Struggle in Russia

Li Xiao replied calmly: "You must not have the intention to harm others, but you must also have the intention to guard against others. In such a big case and at such a special time, there will always be some people who have some thoughts that they shouldn't have. There is no way to stop it. , we can only be more careful!”

Speaking of this, he suddenly said to Count Kleinmicher: "Count, I will leave these two serfs to your disposal. I think they can either protect them where they are or simply send them to St. Petersburg."

Count Kleinmicher narrowed his eyes: "Then send it to St. Petersburg. It would be good for your Majesty to go and investigate for yourself!"

Li Xiao smiled and agreed without saying a word. This confused Dmitri, who became increasingly confused about the relationship between Li Xiao and Count Kleinmicher.

He felt that Li Xiao was testing, but Count Kleinmicher's answer also seemed to be testing, and then the two people reached an agreement like a ghost, leaving him, the client, confused.

He couldn't ask directly, so he simply didn't talk about the topic and instead introduced the two of them to the real situation in Ukraine that he had learned.

Count Kleinmicher was stunned after hearing this: "Kiev is surrounded by hundreds of thousands of rebels and there is no way to contact it? And the rebels have plans to try to capture Kiev. How is this possible!"

He couldn't believe his ears, because Kiev was not an ordinary big city. This was Kievan Rus, not a small rural city. Besides, there were more than 100,000 troops stationed there. How could such a big city with so many people be carried out by a few rebels? Done?

Dmitri explained patiently: "I don't want to believe this is true, but my scouts encountered great obstacles when they tried to approach Kiev. After analyzing all aspects, we can only draw this conclusion!"

After a pause, he added: "And the garrison in Kiev is not as large as expected. At most, there are only 50,000 or 60,000 people. A considerable part of them were used to counter-insurgency and rescue cities such as Kharkiv in the early days of the rebellion. More The worst thing is that I judge that Kiev’s food reserves cannot meet consumption needs, and I am afraid that a food shortage may even break out in Kiev soon!”

Count Kleinmicher was half cold again. He only ordered so many troops and the food was not enough to eat. It would be damned if he could hold on.

He suddenly became anxious: "What about your countermeasures? Kiev must not fall. There is no room for negotiation!"

Don't blame Count Kleinmicher for being anxious, because Kiev is too important. Once something goes wrong in Kiev, it will be a big earthquake. What will happen when Alexander II becomes furious?

Not to mention Dmitri, I'm afraid he and Li Xiao will also have to take the blame!

Dmitri smiled wryly, spread his hands and replied: "What can I do to save Kiev? Now I only have more than 10,000 people on hand, and I still lack all kinds of supplies. Just raising food is enough for me to have a headache... Those in front of us There are approximately more than 30,000 rebels in Chernihiv, not counting the possible enemy reinforcements from the direction of Konotop and Konielets..."

Count Kleinmicher was dumbfounded. Before arriving in Ukraine, he had made many guesses about Dmitry's inaction. His friends and colleagues also made a lot of analysis. Most of them thought that Dmitri was deliberately creating an atmosphere of terror. This will enhance his achievements in countering rebellion.

No one told him that the Ukrainian rebels were too powerful. Dmitry felt that he could not defeat them, so he stood still. But now they directly revealed the shocking truth and made him confused!

Count Kleinmicher was surprised: "You are not joking!"

Dmitri smiled bitterly and said: "What good does making such a joke do me? Do you think I don't know the importance of Kiev?"

Count Kleinmicher suddenly stopped talking. He knew that Dmitri should not dare to joke about Kiev, which meant that the situation was worse than imagined!

He asked unwillingly: "Can't we think of a solution? We can't just watch Kiev fall!"

Dmitri spread his hands again: "Then give me more soldiers and enough food, otherwise a rash attack will be equivalent to hitting an egg with a stone!"

Count Kleinmicher frowned and said: "But where is there so much money? You know what the state of the treasury is!"

At this point, he suddenly said: "I think...I think you have overestimated the enemy's strength? Maybe there are many of them, but in the end they are just a bunch of mud-legged people. Without enough weapons, it is simply a problem." A bunch of rabble, as long as..."

Before he could finish speaking, Dmitri interrupted him: "Count, I have to correct you. First of all, our opponents are not a mob. As far as I know, most of the main force of the rebels are volunteers recruited previously. These They have received military training for almost half a year, and they are no longer ignorant. Secondly, because they captured many big cities, a considerable part of the weapons and equipment stored in Ukraine fell into their hands, and their equipment has also been The shotgun has been replaced by a cannon!”

Count Kleinmicher was dumbfounded. To put it this way, the form was really completely different from what he expected. If the main force of the rebels is really former volunteers who have received military training, then they really cannot be described as a ragtag group.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but complain about Nicholas I's decision to agree to recruit volunteers from various places. Although this was largely to strengthen their strength and continue fighting with the British, French and Turkish coalition forces, the most important role of the recruited volunteers was not only to fill the vacancies when the garrison troops from various places were transferred to the front line, but also to replenish the supply of troops for the front-line combat troops.

From that time, there was no other way. But the bad thing was that they had to negotiate and accept the Paris Agreement later, so these hastily recruited volunteers had no choice but to disband.

Disbandment was not always a problem, and the problem was that the vigilantes continued to be called up in the six months before the Paris Agreement was signed. Most of these serfs who were hastily recruited just wandered around the military camp and were dismissed with a piece of order.

This back and forth caused these people to waste precious farming time and greatly affected agricultural production. Nicholas I continued to increase war taxes, and the huge economic burden directly overwhelmed them.

If you think about it, agricultural production has been delayed and the harvest will definitely not be as good as in previous years. And the burden is much heavier than in previous years. How can you let these people live?

Since he couldn't survive, he had no choice but to take risks and rebel. In other words, Nicholas I dug a hole for his son to bury!

Count Kleinmicher was speechless at this painful situation. After all, it was his own fault! But Nicholas I wouldn't have ended up like this if he had been less ambitious.

He sighed and asked: "Then what are you going to do, Count? You can't just do nothing, right?"