Sverdlov and Stalin are both smart people, and the intention of the mentor could not be more obvious, if Dembinko is directly transferred to a position, Kollentai must have an opinion, and the best way is to transfer both of them at the same time.

Anyway, the People's Commissar for Public Welfare that Koluntai is now holding is not an important position, and to put it bluntly, this position is similar in nature to the People's Commissar for Ethnic Affairs of Steel, or even inferior.

Anyway, this eldest sister is not very satisfied with this position, and she also wants to go through the back door of the mentor to try to change to a more promising position. Going abroad to be an ambassador seems a little lower than the rank of "minister". But this undoubtedly tickled the itch of Colontai, who was not very interested in boring public welfare work, but very interested in diplomatic work.

The reason why the tutor didn't let her go to work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before was mainly because she was worried that this mother was too impetuous, and Colonte was too maverick and always liked to engage in some tricks, and these little actions of showing off might cause trouble in diplomacy. Moreover, in the history of diplomacy in the world, there has never been a female ambassador, so the mentor found her a People's Commissar for Public Welfare.

And now, Debinko must be adjusted, so Korentai's mouth must be gagged, otherwise this big-mouthed woman may cause some kind of trouble. Simply let her go abroad, so that she could not interfere, and the gimmick of the first female ambassador of Russia was enough to make her happy.

Engaging in politics is still so complicated, many things seem simple, but they affect the whole body, and pay attention to a balance. Li Xiaofeng's actions this time seemed to the mentor to be too hasty, that is, to recklessly disrupt the balance, although he had no way to take someone for the time being. But a big scolding is inevitable.

But a certain immortal is thick-skinned. As long as he doesn't take off his official hat. You can scold whatever the tutor wants. And I think it's worth it, and I can get the fleet committee after being scolded, and this deal is worth it!

To tell the truth, a certain immortal is in a good mood, but it will take time to adjust the positions of Debinko and Koluntai, and the final result cannot be disclosed for the time being. However, there is a buffer period that is also good, anyway, the Black Sea Fleet still needs to be reintegrated, and the hidden dangers of instability must be eliminated one by one.

The first thing Li Xiaofeng did was to liquidate all the old officers and sailors who had participated in the rebellion. The sailors were all sent to the labor camps. The officers were all shot on the spot, and the methods were very vigorous.

This is only the first step, after the insurgents are cleared, the next thing that needs to be cleaned up is the Ukrainian sailors. Although not all Ukrainian sailors participated in the mutiny, Li Xiaofeng still thinks that these people are unreliable, and keeping them in the fleet is a time bomb, and it will save them a lot of trouble by demobilizing them and returning home.

Neither of these things is easy to do, and it is easy to cause a backlash from the sailors, but fortunately, the previous victory over the fleet committee has allowed a certain immortal to accumulate a lot of prestige, and it is supported by Eberhardt and Boris. Everything went well.

"After the trial of the counter-revolutionaries and the dismissal of Ukrainian sailors, the fleet is now facing a shortfall of about 2,000 men." Ivanov reported respectfully on the situation. Someone had used thunder to take down the fleet committee before, but it shocked him greatly, especially after the central government took a different attitude towards it, this blacksmith knew what to do.

"If we want to carry out a military operation in mid-to-late April, such as the recapture of Rostov, with the current manpower allocation, it is insufficient!"

Li Xiaofeng leaned on the office chair, closed his eyes and listened to Ivanov's report silently, without the purge and dismissal of Ukrainian sailors, the fleet is facing a gap in strength, he is naturally clear, if the gap is not filled, I am afraid that I will not be able to mobilize troops to recapture Rostov.

"Are we recruiting some new recruits from Crimea itself?" Eberhardt suggested.

Li Xiaofeng shook his head, there is no point in recruiting recruits, recruits need to be retrained, and there are many ethnic minorities in the Crimea region, and ethnic and religious issues are very complicated, it is difficult to ensure the loyalty of recruiting recruits here, and their combat effectiveness is even more difficult to say.

"We don't have that much time to recruit and train new recruits!" Li Xiaofeng pondered for a moment and said: "My request is that in late April, and no later than early May, a military operation against Rostov must be launched. In such a short period of time, recruits are unreliable! ”

Alberhardt was a little surprised, and said in a lost voice: "You plan to draw veterans from the fleet?" I have to warn you, after several transfers of the fleet, the manpower is already very tight, and if the personnel are transferred, the usual maintenance of the ships will not be able to be carried out! ”

Li Xiaofeng knew that the old man's words were watery, and now the Black Sea Fleet's manpower is indeed a little tight, but it will not be unable to deploy manpower, and even if manpower is withdrawn, it will not cause the fleet to be paralyzed. The old man simply didn't want to see the sailors he had cultivated so hard to be used as army callers, and to tell the truth, it was really a bit of a waste.

However, Li Xiaofeng cannot completely ignore the old man's opinion, and it is still necessary to maintain the normal operation of the Black Sea Fleet. Fortunately, he had a comprehensive plan early in the morning, and he saw this guy laughing and saying: "Actually, the fleet has a rich manpower......

Before a certain immortal could finish speaking, Eberhardt became nervous and interrupted: "Where is there a surplus, it is simply stretched thin now......

Li Xiaofeng hurriedly made a gesture to the old man to calm him down, and then said: "I have checked the report of the fleet, and there are still two old ships from the 1890s on the roster of the fleet, these two ships no longer have much value, and they are only left to serve as port batteries......"

Eberhardt immediately understood what Li Xiaofeng had in mind, and the two old ships he was talking about were the Conquest King Georgi and the Sinop, which were launched in 1883 and 1889 respectively, and were nearly thirty years old, so they really didn't have much value. The two old ships, on the other hand, had a crew of 650 to 670 according to their establishment. After the previous draws and adjustments, the two ships still have a balance of more than 1,000 people.

In other words, if these two ships are directly decommissioned, a thousand places will be vacated in one go, and a third of the gap will be offset in an instant.

For these two old ships. Let them retire. Alberhardt could take it. Anyway, it doesn't make much sense to keep it, but when Li Xiaofeng continued to talk about the "butcher's knife" aimed at Rostislav and the Three Saints, the old man couldn't accept it.

Both ships were commissioned in 1898 and, by today's standards, are not entirely worthless, although they are in their twilight years. Although the two ships can squeeze out more than 1,000 places, the old man feels that it is a pity to let them retire like this.

"I don't think there's anything to be sorry for," Li Xiaofeng shook his head. "They're completely negligent, they don't have much tactical value, and it doesn't make much sense to stay in the fleet."

In fact, Li Xiaofeng's words are not false at all, for example, Rostislav, although this ship is classified as a battleship, it is a large armored ship with a main gun caliber of only 254 mm, which is not compatible with other capital ships in the fleet at all. What do you want to stay for?

"Even if you can't directly participate in the battle, you can stay and be a training ship!" Eberhardt still tried to keep the two old ships.

Li Xiaofeng thought for a while, sighed and said, "Temporarily retired from active service." Let's seal it first! ”

Alberhardt was not entirely satisfied with the result, but he could only accept it. I still have a little thought about it, which is better than retiring directly.

"But this only meets the personnel needs of the fleet, and cannot send troops to support the land battle!" Ivanov didn't notice at all, and when he said this, Eberhardt wanted to kill his eyes.

Li Xiaofeng smiled and said: "Yefstafi, St. John and Pangerlemon do not need to keep the full number of personnel, according to the establishment, these three warships still have nearly 1,500 people, cut by one-third, should be able to squeeze out more than 500 people, didn't the Prut River sink?" Squeeze in from the destroyers and gunboats, mobilize the port batteries and garrisons, and you should be able to gather 3,000 to 4,000 troops. Coupled with the existing Marine Corps, there are still 5,000 troops! ”

Li Xiaofeng pumped a little here and a little there, which made Eberhardt feel distressed, so that the troops to capture Rostov were available, but the staffing of the entire fleet was also quite tight, and there was almost no redundancy at all.

"My comrade director, you don't have to give me a stinky face!" Li Xiaofeng knew that he had to appease the old man, "This is an extraordinary time, the land must be guaranteed first, if the rebels cannot be eliminated, the existence of the fleet is meaningless." And I'm not just pumping people away, you wanted to recruit before, you can do that! ”

Eberhardt glared at him angrily: "The recruit is a fart!" ”

Li Xiaofeng said with a smile: "You can train them slowly!" ”

"How to train, you have exhausted all the manpower, and now it is a question whether the fleet can go to sea safely, and you still let me train new soldiers, it's just a joke!"

In this regard, Li Xiaofeng can't help it, in fact, according to his original idea, Yefstafi and Pangelemon, a group of fearless people, retired together, and really don't have much value. It is enough for the Black Sea Fleet to keep only two Queen Maria-class dreadnoughts for the time being. The rest of the men and horses all pulled onto the land and defeated the rebels first. That is, to see that the old man's face is not good, and to break out, to see his face, he is not so ruthless.

handed over the matter of transferring personnel to the old man, Li Xiaofeng knew that although the old man was not very satisfied, he would still carry out the order without discount, and an old officer like him still respected the orders of his superiors.

However, the matter of transferring personnel cannot be done overnight, and it has to be adjusted slowly, especially the old man feels sorry for the foundation of the Black Sea Fleet, and he is afraid that the loss will not be small when he goes ashore to fight this time, so he wants to leave behind the technical talents, and the professionals who understand artillery, machinery, and navigation are all protected. Most of the soldiers who were assigned to serve in the army were the most basic sailors who could not read a single basket of characters.

To tell the truth, it's a bit of a discrimination like this, everyone is the same person, why can some only be cannon fodder, and some are left to be seeds? However, human beings have never been truly equal, and people with ability and ability will be superior to others wherever they go. Although the old man's approach was unfair to ordinary sailors, it was beneficial to the Black Sea Fleet and the Navy in the long run.

So even if someone didn't like the old man's small report, saying that the old man discriminated against sailors or something, they were all suppressed by Li Xiaofeng. He even hinted at Ivanov that he should take good care of these guys who like to make small reports and like to chew their tongues, and it is better to give priority to them to go to war.

After solving the problem of soldiers, Li Xiaofeng had time to take care of the Entente and Central Powers who were preparing to make trouble in the Black Sea Fleet. For example, Turkey and Germany. These two are disgusting. Obviously, they have reconciled with Russia. even played tricks behind his back.

Li Xiaofeng ordered Eberhardt to take all the capital ships to sea after reorganizing the fleet, and carried out a large-scale operation to punish pirates along the Turkish coast, giving a blow to the Turkish navy, which had just been a little active and running around.

Of course, it is the British who really make a certain immortal hate, and these goods are the culprits who fan the ghost fire behind their backs. Without their tandem, the White Army and Skoropatsky would not have been able to make such a big scene at all, if they did not teach the British a lesson. Even he himself was in a panic.

However, it was not easy to teach the British a lesson, and now Russia's foreign relations were very complicated, and although the Entente did not recognize the Soviet government, they did not directly say that they would sever diplomatic relations, and their ambassadors and consuls were still openly active in Russia, and even openly drank and chatted with counter-revolutionary and anti-Bolshevik conspirators.

It can only be said that these people are too thick-skinned, and according to international practice, the ambassador of a country must submit his credentials in order to exercise his powers, and the submission of credentials means that the legal status of the government of that country is recognized. But after the Bolsheviks came to power and formed the Provisional Government of Workers and Peasants, the Entente ambassadors simply did not pay a damn eye. It was not even thought of submitting credentials, and even the foreign ministries of these countries openly denied the legitimacy of the Soviet government.

It should be said. These so-called ambassadors have no legitimacy, and the Soviets and the Council of People's Commissars can completely disregard their diplomatic privileges. However, neither the Soviets nor the Council of People's Commissars dared to offend the Entente too much for the time being, and even pinned their hopes on the restoration of normal relations between the two sides, so they could only turn a blind eye to the behavior of these people.

One had to bow his head under the wall, and neither Trotsky nor the Mentor was really tough enough on this point. In Li Xiaofeng's view, normal diplomatic relations cannot be sought, and the softer you are, the more polite you will be to them, and the more they will think that you are easy to bully, and the more they will kick their noses in the face.

Moreover, Li Xiaofeng also knew that those goods would not have resumed any normal diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia in 1918, and that the blockade of Red Russia throughout the 20s was the mainstream, and if it were not for the outbreak of the world's economic crisis in the late 20s and the new market for capital, it would have been difficult for the Soviet Union to return to the international arena.

In this case, there is really no need to give these goods a good face, they can clean up as they want, and if they don't submit their credentials, they won't recognize their diplomatic privileges, they should be caught and killed, and just drive away this group of flies.

"The British have not yet responded to my request?"

Ivanov's face instantly became ugly, and he naturally knew what a certain immortal had asked of the British Consulate General in Simferopol. But he felt that this request was really impossible to achieve.

Ivanov organized the language and said with a wry smile: "Comrade Andrei, I think it is unlikely that the British Consulate General will agree to your request, they have been secretly supporting the counter-revolutionaries all along, and it is unrealistic for you to let them hand over people." And ......"

When he said "and", Ivanov became more and more prostrate, and when he took office, his superiors explained that if he could not provoke the British, he should not provoke them. Because the central government does not want to tear up its face with the Entente bloc for the time being, it is he who has caused diplomatic disputes and suffers.

And now, someone is blatantly asking for trouble with the British, which somewhat makes Ivanov tremble, he feels that this comrade Andrei is too bold, and he really can't afford to play with this kind of tossing.

Li Xiaofeng just glanced at this goods, he naturally knew what the "and" of this thing was that when the bones in the center couldn't be hardened, it was unrealistic to expect people on this side to have backbone. However, he was just annoyed, because he felt that the British had seen this, and knew that even if they were to make trouble everywhere, the Bolsheviks would not have much to do with them, and they had nothing to fear.

In the eyes of a certain immortal, this is bullying and slapping his face, especially this time, it was almost Chi Guoguo's slap in the face. He doesn't have such a good temperament, and he doesn't fight back when he is slapped in the face. Isn't it the British Consulate General, the British Embassy is not afraid!

"Warn their bullshit consul general again, the deadline is to hand over tomorrow, otherwise Lao Tzu will demolish his kennel!"

Ivanov was taken aback, and subconsciously wanted to stop it, but before he could open his mouth, he saw Li Xiaofeng's gloomy face, and immediately swallowed back the words he wanted to advise.

"Andrey. Petrovich gave the last warning, what do you think, Nikolai? The British Consul General asked slowly.

Nikolai took a gentle sip of his coffee and replied equally slowly, "I don't think he dare." ”

"Oh? I would like to hear about it. ”

Nikolai smiled lightly: "I have studied this person carefully, and many times he behaves arrogantly and domineeringly, but this person is actually very cautious in doing things. It can be seen from the previous conflict with Mr. Ambassador that he still abides by the rules and does not dare to mess around! ”

The consul general nodded: "That makes sense, so we continue to ignore him?" ”

Nikolai shook his head, "No, beware of him playing tricks. I think it is very necessary for you to protest to the Bolshevik Foreign Ministry, warning them that the security of the embassy and consulates must be guaranteed, and we will not accept any surprises! ”

The consul general was puzzled and asked, "Is this useful?" ”

Nikolai smiled slightly: "You don't know about the Bolsheviks, in a sense, they are more bureaucratic than us." To contain Andrey. Petrovich, it is necessary to put pressure on him from above! (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you for the second kill of potatoes, Comrade Juventus!