In the days that followed, the negotiations held at the top of the Bolshevik hierarchy did not yield any substantial progress. Not everyone has the courage to break their wrists, and the hesitant Soviet commissars have always found it difficult to make a final decision. On his way to Brest, 1,000 kilometres south-west, Trotsky was also subjected to indescribable suffering: every day he negotiated with the delegates of the Central Powers during the day, and at night he exchanged frequent telegrams with the rear to discuss the course of action to be pursued. Every day, before and after the start and end of the negotiations, Trotsky would always receive news of how much land the Germans had occupied in a new offensive, and although he knew that this was deliberately conveyed to him, he could not help but feel a growing sense of anxiety in his heart.

Seeing that the talks were inconclusive, and that the German army in front was still advancing step by step, Ulyanov finally did not want to be so deadlocked any longer. At one meeting, he angrily proposed that if this empty talk continued, he would resign and quit the Central Committee. To his dismay, however, his threat of resignation did not have a shocking effect among the attendees: because of his long exile, he no longer had the absolute authority to respond to the party. In the face of Ulyanov's resignation, the Central Committee members remained motionless!

Upon learning of this, Trotsky, who was far away in Brest, was even more worried. In order to avoid a split in the party, he began to side with Ulyanov in the callback, which finally changed the scene of the quarrel in the rear. Under his influence, 5 abstentions appeared among the Central Committee members. In a vote on 7 March, Ulyanov's claim was finally won with 6 votes in favor, 5 abstentions and 4 against. Trotsky hastened to inform the Allies. Expressed willingness to sign a peace treaty.

"Mr. Trotsky. I have to regret to inform you. The peace treaty between us has taken on a new twist. In addition to the original indemnity, you are to pay the German Empire an additional 1,500,000,000 marks for military operations, to be paid in gold within two months. It was because of your delay and inaction in the negotiations that our troops had to trek through the snow and ice for more than a week, and the costs incurred during this period should have been borne by you. Looking at the stunned and angry face of the person in front of him, German State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Gidren said unhurriedly, "You should know. How staggering is the consumption of millions of troops in a day, let alone in this Russian winter, which has not yet begun to spring? Treaties are always negotiated according to the current situation. In fact, this is already the lowest number we have come up with after the discount. ”

A pale-faced Trotsky hurriedly left the negotiating hall and immediately sent a telegram to the country. The Bolshevik Party once again convened an emergency meeting of the Central Committee. In the face of the aggressiveness of the Germans, the Central Committee members present at the meeting were all indignant; Ulyanov, on the other hand, continued to adhere to his compromise strategy, advocating an immediate contract with the other side to avoid further escalation of the situation.

As the oldest imperialist power on the European continent, the vast territory of Russia has accumulated extremely rich gold reserves over the centuries of foreign plunder, trade, and domestic mining. Before the outbreak of the war, Russia's gold reserves were definitely among the top five in the world. Compared with Germany and France, there is only a large gap with the British Empire. And because Russia was blockaded on the World Island from the beginning of the war. The lack of effective means of communication with the outside world has also allowed them to preserve their own gold in the best possible way.

Although a large part of the gold that had belonged to Tsarist Russia had been looted by the Bolsheviks who refused to respect the Bolsheviks in the course of the previous civil strife, the Bolsheviks, who had now controlled Russia's elite heartland in Europe, undoubtedly looted a considerable amount of precious metal wealth from the Tsar's legacy. Now the Germans are eyeing their little wives. At a cursory calculation, the members found themselves giving more than 700 tons of gold, almost eighty percent of the total gold they controlled, how could this keep them from being angry?

"Comrades, now we can't drag on for a single day, and every day of delay is a severe blow to our great revolutionary cause!" Ulyanov, who was present at the meeting, exclaimed, "It is precisely because of our indecision that the present grave situation has been created, are the comrades ready to make the Bolshevik Party the second Paris Commune that has only survived for less than 100 days?" The oppressed proletarians of all Russia and the whole world are watching us, waiting for us to save them from the deepest suffering! No matter what happens, we must persevere and never fall now! ”

Twelve hours later, after a flurry of voting, the tumultuous Bolshevik commissars finally agreed to Ulyanov's signature. When Sverdlov, the executive chairman of the conference, announced the validity of the vote and put into effect the immediate telegram to Trotsky, almost all the members present showed a look of bitterness and deep grief. Even Ulyanov himself, who advocated an immediate armistice, did not have the ease in his heart after his plan was obtained, but his chest was dull and stagnant, and it was difficult to recover his normal breathing for a long time. The price of this peace was too great from any point of view: if the Franco-Prussian War was the Treaty of Frankfurt and had a severing hatred for France, then the sacrifice that the Bolsheviks had to make this time was to cut off their entire arms shoulder to shoulder! For a moment, a thought crossed Ulyanov's mind: Is it good or bad for Russia to go to great lengths to collude with foreign hostile forces to overthrow the imperialist dynasty and the bourgeois government?

The thought flickered in his mind, and was replaced by determination and determination. The communism that he believed in all his life was to establish a new system of power from the proletariat; The criminal tsar and the bourgeoisie must be eliminated, and it is the glorious duty of the times to save the toiling workers and peasants from the hands of the exploiters, who have been oppressed and oppressed. A new world cannot be built without smashing an old world, and the painful price will be proven to be worth it in the future! Not to mention......

Beneath the podium in the chamber, Ulyanov's hands were unobtrusively clenched into fists. What's more, he must firmly grasp the power he has obtained at the moment, and must not let it loosen or even slip away in the slightest. Cooperating with the Germans is now the only way to keep it!

On March 8, 1914, the "dawn of peace" finally shot through the thick dark clouds on the battlefields of Eastern Europe. A two-story hotel in Brest-Litovsk is already overcrowded at the moment. In addition to the delegates, a large number of newspaper reporters from various countries were allowed to enter the venue to record and shoot, so that the room was constantly dazzled by a burst of light for the first few minutes. For these journalists, the current scene is definitely a moment of their lives that they should not miss: despite being completely outsiders, the identity of witnesses to the new European order is enough to make their blood boil and they can't help themselves!

Looking at the flickering light in front of him, Trotsky's heart was already a numb pale. In the current era of social Darwinism, as a fish, he can only be slaughtered by others, and negative feelings such as anger, pain, hatred, and shame are all gone in his heart today. Perhaps he had a premonition of the situation he would have in mind more than eight years ago, when he received the first aid from Germany.

With both parties agreeing in advance, the entire ceremony becomes simple and smooth. An official document bound with red silk thread was placed on a long table, with the text of the treaty printed in the language of the States parties: after confirming that it was correct, the representatives of the parties signed their names on the front page of the treaty. In addition to a general document with the Central Powers as a whole, there were separate legal and political treaties between Soviet Russia and the members of the Central Powers, which covered a number of detailed rules not mentioned in the General Outline. Trotsky simply wrote his name over and over again in the paperwork handed to him, hoping that the scene before him would end soon. After this negotiation, he should also resign from the post of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs; For the great cause of the Bolsheviks, he became the unlucky one who carried the most black pots!

As soon as the last of the Russian-German fiscal agreements had been signed, the delegates stood up with the rattle of chairs and shook hands with the opposing members in person. The dazzling magnesium lights flashed one after another at an unprecedented frequency, so much so that they had to be forcibly stopped by the guards before they gradually subsided. Trotsky, who had completed the process, walked out of the door with heavy steps, and a strong dizziness came through his head.

In this treaty, more than 1,500,000 square kilometers of land originally belonging to Russia were ceded away; What is even more painful is that these lost territories are the core of Russia's closest to Western Europe! More than 45 million people live in these lands, more than Britain and France; Together with them, 33 percent of agriculture, 54 percent of industry, 80 percent of sugar, 73 percent of iron ore, 75 percent of coal mines, and 27 percent of fiscal revenues were cut off from the Russian Empire at its peak. The roaring eagle of the world has suffered an unprecedented blow, and the country will inevitably set off a thunderous tsunami of turmoil and protests because of the signing of this treaty: how can the infamy borne by the signing of this treaty be washed? (To be continued......)

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