On the afternoon of December 15th.
Rakshasa Tsar Nicholas I sat on the throne in the Peter Hall where portraits of Peter the Great and Catherine I hung. Beside him stood his brother Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich and his sister Natalie. Grand Duchess Pavlovna and her eldest son, Grand Duke Alexander Nikolayevich, as well as the commander of the Guards, General Paskovich, and several other senior generals of the Rakshasa Kingdom in straight military uniforms.
The Tsar sat there with a serious face, watching the back of Staunton leaving the Baron, frowning, saying nothing, and seemed unhappy - because he had just seen the portrait of the old British crown prince. This portrait It's still lying against the wall, and I don't know who put it there? To be honest, the Tsar was not very satisfied with the appearance of the old crown prince. He's just an older, fat man with white hair. Considering that painters usually paint big people to be prettier than they are, this old fat man's appearance is really a bit sorry for Natalie Pavlovna...
What made the Tsar even more dissatisfied was that Baron Staunton also told the Tsar that although the British government opposed the atrocities of the Turkish Empire in Greece, it did not support the revival of the Byzantine Empire!
Although "no support" is not a very strong word, and it also means "tacit consent" and "non-interference", the British ambassador always referred to the Eastern Roman Empire as the Byzantine Empire during the interview, which made the tsar feel that he came from the British Empire. Mishima's defiance and warning.
The Rakshasa Kingdom inherited the legal authority of the Second Rome (Eastern Rome) and regarded itself as the Third Rome. It regarded the recapture of Constantinople and the restoration of the glory of Rome as its destiny. But those Western European barbarians actually used the name "Byzantine Empire" to refer to this thousand-year-old empire that they had looked up to after the fall of the Second Rome... It was simply a villain's success!
And Thomas Staunton called the Second Rome the Byzantine Empire in front of the Czar. I am afraid it was not his personal position, but a hint of the British Empire's attitude towards the revival of the Eastern Rome!
But the problem is that the Rakshasa Empire does not dare to break up with the British Empire now - although the Rakshasa Empire has the best army in the world, its industry and navy are indeed not as good as those of Britain and the Ming Dynasty.
The powerful army of the Rakshasa Empire basically cannot reach the Ming and Great Britain. Although the mainland of the Ming Dynasty borders the Rakshasa Empire, the European part of the Rakshasa Empire is too far from the Ming border and is separated by the boundless Siberia. Moreover, both sides maintained a tacit understanding of "not getting close" and being "distant neighbors". The Ming Dynasty did not vigorously develop Mobei Mongolia, the Western Regions and the Outer Xing'an Mountains, while the Rakshasa did not develop the eastern areas of Eastern Siberia and West Siberia.
In this way, the two sides look like neighboring countries, but in fact no one can fight the other - unless one of them is particularly weak and only needs a small number of troops to succeed, but at the moment, neither the Ming nor the Rakshasa are dregs.
As for Great Britain, it is simply an island country, and it is especially good at supporting thugs on the European continent... Napoleon was so good at fighting, but he was defeated by the thugs supported by Great Britain. Nicholas I did not want to be Napoleon II.
Even if the Rakshasa could be defended by the local winter climate of ice and snow, they would be contained by the British Empire in a world of ice and snow, and there would never be a chance to go south to recapture Constantinople...
So the countermeasure he can think of now is to keep swinging between Great Britain and Ming Dynasty, taking advantage of both sides without offending both sides... But the British Empire's position on the Turkish and Greek issues, and the Ming Empire since Zhuge Wuzhong The queen's "peaceful line" that had lasted for more than 120 years made Nicholas I feel that his swinging policy was likely to mess up!
"Wei Yuanda, the ambassador of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhuge, the military attaché of the Ming Dynasty embassy, have an audience with us!"
Following the shouts of his attendants, Tsar Nicholas I finally came out of his thoughts, sat upright on the throne, and looked straight ahead. Then I saw Wei Yuanda, who was wearing a Ming Dynasty civil official's dress and a black gauze hat, and Zhuge Weidao, who was wearing a military uniform and his head wrapped in gauze, walked in together. Behind them were Guo Xiaobao and Huang Shuren. Guo and Huang were still carrying Two briefcases.
Walking to the Tsar, the four Ming envoys saluted the Tsar together. Among them, Zhuge Weidao, Huang Shuren, and Guo Xiaobao all raised their right hands in a military salute, while Wei Yuanda bowed in obeisance.
According to the meeting etiquette in the Rakshasa palace, the four Ming envoys did not speak, but the tsar was the first to speak: "It is an honor to see you all here... For Tao, are your injuries better? I heard from Dr. Setonov that you have recovered some memories..."
The Tsar's words suddenly stopped here, because he found that Zhuge Weidao was not listening, but turned his head and looked somewhere to his right. Could it be that he was looking at Natalie?
Thinking of this, Nicholas I also followed Zhuge Weidao's gaze and looked over. What he saw was not his sister Natalie, but the portrait of the British Crown Prince that he forgot to take away.
"Nikolai Pavlovich," Zhuge Weidao suddenly asked, "Who is the person in the painting? His face looks like he is about to die!"
"For Dao, what did you say? That...that is the portrait of the British Crown Prince of York and the Duke of Albany." Nicholas I frowned and said, "The Duke of York and Albany are the future kings of England!"
Zhuge Weidao shook his head, "He can no longer be the king of England... He is about to die, and he will probably not survive more than two years."
"Is this true?" Nicholas I looked at Zhuge Weidao, the "amnesia strategist" who was a bit confused, with doubts, and couldn't make up his mind for a while.
As a tsar who believed in Orthodox Christianity, he should not believe in fortune telling. But... when he was fifteen or sixteen years old, Zhuge Weidao's father, Zhuge Youde, once led his troops to Petersburg to help defeat Napoleon, and by the way, he gave Nicholas, his brothers, and Xiao Luo at that time Lenataly had it all figured out.
Among them, the calculated result for Alexander I was that there were still more than ten years of destiny... Now it has been fulfilled!
Konstantin Pavlovich's destiny was to be rich and glorious... and it came true!
Later, Grand Duke Constantine fell in love with a Polish noblewoman whose identity did not match the Tsar's, so his descendants would lose their inheritance rights, so he no longer wanted to be the Tsar.
The calculated result for Nicholas is that he has a destiny for decades, but his military luck is not good. He should use his troops carefully...Now that he has a destiny, what will happen to his military luck?
The fortune-telling result given to Mikhail was prosperity, wealth and peace. This is quite accurate, because Nicholas I's wife was particularly fertile and now has a son and three daughters. The possibility of Mikhail ascending the throne is close to none.
And the result of his fortune-telling for Natalie is that if she doesn't lose her virginity before marriage, she can be a queen... Now the queens of the two countries can choose!
This is not the most amazing thing. The most amazing thing is that Zhuge Youde later followed Alexander I to Paris, and gave a fortune to Napoleon, who was defeated and was going into exile. He actually said that Napoleon would serve as the emperor again. ....As a result, they really restored the throne and continued the Hundred Days Dynasty!
The fortune telling was so accurate that Nicholas I could not help but not believe it.
Moreover, this is not the first day that the Rakshasa Kingdom and the Ming Dynasty have been dealing with each other. After the Baikal War more than a hundred years ago, the two sides established embassies in each other and established formal diplomatic relations. There is news about the clever calculations of the Zhuge family in the Ming Dynasty. , and was inquired about by the Rakshasa embassy in Daming. And these news are not groundless, but are well-founded.
Not to mention anything else, just talk about how many politicians, military strategists, scientists, inventors and big capitalists engaged in industry and mining have been produced among the Zhuge family's children with the title of military advisor in the past 100 years or so, especially those scientists. , inventors, industrial and mining capitalists have come up with so many things, one has to doubt whether this Zhuge family can really handle it. Because those who are engaged in scientific research, invention and creation, industry, and those who are looking for minerals everywhere, it is very important to find the right direction! If you go in the right direction, you will get twice the result with half the effort; if you go in the wrong direction, your efforts will be in vain. And the military advisors of the Zhuge family seem to be very good at finding directions, and they can find the right direction.
According to incomplete statistics, at least two-thirds of the major inventions and scientific research achievements made by the Ming Empire in the past hundred years were contributed by the Zhuge family's military advisors or the institutions they led... The founder of the Zhuge family, King Zhuge Wuzhong, had even more inventions and various scientific theories, theories, and conjectures that he proposed. At that time, he was also known as the three greatest scientific giants of mankind along with Newton and Leibtzny. , and is also recognized as the first of the three great masters.
This King Zhuge Wuzhong also made it clear that the reason why he is so powerful is because of his ancestral ability to predict the future!
And this ability is "inherited" from the Zhuge family, and no one from other families can learn it... And Zhuge Weidao was a talented person in the Zhuge family before he "lost his memory". Maybe he also has the ability to predict the future?
"Nikolai Pavlovitch," Zhuge Weidao saw that Nicholas I seemed to be frightened, and hurriedly struck while the railway was hot, "if you marry Natalie Pavlovna to this old man who is not going to die soon, you will be in trouble in the future. You will definitely regret it. If you want to marry the Hanoverian Dynasty, there is a better candidate."
"A better candidate? Who is it?" Nicholas I was a little confused. Among the Romanov family, only Natalie could marry, and among the Hanover family, only the Dukes of York and Albany could marry. Besides the two of them, who else could be there?
"Him!" Zhuge Weidao raised his hand and pointed at Nicholas I's side.
Nicholas I looked in the direction of Zhuge Weidao's finger and saw a little blond boy in military uniform, who was his eldest son Alexander.
Nicholas I turned to look at Zhuge Weidao and asked: "Who is he and...?"
Zhuge Weidao replied: "Of course it is with Alexandra Victoria, the third presumptive heir to the British throne... If Prince Frederick dies, then she will be the second presumptive heir to the British throne. Although Prince William, Duke of Clarence, who ranks before Victoria, has ten illegitimate children, he does not have a legitimate legitimate child. Therefore, once Grand Duke Alexander marries Princess Victoria, he will have a high probability of becoming a British prince in the future. The royal husband. And according to British rules, the children born to him and Victoria will bear the surname Romanov."
Nicholas I took a deep breath, his heart pounding. If the plan proposed by Zhuge Weidao really comes true, then the Romanov Dynasty and the Rakshasa Empire will make a lot of money. All the difficulties faced were solved at once... As long as Alexander and Victoria got married and became the prince and queen of England, and the Rakshasa Empire entered Constantinople, the British would always Can't we block it any more?
If the British continue to stop her, wouldn't that mean asking the queen to beat the prince's husband?
"But, but Alexander Nikolayevich and Alexandra Victoria are still young..." Nicholas I said, "and what the British want now is Natalie Pa. Frovna.”
"Age is not a problem," Zhuge Weidao said with a smile, "If I remember correctly, Emperor Catherine the Great was only thirteen years old when she was elected as the Crown Princess, and she was only sixteen years old when she held her wedding to Peter III. .I think this time is still worth the wait!
As for the British wanting Natalie Pavlovna...if I take her away, won't there be no Natalie Pavlovna to hand over to the British? Then you can push Grand Duke Alexander to get engaged to Victoria. If the British are unwilling to accept it, then one can imagine their attitude towards the Rakshasa Empire. Facing Britain like this, what's the use of sending Natalie Pavlovna there? "
Nicholas I nodded slightly, and then looked at Zhuge Weidao with strange eyes: "Weidao, have you calculated that the British will definitely reject this marriage?"
"Historically, it was rejected," Zhuge Wei said in his heart: "But there is no Ming Dynasty in history!"
"Nikolai Pavlovich," Zhuge Weidao said with a smile, "With the Ming Empire here, the British may not refuse... and the Ming Empire is not afraid of the Rakshasa Empire and the British Empire at all. Alliance marriage!”
Nicholas I stared at the Ming Dynasty Ambassador Wei Yuanda who was also stunned: "Is what he said true?"
