Ming Dynasty slowly retracted its claws. Except for some key nodes, all its troops were withdrawn back to the country and focused on economic construction.

The Ming Dynasty, which had been fighting for many years, came to a standstill, but on the European continent, France regained its spirit.

As an ally of the Ming Dynasty in Europe, France was invincible under the command of Napoleon. Under the organization of the United Kingdom, continental European countries fought a total of six anti-French alliance wars, all of which failed.

If it were not for the lack of navy, France would definitely attack the base camp of the Anti-French Alliance. To this end, Joseph went to the Ming Dynasty, but did not get the support of Li Xiao.

Unwilling to be reconciled, Joseph ran to Xinjiapo again, hoping to hit Li Xiu's wooden clock. In order to prevent Li Xiu from knowing what Li Xiao meant, Joseph hired an airship at a high price to fly directly from the capital to Xinjiapo.

Unexpectedly, today's Ming Dynasty has something called a telegraph. Through the telegraph offices across the north and south, while Joseph was still gnashing his teeth in the sky, Li Xiu already knew Li Xiao's thoughts.

"Joseph, it's not that I don't want to be friendly, but I really can't help it. My elder brother's words are now an imperial edict in the Ming Dynasty. Especially in the Liao army, no one will disobey his orders.

Ming Dynasty will not provide you with ironclad ships. If you want to land in Britain, you can only rely on your own strength."

Li Xiu wanted to help Joseph in his heart. After all, Britain is a powerful naval power. If we talk about the European navy, who else can compete with the Ming Dynasty, it is only Britain.

However, Li Xiao's telegram made it clear that the European continent must maintain a balance of power. If Britain is destroyed, France will become the dominant power. This is very detrimental to Ming Dynasty!

The Ming Dynasty needs a Europe that is fragmented and confrontational, and does not need a Europe that is united and coordinated. As the second most industrialized region in the world after the Ming Dynasty, once Europe becomes monolithic, it will pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty.

"Can't we think about it anymore? We can spend a lot of money." Joseph used a trick. He believed that people in the Ming Dynasty were greedy philistines. As long as they have money, they can consider anything.

"This is not a matter of money!" Li Xiu reluctantly refused. There is no war to fight now. The Navy's military expenditure has been reduced again, and the recent plan for a new Orosan-class warship has been shelved.

Li Xiu really wanted to get some money to equip four more Shanzi-class ironclads. In this way, he could maintain the pattern of two ships for combat cruising, two for maintenance, and two for actual combat training.

How is it like now, only one of the two Shanzi ships can maintain combat cruise, and the other one is in the port for maintenance. Only one of the two ships can be dispatched!

"We can also talk about Suez Canal stocks!" Joseph immediately threw out another bait.

The bottom line Napoleon gave him was no matter the cost, which meant that there was no bottom line in this negotiation. As long as Ming Dynasty did not want Paris, everything else could be discussed.

Li Xiu was really moved. This was a stock in the Suez Canal. Nowadays, a large number of ships pass through the Suez Canal every day, and the annual tolls are a considerable amount of income.

Because it was developed by the French in the first place, the Suez Canal also has French shares. After all, you still need reputation to survive in this world, and Li Xiao did not hack all the French shares.

Now Joseph used this to seduce Li Xiu, and this time Li Xiu was really tempted.

Gritting his teeth! "I have to ask my elder brother about this. Just wait." Li Xiu walked out and ordered the confidential room to send a telegram to the capital immediately. He stayed in the confidential room waiting for news!

Suez Canal stocks, this thing is a standard priceless thing. No one will sell such a profitable stock, unless that person is crazy.

Now the French are offering to use all their shares in the Suez Canal in exchange for the Ming Dynasty's navy sending troops. Li Xiu feels that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, we can kick the French out and completely legally occupy the entire Suez Canal.

Li Xiu was smoking in the confidential room. Smoking was not allowed here, but no one dared to care about the naval commander.

After about an hour, the telegram finally came back. There were not many words, only two words: No!

Li Xiu held the telegram, his fingers trembling a little.

"Send it again! Just four words, once in a lifetime." Li Xiu gritted his teeth and ordered the confidential room to send it again.

This time the call was returned very quickly, it only took less than twenty minutes for the reply to arrive.

Just two simple words: No!

Li Xiu was helpless now. It seemed that the Suez Canal stock was flying with its wings.

"Commander, there is another telegram." The confidential officer handed over another telegram with both hands.

When Li Xiu saw Li Xiao's cold words, his whole body was filled with excitement.

Ming Dynasty official ships and civilian ships are not allowed to participate in the European war, and any offenders will be killed without mercy!

This was because he was afraid that Li Xiu would build a plank road to secretly attack Chencang and directly cut off Li Xiu's retreat.

Li Xiao, who was far away in the capital, was also worried. He was afraid that Li Xiu might not be able to bear it anymore and really sent warships to help France. After all, there were not many opportunities to obtain private equity in the Suez Canal.

Although the stake in the Suez Canal is precious, Li Xiao's mainland balancing policy is even more valuable.

Except for the Ming Dynasty, the power of all countries in the world must be balanced. You contain me, I contain him, and he contains you. Only then will the world be peaceful. If a balance is broken rashly, no one can predict the next result.

Without Britain as a troublemaker, the European continent would be unified and integrated by Napoleon. The final result was that the European continent became the most powerful opponent of the Ming Dynasty.

What will we do when that time comes? The two forces will eventually collide for their own interests, and will they really go to war with the Europeans?

Thousands of miles away, and people can also make guns and cannons. The cost of the war will definitely be horrifyingly high! It’s hard to say whether the Ming Dynasty’s finances can sustain it!

Relative to this consequence, the stake in the Suez Canal is not worth mentioning.

In Li Xiu's mind, the idea of ​​​​a war between heaven and man, and killing without mercy is certainly not suitable for him. Li Xiu is very sure of this, and his eldest brother will never attack him.

But the officers under his command were different. Li Xiao didn't even need to say hello when he killed them.

After thinking and thinking, Li Xiu had no choice but to walk out of the confidential room, returned to the conference room, and said to Joseph dejectedly: "It can't be done! My eldest brother does not allow the Ming Navy to help you, and specifically said it is against the law.

Order to behead him."

Joseph's eyes widened. He wanted to ask Li Xiu how he contacted Li Xiao who was thousands of miles away. And it was so fast!

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From Li Xiu's attitude, Joseph could tell that he was telling the truth.

When Li Xiu left, his eyes were full of greed. He knew that Li Xiu was really tempted at that time, but he didn't understand why he couldn't impress Li Xiao despite paying such a high price.

Joseph left sadly. In the past, with Li Xiu's character, he would have attacked privately. Anyway, at that time, he had the power to act cheaply.

But this time it was different. The eldest brother's attitude was extremely resolute and he could only follow his wishes.

Without the support of the Ming Dynasty, the few ships of the French Navy were simply not enough to deal with the British Royal Navy. After all, the Liverpool shipyard could produce ironclads. The French Navy did not yet have the ability to produce ironclads.

Whether it's introduction, purchase, or leasing, all the tricks have been used, but they still failed to impress Daming.

Napoleon reluctantly gave up the idea of ​​attacking London. Since he couldn't deal with London, he would just deal with Russia.

These damn Slavs participated in every anti-French alliance. Because they were far away from the center of the European continent, they believed that Napoleon could not expedition against them.

Since we can't defeat the British, we might as well just kill the Russians.

As long as this polar bear is completely defeated, Britain will have no important helpers when it organizes an anti-French alliance in the future. It can be said that if Russia is defeated, there will no longer be an anti-French alliance on the European continent.

After thinking for a long time, Napoleon decided to kill Russia, his last opponent.

Of course, if you want to go to war in peacetime, you need to find a reason, which can also be understood as an excuse.

Napoleon made an excuse, that is, the war reparations that Russia promised to pay did not arrive on time. Moreover, Russia bullied France's little brothers, the Romanians.

Before war was declared, Napoleon had secretly mobilized troops to the border. It took him nearly a year and a half to gradually dispatch 600,000 people to the Russian border.

According to historical practice, an army must have a certain number of people. However, this time is a little different from previous times. In previous times, it needed to be larger.

This time, he wanted to retaliate. Napoleon very modestly claimed that his army had 200,000 people. If the Russians refused to submit, they could fight.

Two hundred thousand people!

This number still did not scare the Russians. Soon, under the command of the commander-in-chief of the border troops, Barclay, a 250,000-strong army was assembled to face the French.

Barclay's idea was very simple. France would not spend huge national power on an expedition to Russia, which was very far away from France. Especially the weather in Russia was very cold in winter, which would be a great test for French soldiers.

When confronting the French, fight if you can, and run away if you can't. Anyway, the French will not pursue excessively, and they will not come to occupy Russian land. This place is really far away from the French mainland!

It must be said that Barclay's idea is very problematic. He wanted to take advantage of Russia's huge strategic depth, but unfortunately the mobility of his soldiers was far from enough to cope.

When Napoleon saw Barclay's arrival, he immediately smiled and waved the butcher's knife.

At dawn on May 4th, the roar of explosions broke the tranquility before dawn, and explosions occurred one after another. The shelling continued for an hour, and countless French troops crossed the border.

The French army suddenly launched a fierce attack on the Russian army led by Barclay, but the Russian army was very vigilant. They relied on solid fortifications to resolutely block the French.

Soon, the French offensive momentum was contained. The battle fell into a stalemate!

Barclay was very excited. This time he faced the main French army led by Napoleon. Before that, they had been invincible.

Unexpectedly, this time, I actually hit a snag under my own arrangement.

While issuing orders to the frontline soldiers, asking them to hold on, they also sent people to report to Moscow and request Moscow to send more reinforcements.

The attack lasted a whole day, and the French made no progress except leaving many corpses.

Barclay was simply crazy with joy. He did not expect that with the strength of his men, they could withstand Napoleon's attack.

For three days in a row, the French were launching fierce attacks. But Barclay's Russian army was like a magical shield. They repelled the French attacks time and time again without losing an inch of their position.

Barclay began to believe that the French were not as powerful as the legend said. He reported to Moscow that he had won the battle to defend the Neman River.

The battle report said that the French suffered heavy casualties and could no longer fight. The arduous battle to defend the Neman River would soon be won.

Russian communications were quite primitive, with knights riding fast horses galloping from one station to another. Battle reports from the front took seven days to reach the Kremlin in Moscow.

When the battle report was delivered to Yekaterina, she was discussing the equipment of the Guards with Kutuzov and Dorgon.

After more than a year of hard work, the Guards were finally equipped with new rifles. Not only were they equipped with new rifles, they were also equipped with artillery such as mortars, cannons and rocket launchers.

The Imperial Guard even established an airship brigade, with ten large airships and three small reconnaissance airships.

The matter discussed today is what kind of machine gun the Guards should equip. Is it a Maxim heavy machine gun or a light machine gun developed in Bombay?

The heavy machine gun has a long range and is powerful, but it is too heavy and requires four people to wait on it. It is not bad for positional warfare, but when fighting mobile warfare, most of the time it needs a carriage to pull it.

The light machine gun has a short range and the sustained firepower is not as good as that of the heavy machine gun, but it is light and flexible and can be used by only two people. This is very important on the battlefield. You must know that if a place continues to output firepower, it is likely to become a target for cannons.

No matter how powerful the heavy machine gun is, it is just a gun. It will be turned into dregs under the bombardment of the cannon.

Ekaterina took the battle report from the courier, opened it and read two lines, a peach blossom-like smile bloomed on her face: "Great, the border guards withstood the French attack on the Neman River.

The French tried to cross the river three times, but were repelled by our army. Now, Barclay is organizing troops to tightly defend the Neman River. The French cannot cross!"

As he spoke, he handed the battle report to Kutuzov.

"Barclay is not a bad boy. He actually withstood Napoleon's attack. The terrain along the Neman River is good and is very beneficial to our army's defense." Kutuzov read the battle report and nodded happily.

He likes this energetic young man Barclay very much!

After taking a look at Dorgon, Kutuzov handed the battle report to Dorgon. After two years of training, Dorgon could already read Russian documents.
Chapter completed!