When the willow trees began to sprout, the news from the Far East was finally sent to Moscow after traveling thousands of miles.
Tsarist Russia finally paid the price for their extreme expansion.
The distance is too far, so they do not have too strict control over the Far East. When Moscow learned the news, after a winter's rest, the Wehrmacht had resumed its offensive.
The Wehrmacht troops who captured Yakutsk moved all the way down the Lena River and spent a month pulling out Zhigansk.
The National Defense Forces in the direction of Okhotsk began to sweep the Arctic Circle region.
Silvisk was discovered and the local Cossack expedition was wiped out.
When the other group of Russians marched towards the Zhenping Strait (Bering Strait), they collided head-on with the Wehrmacht.
A battle broke out between the two sides in Nizhnykolymask, and the outcome was no doubt in doubt.
At this point, all Russian exploration east of the Lena River was stifled, which also meant that this vast land had nothing to do with them from now on.
What scares the Russians the most is the area near Lake Baikal.
After the ice and snow melted, the Wehrmacht troops who captured Barguzin crossed the lake in three groups and began to attack Irkutsk.
Lord Andrei in Kiliansk was called for help but had no choice but to call for help to the rear over and over again. But the journey is too far, and water from afar cannot satisfy the thirst for nearness.
Kremlin palace.
Alexei I looked at the letters from the Far East and found that this spring was not very warm.
"The Khitans' undeclared war is a serious provocation to us. The market has been greatly affected, and the collection of fur taxes has begun to appear insufficient. Your Majesty, we must respond."
Treasury Minister Bezinsky was worried.
The situation in Russia today is very bad.
After thirty years of war, the national treasury has been depleted and cannot be restored in a short period of time. It relies entirely on the development of the Far East to provide wealth.
Now there is a problem in the East, and Russia is about to become unsustainable.
Alexey I looked very ugly.
He was an ambitious monarch who wanted to build the Great Russian Empire.
To this end, he actively participated in the situation in Europe and made Russia very active.
As a result, Russia was taught a terrible lesson during the Thirty Years' War, and the idea of advancing westward was completely interrupted.
What's terrible is that domestic reforms are also very unsatisfactory.
When he first came to the throne, he realized that the country's economy was in crisis, so he hinted to his teacher Morozov to come up with a solution.
Under the chairmanship of Morozov, the State Duma passed a new salt tax decree, which imposed high salt taxes on salt merchants.
This angered the salt merchants.
In particular, there were top figures behind the salt merchants, who quickly took the most drastic measures to deal with it.
The riot soon swept through Moscow, not only ransacked Morozov's house, but also killed the Duma secretary and imperial courtiers.
The salt merchants also demanded that Alexey I hand over Morozov, otherwise they would not give up.
Alexei I had no choice but to issue an edict to exile Morozov, which quelled the riot.
But the reform of the salt industry came to nothing, and Russia's finances continued to deteriorate.
When his plan failed, Alexei I thought of other ways.
He planned to start with religion.
In the same year, Nikon, an abbot from a monastery near Arkhangelsk, came to Moscow and was received by Alexei I.
No one knows what the two discussed, but Nikon remained in Moscow and was appointed archpriest of the Novosparsky Monastery.
Nikon entered the political arena and began to advocate a charter to unify church religious practices in various places, much to the joy of Alexei I.
Just last year, Patriarch Joseph died of illness.
With the strong support of Alexei I, Nikon succeeded and began to carry out religious reforms.
However, the content of his reforms caused great panic among people.
Previously, people agreed that Moscow was the third Rome, the successor to the Byzantine Empire, but higher than Byzantium.
But Nikon proposed that the etiquette of the Moscow Holy See should be reformed according to Byzantine methods.
Nikon also advocated that the Czar was the ruler of the entire Orthodox world, that the capital of Russia should be Constantinople, and that the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia should be the spiritual leader of the entire Orthodox world.
This series of remarks and actions has caused chaos within the religion, which has reached the point of becoming tense.
Alexei I was originally full of confidence and thought the problem was not big.
He originally planned to take advantage of the great opportunity of the great uprising against Poland in the lower reaches of the Dnieper River to send troops to occupy this sacred land.
At the same time, the domestic religious reform was left to Nikon, killing two birds with one stone.
As a result, everything was under preparation, but extremely bad news came from the Far East.
From Kuznetsk to Yakutsk, a huge area of tens of thousands of miles was attacked by the empire, and many places that were finally captured were lost.
How can this be tolerated by the Russians who regard their land as their life?
But how to deal with it, Alexei I was also very scratching his head.
The Far East is really too far away.
If we really have to send troops from the country, the long distance and massive supplies will make people's scalp numb just imagining it.
The national finances have collapsed. If we really do this, I am afraid that there will be an immediate rebellion in the country.
But if the Far East is not rescued, the fur tax will shrink significantly, which will still be a major blow to the national finances.
Especially the chaos in the lower reaches of the Dnieper River made Alexey I jealous. If he missed this opportunity, there would be no hope.
After thinking about it, Alexei I was not carried away by anger after all.
Too far away is the best cold water, enough to calm people down.
"Gentlemen, I suggest sending a mission to Khitan to state our claims and temporarily stabilize the eastern front. As long as we solve the problem of the Dnieper River, the current little trouble will be solved soon."
The ministers thought about it carefully and found that this could only be the case.
Russia's strategic environment is actually very bad.
Although the Thirty Years' War was over, the hostility with Sweden still continued, so the north had to maintain a large army.
The Dnieper River Basin is right in front of us and is the best grain-producing area. Once we master this, we can solve the food crisis.
In comparison, although the fur tax provided by the Far East is very generous, it is still too far away.
If you want to solve it properly, approaching first and then far away is the only way.
In the final analysis, Russia's top leaders lacked the necessary understanding of the empire's determination.
They only thought that the Cossack pioneers had touched the borders of the empire, which triggered a counterattack from the empire.
It is said that the Khitan people are better at farming than developing land. Perhaps expressing some goodwill can stabilize the situation.
After some deliberations, Russia sent Gudnov, the second minister of the Foreign Affairs Office, to the Far East as a representative to be responsible for negotiating with the empire.
Goodnoff set out confidently.
He didn't know what kind of situation he would face when he arrived in the Far East.
