New Shun 1730

The Swedish ambassador was very clear about his family's affairs, and of course he understood that as long as Liu Yu could mediate and ensure that Adolf, who was apparently "pro-Russian" but actually "pro-Putin", was chosen as the crown prince, Denmark would give up its claim and Russia would have no excuse to send troops to Stockholm to "protect" Sweden, then this war would be a completely decent peace.

The key is whether Russia can agree to it?

In Liu Yu's opinion, Russia, at least the Queen's side, should be able to agree to it.

If this plan is implemented successfully, it will be a win-win war.

Russia won face, and the Queen's position was consolidated.

Sweden won the inside, anyway, the king is just a mascot.

What the Russian Queen wanted was face, to consolidate her prestige in the unstable position she obtained through the coup.

Russia won, and Sweden won too.

The only loser was the 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers who died in the ice and snow of Finland.

With Russia's current strength, if it really wants to move westward, it must make the diplomatic situation in the north a little more peaceful.

Sweden is too close to St. Petersburg. Russia moved its capital back to St. Petersburg. If it was stabbed by Sweden when it was advancing westward, it would definitely be uncomfortable.

Therefore, the Swedish issue is two-way.

If Sweden handles it well, it can promote Russia's westward expansion and form a great anti-British-Prussian alliance.

And Russia's ambition to advance westward is the basis for Sweden to handle its issues well.

This is a question of whether the chicken or the egg comes first.

This requires cooperation and concerted efforts from several parties.

…………

Shortly after finalizing the efforts that Sweden would make with the Swedish ambassador, a light snow fell in St. Petersburg.

The day after the snow, a handsome boy of fourteen or fifteen years old, with a small team of young attendants, came to the Duke of Menshikov's mansion and conveyed Empress Elizabeth's hunting invitation to Liu Yu.

The boy's name is Ivan Shuvalov.

Those who have attended Moscow University or the Repin Academy of Fine Arts in later generations must know this person, the old school director who founded the school, who single-handedly promoted Russia's science and engineering universities and art academies, and has been a first-class person since then.

Liu Yu didn't know much about the boy in front of him, but he knew his cousin, Peter Shuvalov.

Because the boy's cousin invented the Unicorn Cannon Carriage, the most distinctive artillery branch in the 18th century.

There is an old Chinese saying that when one person succeeds, all his family members will rise to heaven.

It is right to describe the boy in front of him, or the Shuvalov family.

As Peter's daughter, Elizabeth has the greatest "legitimacy", so she must follow Peter everywhere.

Peter created the Youth Army, and Elizabeth of course formed the Youth Attendant Corps at the fastest speed. They were all children of fourteen or fifteen years old, similar to the current Children's Army of Dashun, and many of them were children of small nobles.

Being able to be the head of the Youth Attendant Corps is obviously considered to be a success, which is equivalent to the Dragon Guards of Dashun.

The child certainly did not participate in the coup, but his cousin, Peter Shuvalov, who invented the Unicorn Howitzer, was one of the few people who followed Elizabeth in the coup.

Because his wife was Elizabeth's best friend when she was young, the kind of best friend who could write letters to each other to complain about their lovers.

Best friends interfering in politics is a feature of the entire Elizabethan era.

Peter Shuvalov's wife, Mira Yugolovna, did not hold any official position, but was smart and clever.

She was called the "shadow cabinet prime minister" during Elizabeth's forbearance. Even after the empress came to power, she still had no official position, but later the whole of Petersburg knew: if you want to get things done, find Mira.

Best friends interfering in politics, or nepotism, or selecting officials by relatives, may not necessarily fail to do good things, such as Wei Qing and Huo Qubing of Emperor Wu of Han, but the only disadvantage is that they did less good things and more bad things, and they depended too much on vision, with a high upper limit and a low lower limit.

However, this Russian best friend interfering in politics did affect the future development of Russia, and it was basically in a good direction.

As Elizabeth's best friend, Mira participated in the coup, and her husband, uncle, and brother-in-law also took off.

Mira's brother-in-law, Ivan Shuvalov, was the head of the Young Envoys. He later founded Moscow University with his friend Lomonosov and built the predecessor of the Repin Academy of Fine Arts, which promoted the comprehensive development of science, art and fine arts in Russia in the 18th century.

Mira's husband, Peter Shuvalov, later became the director of Russian artillery, reformed the artillery system, created the Unicorn Cannon and the Dense Howitzer, fully encouraged the progress of Russian artillery and mathematics, and established two major iron smelters and cannon foundries, making Russian artillery a world-class artillery for a long time.

Mira's eldest uncle, Alexander Shuvalov, was not well-known because after the coup, he served as the chairman of the Secret Criminal Investigation Office and the Secret Case Trial Committee of the Imperial Prison. He was the "Jinyiwei Commander" in the Elizabethan era and was not famous.

However, his only daughter raised a "Golovkina Serf Ballet and Dance Troupe", which was later called... the Bolshoi Ballet.

In history, Queen Elizabeth is not as famous as Catherine II, but in fact, many things were laid down in her era. If we use posthumous titles, Catherine may be called "Wu", and Elizabeth can be called "Wen" or "Jing".

Before Elizabeth's death, the legacy she left for Russia was Moscow University and Russia's first batch of native academicians, the Hermitage palace complex that was about to be completed, the predecessor of the Repin Academy of Fine Arts, a prosperous cultural, artistic and scientific atmosphere, and the complete elimination of foreign influence. influence on Russia, Europe's first-class artillery and unicorn artillery, the famous general Rumyantsev who was honed in the war, and a Prussia that is about to collapse, and the almost perfect diplomatic environment of the Franco-Austrian-Russian Grand Alliance, the elimination of domestic tariffs to form the inside of a unified market Industrial and commercial environment.

For such a woman, Liu Yu is sober and will not feel that this woman can be manipulated like the Marquis de La Château de France.

This kind of woman is extremely sober. The only things that can really move her are Russia's interests or her own power and security.

As for the love and affection that the Marquis of Lachetardi wanted, and the promises and secret agreements that the Swedish Ambassador wanted, they were all nonsense.

From her arrangements for those who support her coup, it can be seen that she is an emotional person and a person of temperament, but she must have her own bottom line.

Above the bottom line, people with good temperament, old friends and friends who have helped me, will turn a blind eye to corruption and other corruption as they go about it.

Underneath the bottom line, he is as cold as ice, and when the time comes, it will be difficult to remember the old relationship.

Liu Yu and Elizabeth are not old friends, but the matter of helping the coup is considered old, so they can try to talk about some things.

After receiving the invitation from the Queen, Liu Yu and his entourage put on the hunting uniforms of Dashun. Under the guidance of the young attendants, they rode a sleigh through the dark streets of Petersburg and arrived at the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland outside the city. summer palace.

The Queen did not wear a long dress, but wore a hunting suit suitable for hunting, and held a beautifully crafted air pump gun used for noble hunting, instead of a powder gun that might explode.

After the ceremony, the attendants brought some horses to Liu Yu.

The Queen looked at the white snow in the distance and sighed: "What a beautiful snow. Before it snows, beasts can always hide their tracks. But after it snows, even the most cunning beasts will reveal their tracks." Lord Marquis, do you think so?"

Liu Yu randomly chose a brown horse and listened to the Queen fighting with him here. He smiled and said: "There are also some wild beasts, which may not be cunning, but they will not show their footprints. For example, brown bears. They have eaten too much before. There is enough fat to support it until the snow melts, and the footprints will not be exposed.”

"A smart hunter will never provoke a hibernating bear. After being awakened, it will become the most violent beast."

"Just like Russia under your rule, it has experienced more than ten years of chaos after the death of your father and mother, but with the previous foundation, once it wakes up, it will definitely make the whole of Europe tremble."

As he spoke, he handed the reins of the selected horses to the adjutant beside him, flattered him at the same time, and then changed the topic from the Queen's test of Dashun to the current situation in Europe.

It's getting late today, so hunting is probably impossible. After all, this poor place is sixty or seventy miles away from the Menshikov Duke's Palace. It is basically a suburb of the suburbs. It is equivalent to starting from the Forbidden City and crossing the Marco Polo Bridge to Fangshan. .

It seems that the Queen and the others have been hunting for a while. They will probably stay in the summer palace at night and go hunting early tomorrow morning.

He didn't want to play this kind of covert test with the Queen. Others were elegant and aggressive, but he directly destroyed the beauty and went straight.

"The War of Austrian Succession is like this heavy snow, revealing the footprints of all countries. Her Majesty the Queen must have seen their footprints clearly."

Elizabeth smiled slightly, handed the air pump gun in her hand to her lover Razumovsky, came to a distance of about two meters from Liu Yu, and stared into Liu Yu's eyes for a long time.

"The Marquis is a noble from Dashun, so do the nobles from Dashun also like hunting?"

Liu Yu shook his head.

"I don't like it very much. The nobles of two thousand years ago liked it. Hunting is not only entertainment, but also a kind of war exercise. It is a necessary skill for military nobles."

"But now... there are too many people. There are two to three hundred million people. There are farmlands, mulberry leaves, and tea gardens everywhere. Some big cities even had a population of nearly one million two thousand years ago."

"Going hunting at this time will lead to the loss of people's property. The emperor represents morality, and nobles, as people around the emperor, must also abide by some morals."

"If our capital city only has a population of a few hundred thousand, and there is a dense forest thirty miles outside the city, I think the hunting habit will continue."

"Unfortunately, we are too wealthy, with too much farmland, and the scale of the war is calculated in terms of 100,000 people. Hunting cannot even achieve the purpose of the most basic military training for military nobles. So over time, the habit of hunting has slowly changed. Became something else.”

Queen Elizabeth smiled after listening to Liu Yu's boast, and teased in a friend-like tone: "If I had closed my eyes and listened to you just now, in my imagination, you must have stood up proudly when you said these words. Chest, eyes sparkling like stars."