On 3 February, the German government rejected the armistice declaration from the Russian Supreme Military Council, citing a lack of sincerity. The six armies under the command of Hindenburg continued to advance on a front more than 2,000 kilometers long, as if they were trying to put the Russian giant to death with all their strength.

Although Austria-Hungary and Romania, two of Russia's former defeated generals, now expressed a rather strong sense of acceptance of the compromise of the strong enemy, seeing that Berlin was still unrelenting, they could only bite the bullet and continue to sit on the roaring chariot of Germany. After all, the situation on the Eastern Front was saved by Germany, and even the Austro-Hungarian commander-in-chief, Herzendorff, had to accommodate the will of Xinglu in many cases. At present, the two armies of Oro have long become subordinate and supporting roles in the war on the Eastern Front: except for a few elites, they all play the role of occupation forces and convoys in the cold winter, providing a stable and good rear environment for friendly forces on the front line.

Knowing that his peace was rejected by the other party, the Tsar, who was furious, cursed his cousin Willy countless times, but he had nothing to do about it when the backyard caught fire. His only hope at the moment was to quickly calm the situation in the capital with troops loyal to him, and then turn back to negotiate peace with the Germans. For Nikolai, every hour now is undoubtedly an important turning point in his future fate: if the civil unrest can be quelled in the shortest possible time, then the losses will be minimized, whether it is the rear of the rebellion or the front that has been looted by the Germans; However, if the revolution at home is allowed to spread, not only will the Western territories fall in large numbers, but even their own thrones will collapse in the revolution!

Nikolai, who was aware of this. Immediately the army was rushed to St. Petersburg. Efforts should be made to restore control of the capital in the shortest possible time. Current. Although uprisings broke out in the country's major industrial cities, the most powerful of them was undoubtedly St. Petersburg: if the revolutionaries who were making trouble here were crushed in one fell swoop, the unrest in the other cities would pose no threat to his rule. At this point, Nikolai still saw quite thoroughly, and quickly found the core of the problem from the chaos everywhere.

However, Nikolai's counterattack on the capital was met with unbearable resistance from the very beginning. The Bolsheviks, who had been planning for this revolution for a long time, had sent their spies embedded in the army to cut the telephone lines to the hinterland garrison: the command of the 86th Division, the main force of the counterinsurgency, had spent a lot of effort. The order was conveyed to the grassroots troops who did not have telegraphs, and this undoubtedly greatly extended the build-up time for the counterattack of the Russian army. When they had finally assembled and boarded the train, the train was forced to stop after a few hours: the Russian officers looked anxiously to see that the railroad ahead had been largely removed by the saboteurs; And the railroad tracks that were twisted and broken in the explosion don't know how much time it will take to repair!

At the end of the day, the Russian army had only walked less than 80 kilometers on foot, and was still nearly three times as far away from St. Petersburg. Anxious, Nikolai was like an ant on a hot pan, pacing back and forth in the room late at night, every minute and second as if he was struggling in the water and in the fire. Their own country, their own power, their own wives and daughters. All of them go away with the passage of time, and there is nothing they can do about it. According to the latest reports from the generals. An uprising also broke out in the Black Sea Fleet, and Kolchak, the newly appointed commander of the fleet, was simply unable to control the situation; And the peasants of the country are beginning to follow the Bolshevik rebellion, and the Romanov state machine is losing its stronghold at a rapid pace!

The long night was finally over, and the sky was lit up again with the light of the morning light. Nikolai, with two big black circles under his eyes, walked out of his residence and began to urge his army to move on - after learning that his wife and daughter had fallen into the hands of the Bolsheviks, he could no longer stay in the command at the front, but went to the trouble of personally leading the troops back to the rescue. After a day of almost inaction, Nikolai's current situation deteriorated dramatically from yesterday: 40,000 rifles, which had been stored in the St. Petersburg Ordnance Plant and were ready to be shipped to the front, were captured by the revolutionaries, along with 3 million rounds of ammunition. At the same time, the militia and reserve units, which had just been mobilized, turned their entire battalions to the side of the revolutionaries; They were originally from the poor class who were brutally oppressed by those in power, and the Bolsheviks could say that they surrendered on their own initiative without much effort!

By the evening of 4 February, more than 60,000 troops had taken part in the uprising, and Nikolai's army, intent on retaking the capital, had not yet reached half of its journey. At the same time, the Russian army on the front line of the battlefield also began to collapse sharply under the fierce attack of the German army, like frost under the scorching sun. Due to the repeated defeats of the Russian army in the previous war, their current army is also filled with a large number of farmers who have just been drafted into the army: not only do they not have the slightest intention and courage to resist the German army, but they are also full of resentment against the Tsarist government that dragged the country into the quagmire of war and caused the disastrous situation today. After the withdrawal of the troops loyal to the Tsar, they lost their core of control, and they were scattered under the attack of the German army.

The soldiers who had fled from the front had either gone their separate ways or simply joined the Bolshevik side, and the officers were simply unable to collect the defeated as they had done before, and their terrible non-combat losses were no different from the disbandment of the troops. After a Russian division was attacked by an infantry regiment of the German army, in just two days, there was only an empty shell of less than 1,000 people left. Fear and rumours began to spread among the Russian army, so much so that even the Guards loyal to the Tsar deserted during the night's rest. Nikolai's body also began to lose weight sharply at a visible rate, and his bloodshot eyes were full of panic, fear, pain, resentment and many other negative looks: on the afternoon of February 5, he actually slapped his young son Alexei for a trivial matter, which is simply unimaginable in normal times!

Seeing that he could not return to the capital quickly, Nikolai immediately contacted a number of high-ranking Duma officials, including the Constitutional Democratic Party. He expressed his willingness to hand over power to the Democrats and promised to form a quasi-constitutional monarchy after the war, in order to gain the support of the bourgeoisie for his tsar in the midst of the civil strife.

In desperation, Nikolai clung to his last straw: the bourgeois nationalists also did not want the Bolsheviks to seize power, and their innate fear of the Red Plague far exceeded the rotten imperial power manipulated by Rasputin. And after so many years of development of the country, the Russian bourgeoisie has also been greatly strengthened; If they could be used as a support, and the forces could be organized to fight against the Bolsheviks under the same promise, they would have every chance of turning the tables around. Although the drastic weakening of imperial power deplored Nikolai, who had become accustomed to dominating a qiē, it was clear that the time had not yet taken it into account.

Although the members of the Duma, led by the Constitutional Democratic Party, were extremely contemptuous of the Tsar's desperate scoundrel's willingness to abandon his lifelong vices, they still showed great enthusiasm for Nikolai's proposal. No matter how Nicholas had previously excluded and suppressed them, the innate antagonism between the bourgeoisie and the toiling workers was an immutable fact, and there were countless precedents for their cooperation with the monarchy. Now that the Tsar had expressed his willingness to back down, they did not have to follow their natural enemies, the Bolsheviks, and then go to Guò to gain the power they wanted.

However, in order to appease the demands of the Bolshevik Party, which had gained more and more support from the lower classes, and to ensure that the power promised to him was not immediately taken away by Nikolai, who had been relieved as in 1907, the members of the Constitutional Democratic Party demanded that Nikolai abdicate immediately. Only by electing a new tsar will it be possible to appease the surging resentment of the people against the current government that has accumulated to the extreme as a result of a long period of hard work. This reply made Nikolai angry. What is the point of getting the support of the bourgeoisie if it comes at the expense of one's own abdication?

"Your Majesty, you should now understand that it is precisely because of your rebellion against the times and the democratic tide in your previous reign that you have created the current situation in which the whole country is the enemy." State Duma Chairman Rodshoko went straight to the tsarist barracks and mercilessly issued an ultimatum to the once supreme monarch of all Russia: "If you continue to stay on the throne, not only the Bolshevik Party will definitely not agree, but also the members of the Constitutional Democratic Party and the Social Revolutionaries will not agree." Therefore, I would like to advise you to immediately sign the edict of abdication and give up the throne to the crown prince, Grand Duke Alexei; If this is the case, we can also use the power in our hands to maneuver with the Bolsheviks and maintain the rule of the Romanov dynasty. Otherwise, if you lead your army and force a civil war, we will have to unite with the Bolsheviks, and the rule of the Tsar will be completely ashes of Russian history under our union. Don't forget, your wife and 4 daughters are now in the hands of the Bolsheviks! ”

Hearing this, Nikolai leaned against the wall, his face as dead as ashes. Now that the bourgeoisie has abandoned itself, the little confidant military power at its disposal is not enough to turn the tide of the situation. For the sake of his wife and daughter who fell into the hands of revolutionaries, he could only make the most painful decision! (To be continued......)

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