The sky was overcast, and the cold wind swept away the wet streets and rippled on the river.

There were not many pedestrians on the streets, except for armed citizens and soldiers wandering around the barricades on the corners, and behind them, some hanging slogans could often be seen. The slogan in black Russian on the slogan is quite eye-catching.

"The tsar abed! All power to the Provisional Government! ”

"Implement a maximum price limit! Implement food rationing! ”

"Defend the Republic! Eliminate the royalists! ”

"Fight Germany to the end!"

"Although the Duma Committee will be completely consistent with the interests of the people!"

"Only the Soviets represent the interests of the majority of the people!"

The slogans printed in Russian are mixed. Some even contradicted each other, but this did not affect the atmosphere in the city, in fact, after the Tsar refused to accept the Provisional Government's proposal to abdicate, the atmosphere in Petrograd suddenly became tense, and the Provisional Government organized the citizens to erect barricades in the streets in preparation for the troops loyal to the Tsar.

In order to prevent the royalists in the city from sabotage. The Provisional Government declared martial law in parts of Petrograd, and anyone who walked on the streets without permission was arrested by soldiers unless there was a written order, except for those who had only one status: diplomats in Russia.

Even diplomats, though. Vehicles may also be stopped by soldiers when passing through certain sections, and diplomats must show the soldiers relevant identification before they can pass through the blockade area.

Now, Shi Zhaoji, the Chinese ambassador to Russia, was stopped at a barricade and had to personally step out of the diplomatic carriage carrying the national flag to negotiate with the revolutionary soldiers who stopped him.

After a lot of words with the unreasonable soldiers, it was Shi Zhaoji's assistant who took out a Russian black leba from the carriage to satisfy the hungry soldiers, so the officer waved his hand and let Shi Zhaoji go back to the carriage, and then ordered the soldiers to remove the roadblock and let the carriage go

Finish.

Shi Shuji sat back in the carriage, closed the curtains, sighed, and said to his assistant: "You give them those black breads, what will we do with breakfast?" ”

The assistant smiled, took out two boxes of tin cans from his briefcase, and said, "Don't worry, sir, I have prepared some additional emergency food." This is a domestically made canned beef, spiced. Isn't it much better than that black bread? ”

Shi Juji looked at the two boxes of canned food. Smiled and nodded, and ordered the assistant to open two cans first, one for each person, and while the assistant was prying the cans, his thoughts flew back to the idea just now.

Leaving the embassy today, Shi Zhaoji's task was to go to the foreign affairs department of the provisional government of the Russian Republic to make representations, and this task was given to him by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to Tang Shaoyi's order, Shi Zhaoji had to rush to the Russian foreign affairs department to give a briefing and representation to the Russian side on the riots that had arisen in the Russian concession in Tianjin and the subsequent suppression of the riots by the Chinese internal affairs forces. Although the Russian government may not have the time to care about the affairs of the Russian concession in Tianjin, this is, after all, diplomatic etiquette, and diplomacy is no trivial matter, and the "civilized countries" care most about these etiquettes.

Although just now it was difficult for a group of Russian soldiers. However, Shi Zhaoji is still in a very good mood now, and judging from the current situation in Petrograd, the chaotic situation in Russia will continue for some time, which is undoubtedly very beneficial to China.

As a Chinese diplomat, Shi Zhaoji wished that Russia would continue to be in such chaos, and the longer the Russian chaos lasted, the longer China would be able to unfold. There is no friendship between countries, everything is for the sake of interests, national interests. No one wants a powerful country with strength and ambition on its borders, and one of the important reasons why the United States can concentrate on economic development is that it does not have a strong land neighbor.

As a country that is going all out to develop its economy and national strength, China's strategic environment is very bad. Japan to the east and Russia to the north. With these two powerful neighbors watching, China must be cautious at every step, and the European powers such as Britain and France do not have to intervene directly, if they need to contain China, they can only support Japan and Russia, and in fact, Britain and France have always done this.

Two years ago, China defeated Japan in the Northeast Asian War. The Japanese government was forced to abandon the policy of northward expansion, which gave China a little space for exhibition, and now, the revolution that broke out in the Russian Empire obviously provided a little new space for China's exhibition, and it depends on whether China can grasp it.

Shi Zhaoji believes that the central government can seize the opportunity of the Russian revolution, which is not only the trust of the central government, but also the trust of the president.

Just when Shi Zhaoxin's bamboo is thousands of miles. The assistant handed a can of a thought to his eyes. The fruit knife with a head is also made in China.

Shi Zhaoji took a fruit knife and stuck the spiced beef in the can, put it in his mouth, and chewed it slowly, although the beef was cold, but the gravy was very fragrant, which reminded Shi Zhaoji of the traditional dishes of his hometown. It has been many years since I left my hometown to embark on a career in office, but this homesickness is not enough for outsiders.

Not eating well in the embassy, but eating canned food in the carriage, this is not Shi Zhaoji's contrived. Due to the growing shortage of food in Petrograd, it is difficult for even the embassies of various countries in Russia to buy enough vegetables, and now the Chinese embassy in Petrograd has eaten all the vegetables stored in it. Only flour and canned food remained, and the black loaf of bread had just been made by the cook this morning, and Shi Zhaoji had planned to take it on the road to eat because he was in a hurry. But it became a gift for bribing a group of Russian soldiers, so now I can only eat some canned food.

Now the office of the Russian Provisional Government is in the Winter Palace, and the foreign affairs department is also there, and it is not very far from the Chinese embassy in Petrograd in a straight line, but because some areas are closed to anyone, including diplomats, they can only take a long detour, and when Shi Zhaoji's carriage arrives at the Winter Palace, he just finished eating a box of canned food.

After wiping the corners of his mouth with a handkerchief and tidying up his appearance with the assistance of his assistant, Shi Zhaoji got out of the carriage and rushed to the Winter Palace with his assistant.

Although the fighting in the city has subsided, the Winter Palace is still in a solemn atmosphere. Not only machine guns but also cannons were set up at the doorway, and hundreds of heavily armed soldiers watched the pedestrians in fear on the street.

A Russian major led Shi Zhaoji and his assistants into the Winter Palace, and then they waited in a conference room, but the wait was only half an hour, and the foreign minister appointed by the provisional government never came to receive the foreign envoys.

An hour later, the foreign minister of the provisional government still did not come, until the British ambassador to Russia and the French ambassador to Russia were led into the conference room by the Russian military major, and they and Shi Zhaoji sat on the sand in a daze.

Curious, Shi Zhaoji asked the British ambassador and the French ambassador about their intentions, but the other party also told Shi Daiji the truth and told Shi Daiji that the reason why they came here was to inquire about the Russian Provisional Government's policy toward Germany. That is, the British and French governments wanted to know whether the Russian Provisional Government would continue to fight against Germany.

Although the British ambassador and the French ambassador both stopped at the point and did not go deeper, after all, Shi Zhaoji has been mixed in the diplomatic circles for many years, and his thinking is quite active, and he can keep up with the international situation.

Now that the war in Europe is in full swing and at a critical juncture, the British and French governments are most worried about the new Russian government changing its war policy and withdrawing from the war against Germany. Thus the Entente discarded an important member.

Unlike the situation in Britain and France, when the war broke out in Europe, public opinion in Russia was not one-sided, the workers and peasants had no confidence in the war, while the leftists were fiercely opposed to Russia's entry into the war, and as for the middle class, in the early days of the war, it was true that the British and French middle classes supported the war against Germany, but with the crushing defeat of the Russian army in the Battle of Tannenberg. There is a general sense of disillusionment among the Russian middle class. They believed that the rotten tsarist system had led to the military defeat, and that it was for this reason that the Russian middle class supported the republicans in the revolution. And the workers and peasants of Russia had long been fed up with the power of the nobility and bureaucracy, and before entering the war they had no confidence in defeating the German army, and now. When the war starved them, they quickly became the main force of the revolution.

Whether or not the policy toward Germany of such an Entente member state will change in the event of a revolution is indeed worth pondering by British and French politicians, so the governments of the two countries decided to test the basic position of the new Russian government. to decide on the next diplomatic move.

To put it more explicitly, the answer of the Russian Provisional Government will directly determine the diplomatic actions of the British and French governments, and whether or not the new Russian government can be diplomatically recognized by Britain and France depends on the new Russian government's policy toward Germany.

In other words, if the new Russian government decided to withdraw from the war against Germany, then the British and French governments would have to consider whether to support the Tsar's use of force to regain power.

After all, His Majesty the Tsar of the Russian Empire, who had been deposed by the Provisional Government, was still on the Mogilev front and was said to have a part of the army loyal to the Tsar. This is the bargaining chip in the hands of the British government and the French government, and it carries a lot of weight. If you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the call, more chapters. Support the author, support genuine reading!