Chapter 228 Railway

Qian Yougui said hurriedly, "They are not doing business, they are defending justice!"

Zhou Charter sneered: "If Russians are really so noble, then Vladivostok should belong to my Qing Dynasty!"

Guo Erqiang said, "However, if we can go back to China and drive little Japan out of Liaodong, it is better than staying in North Korea. Now we are helping North Koreans fight and Liaodong to help our families."

Zhou Charter sighed, "But the court won't allow us to return home."

Qian Yougui said, "Yemen Liaoko said that the Russian government can negotiate with our court and allow us to return to China."

Zhou Charter was vigilant: "That means that the Russian government wants to intervene in the internal affairs of the Qing Dynasty!"

"This is a little meaningful." Money is expensive and nod.

Zhou Charter looked out of the window and whispered, "What on earth do Russians want to do with such a large amount of money?"

......

In a granite spire building, Palau sat by the fireplace in the living room and looked at the oil painting on the opposite wall. It was an oil painting with an Orthodox theme, dark color and the theme was the melancholy Virgin Mary.

In Russia, Palau is a well-known name. He came from a business family for generations. Since his grandfather, the Palau family has almost monopolized Russia's Far East trade. Some people say that the Palau family thrives because he has an extraordinary relationship with the Tsar.

The Tsar and the Russian government have a close relationship with the Palau family, which he does not deny, but he believes that the causal relationship should be reversed - the Tsar needs the Palau family!

Of course, the so-called causality has always been complementary. There is no absolute cause and effect, only mutual effects! It is difficult to explain the relationship between the Palau family and the Tsar with cause and effect, but one thing is clear that in Palau's eyes, commercial interests can only be maximized if they are combined with national interests.

Baraufu's eyes moved from the Virgin on the oil painting to the center of the hall.

There is a sand table.

On the sand table, there is a black railway that crosses the mountains and forest rivers. The railway runs from west to east and across the whole sand table. Its starting point is Moscow, crossing Siberia, entering China from Manchuria, crossing the northern Heilongjiang River in China, reaching the Suifen River, and ending at Vladivostok on the shore of the Pacific Ocean!

At the eastern end of this black railway, in a city called Harbin, there is a yellow dotted line, which is perpendicular to the railway and extends south. The end of the yellow line is Lushun!

This is the longest railway in the world and the most difficult railway in the world! Its name is the Middle East Railway! Or, it's called the Siberian Railway!

This railway is Russia's dream!

In the 19th century, Tsarist Russia paid more and more attention to the Far East. What attracts Tsarist Russia is the estuary in the Pacific Ocean.

Russia is a landlocked country. Since Peter the Great, the core of Russia's national strategy has been to open the road to the sea. Before the 19th century, Russia's maritime strategy had been going south to the Mediterranean. However, Russia's Mediterranean strategy strongly resisted in European countries. Under control, it has suffered failure again and again!

After entering the 19th century, the Russians suddenly found that there was a larger ocean in the Far East - the Pacific Ocean!

The Pacific Ocean is wider than the Mediterranean Sea! What attracts more Russians is that the East Asian countries on the west coast of the Pacific are far weaker than the European countries along the Mediterranean coast!

Just out of medieval Asia, he opened Hongmeng's eyes and trembled in front of the strong ships and cannons of European powers.

Europeans were surprised to find that their occupation, looting and even colonization of Asia actually possessed moral superiority - for Asia, highly civilized Europeans are the liberators of civilization!

Russians also have such a sense of morality under the logic of robbers!

Occupy the Far East, including Northeast China, North Korea and Japan, is Russia's national interest and moral principle!

From the middle of the 19th century, in just half a century, Tsarist Russia adopted the Sino-Russian Treaty and the Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty, annexing more than 100 square kilometers of Chinese territory north of Heilongjiang and east of the Ussuri River into the Russian territory. After that, it continued to infiltrate northeast China, and the sword front pointed straight to northeast of China. And North Korea.

However, Russia's ambition is geographically limited and difficult to show.

Russia's domestic economic development is extremely unbalanced, and its political, economic and military focus is on Europe. Its European part is extremely developed and can be called a world-class power. However, in Asia, especially in the Middle East and the Far East, including Siberia, it is almost a wilderness.

Russia wants to expand to the Far East, but its strategic support point is west of the Urals thousands of kilometers away. The transportation of strategic materials and the mobilization of troops have to pass through thousands of kilometers of barbaric land. Transportation has become a bottleneck for Russians' expansion to the Far East, which gives Russians a great headache.

This is the fundamental reason why the Russians lost to Zuo Zongtang in Xinjiang. Russian military supplies, logistical support and soldiers could not arrive in time and eventually had to retreat.

Because of the failure of Xinjiang, Russia is regarded as a second-rate country by Western powers, which is a great humiliation for Tsarist Russia.

Tsarist Russia has always wanted to find the face lost in Xinjiang in Northeast China and North Korea.

However, Northeast and North Korea are farther away than Xinjiang.

What's worse is that Japan, an Asian island country in the Russian expedition plan, has undergone earth-shaking changes overnight, from a backward and ignorant island country to a power in East Asia!

Moreover, what the Japanese are aiming at is exactly the same as the goals of the Russians - Northeast China and North Korea!

Japan's rise has broken the regional balance and seriously threatened Russia's Far East interests.

However, the Russians' ambition to expand Japan is more than weak!

The powerful military industry and economic strength were blocked by the vast Siberia to the west of the Urals!

The Russian government realizes that the range of national forces is within the reach of the country's transportation line!

In 1891, the Russians finally made up their mind to build a railway artery across Siberia and connecting Europe and Vladivostok.

With this railway, Russia's strong military power can reach the Far East! Only then can Russia truly achieve practical control over the vast area north of Heilongjiang, realize the expansion of the Far East, compete with Japan, and truly step into the Pacific Ocean!

Russia declared the construction of this railway "worldwide. The incident regards this future railway as a "tool to strengthen the Russian Pacific Fleet" so that Russia can "control all international commercial activities in the Pacific waters".

In June 1891, the construction of the Siberian Railway broke ground. By 1894, the road had been repaired to the post-Baikal region. According to the original plan, the railway to the east will twist along the Shilekha River and the north bank of Heilongjiang, and then go south along the east bank of the Ussuri River to Vladivostok.

At this time, the Russian Chancellor of the Exchequer Witt suddenly proposed that the Siberian Railway passes through Heilongjiang, China and crosses northeast China. In this way, it not only greatly shortens the mileage of the route, but also can firmly control the Heilongjiang region of China in the hands of Russia. This is the Russian national strategy - the country The range that family forces can reach is the range that this country's transportation line can reach!

The Russian railway that crosses through Chinese territory is the Middle East Railway.

The Russian government immediately adopted Witt's suggestion and asked the Qing Dynasty to borrow land for Russia to build roads on Chinese territory.

However, the Qing Dynasty has been wary of Russia for a long time, and the Russian proposal was rejected by the Qing Dynasty.

Since then, the war between the Qing Dynasty and Japan broke out.

However, the Russians did not stop their actions. Just after the Western New Year in 1895, Russia sent a secret investigation team to pretend to be a caravan and secretly sneak into the northeast to carry out a field survey along the Middle East railway without the consent of the Qing Dynasty.

It was the Russian businessman Baraufu who led this exploration team.

According to the secret agreement between Palau and the Russian government, Palau will be granted the right to operate the 2,500-kilometer-long Middle East railway. This means that the Palau family will monopolize Russian commerce in the Far East!

The footprint of Palau's exploration is far beyond the planned construction area of the Middle East Railway. When the Qing-Japanese War was in full swing, Palau led an exploration team all the way south to Fengtian.

In Fengtian, Balaofu was surprised to find that with the defeat of the Qing army in the war, the long-term war of the Qing Dynasty against the Russians gradually faded, and more and more Qing officials began to believe that they could form an alliance with the Russians to fight against Japan.

That is to say, the attitude of the Qing Dynasty towards the Middle East railway may change.

At the same time, Palau came up with a bolder idea.

The idea is the yellow railway on the sand table - Palau called this railway that was not included in the Russian plan the South Manchurian Railway.

A branch line is divided from the Middle East Railway, all the way south, through Changchun, to Liaodong, and finally, arrive at Lushun!

Lushun is a natural and unfrozen port! It is more beneficial to the Russian Pacific Fleet than Vladivostok and occupies Lushun. The Russians will firmly control the whole Northeast and North Korea, and can directly threaten Japan! With possession of Lushun, the Russian fleet can truly achieve the grand goal of "controlling all international commercial activities in the Pacific waters"! With the possession of Lushun, the Russians will step into the Pacific Ocean!

The South Manchurian Railway is in the national interests of the Russians and the interests of the Palau family.

This is the perfect combination of national interests and commercial interests!

The Russian government will not give up this wonderful vision!

Sure enough, after Palau submitted this idea to Moscow, the Russian government immediately gave a positive response - a comprehensive survey along the Nanman Railway and actively contacted local governments in China, especially with local forces in China, paving the way for the implementation of the railway plan in the future.

However, Palau knew that this was a grand blueprint, but it was just a blueprint.