Russia.

In June 1904, as the movements of workers and peasants flourished, the wave of revolution finally affected the army.

The military system of Tsarist Russia was to lead the army with nobles. However, the Tsarist Russian Empire had been powerful for a long time and had no major wars for a long time. Most of the children of these nobles lacked military literacy and command ability. Their daily work was not to train soldiers and study tactics, but to drink, engage in women, and hunt. During the Russian-Chinese War, when the Guards occupied Vladivostok, they found that almost every officer was carrying a hunting rifle.

Corresponding to the extravagant and decaying life of the officers is the suffering of the soldiers. They can only maintain basic food and clothing. Some troops even find it difficult to guarantee winter clothes. They eat sour and stiff black bread every day, and the leaves in the soup are leftovers of the officers.

On June 27, the new armored cruiser of the Black Sea Fleet, "Pojangjin", received an order to leave the port and head to Truda, preparing for shooting training. However, before that, a strike broke out on Peresepipi, the suburb of Odessa, and the strike quickly spread throughout the area.

The strike was caused by the incident where Cossack shot and killed eight Gner factory workers. The next day, the strike developed across the city. Meat processing workers and bread workers were also participating in the strike.

On the 27th, just before the "Pojiangjin" was anchored, the soldiers received a dinner.

When the soldiers began to enjoy their first meat in a month, they were surprised to find that the beef on the plate turned out to be smelly. Cut the beef with a knife and even see the maggots that had been cooked inside!

‘Bang!’

Sergeant Gern Wakulinchuk angrily threw the plate to the ground. "We can't stand food like this! This is not something to eat. The officers cannot treat us like pigs!"

"right!"

The angry soldiers smashed the plates in their hands and overturned the table. They recommended Vakurinchuk as the leader to find the officer in charge of the logistics.

In fact, the officers were helpless. Because of the strike of urban workers, warships could not supply fresh food to the soldiers. However, Tsarist Russian officers were used to being pampered and could not tolerate the provocation of subordinate soldiers against their authority. During the dispute, an officer fired a gun at Vakurinchuk!

The angry sailors flew the rifle and exchanged fire with the officers on the ship. Seven people, including the captain, deputy captain, on duty officers and several unpopular officers, were beaten to death, and the rest were arrested by the sailors.

After venting his anger, the soldiers found that they had no way out.

"We have executed shameless officers, but this act is equivalent to treason. If we return to the base, there is no doubt that what awaits us will be the gallows!"

When the soldiers were at a loss, Machu Shenko, a soldier from the Social Democratic Party, stood up.

"But, what should we do? There is no coal and no food on the ship. We can't go anywhere. In the whole of Russia, we have no place to stay. The fleet will soon know the news of our rebellion. Then the Tsar will order the fleet to destroy us. We have only one dead end!"

"No, comrades!" said Machushenko. "We are not just dead. We are not without a way out. Now in Russia, countless workers are expressing their demands to the government. They will understand our situation and help us. As long as we contact the trade union organization, we can buy food. Then we will find ways to obtain coal. As for the fleet, don't forget, sailors like us are also bullied by the officers, and they will not help the Tsar to destroy us!"

Machushenko's suggestion was the only opportunity that the sailors could find at present. Subsequently, a management committee composed of 30 sailors was established on the ship, and Machushenko was elected as chairman. At 2 pm, the rebels issued a telegram to announce the revolt of the "Po Jiangjin" uprising, officially leaving the Tsarist Russian fleet sequence, and sailing to Odessa with the escorted lightning strike ship No. 267.

After nightfall, the "Po Jiangjin" drove into Odessa Port. The sailors drove the ships to the shore, carried the bodies of the dead comrades onto the waterproof embankment, placed them in a tent, and wrote on it, "Look, this is what I was beaten to death because the soup was not good."

Meanwhile, the uprising sailors began to buy food on the shore. But new problems came.

"Comrade Machushenko, we have only 27,000 rubles in our cash now, and this amount of money cannot buy enough coal to support the long-distance voyage of warships." Several soldiers in charge of procurement came to Machushenko and told him the current problems.

Machushenko thought for a while: "Buy enough food now. We need to fill the soldiers. As for coal, I will find a way."

After the soldier team responsible for purchasing left, Machushenko ordered a team of soldiers to patrol outside the port in a small boat. Not long after, the soldiers responsible for patrol sent a message: We found a boat outside the port, which was a coal transport ship from Mariupol, and we were saved!

The soldiers announced that the ship's coal had been requisitioned. They dragged it to the armored ship and began to unload coal onto the ship.

At this time, after learning about the revolt of the "Pojiangjin" surging, the army soldiers on the shore wanted to fire at them, but when the sailors raised the battle flag, even the Cossacks who had just been transferred to the shore immediately fled.

The "Pojiangjin" has two dual-mounted 305mm main turrets. Although the use of electric power has brought a series of troubles, the rate of fire is only 1.5 to 2 minutes per round, and each tube is equipped with 60 rounds. However, it also has 16 152mm secondary guns. These secondary guns can have a firing rate of up to 3 rounds per minute, and each tube is equipped with 180 rounds.

In addition, the armored ship is also equipped with 14 75mm guns, each with 300 rounds of ammunition; 4 47mm deck guns, 2 65mm Balanovsky landing fire support guns, and 2 37mm light guns. The mainmast platform and the middle of the superstructure are also equipped with 2 7.62mm machine guns.

Odessa's army firepower is simply unable to deal with an armored battleship!

News of the "Pojongjin" uprising soon reached St. Petersburg. Tsar Nicholas II was shocked and ordered Qiuminin, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, to take all means, including sinking the ship, to put out the uprising.

In the early morning of June 30, five armored ships and six lightning strike ships of the Black Sea Fleet arrived to block Odessa's departure route.

However, as Machu Shenko said, the sailors of the squadron, who were also dissatisfied with the officers, not only did not fire at the "Pochinjin", but instead rushed to the deck and shouted "Ula!" to them. What was even more unexpected was that the armored cruiser "Victor Georgi" who was ordered to eliminate the "Pochinjin" also raised a red flag and announced that they would participate in the uprising!

In order to prevent mutiny from occurring in the entire fleet, Major General Carrieg, the commander of the squadron, ordered each blockade ship to return at the maximum speed.

The red flag of the revolution flew on the armored ship of the Pojangjin for several days. But at this time the Russian National Social Democratic Party was not the only party leading the movement as it was later in 1917. At that time, there were many Mensheviks, Social Revolutionaries and anarchists in the uprising. Therefore, although some Social Democrats participated in the uprising, the uprising still did not have a correct and experienced leadership.

Some of the sailors were shaken at the decision.

Soon, the officers and soldiers of the "Victor Georgi" surrendered to the Tsarist authorities in Odessa. After a long discussion, the soldiers on the "Pojangjin" decided to drive the warships to Romania.

On the evening of July 1, the "Pochkin" and the 267th lightning ship left Odessa and arrived in Constanta, Romania the next day. During the negotiations between Constanta, the two rebel warships jointly issued the "Letter to the European Powers" and the "Letter to the World of Civilization".

At this time, Europe, Britain, France, Russia and Germany were at a strife because of the Tangier crisis and the war was about to break out. In this case, the Romanian government could not anger the powerful Russia because of a defected warship. Because the Romanian authorities refused to provide supplies, the "Pozingkin" had to sail to Feodosia for help.

However, when the warship entered Feodosia at 6:00 on the 5th, there were only troops and police waiting to arrest the revolutionaries on the dock.

The revolutionaries were really desperate at this time, and they had to return to Constanta on July 7. At this time, the boiler water reserves on the ship had been exhausted and the warships could not start again. The insurrectionists had to lower the red flag floating on the mainmast on July 8, handed the "Pojongjin" to the Romanian authorities, and declared themselves political exiles.

On the 9th, the Russian Black Sea Fleet squadron arrived in Constanta and took over the "Pozingkin" the next day. On July 14, 1904, the "Pozingkin" was dragged back to Sevastopol.

The uprising failed!

Later, the sailors who fell into the hands of the Tsarist government were handed over to court for trial, some were executed, and some were exiled to be sent to hard labor.

But the fact of the uprising itself has particularly important significance. The transformation of workers to mass political strikes and demonstrations, the strengthening of peasant movements, the armed conflict between the people and the military and police, and the uprising in the Black Sea Fleet. All of this shows that the conditions for the people's armed uprising are ripe.

This situation forced the liberal bourgeoisie to take action seriously.

It is afraid of revolution and at the same time it wants to use it to intimidate the Tsar.

The failure of the warship "Pozingjin" revolt did not stop the enthusiasm of the Russian workers and peasants in the revolution.

On September 19, Moscow began a strike for printing workers. The strike immediately received support from workers in other industrial sectors and turned into a general political strike.

In early October, the Moscow-Kazan railway line began to strike. After a day, the entire Moscow railway hub station was just gone. The strike wave soon swept across all railway lines across the country. The post office and the telegraph office stopped working. Workers in cities across Russia held mass meetings with thousands of people attending and decided to stop working. Factory, cities, and regions were successively on strike. Small staff, students, intellectuals (lawyers, engineers and doctors) also joined the torrent of strike workers.

The political strike in October developed into a national strike, which included almost all regions of the country and almost all workers. The total political strike was about one million industrial workers alone. The considerable number of railway workers and postal and telecommunications staff have not yet been counted. All domestic life has come to a halt. The government has been paralyzed.

This time, Nicholas II had to make some concessions.

On October 17, 1904, Nicholas II promulgated the October Declaration, which promised to implement the "unshakable principle of civil liberty - the true inviolability of human beings, the freedom of faith, speech, assembly and association" for the people. He also promised to convene the legislation of the Duma and absorb residents of all classes to participate in the election.

However, at the same time, the Tsarist government continued to use brutal means to suppress workers and peasants.

On the one hand, through its spies, it instigated the people of all ethnic groups in Russia to destroy each other, create atrocities that ravaged the Jews, and provoked the Alminians and Tatars to kill each other. On the other hand, he ordered Minister Briggan to formulate a Duma bill that would not allow the Duma to have legislative power.

In the Palace of Peaceful Heart, Zai Tian looked at the information in his hand and said, "The Tsar began to massacre the Jews?"

Shanqi said: "Yes. In order to divert the attention of the domestic people, Nicholas II blamed the domestic economic problems on the greed of the Jews, so he issued a bill to restrict the residence of Jews, prohibit them from purchasing land and engaging in agriculture. Even under the promotion of the government, a collective massacre was carried out against the Jews!"

Zai Tian paced back and forth and said cautiously: "The Jews are natural economists. They have unparalleled business minds and are distributed all over the world. As far as I know, in the United States, the Jews also control many industries. If we can help them in this Russian anti-Semitism wave, then we may be able to gain the favor of the Jews in the United States. This will help us divide the US government. In this way, you go to the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Revenue and the Zongli Yamen and come up with a resettlement plan. We must try to accommodate and resettle these people. Tell them that these Jews - no, also include all the persecuted people in this Russian uprising. China accepts them unconditionally!"

Shanqi responded, but he then said, "But, Master, these people may have millions. If they really come to our country, in terms of people's livelihood..."

Zai Tian waved his hand, "Look at it in the long run, don't be petty. You have to know that one is rising and falling. The Russians drive them away, and we accept it. The Russians are getting fewer and fewer people, and our people are getting more and more. In the future, who do you think you can take advantage of it? Besides, in the northeast, northwest, Mongolian Plateau, Dahe Province (North Myanmar region), and Yuelun Province (Philippine colony) all need population to support local development. And you also know that the plan implemented by Xu Jingcheng and others in Australia is about to come to fruition. By then, we are likely to increase hundreds of thousands or millions of square kilometers of land. I only think that our people are not enough, so why do you think there are too many people?"

Shanqi hurriedly said, "I understand. I will do it now."
Chapter completed!