The news Hong Chengchou received and the situation analyzed were indeed correct.
At this time, the emperor of Tsarist Russia was Alexey Mikhailovich, an emperor who wanted to do something. After the famous Khmelnytsky uprising in history, when it was about to be suppressed by Poland, Khmelnytsky thought of Tsarist Russia, wanted to embrace Tsarist Russia, and asked the Tsar to agree to make Zabarozhye the center. Eastern Ukraine was annexed to Russian territory.
Of course Alexey was happy with this and started negotiations with Poland for this purpose, but the talks collapsed. Therefore, Alexei led his own troops and began to attack Poland in May.
In Tsarist Russia, after the Tsar led his troops on the expedition, Father Nikon, the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, became the actual person in power. As soon as he took power, he immediately began to implement church reforms. The main direction of the reform is to reform the various regulations and systems of the Moscow Holy See Orthodox Church in accordance with Byzantine methods and unify the religious activities of churches in various places.
The Old Rites opposed this reform and split from the Moscow Orthodox Church. As a result, Patriarch Nikon began a large-scale persecution of these people, and tried and executed the leaders of the old rites. But the believers of the old rites still did not obey Nikon. They fled from Moscow to various places to avoid persecution.
Of course, at this time, some things have not happened yet, or are happening. But one thing is certain, that is, Tsar Alexei is leading his troops and fighting with Poland in full swing.
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Hong Chengchou was very moved by this. In order to ensure the success of the westward march, he once again sent a large number of soldiers to the west to inquire about the news. At the same time, preparations for war began.
Although Emperor Chongzhen was already on his way back to the capital regarding Hong Chengchou's situation, he grasped the situation immediately through eavesdropping.
As he said before leaving, he would not mind Hong Chengchou taking action immediately as long as there was a chance.
It was just a matter of capturing the Caucasus. Emperor Chongzhen believed that this was not difficult for Hong Chengchou to accomplish. However, the most difficult thing is whether Hong Chengchou can successfully block Tsarist Russia's counterattack after capturing the Caucasus. This is the key.
As Emperor Chongzhen who traveled through time in later generations, of course he knew that Tsarist Russia was very difficult to defeat in history, including Napoleon and Germany. The most important reason why they failed to attack Tsarist Russia was that they were defeated by the severe cold.
Therefore, after Emperor Chongzhen knew that Hong Chengchou had plans to fight, he immediately ordered Shaanxi and Sichuan to sew a complete set of military uniforms for severe cold weather. Another thing, which is still very important, is that he promised Hong Chengchou that the reinforcements would also be sent from Mongolia. Clan members choose to go to reinforce. After all, as of now, the most cold-resistant soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are the Mongolian soldiers.
In addition, although Emperor Chongzhen has been away from the capital for almost three years, he knows very well about domestic affairs and has a clear grasp of the situation in America.
As far as the Americas are concerned, Sun Chuanting drove the remnants of the captives from the beginning to expand the scope of the Ming army's strength and incorporated local Indians for his own use. However, after about half a year of this situation, Portugal's Anders finally couldn't bear it anymore and kept nagging all day long. In addition, at this time, the Ming army's sphere of influence was already very large. If they expanded further, they would not have enough manpower, so they had to first They gave up hunting down the remaining captives and instead reorganized their troops and trained the Indians for a while before heading south.
There were actually less than 10,000 Spaniards in the Gulf of Mexico. More than 20,000 Ming troops led the native Indians, and with the cooperation of the Portuguese, they quickly defeated the Spanish in Mexico.
What surprised Sun Chuanting was that he actually discovered Ming people in a place ruled by the Spanish. Although it's not too much, it does a good job of supplementing his shortage of local manpower.
However, after the coalition forces of the Ming Dynasty and Portugal drove the Spanish in Mexico into the sea, they were a little helpless, because the warships of the Ming Dynasty and Portugal were both on the west coast of the Americas. The Gulf of Mexico is full of Spanish warships. They used the maneuverability of the warships to counterattack several times, which also caused some losses to the dispersed coalition forces.
Therefore, in the end, Sun Chuanting led his troops to retreat dozens of kilometers from the coastline and abandoned these places, which was somewhat similar to the Ming Dynasty's strategy of blocking the sea areas. Afterwards, they concentrated their forces and began to fight southward along the land.
However, because the Ming army has already divided its forces to occupy the Mexican side, there are only more than 10,000 troops going south. On the Spanish side, troops were mobilized from all over the Americas for reinforcements, and warships were also dispatched from South America to resist the coalition's attack on both land and water. In the end, there was a tug-of-war confrontation with the Spaniards in Panama, and the plan to conquer South America was not completed as planned.
Previously, Sun Chuanting had sent an armored battleship back to the Ming Dynasty, bringing back news and requesting reinforcements. However, Emperor Chongzhen was not around and no one could make the decision on sending troops to America, so no reinforcements were sent. Emperor Chongzhen rushed back to the capital from the Mughals this time. One of the important things he had to deal with was support for the Americas.
Because he is the only one who knows the situation in the Americas best, and the news brought back by the armored battleships is long delayed. Of course, the most important thing is that when it comes to large-scale military mobilization, not even the prince can overstep his authority.
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In mid-July of the twenty-seventh year of Chongzhen, Emperor Chongzhen finally led more than 4,000 hussar battalions back to the capital. This time, Emperor Chongzhen brought back the smallest proportion of soldiers during his triumphal return. But everyone knows that those people stayed on the newly laid map to enjoy their happiness.
There is no doubt that the emperor who has been away for three years has returned with the record of conquering a huge empire. One can imagine how sensational it will be in the capital!
Even after the soldiers of the Hussar Battalion returned to the camp, they were warmly welcomed by the soldiers of the Hussar Battalion who stayed in the capital. A soldier was besieged by several soldiers and asked the returning soldiers to tell them what happened in that Mughal land!
How to win a war is a matter that they have heard only once. What concerns them most is, are the women in the Mughals beautiful? Who stayed there and how many wives did he have? Questions like how many fields are there?
Although the Mughal Empire was thousands of miles away from the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty still knew something about it, because it was the legendary Western Heaven, the place where Xuanzang went to obtain Buddhist scriptures, and the legendary Buddhist country.
Although some soldiers said that Mughal women were ugly and not as good-looking as Ming women. However, I have never seen it, and I always think it is the best. Many bachelor soldiers felt itchy and felt that these soldiers could not stay there due to various reasons when they returned home, so they belittled the women there.
After the Ming army soldiers returned, the fact that the Mughals could get many wives at a very low cost firmly occupied the top topic in the military camp and on the streets. In particular, the first mass wedding hosted by Emperor Chongzhen was discussed countless times.
What Emperor Chongzhen didn't expect was that not only the military officers and soldiers became enthusiastic about opening up territories. Even among ordinary people, more and more people want to sign up to join the army, which invisibly improves the status of Ming soldiers and makes Ming soldiers become more and more popular.
Unlike the soldiers who could enjoy relaxing things such as taking a vacation after returning, Emperor Chongzhen, after experiencing the warmest welcome when he came back, was busy with government affairs.
The imperial meetings in the Wenhua Palace were held one after another. The six ministries of the cabinet, the eunuchs of the Supervisor of Ceremonies, etc., almost never left the Wenhua Palace, reporting on what they had done in the past three years, the status of the execution of the decree, etc.
Although Emperor Chongzhen had an eavesdropping system that allowed him to grasp the domestic situation, some details still had to be listened to by his ministers in person and asked in time before he could truly grasp them. Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen could not skip this kind of meeting.
The most important things are, first, the treasury revenue and expenditures in the past three years. This is related to the empire's finances and cannot be careless. It must be controlled by the emperor himself. Let the emperor make decisions on the empire's future fiscal and taxation policies and provide the necessary basis.
The second thing is that in the past three years, the report on the infrastructure construction of Ming Dynasty, including the construction of railways and highways, through maps, can better enable Emperor Chongzhen to understand the situation and grasp the construction details of each place, so that he can Provide reference for future infrastructure planning.
The third thing is naturally related to the reorganization of the Ming army. This is military power, and of course the emperor must understand and give instructions.
The rest is about technological achievements and the situation in the Americas.
After five days of meetings, Emperor Chongzhen finally went over the situation. He was still satisfied with what his ministers had done during the three years he was away from the capital.
Subsequently, he made the first personnel changes.
Cao Huachun, the eunuch in charge of the Supervisor of Ceremonies, was too old and could no longer take charge of the affairs of the Supervisor of Ceremonies. Therefore, he was allowed to retire and return to his hometown to take care of himself. No surprise, Wang Chengen took over the post of eunuch in charge of the ceremony.
The admiral of the East Factory was Chen Baoting, who was personally trained by Emperor Chongzhen. The eunuch of the imperial horse eunuch was held by Lan Tianbao, another person who was personally trained by Emperor Chongzhen. These are mainly personnel changes in the palace.
As for the outer court, Xue Guoguan, the chief minister of the cabinet, also retired and returned to his hometown, and the chief minister was replaced by Zhang Fu; as for Lu Xiangsheng, he was still in charge of the post of Shangshu of the Ministry of War, responsible for the country's military affairs, including the navy. In this position, except for people like Lu Xiangsheng who led troops to fight, Emperor Chongzhen would not be at ease with others.
In addition, in the absence of Emperor Chongzhen, the transfer of officials above the fifth rank will all be temporary. Now, after being reviewed by Emperor Chongzhen, he will be converted into a regular official.
After finishing all this, Emperor Chongzhen sent a decree to summon Zheng Zhilong.
