On January 3, 1901 in the Julian calendar, it was a cold winter, and the setting sun shone on the port of Constantine and the surrounding snow-covered mountains, and a wisp of sea breeze blew from the sea, although the sea breeze was not violent but still had a biting chill, and the wind swept the freshly fallen snow on the ground and on the eaves. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Snowflakes dance in the wind, fluttering under the street lamps, like fairies, for the Russians in the port of Constantine, they may like the warm summer sun here, but the cold winter is the season they are most accustomed to, of course, for the Russians who are used to the cold of the north, they can't stand the wet cold here. In addition, the Russians were not accustomed to living in Japanese-style houses, so as early as the beginning of the occupation, the Russians began to rebuild the city of Constantine, planning the city according to the European urban style, of course, now this urban area full of European style, is called the new urban area, as for the old urban area, as far as the eye can see, there are still those Japanese-style buildings, only occasionally a few Western-style buildings.

The biting cold wind swept across the ground, still making passers-by feel a chill all over their bodies, and they all accelerated their pace. The old city in the cold wind looked very depressed on this winter night, and the old city of Konstantin was much more dilapidated and deserted than the new city built by the Russians.

At this time, on the street, although the street lights are on, but the street is like a dead street, except for the dog barking from time to time, no other human voices can be heard, the Japanese-style buildings on both sides of the narrow street are extremely simple, although it is simple but it has already been connected to electricity, but there are not many people who make electricity, most of them are some shops or rich people's homes will use electricity, most people's homes, still use kerosene lamps.

As a matter of fact. Over the past few years. In a way. The life of the people of the Viceroyalty of Nikolai is regressing, compared to the heavy tax burden, the Governor's Office has invested very little in people's livelihood, and the so-called education is also aimed at promoting "Russification" education, as for whether education can work, it is not for them to consider. For the Russians, all they need is a "Slavicized" satrapy, as for the future of the satrapy. But it's not something they need to think about. Even for the so-called Slavization, the Governor's Office issued an order that advertisements and signboards in the streets must be mainly in Russian, just like this old street - all the signs and advertisements in Slavic script hung in front of the Japanese-style street shops. Even so, it did not stop the street from bustling, even in the middle of the night, it was always very lively - there were always drunken sailors, but now, the street seemed very deserted.

On the empty streets, there are hardly any passers-by. And the reason why it is so quiet is entirely because of the "Xiao Ban" - two months ago. When the news of the death of the former emperor reached the Viceroyalty of Nicholas, rumors spread that the emperor would be buried in Japan on his deathbed, and people took to the streets, holding portraits of "Tsar's little fathers" like Russians, hoping that the tsar would graciously agree to Emperor Meiji's wishes.

Perhaps they were once indignant at the Emperor's weakness, but now, they hoped that the former Emperor would be buried in the royal cemetery, and that the fallen leaves would always return to their roots, and they believed that the "Tsar" would agree to this small request.

But their actions were clearly misunderstood!

The petition was seen by the authorities as a challenge to the authority of the Empire, and after the natural repression, in the face of dozens of dead and wounded, resistance swept through the entire Viceroyalty of Nikolai almost overnight - bomb attacks against the government, police stations, etc., sabotage of the railway, and the resistance groups hidden deep in the mountains, which had disappeared for several years, attacked the police, looted the armory, and for a time the wave of resistance swept through Japan.

In the face of sudden resistance, St. Petersburg did not show any concessions, first refusing Muren's request to be buried in the Viceroyalty of Nicholas, and then passing on the title of duke to his eldest daughter.

Repression and resistance seem to have become the only theme of the New Year in the past month or so, and with the issuance of a total ban, the seemingly lively city inevitably falls into desertion after nightfall, and only a few people with passes can go out under such a ban, and for most people, whether they want to or not, they can only stay at home.

Although the store with the sign of "Yuan Teng Bookstore" was hung on the door panel, there was some orange light in the crack of the door panel, as usual, when Yuan Teng finished counting all kinds of books in the bookstore, it was already eight o'clock in the evening, as always, he took a newspaper from the counter, which was the evening newspaper that had just been delivered in the evening.

The newspaper is one of the few Japanese newspapers in Japan at present, and in fact, there has been a proposal to ban Japanese newspapers, and it is not the Lukuni people who have made this proposal, but the Japanese, no, but the aborigines or Japanese residents of the Nicholas Governorate, who speak of the "uselessness of kanji kana" and preach the "advanced nature of the Slavic alphabet", of course, the Governor's Office did not agree to this request, but who knows what the future will ...... Just like the sign of the Yuan Teng bookstore, the most eye-catching is the Russian language, and the Chinese characters are written in small characters.

"What a bunch of guys who have forgotten their roots......"

With such a soft mutter, Yuan Teng continued to look at the newspaper, the headline of the newspaper was "negotiations with China are deadlocked, I am afraid that war will start soon", this is not news, at least in the past period, Japanese newspapers of all sizes are talking about this, and even when people have ordinary chat, they are also talking about this topic, negotiations with the authorities in Northeast China, in fact, starting from trade negotiations, more precisely, negotiations on the use of ports in Vladivostok.

Negotiations began last year, thanks to the Sino-Russian Railway Reciprocal Treaty, which requires that Chinese trains to Vladivostok and Russian trains passing through China are extremely cheap, which is why they are very cheap. To a certain extent. The port of Vladivostok is almost equivalent to the export port of Heilongjiang and Jibei. However, compared to the cheap train crossing fees. Port royalties are a loophole in the treaty – Chinese merchant ships have been paying expensive port fees for years.

The negotiations began with China's demand for reciprocity treaties to be granted the same status as Russian merchant ships, and ended with the right to sell goods to China in the Viceroyalty of Nicholas and the Far East.

Of course. China raised this point because Russia had pledged to respect the Old Covenant signed by Japan, but in the past few years the Old Testament has been abolished. Countries have only protested against this, but now the Chinese side, more precisely the northeast side, is bringing up the old story again.

"It's just an excuse!"

Seeing in the newspaper that the differences between the two sides were getting bigger and bigger, so that the negotiations were at a stalemate again, Yuan Teng couldn't help but muttered in his heart that the so-called negotiations were just an excuse for further actions in the future. And what will be the next action? War. Maybe......

"If there is a real fight, maybe there will be hope for Japan......"

I turned off the lights. Hara Tengichi walked from the bookstore in the front room to the backyard, and in the Japanese-style backyard, there was no other grass and trees except for a cherry tree.

Walking into the courtyard, I looked up at the sky, the dark blue sky dome was like a vast cauldron, the dense and uncertain stars were faintly shining and twinkling, the thick cherry tree in the courtyard, the trunk was pale blue straight into the sky, blurry and melted in the dark night, and the branches and leaves could not be seen clearly.

Thinking about the previous question, Yuan Teng's expression was a little solemn.

"If we fight, will we be able to win?"

Even as an agent in the city of Constantine that has been lurking for a long time, Yuan Tengichi will doubt whether China can defeat Russia, after all, Russia is too large, although he is in Constantine, through contact with Russian sailors, he knows some weaknesses of Russian soldiers, but compared to the northeast, Russia is a behemoth.

"But don't shake your will!"

As a spy officer, the biggest taboo is the wavering of will, after strengthening his mind again, Yuan Tengyi walked back and forth in the courtyard, thinking about the information that came from the port recently. But he was more curious about who had sent the information out of the Russian naval base.

"Who sent that information?"

All the while, she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was constantly staring at her in the dark, a pair of vigilant eyes.

Although she knew that this might just be an illusion, for Tokugawa Chacha, these eyes always reminded her to be careful, in this business, the price of carelessness is often life. Over the years, she had witnessed hanged "spies" more than once - there were always many spies in the service of other countries.

Again, when the carriage drove out of the Constantine naval base, Tokugawa Chacha, who only felt a little tired, planned to forget those eyes, forget the annoying life, forget the generals who wanted to swallow her, and return to Tokyo...... No, the home in the city of Nikolai - though, that home seems to have disappeared. Yes, that home no longer exists, and even that house has become someone else's home, occupied by the Lu people.

The current Tokugawa family is not the most upper-class Chinese family of the year, in fact, except for the clan family, the imperial family and the royal three families who have the title of the direct family according to the agreement to obtain the Russian knighthood and move to Russia, the other families no longer have the so-called Chinese status, plus the confiscation of land and other property, so that they have to fend for themselves, that is, from then on, forced to make a living, Tokugawa Chacha also had to run for a living.

If the Tokugawa family left her anything, I'm afraid it's a surname, perhaps, the German family has declined, but for those Russians, Tokugawa is a piece of history, and it is precisely because of this surname that she has access to the high-ranking officials of the Doge's Office and the generals of the army and navy,

From that time on, she was reduced from a Chinese lady to a courtesan of high society, and she wandered among high-ranking Russian officials, army and navy generals, and now she is the mistress of the commander of the Pacific Fleet. He even bought a house for Cha Cha in the city, and he spends more time here every day, which can be described as a deep love for her.

However, for Cha Cha, the reason why she will wander among men, even at the expense of the reputation of her ancestors, is not only forced by her livelihood, in fact, long before the occupation of Japan, she also had the opportunity to marry other nobles, and after the occupation, she also had the opportunity to marry the rich people of her country, but she was willing to "degenerate" and became a courtesan.

Perhaps, soon all this will end......

Looking at the street lamp outside the car window, Cha Cha thought in her heart, for her, who was already twenty-seven years old, she knew that she was no longer young, maybe if it was delayed for a few more years, once she was no longer favored, would she still be able to get that information like now.

Information!

Thinking of the information she had just obtained in the evening, Cha Cha immediately instructed the coachman to speed up, and after she returned to the beautiful Western-style villa in the city, Cha Cha just hastily cleaned up, and then, she lay on the table and wrote the letter, the letter was a very ordinary letter, but after writing the letter, she picked up another pen and wrote on the back of the letter, unlike the ink on the front, when she wrote, there was no trace left on the letter, which was a special invisible ink.

The letter was quickly written, and then she stuffed it into the envelope, and everything that followed was simple, she only needed to send the letter as a regular letter, and as for how Mr. Yuan Teng delivered the letter to the real recipient, it was not something she needed to care about.

In order to ensure her safety, for many years, she did not even go directly to the line, and all orders were issued through classified ads in newspapers, thus preventing her from being identified by the Russians due to human error.

After writing the letter, she looked through the newspaper again, looking for what she needed in the classified ads of the newspaper, and there seemed to be no new orders, a discovery that somewhat disappointed her.

"Hey......"

With a long sigh, she picked up the brush, and sometimes she would practice two strokes to calm the irritability in her heart somewhat...... (To be continued.) )