The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 872 The Fate of Rakshasa

At the turn of spring and summer in the fifth year of Tianshou, Jiang Bailing led the Western Expedition Army to defeat the Rakshasa colonists.

The Qi army beheaded countless people in the Battle of the North Sea, burned down the Cossack settlements along the coast, and completely expelled the Russian forces from the northern border.

Siberia is muddy and difficult to travel in summer. From any perspective, the future of the Russians who were expelled from their settlements by the Qi army is worrying.

Back then, Da Qi and Luosha were ironclad allies. Both countries had vast territories, and their monarchs had similar ideas about governing the country. Especially in terms of enslaving the people, the rulers of the two countries had their own strengths.

During the reign of Emperor Taizu Liu Zhaosun, Luosha was considered an ideal country in the minds of the people of Qi, although this "ideal country" had once killed countless citizens of Qi.

It is believed that the alliance with Luosha was the result of Liu Zhaosun's foresight. At least for a long time, this was the explanation given by the historians of Qi State.

However, an era has ended.

From Sweden to Japan, from Annan to the British Empire, almost all countries cannot tolerate the existence of Rakshasa, an insatiable evil force.

Under such circumstances, continuing to be tied to Luosha would undoubtedly be a dead end. In addition, the new policy of Da Qi has moved from the economic field to institutional reform, and there is no possibility of any cooperation between the two countries.

Empress Tianshou and her cabinet ministers decided not to follow the old system of Taizu's time and cut off all contacts with the northern allies.

Not only that, when the giant ship of Rakshasa was about to sink, Qi State did not choose to provide assistance, but followed Britain and other countries to give Rakshasa a fatal blow.

It has become a consensus among all countries to allow the Rakshasa Kingdom to be infinitely divided and to allow this great country spanning the Eurasian continent to return to the Principality of Moscow.

The siege of Rakshasa continues.

The European coalition forces won a great victory in the Battle of Poltava. The Swedish army led by Charles XII drove the Russian army out of the Ukrainian sphere of influence and supported the local grand duke to establish a new Ukrainian Kingdom.

The British and Swedish allied forces continued to advance eastward on land.

At the same time, Qi army hot air balloons launched from the North Sea base began to appear frequently west of the Ural Mountains.

The incendiary bombs carried by the hot air balloons set fire to large tracts of forests, villages, and fields east of Moscow. The flames rising into the sky foreshadowed the coming of the end of the world.

~~~~~~~~~~~
"Fire cleanses everything: sin, shame, failure and disgrace."

North Sea.

The front-line headquarters of the Western Expedition Army.

Commander Jiang Bailing held a piece of intelligence sent back from the front line with a meaningful smile on his face.

Fifteen more Rakshasa villages and towns were attacked by incendiary bombs today. The casualties among the Rakshasa people are unknown, but for those who experienced the air raids, it must have been like the end of the world.

"Marshal, the 30,000 kilograms of oil shipped from Liaodong will arrive tomorrow. Should we continue to deploy it?"

Jiang Bailing pondered for a moment, then shook his hand and said, "No need. The Luosha people can't hold on any longer. Let's store the fuel here for use during the winter."

Jiang Bailing was worried about whether he could withdraw his troops on schedule. As long as they advanced to Beihai, the Western Expedition Army seemed to be dragged into an endless quagmire of war, sinking deeper and deeper.

This commander, known for his prudence, decided to quit while he was ahead and withdraw to Liaodong in time to prevent the soldiers from suffering greater losses when winter came.

Outside the big tent, the wind howled, stirring up dust and sand that hit the felt roof, making a dull rustling sound.

The whale lamp on the desk reflected Jiang Bailing's gloomy face. He suddenly turned around and looked at the deputy general.

"General, what do you want?"

"Send this memorial to Tianxin City as quickly as possible."

The deputy general took the sealed envelope and asked solemnly, "Do we still need to ask the court to withdraw our troops?"

"The Rakshasa demons have been defeated. Not even a single person can be seen. If we don't withdraw our troops, we will still be waiting here to celebrate the New Year."

Jiang Bailing sighed. The Western Expedition Army lost a thousand people last winter and another thousand people this spring. He really didn't know how many more people would be lost this winter.

The Marshal looked at a moth stuck on the lampshade of the whale oil lamp, reached out and gently picked up the trapped little thing with a dagger. The moth left the sticky lampshade and fled away with its wings flapping.

"I've determined that this battle is almost over. The weather is even more severe than the man-eating demons. I won't let my soldiers die in vain." ~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Jiang Bailing said, the war will soon be over.

In June of the fifth year of Tianshou, the memorial sent by Jiang Bailing to Tianxin City had just arrived in Tianxin City. Thousands of miles away, Peter the Great, who was fighting on two fronts and gradually falling into a desperate situation, finally began to consider the issue of peace talks.

The Russian army, which had lost the support of the Great Qi, suffered repeated defeats on the European battlefield. The once invincible Peter I gradually realized that he might never be able to defeat Sweden and never become the king of Europe.

The sudden backstab by Qi State made the Russians very uncomfortable.

This also made Peter I lose the only possibility of turning the tables.

Through the escaped Cossack cavalry, the Russian king found out what was happening in the Far East:
In Siberia, tens of thousands of Rakshasas were driven out of their "homeland". People struggled to move forward in the muddy wasteland, and people continued to die on the road.

Fortunately, the winter in Siberia was cold enough, with freezing weather and difficult roads to travel, forcing the Qi army to stop its westward attack.

But the British and the Swedes, these two mortal enemies, have now reached the outskirts of Moscow.

Peter the Great sent his most favored minister to negotiate peace with Tianxin City.

The emperor pleaded with Qi to send troops to aid Luosha. In return, Luosha considered ceding all the land east of the North Sea to Qi.

The conditions proposed by the Russians were too ridiculous, and there was no sign of their sincerity in the negotiations.

Jiang Bailing waved his hand and drove the Rakshasa envoy out of the tent. Before the commander could speak, the officer next to him said angrily:
"The land east of the North Sea has long been part of the Great Qi. You don't need to cede it!"

However, the Rakshasas were unwilling to offer any more chips besides this.

Everyone in Qi State knew that the land west of the North Sea was a barren land of no value. Even potatoes were difficult to grow, let alone corn.

Using such land to gain advantage over the Qi Dynasty is obviously wishful thinking.

In order to continue to put pressure on Moscow, Empress Tianshou rejected Jiang Bailing's repeated requests to withdraw troops and asked the Western Expedition Army to continue to hold on in the North Sea.

Jiang Bailing began using hot air balloons to continuously carry out air strikes on the Rakshasa settlements in the direction of the Ural Mountains.

~~~~~~~~
By the end of the war, Moscow had no more bargaining chips.

The British fleet and the Swedish navy blockaded the port of St. Petersburg, and the French and Polish armies won victory after victory on land.

Even the Ukrainians, who were once conquered by Russia, began to seek independence.

The Qi State in the east had long since severed all trade with the Rakshasa State, and the ally that once had unlimited cooperation no longer existed.

On October 1718, , Peter the Great, who was desperate, was forced to declare surrender to all countries.

The Rakshasa Kingdom thus fell into division.

The division of the Rakshasa Kingdom began.

After lengthy bargaining and heated debate, the countries finally reached the following consensus:

The territory east of the Ural Mountains was returned to the Great Qi, while the territory west of the Ural Mountains was divided among Poland, Ukraine, France, Sweden and other countries.

However, the British were not interested in land. As compensation, the British negotiators requested that the islands in the southern waters of Qi be provided to the East India Company.

The British repeatedly stressed that the islands were to be used only for trade and would never be used to sell opium.

Needless to say, Kang Guangxu and others decisively rejected the conditions put forward by the British.

Prime Minister Kang used the British words:

Interests are interests, feelings are feelings, and they cannot be mixed together.

Today, the rulers and ministers of Qi have a very good impression of the British Kingdom, but this cannot be a reason for Britain to harm the interests of Qi.

The empire's territory may not continue to expand, but none of the islands in the southeastern waters can be given away to others.

(End of this chapter)