February 1917.

A train full of Chinese laborers recruited from China traveled on the plains of eastern Ukraine, and the white moonlight shone on the low snow-covered woods on both sides of the railway, and the air was filled with a deep gloomy atmosphere, as if mourning the fate of these Chinese.

There was an oppressive atmosphere in the carriage, and the faces of the Oriental people were dazed and afraid. This steam train of the Eastern Qing Railway Company from Manchuria traveled through the boundless Siberian snowfields for a long journey of 14 days, transporting them to a completely unfamiliar world.

Zhang Weicheng got up from the narrow bed, went to the toilet at the end of the carriage to facilitate it, and moved his muscles. This is a standard Russian-style sleeper car, each with 52 berths, and this train has a total of 50 such cars, with a total of more than 2,200 Chinese workers.

It was very cold in the car, and there were two small coal stoves in it for heating, but the heat quickly spread outside. The dim lights in the car were drowsy, and he stomped his feet and stood by the door to look out, the moonlight shining on the snow, shining silver, and some rolling hills could be faintly seen in the distance. The train was moving very slowly, and it seemed that it was almost at a small station where I didn't know the name of the place.

After nearly three years of war in Europe, millions of young and strong men died on the battlefield, and the whole of Europe is now extremely short of labor, even Russia, which has the largest number of soldiers. In 1914, the Russians lost nearly 1.1 million men in the Battle of Tannanberg and Galicia, and in 1915, it was a disaster for the Russians, with about 2.3 million casualties or prisoners on the battlefield, and in 1916 the situation was slightly better, even so, the Russians still lost nearly 800,000 men on the Eastern Front.

In order to sustain the war, the Russians had conscripted nearly 8 million troops, and almost all the young men in the country were sent to the battlefield, and they had to recruit a large number of Chinese laborers from the Far East on favorable terms to maintain domestic production in order to continue the war.

At this time, the little man Dai Ji came over, rubbed his hands and said to Zhang Weicheng: "Brother, do you still have tobacco leaves?" Mine is out of pumping. ”

Zhang Weicheng took out a purse containing tobacco leaves from his pocket, rolled one for Dai Halberd, handed it to him, and then rolled it up for himself.

Dai Ji found a small wooden stick and put it in the stove, took it out, lit a cigarette, put it in his mouth and smoked twice, and handed the wooden stick with sparks to Zhang Weicheng. Zhang Weicheng also lit a cigarette, looked out the car window and said to him, "What's wrong, can't you sleep?" ”

"Yes." Dai Ji said, spraying a puff of green smoke on the car window in his mouth, and said: "I have always wondered what Shangfeng sent us here to do, do you want to fight for the Russians?" ”

"Who the fuck knows, anyway, the order now is for us to send this batch of laborers to Poltava." Zhang Weicheng said, "Who knows what the hell that place is." ”

Since the death of Yuan Shikai in June last year, Li Yuanhong succeeded him as president of the Republic of China, but the power is actually in the hands of Premier Duan Qirui. After Xu Shuzheng returned to the post of secretary general of the State Council and vice minister of the Ministry of the Army, he signed an agreement with the Russians, and the Beiyang government would come forward to actively recruit laborers from within the country.

The move was met with protests from the Germans, but the Austrians, who stood with them, said little.

Although Li Yuanhong opposed Xu's approach, he feared that such a move would lead China into war and might be retaliated against by the Germans. However, because he has just become the president and has no foundation, Li Yuanhong is naturally inconvenient to openly oppose Duan Qirui at present.

Originally, Russia recruited a large number of Chinese laborers from China for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and there are still about 200,000 people living in West Siberia. In the Far East, there are more Chinese than Russians living here, and in Vladivostok there are about 180,000 Chinese, more than the Russians and Japanese combined.

Beginning in July 1916, about 200,000 Chinese laborers were sent to Russia from China, and Xu Shuzheng assigned some of the officers and cadets who had just graduated from the Baoding Military Academy to the 9th Division of the Army, which was upgraded from the 5th Mixed Brigade of the Anhui Department.

The first to enter Russia was a cavalry regiment stationed in Chahar, Zhang Weicheng, who was the second batch of Beiyang Army to enter Russia, which belonged to the 33rd Regiment of the Army, and the regiment commander was Song Huanzhang.

At each station, people added water coal to the train and distributed food to the people on board. Some laborers also got off the train and wandered on the platform, while Zhang Weicheng and the others needed to be watched to prevent anyone from escaping. Since crossing the Urals,

Zhang Weicheng and others felt the harsh consequences of the European war: there was a shortage of manpower everywhere in Russia.

There is a shortage of porters on the docks, miners in the mines, lumberjacks in the forestry farms, and handymen in the mechanic shop. Even as far away as Tula, Kipu and other places are vigorously recruiting Chinese workers. Military music and the tsar's mobilization orders were repeatedly played on the platforms, and when Ukraine entered the country, the stations were crammed with trains full of people and supplies, and sometimes the trains waiting to depart could be congested for kilometers outside the stations.

At the stations along the way, you can see a lot of Orientals wearing Russian-style gray military uniforms without military ranks. In the past two years, most of the shippers in Russian stations have been replaced by Chinese laborers recruited by the Russian government from China's northeast, Shandong, Hebei and other places, and there are currently about 200,000 Chinese laborers who are doing heavy labor on Russia's railway transportation lines.

Lieutenant Colonel Su Bingwen stood next to a long line of troops, waiting for his officers and soldiers and Chinese workers to arrive. It's a small station less than 10 kilometers from the eastern Ukrainian city of Poltava, which is located in a forested area and the entire station is hidden in the white jungle.

From time to time, trains laden with war materiel passed through the station, and the Russians were so disorganized that many trains had to turn back from the station and then turn onto other tracks and move forward. There are many Chinese workers working at the station, and he has been waiting here for three days, and when he asked the stationmaster, the answer he received was always "soon, it will be soon."

But three days had passed, and there was no sign of the train he was waiting for.

Before the arrival of spring, the Russian battlefield was relatively calm, and the Russians had gathered their strength to prepare for a counteroffensive after the snow melted. In fact, Russia is now somewhat stretched thin in terms of troops, and has to rely on Chinese laborers to ensure their logistics.

In this way, the Chinese workers will be sent to the front.

Of course, Su Bingwen was ordered to do so.

About 30,000 Chinese laborers will go to Kirvograd in central Ukraine, between the South Bug River and the Dnieper River, where the Russian army and the Austro-Hungarian army have begun to engage in some sporadic fighting.

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