Starting in Saarhu, it is a bit difficult to make a comeback.

Chapter 267: Divide Tsarist Russia (please subscribe for monthly tickets)

The Chinese Empire and the Ottoman Empire were indeed in an alliance. Both parties had consistent interests and common enemies, so they were trustworthy.

However, the Grand Duchy of Poland and Lithuania and the Swedish Empire were not the same as them.

The reason why Władysław IV came to Istanbul in person was to express his sincerity in seeking peace.

But he was unwilling to go to Vilnius, the capital of the Poles, in person when the Ottoman Sultan Murad IV was asked.

So he sent his son to join the alliance on his behalf.

But for Li Shizu, this trip to Vilnius was also full of dangers.

If the Poles had any evil intentions, he, the second prince of China, would be in danger.

Therefore, Zheng Sen proposed that he should accompany the Ottoman prince to Vilnius on behalf of China to form an alliance.

However, Li Shizu still rejected Zheng Sen's proposal.

It was precisely because of the lack of trust between Poland, Sweden and China that it was even more necessary for him to go to Vilnius in person.

However, in order to ensure the safety of himself and the Ottoman princes, Murad IV still sent heavy troops to the border between Poland and the Ottomans.

In this way, Li Shizu and the Ottoman princes, accompanied by King Wladyslaw IV of Poland, went north from Istanbul. After more than half a month of long journey, they finally crossed the Carpathian Mountains and arrived in Vilnius, near the Baltic Sea. Sri Lanka.

What Li Shizu did not expect was that the Grand Duchy of Poland and Lithuania was actually a country with freedom of belief like China.

Although the people here mainly believe in Catholicism, they do not exclude other religions.

This is almost unique in Europe where religious conflicts are serious and religious wars are carried out at every turn.

Moreover, the Grand Duchy of Poland and Lithuania implemented an aristocratic democratic system.

Not only did the Poles and Lithuanians in the country enjoy equal rights, but each province in the country had its own parliament (Sejm) that exercised powerful political power.

These powers include the selection of Bosevs (members of the House of Commons) sent to the National Sejm, and the local Sejm can appoint Bosevs sent to vote according to specific orders.

The military, finance, and most other government departments of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania are independent of Poland.

While most European countries were moving toward centralized power and absolute monarchy, they were always fighting for religion and the royal family.

The Grand Duchy of Poland and Lithuania boldly experimented with decentralization, confederacy, federalism, democracy, religious tolerance and even pacifism.

Because the Sejm often vetoed the king's plans for war, this led to debates among the nobles about democracy.

In Li Shizu's view, this behavior is undoubtedly weakening centralization. No wonder Poland and Lithuania's current combat power is so low.

At the beginning, the Poles were suppressing the Russians, but now they are beaten by Tsarist Russia, Sweden, and the Ottoman Empire.

Even this time Wladyslaw IV launched the Four-Nation Alliance to fight against his mortal enemy Tsarist Russia, he still had to get approval from the Sejm, and he, the king, did not count.

Although Tsarist Russia was the sworn enemy of the Poles, Sweden and the Ottomans were also their enemies.

The four countries formed an alliance to attack Tsarist Russia. This strategy, which was more beneficial than harmful to the Poles, was actually hotly debated in the Sejm.

After half a month of wrangling, the Sejm barely passed a proposal authorizing the king to join the Four-Nation Alliance to attack Tsarist Russia with a slight majority of more than half.

However, the subsequent proposal to trade with China was quickly passed with a high support rate.

Previously, most Chinese goods were resold to Poland through the Dutch and British, and the prices were raised a lot.

Now they can directly trade with China. The price of goods is much cheaper, and it can increase taxes in various places. Naturally, they passed it almost unanimously.

Who would have trouble with their own money bag?

In addition to forming an alliance to jointly deal with Tsarist Russia, Li Shizu also wanted to take the opportunity to open up trade routes between Poland and Sweden.

After Wladyslaw IV received the authorization, they could finally discuss the "Four Power Alliance" with Sweden to deal with Tsarist Russia.

Sweden was originally a poor, sparsely populated country in Northern Europe lacking any international influence or importance.

His rapid rise to a leading position in Europe was largely due to the efforts of King Gustavus II and Prime Minister Axel Oxinsidna.

Due to its successful intervention in the Thirty Years' War and the seizure of a lot of territory in Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden became the leader of European Protestant countries.

The Swedish army commanded by Gustav II used the famous "Swedish Phalanx" to kill Tsarist Russia, Poland and the states under the Holy Roman Empire.

At this time, Sweden not only owned a large territory in Scandinavia, but also occupied a large territory in Finland and the Baltic Sea coast, including the port of Riga captured from Poland.

There is great potential to turn the Baltic Sea into Sweden's inland sea.

During the Thirty Years' War, Sweden conquered about half of the Holy Roman Empire.

King Gustavus II had hoped to become Holy Roman Emperor, but this dream was shattered when King Gustavus II was killed at the Battle of Lützen.

Gustav II vigorously promoted military reforms.

During his reign, he implemented a universal conscription system and established a standing army with strong combat effectiveness; streamlined the army's establishment, improved weapons and equipment, turned artillery into an independent branch, and closely coordinated it with infantry, cavalry and logistics troops; adopted flexible line tactics .

He is therefore known as the "Father of Modern War in Europe".

It is a pity that in the same year that Li Xianzhong established China, King Gustaf II of Sweden, known as the "Northern Army", died unexpectedly in battle.

It can only be said that the founding time of the Chinese Empire was good, as the heroes of Persia and Sweden passed away one after another.

Of course, Li Xianzhong will lose a lot of fun if he loses a few powerful opponents.

The current Queen of Sweden is Queen Christina, the second daughter of Gustav II, but the Queen is only 12 years old this year and is governed by Prime Minister Ossindana.

A young ruler is suspicious, so the Kingdom of Sweden has had to stop its exaggerated pace in recent years to stabilize the country.

This allowed Poland, Tsarist Russia and other countries to free up their energy to expand in other directions.

However, Sweden's strength still cannot be underestimated.

The increasingly powerful Tsarist Russia has threatened the Swedish Empire. Ossinsda is keenly aware that this "Four-Nation Alliance" is an opportunity for the Kingdom of Sweden to eliminate the hidden danger of Tsarist Russia and restart the road of expansion.

Therefore, representatives from the four parties quickly reached a consensus on forming an alliance to attack Tsarist Russia.

However, the parties have relatively large differences on how to carve up the existing territory of Tsarist Russia.

Sweden and China are actually on good terms. One is located in the north of Tsarist Russia, and the other is located in the east of Tsarist Russia. No one competes with them in these two directions. But Poland is more troublesome. It is surrounded by Sweden in the north and Ottoman in the south. There are differences between them on how to divide the territory.

Of the three countries, Poland is obviously the weakest.

But Wladyslaw IV didn't see it that way. He believed that Moscow was once Polish territory, and Poland's intention to send troops this time was to regain its homeland.

And this time the four parties are meeting in Poland, he should become the leader of the alliance.

Poland can be said to be a lion with its mouth wide open. It not only demands to occupy Moscow, but also takes over big cities such as Kiev and Smolensk.

It is equivalent to swallowing the core area of ​​tsarist Russia.

This is simply wishful thinking, and the other three parties will naturally not agree.

This request simply amused Li Shizu, and he even wondered if the Polish king was out of his mind.

The division of territory is based on strength. Poland is the weakest but has the biggest appetite. Isn't it afraid of dying? The princes from Osman and China were present, and the prime minister from Sweden was present. Even if the Poles detained these people, they could not force these empires to commit crimes.

What's more, the Ottomans have already stockpiled troops in the Carpathian Mountains, and the Swedes are also eyeing them in the north. If the Poles dare to detain the envoy, I am afraid that Sweden and the Ottoman Empire will soon attack Poland.

Sure enough, the Ottoman prince was the first to jump out and object. He said: "Kiev must belong to the Ottoman Empire!"

Then Sweden also expressed their interest in Moscow!
Li Shizu naturally could not let them underestimate the Chinese Empire. He said that China could send 300,000 troops to invade Tsarist Russia at any time.

The four parties were at loggerheads and had to adjourn the meeting temporarily.

Soon Li Shizu was invited to a cocktail party by the King of Poland.

Originally, he thought that the King of Poland wanted to negotiate in a more relaxed way, but he did not expect that he did not invite the Prime Minister of Sweden and Prince Osman. The cocktail party was filled with Polish nobles.

Obviously the protagonist of this cocktail party is a charming Polish girl.

A blond girl wearing a red dress danced to the accompaniment of music, attracting the attention of all the men present.

Naturally, it also attracted Li Shizu's attention. King Władysław IV of Poland appeared next to Li Shizu at this time. He whispered: "This is my youngest daughter, Princess Theresa. I don't know that His Highness the Second Prince Are you interested in marrying the Kingdom of Poland?"

No wonder the Poles dared to speak loudly during the day. It turned out that Wladyslaw IV was making his own plans.

He knew that China did not border Poland, and even if Poland received more territory in the western part of Tsarist Russia, it would not harm China's interests.

The Poles probably also understand that China and the Ottomans wear "the same pants" and believe that as long as they deal with themselves, the Ottomans' problems will be easily solved together.

It's a pity that the Poles made a wrong calculation. They already had a wife, and it was impossible for them to marry a Polish princess even if they didn't have a match.

He said: "China naturally hopes to marry Poland, but my prince's wife is the queen of the Mughal Empire. I am afraid that I will disappoint His Majesty the King."

Obviously, now that India has become his own fiefdom, it is simply impossible for Li Shizu to divorce the Mughal Queen in order to marry a Polish princess.

He must have had no luck with this Polish princess.

Wladyslaw IV did not expect that the second prince of West China would have a family at such a young age.

Second, I didn't expect that there would be a man who wouldn't be moved after seeing his little daughter's appearance.

This kind of thing cannot be forced, and at this time the Poles had no choice but to give up.

However, Li Shizu still advised: "Czarist Russia is not a soft persimmon. The principalities of Russia and the Cossack cavalry can mobilize as many as two to three hundred thousand troops."

"Even if all countries agree to Poland occupying these territories, can Poland occupy these territories with its current strength?"

"It's better for everyone to take a step back and let each country capture some important cities in the four directions of southeast, northwest and northwest. As for Moscow, it's easy to handle. Whoever takes it down will be the one to take it."

Wladyslaw IV thought that Poland would not suffer in this way, because the Poles were the closest to Moscow in a straight line, and they could capture Moscow before other forces arrived.

In the end, all parties accepted China's proposal that the countries would divide Tsarist Russia on the sand table that Li Shizu had rushed to create.

First of all, the entire northwest of Tsarist Russia belonged to Sweden. The important town of Novgorod northwest of Moscow and Rostov to the north belonged to Sweden.

The large territory of Tsarist Russia west of the Don and Volga rivers belonged to China, and Astrakhan, Saratov, Kazan and other places southeast of Moscow belonged to China.

Starting 50 miles south of Smolensk and ending on the shores of the Black Sea, the Dnieper River Basin belonged to the Ottoman Empire, including Kiev, an important town in the southwest of Tsarist Russia.

As for Poland, it received the western territory of Tsarist Russia including the cities of Ostrov, Smolensk and Rzhev.

From the perspective of territory size, it is obvious that Sweden and China have the advantage. However, although the territory obtained by Poland and the Ottomans is small, they have large cities and populations, so they do not suffer.

As for Moscow, whoever enters Moscow first will own it.

Zheng Sen said: "This distribution plan is obviously not good for us. There are almost no big cities in the eastern part of Tsarist Russia. We can only get large tracts of pasture."

"Not only are we the furthest away from Moscow, but without your order, Wu Sangui would not dare to cross the Ural River to the west."

"We will send troops at least a month and a half later than the other three countries. I'm afraid the day lilies will be cold by the time we arrive in Moscow!"

Seeing Zheng Sen's rather regretful look, Li Shizu knew that he had successfully deceived the other three countries.

Having previously wiped out 30,000 Cossack cavalry, Tsarist Russia would definitely mobilize heavy troops to defend Astrakhan and other places.

The Chinese army is facing difficulties in supplying the troops alone, and the Cossack cavalry is very difficult to deal with. This expedition will become extremely difficult.

As long as the other three countries attack Tsarist Russia first, the Tsar can only transfer the Cossack cavalry in the east to the western battlefield.

When I send out troops again, it will be much easier.

As for seizing Moscow, Li Shizu was not worried. He did not think that the Three Kingdoms Allied Forces had the ability to push the front to Moscow.

The Ottoman Empire had just experienced the "Battle of Baghdad" and had not recovered at all. This time they got the coveted Kiev and lacked motivation to advance towards Moscow.

The Swedish Empire's military strength has been declining since the death of Gustavus II. Although it still maintains considerable combat power, its young master is in power, so the number of troops dispatched this time should not be too many.

The one who will really contribute is the Grand Duchy of Poland and Lithuania. They really want to go straight to Moscow. Unfortunately, the combat effectiveness of the Polish army is not as good as that of Tsarist Russia.

Sure enough, as Li Shizu expected, Poland was the first to take action.

Władysław IV personally led 6 Polish cavalry to attack Smolensk, an important town in western Tsarist Russia, marking the beginning of the carving up of Tsarist Russia!

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(End of this chapter)