Chapter 67: The Lurker

After the defeat of the Russian Empire in the war against Japan in 105, the potential internal contradictions of the world's largest empire completely erupted under the instigation of Japanese spies, the people of Moscow and other places even built barricades to confront the government, the warships of the navy rebelled, only the army was still under the orders of the tsar, under the impact of the Cossack cavalry, the uprising was suppressed, and then, the Russian Empire carried out the "Stolypin reform" named after the prime minister, and established the State Duma, which was modeled on the Western parliamentary form but could only play an advisory role, Restrictions on landlord privileges and encouragement of the kulak economy.

From 107 to 113 years, the economy of the Russian Empire was finally in a state of rapid development, grain exports ranked first in the world, oil and timber also became the other two major foreign exchange products, a large number of new factories appeared in Russia, "Stolypin reforms" saved Russia, and the intelligence of ambassadors and legations in Russia from all over the world was so restored to the country, although Russia continued to work hard to save the precarious national situation, but this does not mean that Russia will give up expansion, in fact, Expansion has long penetrated into the Russian bloodstream.

The expansion of the Russian Empire to the East, with the "double-headed eagle" as its national emblem, hit a wall, and naturally bet on the alliance with Britain and France, believing that the three countries would cooperate to fight against Germany and Austria, and that winning foreign wars would restore the Tsar's prestige at home and realize his long-cherished wish to control Central and Southern Europe.

In July 114, the Balkans, with its "powder keg", were ignited by a shot from the Sarajevo assassination, and the Russian Empire, which was also a Slav, was the first to carry out a general mobilization, and Kaiser Wilhelm II warned his cousin Tsar Nicholas II to cancel the mobilization, but it was not accepted, and Germany and Russia declared war on August 1, and Britain and France officially entered the war four days later.

At the beginning of the war, Germany's strategy was to defeat France first and then advance east to defeat Russia, but as soon as the war broke out, the Russian army quickly invaded East Prussia, at this time the Tsarist Russian army expanded to 6 million people, more than double the German-Austrian army on the Eastern Front, although the quality of officers and soldiers is worlds apart, but the Russian army still has an advantage in troops, so as to gain an advantage on the battlefield.

However, after the Battle of Tannenberg, Russia, which had an absolute superiority in troops, lost its advantage on the battlefield, and the war did not end in the short term, as Nicholas II envisioned, but was extended indefinitely, and for Russia, the war turned into a long-term war, a war of attrition, which was simply a nightmare.

St. Petersburg, no, it should be Petrograd, after the outbreak of this world war, the name of St. Petersburg, which was extremely Germanized, was changed to Petrograd, although the German woman in the palace was still the Empress of Russia.

Snow!

The air in Petrograd after a heavy snowfall has added a bit of coldness, and there are far fewer pedestrians on the streets than in the past, at least there are many fewer men, and the decrease in the number of men on the streets of Russia, where nearly 10 million troops have been mobilized, seems to be reasonable.

But at the station, there was an unexpected large number of men, but all soldiers in military uniforms, recruits preparing to take the train to the front, and there were women everywhere near them to see off the soldiers. Some are seeing off their sons, and some are seeing off their husbands.

The soldiers in the station laughed from time to time, and the officers hugged their wives and lovers in fur coats goodbye, and although there was no sign of the end of the war, for the Russians at this time, they were engaged in a war of the "Slavic people", and the mood of the soldiers and officers was equally high under the agitation of nationalism.

"Squeaky ......"

The sound of boots trampling on the snow and ice made Katrevsky appear at the station, and although he was dressed in a somewhat shabby, soot-covered cotton coat, it was difficult to hide that he looked very strong, and although he looked to be only twenty-three or fourteen years old, Katrevsky was one of the few workers who had gone to secondary school among the porters at the railway station. …,

At this time, he stood on the opposite side of the platform, watching the soldiers leave the platform with smiling faces, and he frowned and thought from time to time.

"Katyu!"

Suddenly, a middle-aged man appeared behind him, and the middle-aged man looked at Katrevsky's expression and asked with a smile.

"What's wrong? Do you want to be a soldier too? ”

"Soldiering?"

Katrevsky shook his head, then looked back at Toka earnestly.

"I'm just curious, they are just cannon fodder in this war between imperialists, but they don't know that they are cannon fodder, and even smile about it, maybe that's the real sadness!"

Looking at the soldiers who were about to leave for the front, Katerevsky shook his head and sighed softly, but Toka, who was beside him, had a strange look in his eyes when he heard him say this.

"Hey, Katyu, you're always so sentimental."

Patting him on the shoulder, Toca said again.

"Well, there is a truck into the station, it is loaded with goods imported from China, maybe, we can exchange something with the Chinese on the car!"

Toca then patted him on the shoulder again.

"Maybe you can change some cosmetics for women and give them to your friends then!"

With that, Toka laughed, and Carter just smiled and walked over to the truck platform in the distance.

On the wagon platform, a train dragging more than 20 wagons stopped there, the carriage also carried some square-shaped Chinese characters, the station movers are constantly moving goods from the carriage, bags of flour, consumer goods of merchants, since the outbreak of this war, a steady stream of consumer goods through the Central Asian Railway, the Siberian two railways into Russia, and more than 0% of these consumer goods are produced in Chinese factories, in fact, now half of the Russian army's munitions come from China, Rifles alone have been exported as many as one million units, and China's daily consumer goods have replaced Britain, Germany, France, and other countries as the mainstream commodities in the Russian market.

Inside the steam locomotive, a Chinese locomotive employee in a locomotive worker's uniform looked at the Russian workers, on the platform, he took out a cigarette from the cigarette case, stood on the side of the platform and smoked a cigarette, while the Russian workers were working, he walked to the middle of a row of cargo boxes, and soon he counted to a place, and in that position, he saw a Russian dressed as an ordinary porter.

"We met in Beijing last year?"

"We seem to have met, but in Harbin."

Katrevsky replied in fluent Chinese.

After a simple joint, the locomotive worker pulls out a bill of lading from his pocket.

"This is something for you at home!"

After Katrevsky took the bill of lading, the locomotive workers left the pile, and a few minutes later, Katrevsky walked out and continued to carry goods from the train, just like the other workers.

A few hours later, the train was finally finished, and while Katrevsky was resting against a pile of crates, Toka walked up to him and handed him a glass of water.

"Are you free tonight? Toka! ”

"Huh? What's the matter? ”

"There's a party in the evening that I want you to attend!"

As he spoke, Toka's tone seemed a little mysterious, even a little cautious, but he didn't notice a sudden glint in Katrevsky's eyes when he heard this.

There were not many people on the streets late at night, but Katrevsky, who was wearing an overcoat, could not hide the excitement on his face, just an hour earlier he had just attended a small party, which seemed to be no different from an ordinary salon party, but in fact it was a meeting of Russian revolutionaries, and at the party he even met an editor of Pravda, although the newspaper office had been closed, but there was no doubt that many people in the newspaper were leaders of the Russian revolutionaries and attended the salon. In a way, this meant that he had approached the backbone of the revolutionaries, and that was exactly what he was going to do, and as for Toka, the ordinary worker, it was a "step" that the intelligence bureau had determined after a long period of analysis, a ladder that gave him access to the backbone of the revolutionary. …,

Although he was very excited, as soon as he got home, Katrevsky carefully recalled in his mind the few people he had seen in the salon, and then made a record in his notebook, their physiognomy characteristics, mannerisms, and speech, which are the professional qualities necessary for an intelligence officer, and the reason why he wrote this record was to enable the intelligence analysts of the embassy to be able to identify who he saw and decide his next move, and the Russian revolutionaries were mostly operating underground. They often use pseudonyms, but their physiognomy and demeanor cannot be changed.

After recalling for half an hour and writing in as many words as possible the characteristics of the people he had seen at the salon gathering, Katrevsky used invisible ink to write the characteristics of the assembled participants on the letterhead, and on the front of the letterhead was a simple "hope for help" letter, and even if the letter was sampled, it was just a letter from a Chinese expatriate to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in the hope of receiving some help.

Finally, after writing the letter and putting it in the envelope, Katreevs returned to another matter, he took out the bill of lading from his pocket, the bill of lading was prepared for him at home, which meant that the thing had passed through his line and reached him directly, which meant that in the future he would probably lose contact with the line for a long time, and what was given to him was a "spare item" for his future, what could it be?

Take a closer look at the bill of lading, which is very common at train stations, and many people take it to pick up their goods.

"Looks like I'm going to have to dress up tomorrow!"