Struggle in Russia

Li Xiao and Dmitri, who were far away in Chernihiv, naturally had no idea that so many earth-shattering events were happening in St. Petersburg thousands of miles away. For them, it would be enough of a headache to put all their efforts into rectifying the surrendered rebels.

Yes, they had foreseen that it would not be easy, but after actually getting started, they realized that they had underestimated the difficulty.

Perhaps surrendering is the best choice for the middle and high-level rebels, but for the lowest level, it is not.

Most of them had to rebel because they had no choice but to rebel. Naturally, they had no good impression of the Czar or the government at all. Now you ask them to surrender their guns and obey the orders of the most annoying government. Do you think they will be willing to do so?

Naturally, dissatisfaction was at an all-time high, and many rebel soldiers ran away immediately after learning the news.

To be precise, he ran away and joined other rebels. Obviously, he didn't want to fight with Li Xiao and Dmitry at all.

Of course, this is only a very small minority. Although the majority of the remaining people do not like the government, they are still able to accept being pardoned. It's just that he wanted to go home rather than continue to serve as a soldier. Especially when they heard that the prerequisite for being pardoned was to serve as soldiers honestly and fight against their former allies, their mood was quite bad, even if they didn't directly say no, they were negative. Confrontation is everywhere.

This caused great trouble for Dmitri's reorganization work. These rebel soldiers were quite disgusted and even hostile to the officers sent by Dmitri to serve as advisors.

Naturally, the reorganization work is not progressing smoothly, and Li Xiao has no good solution for this, because things like class conflicts cannot be settled casually. If it is so easy to settle, it will not happen every now and then. A group of dead revolutionaries would emerge and risk their lives against Alexander II and his descendants.

"Try to do it as much as possible," Li Xiao sighed and said, "Let the officers not punish those guys at will, but train them how they should be trained, and never compromise. Also, are you talking to Sergey the Long Legs about this kind of work? It’s more appropriate to let him do it, he has plenty of ways to convince those mud-legged people!”

To be honest, Dmitri was a little unwilling. He wanted to completely conquer these rebels. It would be best to turn them into reliable and obedient people.

But Li Xiao obviously didn't mean this. Judging from his intention, he still planned to use these people as cannon fodder. Isn't this a bit too cruel and a pity?

"It's not cruel, and it's not a pity!" Li Xiao sighed and explained: "These people have long had prejudices against us, which cannot be resolved in a short time... Besides, if these people have the courage to rebel, they will definitely do it. Lord, people like this can only be used and cannot be used as one of our own. No one can guarantee that they will not rebel and rebel again... So don't place too high hopes on them. If they can be used to consume those rebels, it will be used up. It worked!"

Dmitri was still a little unwilling. After all, these surrendered soldiers were all strong and hardworking, and they were all good soldiers. If they could be surrendered and their courage was enough, they would definitely be elite soldiers.

Wouldn't it kill two birds with one stone if we could both eliminate the rebels and train a new army that is good at recruiting and fighting?

Li Xiao is still not optimistic about this. He knows that Dmitry has this urgent desire because of the tragic situation of the Crimean War.

He saw that the Russian serf soldiers during the Crimean War were simply unable to fight, and almost all the glory of the Russian army in the past hundred years was wiped out in one battle. He felt that the existing veterans were not useful at all, so he took advantage of the counterinsurgency opportunity to train the new army.

It's just that Li Xiao felt that the new army he chose was not suitable. Although these rebels who surrendered were all strong laborers and looked good, truly qualified soldiers not only needed a strong body but also a tough spirit.

Unfortunately these guys were all negative figures mentally, at least to the tsarist government they hated so much.

How can a unit that is alienated from its main commander have a high combat effectiveness?

Again, changing their minds cannot be done overnight. What's more, Dmitri doesn't have the time, energy or financial resources to do this.

He advised earnestly: "I think the most important thing for you at the moment is to recover Kiev as soon as possible. Once anything goes wrong in Kiev, all our achievements in Chernihiv will be in vain... At that time, the situation in Ukraine will also take a turn for the worse. ! I advise you to focus on the issues in Kiev!"

Dmitri stopped talking, because he knew what Li Xiao said was right. Before coming to Ukraine, Alexander II repeatedly told him to make sure that nothing happened in Kiev. Once Kiev fell into the hands of the rebels, it would be a blow to the government of Alexander II. It will be unprecedented. If not, a new anti-Russian wave will set off. Not to mention other Poles will definitely cause a wave of trouble!

This responsibility is too great, and Dmitri cannot bear it anyway.

"Is there any latest news from Kiev?" he asked with a sigh.

Li Xiao shook his head: "The news was from a week ago. I hope General Nakhimov and Anton can control the situation!"

Dmitri suddenly smiled bitterly, because according to Kornilov, the situation in Kiev was very bad. Before the number of city defense troops was insufficient, enough fortifications were not repaired. The most important thing was that food reserves were very problematic. Not only did they not have enough food, at least everyone had to tighten their belts to live.

This is not the most critical thing. The most critical thing is that there is a time bomb-like Governor Ulanov in the city. This man seems to have a secret deal with the rebels and may do bad things!

Dmitri really didn't expect that the dignified governor of the Russian Empire would actually be colluding with the rebels. Doesn't this idiot have no brains at all?

You actually naively think that having money can solve all problems. Do you really think Alexander II is an idiot?

Dmitri wanted to smash his head with a hammer to see what was in his head!

It's a pity that he couldn't do it, because although Alexander II gave him the highest military command to counter the rebellion, he did not give him the "Sword of Shangfang". He could not kill a frontier official like Ulanov on the spur of the moment. , He couldn’t even be removed from office on the spot.

All he could do was to report to Alexander II, expose all the bad things Ulanov had done, and then wait for Alexander II to deal with it.

However, he felt that Alexander II was unlikely to publicly deal with Ulanov, at least he would not accuse him of being a traitor and have him executed. Alexander II really couldn't afford to embarrass that person!