The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 775: Tsar, you can’t start a revolution yourself just because you’re afraid of being overthrown by others!
That night, Li Hongzhang, who had become the emperor and empress, and Mathilde walked into the bedroom of the Suiye Palace hand in hand. The bronze oil lamp swayed in the breeze, casting their shadows on the loess wall, like two dormant beasts.

The copy of the draft of the "Russia-Tang Dynasty Treaty" spread out on the desk still exuded the scent of ink. Mathilde took off her silk gloves decorated with French lace, and ran her fingertips over the ink marks of the "Chuhe Trade Corridor" on the treaty. She sneered, "The Russians are really greedy. Alexander II's 300,000 troops are still trapped in Poland to suppress the rebellion. They have been busy for more than a year and have not been able to suppress it. Now they want to draw a railway corridor across the Chuhe River! It seems that this Tsar has forgotten how his father died? Who defeated his army in the Crimean Peninsula..."

Li Hongzhang paced with his hands behind his back. Outside the window was a cold night in Suiye City, with howling north winds and freezing cold. But what he was thinking about at the moment was the Fergana Basin, where the mountains were all around to block the cold winds, and when spring came, the snow melted to nourish the crops. Although he had never been there, he heard from Shaanxi merchants who had been there that it was the land of abundance in Central Asia. It was a good place for him and Mathilde to be the "closed door duo".

"Empress, how about we use Heaven to control Russia?" He suddenly stopped, his eyes fixed on the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's letter on the desk like a hawk - using barbarians to control barbarians was Li Hongzhang's specialty when he was "in the hall"!

Now that he is no longer a prime minister but an emperor, and he has Empress Mathilde to assist him, won't he be able to jump back and forth between the three major powers, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Russian Empire, and the French Empire, and have some fun?

Mathilde smiled at the man she had invested so much money to support, nodded and said, "Russians' ambitions are always greater than their abilities, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also seems to have ambitions to dominate the world. Luo Yaoguo wants to be the emperor of the Western Regions, and Alexander II wants to expand his influence in Central Asia without provoking the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. We can just be the pawns of the two families and use their power to eat up the Central Asian chessboard in one bite!"

Seven days later, in a rammed earth bastion in the western suburbs of Suiye City, Li Hongzhang finally met Weng Tonghe, the deputy governor of the Western Regions of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, who was supposed to be his lifelong enemy. This master's student of the "Psychic Department" of Taiping University still failed to settle down to do scientific research, but instead returned to Luo Yaoguo to serve as an official.

Luo Yaoguo did not force him to do scientific research, but sent him to the Western Expedition under the command of Shi Dakai, the Wing King, to manage logistics - to manage the logistics of the 80,000 Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Western Expedition Army! He also had to establish a temporary local government along the way. When fighting in Gansu, he was the deputy governor of Gansu Province. After Shi Dakai's army entered the Western Regions, he became the deputy governor of the Western Regions Province.

When the Pingxi War is over, Weng Tonghe will have academic qualifications, connections, a resume, military merits, and be a triple-major in liberal arts, science, and military. He will also be the "science senior brother" of the Taiping University. No matter what position he holds, he will be a pillar of the Kingdom of Heaven!

"Marshal Li... No, I should call him Your Majesty." Weng Tonghe cupped his hands triumphantly. "Prime Minister Wu Wang's meaning is that we Chinese should not rely on outsiders for our own affairs. We will discuss the demarcation and treaty between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and your Tang Dynasty. Russia does not need to be involved. As for what treaty your Tang Dynasty and Russia will sign, we will review it as long as it does not harm the interests of the Heavenly Kingdom."

Li Hongzhang stroked his beard and sighed, "Deputy General Manager Weng, you can see clearly that although I hold the title of the Son of Heaven, I am actually confined to a corner of the Seven Rivers, sandwiched between the Luocha Kingdom and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. I really cannot afford to offend either side! Moreover, my millions of exiles cannot be supported by the land of the Seven Rivers in Suiye. If the Heavenly Kingdom wants to take back Suiye Town, I can give it up, as long as the Heavenly Kingdom can give me a sum of military funds and arms, and let me go south to take over Kokand, Bukhara and Khiva.

Weng Tonghe's pupils shrank slightly. He knew that Li Hongzhang was playing a game of two tigers fighting each other - if the Taiping Army fought with Russia for the Seven Rivers, then the Tang Dynasty would be free to deal with Kokand, Bukhara and Khiva - those were the granaries and pastures of the Great Western Regions...

"Your Majesty, aren't you afraid that the Russians will turn against you?" Weng Tonghe asked.

"Falling out?" Mathilde walked out from the shadows, the latest Paris corset faintly visible under her Russian mink coat. "St. Petersburg is still busy suppressing the Polish uprising, and there are people in the Caucasus who are still seeking independence. How can Alexander II spare any time? But if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom takes over the land of the Seven Rivers, the Ili River Valley and the territory south of Lake Balkhash, it will be bitten together with the territory of Tsarist Russia, and there will be no buffer. This is probably not what His Royal Highness Prince Wu wants, right?"

"Buffer?" Weng Tonghe laughed. "The Queen may have misunderstood the mind of His Royal Highness Prince Wu. What Prince Wu wanted was never a buffer between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and Russia! Because the Russian Empire will soon face the revolutionary storm from the West. What he actually wanted was a buffer between the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Muslims!"

"What?" Li Hongzhang was stunned. "The Muslims? They..."

Mathilde was even more surprised: "The revolutionary storm in the west of Russia? Where did it come from? Poland? Austria? Prussia? Or..."

The fireplace in the Winter Palace corridor was burning warmly, and the sound of military boots knocking against the marble floor came from far away. Alexander II stood in front of the window with a portrait of Empress Catherine, looking at the floating ice flowers on the Neva River, and heard the dull sound of boot heels hitting each other from behind.

"Your Majesty, the legions heading to Poland are still waiting for train cars!" Army Minister Milyutin said angrily, "but the bastards at the Warsaw Railway Bureau have stolen all the coal and taken it to the black market!"

The head of the Third Department, Shuvalov, took off his monocle and wiped it. "The garrison of the Brest Fortress shot another 37 Polish students yesterday, Your Majesty. The pamphlet "Land and Freedom" currently being spread all over Poland is extremely radical and dangerous. If it spreads to the lands of Little Russia and Belarus, it will be even more troublesome."

"Gentlemen," Prince Vasily, who had just returned from the United States to serve as the chairman of the Peasant Affairs Committee, pulled out a blue-covered book from his leather briefcase. "When I read this Anti-Scripture in New York Harbor, it was like being struck by the Holy Spirit. The method used by Nicholas Zhao Si to seduce black slaves and poor white people with land was an important means for the Southern Confederacy of the United States to persist to this day. The Chinese say 'no destruction, no construction'. Instead of letting the revolutionaries seduce the serfs, why don't we divide the land ourselves first!" The Tsar turned his head and looked at the Russian "King of Conscience", not knowing what to say for a moment. As a Tsar, he was of course very afraid of revolution, but he couldn't start a revolution himself just because he was afraid of revolution, right?
Foreign Minister Gorchakov then silently unfolded a copy of the telegram, and then his expression became extremely serious.

"What telegram?" asked the Tsar. "Tell me about it!"

"It is a secret telegram signed jointly by Count Weber and Grand Duchess Natalia." The old diplomat's voice sounded like he was reading a verdict. "The Angel of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom predicted that in the next few years, the plague of revolution will spread across Europe, then spread to the Russian Empire, and even threaten the Russian Empire..."

"What? Someone in Europe is going to revolt again," Army Minister Milyutin roared. "Why is it never-ending? What is Napoleon III doing for a living? Can't he suppress it?"

The Tsar raised his hand to stop the old general, and then said to Foreign Minister Gorchakov: "Read on."

"The prophecy states that the public resentment caused by the land ransom will cause the 1861 reform to become a catalyst for revolution. If land distribution is implemented in Poland," Gorchakov paused, swallowing a dangerous word with his throat rolling, "Russian peasants will demand equal rights; if they refuse to distribute, the Polish rebels will gain a moral banner."

Well, it’s blocked at both ends!
This Polish land is neither suitable to be divided nor suitable to be not divided. It's going to be finished anyway!

Alexander II suddenly strode to the fireplace, the firelight dancing in his gray-blue pupils: "What else did this oriental wizard say?"

The Russian Foreign Minister said: "It is recommended that the Empire abandon the double-headed eagle strategy and focus on responding to the wave of revolution in Europe. Central Asia can be entrusted to Li Hongzhang and his wife, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is willing to use Lake Balkhash as the boundary."

The Minister of War warned: "This is asking us to abandon our two hundred years of eastward expansion policy. It is even a big step backwards!"

"But what he said may make sense!" The Tsar paced a few steps. "The number of peasants who rebelled in recent years is ten times greater than before the issuance of the Liberation Decree. Shuvalov, why didn't your Third Department predict this?"

The head of the third department twitched his pale face and said, "Your Majesty, that Chinese prophet may be instigating..."

"No!" Prince Vasily suddenly opened the Anti-Scripture and pointed to a scribbled Russian annotation. "It says here that free peasants will definitely pursue land to the tiller. Your Majesty, Yemelian Pugachev used the lie of land distribution to incite rebellion!"

"Your Majesty," Gorchakov took out another telegram from his bosom: "Lev Balyuzek said that the Taiping Army is setting up telegraph lines in the Ili River Valley, and their cavalry has crossed Lake Zaysan."

The veins on the Tsar's hand bulged as he held the telegram. He suddenly turned and stared at the Minister of War: "If we immediately announce the implementation of the Emancipation Act in Poland, including land distribution."

"Within four months, I can pacify the whole of Poland!" Milyutin patted his chest and promised, "But the peasants of Great Russia, Little Russia, and Belarus will not..."

Prince Vasily suddenly knelt on one knee and said, "Your Majesty, please allow me to pilot land distribution in Little Russia."

"Are you asking Your Majesty to be the leader of the revolution?" Shuvalov's sharp voice pierced the air. "Giving land to the serfs? What's the difference between that and the Red Ghost? Tomorrow the Bell will say that the Tsar has surrendered to the Red Ghost!"

(End of this chapter)