January 1916 - 1 -

Night. The cold winds and snow of the Arctic Ocean. A swamp with alder trees edged a trench. In front is a layer of barbed wire. After Ukraine enters the cold winter, the icy mud in the trenches in the autumn will have turned into frozen soil, and even soldiers who want to deepen the trenches need to roast them with fire before digging them.

The corrugated tinplate guards on the guard post had long since been covered by snow, and near the guard post, a frozen Japanese flag hung dejectedly. A sparse light peeked through the earthen huts inside the trenches. A short, sturdy officer stood for a moment at the door of an officer's earthen house, his frozen fingers slipping on the buttons of his coat, hurriedly unbuttoning his military coat, shaking off the snowflakes on his collar, and quickly wiping his boots on the rotten hay, before pushing open the door and stooping into the earthen house.

The yellow light of the small kerosene lamp shone on the faces of the visitors. An officer in an open leather shirt rose from the bed, touched his hair that was beginning to turn gray with one hand, and yawned.

"Is the snow still falling?"

"Down there,"

The man replied, and then took off his clothes, and hung his coat and dogskin hat on a nail by the door.

"It's warm here, so it's warm when there's a lot of people...... Hey, it's on fire? Wood from there. ”

"I had someone cut down a few pine trees, and a fire was finally lit, so it was warmer, but you know, the snow. The rain is going to drive us away...... Yes? What do you think, Zoten? ”

Zo Teng rubbed his hands, bent down, and squatted next to the small stove.

"Do you just sleep on the ground? We, the Chinese adviser's suggestion was accepted, and we laid an empty ammunition box in the earthen house, and a thick layer of wheat straw on the ammunition box, and a quilt on the grass, and slept very comfortably, where did Murata go? ”

"Sleep."

"Have you slept for a long time?"

"I'll sleep when I come back."

"It's time to wake him up, right?"

"Wake him up. Let's play a game of chess. ”

Zo Teng wiped the rain from his wide and thick eyebrows with his index finger, and without looking up, he called softly:

"Murata, Murata!"

"Sleepy,"

Lieutenant Amamura, whose hair was a little gray, sighed.

"Captain Yokoichi Murata!"

"Hey!"

An officer in a shirt stood up under the blanket covered by the military coat, and before he opened his eyes, he raised his hand and saluted as soon as he stood up, but when he saw the person coming, his eyes were suddenly open.

"Shall we play chess?"

Murata who woke up had no choice but to accompany Zuo Teng to lower the flag......

Towards the end of the first set, two officers of the 3rd Brigade came, one was Second Lieutenant Watanabe and the other was Lieutenant Junichi.

"Good news!"

Watanabe shouted while he was still at the door.

"Our team is probably going to be disarmed."

"Where did this come from?"

Lieutenant Amaura asked suspiciously.

"Don't you believe it, Murata?"

"Frankly, I don't believe it."

"Second Lieutenant Tazawa of the artillery brigade called us to tell us. Where did he know that, it's easy to explain, he only came back from the division headquarters yesterday. ”

"It would be nice to have a good bubble in the bath."

Junyi smiled a little stupidly, pretending to soak in a hot spring, not to mention a hot spring now, even if it is a bucket of hot water, he is willing to exchange it for an allowance of fifteen rubles a month.

Yucun laughed at this time.

"We only need to have a bathtub in this mud house, and we need as much water as we want."

"No, no, there's no feeling here, it's the kind that wants to be open-air, just like when you take a hot spring in Japan, it's like ......"

Junichiro looked at the underground bunker and said with some indignation. …,

"The artillery wing was really comfortable, they cut off the lid of the big oil drum, then put two planks under the oil drum, and then lit a fire directly under the oil drum and bathed in the snow, just like a hot spring in winter."

As Junichiro spoke, his face was filled with longing for all of it.

"Okay, don't fantasize about it there, it's as comfortable as lying in a woman's arms now,"

Zoten interjected.

"If the Germans attack, I don't know how many more people will die, and if we attack, it may be difficult for everyone to return to Japan."

"If you die, you can be considered loyal to Japan."

"Watanabe, we Japanese are not here to charge the Luguo people and send them to their deaths. You are pretending to be confused. ”

"And you say—what are we here for?"

"According to the government, our sacrifice here has earned Japan a position and created an opportunity for Japan to rebuild its army."

"It's all nonsense,"

Yumura waved his hand.

"How is this nonsense?"

"Yes."

"Forget it! The truth is irrefutable. ”

"What kind of truth is this......

"It's a well-known thing. What are you pretending to be stupid? ”

"Attention, officers!" Murata shouted, bowing to all sides as if acting, pointing at Zoten and saying:

"Second Lieutenant Zoten is about to tell the dream according to the dream book of the Social Democrats."

Although the Japanese army had only been in Russia for a few months, there were always some officers who were more or less influenced by the ideas of the Russian Social Democratic Party

"Are you going out again?"

Zoten's eyes pressed into Murata's gaze and sneered.

"I mean, if we're going to rest, it's not as simple as scattering us to a secluded place to be on standby."

"And then?" Murata asked, packing up the chess pieces.

"Then the Lu people will send us to the hardest, most tragic front, which is inevitable, in fact, we all know that neither the Chinese nor the Russians treat us as human beings, and why the Chinese agree to our expansion of the army, they are fulfilling their obligations to the Entente, who order tens of millions of supplies from China every day. Moreover, their own troops wanted to expand their colonies as much as possible, but the Allies forced them to send troops - so they took advantage of the desire of the generals in Tokyo to expand their army, and the Japanese came in handy. That's right, the army fed by the Imperial Government is for war, and in a pinch, the army does have to be loyal to the country and the emperor, but now look at us...... How many people have we died since we came to the country of Lu? ”

"Well, don't forget that if we win a war, Japan's international standing will be raised by one point, and Japan will get a lot of loans, and the business community will get a lot of orders, and when the war ends with a brilliant victory, what will Japan be like then? Will Japan become strong again? ”

While Yumura retorted, a smile crossed Zoten's face.

"There is no sign of an end, let alone a glorious victory. And, I would like to ask, even if Japan becomes the winner of this war, who will really win? It is China, their industry gets tens of orders than Japan, and their garrison in Japan is not shrinking, but expanding! ”

"The war dragged on ......"

"If it continues to drag on, at most it can only be fought on another Western Front, and the war will continue to be stalemate."

Zoten prophesied with certainty.

"And as the war drags on, the Chinese will continue to increase their influence in the Japanese army, you can see that many officers who were ostracized in China in the past are now appointed, and now a large number of Chinese advisers are sent to the expeditionary force, the war continues like this, sooner or later, the Chinese will control our army!" …,

Zoten's mouth was round, and after exhaling a cloud of smoke, he pressed the cigarette butt in his hand into the ashtray made of shell shells.

"When that day comes, Japan will be the real loser in this war!?"

This will be Zuo Teng there to consider the words, not without caution said,

"Japan's ostensible winners, in fact, have lost the future, and what about the Chinese? They didn't have to shed a drop of blood, but they got everything they needed, a bled Japan, a colony from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean. ”

When his words fell, everyone fell silent, in fact, China is a proposition that the Japanese cannot bypass, and how to get rid of China's clamping has long become the volunteer of many "people with lofty ideals", especially for these young officers.

"It's not going to be easy for us to survive this war. What do you think, guys? ”

Looking around at all the people present, Zoteng's face had a sense of mission.

"After coming to Lu country, I saw Lu country, and thought of Japan, compared to Lu country, which may break out at any time, Japan is the country that really needs revolution, look at what our country has become, hundreds of thousands of occupation troops, occupy our ports and land, the people are extremely poor, and the soldiers on the front line are fighting for the future of the so-called country, but their sisters, and even wives, even need prostitution to support their families, and what about the generals and magnates in Tokyo? What are they doing......"

Listening to Zoten's words, Yumura immediately stretched out his hand to interrupt him, and then, with a frown, he stood up, frowned, and paced up in the earthen house. Suppressing his anger, he spoke:

"I find it very strange that there should be such a figure among the officers of the Imperial Army,"

He gestured towards Zorten.

"To this day I have not figured out his attitude towards the Motherland, towards the war...... Do you want ......"

"I hope to be defeated."

Zuo Teng suddenly roared loudly, but his roar made the whole person in Yucun stunned.

"Why is that? I think that no matter what your political views are, you want your country to be defeated - that's ...... after all Betrayal of the state. This is a shame for any soldier of the Imperial Army! ”

"Do you know that the Bolshevik caucus in the State Duma of Lu Guo advocated opposition to the government, thereby hastening the defeat of the war?"

Suddenly, Watanabe interjected from the side.

"Zoten, do you agree with them?"

He turned his head and asked Zoten.

"Since I hope to lose the war, it's not that I'm unpatriotic, but that I love Japan too much. What those generals saw was that they were on the side of China, Japan was getting huge benefits, the magnates had gained unimaginable wealth through this war, only the people, the most ordinary people were starving, no one cared about their fate, and no one cared about the future of Japan......"

Looking at the colleagues around him, Zuo Teng said with grief and indignation.

"Yes, I am a soldier loyal to His Majesty the Emperor, and I should obey orders, but what kind of people are those who give orders, and do they really care about the country? No, they never cared, they cared about their own interests, their wealth and power, that's why they would compromise with China, that's why they would allow the Chinese to occupy our land, they flattered the Chinese, and they pressed the ordinary people with all their might, forcing them to sell their daughters to barely survive, how many Japanese prostitutes were there in China, why were they sold to China? ”

Looking at his colleagues, Zoten's words became more and more sad and indignant, and at this time his words could even be described as roaring, so that even the soldiers who were on duty in the trenches were attracted by his words. …,

"Is it possible to save Japan from those elites? , no, impossible, if you want to save Japan, you can only rely on us, on us non-commissioned officers and soldiers, why do I want to be defeated, because only when the war is defeated, can China's power be weakened, and we can launch a revolution in Japan, like the Lu country during the Japan-Lu War, with the military as the main ......"

"Bastard,"

Yumura yelled as he wiped the smile from his face.

"This is not the words of His Majesty the Emperor's soldiers......"

"Don't say that, the situation in Japan is exceptional,"

Murata interjected as if he was sorry,

"Zo Teng is also worried about state affairs."

But it was too unfortunate that when Murata was talking like this, Zuo Teng added fuel to the fire and said:

"Some people say that the emperor does not know that the people are suffering, but I say that they are saying that if this continues, and there is a revolution in Japan, then the emperor system will be overthrown......

As soon as his words fell, Yucun immediately waved his fist at him, and for a while, the originally lively shelter suddenly became even more lively, and a few minutes later, Zo Teng left the shelter with a dark blue on his face.

"Zoten!"

When he walked more than ten meters, Watanabe was shouting at him.

"Wait, Zo is respected! …… Zoten, do you hear me? …… Oh, well, even if this war is going to turn into a civil war...... What about the future? Well, you have to start a revolution and overthrow the emperor...... So in your opinion, what kind of government should be established? What does the regime look like? ”

"It is the power of the dictatorship of the proletariat."

"Similar to Congress, isn't it?"

"What is Congress!"

Zoten said with a smile.

"So what is it?"

"There should be a dictatorship of the working class."

"Hey, you're there! …… So what is the role of the culture man and the peasant? ”

"The peasants will follow us, and some of the literate people who are good at independent thinking will follow us, and the rest will ...... That's what we'll do with the rest of the people......"

Zo Teng quickly twisted the piece of paper that he had pinched in his hand into a tight paper twist, and then shook the paper twist, squeezing out such a sentence from between his teeth:

"That's what these guys do!"

"You ...... guy"

Watanabe, who was taken aback by his appearance, said with some sighs.

"There are revolutionaries, there are counter-revolutionaries, if the revolution wants to succeed, it must eliminate the counter-revolutionaries, just like a seriously wounded person, if he wants to live, he must cut off the injured arm or thigh, otherwise he will die soon, the current Japan is a seriously wounded, if you don't decisively cut off the lesions, then it will be difficult for Japan to exist in this world!"

Zoteng's words, but Watanabe's whole person was stunned, he looked at Zoteng, as if what he said was reasonable, isn't Japan like a sick man now? Just like Chen Moran's China, in order to save China, didn't he also send those Manchurians and those who served the Manchurians to concentration camps? Perhaps, this principle is the same, and Japan may need to ......

"Hey, you guy, you didn't seem to have that many ideas in the past, tell me, you learned this there, you know about the revolution or something!"

In Watanabe's question, Zoten mysteriously took out a large roll of paper from the side pocket of his military coat, turned his back to Watanabe, flipped through the paper roll for a long time, and then walked to an anti-artillery crater, and with his broad palm, he flattened a newspaper that had turned yellow over time on the ammunition box.

"What was learned in this trench on the front line of the country of Lu,...... More than I've ever learned in my life......"

So he read Lenin's article: ...,

“…… Take, for example, the modern military. The military is a good example of organization. Such an organization is good because it is flexible and at the same time it is able to subject millions of people to a unified will. Today, these millions of people are still sitting in their homes, scattered throughout the country, and tomorrow when the mobilization order is issued, they will assemble in the designated places. Today they are still squatting in the trenches, sometimes for months, and tomorrow they will charge in other formations. Today they have done a miracle by avoiding a hail of bullets, and tomorrow they have done a miracle in a hand-to-hand encounter. Today their vanguard is laying mines in the ground, and tomorrow they will advance a few tens of versts according to the instructions of the air pilots. Millions of people who have been inspired by the same will to change their mode of communication and action, their place and method of activity, their tools and weapons to suit the changing situation and the demands of the struggle for the same goal -- this is the real organization.

The same is true of the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie. If today there is no revolutionary situation......

"What's the 'situation'?"

Junichiro interrupted him and asked. Zoteng's body shook for a moment, like waking up from a big dream, he wanted to understand the meaning of the question, and wiped the pimple forehead with the joint of his thumb.

"I ask you, what do you mean by the word 'situation'?"

The two of them didn't know much Russian, but only half-understood.

"I know what these two words mean, but I can't say them clearly......"

A smile appeared on Zoten's face, and it seemed so incongruous to have such a smile on his somewhat melancholy face.

"Situation -- is that what it means to be a situation, a situation, and so on, right? That is, it is not yet the time to start a revolution, it is time to accumulate strength for the revolution......"

#c