The winter of the 40th year of the Great Zhou Dynasty was a torment for the Russian army, and it was not a torment for the Russian civilians.

In the war, 3 million troops were mobilized, but later the main force of 2 million was surrounded, and in desperation, 1 million new soldiers were formed in a hurry, and on the basis of 40 million people, the Russians have mobilized more than 4 million total troops, this kind of mobilization ability is difficult to withstand even during the First World War, not to mention the current serfdom of Russia.

Although the size of the force was mobilized with more than half of the military support provided by the British, the loss of labor could not be compensated for by money. From last autumn, large-scale nationwide unrest began, the first large-scale riots in the city, and the tsar fled the palace for a time.

But the Russians gritted their teeth and insisted that Russia, which had never had the experience of serf uprisings and established new dynasties, did not have the danger of dynasty overthrow for the time being, and these rural and urban commotions were more like a carnival of poor violence, and after smashing and looting, the unorganized and undisciplined rabble was quickly suppressed.

Repression is like covering up contradictions, but instead of resolving them, they will allow contradictions to continue to brew and accumulate greater pressure.

At the root of the contradiction, at best, Russian serfdom was increasingly unable to adapt to the development of the industrial age, and more recently, the lack of labor force that undermined the economic base. Mainly in the countryside, although the aristocracy has a tradition of being soldiers, in a big war of this scale, the Russian aristocracy can be said to have all joined the army, but one million nobles cannot support four million Russian troops, because not every nobleman can serve, women, children, and the elderly account for at least half of them, and a large number of people serve in government departments, and a large number of nobles try their best to evade military service, and the number of nobles who can participate in the war is at best two or three hundred thousand. Therefore, the main force participating in the war was still serfs.

Once a serf is selected for the army, they serve for up to 25 years in peacetime, and are often rewarded with a free status, and may even change from a serf to a small aristocratic landowner who owns serfs.

A large number of young and strong serfs were sent to serve in the army by the rural landlords who managed them, and there was an immediate shortage of rural labor. Last year, when Russian agriculture fell by a third, it was the worst affected. At the current level of technology, agricultural production will be reduced by a third, let alone exports, and Russia will not be able to be self-sufficient in grain.

So in the winter, it was immediately green and yellow, and a general famine broke out in the land of Russia.

The starving serfs lost their minds and concentrated on storming the aristocratic estates, hoping to get winter rations from the aristocratic warehouses. As the peasants began to starve, the supply of goods to the cities was inevitably cut off, and the city's inhabitants once again revolted against the war, smashing and looting all the places they could, with bakeries, banks, and jewelry stores being the focus of care.

Once again, the tsar fled from the city and, under the protection of the Guards, took refuge in his imperial estate. At this time, Tsar Nicholas I knew that the war could not be fought, he had long known that it could not be fought, but he could not accept the demands of the Chinese. Who would dare to make the surrender of their own army a condition for negotiations? That's crazy!

Nicholas I was a tsar with a strong sense of honor and self-discipline.

He received a good education since childhood, but he was not very enthusiastic about his studies. I don't like to read, but I am fascinated by military affairs and have read a lot of books on military affairs. So he entered the army as a young man. However, he did not have a good relationship with his comrades, because his personality was out of step with the typical Russian.

He was very religious, strictly adhered to the canons of the Orthodox Church, and was very self-disciplined, never missing a religious event. He doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink, he insists on walking and exercising every day.

His daily life is like a regular clock, this kind of person is not at all a Russian, but like a German, and he is not good at communication and very demanding at the same time, leading everyone to think that Nikolai is a cold, selfish, and arrogant man.

A person of this character would have had the opportunity to make a career, but unfortunately he did not encounter a good time, but an era when serfdom was on the verge of collapse, and everyone could see the problems of Russia, but no one could find a way, and everyone did not dare to touch the taboo of serfdom.

So Nicholas I did not even want to be this tsar in the first place. When his father, Alexander II, died, his brother was in Poland and he was in Moscow, and as a result, the two brothers swore allegiance to each other in two places at the same time. Some say that this is a misunderstanding, that his brother married a Polish duchess and declared his allegiance to his brother because he thought he had lost his inheritance, while the younger brother thought that his brother's inheritance was before him, so he declared his allegiance to his brother.

In fact, this reflects the rejection of the Russian princes to inherit the Tsar's throne, and no one wants to take over this mess. If they were concerned about the throne, it would be impossible not to clarify these issues, and it is impossible for Europeans, who have developed the succession to the throne into a culture, to be negligent on this issue.

Even the death of their father, Alexander I, is full of fog in history. Alexander I, who was also the emperor who tried to reform, appointed a Russian elite like Speransky and hired a large number of experts from Europe into the government, but unfortunately Alexander I failed. Only because of the reforms, there was a clique of officers who conspired against him, and after learning the news, Alexander did not choose to suppress it, but hid in the Black Sea to recuperate, and pronounced death in the convalescence place.

Some say he did not die, but that he assumed the alias of an old man named Fyodor Kuzmich, who was once deported to Siberia by the police. He was very knowledgeable and generous, and people found him to be well aware of contemporary political events and to know some famous deeds. can vividly tell the pomp and circumstance of the Russian army when it marched into Paris, and even name the attachés around the tsar at that time one by one. It is said that he at some time often received money and clothes from a woman named Maria Fedorovna (the name of Alexander I's mother).

A doctor who had been involved in the treatment of Alexander I's illness never attended the prayer service commemorating Alexander's death on November 19, but when Fedor Kuzmich died, he personally led the people to pray for Alexander's death. With tears in his eyes, he said: "The Tsar is really dead now." ”

On the walls of the office of the later Tsar Alexander II, a portrait of Fedor Kuzmich has always hung. After the death of Fedor Kuzmich, a wealthy businessman paid for the burial of Fedor Kuzmich and inscribed on the tombstone "Elector of God", which was awarded to him by the Catholic Pope after the victory of Alexander I over Napoleon. The Soviet Union had dug up the burial chambers of the Tsarist period, and Alexander's tomb contained nothing.

It's all just legends. The credibility is not high, but the sudden death of Tsar Alexander I is inseparable from the political situation in Russia during this period.

The successor, Tsar Nicholas I, was also incapable of solving this deadlock. And he has never been interested in political work, he is more concerned with military affairs. Nikolai had a great memory and worked hard, working 16 to 18 hours a day. He advocated strict discipline, repeatedly emphasized law and order, and often personally inspected the army, educational institutions, and state organs, commenting on the work of the locality, pointing out shortcomings, and suggesting changes during each inspection.

When the Decembrists took advantage of the opportunity of the Nicholas I brothers to relinquish the throne and leave the Russian imperial power vacant for more than ten days, Nicholas I did not run away like his father, but decided to suppress the insurgents. Artillery units were brought in to open fire on the rebels assembled in the square.

Nicholas I trusted only in the army, he was surrounded by soldiers, and in the latter part of his reign there were hardly any civilian personnel as his direct assistants. All activities, including daily life, are meticulous and precise. In the midst of the extreme corruption and chaos of the Russian administration, Gula I often went beyond the formal channels in the conduct of state affairs, and he hated deliberations, consultations, or other procedural delays, and sent special envoys to various parts of Russia, most of whom were generals who followed him.

It can be said that Nicholas I himself was a militaristic tsar, which is why he dared to draw his sword against China, because such characters are often irrational and superstitious about force. Now that he was going to personally order the troops whom he was proud of and trusted to lay down their arms and surrender to the enemy, the anguish in his heart can be imagined.

But when he announced his order to the officials who had been urgently summoned to Tsarskoye, the Foreign Secretary said with a bitter face:

"Your Majesty, there is no need to give this order! The front-line corps have surrendered. ”

No one knew what Nikolai thought, he just muttered a few words, "good", "good".

The Foreign Minister had just learned the news and was about to report to the Tsar, but the Tsar coincidentally summoned the Minister, and he thought that the Tsar already knew about it and was ready to discuss this issue, but who knew that the Tsar did not know, but decided to order the surrender of the front-line troops, and the Foreign Minister explained the situation.

At this time on the front line, the Russian army is marching east in low morale, and the defeated troops are definitely demoralized, let alone surrendered.

They marched eastward, not to advance, but to surrender. Orenburg could not accept a large-scale surrender of troops, but the conditions in the Kazakh region were relatively good, the supplies were sufficient, and the railway had not been cut off so far, and the railway would generally not be interrupted unless there was a snowstorm in winter.

At this time, the damaged railway on the battlefield was being repaired, and before the railway was repaired, there was no way to provide supplies to the Russian army, which was very dangerous for the army that ran out of food, and it was difficult to maintain order without food. In order to prevent accidents, the Russian army was asked to go to surrender step by step according to the formation.

The deputy commander of the Russian army, Mikhail Dmitrievich Gorchakov, was responsible for arranging the surrender, and as for the original commander-in-chief, Menshikov, he chose to commit suicide during the mutiny, and before committing suicide, he signed a document entrusting Gorchakov to take over his position, and at the same time ordered the surrender of all Russian troops.