At dawn, 29 kilometers from St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, in the military port of Kronstadt, warships were like sleeping sea beasts, quietly anchored by the docks, and even the sailors on duty mostly stayed motionless at their posts. Among these ships www.biquge.info, old and new, large and small, there was a large battleship with three chimneys, and the sound of footsteps on the deck was continuous, and following the reputation, I saw a man in a single coat running in a circle. At this time, the temperature on the water surface was less than ten degrees, so when he stopped, there was a faint white gas emitting from his head to his neck.

The sky was slightly white, and looking at the St. Andrei's flag on the stern flagpole, Andrei Denisov's expression was gloomy. The once high-spirited young man is now a father, and his rugged beard makes him look much more mature, but his experience in the Navy Staff has not allowed him to rise to prominence. After the outbreak of the Great War, he was ostracized by the experience of studying in Germany. Some of his former classmates resigned angrily due to humiliation, some begged to die happily on the battlefield, and some endured and waited silently like him.

His military uniform, which hung on the hanger of the cabin, still wore the captain's epaulette, not to mention those peers from aristocratic families, even if they entered the ranks of officers later than him, they would have been colonels with a little better.

Leaving aside his own circumstances, the situation in Denisov's beloved homeland in recent years has also made him feel disheartened. Since the end of the war, the Russian economy, which had lost a large amount of European territory, claimed to be "recovering well" to the outside world, but in fact it was affected by corruption, bureaucracy, capital shortages, poor transportation, and fierce competition in the international market, and other reasons, the economic situation has stagnated, and the scale of industry is less than half of what it was before the war. Merchants have a large amount of necessities in their hands, hoarding and speculation, which leads to soaring prices, starvation of the people at the bottom, and almost every month there are workers' strikes and peasant riots.

The Bolsheviks, who had fallen into a low ebb by the defeat of the revolution of 1905-1907, regained their vitality and entered the factories, the countryside, the barracks, and the fleet, and their ideas were welcomed by the ordinary laborers as well as the rank-and-file soldiers and sailors, and their strength grew rapidly to become a major problem for the Russian ruling authorities. In the Baltic Fleet, anyone found to have joined the Bolsheviks was punished very harshly, possibly even shot, but even so, secret Bolshevik cells existed on almost every battleship - a status quo that frightened the officers but was powerless to change.

As the gunnery officer of the armored cruiser Rurik, Denisov was able to find clues in the eyes and mannerisms of certain sailors, but he did not bother to use the blood of revolutionaries to solicit credit and reward like some officers, who in his opinion were not traitors, but wanted to save and change the country by a different path. However, as a highly self-respecting officer, he also disdained to join the ranks of the revolutionaries, even if he swore allegiance to the wrong object, so he more than once bombed away the sailors who tried to impress him with Bolshevism, and thus put himself in an awkward position.

With a heavy and conflicted heart, Denisov turned around and walked to the cabin. The sailor on duty was a young man who had just turned 18 years old, and life on the warship did not allow him to exercise a strong physique, and looking at his thin figure and vegetable-faced face, Denisov only silently saluted him.

Like most of the sailors on board, the young man glanced at Denisov with awe and wariness, and the salute looked weak.

Returning to the cabin, Denisov drank a large glass of water, then stood in front of the porthole, staring silently at the still-sleeping harbor. Since the beginning of October, St. Petersburg has been cold and rainy, the temperature has plummeted, people need more food to withstand the cold, but the price of flour has risen by 60% in a week, and most factory owners have ignored the workers' demand for higher piecework wages, and at the call of the Bolsheviks, the workers of St. Petersburg have staged two large-scale strikes, and people in Moscow, Kharkov, Baku and other cities have supported them with strikes and demonstrations. Some ministers and parliamentarians representing the interests of the bourgeoisie appealed to the tsar to ease the contradictions by means of social reforms, but the tsar ignored them and instead sent the police and army to disperse the striking crowds and ordered a citywide curfew, which made the situation in St. Petersburg tense as never before. Although the Kronstadt military port is relatively closed, these days, Denisov has noticed something strange in the expressions and demeanors of the people around him, as if a powerful undercurrent is surging in an invisible place, trying to find a flaw, and then gushing out, out of control.

At breakfast, in addition to the usual omelette, bread, butter, and milk, there was an attractive bacon on the table, and there was also an arrogant admiral at the table. He was not much older than the officers present, but the George Cross of the First Class he wore on his chest was convincing, because only heroes on the battlefield could receive such an honor.

Before the meal, the colonel, who had temporarily boarded the ship, announced very solemnly an order to the officers present: The country is in an extraordinary period of frequent riots, and the army must scrupulously perform its duties, resolutely resist the corrosive influence of anarchism and liberal thought, and especially take strict precautions and severe punishment measures against the extremely dangerous separatists, the Bolsheviks.

Following this order, the colonel added that if the police and army forces were unable to control the situation, the fleet might be transferred to St. Petersburg to maintain order, and that the fleet might need to use force in order to ensure the safety of the royal family and the general interests of the country.

After the colonel finished speaking, there was silence in the officers' cafeteria, and then the captain of the ship, General Mikhailovich, said: "The order is clear, everyone hears it?" Breakfast was announced. The officers immediately went to work, devouring a meal without grace, and soon only a pile of empty plates remained on the table.

The captain and all the officers reacted in this way, but the colonel's face was not gloomy, and when breakfast was over, he said: "It seems that you should not bring such a heavy topic early in the morning, so let's talk about something light!" I heard that the King of Ireland would visit St. Petersburg with his newly married queen, probably two or three weeks later. Ireland is very interested in our plans to build and refit ships, and it has been reported that they are willing to upgrade a large warship for us free of charge as a tribute to His Majesty the Tsar, and that the Admiralty may choose the Rurik, and all of you will be on board with you to Ireland for a good holiday. ”

The captain of the ship, General Mikhailovich, said angrily: "But the Rurik has only been in service for nine years, and all the parts of the machine are still shiny. ”

"But according to the assessment of authoritative experts, it is no longer a match for the modernized Scharnhorst-class."

The colonel was polite on the surface, but his words were secretly sharp.

General Mikhailovich immediately retorted: "Ha! Joke! Could it be that because they had outperformed the oldest battlecruisers of the German Navy in gunnery training, they concluded that they were stronger than the Rurik? In actual combat, neither of the two Scharnhorst could match the Blucher, and the Rurik was a battleship of the same level as the Blucher, and even if it could not defeat the German battlecruisers, it would be more than enough to fight an armored cruiser. ”

The colonel did not argue with it, but smiled coldly: "What I said is only heard, and it may not be the final result. It's just that among the capital ships of our navy, only the 'Rurik' was ordered from the British, and the Irish shipyards are more experienced in maintaining and refitting British-made warships, and the 30,000-ton Tiger battlecruiser has been turned into a super-large aircraft carrier in their dock. It was also quite interesting to send the Rurik' to Ireland, remove everything above the deck, build an empty wooden deck, and load a bunch of planes, and you became the commander of the planes! ”

General Mikhailovich was so angry that he blew his beard and glared at this, but fortunately he had already eaten breakfast, otherwise it would have been a tragedy to choke half to death.

"Whether or not Rurik will accept the free modification of the Irish is a matter of the future, the most important thing at the moment is to pray that our country can get through the difficulties as soon as possible, and when it comes to the critical time to be tested, I hope that nothing will go wrong on the Rurik, in that case, none of us will have a hard time, understand?"

Despite Mikhailovich's rank being higher than his own, the high-spirited colonel did not take him seriously at all, he calmly got up, shook his leather gloves vigorously, and coldly left these words and walked away.

After the colonel left, General Mikhailovich did not complain or speak ill of him, he was a man of understanding, and these officers under his command did not necessarily have the same heart as him. Although the military order is like a mountain, if you really want to do something to open fire on civilians, even if the sailors below are willing, they will inevitably be burdened with the black cauldron of history in the future, so if you can avoid it, if you can be vague, you will be vague, and there is no need to stick out your head to be the scapegoat.

Seeing that his colleagues had their own thoughts, and could not even do the most basic appearance, Denisov did not say a word from beginning to end. Thinking back then, I still think that the pretentious German prince may not be able to become a big thing, how can I think that people are dragons in the water, just wait for the opportunity to appear, then soar into the sky, shocking the world, I am arrogant, full of ambition, but I am so disappointed, if I have the opportunity to meet again this time, how can I sigh and let go?

(End of chapter)