My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 222 Popularizing the International Situation, Emperor Yongzheng was greatly alarmed!
After returning home from Hongli's place, Longkodo stayed in his study, reading the information about the Rakshasa Kingdom that Hongli had given him.

When Yuzhu came to pay his respects, he was still looking at him, and said to Yuzhu:

"This Fourth Master is no ordinary person!"

"Your father won the gamble again this time!"

Longkodo's smile was therefore very bright.

Yu Zhu asked curiously, "Really? Is this all you're making to feel like you've made the right bet? It's not like it's an edict of succession!"

"What do you know!"

"It turns out that Fourth Master had long anticipated that the Russian Kingdom would negotiate a border with our Great Qing, so a year ago, he sent spies to investigate the Russian Kingdom and thus learned about its true strength and weaknesses."

"While many ministers in the court were terrified by the arrogance of the Russian Empire and thought that the Russian Empire had enough strength to conquer our Great Qing, the Fourth Prince had already seen through their bluster and realized that they actually did not have the ability to conquer our Great Qing."

Longkodo admired Hongli's insight and felt increasingly less regretful about gambling in front of Hongli, even feeling excited that he was about to make a fortune.

He decided that from now on he would be a loyal subject of Hongli!
Those loyal ministers who have no principles or bottom line!
In any case, while the court officials were afraid of angering the Russian Empire and causing unrest in the Qing Dynasty, at least the Fourth Prince shared the same view as him, believing that the Russian Empire was nothing to fear.

At the very least, we should not be intimidated by the current Qing Dynasty.

That's right!

Based on his keen insight, Longkodo also insisted that Russia posed little threat to the Qing Dynasty.

However, most of the central government officials disagreed with him.

But Longkodo now realizes that at least the Fourth Prince Hongli's views are in line with his own.

This gave him the feeling of having met a kindred spirit.

He naturally felt even less regretful about his previous gamble.

Yu Zhu smiled as he looked at Longkodo's excited and joyful face.

Two days later.

Inside the Wenhua Hall, bathed in the spring sunshine.

Longkodo and other Qing officials involved in the negotiations met with Russian envoys, including Ragukinsky, and the two sides officially began consultations and negotiations.

"Before the formal consultations begin, I must protest your country's policy of encouraging people to go to the border regions to reclaim wasteland and exiling many noble scholars to suffer there!"

"By doing this, you are diminishing our trust in your willingness to coexist peacefully with our Rakshasa Kingdom! This makes us suspect that your large-scale relocation of people to the border regions and your severe suppression of nobles and scholars who advocate peace are preparations for a future invasion!"

"Therefore, before agreeing on the border, please explain these policies!"

At the start of the negotiations, Lagokins made a strong statement expressing his dissatisfaction with some of the Qing government's new policies.

Tegut and Tulichen both looked shocked. They had not expected that the Russian Kingdom would be the first to express its dissatisfaction with the new policies of the Yongzheng Emperor.

They had to admit that Lagujinsky was far too arrogant, actually demanding that the Qing Dynasty explain its national policies, acting as if he were the Qing Dynasty's master.

Longkodo was even more enraged, clenching his fists as if he wanted to punch someone.

But remembering his father's teachings and determined to be a qualified diplomat, he suppressed his anger and replied, "Our Great Qing Dynasty does not need to explain to you the relocation of people within its own territory!"

"As I said, your country's actions make us seriously doubt your sincerity in wanting peace!"

"We also have serious doubts about your sincerity!"

Longkodo replied in a deep voice.

Laguchinsky knew that Longkodo was a hardliner, so he was not surprised by his answer. What surprised him was that Longkodo did not lash out first, but showed great restraint.

This forced him to restrain himself and reiterate his reasons for dissatisfaction: "Your large-scale population increase in the border areas inevitably raises suspicions that you are not preparing for a future invasion!"

Longkodo chuckled coldly and said, "You can also encourage your people to reclaim wasteland in the border towns. My Great Qing will never interfere. In fact, we will encourage your people to trade with the people of our border towns."

"you!"

Lagukins blushed and stood up abruptly, losing his composure.

If the Rakshasa Kingdom could relocate a large number of people to the east, it would have done so long ago; why would it have waited until now?

Longkodo's words were practically taking advantage of the fact that his Rakshasa Kingdom didn't have the ability to do so.

Therefore, Ragujinsky could only shout, "In that case, I cannot negotiate with your country!"

"All I see is that your country intends to wage war against us again, and we will have no choice but to prepare for it."

"Furthermore, we do not rule out the possibility of first sending troops to attack key locations, and also mobilizing the Mongol tribes to jointly resist any possible invasion from you!"

After speaking, Ragudinsky led his men out of the Wenhua Hall. As he left the negotiation room, Ragudinsky still wore a disdainful expression, but his ears were constantly listening to the sounds behind him.

He is testing!

He tested whether the Qing officials he was negotiating with would come after him and speak to him in a conciliatory manner, and whether they would ask the emperor for permission to change the national policy in order to continue the negotiations.

Tegut, a Mongolian official, was indeed somewhat worried, since if war were to break out, the Mongolian tribes on the border would be the first to be affected.

Tegut then asked Longkodo, "Uncle, does this Russian envoy truly intend to abandon negotiations and instead wage war against our Great Qing?"

Longkodo, his face grim, looked at Tulichen: "What does Young Commander think?"

Now, thanks to Hongli's influence, Tulichen has a clearer understanding of the Russian Kingdom and knows that the Russian Kingdom is not capable of launching a large-scale military operation in the East. Therefore, he said, "In my opinion, no, they do not have that capability."

Longkodo smiled and said, "That's right. So we can't be intimidated by their threats. We should also investigate his crimes of making irresponsible remarks about the national policies of our Great Qing, showing disrespect to our Great Qing, despising the majesty of our Holy Emperor, and threatening to use force against our Great Qing!"

"What does the Imperial Brother-in-Law mean?"

Tulichen looked at Longkodo and asked.

Longkodo said, "I request that the imperial decree be issued to arrest this Russian envoy, Laguginsky, and imprison him. Furthermore, I request that his men return and tell the Russian monarch that if they truly wish to negotiate, they should send an envoy who is genuinely willing to negotiate, instead of coming to our Great Qing to flaunt their power and act with utter disrespect!"

Tegut and Turichon both looked horrified, but then nodded.

Laguchinsky then discovered that not a single Qing Dynasty official had come after him.

"Damn it, they didn't even try to persuade them!"

This surprised Lagujinsky.

But Ragudinsky had no intention of turning back. Instead, he returned to the meeting hall, believing that the Qing emperor and officials, who also needed peace between the two countries, would come to him again for negotiations.

Therefore, when he had some free time, Raguginsky sent the gift that his Tsar had prepared for Hongli to Langrun Garden.

The Russian Tsar presented Hongli with a gilded red-crowned crane statue.

"Our Emperor hopes that the Fourth Prince can be like this free crane, with a life full of joy and good fortune."

Laguchinsky then smiled and said some nice things to Hongli.

Hongli had to admit that the Rakshasa Kingdom truly believed he would be a peace-loving monarch who was unwilling to expand, which was why they sent him such a gift, demonstrating their desire for peaceful coexistence with him in the future.

However, Hongli had no intention of revealing his true purpose yet, so he simply nodded and smiled, saying, "Your Emperor is very kind!"

After receiving the gift, Hongli hosted a banquet for Ragukinsky and returned the gift to him.

This greatly increased Ragujinsky's goodwill towards Hongli. On the way back to the meeting hall, he said to the deputy envoy Langke who had come with him, "This fourth prince is a very elegant and polite young man. I really hope that he can become the emperor of this country as soon as possible."

"Yes, that way we'll definitely be able to acquire large tracts of land in the East!"

Langke echoed.

After meeting with Lagudinsky, Hongli came to Yongzheng and reported the matter to him.

Yongzheng also told Hongli about Longkodo's memorial requesting the arrest of Lagudinsky, and said with a smile, "This Longkodo, I was worried that he would back down, but I didn't expect him to directly request that the Russian envoy be imprisoned and punished!"

"This would certainly boost the morale of our Celestial Empire, but if we were to actually comply with his demands, wouldn't that be going too far and might actually provoke the Russian Kingdom into war against our Great Qing?"

Yongzheng then asked Hongli about this.

Hongli said, "In my humble opinion, no!"

"Because I have already gained a thorough understanding of the Russian Kingdom, and through my sixteenth uncle, I even had the Ministry of War send spies to investigate it. As far as I know, the Russian Kingdom has just finished conquering Persia and annexing many regions of Persia. For the time being, it still needs to station enough elite troops to suppress the resistance forces."

"In addition, the Russian Empire is currently in a very tense relationship with the Ottoman Empire and has a need to send more troops to the Caucasus, so it is simply unable to look eastward."

"Moreover, at this time, the Rakshasa Kingdom had just ended a war and its treasury was very empty, so the ruling monarch and his ministers were all conservative and did not want to start a new war."

"Even if he were to wage a major war and send a large army to our Great Qing just because an envoy was imprisoned, he would still have to cross tens of thousands of miles of cold, sparsely populated land. The cost of that would be difficult for our Great Qing to bear, let alone for his Russian country."

"It can be said that if the Russian Empire were to truly wage war against our Great Qing, it would surely perish, and the many enemy states surrounding it—Persia, Sweden, and the Ottomans—would only benefit..."

After Hongli said this, Yongzheng looked surprised: "You actually know so much about the Russian Kingdom?"

"Because I firmly believe that strategically we should despise the enemy, while tactically we should take the enemy seriously. Therefore, even though the Rakshasa Kingdom is a barbarian land beyond the reach of civilization and is despised by me, I still dare not neglect or underestimate it in my investigation and understanding of the Rakshasa Kingdom."

Hongli bowed and replied, then used the strategy of a great man of later generations to explain his reasons for doing so.

"Strategically, we should despise the enemy; tactically, we should take the enemy seriously!"

Upon hearing this, Yongzheng muttered to himself and glanced at Hongli with a complicated expression.

(End of this chapter)