Li Xiaofeng was stunned, he was a little confused about Krestinsky, or what Trotsky was trying to do. If you really want to support Lao Tzu's proposal, what was your previous attitude? If you meant not to support it, why are you letting Krestinsky talk now.

Trotsky, what do you really want to do?

What Trotsky wanted to do was very simple, and he could support Li Xiaofeng's proposal or not. What if Lenin didn't quite agree? If Lenin did not agree, he Trotsky could not support it?

To put it bluntly, whether Trotsky is for or against depends entirely on whether it is good or bad for him. Li Xiaofeng wants to use the Yudenich affair to plot against the three Baltic countries, which is definitely a good thing in the long run. It was good to advance his theory of permanent revolution, but in the near term, Lenin's opposition was also justified. Such an act would seriously distract the strength of the Bolsheviks, would distract them, and would not help at all the present situation of the war!

In this case, Trotsky must have to think carefully, not only in the long term, but also in the near term. And can the near-term interests fit in with Li Xiaofeng's actions? He thought it could.

Kalinin was recalled to Moscow, Krestinsky took his place, and if someone really wanted to operate in the three Baltic states, then the Petrograd region would have to cooperate. That is, the Petrograd region will play a vanguard role in this operation. To put it bluntly, if the operation had been successful, the person who led the operation in Petrograd Oblast would have been at the top of the credit book.

Trotsky himself naturally did not despise this merit, but Krestinsky needed it. In the new General Assembly. Trotsky was ready to push Krestinsky out of the city with great pomp. What occupies a seat in the Central Committee is simply not worth mentioning. He had to do everything in his power to get Krestinsky into the Politburo, and at least to get an alternate bureaucrat.

As the saying goes, it's not fast to sharpen a gun, and now that the opening of the conference is just two months away, if Krestinsky can be put in the limelight in these two months, then who can oppose him going further? What's more, Li Xiaofeng's actions this time have also promoted the theory of permanent revolution, which is even better, can you talk about Trotsky's distraction?

As for why he refused to support Li Xiaofeng at first. That's the strategy! Trotsky knew Li Xiaofeng too well, this kid had always been a dime a dime, he came up with the plan, and all aspects of the relationship were also his, and naturally, the first credit had to be his.

However, Trotsky wanted Krestinsky to take the lead, and he naturally had to show his strength strongly. He must let Li Xiaofeng understand that if you see it, without my support, no matter how capable you are, no matter how powerful you are, no matter how much you have the means. It didn't work either! My attitude towards Trotsky determines whether things can be done or not! If you know each other, you will be smarter, and I can consider giving you a second work.

That is the purpose of having Krestinsky speak. Because Trotsky knew that someone is very difficult to deal with, and must be both soft and hard. However, due to time constraints, he did not explain some things to Krestinsky, but only told him to say them if someone started to behave less cooperatively, and things would be easier to deal with.

Krestinsky was in a fog, and he could only hurry up and board the train, find Li Xiaofeng, and after some temptation, he was forced to say what Trotsky had to say.

To tell the truth, Krestinsky didn't know anything about it, and I don't know what suggestion Li Xiaofeng put forward. Of course, he knew that the proposal was crucial and involved complex political deals.

For a while, Li Xiaofeng was silent, and Krestinsky did not speak, and when Li Xiaofeng broke the silence again, it was already ten minutes later, and he smiled lightly: "Thank you Comrade Trotsky for your kindness, but my suggestion is quite immature, Comrade Lenin is right, it is not time to ...... for the time being."

Krestinsky was dumbfounded, and Li Xiaofeng's reaction seemed to be completely different from Trotsky's prediction, and before getting into the car, Trotsky swore solemnly: "As long as this sentence is thrown out, someone will definitely give in, and he will support you in carrying out your work in Petrograd." ”

And now it seems that you don't have to think about what you support, and it's probably not a good thing to look at someone's cold look, right?

At that moment, Krestinsky was even repentant, knowing that Trotsky's bad idea would lead to such a result, he would not have mentioned it. At least he had a little friendship with someone, which wasn't the way they were at first.

Of course, Krestinsky was also very interested in the suggestion made by a certain immortal, what kind of suggestion would make Trotsky take it so seriously, and what kind of suggestion would force Trotsky to have so much confidence? It's really curious!

No matter how Krestinsky made side notes and side knocks, and how he asked in a roundabout way, Li Xiaofeng just didn't show a trace of tone, and when he was in a hurry, he directly said that this was top secret and could not be passed on. This attitude of his made Krestinsky more and more curious, and his heart was like eating 25 little mice in one go—a hundred claws scratching his heart!

The problem was that there was no way to make a phone call or send a telegram on the train, and even if he could, Trotsky would not necessarily receive it, and by this time the old To's armored train had already arrived at the Nizhny Novgorod front, and was enthusiastically boosting the morale of the Red Army soldiers, and did not care about Krestinsky's side at all.

It was not until the train arrived in Petrograd, when Krestinsky took over the work of the party committee, that Trotsky was contacted.

"What? Andre. Petrovich refused? When the call was answered, Trotsky was also taken aback, he could not understand what someone would refuse for the sake of reluctance, it made no sense!

Does it really make sense? It certainly makes sense. One of the great shortcomings of Trotsky's character was that he was too proud, and his genius and talent made him a bit of a blind eye. On the surface, he is very easy-going, very kind, and seems to be approachable. But these easy-going, amiable are all based on his pride. For those who are inferior to him, the so-called easy-going shown is not so much pity as a pity for a smart man for a stupid person.

But there are not just one or two smart people in this world. Many people who are no less intelligent than Trotsky are also very good at disguising themselves. Like Stalin. Probably in some capacity. He was quite far behind Trotsky, but he was not weaker than Trotsky in terms of political means, political wisdom and political sensitivity, and even surpassed him. Not to mention Lenin, who was much stronger than Stalin.

Trotsky, on the other hand, did not learn his lesson, and in 1918 he fought over the Brest Pact, and in 1921 again on the question of the revolutionary line in the world, and when Lenin died, on the question of how to build socialist Russia from 1924 to 1927. Stalin's rush again. Every time he fell in the same place, every time he summed up the lessons after the heel fight, he always had to excuse and justify himself, which was quite a bit not that the national army did not work hard, but the communist army had the demeanor of Gundam. Looking at the memoirs he wrote himself, you can feel that he blamed the failure on Stalin's cunning and insidiousness, the failure on the incompetence of his friends, and the failure on his own merciality. All in all, there was nothing wrong with his approach, and the mistake was that the enemy was too cunning. It's all the teammates who are too piggy-headed.

And on the issue of treating Li Xiaofeng, he is really the same. Once, twice, three times, he fought with a certain immortal many times, and each time he couldn't take advantage of it, or he had to suffer. Although every time he tried to improve and try to change his tricks, his changes always couldn't keep up with Li Xiaofeng's progress. He was like a rabbit in a tortoise-hare race, thinking he was much ahead and thinking he was awesome, but he was slapped in the face.

Why would Li Xiaofeng refuse Trotsky? The reason is very simple, he saw through Trotsky's tricks. Don't you just want to say that you are very good, you are very important, can you decide the fate of my plan? Do you think this will allow me to give up my head and let Krestinsky pick up a ready-made bargain? Are you a fool when Lao Tzu is old?

Li Xiaofeng was not stupid at all, and it can be seen from Trotsky's firm push of Krestinsky to the throne of secretary of the Petrograd Region Party Committee, and his willingness to give Kalinin, a good old man, a position in the Central Committee, can be seen from the fact that he was of great use to Krestinsky. Krestinsky is already a member of the Central Committee, and it must be a bureau committee that will be of great use.

And now the positions of the five bureaus of the Politburo are quite consolidated, and needless to say, the Mentor and Trotsky himself, who are banner figures, cannot fall. Sverdlov and Stalin were the right and left hands of the Mentor, and it was impossible for the Mentor to abandon his martial arts. Dzerzhinsky seemed to be in a slightly weaker position, but the Man in the Iron Mask played an indispensable role in the bureau, and the replacement of Krestinsky could not be agreed to by Trotsky himself, and even less by the Central Committee.

After all the calculations, none of the five Great Elders could move, and the alternate bureau members didn't have much meaning. In order to increase the power of his department in the Politburo, the only thing Trotsky could do was to enlarge the Politburo and add more chairs to it. In this way, the strength of the Leninists can be fully diluted.

The question is, is it easy to add a chair? Lenin probably would not have allowed Trotsky to break ground on Tai Sui's head. On what basis did Krestinsky appoint and what contribution did he make to the revolution? What earth-shattering feat did you do? It's not his turn to rank seniority!

Indeed, looking at the list of bureaus in history in 1919, although Xiao Si unfortunately hung up, the power of the mentor did not weaken at all: Lenin, Stalin, Kamenev against Trotsky and Krestinsky. Although Kamenev took a detour after the October Revolution and the Brest Pact, at the most depressed time, the Mentor gave him a chance to make a comeback.

And in 1921, the list of the Politburo became very interesting: Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev. To put it bluntly, Lao Tuo is completely planted, and there are four Leninists in the five bureau committees, and he is left with one commander of the light pole.

It was not until 1922 that the Politburo was expanded, and the five elders became the seven elders, and the two people who expanded the capacity, Rykov, were quite okay with Trotsky, and Tomsky was a worker, but in fact he was also a man from the top of Lenin, and Lao Tokov was still a minority.

It can be seen that it is quite difficult for the minority to leverage the interests of the majority, and it is almost impossible. Trotsky wanted to achieve this. It was inevitable that Krestinsky would have to shine. The problem is that Krestinsky will not fight. There doesn't seem to be any outstanding merit in organizing it. As for economic work, he was even more unfamiliar. And with the current state of the Russian economy, it is too difficult to brilliant.

After all the calculations, it seems that only Li Xiaofeng can make this opportunity for Krestinsky to shine, and if he does it well, he may really be able to fight for a position in the bureau committee. However, Trotsky could have imagined, and Li Xiaofeng could naturally have imagined, that his intervention in the affairs of the three Baltic states was more to pave the way for the solution of the Jewish question. It is also to lay the foundation for the post-World War I international pattern. To tell the truth, in history, the Soviet Union did not live the same life without the three Baltic states, but it was only two decades later to regain lost territory.

And a member of the Politburo has a lot to do with it, and if Trotsky takes advantage of him because of his little ninety-nine, then how can he explain to his mentor, this is not taking care of the overall situation, and he will be properly drawn!

Li Xiaofeng is not so stupid, he will not let Trotsky pick up this kind of cheapness, and he will even laugh at Lao Tuo in his heart - you really want to be blind!

And he also thinks that Lao Tuo is really overestimating himself, do you really think that your support is so important? Think that without you, Zhang Butcher, Lao Tzu will have to eat hairy pigs? Ridiculous!

From the beginning. Li Xiaofeng was ready for both, and he expected that his mentor might not support his plan. But even if the mentor doesn't support it, he has a way to be flexible! That's why he categorically rejected Trotsky and didn't give the second mentor the slightest chance to take advantage.

However, Li Xiaofeng still missed a point, in the face of absolute interests, there are quite a lot of people who will "take risks", and Krestinsky was also excited when he heard Trotsky explain the ins and outs clearly. Who doesn't want to be commissioned? Especially with Trotsky's unlimited support, why not fight for it?

Krestinsky felt that he was capable of doing this well, and even thought that it was not difficult at all. He was quite aware of the living conditions of the Jews, and he felt that as long as he threw an olive branch, the Jews would give a lot of money.

Krestinsky confidently said to Trotsky: "Comrade Trotsky, as long as you support me, I am confident that this matter will be done well!" ”

Did Trotsky believe it? To tell the truth, I don't believe it, although he also looks at a certain immortal unpleasantly, but he also has to admit that someone has a certain ability, especially good at engaging in crooked ways. But Krestinsky was a person he was very optimistic about, and whether he could alleviate his embarrassment in the Politburo, he pinned most of his hopes on Krestinsky.

Now that Krestinsky is so confident, he naturally can't pour cold water, even Li Xiaofeng he dares to support, let alone support his own people?

Of course, Trotsky was not a fool or a big dog, and he would not blindly and casually support it, and he wanted to hear how Krestinsky did it.

"It's easy!" "As Comrade Andrei said, the point of entry is Yudenich, and we should first put pressure on Estonia through diplomatic channels, and I believe that the Estonian puppet regime will not agree to our extradition of Yudenich." That's when we have ample excuses to stand up morally...... With the strength of the Petrograd Military District, it is not a problem at all to take one Estonia......"

Trotsky didn't want to hear this, because Li Xiaofeng had already made these techniques very clear, and you Krestinsky would be able to parrot again? What he wants to hear is how Krestinsky controls the situation, after all, Petrograd Oblast is not your Krestinsky's world now, and Zinoviev and Li Xiaofeng will add to the chaos. How do you hold an empty party committee to promote the plan?

Krestinsky was still very confident, and in the face of Trotsky's questioning, he smiled and said: "The situation in the Petrograd region is divided into three parts. Petrovich pinned each other down and reached a weak balance. If you want to control the situation, there are only two ways, either with Andrei. Petrovich cooperates with Zinoviev, or with Zinoviev and against Andrei. Petrovich. Now that he has refused to cooperate, then we are left with the only option! ”

Trotsky fell silent, he did not like Zinoviev at all, and during the previous battle of Petrograd he had learned the incompetence of the pie face. If you cooperate with such a waste, you won't be pitted by your pig teammates, right?

Krestinsky did not see it that way: "It is precisely because of Zinoviev's incompetence that we have to cooperate with him, who is better than Andrei. Petrovich threatened to be much smaller! ”

This sentence completely touched Trotsky, but no! Compared to a certain immortal, Zinoviev is a stupid dog, and someone is a hungry wolf. Joining forces with Stupid Dog to kill the hungry wolf, it was much easier to deal with Stupid Dog back then.

After a while, Trotsky made up his mind: "You should make contact with Zinoviev as soon as possible and finalize the cooperation plan as soon as possible." Also, be sure to do something discreet, Andrey. Petrovich is a little fox, and he must not smell the slightest wind! Otherwise, things can be very difficult! ”

Krestinsky immediately agreed, and with Trotsky's support he had sufficient confidence to take control of the Petrograd region, and the thought that the Politburo was beckoning to him made him irrepressibly excited...... (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to hzwangdd and Comrade Juventus!