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The failed art student from Austria was thinking, what did I do to you, why are you coming at me like an idiot? Do you need to be beaten up to behave?
The art student thought so and acted accordingly – when the Polish brothers, after much difficulty, gathered five thousand cavalry and planned to go to the Tsar's house to teach those slaves how to fight, the art student directly rounded up ten thousand cavalry in Austria, raised their sabers, sang songs, and headed straight for Poland.
Meanwhile, Tsar Alexander of Russia was also very unhappy with Poland, because Alexander felt that no matter how much trouble those slaves caused, it was Russia's own affair, so why were the Polish brothers getting involved? Was it to create another False Tsar to control Russia? Or were they planning to capture another Tsar and parade him through the streets?
Russian history has had a False Tsar, and also a black history of a Tsar being captured and paraded by the Poles.
This matter has to start with Tsar Feodor I.
It is said that Feodor reigned for fourteen years but left no son. After his death, the Rurik dynasty in Russian history became extinct, and Russia entered the period of Tsarist vacancy, with domestic nobles fighting for power and profit, and the entire country plunged into chaos.
At this time, the neighboring Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was at its peak.
Under the influence of centuries of enmity between the two countries, King Sigismund III of Poland did not miss this opportunity to control Russia. In 1609, he applied to Rome for Crusader privileges, calling on Poles to freely rob and massacre Russians, because the Pope had absolved them of all their sins, and killing Russian heretics would lead directly to heaven after death.
Polish nobles, both great and small, began to place their bets. Those who participated personally brought their knights and auxiliary troops, while those who did not participated hired agents with money. In short, they were determined to eliminate Russia.
More importantly, King Sigismund III of Poland played a trick – he found someone to impersonate Ivan IV's youngest son and sent troops with him to seize the Tsarist throne, thereby controlling Russia.
This puppet was False Dmitry I.
At that time, the Russian nobles were fighting among themselves, hating each other to the death, and indeed, False Dmitry I successfully entered Moscow and ascended the throne.
For Russia, this was a great humiliation – the leader of the mighty Tsarist Russia was a puppet supported by Poland?
Even more infuriating was that as soon as False Dmitry I came to power, he displayed the excellent qualities of a traitorous puppet, ceding land, marrying a Polish noblewoman, and bringing Polish troops to wreak havoc in Russia.
His various actions finally triggered the East Slavs' passive skill – to unite and oppose external enemies.
The East Slavs had two excellent legacies:
The first was their infighting attribute. It was due to continuous infighting that the Slavs split into three: one branch went west to become the West Slavs, one branch went south to become the South Slavs, and the other branch remained in place, becoming the East Slavs.
The second was their attribute of uniting against external enemies. After the Slavic tribes split into three, the East Slavs who remained on the Eastern European plain continued to fight amongst themselves, splitting into several small tribes. However, the northern city of Novgorod was constantly harassed by Norse pirates. The leaders of several tribes gathered for a meeting, saying that they could fight amongst themselves, but they would not allow outsiders to bully them; they would unite and fight them.
Thus, the Norse pirates were defeated by the united East Slavs.
This time, the Poles successfully activated the passive skill that the East Slavs had hidden for a hundred years.
Seeing the Polish puppet Tsar wreaking havoc in Moscow, the Russian nobles, who were about to fight to the death, immediately ceased hostilities, united to support Vasily IV as Tsar, and publicly executed False Dmitry I, who had been captured.
The enraged East Slavs also burned him to ashes, formed him into a ball, stuffed him into a cannon, and fired a shot towards Poland.
The East Slavs' shot also enraged King Sigismund III of Poland. He repeated his trick, found a False Dmitry II, and sent troops to directly attack Moscow. In 1610, he captured Moscow and successfully conquered Tsarist Russia.
Polish Prince Władysław declared himself Tsar of Russia, and Russia retained only nominal independence, effectively becoming a Polish puppet state.
Sigismund III finally held his head high, feeling that he had finally conquered his unpromising Slavic brother, while Russia entered its darkest hour in history.
However, Russia did not succumb.
Although some Russian nobles had their spines broken by the Polish army and knelt before the Polish prince, a nation always has its unyielding national heroes to lead it to rise.
Therefore, outside Moscow, the capital of Russia, many local nobles and commoners refused to recognize the Polish Tsar and refused to obey Moscow's orders.
They spontaneously formed armies to jointly resist Poland.
At this time, Polish Prince Władysław could only maintain effective control over Moscow, and was helpless against the widespread noble resistance.
In the autumn of 1611, two national heroes who saved Russia from this catastrophe emerged – Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky.
Nizhny Novgorod was the largest city in Tsarist Russia after Moscow. As the leader of the local council of gentry, Minin initiated the formation of an army to resist Polish invasion and set an example by donating all his property, even his wife's dowry jewelry.
Moved by his selfless dedication, the Russian people enthusiastically donated money, and a large army was quickly assembled.
Minin had no military combat experience. On the principle of leaving professional matters to professionals, he invited Prince Pozharsky, a former Tsarist minister wounded in the Moscow uprising, to be the commander of this army.
Initially, Pozharsky was unwilling to take charge of this army, because he had suffered a terrible defeat in his previous battles with the Poles, and he was disheartened about Russia's future. Moreover, he had great doubts about the fighting capacity of such an army, so he refused Minin's invitation.
But Minin did not give up easily. He subjected Pozharsky to a session of brainwashing and cultural output. The passion to fight to the death for the country and the spirit of fighting to the end finally infected Pozharsky.
The two clasped hands, shed tears looking at each other, and decided to do something big together.
At the end of 1611, Minin and Pozharsky, as leaders of the Russian noble and commoner uprising army, declared that they did not recognize Polish Prince Władysław as Tsar and solemnly stated: only a Russian can be Tsar.
This declaration ignited a storm of resistance against Polish rule in Russia. Polish Prince Władysław felt uneasy, while Minin and Pozharsky, taking advantage of Władysław's anxiety, actively trained and prepared for battle, letting the bullets of the uprising fly a little longer.
In March 1612, after five months of preparation, Minin and Pozharsky believed the time was ripe and led a large army from Nizhny Novgorod towards Moscow.
Wherever the uprising army passed, the Russian people welcomed them with open arms, clearing out Polish troops with ease, and finally reached the gates of Moscow on August 20th.
The phrase "reached the gates of Moscow" has appeared many times in history. If the movie "The Gates of Moscow" were made into a series, it would not be completed without seven or eight parts.
Back to the story, the Polish army's control over Moscow was not as tight as in other cities. The rebel army encountered stubborn resistance from the Polish forces outside the city, and both sides fought back and forth, with the balance of victory tilting left and right.
This battle for Moscow lasted for two months, and the actions of Minin and Pozharsky also inspired the Russian nobles and commoners. More and more rebel armies began to gather towards Moscow, and the balance of victory finally stopped tilting and began to lean towards the Russian side.
On November 4, 1612, the Polish prince was forced to surrender and agreed to withdraw from Moscow. Moscow was thus liberated.
After expelling the Poles from Russia, Minin and Pozharsky organized an All-Russian Assembly of Gentry, gathering all the princes and nobles to hold a small meeting to elect a new Tsar.
Previously, Russian emperors were descendants of the Norse Rurik, so that period in Russian history was called the Rurik Dynasty.
But the Rurik family had no heirs, so they had to find relatives by blood.
Finally, Mikhail Fyodorovich Romanov, the nephew of Ivan IV's empress, was nominated and elected as the new Tsar, marking the entry of Russia into the Romanov Dynasty.
This new Tsar did not leave a particularly remarkable mark in history, but he made a significant contribution to Russia.
This significant contribution was bringing forth a good grandson – Peter the Great, who was called the greatest Tsar in Russian history.
After another five years of war, Russia successfully expelled the Poles, and a truce was signed between Russia and Poland in 1618.
If shooting the ashes had deepened the animosity between Russia and Poland, then the occupation of Moscow was an irreconcilable hatred for Russia.
From then on, all Tsars had a goal: if they could kill Poland, they would not let it live.
In any case, although Poland once occupied Moscow and formally ruled Russia for a short period, it was ultimately forced to withdraw from Russia under the counterattack of the uprising army led by the two Russian national heroes Minin and Pozharsky.
All the scholars were completely stunned.
What could the shogunate do now that the good and low-class people of Japan were hiding around the Ming merchants?
If they angered those Ming merchants and caused them to draw their swords and confront the shogunate, the shogunate would be the one to suffer in the end!
The more he thought about it, the more troubled Tokugawa Ienari became. He frowned and asked, "Have you negotiated with those Ming merchants? Aren't they afraid of contracting leprosy?"
In an era where patients with rolling-body-twitching disease are rampant in later generations, the dog sons nurtured by the "silly eagle" always use "How is this country, query the system" to make trouble.
The problem is that Emperor Zhu himself fell into the question of "system."
In fact, this idea can only be thought of. If this kind of gameplay were implemented in the Central Plains sects, it would be courting death.
Analyzing the specific reasons behind this in depth is too complicated, but in the final analysis, it all boils down to interests.
In fact, this is also why the barbarians of Europe and the "silly eagle" are generally so bold.
This is because Europe has never had a truly unified dynasty, and the barbarians are also accustomed to the mentality of small states and small populations, and are also accustomed to the system of small courts.
The same is true for the "fur bear" – are the Bolsheviks good? Yes! The key is that humans have desires!
This approach is certainly fine in normal times, as it seems to be the same for the common people in the Central Plains.
However, once disaster strikes, such as a mini ice age, or when the people truly cannot survive, the difference between large and small courts becomes apparent.
The "silly eagle" is not much better than Europe, otherwise classmate Bai Zhenhua would not have ascended the throne, nor would there have been the great joke of internal conflict in the "silly eagle" starting with the two chickens.
However, it is not necessarily feasible to directly adopt the Bolshevik system, which is also a system of great governance.
Directly copying the Bolshevik system has a huge hidden danger, which is that the Ming Dynasty does not have the environment for that set of theories to survive.
Of course, it cannot be said that this theory is wrong, because all countries in the world propagate it this way.
Is it not much better to achieve the merit of helping the dragon defeat the rebels than to wholeheartedly serve those mud-legged people?
They have not yet experienced the pain of impending total national annihilation.
Especially when the emperor gradually delegates power, the Grand Secretariat can even replace the role of the emperor.
This is because Emperor Zhu directly clarified the status of the Grand Secretariat in the martial world.
However, in terms of authority, the Grand Secretaries who could lead the Six Ministries did not have high ranks. The so-called leading the Six Ministries was also not legitimate, and there was also the restraint of the Directorate of Ceremonial.
There is nothing to say about the Censorate. Their main responsibility is to criticize people, and the emperor and all civil and military officials are objects of their scrutiny.
And the final interpretation of the Great Ming Law rests with the Ministry of Justice.
In short, there are all sorts of departments, their responsibilities are clear, they must support each other, and also restrain each other.
Do you want to regain power by changing the prime minister?
However, Emperor Zhu knew very well that such perfection was basically nonsense.
Even the system of the Rabbit is not flawless!
Whether it was the tears shed when executing the two Ma Su, or later the rich who were unwilling to help the poor and even wanted to extend their hands into the court, these were objective realities!
Thinking of this, Emperor Zhu couldn't help but laugh at himself.
No matter how hard he tried, he was not a god, so how could he solve those ancient problems?
"And those officials who jumped out to court death, do I need to tell you how to deal with them?"
The Ming Dynasty has always treated its meritorious officials well. Although they are no longer the chief grand secretaries, they still receive the same treatment as chief grand secretaries, and may even receive a noble title.