Of course, it is impossible to fight just by saying a fight.

After all, this is not a war within the territory of the Ming Empire, but a real expedition, food, grass, and armament preparation work, which takes a lot of time.

Fortunately, the technological development of the Ming Empire has brought about improvements in all aspects. Such preparations are actually not difficult for the Ming Empire with only elite troops.

To this day, there are only 300,000 regular troops in the Ming Empire.

For a country with such a vast territory and a total population of more than 40 million, the 300,000 regular troops were like playing.

This was the mid-19th century.

So when the Ming Empire declared war on nine countries at the same time, except for Tsarist Russia and Japan, other countries were not very worried about this issue.

Because among the nine countries declared war by the Ming Empire, there are the five most powerful countries in the world, except for the Ming Empire.

Tsarist Russia is also one of these five countries, but the reason they are worried is that it is because Tsarist Russia and the Ming Dynasty border, and the invincible army can directly march northward.

"They only have 300,000 men and no navy, so they must be the first to fight us, and other countries will definitely sit back and watch the war between us and the Ming Empire, and it is impossible for us to help."

Due to distance and transportation, when the news reached Tsarist Russia, it was already half a month after Wu Yan officially declared war.

It seems that Tsarist Russia does border the Ming Empire, but the capital of Tsarist Russia is St. Petersburg, located in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea. From a geographical point of view, there is no problem saying it is Europe.

The straight-line distance between St. Petersburg and London is only about 2,000 kilometers, while the straight-line distance between them and Xinjing, the capital of the Ming Empire, is nearly 7,000 kilometers.

Not only that, the main cities of Tsarist Russia, including Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Helsinki, Kiev, Minsk Astrakhan, etc., were also concentrated in this area, which was truly thousands of miles away from Xinjing, the capital of the Ming Empire.

Tsarist Russia.

Alexander II, who had just ascended the throne for a few years, held an emergency meeting.

"When fighting head-on, we are not opponents of the Ming Empire, because we have no magic and we do not have the ability to deal with their mortars. According to our intelligence, their mortars can hit as far as five thousand meters, which is a distance that we cannot attack to them. On the battlefield, we can only be passively beaten, and we can't even defend the city."

This is the idea of ​​the peacemaker. After expressing the basis of his own point of view, he emphasized: "Based on the intelligence sent back by our ministers in the Ming Dynasty, Japan has determined to send a peace-seeking mission, and they are willing to pay all costs to avoid this war."

"Hahaha……"

"Haha... Japan? Which country is that? Why haven't I heard of it?"

"What you mean is that we should choose to surrender directly after others declare war on us, just like a small country with a palm-sized slap?"

"It is impossible to surrender. We can only fight a war to maintain our majesty. Otherwise, if the Ming Empire has no money in the future, we will declare war on us. If the emperor of the Ming Empire is in a bad mood, we will declare war on us... We will compromise every time?"

The pro-war faction occupied the majority, and after mocking the pro-peace faction, he also expressed his own views.

"The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty said he wanted to attack our capital, which means that he needed to cross a marching distance of tens of thousands of kilometers. No matter what advanced weapons they had, we could easily consume them along the way and cut off their supply lines."

"They have no way to occupy our cities, because we do not have a large population except for some major cities. If they want to occupy it after the attack is successful, they will have to leave a large number of manpower and weapons."

"But for us, we can resist the places they occupy at any time. Moreover, they are not adapted to the climate and environment of our country. We may not even need to fight with them. They will be wiped out and fled back in a mess because of this."

What the pro-war faction said is also very reasonable.

The straight line distance does not equal the marching distance. The 7,000 kilometers on the map. In this era when transportation is actually very inconvenient, if you take a little around the mountain road, it will be a journey of tens of thousands of kilometers.

Moreover, Russia's climate environment is indeed not good, and the area is vast, so it spans four climate zones.

"What you mean is that we will give up completely in cities that are closer to the Ming Empire?"

The Lords seized the point and said, "It is indeed unlikely that they will come to our capital, but what if they just want to occupy our territory? How many people will we lose and how much valuable land will we lose after occupying all the cities they can reach?"

"With these populations and lands, can they become stronger, and then develop real navy, and eventually cross the ocean and appear in the Gulf of Finland?"

The war pro-war faction said dissatisfiedly: "There will be sacrifices in war. Our consumption of the Ming Empire is a foreshadowing, a foreshadowing of the eight countries' joint destruction of the Ming Empire. Except for Japan is not within our consideration, the other seven countries that the Ming Empire declared war can all become our helpers."

"They really won't help us in the early stages of the war, because they want us to consume the military strength of the Ming Empire. But as long as we can cause a certain amount of consumption, they will join the war immediately without hesitation."

The peacekeepers retorted: "But the last time the four-nation coalition lost."

The warring faction retorted: "That's because we didn't use our full strength, neither of those three countries, nor did the United States directly participate in the war. But this time it's different. This time there are eight countries. No, we can count Japan and let Japan be the transit military base for other countries."

"As long as our nine countries join forces, our navy can directly block the coastline of the Ming Empire. Then, they continue to launch harassing attacks on the coastline of the Ming Empire, which is nearly 20,000 kilometers long. They only have 300,000 regular troops. Even if they expand their troops, they will not be able to defend such a long coastline."

"We need to learn to be smarter and not fight head-on with them. As long as we keep harassing them, they will inevitably continue to retreat inland. Yes, some places are not suitable for landing, but we can use small boats to transport soldiers to land, and then change to another place after firing hundreds of shots."

"I firmly believe that the Emperor of the Ming Empire would pay the price for his arrogance, and would declare his surrender to us like he declared war on us, and then ceded us a lot of benefits."

To be reasonable, what the war pro-war faction said is too reasonable.

Even the lords and factions don’t know how to argue now, but they still don’t want to go to war with the Ming Empire.

It is not entirely because they are afraid of the force of the Ming Empire, but because the war means that their interests will be damaged.

Alexander II did not speak out while the ministers were discussing, he was just observing quietly.

As a monarch who was described as great in later evaluations, he had high enough wisdom. It was precisely because of his practice of liberating serfs that Tsarist Russia embarked on the path of capitalism and laid an important foreshadowing for its future strength.

Therefore, he was able to clearly find that the interest groups represented by the Lords and the Sects were actually regional representatives who would inevitably be "destroyed" by the force of the Ming Empire after going to war with the Ming Empire.

These people were too close to the Ming Empire. With the marching speed and combat effectiveness of the Ming army, it would take no long to sweep a region of millions of square kilometers.

Therefore, people within a radius of millions of square kilometers do not want to go to war with the Ming Empire.

The interest groups represented by the pro-war faction are naturally those people from millions of square kilometers away. They analyzed the number of regular troops of the Ming Empire, the climate and environment of the combat areas, and the logistics supply of the Ming Empire.

Finally, we came to the conclusion that the Ming Empire could not reach them.

In such a situation, they naturally hoped to start a war. After the interests represented by the Lord and the faction were destroyed by the Ming Empire, they would win again, and the benefits they would get were not just the regional interests of millions of square kilometers.

And the benefits possessed by the Ming Empire.

The meeting lasted for three days. The pro-war faction and the pro-peace faction were quarreling, which made Alexander's scalp numb, but he never got any result.

After all, the final decision depends on Alexander's wishes, and Tsarist Russia was also a monarchy country at this time.

After summarizing all the pros and cons, he finally made a decision.

In the conference room, Alexander said: "I've been studying the history of that land recently, including their language and culture. They have a dynasty. I think it's very interesting, and it's a bit like what we are doing now."

"And that dynasty can be described in eight words."

Alexander said in the official language of the Ming Empire that he had only learned: "I will be entrusted every year and pay tribute every year."

There is a translation next to it that explains these eight words in detail, and also explains that dynasty.

When the warlords heard this, they were all excited because they had already seen the meaning of the Tsar.

The Lords sighed in their hearts. Their arguments over the past few days were not to convince the Lords, but to convince Tsar Alexander.

But it was obvious that their persuasion failed.

"The Ming Empire is very powerful. It can be said that it is the most powerful empire on the land we long for. So he dared to declare war on us easily, and used the excuse of not being there at all. Therefore, we can also see that if the Ming Empire is not destroyed, they will continue to fight against us in the future."

"Whether we win or fail this time, we should let them know our strength, let his victory pay a heavy price, and then destroy the Ming Empire."

Alexander finally said: "Of course, the failure I allow is just a temporary defeat in some areas. What I want is the final victory."

"Gather all the troops and we will fight."

The monarch issued an order directly, but no one refused or opposed it. The relevant orders were conveyed immediately. When the army and the navy were dispatched one after another, Tsarist Russia also invited countries to discuss related matters of joining forces.

But Tsarist Russia not only invited nine countries that were declared war by Wu Yan, but also other countries in Europe.

Under the collapse of the nest, the lips and teeth are cold.

Of course, foreigners understand these principles.

Therefore, even though Britain and other countries have decided to delay time first, let Tsarist Russia and the Ming Empire fight to the point of blood, then truly participate in this war.

He still sent a delegation with great authority to reach St. Petersburg, the capital of Tsarist Russia.

Relevant countries in Europe arrived first, and because of distance, America had just received news that the Ming Empire had declared war on them.

However, the United States has always had ministers in European countries such as Britain, and these people also participated in the meeting.

Finally, when the meeting was held, representatives from nineteen countries participated in the meeting.

The main content of the meeting was easily determined, that is, to go to war with the Ming Empire.

Anyway, Tsarist Russia wants to start war first, so they are happy to cheer on the side.

Especially those small countries that were not declared war by the Daming Empire came to watch the bustle and shouted slogans. If they really fought, they would just send dozens or hundreds of soldiers to do it, and maybe they could get material support from these big countries.

Anyway, no one thinks that the Ming Empire can win the final victory and deal with the whole world with the power of one country is simply fantasy.

"We need to convince Japan to join the war."

The representative of Tsarist Russia said: "They are unwilling to go to war with the Ming Empire, just because they are very close to the Ming Empire and are not opponents of the Ming Empire at all. But with our naval support, Japan does not need to worry about the Ming Empire landing in their country."

"We are very important to us. Our people cannot stay at sea all the time, so we need to use Japan as our military base and then launch the combat plan we determined before."

Japan does not mean that it is here. It is not that they don’t want to come, but that they don’t have time to come because of distance and inconvenient transportation.

So someone asked, "What if Japan refuses to cooperate?"

The representative of Tsarist Russia said: "Then we will defeat Japan first, and then use Japan as a springboard to become our ultimate help to occupy the Ming Empire. So, the question we need to discuss now is, if Japan refuses, then how should we divide Japan?"

It is said that it is a division, but it is actually Tsarist Russia that wants these countries to participate in the war in advance.

Sure enough, it involves a country, and it is an important position for the future large-scale attack on the Ming Empire. The British Empire and other countries cannot sit still, and they cannot allow Tsarist Russia to occupy Japan.

Then they will be very passive.

"We can provide magical support." The representative of the British Empire said: "Although our previous actions against the Ming Empire failed, it was just an attempt and did not really show the power of magic."
To be continued...