Now even the Entente knew that the rebellion in Central Asia was supported by China, although they had not yet gotten the handle. Now hearing that Yang Rui used such an excuse to shirk it, Garrahan said excitedly: "Your Excellency, the proletarian workers and the locals are all victims of the oppression of the authoritarian tsar, and they should unite instead of sending those proletarian comrades back to their home countries in this way. In doing so, they are violating the truth that all oppressors should unite together to overthrow the Old World. Your country, as their supporter, should put an end to such behaviour. ”

Yang Rui was thinking about how to reply to the great Comrade Lenin, but Garrahan grabbed this matter and had to say: "Mr. Garahan, for the locals of Turkestan, the Russians are the oppressors, and now they have been very restrained, and if there is no intervention from us, what awaits the Russians will not be forced repatriation, but a large-scale massacre." ”

"No, Your Excellency Prime Minister. Without workers, the machines of the factory will be unmanned, they will only return to the original barbaric life, which is a step backwards in history! Garrahan waved his right hand and said excitedly.

Because of the large number of workers in Turkestan, the Bolsheviks there crossed the border into China and reported the news of Turkestan to Galakhan by telegram. Unable to contact Petersburg, Garrahan hoped that China would stop the repatriation in order to establish a Soviet there. Whether it was to maintain the possession of Turkestan or to train the workers here into an army under the command of the Bolsheviks, these workers had to stay.

"The Turkestans didn't need those factories and machines in the first place." Through Zhang Shi, Yang Rui fully understood Garahan's true intention to stop the repatriation, but he hoped to persuade the Russian to accept the reality verbally. "They can be freed from the oppression of the tyrannical tsar. It's something to celebrate. ”

"Your Excellency, this is simply a step backwards in history!" Galahan repeats again. "Turkestan is regressing into a dark absolute monarchy, and your country is obliged to help them overthrow the monarch. Establish Soviets throughout Turkestan! ”

When Yang Rui was about to answer, Li Zilong suddenly whispered in his ear that the British minister was coming, so he could only make a long story short, "Mr. Garahan, what kind of government the Turkestan chooses and what kind of life they live will only be based on their traditions and choices. Because it is not under the jurisdiction of our country, and it is not under the jurisdiction of Russia now, neither you nor I have the right to force them to accept anything. My reply to the letter of the leader of your party, Comrade Ulyanov, is: I wish the Russian revolution success this year. After Yang Rui finished speaking, he served tea and sent it off. Sorry, I have other things to deal with. That's all for this meeting, and the rest can be discussed with Mr. Zhang. ”

Ren Fuchen, who came with the Russians, understood what Yang Rui meant by serving tea to the guests, but Garrahan thought that his request had not been agreed, and still wanted to talk about the repatriation of the Russian workers in Turkestan before Yang Rui left, but when he wanted to step forward and continue to ask, Zhang Shi stopped him.

"Mr. Garahan, Turkestan is not China, and they hate not only all Russians. There is no money to pay the stranded workers. Zhang Shi watched Yang Rui leave and began to talk further with the Russians.

"Without the Russian workers, the whole of Turkestan will return to the age of barbarism. No matter how tyrannical and brutal the tsar was, he also brought civilization to the locals. Ghana was rarely unable to convince Yang Rui, so he had to complain to Zhang Shi.

"Civilization?" Zhang Shi knew very well what the Russians were doing in Central Asia. He laughed: "The so-called civilization is to force the herdsmen to lose their pastures so that they can give up the land to the Russian peasants to cultivate?" Or do you want to become a worker with nothing and be enslaved by the Russians? Or more. It's everyone who learns Russian, and it's not Nov, not Sky, it's not in the name. What is it?

The locals simply don't need to force what civilization to come to now. They are merciful enough – in the province of Gullys, where tens of thousands of Kazakhs were massacred last year, it is a miracle that the locals would heed our advice to spare the Russians and execute the guilty only by trial. Mr. Garahan, you can't ask for too much! ”

"But it's all the result of the tsar's corrupt rule, and the Russians are all victims...... Ganahan retorted, but he was interrupted before he could finish.

"But the murderous, oppressive Russians are completely innocent?" Zhang Shi asked rhetorically, "Even if those Russians simply accepted the Tsar's orders, even if, as you said, they were only deceived by the Tsar, not to get more land and more slaves for themselves, but as far as the facts of their crime are concerned, in addition to confiscating them as evidence, they should also be destroyed after testifying." Mr. Garrahand, are they accomplices in the massacre or tools of the crime? ”

"I don't know!" Garrahan was forced to ask and could not answer. At this time, newspapers were carrying long reports of the massacre of tens of thousands of Kazakhs by the Russians in the province of Gully-Rivières during the great uprising in Central Asia last year. In fact, this trend was set off by the Suncheon Shibao run by the Japanese, and many reporters from the Shanghai Gazette, the Times, the Ta Kung Pao of Beijing and Tianjin, and the Imperial Daily also began to send reporters to the Western Regions to Qihe Province, which originally belonged to China, to expose Russia's naked colonial atrocities.

It is not surprising that public opinion will report in this way, because the spokesman of the Prime Minister's Office has long said frankly that China has no intention of annexing Central Asia, and now that Russia's rule in Central Asia has collapsed, everyone secretly knows that this is supported by the government, so going to the Western Regions to report on Russia's atrocities can just add some luster to China's face -- look, Russia is a sinner, and China is a liberator. As a result of these reporters' digging, several mass graves where the bodies were buried were found, and the photos taken after the excavation were published in newspapers shocked the whole country. It was precisely because of this that the Baath Army dared to advance to Ashgabat, the capital of Trans-Caspian Oblast.

"All I know is that the Russian people and the Turkestan people are the oppressors of capitalism, and they should unite together to overthrow the old world, where the forced repatriation of the most combative working class is a betrayal of this truth." Galakhan slowed down for a while before regaining his reasoning, and after this conversation, he no longer had any hope of establishing a Soviet in Turkestan.

"Mr. Garahan, for the people of Turkestan, their oppressors are the Russians. Whether it was a Russian peasant or a Russian worker, they were oppressors. According to the theory of the Bolsheviks. You can't jump to conclusions just because small capitalists are oppressed by big capitalists. Say that the same oppressed petty capitalists are friends of the proletariat.

You can't say that because the Russians represent a more advanced civilization, they have the right to wantonly expel and massacre the natives, and if this is right, then everything the tsar did is also right, what is the point of your party's revolution? Could it be that the revolution was because the tsar did not kill enough people, and after the revolution succeeded, he had to kill even more? Zhang Shi looked at Garrahan and smiled, and then said: "If your party wants to show that it is completely different from the authoritarian and barbaric tsar, then you should let those oppressed nations become independent." Thus gaining the trust of oppressors all over the world. ”

In the eyes of the Bolsheviks, China was not a proletarian revolution, but a national revolution. The revolutionaries simply overthrew the rotten monarchy and eventually changed the status quo of the semi-colonial state. However, before the Russian Revolution succeeded, China's revolutionary achievements were noticed by revolutionaries all over the world. But precisely because China was not a proletarian revolution, in the eyes of the Bolsheviks, these revolutionaries still carried a narrow great-power chauvinism.

Because it involves diplomatic relations between the two countries, especially now that the Russian Revolution has not yet succeeded. It is not good for Garrahan to directly criticize this kind of great power chauvinism, but after listening to Zhang Shi's advice, he said helplessly: "Mr. Zhang Shi, the nation must be subordinate to the class. The ultimate goal of the proletariat is to realize communism and to achieve the disappearance of classes, states, political parties, and nations. To emphasize nationalism alone is to fall into a completely self-interested view of bourgeois nationalism. and ultimately weaken the power of the proletariat. This is actually a betrayal of the revolution, a betrayal of communism! ”

"Mr. Garahan. Falling into a completely self-interested bourgeois nationalist outlook weakens the proletariat. Or weakened Russia? Are you against nationalism, for the sake of the proletariat, or for Russia? Zhang Shi asked with a smile. During many contacts, Garrahan constantly introduced Marxism to Zhang Shi, and Zhang Shi also looked at the pamphlets he gave when he had nothing to do, so the two often exchanged words when they met. "If, after the success of the revolution, your party agrees to the independence of the nations oppressed by the autocratic tsar and returns the territories occupied by the autocratic tsar, then I will be fully convinced that your party is really striving for the proletariat and for the realization of communism, and I myself will be determined to become a Bolshevist."

"Mr. Zhang Shi, whether you believe it or not, we are all fighting for the realization of communism! As for the two conditions you mentioned, I would like to ask you, how can you guarantee that the nations after independence will join the camp of the proletariat, and not join the bourgeoisie and become their thugs in the destruction of the proletariat? Garrahan retorted, "Only between the proletarian state and the proletarian state can all be equal, big or small." Believe me, as soon as the Russian Revolution succeeds, the bourgeois countries of the whole world will be terrified, and they will do everything to eliminate us, so we will have to choose our friends carefully. ”

"Then Mr. Garahan, how do you evaluate who is the real proletarian state and who is not?" The debate seemed to be getting more and more interesting, and Zhang Shi still asked, "Could it be that it is the proletarian state that thinks about the interests of the new Russia, and it is not the proletarian state that does not consider the new Russia?" ”

"No, that's too narrow!" "Without a systematic study of Marxism and materialist philosophical history," said Garahan, "it is difficult to understand the ideals and dedication of the Bolsheviks, nor to understand what internationalism is." Engels said: "The working class is internationalist by its very nature, and the struggle of the proletariat of all nationalities against the bourgeoisie of all nationalities, that is, a part of the struggle against the bourgeoisie, the interests of the proletariat of all nationalities are the same, and the goal of struggle is the same, which determines that they can unite and struggle together in the struggle against the bourgeoisie and all reactionary forces." 'So, the workers have no Fatherland!

If the Russian Revolution had been victorious, then there would have been only one proletarian state in the whole world, Russia, so judging whether a country is a proletarian state is very simple and objective, not only by looking at whether it is itself a proletarian ruling state, but also by its position on other proletarian countries. ”

When Garrahan recited the words of Max and Engels, his eyes sparkled, as if the spirit of his whole body was condensed in the conversation, which had to be surprising. However, his answer did not jump out of Zhang Shi's speculation, so Zhang Shi didn't want to continue to talk about it. He simply said, "Most people in China are farmers. So they have a homeland. In addition, even if it is all a proletarian state. But as long as there is a state, there will always be a conflict of interest, just as there will be a war between the bourgeois state and the bourgeois state, and there will be a war between the proletarian state and the proletarian state. ”

"Is Mr. Zhang Shi trying to say that there will also be a war between China and Russia after the revolution?" As if sensing that Zhang Shi was talking about something, Garrahan immediately asked.

"Nope! According to bourgeois values, there will inevitably be conflicts of interest between countries and states, commercial conflicts of interest for those that do not border, and territorial disputes for those that border. But. This is not to say that there will be a war if there is a conflict, and if the cost of the war is higher than the interests being contested, then the war can be avoided because it is not cost-effective. Our country, on the other hand, has always pursued a pacifist point of view, and does not want to seize the colonies, so long as we recover the lost territory taken by the tsarist government, then we have no conflict of interest with your country. ”

"That's right." Garrahan replied silently, and he didn't continue the topic, but asked. "I request again, Mr. Zhang Shi, that we be allowed to draw men from among the workers of Harbin to form an army, and at the same time allow us to develop Bolshevik party members among the Russian prisoners of war......"

"These two things have been said before. That's impossible. Zhang Shi shook his head, "Whether from the perspective of our country or from the perspective of the proletariat." It is right to let the war in Europe continue, to weaken the power of the bourgeois colonialists. The 200,000 Russian troops would eventually be sent to the European theater. Let the bourgeois colonialists kill each other, and the workers of Harbin. Do you really think that the 3,000-odd people can do anything? ”

In the Chinese section of the China Eastern Railway and the Trans-Siberian Railway, there were more than 11,000 Russian railway workers, plus more than 50,000 workers in various factories in Vladivostok and Amur, but these people were not controlled by the Bolsheviks. And Russia in the war is also in dire need of all kinds of workers, and the return of these people to Russia is simply a relief for Russia. However, under the control of the Bolsheviks, more than 1,000 workers were reluctant to return to China, and others who feared that they would be sent to the battlefield did not want to return home, so there were still more than 3,000 people left in the whole of Harbin.

Arming these reliable 3,000 men and agreeing to the Bolsheviks sending men into the Russian prisoner of war camps were important things that Garrahan had asked countless times, but each request was rejected by the Chinese.

"Mr. Zhang Shi, the Russian Revolution needs the strength of everyone, even if it is 3,000 people, as long as they can be trained into an army, it is a force to be reckoned with." Garrahand Road.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Garahan, it is unrealistic to arm these workers." Zhang Shi still shook his head. "If we agree to do this, it will be seen by the countries as financing the revolutionaries and interfering in the internal affairs of Russia, and they will think that we are on the side of the Allies against the Entente. This is a very dangerous move until the bourgeoisie is completely weakened and we are not strengthened. ”

Seeing that the issues discussed were getting more and more boring, Zhang Shi found a gap to end the meeting and let Garrahan be sent away carefully. After the Russians left, the British on Yang Rui's side also left, and when Zhang Shi walked into the office, Yang Rui and Xie Jintai were drinking tea.

"Sir." Zhang Shi greeted. "The Russians left, and they mentioned the matter of arming the workers again, but I again refused."

"Hmm." Yang Rui's expression was serious, neither happy nor angry. Zhang Shi looked at him strangely, but he didn't want to ask.

Li Zilong also poured him a cup of tea after Zhang Shi sat down, and then the three people in the room were drinking tea, no one spoke, and only the sound of the pendulum was silent in the room.

Just now, when Zhang Shi and Gallaghan were debating, the British minister mentioned two issues: first, last time, according to Yang Rui's request, Britain and France wanted Britain and France to recognize that the Outer Northeast belonged to China; The other is the question of the division of Turkestan's spheres of influence. In the former, the British gave a condition of acquiescing in the Chinese occupation of the Russian Far East and promising to recognize this occupation after the war; In the latter, Britain believed that the division of spheres of influence in Central Asia should be bounded by the Syr Darya River, with all of them belonging to China in the north and Britain in the south. If China can send troops to Europe under these conditions, then China and Britain can immediately form an alliance.

Although China has only more than 40 regular divisions, it has more than 100 reserve divisions, and the entire country can mobilize 2 million troops in a very short time. The most important thing is that, after several years in Europe, the tactical level of the Chinese Army was recognized by all the members of the Entente - what Germany implemented in the European theater was a complete replica of the tactics used by the Chinese Army in the Sino-Japanese War. For example, trench barbed wire and machine guns, such as artillery curved aiming, such as infantry and artillery coordination, such as snipers, and even the latest technology tanks that the Entente consider, the Chinese Army has used them a few years ago, and the Russian Siberian Army was defeated in three days, and everyone did not know the reason before, but now everyone is almost certain that the Russians must have encountered tanks.

The vigorous offensive in the first half of 1917 had reached a stalemate, and the Russian Provisional Government, although it promised to continue the war, was at present in Russia, according to intelligence, because the workers were on strike and all military production had stopped; The Murmansk Railway, which is under construction, has also been suspended; Arkhangelsk, which originally had a narrow-gauge railway, could only run one pair of passenger trains and three pairs of freight trains in a day and night, and the total transport volume was only more than 2,200 tons. Needless to say, the Trans-Siberian Railway, which was semi-closed after the Russian rebellion in Yunnan last year, is now in a state of reconstruction, and now that China has implemented a recurrent project, God does not know when the railway will be reopened.

There were problems with all the foreign aid routes, and within Russia, the lack of coal made it difficult for the locomotives on the railway line to use wooden halberds, but the reserves of wooden halberds at the railway stations were also insufficient. At the beginning of this year, due to the lack of maintenance for a long time, half of the locomotives of the all-Russian railways were in poor condition, and the backlog of goods that could not be carried away accumulated to 120,000 wagons. Although the weather has improved the conditions of railway transportation in Russia, the complete collapse of the railway system in Russia may come at any time.

From a purely technical point of view, the February Revolution was seen by the Entente as a mass incident caused by the disruption of the transport system due to heavy snow and cold; In order to stop the turmoil in Russia, it is necessary to improve the entire railway transportation system in an all-round way, and for this reason, the Americans' "technical mission" proposed that the United States send 12 teams of railway engineers, foremen, and dispatchers to the main railway lines in Russia in order to improve the railway transportation situation in an all-round way. At the same time, the US ambassador to Russia, while granting the provisional government a loan of $45 million, demanded that the Russian provisional government give these American engineers the authority to manage the Russian railways.

Technological improvements, rather than revolutionary improvements, were considered by the Americans to be the key to stabilizing Russian politics. But unlike the naïve Americans, the British believed that the roots of Russia's chaos had been planted in the Stolypin era. Beginning in the second half of last year, the remnants of the village community system after the reform of the Russian countryside collapsed due to the lack of official power to suppress it, and the peasants spontaneously confiscated the landlords' land in preparation for redistribution.

The flight of the soldiers has greatly reduced the already weak combat effectiveness of the Russian army, and the frequent defeats of the war have made the people in the rear lose hope of victory, and at the same time become resentful of all the status quo caused by the war, the Americans may be able to improve transportation and give the Russian citizens enough fuel and bread, but they will not be able to change the inflation and resentment of the status quo in Russia.

In the event of another turmoil in Russia and an eventual withdrawal from the war, Germany would get out of the dilemma of fighting on two fronts and calmly transfer its troops from the Eastern Front to the Western Front. Until the US Army arrived, this would have been a catastrophic blow to the Anglo-French forces. It is better to expect the two million troops that China will be mobilized in a short time and can be immediately transported to the European continent than the two million troops that the United States is calling up. With this army, even if the Americans were late, the victory would belong to the Entente.

With this expectation in mind, the British made a heavy bet, and in the tone of the British negotiations just now, the alliance means that China will become the guardian and sharer of Britain's East Asian interests, which is basically equivalent to opening up the entire South China Sea to China. With such huge interests displayed in front of them, Yang Rui and Xie Jintai had to be silent for a long time, and the two of them, who originally thought that they were quite determined, began to throb uncontrollably. (To be continued......)

PS: Note: A Brief History of the Development of the Soviet Railway Transport Industry, p77