Cutting 1719

Chapter 582 The Bear Hunting Project
"Old Ivan, I'm Antonov, I just came from Nanjing, and I'm here to join you under the order of Shangfeng."

Under the dim light, a strong Slavic man with beards on his face was looking at another Slavic man solemnly. Old Ivan was an older Slavic man with layers of wrinkles on his face Stacked, with a faint smile on his face.

That's right, they are not real Russians, but the Slavs that Shadow has collected from the Far East and Europe in various ways four years ago. Most of them have a deep hatred for the current Russian Empire, Then he received shadow secret agent training in Nanjing, and was dispatched to the core of the Russian Empire-St. Petersburg before the war.

As the person in charge of the shadow organization in St. Petersburg, he is called Old Ivan. Of course, this is just his code name, but no one knows his real name. He is very cautious by nature and has already established a foundation in St. Petersburg.

"Antonov, welcome to St. Petersburg!"

The smile on Old Ivan's face bloomed slightly, he walked up and patted Antonov on the shoulder, and said with emotion: "In the past two years or so, the only thing we have done is here Take root."

Antonov nodded. Although he didn't experience it personally, he also knew the pain lurking in St. Petersburg, because at such a long distance, Old Ivan and the others couldn't get any help at all, and they even had to give orders. Until, on such a day, the only choice is to deeply integrate yourself into the city of St. Petersburg.

"Old Ivan, this time I brought St. Petersburg with a great mission. I can tell you very clearly that it is a direct order from His Majesty!"

"Your Majesty's direct order?" Old Ivan was a little strange. Generally speaking, it is impossible for the emperor to bypass the headquarters to issue orders directly. Such a move is really extremely rare.

When Antonov talked about His Majesty's decree, his expression was a bit dignified, and he said in a low voice: "Your Majesty's decree is to start the 'bear hunting' plan, and the old Ivan will be in charge, and I will be responsible for assisting, trying to ensure that The program is going well."

Old Ivan's eyes froze slightly, but the emotions conveyed inside were extremely complex, shock, excitement and a touch of expectation, because the so-called 'bear hunting plan' was to split the Russian Empire.

Splitting the huge Russian Empire seems to be a very incredible thing, and it almost makes people feel crazy when they think about it.

But in fact, in today's Russia, there is a great opportunity to do this, because behind the powerful appearance of the Russian Empire, there is a growing crack that has the ability to destroy the Russian Empire. And this crack stems from the struggle between reformers and conservatives.

If we want to talk about the struggle between the two factions in the Russian Empire, we have to talk about Peter the Great's reform, because the struggle between the reformist and the conservative faction stems from the problems manifested and accumulated in this reform.

Before the reform, the overall development of Russia was dominated by feudal serfdom production relations, and the level of economic development was very low. In particular, internal strife and wars among the upper echelons of the empire became more and more frequent, causing a large number of peasants to go bankrupt or even start to flee. It further makes the land deserted, that is, the farmers' arable land is reduced by 20.00% to 30.00% compared with the past.

In order to have enough labor force, the nobles began to choose to implement the corvee system, forcing the peasants to be bound to the land. As a result, the peasants lost their personal freedom and became serfs. When the population could not move freely, the development of the commodity economy became It is an empty phrase, so it is not an exaggeration to say that Russia was on the brink of crisis at that time.

Later, after Peter the Great came to the throne, he naturally could not tolerate the status quo in Russia. He resolutely abandoned Russia's conceited and old-fashioned traditions, personally led a delegation to study abroad, learned about Western European systems, and implemented a top-down, bold and decisive comprehensive Reform, and after 20 years of all-round reforms, Russia has undergone radical changes, and the entire empire has begun to become stronger.

But here comes the problem. The nobles, landlords, and religious forces damaged by Peter the Great’s reforms are naturally extremely dissatisfied. They always hope to regain power and restore the original old system. Among them, Alexei Petrovich, the eldest son of the emperor at that time, became the target of use, and eventually even forced Peter the Great to kill his son himself to express his determination to reform.

If it’s just that, that’s all. The biggest problem with Peter the Great’s reform is that it was only half completed. In the blink of an eye, the ministers had already begun to expose the tragic consequences of Peter's unlimited work of the working people, that is, to start a counterattack.

Therefore, just after the death of Peter the Great, the conservatives secretly launched an act of seizing power and supported Peter II's enthronement. The guards launched a secret coup, forcing the Orthodox Supreme Council and the Privy Council to jointly declare Catherine as queen.

And after Ekaterina ascended the throne, she couldn't wait to establish the Supreme Privy Council, kicking away the original Privy Council system and the Orthodox Supreme Council. One point shows that the struggle between reformists and conservatives at that time had become more and more intensified.

Yagurensky, the director of the Senate, urgently submitted a fierce memorial to the queen, which described the situation of the people's poor harvests, starvation and desolation, and a large number of people fled to Poland and the Don River. There is a saying, "If this goes on, every son of Russia should think about it with compassion for the suffering, and don't let my glorious country eventually perish and fall into poverty due to mismanagement and neglect of duties." The purpose is In order to completely overthrow the achievements of Peter the Great's transformation.

The counterattack of the conservatives forced the queen to compromise. In her programmatic decree issued on January 1727, 1, she claimed that although Peter the Great’s major undertakings had not been fully implemented, various domestic affairs had changed. It is very bad, and the reform items need to be revised, such as reducing the poll tax, reducing the expenditure of administrative agencies, abolishing the dismantling of workshops and handicraft institutes, etc., which virtually made the Queen offend the reformists again.

And this change made the Supreme Privy Council unable to solve the problem at all, while the reform measures of Peter the Great burdened the old budget with a long-term deficit. Taxpayers fled, so the entire Russian Empire was thrown into disarray.

Today, with the death of Empress Catherine and the ascension of Peter II, the situation in Russia has changed again. A large number of conservative nobles and religious forces have begun to spy on the power of Russia again. They need revenge and need Overthrow everything after Peter the Great's reforms.

If the conservatives want to regain power, the first thing they need to deal with is Marshal Menshikov, the banner of the reformists. As long as this person is brought down, the reformists can be completely cleaned up and everything in the empire can be taken over.

So is it possible to deal with this person?
Yes, there is a great possibility!

The reason is very simple. Marshal Menshikov can be regarded as an excellent marshal, but he is not an outstanding conspirator. Since Peter II came to power, he has taken full power to regent and married his daughter to Peter II. It is enough to attract the attention of everyone in the court. If they understand that it comes from the Chinese allusion, they will probably exclaim - this guy wants to be Wang Mang!
Of course, in the Russian Empire, betrayal and coups are not uncommon. Whether it is Peter the Great or Catherine, they are all completed in bloody coups. The big guys are familiar with this routine. Marshal Shkov's estimate is also very sufficient, and the conservatives are naturally unwilling to catch it without a fight.

Therefore, when the situation has developed to this point, the two sides have already reached the point of life and death.

Old Ivan finished analyzing the current situation in St. Petersburg in detail, and then said in a low voice: "Antonov, if there is no accident, any day in the future may become the time for a decisive battle between the two sides, and the winner will get everything , even if there is chaos, it will only last for a short time, but this is not what His Majesty wants."

Antonov nodded, then smiled and said, "What His Majesty wants to see is not a complete victory for one side, but to see that both sides are evenly matched, and then turn their faces completely, and then there will be a chance to split the Russian Empire."

"That's right, so if we want to implement the 'Bear Hunting Project', we must first understand one thing. In this game, who is the bear? We need to find the loser so that we can find the loser before he completely falls. Help him up and keep fighting."

There was a hint of hesitation on Old Ivan's face, and he sighed deeply: "But the current situation in St. Petersburg is too chaotic. On the surface, Menshikov is still in power, but in fact, since he fell ill, he has said no to many things. Well, according to our inside information, the conservative seems to be plotting something, but his position is limited and he cannot get more information."

"Could it be plotting a coup d'etat?" Antonov smiled dumbly, then shook his head, but vetoed it first: "It shouldn't be a coup d'etat. After all, the Guards have always been under Menshikov's hands."

Everyone in St. Petersburg knows that the best way to succeed in a coup is to start with the guards, because among the many coups before this, the guards were all the first.

"No, what you said may be true."

There was a flash of excitement in the old Ivan's eyes. He stood on the spot and turned around twice, muttering to himself: "Before the Queen passed away, the Guards underwent a large-scale replacement. Many of them, It was a pawn placed by other forces, and we also wanted to arrange people to join the Guards at that time, but after all, we did not have enough background and missed this opportunity."

"However, this matter is not all fruitless. At least one day we have made it clear that the Guards system is no longer as safe as Menshikov imagined. Maybe we can do something in advance."

"Do something?" A look of surprise flashed across Antonov's face, and he suddenly guessed what the other party was thinking.

"Help Menshikov and become Emperor of Russia!"

The conspiracies and tricks that took place in St. Petersburg will naturally not affect the situation in the Far East. The flames of war on the Tumen River have subsided, and the Russian army has fully shrunk back to Vladivostok. Army's next target.

Of course, before marching into Yunchun, the governor Ning Zuyi also issued an order to encircle and expel the Russian army from the periphery, so that the Russian army retreated in Yunchun and Vladivostok, so that it could be done in one battle.

I saw that in the cold wind, a large number of refugees outside Yunchun City, most of them were bannermen, began to flee towards Yunchun City. Of course, it was not because they were unwilling to surrender to the Han Army, but because they were Before that, the Qing government had been spreading rumors among the Bannermen, claiming that the Fuhan Army massacred the Eight Banners. If it fell into the hands of the Fuhan Army, not only would they not only die, but they would not even be able to keep a whole body, and would suffer all kinds of torture before dying .

In the face of such terrifying rumors, everyone said that the Fuhan army was all devils and would never surrender to the Fuhan army, so they could only continue to go north without hesitation.

Of course, these are all rumors, but for the banner people, they have no other choice. After all, they still know how they dealt with the Han people back then. Now they will naturally think that the other party will retaliate in this way, subconsciously from the bottom of their hearts. Already believed the rumor.

So, in this bitterly cold winter, the Bannermen once again formed a long marching team and began to walk step by step. Can't get up, and that's not uncommon.

This wave of offensive launched by the Fuhan army in winter was naturally uncomfortable for the Russian army, but it was a real nightmare for those who could not enter Yunchun and Vladivostok.

No food, no cotton clothes, nothing, this winter has become the most tragic killer.

"Brother, brother, where did Ama and Erniang go?"

A child who was only about seven or eight years old, wrapped in cotton padded clothes, was leaning on an old cart, his eyes were tightly closed, and he murmured from time to time, but there were some tears on his red face .

Next to the cart was a young man in thin clothes. He was about fourteen or fifteen years old, but he looked extremely vicissitudes. While pushing the cart, he said in a low voice: "Hai Yin, you first Hold on for a while, and when you enter Yunchun, you will be able to survive."

But before he could finish his sentence, a middle-aged man passing by looked at him, but sneered, "Chang Bao, if you continue to take him on the road, you will definitely be caught up by the cavalry of the Fuhan Army. Don't talk about him when the time comes, and you won't be able to live, so hurry up and let go!"

(End of this chapter)