Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2445: Records of the Western Expedition (XII) Ladder

Alexei Stroganov's gilded carriage rolled over the icy cobblestone streets, and the wheels made a harsh sound from time to time as they rubbed against the ground.

Suddenly, someone knocked on the car. Alexei lifted the bearskin curtain expressionlessly, looked at the snowflakes flying outside the window, and unconsciously stroked the Ming-style saber at his waist with his fingers. He asked calmly, "What's the matter?"

"Your Excellency," the captain of the personal guard who was accompanying the horsemen lowered his voice, "the spy sent by the trading company to work in the kitchen of Shuisky's mansion sent a message saying that he saw with his own eyes a Polish merchant visiting and entering a secret party of several boyars."

Alexei's pupils shrank slightly. At this moment, a Polish businessman visited Shuisky and was able to enter the secret banquet of the conservative boyars. The situation behind it was almost self-evident.

Alexei did not answer immediately. Instead, he leaned back in the velvet chair, tapping his fingertips on the silver emblem on his knees - the edge of the emblem of the Grand Duke of Suzdal, with newly engraved Ming-style cloud patterns and double-headed eagles intertwined, just like his intertwined thoughts at the moment.

Soon after, in front of the gate of the Ming army camp, the nine-flag white banner fluttered in the wind and snow, and the golden thread of the word "Ming" on the corner of the flag was almost covered by the snow. As soon as Alexei's carriage stopped, the Western Guard came forward to check, and only when he saw the Qilin patch and the Suzdal Grand Duke's coat of arms on his chest did he smile and let him go.

Inside Erdemutu's tent, the charcoal fire was burning brightly. A simple map drawn with just a few strokes was spread out on the oak table. The open space between the Volga River and the Ural River was circled in cinnabar, and two lines of Chinese characters, "Nogai" and "Istilik", were written on it.

Nogai is the Nogai Khanate, which is now a vassal state of Russia in the southern steppes; Istilk is the current ruler of the Nogai Khanate - but his title is not the Great Khan, but Jinong.

The reason why Erdemutu stared at the Nogai Khanate on the map was because he was conflicted.

Since the ruler of the Khanate was called Jinong, he was obviously a descendant of the Mongols. As a vassal state of Russia, the Khanate's territory was located west of the Ural River controlled by the Ming Dynasty and east of Tsaritsyn (Stalingrad in the Soviet era and Volgograd today) controlled by Russia. This made Erdemutu feel itchy and he wanted to use the excuse that the other party was also a branch of the Mongols to directly annex the Nogai Khanate.

The problem was that this action violated the order of the Master. Moreover, not long ago, he sent a pigeon to the Master to report his idea, but was rejected by the Master, which made him even more entangled. He really didn't dare to go against the Master's intention, but he really didn't understand the Master's reason, so he had been looking at the map recently to think about the reason.

At this moment, the prince of Shunyi was pondering over the map. Suddenly, he heard footsteps. When he looked up, a flash of understanding flashed in his eyes: "Your Excellency the Grand Duke came to visit at night, is it because of the Polish merchants in Shuisky's mansion?"

Alexei took off his sable cloak, revealing the Ming Dynasty mountain armor underneath. "Your Highness is indeed well-informed." He glanced at the simple map on the oak table, but didn't seem to care much. "Since Your Highness is already aware of it, then may I ask, what instructions does Your Highness have on this matter?"

"If it were up to me, I would have captured and killed them all," Erdemutu said with a smile when he saw Alexei's face tighten. "Don't be nervous. I know I can't kill him right now. If I kill him today, Russia will be full of rebels tomorrow."

He suddenly sneered, "The rebels are not scary, but it is troublesome to have rebels everywhere. Instead of that, it is better to let the rebels unite and gather in one place, so that I can deal with them all at once."

"Your Highness is very brave! However, although the rebels are not to be feared, the Poles will not forget revenge." Alexei leaned closer to the map and traced the dotted line from Smolensk to Moscow. "Zamoyski was defeated last time, so he must be careful this time. If he wants to fight a war of attrition with us... Russia has been through civil war and famine in recent years, I'm afraid he can't outlast the Poles."

This is true. The Little Ice Age did not only affect the Ming Dynasty, Europe was also in trouble. However, relatively speaking, Poland is not as cold as Russia. Although there have been wars in recent years, most of them were not fought within the country, and the loss of national strength was much less than that of Russia in its darkest hour.

He looked up at Erdemutu, with a hint of urgency in his eyes. "Should we send the special forces to search Shuisky's fiefdom? My people have discovered that he has not only been secretly training his own army, but has also been recruiting Cossack outlaws. The number of his troops is at least over 3,000."

Erdemutu waved his hand to signal him to stay calm, and pulled out a secret letter from the desk. The "Book and Sword" emblem on the wax seal was clearly visible. It was the urgent letter sent by Gao Youshi from the capital.

"The chancellor had predicted that the Russian conservatives and the Polish ambitious people would eventually embrace each other for warmth in the snow." He pointed to the red mark in the letter, "The chancellor said that Sigismund III's enemies are not just Russia - his uncle doesn't want to see him control Russia one day."

Alexei frowned and pondered: "Your Excellency the Prime Minister means... to unite with the Swedes?"

"Yes." Erdemutu gave an affirmative answer readily.

Alexei pondered and said, "This is a brilliant move, but I wonder if Karl IX is smart enough..."

Gao Youshi's strategy started with Sigismund III's loss of the Swedish throne.

Sigismund III was the son of King John III of Sweden and Princess Katarzyna, daughter of King Sigismund I of Poland, and the nephew of King Sigismund II of Poland.

Influenced by his mother's bloodline, he was elected as the new king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by the majority of the Polish Sejm in 1587. With the support of the great noble Jan Zamoyski (then Prime Minister Hetman of Lithuania), he sent troops to attack another candidate for the throne, Archduke Maximilian III of Austria of the Habsburg dynasty.

When Maximilian and the Polish nobles who supported him attempted to capture Krakow, the capital of Poland at the time, in 1588, Jan Zamoyski led his army to defeat Maximilian in the Battle of Beczyna and captured him, forcing him to give up his claim to the throne.

On November 1592, 11, when his father John III died, Sigismund III, who believed in Catholicism, won the support of the Swedish Parliament and was about to inherit the throne of Protestant Sweden, which also meant that the personal union of Poland, Lithuania and Sweden might be about to emerge. After returning to Sweden in September, Sigismund III finally agreed to the above conditions after five months of coordination and compromise. In February 17, he succeeded to the throne of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral. But he soon announced that he accepted the conditions under coercion and his promises were not counted, so he sent five senior officials to protect Catholics and returned to Poland in the same year. As a result, Regent Charles IX led Protestants to forcibly persecute Catholics, which led to a formal break between Charles and Sigismund III and triggered a serious religious struggle. Many people who spoke for Catholics were executed, Catholic gatherings were banned, and non-Catholic priests in Sweden were expelled. This sentiment burned for a long time.

In 1598, Poland raised funds to build a fleet to escort Sigismund III to Sweden and to Stockholm and Kalmar. On September 1598, 9, he was defeated by Charles IX in the Battle of Stonjebro in Linköping. This was also his last battle with the Swedes on Swedish soil. 25 people were killed in the war.

On July 1599, 7, Sigismund III was deposed by the Swedish Parliament. Charles IX became the actual ruler of Sweden with the title of regent and was finally crowned king in 24. Many nobles who originally supported Sigismund III were ordered to be beheaded by Charles IX - this incident was later called the "Linköping Massacre".

After losing the Swedish throne, Sigismund III declared Estonia to be a territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1600 - but this was actually land acquired by Sweden after its victory in the Livolian War, which became the fuse of the war between Poland and Sweden for Livonia.

In the original history, this year, 1605, was the year when Poland and Sweden fought again. However, due to Gao Youshi's butterfly wings, Poland suffered a great loss in Russia and failed to "smoothly" launch a fight for Estonia. [Note: During the period of 1600-1605, the Battle of Kirkenhausen and the Battle of Weissenstein broke out between Poland and Sweden. Friends who are interested can check the information by themselves, and I will omit it here.]
However, the Battle of Kirchholm, which was supposed to take place this year, did not take place only because Poland was unable to conquer Estonia, which did not mean that the prerequisites for the outbreak of this war disappeared. Therefore, Gao Youshi believed that letting Russia join forces with King Charles IX of Sweden in the name of "limiting Sigismund III's ambitions" would be enough to convince Charles IX to send troops.

Well, this can also be regarded as a "Russian-Swedish anti-Polish encirclement."

Alexei thought for a while and finally raised a question, "I wonder if the Swedes will be able to contact Charles IX in time now... I'm afraid that the Poles will be so angry about the defeat on the Oka River that they will come to fight in the middle of winter."

"Come to attack Moscow in the middle of winter?" Erdemutu sneered. "Aren't you Russians more adaptable to this kind of weather than the Poles? Besides, based on the intelligence I've gathered during this period, the Poles have always taken a long time to prepare for sending troops. I don't think they will be able to send troops before the beginning of next spring."

That's right. The efficiency of the aristocratic system of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was extremely low. The country's financial system had almost no savings, and it often raised military funds through the method of "holding meetings - submitting tax bills - passing - levying war taxes" just before a war. The lengthy and complicated procedures greatly restricted the efficiency and upper limit of military fund collection.

This broken system even had an impact: at that time, the Polish-Lithuanian Confederation had a population of 1000 million, second only to the Habsburgs and France in Europe, but during the Polish-Swedish War in history, the Polish army had a lower strength than the Swedish army for a long time - the problem was that Sweden only had a population of 100 million! This shows the huge gap in the financial and military mobilization capabilities of the two sides.

Erdemutu's reason convinced Alexei, who no longer worried about the time of the war, but instead raised another hidden danger, "But if Shuisky joins forces with Poland, once the war starts next spring, he is likely to cut off the food supply route between Moscow and Kazan. As far as I know, the Ming soldiers are building Jingxi Fort and mining rock salt in Iletsk. Once the food supply route to Nizhny Novgorod is blocked, our army's food distribution will be delayed by at least 20 days."

"You're right, so we need to give them a little sweet treat now." Erdemutu pointed to Nizhny Novgorod on the map. "Tomorrow I will send a convoy from the Jinghua Trading Company to Shuisky's fiefdom. There will be 500 Longqing Type II muskets on the vehicles - of course, they will be disassembled into parts." He sneered, "I need to make the Poles think that we know nothing, and make Shuisky think that he has the power to rebel."

Alexei thought for a moment and asked, "Your Highness, are you saying that we should first deliberately let Shuisky get the firearms and keep them there, and then when the war is about to break out, we can confiscate his military power on the grounds of colluding with the foreign enemy?"

"It's not just him." Erdemutu pointed at several places on the map with his index finger. "Since these conservative boyars don't understand the situation, we can only let them enjoy the good life with Shuisky."

"You mean to catch them all in one fell swoop?" Alexei was a little surprised, but he couldn't help asking: "But how can we do it?"

"Isn't this easy? Just walk into the trap." Erdemutu waved his hand and said, "Convene the All-Russian Duma before the war to discuss military expenditures and troop quotas, then announce the evidence of their collusion with the Poles at the Duma, and then have the Tsar order them to be placed under house arrest."

"Your Highness is wise, this plan is really great." Alexei was overjoyed.

"Pay attention, the master has special instructions for this," Erdemutu said seriously, becoming serious. "After the evidence is released, the Tsar will first express his intention to behead them on the spot, and then you can come forward and persuade the Tsar to revoke his order, saying that 'great nobles should not be killed easily', and ask the Tsar to spare their death penalty and put them under house arrest."

Alexei was stunned at first, then hesitated and said, "For such a serious crime, he can be killed in Russia. Thinking back to the days of the Thunder Emperor..."

"If you don't want to become the target of public criticism and be killed suddenly one day in the future, you'd better not question the orders of the master." Erdemutu glanced at Alexei, "The master is saving you, and you still don't know how to be grateful?"

Alexei finally came to his senses and quickly bowed, "I am so stupid. Thank you, Prime Minister... and His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince, for saving my life."

"No need." Erdemutu rolled up the map, his eyes flashing with coldness. "During this period, your main tasks are two: contact King Carl IX of Sweden, and make Shuisky and others believe that their conspiracy is perfect." He looked at the snow outside the tent. "If you have any spare energy, you should train your special forces well."

Seeing that Erdemutu was not going to say anything more, Alexei accepted the order and stood up to say goodbye. When he reached the door of the tent, he suddenly stopped and said, "Your Highness, if the Poles really send out tens of thousands of troops, will our forces be insufficient? After all, Ildukqi Taiji is busy establishing a stronghold in the south..."

Ildukzi did go to the Ural River front line to be responsible for construction, but Alexei was embarrassed to say it directly - he did not go to "establish a stronghold", but clearly to "establish a defense line", and the defense was against Russia.

But this is not the key point. The key point is that more than 10,000 light cavalry of Ilduzi were also taken away by him, which means that Erdemutu had less than 13,000 people in his hands, and they were divided into Moscow and Kazan, of which there were only 8,000 in Moscow.

"I have my own plan for this matter, you don't have to worry." Erdemutu held up the secret letter in his hand, "The Prime Minister has transferred a town of troops from Anxi to help, and it is expected to reach Moscow before the war next spring." He pointed to the Qilin patch on Alexei's chest, "You, the 'Grand Duke of Suzdal', are the 'Ming Dynasty's No. 1 lackey' that even the King of Poland is afraid of - just for this hat, I must keep you safe. Whoever wants to kill you must ask our Ming Dynasty whether it agrees or not."

The snow became heavier and heavier, and Alexei's carriage disappeared in the wind and snow.
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