in the war were purchased and sent back to the mainland for infrastructure construction, or they were sent to Xinhua Island, where the death rate was extremely high, to open up wasteland.

These people are strong and don't need to spend too much money (the war supplies are as much as the people on the east coast think), and they can also improve the status of the east coast republic in this area and prepare for the future to intervene in the international affairs of this region Provide conditions, so why not do it?

(End of this chapter)