The wind sweeps the streets. Blowing up the pieces of paper all over the floor. Then it blazes, and the streets are full of bullet casings, and the empty barricades often become a barrier against the wind, where the most pieces of paper are piled up, and where the bullet casings are scattered the most, and the sacks of the barricades filled with dirt and sand can still be seen with dark red blood, and a few rifles that have been blown off by shells lie on the street not far from the barricades, with bright bayonets on the tips of the guns, but their owners are gone.

Sitting in the carriage and looking at the few blown Russian rifles thrown on the street, Shi Zhaoji quickly withdrew his gaze and pulled the window of the carriage up, and the cold feeling disappeared.

"It seems that the situation in the city of Petrograd has basically calmed down, and there may not be any more fighting in the future, at least there will be no more fighting in Petrograd." Shi Zhaoji sighed.

"So, sir, the Provisional Government has been defeated, right?" The Russian translator sitting next to him asked curiously.

Perhaps, the republican Provisional Government of Russia has now completely lost the trust of the people, and there is no Allied army to be found, and there is only one way to fall in the face of strong revolutionaries. If a government fails to meet the basic needs of the people, the people will abandon it without mercy and go to the revolutionaries who promised to feed and clothe the people

"But, given the current situation, how can the new government feed and clothe the people of the city? According to yesterday's news, the Russian army suffered another defeat on the front line of the Russian-German war, the German army is getting closer and closer to Petrograd, the traffic of many railway lines has been blocked, and grain and charcoal cannot be transported to Petrograd.

"Yes

It is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, and I think the new Russian government can only take one step at a time. Shi Zhaoji sighed again, to be honest, he was now very tired of the endless revolution and repression in Petrograd, in the past, he had thought that only the anti-Qing revolution in the country would show so much irrationality, but now he has corrected his opinion, even in the so-called "civilized country." In Russia, once the people lose their hope for life, then what will inevitably follow is the violence of abandoning all reason, and the revolution in Petrograd is the best proof of this, and every time the baptism of revolution is experienced, the people's rationality is less, and the disorder of social order is stronger, which can be seen from the remnants of the battle that have not been cleaned up by the barricades.

After speaking, Shi Zhaoji turned his head again, looking at the Neva River outside the car window, now, there are some boats sailing on the river, but they are not transporting food and supplies, but salvaging corpses, the battle the night before yesterday was very fierce, the warring sides fought in the dark for control of a bridge, many soldiers who attacked from the bridge were killed in the river by machine guns and artillery fire, and those who did not die at that time were quickly frozen to death by the cold river, after all, this is Petrograd, and it is late autumn now, Although it has not yet snowed lightly, the temperature is already very low, and fighting in this weather is more affected by the climate, and this is still in the city, and if you fight outside the city, the soldiers will endure more pain than the battle in the city.

Now, Shi Zhaoji's diplomatic carriage was driving on the main road of Nevsky Prospect, and the remnants of the battle he had just seen were actually left behind by the battle that had taken place late the night before, and that battle was also the last counteroffensive of the republican Provisional Government of Petrograd in the city, and the result was the same as the battle during the day, which still ended in failure, and almost all the Russian ** teams loyal to the Republican Provisional Government were driven out of the city by the Soviet armed forces, and now, Petrograd really fell into the hands of the Russian Bolsheviks.

Now, Shi Zhaoji is rushing to the Tavlida Palace, which used to be the office of the Russian Duma, and after the "February Revolution", the Russian Provisional Government worked in the Tavlida Palace together with the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, and the two political entities also showed that the well water did not interfere with the river water and lived in peace there, but as the war against Germany continued, the economy of Little Russia deteriorated further, and eventually, these two were intermediated. The Tavlida Palace has now become in fact the temporary office of the Russian Soviet Government, and Shi Zhaoji rushed there to meet with a high-ranking official of the Russian Soviet Government, and in fact, it was the high-ranking official who requested an urgent appointment with Shi Zhaoji, apparently for foreign affairs.

When he arrived at the Tavlida Palace, just in time for the end of a meeting, he could only wait patiently for the crowd to disperse, and by the time he saw the high-ranking Russian Soviet official, it was already half past nine in the morning.

The Russian official was Molotov, who met Shi Zhaoji and went straight to the point, making solemn representations and verbal protests to the Chinese chargé d'affaires in Russia.

"Mr. Chargé d'affaires, I believe you have also heard about the announcement yesterday in the port of Baikal by the overthrown Russian Tsarist Government, which was declared a restoration yesterday, and the Soviet Government is very concerned about this matter, and it seems to us that your Government has not only failed to comply with the package agreement signed between the Provisional Government of the Russian Republic and your Government in the past few months to dissolve the illegal and unrecognized Tsarist Government by forceful means, but has instead increased its financial and military support for it, and to make it possible to take advantage of the chaotic situation during the revolution to incite an insurrection against the revolution in the Baikal region, so I am instructed to lodge a formal protest with your Government, hoping that it will see clearly the international situation and refrain from interfering in Russian affairs, and that if your Government insists on going its own way, it will bear all the consequences."

Molotov

The meaning of coercion is clear. However, in Shi Zhaoji's view, the other side was only bending the current situation in Russia, and China did not need to pay attention to this verbal protest at all, not to mention that he had received clear instructions from the center before he came, and knew how to reply to the other side.

"Your Excellency, I cannot accept the protest of your Soviet Government, nor can my Government. In our opinion, the Russian tsarist government was not sheltered by our government, but supported by the monarchists of your country, all the financial and military affairs have nothing to do with our government, and our government does not care about the actions of the tsarist government in Baikal, and now we are most concerned about the situation on the border between China and Russia, and we do not want to repeat the situation of the military confrontation between the two teams on the border a few months ago, but if you insist on a hostile position to our country, then our government will have to make corresponding military deployments, to ensure calm at the border.

On the other hand, in view of the fact that yesterday your Government formally adopted and promulgated a Peace Decree through the All-Russian Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, in which you officially renounced all treaties with foreign countries since the establishment of the Russian Provisional Government, it is natural for us to assume that your Government does not recognize the legal validity of a package agreement between our Government and the Russian Provisional Government, and that your Government's protest against our Government seems to be completely unjustified, This is because the treaties that decided to dissolve the tsarist government were the contents of the package of agreements, and your government did not recognize the legal effect of those treaties

Shi Zhaoji said something. It is also reasonable, and grasps a flaw in Molotov's words, leaving the other party with nothing to say.

Seeing that Molotov had nothing to say for a while, Shi Zhaoji seized the time to go further and revealed the tasks assigned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Your Excellency, since your Soviet Government has proposed in the Peace Decree the abrogation of all unequal treaties in the world, can this proposal be regarded as the cornerstone of your Government's diplomacy? If that is the case, my Government is willing to continue negotiations on the unequal treaties between China and Russia, building on the results of the work done a few months ago, with a view to revising them into more equal international treaties, and it is clear that these unequal treaties must include all treaties signed between China and Russia, even the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nebuchu. ”

As soon as Shi Shuji said this, Molotov was surprised, you know, the "Sino-Russian Treaty of Nebuchu" was signed at the end of the seventeenth century, more than two hundred years ago, and now the Chinese suddenly proposed that even this treaty should be revised, which really surprised Molotov, he never thought that the Chinese were so ambitious, and actually wanted to use the chaos of Russia to annex the territory annexed by Russia in hundreds of years of expansion.

"The Soviet Government must give serious consideration to your proposal, and will give you an answer later.

Molotov hesitated for a moment, but in the end he gave a vague answer.

He knew very well that although the current Russian Soviet Government had taken control of the situation in Petrograd, in the face of chaos and disorder throughout Russia, what the Soviet Government needed most was not food, but order, and without order there would be no food, but if China continued to support the armed rebellion of the tsarist government, then order in Russia would not be restored.

Since the Petrograd Revolution, many of the military and political figures of the Russian Provisional Government have fled to Siberia in the east, and since yesterday the Tsarist Government called for and proclaimed a constitutional monarchy, the enemies of the Soviets seem to have found a banner and intended to unite under this banner, which ostensibly appeared to be the Tsarist government, but in fact it was carried on the shoulders of China. The Soviet government was well aware that the tsarist government would not have had the strength to make a comeback and occupy port Baikal if it had not been for the instigation or instigation of the "madman from the Far East" behind his back.

The current Soviet is facing an existential situation, and if you take a wrong step at this time, the situation may become unmanageable in the future, and it is precisely for this reason that Molotov received very clear instructions, that is, to pull and fight the Chinese, in any case, first eliminate the banner of the monarchy in Baikal. "Then I waited at the embassy for a reply from the Soviet government. Please also reply as soon as possible, because the current diplomatic situation is very unfavorable for your side, and as far as I know, the envoys of Britain, France, and other countries in China have already sent people to Baikal Port to inquire about the truth and reality. It seems that these countries did not intend to recognize the Russian Soviet Government. ”

Before leaving, Shi Zhaoji specially reminded that this was not his blackmail, but a fact, since the Russian Soviet Government promulgated the "Peace Decree" that advocated the complete overthrow of the old international order, almost all European and American countries felt a panic, and both the participating countries and neutral countries were deeply disturbed by the Soviet regime's idea of completely repudiating the existing international order. If Germany's vain attempt to revise the old international order was regarded as a provocation by the Entente bloc, then this declaration of the Russian Soviet Government was undoubtedly a knife in the heart of the Entente and all the industrial countries, and it would be strange if these countries did not react.

Shi Zhaoji quickly rushed back to the embassy and immediately sent a telegram to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reporting the details of his meeting with Russian foreign officials, and insisting that now was the best time to exert full pressure on the Russian side.