In the blink of an eye, it was January 1919, and several great events had happened in the world.

The first was that the deadly cold seemed to disappear – a big deal in late 1918 and early 1919 (though Hersmann knew there would be another wave of the cold). However, this was not necessarily a good thing for Germany, as the Allied barracks were no longer full of sick numbers, and they could launch a new offensive.

Secondly, the Russian Empire is back! On January 1, despite the opposition of Britain, France, and the United States, Archduchess Olga, the eldest daughter of the late Tsar Nicholas II, was crowned in Tallinn as Empress Olga I of Russia. The commander-in-chief of the South Russian armed forces, Denikin, the consul of the Provisional Government of Siberia, Kolchak, the governor of the Transbaikal Provisional Government, Semenov, and the head of the Eastern Railway Administration, Lieutenant General Horvat, all pledged their allegiance to the new Russian empress by telegram or by sending envoys.

However, Britain, France, the United States, Japan, and other major powers in the world did not recognize the status of Olga. However, Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and other countries sent people to the coronation ceremony, and these countries also diplomatically recognized the queen's government.

This was followed by the vigorous January Revolution in Germany!

As the Americans dragged on the issue of food aid - from 14 November to January - food supplies in Germany's major cities became more and more difficult than they were before the armistice. At that time there was at least grain from Poland and Ukraine. As a result, support for Albert's Council of People's Commissars began to plummet, while the Bolshevik Party, founded on 30 December, gained a large number of adherents.

As a result, the revolutionary situation in Germany was also heating up rapidly. On the eve of the founding of the German Bolshevik Party, the "Hippodrome Incident" occurred in Berlin. The People's Naval Division, which leaned towards the Spartacist League (the Spartacists became the League), refused to be transferred out of Berlin and exchanged fire with the soldiers of the Berlin garrison who had come to drive them away. In the end, they won with the support of the Berlin workers, but this did not mean that the People's Naval Division could defeat the counter-revolutionary forces gathered around Berlin. The "Racecourse Incident" only showed that the majority of the German army did not obey the Albert government, and that even the troops who were ordered to do so were only so-so.

But the immediate consequence of this conflict was to turn Albert's People's Commissariat into a paper tiger that everyone could see. Now the Social Democrats were not aided by the United States or the German army, and the working class was turning to the newly formed radical Bolshevik Party because of the increasingly difficult conditions of their lives.

Feeling in danger, Albert relieved the Berlin police governor Echgoren, who was inclined to the Bolsheviks, on 4 January and replaced him with the Social Democrat Ernst. But this did not help to strengthen the authority of the Social Democrats, but rather caused a break between the Social Democrats and the Independent Social Democrats, who withdrew from the government and switched to cooperation with the Bolshevik Party.

On the evening of 4 January, a joint meeting of the Bolsheviks and the Independent Socialist-Revolutionary Party decided to launch strikes and demonstrations against the Albert government on 5 January. By January 6, the strike had escalated into a general strike! The number of protesters also increased considerably, and some workers were given weapons, and the uprising was imminent.

Hersmann returned to Berlin on 3 January with a German delegation to Russia (Tallinn) attending the funeral of Nicholas II and the coronation of the Empress. The funeral and coronation were not solemn, partly because of the Russian government's financial constraints; On the one hand, there are not many foreign missions present at the celebrations.

However, Polo's current situation is also reassuring. The "low-intensity war" with the Soviet Russian Red Army began as early as the beginning of December. On the Courland side, both sides are just pretending, and no one wants to really fight. In Estonia, the conflict is more intense, but it is only a constant exchange of fire. It's the cold winter season, and the cold winter in Russia is not at all the time when you can go to war.

Moreover, the forces of the Courland Defense Army, the Estonian Defense Army and the Russian army are quite strong, with a total strength of more than 200,000 (not counting the Courland People's Stormtroopers). If Petrograd is really to be attacked, as long as the British and American Falken support, it may not be impossible to succeed. Now it's just defense, naturally there is no big problem.

On the Anglo-American side, although the Empress and her government were not now recognized, there were no more demands for the expulsion of the Germans. Hersmann felt that the banner of the Russian Empress was still somewhat useful, and although the Allies did not recognize her, they would not use force against her - because of the tragic plight of the Tsar's family, many people (mostly high-class) in Britain, France, and the United States were very sympathetic to the Empress and disgusted the Bolsheviks. Britain, the United States, and France's "non-recognition" has already aroused a lot of criticism, and if they send troops to threaten again, they will have to be smeared as Bolshevik spies.

So there is no danger for the time being in the Baltic, while Berlin is facing a civil war!

The head of the German army, including the Grand General Staff and the Admiralty, had already withdrawn to Potsdam by this time. Hersman and his spies remained in the city, but they did not dare to enter or leave the General Staff in their uniforms.

Instead, a secret command was established at the Aiden Hotel in Berlin's West End, with more than 500 agents and informants (182 agents, the rest were cooperating informants) under the direct or indirect control of this command. All the barracks in Berlin (including those of the People's Naval Division) and police stations have agents of the Military Intelligence Agency (Stacy) lurking, and many of the military commissariat chairmen are simply agents or informants.

In the editorial office of the Red Banner, the organ of the newly established German Bolsheviks, there were also people from the Military Intelligence Service (Stasi). Even the leader of the Bolshevik Party, Liebknecht, was surrounded by secret agents of the Military Intelligence Service (Stasi).

Thus, Hersmann was not only well aware of the activities of the Bolsheviks and the Independent Social Democratic Party in Berlin. Moreover, the city of Berlin, which is like a tiger's den in Longtan, is also a place where he can come and go casually.

At 8 a.m. on Jan. 6, Hersmann was driving slowly down William Street in a worn-out carriage bearing the Spanish Embassy badge. Through the steamy windows, you can see that it is snowing outside. However, William Street was crowded with people, and the crowd was gathering through the alleys. They walked through the white snow, the biting winds, the bright red flags, and some of them held weapons that they had gotten from nowhere. Some of them were still singing "The Internationale", looking emotionally high, and it seemed that they were ready to make a big move.

Beside Hersman sat a very tall man, about 50 years old, dressed in a modest suit, looking blankly at the scene outside the car window. He was, of course, not a certain official of the Spanish embassy, but a politician of the Social Democratic Party, Gustav. Nosk. Early this morning, Hersmann received a call from Field Marshal Hindenburg, who had been transferred to Potsdam, asking him to take the man to Potsdam himself.

As for what this went to Potsdam, Hindenburg did not say, but Hersmann knew it clearly. Now it's time to see the poor dagger! The Social Democrats had no choice but to borrow troops from Juncker – they were the SPD, the grandfather of the European, not the inherently reactionary national society. There is really no way to get to this point.

The carriage passed by the Chancellery on Wilhelmstrasse, where Germany's highest executive body had been surrounded by demonstrators since yesterday, and Chancellor Albert's whereabouts were unknown for a time.

"Have you found the Prime Minister?" Nosk asked suddenly.

"Found it," said Hersman, "he was hiding in the house of a merchant surnamed Sklerek." ”

"Why should they do this?" Nosk shook his head, "Didn't they see what hell Russia had become?" ”

"They don't have anything to eat!" "Supply is very tight, more than 70 percent less than it was before the revolution," Hersman said. No one can fill their stomachs without relying on the black market. And the things on the black market are too expensive, even I, a lieutenant colonel, can hardly afford it, let alone ordinary people? ”

Hersmann doesn't buy groceries, but he has spies, and of course knows how difficult life is for ordinary people in Berlin right now.

The high welfare of the Social Democrats was decades away, but they were now unable to feed more than 90 per cent of Berlin's people. There are only two ways to solve this problem: one is a social revolution, which redistributes some food so that most people have something to eat; The second is to seek external assistance to tide over the difficulties.

But the United States, which later relieved the people of Soviet Russia and allowed the Soviet Union to tide over the difficulties. Now they are reluctant to help the German Social Democrats, and they are required to restore order by means of repression first.

So the SPD must now shoot at the working German people who voted for them, and the resulting rift will seriously damage the mass base of the SPD. Moreover, the SPD was not the Russian Bolsheviks, they did not have their own armed forces......

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