The wind howled, the freezing cold, the chill of midwinter invaded through the cracks of the simple grass hut, constantly eating away at the temperature in the room. In the dilapidated charcoal furnace, a few sparks are still burning alone, but the meager heat provided by them is simply unable to cope with the cold wind coming from all sides.

Kolev, a Russian worker, slowly climbed up from a patch of hay with a slight movement, and the sky outside the window was still so dark that there was barely anything to be seen in the room. Despite the intense need to rest in his cells, Kolev could only stimulate his nerves with ice water in the dark: it was time for him to get ready for work. If there is a momentary delay, the consequences are so severe that you can never afford it!

In the darkness, Kolev's hands skillfully groped in his shack; After a while, he held a cold, hard object in the only intact drawer. Since the prices of lamp oil and coal had already skyrocketed under the merchants' hoarding, Kolev, who was only paid a meager salary every month, could only reduce his daily expenses as much as possible, and activities in the dark had become a life skill for him. And at the moment the hard stick which he held in his hand was nothing but a long strip of black bread of the worst grade, 20 kopecks: and there was only one way to eat it, and that was to soak it in water, and then swallow it with water, which was not like eating. If anyone wants to forcibly eat it directly, they will definitely end up with all their big teeth broken like gnawing on an iron rod!

Before the outbreak of the war, Kolev, who lived at the bottom, did not eat less of this kind of thing. But at that time, there was no shortage of firewood. After proper heating. Even swallowing water is a matter of frowning. And yet now. But he couldn't even enjoy this pitiful convenience. When the snow had melted completely under the heat of the coals, he hurriedly extinguished the fire to save fuel, and then reluctantly put the only black loaf of bread in the bowl. In the cold snow water, the toughness of the hard black bread is still like cowhide; When the taste buds on the tip of the tongue meet this rough and moldy food, the disgusting sensation can almost make people vomit a qiē in the stomach.

Kolev tore the tough black bread with his hands and feet, and gulped down the cold snow water that had begun to condense again; The chill that poured into his throat and the flames of grief and anger that ignited in his heart collided, like an invisible hand choking his heart, and the pain was so painful that he could barely breathe.

Five years ago. For the first time, 17-year-old Kolev left his native farmland and became a fitter at the Putilov factory in St. Petersburg, earning a regular income of 5 roubles a month. In addition to daily expenses, he was able to save nearly 2 rubles and send it back to his hometown to subsidize his family. Kolev's family in the Chita countryside were very pleased that he could find a stable job in the imperial capital, and Yelena, his childhood sweetheart, was also passing books with him and exchanging affections. Kolev had already decided that after he had saved enough to buy one or two hundred rubles of land in his hometown, he would quit his job and return to his hometown to spend the rest of his life with Yelena. That period was after the hard work of the day. The days of returning to his shack and savoring his lover's letters and smirking in front of the dim oil lamp were indeed the best years of his life.

Yet all of this is a qiē. All of them were completely ruined by the war that broke out in early May last year.

From the second month of the outbreak of the war, the factories drastically adjusted their schedules in the name of defending the Motherland. The working hours were extended from 10 to 11 hours per day, and there were an additional 4 hours of night work on Sunday evenings every week. Kolev, who was really fooled by the overwhelming call for patriotic devotion from the propaganda department, did not resist in the slightest, and even rejoiced in his heart that he could contribute to this imperial holy war. Soon, however, his world slid into the abyss of collapse.

As the Russian army continued to suffer crushing defeats on the front, the tsarist government greatly increased the oppression and exploitation of the population at home to cope with the situation. Kolev's daily working hours soared to the current 14 hours, with only one day off per month; This painful labor, with almost no rest, directly put Kolev on the verge of collapse, both physically and mentally. Bandit-like government lackeys flooded the factories, inflicting drastic pay cuts and brutal beatings on workers who were tired of resting, making waste, and failing to complete their assigned tasks: Kolev himself was struck in the chest with a knee that made him unable to climb on the spot for filing a nut by 2 millimeters more.

In addition, the prices of various daily necessities in the capital have also begun to grow wildly since October; In the past, Kolev's salary had been surplus for the month, but now it was difficult to make even a minimum of subsistence. Iron-hard brown bread became the only food that was constant every day, and things like salt and oil were unimaginable luxuries. Over the past few months, Kolev's otherwise sturdy body has lost weight dramatically, and his cheeks are slightly sunken and his haggard face looks like that of a middle-aged man in his thirties. One day, when he dragged his exhausted body back to the shack, he saw his own figure reflected in the water on the side of the road; For a moment, he didn't recognize himself.

Compared with being driven and enslaved like cattle and horses, what hurt Kolev the most was the changes in his family and the departure of his lover Yelena. His only brother was forcibly drafted into the army at the end of October, and a month later he was turned into a dead body in a fertile field during the Belarusian campaign; The father of the family was unable to accept the thunderbolt-like bad news on a sunny day and fell ill, and the big farmer, who had long coveted his own field, gathered more than a dozen hooligan thugs to take advantage of the situation. They forced their families to sell their houses and land at very low prices for cabbage, and their loving father never stayed up until the New Year's bell rang. Yelena, who was originally deeply in love with her, was also sharply estranged from herself under this sudden change, and there has been no correspondence since then. Rumors were brought by her fellow villagers that she was about to enter the marriage hall with the blessing of the priest, and that she was the only son of a seafood merchant, who undoubtedly had a wealth far greater than the income of her little fitter.

Five years of struggle turned into a bubble, and the perfect family was reduced to a child. As a young man, Kolev locked himself in his room and cried all night, and the letters from Yelena, which he had cherished and preserved, were thrown into the charcoal stove and turned to ashes. The first cry of the morning rooster came from outside the door, and a new day had come. In a stream of tears, Kolev suddenly realized that what he wanted was not tears, but revenge. Since this Romanov dynasty has ruined his family and ruined his liver and intestines, then he will let this regime completely overthrow in a raging sea of revolutionary fire, even if he sacrifices his own life!

"Kolev, what are you doing, why don't you go to work in the factory quickly?" There was a sudden knock on the door, and a voice with a hint of concern in the urging was heard. Kolev hurriedly swallowed the last chunk of softened black bread and opened the door to his wooden hut. In the cold wind of the early morning, a middle-aged worker with a beard was standing in the doorway, and a relieved smile appeared on his kind face when he saw Kolev appear as usual.

"Uncle Boris, thank you for your concern, I just got stuck in my throat by a piece of black bread." Kolev's expression was respectful, and his words were full of respect from the heart. Boris, a middle-aged man in front of him, is an old member of the same work group as him, and he usually helps himself with some charcoal and helps him repair his shack when he is in trouble, which is the only trace of warmth he can feel after the big changes in his home.

Boris patted him on the shoulder and smiled: "It's okay, let's go to work first, you don't have to be too bitter yourself, if you need anything, just ask my uncle, I will do my best to help." After all, in the present situation, we workers have no other strength to rely on, and we can only unite closely with each other in order to fight for our lives. You're right? Kolev nodded heavily.

In the dark wee hours of the morning, hundreds of workers walked silently on the roads on the outskirts of the city. The hut where Kolev lived was the slum where the workers of the Putilov factory lived, so the daily commute was a regular movement as if they were migrating. When the light of the morning light had not yet risen in the east, the crowd poured through the iron gate of a large factory and came to their workshop to carry out production work. However, today's situation is a bit special, dozens of overseers and guards armed with sticks have already been waiting in the various branches, and in the strange eyes of the workers, one of the leaders in front of him immediately said loudly:

"In accordance with the spirit of the latest letter from His Excellency Matvey, the Minister of the Interior, the factory leadership has decided to levy a war tax of 10 to 15 percent on the salaries of all employees from today to support the cause of jihad in the Empire. I hope you will embrace this opportunity to contribute to the Empire, because you are lucky to have survived to this point compared to the soldiers who died on the front lines! ”

As soon as these words came out, all the workers present showed a look of shock and anger on their faces. The current salary is not even enough to make ends meet, how can you afford another tax? There was a great buzz in the crowd. The leader of the overseer gestured to the people behind him, and dozens of hooligans with sticks in hand immediately stepped forward and tried to coerce the workers into submission by force; At this moment, a roar of strike suddenly sounded, followed by the voices of hundreds of people resounding through the sky. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the reward of zhouyu1976~~