120. In the Mine (1)

France was defeated, and the German-Austrian forces began to move their forces to the Eastern Front.

The news soon spread throughout Russia, which caused even more turmoil in the situation.

This is a remote iron ore region in Krivoy Rog, Ukraine, where the mountains in the distance are like green waves, gradually lowering, and finally merging with the alluvial plains on both sides of the Dnieper River. The small town of Kazan is located in the middle of the mountains, and the River Ingurets runs through the middle of the town. The towering rooms of the Russian Orthodox Church, nestled in the mid-levels, are the most visible symbols here.

The town was quiet, but the effects of the fierce fighting on the eastern front were still visible, and due to the shortage of labor, more and more oriental laborers came to the mines here, and the people of the town gradually became accustomed to the faces of these yellow people.

Kumazaki came out of the house and went out into the yard. The smell of buckwheat flowers wafted through the fields. Overhead, the June sun glows brightly in the sky.

There are about 5,000 Chinese workers in the Kazan mining area, which is relatively large. In order to control these camps, Kumazaki, who had just graduated from the Army University, was appointed as the chief foreman of the camp. He is a native of Hubei, and President Li Yuanhong is a fellow countryman, so he naturally belongs to Li Yuanhong's faction.

The herald Li Guangtou was chatting with a few newly laid laborers at the gate of the courtyard, boasting about the ** rhyme he once had with the Russian girls, and his eyebrows were dancing and his saliva was splashing.

"Find a few people to come with me to Krivoy Rog, there's someone up there!" Kumazaki interrupted his bragging, "A few clever points...... Speaks a little Russian. ”

Lee was not very happy, and Kumazaki interrupted his extremely excited fantasy at this time. He twisted his head, rubbing under his feet, extremely reluctant to move. He hated the way these officials behaved, but he couldn't help it, they were foremen, and sometimes these people who ate military rations suddenly became very vicious.

He knew that there were a lot of Beiyang soldiers in the camp, they were all huddled together, and they all had the spirit of the rivers and lakes, sometimes they were very righteous, but sometimes they would join forces to bully them Chinese workers, which was terrifying.

"Why are you standing still?" Kumazaki got angry.

"I don't know who I'm looking for, boss, and the person I'm looking for may not please you......" Lee muttered as he spoke.

"Find a few and follow me here." Kumazaki said, "Go quickly, do you want me to go by myself?" ”

Li Guangtou had no choice, so he reluctantly turned around and walked out of the courtyard and went to the workshop outside to find someone.

The camp of Chinese workers here is about a hundred feet from the mine, at the end of the ravine. It was surrounded by weeds and a spruce forest that had been cut down in a mess. From here, you can look down on the whole town of Kazan, and the small train loaded with ore, dragging a long figure, whistles through the town, driving towards the Krivoy Rog Iron Works in the distance.

Lezhtvinsky was sent from Kyiv to the lower Dnieper region to serve as a commissioner in charge of liaison with Chinese workers in this area. He couldn't understand why the Ukrainian Liberation Union was wasting its energy to help those Easterners. Still, he accepted the assignment and set off for Krivoy Rog on the same day. As a result of the revolution, the entire Eastern Front remained idle for several months, the Germans and Austrians did not take the initiative to attack, and the Russians, naturally, did not have time to attack them now.

The Russian army was full of all sorts of rumors, morale was low at the front, and there were constantly desertions among soldiers. Bored soldiers stayed in the barracks, waiting for the legendary demobilization order.

At Alexander's central hub station, trains were stuck there.

There was a riot among the soldiers who were ordered to fight against the front, the soldiers refused to carry out the order, they blocked the locomotive, and the whole station was thrown into chaos.

On the platform, a small soldier gave an incendiary speech: "What is this, brethren? Say that there is no need to fight - what is the use of overthrowing the Tsar! But the war is going on, do we still want to go to the front to shed blood?! The Provisional Government and the Tsar are the same and want to fool us. Soldiers, this will not work, we should heed the call of the Bolsheviks to obey the will of the people and to hell with this damned war! ”

The soldiers, who did not listen to the orders of the officers at all, gathered at the station and held a mass meeting.

The commotion continued for several hours, and the officers had nothing to do with their soldiers. It was not until the regimental headquarters brought in troops from outside and threatened to disarm the soldiers that the commotion was quelled, and the soldiers reluctantly boarded the train to the front.

"This is the perfect time for the Ukrainians to gain independence!" Lezhtvensky remembered the statement of the leader of the League, Zhuk, not so long ago, and it was true. The Ukrainian Liberation Alliance was strongly supported by Austria-Hungary, and the Austrians declared that they had no intention of annexing Ukrainian territory and supported the cause of independence of the Ukrainians.

The war became a disaster for the entire Ukrainians, with the Russians conscripting 3.5 million Ukrainians to fight for them, and Austria-Hungary organizing a Ukrainian legion - now numbering 450,000. Both sides are enlisting Ukrainians to work for them.

The entire Russian front was now in disarray, unable to stop the offensive of the German-Austrian forces, the North-Western Front and the Northern Front were almost out of control, and only the South-Western Front under the command of Brusilov still had some combat capability. The Russian army is suffering from a contagious disease, and revolutionary propaganda is spreading and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Ammunition and food were desperately scarce on the front lines, and the soldiers had no intention of fighting, hoping for peacetime.

The Bolshevik-led Soviet regime openly called for withdrawal from the war and won the support of the workers and peasants, while the Provisional Government, in order to obtain material support from the Entente, Foreign Minister Miliukov announced that the Provisional Government had decided to commit itself to fulfilling its responsibilities as an Entente and would continue to participate in the war. This led to the April crisis, in which the workers and soldiers of Petrograd staged massive anti-war demonstrations, culminating in the resignation of Miryukov and the Minister of the Army and Navy Guchkov.

The Provisional Government was forced to reorganize, forming a coalition government with the Petrograd Soviet, and Kerensky became the new Minister of the Army and Navy.

After taking office, Kerensky was determined to launch a major offensive against the Austro-Hungarian front in order to fulfill his promise to the Entente and boost confidence in the Provisional Government.

This is what creates a new mess.

As a highly trained intelligence officer, Lezhtvensky is well aware of the current situation in the Russian army. In the previous stage, the Austro-Hungarian and German armies were indeed undermanned on the Eastern Front, but now that they had defeated the French and the large armies were constantly being transferred to the Eastern Front, Kerensky launched an offensive at this time, which was tantamount to suicide.

The train started again, and Lezhtvensky continued to ponder his mission: to contact all the Chinese workers' camps in southern Ukraine, so that they could stay in the camps in the event of an Austro-Hungarian attack, and not have to retreat with the Russian army and wait for the Austro-Hungarian army to receive them.

Reception? What do the Austrians want these Chinese workers to do?

Lezhtvensky couldn't figure it out.

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