In the words of Prince Konstantin, he said that "making trouble for half a bottle of wine" was not referring to the drunken madness of the officers after getting the vodka he had brought from Moscow, but to the prohibitionist riots that broke out in Russia this year.

The Prohibition revolt was an unprecedented shock to Tsarist Russia, and the entire ruling class, including Prince Konstantin, never imagined that Russia's internal contradictions would evolve to such a serious extent.

The Crimean War was a devastating disaster for Tsarist Russia, with the domestic economy suffering from famine and starvation. The wealth plundered by the tsarist government was consumed at an alarming rate. In 1853-1856, the state deficit amounted to 796 million rubles, more than twice the normal annual revenue of the state treasury. In another time and space, January 1861, when the total national debt had reached a staggering 1.531 billion roubles, the governor of Courland described Russia's state after the defeat as "a golden and a ruined one," and Russia's former prestige had plummeted.

It is important to know that the Crimean War greatly reduced the domestic labor force, the means of production, and the farm animals, the conscription of new soldiers caused the national economy to lose 10 percent of the labor force, the requisition and plague reduced the farm animals by 13 percent, the import and export of commodities to 13 percent, the export of grain to 13 of the original, the flax to 1 quarter, the oil to 1 quarter, the import of machinery to 10 percent, and the import of cotton to a large decrease, which led to another upsurge of the peasant movement in the country.

According to Russian statistics, there were an average of 19 peasant uprisings per year in 1826-1839, an average of 35 per year in 1845-1845 before the Crimean War, 63 in 1855-1857 during the Crimean War, 86 in 1858, 90 in 1959, 126 in 1860, and by 1861, the year of the reform of serfdom, the number of peasant uprisings increased to an unprecedented 1176, So much so that a landowner in Simbiers province reported: "My estate has been burned down four times. We have a lot of fires here, fires every day."

In April 1854, the tsarist government promulgated the recruitment of naval volunteers, appointing peasants from Petersburg and other four provinces to form a Baltic Sea rowing fleet for coastal defense. With the permission of the landlord. You can be hired. However, it was widely rumored among the peasants that anyone who became a volunteer soldier would be free and exempt from taxes forever. Farmers from all over the country heard the wind and rushed to sign up. Soon it became a big trend, with nearly 100,000 participants. The tsarist government hurriedly dispatched the military and police to forcibly intercept them, and the peasants refused to obey and even beat the officers.

By 1854, the order to summon the militia of the whole country caused even greater uproar. Hundreds of thousands of peasants refused to serve with labor and declared themselves to join the Cossack freedmen. In two counties, the army killed 36 peasants, wounded 57 others, and nearly 550 were flogged.

In the summer of 1856, a large number of peasants from the south rushed to the Crimea, which was caused by rumors that the serfs in Crimea would be freed. As a result, hundreds of kilometers of roads leading to the Crimea were blocked by fleeing peasants.

Serf uprisings at the end of the Crimean War were even more frequent, and in 1858 the commander of the gendarmerie, Dolgorov, reported: "Disturbances in many villages require the intervention of the provincial governor or the use of the army." And this year's Prohibition riots are a historical portrayal of such signs.

The direct trigger for the prohibition movement was that liquor contractors sold inferior liquor as high-quality liquor and arbitrarily raised the price. 1859 year. The peasants of Saratov Province were the first to protest against the monopoly of liquor, and at the same time, in order to resist the illegal acts of the contractors, they announced a ban on buying and drinking alcohol. This action immediately provoked a response from the Quartet, and the movement spread to 23 provinces and regions. Farmers voluntarily formed anti-alcohol agreements and passed anti-alcohol resolutions that provided for fines or corporal punishment for violators.

With the development of the movement, the peasants directly smashed taverns, hotels, destroyed cellars, beat local officials, according to the statistics of 12 provinces, a total of 220 hotels were destroyed, and a total of 636 years of anti-alcohol riots were launched throughout the year, and the commander of the military police, Dolgorukov, reported to the Tsar: "The events of 1859 in the country were completely unexpected, and the lower classes, who had previously thought that they could not live without alcohol, began to refuse to drink spirits", and the reformers in the ruling class directly said: "If If there is a riot in our country over half a bottle of wine, what will happen if we cut an acre of land from the peasants? ”

The Prohibition revolt had not yet reached its climax, but Prince Constantine, who was inclined to reform, never expected the situation in the country to be so bad, and he expressed a certain degree of dissatisfaction with the government's efforts to invest so many resources in the expansion of the East.

"Yes!" Muravyov directly admitted that Prince Konstantin's statement is very reasonable: "The government is investing too many resources in the Far East, and you should push for reforms of our serfdom in Moscow, but Russia can only survive to the east!"

For the Russian Empire, he has reached a limit, there is no room for expansion into Western Europe, and the expansion of Turkey to the south directly leads to the devastating Crimean War, which can only be chosen to expand to the east, Muravyov continued: "Your Royal Highness, you know better than I what kind of person His Majesty the Tsar is!"

Of course, he knew what kind of person his brother was as a tsar, and it was true that Alexander II was a much more progressive tsar than Nicholas II, who died in the Crimean War, and he had both the will to reform and the willingness to put that will into action, but Alexander II was a tsar who lacked determination and courage.

This has something to do with the youth and growth of His Majesty the Tsar, you must know that Alexander II served as the heir to the throne for twenty-one years, and he even participated in the decision-making of the country for up to fifteen years, but the final major decisions were made by Nicholas II himself, which developed the cautious attitude of the current Tsar.

His Majesty the Tsar was not a pioneering figure, and there was never a shortage of compromises and concessions in his dictionary, although as soon as the Crimean War ended, the Tsar was determined to carry out drastic reforms, but it was not until 1861 that the reform program was officially introduced, and the final reform program was not even a qualified reform program, completely compromising with the landlord class, in fact, without any harm to the interests of the landlord class, which was considered a complete deception by the Russian progressives. The land price that the landlords received from the serfs even greatly exceeded the market price. The serf revolts triggered were even several times greater than before the reforms.

"What do you think, Governor?"

"I support Russia's progress and reform!" Muravyov's voice became impassioned: "But the reform of Russia requires our courage, dedication and sacrifice, and if we fail, then Russia will return to the Middle Ages, and if we win." There won't be much applause either. But Russia will move towards a new era. ”

Even Prince Konstantin, who was most trusted by the tsar, understood for the first time: "You mean that only when we are victorious can we lead Russia to a new era and completely liberate the Russian serfs!"

"That's right!" Muravyov looked south again: "Treasure land." This is God's greatest gift to Russia, with a territory as vast as the whole of Europe, with a climate as warm as Crimea, and with fertile soil like Ukraine, with rare minerals and specialties that occur naturally. There is even a series of ice-free ports, and now that there is a fierce civil war going on inside China, and our enemies are getting weaker and weaker, we can easily annex the whole of Yellow Russia and emigrate millions of people here!"

He did not say it, but Prince Constantine could easily think that such a territory as vast as the whole of Europe could easily resolve the dispute between reformers and conservatives in the country over the reform plan.

In this time and space, even the most stubborn landlord class had to admit it. The time has come for Russia to reform, but the problem is that the interests of the landlord class, which has not only herds of serfs, but also a large amount of fertile land, cannot be violated.

The mere conversion of serfs into free slaves was not enough to complete the whole process of reform. Land ownership was the core of the reform, and the reason why the Russian reform of 1861 was incomplete or even a hoax was because the serfs were forced to buy land from the landlords at a higher price than the market price. But if Russia got the whole Yellow Russia.

This includes the whole of what is now the north, China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. Even in Central Asia, which is already in the clutches of the Tsar, such a problem will be solved, given that there are countless fertile fields, mines, ports, forests, steppes, and a sparse population, not only will the original inhabitants be quickly naturalized, but Russian immigrants will sweep through these areas like locusts.

Prince Konstantin has already understood thoroughly: "This is not an ordinary war, the significance may be compared with the Great Patriotic War of 1812, or ......"

Muravyov put it bluntly: "This is a battle for living space, the only ...... for the survival of two old empires"

Prince Konstantin looked at the mountains and rivers in the south for a long time, and finally said: "This is ours, this belongs only to us, let us announce the news of the arrival of war to the generals." ”――

Many people think of vodka as an extremely strong liquor, which in fact is quite far from this India.

Vodka is not particularly high, with most vodka content ranging from 35 to 50 percent, which is lower than that of many Chinese baijiu, and the most common and standard vodka is 40 percent.

Prince Constantine brought Voldka is such a standard vodka, the generals present thanked the prince for his kindness with cheers and applause, although the Siberian vodka also has its own style, but these Russian generals still like the flavor of Moscow, sometimes it is not the quality of the wine, but a kind of overly romantic feelings, not to mention that this is a royal wine, even if they are already outstanding in a group of soldiers, there are not many such opportunities in their lives.

Therefore, in front of the two rows of silver candlesticks, the applause of the generals and colonels was not interrupted, and Prince Konstantin was also paying attention to these officers under his command, among them were solid white-haired old men, and there were also noble children who were already captains of the Guards from birth, there were mountain peoples of the Caucasus, and generals of German blood, among them there were old colonels who had never experienced a major war, and there were also young major generals who had survived the Crimean War, and they had the extraordinary experience of climbing up from the bottom of the army, there are also generals with mixed qualifications who sit in the office, and even the generals of the defeated Crimea who were exiled to Siberia, this is the reality of the old empire of Russia.

But no matter what nationality, what blood, what experience, what class, now they all stand under the tricolor and the double-headed eagle flag, they are all excellent generals of the tsar, and they will dedicate their lives, youth, blood, courage and everything to the cause of God, the tsar and Russia.

With a burning passion, he poured a full glass of vodka, then lifted it up and threw it all to the ground: "Remember who we are, we are of Roman blood, we will rebuild Rome!"

"For Rome!"

"For Rome!"

"For Rome!"

The peculiar national passion of the Russians was ignited at once by the words of Prince Konstantin, and the Russian officers cheered and drank a whole glass of vodka.

Konstantin also thought of Russia, the Orthodox Church and the Byzantine Empire of New Rome, although Western Europeans regarded the Russians as a group of Slavic barbarians, but the Russians clearly knew that the Orthodox Church, the double-headed eagle coat of arms and the entire Russian Empire were derived from the Byzantines, which called itself the Romans, starting from Romulus killing his brother in 753 BC to establish his own city, from the royal era to the Roman Republic, and from the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire, from the old Rome to the new Byzantine Rome, From New Rome to Ivan III, this civilizational heritage has never been broken.

The Romans used to build their country by plundering women, and the Russians struggled, wept and struggled in the wilderness, but we will eventually rebuild Rome, retake Constantinople, and change back to the old name of Byzantium, Konstantin burned his blood, and he poured another glass of vodka: "Descendants of Rome, I have the honor to command you to rebuild our Rome, our Russia will be the center of the universe, and I hereby announce to you the most important order since the coronation of His Majesty the Great and Holy Tsar!"

The audience was silent.