In the East country came

GennMeln@Yandex.ru


In the eastern country came
History novel

 table of contents :

  MEDNIKOVS.. RESETTLEMENT;

-   HARAKIRI SAIGO TAKAMORI.. THE CONVERSATION OF THE TWO SAMURAI;

-    The FIRST SETTLERS..  BEAR HUNTING;

-    WITTE. THE ORDER OF THE EMPEROR. GENERAL UNTERBERGER. DESCRIPTION           OF VLADIVOSTOK;

     ANDREY MEDNIKOV. THE STRIKE OF ROAD BUILDERS;

-   WITTE. VISITS UKHTOMSKY AND BADMAEV;

-   ETAJIMA. NAVAL ACADEMY. THE EDUCATION OF THE SAMURAI;

-    JUN MEI. IN THE PALACE OF THE EMPRESS OF CHINA;

-  WITTE. APPETITES ON MANCHURIA;

.  A  JAPANESE SCOUT IN VLADIVOSTOK;

-    FIGHTING HUNGHUTZ IN THE MARITIME TERRITORY;

- . JAPAN DEVELOPS KURIL ISLANDS;

-  PREPARING FOR THE VISIT TO THE CAPITAL OF THE NORTHERN BARBARIANS;

-    BRIBING OFFICIALS OF THE RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY;

-  WITTE. NEGOTIATIONS WITH LI HONGZHANG;

-  WITTE. MOSCOW. CORONATION;

-   BARON HOLSTEIN. RUSSIAN PROBLEM;

-   .RETURN TO BEIJING;

-    IN THE FIELD OF ANGELLI. PROSPECTORTION,
   . ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF A DRY DOCK

-     SEOUL. RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC          
   MISSION;

.   BEIJING. THE THEFT OF DOCUMENTS FROM   
   RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC MISSION;

-    SEOUL FUSAN. RUSSIANS IN KOREA;

-    BARON HOLSTEIN. PREPARING FOR THE VISIT OF KAISER WILHELM II IN    PETERSBURG

-. EDUCATION OF RUSSIAN SOLDIERS
            
     KOREAN “INDEPENDENT”

- THE VISIT OF KAISER WILHELM. CAPTURE            
    The LIAODONG;

. HUNTING FOR TIGER. IN SEARCH OF WORK;;

  THE MURDER OF MISSIONARIES. The BOXERS;

. STUDY AT THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE. TRIP TO CHINA;

-.AGAIN IN THE PALACE OF THE EMPRESS;;

 .IN THE BESIEGED DIPLOMATIC MISSION;

. THE DEFEAT OF THE UPRISING OF THE YIHETUAN.





In the eastern country came
MEDNIKOVS.. RESETTLEMENT;

Stepan Melnikov had a long thought of moving to the Far East, where, according to rumours, the lands are not measured, the crop is self-hundred, the forests are dense, the animals are multitude apparently invisible, but the fish went to spawn — drifting logs up against the current drags.  Their village Neglyubka, which is large in Gomel region, but they lived crowded, there was little land, narrow land plots, and overlapped, so there was no possibility for him to feed on two tithes with his wife Maria and sons Andrei, Arseny and Athanasius.
In the early spring of one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine, having sold his allotment, a hut, a horse, a cow and two sheeps, Stepan set off with his family at a railway in Odessa. From there, as he was told in the resettlement department in Chernigov, to the Far East, the “Green wedge” steamers of the Voluntary Fleet go.  In Odessa, they placed together with other settlers in a low spacious white house built of white porous stone not far from the sea, but a week later, which Stepan spent on purchasing tickets, paperwork and getting on the long-distance road with all the necessary things, they were said boarding the ship.
Although it was scary to embark on such a long journey through the seas and oceans, but the double row of rivets inspired hope that the thick iron sheets of the steamer body would withstand storms and hurricanes and everything would be okay. They were placed in a spacious cockpit in the stern of the steamer.  Stepan helped Maria to fence off a corner with a calico curtain on a rope, put their clothes and five bags of hay on iron bunk beds, on which family had to sleep for a long one and a half months.
With inexpressible anxiety and excitement, they looked at the slowly and smoothly separating shore waving white kerchiefs, silk coloured kerchiefs and caps;  on the muddy, smooth water, foamed at the stern with a screw, and covered with all sorts of multi-coloured rubbish, like blue candy pieces of paper, orange peel, red skins of former crayfish, yellow-pink slivers, iridescent black oil, rags that floated, appeared from the abyss and, quickly  flickering,  disappeared again, which is why, when viewed from the high side of the steamer just down on the water,  heads were spinning, and it was necessary to grasp the railing covered with transparent varnish.  But the strip of water quickly alienated the coast; the city rapidly turned its other side, the crowd also moved astern and, covered with black and grey, with a brown sigh of smoke, thinned.  Then, with a gust of fresh, already sea winds, the smoke was thrown down to the stern, and there was a sharp smell of burning, wet steam, and had to tightly close eyes from the flying barbed soot.  The fear that they would be thrown off the steamer at the last minute, making Maria strictly forbid her sons to romp, hustle and fight, so that the coarse boatswain or the fat grey gendarme would not pay attention to them, pass, but give way to fear of the new – before the stormy sea, long road and upcoming rationale at the new location.  There was already no way back — there was no land, no hut, but there was nothing ahead either — only hope ... But the stone pier, the white lighthouse, and the white city of Odessa were left behind.  And the night came with a shaky sleep in a close cockpit filled with loud snoring and sighs and sobs and the smell of rotten footcloths and greasy boots and garlic boiled sausages from home still supplies. And hay and manure from the deck, where chickens were brought in cages, and pigs, and sheep, and two bulls to feed the crew and passengers.
Waking up early from the sound of barefoot spanking on the wooden deck and hissing of water, Stepan immediately woke his sons, and Maria also woke up, accustomed to rising early, before daybreak, to prepare food for the living creatures, drive the cow out of the gate and start preparing breakfast for her men. But the coerce boatswain who had brought order with the sailors on deck firmly told them to sleep for an hour or so, and Stepan and Maria guiltily returned to the cockpit, and the boys, buried from the sight of the coarse uncle, rushed forward to the ship’s nose, where they noticed yesterday on the lid of the first hold a camp kitchen accompanying the soldiers.  The soldiers, the young boys, were still asleep.  But then, having taken a thorough acquaintance with the steamer, the boys from the sailors learned that the thick ropes from the sharp bowsprit pointing the way to the ship support the first, fore, mast.  A powerful windlass was located in front of the foremast, and it was it yesterday, puffing up trickles of steam and tapping chain links, pulling out two muddled thick anchors plastered with mud from the sea depths.  Are they in place?  And dangling their heads first from one side and then from the other, they were convinced that yes, they were hanging in place, but already clean, dimly flickering only with damp, black-painted paws.  And at the same time, before circling their heads, they looked at the green bottled water running swiftly under the steamer’s nose.  Most of all, of course, they were attracted by mirror-like brilliant glasses of the captain’s bridge, behind which stood a naval officer in a white tunic with large, long binocular on his chest, and two sailors were ticking over the spokes, twisting a high steering wheel, but there was nothing to think even to look inside because the commander will scold and the father will pull out.  But it was possible to look through the open light hatches into the smell of oil, screaming and hissing, breathing warmth of the ship’s machine, and they looked enough, especially amazed at how a greasy lubricator deftly pours a blue stream of oil from a large tin with a long nose into the flickering elbows of a steam engine.  Lubricator felt that he was being watched from above, and affably waved his hand to them.  Then they tried, three of them holding hands, to embrace first one, and then the second, yellow, just washed pipes, from which grey smoky tails stretched to the horizon, fluffy, like their left home, too, the cat Murka.  But it did not work, the fourth was not enough.  Then came the turn of the inspection of the second, the grotto, the mast.  It was as tall as the first, of thick, solid, varnished wood, supported by many tightly stretched prickly twisted ropes, but without three transverse crossbeams, like those of the foremast, under which were connected white canvas panels.  “If the steam engine breaks down,” they guessed, after consulting.  And they went to inspect the third, mizzen, as they learned, the mast, but fell into the hands of the mother, and she, lightly slapping everyone, ordered to wash and eat breakfast.
The cockpit was already swept and aired, and the entire population sat, some around the long table, and some on the lower beds, and had breakfast.  And then the guys deepened their acquaintance with a few travelling companions who had set off with their parents to move to the Far East.  And Stepan and Maria got acquainted with the same settlers, exchanged hopes for a new life and the causes of resettlement.  Something waiting for them?  This question was constantly heard and people in conversations with each other tried to establish themselves in the rightness of their decision to move, looked into each other’s eyes – did they laugh at them, did they consider them fools?  Oh, this is not an easy thing – to leave your home village and take to the unknown where.
A day later, filled with stupid bustle, when the hands that were accustomed to work did not know what to do and went over and over again to get simple and small goods, you can’t walk around on a crowded steamer, especially since they were restricted in traveling, you can’t go anywhere, the ship in the morning went to the Bosporus Strait.  It was joyful to see the land, even though it was Turkish, with ancient stone high fortresses on both banks, and then elegant houses in white boiling flowering gardens right by the sea, it seems to be  at a stone’s throw on the slopes of low mountains.  Towards evening, the Turkish capital, Istanbul, Constantinople, with golden domes of Orthodox churches and pointed Muslim minarets, sailed to the right. And another day passed in confused bustle and running from side to side: the steamer sailed the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles Strait, and everything was interesting, and everyone shouted, see there and see there, and poked a finger.  But already moaned, the love of other people’s beauty pretty tired.  And most of all exhausted the limited space.  Already quarrels began, grumbling and mutual discontent.
In addition to four tens of the displaced passengers, the steamer carried in the holds to the Far East a whole thousand soldiers, young and curious guys.  However, it was interesting for everyone to learn more about the Far East, where they will have to live, serve, to whom they will not last long, and to whom they will last forever.  It’s good that Vladivostok mayor Mr. Makovsky, a cheerful, talkative, great patriot of his land and city, who was travelled among the first-class passengers was interested in instilling in people new knowledge of the remote Russian outskirts.  Almost every evening, when the heat of the day subsided a little, he began to tell the story, surrounded by the curious.  Apparently, he was a good psychologist, because he noticed that where there was a bunch, more people would stick in, more curious people would add, and therefore he went to the immigrants; with whom, if not with them about the history of the development of the region to say, about life at the new place wag tongue, they have a particular interest in these matters, ears on the crown, will listen with their mouths open, the entire population of the ship will migrate.
•    Unknown beckons a man.  And if to curiosity – that there, beyond the horizon – essential interests are added, no, whether it is a profit, if, starting to go into the unknown, you can lose your head.  And the interests of a practical nature are: what lands lie there, are fertile, are forests rich in beasts, rivers are fish, do many people live in those places, how they live and what and don’t some kind of trade; however, if the local people are not enough, then if you don’t settle yourself on the lands that are comfortable, generous in that places, among peaceful people, not militant?  Hence, the desire of the Russian people to Siberia is endless.  Having repelled the Tatar-Mongol invasion and having strengthened the state, Mother Russia began to send its sons to the east, to grow over Siberia.  Glorious Ermak Timofeevich, having founded the city on the Tobol River, marked the beginning of a wide penetration into Siberia, the Okhotsk Sea, Kamchatka, and Russian America.  And the Amur, the Far East.  That path was long and hard, many dangers awaited of strong by spirit hunters for the unknown, more than once they had to come back , having exhausted their strength and resources and not reaching their intended goals.  But, having had a rest and gaining strength, they again and again embarked on a dangerous path, again and again they began to develop new lands, lay out guards, multiply their power and expand the Russian land.  Ataman Poyarkov, having set out with his detachment in 1643 from Yakutsk up the Aldan River and crossing the Stanovoy Range, descended along Zeya to the Amur-river and rolled on rafts into the Okhotsk Sea. He was the first Russian man who passed Amur from its source to the mouth and indicated a convenient waterway to the Great Ocean.  Seven years later, Yerofey Khabarov with his team of free-lance hunters, who had previously learned about the open rich lands and obtained the permission of the Yakutsk governor, set off on a dangerous journey and founded Ostrog Albazinsky on the Amur River.  Since then began the widespread development of the Amur.  More and more new Cossack detachments, industrialists of furs and gold seekers, and sometimes even runaway people, through Yakutsk and the Stanovoy Ridge, or through Transbaikalia, went to the vast Amur expanses, and founded guards here.  They sat down on the ground thoroughly, ploughed fields and vegetable gardens, built strong houses, acquired wives – Russians rarely, for of absence, and more and more from local beauties, and rejoiced when looking at the kids.  And if you have acquired houses and arable lands, but those houses were filled with children’s voices, it means that people have settled down firmly, that they consider the developed lands to be their own will and will never part with them, unless it is a great coercion …
The young soldiers listened attentively, and Stepan and Mary at the last words looked at each other, stroked the sons sitting next to them and felt more confident.  After all, the worm of doubt that day gnawed intently from the inside: was it not in vain that the habitable place was abandoned, grandfatherly, and rushed headlong so far away.
Paying tribute to the courage of the first explorers – the conquerors of Siberia and the Far East, the eloquent Mr. Makovsky, inspired by the noble task of raising the mood of immigrants, and instilling confidence in them is not that deliberately deceiving grateful listeners.  He kind of flattered them, lifted up spiritually, and almost equated to glorious predecessors, asserted in them the consciousness of the rightness of the matter of the plan.  After all, on whose trail are the immigrants go, whose glory is inherited?  People can be rendered, great, solid in spirit and body, multiplying the land of Russian, Orthodox.  However, it could be so, simply and did not know the Vladivostok mayor that it is far from a fervent hope to find the promised land by the “Christ-loving” atamans Poyarkov and Khabarov and their brave associates moved.  But on the contrary, greed is a brutal, unstoppable thirst for profit, impudent confidence that they will not be met by the local population – forest hunters and reindeer people of repulse due.  They did not think about the short and easy way to the east and not about the new lands for the Moscow kingdom.  And about how, with impunity, to profit from someone else’s good, long years and hard work acquired, make the aboriginal people pay tribute to the treasury, and fill their knapsacks with soft furs, women use them in new lands.  Gangs something gathered, mainly from the people fluent, grated, beasts, and in the heads they themselves chose the most dashing evil-doers desperate, who did not know what to keep.  Hence the main reason for their failures in the development of the Amur-father.  Not with kindness and affection they turned to the native population, but as murderers and rapists, which is why they met an armed rebuff. Cossack Yushka Petrov, for example,  by the ataman Poyarkov sent to scout the road from Zeya to Selimdzhe and finding the town of Pelnichegda there, not with a kind word thanked the local prince for hospitality, food and shelter, but made a massacre  and from seventy Cossacks returned to Poyarkov less than half.  And the ataman Khabarov to the governor in Yakutsk reported, boasting his prowess to the heroes, that, having caught the sister of local prince Lavkay, “that woman was questioned and tortured and burned with torture.”  He also wrote that “by the grace of God and the Sovereign happiness of those Daur, we cut everyone from head to head”; “And in those districts many people were beaten and easily possessed»; «And we chopped them to pieces, and their wives and children have had and their beasts and cattle.”
•    Having heard about the appearance of Manchu detachments in those places and not wanting border clashes with China, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich sent the embassy of Nikolay Spafariy to the Russian in Beijing in 1675.  But an agreement on the division of land could not be reached then.  The Moscow authorities attached great importance to the newly acquired lands and declared Albazin a separate province to strengthen their positions on the Amur.  And as the governor was assigned there Alexey Tolbuzin, a brave warrior and a real master, who had taken abruptly the device for the guard of a real fortress.  Yes, he did not have time.  In 1685, the fifteen thousandth Manchu army with enormous artillery approached the camp picket fence and forced the defenders of Albazin, of whom there were only four and a half hundred with three guns, to retreat.  Satisfied with the victory, the Manchus immediately destroyed the camp to the ground.  And Tolbuzin, as soon as he arrived with his detachment in Nerchinsk, was turned around and, together with the squadron centurion Beyton, sent with two hundred Cossacks to return the camp.  It was the month of August, and before winter they managed to build houses and rebuild the palisade, but in July of the following year the Manchu army returned and laid siege again.  For a whole year, the Cossacks bravely defended themselves, but their forces quickly melted under the fire of the enemy, and scurvy, which began as a result of the cessation of the supply of fresh food, took a generous tribute.  During one of their attacks on the enemy, the governor Tolbuzin himself perished.  And negotiations that began soon between the Russian government and the Chinese imperial court ended the siege.  Albazin persevered!  The talks were held in Nerchinsk at the initiative of the Russian government, who wanted to coexist in the east with a friend, but not with the enemy.  And we had to sacrifice such hard-won lands – at the insistence of the Chinese imperial court, Amur passed into the possession of China, and Russia was allotted land from the confluence of the Gorbitsa River in Shilka and further north to the Stanovoy Range.
•    The connection with the Russian possessions on the coast of the Okhotsk Sea??, in Kamchatka and Russian America through Yakutia was very difficult and it was necessary to constantly look at Amur, the great waterway, especially since, having formal rights, the Chinese did not settle these lands here.  Any economy did not lead.  Irkutsk Governor-General Myatlev in 1753, anxious about the delivery of food and household supplies to Okhotsk and Kamchatka, again offered to use Amur, but the Chinese imperial court refused to discuss a request made by the Russian government.
Listeners clearly disapproved of the actions of the Chinese emperor.  - Look, - they say – like a dog in the hay …
Mr. Makovsky, with obvious pleasure, took everyone’s attention and calmed the audience with a flick of the wrist.
“Although Ataman Poyarkov descended the Amur River to the Okhotsk Sea ?? and reached the mouth of the Hive River where built ships and where the Russian explorers already had a winter hut, but it was still believed that Amur was lost in the sands and in the lower reaches was not navigable.  The expedition of Kruzenshtern in 1804, making measurements in the Tatar Strait, that between the mainland and the island of Sakhalin and into which the Amur River flows, determined its depth only in four fathoms and, before reaching the mouth of the Amur, concluded that Sakhalin in the north was connected the mainland, and Amur is not navigable.  Forty-two years later, navigator Gavrilov in the brig Konstantin entered the mouth of the Amur and rose to the Gilyak village of Chnyrrakh, but did not dispel doubts about the availability of Amur from the sea.  Not wanting to quarrel with China, the Russian government had weighty arguments of an internal political nature to prevent the development of the Amur. Count Nesselrode, Chancellor under Emperor Nicholas I, said that far-off Siberia had until now been a deep sack into which our sins and scum descended in the form of exiles and convicts.  With the accession of Amur, the bottom of this bag will be uncoupled, and the deportees and convicts will have the opportunity to escape along the Amur to the Great Ocean and foreign countries.
“What Mikhail Bakunin did soon,” the young sailor officer who was listening to this improvised lecture, snorted.
•    Oh, this event was preceded by the unauthorized expedition of Lieutenant Commander Gennady Ivanovich Nevelskoy.  Posted in the brig “Baikal” to deliver supplies for Kamchatka, he in May 1946, knowing that he would have to be responsible for the unauthorized enterprise, set off to Sakhalin and, bending around him from the north, to the mouth of the Amur.  Passing the Tatar Strait between Sakhalin and the mainland, he proved that Sakhalin is an island, and the mouth of the Amur is accessible to all ships.  Nevelskoy, at the request of Count Nesselrode, was put on trial by the Special Committee and demoted to the rank and file, but the governor-general of Eastern Siberia Muravyov intervened to the benefit of convincing the emperor of the need to join the Amur Region to Russia.  And in time.  The following year, the English admiralty ships and American whalers appeared in those waters.  The situation has become acute – foreigners are about to establish trading stations here and declare these lands as their possessions, which they constantly did all over the world.  And Nevelskoy again decided on an unauthorised act.  On the twelfth of June, the fiftieth year, he rises along the Amur River to the Gilyak village of Tyr, disembarks there on the coast and announces to the local people that from now on they are coming under the authority of the Russian state.  After a month and a half, Gennady Ivanovich rises to Cape Kuegda, where, gathering the natives, he gives a salute from a falcon and six guns, raises the Russian flag and on behalf of the emperor declares that henceforth the mouth of the Amur, Sakhalin and the coast of the Tatar Strait from now are Russian possessions.  There, at Cape Kuegda, he founded the town of Nikolaevsk.  It was from here that after eleven years Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin fled, - the last words Mr. Makovsky personally addressed to the young officer.
•    For the Chinese, who were considered the owners of the whole Amur basin, an explanation was prepared that Nikolaevsk- is nothing more than a shop of a Russian-American company, so-so, a tiny trading post, and they should not be afraid of our territorial seizures.  But literally right there, in less than two years, Russian ships inspected and mapped numerous convenient bays and harbours to the south of the Amur estuary, and in some places installed military posts.  In the fifty-third year, the Highest order about the occupation of Sakhalin Island was issued, and settlements were established in the Aniva Bay and the mouth of the Kusunai River.  The complicated international situation, the possibility of a quick war with Britain and France, and the blockade of our western ports immediately in this case jeopardized the supply of supplies to Kamchatka, Russian America and the Okhotsk Sea coast.  Therefore, the governor-general of Eastern Siberia Muravyov strongly recommended that the government pay special attention to Amur as the most convenient transport artery for the delivery of goods to the east.  A request to Beijing was made from St. Petersburg about this, but the Chinese were arrogantly silent, and Emperor Nicholas I allowed Muravyov to make a trial rafting.  In mid-May of the fifty-fourth year, the steamer Argun, which had just been built at the Shilka plant, provided movement down the river of fifty barges and numerous rafts, with more than a thousand Cossacks, having previously notified the local Chinese authorities, in a month went down safely to the post of Mariinsky where left a hundred Cossacks and two mountain guns.  A good start has proved to all those who doubt that this path is important: it is short, suitable for rafting, convenient for settling and allows you to regularly deliver cargo.  But the main thing was that the people and supplies who arrived in Kamchatka on time provided a reflection of the Anglo-French landing force.  Yes, and the reconnoitred Amur estuary and the harbor gave shelter to the Russian fleet, when enraged by the unexpected rout in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the allies rushed to look for him.  And in the fifty-fifth year with the second rafting on the Amur in its lower reaches, the first peaceful settlers, the peasants of the Trans-Baikal and Irkutsk provinces, had already arrived.
The unknown Bakunin to Stepan Melnikov was indifferent, but what kind of land there, in the Far East, what kind of climate, would he not get lost with his family in the taiga wilderness, whether foreigners were attacking this land, this worried him.  And Mr. Makovsky knew well what exactly the migrants were concerned about.
Research in the ??Japan Sea began Russian sailors on the frigate “Pallada”.  The head of the diplomatic mission, Admiral Putyatin, heading from Japan to the mouth of the Amur, passed along the entire coast from Korea to Amur.  The map, compiled by the navigators of the Pallada, however, a small section of the coast north of Korea, was published in St. Petersburg in the fifty-seventh year.  A year earlier, in the fifty-sixth year, during the Crimean War, the English frigate “Winchester” in search of the Russian ships departed from the harbour of Petropavlovsk from a number of times superior in number to the enemy, accidentally entered Vladivostok Bay, giving it the name of Port May, and the peninsula where is now the city stands, marked by the name of their prince Albert.  It is our blessing that, in the excitement of searching for a small Russian squadron, the British did not give due attention to the very convenient location of the bay and the value that it would have in their skilled and experienced hands.  If they landed a dozen soldiers ashore, cut down a tiny fort, and raise the flag of their kingdom, all this vast territory from Korea to our settlements near the Amur estuary would have been irretrievably lost to Russia.  And together with the Vladivostok Bay, we would have lost and convenient access to the Eastern Ocean. Indeed, in addition to the very important strategic position – at the northern junction of the borders of China and Korea. So, in a day of sea passage to Japan, and with a healthy northern climate, this bay for the “Mistress of the Seas” would have no price.  Later, according to rumours, the British repented their sluggishness, but late.
Russia’s immediate exploration of this territory of such immensely important territory was hindered by our very complex relations with China.  Numerous local tribes of origin  Tungus people – the Orochs, Udege, Golds, Nivkhs – were considered by the Chinese emperors to be their vassals, although they did not have official relations with them, and did not even demand tribute.  Economic ties, however, existed: in exchange for cheap fabrics and iron products, - da-tzu, which means “native” in Chinese – supplied ginseng, considered to be precious in the east, miraculous antlers and furs.  In the fifty-ninth year, yes, thirty years ago, looking around the coast of the  ??Japan Sea  from the Imperial Harbour to Korea, the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, Count Muravyov-Amursky, decided that the Golden Horn Bay, also named because of its undeniable similarity to the bay of Constantinople. It is necessary, due to its very convenient location, to establish a military port. And the name of the port picked up the harmonious – Vladivostok, bearing in mind the earlier emergence of Vladikavkaz and assigning to the future city an equally important role.  Moreover, in May of the fifty-eighth year in the Chinese city on Amur river Aigun “for the sake of a great, eternal mutual friendship of both states” a treaty was concluded, defining the border between our powers, which after a fortnight was reinforced by the Tientsin Treaty.  Having approved the Aigun and Tianjin treatises, the Chinese emperor Xianfeng began to fluctuate: Although those lands are far away and they are inhabited by barbarians, then suddenly in the future they will be needed.  But here such misfortunes fell upon the imperial family, which was no longer for them to distant northern lands.
Taking advantage of the Taiping uprising that had lasted for ten years and the civil war caused by it, the British and French troops approached Beijing.  Emperor Xianfeng became very frightened and ran away from the city, disappeared into his faraway province.  The Russian envoy, Major General Count Ignatiev, assisted the emperor of China, settled the issue of the withdrawal of foreign troops from the capital and facilitated the conclusion of a peace treaty.  The Chinese government was grateful to Russia for saving the capital and assisting in the withdrawal of the invaders’ forces and at the same time signed the Beijing Treaty, which swept away the last ambiguities of the previously concluded treatises and confirmed that the border between Russia and China would pass along the Amur River, then up along the Ussuri to its confluence  the Sungachi River, along the channel of this river to Lake Khanka, which the border will divide in half, then the boundary line will go to the Tumenula River, beyond which the Korean kingdom begins, and end at the mouth of this river in the Japanese Sea.  Fortunately, there were no Chinese settlements there, and the Russians left the Amur left bank pretty densely.  Thus, the accession of the Amur region occurred through a purely diplomatic and did not cost Russia a single drop of blood, not a single released cartridge.
  And so, on the twentieth of June of the sixtieth year, the military transport “Manchu” under the command of Lieutenant Commander Shefner entered the Golden Horn Bay at three o’clock in the afternoon.  The mist cleared, and the gaze of the sailors was opened by a magnificent spacious bay with emerald green beaches, thick forest, full of game, with ringing rivers running down from low surrounding hills ... Sailors brought to the boats 30 people with commander warrant officer Komarov on sailboats to the shore, entrenching tools, logs and boards, harvested still in Nikolayevsk for the construction of housing.  Stepping into the dense coastal thickets, someone noticed a strange red animal and loudly informed the comrades about it.  Fear, fortunately, were in vain, it was not a tiger, but a curious, fearful wild goat.  Tigers, however, and until now often visit the city, they like to eat dogs.  And the whale swims into the bay every year, he added, noticing the boys’ eyes, which were rounded with amazement and joyful delight.
Mr. Makovsky told vividly, fascinatingly, he appealed to the settled peasants and recruiting soldiers with particular respect, and they paid him with silent gratitude and sympathy, which they transferred to distant lands, liberating themselves internally from obscure fear of languishing uncertainty.
•    Having established the border with China, Russia was extremely interested in settling the newly acquired lands as soon as possible.  To strengthen our statehood there, and to create villages and Cossack stanitsas with abundant populations, so that the land was cultivated and produced enough products not only for the rapidly growing population, but also for the troops guarding the eastern frontiers of our gigantic empire, but also for export goods.  In addition, there is a constant need for the speedy development of Vladivostok as a coastal base of the Siberian military flotilla, a major military and commercial port.  Cargo for the entire Far East is easier and cheaper to ship by sea, and for this you need to build a port with quay walls, ship repair shops, dry docks, warehouses for cargo storage, and take care of the population, which will build a city with its houses and streets, factories and  plants, warehouses and workshops;  industriously will begin to produce thousands and thousands of things, without which the life of a modern person with his unquenchable thirst for activity and the habit of certain comfort is simply impossible.  Sensing the urgent need for settling a vast region, the military governor of the MARITIME TERRITORY decided to install soldiers who had served their military service and deported deportees to the southern regions. Already in September of the sixtieth year, four men and three women from among the exiles were sent from Nikolayevsk to the Bay of Saint Olga and settled in the village of Novinka, a mile and a half from the military post.  A year later, they were joined by four more families of exiles who had previously served hard labour.  To acquire a new place and to aim at the peasant labour, each family was given a horse and a cow, two sheep, seeds of vegetables and cereals.  And since they arrived late at the settlement, they were put on allowance: men were given a soldier’s ration, and women — half .... But the former inhabitants of the jails turned out to be a little suitable contingent for long and hard work on the uninhabited land.  And the women are not married with their masters passed from one to another and served only as an apple of discord, and not the basis of the economy.  The settlers were not engaged in rural labour, but were interrupted by odd jobs in the harbour.  The attempt to populate the region with soldiers who had served military service was not crowned with success.  The hopes were laid on fifteen soldiers who settled in the sixty-second year near Holy Olga and founded the village of Fuding on the left bank of the Avvakumovka River, but only four of them were married, and the rest were unmerried, and they did not begin farming.  Each settler was immediately handed one hundred thirty rubles, but this amount was completely insufficient for the purchase of agricultural equipment and food before the first harvest.  Therefore, the serving soldiers engaged either in hunting or in the search for casual earnings in the harbor.
The young soldiers went over their unlucky predecessors with merry mockery and even somewhat overzealous in their mischief, from which the women who were present indignantly snorted.  However, the battalion commander, an elderly lieutenant colonel, immediately called his army to order.
“Why didn’t you try to organise a free relocation?”  - asked the naval officer.
•    In the sixty-first year in American newspapers published in Czech, a letter was printed in which the natural wealth of the Amur Region was hotly praised.  The author of the letter expressed the hope that the Russian government would not refuse the Czechs to allow them to colonise these vacant lands, help them financially for the initial acquisition and allow them to maintain control in their own villages according to the customs of the settlers.  At that time, quite a lot of Czechs lived in America, and a significant part of them appealed to the Russian embassy in Washington with a request to move to the South Ussuri region.  They chose two delegates – the publishers of the Czech newspapers Mrachek and Barto-Letovsky, who bravely set off across the ocean.  At the end of July, sixty-second year, they arrived in Vladivostok on the “Rider” clipper, chose a plot on the shores of the Ussuri Bay for the intended settlement, and applied for land allocation, but their conditions did not suit the specific department of the Russian government.  A little earlier, in April of the sixty-first year, the specific department in the newspapers published a message about the settlement of the Amur region and the South Ussuri region and informed the rules for attracting those who want to settle.  In short, these rules bring down to the following.  The state allotted to the future settlers, upon their election, free areas of state-owned land for temporary possession or in full ownership, in the latter case with the payment of three rubles for the tithe of land.  It was possible to settle as separate farms, and whole societies consisting of at least fifteen farms.  They did not spare the land for the settlers – they allocated a hundred tithes per family.  In addition, the settlers were exempted from serving recruitment duty for ten sets, and forever from the head tax.  Only after twenty years, provided the rules, the settlers will be required to pay the state land tax, which by that time will be installed.
Peasant migrants listened attentively, interested, and approvingly nodding their heads with such attractive rules of the specific agency.  However, Stepan had a slightly different opinion and dared to express it, feeling his wife’s tacit support – the Earth is distant, unexplored, and moving to a pretty penny will be released.  The matter is dubious ... There are still not many hunters to move there.
Mr. Makovsky nodded in agreement and continued, making it clear that the main thing is still to come – For the speedy colonisation of the southern part of the Russian coast of the Japan Sea, the Specific Department had a new idea.  The trustee of the Special Department, brother of Lieutenant-Commander Furugelm, commander of the “Prince Menshikov” transport, who first examined these shores as early as 1864 year, went to Primorye and chose Kazakevich Island, which since seventy-first year became known as Russky.  And the MARITIME TERRITORY of the Mayhe River, which flows into the Ussuri Bay, south to America Bay, so called by the crew of the Russian Steamer Corvette “America”, which opened it in the fifty-ninth year. In total, by Furugelm was chosen to settle about half a million tithes.  The specific department assigned the migrants fifty tithes of land per family.  And the benefits provided large.  For the first twenty-four years, taxes were not levied on them, and at the expiration of this period a rent of fifty kopecks per tithe was established.  If the family wants to cultivate a larger plot of land, then for God’s sake, and the rent was established for an area exceeding fifty tithes. However, demands were also made for the colonists to build a house and to plough a field arable land in the first two years on the plot.
•    I heard that foreigners were more willing to colonise southern Primorye than the Russians and Little Russians. Apparently, the business vein in them is more developed. How are they doing?  - An elderly public education official asked, with his family heading to a new duty station.
•    How to say .. Here, for example, in the sixty-eighth year from Finland on the steamer “Alexander II” to the bay Nakhodka, which is in the Gulf of America, one hundred and sixteen people arrived – the company was variegated – paramedics, photographers, sausages, bricks men The location of the Specific Department was located here and people hoped to find the promised land and the heavenly mountains. But the climate turned out to be unusual – a cold, snow-less winter, dank, damp spring and summer, a century-old dense taiga, never tilled land in the glens of mountain rivers ... However, no.  Suchan valley – one of the best places for agriculture in the region.  Unfortunately, the Finns had no skills for peasant labour, so their undertaking failed and after a year and a half the colony collapsed, and the colonists scattered where they were.  Part of them, however, settled in Vladivostok, engaged in crafts, trade.  But from then until the beginning of the eighties by sea, new settlers in the Primorsky region did not arrive.  Depleted and resettlement land.  From two to three years on carts across the whole of Siberia through bad roads is an unbearable, difficult, painful, hungry path.  And not every strong adult managed to defeat him, and even more so for children.  In addition, the losers that could not overpower the wild nature and establish themselves in new places, returning to their native village,  told about the way, unbearable deprivation, cattle, virgin virgin land, age-old taiga, rare and very small settlements, escaped convicts robbing everyone on the roads of Siberia, that even the overpopulated central provinces of Russia and Little Russia, crushed by need and landlessness, did not risk torturing happiness.  Meanwhile, the Far Eastern riches attracted the attention of the British, French, Americans, Germans, and China vigorously began to inhabit the previously uninhabited expanses of northern Manchuria with us.  All this created a great danger for the possessions of Russia in the Far East.  For example, in the seventy-eighth year, the English military ship invaded the Golden Horn Bay, and after the demands of our military authorities to leave it, it moved to the next Diomede Bay.  There, the British even landed a military landing party!  Well, it didn’t come up to the shooting, our soldiers drove the English into the water with their fists and kicks, and they got out of the way.
Here the soldiers laughed amicably, and their brave commander turned the right red moustache militantly and, as if after a major victory, began to light a cigarette.
“But we had little military forces in the Far East,” Mr. Makovsky spread out with his hands, “and therefore it is extremely dangerous to depend on European Russia — until you get reinforcements from there, block enemy Vladivostok from the sea, or, God forbid, land it on land. Shortly, life itself urgently demanded wide involvement of people in our distant suburbs and the speedy creation here of not even military outposts, but numerous inhabited localities with an abundant population and developed industry.  It was then that the governor-general of Eastern Siberia, Anuchin, proposed that the South Ussuri region be settled by sea.  General Anuchin was an experienced administrator, he knew well the ways to prominent dignitaries, who had the right to make state decisions, knew how to properly present the necessary facts, and even by Emperor Alexander II was accepted.  And so, on the first of June of the eighty second, the Council of State passed the necessary decision.  This decision was promoted by the fact that, since the 1879 year, consignors from the Odessa to Sakhalin-island regularly delivered shipments of convicts, and a year later, over a thousand more soldiers from Kronstadt to Vladivostok were transported by ship.
•    Of course, even by the sea and scary, but much faster.  Two months is not two or three years. You will drive there, you will join, and you will kill the horse, bulls, until you reach the place, - the peasants-immigrants unanimously supported General Anuchin.   - The settlers who arrived in the new lands were given at least fifteen tithes of land for every male soul, but not more than one hundred tithes per family.  And, most importantly, this land could be redeemed in full ownership for three rubles per tithe.  For the first five years of residence in the Far East, migrants were exempt from government taxes and all kinds of duties.
•    Of course, the government’s decision to relocate seven hundred and fifty families in three years could not in any way solve the problem of a broad colonisation of the region, but an example was important, hoping that thousands and thousands of new settlers would follow.  Indeed, besides free travel, the settlers were provided with food for a year and a half at the rate of sixty pounds of flour and ten pounds of cereals per month, a hundred rubles of allowance for each family, a pair of oxen or horses, a cow and seeds for sowing.  The economic burden was born by the state a great deal – only the relocation of a member of the immigrant’s family cost him almost a thousand three hundred rubles.  For a more uniform resettlement of settlers in the new lands, it was decided to settle them not in the already existing villages, but to create new ones, and moreover at a distance of no more than ten miles from one another and with the number of yards no more than twenty-five.  Farm economy were also encouraged.  In the same, eighty-third year, the first settlers also went to the “Green Wedge”, and the following year, forty-five families of their own, that is, those who accepted the costs of resettlement, were added to two hundred and fifty state-owned settlers.  Already in the eighty-fifth year, the number of self-contained ones increased to one hundred and thirty-one families, and it would have been more if there were then enough ships for relocation.
•    The local authorities were very pleased with the immigrants, because the expenses of the resettlement administration had to be significantly lower, and the people were selected more reliable.  But for acquiring at the place of resettlement with the necessary economy, a certain amount of money was required, and very considerable.  Therefore, it was found that in addition to the cost of transportation by sea, the settler, arriving in Vladivostok, was obliged to have six hundred rubles in cash, however, for housing, the purchase of livestock, agricultural implements, seeds ... However, those who do not have this amount it was, the resettlement office came to the rescue and issued a loan, first fully six hundred rubles, and after a few years, an amount was missing to six hundred.  Moreover, the loan was issued for thirty-three years, of which the first five was concessional, and in the next twenty-eight it was planned to take six percent per annum.
“Similarly, they told us in the resettlement office in Chernigov,” the men nodded their heads, satisfied that the Vladivostok mayor confirmed what had been heard before, and affirmed that the step was correct.
•    But the need to settle the Far Eastern region by delivering an excess of the population of the central provinces of Russia and the Ukraine had many enemies, primarily in the person of influential landowners, the nobility, the traditional pillars of the throne.  Resettlement significantly affected their interests – after all, the more people, the higher the price of the land they owned.  Remember, the royal manifesto and the Provision of the nineteenth of February sixty-first year for the landowners recognised all land ownership rights in the estate, including the peasant allotment.
Yes, and industrialists are interested in an excess population: long lines of job seekers allow them to set low wages and the most severe working conditions.  Therefore, after a stubborn struggle in the State Council, from the eighty-seventh year, resettlement at public expense was stopped.

On the forty-sixth day of the voyage, during which the settlers survived the exhausting rocking and extreme heat of the Indian Ocean along the equator, tropical thunderstorms with violent rain along Malacca, and the most severe storm in the Yellow Sea, and the shock of the death of a three-year-old kid from measles and his funeral  in the depths of the sea, and the joy of the wedding of a young girl and lad, who, according to Orthodox custom and maritime laws, were christened by the battalion priest who wore the patterned gold stitching stole and the steamer captain  at white, covered with gold galloon parade uniform made an entry in the ship’s log, and the rest of the three-day parking for replenishment of coal and fresh water in the exhausting and humid and wet port of Singapore, where the steamer passengers dispersed respectfully to take a look at the elegant, white houses of the colonial administration, under coconut trees, Malaysian huts along the slow muddy creek under million-legs mangrove trees, formidable English cannons protected by blacks Hindu soldiers, in snow-white turbans and red cloth uniforms ,”Kostroma” in the morning, approaching the silver shroud of thick fog, slowed down, it was, move, but, lingering screaming thick and hoarse voice of the siren and loudly hitting in to shine polished bronze bell, bravely dived into the fog, which soon dissipated and exposed already first green shores of the Russian island, then sharp peaks of twin rocks “donkey ears” and steep high steepness of the Shkota Peninsula, and a spacious raid, and calm smooth water of the Golden horn Bay, and the city of Vladivostok, the capital of the South Ussuri region, clung to it with a narrow strip on the Northern shore.
Ugh... here we are!

HARAKIRI SAIGO TAKAMORI.  TALKING TWO SAMURAI
The dawn coloured the east with a pale pink light, clearly outlining the contour of the smoking volcano Sakurajima behind a shallow and narrow bay. * In the ancient castle of the Satsuma princes, whom he faithfully served all his life, Saigo no-Takamori **, the great warrior, generalissimos, the banner of the samurai country Yamato, began preparations for his last battle.  Outwardly, he was calm, in slow motion, dispositions gave a steady, clear voice.  But anger choked him.  Raising a rebellion he was convinced that the emperor did not consider his act a violation vassal loyalty.  Didn’t he, Saigo Takamori, defeat the last shogun Keiki, didn’t he collect the samurai under the slogan “Sonno” — reverence and loyalty to the imperial house?  And the uprising ... well, it was raised against those who took advantage of his victory, rejected the principle of “joi”, which called for the expulsion of gaijin — red-haired barbarians who had so densely filled the divine land of Nihon, against his former comrade, who had by fraud the power.  Now, surrounded by the imperial troops recruited from commoners — peasants, townspeople, even pariahs — on Mount Shiroyama *** and had suffered several defeats lately from this people, Saigo no longer expected to win.  What, then, is his karma...? But, sending the pitiful remnants of his troops to certain death, he did not seek either refuge or salvation.  After spending his life in battle, he no longer fear death.  Yes, and the honour of the samurai, the code of Bushido — The Way of the Warrior, which he professed profoundly and whom he taught his subordinates, demanded to go to the ancestral world through seppuku.
His soul hurt.  And not even defeat — a real warrior should be ready more likely not to victories, but to defeats.
And if from other, very rare defeats, he only got stronger, ready again for battles, now he felt that he would not rise in spirit ... This battle is the last.  After all, not only the remnants of his troops, loyal to the old traditions of the samurai, died. Perished faith in the revival of the spirit of the country Yamato, the inviolability of the usual way of life, dying high dream and purpose of life: it was him, like none of his three long-time predecessors, to conquer first Korea, and then China ..., and become the true title holder Sei Tai Shogun — Great Commander, Conqueror of the Barbarians!
* Mutsuhito — 1852 -1912 — Japanese Emperor (1867-1912).  The years of his rule were officially named Meiji — Enlightened Board.
* Sakurajima — a volcano on the island of Kyushu
** Saigo Takamori — 1827-1877, the Minister of War in the Government of Japan, in the spring of 1877 raised a rebellion to Kyushu, known as the “Satsuma War.”
*** Shiroyama is a mountain in the vicinity of Kagoshima.
**** Okubu Tosimichi — 1832-1877, Minister of Finance, Internal Affairs.
From the city there were sounds of a pipe, a sign of an upcoming assault, and several shots from rifles.  But Saigo’s thoughts no longer belonged to the battle, not to his comrades, not to the emperor, or even to his personal enemy.  The enemy is now busy with his Iki-rayo — the spirit of death, which almost a year since it separated from Saigo and invisibly hovers over Okubo, is looking for an opportunity catch him by surprise and strike him.  But Saigo relied not only on his iki-rayo.  He sent loyal yamabushi — ninjas and kunoichi — ninja women, who in traditional black, tight-fitting clothes, or in festive kimonos of hostess geishas, or magnificent prostitutes-oyran, available only to the highest nobility, will find a convenient moment and send a sharp arrow from a short bow hankau, which can be conveniently hidden under clothes, or hit with a sharpened steel edge of a tessen — a combat fan, or a shuriken — a flat disk with deadly teeth.
Saigo’s thoughts belonged to his own karma fate.
Warrior must learn
The only thing is
Look into the eyes of death
Without thrill
In the dojo, a small and carefully guarded palace courtyard, he gave the last orders to sa-konai and u-konai, the generals of the left and right sides of the defence, telling them to rush into battle, gesturing for the bodyguard and several other loyal soldiers to stay. The bodyguard, a fearless and strong warrior, skilfully wielding a sword, belonging to him not only as a soul, but also as a body, an offspring of an ancient and noble family, was to serve him as a kaishaku - a second and an executioner.  Others will act like kenshi: they will officially testify that Saigo died a true samurai.
Shaking off his light sandals, Saigo stepped onto a new, woven from fresh yellow rice straw tatami, sat down, cross-legged, and calmly looked at the glowing east.  He firmly knew that Bushido is the Way of the Warrior, this is the stony, difficult road to death.  He honestly passed this way.  True to serving first the Satsuma princes Shimadzu, and then Emperor Meiji *, he was always ready to die with dignity: in combat, as a warrior, and having suffered defeat — without the slightest hesitation of the soul or inner regret — through seppuku.  The time has come: his keisaku carefully tied Saigo hachimaki — wide white headband, a sign that the warrior is ready for the last effort of his soul and will, and kneeling before him, filled and served a bowl of rice wine.  Saigo felt the light aroma of sake, brought the cup to his lips and took four sips: iti — one,  nee – two, san – three,  shi — death — four!
At this time, having easily risen to his feet, his kaishaku quickly and deftly wrapped the hilt of his long two-handed sword with white silk, as a symbol of purity and death, , and bowed low to Saigo.
Having untied the obi, Saigo flung open his kimono and smooth movement threw him off his shoulders revealing his still not old, muscular body.  One of the kenshi in the bow gave him a short sword on a lacquered tray, gave it so that

Saigo had to reach for it, pulling his neck.  Seeing this movement, the bodyguard caught himself thinking that he longed to wave sharply sword and prevent the suffering of a beloved leader.  But he resisted, not wanting to stir up the purity of Saigo’s last will, nor to cause the possible smiles of his many enemies, and even knowing that he would not let him suffer in agony.
Saigo took the sword from the tray, glanced at the bluish blade, clasped the handle with both hands and plunged the sharp blade from the left into the stomach.  Having held it to the right, he opened the focus of spirit, energy, will, anger, kindness, wisdom and all life, and freed his soul with a clean and not defiled.  Then, calmly and impassively turning his sword in the wound, Saigo held it up a little, thus making zamondzi — the seppuku of a real busi.  Now, he knew, all samurai, friends and enemies would honour his greatest honour and dignity.  Pulling out his sword from the wound, stretching forward and pulling his neck, he laid it on the tray with a horizontal movement of his right hand.  At that very moment, flashed a long sword of the kaishaku, and Saigo’s head fell to the ground.  So Saigo no-Takamori left, and the old, feudal land of Yamato went with him.
And in the east, an orange-red sun was rising in a clear sky.  The coming day promised bad weather.

Two samurai, young and old, on the autumn day of the tenth year of Meiji (1877) sat sadly in a miserable tavern on the very outskirts of Kagoshima at an empty, in essence, table, and said goodbye.  One of them had to go to Nagasaki tomorrow and then across the sea, and the second was destined to stay still serving in the castle of the Satsuma prince.
Before, they were not friendly, rather, they hardly knew each other, and the age difference was noticeable — about thirty years, but after all that happened, when the world collapsed for a young samurai, and only the bitterness of defeat splashed in his heart, only old Ando went with him to drink a farewell bottle of sake.  However, in Kagoshima, he has almost no friends left — those who died in the battle on Mount Siroyama, who cowardly fled, hurrying to escape the government forces, and are now hiding in the homes of relatives and acquaintances, who, like himself, listened bravely to the severe sentence and should have obeyed ... However, with whom did he have only to dispel spiritual bitterness, with whom to spread the word of farewell, with whom to drink the last, maybe, cup of sak; on his native land?  Well, it’s good that Ando, the old warrior who served in the defence of the Kagoshima prince for about forty years, kept him company.  Of course, not because of a special intimacy, but rather because Ando is known to everyone in the castle as a great lover of tasty food and drink.  And he will never miss the chance to visit the merry quarter.  And maybe because Ando is just like a human sympathiser, he knows that a similar, if not worse, fate was destined to him, yes, apparently, he was lucky ...
— Ando-dono, let’s order some more sake?
“Naysan,” Ando waved, “come here, honey.”  “First of all, throw out the flies, how many are circling around, it choose to our sake, let it pay for themselves first, distract from the conversation and prevent from admiring your nice face, and then bring one more bottle.  Spread the shoji, give us plenty to enjoy the sight of smoking Sakurajima lit by the setting sun.
The girl smiled affably at her old acquaintance, the brave and cheerful samurai Ando, who often bravely entered into combat with bottles of sak; and left many yens in their tavern, casually waved the towel at the flies, why it angrily buzzed, deeply insulted by her unexpected disobedience, and spread it out.  Light wooden walls pasted over the already long burst of paper septum, letting in a gust of fresh autumn breeze, and vividly brought a narrow high three-go bottle of sacred drink, so respected by men.
— And what to eat?
— Fly, bird, fly, we have enough of those cookie crumbs.  Food, it in vain takes place in the stomachs, intended for a drink.  Fly, bird ..
.—  “So,” Ando continued their conversation, “I argue that the Spanish missionary Francisco Xavier **, who landed here during the time of the Tammon *** and blamed confusion in the souls of the people with the sermons of faith in Esu Cyristo-sama and Santa Maria-sama, was guilty of everything that happened.  
The young samurai stared in amazement, “So long ago?”
- Of course.  Everything starts somewhere and disappears somewhere.  And our troubled times began three hundred years ago, and their roots sprouted from grains thrown onto our land by all these disgusting red-headed foreigners.
The young samurai shook his head drunkenly, - Something does not believe me that because of the Spanish missionary, especially three hundred years ago, something could happen that happened ...
“An ancient saying says,” Ando raised an instructive index finger, “that the peasants, like sesame seed, the more you press, the more you get.”  So it was from time immemorial, doubt about the truth of the religion of the ancestors, disrespect for our gods, little by little, and made the peasants disobedient, insolent, and in the end collapsed with an avalanche of rebellions, and finally  Saigo’s defeat..
“But how do you know about this Xavier, aren’t you three hundred years old?”
- No, I’m not three hundred, only fifty.  I am the same age as Saigo, we started the same samurai-gozi and serviced together in the Kagosim castle at the old prince Shimazu Narioki.
- You see?
- Not only see, but hear.  And I know twice as much as you, - Ando carefully looked at the raised finger, then brought it closer to the face, then set it aside.
- Firstly, I am twice as old as you, and secondly, look, I know that I’m showing you one finger, but I see two ... So in everything!
- Two, it is because we have already drunk enough ...
- The more I drink, the more sober.  Consider that living twice as much means not only drinking and eating twice as much, but also seeing, hearing, knowing, knowing and remembering twice as much.  As for Xavier and other redheads, even the long-dead old men told, from the words of their fathers and grandfathers, that the peasants had previously been obedient and executive, but the new religion had completely spoiled them.
“So why did the daimyos * and the shoguns ** not eradicate such a harmful religion?”
They tried, and repeatedly, and Toyotomi *** and Tokugawa ****, but nothing happened with them.  The overseas religion is cunning and cunning, anticipating the danger, it went to the lower levels, to the mobile, like a running wave in the coastal sand.
________________________________________________
* Go — unit of measure of liquid in 0.18 litres
** Francisco Xavier landed at Kagoshima in 1549
*** Years of Emperor Tammon — 1532-1555
**** Shogunate is a form of government in Japan from the end of the 12th century to 1868.
*** Toyotomi Hideyoshi - 1536 – 1598. Shogun.
**** Tokugawa Ieyasu - 1542 – 1616. Shogun.


“And I heard that the peasants became bold and disobedient because if they had worked with small families on their mountain plots, now their grandchildren work in large groups in factories and plants ... Wolves have gotten together in large flocks and have become bold and especially dangerous .
“Maybe because,” Ando agreed, “but the main reason is someone else’s faith.” When a person forgets the religion of the fathers — do not expect good.
They poured sake and remembered Saigo for the tenth time.
-Ando-dono, tell me, what was Prince Shimazu Narioki?
Ando wiped his mustache with the back of his hand, threw a piece of sembei in his mouth — a dry biscuit, raised his index finger, looked at it attentively, grunted with satisfaction and, remembering, replied with displeasure, — Well, what?  Ordinary ... He loved to play in a sugoroku…,  always walked in a black kimono with coats of arms, was strict, gloomy and angry.  The character has independent, but he tried not to quarrel with the shogun.  And he was very susceptible to foreign innovations.  He sent his young samurai to England and Holland to study overseas crafts, invited overseas craftsmen, and built reflective and blast-furnace iron-making furnaces, a cannon factory, a textile factory, and gunpowder and canvas enterprises.  He also built the first in the country Yamato larger warship with sixteen cannons, the same as foreigners.
And the people were very dissatisfied with them? “Not so much, Ando said thoughtfully, “and the uprisings in principality remember only two.  The peasants who grew sugar cane on princely lands were strictly forbidden to eat sweet stalks.  For this they were beat with the whip mercilessly, and for a bundle of stolen reeds could have been killed.  So they rebelled.
— So what?
— I’m sorry, what...?  We arrived, the prince’s squad, and everything ..., — Ando, gloomy, fell silent.
“But did the non-believers in Esu Kyristo-sama revolt?”
“Who knows what they believed?”  Shimazu Narioki himself professed Shinto and in his principality destroyed not only the temples of Christo-sama, but also the Buddha.
“So the non-red-headed missionaries fanned the grievances?”
— Not red-headed missionaries fanned discontent, they were not here for a long time, but they became the cause of the uprising.  And their religion, and their goods.
“Ando-dono, you’re not saying something.” Why is goods here?
— Oh, you do not understand?  — drunken Ando laughed.  — They take out such an abyss of our goods in the holds of their ships that it were missed in the country, and bring in a lot of their cheap, and all prices in the country are messed up, and ordinary people began to buy it beyond their means.  And angry people are like a handful of dry powder ...
“Why, then, were these redheads allowed into the Yamato country?”
— And they did not ask permission.  First, the Portuguese were allowed to trade, the Dutch followed them, then the Spaniards, the French, the British, the Americans, the Russians ... They were persistently expelled, but in the sixth year Kaei the Americans sailed on the huge battleship and under the threat of guns forced the shogun to sign an agreement of friendship, and then of trade ...
— But the Confucian sages in Edo say that all evils stem from the people forgot about their duty to the daimyo and the shogun ...
Ando scornfully wrinkled his nose, — There is such a parable.  In search of food, two hungry wolves searched the entire village at night, but found nothing.  Suddenly a door opened in one of the houses, and a sage-Confucian came out into the street, mumbling his instructions.  Do not die wolves from hunger?  Here is one of them and swallowed the sage, but then immediately belched out in disgust.  The other wolf, who envied him, asked in amazement, “Why didn’t you like such a plump sage?”  —Rotten — was his answer.
— And yet, did it really even then, in the years of Kaei * and Ansei **, the government of Baku *** didn’t have the mind and energy to expel the redheads?
Ando reluctantly replied, “I was in the protection of the prince, and often attended his conversations with advisers and bakufu officials and realised that there were enough of it, but with the forces it was not so good.  In addition, there was a great confusion among the daimyos.  Some were busy with the internal problems of their principalities, others did not want to submit to the government of bakufu, and still others, like our prince, were already Shimazu Hisamitsu, although in words they supported the expulsion of foreigners from Japan, but they were invited to come.  Daimyos knew the power of the guns of foreigners, and that without their help  could not get out of the wildness, but they did not understand that it was impossible to resist the separate principalities of the redheads.  I remember how much trouble there was in Kagoshima castle, when in the first year of Bungyu * it became known that the Russian military ship “Posadnik” had captured the principality of Tsushima.  Tsushima Prince was powerless and there was no one to help him.  It is good that after a while the English warships forced the Russians to get out, but how all were frightened by the arrogance and impudence of the redheads ...
The young samurai shook his head in dismay. — Similarly, you will not go against foreign guns and shotguns with swords and in leather armor.
“So some daimyos hoped, using the help of the redheads, to properly arm themselves first, and only then ...”
“That’s right, right,” the young samurai ardently supported them, “first properly arm, and then
•    The years of the reign of Emperor Kaei - 1848 – 1854 ** Years of Emperor Ansei — 1854-1859 *** Bakufu — (shogun) — a form of government in feudal Japan * The years of the reign of Emperor Bungyou - 1861 – 1864



“It was clear that the redheads immediately realised that on the feuds of the parties, one of which supported the shogun, and the other — the emperor, they can warm hands, and began to arm them.  The French are the shogunate, and England their opponents.
“And only then,” Ando continued mockingly, daimyos realised that to arm themselves, they must either use their weapons already prepared, that is, become completely dependent on the redheads, which they didn’t want, or build their own factories that without a lot of money and the help of the same redheads is impossible ...
“Exactly,” the young samurai agreed perplexedly, “not that a warship, even a cannon, a gun cannot be forged in a forge, it is not a samurai sword.— Did the Satsum prince support what party?
— I have already rendered that the prince at that time was Shimazu Hisimitsu, the father of the current prince.  Princely arrogance, insatiable greed, wish to rise above all daimyos and become equal with the shogun, and cunning, cowardice, and cunning, merged in his soul.  Yes, here is an example.  In the second year of Bunkyu in the month of Hazuki in Namamugi, during the procession of Prince Shimazzu, he was met by three of them in the principality invited Englishmen who wanted to admire an unusual sight for them.  And the princely arrogance of Hisamitsu leaped to the point that he ordered them to be beaten.  I was not present there, remained in the Kagosima castle, but according to the stories, one Englishman was hacked with a sword, and two were wounded.  Less than a year, as the British, in retaliation from a warship, shelled Kagoshima.  Imagine a panic in our small, light-built wooden houses. The town, when enemy nuclei fell upon it.  Hisamitsu tirelessly insisted that he was for the closure of the country and the removal of foreigners, but everyone in Satsuma was aware of his smuggling trade.  In words, he was against the mercantile spirit alien to the true samurai and the technical innovations of the redheads, but he insistently introduced them into his principality, developing trade with foreigners. “We are all double-faced now,” the young samurai muttered bitterly. — His soul was rushing.  On the one hand, he was a supporter of the party of the rise of the emperor and the expulsion of the barbarians, and on the other hand, he believed that the  Bakufu  government provides with at least some order in the country; what will happen when young and ardent supporters of the veneration of the emperor come to power is not known.  His soul was torn to pieces.  As a loyal vassal, he supported the shogun, but he strove to rise above all daimyos and impose his will on the Yamato empire.  And for this he needed a modern weapon of redheads, that is, trade with them.  I remember well how, despite the strictest ban on all intercourse with the redheads, Prince Shimazzu Hisamitsu invited the English ambassador Parks and the commander of their squadron King to his castle.  What for?  — you ask.  Of course, he and Saigo requested weapons.
The young samurai listened to the old warrior with keen interest.  And it was clear that not mere curiosity, but some deep secret thoughts have him.  When Ando, having reprimanded himself, fell silent for a long time, the young samurai poured into a cup the sak; to soften the steel of his soul.
— Saigo was already an adviser to the prince?
— Take it higher.  Saigo has already commanded the Satsuma army!
- And what about you, Ando-dono, after all, you say, you started with Saigo?
You want to say why I was just a warrior?  Eh, here, you know, nobody knows who won, and who lost, who got more, and who less, who was happier in life ... Now, let’s say, where is Saigo now?  And I am here, I sit with you for a cup of sak; and commemorate his soul.  Saigo loved to dispose of other people’s destinies, he loved power, he loved to command people, he loved to interfere in politics ... And I love the sake ... He also pulled me into his affairs, said that he would give me a place in the principality for helping.  And I, it was, followed him.  But then, one day, we gathered in Fushimi to discuss the plan of attack on the shogun’s palace in Edo, and suddenly a great thirst began to torment me.  I am not a fan of judgmental views, and so I went to the cheerful quarter, put on a wide amigas hat and disappeared into sake for a week.  And when returned to the hotel Terada, I learned that part of her guests were killed, and partly dragged to prison.  So judge what they got - lovers of intrigue and conspiracy, and what I got - a lover of sak;.
And what about Saigo Takamori?
- He was also lucky then - the prince sent him to exile on the island of Tokunoshima and he did not come to Fushimi.
“But now there is no luck,” exclaimed the young samurai.
— Any luck ends sooner or later.  Saigo was long lucky, all his life, you can give.  But everything has a beginning and still has an end, — philosophically remarked Ando, and again filled the cup.
— Why he was lucky?
— You are young and, apparently, ambitious.  People like you and Saigo love to climb to the summits alone, but early or late fall ...
— I am moderately ambitious and moderately lover of conquering peaks, and it flatters me that you compared me to Saigo.  No wonder I was his personal bodyguard.  But it is very important for me to know why Saigo and Okubu Tosimichi, simple Satsuma samurai-gosi, managed to rise to the top of power in Yamato, destroyed the shogun, restored imperial rule, and then ... Saigo made himself seppuku.  Okubu — shot ...
— Why is it important to you?  — drunkenly grinned Ando.
— According to family saying, my distant ancestor Fujiwara-no-Yoshifus in the reign of the fifty-sixth emperor Showa, when he was only nine years old, was appointed the supreme ruler of the country Yamato. A few years later, the emperor Showa issued a decree according to which the descendants of Fujiwara Yoshifus should enjoy the hereditary privileged right to be appointed to the rulers of juvenile emperors and to the presidential ministers when the emperors reached adulthood.
 * Showa — the emperor.  Years of government 834-848.

Thus, Fujiwara Yoshifusa was the first shogun. “Would you strive to inherit this ancient right?” — Of course, no, after all that happened all the more.  But I was always tormented by the question of power.  Well, I understand that the hereditary power of the emperor.  But why did Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu ascended, why did he become Generalissimo Saigo, but almost the dictator of the Minister of finance Okubu Tosimichi? With two hands, in order not to splash, Ando brought the cup to his lips, poured a yellowish liquid into himself and unexpectedly, in a sober voice, answered, “I also thought about it somehow.  I will not say anything about Nobunagu, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Ieyasu, they have lived for a very long time ago, and Saigo and Okubu — well, their rapid take-off occurred before my eyes.  In my opinion, the main reason is the red-headed barbarians and their new religion.  In addition, there were too many young samurai in the country, dissatisfied with the positions were inherited, that their opinion was not listened to, that their clans were impoverished, that they had to go to work at factories and plants and doing dirty, rough work there.  Here you are, if you come from noble Fujiwara, what do you own now?  A tiny plot, otherwise you would not be sitting with me in this miserable tavern.  That Saigo and led such unhappy.  He also arranged for princes who did not want to submit to the government of bakufu, who were at enmity with each other, with envy and fear looking at the red-headed barbarians ...
After all, samurai, let us take, at least in Satsuma, almost a third of the male population; what about all over Japan?  And what abyss of money and power was in the hands of a daimyos?  These mighty forces not only lifted Saigo and Okubu, — here Ando mysteriously lowered his voice, looked around cautiously, whether someone overheard their conversation.  But the neighbors, the same drunken samurai in wearing purple kimonos with faded coats of arms, in a half-empty tavern were busy with their own problems.  Ando continued, “It was not for nothing that ten years ago, the capital guests of prince Hisamitsu whispered that Emperor Kaei did not die a natural death.  Divine Emperor!  And why?  It was said that he resisted the destruction of the shogunate.  The heir, Mutsuhito, essentially a boy, became a prisoner of Saigo and Okubu and did what he was told ...
The young samurai wiped the sweat suddenly on his forehead with his sleeve, also looked cautiously around and, hesitating a little, asked, “So, to climb the crest of power, you must be able to lean on even the contradictory interests of possible allies?”
Ando shook the bottle, but she was hopelessly empty.
“Naysan,” he called out loud, “carry more!”
“It is difficult to climb the crest of power,” he looked at the girl hurrying toward them, “but it is even harder to hold onto him.”  Here it is necessary to change and change yourself in time.  Saigo and Okubu, using the slogan of resistance to foreign states, chose the tactics of returning all power to the emperor and changed the prince, did not go about his aspirations for feudal independence.  I remember well how the furious prince Hisamitsu complained that he did not want the emperor to get the right to manage the principalities, because for the strength of the country it was necessary that all the princes in the country owned their lands and had their own troops.  Saigo and Okubu verbally agreed with the prince, but they drafted a decree to return the right to control the princely lands to the emperor.  But before that, with the help of the same princes, Saigo and Okubu defeated Shogun Keiki’s army and suppressed the resistance of the northern daimyos ...
“Yes, I participated in those campaigns,” exclaimed the young samurai proudly, “in the battle of Toba, in the battle of Fushimi, and in the battle of Hakodate ...”
-And I drank sake for your success, — Ando mockingly looked at him and again reached for the bottle “Saigo and Okubu betrayed the Satsuma prince, and their friends in the central government betrayed their princes, who were loyal vassals before.  Where is the daimyos now?  Where are their principalities?  No ... And instead of resisting foreign states, Saigo and Okubu opened the country for them, introduced their order, instead of principalities made the prefectures, abolished the division of samurai by rank, equating them all ... Someone liked it, but not everybody ... — Why did Saigo fall into disgrace and leave the government? — He was not flexible enough.  Okubu changed the daimyo and his former samurai friends and established himself in power, but Saigo did not find the courage for this betrayal. They were silent, considering what was said. “Here you are personally, what did you seek when serving with Saigo,” Ando asked, interrupting the prolonged silence. “I don’t know,” the young samurai replied hesitantly, “in general, nothing ... I was a sukatati — a squire, and Saigo faithfully served ...” — Well, I will believe.  Well, others, what they needed? — You know, Ando-dono, many samurai were dissatisfied with the land reform and high taxes, and the prohibition to wear swords, and the actual abolition of samurai ...
— That’s the same.  Our samurai brothers multiplied a great many, and after the defeat of bakufu, there was nothing for them to do.  But they all felt themselves victorious, demanded themselves honours and benefits, behaved defiantly ... How many samurai uprisings took place in those years — both in Saga province, and in Simpuren, and in Akizuki, and in Hagi ... Then the government decided to send the extra samurai to conquer Korea.  Following the example of the redhead rescuers of the coffin Esu Cyristo-sama  However, Okubu, then the Minister of Finance and the de facto dictator, resolutely opposed this decision, referring to significant domestic problems and an acute shortage of money, and mainly to the fact that of all the countries surrounding Yamato, Russia is the most dangerous; its sub to the south has long been known to all, and in the event of a war between Japan and Korea, they can both become easy prey for the great neighbouring predator.  These arguments convinced the emperor and caused the resignation of the government and the removal of Saigo to Kagoshima,
were loyal vassals before.  Where is the daimyo now?  Where are their principalities?  No ... And instead of resisting foreign states, Saigo and Okubu opened the country for them, introduced their order, instead of principalities made the prefectures, abolished the division of samurai by rank, equating them all ... Someone liked it, but not everybody ... — Why did Saigo fall into disgrace and leave the government? — He was not flexible enough.  Okubu changed the daimyo  dissatisfied with the land reform and high taxes, and the prohibition to wear swords, and the actual abolition of samurai ...
— That’s the same.  Our samurai brother multiplied a great many, and after the defeat of bakuf, there was nothing for them to do.  But they all felt themselves victorious, demanded themselves honors and benefits, behaved defiantly ... How many samurai uprisings took place in those years — both in Saga province, and in Simpuren, and in Akizuki, and in Hagi ... Then the government decided to send the extra samurai to conquer Korea.  Following the example of the redhead rescuers of the coffin Esu Cyristo-sama. However, Okubu, then the Minister of Finance and the de facto dictator, resolutely opposed this decision, referring to significant domestic problems and an acute shortage of money, and mainly to the fact that of all the countries surrounding Yamato, Russia is the most dangerous; its sub to the south has long been known to all, and in the event of a war between Japan and Korea, they can both become easy prey for the great neighboring predator.  These arguments convinced the emperor and caused the resignation of the government and the removal of Saigo to Kagoshima, and all the officers of the imperial guard whom he had recruited from the Satsuma samurai followed him.  So they pushed Saigo into rebellion against the central government.  And Saigo’s nephew’s little war on Formosa did not save the day.  Samurai needed a big war and a big victory.  And if Okubu did not want a war in Korea, then he got a mutiny in Kyushu.  And so, the insurrection was crushed, Saigo made himself seppuku, and Okubu was killed by Saumo devotees by samurai.  The rebellion is crushed, Saigo and Okubu died, but the problems remained.  To become a great power, the country of Yamato will certainly have to fight on the mainland.  And precisely against Russia!  Otherwise, Japan will remain petty, dependent country, which still is and what many in Asia.
“So Saigo was right in demanding a military campaign against the mainland?”
“Right, wrong, what does it mean to him?”
-And for us?
“It’s also quite indifferent to me,” he reached out for the bottle of Ando, “I will serve in the presence of the old prince somehow.”  But what awaits you are unknown ...
— I am sent to Russia as a punishment for participating in the insurrection ...
— You see!  I say that everything has a beginning.  This was also only the beginning!
They were still silent, and then the young samurai hesitantly asked, “Say, Ando-dono, you never thought it could have happened that the god of redheads, Esu Cyristo-sama, settled on our land, gradually, for three hundred years, gained power and began to help those who believe in him?  Here, look, everything that is happening on our islands now is pleasing to the redheads and their followers.  There is no shogun, the emperor is actually not free to make important decisions, the people have become bold and disobedient, and even we, loyal to the emperor samurai, have come out against his will ... And they, redheads, almost manage here, filled many of our cities, they sell their goods everywhere, it becomes fashionable to dress like them, eat their food, even their meat, build their houses, travel to Europe and America.
Ando resolutely and categorically waved his hand, almost knocking the bottle off the table, but during it clutched at it throat.
— Not!  This should not be!  I also somehow thought about it, and it also became frightening to me that the redheads of barbarians sailing over the horizon were shelling our cities with cannons, introducing their new customs, forcing us to imitate them in everything; and I also thought that their god is stronger than our Hatiman, the samurai god.  But gradually I began to see.  And it helped me in this sake — our sacred drink.  I realised that their one god could not be stronger than many of ours.  Our main gods Ame no Minakanushi, Kamimusubi, Takammusubi, the great goddess of light Amaterasu and O-kuninusi still own the souls of the true samurai.  Everyone knows that the best of the flowers — Sakura, and the best of people — Busi.  Therefore, even if their god Esu Cyristo-sama and his wife Santa Maria-sama managed to press our gods a little in the souls of the vile Burakumen and the greedy tenin, it is not so scary, although it is alarming and concern.  And I also understood that their gods are stronger in their homes, and on our islands they still submit to our gods.  Our gods live everywhere — and in mountain streams and lakes, and in forest thickets, and in coastal waters, and in caves, in trees, in flowers, in the breeze, everywhere-everywhere.  Their gods simply have no place here.  And if they managed to settle in the souls of some of our compatriots, it is only because they are not the gods of the redheads at all, they have already become yellow-faced and with slanted eyes, and the name they have already adopted is ours, the Japanese. And what happened, everything happened at the behest of our gods: they felt hurt that the redheads fired Kagoshima and Shimonoseki from the cannons, so they forced us to learn new things in this way.
“Well, you calmed me down a little, Ando-dono, but here’s something else ... I’m being sent to Russia for a long time, and I’m afraid that, living surrounded by redheads, I, gradually, become like them, take their woman, I will live how they, learn their customs and customs, learn to think like them, and, worst of all, their god will take my soul ... And then, some day, if I return, our gods will turn away from me.
— Well, in their youth, people are afraid to break away from their tribe, they do not feel enough spiritual strength in themselves to withstand possible dangers alone.  But you are already a seasoned warrior, if you serve with Saigo from the age of sixteen.  Going on a long journey, strengthen your prayer to our gods, Zozo — god of travellers, take amulets from your home, and most importantly — remember that there must be a companion on the way, and a good soul in life.  Therefore, my advice to you is to marry.  Take a good woman with you to a foreign country.  She will give you a good support in life, will help to avoid spiritual weakness and many temptations; your future children will hold you back to your homeland; your thoughts will belong to the motherland; and the god of the redheads will not find a place in your souls” Ando answered, and again reached for the bottle.
“And I thought that you would tell me to rely on this drink as the most reliable means,” the young samurai smiled sadly.
— Oh, no.  Stay away from it.  Sake is good at home, where you feel completely safe and can afford to relax.  And in a foreign country, it is deadly, especially if you go there a warrior.  You not only risk losing face, you risk losing honour —  the most dangerous thing for a busi, and even life itself.  Take the best woman with you and you will have children.  Take along a kakemono with a picture of a sakura flower or a smoking Sakurajima, take books with you, say, “Taiheiki” and “The Legend of the Soga Brothers,” take the Satsuma biwa, take our clothes and shoes with you and wear them only at home, in short , fill your house in Russia with our things
All this will bring peace to your thoughts and strength in your soul. — And one more thing, Ando-dono.  The judges told me, perhaps to calm my dismay, that, condemning my disobedience of the central government, my participation in the insurrection, they highly appreciate my loyalty and loyalty to Saigo Takamori, my military art and combat experience.  And they also told me that I should not take their decision to send me to Russia as a severe punishment, although to some extent it is a punishment.  Mostly, they said, for me it will be a high honour to serve as a watch on faraway frontiers, a watch against a strong enemy.
Will a formidable obeying
Sovereign of his own.
I must leave home
To protect the Motherland,
they told me in verse from Manyoisu.  They also added that this high honour was rendered not only to me alone.  It was rendered to many high-born samurai, who proved their loyalty to the country of Yamato by their military service.  They said that the emperor was not angry with Saigo; on the contrary, he highly appreciated his loyalty and endorsed his slogans; and the soldiers of Saigo, formerly officers of the imperial guard, are still his personal vassals. — But you have doubts about the sincerity of your judges?  Do you think their words are nothing more than a tricky trick, do you suspect your former enemies of refined deceit, to get rid of you, Saigo’s closest ally, and the likes of you, so as not to be afraid of a repetition of the insurrection?  Do you think that they send you out of the Yamato country because they are afraid to execute, because it would cause a flash of rage in many samurai?  Do you not believe them? — Yes, Ando-dono, something like this.  And at the same time, I wondered if I could, being in a foreign country, in a strange environment, building good relations with people, living next to them, often resorting to their help and services, and giving them all possible help.  Should I simultaneously hate them, look out for their vulnerable spots, prepare traps for them, wish them suffering and death?  And can I?  After all, all this is at variance with the Bushido code, our notions of honour.
— But you shoud not think that you are going to them as an enemy, that you will prepare for their death.  Remember that in the country of Yamato from time immemorial there was a custom of samurai to wear swords.  But no one thought that swords were meant to kill.  If we, the inhabitants of the islands, considered the main and only purpose of swords — to kill, the blood would flow like a river, and the islands would have long been deserted.  Of course, there were cases of people attacking each other with swords, but as a deadly weapon you can use a stick, a stone, and a hoe, ordinary household items ... No, swords were designed to prevent possible attacks, by their presence guarded the owner from attempts on life, honour and dignity; by their appearance they brought up weak souls, evil-doers capable of evil.  Reassure yourself that you are going to a northern country as a watchman, that it is your duty to see everything, to hear and know everything, to tell everything important in a timely manner to prevent a possible misfortune.  Do not ascend in your pride, know only your duty and fulfil it.  And most importantly — remember the country of Yamato, distant and always in need of you.
— Yes, Ando-dono, I will remember your words ...
— And at parting, if you are from Fujiwara, then it would be interesting for you to know and keep in your heart the verses from Manyushu * that correspond to your case:
The bottom is crystal clear in the water,
Glowing like a flame
With the shine of fuji ** petals illuminated,
And because water covered stone
Shines like pearls dear! _________________________________________________________ * Manyoshyu (Collection of myriad leaves), a collection of poems of the period of decline of antiquity and the dawn of the Middle Ages -VIII century. ** Fuji — wisteria. .

FIRST SETTLERS.  HUNTING ON BEAR.
In Vladivostok the ship “Kostroma” came at the end April of the month.  During sailing on the boat
was the measles epidemic from which the child died, therefore all passengers with children were moved to quarantine barracks at Cape Shkot and kept there guarded by
armed soldiers so that the sickness does not spread
by the city.  Two weeks later, Stepan brought
selective control paper that identified them
place for settlement in the village Ivanovka.
On the “Novik” steamboat, recently bought by
Shevelev merchant in England and committed his
the first flight, they got to the mouth of the narrow-minded river Suyfun, plenty admiring beautiful views of
Amur Bay, and in the village of Rybachy moved to the
small ship “Pioneer”.  In comparison with the tremendous steamboat
“Kostroma”, these boats, except for the steamer
 could not be called.
After the recent heavy rains, Suifun swelled
carried in the sea a mass of brown-yellow water, and for this reason
the boat steamer managed to get to the
Nicolsk  - a large village, from where immigrants departed
huddled almost to the entire South Ussuri rigeon
Having bargained in the market for a couple of short,
but strong Manchurian oxen and a creaking wagon,
they loaded their wretched belongings on it and — tsob-tobe 
went to the place of new residence.
Along the narrow to the extreme forest road, rather
 drowning to the checks of the wheels in the dirt, leaning heavily
breast, pushing the cart, they dragged to the place of
already cursing the day when jointly deciding
were going to go.
— Oh, and wilderness!  — Stepan sighed, and his wife repeated
 the sons of Andrew, Arseniy and Athanas.
And indeed, the country road with a thin thread was barely punched through the centuries-old dense taiga.  Terrible roared crowns over their heads tall trees, their thick
roots, abundant dense shrubs and extraordinary
the heights of the grass twined the earth, blocked the way, and already it was scary to imagine that they would also have to pour, chop, take out the forest, uproot, burn
and rip out stumps and roots, destroy weeds, use
for centuries, the host here.
Fear has large eyes, and Maria has already whined
from the rising horror.  But Stepan,
 began to figure out what to do next.  Well if pulls
 family in such a long journey, after eight seas
 of the three oceans, promised them a new life
comfortable, painted in front of them pictures of the vast
empty expanses, puffy land and forest;
do not allow losing faith, tune in to work.   He knew from his own experience: eyes were afraid, and his hands
work... And Stepan began to gradually, quietly encourage
sons and wife.
— Look, Maria, which trees are tall, and thick.  Here we come to the place, we will cut the forest, we will take out,
let ’s let dry for a year, and put the house.
“And a little flock,” looking around
 Maria timidly recalled.
— And the flock, and the barn, and the hayloft, and the barn ..., —Stepan was smarting, and sons are pliable to the soul mood of father, agreed
— And I will build a big kennel to live there
two dogs, and I will go hunting with it, — joyfully
cried the younger, Athanasius.

— What kind of herbs, — continued Stepan.  — mow,
let’s dry both a cow, and the second, and we will get the third.
— A goat would buy first, — chilled his dreams
Maria, — whiten tea.
Not far, a stone throw, jumped out of the forest
and before them stood slim, on high thin
legs little animal with small horns on his head and without
timidity began to look at their brilliant bulged eyes, lifting up the turned head, as if hive to future neighbors.
— Oh, who is this?  — Maria was afraid.
— Here is a goat and ran, I heard, I suppose, that you were her called out.
Sons who had a month to do with life in Primorye on their boyish channels  find out a lot about the taiga, hunting and fishing, immediately intervened violently in conversation.
— No, Dad, this is a deer-flower!
— No, not a deer, it has white spots on the sides.  This is
kabarozhka!
— Or red deer!
— You said, the Manchurian deer grows up and its horns,
like roots from a tree. They agreed on the fact that it was a musket.
— Hunting, you see, here is a noble,  if the beast itself directly to the person runs, — suggested Stepan.
— Wow, and the beasts are here, — chocking, interrupting each other, hurried to throw out their extensive knowledge son
  — And bears, and red deer, and deer, and wild boars, and  badgers, and raccoons, squirrels, otters in small rivers, wild
 and musk deer ...
“And the tigers are striped, biting,” scaredly happy
in added Athanasius, the youngest, beloved, twelve
old son.
 Mary looked anxiously, but then through the dense thickets could not see anything.
— Do not worry, Maria, he eats an ox and goes to his
 home, — teased Stepan
and from the cheerful hubbub and loud exclamations it became easier to push the cart, and the oxen walked more lively, waving stunted tassels tails from clouds hanging over them gadflies.
Athanas broke a thick branch and went to help fend off exhausting bloodsuckers.
“The ox will not be allowed, we must both plow the land, and carry the forest, as it is impossible, — Maria did not agree.
— Then, besides you, and no one, — joked Stepan
and immediately felt a weighty slap on the back.
“... mosquito ...,” Maria explained.
And the anxiety before the unknown disappeared, gave way to hundred thousand daily small worries and worries,
of which life is made.
Founded in eighty-three between two small rivers Lubyanka and Ivanovka, right tributaries of River Lefu, village Ivanovka represented two a dozen freely scattered Russian huts to the river, yes the same number of Korean fanzas, gardens. The headman met them for a long time asking, where from they are, as they got, studied, moving their lips, docs , and then, thinking, looked around the village and decided — Live will while at Ivan Krivosheev. His house is new, spacious, the place for the winter should enough Saw the forest, and we help you take out forest; in the summer put the house.  Yes, you do not need help on, — four men, — he joked, forcing straighten and straighten the shoulders of seventeen Andrey, fifteen-year-old Arseny and junior Afanath. — Guys, — Maria supported his joke,  hoping that everything will go well. Ivan Krivosheev didn’t have enough room to house Andrei, Arseny and Athanas, so he identified them in the room to his two sons, and Stepan and Maria offered to live in an old half-dug house in which huddled four years.
— Life is not honey, you will suffer, so rather for your
the house will be built, he said philosophically. 
  Many cames with hope on ready; as there neither plow nor ax could whether to take, in a word — poverty, rolling up the field, so and here ... Life — it loves work, everything in it
hard work!
Stepan and Maria were incredibly glad that
good beginning A place under the house was taken to them on a hill above the river Ivanovka  and the plot for the plowing of tithes at twenty, indicated further up the river Lubyanka.  The plot represented the slope went down to the river terrace, covered with thick overgrown with oak, birch, ash, aspen and hazel, with a little, three inches, a layer of black soil on the loamy subsoil.
On the advice of the old-timers, Stepan and his sons almost
saw trees to set fire for the winter and burn dried trunks, fallen leaves and dry grass.
The men helped him select and prepare the forest, which he dragged by oxen to the place of the future house Let the logs dry.  Cedars were smooth, long and straight, on the cut yellow-cream colour, they smelled of pitch and promised to be embodied in a durable product.
-A House must be spatious -Maria assured.
Stepan grunted, but in his heart supported his wife. 
The sons helped their father in hard work from morning to evening , but they also found time for themselves to play and close knowledge of community with neighbourhoods.
Stepan chose the time, went with Andrew to Nikolsky  and returned with a cow of an unknown breed,
but having a smooth, sedate temper and giving
for milking with half a bucket of milk.  Mary was unspeakable
rejoiced, smacked on the forehead, called the cow Zorenka-
 and told him to mow more hay for it for the winter.
What had to do.  How is the hostess disobeyed?
And yet, to the delight of the boys, they brought the old
old delapidated gun and a can of gunpowder.
— Hunting — weighty support in the household — repeated
Krivosheev.  — Here we will take the harvest, we will enter the beast.  I will teach hunting.  You have there, in Little Russia, probably, worse then a hare you beast dont see.
Maria and her sons had time to plant a garden
a little, about ten acres, and cabbage, and bulb, and carrots,
onion, garlic, cucumbers and tomatoes rose together
and bloomed.  All — and brown long trunks of cedars,
drying in the sun, and fresh grass for cow
 and son’s sonorous voices pleased Mary, inspired
confidence in the strength of the future life.
Koreans came, offered to take part of his land for half the crop, but Stepan only laughed.  In himself and his sons, he is sure the neighbors were interested in increasing Ivanovka; it is clear that  when the people are more abundant, it’s calmer in the soul, and willingly help in word and deed.
And he always went to help people. Men’s hands —
were worth their weight in gold — peasant work was exhausting to such an extent that, just coming home and having dinner, Stepan exhausted collapsed on
trestle bed with a blanket and instantly fell asleep.  And Mary,
on household chores, too, by the evening  felt herself
very tired.  But they were glad that so many
affairs ahead — the land is plowed up immensely, the house is built a manor, a manor house, all kinds of barns
sculpt, garden to plant, plant bees ... Maria already has
breeders added — a hen with brood
little yellow chickens and a smoky kitten
who likes to sharp claws on a stool and who likes to play
in a ferocious tiger in thick tall grass.
So, in the cares, the summer passed and by the fall
 and life became more orderly and the midge was asleep.  In the morning the grass crunched under foot hoarfrost, the sky became high and pale blue, and the geese whined in it.  It’s time going to hunt.  Ivan Krivosheev already went and times
and another, brought a couple a dozen ducks and geese, but the real care did not let Stepan go. The eldest son
Andrei, and the middle one, Arseny, became more and more persistent.  Dad, give me a gun.  And once they took without asking, they left for the day and returned with a bunch of  ducks than greatly pleased Mary.  Stepan and waved
hand - hunt if wish to eat.  And the guys often
to come back then with a raccoon, then with a badger.
Meat not ceased on the table.  Andrew learned
good furrow — skins rip off and handle —
and Maria already sewed squirrel hats for her husband and son for the winter.
The forest gave abundant fruits — and all side by side.
Hazel and cedar cones, many
mushrooms, and grapes, and raisins, and lemongrass, and raspberries,  blueberries, but with salt and sugar was tight. 
Nikolsk is far away, and the money is running out.  Therefore, supplies for the winter did not prepare much.  But something to dry made.  Yes, cabbage, cucumbers and tomatoes annoy.
By the end of October, Stepan fired and burned his
plot. Burned out, however, unsuccessfully – the cut trees did not really dry, and the stumps remained high.  But, until the earth froze, Stepan and his sons on the oxen managed to plow a couple of tithes arable land.  Moreover, as the peasants advised, he used a couple of acres of the stumps of sawn trees, ditched it in a pound of saltpeter, filled it with kerosene and covered it with bark - during the winter all roots of the hellish mixture would be soaked, in the spring it would be easy to burn out.
 In November, when winter came into its own and laid down the first snow, in the evening Ivan Krivosheev entered the dugout.  “Tomorrow, in the morning, we'll go to hunt at bear,”
 Went early in the morning, in the blue twilight.
 “A bear,” said Ivan, with short and wide skis, with a  fur outlined with wool, paving the way in deep snow, “since August has chosen a place convenient for wintering.  Looking for a pit under the hill, small, so that it is closely fit in, so that the sky, the visor, was covered.   he brings their grass, pine and spruce soft branches and in October, before the frost climbs dry.  So it sleeps all winter, until mid-March.  It takes nothing with him, sucks his paw.  Halfwinter sleeps on one side, and the other on the other, and sucks another paw.A snow den will carry, but there is an outlet, a steam from it goes, and a crust of ice is formed.  This is the sign of the den and hunters are looking for up to a bear.
 I must say that there were a great many bears in the taiga.  Often, in search of delicacy, they wandered into the village, they ate the turnips in the gardens, but they didn’t bring about any special trouble, except that the women were frightened, and the two hives with bees from the garden took  away.  Ivan led the taiga confidently, purposefully, apparently well knew where to look for a den.
 An hour and a half later, Ivan stopped, looked around attentively, cut down a small fir tree, cut off the tip of the soft, and gazing at Stepan probingly, handed the tree to him.  And Stepanov’s gun tookle to himself, although it was hanging on his shoulder, loaded.
 - Hold and listen.  Over there, under the mound, bear den.  Come, I'll stand with flintlock gun on the right, and you, with all your might, put the Christmas tree there with the butt down.  Put and hold tight.  The bear will wake up from the blow, get angry, pull the Christmas tree over it, .But you   hold tight - it then climb up to  punish the offender .  And you bother it with the tree, push down.  It head from the the den will only seem, I will immediately shoot.  But look, Stepan, do not worry, do not throw the tree.  If it head wears out my bullet, we will beat the knives.  Then strive for it under the left fore paw stronger strike.  But do not run, you will not get away from it, only it is necessary to throw to death. Stepan frightened a little, but does not show a view.  And of course, a bear – it  will rise,it will grow, and it strength will be bearish.  But okay, took a tug, do not say that it is not a lot.  You will lose your head, you will show shyness, you will be afraid, God forbid, men will not even talk, do not expect help from them, and you cannot live alone in the village.  Everything is done by society, even uprooting a forest, even plowing the land, even building a house, knead the clay, dab from the inside ...
 Okay.  Came to the den gatehouse closer.  Ivan stretched his legs,   flintting the gun to his shoulder with it butt pressed - made for shooting.  And Stepan, taking a deep breath and gathering all his strength, swung and planted the Christmas tree in the outlet.  The bear roared all over, woken up, twisted, but Stepan, having become angry with him to the extreme, firmly held the fur tree, rested, pressed the beast to the ground, prevented it from jumping out of his den.  The bear abruptly pulled the fur tree towards himself, and then pushed it out and climbed out of the den.  Stepan more furious, collected all strengs, rested butt of tree in it head, but here and Ivan, contriving, to shot.  The bear twitched, grunted and fall in a den.  And Stepan was in a fever and grabbed the knife, but Ivan tugged on his hand, - do not rush.  Quickly bit the paper head of the cartridge, poured gunpowder into the barrel of the gun, drove the wad, rolled the lead bullet, pushed it over with a wad so as not to roll out, scooped up the remnants of gunpowder on the shelf of the siliconrifle, and motioned Stepan to step back.

Well shot Ivan, got into the ear, the skin was whole. “First you  take the skin, for the furnishing, and the meat with halve it.  Then my skin would be , — Ivan smiled and pushed a friendly way to his shoulder. Stepan nodded his head. Flattering he was bear skin in front of his wife and sons praise- sya In life, the first; got it himself. During the winter they went to the bear three more times, so receipts were.  And the men in the village to the first the fairy was indifferent, except that at  Stepan looked approvingly.  Absolutely for their accepted, understood Stepan. Yes Marya congratulated with trophies hot, in her own way... In the spring, when the snow came down and the earth warmed a little and dried out, a couple more tithes Stepan and his sons plowed, and sowed with buckwheat.  So men of village advised.  On virgin soil if the first to sow the wheat, then it drives it into the stalk, the ear small will be. .  Stepan planted three pounds per tithe and gathered a hundred pounds from their four tithes.  Military office sold in Nikolsky.  And the house, five-wall under the rafters summed up, but strength were not enough to build forces and hands.  Left until next summer. The land of him all the juice pulled: he was greedy more to uproot, plow, sow, harvest.  For all at once he swung — both the house, and the vegetable garden, and the arable land, beyond the garden
I cried: raspberries, apples and plums brought seedlings from Nee
Kola, planted near the house.  Neighbor Varrava couple
boats of the bees shared, which by the end of the summer were buried
another eight.  What is not an apiary!
And yet he managed, it seems, yes there is misfortune
waylaid and poured in a heap.  It began with
that bears go to the village to be obsessed, evidence with honey
all cleaned looted.  Further — worse.  Dawn became
sink away quickly and soon fell, and from it caught the oxen
and also died.  They are not the only ones — the sea has gone from
Go, just bought in Nikolsky from the Manchus
the bull.  Neither sublimate nor carbolic did not help, that the paramedic
county advised.  There was nothing to plow the land;
the money to buy cattle ran out, and the smallness that
for buckwheat in commissary aid, they spent on clothing.
She seemed to burn, but you could not walk naked barefoot,
not Africa, tea, winters are cold here.
Stepan came in the spring on his plot — a wolf
howled.  And you will not turn to society for help — two
An ox and two horses are left for the village.  And those more
eyes began to protect.  And what about a shovel? Though
Koreans call half.
Then the message came — in Vladivostok are going
climb the road to build.  Prozli men, discuss
they started making money maybe there
will succeed.  Eyes, they are envious, and man is alive
by the horses.
Andrew, the eldest son, aspired decisively, yes
he was strong and not kept, except that Mary looked zha
lazy.  Guy nineteen turned — growth

true, not great, but sturdy.  The palms are wide,
ashy, works are not afraid, to the labor of the peasant,
he has been accustomed to his childhood, he can stand up for himself
He has no inclination towards drunkenness.  Let him go, you see
will help the family to get up on their feet
boils, the wedding will play, separate ...


SERGEI ULYEVICH Witte. The order of the Emperor.

 To its first report to Emperor Alexander III, the recent Director of the Department of railway Affairs, Ministry of Finance, now Minister of Railways Sergei Witte was preparing carefully. However, and not without reason, he believed, constantly working on the materials for the speeches of the Minister of Finance Vyshnegradsky in the High Commission, which discussed the issues of funding of all major national needs and enterprises, and primarily the army and Navy, he was aware of their history and the prospects for future development. With its undeniable creative faculties, Sergei Yul’evich had a wide circle of relationships and business contacts that helped him successfully climb the corporate ladder. He came from the noble family of the Pskov province, whose Holland -ancestors settled in Ingria in when she was under the Swede, to the victories of Peter the Great. Serving Directors  of Department of state property in Tbilisi, his father married the daughter of a member of the General Directorate Viceroy of the Caucasus, on the maternal side from the famous princes Dolgoruky. After graduating from Novorossia universities in Odessa on mathematical f the faculty, Sergei Yul’evich was determined to stay there at the Department of pure mathematics, but relatives, with their aristocratic arrogance, insisted enter to  unit of the office of the Odessa Governor-General, and in the speed of passing at that time through Odessa recently appointed of the Minister of Railways the General Suite of His Majesty, count Vladimir Bobrinsky convinced him to serve under the railway Ministry. And started that Sergei Yulievich with the most minor of posts, usually occupied by the city inhabitants, half-educated seminarists, cashier ticketing and cargo, but passed twenty years of service, all steps of the bureaucratic ladder to the top. However, clear February day of 1892 to the front door to the Winter Palace, it is the floor  he thougt that this will be nothing more than a performance in the new place and the Emperor will soon let him go. But, against his expectations, His Majesty, congratulating briefly, gave him a sort of farewell, expressed their wish, moreover, as he put it, his dream, to  built the railway from European Russia to Vladivostok. — For ten years — said the Emperor  I meet on that issue all sorts of difficulties, and you must give me your word that this idea will be in effect. Considering himself obliged to immediately start the execution of the Royal will, Sergei Yul’evich returned to the Ministry and right now summoned the chief of the office and, even though he knew that such a road is already under construction, was asked to show the documents on this highly important issue. And the chief of staff soon brought folder. — Reference is made by military Governor of Primorsk  region the General-the major Unterberger. — Cavalry or infantry? Ironically asked Sergei Yulievich. — Engineer major-General Pavel Fedorovich Unterberger for a quarter century, is in the far East. He is considered in the war office one of it best connoisseurs, the more personally involved at topographical survey and mapping. This recommendation was somewhat reassured Sergei Yul’evich, and he began flipping scribbled a smooth clear handwriting bluish sheets of thick paper, detecting among them, carefully executed drawings, plans and tables of mathematical calculations , that he is very pleased. He did not like belletristic literature on technical issues, not based on exact calculation and is not economically justified.
Yes, and he is now in St. Petersburg, seeing that ministr was interested in the contents of the folder, said the chief of staff. — I myself saw him yesterday at the Palace square, he was heading to the Main Directorate of the General staff.
Oh, by the way! Please, invite him, if possible, do not hesitate, here in the Ministry, was happy Sergei Yulievich. For me it is very important to discuss this with an expert who  took part in the work on the railway project.
And a few days later, Paul F., Unterberger arrived at the Ministry of Railways.
Your invitation barely caught me in St. Petersburg, I really was going to come back to Vladivostok, he cheerfully said, introducing himself and taking kindly offered to him by Sergei Yulievich a cup fragrant light yellow Jasmine model of Chinese tea.
How can be useful to the Minister of Railways?Above average height, thin, with good military strength bearing, with the sign of the Nikolaev military Academy of engineering on the chest, but without orders, which, no doubt, he had plenty, and this is a certain way he was described, Paul F. spoke little slowly.
His Imperial Majesty expressed a particular interest in the speedy construction of the railway to the far East. So I decided, taking advantage of a rare opportunity to meet with you, as one of the most knowledgeable people on the subject. Preferably, you know, to get a clear picture of the problem as a whole, with all its pluses and minuses, favourable  and adverse conditions; know how to assess on the spot the possibility of accelerating the construction of the road, how soon can it pay off... frankly, the Minister of Finance Vyshnegradsky very stingy on spending, especially as such large, and overcome avarice can only by justifying the large public interest. But in the past year, the Committee of Ministers expressed  for the construction of the road, was issued a Supreme decree, some provision is released and the road is already building.
Yes, some. Last year, seven million rubles and the same in this. But to build need better. Start, excuse for a tautology, since the beginning. — Well, I serve in the far East with the sixty-fourth year and will do my best to objectively cover the situation. Joining in the sixtieth year of the Ussuri region, the need for its settlement and defense were set the task of construction of Railways. The more that existed from the fifties go — ing navigation on the Shilka and Amur could not meet the demands of the region in the regular message, as the Amur river system for a good five months covered thick layer of ice and another three months  dried so that from Khabarovka to Blagoveshchensk steamers do not go. — Here is how? We have a belief that Cupid is so deep that shipping on it is not taking them difficulty. — In vain, on the contrary, although such an opinion exists in addition to and in the Ministry of war, the grounds fell out of our plans for the defense of the far Eastern borders, and I had to convince a very stubborn in their errors, the authorities. At the time, held a special survey of the Amur river with this purpose. But the number of projects joining the Pacific coast to the Central provinces by rail appeared in the 1858 year, immediately after the conclusion of the contract Agin treaty. In those days, after the Crimean war, when our poverty, such projects, I believe, was impossible. Especially that in Russia, railways were without exception — recalled Sergei Yul’evich much more recent times, already seventy years of his young - and start working in the railway Department. — I agree, however, three or four years later, after the peasant reform, look how rapidly covered Russia with a railway network. Well-informed in this matter, Sergei Yul’evich confidently replied, — because the construction was carried out, with rare exceptions, private  companies . I remember one of  way, the Baron Ungern-Sternberg built the road from Balts to Elizavetgrad and then to Kremenchug. Heck, even the first Russian railway — Nikolaevsky and Tsarskoye Selo were built by private companies. But the roads in European Russia , and as for the Far East, such on can not be.  Therefore, on attracting private
money,there is no need to speak of the treasury.
- Yes, I remember very well how the East Siberian
General governor Posyet in the 1875 year
state subsidies for railways from the Volga to the Amur and from Vladivostok to the lake Khanka.
— And I worked on that project, — Pavel Fedorovich smiled
- I was young, energetic, light on his feet, and  was thirsty then to make it as much as possible with my own hands, why did I spend a month in the field, shooting a future track.  Very then we hope that these works will be embodied in the canvas of the road.  And here ar...
— It’s not even the Russian-Turkish war, — do not agree
Sergei Yulievich turned out to be, then did not count in the highest circles this road is necessary.  War, however, treasury
devastated pretty ...
— We can see from our bell tower in our own way, —
Pavel Fedorovich did not give up.  — Treasury of the Russian  replenishes mainly due to the sale bread abroad, although it is not enough in the domestic market.  But after all, the Russian village is choking excess of a beggar population!  But if the boundless Cibir to colonize?  If Transbaikal Steppes with bread sow?  And after all, there are not only good lands, there are also ore innumerable riches, even at very high
might inspection. 
And Pavel Fedorovich continued.- line surveys
railway in the Primorsky region began 1878 year and ended next
year.  Future line from Vladivostok to the village
Grafskaya it was decided to give direction through the village
 Nikolskoe.  Where did it go further along
the drainage bank of the river Sungachi to the village of Lutkovskaya, on the Ussuri River and, crossing the river, let along the right bank of the Ussuri River to the village of Muraveyev-Amursk, with a branch to the left bank of the river Iman, where formed pier.  In addition to a huge amount  tasks for the passage of complex terrain, including a number of tunnels, various transitions were investigated
 for the railway bridge across the Ussuri River.  On-
the end, in view of the requirements of the local administration, who knew the railway line from Vladivostok
along the right bank of the Muravyev-Amursky peninsula
for about thirty miles dangerous in respect, as it could freely be shelled from the sea, a survey was made of the road
from Vladivostok to the crossing of the Lianchihe River on the watershed of peninsula.  However, due to the high cost of these estimates options have been set aside.
— Yes, Pavel Fedorovich, please tell us what
represents Vladivostok.  Me above all interested in the state of their industry and population.
— Nothing special, to be honest.  Tiny, unsettled and rather boring town.
But we will take into account that it is located far and very
young Vladivostok began a military transport “Manchu”, which is the sixth of June 1860 year brought here a team of thirty lower ranks of the 3rd company of the 4th East Siberian Linear battalion under the command of Ensign Komarov. The ream built building and barracks ,officer home and office buildings.  Two months later in the bay The Golden Horn,  here  corvette “Griden” entered and the crew built large barracks, officer wing and small repair shops for the needs of the fleet.  In the next
year, the Orthodox Church was founded in the name of the Mother of God, illuminated in April sixty-second year.  Then Vladivostok began to be called no longer a post, but a port, and for some relief the lives of a few local residents,
living in a bear corner in Vladivostok porto Franco was introduced.  After two more years here
public urban government was established, and the first warden was appointed city dweller merchant Semenov.  In those days, the town resembled something like a fort in the American Wild West – battalion soldiers, several warships in the summer, one drysaltery shop and half a dozen nasty saloons, taverns in Russian.  In sixty-fifth, for repair
ships of the Siberian military flotilla, there were workshops were established and the first migrants arrived.
  Life in the city has become somewhat more fun and diverse.
More varied: the women softened the morals but also caused
fierce competition, which resulted in steady excesses.  In pure spanish, you know, the spirit.
Ordinary people managed with massacre and stabbing,
and gentlemen officers summoned each other to a duel.
In the late sixties, the city’s population there were six hundred souls at fifty residential buildings.  And with the translation here from Nikolaev military fleet base the city began to grow with incredible speed, especially after the introduction of seventy-six
year of the state of affairs.  To eighty-fifth
year the population of the city reached ten and a half
thousend souls, including up to five thousand military ranks.
Trade turnover at this time also reached the esteemed
amount over four and a half millions rubles.  During the year, more than seventy trading  ships, mainly foreign, with total water displacement up to sixty thousand tons  came to the port.
 Amount only private buildings in the city exceeded six
hundreds, including hundreds of shops and stores, and almost
five dozen hotels and taverns. And with the establishment
in the eightieth year of shipping communication with Odessa
on the steamships of the Voluntary Fleet gave such a thick
industrial and commercial business of Vladivostok,
that now it lives in almost the same conveniences, as well as in any provincial city.  Except tea, perhaps, the high cost of items not only luxury goods, but also the essentials.  Could Vladivostok make even more brilliant results if  the question of the transfer of military the port then to the bay of Posieta, then to the bay of Saint Olga.
When in the eighty-ninth year began to build a fortress to make sure the integrity of the territory, and at the same time increased the amount of cruise warships of the Pacific squadron here the city’s residents became confident that
not have to take off, and began to equip more thoroughly.  Everyone used to sit like on bags — if the base of the fleet is transferred to another place, then there will have to move almost the entire city. In the same place it would have lost all meaning.  But the beautiful harbour promises Vladivostok
a brilliant future.
-  I see you are a great patriot of Vladivostok.
Is there really so good life?  Or, according to known
proverb, every frog ...?
Pavel Fedorovich was somewhat embarrassed and acknowledged mistake -  Of course, not very ... Sanitary conditions of the city satisfactory can not be called.  Most of the buidings belonging to a wealthy class, built in a hurry, against any rules of hygiene, very tight and cold.  The houses are mostly wooden, forest something around as much as you like, taiga crowded closely but building hastily, sometimes the outer walls consist of only one board.  There are no amenities at home,
only wash basin in the porch.  Especially unfavorable
sanitary conditions represent Chinatown,
Semenovsky mowing, Linear and Sailor parts,
which for the most part consist of fanz or pitiful huts.  Streets are impassable and dirty in all respects.
 The inhabitants of these suburbs and neighbourhoods are poor people, unskilled workers — Chinese, Koreans, Russian workers, but there are very few of them, and families of lower ranks.  All of them live very closely, crowded and extremely dirty in their own or removed fanzah.  But in recent years
in the city in large quantities began to be erected
buildings, and try to put them when possible
comfortable.
— It is clear, — Sergey Yul’evich nodded his head and
would highlight another problem, innocently remarked, —
Of course, where there is dirt, there are diseases, especially infectious
 Yes, — Pavel Fedorovich was upset, — to boast to me
especially nothing.  Although there are no such outbreaks,
as in other places of the empire.  Here much depends on
 the climate, you know, and we have it pretty good.  Winters too cold. It’s true that it’s damp and foggy in the spring and summer months  especially, but twenty miles from the sea, the climate is can be called continental.  Temperature difference is large, but the particular harm to health
 do not deliver it to people.  In addition, the region is inhabited by at rarely ease, so outbreaks of disease are widely
do not apply.  By the way, it should be noted,  in the Amur Military District for these reasons considered one of the lowest among others.  Also, among civilian population.  True, recently illnesses increased. There have been cases of the spread of children’s infectious diseases.  — measles, smallpox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, but we managed to find out that they are imported with immigrant in batches.  Therefore, after the arrival of the ship with the resettlement, they are placed in isolated for a week or two at barracks quarantined.  Here among the adult population with us there were cases of typhoid and typhus, although the mortality from it was no higher than normal procents.  The situation is complicated by the fact that we have an extra danger of the introduction of infectious diseases, most often cholera, from neighbouring countries.
Six years ago, yes, in eighty-sixth, from Korea or
Japan was introduced cholera.  It quickly spread
among the Chinese and Korean populations.  We thought
 didn’t pay attention because aliens are hiding
and secretly bury their dead, but then we noticed
 appear on the streets of corpses with signs of cholera.  Yes
and the Koreans began to withdraw their communities and leave to the hills surrounding the town where the camp was located. We have burned the fanzas they abandoned and are now implementing the strictest control.  Check all incoming steamships. We hold moves with an impure cholera patent on to find the reasons and the picture .  But here,
cholera still penetrated to Vladivostok.  Diseases
met not only among foreigners, but also Russian. 
 The naval crew camp was surrounded by a high fence,
and contacts of the lower ranks with the civilian population
discontinued, why not a single case of the disease  among the ground forces, whose teams are widely thrown around the city and the region, diseases, unfortunately, were rare.
-  Intestinal diseases spread, due to bad water. 
Asking Pavel Fedorovich, carefully  listening and seeing that he is really in love with the city and treats him prudently, Sergey Yulievich by little was on fire with a secret thought that at first was timid it originated, but, having arisen, it demanded all new and new  reinforcements, wanting to set up Russia firmly and sensibly.
The essence of this thought was: and not whether to erect on the banks Pacific Ocean is a major port city, like, say, Odessa
Or Arkhangelsk, moreover, Petersburg, with the meaning
not only the military but merchant.  After all, now all the wealth of China, Korea and Japan exported to Europe by steamboats around Asia or through Pacific Ocean and America.  Our own trading communication is limited to a pitiful tea trade,  and then rare and small camel caravans
through Mongolia and Transbaikalia.  The road to the sea promises you not only military significanse...
— And how is the city planned, what is its relief?
Pavel Fedorovich again mixed up, — I really do not so hot ...
The streets of the city are located mainly along the
not planned, rather dirty and overlapping deep ravines.  Only the face of the city is its main one Svetlanskaya Street has both sidewalks and night lights Kerosene lamps, dug out for water flow gutters, through the ravines laid mounds.
But in most of the city is scattered suburbs — soldiers,
danish, Linear, Officers, Paramedic, matrosskaya, convicts, korean ..., demarcating
by ravines through which the footbridges and narrow
mounds.  Although, the place is very beautiful, open space
for the construction of the city abound.
— Pavel Fedorovich, you know that for the construction
railway, the base of which from the east  became Vladivostok, we need large human resources. How are things going with them?
— The fact is that the appearance of his Vladivostok
owes not to the economic development of South Ussuri-
it is a representative of Rusasia on the shores of the Eastern Ocean, and only government goals.  Hence, are our difficults
  Mostly people who live in the city and their families are on state  service.  And if the officers are transferred or, on exit
retire, leave for European Russia, but very rarely stay, then the lower ranks often get families and stay urban burghers, find work and construction for yourself little houses.  Recently, however, in the city officers began to settle, people appeared
 doctors, officials, teachers, engineers.  Of course, labourers for the construction of the railway they are not.  True, on the First River is located  exile settlers, former convicts who have not served still term hard labour.  They are busy cleaning up the retreat places, by the construction part of the maritime department and other state works. But for the construction of the road we found literally inexhaustible tank and one might say very close — in neighboring countries.  Last year,
doing work, we were greatly disadvantaged in labour, complicated by labour unrest, but here the Koreans, the Chinese, and set yourself Japanese.  So from this side of the difficulty does not occur.
— Well, we will assume that this problem is already
closed.  And what about the industry as a technical
 base of the railway?
— Something we already have.  We have a small
 mechanical plant at the port of Vladivostok
and shipbuilding workshops,  state Mechanical
 factory which mainly serves the military
ships and has all the capabilities to repair them
This, including the dock, a small, true, calibre.
Now, however, a dry dock is under construction for repairing
vessels of any displacement.  There are small plants
 to offer the necessary building materials — lime, brick, sawmill. — Pavel Fedorovich, you are a military man, serve in the Amur region for a very long time and, without a doubt, deeply aware of the military aspects   I will not hide, to meet large appropriations to accelerate the construction of the road, it is desirable for me to count on the support of the military and maritime ministers.  Could you tell me how real I am?
Can I rely on their help?
General Unterberger paused, pondering the question,
and carefully answered, “Without going into details, I would say  that we have our neighbors in the Far East decrepit, busy
internal problems flabby China, not which, to our knowledge, is a real danger at least the next quarter century; perfect
but as insignificant as a state, Korea; and swiftly
Japan is gaining strength.  Economically, it is developed
 very fast, using the experience of England, France,
Germany and the North American United States,
creates, teaches with the help of foreign instructors
 — the British in the navy and the Germans in the land
 and arms the army.  According to the forecasts of the Intelligence Department headquarters of the Amur Military District Japan soon tries to test his strength.  Sacrificed inevitably and, undoubtedly will become Korea where the Japanese will deal with a few poorly armed and poorly trained
by Chinese divisions.  If the Japanese win, and so it will be, then in a few more years they will try to combine success.  But where?  There, in the Amur military  district  , we assume that the following object for attacks will become China, and maybe seaside region of Russia, because our forces there are very few.  We also have information that Japan is very sick
took the news of the beginning of the construction of iron
road to the Japan sea .   This confirms our
the assumption that they consider Russia one
of eventual opponents and fear our here gain.
— Eck, you had enough, sorry, of course, Pavel Fedoro-
hiv Russia and ... again, sorry, Japan ... Already
do not you frighten yourself?  And they sharpen their teeth
is about anyone.  Say, here, down the map, who is there?  Yeah, Philippines, Annam, Cochinhin, Java, finally ...
— Well, no, in the Philippines, until they don’t rush; 
Spain has in the Philippines a large army and military
fleet, the Japanese know how ferocious conquistadors;
from Shanghai to the south are areas of interest of England
and France that would unite to protect their interests.  Remain Korea, vassal  of old China, which Japan has tried for centuries to fight, and actually China, but it is very densely  populated and has inexhaustible reserves for its armies and
this led to in China, most likely the Japanese will not wish.  And we!  Yes, we are.
— We and Japan!  Yes, compare the state, Paul Fedorovich.  I can not believe this opportunity.
No, this is no way possible.  The British with the French,
true, they tried to capture a quarter of a century ago Petro
Pavlovsk in Kamchatka, but Japan?
— Oh, the Japanese are well aware of our weakness.
IIn the Far East.  They keep agents of the military
intelligence in all settlements of the Amur
region.  As a rule, slyly camouflaging agents hiding
under the guise of petty traders, watchmakers, bankers
owners, laundresses, servants, owners of restaurants,
veins and brothels, very agile and omnipresent.
Sometimes they are cuptured, but records are found in Japanese language that cannot be understood, but after translation and the explanation it turns out that the records have the most innocent content so and indict
them have nothing.  But we are sure that these are scouts.
— And the pride of Admiral Tyrtov is the Pacific flotilla, which he commanded for a long time?
— The Pacific squadron in the winter we keep in Nagasaki, because our coves are covered with thick a layer of ice and it makes shipping and ability difficult ships to combat. So the Japanese are quite can use the opportunity and destroy
squadron.  Then it will cost them nothing to capture
and Vladivostok, and Sakhalin, and Nikolaevsk, and Petropav
lovsk without waiting for the approach of our main forces
and the Baltic squadron.
— The picture you painted leads me, at least discouraged and using these arguments, I hope to win Vannovsky and Tyrtov my side.
— These considerations have already been reported in the Main headquarters, but as I learned, they did not meet
realization, only ironic taunts.  So, in my glance, the military and naval ministers do not share the opinion about strengthening Japan, except, remembering the attempt
capture of Petropavlovsk in the fifty-fifth year, possibly
but, to some extent, support your ask for appropriation
for the construction of the railway to MARITIME TERRITORY at least somehow strengthen the defense of the Amur Region with
from of the ocean.
— Of course, the more necessary to build a road,
create a fleet base, resolve the issue with ship going
 through the coastal ice.
“Moreover, we in Vladivostok consider that connect
 this port with Russia by railway, you can
 would like following Hong Kong, create a powerful base here
navy and control from here the Pacific pool.  We brought these reasons to His highest the heir to the Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, when in May last year they proceeded through the Vladivostock to the capital, returning from the round-the-world journey processions.
— Interesting, interesting ... I hope I can manage to enjoy his support in the High Commission,  Tell me at least in short, about the stay of the Grand Duke Nicholas Alek- Sandrovich in Vladivostok. — Heir Tsesarevich Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich arrived in Vladivostok on May 11 1901year on the 1st rank cruiser “Memory of Azov” accompanied by the ships of the Russian Pacific squadron.  In the city just above the Admiralty Pier was built on the money collected among the people   stone arch in the Russian style, and at home painted with flags, decorations, banners,   and monograms.  After setting the cruiser anchored in the Golden Horn Bay to him immediately sent Priamursk governor-general Baron Korf and your humble servant, the military governor of MARITIME TERRITORY Major General Unterberger, who had the honor of welcoming His Highness with the received arrival in Russia.  In half the twelfth hour of the next day the congress was appointed to the shore of His Highness and by this time on the pier a guard of honor was lined up with a banner and music and all the commanders, the city council, employees of various institutions, educational institutions, parents and the mass of the people.  At the appointed hour  His Highness, on which were the heir Tsarevich, Prince George of Greece and his retinue from the “Azov’s Memory” , a salute boomed on the squadron, played music, sailors ran aboard the ships
and lined up on the yards.  At the exit of His Highness
ashore at the admiral pier, he was greeted by the mayors who brought  from  the inhabitants of the city bread and salt on a silver tray.
May 17 The heir to the cesar was pleased to attend
on the tab of the monument to Admiral Nevelsky and his
Hand lay the first stone.  The next His Majesty’s Day made a bookmark under construction dry dock, which, by imperial order, would The name of Cesarevich Nicholas was assigned.  May 19 th. WWas celebration of the laying of the eastern part of the Siberian railroad.  In place of the bookmark, about two miles
from the city, His Imperial Highness the crown prince
Nikolai deigned to arrive with the prince of Greece
Georg Greek and retinue in wheelchairs. At the end
His Highness’s prayers deigned with his own hand
knock over the first wheelbarrow of the earth and then sit down together with retinue, commanding persons and construction of the road  to the painted train and on it send
They were going back to the city along the part of the road that had already been built.
Then, in the city, a bookmark was laid for the station of Vladivostok- East railway station.
— Someday, as we build a road, I will choose the time
I go to your city.
— I would be sincerely glad to give you hospitality ...
Seeing General Unterberger and returning
into the office, Sergei Yulievich began to ponder the next steps are to speed up the fulfillment of the wish of imperator.  And when after seven months he was appointed
Minister of Finance, another one came in handy for him
reason in favour of the Siberian Railway.  After all
trans-Siberian route will set up a continuous rail
Europe’s communication with the Great Ocean and the Asian
East, will connect Paris with Vladivostok, will open
new ways and new horizons not only for Russian, but for world trade, radically changing  economic relationship between states. After all, the Canadian railway, such as, attracted most of the Chinese and Japanese silk and tea loads, reduced their delivery time from fity-five days through the Suez Canal to thirty-five through Canada.  And the Siberian Road will cut this period to twenty days!  What opportunities will open before Russia!  And as a mediator of China in trade with Europe, and how to market cheap Chinese goods, and how a major manufacturer of goods for boundless china market. But to master such a gigantic enterprise, not only enormous means are needed, although perhaps this is the main thing.  It will be necessary to overcome many delays and obstacles in the Committee of Ministers and the State Council.  And Sergei Yulievich decided to create  the Siberian Railway Committee so that this the committee was not only concerned with managing construction of the road, but for his decisions to have compulsory  property.  This thought he spent in a special Higher commission, which was based on this subject. And during the next report of Witte to the emperor in Anichkov Palace, he asked whom, in the opinion of the Finance Secretary, should be appointed as Chairperson of the  Committee.  It was then that Sergei Yulievich and indicate the heir to the crown prince.  After some thought and discussing this proposal, Alexander III  agreed . Nikolai Aleksandrovich, even having become an imperative  retained the title of chairman of the Siberian
Committee, all the time was interested in this matter, as
served as a guarantee for the construction of the Great Siberian since the monarchy was unlimited at that time
and the decisions of the Siberian Committee had the meaning of law.
Now it was necessary to urgently resolve the issue of financial
of such a gigantic enterprise.  Began, was, Sergei Yulyevich to think about the possibilities of the concession private construction, that is, private concessionaires,
with the next transfer of the built plots to the treasury.
He even picked up a mogul to whom he should turn
with the proposal, but, and this is the main thing, the matter of construction came out for the state strategically political
and rely on private concessionaires should not.
But the worst thing was that there was no money!  Sergey Yulievich knew that, a year ago, starting the construction, the treasury had just one million free funds that
intended for the new road.  But before estimated cost was estimated at three hundred fifty million is thirty million a year need , but to divide, if the road for twelve years to build
have intended.  Flashed, it was thought to release for
construction paper “Siberian” credit bills, but he threw it on time.  The printing press start-up and slap the rainbow paper with a personal note simile on the hundred-denominated bills is not difficult, but how would do not follow the proverb: seemingly — raspberry, and try chaff.  Papers, goods not secured, will cause inflation, then, expect national unrest, besides the last two years are barren ... be trouble!  There is also exit, but also risky.  In the State Bank lie treasury transferred ninety million credit notes, the debt of the war years, subject to for the sake of  These are the tickets and let them go to the construction site.
 Then to align the budget will have to borrow for a loan to foreign banks, to Paris.  There must give financial support — we all a little of cynics — as a fee for last year  union agreement.  The financial position of Russia  were aggravated by the extreme aggravation of relations with Germany. Dissatisfied with large imports Russian bread, the German government, influenced
own landlords and peasants-bauers,  imposed on Russia the highest customs duties. We had to compensate at least partly,
and more in retaliation, to increase import duties on Germany goods. The Germans, in spite of us, on the principles of the greatest favoured have entered into trade agreements honor with all European countries except Russia!
Incorrectly how!  It is Germany, the most important
and our closest trading partner, turnovers
we are enormous, how to crush them?  But also  not to concede  too high Teutons, Sergey Yulievich and the Committee of Ministers took a bold plan — to introduce two customs tariff — the greatest and least.
Stick, thank God, about the two ends ... Maximum,
naturally, forGerman goods.  How does it curl likes them ?  What we look at, what customs war is ended?
Whose take.  So, a loan in France ... According to this
he has a lot of opponents. Russophiles, ugly patriots, carried nonsense about enslavement.  Damn, how to argue,
they don’t understand that it’s not that bad in the rye is orach
the trouble is that neither rye nor orach.  After all, nothing to do, go for loans will have to.  In the richest Russia and the impoverished to be?  Well, we will attract foreign loans, we will develop gradually industry own ... Markets sales for it in the country are huge and for export we will  can
put goods, if not in Europe, there compete too high.
It will be difficult to travel, then to Asia.  To Asia?  And 
where!  What to say, because we are now for West Europe
 as a colonial country.  But to develop production, capital is needed ... The same machines, If you don’t produce it yourself, you can buy it.
No money left?  We borrow where they are in abundance.  Now foreigners are afraid to lend us money, our laws
they are not satisfied?  Well, the laws can be changed.
Do interest rates on capital need high?  Well, if your
money is a pity, due to the extensive trade with Asia
pay off.  Asia again?  Do not be afraid of loss, so come
and the profits are an old merchant saying!  Yes, at least
and from the sale of bread.  In Europe and beyond Germany
there are buyers.  Even the most modest  new road will involve in the all-Russian life more than one and a half million square miles — this is the whether to take a hundred miles to each side of the road; and if we add the floodplains of all the Siberian rivers that cross are expensive?  Oh-go-go, here two Europe fit!
And there is nothing to complain about the bitter cold!  At one latitude from the first capital the road will go mean the sun enough to make the bread matured.  And how much
land south lies?  It is necessary, it is necessary to master, not all in vain will be gone.  People of long way fear.  And there will be a road — then everything will be side by side.  Load goods in the car and carry, where your heart desires.  Of course, problems will appear here lots of. So after all this is excellent.  Rails well, where to take on such a long road?  Here is and the narrow place is iron production.  The musclemen will immediately grab it, start the plants put, metal in the country more will appear, in the price will fall, on any other needs will remain.
Crossing rivers, people on their banks begin to settle, the land to develop.  There is agricultural tools and river transport will be needed.  So , new factories and factories will be erected, plows, seed drills, harrows, but at least and horseshoes, nails, everything will be necessary.  From the old places too far
to carry, a lot of money need.  So, everything will start on the spot to make.
New lands to settle people will reach out.  First maybe
to be, and not in no will, but the first step is the hardest.  — They will no longer be afraid of distances .  Promise good land, but plenty — go people, especially from overpopulated central regions and from Little Russia.  Honestly, as
our Asian part is only considered to be Russia, although
not fully mastered.  The reserve is for the state gigantic
!  And attention should be paid to it special.


Andrei Mednikov. Strike of road builders
At the beginning of April ninety-first year Andrew went to Vladivostok and was amazed at his lively.  Migrant barracks in Soldatskaya Slobodka at Cape Shkot, it were occupied by “contracted” for the construction the railroad — three hundred people brought them recently “volunteer” from Russia.  In addition to them, as they say , from Sakhalin brought half thousand convicts, yes soldiers two battalions.  The berths of the port were littered with different with weights — and with coils of telegraph wire and barrels bitumen and rust-torn boxes with shovels, crowbars, hammers, and black, the smell of shi creosote sleepers, and overlays and crutches with blue scales and, most importantly, long, stacked full piles dimly flickering the sun rails. Andrew wandered around the city, asked around where here they take the iron road to build, and he was advised go to the Soldierskaya suburb and look for contractors there. Andrei returned to a familiar barrack, where two years ago with his father, mother and brothers in quarantine lived.  The sun sat in the taiga behind the Amur Bay and the last rays of it was no longer heated; and even then, he was more afraid of being lost and loneliness, warmer from raccoon fur inside was stitched.  At the fire men tea in the boiler boiled and simple food supper.  Flat and round fish on a sheet of tin lay baked, bread, cut into coarse slices, salt and onions.  Andrei asked who is here for a senior.  Responded hefty overgrown with thick black beard
man Kind of the most robber.
Say, lad, what the matter?
— I am looking for a contractor, Kaurov, to get a job.
Excavator or someone else.  Road to build iron.
— The contractor does not live with us, he is at the Louvre Hotel settled.  But tomorrow must be in the morning.  If you have in a knapsack a piece of bacon will be found, then come to us in the our company.  And let’s see together and place on the bunks we will find let’s move; in crowded but not mad.
Andrew, for nothing that the Ukrainians of Chernigov, greedy
was not, by life was not beaten, tomorrow to look in with fear
not trained, and life experience is no way he called — hold on people, they won’t let the abyss.  Untied he his bag, took out a piece of smoke-smelling honey-bear thigh and sugar blue half a head and put on a newspaper spread on a barrel.
— Kind, lad, — cheered up the elder, Ripped sugar and ham, and the rest told  to hide in a sack.
— Not all at once, fit in the future.
Eagerly and hungry eyes flashed around people
but they did not dare to contradict the eldest.  Respected
and obeyed, apparently.  Andrey called himself and people name they said theirs, but he didn’t remember them at once.  But older singled out — Danila Buyan.
“Tell me, lad, who are you and where are you from,”, ordered Daniel.
Without repulsing and without shyness, Andrei told everything about himself, about his family, why did they come to the Far East, where and how they settled down here, about the godless forgotten village of Ivanovka, taiga and hunt, as father planned family life and why he, Andrey, has to look for work.
“I see,” Danila nodded his head.  — And we have a life
simple as a horseshoe. We gathered here a team.
Who, like your father, from landless for a long ruble
rushed, who for work familiar clings. .  Kaurov promised, but deceived right away ...
— He deceived, cheated, fooled, spent ... — said togather
men- Two to two hundred fifty promised to pay for the year
and in Odessa, on the day of the departure of the steamer, showed the contract —one hundred and twenty, many — one hundred and fifty is written there.  Us there is no place to go.  Eat-drink is nothing at home to family they are waiting for us, they hope for the bread-winners
legs do not stretch from hunger.
We went to the police to complain of him. Stinging us, we were pushed into the neck and pushed away— where, they say, did you saw  contracting.  Yes, if we understood  him on the word was believed, benefactor, tea, work gives. And few of us know about the writing , there are more uneducated... “Some immediately fled,” Danila went on., and most have nowhere to run.  In Russia,  there is no work, but to beg, wander, steal many are afraid, shy, and not accustomed to  Besides the team has already taken shape.  The world is grumbling, not satisfying, true, but we do not stretch our legs.  Besides  the hope was — “Green wedge”, we will choose the land,  write out the family.  We walked around Vladivostok, and it turned out the same — there is no work, and where it is —do not take, can not, they say you are contracted.  And passports Kaurov does not give.  The contract is signed, insists, work hard No, so the police will take the jail is near there.  Sakhalin is near here.
Depressed Andrew.  Got caught like a deer in a loop
you won’t get out Home to be ashamed what father and
mothers say?  And the money for the road, consider, absolutely spent.
“Do not be shy, lad,” Danila Buyan encouraged him
By The world will stand against the spider, we will teach the work, it is not complicated.  Let’s build a road, and there, if literacy trained and there will be a wish, in linear guards, walkers, couplers, but you never know ... will go.
Literate Andrei was able, even in his native Neglyubke three
class parish school graduated.
Andrei lived in migrant barracks for two days
on bird rights.  For days, he stalked around the city, work
searched  visited the workshops of the military port and
the volunteer fleet, and at the mill of Lindholm.
They didn’t take it anywhere.  For metal is not trained, housing in the city  no and there is no one to stay.  He is in port  tried to work as a loader, went to the brick shop, but to no avail.  Andrew went once on the First River on beer factory the barrel to roll,  drank beer, but he did not like it — bitter, and the senior loader ordered to blow from here — this is not a profession.  Go, he says, to the iron road.  There a lot of construction work, and after build a road —there will be more, and you will get a good specialty.
He had to contact the contractor Kaurov.  Indded he was skeptical, but he was in a pity place — a contract for the construction of a large snatched, and people
brought — nothing at all — just over two hundred.

He was greedy for money, shoving more in his pocket
wanted to.
“Okay,” he condescendedly, “I’ll take you as a third hand digger.
— Like this?  — Andrew was taken aback.
“This is it,” explained Kaurov.  — Now first
earthworks will go — to make the notches, to cut the rock,
to build mounds.  Guys strong, excavators experienced for the firsthand go.  Weaker, those for the second-hand.
And suckers, like you, yes puny creature — those third hand
are listed.  And earnings, respectively.  I’ll put you
seven rubles a month.  Money is big, but also work
I will demand due.  You will shirk, lazy  — beware, three skins come down, do not have mercy.
Andrew almost cried from the insult and hopelessness.  Seven rubles total!  His dreams to help family, acquire a strong specialty to fed, clothes, shoes, yes in the village on the farm
so that was left. But he was not accustomed to showing his weakness to people.
He nodded gloomily and with dignity — well, say.
And Kaurov looked at him and thought mockingly, 
— Neither where are you, lad, not going anywhere.  Not to me, so to Galetsky, Fomin or Vvedensky run.  From a distance you can see —the village, gray raccoon . First, you have homemade fat and girl’s blush will fly off, the voice will become hoarse, smoked, the neck and from the sun will be brown, and the belly will be white, palms with horse hoof-thick calluses will be covered, and the veins on the hands of the sea ropes swollen. — You will work with everyone, from dawn to dusk — howl day Yes hour for lunch.  Rest — in the rainy season  To live — while in the barrack, and then, as it is here, the mound we carry, and we will lay the rails and then we will go, in the booths, tents and tents.  You will be seek to do — in second hands transfere.  Don’t mess with Danila Buyn — he’ll take you with him in jail .  Roares support will become —I will not give away a penny earned. As soon as the edge of the sun rose from the Rotten corner, as Kirillovich, a brave retired sapper NCO,waking up people in the barracks, drove them into the courtyard, where the cook have already poured millet on their bowls, buckwheat, barley, oatmeal or some other porridge. — Move, convicts, — shouted Kirillovich. “You yourself are a cat,” the men cursed,   rinsing with cold sea water in which soap was not washed, the face and neck, with  palm of five finger  comb hair, had breakfast, threw up
on the shoulders the pickles and shovels, or grabbed polished
to the brilliance  the handle wheelbarrows and, blowing down the blue smoke  haze, in an unorganized column stretched to the place of works.
The road began to build in mid-April, together, at once in several places and by many people.  From the berth of the Voluntary Fleet in the Golden Bay horn, past the Semenovskiy mowing builden with Chinese and Korean fanzs to Amur Bay. The rock was cut down by convicts tightly guarded  brought  to Primorye and Sakhalin hard laborers.  Further, from Kuperovsk ravine to the First River swarmed “contracted” of“Galetsky, Fomin and Kaurov, and behind them to the Second River, the route was thickly covered with soldiers battalions of Colonel Exten.
Andrei immediately got blood on palms. Calluses on the palms, piercing pain pulled the muscles arms and shoulders, ached feet and loins.  Short night did not bring rest and relief, the body ached so that could not sleep.  The first week he walked in half a dream.  Do not support him Danila Buan with word, jest, the change of work, would not stand Andrew.  But Danila ordered staying near.  Seeing that Andrew’s fingers not holding a pick or a shovel, drove to the sea or to the ravine with a pot of drinking water, or to throw off large  stones, or rolling a wheelbarrow,
or to move the fire, but you never know ...
And then Andrei got into work a little and became
easier.  One thing is bad —it was  constantly  the belly empty.  There is all time like incredibly.  And thoughts are just around food spun.  Before that, he was hungry for buying
for a penny from the Chinese, the crab, the shell of the roast,
boiled oysters, mussels, scallops, then trepang, eight
lamprey once, octopus, sea bastard did not disdain.
And all eyes were hungry, food sought out.
Danila, her teeth through a black beard, bared, said, lad, you are gaining strength.
His people respected and obeyed.  Yes, and he did not hurry with  mind, will listen to all attentively, estimate that
what, only then and advises.  Oh, on that Cyril
foreman, a deminer trained in the army, and he
real weakling against Danila looked.  And which tree
select the cuttings, and as a pick, a shovel, and an ax
to chop and to dig  a rock, dig the earth, to drive the wheelbarrow laden  — knew everything, knew everything Danila Buyan.  It is only unknowingly it seems that it’s a trifling matter — to roll a wheelbarrow.
And who tried, yes day by day, to load more,
and save power, he knows that this art is a whole.
And the experience is needed and a good tip.  And the ax handle, let’s say shank to pick, shovel choose?  — everything is important here: and wood, so that the palm does not beat off, and bending, that it would be convenient to keep the tool, tired less and length to grow ... Ballast, ground for embankments,  advised to take as a visor. Do not dig holes, or, as the Chinese with Koreans, with small
nets, shoulder baskets to carry, but the slope of the hill
or ravine to undermine, like a grotto or a cave.  How
digs a deep cavity, well, let’s tear down the visor.
Here they strives to, if not roll off with the wheelbarrow,
then at least in place even, only a board or slab under the wheel throw — the car itself flies, just hold on.
But it was also risky — when you dig a cavity, ears shall be
on the top, hold it upright so that the palate won’t fall on you -   pin down to death.
The road went fast.  All at once did.  They cut the rock and dumped the embankment, laid the sleepers, screwed down the rails, hammered the crutches ... For a month, by the middle of May, they did not believe their eyes — three good miles were ready.  And further, to the Second River, only to lay the rails.
 Then the message came – the prince rides, the road will be laid.  What to lay it when it is already under construction?
 Workers were fed a bit better that day, with the porridge with butter.  Festive shirts were ordered put on, muzzles, as the Kirillovich-foreman put it, to clean up, mustache-beards cut, but not to sparkle holes.  Along the road for the army and the police lined up, to depict people jubilant.  Just on their site, in Cooper Valley, near the rail of the last Christmas tree, chopped up yesterday, they were thrown into the ground for beauty;  By noon, after a deep sleep, the high authorities in rolled-up uniforms, in orders, gold sheathed in gold uniforms rolled up.
 Danila  pushed Andrew with an elbow to the side and said, “Look, that prickly slime, with thin legs in shiny boots, is prince Nikolai.  And next to him is the prince of Greece.  Here they are the main spiders, sucking blood from the people.  And our one of the fiercest battles in the history of Japan, he overtook the enemy, ;ontractors Kaurovs, Fomin, Dunaevs, Popovs and Kirillovih - the ten’s manager – so, small ticks.  From them will just get rid of.  And there they stuck – you will not tear out.
Andrew from him slightly to the side not shied away. It’s about the Prince, the king of tomorrow. And Danila’s eyes are baleful his mouth is compressed into a thin thread.  Wait, he says, stupid.  See how we work, our arms and legs are all beaten, but with a hungry belly we walk, we shine with holes, we live in shacks.  All my life they won’t strike a finger, they ride abroad, they live in palaces, not bitter vodka, champagne is blown with glasses, snacks are served in sardines …
 Andrew is silent, fearful – what is not enough just to hear from Danila.  Indeed, he will be dragged away into jail with him, for good reason Kaurov warned ahead of time.
 Then the Prince a little wheelbarrow was tiddly, decorated, half filled with earth, drove two yards, threw it out, picked at it with a shovel, sat down in the blue-trailer attached to the engine and drove off to get drunk. And Andrei and Danila in his hut on foot trudged on the play. Daniel vicious goes on, kicking pebbles, although shoes lean was.
 - What do you like?  - asks Andrei.  - You are not a master, not a general, a peasant, and God himself told you to knead dirt with hands, to earn money for bread …
 - I worked in Elisavetgrad, in Odessa, on the railway.  Repairman, crawler.  There, our people got close – oh!  The circle was, books together read, discussed them.  Correct books, prohibited by the police.  And it says in them that everything in the world was created by labour, by the hands of the workers and peasants.  All  houses, and plants, and clothing, shoes, food, everything.  But those who do this, ragged-undressed walk, with their bellies tucked up.  And the rich people assign their labour, grow fat, live in palaces, not like us, in soldiers’ barracks, cramped shacks and earthen holes, like beasts.  Our children are sick of consumption, they are dying of cold and hunger, and they feed the dogs food and throw them into cesspools.  Why is this so?  And by whom?  And how to change?
 “But you know, they give us work, they give us a tool, they take care of where to place us, they feed, they pay money ...”
 - You are completely fool, Andrei.  They mercilessly rob us, deceive us, they force us to work for twelve or fourteen hours each day, they build spacious stone houses for themselves, and have you worked for a month, what did you get on your paws?
 Andrew has not received anything yet, as well as all the ”“contract”.  The contractor Kaurov already swore that the diggers are working poorly and slowly and he will soon be ruined in smoke because of them.

 Then it began torrential rains.  Thick fog passed into bead and drizzle, gray clouds hung low over the ground, of which flowed, flowed, and suddenly let in a heavy rain.  The route of the road was completely squasdhed, the underlying clay did not let water through and there were huge, not dying puddles everywhere, there was nowhere to step – instantly ankle-deep, knee-deep in viscous mud, and it was not like parting with bast shoes and boots.  It was impossible to go to work – not earthen, but liquid-mud works.  Wounded on sharp stones, the legs and hands were covered with wet sores and began to rot.  The ends of the fingers around the nails were filled with yellow-green pus and painfully sore.  Of all the drugs – one plantain.  They still fed oatmeal and barley porridge with rotten fish, and this food did not restore their strength.  Andrei noticed that some gums had swollen and teeth began to lose.
 “Chew the grass,” Daniel insistently demanded, “eat dandelions, young nettles, cook bracken fern.”- Cows we, or what?  - the men scolded, but obeyed.
 He was the only one who chose the time to go to the Chinese suburb on Semenovsky mowing, where the gangs of Asian workers lived, learned a little to speak Chinese, and often brought in a sacking bag for half a flounder.
 “Fresh food is needed,” he instructed, “otherwise we will get sick with grief, the body will weaken, and all sorts of illnesses will prevail.”
 And even then, there were rumours of contagious diseases appearing in the province – cholera, dysentery, leprosy, even the plague.
 Kaurov was completely furious.  “You let me go all over the world,” he shouted.
 “But it’s impossible to work,” Danila stood firmly, “the mud is impassable.”
 And the men roar supported him.
 Nevertheless, Kaurov urged them to work into the rain with rock bites and crowbars.  The day worked – all numb.  They returned to the barracks late – wet, the furnaces are not baked, you will not get warm and not dry.  The night was shaking from the cold under the wet blankets could not sleep.  People are shaking, coughing.  Kirillovich raised them with foul language in the morning, drove them to work – went reluctantly.  Another day in the pouring rain to work forces enough.  But the next morning to go to soak refused.  Almost half of the peasants coughing, wheezing cold.

“Fresh food is needed,” Daniel instructed, “otherwise we grieve sick, the body will weaken, and all sorts of ailments will prevail. And even then, there were rumours of contagious diseases, in the province — cholera, dysentery, leprosy, even the plague. Kaurov was completely furious.  — You got me around the world
he shouted.
“But it’s impossible to work,” Yes stood firmly Daniel Buyan — the mud is impassable.
And the men roar supported him.
Nevertheless, he forced Kaurov to cut them in the rain with a rock
Kayla yes crowbars.  The day worked — all numb.
They returned to the barracks late — wet, the furnaces are not fired, they can’t warm and not dry up.  The night was shaking from the cold
Yes, under the  wet blankets , they could not sleep.  People are shaking. Cough up, cough.  Kirillovich in the morning raised with his foul word and  drove them to work — went reluctantly.  Another day in the pouring rain to work forces enough.  But the following  the morning they refused to go soak together.  Almost  half of the men were coughing, wheezed about cold.
“You are working badly, mobs,” Kirillovich swore.
 The right guy in winter undressing works —
Again, Kaurov appeared at work to push out, but 
Danila firmly demanded tobust answer when he bot will pay.  Three months have passed, not a dime  received from him.
“What do you mean,” Kaurov went  even more, “that you have turned out?  I pay for the barracks, I feed you, I tools gave — picks, shovels, crowbars, cars ., what, is this cheap all?
— But after all, as many as four versts of linen by us
laid out. How many thousands have you received for them?  Come on,  say stories!
— Rebel, I’ve looked after you for a long time.  You know that the road is a military, state, defective, and you thought up to break it?  There is no money now, and when will be — is unknown.  Work — I’m calculating  lead, your money will not disappear, it will be more whole, you will not drink
though…
— Yes, since people have earned, why the calculation
not announcing?
The men were completely furious and screamed,
interrupting each other, — Wives, children, old men
householders are waiting for money, but where are they?  Lured us away, around deceived, why not pay?  In Colombo,
 among ocean at your mercy six people captain landed, how will they get home?
And already came from other barracks “contracted”
 of Skidelsky, Klyuchevsky, Zhuravsky,
Galetsky, Dunaev, Popov ...
— All of them, males unkempt, blowing in one tune, us
they starve, work is demanded, but money is not paid ...
Squeezed in a far corner by angry people, evil
shouting each his grief with one common  demand - earned money,  hounded Kaurov  looked around and, feeling that the passions were heated to death  they will start beating soon, rushed to the open window.
Danila Buyan stood up for him.  — As long as the money
if you don’t pay, we don’t go to work,
The men wanted to take on Kirillovich,  fists to scratch, but Danila did not allow.

— This one is our; although he is barking, from the common pot slurps, raises to work.  Campaigner, to his mother ..By the end of July it was fine, the seaside summer is in effect. The sun was hot and, waking up early, hastily washed and refreshed, what God sent, road builders wandered around the city looking for work.  But it was very rarely possible to find it, except in the port to unload ships, but they began to be offended teams Chinese and Korean.  However, road builders more often rudely refused, and employers persecuted away: they pay almost twice as much as Asians, and to punish obstinacy required.  News about distemper at the construction of the railway instantly expanding around the city.  Workers for three days did not go to work, but the authorities have not yet intervened, waiting, as contractors will be able to curb their army lousy, not nourished. However, the head of the road under construction, engineer Ursati was angry.  The high pace was lost and that stock strength gained in the first accelerating days, lost. Convicts and soldiers- zeal n the work did not show. One hope — freelance. But they stood at their ground. At a meeting with the civil governor of Primorsk region of were attended the state councilor Pavlenko, port commander Rear Admiral Yermolaev, commandant of the fortress, Major General Akkerman, commandant of the city, lieutenant colonel Pestich, chief railway construction battalion colonel Exten, inspector of prisons of the Amur General-Governorof Commerce, the head of the Primorsky Branch East Siberian Gendarme Office colonel Losev, Vladivostok police chief Petrov, Popov, Korean Yumbo and the initiator of the meeting head of the South Ussuriysk railway engineer Ursati.
Unreasonable greed, dull limitation, bestial attitude towards people, — Ursati did not choose words — led to the first organized by your workers strike in the Primorsky region. What is required of you- to organize people and build up construction.  And for this, pay people on time, throw them a pretty penny.  They will turn you the mountains.  Nothing  is  clear for you — they need to earn, only for this they so far arrived.  So give them their miserable money, enter pricing and piece of work, pay regularly -once, twice a month, about the rest let them take care.  What are you doing?  Contracts received, money hid and people without a penny throw. This red infection just let it seem, then you can’t get her out.  Who will build the road?  Six hundreds convicts and a half thousand soldiers barely crawling, work out their rations because they are money they do not see, and you will not ask for work from them.  Only freelancers can work well. And move fast.  Pay people well, increase your diet, organise housing on the highway, so as not to waste time on the walk in the morning and in the evening.  And the instigators of the strike must be identified and as example mus be punished.  And, if we have become more frequent workers demands, we need to strengthen the police and military on the construction of the road. Following Ursati, the Council’s Councilor Pet took place- Vladivostok police chief. - Strongly disagree with Mr. Ursati. Law enforcement is our business.  We mustconduct a hard-line.  No fulfill any their requirements.  Give them a finger — a hand will tear to the shoulder. To thesabre jail of the ringleaders, ” he said. with phrases short, chopped, and hand, like sabre waving, cutting off the head.  — Let afraid of contractors. And from the fortress to send.  In their place will come running thousands, meek and docile. True to the service of gendarme chief of the regiment colonel Losev, crimson with anger, barely restrained from scream, — This is not the first speech of the workers. On the twenty-eighth of June on the twenty-sixth verst the contractor Zhuravsky brought the Koreans to white heat, he was beaten in the blood, had to call the troops.  —due to that, at once, two hundred Koreans, the builders  began rebellion,  when they went to Vladivostok, we the arrested instigators to Vladivostok,  to help them at Podgorodnaya station rushed to the rescue  Russian, Chinese and Korean workers.  What is it — International in action?  This is not enough for us.  But if that outrage was spontaneous, then lasting almost a week the strike is already clearly organized by you, gentlemen.  You have brought a disease infested with a red infection from Russia and your incredible greed provoking those on organized performances.  The ringleaders and troublemakers, of course, we will find, but the bitter experience is it indicates that the cause of strikes and unrest is always there are shameless greed and arrogance of employers. While these performances are local and have economic character, but if they continue, they will professional trouble-makers will take advantage of the region are available.  The same administratively deported Sergei Yuzhakov, clerk of the Office of Construction roads, or Nikolai Remezov ... And then the strikes and strikes will become political. This can not be allowed. To him, “cornflower”, in colour of his uniform, the colonel unnecessary worries were undesirable.  On the table was still he unfinished case of escape two years ago through Vladivostok to London of the participant of the Great Process Feliks Volkhovsky.  And how many such fugitives proceeded abroad from Siberia through Vladivostok?  If do not “Red the Cross of the People’s Will” the hands of this thing?  If so, their agent hid in the city.  Is not Innokentiy Piankov?  He, too, passed through the “Big Process”. Maybe yes, maybe no.  Probably not.  Innokentiy Pavlinovich almost never climbs out of the village of Nikolsky, if to brother in Khabarovka.  No, this is someone else, clever and bold.  After all, how Hippolyt Myshkin escape from Kara prison — cleanly and without a hitch.  By chance from a foreign ship was removed …
Maritime and military authorities expressed their readiness to help the police curb the troublemakers
Early in the morning the police and the soldiers with Berdan rifles surrounded migrant barracks.  Contractor Kaurov with police  on the tips of Kirillovich unceremoniously dragged off the planks still sleeping workers and roughly pushed into the courtyard, where they were given into custody embarrassed soldiers.  Kirillovich-foreman, seeking  to  favour of the owner, he proceeded with black swearing.
— The mob, now on the bench, the prion prisoners will steal money, the families will wait...  Sakhalin crying for you tears flammable, good it is near.  I know you, the instigators, everyone. Now you will shoot down the people with a mind, will direct]to hell
They went through all the barracks, all the teams and they took the ringleaders a lot, two hundred and fifty people.  Tightly surrounded by soldiers with rifles at the ready, grimly wandered into the city, to the police office management. Kaurov trudged behind the chain of soldiers.— Now get to work immediately, —he shouted, turning around, to remaining silen thawling mob , the workers and mockingly added, — and  your money let’s lie down, they will increase in my pockets It will increase at number and will be more whole. About the thousand crowds raised to work “contracted’ by Vvedensky, Zhuravsky, Galetsky...indignantly  cries ; they became more and more and now a huge mass of hungry, tired, ragged, angry people swung after the soldiers and at first slowly, hesitantly, and then faster, pulling on the way to the column,  moved to the rescue of his comrades.  They walked along Posiet and Aleutskaya streets, past the headquarters of the fortress and railway gendarmerie, from where hasten for help in the barracks of the 1st batalionse behind the old port. Ahead of reaching soldiers, fearing chasing them workers, at the command of the officers began with  bayonets in the backs to push the arrested, and went to a running. Andrei walked in the middle of the column of perturbed keen on the general impulse, marveling at his boldness of consciousness of strength.
“But they are afraid of us,” he thought, “they are power, they have weapons, police, soldiers, prisons, they’re out, even run. Past the station under construction, through half empty the market, they went up to Suifunska street to the Dattan house , rented by the city police and, still surrounded by large crowd of curious, began to loud banging on the echoing iron gate.  In the windows of the second floor scared faces of police officers appeared and stones flew into them from below, shattered glasses
- Release, return our comrades, — demanded people persistently knocked on the gates and doors of the police management.
Suddenly, standing on Peking Street screamed,
—Soldiers, soldiers go, — and they leaned back.  And to them up the street rose even ranks dressed in white tunic soldiers flickering in the morning sun sided bayonets.  Coming closer and more closely, they stopped at the command of captain with  saber[BR]and took the rifles at the ready for shooting while standing.  Front workers recoiled from those pointed to them in the ches capten t rifles, the crowd sprang and froze.
—Dismiss!  — by ringing, tough-hostile voice captain  the commanded a captain  
— Dismiss!  — he repeated.  — I will order shooting …
A crowd of curious ordinary people rapidlybegan to melt, and with it melted and the determination of the workers. Deadly scolding, shouting threats and insults to the soldiers, the road builders dispersed, spread out through the streets, alleys, courtyards. They did not go to work that day either.  In the eveningin the courtyard between the barracks drank warm, with a terrible sink Home Chinese sulley, and Andrew tried.  In his heart he was  dreary, as if he were in a mess, chickened out, ran away, trew in trouble companions.
Aimlessly wandering around the yard with an evil grin of winner on the face of Kirillovich, almost in the eyes poking dirty, with a broken fingernail, said to him, — You geek will be next!
Andrew became even worse, and he almost howled from deapair.  But friends gave him a glass of Chinese spirit and a crust of bread,
sprinkled with gray coarse salt, and sent to sleep.
Then the teams of railway workers spread out
across the highway from Vladivostok to the village of Nikolsk-
and further, to the village of Grafskaya, which is on the Ussuri River.
A month later, comrades Danila Buyan handed over to Andrey from him hello and reported that Danila was convicted for five years hard labour.  Hard labour he was lucky being leave here, on the construction of the road.  Lucky because that he was not sent to Sakhalin, but left in the warm Primorsky region, and, most importantly, on the construction of the road year of hard labour counted for one and a half, so Danila, with an example
behaviour, could be free in three year.  Although, with his violent character, and incontinence, no matter how he earned an extra term.
By winter, their gang was sent to the Suifun cheeks,
eighty-second mile on the road.  Their basalt
rocks squeezed the river, and it was necessary for two
Versts cut down in the rock shelf for the road.  Job
was hell: on long ropes they let people down
The rock was torn by dynamite and gunpowder, and then from a chain of holes they manually broked the long cornice.
Lived in mud huts and covered with land  ate half starving, often perished from the rock down, and some died.  Andrei was young
before living not better life; therefore compare easily endured all hardships.  But endowed overly imaginative he in the evenings longingly and with horror he looked down from the mountain, where in the direction of Nikolsky a convict camp was set up in the swamp.  Night camp along the perimeter was lit by bonfires, near
which the soldiers walked with rifles.  Lived there according to rumors, in earthen pits dug in a swamp but filled with water, everyone had a cold all the time, many fell sick with consumption and died.  Their cemetery has more one hundred whites’ fresh crosses.
Andrei has never seen Daniel, and he didn’t know is he in this camp?  Although a similar person noticed but beyond the distance there was no certainty.  He tried to ask occasional guard soldiers, but they gloomily kept silent, ashamed of their shameful service, and because “not allowed”.
Already in early March, when the sun was warm during the day quite heavily, the snow remained only in the forest, and in the fields and the roads were thick with mud, at night, though, Andrew woke up in the middle of the night. He  grumbled willingly, but he knew , quiet inconspicuous kuryanin, pockmarked face which
was lit by the weak splashes of the fading stove,
with the most mysterious look put a finger to his lips
and with an imperative gesture he ordered him to go off the bunk and go behind him.  Andrew reluctantly dressed and got out of the dugout.
The night was moonlit, clear, and frosty, the stars twinkled —
hand set.
Kuryanin pulled his hand, — let’s go, Danila Buyan is calling.
Andrei was delighted and scared, — How, where is he?
“Quiet,” the Kuryan ordered in a whisper, keep silence with me, whatever you see.
Two miles from their camp, was still preserved Oakwood grove rarely alternating on the edge birch trees.  The rest of the forest, or earlier were floated on Suyfun, or sawed for the houses, on the arrangement of dugouts, and even in the furnaces and bonfires was burnt down. They went along the crunchy snow under their feet; when behind of the fur tree, literally next, stepped Danila and friendly, with affection even, half hang over his shoulders take surprised Andrew. — Well, hello, Andrei, glad to see you!
 — Hello, Danila!  Did they let you go?  — realizing what nonsense is, asked Andrei.
- Myself left, I was not like it to be there.  Well, how are you? Probably, in the first hand was transferred out?  Ok, matured, face no longer puppy.
— And you, Danila, have changed a lot, — in the moonlight  Andrei saw rugged face with deep wrinkles face of Danila.  — And the scar has increased.  And something predatory, violently binary in the face appeared.
— Okay, let’s go, Andrei.  I’m not only with you goodbye
say came, you will attend. 
Danila went ahead, and Andrei with Kuryanin
behind him.  Behind the turn, in the ravin, covered
from all sides with fir trees, the fire was burning, illuminating the  open place fathom  three in a circle, and over the fire
on the stick hung a pot of brew.  Around the campfire were
five more men, and a long sack lay a little to one side.
In sitting, Andrew admitted two arrested with Danila-
 and the convicts sentenced to hard labour, one
a stranger, and two were his workmates.
Sack moved and moaned and Andrew recognise in it
connected Kirillovich with a mouse closed dirty rag
Danila says — now we will have dinner and thanks Kirillovich, let’s say.
Kirillovich, a foreman, lived in a house; here they at night  stole him, and they grabbed some meal onto the road.
Brew matured, they ate from the pot with spoons
in a queue of liquid porridge, filled with lard, and then
Danila took Kirillovich.
— Judas you, Vlas.  By your betrayal of us
three hundred, then arrested, a little more than a hundred
 survived.  And you will be rewarded.  According to
by the gendarme general Orzhevsky orders.
And Danila began to quote from memory.
— “Instruction on the harvesting and use of the rod,
with which criminals must be punished by verdicts. ” And our sentence is yours, Vlas, this will be — ten rods each, and how are you will be here too, then I am yours portion of the same and give you.  But listen further gendarme great instruction.  — “The rods for the punishment of criminal
should consist of thin birch twigs. No more then in one and a quarter inches and a number from ten to fifteen so that their total volume in the bottom the end of the connection after the bundle had one and three inches wrap it up. ” We already cut the bars exactly on regulation his
Excellencies General Orzhevsky recommendations
— “These rods should be tied up in three  so the distance from the end to the lower to the last upper sling was
six inches.
People sitting by the fire dismantled a bunch of birch
rods and followed the instructions of the general.
— “Thin shoots of twigs reaching the top end
of beam from the third string, not cut, but left
in natural form, but without leaves. ”  
— But leaves as long as there is no, in March something.
— “After ten strikes, the rod is considered unfit
to further use and should be replaced are different. “
— What we will do.
— “The rod should not be from fresh, just
cut rods, and from the rods several already stale,
but not dry;  At this end, procured single
temporarily try to keep the rods in a damp place to
they had the proper strength and flexibility. ”
— You really, Vlas, I’m sorry, here we have broken the instruction,
with fresh rods we will fight.  And Orzhevsky decrees  to bring from other places.  But this does not apply to us.  Let’s get down to it.
Kirillovich was tied to a  one log, naked his back and ass, and started. Fought slowly, fiercely, diligently, everyone sentenced
his sore.
And Daniel sentenced, — This is for you for Gavrila long
nosed, this is for Mihai Sivolap, this is for Peter
Long...
Having finished his ten he looked mournfully, as if
asking for a loan from his comrades, but Danila was the next to the last before him, they sat in a circle by the fire.  Andrew
he was sweating all over, trembling, he almost vomited.
“You are weak, Andrei,” said Danila reproachfully.
It’s time to become a man.
Andrew tried on cotton legs to rise, but failed, it did not obey.
“Okay,” Danila waved his hand, “I’ve by your use.  Yes, and Kirillovich gave me his.  True, Vlas?
He poked him in the side with his foot, but Kirillovich was no longer moved.
— Nothing, wait a bit, the last twenty
Finished, Danila threw twigs, but untie Kirillovich did not. 
 — Let God take care of him.
Leaving, Daniel said toAndrew, 
Goodbye, when else see you. But remember: it is necessary to repay debts; beat with your fist, not your fingers; you will be kind anybody will eat you, you will be strong — no one will offend you
— Where are you now, Danila?
— I do not know yet.  Maybe to the Old Believers in workers
We will sit out for two or three years, maybe for gold mines prospectors let’s give, or where else ...


Yu.Witte.  Visits of prince Ukhtomsky and mr. Badmaev

After being appointed Minister of Finance on August 30 1892, very soon, right after half a month, unexpectedly came to his office Prince Esper Esperovich Ukhtomsky. He was a short still young gentleman with lively dark eyes and a little beard with mustache boulange.  Sergey Yulievich knew that  Prince Ukhtomsky writer, on behalf of the Emperor accompanied on a journey to the East Of his Imperial Highness heir Tsarevich Nicholas Alexandrovich, and it was he who was instructed to describe the entire journey.
Distracting from the current affairs, prince Ukhtomsky comfortably settled himself in an armchair, began to smoke a stinking long cigarette, Egyptian, he assured, let out a lot of smoke, and then set to work.  It turned out that he wanted to publish a description of the trip in five volumes and a circulation of almost one hundred thousand copies for the Treasury’s money in Leipzig at Brockhaus.  The sum he needed was quite significant, but Sergei Yulievich, for obvious reasons, could not refuse, although he decided that he would ask for the costs to endorse the emperor.
Having received his consent, Prince Ukhtomsky set off as a reminder of the journey, thinking, apparently, to compensate the treasury for much damage from his visit.  He spoke long about the trip of the company to Vienna, then Greece, Egypt, Aden, India ... He painted overseas beauties, and Sergei Yul’evich, nodding and admiring with him, looked through the official papers, making the necessary signs in it.
Then the prince began to talk about the role of Russia in international affairs, especially in Asia.
“After all, look, tiny Holland captured the fertile, literally paradise island of Java, thirty million people, at the very equator, while at the same time not possessing half the inhabitants.  Great Britain — it managed to take root on a bare rocky island of Hong Kong and create a truly world trade center and military base there, as in Singapore.  But notice, after all, they stuck to the very edge of the giant continent, clinging to the ledges on steep cliffs ... And what if a multi-million continent starts to stir, wake up from an Asian hibernation?  After all, then the representatives of the European civilisation cannot hold out there, without fail they will fall into the abyss.  Take Russia now.  For more than two hundred years, we have kept out of our limits, not counting the natural accession of Turkestan and the Amur Region; calmly, truly with Asiatic laziness, watching the machinations and political intrigues of Western Europeans, greedily rushing to India, to the Far East, to the Pacific basin.  Faced there with ancient civilisations, millennial cultures, these barbarians armed with modern weapons managed in a very short time to offend and anger the native population with countless and senseless cruelties.  From here and many uprisings, cruelly suppressed, such as, Sikhs, which shook the of India thirty years ago.  In many ways, their anger is growing and growing again.  And where should they expect protection and stronghold?
Esper Esperovich looked inquiringly, again took out a gold cigarette case and leisurely pounded cigarettes with a mouthpiece on the monogram.
— Where?  —  had to respond  Sergei Yulievich, who had long understood that the prince was going to drag him, as finance minister, into some sort of adventure.  And, judging by the beginning of the conversation, quite large.  Last year was not a good harvest, famine began in the country, but part of the grain was taken abroad, and Sergei Yulievich had to pretty much strain the budget, so there could be no extra money.  It is good that his predecessor Vishegradsky accumulated a decent monetary fund.  But where is Prince Ukhtomsky putting pressure this time?  Now Sergey Yul’evich was going to come to grips with the railroad through Siberia, to speed up the construction.  Will he not persuade to build a road also to India?  Why, the British settled there too!  This was not good for us to face the Britons.  But still we will not be in a hurry with the conclusions — let he speaks.
— In India, — continued to intrigue Esper Esperovich, — there are legends that the ancient Aryans, who had gone from their fore-mother-motherland in ancient times, are the same Slavs who settled in the forests, on the mountains and rivers of ancient Russia.  In the oral folklore of many people of the East there is a noticeable conviction that their hope is the White King, the one on whose forehead the crowns of the Grand Dukes of Ugra, Perm and Bulgarian on the Volga, the Tsars of Kazan, Astrakhan and Siberia, whose ancestors are still shining with magic rays in White stone city long since called “All the northern countries as masters and other many states as sovereigns and owners”, is the only real ruler of the destinies of the East.  The wings of the Russian Eagle covered him too wide to leave the slightest doubt about it ...
Sergei Yul’evich was interested in the revelations of the prince and, ringing the bell, he asked for tea with biscuits.
Suspecting that Sergay Ulvich likes English country, the prince began to assert that foggy Albion should not be afraid of the attempts of Russia to grasp the multicolored patterned India covered with impregnable Hindustan.
Witte understood that during the nine-month journey in the company of the heir to the Tsarevich, Prince Ukhtomsky absorbed the essence of the daily conversations of the violent young band and therefore watched with interest the thread of his reasoning.
“But our great neighbor in the east is China immovable, creating and cultivating the cult of the monarch, creating wise thinkers of Confucius and Lao Tzu, fabulously rich China, to conquer which, according to Mr. Przhevalsky’s assurances, this will be enough of our troops, this China should be the object of our deep interest.
“See, appetites,” Sergei Yulievich raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“Yes, yes,” said the prince.  — The British and French are so ubiquitous and insinuating, so consistent in their aspirations that, quite possibly, very soon they, as it happened in India and Annam, will be able to subdue and enslave the Celestial Empire, not by the Scottish, Welsh and Norman regiments and using well-trained and armed Sikhs and Zulus.  And then they will quickly develop China economically, taking advantage of the natural acumen and talent to every cause of the Chinese sitting, it will not be out-of-place to say, on truly fabulous natural riches.  Why, and populated China is more than excessive.  It is dangerous, it is very dangerous to have such a state among our enemies, after all, historically, we have no better relationship.
“Reasonably, reasonably,” Sergey Yulievich confirmed, realising that the prince expounds his views on geopolitics rooted in the heir’s crown prince’s surroundings and tries to impose it on him.  This area of political geography was new for Sergei Yulievich, and if it is interested in the future monarch, then he should pay special attention to it. Prince Ukhtomsky turned out to be a smart guy, he instantly saw an interest awakening in the eyes of the interlocutor and began to set forth his thoughts further. — According to their religious beliefs, lifestyle and temperament, the Chinese are indifferent to their fate and, using this, the colonisers possessing an iron will force them to become quite obedient and executive soldiers. I think — and not only I, Esper Esperovich hinted at — that our main task in the “yellow” East should be to protect ourselves from such accidents, so as not to shed precious Russian blood and not spend huge amounts of money in the fight against imminent dangers which should always be foreseen and prevented.
— Do you find that we should pay special attention to our eastern borders and strengthen it?  — Sergei Yulievich pretended not to understand.
A spark of regret flashed in Ukhtomsky’s eyes, he sighed like a patient teacher over a stupid gymnasium student, and even had small well-groomed, but felt strong hands, glittering with Chinese gold with blue dragons cuff links, quickly, however, mastering themselves.
— Geographically, Russia coexists with the East, moreover, it has absorbed many Asian ethnic groups and Peoples, and is, in fact, a state more eastern than European.  Countless times, Asia has flooded Russia with its hordes, raped it, instilling its Asian spirit, manners, customs and way of life.  Indeed, every second natural face has oriental features of appearance, almost half the colour of the Russian land — the nobility — are Tatar surnames.  And to our liking we are the direct descendants of the “Transbaikal” Genghis Khan, with his prowess, scope, heroic impulse to meet the impossible, sweep insurmountable obstacles, be satisfied only when doing the impossible and unfeasible ... combined with our tolerance, sincere to respect the people, breadth of the soul, wisdom to make the goal not only by military skills, but also by a sense of justice, by the wish to see each brother as an equal.  All this helped us grow in Siberia, Kamchatka, Russian America, Central Asia and the Amur region.  So the Mongols, a transitional stage between us and the Chinese, had already gazed from the Buryats at the White Tsar as the representative of the Buddha himself.  And we should not allow the quietly dormant mass of four hundred million Chinese people, who value their peace and peaceful work on tiny plots under which their ancestor’s bones decayed, become a victim of the spiritual culture of material progress, devoid of spirituality.
“But I have always considered Russia predominantly a European state, and shouldn’t we strengthen our relations with the West, which is also very important for Russia’s technical power?”
- Of course, we should not lose sight of our relations with Europe, as well as the appetites of the arrogant Teutons to the western Russian lands should not be forgotten.  But I will remind once again that China, conquered by the Western powers, will threaten us with the greatest political complications.
- The fact is that the finances of the Russian Empire do not allow us to be distracted by the solution of many, but so far, secondary tasks.  Now, I will not show to you a secret, a customs war with Germany is being prepared, and it will not lead to the rapid strengthening of the ruble.  We began negotiations with the French banks on loans, but this money will be spent on industrial growth and the construction of the Siberian railway.
- You have completely forgotten that, unlike European conquistadors, who seek quick profit and do not stop to make this goal before the ruthless destruction of the indigenous population of the conquered countries, as it was in both Americas, and in India, and in Africa, the Russians are driven by  East is the will for the will-freedom, the wish to expand their shoulders free, to show prowess valiant, to show their remarkable abilities.  If you fail to find sufficient sums of state money, then give the opportunity to apply private capital.  Following the example of Yermak Timofeevich and Yerofey Pavlovich, thousands and thousands of Russian people, daring little heads, who did not find an opportunity to use their big’s power in their own bounds, will gladly follow the call of the incredibly rich powerful Tit Titus and Pud Pudyches.  And neither impassability, nor everyday adversities will stop them, just like before, when the Siberian kingdoms one after another lay at the feet of Monomakh’s heritage.  Dilemmas - West or East - and should not be. Either Russia will includes in its spaces the entire continent to the ocean of blue, or the West will enslave it completely, and then the Asian people will be even more dangerous for us than the Teutons and the British with the French.
And he bowed.
And about six months later, in February ninety-third, Sergey Yul’evich received one more oriental guest. Mr. Badmaev Pyotr Aleksandrovich, about whom in Petersburg was known as a doctor, who used Tibetan medicine, which attracted to him ladies those who were exalted and a little crazy about the fix idea — forever keep youth, and if not youth, then freshness of the face and slim body, entered in the office in the Buryat national costume, richly decorated with patterns, soft boots, but with a deliberately crudely forged iron cross on an open chest covered with thick black hair.  His broad Mongolian face shone with a cloying foolish smile, and he moved along the fox softly and gracefully. “Another beggar,” thought Sergei Yulievich and ready to listen.  Adventurers with insane searchlights overpowered the Ministry of Finance, and he did not accept them, but he knew Badmaev as the godchild of the emperor.  Yes, and it was interesting what this rich cattle breeder would lead the conversation about, what benefits he promises and what he asks in return.  They don’t apply to the Minister of Finance for trifles: he is not talking about trade in meat and hides.  Of course not.  It was not for nothing that he dressed in his clothes was motley, not for nothing ... At the lectures of the Mongolian language, which he reads at St. Petersburg University, and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he serves, Badmaev appears modernly and smartly dressed.  Did he plan to open a wide network of Tibetan medicine hospitals for the treasury’s money? Indeed, Badmayev began with stories about his successes in treatment, called a bunch of patients with big names, and then quietly slid to big politics.  According to him, it turned out that among the Mongols and Tibetans there is a ripening wish to join, as the Central Asian Khanate, Russia.
“I can assure you completely confidentially that several tens of thousands of border Buryat pioneers, wild Mongols and Tibetans will immediately support me, one has only to start,” he said, rounding his narrow black eyes and mysteriously lowering his voice.  For this, according to Badmaev, it was necessary to build a railway from Baikal to the south, to the city of Lanzhou in the Chinese province of Gansu, to raise a rebellion there and put this part of China at the feet of the “White” tsar.  Internal, China.
Ah yes Badmaev!
But, as Sergei Yulievich thought, this native conquistador lived not altogether with altruism and asceticism.  Without being confused at all, he requested from the treasury two million rubles to finance Buryat princes, to buy weapons, gifts, and other things.  In addition, to cover up his warlike plans and accumulate enough forces at the border, Badmaev was going to expand his cattle-breeding enterprise.
Saying farewell, Badmayev took from his secretary, a large baptized Chinese named Nikolay Ivanovich Tifontai, dressed up as a bogdykhan, as he introduced him, a morocco folder with a note about his proposal and asked to transfer it  to the emperor.

Oh, how rich is food for thought!  And Sergei Yulievich also gradually ignited an unusual idea.  Why?  It’s not for nothing that such thoughts come to the heads of such different people as the aristocrat Prince Ukhtomsky and the semi-feral cattleman Badmaev.  Of course, we should not hurry, but we need to think about the proposals.  Moreover, Ukhtomsky obviously expressed his views to Tsarevich Nikolai Aleksandrovich, and Badmayev, regardless of Ukhtomsky, suggested reliable ways of transferring it into reality.  Of course, we should not hurry, but it is necessary to report to Emperor Alexander III.  And then look for opportunities through the Ministry of Finance and through the neighbors in the building — the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  During the next report to the emperor, Sergei Yulievich told about Badmaev’s unusual offer, and conveyed the note.  His imperial majesty, having familiarised himself with the note, almost rejoiced, but was also amazed, — so this is new, so unusual and fantastic that it is hard to believe in the possibility of success.
Sergei Yulievich, comparing Badmaev’s note with the statements of Prince Ukhtomsky, again deeply thought. After all, there is something here!  Knowing the pressure of the British and French, you can be quite sure that after twenty-five years old or thirty years old they will firmly set up themselves in China and this will not be enough for them.  Where do they direct their predatory eyes?  It is clear and there is no doubt that in the direction of Russia.  And they will already fight by the hands of Asians, but the same Chinese, such as.  And from the east, Russia is weak, oh, and weak ... And they can rush to Turkestan, and to the Amur region, and to Siberia ... The British love to rake the heat with someone else’s hands.  But after all, it may happen that, having let China in from the east, the British will pounce on Russia from the west?  It is necessary, if possible, to preventative.  Why, indeed, not take advantage of the offer of Badmaev, to find the necessary amount, and to prepare the centers of the uprising in Mongolia, the fallen asleep of China and the Himalayas?  What happens is unknown, but the attempt is not torture.  And there is one more argument in favour of the proposal made by Badmaev.  By building a railway across Siberia to Vladivostok, and the southern branch — through Mongolia and China to Tibet, you can definitely secure Russia; definitely speed up the delivery of troops to places of possible clashes.  The purely financial side of the matter — the construction costs — are significant, but if they are mitigated by private capital, and there are those who want to invest money in the Chinese line, then trade with China, even some duties, will bring substantial sums to the treasury.  Although the emperor was skeptic about Badmaev’s note, you need to get a clear idea for yourself and think about the problem, without delay, carefully and in detail.  Yes, probe through the faithful people, reliable.  And there are such.

And the jubilation embraced the soul of the Minister of Finance.  See!  What horizons of the neighbourhood are opening from the peaks of the Himalayas and the hills of the Amur Region ... After all, a new, completely unfamiliar eastern world, about which no one else thinks, lies, one might say, in his palm.  Ukhtomsky and Badmayev — empty searchlights who do not know the driving energy of money, pushed him, sent a thought to the far eastern lands.  But they do not take up their conquest.  And not by military brute force, which will face no less powerful and will immediately provoke a repulse, fraught with the saddest, if not catastrophic, consequences.  And by the power of thin, intelligent, flexible, sharp, like good steel, penetrating the thickest walls and dissecting the strongest constipation, decomposing the soul and capable of creeping into all pores of the enemy.  The power of money!  With it, he will conquer an eastern country, foggy, mysterious, alluring, shaky like a mirage, spicy and spicy, yellow and squint-eyed, rich and impoverished, powerful and powerless, proud and such a submissive, unknown country.  He will conquer not for himself, and he doesn’t need anything except the smallness of his usual way of life.  And not for Emperor Alexander III — a fat glutton and a drunkard.  Conquer for Russia and to the glory of his name.  In the eternal human memory, he will stand on a par with Ermak Timofeevich, the conqueror of Siberia.  Yes there Ermak Timofeevich.  China is not a deserted snow-covered territory, into which you can not fool Russian peasants.  Eastern neighbors — a country lush, warm, over-populated, rich in labors and inexhaustible opportunities.  And their predatory hordes and all-destroying hordes will not turn to the north, but to the south, against the British and French.  And then to patterned India multicolored, Oh, breathtaking!  After all, a bold thought already sees of the Asia belonging to Russia.
So let’s do the same …

VATATSUBASHI.  ETADJIMA.  MARINE college. EDUCATION SAMURAI.

Sensei Sumimoto paid special attention to him.
After the evening calibration, when all the cadets of the Naval Cadet School at Etajima were busy with their affairs before going to sleep, Kannusi Sumimoto called him to himself, seated him on the mat and, he took a teapot with a fragrant thick tea from hibati, poured fragrant drink into porcelain cups and began to ask about success in school, what subjects cause particular difficulty, about relationships with fellow students, whether he receives letters from his parents, in a word about everything was the world of the young man.
He especially remembered his first conversation.
“You, boy,” said the teacher, “were born and lived for a long time in the country of the barbarians and spoiled by customs and customs alien to the true kungay.  You received their primary education — this is both good and bad.  It’s good because you understood the basics of their culture, religion, you know their language, you feel in their midst like carp in their native mountain stream, and it’s bad because you have lost your life-giving connection to your homeland, you don’t live with your concerns, you don’t take your mother’s milk Bushido laws, did not play the games of their peers …
“No,” the young man tried to object, “father and mother taught me all this ...”
But Kannusi’s voice was getting harsh, “See, you are trying to object to the teacher, which none of your new fellow students in college will ever do.
“You are the offspring of the youngest branch of the most ancient kind of kungai Fujiwara and are considered a relative of the Tenno itself — Emperor Mutsuhito, father of the nation, and you must serve him and great Japan faithfully and faithfully.”
The young man’s heart was filled with pride and there was a wish to carry out the feat or immediately die to the glory of the great tenno.
I will tell you the story of our kind, because I, too, Fujiwara.  This is the story of Japan.  In 667 BCE, according to the chronology of the red-headed barbarians, the great Jinma with his army landed on the eastern coast of Kyushu in Fiuge, passed this island, captured the island of Sikoku and half of Nippon Island.  Here, fascinated by the beauty of the area, he settled near the city of Nara, about seven miles from the later capital.  Ama Tarazu Omi Kami — the Great Goddess of Heavenly Light, also called Hatsu Kumi Shirazu Tenno, or the first reigning empress, ordered Jinma Tenno, the founder of the Japanese Empire: — “This beautiful rice-producing country is destined to become a great power in which our descendants will reign; Establish yourself in it, my grandson, and have dominion over it. “  Subsequent emperors approved the choice of their ancestor, for Kio, the capital of the empire, changed places, but always remained in the neighbourhood of the chosen Jinma.  Before becoming an emperor, the Great Jinma was a god — kami yoh.  When he came to Japan, it was a wild and barbaric country, inhabited by shaggy broad-faced people, with whom Jinmu’s army entered the battle and pushed them north.  The people of Jinma were tall, with smooth black hair and Indian features.  They had the weapon of the gods – Tatchi swords, thanks to which they defeated numerous barbarians.  The great Jinma paved the way for Yamato and made Kashiwara the capital.  And always our ancestor Fuji vara Uji no choj, loyal assistant and servant of the Great Jinma, was always beside him.  Immediately after the emperors, the surnames of royal blood according to the degree of nobility and antiquity of the genera go “kungai”, which means “Great House”.  Many kungai belong to the younger branches of the imperial house, others are descended from the Jinma warriors who came with him from Kyushu to Shikoku and Nippon, who have since become the main pillar of the throne and received from it the possession of the land.  Kungai has always been considered a noble estate at the court of the emperor.  The estate kung belongs to the most famous genera of Japan.  Both the daimyos and even the shoguns are of lower origin.  Of all the Japanese surnames, Fujiwara ranks first, both along the lineage and the honours of the past years.  Fujiwara not only always occupied the main positions at the imperial court, not only married their daughters to the heirs to the throne, but also had a case in history when Showa, the grandson of Fujiwara Yoshifus, ascended the throne, and he became the regent with the grandson.  Fujiwara Mitinaga’s daughter was elected emperor Goitijou as his wife, and he ascended so much that she folded the tank:
Full moon
Does not know the flaw.
Think of her —
This whole world
At my feet.  *

Meshcheryakov A.N. Heroes, creators and keepers of Japanese antiquity.  Ed.  “Science”, Moscow, 1988, p. 194

Ninety-five kungai surnames consider themselves descended from the Fujiwara clan.  The kungai civilians did not carry swords, and the military wore one sword, called “tatchi.”  In the usual time, the kungai could not, and it is still so now, to be put to death, no matter how dangerous was his crime; he had previously been shaved off his head and ordered to retire to a monastery, or imprisoned in one of the rooms of his own house.  Shogun Ieyasu in his Laws pointed out — the names of Fujiwara, Minamoto, Tahira.  Tatchibana, Sungivara, Owei, Arivar, Kiovara occur in a straight line from the Mikado. Heads of forces should be elected from these names.  If there are people between these families, although of a good nature, but uneducated, timid, or ignorant in the cause of religion, then these should not be elected to office.  Therefore, it is necessary that all members of these names be diligent in the sciences.  Remember this, boy, and try to learn, to be ahead of everyone in science, in physical exercises, and in the art of war.
The instructions of kannusi Sumimoto fell on well-fertilised soil, in Vladivostok, father and mother paid much attention to the education of the young man; in his soul he belonged to his nation, studied well and was physically developed.
“Your mother, boy, was born in the year of the horse, and it brought misfortune to her husband, your father.”  He faithfully served Saigo Takamori, fought bravely against the troops of Shogun Keiki, and then fought alongside Saigo in Satsuma, in his last battle, helped him to make seppuku and hid his head with other faithful companions of the Generalissimo.  Saigo died, and his followers and supporters were severely punished.  Your father, although he and the scion of the great kungai, was sent to the most barbarous part of the barbarous country — Russia, to Vladivostok, and the place was given to a trading agent degrading for a samurai. But remember him.  Munemitsu Mutsu, your father’s companion in the Imperial Guard and the service of Generalissimo Saigo, now the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, reminded you of the school head, and here you study here.  Many people want to get here to study, but very few people succeed.  Of the one hundred classmates of yours, only five belong to the sidzoku — descendants of the samurai, and the rest of the kadzoku are descendants kungai and daimyo, mainly from the Satsuma Principality. Appreciate your honor and be faithful to Tenno and great Japan.
This Etadzima is an island on the huge internal raid of the naval base in Kuryo (near Hiroshima), therefore cadets lived on this island in complete isolation from the rest of the world.
Study was given to him by great labour and patience.  Although the knowledge obtained in the Vladivostok pro-gymnasium was solid and solid, the program differed much, besides, poor knowledge of Japanese literature did not compensate for homework with his mother.  Now he had to do a lot of work, even cramming, otherwise they would call “bonkour” a stupid person, but it was impossible not to keep up with their peers in their tricks so as not to be known as “yevamusi” a coward. After the repetition of general education subjects, special ones went — sailing and navigation, shipbuilding and mechanical engineering, higher mathematics, physics, chemistry, artillery and minefield.  In the absence of more Japanese textbooks, all these subjects were taught in English, and, in a word, there was almost no leisure.  He began to like to feel himself a part of the community — the structure, the fleet, the army, Great Japan — the monolith, as it seemed to him.  He was like an electron in the world of atoms and molecules, according to the latest theory of the Russian chemist.  He liked everything: to march in the general ranks, and shout Kinno!  — Glory to the emperor, and Joy!  — throw out foreigners, and dine in the dining room, sitting at a long common table and using chopsticks, bathe in a bath, sleep in a barracks instituted in a European way ... Shout Joy was not officially allowed, but the officers-mentors looked through fingers, rather encouragingly, hearing friendly cry of seventeen boys. And sensei repeated every evening, — Tosho Dai Gongen — The great incarnation of the sunshine of the East — Tokugawa Ieyasu, the offspring of the most ancient surnames kungai ordered to be diligent in the sciences to choose commanders from among them.
On the New Year’s Eve night, the cadets of the college went to Hatsumode.

A long, winding rocky road between the coastal cliffs silently and concentrically stepped up to raise the first in the coming twenty-sixth year of the Meiji era, or 1893 according to the Gregorian chronology, prayer.  To the right, the sea breathed in opalous light under the moon, on the left, cryptomeria smelt fragrantly, and the road snaked with colourful Chinese lanterns and bright resinous torches.  He remembered his home — in Vladivostok, on the corner of China street and Beijing street, the long-awaited first snow on Christmas Eve, the rapid sledding on the ice of the Semenovskiy bay, screaming swarming boys and girls of all nationalities, tight snowballs, still shy glances towards the attractive girls, distant ringing of bells at the Assumption Cathedral ... How long ago it was, a whole year has passed.
Kannusi Sumimoto, who was walking along the head of the school at the head of the column, as if sensing his emotional relaxation, stepped aside, passing a couple of young men with self-deepened faces, waited for him, attentively looked into his eyes and, walking slowly in step with him, confusedly began to mutter.
Know yourself.  Look deep into your soul.  Know your heart in which the deity lives, pointing to you and commanding you.  Listen to his decrees and you will not need another deity.  Remember that you are a descendant of kungai, faithful servants of the great Jinma, the great-grandson of the goddess Amaterasu.  Coming from Kyushu, Jinma precisely here began to gather around him the people of Yamato, and our ancestors accompanied and helped him. You owe your ancestors  lives, and therefore, although they are invisible, you must be completely grateful to them. Remember that you live in the greatest state, so never forget tenno — the emperor, your sovereign, from whom emanate peace, law and order …
Passing through the crimsons in the light of torches of torii, the cadets huddled in front of the wide white panels, already covered with a layer of coins and, each throwing a handful of coins, clapped their hands to attract the attention of the local god, and froze in a prayer pose, addressing him with your requests.
Then Kannusi Sumimoto gathered cadets around himself, looked around dimly white in the predawn darkness of the face, gathered his thoughts and, feeling the close attention of three hundred pairs of eyes with gleams of oil lanterns in the pupils, loudly, so that he began to attract the attention of other worshipers  spoke clearly and separately.
Japan – the birthplace of the great goddess Amaterasu, shining in the sky, which sheds its light on all countries in the four seas.  Our country is the only one incomparable to any other in the world.  The Japanese empire was originally entrusted to the sun goddess Amaterasu-o-mikami to her descendants with the words: ”“My divine descendants, you must rule this country.”  Japan is one big family;  the emperor came down from heaven, he is divine and sacred, he towers over all his subjects.  All the inhabitants of Yamato must honor him, for he is inviolable.  At the first call, we will give ourselves up at the disposal of the state and thereby preserve and support the prosperity of the imperial throne for ever and ever …
He paused, slowly again, a line behind the line, looked around the faces of the young men, frozen in blind ecstasy, and, urging them not to show turbulent emotions with a gesture of both hands, quietly and imperiously said, - Kinno! *
Kinno!  - the young men exhaled with a reciprocal echo, and Kannusi Sumimoto was once again convinced that he performs his duties as a spiritual mentor perfectly.

One spring, in May, he decided to devote his free Sunday afternoon to learning, feeling some knowledge gap, but Kannusi Sumimoto entered the barracks and ordered everyone to get dressed and go to a joeruri – a theatrical puppet show. The reference to employment did not help, Kannusi’s voice was overbearing.- Go all, - he repeated, - will show ”“The Tale of forty-eight ronins.” Against expectations, his comrades, taking tatami and, in a hurry to take the best seats in front of the stage, they hurried to the open ground, where the puppet theater broke its tent.The shamisen rumbled, the curtains sprawled, and a high-pitched high voice led his narrative, accompanying the puppet show.- “In ancient times a daimyo by the name of Asano Takumi-no-Kami, the sovereign prince of the castle of Ako lived in the province of Harima. Once in Iedo, he was summoned by the shogun and told about another prince named Kamei Sama to prepare for the meeting of the tenno’s ambassador. Adopted at the emperor’s court by etiquette, a high-ranking official Cyrus Kosuke-no-Suke was appointed as their teacher. Both princes brought to Sensei rich gifts – Chinese silk, pearls, and furs, but the greedy Kotsuke-no-Suke was eager for money and considered that brought gifts to him a little. So he harboured secret malice on them, taught poorly, and at every opportunity he reproached the rules of ceremonial with ignorance and maliciously ridiculed.  The princes long endured, but everything comes to an end. Once the Camei arrived in his castle, gathered his advisers and, scarlet with fury, told them, “The cup of my patience is full, I cannot bear the insults from Kotsuke no Suke anymore. Although I know that my whole family will suffer, and I myself will be executed, but tomorrow I will kill him. The senior adviser to the Cameo Sama, seeing that the gentleman was very determined, assured him of the unconditional loyalty of all the advisers and vassals and ordered them to make all the necessary preparations in time. And he remembered Kotsuke-no-Suke’s greed and decided to give him a big bribe and prevent this terrible misfortune. He quickly collected all the money he could find in the castle, and went to his house. There, he handed the money to a close Kotsuke-no-Suke with words of gratitude for teaching his prince court etiquette and asked to be supportive of the Cameo Sama with great attention The Cameo himself was amazed at this transformation and abandoned his plan for revenge. This is how the wisdom and resourcefulness of the counselor was saved by the Cameos themselves, his family and those close to them.  But when Asano Takumi-no-Kami entered the hall, the treatment with him deteriorated further. Kotsuke-no-Suke rudely and mercilessly ridiculed him and mocked him in every way, which embarrassed everyone in the hall. The arrogance of the arrogant grandee crossed all the boundaries when, pushing forward his leg, ordered Takumi-no-Kami to tie the bow beautifully on his dzori. Takumi-no-Kami broke out with anger, but then he thought that perhaps this is another rule of court etiquette – to tie a bow to the emperor’s ambassador, and that he should be seasoned and patient. Kneeling down on his knee, Takumi-no-Kami began to tie a ribbon, but the arrogant and greedy Kotsuke-no-Suke immediately began to insult him, call him a stupid and clumsy villager, and assert that everyone in the capital would die with laughter, seeing such a mess. Takumi-no-Kami did not endure the last insult, the cup of his anger overflowed and ordered him to stop the retreating offender. Kotsuke-no-Suke heard the threat in his voice and started off, he was running, but Takumi-no-Kami snatched out the short sword of tanto. And, catching up, hit the insolent to the head. Komuke-no-Suke’s high hat momieboshi saved, but the next mighty blow would surely finish him off if the tanto didn’t sink into a low wooden beam. In the rising turmoil, the nearest officers of the guards rushed to Takumi-no-Kami, disarmed and tied him up. At the Takumi-no-Kami council, which took place soon, for attacking a nobleman in the shogun’s palace, the latter was insulted, sentenced to death, he was ordered to do seppuku. Ako’s castle and all his property was confiscated, the race was ruined, and the close ones had to look for new overlords. But very few people succeeded, for the most part they turned into poor ronins. These forty-seven ronin, led by the former senior adviser to the deceased Mr. Oishi Kuranosuke, decided to take revenge on Kotsuke-no-Suke. Oishi Kuranosuke was a wise adviser, but the gentleman left him in the castle of Ako, so he was unable to prevent misfortune.  After discussing the plan of revenge, the ronin s scattered in all directions, so as not to attract the attention of the people of Kotsuke no Suke, who were vigilantly guarding him. Oishi Kuranosuke himself went to Kyoto, built a house for himself in Yamadzin and began to lead an unattractive way of life – to indulge in drunkenness and debauchery. The spies informed Konuke no Suke that his main enemy was visiting dirty dens and dens, and even happened to be lying in an obscene form on the street. Once they saw a samurai, a native of the Satsuma principality, finding Oisi Kuranosuke drunk in a ditch, publicly mocking him, accusing him of cowardice, spitting and kicking. Such information calmed Kotsuke no Suke, instilled confidence that the danger of revenge was over. Oisi Kuranosuke, to dispel the last doubts of the enemies, began to quarrel often with his wife, to declare that he did not want to live with her and was going to take a pretty girl as his wife from a brothel. These loud altercations led to the wife was forced to go to the paternal home with her two younger children, leaving her older son Oishi Tsikar to her husband. Kotsuke-no-Suke calmed down completely, was delighted that he had nothing to fear, since Oishi Kuranosuke so low went down and drove out his wife and children. He weakened the precautions and released half of the guard sent to him by the father-in-law, Daimyo Uesugi Sama. In the meantime, the ronins who had sworn revenge gathered in the Iedo and, under the guise of water porters or petty traders, entered Kotsuke-no-Suke’s house. There they gradually studied the layout of the rooms, learned how to guard, who of the house soldiers and guards were brave and who was a coward. And their ronin information that hour sent to Kyoto. When Oishi Kuranosuke realised that the enemy had dulled his guard, he rejoiced and appointed a meeting place for his comrades in Iedo; he, having deceived the spies who oversaw, disappeared and went to avenge himself. Together with him, his son Oishi Tsikara, who was forty-eighth, set off. In the last month of the year, dzhunigatsu-sivasu – the month of the end of the business, at the beginning of the season of taisetsu – a lot of snow, the weather was really awful. Piercing through the cold strong wind was carrying large flakes of snow, the streets were deserted, and even the dogs huddled in warm nooks. It was then that the ronins decided that a better case for an attack and the execution of their plan would not be presented. Once again, they discussed the plan to seize the dwelling of the enemy and were divided into two groups for this. The first, under the command of Oisi Kuranosuke, was to attack the front gate guarded by strong guards, and the second, of which Oishi Tsikara was appointed head, was instructed to seize the back gate of the house. Yoshida Tsuzaemon, the strongest warrior, was put in charge by a sixteen-year-old bodyguard Oishi Tsikara. The signal to the simultaneous attack was to serve as a strike in the battle drum, which took Oisi Kuranosuke with him, and the signal of the whistle would mean that their enemy had been killed. On this signal, everyone will have to gather right away at the body of a dead enemy and make sure that this is really Kotsuke no Suke. Then, as was decided, they would separate the head of the dead enemy from the body and take it to the Sengakudzi temple, where they lay their master on the grave. Having completed their vassal duties, the ronins will have to surrender themselves to the authorities and await their fate, a sentence which, no doubt, will bring them death. Ronins agreed that, seizing the house, they will not harm women and children, and fight only with the guards. When the lights were long gone out in the houses, and the hour of the rat came, they came out. There was a snowstorm whitening through the empty streets. It was dark and piercingly cold. Going to the house, they split into two parties, and Oishi Tsikara and his people went to the back gate, and four people from his father’s party climbed onto the gate and entered the courtyard. The guard was asleep. With swords at the ready brave warriors broke into the house of the gatekeeper and disarmed the guards who were there. On the demand to open the gates, the guards, who begged to save their lives, said that the key to constipation was with the senior guard, who went to sleep in the house. Ronins, who had lost patience, smashed locks with hammers, opened the gates wide and let in the attackers. Meanwhile, Oishi Tsikara and his men seized the back gate.Fires began to be lit in the nearby houses awakened by the noise, and their inhabitants were alarmed and appeared on the street. Oishi Kuranosuke sent one of the ronin who appealed to his neighbors not to worry about their homes and families, and said that the attackers were former vassals of Takumi-no-Kami, who was killed by Kotsuke-no-Suke, for which revenge was decided. The neighbors did not like the greedy and vile Kotsuke no Suke, and no one came to his aid. And so that the people of Kotsuke-no-Suke would not rush to the city authorities for support, Oishi Kuranosuke sent nine ronins armed with bows to the roof of the house and ordered to kill anyone who tried to get out of the gate. After that, Oishi Kuranosuke sat on a camping seat and hit the drum, giving the signal to attack. Ronins knocked the door out and broke into the house, where they immediately fought with the vassals of Kotsuke no Suke. Torches blazed brightly, gleaming swords gleamed with dazzling lightning, the shouts of the attackers loudly resounded, and the death wheezes and supplications of mercy for the defenders. Oishi Tsikara and his people through the garden and the back door also broke into the house and fought a battle there But Kotsuke-no-Suke’s vassals, who had fallen asleep in the back rooms, woke up, grabbed their swords and entered the battle. A fierce battle was short-lived, and they all fell from the swords of the brave ronins, only three of the most skilled fighters remained. They stood firmly in front of the door of their lord’s room, courageously fought off the furious attacks of the ronins and even tried to go on the offensive. Oishi Kuranosuke, who sat on the camping seat, turned to his comrades with angry reproaches of cowardice, hit the drum again and ordered not to spare their lives, break the defenses, rush into the room, find Kotsuke no Suke, and complete revenge. And again the attackers attacked the stone defense. Oishi Kuranosuke was quite angry and ordered his son Oishi Tsikara to the grip and either win or die. He grabbed the spear of Oishi Tsikara and engaged in battle with the most experienced opponent. Seeing the young man in front of him, the formidable warrior with fury attacked him, forced him to retreat into the garden, pressed him to the pool, and even overthrew him into the water. The mighty fighter laughed at the defeated youth, bent over the water, but Oishi Tsikara hit him with a spear in the leg, knocked him down to the ground with a second blow and, instantly getting out of the pool, killed him to death. In the meantime, they fought, the other ronins killed the two remaining vassals of Kotsuke no Suke. Oishi Tsikara raised the sword of a dead enemy, entered Kotsuke no Suke’s room, but found only his son, a young prince, there. The boys fought and the son of Kotsuke no Suke was pierced with a sword. Once again they examined the ronin’s back rooms, but there was no one here besides the weeping women and children. They fell into the spirit, but Oisi Kuranosuke touched the master’s bed and realised that he was hiding somewhere nearby. The whole house was searched by ronins, but they could not find their enemy. Then Oishi Kuranosuke guessed to remove kakemono with the image of the ginkgo against the background of Fujiyama, which hung in the tokonoma. For Kakemono was manhole! One of the ronin, having poked his spear beforehand, crawled through the manhole and found that he was leading to the back yard, in the corner of this yard he saw a storage room for firewood and coal. Ronin peered into the closet and saw something white in the dark. He raised a spear to poke the subject, but then two armed vassals Kotsuke-no-Suke attacked him and ousted him from the closet. Ronin fought bravely, defended himself defiantly from fierce guards, until his comrades came to his aid and killed them. Ronin entered the closet and poked the white bale with a spear. A loud cry of pain found that there was a man in front of him. He turned his face, jumped to his feet, waved his sword, but ronin was faster, younger, more agile. He knocked the sword out of his hands and by the collar, helping himself with kicks, dragged him out into the courtyard. . They surrounded the captive , lit up a lantern and began to look. Before them stood a wounded in thigh Kotsuke no Suke . To verify, the ronin asked his name, but the prisoner was silent. Oisi Kuranosuke whistled to the whistle, all forty-seven ronin ran to him, carefully examined the prisoner and made sure that Kotsuke no Suke was in front of them. The evidence was a scar on the head left by their master Asano Takumi-no-Kami’s sword in the shogun’s palace. He dropped to his knees Oisi Kuranosuke and very respectfully addressed the prisoner, “Sir, we are former vassals of Takumi-no-Kami. You insulted him in the shogun’s palace, for which he tried to kill you. By decision of the Council, Takumi-no-Kami made seppuku, and his family was ruined. We are loyal vassals and are obliged to avenge the death of our lord. Take the sword and do the rite of hara-kiri. I will humbly help you in this ceremony, take your head and bring it to the grave of Asano Takumi-no-Kami as an offering to his spirit. But Kotsuke no Suke closed ears with his hands, shook with fear and shook his head. Once again, Oishi Kuranosuke respectfully addressed him with a request to do seppuku, but his exhortations were in vain. Then he threw a cowardly enemy, Kotsuke-no-Suke, onto the ground, waved his sword and separated his head from the body. The ronins put Kotsuke-no-Suke’s head in an empty bucket, went around the house, turned off all the lights so that the fire did not happen and did not harm the neighbors and went outside. They expected the attacks of the vassals of the father-in-law Kotsuke-no-Suke, so they formed a battle column and, with swords in their hands and in bloodied clothes, headed towards Takanava, the outskirts of the capital, where Sengakuji Temple was located and where their master was buried. The inhabitants of the streets along which the forty-eight ronins passed along, stood along their path and respectfully bowed, already informed by the rumour of their loyalty to their lord and displayed courage. Prince Sendai, one of the most powerful daimyos of Japan, gathered his advisers and told them to invite the ronin who passed by his palace to eat and drink a cup of black sake. The ronins gratefully accepted the invitation, entered the palace of Prince Sendai, and fortified themselves with rice and hot sake. Having once again thanked the owner of the house, the ronins went further and soon approached the Sengakuji temple. They were met by the abbot himself. He helped them wash Kotsuke no Suke’s head and escorted them to the grave of their lord. The priests of the temple burned incense sticks, read the prayers and laid their heads on the grave. Oishi Kuranosuke gave all the money he had to the abbot and asked to bury them with the performance of the proper rite when they do the seppuku rite. They quietly waited for the ronins of the supreme court and calmly listened to the verdict, which they were ordered to do seppuku for neglecting justice and disturbing the order in the city. They courageously performed the seppuku rite and were buried in front of the grave of their lord Asano Takumi-no-Kami. The rumour about the feat of forty-eight ronins spread throughout Japan and everyone who visited Iedo would come to worship the graves of vassals who were faithful to their duty. He came here and that samurai from Satsuma, who kicked and spat on Oishi Kuranosuka lying in a ditch. He bowed deeply to the grave, asked for forgiveness from the spirit of Oishi Kuranosuke and, in the atonement of guilt before the grave brave and faithful servant of his master, knelt, drew his sword and pierced his stomach. That’s the sad and heroic story of forty-eight faithful samurai ”“


The cadets of the navy college met each scene with hot shouts of approval, and he only puzzled his shoulders in bewilderment. And what should you admire? Is that the art of puppeteers who can create the illusion of the fullest reality of what was happening on the stage and the atmosphere of complicity in the events of a century ago.“I’d rather have repeated the math,” he said displeasedly to sensei, “than to listen to such a fairy tale.” What does she give me? Forty-eight gangsters attacked the perpetrator of the death of their former overlord, killed a bunch of people, cut off his head. And for what? So they can kill yourself? The economic motives of their revenge can be understood – their breadwinner and lord was executed, which left them without a cup of rice and a roof over their heads, and the samurais turned into restless, suffering, persecuted, dishonoured and poor ronins carried by the life stream. But to prove or at least treat sympathetically? No, it is unlikely. Count how much blood and sacrifices for the sake of dubious pleasure to hurl a dead head on the overlord’s grave.
- Clearly, young man, here they are, gaps in your upbringing. Know that the world view, the moral basis of each inhabitant of the Land of the Rising Sun, and especially of a warrior, is composed of three main directions. The first is the veneration of the gods, the Great Japan they created, their heir, the emperor of Japan; the second is the love of the divine tenno and the unquestioning fulfillment of its instructions; and the third is a clear understanding of the principle of heaven and the path of man. Together, they make up Kodo – the imperial path, the path leading Great Japan to the mission outlined and indicated to her by the gods — the Lady of the East! China is old and decrepit, their imperial court is mired in idleness, debauchery and bribery; Korea is a weak, insignificant country, swaying like a reed in the wind, cowardly choosing whom to lie under now; Russia is a formidable colossus in the West and nothing more than a soap-bubble in the East. The historical role of Japan is to lead all the peoples of the East under their leadership to peace and prosperity. Countless human anthills of China, Korea, Annam, Cochinchina and India, all this should become raw clay in the hands of the great tenno. It is he who will sculpt the world of the Divine East. Sleepy Dzei – honoring the emperor and expelling European barbarians and Kodo – after the imperial path – these are the main principles for building a future Japan, and you, boy, should be ready to follow them. Kannusi Sumimoto’s voice sounded harsh, demanding, and the look penetrated into the very soul.- You, in my opinion, got acquainted with the first two directions well, but the third one – based on Bushido – the warlike way of chivalry, for you is still a country covered with darkness. And Bushido is the moral basis of the Japanese noble warrior, resting on Ray-hi-siou – the consciousness of shame. And it can be achieved only through constant self-education. One of the bravest warriors of the eleventh century left us with a quatrain: First of all, make your own self-restrain. Then your friends and finally the enemies.These three victories are closely related. They will give shine to the name of the winner. Self-education leads to self-denial. The highest praise among samurai is: a person without his own Self. He who strives for the complete destruction of his own personality is considered to be a creature of the highest rank. Man’s true duty is not his own salvation; he should have no hope of rewarding heaven if he does or does not do anything. The voice of conscience – you are a faithful servant of the suzerain, the emperor – this is the highest and only reward. The expressions ”“kokoroin-hayrn” or ”“ten-in-hayrn”, that is, being ashamed of oneself or of heaven means shame. Just before himself and before the sky. But only! The Japanese nation initially consisted of small communities in which people cultivated rice together in the narrow mountain valleys. Therefore, such a teaching was simply necessary in a small feudal community, where public opinion, expressed perhaps by a handful of talkers, was of much greater importance than in our time, and not always beneficially influenced the behaviour and way of thinking of a person. “As long as the mirror of my soul is not clouded by your putrefactive breath, than everything is fine,” the proverb says. Or, as one poet writes, “Whatever thoughts the autumn moon would bring, which shines so clearly and cheerfully high above the ridge of the mountains, it does not ask us about them.”
- Oh, how can you ignore the opinions of others? After all, it is it – a compass, giving the right direction to thoughts and actions – the young man was amazed.
- The first need that is presented to anyone who wants to become a real samurai is to give an account of everything. Conscience, or we define the word ”“kokoto”, meaning both feeling, mind and good heart – the only scale of truth and justice. A samurai should be direct and fair. And for this you need to have vigour and strength of spirit ... From early childhood, samurai are taught to endure and take risks. Boys are forced to walk at sunrise barefoot in the snow, endure bruises and abrasions during exercises in fencing, power combat and archery, spend the night at the cemetery without fear, and stay awake for days. It hardens the future warriors, gives them courage and fortitude.
- But how often do physically developed and courageous people commit low actions, which even their entire remarkable mind and high place in society do not interfere with. See, Kotsuke-no-Suke, having reached a high place at the shogun’s court and the shogun himself, who unfairly condemned Prince Ako, the youth reminded.
- On the path of life you will have to meet with all sorts of people, I cannot give you various situations and ready-made recipes for behaviour, but know that the highest justice is a nobility. One famous busi said so about nobility, “Nobility is a bone that gives strength and strength to the body. As without a bone, the head cannot stay at the top of the spine, the arms cannot move, and the legs cannot stand, neither science can work out the character of a samurai.”  If military cunning is tolerated by all in war as an inevitable evil, then samurai directness and honesty are precious, shining with the bright light of the sun. Therefore, this trait of character is highly valued and serves as a true measure of samurai maturity. The epithet “gisi” - a knight without fear and reproach – is applied to a person of the highest understanding of honor and justice. You correctly condemned the behaviour of Kotsuke no Suke, and these forty-eight ronins, an example of which means a lot to educate the samurai spirit in youths, are known in ordinary speech as forty-eight gishi. From  “gisi” the term “weights” was formed. Initially, weights meant a duty, a sense of duty, which must necessarily be fulfilled. And to the homeland, and the divine tenno, and to society, parents, relatives ... If love does not encourage people to do something for granted, then the reason of a person and his arguments, according to weights, should cause him to do justice.  “Geary”, , is a stern teacher with a stick in his hand, forcing him to do his due. It fulfils a secondary role in ethics, being, essentially, an inexorable law. Following the feeling of weights, the mother must, if necessary, sacrifice the lives of all children to save the elder; the girl must sell herself to give livelihood to her impoverished parents. But weights would have degenerated into fear of censure, moral condemnation, even into cowardice, if Bushido did not demand other strong feelings: courage, bravery, patience ... Look for risky situations, go to death, risk life, insane bravery in war, everything these are properties of the soul that are often praised, but this is not the true courage of the samurai. No wonder vain death is called a dog’s death. “To rush into the middle of the battle and be killed,” said the prince of Mitos, “quite easily, but true courage is to live when you have to live, and die when you have to die.” Bushido requires the warrior to be merciful, compassionate, magnanimous ... but without mercy, for ”“Bushido no nasake” - the samurai’s mercy is not a blind impulse, but an educated feeling, with the goal of retaining power, achieving the goal, reasonably using strength, avoid unnecessary sacrifices. You remember, forty-eight gisi did not cause any harm to women and children, and, leaving the house of their enemy, turned out all the lights so that there was no accidental fire and did not harm the neighbors.
- And what about the war? What should I do if an order is given to shell an enemy city with guns?
- Compassion weak, helpless, humiliated is presented as the special virtue of a samurai. Everyone is familiar with the picture depicting a priest riding a cow. This rider was a warrior, whose very name was terrifying. In the terrible battle of Sumane-Hurray in 1184, according to the Christian calendar, which was entered into combat with him and was ready to strangle the enemy in his mighty embraces. The etiquette of war required that in such cases blood should not be shed, if the weaker side was not equal in place or state to superior to the strong one. Terrible fighter asked the name of the person who was under him, and when he refused to answer, he rudely tore off his helmet. A beautiful, young, beardless face opened and a strong fighter unwittingly unclenched his hands. Helping the young man to stand up, he said that he would not kill him. “Prince, go to your mother, the Kumagah sword will not be stained with your blood. Leave here as soon as possible until your enemies have overtaken you.” The young warrior refused to leave and asked Kumagae, for the glory of both of them, to kill him on the spot. The veteran warrior tried to swing his sword, which had already struck a few people, but his courageous heart again looked fearful, at the sight of a boy who had come out at the sound of a trumpet to try the sharpness of his sword. The hand of the seasoned warrior fell, and he asked him to run. But seeing that all his exhortations were in vain and hearing the approach of his comrades, he exclaimed, “If you do not run away, you will die from a more ignoble hand than mine. Oh, almighty, accept his soul! And at the same moment the dagger flashed in the air and stained with blood. At the end of the battle, our warrior returns with triumph, but he did not please him. He abandoned his military career, shaved his head, put on the clothes of a priest, devoted the rest of his days to pilgrimage and never turned his back to the west, where there is paradise, where salvation comes from and where the sun hides every night. As this episode shows, tenderness, pity, and love for people were traits that adorned the most formidable samurai. Although do not forget that the Bushido code was established in the era of Sengoku – internecine wars and its canons were not obligatory in relation to pariahs — this is “a lot of dirt” and quinine — subhumans. In the principality of Satsuma, distinguished by its warlike spirit and military direction of youth education, music was the main activity among young people. Not the sounds of the trumpet, not the beat of the drums, these noisy heralds of blood and death, urging us to imitate the actions of wild beasts, but the mournful and gentle sounds of stuffing soothed burning souls, distracting thoughts from the breath of death and the horrors of war. But it was not only in Satsume that gentleness and tenderness were cherished by the young men. Among the aphorisms of Prince Sirakawa there are such: ”“Although they sneak up to your bed in the quiet hours of the night, do not drive them away, cherish them – fluttering of flowers and plants, the sound of a distant bell, the buzz of insects at night indifferent” to your mood and to annoy you, but have the courage to forgive them – the breeze that damaged your flowers, the cloud that obscures the moon, and the person who tries to quarrel with you. “Loyalty to this word is one of the main laws of Bushido. “Busi no uit gon” - the word of the samurai – has such a weight that it is believed without any written confirmation and which will even be accepted as degrading doubts about loyalty to the word. In our language there is not even a word corresponding to the word of the red-headed barbarians - “lie”. The word “uso” is used as a negation of the fidelity of the “makoto” or the fact of “honto.” The samurai highly supports his honor, the good name is holy guarded by a warrior. For him, the feeling of shame is the heaviest feeling. “They are laughing at him” or “you are ashamed” - it’s unbearable to hear that for a busi. Bringing a grudge, not taking revenge is starting to roll into a moral, foul-smelling swamp, and the samurai was right, who refused to reconcile with the offender, because, as he said, disgrace is like a cut in a tree, which, from time to time, decrease, is becoming more and more. But excessive care about preserving the honor of Bushido is softened by the doctrine of patience and endurance and generosity. A popular proverb says: “To endure what you think you cannot endure, it means really enduring.”  The great shogun Ieyasu wrote: “Life is a long way with a heavy burden on your shoulders. Do not rush to go. Patience is the basis of longevity.” Popular rumour has put such words into the mouths of three great shoguns. Nobunaga said: “I will kill her if she does not sing in time.” Hideyoshi: - “I will make her sing for me.” And to Ieyasu: - “I will wait until she opens her mouth.” Examples of meekness are the words of our writers. Ogawa writes: “When others speak ill of your behaviour, do not pay them evil for evil, but rather think about what should be, and try to fulfill your duties precisely.” Kumazawa says: - “When others scold you, you do not scold them, when others get angry, do not answer them the same.” Loyalty to his master – the main commandment of Bushido. You watched and listened to the story of forty-eight ronins and did not understand morality. Then I will tell you a more horrible story, it is not long. Daimyo Mitsidzane became a victim of slander and deception and was expelled from the capital. Not content with this, his inexorable enemies decided to destroy the race. Careful searches for his son, still a child, found that he was hidden in the village school, which was kept by one Genzo, a former vassal of Mitsizane. When it was ordered to give out the head of the son of an exile on the appointed day, the teacher’s first thought was to replace him with another boy. He carefully read the list of school students several times, reviewed them all, but none of them turned out to be similar to the son of the former overlord. However, his despair did not last long. A new boy appeared at the school, the same age as the son of his former master, from a noble family. He will have to die! On the appointed day, an official arrived to testify and get the boy’s head. Genzo’s hand lay on the hilt of the sword, ready to strike the official or himself if the deception was revealed. The official took the head in his hands, carefully inspected, walked through the school and solemnly announced that this head really belongs to his son Mitsizane. Although it was the head of his own son! The official’s father, the grandfather of the boy, used the mercies of Mitsizane for a long time, and after the expulsion of the boy’s father, he was in the service of the enemy of their former overlord. But he could not be unfaithful to his master, who turned out to be incredibly cruel. The son could do a good service in flavor of the former overlord. And so, having finished his sad mission, he returned home, stepped across the threshold and said: - ”“Hail, wife, our dear son proved loyalty to his master!” The Japanese story presents many cases where the heart is torn apart when a debt collides with love and when a person’s soul is torn between love and loyalty. Bushido commands to sacrifice everything for the sake of loyalty. Women, raising children, teach them to sacrifice everything for the emperor. But the feudal prince was not a despot towards his vassals. He felt responsible for them before his ancestors and heaven. He was the father for those whom heaven entrusted to his mercy. Bushido does not teach people to slavishly sacrifice their convictions in favour of their overlord. The man who sacrificed his conscience is not respected by Bushido. He is considered a thief, love-stealing crib. In cases where the overlord demanded that a vassal act, disagreeing with convictions, the vassal had to reject by all means, discourage his master from the bad decision. In a pinch, a vassal could shed his blood by doing seppuku, hoping that this could make discourage his master from the bad decision In cases where the overlord demanded that a vassal act, disagreeing with convictions, the vassal had to reject by all means, . . Twenty years have passed, as the estates were abolished, but Bushido will always be a moral law for a warrior loyal to the emperor of the holy kingdom of Yamato. And remember the main thing: the code of knightly laws applies only to samurai, the highest caste of the population of the Yamato country. But you are free to do as you like when dealing with lower castes, races and peoples.
After that, he and his comrades played several times at forty-eight gisi and, to his utter surprise and secret pride, the comrades appointed him to the role of Oishi Tsikar, one of the leading and considered honorable. Sensei Sumimoto found out about this, called him, armed with a tikuto-bamboo fencing sword, and noticed that he was very pleased with his high authority among college mates.


Jun Mei. IN THE PALACE OF THE EMPRESS OF CHINA
By noon, she awoke to the tender touch and opened her eyes. “Be patient, daughter, be patient a little,” the old Heshan Yang, a monk from a small neighbouring temple, muttered slightly, gently washing her face. She eagerly seized a stream of cool water with her lips and tried to take a sip, but her throat ached so unbearably that it was difficult to swallow, and she spat out the water. Memory swiftly brought her back to the recent past; she tried to jump to her feet, but she managed only to rise slightly on her elbow. Her house gaped with charred windows, walls were blackened with soot, and the tiled roof fell down. With deadly melancholy and breaking mind, she recalled how three young Japanese soldiers caught her, pressing her baby to her chest, her black-eyed happiness and sunshine, pulled his out of her hands and threw him through the window into the blazing unbearable heat of the burning down house, and screaming with horror and helplessness, knocking her by fists down ... And again she lost consciousness. Finally she came to herself only in the evening. She lay on a gaolian mat in a residential annex to the temple of Hu-shen – the Fox’s Spirit, motionlessly frozen, with a fixed gaze, and tears flowed continuously from her eyes, leaving wet shiny stripes on her cheeks. She did not respond to Heshan’s attempts to speak, and when he tried to feed her rice cake, she didn’t open her lips To die, she thought, would rather die, rush after her son, a clear rice grain, to the Peach spring grotto, press him to her chest, kiss the black cherries of his eyes, calm him down, sing a song to him and calm himself down.  So the day and two and three passed … On the fourth day, the bitterly agonising memory of the horror that had been experienced had receded a bit, she finally felt hunger and physical weakness, and ate rice cake. Our city Ching-chjou-ting was burned and looted by foreign worms-Japanese, your husband died, bravely defending the western gate, and what happened to you and your son in Shuang Jiang * of the twentieth year of Guangxu **, you know. Truly the truth they say – Flowers do not bloom for a hundred days, human happiness does not last a thousand days. Get well soon, daughter, but keep in your memory everything that happened to you, save in your heart the hatred of foreign barbarians and generously share it with everyone with whom you will bring you fate It is written in ancient books,
- Only drunk to the bottom
Deep sea of suffering
Will be able to rise in the world
Bent passions and desires. ***
She was ill for a long time. Cold evenings, when the heavy tired orange sun retired over the high black mountain, and instead of it the silver bucket of the month flooded the ground with a pale light, a large nervous fever started beating her and all of her, having bitten hand, shook with silent sobs. And then Yishan Heshan covered her with a warm quilt, sat next to a low wooden stool and, stroking a long gray beard, pink-cheeked, kind and gentle, did not give, did not take – the god of longevity – Shousin – was taken slowly and mysteriously inspired. “A living person is only a man, and a dead one is a mysterious spirit, invisibly present next to a person close and dear to him.” Your little son has turned into a fox, the good spirit of this locality, and will now always live in the temple of Hu-shen, right here in this very temple. Hu – fox, shen – good spirit. You should not die, should not suffer from hunger and cold, because your little son is near, he sees how bad you are, and he suffers with you. He is kind and gentle, he loves you. And you love him. Therefore, you must take care of him, you must pray to him, and then your souls will merge, and you will become one, and he will be warm and light. If you want it badly, you can transform into a fox at any time and be with your little son.*
 “Rime” - solar cycle season, October 23
**1894
**** Poems translated by I. Smirnov. Luo Guanzhong, Feng Meilong ”“Dispelled charms.” Moscow, ed. Fiction, 1983, p.96
She was so tormented by remorse in front of her sweet, kind, warm and affectionate child, it’s terrible to remember that she couldn’t hide and protect, save, save him, that, being on the verge of consciousness, she saw herself as a red fox playing, licking, gently biting her baby-fox and, having abandoned all earthly things, dissolved with pleasure in a vibrant shaky world of dreams. But as time went on, the healthy body conquered the physical weakness, bruises and bruises went away, and she began to quietly rise; at first, wandering uncertainly in the back yard of the temple, and then she began to carry out simple business assignments of the old hashan. But when she barely heard the guttural speech and the knock of heavy shoes of Japanese soldiers who occupied the Liaodong Peninsula and unceremoniously run their city, she promptly hid and hid in the farthest corner of the temple, seeking protection from the thousand-year-old Fox Zhang, covering her warm fox. And at nightfall, after the third blow of the gong, announcing the time of going to bed, the old Heshan, soothing and lulling her, said, “Tien-sa, the Celestial Empire, has undergone many invasions of western and eastern overseas devils, who shed the blood of the people, pulling juices from it make you suffer deeply and suffer hard. They brought their incomprehensible religion, their wild customs, their barbaric clothes. Not only do they suck juices from our land, they brazenly invade here and mercilessly kill everyone. Emperor Guangxu is timid, sickly and weak-willed, Empress Regent Cixi-si is busy with pleasures and entertainment, armies are weak and weak, officials do not care about people, do not fulfill their duties, live in idleness, do lawlessness, mercilessly rob people. Who will save Chung-go, the Middle State, who will protect the poor and disadvantaged, who will give drink to the suffering, who will satisfy the hungry, who will take care of orphans and widows? The first fathers of our religion – Taoism – taught us to Sheng-tsuan-chih-shi – the practice of spirit gymnastics. All over China, circles are being created to study military exercises and secret spells. They are called Ihe-tuan – circles in the name of justice and harmony. There are already a lot of them, they are everywhere, in every province and in every county, and more and more people are involved in them, those who did not accept the decline of the state, did not submit to their souls, only began to hate them more strongly, and mainly boys and girls, under twenty, teach them secret words and spells, do physical exercises with them so that people can defeat the army of redhead and black-headed barbarians armed with terrible overseas military tools, destroy their stone houses and destroy them. In fact, man is not able to fight evil spirits. But when we accumulate strength and figure an opportune time to strike the overseas devils, destroy them and free Tien-chao, the Heavenly dynasty, our immortal who come to the rescue in the mountains and in the heavens and invisibly follow our grief with great compassion and pity. Trustingly, but also with amazement, Jun May listened to the words of the old Heshan; a wild desire arose in her to take revenge and enjoy victory, but she saw her powerlessness and again her soul sank. “Your grandfather’s cousin, Jun Lu, has achieved a lot in life and now he is close to the widowed empress Cixi, the governor-general of the Zhili provincial capital and the commander-in-chief of the troops there. You will go to him in Beijing, tell about your grief and ask him to arrange for you with the maid of honor to the empress. He is omnipotent and will be able to help you. You should please the Empress Regent in everything, become necessary for her and come close enough to know all the secrets of the palace. But your main task is to learn how to influence the empress. Jun Mei was even more amazed and tried to argue that she would not be able to cope with the assignment, and she was not so strong to influence anyone, especially on the formidable empress herself. But Yan Heshan looked demanding and heartfelt, his words fell into the very soul, sounded so powerful that she completely obeyed him.
- Sometimes people will come to you; you will be obliged to tell them everything that you learn in the palace: what new harm are plotted by Yang-Chui-Chi – overseas devils, what they seek from the emperor and the State Council. Remember! When a man or woman turns to you and says that he came from me, ask, “Who taught the I-he-Tuan sect?” To the question they have to answer, “To the south of the city of Chang-I, in Dong-chang county of Shan-dong province, there is a small village, to the south of which lies a hill of red earth. A temple of three religions was erected at the foot of the hill, and there is one person, eighty years old, who receives instructions in a dream from the deity Hun-jun-lao-tsu. ”
 If the person who has addressed to you is mistaken, misled, incorrectly utters this phrase, then he is hey-tuan, black I-he-tuan, and deserves death. Assistants will be pointed you in the palace, about son do not worry. I will take care of him. And you have already learned a lot and can fly to him at night and spend time with him until the beginning of the fifth guard.
Empress Dowager Cixi owed a lot to Jung Lu. In his youth, Jun Lu, the son and grandson of prominent Manchu warlords, was engaged to a neighbour in Beijing street, the girl Neilas. Fate prepared him to serve as an officer of the imperial guard in the summer palace Yuanming Yuan – the residence of the emperor, and Nilasy was among the concubines of the emperor Xianfeng. The throne who occupied the Dragon Throne had many names: Tien-ji – Son of Heaven, Dan-jin-fo-e – the Buddha of our days, Huangdi – the Great Emperor, Sheng-huang – the Holy Emperor, Sheng-chju – the Holy Ruler, Vansui-e – Ten thousand years the lord, Zheng is a true saint, Yuan Hou is the Lord of vast space, Zhijun is the Great, revered, Bogdo-khan is the Wise ruler, Huangshan is Your Majesty and Zhuzhi is the Sovereign, and he naturally had many concubines up to two hundred. But it was Nilasy who pleased her sovereign — she presented him with a son and thereby immensely exalted. During the Taiping uprising and the civil war caused by it, England and France led their troops into China and launched an offensive against Beijing from Tianjin. The Manchurian troops failed to resist the aggression and the emperor Xianfeng with the children, household members and countless hordes of people close to him were forced to flee the capital to the provincial town of Jehe. In October 1860, the invaders imposed a enslaving contract on China, according to which Tianjin was recognized as an open city and trading port, England seized the Jiulong territory, China pledged to pay eight million lans of silver each to the occupying allies and, moreover, the poor Chinese were allowed to use for labour in the colonies of England and France. While dying in Jehe, the emperor Xianfeng bequeathed the Son of Heaven’s Dragon throne to the child of Nilas – Tsai Chunyu. So that the power-hungry and cruel Nilasi did not set up herself as regent at the six-year emperor and thus did not take full power into their own hands, Xianfeng’s confidants decided to kill her, but the Manchu guards under the command of Jun Lu arrested the conspirators. Nilas, along with Nuhulu, Xianfeng’s first concubine, became empress regent. The motto of the reign of the minor emperor Zai Chun was “Tongzhi” - “Joint rule”, referring to the regency of the two empresses. Fourteen years later, in January 1875, the physically weak, depraved, syphilis-sick Emperor Tongzhi died. Nilasy insisted the throne be inherited by her nephew Tsai Tian – the son of the emperor’s brother Xianfeng and her younger sister. And again, Jun Lu had a great service to her, forcing the opposing parents to give up a four-year-old baby. Tsai Tian was elevated to the throne , and “Guansu” was chosen as the motto of his reign, which meant “Brilliant legacy”. By this time, the sixty-year-old empress-regent Nilasy, the owner of the longest title Tzu-si-du’an-yu-kan-I-chiao-yu-show-gun-chin-hsien-chun-si – Merciful, Happy, Home, Guarded, Healthy, Profound, Clear, Calm, Majestic, True, Long-Term, Honored, Highest, Wise, Exalted and Radiant, a big mischievous in her youth, did not lose the taste for life and in adulthood. The Empress lived in the new Summer Palace. Old, Yuanming yuan, was destroyed, looted and fell into disrepair, worthlessness and utter desolation after the Anglo-French occupation of Beijing. The new summer palace, Ikheyuan, was built with the money allocated by the treasury in 1883 for the construction of the navy, and was a whole complex of palaces, temples, pavilions, pagodas, separate halls, terraces, openwork bridges and other structures spread over the square in three hundred and thirty hectares.  Adored to rule and dispose of the destinies of four hundred million citizens, Cixi completely removed the weak-willed emperor Guanshu from government and took full power into her own hands. Referring with utter indifference to the sufferings of the starving people, she tried to keep China’s high prestige in the eyes of foreigners by demonstrating the brilliance and luxury of the imperial chambers. In 1895, Jun Lu- the governor-general of the Zhili region’s capital, the commander of the New Beijing Field Army armed and trained in European style, the head of the imperial guard and the metropolitan police, faithful servant, and even rumoured to be the father of the second, carefully concealed child of Empress Cixi was at the zenith of his power. After listening to Jun May, he sympathised with her grief and promised to arrange an empress in the retinue. He succeeded very easily. The entire imperial court consisted of the Manchus, who had ruled China for two and a half centuries, and the cousin’s granddaughter Jun Lu, whose husband heroically died defending the Liaodong Peninsula from the Japanese hordes, of course, found a place of honor. A green palanquin sent by Empress Cixi, carried by four tall eunuchs, froze at the main, eastern entrance of Dungunmen Iheyuan Summer Palace-Park. Coming out of the palanquin, stunned Jun May behind the red walls of the imperial city and treetops saw the roofs of the palaces covered with tiles, shining with gilding and turquoise, and in front of it rose blood-red gates, on both sides of which strange structures of white jade rose. On covered crossings she was led to Renshoudian – Pavilion of humanity and longevity, the chambers of the Empress. With enthusiasm and amazement, Jun May stood in front of the entrance, admiring the huge bronze smoking rooms, the fierce dragon and crane, shining red copper, bright glaze of the ornament of ceramic vases, the thinnest carving of doors, the diversity of clothes of the servants.
“Let’s go and later see more,” Jun Lu jerked her hand, and with the side entrance led to the empress’s chambers. The duty eunuch carefully looked at the trembling, almost losing consciousness of the significance of the moment the woman, ordered to fix her hair and opened the huge doors, on which a yellow dragon sign was written with the inscription: “Ten thousand years and ten thousand ten thousand years old by the empress”.
Jun May saw in the depths of a room of two magnificently dressed women talking – young and old, stepped forward and fell to her knees. Making a san-gui jiu-kou — the presentation ceremony for the empress, she, taking small steps, knelt three times, touching the floor three times with her forehead, and froze in front of the women.
“Tell me about yourself, girl,” the old woman sang in a sweet voice and Jun May immediately determined that she was very angry and capricious, but she pretended to be kind and gentle. And she became very bitter and scary, and wanted to jump up and run away, but she remembered the words of old Hushan Yang from the temple of Hu-shen and tried to control herself.
“Nutsay”, a slave Jun May, was born nineteen years ago in Mukden, in the family of the Taotai governor of the province. For eight years, on the advice of my grandfather Jun Lu, I was sent to a mission school, where I studied up to seventeen years old.
 Hao, hao, - well, well, - the empress mumbled indifferently, but then she became alert.
“How did you live with missionary barbarians for nine years?”
- No, Nutsay Jun Mei lived at home, they took me to school in the morning and took me back to the evening.
- Hao, hao. Do you believe in their god? That, who rebelled, for which he was nailed to the wooden cross with nails …
- No, Nutsay Jun May does not believe in their god. There are no two truths in the world, all three current teachings have one beginning, she answered, referring to Daoism, Buddhism and the teachings of Confucius.
“Hao, hao,” the empress nodded, and in her indifferently watchful eyes a thought flashed through her.
- What did you study in the missionary school?
- Nutsay Jun May studied the history of the Celestial Empire, world history, mathematics, geography, studied needlework and housekeeping.
- And why do you need this? - the Empress asked contemptuously.[BR]“They taught ...,” Jun May bowed her head.
- What else? That mother Josephine taught them to scripture, prayers and church rites Jun May did not dare to say, and, after a short hitch, said, “To the Languages ...”
- Which one? - interested the empress.
- Latin …
- Is it the language of their dead? - remembered the empress. - And the living?
- French …
- And do you understand their letter and speech?
“Yes,” Jun May admitted in a completely fallen voice.“Hao, hao,” the empress mumbled, thinking about something.
- What happened to you then?
“Then Nutsai Jun May got married, her husband was appointed commander of the detachment of banners troops in Liaodong.” When the Japanese attacked Jung-hua, the Middle Blooming State, the husband bravely fought and died defending the Western Gate in Ching-chou-ting. They killed my child, ”she whispered with tears.
- I do not hear, repeat, - the empress ordered.
“They killed my son,” she repeated loudly.
“Hao, hao, din hao,” well, well, very well,”mumbled the empress, and Jun May was ready to leap up and grab her nails in her face. But over the years, the respect for the sacred emperor was not allowed to do so, although she knew from the mysterious gossip that Cixi was no more notable than her own, her father died in prison as a criminal, she herself was a guizhen – a concubine and was raised only as the mother of Emperor Tongzhi.
“Hao,” the empress regent pronounced emphatically. - I leave you in my retinue and assign a maid of honor. This is a very high honor for you. You will live in the palace and be present at my person. Your main duty will be to attend Junjichu with me – the Supreme Imperial Council during the reception of foreign ambassadors, listen to their speeches, check whether the dragomans correctly translate them and whether the princes Gong and Qing correctly convey the meaning of their speeches.
For five days, Jun Mei studied court etiquette, the location of buildings in the Yihe Yuan Palace, the place of rooms in chambers, especially in the chambers of Empress Cixi, acquainted with her wardrobe — there were more robes and dresses in it than stars in the sky; the ritual of eating the empress, with her linen, dishes, habits, weaknesses, taboos, favourites, jewels, favourite walking paths, eunuchs fu, which are nasty, incapable of eunuchs, they only pinch ... She was shown and called By the names of countless dignitaries and palace servants, hurled gossip, gossip, gossip, vague hints and malicious wishes into the ocean. It turned out that she herself, Jun Mei , was of some interest and everyone tried to drag her to her side, but, seeing the deliberate, her stupidity, was left alone. Although, Jun Mei and really in head everything mixed up in wild porridge with scraps of bright scraps sticking out from there, pagodas, names, galleries, cuffs and tweaks, dragons and phoenixes, artificial lakes and pillow, and a shrill-bristling-hissing-looking cacophony, threats, gossip, trusting vile giggles, lascivious hints ... She listened, nodded, agreed with everyone, smiled, bowed low, someone said something, replied, not always in a bad mood, giggled as ugly, let herself something sedate and important, an unnaturally excited look, but before her eyes she always had a little fox. She saw that he was already accustomed to his new role, had grown strong, his fluffy fur coat was shiny, his black little eyes were curious about the world around him; She saw that he was full and well-groomed, thanked  Heshan Yan, rejoiced and calmed down. When she managed to disappear for a while, hide behind a screen in the room reserved for her dwelling, she immediately reincarnated into a fox and rushed to him. At first, he happily threw herself to meet her, nestled tightly and whined softly, and Jun Mei’s heart melted, she warmed him, licked, gently braked, but lately she began to take offence at him a bit, a little — he had new, unknown interests, and he even tried to run away. She had to bite quietly; she even yelled at him in her hearts, and she herself was frightened. Then Jun Mei was graciously allowed to stay on duty in the empress’s chambers. At dawn, the maid of honor woke Cixi, brought warm aromatic water to her for washing, served up soft-smelling towels, then carried ceremonial dresses, laid her hair, served a table for breakfast ... long day! At the beginning of the second moon of the twenty-first year of the reign of Guangxu*, the first for Jun Mei audience of the members of Jun-jichu took place in the Throne Room. She was standing behind the right of the chair of the Empress, to the left of which was the throne of the emperor. Downstairs, kneeling on felt pillows, stood, hunched over and heads bowed, the members of the Council were the grand dukes Gong and Qing, the second cousin of her grandfather Jun Lu, Li Hungchan and Zhang Zhidong. And he was still kneeling on the stone floor, the sweaty general shaking out of fear from the sweat of a broken army general, the former ambassador and the governor in Korea, Yuan Shikai.
Emperor Guangxu was sitting on a throne with an absent appearance, was lethargic, absent-minded, asked no questions and seemed depressed. But the angry Empress Cixi was thrown with lightning. “In what way,” she did not restrain her rage, “this small barbaric Japan managed to defeat the Great Middle Empire, take Korea, defeat our army and destroy the navy and even capture Liaodong?” Where did you put the millions and millions of silver lans that the treasury released for the construction of the fleet and coastal forts, training and arming the army, for uniforms and ammunition? Old Gong cried, shaking his head, splashing tears and saliva, constantly bowing and repeating, «Half of the money had to be transferred to build the Palace Park Iheyuan, our divisions in Korea had half the staff, because the generals appropriated the money released for the maintenance of the soldiers”. Liaodong does not have fortifications to protect from the rear, which the Japanese used. Our weapons are old, there are still swords, bows and arrows, and soldiers do not know how to handle modern firearms, there are few German instructors, and they are not zealous in training the army, the Empress is to blame.
— So, where, do any of you know, you stopped these Japanese worms? How far did they get? Bring a map of China!
Behind the yellow screen of a fierce dragon, a screen in front of the Throne Room entrance, blocking evil spirits, there was a romp, then a eunuch, whose face was not visible, crawled on his knees and attached it to the screen not far from the throne. Old Gong took an ebony wand and, sadly crawling on his knees, began to show. He circled Korea with the tip of his wand, the Liaodong Peninsula, and pointed out the city of Wei-hi-wei in the north of the Shandong Peninsula. Then he showed Pescador islands and, splashing tears on the floor, the island of Formosa. “They seized all this from us,” muttered the old Gong.
How, they saddled the Gulf of Zhili and now I can’t place a fleet here without their knowledge? And the fortress of Liu-shun-kou, in which I invested the abyss of money? Is it also captured by the Japanese? “Behind, behind, the empress, they attacked from behind and captured her,” the Gong, trembling with fear, justified herself. ========================================
* Beginning of March 1895
What happened to my divisions in Korea? — she turned her eyes toGeneral Yuan Shikai.
But he banged his forehead on the stone floor and was silent. — Where are my divisions? — the Empress got furious. The general only more often pounded his forehead. — What does the emperor think about this? — turned Cixi to Guangxi.
The emperor sluggishly moved his hand and replied, “I totally rely on you.” The Empress sighed heavily
— “I often think that I am the smartest woman who ever lived in the world, and no one can be compared with me. Although I heard a lot about Queen Victoria and read some of her life translated into Chinese about her life, however, I don’t think her life was at least half more interesting and informative than mine. England is one of the great powers of the world, but this did not give Queen Victoria absolute power. She always had behind her capable people in parliament and, of course, they discussed all the problems in great detail before achieving their goal. And Queen Victoria just signed the necessary documents and in fact could not judge the policy of the country. Now look at me. I have four hundred million subjects. And it all depends on my decision. Although I have at my disposal the Supreme Imperial Council, called to give me recommendations, but it is only engaged in various movements of officials. All important issues must be addressed by myself”. They listened to her silently, guiltily drooping their heads. The war with Japan was hopelessly lost, the country was awaited by new disasters, rejection of land, indemnity, extortion to cover it and, as a result, new uprisings ... “I will instruct Li Hunchan to negotiate peace with Japan.Try, at least, to make the withdrawal of Japanese troops from the territory of the Middle Empire.”
The Empress was afraid. Waking up, she sat for a long time in bed, and dull tears flowed down her gray wrinkled cheeks and shaking heavy chin, leaving shiny traces. The servants feared  approached her: she could hit  every minute — either with glittering gold and precious stones with her fist, or with a bone fan, or to launch any trinket under her arm. Always spinning under the feet of countless eunuchs, as they prayed handouts, as if blown away by the wind; having fulfilled their tiny duty, each of them imperceptibly and swiftly disappeared, at best referring to ill-health or to extremely important matters. Only the chief eunuch, Li Lianying, sat heavily in the room next to the empress’s chambers, sometimes with obvious reluctance to rise and go to her room to cope, would there be any orders. She was terribly afraid. She looked at the eunuch observantly, wondered if there was any news from Shimonoseki, where negotiations began with Japan, and when she learned that there was no messenger, she waved languidly, “Go ...” She tried to unwind, going on a boat trip on Lake Kunming, right here in the park-palace, but she was annoyed by everything: the light spring breeze, the bright sun, and the colorful rainbow of the beautiful Chanlan gallery, and every minute changing scenic views of the artificial landscape. Sometimes she lost control of herself and then her face twisted a grimace of fear. And how could she not be afraid. She often remembered when, thirty-five years ago, after the defeat of the Celestial Empire from the British and French, Emperor Xianfeng had to flee Peking, and his many officials and concubines were destined to die in order not to get the enemy soldiers for fun. Then she herself only miraculously saved her life, and the death was so close. And now, it was only a grimace of fear that didn’t seem on her face, everything around her — and the eunuchs at the brazier with tea and at the table with dishes, and the maidservant with warm robes, and the maid of honor, trying to cheer up scabrous stories, all instantly turned away or averted her eyes — her anger was dangerous, she could give under bamboo sticks. While on duty in the Empress’s chambers, Jun Mei heard her senile grumbling. — Worms, they take away my empire. The French and the British tear off the southern provinces, Japan captured Liaodong. Now they are like tigers, but if we lost Liaodong, they will turn into black dragons. Then their hordes will pounce on the Celestial Empire and I, like Emperor Xianfeng, thirty-five years ago, will have to flee, leaving everything, and take refuge somewhere in a pitiful outlying town. The arriving messenger delivered the news that completely upset her. The Japanese demanded a huge indemnity, Formosa Island, Pescadores Islands and, most importantly, Liaodong. Li Hunchjan reported that if he would pull with the signing of a peace treaty, then the Japanese threatens to resume hostilities. She demanded a map, scolded the evil for sluggishness and fixed her eyes on the bizarre outlines of the shores of the Yellow Sea and the Zhili Bay. What should we expect from the Japanese? From Wei-hi-wei, they rush to Shandong.  From Liaodong to Manchuria?  On the other hand, to Dagu, Tianjin, and than go here, to the capital of the empire? She was shaking with fear.  A fat, heavy, wrinkled gray face beneath rice powder shook, numerous chin creases shook, a jelly-like bust shook, a thick stomach shook, which was clearly seen from the robe lapel vibrations, knees shook, the shaking hands shook, and, confirming fear, the teacup rattled over the saucer.  She threw the cup, almost collapsed in a chair and shouted, — Let him sign!

S.Y.VITTE. APPETITES ON MANCHURIA.
Usually calm and restrained, Sergei Yulievich arrived at the Ministry of Finance, clearly excited.  Rising to his office, he immediately ordered to invite to his cabinet closest assistants and associates — the director of the office of the Ministry of Finance Peter Mikhailovich Romanov and the head of the Asian department Dmitry Dmitrievich Pokotilov.
— Have you already studied the Japanese requirements for China?  — having greeted, he immediately proceeded to business. Sitting comfortably in the chairs and seeing that the conversation will long, they nodded, “Yes, of course, of course ...”
 — And how do you rate them? Pokotilov had a more decisive character; he did not hold a wait-and-see attitude and did not like long pauses in conversation. 
 — With its seizures on the mainland, Japan began to divide China.  What has long been in the air has happened.
— Yes, he nodded his head more cautious in the conclusions, somewhat sluggish, which had extensive experience working in the Ministry of Finance since the sixties, Romanov. 
 — Although, to be precise, the British were first with the French back in the forties.  After the first opium war, the British captured Hong Kong, after the second, Burma, and the French took Cochinhin and Annam ... “But let’s be fair,” too arrogant and therefore assertive Pokotilov took the amendments very painfully, Marshal Yamagato already eight months ago, in June ninety-fourth militantly declared that Japan should not expect Russia to finish building the railway to Vladivostok, and France will set up in Siam.  Therefore, as a result...
— The appetites of Japan are grand ... Admire — Ryu-Kyu, Pescadores, Formosa, even Liaodong!  Not bad, not bad, — Witte spoke thoughtfully and measurably, — Of course, the requirements of Shimonoseki treaty seems to me extremely unfavorable for Russia.  What is a predator, this Japan?  For some twenty years, she has been very successful, her appetites are no longer limited to Korea, but extend to Manchuria, even to the of China.  After all, it approached us in the sense that if the Primorsk region was before separated from Japan by sea, now it is tying up interests on the mainland, and is quite incorrect.  Of course, it is more helpful for us to have a strong but immovable China around us, this is the guarantee of peace from the East.  However, to allow Japan to infiltrate almost around Beijing itself and acquire such an important area as the Liaodong Peninsula?  Therefore, we cannot keep up ..., — he said.
— Do we have to China?  — prudent Romanov constantly opposed Sergei Yulievich, served as a kind of counterbalance to the hasty, sometimes, conclusions of Witte and Pokotilov in their frequent conversations.  — There, Siberia and the Far East, from China to the Arctic Ocean — immense deserts.  After all, it is necessary, it is necessary to settle and learn.  On the one hand, this will help defuse the peasant population in European Russia, there will be more freedom for the land life of the peasants, and however, there will be hope that the Siberian railway line will pay for itself now, as it is settled.
— Well, it will be enough for millions of years to settle and develop at a pace like now.  After all, what kind of opposition met this thought?  Above all, among our noblemen, landowners. Interior Minister Ivan Nikolaevich Durnovo immediately took care of political reasons and began to invent anything to prevent the resettlement.  But in a frank conversation, they openly express their most intimate concerns that, if, they say, peasants en masse begin to move to Siberia and the Far East, the land will not increase in price.So the more people who want to buy it, the more expensive it will be.  On the other hand, you have to pay more for tillage: if there are fewer workers, then the demand for them will increase, hence the price ... The owners of plants are also concerned: if there is an excess of staff, you can pay a penny, — mocked Pokotilov.
Two months ago, at the January meeting in the Winter Palace, chaired by Grand Duke Alexei, the question of what place Russia should take in connection with Japan’s victory over China was discussed.  It did not seem to concern Russia directly, although the situation on the eastern border is changing much.  Therefore, the meeting participants, not having come to a definite conclusion, decided, if, to increase the Russian squadron in the Pacific Ocean.  In addition, try through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to enter into intercourse with Britain and France to jointly influence Japan. To encourage it to keep Korea’s independence, under international control, naturally, given its strong positions there.  Now, having received through the diplomatic channels to familiarise Japan’s demands on China, Foreign Minister Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky reported recently to the Russian throne after the death of Father Alexander III Nikolai Alexandrovich that for us the seizure of the Liaodun Peninsula by the Japanese would be generally undesirable.  Consequently, a dilemma arises: either to demand the removal of the Japanese from South Manchuria, which, given our general weakness in the Far East and without the support, at least, of France and Germany, is very problematic. But if the Japanese simply do not take our demand into account, and then we find ourselves in a foolish place; or close  eyes to their mainland acquisition.  Nikolai Alexandrovich immediately realised that there was something to profit from, take advantage of the opportunity and to ponder, figuratively speaking, it was not for nothing that he had the rank of colonel ... Since China lost all influence in Korea, and Japan, under the pretext of independence of this country, is seeking its capture. Do not try to chop off a piece.  He replied to Lobanov that, from a purely Russian point of view, would they not have thought about our occupation of the port of Lazarev or another port in eastern Korea?  That is, he made it clear that he was completely indifferent to the seizures of Japan in China.  Only twenty days in the position of minister, Prince Lobanov, hastened to learn the opinion of His Highness about the prospects of Russian policy in the Far East, to whom he should be guided as the future of our ally — China or Japan?  The difficulty was that if His Highness is satisfied with the situation, then weak China is favorable to us.  However, if Nikolay thinks that it is too early for us to stop in movements to the East, then Lobanov will completely share his thoughts and goals, and in this case, we can hardly spoil relations with Japan — here we will have two enemies with an excess.  Moreover, as an ally, Japan will be good against established in the Far East and having a significant navy and coastal bases of England there.  In addition, His Highness expressed unequivocally: Russia, of course, needs an open port free of ice throughout the year.  This port should be on the mainland, in southeastern Korea, and necessarily associated with our current land strip.  Therefore, the heir to the throne made a hasty choice, not at all satisfied with the Minister of Finance.
— OK, Siberia will wait, we will not rush, and this is our dark barn.  Here Manchuria is a tidbit, — Sergei Yulievich persistently directed the conversation in the right direction. The verbal warm-up was over and it was time to move on to discussing the main issue, which was discussed several times in their close circle and was as natural as the air they breathed, like the dank gray day of the early St. Petersburg spring, like the clatter of horseshoes on stone pavement penetrating the open upper fragment of high windows, natural, as the flow of their thoughts, and home education, and gymnasium, and then university education, although education to a lesser extent, and more views of the circle of people in they lived, to dictate the conversation in the need direction.
“Under what pretext to get there,” the sly Romanov reminded that he had also been the subject of discussion and quite sharp disputes.
— To let the Japanese climb into South Manchuria, this means losing it all.  In addition, the port on the coast of eastern Korea — what a wretchedness of thinking?  Could the naval minister Chikhachev have an idea of arranging a truly non-freezing port for the Pacific squadron somewhere in Shandong?  Or Yingkou?  On Liaodong impossible - if the Japanese in Shimonoseki concede it to the Chinese, then it would be extremely incorrect for us to climb there   It would make them ridiculed in front of the world.  Macaques, using the lexicon of Nikolai Alexandrovich, people are touchy!  It is impossible.  In addition, His Highness hammered himself and insistently demanded a port somewhere in southeastern Korea, in order to later attach it to our possessions in a strip.  Shandong is far, this is not Manchuria, and the port will be defenceless there, which is extremely unfavourable for Russia.  On Liaodong, however, too, but ..., — thought Pokotilov thoughtfully.
— Bravo, — Sergei Yulievich jumped at this “but”, — bravo!
— “Do not probe us to the possibility of annexing Manchuria?  The sovereign is internally situated, the title of Bogdykhan, for the exotic, appeals to him,” Pokotilov continued just as thoughtfully. “Then it will be necessary to discuss his possibilities with the Minister of War Vannovsky,” Sergei Yulievich supported him. — “But the reason, the reason?” 
“The reason is quite clear — unbridled greed overcame, and haste, moreover, no matter how late,” — Romanov threw out a tub. — “And this is for ourself.  The reason the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prince Lobanov, comes up with”, — Pokotilov dismissed. — “Do not dress up in the toga of benefactors, defenders of China?  From the same Japanese”, such as, Romanov continued after a hitch.
Sergey Yulievich was on his guard; — “And what a good idea, it will be necessary to think it over carefully later, a very good idea.  After building a road, we inevitably find ourselves in a situation of tensions and the risk of an early collision with Japan.  All over from Baikal to Vladivostok, it will be defenceless from the side of Manchuria!  Especially, if the Japanese settle there. Hard to lay it.  In addition, the terrain is difficult, the climate is terrible, and the summer is short.  In addition, Makeev, Managing Director of the Amur Shipping and Commerce Society, complains that the railroad competition will undermine shipping along the Amur River, and much money invest in it.  Indeed, the year-round movement by rail is not something that is semi-annual along the Amur.  However, if you let it go straight through Manchuria?  — suggested Pokotilov.  — The direct path is much shorter and cheaper.
— “Once again bravo, Dmitry Dmitrievich!”  — grabbed Witte for his thought.  — So, the railway?  I consider the Siberian highway — from Chelyabinsk to Vladivostok — my brainchild.  It was to me that Emperor Alexander III instructed to make sure the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, making successively the Minister of Railways and almost immediately the Minister of Finance.  Yes, seven months have passed after his death.  In addition, what was an attractive, high personality, what he inspired a deep respect, loyalty and love?  Not anyone who had the good fortune to approach him could be grieved by his death. Although the prankster he was great.  See, General Cherevin, the head of security and a friend of His Majesty, recounted.  Let us sit down, he say, to play cards, and the Queen Mother is right there, everything is spinning, do we have any alcoholic drinks?  Notice anything and leave, pleased.  In addition, the emperor and I adapted, we sewed our boots with wide tops and flasks of glass, special, flat ones ordered.  The Queen went away, we look at each other, and — one, two, three — like a game, pull out the flasks, suck and again sit quietly, play, as if nothing had happened.  “Beggars for invention are cunning” — they called it.  The sovereign could drink a lot, but not in one eye is noticeable.  Then he will lie on his back, chatting with his feet in the air, squealing with pleasure and everyone who tries to walk past tries to catch his legs and throw him down on the floor.  Only in this way did they find out that the sovereign had fooled.
They laughed, and Sergei Yulievich continued, — I have studied this issue for a very long time and have thoroughly studied it.  After all, now ask anyone, even the highest political leader, about China’s geographical position and its relationship with its neighbours — Japan and Korea, because everything is highly ignorant.  Even to take Foreign Minister Prince Lobanov — a very educated man, very secular, and speaks the language perfectly, and the pen, yes, and ask him about China — no more a second-grade gymnast student knows.  As for the West, he knows everything, but he knows nothing about the Far East, because he has never been interested.
In relations between Witte and Lobanov, there was a tangible chill, and therefore Sergei Yulievich, among his like-minded subordinates, did not consider it necessary to refrain from bearing at the foreign minister.  However, here the primordially Russian custom unceremoniously to pry into someone else’s diocese was clearly felt and almost manage there, reckoning themselves smarter and more determined; Moreover, in such unpretentious business as international, we are all experts …
- Now, there is a unique opportunity to seize the alluring Manchuria.  What is the layout of forces?  The 400 millionth China was so defenceless that the Japanese put by miserable fifty-thousand-strong army to its knees.  Japan has long been harassing Korea and, one might say, possessed it.  Further, it captured Liaodong, which means wide penetration into Manchuria from the rear, from the south, into its most populated areas.  Plus, there is a constant threat to the capital of China.  And if the Japanese build a railway from Fuzan in the south of Korea to Beijing?  — It is impossible to allow it to infiltrate in such an important area of China as Liaodong, — Pokotilov resolutely concluded.
— Our constant opponent England will push Japan to Manchuria to distract her from Middle China, where it herself hopes to firmly set up itself.  In addition, to prevent Russia from entering China, it will try to push Japan with us with foreheads, Romanov reminded of the eternal sore point of foreign policy.
— So, it will be possible to penetrate into North Manchuria under the pretext of the need to build a direct railway line from Transbaikalia to Vladivostok through Chinese territory.  Not bad!  Well, I will ask the minister of the ways of Prince Khilkov to begin reconnaissance of the Manchurian line, but so far unofficially.  Prince Lobanov should not be informed about this either; it is necessary to carefully test the international situation and the possible reaction of ;hin, — Sergei Yulievich summarised.
“And for that Japan does not overtake us, does not fit into South Manchuria, it would be desirable to prevent the Shimonoseki Japanese demands, to demand the release of Liaodong,” Pokotilov suggested.

At the end of March 1895, Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky received messages from the German and French embassies that Germany was ready to join any step that Russia would consider necessary to do in Tokyo to induce Japan to abandon the occupation of South Manchuria with Port Arthur, and that France also agree to coordinate with ours.
Unexpected, in general, the proposals of Germany and France smashed the position of Prince Lobanov, based on the already stated decision of Nikolai Alexandrovich, and forced him to take up the problem that had fallen over his head.  After all, Germany directly dictated to His Highness Nicholas and Prince Lobanov the next steps — to force Japan to abandon the seizure of South Manchuria, the Liaodong Peninsula.  And Minister of War Vannovsky, contrary to the previously expressed opinion, cheered up and declared that he was ready at any time to resort to force!
Soon there were reports from diplomatic representatives in Berlin, Paris and London that the Chinese envoys had begun negotiations with the local financial community about providing loans to China.  Loans to cover the Japanese contribution.  Economic dependence is sometimes no better than direct military occupation, it must be borne in mind.  And under what obligations does China seek loans?
Should we try to seize the initiative and lend to China?  Of course, there is no free money, the amount they are looking for is enormous, but we can also recharge ...
— now in St. Petersburg, Alphonse Rothstein, son-in-law of the Paris Rothschild.  I will meet with him and ask through his Parisian relatives to attract French capital.  I think this is possible, — as director of the office of the Ministry of Finance, Romanov had extensive connections in the business and financial world and knew how to use them.

Sergei Yulievich worked hard for a month, collecting information about the search for loans in Europe by his factotums and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, opposing his European rivals in various ways, because China was a tasty morsel and offered truly enormous revenues from maritime customs to secure loans.  Sergei Yulievich knew that his European colleagues would not hesitate to demand even the provinces.  It was especially difficult to resist the German bankers, who were aggressively pushing for a loan from their government. Late unified, Germany was late for the division of the colonies and now sought to catch up, looking for any opportunity, any chance and any reason to take part in the robbery and robbery.  And this time, they have achieved something — they signed a loan agreement with China on a par with the British beginnings.
But Sergei Yulievich managed to convince the representatives of the French banking groups Gottinger, Neplin and Rene Briss to come to St. Petersburg, present them to the emperor as a guarantor, and to close with them an agreement on a loan to China of one hundred million rubles in gold guaranteed by Russia.
The French bourgeois — the shareholders of banks were happy: Russia guaranteed them payment of high interest on the loan.
The Chinese imperial court was almost happy — Russia arranged for them a loan in France and guaranteed its repayment.
Japan was also satisfied — Russia got China money to pay the indemnity, which will be spent on the preparation of the coming war with Russia.
Sergei Yulievich was also pleased — he found an excuse to get into Manchuria!
But he did not hurry: the rear must be provided.
It is clear, first, that the empress regent Cixi, who is extremely painful about the loss of the former power of China, does not want to hear about Russia’s direct state penetration into Manchuria.  She will immediately regard this as trying to dismember the empire, and worsen the already strained relations with Russia for two centuries already.  In such an important matter, we must act very carefully.  It is they — the Japanese, the British, the French, the Germans, who else there, treacherous, greedy, want to tear China apart, into colonies.  We, Russians, no, we are friends; we steadily care and take care of the welfare of the eastern neighbor.  Here, an ultimatum was presented to Japan for the release of Liaodong, a loan to pay the indemnity was found and provided for you, we want to build an iron road directly to Europe, so that China becomes richer by exporting more goods there.  Yes, um, the railway ... But the empress-regent and the imperial council would not agree on the Russian state railway to their limits, she says, and then there are many who want to follow your example.  But if there is a private business, some kind of merchant, then maybe ... What a demand for it, a merchant, is private enterprise ... And there are precedents, private companies are building in China, and foreign companies ... No Russian merchant, of course, has to pull such a big deal, it’s necessary to create a solid company.  The case for hundreds of millions, and the costs will not soon pay off.  Now, if we organised an international bank, it was desirable—, the costs themselves will have to be much less incurred, and the veil of external decorum and international capitalism will be thrown onto a purely and exclusively Russian business.  Therefore, it has been decided that it will be necessary to negotiate the issue of a new bank with Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich. Bank; let us call it, say, Russian-Chinese.  And we will declare the goals right — for the development of trade and industry beyond the Urals, for the transportation of goods, for the construction of railways and communications, for organising help to the Chinese financial and tax systems.  So, know ours — angels, benefactors, lamb of God.  And only then, to build these very lines of communication and communication, we will create a joint-stock company with the bank, which will be the builder of the railway.  Shares can be paid from the treasury by releasing only a very small amount. The very next day after signing an agreement with the French financiers on a loan to China of Russia, on June 24, 1895, in the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire, Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky, Finance Minister Sergei Yulievich Witte made an offer to the same French bankers, The Russian-Chinese Bank to work in the countries of East Asia on the widest possible basis. The French realised the seriousness of the proposal — the support represented by the ministers of foreign affairs and finance, representing the mighty Russian empire, was solid, and agreed. Russian-Chinese bank was founded with a capital of six million rubles.  Its founders were the Gottinger and Co. Bank, the Paris-Netherlands Bank, the Lyon Credit Bank, the National Constituent Office and the St. Petersburg International Bank.  The board of the bank included three Frenchmen, director of the office of the Ministry of Finance Romanov, head of the Asian department Pokotilov, Petersburg financiers Notgaft and Rothstein, Rothschild’s son-in-law, and two Far Eastern merchants - Startsev and Vladimirov, to give the bank an oriental flavor.

Sergei Yulievich achieved his first victory — the bank had a solid base in the person of French financiers, and the majority of Russians on the board guaranteed certain freedom to channel its activities in the needed direction.  But it is necessary to continue to act energetically.
Having received a message from Paris that the French partners signed the bank’s charter, Sergei Yulievich submitted for approval to Emperor Nicholas concession projects for the construction of a trans-Manchurian railway and a leading political memorandum to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for further negotiations with the Chinese imperial court.  And about the large amount needed to solve any issue by the servants of the Bogdykhan, for a bribe, that is, he took care of it, and slandered with the emperor.  This scrupulous question met with understanding, the emperor guessed that the Chinese were also people; they were all smeared with one world.
Sergei Yulievich, as it were, competed with the French.  Those for their participation in the ultimatum of Japan made China changes the border of the French Tonkin at the cost of the Chinese province of Yunnan, opening for French trade to several cities in southern China and the right to build a railway there.  And Germany was in a hurry.  It achieved concessions in Hankou and Tianjin and, as it became known from military circles, began to look for a bay on the coast of Shandong.
He was a little jealous of the success of rivals, but, by the way, he considered their acquisitions a mere trifle.
Manchuria!  Here is a piece worthy of his appetite.  First through it line from Transbaikalia to Vladivostok. With a rights of way a hundred miles in each direction.  Yes, with the rights of concessions in the territory of Manchuria.  And a ban on the activities of foreign industrial companies in this region.  Is it only Manchuria?  Later, once we firmly set up ourselves there, it will be possible to start branches in Middle China.  And even to the south.
According to Prince Lobanov, the envoy in Beijing, Count Cassini, informs about the growing anxiety of the empress-regent Cixi in connection with our slowness to make demands.  Cixi is afraid that Russia’s appetites, in gratitude for Japan’s ultimatum, will prove excessive, and that the tiny sense of appreciation in her will fade away is already being supplanted by the usual coldness and anger.  Of course, it did not do without the many enemies of Russia, especially the British, who did not want any competitors in China.  Already, they have ravaged the Empress Regent, claiming that Russia will demand the annexation of the northern ledge of Manchuria from Sretensk to Blagoveshchensk, the eastern ledge from Khanka to the mouth of the Sungari River, the Barlyk Mountains and the area of Kuldzhi.  They accurately labeled, knowing that local governors, of which the Chinese were aware and feared, had previously raised such claims.
In addition, Sergei Yulievich’s proposal to hold the railway from Transbaikalia to Vladivostok via Manchuria was met with rather strong resistance in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the military department.  Composing a political memorandum, he was so carried away with a description of the advantages of the road for China, that his opponents became alarmed.  Do we not do any good for ourselves?  And where are the interests of Russia?  Will we not throw hundreds of millions into the abyss of our traditionally strained relations with China?  We build, and they will ride?
And then Sergei Yulievich had to patiently and persistently explain that after finishing the construction of the road to Vladivostok, by the strength of the things themselves, as the only Pacific port with railway connections to Europe, would become the main port for all world trade in the Far East.  With the abolition of the free port here, the treasury will receive huge profits from import and export duties; from Russian Transbaikalia it will be possible to transfer troops to Manchuria and almost to the Yellow Sea.  And, most importantly, by building, a road through Manchuria, Russia will economically enslave it; because large-scale production of goods is economically feasible only for their wide distribution, that is, trade, and for trade, transportation is needed.  China has something to sell and there is something to buy, and for this, it needs transportation.  China possesses enormous natural wealth, and for it, industrial development transport is needed.  China is suffocating from the huge masses of the impoverished population, which for pennies can be involved in production, exploited, to put it economically.  The road is an aorta and an artery, which, together with capillaries, will breathe life into tiny stagnant villages and small towns, like Nikolsk and Vladivostok, will attract energetic people to them, revitalise rural production, and with some the Russian population, it will allow us to use Chinese labour.  Cheap, almost gratis labour!
And then the American Bush intervened.  According to the Russian ambassador Cassini and Pokotilov, who had left for the Russian-Chinese bank in Beijing, in Tszunli-yamyen, the Chinese department of foreign relations, this business person came and offered to build the US-Beijing-Hankou and Hankou-Canton railways and to tie up Manchuria with the Trans-Siberian Railway.  At the same time, he frightens the Chinese ministers on the political background of the future Russian proposal for the road.  As the Russian diplomats managed to learn, Bush proposed to take up the construction of the railway from the port of the Liaodong Peninsula to Mukden — Jilin — Qiqihar and further to the Siberian Railway, and from Mukden to the Korean border.  Moreover, he requires a monopoly on the construction of railways in Manchuria for thirty years.  In this case, Russia would have lost all hopes of using China’s gratitude for expelling the Japanese from Liaodong and for contributing to the loan. Extremely concerned about the news from Beijing and dissatisfied with Cassini’s inaction, Sergei Yulievich received a message from Pokotilov that the first chancellor of the Chinese Empire, Li Hunchjan, will arrive in Russia for the coronation of Nicholas II.


VATATSUBASI.  JAPANESE SCOUT IN VLADIVOSTOK.

 Three years of college went quickly.  He was noticeably older, stronger, and turned into a slender, broad-shouldered youth with a black down on his dark brown face and dark brown eyes.  You are more like an Indian raja than a Japanese samurai, his course comrades told him, and he smiled, pleased with the resemblance to distant ancestors. From college, they were graduated as midshipmen.  The uniform of the officer of the Navy pleased and higher in his own eyes.  The girls on the streets did not take their eyes off of them, and  at the male civilian population, especially at their peers, looked with undisguised contempt and arrogance, considering them not only for second-rate people, but almost insects — crawling, buzzing and twisting heavy car duties and taxes to increase the power of the navy, army and Great Japan. Now they were facing a one-year naval practice, and then passing exams for the rank of sub-lieutenants and brilliant service on the ships of the Imperial Navy, called upon by the vents of their formidable guns to instil horror and humility into the hearts of countless barbarians. Hakkoitiu — the world under one roof!  — This slogan for the first time sounded after the first victory of Japanese weapons in the war against China in this, in 1895, twenty-eighth years Meiji, and it did not seem unreliable, unreal. At the headquarters of the fourth Naval District in Maizuru, where he was sent for further service, he was already awaited.  The headquarters commander with the star of the Rising Sun on his chest, Jukuns is an order-bearer; he noted with respect, casually greeted him, once again carefully looked at the documents and suddenly wondered when he had last met his parents. The question of parents was unpleasant to him.  While still in college, he noticed a spark of contempt and pity in the eyes of peers who learned that they were living in Russia, in Vladivostok.  Orosiya and Osorosia are derived from two words: Orosy is scary and Russia is Russia, otherwise they did not call this state, long established on the shores of the Great Ocean, but only recently extended its influence throughout the Far East and entered into a deaf confrontation so far with the rapidly gaining strength of Japan. “Three years ago, before entering the Naval College at Etajima,” he unexpectedly answered at length.
— And they still live in Uradanovo?
Uradanovo, the opposite shore of the sea, he had only several times heard this Japanese name of Vladivostok in college in the classroom of operational art, but decided that at the headquarters of the 4th naval district, focused mainly on naval operations against Russian Primorye, it had long been established.
“Yes, father still serves as a sales agent there,” he answered with a call.
— And during your years of study, you never went to them?  — asked the commander doubtfully.
“No, I spent the holidays with my cousin in their castle in Satsuma, Kyushu,” the young man began to fear that because of his parents he might find himself in the back of the fleet, in some warehouse of ancient firearms, swords and bows.
“Horoso,” the commander suddenly switched to Russian.  — You will go to Vradivostok to see parents.   To father give a greetings from Todasi Ozu, he knows me as a lieutenant.
— Yes, I am, — Mr. Commander, — he also answered in Russian.
“Are you familiar with ninjutsu — the art of espionage?”  — The commander continued in Japanese.
“Not ... very much,” the young man replied perplexedly, he did not expect such a direction in conversation and felt that the vision of a huge battleship with powerful vents of guns and himself on the command bridge was not something that had been shaken, was already disappearing.
The Commander instantly understood his mood and inner prejudice against Oniva-Bangs — the spies hiding behind Fusumi and Shoji — the lattice partitions, and listening to, and peering, and reporting.
Sekko hey wa tojin des!  A scout is a superman!  And for you to successfully advance your career, it is extremely necessary to know the theatre of future military operations, the enemy, its ports and fortresses, so as not to be a blind puppy or a neat-headed staff officer, fighting only on the map.  By order of the commander of the maritime district, you will go to Vladivostok, and you will compile a report on the city’s defence fortifications, port facilities, the ability to repair the military fleet, a list of officers and locations for military units.  Your future legend is a student at Tokyo University on vacation with your parents.
A short young man with a weightlifter’s neck, broad shoulders and obviously military bearing straightened from the low board of a smartly painted freshly cut boat to the pier of the staff quay.  His face was quite European, except that the swollen eyelids and yellowish darkness of the face betrayed Asian origin.  He carefully looked at the sleepy bay under a low gloomy sky with frozen white-painted warships.  Automatically re-counted them, indifferently ran his eyes on the black hulls of merchant ships with flags of different countries, carelessly imperious rocking heavy chin dismissed rickshaws and porters who came running with Chinese service offers, picked up a suitcase set by a boatman and walked along the admiralty square to China  street.  Passing by the male gymnasium, he almost respectfully did not greet the old servant, who had gone out into the courtyard of the gymnasium to ring the recess at the ancient copper bell that had been dazzled to dazzling brilliance.  But during time he caught himself, raised his chin even higher, passed the yard of the gymnasium, which was filled with a shouting horde of boys, and approached the building of a Japanese trade agency at the corner of Beijing Street. “Vatatsubasi’s son appeared at his father’s house,” old Lukyanych noted to himself.   “It has not been seen for a while, three years already,” he estimated, “Well, they said that he was studying at Tokyo University.”  Soared high, at me, the mushroom old, and not looking.  He does not remember evil because he sometimes had to be locked up in a punishment cell.  So after all not his one, out, and the admiral’s sons were there, respect for them only added.  Well, God bless him.

The father and mother were extremely happy about the arrival of their son, although outwardly the father did not show any emotion.
In the evening, left alone in the room, the men started talking about the case.
— Did you visit your parents only, son?  — asked Mr. Vatatsubashi.
— Not only, father.  Commander Todashi Ozu asked to convey his obeisances to you.
— Yes, I know Mr. Todasi Ozu well.  He served in Albers’s shop at Maltsevsky Depot, and I helped him set up some — he hesitated — shopping, this is the most correct definition, connection.  Here he not only sold, but also bought.  What exactly is not necessary to clarify?
— Commander Todashi Ozu ordered me to refresh his information about this beautiful city and hinted that you, father, will help me with this.
“Well, son, but do the main work yourself: wander around the city and surroundings, visit friends of familiar girls — at this age they are all surrounded by many young naval and army officers, meet peer students of the gymnasium and companions in children’s games.  Literally, everything you hear from them is of much interest.  Before you return home, I will also show you something important.
For two months, he rested in Vladivostok and was very successful in his unofficial activities.  He constantly wandered around the city, visited the dry dock under construction, the barracks of the Siberian military flotilla, listened to the conversations of naval and army officers and lower ranks, went to the low dark workshops of the military port and the Voluntary Fleet plant, went up among the Korean and Chinese workers to the Goldobin fort under construction, went to the skiff on the Russian island.  In a word, he went everywhere, found out everything, and personally examined it. In the evenings, he sat at the table and drafted a Chinese plan of the city, the location of military units, a dry dock, ship repair shops, forts of the Vladivostok fortress and sectors of their shelling ... Even made a portrets most all the officers of the fortress and headquarters of the Siberian military flotilla.  He got excited; he succeeded easily, and began to make long trips — to the village of Nikolsk, to the Anuchin gorge, to Novokievsk, to Kamen Rybolov, to Razdolnoye and Posyet.  And then with pleasure he represented in his memory what he had seen, composed and sorted out cards — here they were invaluable information about the deployment and command structure of military units in Primorye.  The commandant of the Vladivostok fortress is Major General Nikolai Yulievich Ackerman, the chief of staff is Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Filimonovich Pestich, Colonel Maxim Ivanovich Strizhev commanders the fortress artillery, which is very pathetic.  The port commander Rear Admiral Enegelm, a bourbon and commander, serves almost as a scarecrow for young naval officers, while the crew commander is Captain I rank Vishnyakov, according to reviews — my dear ...
Then he began to describe the means of communication.  The railway, which is still under construction up to Khabarovsk, was examined and described first of all — throughput, rolling stock, all stations and stations, bridges and bridges, all of which were fixed.  Then came the turn of the moorings and marinas in Vladivostok and large villages, like the River in the mouth of the Suifun on the Amur Bay, the Slavjanka in the Novokievsk tract, and in the tiny coves, where they are, along the entire coast from the Korean border to the Imperial harbor.
Thanks to his father, he was of great help.  Almost all data he had, only something to double-check and clarify remained.  No wonder the father has already lived for twenty years in the midst of these stupid, gullible dandies, grabbers and drunkards officers and officials.  What kind of military secrets there is there: Colonel Exten, the commander of the construction battalions, or quartermaster Strelkov, comes to the consulate to negotiate on the supply of cement of the Onoda brand, it was considered to be the best, and was cheap, so before ordering the quantity, they be sure to consult with a representative of the company, call titles of work and discuss the volumes.  Well, how can this not be glad, how not to admire their gullibility and simplicity ...

The ships of the Siberian Military Flotilla and the Pacific Squadron did not interest him: they gathered in the Nagasaki Bay every winter, so only the laziest did not visit them.  He himself went to the Memory of Azov, Nakhimov, Kornilov, and Vladimir Monomakh many times to familiarise himself with the fleet of the future enemy, delivering sweets, teas, china, crests, fans and other goods ordered in stores.  Haberdashery.
Russian officers were hot patriots of their ships and loved it so well that almost as one, they wanted to get skilled copies of it. Japanese masters, famous for their fine, painstaking work, made models of their cruisers and gunboats in large numbers, but for this, they needed precise measurements.  And the ship commanders gladly provided them with such an opportunity.  So the Russian ships until the last rivet for a long time did not give a secret for the command of the Japanese fleet.

And before that, he was carried away with his research, seeing the utter lack of vigilance of local authorities that he once fell.
He hired a small group of unemployed Chinese for a decent fee, in a worn jacket and patched blue trousers so that he would wander with them under the pretext of looking for work in all places of interest in the city.  There were many of such wobbling groups then.  The cover-up turned out to be so successful that a couple of times bumping into familiar officers, and the search for work led them, of course, to military targets, he was left unrecognized.  The father suggested that employers distinguish and negotiate only with the older men of such wandering groups of job-seeking Asians, and do not pay the slightest attention to the rest, sliding only an indifferent glance at a bunch of moody rooks with ingratiating eyes and timid smiles.
This time, they got quite far from the city, into Maliy Ulysses Bay, where the mine crew was located with its warehouses, and where the military transport that had recently arrived was to be unloaded.  A light breeze from the sea, from the side of the Russian Island, and white fluffy clouds, occasionally blocking the sun, saved the heat of the August day.  Sitting on the round, broken in waves of coastal boulders and dropping his bare feet into the cool gentle water, he watched with interest as sailors naked to the waist overloaded from the transport to the shore long Whitehead torpedoes shining in the sun. It tapped pistons and hissed ship winches with steam; over the sleepy still-water of the bay, the commands “Vira”, “Main”, “Come on-come” and not carrying a semantic load sounded, but an obligatory verbal garnish of the naughty mat; one by one, silver sharks of mines emerged from the hold and carefully transported to the shore; and he quietly thought, whispering to himself, — city, hati, kyu ... when he suddenly felt a heavy palm on his shoulder, and  hard fingers stuck into the collarbone.  Instantly grouped to straighten up in a steel spring, by side vision, he saw Vladivostok counterintelligence, serf gendarme command of Captain Marpurov, a smartly handsome man with cold pale blue eyes and thin black mustache above his ever-wet red lips.  But he was not held by Marpurov, whom in the blink of an eye he could  turn into a bag with tripe and bone fragments, jiu-jitsu and karate at a school taught by an experienced master; a hefty red-suited noncom.  Already leaning heavily on him, feeling his strong muscles and warning him off. 
“For me, all the cross-eyed people are the same person, but this one has become familiar, obviously famous for excessive curiosity,” said Marpurov mockingly.
In addition, the noncom scantly mumbled, — Do not twitch, manza, do not twitch, calm down, — but held him by the shoulders thoroughly.
Marpurov, indifferently, hurried  the senior Chinese man, who hastened to them in a guilty obeisance, — then I will talk to you ... While the NCO, putting his hands together and clasping their hefty paws by the wrists, his other hand fumbled hard, scouring, from top to bottom, he noticed how one of the Chinese guys darted into dense bushes and hurried into the nearby Diomede Bay, where there was a small Chinese settlement and from where by boat in an hour it was quite possible to reach the city Marpurov also noticed a Chinese climbing up a slope to a hill and nodded in satisfaction.
Then NCO deftly tugged his folded hands with a belt and pushed him behind a wooden barracks, where a pair of horses was already waiting for them.
“A sturdy bull, sturdy,” the NCO replied approvingly of him to Marpurov, tying the free end of the strap to the armrest of the carriage.
“This bull is on a string, and the second end is at the withers by the cow, we will milk the cow,” said Marpurov vaguely.
Here he had a heart in his heels and sank.  Wow, how!  Do Marpurov demands of father to do anythingis?  Oh, how terrible it is.  He looked hopelessly, but his hands were painfully tightened; The NCO, the guard is ready to vise, experienced, the revolvers they have with Marpurov are impressive on the belts, and Marpurov knews, suppose, hunted for him. For an hour, along a shaky country road, first along a slow stream overgrown with reeds and sedge, then on a steep hill, down along a shaky wooden bridge across the small river Explanation, and then along the Golden Horn Bay — along the Pfeffer Hospital Street, past the naval crew camp and Lindholm mill they traveled to the Maltsev ravine.  And from there it is already side by side — to climb up to Lazarevskaya in the Officers’ Suburb and along it to the brick building of the gendarmerie, Lazarevskaya 9. The whole road sitting next to Marpurov was silent, occasionally just looking at him, and pinching his mustache pensively. His thoughts were rushing frantically.  What to say?  How to get out?  And what Marpurov can have against me?  Why walking around the city?  Why in Chinese dub worn?  I do not have any records with me.  And at home, rummaging, searching, the father will not allow.  The consulate is extraterritorial ... He hinted that my father would be blackmailed ... But what? They arrived.  Marpurov opened the door to his office, pointed to a chair in the corner, and sat down at the table, sideways to the window.  Two windows in the office with strong bars were grabbed and looked into the slope of a near hill.  Noncom did not trample for long and, obeying Marpurov’s gesture, went out and threw a mug over an empty bucket, scooping up water from the bottom. Then, it could be hear the horseshoes thunder, took a couple of steps and sat down on a shaky creaky bench.  Marpurov settled down comfortably in his chair, lit a long Manila cigar, waved his hand, dispersed the blue smoke, and said unexpectedly for him, “We are waiting for half an hour, now Mr. Vatatsubashi Sr. must appear before us  You are a very fucking student ...
Still, silent.  Then asked, “Why did you go to Anuchino, Novokievskoe, to St. Olga?”
He replied, honestly looking in Marpurov’s eyes, as he was persuaded, he helped his Father, collected the reports of Japanese merchants and artisans and orders that buyers demand ...
— You’re lying all ... And now why patched?  Nothing to wear at all?  On military objects, what are you looking at?  On the way back to earn?
— Get dressed is what, and the money is needed, yes.  Tired of asking my father.  And I’m looking for work where I’m going to have, and the military too ...
— But I know that you are Gennosya’s agent of the society and you dangle around Primorye, collect reports from its members ...
“This is the first time I’ve heard about this society,” he firmly objected.
— Immediately after your departure from Anuchino, clerk Otiro was detained at the shooting-range, he was looking for cuts from a new rifle, and in his pockets, picked out bullets and a piece of paper with hieroglyphs. The translation is interesting, — Marpurov took out a sheet of paper from the drawer and read: — “By the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, our holy emperor, who is the highest priest of the Great Temple of Ise, my ancestors, holy Mount Fuji, all rivers and seas, all storms and floods, that from the present moment I devote myself to the service of the emperor and my homeland and do not seek personal gain in this, besides the bliss that awaits me in heaven. I solemnly swear that I will never show to any living person what to teach me, or show me what I have learned or have found any place where I will be sent or which shall appear.
*.Gen;sya — Society “Black Ocean.”  / Black Ocean — the strait separating Kyushu Island from the mainland

The exception to this will be my superiors, whom I must obey without obedience, even when they order me to kill myself.  If I break this oath, may my ancestors give up on me and may I burn in hell forever. «
He cringed, sweat beading on his forehead. — I know nothing about it.
 Therefore, you say a student at Tokyo University. — Student ... — what kind of faculty? — Historical and philological ... — with a spy bias? “A crow will not bite a crow for an eye,” the breathless father, having entered without knocking and putting a plump envelope on the edge of the table.  — It is boring for a boy to sit at home all day, so he walks.  Again, he acquaints himself with the intimate depths of genuine Russian folklore ... He noticed fear and fury in the eyes of the gendarme captain, but out of mischief a proverb distorted by well knowing Russian language father, he replied with indifference, -Yes, and tell him not to be so unlimited in its curiosity: for Russian folklore you should not climb into such wilds as Anuchino, or, say, Posyet.  You have a market near, or the berth of the Voluntary Fleet. He flicked the envelope into the drawer of the table, shouted to noncom and ordered him to carry out to the porch of Mr. Vatatsubashi with his son.  “Representatives of the friendly sole power, the empire of chrysanthemums and prostitutes,” he had avenged at least some goodbye. At home, his father severely reprimanded his son for the disgraceful failure, ordered him to immediately leave for Japan, and that hour ordered a ticket for the first ship. — Do not even think to tell In Maizuru, Commander Todasi that you were in the gendarmerie.  Losers do not like, will be treated with disdain, they will not trust anything...  I read your notes; add something, the most valuable, of course.  I need to take care of my son...
In Maizuru, Commander Todasi Ozu skimmed his notes, for some reason he wrote off the surname of Colonel Stessel, commander of the ninth East Siberian Infantry Battalion, stationed in Novokievsk tract and really got interested in the information provided by his father during the farewell in the cabin of the Japanese ship. — Apparet — Great, Bravo!  — He could not resist the exclamation. “Your father,” he immediately identified the true owner of the information he had obtained, “true choujin!”
And he began to read.
— “According to the command of the Amur Military District and according to the plan developed by the district headquarters, in the event of war, the Japanese army will pursue the goal of invading Russia within the South Ussuri region. This invasion can occur by sea with the help of the landing force either in the South Ussuri region, or by land from South Manchuria to Jilin and further to the Russian borders. An invasion by sea is possible only with Japan’s domination of the sea, that is, in its alliance with one of the Western European powers. Now such an invasion is for the Japanese army It is meaningful: the agreement between Russia, Germany and France gave this alliance an enormous advantage in naval forces, and the only possible ally for Japan, England, declined to take part in the negotiations that took place at that time. The invasion of the dry route is made easier for Japan by the fact that it is almost 80 thousandth armies. In addition, after the war with China, it is located on the Newchuan-Heichchen line in southern Manchuria, since it’s possible for the Japanese to operate only on the dry road and because under this condition the shortest way to the Russian lay from the area where the main part of the Japanese army is concentrated, goes through Jilin, it was decided to move all the mobilized units of the Amur Military District to Jilin.  To form for the upcoming actions, at the discretion of the district commander General Dukhovsky, field units with headquarters, directorate, parks, transport and sanitary institutions, for the first time, to make up considerations and prepare the means for production by the free movement district to Girin as land, so with water on Amur and Sungari, finding out all the needs for this movement and preparing it so that the movement was started immediately upon receipt of the order.  The military movement in China must be executed at its friendly agreement, and under certain circumstances — and our independent decision; in any case, it will be necessary to set up and in every way keep up friendly relations with local authorities, who can later deliver food, dressing supplies and fuel to our troops.  The first goal of the expedition should be our occupation of Jilin, as the most important city in Northern Manchuria, the junction of land roads, the end of the waterway along Sungari and the future of our strong point for further movement.  The attack on Jilin can be executed both from the South Ussuri region, and from the middle Amur and from Transbaikalia.  For the defence of the seacoast of the South Ussuri region, two rifle battalions, a mountain half-battery and an Ussuri cossack a hundred, are left. For the defence of Vladivostok — five linear battalions, three companies of serf artillery with eight mountain guns, a mine company and hundred  of the Ussurian Cossack.  For the defence of the mouth of the Amur in the Nikolaevsky detachment — one line battalion, a serf artillery team and four mountain cannons.  The defence of the mouth of the Amur should be concentrated near Cape Chnyrrakh, and its own forces, that is, local teams, settlers and convicts, should provide the defence of Sakhalin.  The defence of the island from enemy landing rests primarily on the Pacific squadron.
The remaining troops of the district will consist of two units: the South Ussuri and Trans-Baikal.  The first detachment is formed from the Primorsk group consisting of five rifle battalions, sixteen light and four mountain shells and four hundreds of Cossack. It must go to Sinchagou and Ningutu in Omosso;  and the Khabarovsk-Blagoveshchensk group, which, as part of the four battalions of the line and sixteen light weapons, must get to Nikolsky by rail and train, and from here follow the path of the first column, that is,  at Sinchagou and Ningutu in Omosso.  In general, the South Ussuri detachment will consist of twelve battalions, six Cossack hundreds and fifty-two guns under the overall command of the commander of the troops of the South Ussuri branch of Major General Konan.  Transbaikal detachment is formed of four columns.  The first, consisting of three Cossack battalions, three Cossack regiments — sixteen hundreds — and twelve equestrian guns, concentrating at Tsuruhaytuna, must move to Hailar, Tsitsikar and Bodune.  The second column, consisting of four hundreds of equestrian Amur and four rocket launchers, must go from Blagoveshchensk to Mergen and Tsitsikar, where to join the troops of the first column.  The third column, consisting of three Cossack battalions with six mountain implements, is subject to rafting along the Amur and the Sungari to Bodune; the fourth, as part of the four Sretensky reserve battalions, is also subject to fusion in the same way.  In Bodune, all the columns of the Transbaikal Detachment must unite and enter under the overall command of the assistant commander of the district, Lieutenant-General Grodekov, and throughout the detachment, there are ten battalions, twenty hundred and eighteen guns.  From Osmoso and Bodune, detachments of the South Ussuri and Trans-Baikal detachments are collectively sent to Jilin, where they are united under the general command of General Dukhovsky.  Twenty-two battalions, twenty-six hundreds and seventy guns should concentrate here.  The hour after the declaration of war, that is, if Japan refuses to clear the Liaodong Peninsula, the Russian imperial navy must cut off the message of the Japanese army from the metropolis. “
“Learn from your father, midshipman,” Commander Todashi Odzu said, putting sheets in a leather folder.  — Half of the success in war is the knowledge of the plans of the enemy.  Moreover, this information is all the more invaluable because it lists all the available Russian forces in the Far East.

IVAN IVASHNIKOV.  STRUGGLE AGAINST KHUNKHUZS IN THE MARITIME TERRITORY.

On long winter evenings, in a hot-flooded upper room, when Ivan came home for winter vacations from Vladivostok, where he studied at the gymnasium, or on summer nights in haystacks of freshly harvested hay, the children surrounds of their grandfather.  And he, very flattered by the attention, gradually stroked his wide gray beard, gently stroked the head of his younger sister Nastya and let himself go into the memories.  He had no peers in the stanitsa, and the young men in their prime, the men were all about the everyday affairs talked, so he takes his soul with the children.  He loved to remember the old days, but by remembering — stuck deeply in it, you would not pull him out.
My grandfather told he how his father, a peasant serf, was exiled by the landlord “for offences” as early as 1800 in Transbaikalia, married the Buryat girl there and remained as a factory peasant at the Nerchinsk silver factories.  This is where Ivashnikov’s wide cheekbones, dark eyes, slightly flat nose and thick black hair.  Such people here are called gurans — it is clear to everyone — a mixture of Russians with Buryats. Wherever  the Russian people would be — in the mountains of the Caucasus, in the taiga jungles of Siberia, in the sandy deserts and oases of Central Asia or the endless steppes of Transbaikalia — everywhere they had to deal with local people, sometimes in bloody battles.  However, for the most part it was possible to set up peaceful relations. In addition, influence their life and be influenced by them.  Yes, and went to those regions far away, mainly soldiers, Cossacks, deportees and convicts.  So they took as wives local girls — excellent hostesses, hardworking, flexible, children who gave birth to strong, vigorous, first with a clear predominance of Mongolian blood, but years later, having replaced several generations, steeply mixed with Russian blood, more and more like natural Russians ; but look closely — you can always find out the guran.

At the beginning of the seven hundredth year /1700/, with the discovery of rich ore deposits in the Nerchinsk Territory, sovereign silver plants began built here.  To MAKE SURE the factories and mines with workers and foodstuffs, peasants began to be relocated here from the more populated places of Siberia.  Either by the Tsar’s Decree of 1760, the landowners exiled peasants “for OFFENCES”, or the peasants who were no older than forty-five years old with their families were exiled to the recruits.  From 1764, Russian peasants exported from Poland who was unsuitable for admission to Siberian pedestrian and equestrian regiments began to be exiled here.  Most of all, the population Of Transbaikalia increased due to the exiles to the settlement or penal servitude, and with the publication of the Charter of the Exiles in 1822, this state of affairs finally became fixed. With the accession to Russia of the Amur Region and the establishment of the widely spread border with China, the need arose for its reliable protection and defense, because formerly relations with a neighbor were thin, and there were few armed people here.  Therefore, it turned out that the Russian Cossack, a nomadic border guard from local Buryats and a peasant assigned to the factories and mines, often from former convicts, united into one Trans-Baikal Cossack army.  It was in 1851. Father often joined them and, complementing his grandfather, told how in the fifty-ninth year, after the detachment of Colonel Konstantin Fedorovich Budogossky, he came to Lake Khanka and stayed here in the Cossacks-based post Turii Rog.  Six years later, immigrants from the Voronezh province came here, and my father looked out for his bride.  Since than, the Ivashnikovs have increased significantly quantitatively.  Oh, how grandfather and father told about the times when they mastered the Ussuri region, the boys could listen until they burned out the kerosene in the five-line lamp.
...- It was very hard for the pioneers.  Cossacks settled along the border along the Ussuri and from Lake Khanka to the sea.  The resettlement was carried out hastily, it was necessary as quickly as possible to populate new lands, create border guards, and protect the civilian population from a possible enemy.  The STANITSAS-villages were located at about one distance — twenty to thirty versts from one another, for mutual help in case of attack and for the convenience of postal pursuit.  Therefore, it turned out that often the settlements were in a completely unsuitable area for this.  Untouched taiga, full of wild beast — already had to war with a tiger and a bear; sometimes bad soil for farming, periodically recurring floods six or seven feet above the ordinary level, exhausting the midge ..., all this took away a lot of energy and made life difficult in a new place.  For many years, we had to get used to the new climate, local conditions, the bitter and heavy price of getting experience before the Ussuri Cassocks finally settled here.
Grandfather paused, thinking, remembering, and sang relentlessly, —
we were settled by force on the Amur.
Thrust into the swamp and say, — “village”.
Not to work.  At the services, we rot.
How not gone long?
— And what were stanitsas remember?  — Grandfather was pushing his father in the side, — tiny, in heels, a dozen courtyards, and communication between them is difficult, in spring and autumn, on horses, horses, and in summer in rafts and boats, of which there were very few.  The supply was sent once a year — from Khabarovka to Ussuri on a barge.  Good, strong houses were set rarely — few people, the eternal lack of tools, care for food ... So the families settled in miserable shacks.  Almost every year infectious diseases, especially smallpox, imported from Manchuria by the Chinese, plagued them and there was no medical help. LIVESTOCK suffered from plague.  From spring to autumn, myriads mosquitoes made life a living hell, it was impossible to breathe air, the midge went into mouth, the body was incredibly itchy, the cattle did not work, reaching rabies — there was no rest day or night. — And how are we the Cossacks, — father clapped his hand on the yellow stripes on the trouser legs, — besides fighting wildlife, taking care of their daily bread, livestock and arable land, We constantly had to be distracted by the border service. As soon as Russians, posts, villages, villages, populated the Primorsky region and the city of Vladivostok began built, the masses of Chinese and Korean people, overwhelmed by extreme need in their own bounds, attracted by the opportunity to earn money.  In addition, after them, there appeared large gangs of hunkhuzs — Chinese robbers, who were expected to die at home, or soldiers on the run, deserters.  The word “hunkhuzs” in Chinese means “red beard”.  They do not wear red beards, but, apparently, they mean a tagged man, an outcast.  Chinese commanders make big profits by appropriating money allocated for food and clothing for soldiers, and they contain much fewer people in units than they report to their superiors.  These soldiers driven out of the army or fugitives from hard life and punishment, and even fugitive convicts gather in gangs and live by robbery of merchants, without stopping, sometimes, even before an attack on Russian villages and stanitsas.  In China, people live hard and hungry, cannot feed themselves and their families, so they have the need to organise riots and escape to the robbers.
Remembering, father was hot, gesticulating violently, and even his grandfather was excited, and they interrupted each other, they said, — especially the mass invasion of the hunkhuzs. In the Primorsky Region occurred in the sixty-seventh and sixty-eighth years.  Attracted by the smell of profit in our region rushed thousands and thousands of Chinese from the southern provinces of Manchuria.  However, not all of them were going to engage in honest work.  Suddenly, a huge number of Chinese robbers appeared who began to rob and kill the peaceful Chinese and Russian population.  In the South Ussuri region, our troops were then quartered a little, and they mainly built barracks and provided themselves with food.  All this had to quit and take care of the protection of civilians.  Moreover, when in the summer of sixty-seven years on the island of Askold near Vladivostok, gold was digged out out and a mine was founded then Chinese from Manchuria poured in masses there.  They mined gold in the most primitive way, pick off tops predatory, and send gold to China.  Then, the Aleut schooner was appointed to guard the island.  At the end of the year, following from Nikolaevsk to Posiet Bay, the schooner entered the island and the team strikes there many Chinese predators.  With great difficulty, the sailors expelled from the island of robbers, and to prevent the future plundering of Russian wealth, the military governor of the Primorsky region, Admiral Kazakevich, ordered a special military post in the Strelok bay located nearby, on the mainland, and strengthen the military detachment in Nahodka Bay.  My father personally participated in those combat events, terribly proud of it, knew it thoroughly and loved to remember.
“The Chinese robbers did not like it, and they issued an appeal to the entire Chinese population to unite in groups and everywhere to attack the Russians in order to exterminate them and use the riches of the land themselves.  The Chinese of the Suchan valley, it was followed by their call, but a military detachment of two companies and a battery of mountain artillery quickly brought order there.  In April of the next, sixty-eighth year, the schooner “Aleut” returned to the island of Askold and again the sailors striked the Chinese there, telling them to get out.  However, the Chinese were armed and killed three sailors in an exchange of fire, injuring an officer, a doctor and eight lower ranks.  The Chinese were very proud of their first success, and a day later, they attacked a military post in Strelok Bay.  The soldiers did not expect such audacity from them, for which they paid, having lost several people.  From the bay Shooter hunkhuzs moved to the village of Shkotovo, attacked her, killed the residents, and burned down the houses.
There were many Chinese and Koreans living in the region, they were engaged in quite peaceful work, the people were friendly and hard working, and the children did not expect any atrocities from them and therefore listened to their father in amazement.  In addition, the grandfather nodded, confirming his every word.
“Flinging up with small gangs of Hunkhuzs and forcing them into the detachment of peaceful Chinese, they moved to the large village of Nikolskoye, how the locusts filled it, looted it and burned it. Then the Ussuri region was declared on martial law.  By order of the military governor, a consolidated detachment was formed from the Cossacks of the upper Ussurian stanitsas and brought it along the Sungach River and across Lake Khanka to Kamen Rybolov.  We have been waiting for them here for a long time, and having joined, and outlining a plan of action, we marched towards the village of Nikolsky with a forced march.  The Hunkhuzs had their own intelligence; they came forward to meet us and started a fight.  For six hours there was a lively exchange of fire,  while we were young, the blood was boiling, everyone was torn into a fight ... The commander shouted volunteers, we were typed forty people, well, and were hit with bayonets.  The Hunkhuzs, like all the robbers, turned out to be cowardly, the cat knew whose meat ate, in a word, and they flinch and ran.  On our side, one hundred seventy-five people participated in the battle, and there were more than four hundred Henhouses.  Here they killed one Cossack, wounded an officer and a drummer, while they lost up to fifty people.  For another ten days we combed the district to the sea, destroyed small gangs of the Hunkhuzs, and removed all suspicious from our territory ...

After graduating from the gymnasium in Vladivostok, Ivan Ivashnikov came home to the village, hoping during the winter to prepare for entering the university, and to help with the housework.  Once, in early spring it was, a stanitsa chieftain stopped in their yard, jumped off his horse, leisurely talked with his father and his grandfather who went out into the yard about the weather, asked when they were thinking of starting to plow up the southern slopes from which the snow had already gone, and then told Ivan going.
— Again the Hunhuses began to play tricks.  Twenty years have passed, as we dismissed them under Nikolsky, their fear was gone ... Take a trip for days.  You will reach Iman and arrive at the disposal of the head of the section, Podyesaul Novitsky.
Seeing the dissatisfaction of his father, the chieftain, fierce, said firmly, “Tomorrow.”  You will not take a horse; you will serve in the Amur-Ussuri Cossack Flotilla.  You look, on a steamship you will be rolled, you will become the river man ..., — the chieftain joked.
Cool turned, stepped to the horse, foot in the stirrup and, decried,” his father muttered after him.  Considering his son a spoiled by city and science, from this spring he was going to accustom him to the difficult peasant labour, although the grandfather kept saying that time was lost and there would be no sense anyway. - Finished the gymnasium let him study further.  Let go to Moscow or Petersburg, you see, after five years he will return as an engineer-railway engineer, he will carry out a railway in our village, will ride on a train, he often joked, as if teaching his father to think that if he gave his son an education in a gymnasium, should not tie him  send to study further.  But his father was acutely sorry for the land, which was abundant, he did not have the strength to work, and he was educated to feed on his own hands, but don’t want to rent out to the Korean-Koreans, as many did. Grandfather Ivan loved.  It was at his insistence that Ivan was sent to Vladivostok to the gymnasium.  Ivan did not shy away from peasant work, but he also felt that he had to strain himself.  Not that peers, in whom any business came out as if by itself.
“There are no habits,” noted the grandfather, looking with what diligence and diligence the grandson of the horse harnessed, followed the plow, or carpentry.
In Iman, Ivan was sent to a steamship under construction, where he was to serve, until frost the river covers with ice.  Arriving in the backwater, from which there was a ringing knock of riveting hammers, Ivan found his steamer and introduced himself to its captain - a strong old, bearded, short, man with keen eyes in the overcoat of a railway engineer.
- Cossack Ivan Ivashnikov arrived for service
- Ivan Pavlovich Yuvachev, * - the captain introduced himself in response, smiled gently, carefully looked at the person and said thoughtfully, - Namesake means.  Well, glad to meet you, I hope, we will not let each other down ...
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*. Yuvachev Ivan Pavlovich was born on February 23, 1860 in Petersburg.  In 1878 he graduated from the Naval Technical School of the Naval Navigator Corps, after which he was sent to serve in the Black Sea, where he joined the military organization ”Narodnaya Volya”.  By order of M.Yu. Ashenbrenner, he created a revolutionary circle among young officers of the fleet and army in the city of Nikolaev.  In February 1883, under the betrayal of Degayev, he was arrested and, along with Lyudmila Volkenstein, appeared before the court on the “Military organization of the Narodnaya Volya” party. The trial was held from September 24 to September 28, 1884 in St. Petersburg. Besides two women, Vera Figner and Lyudmila Volkenstein -  Twelve more men appeared before the tsar’s court, including six officers: Lieutenant Colonel M.Yu. Ashenbrenner, Midshipman I.P.Yuvachev, Lieutenant of Artillery N.M. Roaches, Lieutenant of the Fleet Baron A.P. Stromberg, Staff Captain of Artillery N. .A.Pokhitonov and Lieutenant A.P.Tikhonovich.
The imperial satraps were especially struck by the fact that among the revolutionaries they saw honoured military officers who had many awards - Ashenbrenner and Pokhitonov.  At trial, Russian officers firmly and aggressively carried out their revolutionary views.  So, the captain ND Pohitonov, in his last word, said that while participating in the war for the liberation of the Bulgarians from the Turkish yoke, he saw that the “brothers” live much more freely than the Russians;  on the book market, he saw such books, the appearance of which in Russia is unthinkable and punishable by hard labour.  At the trial, Yuvachev was sentenced to death by hanging, soon replaced by fifteen years of hard labour.  The first four years he spent in the Peter and Paul Fortress and Shlisselburg, and in the summer of 1887, together with the participants of the Ulyanovsk trial Pilsudsky, Volokhov, Gorkun and Kancher from Odessa in the hold of the Nizhny Novgorod steamer of the Voluntary Fleet was sent to Sakhalin.  Only in the Red Sea were the shackles removed from them.  Ivan Pavlovich was in prison for ten years, most of who served as a caretaker of a meteorological station in the village of Rykovsky.  A. Chekhov mentions him in his work  ”Sakhalin Island”.  In 1895, Yuvachev was transferred to the peasant estate, moved to Vladivostok and in March 1896 began working as a commander of the steamer of the Ussurian railway. Ivan Pavlovich devotes much of his time to literary activity, becoming a prominent publicist.  He wrote ”Eight years on Sakhalin”, ”Fighting the Hunhuses on the Manchurian border”, ”Shlisselburg fortress”, ”From the memories of the old sailor”.  Ivan Pavlovich Yuvachev died May 17, 1940 in Leningrad.

Thus began the long military service of the Ussuri Cossack Ivan Ivashnikov.  He settled it in a dugout, ring of which encircled the backwater.  Its were inhabited by artisans of a spontaneously arisen little factory for the assembly of steamboats.  Dismantled river steamers were delivered from Russia on the steamers of the Voluntary Fleet to Vladivostok, and then in the wagons of the southern part of the Ussuriisk railway.  They were collected in Iman, a village where a river with the same name flowed into Ussuri, and through which the railway from Vladivostok passed further to Khabarovsk.  From here, it has scattered throughout the Amur and its tributaries.  In the meantime, Ivan began to
carpentry work, of which there were many on the steamer under construction.  A week later, three more Cossacks of the Stanitsa Venyukova came to the steamer, headed by a restrained Evstakhov, a restless Cossack after thirty years who terribly loved to command.
“The steamer will carry barges with cargo along the river, and we will carry guards from the hunkhuzs,” he explained what everyone had known for a long time.  It was clear that he was satisfied with the appointment - on a flight along Ussuri from Iman to Khabarovka and back to the village of Venyukova not to be avoided, so he often hoped to be at home.  Three miles from Veniukova there was a berth Shchebenchyha of the northern branch of the railway under construction. There was a lot of load there ... Yes, and the new form added weight to him in his own eyes - a cap with a yellow band and a black ribbon, on which „Amur.-Ussur Cossack flotilla“ shone with golden letters  , black navy pea coat and black shoulder straps, trimmed with yellow edging.  In addition, the horse on the boat is not needed - let it work at home.
Somewhere he found out that the captain of their steamer was a former Sakhalin convict, and besides, a politician who planned to kill the sovereign Emperor, which he told about, appearing late and adding the smell of a spirit drink hanshin fume and salted garlic to the heavy spirit of the dried boots.  From now on, his life has become much more complicated — and the captain’s commands must be executed, and it is scary — no matter how hard it get in, and suddenly the convict-captain will command something else.  Uncle Yevstakhov had to strain himself.  He even went somewhere to consult and returned completely confused, but also clearly important from the consciousness of his significance.
— It is ordered to fill orders, and look, as if something ...
In May, the steamer, having picked up wooden barges in tow, began to run around the Ussuri with cargoes delivered from Vladivostok, going to all villages, and most often to the Shchebenchiha marina.  The Ussuri River is wide, winding, with a rapid flow and an abundance of islets and channels.  On our right bank, there are a dozen two Cossack villages, and five villages on the left, Chinese. Although there was rarely and rarely seen miserable fanzas surrounded by well-groomed vegetable gardens, where people — men and women — constantly fumbled; and others in blue dub and with braids. Braid was supposed to be worn by men as a sign of submission to the Manchu dynasty of Chinese emperors.
“Last year the cholera epidemic was,” explained the constable Evstakhov, “a lot of people carried away.  Manz, as he called the Chinese, especially.  Live hungry, the first candidates for the dead.  Yes and our inherited.  In other villages, up to twenty people died of infection.
Ivan stood on the steering wheel, went over the spokes, directing the ship to the right and then to the left, after the loud and clear commands of the captain.  It was a hot summer day, the river sparkled with sunshine, and the banks were buried in thick fresh bright greens.  Grace, if it were not gadflies with green tops, they even pierced a shirt from a raid.
Suddenly, on the right, from behind an island, a long scow appeared under a dirty gray sail.  It was evident that the people in the scow were sweeping up, obviously not expecting and not wanting to meet with the steamboat.
“Manza,” Yevstakhov immediately identified and grunted in satisfaction. He stood here, sometimes replacing Ivan on the steering wheel, and more hiding from the scorching rays of the sun and gadflies in the cabin blown by the fresh breeze.  — Look, give a fight, do not want to meet.  Yes, are they not hunkhuzs?  Very much fussing.
In addition, the scow, turning sharply under the wind, went into the same channel from where it just appeared.
“The Chinese sent their General Jao-min with a detachment to search for the Hunkhuzs,” explained the captain.  — Jao-min hired the Ingoda steamer for the summer navigation, took in tow two barges and carried his army across the Amur and Ussuri in search of the Hunkhuzs.  Everybody is afraid of him — both the Hunkhuzs and the peaceful Chinese.  Therefore, they get away from us.  Took for “Ingoda”.
Ingoda was famous throughout the river system for being chosen as the best steamer for the journey along the Amur River five years ago by the recently reigning Emperor Nicholas II, who was then heir to the throne.  He made a world tour, returned through Vladivostok and all of Siberia to St. Petersburg.
There were a lot of Cossack boats, Gilyak marinas and Chinese scows swimming up and down every day in the Ussuri, so there were no reasonable explanations for the hasty escape of the scow, unless they were afraid of their general.
In the evening, having fastened to the wharf in Shchebenchiha, they ended the log burned ground deep in the ground near the bank and set off for the village, leaving lad the Cossack, the same age as Ivan, with a rifle,   to protect a steamer.
Ivan liked the stanitsa and its place in the bend of the river, and the abundance of greenery, and the degree of men, and, most importantly, the beauty of the girls.  The view from the village was well-groomed, contented, leisurely, imposing. 
 Venyukova stanitsa was named after one of the first researchers of the region, Mikhail Ivanovich Venyukov.  He did not approve of the indiscriminate drunkenness among the urban and rural population, which took a lot of time and effort needed to settle in the new lands, he ordered to build a school with his own money, but he took the word from the Cossacks that they would not start a kabak.  It was a long time ago, about twenty years ago, and the Cossacks were holding word, Kabak does not start, although they go home and drink.  However, from autumn to spring, according to the contractor Evstakhov, the children in the village noticeably increase — the godfathers from the closest villages send them to school and help with the housework.  Yes, there is a lot of greenery in Veniukova, and then, no matter how the village is, even the garden rarely starts. This time the village looked empty.  It was not visible that the kids were constantly playing on the street, the hostess didn’t echo the ringing voices of the hostess; A goat looked at them with half-crazy eyes, bent down on their horns, preparing for a swift attack, but it changed , soberly assessing the numerical superiority of the enemy, and, pretending to be indifferent to them. What are they?  — The constable Evstakhov got worried, noticeably adding a step and turning to the outermost house.
However, here, behind   the woodpile too middle-aged Cossacks got up and started talking excitedly and excitedly, “In time, Matvey, you brought help.”  We are here in an ambush, we guard the village.
— So what happened?  — Somewhat reassured by the joy of the Cossacks asked Evstahov.
— We are waiting for the Hunkhuzs.  Yesterday, the three were caught.  Look, in the morning they went to the shop and bought products for an entire squadron.
In each village there was a shop, the owner of which, as a rule, a Chinese man, was selling Manchu tobacco, coarse Chinese dishes, flour, food — Chinese millet, yellow smoking candles like our church ones, and gunpowder crackers — the favorite holiday entertainment of the Chinese.
“Okay, a lot of them wander around here, thousands are hired to work on a railroad, but these are the times, and two, and three with bags on the river and in their boat, everything is folded.  We are their braids — are your hunkhuzs?  — No, our soldier, our buy a little-little budy — answers.  One also looks like a soldier, but the form is torn off and worn to the extreme.  Moreover, the other two are purely ragged.  With them, an eye and an eye are needed.  We have them in jail — a barn nears the church.  The elder shouts to us “Let go, it won’t be worse.”  — Is it much worse?  — Curious.  — We will burn the haystacks of mown hay in the meadows — they answer, — and we attack the village, we will plunder everything.  The gang, — they boast, — a big, over a hundred people.  — And we have men one and two and miscalculated.  Someone on borrowings, mowing hay, some working on a railway, some on a river, some in Iman, Khabarovka, or Vladivostok have given way to work.  All right, the ataman had to knock on the telegraph from the post office in Khabarovka.  To the county headquarters.  In addition, if Dukhovskoy is our army supervisor, let him take care.  The headquarters soon replied - we are sending the hunting team of the Tenth East Siberian Rifle Battalion, but in the meantime takes up your own defense.  You are not the first to knock, here lately the Amur and Ussuri hunkhuzs have not only been robbing the Chinese, they have already begun our efforts.  Here we are guarding the village.  Anyone who can hold a rifle in ambush.
The constable Evstakhov took the guests to his hut.  The host sat down and put the bottle of moonshine on the table, but Captain Ivan Pavlovich did not approve of the drinking business, ordered to remove.  At first, Evstakhov became obstinate, “You,” he says, “are commanding on the ship, here is my hut.
However, he sees that he is not supported, and did not drink either.  Then the stanitsa ataman came into the hut and sent all three of them to the upper and lower outskirts of the stanitsa — to watch the river, in which case to take the fight.  He did not know from which side the hunkhuzs would descend.  And Ivan Pavlovich lit up a candle in the church to his saint and went quickly to the steamer.  In the work was hard, he knew responsibility.
The night passed quietly, except for the mosquitoes did not allow taking a nap in half eyes, it made scratch and use foul language.  Great it helps.
In the morning, ‘Admiral Chikhachev’ came up with a hunting team and lieutenant Minaev at the head.  The team is small — twenty-five people, and the Hunkhuzs, as it turned out by that time, are many — more than a hundred. Here is the stanitsa ataman and sent all the youth to the command of lieutenant Minaev, and left the old Cossacks to keep the stanitsa to protect.  The local intelligence people returned in the morning and reported that five miles up the river on the Chinese coast; they noticed an unusual crowd near the Fanza.
 Lieutenant Minaev Oleg Nikolaevich, about thirty years old, short, dries, and his character was, apparently, decisive.   Picked up, with a hard face and sharp gestures, ordered on the ship to check the weapons   to clean again, and ordered the landing.  His detachment doubled, “Admiral Likhachev” pulled himself up, exhaled in smoke in the wind and slapped the tiles.  Up the river, not far, four versts , but in the channel, behind the island, they noticed three scows empty and unguarded, but not long ago abandoned, and judging by the bags with buda and chumiza left in them, sesame oil bottles and many worn, but still full clothes, ready for immediate swimming.  The lieutenant named the three soldiers by surname and, after a little hesitation, Cossack Ivan Ivashnikov with him in reconnaissance.  And the rest ordered waiting for now.
- The shot will hear everything at the sound.  The crew of the ship to protect their ship, — he ordered.
Through the marsh and the wilderness overgrown carefully, trying not to make any noise, intelligence made its way in the direction of the fanza.  The shrub was soon over, and in the center of a forest cleared of two hundred square fathoms of carefully groomed land cleared of forest, they saw a Chinese fanza with a two-slope reed roof, mud walls and lattice fence, the windows glued over with oiled transparent paper.  A small barn stuck next to it.  A fence of tightly woven and long-dried willow branches surrounded the buildings.  The whole space from the canal to the fanza was planted with beds of potato, chumise, beans, sleeping poppy and all sorts of garden stuff.
Lieutenant Minaev ordered, and one by one, crouching down, through the chain of chumiza, already growed to the meter, they ran to the fence of the fanza.  At the entrance to the fanza, two Chinese lay on the straw mats spread out on the clean-swept courtyard.  Between them, there was an empty bottle, two white porcelain cups, tipped to one side, and an earthenware bowl with leftover food.  The Chinese were clearly drunk.  Nearby, a hand to get, rifles leaned against the wall.  Lieutenant Minayev gestured for Ivan Ivashnikov to crawl, hiding behind the fence, and to peer through the raised window frame into the fanza.  Already he crawled about five meters, quietly parted the wilderness branches in the fence and, feeling slightly agitated, imagining himself an Indian, a Cuban rattle and unrecognized Chechen at the same time, began to look at the twilight of fanza.  From the inside, the fanza is usually divided by a light partition into two parts.  He could see the big room.  People were sitting on the cans.  He counted six people, but there could be more people in the small room and in the non-watched part.  Four of them were playing cards, sluggishly slapping it on a low table, and two were lying still, sleeping, he decided.  Returning, Ivashnikov gestured to the lieutenant about what he had seen, and that nodded that he understood.  A few of men seemed strange, a hundred of the hunkhuzs didn’t smell here, but the rest could go for their loot either on their own shore or, having swum the river in boats, robbed our shore.  Having estimated that five of them fit to cope with sleepy and drunk Chinese, using the element of surprise, the lieutenant with his gestures arranged two people at the ends of the pole, which was attached above the fence, they sharply pushed, and the barrier fell.  Jumping in one fell swoop to the tiny courtyard, blazing with unrestrained courage and hurrying to break into the fanza, the soldiers, hindering each other, huddled at the low doors.  Instantly realizing that according to the table of ranks he would be the last to enter the fanza, Ivan Ivashnikov in two jumps turned out to be at the raised window frame, simultaneously with a deaf shot inside.  A large Manchurian with a dark, sun-roasted, wrinkled face and a lightning rabies in black slanting eyes shot from a huge black revolver. He sat on the cane, his legs crossed, holding the revolver with both hands and lowering the barrel thrown back by a shot up.  Ivan was faster.  Helped youthful reaction and frequent exercises with weapons.  The rest of the Chinese were flattened face down, covering their heads with their palms.  Pushing in from the door by soldiers, Lieutenant Minaev pulled his cap off his head, looked at the oblique teardrop-shaped hole and, a little pale, that in the dimness of the fanza, Ivan could just be seduced, remarked, “It’s impossible not to get into me in two steps.’
“God protects,” the soldiers began talking in chorus, “you will live long, Oleg Nikolayevich,” they laughed, skillfully tying up the hunkhuzs and raking up gold coins and paper money scattered on the mat.
— thank you, Cossack Ivashnikov.  You know the charter, you save the commander, — the lieutenant jokingly but firmly embraced Ivan by the shoulders.
— Present to the award.
They pushed related hunkhuzs into the yard and collected weapons when hunter soldiers came running from the river in green, the color of grass bloomers and sweatshirts, and the Cossacks, partly in white field sweatshirts, partly in black fleets, but always in trousers with yellow stripes and sabres on the side.
The constable Evstakhov fussed the most, and, having entered into a rage, he began to command, “Put them on knees, guys, now we will cut their heads.”
He grabbed the nearest bound hunkhuzs by the braid, jerked down sharply, and put him on his knees.  A sabre pulled out of its sheath thinly tinkled, and the Chinese already dutifully pulled out, substituting, the neck.
“Stop,” said the lieutenant sharply.  — Attention, contractor Evstakhov!  In battle — cut, captive — do not you dare!
— See, General Jao-min will have to give.  He does not feel sorry for them, executes everyone indiscriminately.
The lieutenant did not condescend to explain.
— Cossack with you and scout the grove, — he pointed out to Evstakhov the nearest woods.
“Yes,” the constable replied without enthusiasm, and knowing already about the difference of Ivan, he ordered, “Ivashnikov, with me!”
A quick grimace of discontent distorted the lieutenant’s face, but he did not cancel Yevstahov’s order.  He turned away and began to question the host fanza.  In Chinese, noted Ivan.
They did not have time to go around the barn and go through the back gate to the grove, as frequent shots from there began to swell. Ivan fell and ready for battle, and the constable had already disappeared behind the barn. Soon after the hedge the soldiers and Cossack caps flickered and friendly volleys sounded in the direction of the grove, and part of the detachment under the command of the lieutenant, having stretched a long chain, began to bypass the forest from the swamp side. Shooting from the forest has visibly weakened, and the soldiers rushed to cheer. Having found in the grove two dead hunkhuzs and about a dozen abandoned rifles, the detachment attempted to pursue the hunkhuzs along the rapidly receding and weakening crack of broken bushes and brushwood under their feet. However, the traces of the men led in different directions, and they soon got tired, having exhausted the excitement of the chase. Returning to the river and putting prisoners in the ship’s hold, they took in tow the scows and descended to Veniukov.
In the village, the hunting team spent two more days, scouting the area and trying to find the gathering place for the hunkhuzs, but those were gone. The steamer with barges also stood, waiting for unloading, then under loading with sleepers, while Ivan decided in the evenings his personal questions with one very interesting person named Katerina. He was shy, for which Katyusha subjected him to merciless ostracism. The acuteness of the tongue even exceeded its undoubted external advantages. Laughing at him, she sang,
-My blue tape
On a floor lies
Who of my leg
Don’t worth
The one behind me
Is chasing
Ivan was offended, but he tolerated it, since the village boys did not give a push, she before shave all of them off.
At the end of July, they brought loaded barges to Khabarovsk. Got up to the pier in the evening, and already in the morning at the ramp on the shore stood Lieutenant Minaev , and seeing Ivashnikov, smiling affably, noting his sleepy yet  simple look, ordered, — Put on your uniform, let’s go to the district headquarters. In addition, he added — I presented you to the St. George Medal, the assistant commander of the district, Lieutenant-General Grodekov, signed the order and today you will be awarded. Ivan grasped the spirit of cheerful glee. He imagined how he would boast to Katyusha so that she would no longer mock his timidity. Before the district headquarters, Lieutenant Minaev stopped, looked into his eyes, hesitated a little and spoke, “Listen, Ivashnikov. I owe you my life, even though it sounds somewhat lofty. You did what you had to do, do on time and perfectly. Withe, determination and, most importantly, courage is felt in you. You do not wait in a fight for a queue; I confess I made inquiries about you. From the family of the old Transbaikalian Cossacks, the pioneers of the development of the Primorsky region, took a course in the gymnasium, all these are your advantages. I do not know the minuses yet, and I do not need them. I felt some adventuress in you, perhaps, love of adventure and danger. I want to thank you for that shot, but all I can offer is just such a life full of adventure and danger. By order of the Minister of War from last year, you must be certified for a stock ensign. I will present you this opportunity in two weeks and, as you look, I take with me to Korea. The official status is the protection of the Russian diplomatic mission, but our main task will be to gather information about the situation in the country. I already had a preliminary conversation with my boss about you, and they gave permission to proceed to pick up an assistant for them. I will not persuade you, not wanting to destroy plans for the future, but please consider my proposal.
Ivashnikov was taken aback. Firstly, with him, a twenty-year-old person, an ordinary a first-year Cossack, combat officer, spoke to you. The second is the unexpectedness of the offer. He loved to read the magazine “Scout” and to present himself as a brave plastiun, or the hero of Shipka, or the winner of Shamil. However, to be an intelligence officer in life?
 Besides, goodbye cherished dream of St. Petersburg, a university, a teacher’s diploma ... Seeing his confusion, Oleg Nikolayevich did not demand an immediate response, but once again advised to carefully consider the proposal. — I approve that do not rush your head into the pool. You have two weeks to think about. Four hours later,
Ivashnikov was among the ten distinguished in clashes with the Hunhuses of the lower ranks. He was awarded the George 4-degree medal. Immediately after the award ceremony, Lieutenant Minaev escorted him to the assistant chief of staff of the district. The tall, thin lieutenant colonel carefully looked at him, asked about his family, plans for the future, about which Ivashnikov could not say anything definite, except about the wish to continue education at Moscow or St. Petersburg University after the service, and then inquired about marks for the gymnasium course. — According to the law of God, it is good; in Russian, it is good; in mathematics and physics, it is excellent; history and geography are excellent; Latin and Greek are satisfactory, English is good. In addition, he unexpectedly boasted, I quickly read and speak Japanese, Chinese and Korean. — Where is it from? — The lieutenant colonel got interested. — The program of the Vladivostok gymnasium includes a course of Asian languages as an elective and, moreover, in Vladivostok, more than half of the population is Chinese, Korean and Japanese, and I have lived there for seven years. Were friends with the people. While playing, remembered the meaning of hieroglyphs, and many of them have a common meaning in Chinese and Japanese, so slowly and learned a little. I understand them and they me. “Well,” the lieutenant colonel drew a line to his eloquence,
“Last year the Minister of War issued an order to pass an examination for the rank of ensign for all persons who have at least six classes of secondary education. In two weeks, such exams will be held at the district headquarters. In the office, you will receive a referral to the Cossack headquarters department for exam preparation, and I hope that lieutenant Minaev will have time to prepare you. After exams, I wait you” The exams were not difficult, and Oleg Nikolayevich diligently dealt with him, pulled up in all subjects, pressing on tactics and regulations, knowing the particular passion of the chairman of the examination committee of the district chief of staff Colonel Flug to these disciplines.
Ivan not rushed to answer the main question, although he was ready to say yes. He understood some rashness of such a decision: the nomadic life full of deprivation and danger, the beggarly salary of a junior officer, the worst situation in comparison with the people officer staff. But the inherent optimism of youth swept away all doubts and assured — do not drift, take up the challenge with heat, work hard, try, and you will grow in service. And it will be possible to continue studies in five or six years, well, at least, at the military engineering academy, and even at the Academy of the General Staff ... Like, say, the commander of the South Ussuri department, Lieutenant General
Linevich . From privates to generals! After listening to Ivashnikov’s answer, Lieutenant Colonel Alftan affirmatively, as if he had not expected otherwise, nodded and invited him and lieutenant Minaev to sit down. In his small office, two barred windows looked out into the shady courtyard beneath the poplars. To the right of the table standing at a window the massive safe piled up.
Minaev and Ivashnikov sat down at a small table covered with green cloth, adjoining the letter T in the form of a leg to the office master’s desk. Behind Ivashnikov, on a white washed wall, closing it almost completely, hung a geographical map of the Far East from Lake Baikal to Japan and from Alaska  to Hong Kong, as it was often called. — You, Lieutenant Minaev and you, Ensign
Ivashnikov and the order to award you the title will be signed this week, sent to Seoul as security officers of the Russian diplomatic mission. In addition to protecting the mission, you are required to collect, assess military, economic, and political information about the host country and draw up weekly summary reports. Lieutenant Minayev had already studied materials on the history, geography, economics, domestic and foreign policy, and the state of the Korean forces in the district headquarters. In more detail and in detail you will study these issues on the spot in Seoul. Now I only outline your task. On May 3, the year before 1894, an uprising began in southern Korea under the slogan “Down with the Japanese and All Foreigners”, which led to the introduction of Chinese and Japanese troops and Japan’s declaration of war to China under the pretext of defending Korea’s independence. The governments of the Russian Empire, the United States of North America, Britain and France demanded the simultaneous withdrawal of troops by both sides. However, the Japanese, seizing Seoul, seized the royal palace and on July 15 established regency over the king. Two days later they sank the English ship carrying the Chinese soldiers, after which they won victories in seventeen battles, losing only eight and a half, hundred killed and one thousand one hundred wounded; the damage to the Chinese side was immeasurably great. The Japanese easily captured Port Arthur’s Chinese military harbor, which lies on the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula and covers the sea route to the central provinces, Beijing and South Manchuria. Having seized Seoul and seizing the royal palace, Japan forced the king to sign an offensive and defensive treaty with her. Under this treaty, to the detriment of Chinese, Japanese trade was encouraged; Japan received the right to build railways and lay cable to Seoul-Tokyo telegraph cable; Japanese merchant ships were allowed to enter the Korean ports, very important militarily and previously closed to foreigners — Genzan and Mokpo. Korea had to get into debt bondage to Japan, borrowing from it three million yen at the rate of six percent per annum. In April last year, a peace treaty was signed between Japan and China in Shimonoseki, under which Japan acquired the Liaodong Peninsula, the city of New Chuang, Formosa Island, with the
Pescadores Islands lying to the west of it and kept the Wei-Hei-wei port seized by them on the opposite side Port Arthur shore of the
Zhili Bay. Look at the map. The lieutenant colonel approached the map and pointed with a pointer around the acquisitions of the Japanese.
Further. China pledged to repay Japan two hundred million taels. These military successes of the Japanese army much changed the military-strategic issue in near to our borders and pose a significant danger to us.  Until now, we did not consider Japan a serious military opponent.  Now the situation is changing.  This year, after the coronation, the sovereign emperor reiterated the need for us to have a non-freezing port in the Far East.  Now, as you know, for the winter period our navy leaves for the ports of Japan in order not to be cramped by ice in the southernmost Russian harbor in the Far East — Vladivostok for four or five months.  On April 7, last year, the Japanese ”North China Herald” published the Japanese plan for a broad penetration of the mainland by building railroads.  According to this plan, the Japanese want to build a railway from Fuzan in the south to Yizhu on the border with Manchuria on Korean territory; to lead the railway from Jinzhou to New Chung, — the lieutenant colonel, without looking, poked his pointer into the circles at the top of the Liaodong Bay, and from there to the north, to Mukden, in the center of South Manchuria; to force the Chinese government to extend the Korean line Fusan-Iyzhu railroad to Beijing.  And Japan is going to spend the Chinese indemnity on these enterprises.  At the same time, in April last year, representatives of Russia, Germany and France presented a note to the Mikado government in Tokyo, asking that the Liaodong Peninsula and New Chuang not be attached to the Japanese possessions because of the danger that would exist for peace in the Far East.  In addition, to give a note of solidity and weight, the Russian Pacific squadron was sent to the waters of the Yellow Sea, and behind it, German warships moved. Minaev and Ivashnikov listened attentively, realizing that a good knowledge of the military-political situation in the Far East and relations between Japan and China would serve them well in assessing the situation in Korea; it is not for nothing that the district intelligence officer pays such attention to it.
— The king of Korea is a weak personality, hesitant, influenced by his environment, this is well known, and many adventurers constantly revolve around him.  To strengthen its place in Korea, the Japanese envoy reshuffled the government and palace apparatus, removed the supporters of the Chinese party from them, and finally, on September 26 last year, staged a palace coup, during which the anti-Japanese queen was brutally murdered.
Here, Lieutenant Colonel Alftan thought about something, lowered his pointer, walked around the office, and it seemed to Ivashnikov that the lieutenant colonel was personally acquainted with the deceased queen and kept a warm memory of her.
— Yes, but we will continue.  January 30 of this year, frightened by the murder of the queen and by the pressure that was put on him to prove the murder and defame the name of his wife, the king managed to escape from his Japanese-guarded palace and hide in the Russian mission.  Now he is there, under our protection.  During the coronation celebrations in May of this year in Moscow, the Korean government requested help.  The answer was our agreement to guard the king by the forces of a military unit stationed in Seoul during a diplomatic mission; send Russian military instructors to Korea to organize the Korean army and the bodyguard of the king; send a financial adviser there; it was decided to connect our telegraph line with the Korean one.  A little earlier in Seoul, in early May, a memorandum was signed between Russia and Japan, according to which the Japanese agreed to stay the king in the Russian mission and form a cabinet at the discretion of the king.  Further, Japan pledged to keep up in Korea no more than two hundred gendarmes to guard the telegraph communications, and eight hundred soldiers to guard the Japanese settlements in Fuzan, Genzan and Seoul.  We also had the opportunity to keep the same number of troops there.  Thus, Japan has lost all the advantages gained by the victory over China and the occupation of Korea. But as far as I understand the situation and I know the energy of the Japanese, they will try to firmly set up themselves in Korea and, no doubt, by creeping in Manchuria and into the economy of this — here Lieutenant-Colonel Alftan twisted his hand in the air, looking for the right, exact word, and decisively said, — theatre of future warfare.  A Russian military agent in Tokyo, Colonel Vogak, reports that in one of the Japanese newspapers he came across a lengthy article on the tasks of Japan’s foreign policy, illustrated with a map of their claims.  On the map, most of northern China, Manchuria, Korea are included in the borders of the Japanese possessions, on our South Ussuri region there is an inscription “Japan”; and the city of Vladivostok is named Uradanovo — “Opposite bank”.
“Your task,” here the lieutenant colonel’s voice changed from a calm and trusting tone to a rigid order, “to collect information on the deployment and number of Japanese military units, on trade and other enterprises in cities and towns owned by people of the Japanese nation, to find their agents and pro-Japanese orientation of societies and parties.  Lieutenant Minaev already has experience of such work, you, Ivashnikov, will learn from him and acquire his own baggage.
And he made it clear that the instruction was over.

VATATSUBASI.  JAPAN MASTERS KURIL ISLANDS.

While waiting for an appointment to a warship, he wandered around Maizuru, but Todashi Odzu was in no hurry, insisting that the ship would soon get tired.  Oh, how the commander was wrong!  The young man listened with secret envy to the stories of fellow students who already held junior officer positions on warships, repeatedly went to sea at training staging of minefields and artillery firing, noticeably coarsened and with tangible confidence in the eye.  Friends invited him to the ships to visit, and he would sit in the turrets of guns, climbed into the wheelhouses, to range finder posts, drank tea in low and cramped, cork-filled cabins, went down to the engine rooms breathing warm and smelling of engine oil and oven. However, these were alien ships, alien weapons and navigational logging, alien cabins, foreign bosses and foreign subordinates.
He lived in an officer’s hotel, where it was uncomfortable and where you would not invite friends to visit.  In the teahouse, he liked a young geisha, but he immediately took offense at her because she paid more attention to his cheerful, talkative comrade and almost did not listen to his stories.  However, there was nothing for him to tell yet.  Every morning he went to Commander Todashi Odzu, but he kept saying, “Wait ...”
Finally, he was ordered to go to Hiroshima, there, in the port of Ujina, to search for the transport vessel Sumioshi-maru and to arrive at the disposal of Lieutenant Gunzi.
Transport ship!  His lips trembled with resentment, and he barely controlled himself not to show his weakness to the glorious order bearer, but Todashi Odzu added, rounding his eyes, as if jealous of him, — By order of the head of the people department of the maritime ministry!
Arriving at Udzina, he found a yellow-black three-masted ship with a high pipe in the middle of a shop of a thousand and a half tons displacement, sitting in the water at the waterline and, judging by the recovery on the deck, ready to go on a voyage.  The emblem on the pipe said that the ship belonged to the company Nippon-Yuzen-Kaisha — “Japanese postal and shipping company”, which always provided its fleet for the needs of the empire, the military primarily, as in the recent Japanese-Chinese war.  Sumioshi Maru then also drove landings.

Lieutenant Gunzi Naritada — a strong, undersized, self-confident and domineering officer with a beard and a tight black mustache jumping at the conversation with his lower lip, introduced himself as the head of the expedition, showed him the cabin, put a long list in his hands and ordered him to control the placement of this load on the deck.
“We are leaving in two days, tune in for the wintering on the island of Sumusu *,” he said and went to Tokyo for the latest instructions and instructions.
He immediately got down to business, and for two days before the ship departed on the voyage, was busy to the utmost — checking the cargo delivered to the ship and placing it in the holds, twin decks and on the deck, settling people in the bows and the stern, finding out the relationship with the captain of the steamer about the constant roll and help to the calculation of stability, and other pre-trip troubles.
At the beginning of September, along the Inland Sea, past Kyushu, the Bungo Strait went into the Pacific Ocean and set course for the north-east, along Shikoku, Honshu, Ieso ** and Tisima Rattoo Islands ***, to the most northern island of the ridge, Sumusu.  The autumn sun shone dazzlingly, sun glare ran through the frozen green glass of water, occasionally cut by oblique fins of sharks and killer whales and the game of dolphins, and later, along Tisima Rattoo and white fountains of sea giants-whales; silence was interrupted only by sharp cries of seagulls and the dull puff of a steamer machine.
He and Lieutenant Gunzi chose a place for themselves under a tarpaulin on the upper bridge and watched with binoculars for the frequent Japanese fishery ships here.
_______________________________________________________
*.Sumusu — the first island of the Kuril ridge
**. Hokkaido
***.Kurile Islands.

Extremely offended by the appointment, considering him offended and bypassed, he was gloomy and silent. Gunzi felt his mood and, laughing, he assured that you could buy much more than lose.
— On a military ship, you will be squeezed by the close framework of official duties, subordination, regulation of the ship life, the obligation to carry out sometimes petty orders standing above you in the service and you will hardly gain more experience than a sailor-first year.  In the same expedition, you will gain experience in managing people, you will get an excellent practice of navigation near the coast, in narrow straits, in a storm and fog.  In addition, we are assigned the task of reconnaissance of the terrain for the fortification protection of Tsishima Kaikyo, the most northern strait separating our Sumusu from Russian Kamchatka.  And it is very important to gain the experience of an artillery officer.  And you still have to deal with topographic and geological surveys of the islands, housing construction, arrangement of bays for ports, hydrographic research in the straits ... Oh, what you forcibly hammered into your head at college classes, now you have to refresh yourself, and now these practical skills will sit in you forever.
— Do we need them, these cold desert islands?
“I will answer you with the words of a poem written by Honorio Sihei, after a collision with Russian adventurers in the third year of the Bungy era, ninety years ago.”  “A great predator flies from west to east. His flight is accompanied by a moan and weeping of those countries and peoples over which he flies. He flies through Asia, grabbing one kingdom after another with his tenacious claws. Now his flight continues. Now he is at sea it has already flown over it and appeared on the northern islands. The shadow of its enormous body fell on Japan. The northern Japanese are already in this shadow. Fear, Japanese, Kita-no-wasi — the Northern predator, be afraid to fall into its tenacious claws, protect yourself from it yourself and protect your descendants, do not rely on shogun ... “
“The history in the college was taught us hastily, the main attention was paid to special subjects, and I know almost nothing about our relations with Russia,” he said, wanting to hear the version of Lieutenant Gunzi.
— Already two hundred years ago, the Russians began to descend from Kamchatka on the islands to Japan.  They seized island after island, built their villages, accepted Russian citizenship and converted the Ainu people living in their religion, did not allow them to fish and sea animals and expelled the Japanese from the islands.  They were getting closer and closer to Ieso.  And so, when on the sailing ship “Nataliya” in 1779, according to the Christian calendar,  entered Akkesi bay on Iezo, daimyo Matsmay,  concerned about the Russian insistency, ordered them to get out not only from Iezo, but also from Etorofu and Kunashiri **.  The following year, two samurai went to the islands of Etorofu and Kunashiri to inspect them, and another twenty years later, a representative of the shogun with a military detachment of fifty people landed on Etorofu and settled there, threw down the pillars left by the Russians and installed his own.  But Kita-no-Vasi did not let up, hovered menacingly over our northern outskirts.  In the first year of Bungyu ***, a Russian warship arrived in Nagasaki and brought Ambassador Rezanov, who won the right to trade, hoping to penetrate this way into Japan.  But the shogun resolutely stopped his attempts, and then the Russians attacked the Japanese fishings on Karafuto **** and Etorofu.  The shogun did not want penetration foreigners in the Land of the gods did not let them in Japan and did not allow the Japanese to go to distant countries, therefore, the northern territories did not pay enough attention.  But a year after the American commander Perry’s first visit to Uragu, the Russian admiral Putyatin arrived in Nagasaki and handed a letter from his emperor, in which he asked the shogun to open trade and set up northern borders between the empires.  A year later, in the second year of Ansei ****, the first treaty of friendship and trade with Russia was signed at Shimoda.  According to this treaty, the northern border was established between the islands of Urup, which went to the Russians, and Etorofu. Carafuto was not divided by the border, due to the smallness of the population, the wildness of the island and the insignificance of our and Russian interests there.  But the Russians soon found coal in the north of Karafuto and began quickly colonize the island.  At that time, the Russians were at war with England and France, and shortly after the war at Iedo *****, the Russian chief over the of Siberia Muraviev arrived on the battleship. And demanded that the border between the states be established along the Soya ****** strait, and the whole Carafuto went to Russia.  He referred to the Russian-Chinese border treaty concluded a year earlier in Aigun, according to which, allegedly, China ceded Russia and Karafuto.  The shogun’s government decisively denied the Prince of Amur, citing the treaty concluded in Shimoda.  But later in Iedo, the viewpoint prevailed that the climate in Karafuto is extremely cold, the soils are barren and there is no point in investing money in it and sending people there.  In the eighth year, Meiji (1875) was sent to Russia by Vice-Admiral Enomoto, who suggested that the Russians exchange the southern part of Carafuto for all the Tsishima rettoo islands, considering that Etorofu, Kunashiri and Suisio sioto ****** belonged to us and according to Shimoda contract.
.  At that time, Russia was preparing for war with the Turks in the Balkans, and agreed to the proposal of Admiral Enomoto.
— But why, nevertheless, do we need these northern, cold, desert lands?  I know Russians, was born and raised in Vladivostok, played and studied with Russian boys, visited their homes, before my eyes there was a life of different categories of Russian population — from noble Petersburg _______________________________________________________ * 1806 year
** The feudal principality in Hokkaido.
*** Iturup and Kunashiri
***.  1804
****.  Sakhalin
*****.  1855
******  Tokyo
********  La Perouse Strait
******* Small Kuril ridge

naval commanders to small traders, no more respected than our tenin * a hundred years ago.  They are lazy, carefree, rather peaceful and agreeable, quick-tempered, but not vindictive, as neighbors are helpful and quite reliable, conscientious and masters of their word, reasonable and fair, overly curious, maybe …
“Exactly,” Gunzi interrupted him, listening attentively and critically.  “When they saw them on Ieso, they tried to find out more about them through Catholic monks, Portuguese navigators and Chinese.  And upon learning, they were horrified.  It turned out that these curious barbarians are so omnipresent that they penetrate everywhere.  And to stop them, you must have strong military barriers.  In the north of Europe their creeping aggression is opposed by Germany, in the Balkans — Austria-Hungary, in the south of Europe and in Central Asia — England, and in the east we must resist.  It is unfortunate that they had the prudence to sell their American possessions to the United States of America, and to our delight, they would have already faced energetic and enterprising Americans, lost remote colonies and had powerful enemies on their eastern borders.  And rich allies. “And you decided to become like the medieval Ronin and go to the northern islands to fight the barbarians there?”
— In the twenty-fourth year of the Meiji era (1891), when the great earthquake happened on the Nobi Plain, the scientist Okamoto Kansuke called for the creation of the Tsishima Gikai-Tishima Association, for settlement and exploration of the islands, I was called to the maritime ministry and offered to lead the expedition to Sumusu to it is there to set up an outpost to protect the Land of the Gods.  It was an order and I set to work.  The following year, in the month of March, on three bots, I led my expedition from Iedo.  There were a few of us, only thirty people, but we went to Ieso and joined the expedition with the Ainas.  That year we could not get to Sumusu, we sunk at Etorofu, but a year later, I nevertheless established myself at Sumusu. 
Represent natural, created by nature fortifications, firmly locking Russians in their eastern possessions and not allowing them to go out into the ocean. Having strengthened the Tsushima Strait, we will not allow them to go from the JapanSea o to the south; Tsugaru Strait  is controlled by us completely; to protect the Soy Strait, a single artillery battery at Cape Soya is enough; the straits between Tsishima rettoo are narrow, not studied, and those maps that Russians have for navigation are unsuitable. From January to April, the straits are clogged with ice, from May to August are wrapped up in dense fog, and are open to navigation almost only from mid-August to late October, because later one after another violent storms follow.  Yes, we are free and prohibit the Russian ships to sail in the straits between the islands. The only strait that the Russians can then take advantage of, the strait between Kamchatka and Sumusu, will need to be protected by forts; however, all straits will have to be protected.
The Tsishima Rattoo Islands are valuable not only from an economic point of view, say, as a base for fishing and fishing for sea animals and whales.
 An agreement was concluded between the Great Tenno and the emperor of the northern barbarians, according to which Carafuto retreated to the Russians, the border was set along the Soya Strait, and Japan received in exchange eighteen Tsishima Retto islands, from Sumusya in the north to Urup in the south,
 
* Citizens — in the social hierarchy of the country occupied a lower place than the peasants.


A week later, their steamer reached the goal of their expedition, and in boats,
they landed on a low sandy beach at the mouth of the river Bettobu.  Near the shore closely molded to each other with a dozen board houses of the village.  In one of these houses, the owner of which was the supervisor of the team of construction workers, took a room with a window to the sea and him.
In addition, began his trips to the island.  He climbed Matsugo’s low hill, convenient for an observation post controlling approaches from the southeast, surveyed the steep headlands of Kokutan, Kotomari, Hitasi and Sunosaki, surveyed and described the island, and decided that Matsumura in the north-west and Sirei in the north — The best place to install artillery shells.
Then he moved across the narrow strait to the large island Paramusiri next to the south and set about it. With a pair of porters he climbed up the steep slopes of the western mountain range, fell from the snowy peaks of Arakawa and Tsikura, descended the raft on the rapids and winding Todoroki River, and died of hunger in the southeastern Cape Kurab, but they managed to hold out for a week on the harvested sea animals, until they were removed, as agreed, with a steamer.  Returning to Sumusya, he unsubscribed for a dozen days, showed all the materials to Lieutenant Gunzi, listened of him a number of important tips and comments; then, during the month, already on the steamer, the tacks walked around the three northern Kuril straits, measuring currents and depths, taking soil samples, determining the heights of capes and hills, looking for where it was more convenient to place fishing villages, lighthouses and put guns.
In late April, Gunzi let him go to Maizuru.

* Sangar Strait


JUN MEI.  PREPARATION FOR A VISIT TO THE CAPITAL OF NORTHERN BARBARIANS.

The old and decrepit Lee HYUNGZHAN, in a tearful voice, complained about the Japanese’s obstinacy, cursed the stormy sea, the pain in his cheek from the wound, and it was funny to look at him, wide-back, barely kneeling in front of the empress, with a red bandage on his face, making his voice sound like a shrill  grumble black pig.
“Hao,” the empress interrupted him, “why the dressing?”
— Nutsai Li Hungzhan was injured by crazy Japanese in Shimonoseki.  Some fanatic shot from a revolver and wounded on the cheek, 
— Li HYUNGZHAN justified, feeling the Empress’s displeasure with the conditions of the peace treaty for the Middle Kingdom. — Hao.  Repeat all these humiliating points for me that you signed. — Korea had to be recognized as completely independent. “This means that the Japanese will capture it in the next few years,” cried the empress.  Recently, instead of the usual ball of opium, she smoked two, sometimes three, and between hookahs, she became very irritable. Li Hungzhan hung his head. — Farther! — Formosa and Penghuledao Islands have moved to Japan. The Empress threw up her hands woefully, but she kept silent, expecting a more terrible one. — Japan imposed a contribution of two hundred thirty million lans on us ..., and they must be paid within seven years ...
Standing behind the throne, Jun Mei felt the empress pouring on anger, all shaking from the anger that smelled her.
— Farther!
— I had to agree to the occupation of Liaodong by them.
— The occupation of Liaodong is like a knife in the heart of the Middle Kingdom!  From here, they can quickly penetrate both to the capital and Manchuria, and, having crossed the strait, attack Shandong.  Having Liu-shun-kou * reinforced by me, they will deploy their military fleet there, and they will keep the of Zhili Bay under threat ...
The grand princes Gun, Qing and Duan looked at Li HYUNGZHAN with gloating and condemnation, confident that they would not have allowed the Japanese to impose such enslaving conditions.  The Empress was shaking with anger, her face reddened; slurred abuse fell from her lips, her hands clenched into tight cams on the armrests.  Then her eyes rolled up, gray foam appeared on her lips and she sat down on the throne as a bag. The frightened dignitaries buried their foreheads on the floor and froze, not daring to raise their eyes to the empress.
Because of the screen behind the throne, the chief eunuch, Li Lianying, stepped forward, waved him powerfully to get out-of-the-way, and brought a sharply smelling handkerchief to the empress’s face.
Like brown cockroaches, dignitaries rapidly crawled away, while the empress stirred weakly and groaned.  Li Hungzhan defiantly, in violation of all the rules of the palace ceremonial, picked her up and carried her into the next room, where maidservants, eunuchs and maid of honor rattled around her.
“When the oil runs out, the lamp goes out, when the vital forces run out, a man dies,” some eunuch said quite loudly, but then he collapsed under Li Hungzhan‘s menacing gaze.
Jun Mei recalled that the fox urine was considered a good medicine for fever and fever and loss of vitality, slipped into the next room and, taking advantage of the fact that everyone crowded around the empress, behind the sneaking peeks poured into a cup painted with golden dragons.  There she also let in a little saliva to bewitch the empress, to make her obedient to herself.
With a cup in her hand, she decisively pushed aside the maid of honor and the maidservants who had hustled around Cixi, carefully lifted her head and with the words — rice water, rice water — she began to water.  The Empress took a few sips, noticed old palace healer Fang Shousin leaning over her and, calming down, closed her eyes again.  Then she opened it, angrily waved at the doctor, from who, in her opinion, there was little confusion, and said, “I feel the approach of death, because I do not have a single faithful person who would give me the only medicine that can save me.
Everyone realized that the empress wanted fresh human meat, and recoiled, fearing that Cixi’s gaze would stop on him.

* Port Arthur

Faithful Li Hungzhan bowed low and said, “The Grand Empress will receive such medicine.  That evening, medicine was fried in sesame oil, and brought on a porcelain platter painted with royal phoenixes with shining crowns on its head,, and Li Hungzhan fell down and did not show up for a month in the Empress’s chambers.

At the request of the head of Tsungli Yamin, Jun Lu, on the eleventh day of the third moon of the twenty-first year of the reign of Guangxu, a meeting of the Supreme Imperial Council was convened.
“Huangshan — Your Majesty,” Jun Lu addressed the Empress- Regent, without paying any attention to Guangxu.  
— Yesterday, in the evening, at his insistent asks, I received the Russian envoy, Count Cassini.  The envoy informed me that the governments of Russia, Germany and France filed a joint note to the government of Japan, which insists on the withdrawal of Japanese troops from Liaodong, threatening to force them out of there by military force.  For this, according to the Russian envoy, the Russian Pacific squadron entered into contact with the German squadron in Chinese waters, and in the Amur military district, mobilization was announced. The Empress vigorously rejoiced.
— Amitafo!  — Oh my God!  I had a prophetic dream that a red light lit up my bedchamber and appeared before me in a purple gown. Zhugo Liang, the great commander of the era of the Three Kingdoms.  He knelt, thrice committed petition and said,
— A good spirit will help the fair,
Verily a miracle will manifest
Private husband to evil sorcerers
Ruin is not strong enough. **
Then he sat on a gray crane on horseback, and it rushed him to the sky.  This is a divine sign!
The old cowardly and wise Gong gently interrupted the empress’s delights, 
— Nutsay Gung is concerned about the motives of Russia’s intervention.  Another emperor Jiaqing *** bequeathed us to fear the great northern neighbor.
“If you believe everything written, then its better not to read books,” the empress waved at him with her hand.  “It was not your state wisdom and military prowess that saved the Middle Kingdom from such shame, but the great gods.”
 “Our gods have no power over the lands of the barbarians,” Li HYUNGZHAN allowed himself to disagree with the empress and support Gong.  After difficult negotiations in Shimonoseki, he barely walked and, like a sack of rice, two hefty eunuchs dragged him into the throne room.
* April 6, 1895 **
 “Dispelled charms”, p. 385 per.  I. Smirnova
*** Years of government 1796 – 1830
 Overcomed by the great joy of the unexpected return of Liaodong, the empress did not pay attention to the obstinacy of Li Hungzhan.the First Chancellor of the Chinese Empire, who had recently been dismissed from his post, for the extremely difficult conditions of the Shimonoseki peace treaty “It’s nice to see the banners of victory, ears to hear good news,” she exclaimed. “Nutsay Gong asks to listen to him,” Grand Duke Gong said in a voice. The Empress gazed arrogantly at the dignitaries on her knees and nodded reluctantly. — Nutsai Gun believes that not everything is so simple here, and that the motives of the three powers can be the following. Russia is building the Siberian railway, and has already built it from the Volga to the Baikal and from the Japan Sea from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk on Emur.  Now it has to go around Manchuria, this path either is long and difficult, or goes straight through the land of our ancestors, and this path is much closer. In addition, Russia may fear the real capture of southern Manchuria by Japan, and then of all of Manchuria and, as a result, a significant increase in the formidable predator.  Germany, squeezed by the Franco-Russian treaty of 1891, flirts with Russia, tries to take the role of its dominant ally, and has the secret goal to redirect the attention of the Russian government from European to Asian affairs.  In addition, not only attention, but also make her so deeply bogged down in Asian
matters so that Russia does not have the material means to hamper Germany in the west.  France is afraid to leave Russia with Germany. Indeed, in this case, the white king can cool off to it and then, with it strained relations with England; it will again remain defenseless against Germany.  After all, this time Germany will not be content with the French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, as it was twenty-five years ago, but will select a fatter piece, — old Gong flashed his knowledge of history, geography and current international politics.
The Empress became interested and ordered to bring a map
The Grand Duke Gong, crawling at the map with a wand in his hand, repeated his thoughts, devotedly and humbly looking at the empress.
— So,from Russia we should expect some territorial claims and most likely in Manchuria?
“Big, very big, your majesty.”
— Remember about the money!  — cried the insatiable thief Grand Duke Qing, a descendant of Emperor Qianlong, who secretly despised Empress Cixi, but who was very much afraid of her.  — Where can we find two hundred thirty million lans of silver to pay the contribution of Japan?  The treasury is empty; forecasters promise a hungry lean year and great misfortunes from river flooding.  This means that it is not enough to collect taxes.
But even the senile grumbling of decrepit wise men, who barely crawled before the throne in their thick, despite the spring warmth, embroidered with gold robes, could not drown out the empress’s glee.
“Hao, hao,” she murmured, and even giggled happily, “the Russians will help us free Liaodong, and have to lend money of Western barbarians — from London, Berlin, and Paris.”  They have grabbed enough in the Middle Kingdom and must lend, so that we pay off Japan.
That evening the empress smoked two dream pipes.

At the end of the first moon of the twenty-second year of Guangxu rule *, the Great Imperial Council raised the question of the privileges for the Land of the Northern Barbarians for the ultimatum of Japan, the liberation of the Liaodun Peninsula from Japan, and help in obtaining and securing a loan to pay the contribution.  Then in Russia, they saw almost a saviour, and some even suggested asking the white king to place troops in the Celestial Empire to protect the empire from the Japanese.  Although the Grand Duke Qing dared to assert that Russia, over time, would do so, but without any invitation, what caused the great wrath of Empress Cixi.
The wise Gong and Li Hungzhan, considered in the Council as experts in international politics, at a glance unraveling all the machinations of red-haired barbarians, and able to resist them / Jun Mei managed to fly to Jing-chou-ting and play with her son, teach him the great art of hunting for field mouses making themselves stocks in rice field, while shaking their long white beards, intricately and vaguely expressed their scarce thoughts of idiots /, offered to meet the wishes of Russia, to agree with it about a concession to build a railway in Manchuria, but not a state one, so as not to arouse envy and persistent harassment of others European powers, and private, joint-stock, and that China itself participated in the management of the company.
And still, remembering that after the ultimatum of Japan, Russian warships would fear wintering in Japanese ports, and that Russia had already requested the port of Jiaozhou for the winter of its fleet for the current winter, these wise men offered to give them a port somewhere in Shandong, but to bargain for it protection of the coast of the Yellow Sea from the Japanese.  From Shanghai and to the south, they thought, the British and French would take care of protecting the coast of China.
—If did not think in advance,
How to pass all the obstacles
Remove the pearl can not
From the neck of a black dragon, ** 
 Gun mumdleed with a toothless mouth, and Li HYUNGZHAN echoed him, — As is known, even the ancients taught that it is more reasonable to sit on a mountain,

* February 1896.
** “Dispelled enchantment, p. 105, trans. In addition, Smirnova
to watch the battle of fierce tigers in the valley, then to engage in battle with it...
Empress Cixi listened carefully to everyone and rightly decided that, if Li HYUNGZHAN was such a prudent diplomat, then he should go to Russia to close relevant agreements. At the same time be completely uncompromising, bargain mercilessly, so as not to give hold.  And the reason for the visit to the country of the northern barbarians will serve an invitation to the coronation celebrations, which after three moons should take place in their ancient capital — Moscow.

Her fox drug brought great benefits.  The Empress began to need Jun Mei.  More and more often she detained her until bedtime, demanding to touch her jewels and jewelry with her, or to get countless dresses from the bottomless chests of the thinnest silk embroidered with golden phoenixes, admired them, sometimes even plunged her face into silk and froze for minutes, indulging memories.  However, secretive, she did not tell stories and adventures connected with them, although in her bright eyes Jun Mei felt how rich the life of the Empress was in her love affairs.
Sweet tooth, she gave preference to the sweets of commoners, recalling herself, apparently, as a girl on the streets of Beijing, and inviting to eat her mantou cakes with vegetable filling, sweet pies with date filling and washed down with sweet wine from Yunnan.  After drinking a few glasses, she took on tricky questions to test Jun Mei's quick wits, made her to be cunning, flattering, claiming that all people like it.  She forced Jun Mei to eavesdrop and spy on maid of honor, eunuchs, servants, and even ministers arriving in the Forbidden City with reports; taught how to see in their eyes and facial expressions hidden their thoughts and desires.  She aggressively suggested that in the soul of every person a white tiger sits next to a blue dragon — good is next to evil, and that if you can skillfully influence a person, you can incline him to one or another act, because people are greedy for wine, women, and wealth and cannot refrain from envy and anger.  She checked how Jun Mei knew the language of foreign barbarians.  She orders to bring a book in French and listens as Jun Mei reads.  At first, Jun Mei stumbled a little and was at a loss with the selection of words for an exact translation, but soon the constraint passed, and she began to give meaning in simple, everyday words.  Particularly interested the empress of the adventures of women frivolous, inclined to love relationships with men, from the breed of wind-flowing.  Such books excited her, and Jun Mei felt that her face was burning ...
Some kind of spiritual affinity was established between them.  Then one day, after dark, after the third blow of the gong, announcing the time of bedtime, when Jun Mei's eyes were tired of the dim light of the night lamp, the empress ordered to put the book down and addressed her with these words.
— Soon, Li Hungzhan will go to the northern barbarian’s capital Moscow for the coronation of the white king.  He was instructed to conclude an agreement on the construction of a railway from Baikal to Vladivostok through Manchuria, the land of our ancestors.  He received instructions on the conditions with which he is bound to make the agreement.  The first is that the road should not belong to the state, but only to private individuals, so that it would be easier, if necessary, to redeem it and not to incite once again greed by the rulers of other states.  Second, Li HYUNGZHAN must bind Russia with an obligation to protect us from Japan.  As they say from ancient times, antidote, and foreigners by foreign rivals destroy poison.  So let old Li set them against each other.  And third, let Russia pay me well.  You will go with him and be my confidant.  Watch carefully and listen carefully.  Not everything that Li Hungzhan says and does should slip away from your eyes and ears.  You will learn the art of diplomacy.  Try to influence old Li in the right direction, so that he does not take a great interest in his own benefits, but protect the interests of the Middle State.  If you do not strike the bell, it will not ring, if you do not tap the drum, it will not thunder.
In addition, for a long time, until the jasper hare dimmed in the sky and the east did not turn red into a scarlet dawn, the empress crammed Jun Mei what exactly she should have achieved and how it was possible to influence old Li HYUNGZHAN.

In a bureaucratic robe with images of a heron sewn on the chest and back and a white marble ball on a hat, which meant that she belonged to the sixth class of the civil grade table, in the blue palanquin carried by four porters, Jun Mei arrived in Tsung-li-ge-go- Shivu-Yamin, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Middle Kingdom.  The scribes in the reception room jumped up from their felted rugs, casting their brushes on the boards, without finishing even the next hieroglyphs, and bowed low, with servility.  They were previously notified of the arrival of the personal representative of the empress-regent of Cixi to familiarize themselves with the materials of Tsung-li-yamin on the forthcoming trip of the delegation of the Heavenly Empire to Russia for the conclusion of an important treaty there.  The scribes' bows were low, but she noticed some false hypocrisy in their excessive subservience, insincerity of the respect they showed for the person of the personal representative of the empress, and she wondered if the disdain, which swept over the loud quations in the Summer Palace, did not even come but also bureaucracy.  A senior scribe depicting a magpie on a robe, belonging to a lower, ninth class, is small, flatteringly flattering that a representative of the Empress was ordered to be sent to Hanlin Academician Bo Daoli, the wisest and most revered of the connoisseurs of northern barbarians.  For thirty-five years, since the founding of Tsungli-yamin, he has been the chief adviser on Russian affairs, and before that he was an adviser at Li-Fan-Yuan — the Ministry of Colonies, and dealt with northern barbarians.  However, a spark of ridicule smoldering in the depths of his eyes made Jun Mei doubt his sincerity.  Of course, the very fact of appointing a representative of the Empress to the delegation of Li HYUNGZHAN was already discussed in Tsungli-yamin and apparently was considered undesirable, but inevitable, and this opinion became known even to the younger scribes dressed in blue and smeared with ink. Long dark corridors, through a spacious courtyard, the senior scribe walked Jun Mei into the leaning outbuilding and presented her to an ancient man covered with a little green and not fluff, but with moss a little man bent low at a spacious window with a magnifying glass in his hand over an old folio in a lined red Sychuan brocade.
“Share your wisdom and deep knowledge, venerable Bo Daoli, about the land of northern barbarians, and teach the representative of the Empress the art of diplomacy,” said the scribe and hurried to disappear.
Bo Daoli poked his nose at a magnifying glass, and with a magnifying glass in a book, and then with obvious difficulty raised his insanely detached eyes.
— For what purpose do you need my knowledge?  The sage asked.
Jun Mei explained briefly that she was going to the coronation of the king of northern barbarians as part of the delegation.  With great reluctance, Bo Daoli put down his magnifying glass, pushed the book with difficulty, took a sheet of paper, a brush and muttered, covering it from top to bottom, and from right to left the paper with pictures of hieroglyphs.
— Ancient books say that far to the north, near the eastern sea, there are barbarous fish-skinned tribes, so named according to their custom of wearing fish-skin clothes, and canine dogs, which only move on dogs.  In the six hundredths miles to the northeast of the village, the homeland of the now reigning Manchu dynasty of Gioro, the tribe of the Hurkha dwells, and behind them, in the six hundredths, the Ching tribe, and in the six hundredths miles, the Fiyaki tribe.  They wander through dense forests, walk in hides, live by hunting and fishing.  Bread is not plowed.  They have many brown sables, black foxes, squirrels, beavers, bears and other animals.  All these tribes bear the common name of Wo-tzu-da-tzu — forest aliens, or Yu-ni-da-tzu — fish-skinned aliens.  From the lower reaches of the Emour-he to the south side, near the Korean Sea, live the Khezhe or Dog tribes, and to the north from the lower reaches of the Emour-he, close to the Russian Sea, live the Kiyaka or Deer tribes ...
“Here, here,” Jun Mei interrupted him — the Russians are interested to me, we will go to them.
The moldy sage stumbled, but apparently already accustomed to such inconsideration and wanting to get rid of the visitor as soon as possible, took another sheet of paper, dipped the brush in ink and enthusiastically set about calligraphy, mumbling and sadly mumbling.
— In the book Xiu-vin-jian-lu — Notes on the Western Territory — the state with such a name is mentioned, but it is said that it is quite young and its beginning dates back to the times of the Yuan and Minsk dynasties.  In those days, Russia was still weak and began to rise only under the current Manchu dynasty.  It is known from the book Sooku-Chuan-shu-ti-yao that all the states to the west of the Onion Ridge, which are mentioned in the descriptions of the journey made by Liu Yue during the Yuan dynasty *, are within the current Tin-chang-poo, what's on the new border in Turkestan.  Russia is a state tribute to us, although in the code of laws only nine states are renamed, giving tribute to the Celestial Empire.  Here they are Chao-hsien — Korea, Liu-chiu — islands, Yong-nan — Cochinhin, Helan — Holland, Mian-dan — Java and European states, Italy and England, for example, although for the arrival of envoys from them with a tribute to certain deadlines and no.  The possessions of Russia bypass the Great, Small and Southern Europe and extend in the east to Emour.  And in the books about foreigners it is said that from Afghanistan to the west there are no more than one or two aimaks, followed by the Western Sea already begins, and that, since Russia is subject to the Middle Kingdom, the Arctic Ocean belongs to us!

Jin Mei barely stifled a yawn, seeing that the sage’s deep knowledge was of fossil origin; she herself knew geography much better.  This science and the modern history were taught in the missionary school well. “My dear grandfather,” she sang softly, “almost a millennium has passed since then, and it looks like we will pay tribute to Russia soon.” Do you really know nothing about it? The old sage seemed to wake up, looked at her in surprise, and then started talking happily, “I was not deceived by your man’s attire and I thought that you must fulfill the mandate of the empress.  But if you really want to know about our relationship with Russia, then listen. — You know that the tribes of the nomadic taiga hunters of Manzhou, united around themselves numerous Jurchen Jin empire, which occupied a vast area and included the territories of present-day Manchuria and even the middle and lower reaches of the Sungari, Ussuri and Emur-he, under the general name of the Manchurians conquered the Heavenly Empire, deposed the Ming Dynasty of China and established the Qing Dynasty. The Manchurian emperor Fu-Lin under the motto of Shunzhi was elevated to the dragon throne in 1644 according to the Christian calendar. Even at the time when the first Manchu khans Nurkhatsi and Abahai conquered the Middle Kingdom, fighting the three hundred year Ming dynasty, _________________________________________________
* Yuan dynasty - 1263 – 1387

We learned that the Chinese in Mongolia had contacts with the Russian people, and from the envoys of Tushet Khan, Abahai received Russian firearms.   After conquering Beijing to Libu — the Order of Ceremonies found out that twenty-five years ago, during the reign of Emperor Zhu Yijun *, the Russian Embassy of twelve people visited, the head of which Cossack Ivashko Petlin tribute his Tsagan Khan, the white king, the Emperor Heavenly Empire did not bring and therefore he was not adopted by the emperor, but they were given a letter of permission to trade in the Celestial Empire.  Then, at the Manchurian court, this embassy was forgotten, because all the attention of Emperor Shunzhi ** was drawn to the south, where the defeated Min generals resisted.
In the eighth year of his reign, Shunchzhi received news that in the north of the empire, on the river Emur-he, on the lands of Prince Lavkay, Russian Cossacks appeared, fought against the Daurs and won.  And he was told that the Russians had beaten many Dahur princes and were taking yasak.  Concerned about this Shunzhi decided to teach a lesson to this unknown Russian militant and sent six hundred brave Manchu flag soldiers with two cannons. Shunchzhi decided to teach a lesson to this unknown militant Russian and sent six hundred brave Manchu flag warriors with two cannons and thirty popguns and one and a half thousand Daur and Ducher living on Sungari on Emur-he to fight them.  But the head of the campaign, the Ningut governor Haise, frivolously relied on his great strength and on the combat experience of the commander of the detachment of the celebrity troops Seth, and why he was defeated — many were killed, and the guns, food and the train were captured by the Russians.  Haise was worth his head — he was executed by order of the emperor.  In the tenth year of the reign of Emperor Shunzhi at the beginning of the summer *, the second Russian embassy, Yaryzhkin, arrived in the capital of Celestial empire But at the same time in northern Manchuria, at the confluence of the Songhua River into Emur-he, the Manchu famous troops gave battle to the Russian Cossacks and forced those demons to retreat.  Therefore, in Beijing, it was decided first to firmly punish the Russians, to win an impressive victory over them, and then to accept the embassy and talk to them as vassals.  Famous troops in the amount of ten thousand people in the second and third months of the eleventh year of Shunzhi reign, with fifteen cannons and rapid-fire popguns, many of which had three or four barrels, began to besiege Kumar prison, where Russian Cossacks wintered, but again suffered defeat and retreated, losing a lot of people and weapons.  Then in Lifanyuan — the Order, which was in charge of relations with vassal Mongolia, Tibet and Russia, decided to take Yaryzhkin, although he did not have the Tsar's embassy diploma with him.  Yaryzhkin made
rite kowtow — on the knee fell, bowing.  By this, he recognized the Russian kingdom as a vassal of the Qing Empire.  Soon another Russian ambassador named Fyodor Baykov arrived in the capital of the Middle Kingdom.  However, since it __
* Zhu Yijun — years of government 1374 – 1627
** Shunzhi — years of government 1644 – 1661

he refused to do the rite of kowtow, he was not accepted by the emperor, and departed.  Although Baikov did not have dragomans and did not know how to explain himself in any language that was understandable in Lifanyuan, including Latin, but he nevertheless understood that they were collecting tribute to Emur-he and disturbing the peace of the Celestial. Cossacks not sent there by the white king, and arbitrarily robbing people.  That is why an experienced commander Sarudai, on the orders of the emperor, went to Sungari, where he defeated the Cossack detachment Stepanov.  When Russian Chagan Khan learned about his robbery people about the defeat of Songhua, he hurried to send to the capital of the Middle Kingdom a new embassy, Perfilyev and Ablin, who brought tribute and a letter drawn up in barbaric, disrespectful expressions!
Therefore, in Beijing they did not accept the tribute and even wanted to expel the embassy, but the emperor Shunzhi wisely decided that if the white king sends gifts, it means that he wants to obey our enlightenment, so you should be a condescending and kind attitude to your side.  At the Lifanyuan gave the ambassadors reciprocal gifts to the king, but they did not respond to the letter and the embassy in their capital was not sent so that they would not try to put their state on a par with the Middle Kingdom.  The emperor Kansi * ordered the Russian ambassadors to plant at receptions for the Dzungar and Mongolians, that is, the third in rank.  In the sixth year of Kansi, the Evenk prince Gantymur from Northern Manchuria, who had previously paid tribute to the Emperor of the Middle Kingdom, with his tribe, went to the side of the Russians.  And the decree of the emperor Kansi was Russian to return Prince Gantimur with his family.  The Russians hurried to send the embassy of Milovanov with a diploma about the subordination of their state to the Celestial Empire, but they did not give out Gantimur, referring to his weakness.  The letter was favorably received, and in response to the Russian Tsar, it was reported that the heir to the Dragon Throne was not happy
the oppression of the Russian Cossacks over the Manchu people by the Daur and Ducher, and even wanted to fight the Russians, but in the future they consider it desirable for people not to fight far off lands and do not repair anyone, but live in peace and joy. In the thirteenth year of the reign of Kansi, the Embassy of Spafari arrived in the Celestial Empire.  When negotiating with him, Lifanyuan officials tried to find out what strategic goals the Russians where pursuing on the northern borders of the Heavenly Empire, why they were conducting military operations and who all the same were Cossack detachments — sovereign people or robber people.  Spafari rite kowtow performed the gifts of his king at the feet of the emperor Kansi laid.  And it was announced to him that if Russia recognises itself as a vassal of the Middle Kingdom and brings tribute, then it is obliged to return Gantimur with his family and give up the wish to take tribute from the people living in Emur-he.
Until these requirements are fulfilled, all ties with them finish.  And the emperor Kansi said to keep the Russians in the upper reaches of the Emur-he and not to let them go further,  developed “Pindin locha fanlyue” —
Years of government 1668 –
plan to pacify Russians. In the preamble of this plan, it was said:  “Russians are subjects of the state of Olosa. The Russian state is far away in the extreme north-west, and has not had relations with China since ancient times. The Russians are all rude, greedy and uncultured. Those who settled not far from Heilongjiang, the Daur and solons nicknamed “locha.” They were outraged, killed and robbed, received defectors from our side, constantly inflicted evil on the borders. ”
The main meaning of the plan was the imperial will to consider Nerchinsk and Albazin, the upper and lower currents of Emur-he, as well as every river and trickle flowing into it, all belonging to the Celestial Empire; it is impossible to give up the smallest part of these lands in favor of the Russians. “
In the twenty-first year of Kansi’s reign, distressed by the consolidation of the Russians in their outlying lands, he sent a large army appease the demons and free the town of Dahuri prince Albaza, occupied and held by them for forty years!  After a long preparation, three years later the army laid siege to Albazin and forced his defenders to capitulate.  The main part of the defenders — about three hundred people — were released to Nerchinsk, and forty Russians wanted to accept Chinese citizenship.  However, we all know that capturing one city does not mean completing a great cause.  In the same summer, the Russians from Nerchinsk returned to Albazin and again strengthened there.  Attempting next summer to seize the jail failed.  Therefore, when the Russian ambassadors Venyukov and Favorov arrived in Beijing that autumn, Kansi agreed to continue not to fight the Albazin Cossacks, but that the local tribes did not offend them and did not take yasak from them, and did not go down Emur-he.  Emperor Kansi granted ambassadors to imperial wine and tea, and they performed the rite of kowtow.  The Son of Heaven handed them to the white king a letter that the ambassadors accepted on their knees, as is customary in the relations of the suzerain with the vassals.
In the twenty-seventh year of the reign, Emperor Kansi sent an embassy to Selenginsk to set up the borders of the state and stop the armed clashes.  Although the embassy did not manage to reach Selenginsk, Zhang Penge, a member of his jinshi *, managed to find out that “the Russian backwater is located north of Shamo **. Since ancient times, they had no connection with China, as it was dangerous to present gifts to our court and far away, they had not yet been tamed, and they invade our border lands;
_ At first we sent troops for a punitive campaign, which quickly inflicted a crushing defeat on them, but then they received the emperor’s mercy, their prisoners were released and returned. “

* Jingshi — academic title
** Shamo is the Chinese name for the Gobi Desert
In addition, there was information from poets and scholars Qian Lianzi and Yang Bin about Russia: “This state is so provincially and remotely that it is impossible to gather reliable information about it. They boast and claim that their land extends over more than forty thousand li.  Kind of legend has existed for more than six thousand years. This backwater boasts so much that they absolutely cannot be trusted.  However, it was reported that the western border of their country is in contact with the Atlantic Ocean, in the east it reaches Albazin, which is in the very north of Halki; in the south, they border Persia, to the east their possessions reach Halki, and to the west to the borders of Muslim states and elites.  All states bordering on them are in fear and obedience.  The Russian state never had connections with the Middle State.  Russians are extremely fierce in nature, and difficult to subdue.  They are people with blue hollow eyes, outstanding nose, red curly beard, with a long body, have a lot of power and love to sleep, and when they sleep, do not immediately wake up.  They are skilled in foot combat, they know how to handle guns, they are not afraid of bows and arrows.  If the arrow hits the body, calmly pull it out, look at each other and laugh. “
In the twenty-eighth year of his reign, Emperor Kansi sent a large embassy accompanied by ten thousandth troops, combat ships and artillery to Nerchinsk. Having surrounded the city from all sides, the embassy began negotiations to calm quarrels and demarcation of lands and eternal peace with all sorts of good intentions, and not military behavior. Ambassadors of the Middle Kingdom reproached the Russians for their wrongfulness in their raids and seizures and announced to them the order of the emperor. 
 The whole crowd of Russian people with joyful cries expressed sincere obedience to the Emperor of the Celestial Empire, brought their geographical maps and began to discuss and clarify all the details of the demarcation of the frontiers.  Northeast in the space of several thousand li and never belonged to China, became part of our possessions!  Then together a mutual vow was made for everlasting times in peace and friendship.  The boundary was established along the Gorbitsa River and the stone ridge of the Big Hingan, which lies north of Emur-he.  The territory to the south of this ridge was ceded to the Qing Empire, and the lands in the north to the Russian kingdom; the right bank of the Argun River was transferred to the Ching Empire, and the former Russian fort was moved to the Russian left bank; Town Albazin must be destroyed.  Four years later, Chagan Khan sent Ambassador Edes to assure that Russia will firmly adhere to the conditions of the Nerchinsk Treaty.  In the sixth year of the reign of Emperor Yunzhen *, the Burinsk Treaty was concluded between our states, which determined the border between the Argun River in the east and the Shaban-Dabag ridge in the west. And all trade could be carried out only near Tsuruhaytu on the Argun River, on the Kyakhta River, on the border Mongolia, and in Beijing.
The first official delegation of the Celestial Empire to Russia was sent in the tenth year of the reign of Emperor Yongzhi, and then Russia undertook not to interfere in the struggle of the Celestial Empire with the Zhonggar Khan.  In the same year, on the accession to the throne of white Queen Anna Ioanovna, another delegation was sent to their capital, St. Petersburg.  However, in the twentieth year of the Qianlong rule *, the Russians accepted Emursan, a close relative of the Zhungar Khan, who rebelled, and refused to return, citing his death from smallpox.  Therefore, relations between our countries have deteriorated, and all trade has ceased for a decade and a half.  True, in the tenth year of the reign of Emperor Jiacin ** to the borders the Embassy of Count Golovkin arrived in the Middle Kingdom, but since he categorically refused to do the kowtow rite, the embassy was not allowed to enter Beijing and returned.  From the very first year of Emperor Xianfeng * reign, news began to come to Lifanyuan about constant violations of the border and the persistent desire of the Russians to seize the basin of the River Emur-he from its left bank.  Nevertheless, the Taiping *** uprising did not leave time and energy to pacify the northern barbarians.
However, in the third year of Xianfeng in Lifanyuan a sheet was received from the Russian Senate, confirming the border fixed by the Nerchinsk Treaty.  However, two years later, the Russian governor in Siberia, Muravyov, had a meeting with officials from Aigun and suggested that they set up a new border between the states is along the river Emur.  And received a decisive refusal.  The Russians, however, firmly decided not to recognize the Treaty of Nerchinsk, every summer they conducted a crowded rafting on Emur-he, and near its estuary, they founded several of their settlements.  In the seventh year of the Xianfeng reign, the Russians arbitrarily began to populate the left bank of Emur-he.  Therefore, the next year, djiantsyun **** Aigun Ishan, with the consent of Lifanyuan, signed an agreement with Muravyov and the entire left bank of Emur-he, up to the sea, went to Russia.  In the same year, in Tianjin, and two years later, in Beijing, contracts were concluded that finally transferred the land to Russia on the left bank of the Emur and Ussuri to the Korean border.  In the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Tongzhi ****, a border treaty was signed in Western Siberia.  In addition, in the same year, the Uighurs, Hui, and other ethnic groups revolted in Chungaria and the Ili Valley.
The Russian authorities, under the pretext of ensuring tranquility on the borders of their Central Asian suburbs, captured the Gulja region.  The imperial army marched to restore order in Xinjiang, and in the fourth year the reign of Emperor Guangxu * achieved pacification of Southern and Northern Xinjiang, but the question of Gulja should be resolved by diplomatic means.
Therefore, at the same time, an experienced commander and diplomat Chun Hou was sent to St. Petersburg, endowed with extraordinary powers.  However, he managed to return only part of the territory occupied by the Russians.  Besides,

* Years of government 1736-1796
** years of board 1796 – 1821
* years of government 1851 – 1861
***.  Taiping Uprising — Peasant War in China 1850-1864
**** Jiangyun — Governor
** ** reign years 1861 – 1875

he pledged that the Celestial Empire would pay Russia two million eight hundred thousand silver lans in reimbursement of military expenses. The terms of the treaty in Tszyuntsichu were recognized as extremely unsuccessful, and even there were calls to change it, to the declaration of war by Russia.  However, Li Hunzhang said that the treaty signed by Chung Hou brought us disasters if we do not recognize it, subsequent disasters will even more.  When Chun Hou went to fulfill his diplomatic mission, the emperor granted him extraordinary powers.  He had the right to negotiate and enter into contracts.  And if the contract is concluded, then you cannot refuse it, otherwise the blame for this will fall on us.
I think that even then the main goal of Li Hungzhan’s position was to win support for Russia against Japan, which at that time seized the Ryukyu Islands and clearly attempted on Formosa and Korea.  It was not for nothing that he directly said that the Japanese are afraid of Russians like tigers, and if we give in to the Japanese, they still will not help us against Russia.  If we make small concessions to Russia, then we can use it to intimidate Japan.  However, about Japan a little later.  No, wonder the ancient books said that a lie could not overcome the truth.  So it was that the negotiations on Kuldje were continued, and in the seventh year of Guangxu Russia returned it to us, but doubled the amount of compensation.  A new border with Russia was also established here. 
Now about the current affairs.  In the second year of Tongzhi, France from the south began to approach our Yunnan province, first attacking the vassal of the Celestial Annam.  Concerned about the situation in the south, Jiunjichu repeatedly appealed to the French government, but they only strengthened their troops and continued the war.  Therefore, in the tenth year of Guangxu, the war began between our states.  This war was taken advantage of by the rebels in our vassal Korea.  Joining the Japanese forces that guarded their embassy in Seoul, they captured the royal palace, but our troops stationed there defeated the Japanese, liberated the king, and the rebels fled to Japan.  To avoid war, the Middle Kingdom and Japan agreed to joint custody of Korea. However, as the proverb goes, truly, if a fish fell off a hook, do not hope to catch her again!  It became known in Tsungliamyin that the military circles of Japan demanded an immediate war, considering the Celestial Empire weakened by battles in the south, while their industrial bourgeoisie argued that it was necessary to thoroughly prepare for the war, because the Celestial is now strong, and after a few years, according to its custom, again plunge into lethargic sleep.  The Japanese government agreed with this view, and decided that to make sure a future victory, it was necessary to strengthen economic and military penetration into Korea.  Left

* years of government 1875 – 1908)

Li Hungzhan overseen the policy of Korea, General Yuan Shikai, behaved extremely rudely, which caused discontent of the king and courtiers.  Seeing the growing hatred of the Middle Kingdom, the Germanic Mollendorf, appointed by Li Hungzhan to head the Korean diplomatic service to resist Japanese penetration, decided to involve Russia in the conflict.  The Korean king, to get rid of our and Japanese wards, was inclined to fall away under the protection of England.  In addition, even gave it the island of Commune, where they had the Hamilton port naval base.  Then the cunning German M;llendorf, taking this opportunity, set out to push Russia against Japan, and began to push the king not only to transfer the port to the northeast coast to the Russians, which the Russians had long sought, but also to set up a protectorate of Russia over Korea, or at least , invitations of Russian military units to the ports of Fusan and Chemulpo, with a view, allegedly, to protect against the Japanese and the British.  Seeing the strengthening of the positions of Russia, the Celestial Empire, Japan, England and the North American United States demanded that King Kojeong replace M;llendorf and reject friendship with Russia.  American Denny as head of the diplomatic department, and Englishman Livi McBrown, as general customs commissioner replaced M;llendorf. In the twentieth year of Guangxu, in the south of Korea, an uprising of supporters of the Eastern Teaching Party began with the aim of expelling the Japanese and overthrowing the plundering Korean government.  The Japanese government, hypocritically referring to the joint custody agreement, insistently asked our government why it did not send troops to pacify the uprising.  Li Hungzhan, deceived, sent two and a half thousand soldiers to Korea, and the Japanese treacherously accused us of occupying the country, and sent five times more!  Li Hungzhan, hoping for the intervention of Russia, was slow in building up forces in Korea, but the Russian envoy Cassini said that Russia can only friendly advise Japan to withdraw its troops, but does not find it convenient to put pressure on it by the armed forces.  Yet, Li Hungzhan was slow to take decisive action and missed time.  Japan has accumulated much more strength and defeated our troops because they did not have modern weapons, were poorly trained, undisciplined, and the generals boiled before each other, robbed their troops, did not have a common command, and in battles sought to quickly escape, exposing the rear and the flanks of the neighbour.  Eh, what to say?  Let even the most enlightened sovereign rule, did he see behind all the ugliness that is happening in the state?  Wanting to end hostilities as quickly as possible and prevent further advancement of Japanese troops, Li Hungzhan appealed for help to England, but the British refused to influence the Japanese in any way.  Then Li Hungzhan appealed to the Russian envoy, but the ministers of Tsungli yamen advised against him, arguing that no one would believe that Russia was not going to profit at our cost.  Do not rely on her help, so that later there will be no new difficulties.  Timid informal appeals to the Russian envoy in Beijing Cassini and could not bring any results.  Apparently, we have somehow angered the Sky, because the Japanese have won victory after victory, have already conquered the Liaodong Peninsula with the ports of  and Dalianwan, Newzhuang and Yingkou, Taiwan, port of Wei-hi-wei in Shandong.  In short, he had to turn to the American government to mediate in the conclusion of peace.  As it became known, the Japanese fleet demanded the rejection of Formosa; the army wanted to annex the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, because it covers Korea from the rear, South Manchuria and the heart of the Middle Kingdom — its capital. The bankers demanded a contribution of one billion silver lans. Moreover, there were calls in Japanese government circles to repel the Mukden province from the Celestial Empire and impose a contribution of two hundred billion lian; and absolutely drunk with a victory demanded that all three provinces of Manchuria and the provinces of Shandong, Jiangsu, Fujian and Guangdong be annexed to Japan.  Li Hungzhan nevertheless hoped for the intervention of the Russians, and a week before the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki he told Tsungli yamen that he also hoped to find out what would be the attitude of the Russian court to the demands of Japan.  However, the Japanese threatened to move their army to several tens of thousands of soldiers and hope to capture the capital of the Middle Kingdom.  The Empress was frightened and, finally, a peace treaty was signed in Shimonoseki, which, although it was not as cruel as we were afraid in Tsungli yamen, but rejected Liaodun Peninsula, Formosa, Penghledao island from the Celestial ... after signing the treaty. Russia, Germany and France presented a note to Japan in which they strongly recommended the Mikado government to renounce the possession of the Liaodong Peninsula.  According to Japanese newspapers, there are absolutely no reserves for the army and navy in the country.  The people of the Japanese troops who took part in many battles were exhausted and demanded replenishment, as well as the material equipment of the troops, and that the Japanese could not count on anything, even if they had to fight with one Russian fleet.  Mikado had to declare that he accepted the sincere advice of friendly states — bearing in mind Russia, Germany and France — however, the question of returning the Liaodong Peninsula orders his government to discuss with the government of the Celestial Empire.  But through diplomatic channels, it became known that Japan only in words agrees to return Liaodong to us, in fact, it is going to tighten financial requirements so that we could never fulfill them, and until then, as a guarantee of payment of indemnity, to hold Liaodong .  But, as the poems say,
— Victories and defeats
in their turn come.
Lies are accompanied by death,
with truth, victory will come! *
•    Luo Guangzhong, Feng Menlong.  Dispelled charms, M., Art. Literature, 1983, p. 356. Poems translated by I. Smirnov.

Tsungli yamen was not slow to tell the Russian government about this.  Cassini, and our ambassadors reported that after consultations, the three powers established the amount of the indemnity in favor of Japan of thirty million lians, ordered it to withdraw its troops within three months after payment and did not allow any other demands ... Jun Mei sighed bitterly, “Have we, such a huge, densely populated and rich country, where there are more people than sand grains on the banks of the Yellow River, could not fight back a small island Japan?  After all, we have a wise empress, experienced rulers and diplomats, talented commanders, brave warriors, courageous young men ... Why did this happen? ‘‘
— I also look at what is happening with sadness.  I am already old and will soon go to the ancestors, but I know that it was only the first thunder that struck and not everyone heard his peals.  Empress Cixi is satiated with carnal pleasures and has reached the age when abuses of power become inevitable. Because the last sparks of conscience in her have long since died away, and there is no courageous official who would dare to bring to her ears the sufferings of the people.  She will not want to give up power, because for her it is like death.  Her courtiers and the entire cumbersome bureaucratic apparatus mired in theft, bribes and idleness and only pretend to be guardians of the interests of the Middle Kingdom ..., — he sighed bitterly.
 Politely thanked Jun Mei to grandfather and left, informing him that she would arrive tomorrow for knowledge of the art of diplomacy. The art of diplomacy!  Her heart sank from the presentiment of unprecedented opportunities opened before her for the good of the Celestial Empire, but doubt also sneaked in, is she able to seize them?
This time the sage waited for Jun Mei.  He her planted her at a low table by the window, put in front of her a stack of paper, brushes,  and ordered her to prepare to write, “The Emperor Kansi taught,“ Anyone who has been assigned to the service must carefully prepare well in advance to succeed in his work.  Therefore, your wish to master the art of diplomacy is commendable.  After all, even the ancients kept saying - which can speak well and understand in good treatment, he will get along with the savages!  You are traveling, as an assistant to Li Hungzhan, Marquis Livengzhuna, and this is a highly experienced diplomat, he has a lot to learn.  However, remember that the old tree can fall and a light breeze, so be him a support primarily in the affairs of state.  I have known Li Hungzhan for a long time, he have been closely following his government activities, and I believe that he has made mistakes in recent years.  These errors are due to his age, and fatigue from many worries, and senile voracity.  He too cares about his own enrichment, forgetting that the dragon that fell into the well becomes the prey of tiny ants.  The main thing that a servant should remember is about the fulfillment of duty to the ruler.  Fulfilling your duty, forget about enjoying the joys of life and the fear of death.  It is better to fight not with weapons, but with your heart, not to attack cities, but to influence feelings.  In addition, there lies the point of diplomacy.  The state of Olosa, where Russians live, is located northwest of Heilongjiang and established relations with the Middle Kingdom relatively recently, during the time of Emperor Kansi.  We know that Russians are warlike, rude, uncultured and greedy.  The Daurs and Solons, who first met them and had armed clashes with them, called them “locha”.  Locha settled on their lands, killed and robbed, tried to tear them away from Heilongjiang and caused evil at the border.  Emperor Kansi sent troops to defend Manchuria - the ancient homeland of the Qing dynasty.  Locha felt the strength and power of the Celestial Empire and sent their embassy, which fully performed the rite of kou-tau - fell to their knees and bowed low, and brought tribute, than Russia recognized its vassal dependence on China.  However, since then they do not send the tribute and they do not do the kowtow.  Therefore, your mission is a great responsibility.  It is not by chance that Zhang Panghe, diplomat of the emperor Kansi, said, going to negotiations with loch: ”The ambassador to the ends of the earth should use all his strength and to spare his life to fulfill the emperor’s mandate and not be dishonored. Otherwise, you will be sent a silk lace to commit suicide. ”
Jun Mei was worried.  She already knew the temper of the Empress, and she did not want to die.
- So, what should be done to fulfill the mandate and outwit these terrible locha?
- Even in the days of the Five Dynasties, rules were established for communicating with barbarians.  These rules are called San Biao yr - three norms and five seductions.  Messengers should convince the barbarians of friendship and assure that they like their faces, clothes, way of life and customs.  And to finally melt the hearts of the barbarians, you should give them clothes, treat them with tasty food, arrange for them dances and games with beautiful girls, give them horses and servants, in a word, give all sorts of signs of attention so that, affecting their feelings, conquer their hearts .
- Will the barbarians not accept these signs of attention for the expression of our humility and dependence; will they not consider that we recognise ourselves as vassals?
- Oh no.  The ancients said: it happens that the treasure falls in the dirt, and that flowers are thrown at their feet.  And the ancients did the same: if the enemy relied on force, they responded with cunning, if the enemy relied on cunning, they responded with force. Treat them as higher to lower and consider the gifts given to them as their salary.  We should be indulgent towards them and attract to our side with a kind attitude.
“But Russians are strong now, like the Japanese ...”
— Li Hungzhan is an old, experienced diplomat.  He knows well the wise saying of Confucius, that wild, distant, disobeying ethnic groups can be conquered with the help of education and morality.  When I learned that barbarous Japan defeated the Celestial, although I believe that the defeat was inflicted not to the Celestial Empire, but to the provinces of Zhili and personally Li Hungzhan, I remembered Le Tzu’s dictum:”My kingdom is weak, but should be kept among the strong. Seeking to the world, I serve the great kingdoms and help the little ones. It is necessary to rely on military force and we will meet the doom! “
Jun Mei recalled the burnt Jing-chjou-ting, the death of her son and husband, the guttural cries of the Japanese, horror and confusion, and a black cloud covered her soul.  She sighed sadly and the old sage Bo Daoli noticed her condition and felt heaviness on her heart.
— The commander Sun Tzu taught that invincibility lies in you, and the possibility of victory lies in the enemy.  Therefore, a diplomat, like a commander, should know when to fight and when not; the one who skillfully uses large and small forces wins; wins where the higher and lower forces have the same desires; wins when he is careful and waits for the opponent’s carelessness; that state, whose commanders and diplomats are talented, but the emperor does not bother them with constant care, wins.
“Empress Cixi told me to find ways to use Russia’s help to defend herself against Japan.”
— There are ancient principles of “I-and Chih-I” — “Manage barbarians with the help of barbarians” and “I-and fa-I” — “Attack barbarians with barbarians.”  Tell Li Hungzhan to use these principles.  Take a lot of money with you to take advantage of internal spies — Russian officials close to the negotiators; try to learn more about them.  Try to learn more about them through the plans of the enemy.  Remember the words of Sun Tzu: — “If you can and something, show the enemy, as if you can not; if you use something, show him that you do not use it; even if you were close, show that you are far away, even if you were far away, show that you are close, entice him with profit, bring him upset and take him. If everything is complete with him, be ready, if he is strong; evade him; because anger in him brings him into a state of frustration. Taking a humble look, call him into doubt; if his strength is fresh, wear him out; if his ranks are close — disconnect; to attack him when he is not ready and delivers, when he does not expect. “
Jun Mei was even more upset — Bo Daoli’s instructions sounded very general.
“Yes,” he sighed sadly.
— Deceitful plans, secret plans
they are thrown into dust.
Sly wiles and evil decisions
always fail. *
It is impossible to foresee everything in advance, be able to act according to the situation.
Old Bo Daoli got tired and began to fall asleep. Jun Mei had to retire.

*Daoism spell.”  Ed.  “Spellience”, Moscow, 1987, p. 28 verses in translation by I. Smirnov
In addition, late in the evening, when she was getting ready for bed in her closet, getting ready to play with her son, the silk slammed from a draft on the screen in front of the door informed her that someone had entered.  Nightly walks in the palace were strictly forbidden, except that occasionally a eunuch of internal guards made a round, and Jun Mei became alert.  A nightly oil lamp burned at her bedside and the night visitor, who had merged with his shadow on the wall, seemed huge and ominous.  One of the empress’s younger eunuchs!  Obese, with a wide shiny face and small eyes, he had long attracted her attention by constantly circling around, sniffing out and looking out.  She felt in him unsatisfied sexual instinct and hidden pressure, so she was afraid of him.
Making a token of silence, he whispered a conditional phrase word for word and Jun Mei felt a chill of release from horror.
I know that you are going to the capital of the northern barbarians to carry out the commission of Empress Cixi.  I know about your wish to master the art of diplomacy to better carry out the task.  This is very commendable, but in such a short time is impossible.  I will show to you a deep secret and call people who will help you there in Moscow.  Listen up.  Whatever part of the universe the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom fall into, no matter where they settle for a residence, they create branches of the secret Triad society to help each other and protect themselves from the local authorities.  The motto of society is “Obey Heaven and act according to Justice.”  There are such departments in both Russian capitals — St. Petersburg and Moscow.  People who are members of society in these cities have large funds and their money will help you do what you want.
A man will come to you there and utter the phrase: “Man’s life is as insignificant as a drop of dew on a blade of a plant; the wealth and eminence of a person are transient, like a cloud.”  Trust this man, and he will fulfill any of your instructions.


JUN MEI BRIBES OFFICERS OF THE RUSSIAN MFA.


A delegation led by Li Hungzhan headed for Shanghai and from Shanghai on a steamboat. To Russia, the French language was diplomatic, it negotiated between representatives of states and drafted official interstate documents.
As a representative of the Empress Cixi, besides the best among the dragomans of Li Hunzhang knew French, Jun was appointed as his personal translator and, dressed in men’s clothes, was constantly with him.  She tried to be leisurely, imposing and speak in a low, masculine voice, but all the same, behind her back they laughed and called Piskley.
Li Hungzhan at that time was already seventy-three years old.  He was heavy, heavy on the rise, with the slightest effort; he gasped, sweated heavily, and was afraid of death.  Can one really know what will happen to him, such as, tomorrow?  Especially at such a respectable age. The life and death of man is in the hands of Heaven, man is powerless and only Heaven disposes of him.  Therefore, in the luggage, Li Hungzhan was carrying a coffin of black oak with bronze ornaments.
“You are not a man, Jun Wei,” Li Hungzhan shouted loudly and stamped his foot.  “You’re not a man,” he repeated ominously, and took a step toward Jun Mei.
It was late at night, and he let his sleep away for a long time, leaving his servants and son accompanying him on a trip to Russia to the coronation of the king of the northern barbarians, and told her to check the correctness of the translation of credentials into French.  Somewhere deep below, a fire-breathing steam engine hooted, and the body of the steamer shivered rhythmically, rising steadily up and falling down on the crests and hollows of a free-breathing ocean.
Concentrating on the text, Jun Mei started and looked up.  Li Hungzhan hung over her overweight and, jerking her braid, demanded, “Confess who you are?”  Woman?
“No, I’m a man,” trying to speak with almost a bass, Jun Mei said frighten.
 I immediately realized that you were a woman, and this was whispered to me even before departure, in the palace of the Empress.  Now I will check, and he strongly pulled her dressing gown, so that pearl buttons fell down. Jun Mei barely managed to cover her exposed breasts with her palms and tried to slip out of his hands, but Li Hungzhan held the gate of her robe tightly. “You’re a woman,” he laughed happily and lustfully, and began to tear her palms off her chest, scratching her long nails painfully. Holding a cry of horror from the chest, Jun Mei pushed him away, flashing white breasts with large dark pink nipples for an instant, and huddled into a corner of the cabin.  Her tormentor blocked the path to the door. He rushed at her again, leaning heavily on his heavy body and clinging tenderly to his hands to the cuffs of his dressing gown.  The fabric cracked and torn, exposing the body and old Li Hungzhan poked his face into her neck, chest, and stomach, snuffled and puffed, trying to push her down on the sofa. “Let go, let go,” biting her lower lip, turning pale from rage and fear, beat Jun Mei. Old Lee, clasping her hips, pressed his face to her stomach and bit her painfully, but she managed to push her knee into the chin, push him away and jump on the sofa. Breathing heavily, disheveled, with bulging eyes and a shaking beard, Li Hungzhan sat on the floor with a tearful grimace and held his head. “You hit me so hard, woman.”  I tell the servants to throw you at night into the sea. “The Empress sent me to help you, Li Hungzhan.” “Yes, I know,” he agreed miserably, feeling his jaw. — You hurt me.  In addition, not a year later, as the Japanese in Shimonoseki almost killed me, wounding me in the face, — and he touched the bruise under the eye.
— There, even the bullet remained, and now you ... But who are you?
“I am Jun Mei — the niece of Jun Lu and the Empress maid of honor.”
High in the state hierarchy, the Chinese Li was afraid of the Manchus who ruled the Middle Kingdom for more than two and a half centuries, and he did not dare to provoke the wrath of Jun Lu, and even more so of the Empress Cixi.
“Jun Mei,” he muttered mournfully, “you know French well, you are educated and intelligent, and I will listen to your advice.”  However, do not be angry, listen to me.  I am old and decrepit, but my heart is not of stone, he knows all seven passions.  Fate was harsh on me — sent shrill storms of misery and overwhelmed with salty waves of misfortunes.  The day when candles for me will be lit is short.  I repeat once again; I am old and decrepit, but I can be a man, and I ask you to share your bed with me.  I sleep badly; my soul is lonely and cold.  Have pity on me, warm my bed.
Jun Mei winced in disgust, and Li Hungzhan noticed this.
“When the spring dries up, the river dries up, when the root is cut, the tree dies.”  In addition, I have to fulfill the will of the Empress, to protect the Middle Kingdom from the barbarians.  Help me gather my strength...
His last words dispelled Jun Mei’s hesitation.  She sighed and just said, “Well, I’ll come tomorrow.” Old Li was very fond of the female body.  On long nights, lying next to her in the wide bed, he did not sleep himself and would not let her fall asleep, stroking and clutching her with greedy hands.  In large quantities, he consumed drugs from the horns of deer and tincture of ginseng in the hope of regaining youth and male power.  In addition, very, very rarely did he succeed.  Then he was happy again, especially since she allowed him everything. A Chinese man, having begun his independent life path as a small village teacher, he showed a truly abyss of energy, patience and will to ascend to senior government positions, according to the tradition of the Qing dynasty, and more of the need to keep power held only by the Manchus.  The beginning of his rise as a diplomat occurred in the ninth year of Tunzhi.  In Tianjin, two annoying missionaries were killed and the French consulate was burned.  Having seized Beijing a decade ago, the French felt themselves masters of China and demanded an enormous ransom and execution Tianjin authorities.  The Zhili governor-general, in whose jurisdiction Tianjin was in charge, failed to appease the greedy tiger, for which he was dismissed.  The case began to seem hopeless and dangerous, the Manchus from the imperial encirclement feared to take up this place, so the choice fell on Chinese Li Hungzhan.  In addition, he managed to cajole the devil.  It was rumored, however, that Li HYUNGZHAN was obliged by this diplomatic success to the war between France and Prussia that began at that time, when the French fell into a stalemate, suffered a military defeat and even lost their capital.  However, how can minor troubles on the outskirts of the inhabited world somehow affect such events, perhaps at the walls of Beijing — the capital of the Middle Kingdom?
It is known that jasper does not tarnish from time and the sword only becomes stronger from fire.  Having lived a tumultuous life of a military man and a diplomat, he achieved much success in both fields.  The Grand Duke Gong blamed him for his defeat in the recent war with the Japanese for Korea and the Simonoseki peace treaty, whose main character was Li Hungzhan.  However, since ancient times they say that even time envies perfection, even a round wheel turns into shapeless fragments, even a full vessel overturns ...
Jun Mei struck the endless world through which they passed on their way to Russia.  Azure, like an upturned endless evening sky, an ocean with a dazzling solar path. The multilingualism, the brightness and the diversity of the beggarly robes of the Chinese, Malays, Sinhalese, Hindus and Sikhs, Blacks and Arabs in Singapore and Colombo, where they carried coal to the ship to feed the fire-breathing devil with wicker baskets, and plenty of fruit and fresh drinking water; arrogant bedouins on contemptuously and squeakily watching their dirty camels on the shores of the yellow haze of sand desert along the Suez Canal.  The poor and dusty town of Suez, which she remembered for the fact that through a round steamer window was stolen a new silk bathrobe with a fishing rod with a boat spinning along, and they were transferred onto the Russian steamer Russia, on which for some reason turned out to be the important prince who awaited them — the Russian prince Ukhtomsky — with preoccupying manners, at once, like a leech, stuck to Li Hungzhan and went out his cabin only for sleeping and toilet; unusually rough sounds of a military orchestra in the very first Russian city of Odessa; a locomotive spitting out clouds of black smoke and white steam, which rapidly dragging small cramped houses, where they were settled rumbled along iron bars laid on the ground, , through juicy bright spring greens from sunny Odessa to foggy and cold St. Petersburg — the northern capital of northern barbarians.
The Chinese delegation was accommodated in the best at that time at Petersburg hotel “European”. And immediately began countless and endless visits to all sorts of little men, who were intrusively offering their services as guides, suppliers of food, drinks, clothes and knickknacks; officials of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; officers who have ever been to China and were in a hurry to pay their respects; merchants who are intrusively interested in what Chinese guests could offer for sale and what they want to buy; and, of course, the Chinese and Manchus who lived in St. Petersburg came every day to just chat and hear the news from their homeland.
And Jun Mei had a man from the Triad.  He was calm, reticent, and assured her that his people would always be there, and that she could always contact him through the hotel fight, the fidgety Chinese, bowing low to the guests at the entrance.

Starting negotiations with the Russian Minister of Finance, Li Hungzhan was important and uncompromising, slowly sifting through the plans and interests of the Russians. Jun Mei did not always understand the essence of his cautious questions and evasive answers, but immediately realized that the Russians were seeking permission to build a railway through Manchuria, and Li Hungzhan internally agrees, having permission from Empress Cixi for that, but is afraid to sell cheap, bargain carefully, try to pull out from the Russian all that is possible.  He delayed negotiations, demanded even a meeting with the Russian emperor, still not crowned, inferior in the traditions of the Middle Kingdom, and he confirmed the want of Russia to buy the right to such a road.
Constantly attending the negotiations as a translator, and on duty to Hushan Yan and Empress Cixi, realizing that at such a respectable age, Li Hungzhan can let something out of her memory, and the demand will come from her, Jun Mei constantly reminded Li Hungzhan, that for this right, at the behest of the Empress, the northern barbarians will be obliged to protect the Middle Kingdom from Japan.
“I remember,” he assured.  — As far as I know, the Japanese are afraid of Russians like tigers.  If we concede to the Japanese, they still will not help us against Russia.  If we make small concessions to Russia, then we can use it to intimidate Japan.
At night, Li Hungzhan had long conversations with her, talked about his life, many military and diplomatic victories, at what cost of moral and physical strength they were given to him, and once he had a thought, if is it possible to make an agreement with Russian ministers in such a way that these barbarians pledged to defend the Celestial Empire not only from the Japanese, but also from anyone who tries to attack it.  After all, how great it would be — sitting on a mountain to watch the fight of greedy tigers ...
— but how?  — Not understood Jun Mei.
— Somehow to make so that in the text of the signed agreement was given a broad interpretation of the barbarians.  Let them, like reptiles, smother in their arms and sting each other, without disturbing our peace.
Jun Mei thought carefully about Li Hungzhan’s childish, pitiful dream and called for a Triad man.  Already with him, she discussed the situation that had been created, and ordered to give a lot of money to Russian officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so that they would find the opportunity and write the text of the agreement in that way.
And they succeeded!
Already in Moscow, three days after the big troubles for Russians on a wide field on the emperor’s coronation, before signing the text of the agreement, and it was made in two copies in French, Jun Mei carefully studied the contract and whispered to Li Hungzhan that articles very successful for the Heavenly Empire.  Then there was a slight hitch for some reason, and everyone was invited to have breakfast.  Perhaps the Russian foreign minister was not sure that he would have the strength to sign the treaty.  After breakfast, at the wide mahogany table, Li Hungzhan and Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky signed exactly those wide sheets with black ink text of the agreement.  The Russians carried away their sheet somewhere, and Chinese Li Hungzhan put it in a heavy iron casket, locked it up and sealed it with a personal seal.



WITTE.  NEGOTIATIONS WITH LI HUNGZHAN


In mid-April, Prince Ukhtomsky brought Li Hungzhan from Odessa. 
Sergei Yulievich put personal talks with the Chinese representative at the coronation on a high pedestal, and therefore convinced Ukhtomsky to go to Suez ahead of time and meet Li Hungzhan there, first, to prevent possible Western competitors to entice him on a tour of the capitals of Europe and to enlist not by concrete concessions, then of it promises, and, secondly, to express the most hospitality to the dignitary who is eager for flattery and external forms of respect for the Chinese dignitary.  For this, Sergei Yulievich even appealed to Emperor Nikolai Aleksandrovich with a request to meet Li Hungzhan in Odessa with an honor guard that His Highness approved.  Adjutant General Vannovsky, the Minister of War, remained, however, dissatisfied with the Minister of Finance did not fit into his competence.  Well, God bless him.  And Li Hungzhan liked this.
Sergei Yulievich was highly interested in the positive results of the negotiations.  And the results expected great.  He meets many objections against the Manchu direction of the railway line, against which opinions he have to fight.  See, even the Director of the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Count Kapnist  Oh, how he objected, arguing that Russia has neither economic nor military possibilities to build this, as he put it, the Military-Step Road.  And the funds it will need prohibitively large, and will not be protected, and will need the occupation of the of Manchuria and mastering the territory where the line will pass, and, most importantly, no matter how England would hurry to take in turn the seaports to make sure the predominance in the Yellow Sea .
A similar position was maintained by the Priamursk Governor-General, Adjutant-General Dukhovsky, who proposed building a road along Russian territory, along the Amur River, snapping off from China only the northern ledge of Manchuria from Sretensk to Blagoveshchensk.  We, he says, later build roads into China.  Well, as they do not understand that there is a huge difference between the finished road in Manchuria and such projects.  There is no road, however, and all that remains is to con  Li Hungzhang , and it is up to Li Hongzhang to get a concession for its construction.
Arriving in St. Petersburg and having rested for two days off the road, Li Hungzhang paid a visit to the Minister of Finance.  The meeting was organized in the office of the minister.  Sergei Yulievich received him in a vice-uniform with a sword, according to the protocol.  The distinguished Chinese guest arrived, accompanied by a multitude of servants and officials in such exotic clothes, that Witte felt uneasy and cheerful.  Prince Ukhtomsky was a little versed in the hierarchy of Chinese bureaucrats, mainly in the color of the balls on their headdresses and in the buckles of the belts girdling their robes.  He whispered to Sergei Yulievich that the representation is at a very high level.  Lee Hungzhang himself was represented as the first chancellor, viceroy of Zhili, the capital province, a member of the imperial council, director of the Yellow River, and the main adviser of the emperor for foreign affairs and so on and so forth.  He turned out to be a rather tall, heavy old man with a wrinkled, tan-colored face, a gray-haired long and narrow beard, and sharp, piercing, intelligent black eyes.  According to the Chinese custom, Sergei Yulievich and Li Hungzhang very low, slowly bowed to each other, went to the next living room and sat on the stools.  Their first meeting was held in mutual inquiries about the health of the overlords — the Russian and Chinese emperors, their relatives and friends.  They can be said to have mastered, adapted, watched and listened to each other, evaluated each other no longer on the basis of the files and impressions of the advisers, but personally; tried on how to conduct further negotiations, groped for the correct intonation, pondered what and how you can afford.  Sergei Yulievich was extremely concerned about the question of how to personally interest Li Hungzhang in the implementation of his business proposal.  He had occasion to meet with many political leaders whose names will stay in history forever, but Li Hungzhang is undoubtedly on a very high pedestal.  He is highly educated, in Chinese, of course, has common sense and common sense.  It was this that simplified the task of Sergei Yulievich, instilled confidence that they could meet.  In a word, it was, so to speak, a high-ranking political leader, a thief and a bribe taker, although, according to Chinese customs, an official and a bribe taker are synonymous words.  Like us.  Why did Sergei Yulievich give such serious attention to this?  The fact is that for a diplomatically successful resolution of the issue, he will have to offer Li Hungzhang how to express it more softly, however, why the verbal balancing act bribe.  The point is quite understandable, scrupulous, causing some emotional discomfort.  In addition, the sum should be offered at the same time and solid, corresponding to the enterprise, Sergei Yulievich threw a glance at the map, hoo, and, if possible, for the treasury is not so burdensome.  Besides, not from his pocket, he is going to give.  The cost of this article will have to be endorsed by Emperor Nicholas, a bribe is given, therefore, by him, and it is undesirable to cause him a grimace of dissatisfaction with size.  However, it is scary to sell too much; the Chinese can be offended and leave us with nothing.
In spite of the fact that this extremely important matter had to be solved precisely during the month of his stay in Russia, Li Hunhzhan, in no case should he hurry, scare the important guest let him know that Russia is very interested in him.  Especially because, according to our envoy in Beijing, Count Cassini, who has sounded at Tsungli-Yamyn since the beginning of the year, the Chinese are not going to open the door to foreign capital.  Each such attempt is perceived by them very painfully and succeeds only under great pressure.  Meanwhile, some peculiarities in Li Hungzhan’s behavior suggested to Sergei Yulievich that he was invested with powers to make significant concessions to us.  The negotiations were almost daily, very viscous and difficult.  Li Hungzhang feared that the Russian minister would start extorting territories in the Kuldzhi area, or the northern Manchurian ledge and, of course, the port in the Yellow Sea would need. Nevertheless, he was extremely pleased, having understood that Sergei Yulievich was not going to encroach on the integrity of Chinese territory.
Witte also assured Li Hunzhang that it was thanks to Russia that the territorial integrity of China was preserved.  After all, if Russia did not present an ultimatum to Japan, according to the Shimonoseki peace treaty, China would lose both Liaodong and Shandong, and then Manchuria and Middle China would be torn off.  Li Hungzhang woefully agreed, waved his head in the affirmative and touched a Japanese bullet stuck under the eye, the memory of Shimonoseki.
“We will forever adhere to the principle of the integrity of China,” continued Sergei Yulievich, “but to back up words with deeds, we must be able to deliver military force to China.  After all, what turns out, attack Japan the same Japan tomorrow, after all, it has only a sea to cross the sea, and we are forty days from Odessa will drag through Suez.  Moreover, suddenly change the political situation, the British will close the Suez Canal, so after all around Africa twice as long.  In order to deliver the troops in time, and they, with a few exceptions, are in our European part, it is extremely necessary to build a railway to Vladivostok just across Northern Manchuria.  Then we can quickly transfer troops to China from the European part and from Vladivostok.  Then, during past war with Japan, we moved, it was, the troops from Nikolsk-Ussuriysk to Jirin, and while they reached it, the war ended.  We should also keep Japan from aggressive actions, and this is possible only if there are military units in the Amur region and the Primorsky region.  For this, again, need a railway.  The road is also needed economically, because it will raise the productivity of those regions of China through which it will go very highly.  In addition, Japan will welcome the railway benevolently: it has already joined European culture and is interested in reliable and fast communication with Europe.
Li Hungzhang, as Sergei Yulievich felt, internally agreed with him, but, filling his price, he put various obstacles.  He behaved like a woman, saying no and no and no, but making a concession for a concession.  Sergei Yulievich increased the pressure and realized that the Chinese guest was almost broken.  However, here Li Hungzhang wanted to make sure that not only the Minister of Finance, but also the Russian emperor himself wanted this.  Sergei Yulievich asked the sovereign to accept Li Hungzhang, which he did, almost privately; in the newspapers, at any rate, nothing was reported about it.  Before the coronation, but still in St. Petersburg, in the Tsarskoye Selo Palace was appointed for some reason the sovereign’s exit.  Bringing congratulations that the protocol is being performed alternately, Sergey Yulievich went up to His Highness, and he whispered, “I had Li Hungzhang and I told him.“
Then Sergey Yulievich began to probe how Li Hungzhang would accept his proposal not only to build the railway from Transbaikalia to Vladivostok across Manchuria, but also to branch to one of the ports of the Yellow Sea.  After all, Russia needs an ice-free bay for a coal station in the Yellow Sea, where the Russian squadron would not be limited to ice.  Moreover, after the ultimatum of Japan, it became difficult for us to divert the fleet to the already traditional winter camp in Nagasaki.  Not without reason, last winter, with the consent of China, we sent a Pacific squadron to the port of Jiao-chou * in Shandong.  However, here Sergei Yulievich felt that Li Hungzhang was not inferior to him.  Yes, he smiled, nodded, took the pose of a deliberating Buddha, with loud twitter called the servants with a hookah from the next room, and even, after many of his reasons, agreed to such a road, but with a narrow, European gauge.  Sergei Yulievich did not like it.
Of course, you can make a wide embankment and, if necessary, quickly alter the canvas under the Russian standard, but he needed an official permit, a concession issued under the Russian rut, otherwise it will turn out that we will build a railroad for wide penetration into Manchuria by Europeans ... Li Hungzhang, however, was unmoved and did not meet in any case. way.
 * Qingdao

And Li Hungzhang was also uncompromising in one question.  Sergei Yulievich insisted that the Manchurian railway be built as Russian
 state; he, however, wanted to build it, with our financing, like the Chinese.  Alternatively, for the money of the American Bush. It has already proposed to create an international syndicate.  In this case, Russia will not win anything.  On the contrary, it would be a sharp knife in our Siberian belly.  The road, with our, Russian gauge, built and operated by us, with Russian equipment, rolling stock, locomotives, with Russian staff, and with the abolition of Porto-free in Vladivostok, has only paid off by collecting import and export duties would be in a decade.  Not to mention the political and military aspects.  Why, if we build branches to the Yellow Sea, to Beijing, to the Korean border, we will control almost the entire North China.  Yes, that China, the entire Far East!  However, Li Hunzhang does not agree.  Well, it went to the natural in such a case final — a bribe. He had to promise Li Hungzhang — promise!  — The truth is, there could be no talk of deceit, three million rubles.  Only after that the Chinese agreed to the Russian company, and again, only private.  We agreed that the concession will be issued to the Russian-Chinese Bank, and it, in turn, will create a railway company for the construction of the road.  The first million were promised to be handed over to Li Hungzhang after the Chinese emperor issued a decree granting a concession to the Russian-Chinese Bank and a document establishing the main grounds for the concession.  The second million were promised to be delivered after the final signing of the concession and the approval of the exact direction of the line.  And the third — after the construction of the road.  The protocol with the obligation to bribe was signed by the members of the Board of the Russian-Chinese Bank, the director of the office of the Ministry of Finance, the secret counselor Romanov, the banker Rotshtein, Rothschild’s son-in-law, Prince Esper Ukhtomsky, the chamberlain, the new editor and publisher of the St. Petersburg Vedomosti, as a confidant Emperor Nicholas.
And the reason for obtaining a concession for the construction of the Trans-munzhur railway should be the Russian-Chinese defensive treaty.  Against Japan!


.WITTE. MOSCOW.  Coronation of Nicolas II


On the evening of May 17, after the grand performance at the Bolshoi Theater, which ended with the ballet “The Pretty Pearl”, the royal couple, after saying goodwill with all those who were present at the theater, went to rest in Petrovsk Palace, inviting their closest entourage and some ministers for dinner.
There were few people: the emperor and his wife, the grand dukes with their wives, Sergei Yulievich, the head of the palace guard of Hesse, the host of the court von der Palen, the court minister Vorontsov-Dashkov, the minister of foreign affairs Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky, the minister of ways Prince Khilkov and someone something else.  Yes, and this latest celebrity, the stray Frenchman Papus  If is not a ventriloquist, not an alchemist, magician and wizard, in a word, some sausage maker or a greengrocer who spit somewhere that has telepathic connection with otherworldly forces and therefore warmed by the Montenegrins.  It is not known why the mood of the royal couple and the guests was alarmingly depressed, occasionally excited by the hysterical attempts of the Montenegrin — Anastasia and Militsa — the spouse of the grand dukes Nikolai Nikolayevich and Peter Nikolaevich — to defuse the situation.  This evening It was decided to discuss the last issue of the journal of the occult sciences “Isis”, which was very popular among them and was almost entirely devoted to Madame Blavatsky, told so much nonsense about her that Sergei Yulievich was forced to intervene.
“I have the honor to be related to her,” he began, and everyone present, curious, was silent.  Cogovernon-genverceermmon, so to speak, hubbub ended.
— My maternal grandfather, Andrei Fadeev, a member of the head office of the governor-genverceeral of the Caucasus, had three daughters and one son.  The eldest daughter, a rather well-known writer of Belinsky’s time, who published her works under the pseudonym “Zinaida R.”, was married to Lieutenant Colonel Gan.  The second daughter was my mother.  The third daughter stayed in the girls and now lives in Odessa.  The son — now General Fadeev — serves in the Caucasus.  So, of my aunt “Zinaida R.” there were two daughters and a son.  And the eldest daughter, and I, therefore, have a cousin, and there is Madame Blavatskaya.
The grand princes, who want to move into the next room, where the men waited for batteries of bottles, cigars and cards, frowned, feeling that he had long attracted general attention.  Realizing that simply rising and leaving would look tactless, and not wanting to irritate the spouse and, most importantly, the reigning Cousin Nicholas and his wife, Alexandra Feodorovna, they were forced to hide the irritation.  The women present, on the contrary, were extremely interested; Sergei Yulievich clearly felt this, especially the tsariza.
— How much attention and interest, thought Sergei Yulievich, and continued.
— After the death of the mother, “Zinaida R.”, her daughters moved to Tiflis to their grandfather.  The Erivan Vice-Governor made an offer to the eldest, so she became Blavatsky.  Her marriage was not happy, I do not know for what reason, and she, having run away from her husband, returned to Tiflis to see her grandfather.  The family of my father, a descendant of a Dutchman, who moved from the Baltic provinces, when it still belonged to the Swedes, was also content at that time with the roof of the house of General Fedeev.  Perhaps you all know well, the huge house in the alley leading from Golovinsky Avenue to Davidov Hill?  They lived there in an old, aristocratic way, I remember one courtyard, there were eighty-four people ... Yes, that was about Blavatsky ... The surrounding spirit was erotically adventurous, so to speak, and the grandfather decided to send her to her father, who served where near Petersburg, the commander of the battery.  Accompanied by two men and two women from the great courtyards, she went to Poti to get to Russia from here, through Odessa.  In Poti, among others, at this time there was one English steamer .She was hidden in the hold and taken abroad.  In Constantinople, she entered the circus as an equestrian, and then contacted Mitrovic, an opera singer who was popular at the time, and toured with him around Europe.  After a while, my grandfather received a letter from London, where a certain Englishman claimed that he would marry his granddaughter and take her away for commercial purposes to America.  After some time, we learned that Blavatsky appeared in Europe and became the closest follower of the famous spirit of the time — thirty years ago — Hume.  It was here that she apparently mastered the skills and vocabulary of the telepathy, the prophet, and she owned the jargon of the street gypsy fortune-teller from childhood.  Then, without having a special musical education, she successfully performs with solo piano concerts and even becomes the conductor of the orchestra of the Serbian king of Milan.  Around the year sixty-three — fourteen years old at that time I was — she returned to Tiflis.  A girl, of course, she was no longer, the years left their mark, but she managed to attract general attention.  And the unusual charm, and many rumors about her adventures and adventures and, most importantly, spiritualistic mysterious sessions, which Blavatskaya spend in the house of the dad.  However, the grandfather had strict rules and did not know, or pretended not to, about such nonsense. 
All the local Guards Jeunesse d’oree * and Count Vorontsov-Dashkov were gathered.  Here Sergey Yulievich nodded to a clearly bored, absent-minded listening and languishing in expectation of purely male entertainment to the count. “Her whole spiritualism, or calling of spirits, was about spinning the table, summoning the spirits of long-dead people, most often celebrities like Napoleon Bonaparte or Peter the Great, tinkers outing tea dishes in a canteen, playing a closed concert piano and indiscreet female screaming.  Sessions were held in the dark, and many curious people gathered. - Her relationship with her husband began to improve, but then Mestrovic showed up again, the former love rises up, and they went to Kiev.  There Mestrovic began to sing in the opera, and quite well, quickly studying the Russian language under her guidance.  The Kiev Governor-General, Prince Dondukov-Korsakov, who had served in Tiflis and was familiar with the young Blavatsky, immediately decided to deepen the acquaintance, well-informed about her scandalous fame, but on this basis they had differences of opinion with Mestrovic.  And since Prince Dondukov was very persistent in his harassment, Blavatsky and Mestrovic had to flee from Kiev.  They showed up at Odessa, where my brother and I were studying at Novorossiysk University at the time.  Blavatskaya opened a flower shop, an artificial flower shop and an ink factory here, and this is how she lived.  She often came to visit us and had long conversations with my mother.  She was already elderly, and maybe, it seemed to me, a woman, but in her, there was a spirit of a genius.  Therefore, she, completely without learning, spoke fluent French, English, German, Serbo-Croatian, Italian, and I do not know where other languages.  She played many musical instruments, so much so that she successfully performed solo piano concerts in European capitals and served as conductor at the Serbian king in Belgrade.  Without the slightest difficulty wrote the longest letters in verse.  And lied.  Lied inspired, creatively,
*Golden youth

without any difficulty in choosing a topic, details and details.  It is so colorful that even we, who knew her abilities for fantasy and did not believe her at all, sat with open mouths.  And she became popular all over Russia when she published her enchanting stories ”In the Wilds of Hindustan” with Katkov in the Russian Herald.  Yes, but her trade enterprises went bankrupt, Mestrovic got an engagement to the Italian opera and left, taking her with him, to Egypt, to Cairo. In the Mediterranean, their steamer was wrecked and drowned, and with it, Mestrovic died, barely in time to save his Lorelei. Then, from Cairo, Blavatsky moved to London and created a theosophical society there, and to attract followers into it, she went to India, where she studied, or invented, the secrets of the Hindu religions.  Impressions of this trip and formed the basis of her stories ”In the wilds of Hindustan”.  Returning to Europe, she settled in Paris and became the head of all theosophists, gaining world fame.  Soon she died.
Seeing that the listeners were disappointed with such a prosaic description of the life of the mistress of thoughts, Sergei Yulievich decided to gold the pill.
“In the end, if you need proof that man is not an animal, that there is a soul in him that cannot be explained by any material origin, then Blavatskaya can serve as an excellent proof.”  It undoubtedly contained a spirit completely independent of its physical or physiological existence.  The only question is what was this spirit, and if you get to the point of notions about the afterlife and what it is divided into hell, purgatory and paradise, then the question is only what part of that spirit came from, which settled in Blavatsky on  time of her earthly life.
However, the outraged Montenegrin sisters still made noises, and even the sisters, the queen and the wife of the Moscow Governor-General, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, were clearly dissatisfied with the absence of any mystical mystery in Wittie’s narrative.  And to save the situation and keep the men, Montenegrins and dragged this Frenchman, as his, yes, Papus.
Papus was an expert for misting women’s brains, and not only women’s, but generally prone to all kinds of abstruse foolishness, and began with stories about sorcerers and wizards of France from the time of the Sun King.  He puffed up, mysteriously lowering his voice, making passes with his hands, asked to turn off the electric light and light only one candle in the chandelier, and from this light, his long figure with thin arms and legs cast a pig-spider shadow on the wall.
Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich even groaned from an acute attack of hatred towards this bastard, but the Montenegrins hisses — listen, listen — and you had to put up with it.
Sergei Yulievich thought about how best to report to the king about the results of negotiations with Li Hunzhang, while Papus, meanwhile, was mysteriously whispering in French.
— When the Sun King in the capital of France flourished and palmistry, and black magic, and the cult of Satan, and many other mysterious teachings.   In early December, police lieutenant La Rainey arrested former officer Louis de Vanaise and his mistress.  The papers seized from these people revealed a community of alchemists, fake coins and magicians, among who were priests, officers, bankers, secular women, and people of all kinds of professions and fortunes.  Early next year, the police discovered even more terrible things, and a year later, La Rainey arrested Maria Boss with her daughter and two sons in the morning in the same bed, where they all lay naked.  A little later, Katerina Deza, the wife of a jeweler Antoine Monvoisin, nicknamed Voisen, was arrested, one of the greatest criminals it has ever seen.  All those arrested were connected with each other, belonged to the same circle, but the center that collected them was Voisensch.  Louis de Vanais was a specialist in invoking Satan.  Voisensha had a number of specialties, but most of all she was into poisoning.  Voisenshi had many clients who paid for her work sometimes with huge amounts.  For each successful poisoning, she received up to sixty thousand francs.  The residence of Voisensch was Villeneuve-sur-Granois, between the walls and the Saint-Denis quarter.  Here she had a house and a garden, where there was a lot of fun all year round.  Surrounded by a crowd of admirers, she in the wild booze pestered everything that was delivered to her clients and clients.  The main ostentatious side of her art was card fortune telling and palmistry.  She uttered her predictions, dressed in a luxurious robe of fantastic cut, which cost about seventy thousand francs.  However, not all of her clients were satisfied with this too common kind of witchcraft.  For the more demanding, you had to conjure up Satan and serve the Black Mass.  This blasphemous service was performed by an old crooked priest Abbot Gibur, a constant companion of Voisensch in all its enterprises.  To do the ceremony, he appeared in a black priestly dress.  The person for whom the Mass was read was placed completely naked on the table in front of the altar, she had to hold a lighted candle in her hands, and a golden cup was placed on her stomach.  At each mass, the abbot stabbed a baby with a long needle, and collected the blood of this victim into a bowl, where he mixed it with various magical compositions.  For the mass to be effective, it was performed up to three times in a row.  Thus, Voisensch and Abbot Gibur killed up to five hundred babies.  In court, in front of the famous Chambre Selenie, Voisins was convicted of all the blasphemous acts she committed, and together with several of her accomplices, was burned on Grevskaya Square in 1680.  Investigations about the adherents of magic did not stop for many years after her death.  The chamber dealing with crimes against religion found more than four hundred people guilty of black magic and other crimes.  At the same time, investigators stumbled upon an unexpected discovery.  It turned out that Voisensch and her assistants among their clients had the well known, at one time all-powerful, and favorite of the king Madame de Montespan.  That, in 1672, when she bored the king and Louis slipped away from the charms of his mistress, turned to Voisensch for help.  Abb; Gibour, at her request, read to her the Black Mass, and Madame Montespan immediately believed in the power of the sorcerer: the king returned to her.  But this time, Louis did not long give her his place.  Soon she was left for good and then decided, with the help of Voisensch, to poison the king with his new mistress, Mademoiselle de Fontyazh.  For this witch was promised half a million francs. When this secret, along with other secrets of Voisensch, was revealed, the king was deeply saddened to learn about the plans of his former mistress.  Not wanting a scandal, he personally burned the affairs that compromised the mother of his side children.  Madame Montespan’s compromise saved many.  Among the defendants were Olympia, the king’s first love, the Duchess of Bouillon, and the Vicomtesse de Polignac and many others.  They escaped execution, but representatives and representatives of bourgeois families who, at their own deaths, were trying to bring happiness to Voisensch, were executed.  The last echo of the case of Voisensh was an order issued in 1682 by the Parliament to expel all magicians and wizards from France and to tighten the rules for the sale of poisonous substances.
The women listened to Papus almost with open mouths, and the men looked very intrigued.
“The philistine love of gossip, gossip, and all sorts of rumors,” thought Sergei Yulievich, but then he caught himself, noting that this historical excursion of Papus and he listened with interest.
“And now show your abilities, Monsieur Papus,” the oddly charged Montenegrins screamed in beforehand, who had dug up this miracle somewhere and were immensely proud of them.  Therefore, children brag before their peers caught a frog.
The tsariza’s face was distorted with a grimace of envy, and Sergey Yulievich realized that she would take care of saving her reputation, get a divine little man for himself, who would put the Frenchman behind his belt.
In front of the ruling persons, Papus did not dare to capriciously, he waved the majordom, which was frozen at the door, to remove everything from the heavy, mahogany round table that was in the living room, with a soft gesture from top to bottom, as if pressing down, extinguished a single candle that burned in two fathoms and put it on the edge of the table a porcelain saucer fluorescent with soft opal light that appeared in his hands from nowhere.  The silence was incredible; everyone held his or her breath.
Papus mumbled something quietly, and the saucer swam in a circle.  The table was spinning!  With a sigh of amazement, everyone somewhat moved away from the table, fearing that it would bring any troubles.
The tabletop made a full turn and the saucer in a mysterious, incomprehensible way moved to the center.
“Reveal the spirit, manifest the spirit,” Militha clearly suffered from incontinence.
“Whose spirit, Your Highness?”  — asked Papus.
“Peter the Great,” Nikolai answered frightened hesitantly.
There was no complete darkness in the room, the light of the gas street lamps penetrated through the open windows, and it was obvious that Papus had taken something from a pocket of his coat wrapped in a scarf.  Making the passes with his hands over the table, he unwrapped the handkerchief, sprinkled the powder on the saucer in a handful and dropped a few drops of heavy viscous liquid.
— If it is not potassium of manganese with glycerin?  — Sergey Yulievich thought cheerfully.
And indeed, a fire-breathing volcano appeared over the saucer, emitting stench and smoke.  Smoke froze over the table with a white cloud that distantly resembled the disheveled head of Peter the Great, his eyes bulging with anger for disturbed sleep.
Then the devil pulled the reigning Nikolai Alexandrovich, before tomorrow’s coronation, to ask a question.
— Tell me, Tsar Peter, what will be my reign?
— The blood ..., — or something similar and for some reason in French, the melting cloud creaked back.
“Fool, he found something to strut about,” Sergei Yulievich thought in his hearts, and noticed that everyone present also disapproved of Tsar Peter’s answer.
Papus understood his mistake and tried, justifying, explaining what the spirit wanted to say ... but then Militsa, saving the situation, ordered to light candles and said that she knew a reliable way of fortune telling, an ancient, originally Russian, described more than a hundred years ago in the “Dictionary of Russian superstitions.”
She shouted to bring the hymnal and the brass key, from the door or bureau, all the same.  She inserted the key to the middle, as it were, into the hymnal and bound it with a string, putting the tip of it into the key’s ear.  Then she looked around the audience and, turning to Sergei Yulievich, and he was growing up and therefore noticeable, she said, “Well, Minister, hold this rope.  I will read the prayer, and if the hymnal is wrapped, this is a good sign.
Why is it I?  — Sergei Yulievich got worried, he did not like to be in the center of attention, and noting that Militsa, securing himself, twists the string to make her unwind and then back. Militsa murmured a psalm, Sergei Yulievich grasped the cord more firmly, and the Psalter hung and remained motionless.  Curtly to himself, Sergei Yulievich quietly tugged at the end of the rope, but that did not help either. Confused, everyone began to bustle at once, began to move, made a din, and the brothers, grand dukes Nikolai Nikolayevich and Pyotr Nikolayevich, together with Sergey Alexandrovich, resolutely told the men to go into the next room and engage in purely male games and entertainment. The Moscow governor-general, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who felt somewhat guilty for embarrassment, and therefore tried to divert the attention of guests to pleasant topics, was bothering most.
Here they drank both once and twice, and three, and had a snack, what God sent, but for the Romanov family he, of course, did not stint, and started talking about the day tomorrow.
— Coronation will take place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin.  Then rest, later a festive ball in the Hall of Nobles, and in the evening the ball will hold by the French ambassador Montebello.  For the common people we organize mass celebrations on the Khodynka field.  There are built carousels, swings, a symphony orchestra will play.  People will hand out bags with cods, chunks of sausage, candy and nuts.  One hundred thousand roses from Provence had already been delivered to the ball by Ambassador Montebello, swallowing a bit enviously, the Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich, who also far from needed, also added for some reason.
Hearing about a hundred thousand, the king smiled smugly and immediately turned to Witte.
— How are our negotiations with the Chinese going?
All interested watchfully.
Foreign Minister Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky, who understood that a conversation on such a topic was highly undesirable in such a wide circle, made a protest gesture, but Sergei Yulievich did not consider it necessary to evade the direct question given by the sacred special emperor, and secret joy was bursting out, bursting out with a fountain of eloquence.
— We agreed about a concession for the construction of a railway across all of Manchuria from Chita to Vladivostok.  The concession will be issued in the name of the Russian-Chinese Bank and it will be the core of the Russian-Chinese defensive, ready for signing, against Japan, — he specified, — the agreement.  In the event of a Japanese attack on China, Korea or Russia, this union treaty will enter into force.  We will build a road to quickly deliver our troops to the theater of operations.  To the theater is very good, because the theater can arise anywhere, and we will return to other directions of the road later.  In addition, all Chinese ports during military operations will be open to the Russian military fleet, which will solve the issues of fuel bunkering, repairs and provision of supplies of water and food.
All those present had long been aware of the secret negotiations between Witte and Li Hungzhang, and they knew that the purpose of these negotiations was the economic annexation of Manchuria.  They smelled a multi-million dollar profit and sought to be the first to share the fat cake.
Sergei Yulievich, as a conscientious official, fervently taking care of the business to which he was assigned, and since he was the Minister of Finance, he thought, looking at the hot faces of the drink, — I will be the first to the dish, therefore you I get nothing, everything goes to the treasury.
However, he was silent.
And in the morning was Khodynka.

And in the morning was Khodynka.  Sergey Yulievich was going to go to the Khodynka field to listen to a concert performed by the largest orchestra conducted by the famous conductor Safonov, when he learned this extremely sad news.  He was told that about two thousand people were killed and maimed during a terrible crush.  Sergei Yulievich was tormented by the question of what to do with all these victims, whether they would be able to place the wounded in hospitals, and remove the corpses in appearance so as not to mourn the merry people, the sovereign emperor and his wife, his thousandth guard, retinue and foreign guests.
When he arrived there, Li Hungzhang’s wheelchair soon arrived.  Entering the arbor to Witte and already knowing about the misfortune, the Chinese dignitary asked whether it was, true that such a big disaster had occurred and there were about two thousand dead and maimed?
Sergei Yulievich had to reluctantly confirm.
Then Li Hungzhang inquired whether the misfortune would be reported to the emperor?
“Of course,” Witte replied, “it was reported immediately after the disaster.”
Li Hungzhang waved his head and reproachfully said that they have more experienced political leaders in China.
“That’s when I was the governor-general of the metropolitan Zhili province and I had tens of thousands of people dying from the plague, I always told the empress that everything were all right, there are no illnesses, everyone is alive and well.  In addition, if I were a dignitary of your sovereign, I would hide what happened from him.  Why should I upset him poor?
— Well, after all, we went further than China, — Sergei Yulievich thought.  — What a boon that Emperor Nikolai Alexandrovich is a very kind and extremely educated person; the spirit of benevolence emanates from him, if I may say so.  I can say that in my life I have not met a man more educated than his majesty.  When he arrived with the empress and the grand dukes, already, of course, aware of the sad accident, he did not cancel the festivities.  What courage, what nobility.  On his face, one could see only certain sadness and a painful expression on his face.

For a month of communication, Sergei Yulievich carefully looked at Li Hungzhang.  He was interested in everything: and how he dresses, how he eats, getting used to the European table setting and cutlery, how he treats the younger members of the Chinese delegation at the coronation, how he listens to his squeaky woman-like translator,  smokes hookah, blowing his nose, wiping sweat, breathing loudly ... A kind of man. Sergey Yulievich remarked that Li Hungzhang was very well educated up, but in his own, Chinese way.  He believed that, in representing the Middle Empire, he should have been with all the important things to instill as much respect as possible.  There was such a case.  They sat together with Li Hungzhang and talked leisurely.  A servant came in and reported on the arrival of a visiting Emir of Bukhara.  Li Hungzhang immediately assumed an important posture, and when the emir and his retinue entered, he stood and bowed ceremoniously, greeting.  His appearance was so important that the emir, apparently, was shocked.  Asian people are very sensitive to the smallest shades in circulation.  Then the emir made it clear to Li Hungzhang that he paid a visit only because he represented the Chinese emperor, and began to question Li Hungzhang about the health of the emperor, about the health of his mother, and he was not at all interested in Lee Hungzhang’s health or in general.  The Chinese, of course, was very offended, but he did not file the species.
However, in turn, began to inquire from the Emir of Bukhara, which religion, declaring that the Chinese hold on to religious principles established by Confucius.
The emir explained to Li Hungzhang that he was a Muslim, the founder of their religion was Mohamed, and briefly recounted the essence of their religion.
The visit was over, the emir and his party went to the exit, and Li Hungzhang, with a rather humble look, went to escort them all the way to the sidecar.  When the pram started moving, Li Hungzhang shouted something.  The carriage stopped, and a Russian officer, who was a translator with the emir, asked what had happened?  Then Li Hungzhang ordered to convey to the emir that he remembered how this Mohamed, who had founded the religion of the emir, had previously been in China, had been there a convict, then he was driven out of China. Puzzled, the emir drove off, and Li Hungzhang, very pleased with his revenge, returned to the hotel.

Against Japan!
The sovereign emperor authorized Sergei Yulievich to talk with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky on the issue of concluding a defensive treaty with China.  You cannot think anything bad about him, he was a prominent man, very educated, very secular, well versed in languages, very fluent in pen, very inclined to do serious things, for example, various historical studies, mostly pedigrees, although never in real life not engaged.  In general, his mind was more brilliant than serious, it happens.
And with a bunny.
Although he was already over sixty, he remained extremely frivolous.  And he almost brought all the enormous, one might say, work of Sergei Yulievich to confusion, and he almost put Russia in a very risky position.
Sergei Yulievich came to the Foreign Ministry to see Prince Lobanov and told him about the results of the negotiations with the Chinese representative Li Hungzhang, about which Lobanov, of course, was informed.  He immediately took the pen and drafted an agreement in a perfectly consistent form.  Then he handed over the writing to Sergei Yulievich with a request to check and make the necessary corrections.  Witte was surprised by the fidelity and subtlety of the presentation and the accuracy of the wording.
The next day, Prince Lobanov visited the sovereign and later handed over to Sergei Yulievich a project approved by his highness, in which, to his surprise, Witte saw that the clause about our defensive alliance with China was generalised.  In the new draft treaty, it was stated that in the event of an attack on China, Russia with all its land and naval forces must protect it, and in the event of an attack on us, China should help us.  But not stated that from Japan.
However, this is a huge difference — to protect China from Japan or from any power!  China constantly has misunderstandings with England about Tibet, with France, our ally, because of Tonkin.  Yes and other countries have relations with China.  It would be extremely dangerous to take on the defense of China from all powers.  Yes, find out that about our agreement, it would have caused many European powers against us. Sergei Yulievich did not show his displeasure to Prince Lobanov, some timidity restrained him, but on the same day, he went to the sovereign and reported to him that this was the meaning of our agreements with Li Hungzhan, Prince Lobanov, at first correctly, but now it turned out to be very dangerous changes.
The sovereign ordered Sergei Yulievich to go to Lobanov, especially since the ministries of finance and foreign affairs are located in the same building, and persuade him to write the contract as needed.  Witte, however, was hampered by his innate delicacy: Prince Lobanov was serving longer than he was, and had already was the Interior Minister’s comrades, the ambassador was in Constantinople and in Vienna, and in general, he suits his fathers.  Then His Highness promised to personally settle this highly important question.
Already in Moscow, before the coronation, the sovereign told Sergei Yulievich that he outlined his opinion about the inconvenience for us to accept the defense of China from all powers to Lobanov-Rostovsky, and that he agreed with him.  Sergei Yulievich also calmed down, especially since he had met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs several times already, and he did not say a word about him on this subject.
Three days after the coronation, on May 22, they came together to sign a secret agreement in the house, which was specifically rented in Moscow during the coronation period for the Minister of Foreign Affairs.  On the Russian side, Prince Lobanov and Witte were authorized, and on the Chinese side, Li Hungzhang, who had previously received the proper authority by telegram from Beijing.
Two copies of the agreement were prepared for signing — one for China, the other for us.  Prince Lobanov announced that the draft treaty was being studied, discussed and we can sign it, and handed over one copy to Li Hungzhang, and the other was taken by Sergei Yulievich, completely without a second thought, confident of the correctness of the wording.  Moreover, suddenly, to his dismay, he discovered that Prince Lobanov had left the text in his own, incorrect and very dangerous for Russia, edition.  Sergei Yulievich recalled the prince aside and, having renounced delicacy, told him about it.
Saved their resourcefulness of count. Looking at his watch, he clapped his hands and told the servants who came in to serve breakfast.  Then he invited Li Hungzhang and those present to the table, saying that the table was laid and the dishes could spoil.
While the breakfast lasted, the two secretaries rewrote the contract, and he received the correct wording.

Sergei Yulievich met many times in the capital with Li Hungzhang and he said that, as a friend of Russia, he advised not to go south from the railway, because the Chinese, for the most part, disapprovingly look at the Europeans, believe that all evil in the empire comes from the “white devils”.
Soon the friend of minister finance, Pyotr Mikhailovich Romanov, left for Berlin, where he and the Chinese empire Xu  Cungcheng, who was also the envoy in Russia at the same time, used to live in St. Petersburg all winter and spring, and drafted and signed a concession project. The concession for the construction of the East China Railway was issued to the Russian-Chinese Bank, which, in turn, transferred this right to the East China Railway Society being created.  Soon the project of concession was approved by the Russian government and the government of Bogdykhan. Sergei Yulievich already understood that the Chinese would not agree to a state-owned state railway to their borders.  They are afraid, of course, and with very large grounds, similar to the demands of other states.  He really did not want to, he did not intend to let go of such an important thing for Russia from the hands of the Ministry of Finance.  Then, on reflection, he undertook a detour.  The concession, as has already been said, was issued to the Russian-Chinese Bank, and he transferred this right to the non-existent Company of the CineseEasternRialroad.  Sergei Yulievich introduced into the draft agreement of the Russian government with the Russian-Chinese Bank on the formation of the Chinese-Eastern Railway Society an article according to which out of a thousand shares of five thousand rubles each, which would be the capital of the Company, seven hundred were necessarily reserved for the government and transferred to the State Bank.  The remaining three hundred shares may be placed among private individuals, but this was already his assignment to Alfons Rothstein, the representative of French financiers.  Sergei Yulievich expected large dividends from the shares and wanted them to settle into the state’s treasury.
Fortunately, the question of the participation of people in the capital of the Company was resolved safely, and all the shares of the Company were transferred to the State Bank.  For this, the Russian-Chinese Bank was paid five million rubles, as a banker of the Company.
Sergey Yulievich ordered to announce in the Government Gazette about the opening of the subscription to the Company’s shares on the very day of the subscription and, thus, the subscription ended without starting.  All the Company’s shares began to belong to the state, and so that the treasury suffered minimal losses, Witte signed an agreement with the Company’s board to pay the Russian government four million rubles for research conducted on the future line in Manchuria.  Of these four million, three were transferred to the Russian-Chinese Bank, to the so-called ”Li Hungzhang Fund.”  One million went, therefore, to the income of the treasury, but the Board of the Company was left with one million, on a very short leash — without shares and, practically, without money.  Sergey Yulievich decided to finance the construction by issuing bonds.
One of the most uncomfortable conditions of the concession issued by the Chinese government, Sergey Yulievich considered the duty to hand over the road free of charge to the Chinese side in eighty years.  But to get around this inconvenience was impossible. But, due to the concession, the right of the Bogdykhan government after thirty-six years to go ahead with the buy of the road, he tried to make it as difficult as possible.
Well, if the Chinese and take the head to buy then let them large forks.  He included in the concession contract the need to not only pay all sums spent on construction, but also all the debts made for the road, but with the interest accrued on them during that time.  This will include the “Le Hungzhang Fund” and those seven million rubles, which the Society pledged to hand over to the government on the day the traffic opened on the road.  Ever stopping their budget holes with international loans to the Chinese, government, which is in debt, as in silks, does not pull the ransom of the road.  It will cost him, according to preliminary and most conservative estimates, seven hundred million rubles.  No, that is impossible!
China, under the terms of the contract, represents Russia, a third below sea, customs duties, freedom from Chinese taxes and fees, and the right to set its own tariffs for the transportation of goods on the road.  In addition, most importantly — the strip of alienation.  Here we will be free to use the land necessary for the construction, operation and protection of the road, place our police and guard, use the materials necessary for the construction — stone, soil, sand, limestone ... All this will much speed up and cut the cost of construction.
— A grand, grander business to the glory of Russia!  — Sergei Yulievich rejoiced.

BERLIN.  BARON HOLSTEIN

Count Philip Eilenburg loved walking in Berlin, the capital of Prussia, for a quarter of a century and all of Germany.  Therefore, it is today, in the early June evening of 1896, according to the custom established over the last three years,

 on Thursday to pay a visit to Baron Friedrich-August Von Holstein, the secret legal adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the empire, who lived in one of the quiet streets adjoining Tirgarten, Count Philip slowly walked along Unter den Linden down to the Brandenburg Gate, past the Passage with its so popular Panopticon, then the massive heavy gray building of the Ministry of the Interior, a thunderstorm completely unraveled Social Democrats, walked, looking into the lively, cheerful person who had already covered with an even bronze tan pretty young women often fall toward the arrogant officers to aggressively twirled a-la Wilhelm mustache, thick gentlemen in bowler hats and hats that hide the shiny bald head covered with combed sideways rare remnants of old hair, elegant children, accompanied by strict prim governess in white blouses and white, elbow length, lace gloves, pale faces of neatly dressed proletarians, crimson faces of elderly burghers — fans of bear and icebahn, the brilliant curious eyes of foreigners making city tours, accompanied by loud, cheeky fremdenfurers.  Coming out on Paris Square, the count unexpectedly noticed that the walking gait was suddenly replaced by a clear, firm, firm step by the soldier and immediately heard a piercing flute and drumming, a marching company appeared from behind the Brandenburg Gate.  The count stopped, letting in soldiers, diligently sticking out gray uniform breasts, high-polished polished socks and striking strides; their young faces were covered with sweat from zeal and heat, and their armpits darkened with wet cloth.  After admiring the young lieutenant on a huge raven horse in front of the company, Count Philip raised his eyes to the quadriga that ruled with one hand, and the other stretching a laurel wreath over the Brandenburg Gate a cast-iron Victory.  And twisted.  The victory, which was in captivity, did not cause him any respect.  Fortunately, very few people remember the history and similar feelings when looking at the symbol of the power of Germany did not occur to many passers-by.  In 1807, the shortly Corsican took the captive Victory to Paris, and seven years later, the Russians favorably returned the goddess disgraced by the French.
Yes, Russians ... In the evening conversation they will be given special attention.  However, here is Tirgarten. Count Phillip climbed the stone steps to a solid oak door with a brushed bronze handle, jabbed his finger at the white enameled button of the new-fashioned electric bell under the sign reading “Privy Councilor F. Holstein,” noted the moving curtain in the window of the right bay window with a corner of his eye and almost immediately stepped into helpfully open the door.  In the spacious hallway, he carefully put the cane in a round stand with holes for walking sticks and umbrellas and hung his hat on the process of deer horn brought from Russia by the host’s hunting trophy, next to Dr. von Hasse’s light Tyrolean hat and the uniform cap graph of Count Alfred von Schlieffen.  Were heard from the open doors of the hall.  The modest black bowler of the owner of the house with a high crown and hard small fields rested on the uppermost process of the horns.
Past the servant crouching down in the knixen,  who had just opened the door for him, Count Philip walked into a spacious hall with a dining table in the center, covered with a brown velvet tablecloth and stiff chairs around it with high, bent backs.  The owner of the house with the guests — the chief of the Big General Staff, Count Schlieffen and the chairman of the Pan-German Union, Dr. von Hasse, were sitting on morocco wrestles in a fawn silk curtains shaded by the evening sun.  The servant set the table, quietly tinkling with silver and porcelain. “The Oyster Lovers” assembled, he allowed himself
joke Earl Phillip, alluding to a biennial old feuilleton in
“Kladderadatsch”, the point of which was sent to the owner of the house of Baron Holstein, but who,, broke the veil on the secrecy from the process of determining

 Kladderadatsch (onomatopoeic for “Crash”) was a satirical German-language magazine published on May 7, 1848, and appearing “daily, except for weekdays”.  It was founded by Albert Hofmann and David Kalisch, a Jewish merchant and author of several works of comedy.  Publication ceased in 1944. / Wikipedia/
 goals of foreign policy of a united Germany and from the true creators of its course.  In the feuilleton characters, they immediately recognized themselves; externally resented the author, but in the depths of their hearts, they were proud of their role and realized that he was right.  The sixty-year-old master of the house, removing Huxlander’s volume from the armchair next to the sofa, nodded to the guest with a hooked chin, inviting him to sit down.  His prickly, whitish eyes were tense, apparently, Eilenberg interrupted his speech, and the owner of the house tried to hold on to an important thought to continue it attentively listening to the interlocutors.  — Refreshing your Russian and American adventures, Herr Baron?  — nodding at the book, asked Count Philip, wanting to knock him off thinking that the baron had to go back and devote him to the origins of their conversation. — Yes, Fili, — the owner obviously lost the idea, — we talked about the recent history of our relations with Russia.  However, you are not late at all. 
So, in the early sixties, I served almost three years in
Prussian embassy in St. Petersburg under the command of the Duke of Lauenburg, — his former benefactor, guardian and mentor, who almost became a test, Otto Bismarck Baron Holstein called this not so long ago Kaiser Wilhelm II a title with visible hostility. And mockingly.
I consider relations with Russia the cornerstone of our entire foreign policy. With a bright Chinese fan, the baron swung his face — it was rather stuffy — and spoke mentally — clearly and measurably. — Russia is now busy strengthening its place in Europe.  Having successfully completed the war with Turkey in January seventy-eight, it substantially changed the existing situation in its favor at the cost of the Balkan Slavs.  According to the San Stefano Peace Treaty of March 3, seventy-eighth, Serbia, Montenegro and Romania gained independence, freeing themselves from Turkish oppression.  Bulgaria gained autonomy, pledging to pay Porte only a tribute; Russia regained Southern Bessarabia and gained possession in Transcaucasia.  And so on.  The main thing is that Russia is encroaching on the Balkans, clearly seeking to settle there forever.  And it has strong support there.  It was especially bad that autonomous Bulgaria gained access to the Black and Aegean Seas, thereby potentially representing Russia with access to the Mediterranean Sea and Straits.  In June of the same, seventy-eighth year, a congress was held in Berlin, where the countries that signed the Paris Treaty of the fifty-sixth year took part.  At this congress, I deliberately made a reservation at the joint efforts of the countries of Western Europe — Great Britain, Austria-Hungary and Prussia, calling the already united Germany as Prussia, the former core of the united empire, but with the passive place of France, it was possible to neutralize Russia’s successes in the Balkans and revise the articles San Stefano peace treaty.  Although Romania, Serbia and Montenegro remained independent, Prince Bismarck helped the Austro-Hungarian Habsburgs to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina and become from the fact masters of the western part of the Balkan Peninsula.  A year later, Bismarck and Austrian-Hungarian Foreign Minister Andriashi signed an Austro-German alliance treaty in Vienna.  France trembled and began to flirt with Russia in opposition to our treaty.  There she had allies in the person of Russian War Minister Milutin and the Chief of General Staff Obruchev.  In the eighty-first year, Bismarck was able to restore the Union of Three Emperors, gathering in Berlin for negotiations representatives of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia and concluding a so-called “reinsurance” German-Austro-Russian agreement on neutrality. On neutrality in case, one of them finds himself in a state of war with the fourth power.  Under this agreement, the parties pledged to make sure that Turkey adheres to the principles of closing the straits.  When signing the contract, all three parties were guided by their own interests. Russia, fearing the English fleet and the repetition of the Crimean War, was interested in closing the straits; Austria-Hungary sought to show itself in Bosnia and Herzegovina; we needed to avoid the Franco-Russian alliance that frightened Bismarck.  In the eighty-fourth year, he extended this contract for another three years.  In August of the eighty-sixth year, yes, ten years ago, after the coup d’;tat in Bulgaria, when Alexander Battenberg, a German prince and Prussian service officer, was raised to the throne in Bulgaria by the Russian Tsar Alexander II, he resisted the Russian intentions to turn Bulgaria into a ”Transduninian province”, and began to focus on Austria-Hungary, the Russian-Bulgarian diplomatic relations were interrupted.  In addition, the coming to power of Ferdinand Coburg aggravated Russia’s relations with Austria and us.  Anti-German military circles in Russia pushed Tsar Alexander III to change the political course.  And we must pay tribute to the energy and determination of Otto Bismarck.  Publicly, he disowned Germany’s support of the Austro-Hungarian prot;g; and simultaneously sent Prince William of Prussia, the current Kaiser to St. Petersburg, to persuade the bear emperor to strengthen the Union of Three Emperors both to fight radical youth in Russia and to keep peace in the Balkans.  At the same time, Bismarck instructed Wilhelm to incite the Russian tsar against the Turks, so that he would seize Constantinople, saddle the straits and close the way to the Black Sea for the English fleet.  From the shores of the Aegean Sea, the Russians would threaten the ways of the “Lady of the Seas” to the Middle East and India.  Inciting Alexander III to the Turks, Bismarck had in mind once again to put his heads against Russia and Great Britain.  These powers tie the hands of Germany in Europe.  After all, having seized Constantinople and the straits, Russia would not have become stronger at all, but would have turned all its attention and available forces to the protection of the acquired lands and would have been much weakened on the western borders.  At the same time, Bismarck instructed our ambassador in London, Harzfeld, to induce England to take the first step in resisting the advancement of Russia.  True, the head of the English cabinet Salisbury immediately understood what Bismarck was seeking.  According to rumors, he said - “He would like to embroil us in a position from which we would have no other choice but war. He would like Russia to take Constantinople, since, in his opinion, Turkey, England and Austria will then they are forced to fight, and he will keep up a benevolent neutrality and, if the case comes up, will strike a new blow to France. “ Although it was not possible then to push the Russians into capturing the straits, in the eighty-seventh year Bismarck should be given credit for renewing the Russian-German treaty for the next three-year term that would prevent the rapprochement between France and Russia.  However, at that extremely tense time, I was against this treaty.  I still believe that, using the existing contradictions between them, it was possible to prevent the rapprochement between France and Russia.
Baron Holstein, a capable, though ungrateful epigone of the great Bismarck, firmly understood the main principle of the Roman Empire “divide and rule” and the specific method of Bismarck’s policy — to pit Russia and Great Britain so that the German Empire becomes the undivided mistress in Europe.  He also remembered Bismarck’s attempt to arrange a conflict between these powers in Korea in the eighty-fifth year, and a particularly acute situation in March-May of the eighty-eighth year, when, because of the Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia, the world was at a loss from the war.  Then, having learned that the Russian troops reached the Pendin oasis on the Afghan border, and newspapers inflate military psychosis in England, at the instigation of Bismarck, young Wilhelm wrote to the tsar about the alleged military weakness of the British to Russia, and even regretted that, as an officer in the Russian army, can not personally take part in future battles. At the same time, the chief of the Grand General Staff, Waldersee, the closest adviser to the young future Kaiser, convinced the British military agent in Berlin that Russia was not ready for the war, and from a military point of view, England had never had such favorable conditions to strike Russia.  The worst danger for the German Empire, inspired Bismarck diplomats and Kaiser Wilhelm, is the rapprochement between England and Russia.  Therefore, German foreign policy should seek to show between Britain and Russia rather hostile than too intimate relations.  As with France, the immediate neighbor and almost the eternal opponent of the nearby German principalities.
“Then we were faced with the temptation to start a preemptive war against Russia,” von Schlieffen carefully added,
My predecessor as chief of the Great General Staff, Waldersee, offered to attack Russia, knowing that its troops on the western borders had not been deployed and were not ready for war.  However, Chancellor Bismarck and Moltke were against it, believing that by dispersing forces and stretching communications across the desert and endless eastern expanses, Russia could not be defeated, and it was quite possible to be bogged down and break your neck, as it already happened to Napoleon. — And the German Ostsee provinces of Russia?  — could not resist von Hasse.  — And the richest Volga region?  And her breadbasket Ukraine?  We must not be afraid of the Russian bear, but send all our military power there.  Germany more than ever in dire need of the development of new territories.  Along with the seizure of overseas colonies should pay attention to lying next to Russia, especially its part from Poland to the Urals.  We need to have space for planting our national seedlings.  Bismarck at one time was against the accession of the Baltic states to Prussia, considering this long strip without hinterland to be an insignificantly small amount in exchange for the eternal enmity of gigantic Russia.  But time flies, and today the problem of the future world domination of Germany has arisen.  The accession of the Ostsee region should be called the main national need of Germany, and the contradictions between the German and Slav races — the alpha and omega of modern European politics.
Nodding graciously, Baron Holstein calmly continued, — in the ninety-first year, we concluded a tripartite Austro-German-Italian alliance.  France and Russia, fearing that the alliance, threaten them, that was the case, went to rapprochement.  In July of that year, a visit French squadron in Kronstadt, and in Paris, took place the chiefs of the general staffs of France and Russia Bouadeffr and Obruchev held talks on a military convention, which they signed the following year in St. Petersburg.  Yes, four years ago.  In addition, as we learned, the foreign ministers of Girs and France Ribot than signed a secret agreement on joint actions in case one of the countries faces a threat of attack.
“Oyster lovers” knew perfectly well that it was impossible to blame Bismarck’s father and son for such a defeat on German foreign policy, because the great iron chancellor and state secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had retired by their joint efforts a year earlier, so responsibility for the union of eternal Germany’s opponents lay on their shoulders.
— Yes, according to the military convention concluded in the ninety-second year, if France is attacked by Germany or Italy, supported by Germany, Russia will use all its troops, which it has, to attack Germany; if Russia is attacked by Germany, then France should come to the aid of all its military forces, von Schlieffen recalled.  — Upon receiving a report on the mobilization of the forces of the Tripartite Alliance, France and Russia pledged to immediately begin mobilization to force us to fight on two fronts in the event of war.  At the beginning of January ninety-four, the Russian Foreign Minister, Girs, and the French Ambassador in St. Petersburg, Montebello, exchanged letters, and the military convention became binding.
Seeing that the table had been laid, the host invited the guests to sit down and took his high leather upholstered chair with the carved family crest on the back.  Eilenburg noted how the wings of his large hooked nose sniffed over a plate of lobster salad and slices of cold veal served by a servant, and immediately turned his eyes to the tall dark glass of a beautiful Moselle and Rhine wine with the name of “Gran van Chateau Margo”, ” Gran van Shaton Mouton Rothschild”, knowing about the suspiciousness and suspicion of his old, even if not a friend, then like-minded person, and not wanting to give that reason for doubts about his loyalty and sincerity.  However, Count Philip was sure that as long as he was close to the emperor, Baron Holstein’s cruel revengefulness could be avoided.
Waiting for the servant to pull off the silver wires and tear off the gilded foil poured with red wax from the neck of the bottle, the landlord addressed him directly.
— How is our Rise-Kaiser?
Wilhelm II was very mobile, for which he acquired such a nickname — Kaiser-traveler.  He spent most of the year traveling around the country, interfering everywhere and regulating everything that his view would  touch — from soldiers ’uniforms to ladies’ cleavage, to whom he had a particular addiction.  However, he had to constantly prove his masculinity, strength, dexterity and intelligence, not only in Germany, but also in the world.  He was born frail, with a paralyzed left hand, and his father, Friedrich-Wilhelm, died without sitting on the German throne even a hundred days.  And if the exercises of Friedrich-Ludwig Jan, turnfather — the father of gymnastics — helped the young Kaiser to get rid of the physical deficiency, then excessive mobility and even fussiness and dispersion repeatedly raised doubts and ridicule about his mental abilities.
“Yes, he still seeks to embrace the immensity,” said Eilenburg with a smile.  — Tennis, horseback riding, fencing, playing music, staff exercises, garrison reviews, balls and maps, government affairs, concerns about the prosperity of the nation ...
Of course, they, four, considered themselves to be the brain center of the German Empire. Count Eilenburg-Gertefeld — a diplomat, poet, playwright and composer, has been close behind to the emperor for ten years now and knew how to present their decisions to the weekly, on Thursdays, decisions that the Kaiser perceived as the fruit of his own thoughts.  Ernst von Hasse represented the growing German industry in its pursuit of various kinds of raw materials and markets for finished products.  Count Schlieffen — chief of the Great General Staff of the united German Empire — ensured the direct embodiment of their plans in the plans for lightning-fast strikes by regiments, divisions, and armies.  But the real creator of the policy of overwhelming power and apparent superiority of the still young, twenty-five years old and rapidly gaining strength of the empire was Baron Friedrich-August Von Holstein.  While occupying a relatively unnoticeable place of political adviser in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and always remaining in the shadows, he skillfully directed foreign policy in the interests of the steel barons of German industry, in necessary cases without stopping before insidious intrigues with a view to removing from key positions in the state apparatus unable to conform to the spirit of the times.  He was a student and prot;g; of the great Iron Chancellor, but it was through his efforts that Otto Bismarck was eliminated as soon as differences in their views on the role of Germany in Europe and the ways of its elevation were revealed.  War!  The conquest of the main inevitable enemy of Germany, Russia, with blood and iron, is the goal of his policy.  But to successfully wage a war in the east, it was necessary to destroy the enemy in the west — France.  And to solve this problem, it was necessary to neutralize Russia at the time of preparation and conduct of hostilities with France.  Attempts to involve her in a conflict with England in the Middle East, and later in Central Asia did not succeed in their time, but now an interesting situation arises in the Far East, and there not only the United Kingdom but also the long-armed America will be a powerful opponent of Germany’s far-sighted Japan is gaining strength.
It was getting dark.  A servant lit electric lamps in a crystal chandelier above the table, served on the Meissen porcelain dish a purple-red ham with stewed cauliflower and walked around the table, filling the glasses with wine.
Dr. von Hasse took a sip, closed his eyes, portraying admiration and, knowing the measure, continued, “So we are in a vice.  If the Austrians can increase their living space at the cost of the Balkan Peninsula, Italy — at the price of Istria, Dalmatia, Albania and Greece, then we, compressed by France and Russia, need to somehow unclench.  Now we have accumulated forces, the formation of industry, we need cheap raw materials, for nothing supplied by Russia; we need a wide market for the sale of products of our industry.  But the time will come when we have to use our armed hand to unclench the shackles squeezing us and offer the German nation with a decent living space.
Von Schlieffen chewed a piece of gammon, drank some wine, wiped a mustache with a napkin corner, and spoke tapping the edge of the plate with a knife tip. — Last year, to redirect Russia’s attention to the Far East, we were able to impress the Russian government through both to military circles and personally to Emperor Nicholas the idea of the admissibility of the transfer of the Liaodong Peninsula into the hands of the Japanese as a result of the Sino-Chinese war, motivating these considerations by a sharp change in the military-political situation in the Far East stock and generally in the world.  Moreover, we managed to push Russia towards the presentation of an ultimatum to Japan, and to give the king confidence and overcome some of his inertia, we offered to have our squadron in Chinese waters. Eilenburg recalled how, at the beginning of April last year, it was not even a day after the Russian Foreign Ministry sent instructions to the Russian ambassador in Tokyo about a diplomatic demarche, as he put copies of these instructions on Wilhelm’s table, and the emperor ordered the German Pacific Squadron to enter into communication with the Russian squadron for the possible blockade of Japanese ports.  Then, in April, in a letter from William, he congratulated Tsar Nicholas for a better start, laid against Japan, recommended not to stand on ceremony, and to go ahead with annexations for Russia.  Wilhelm even promised to protect the rear of Russia, so that no one could interfere with its actions in the Far East.  Although, what is the hypocrisy, except from Germany, and there was nobody to protect it from.  However, Eilenburg smiled, we did not have to push Russia.  So greedily they rush to the Far East, that it only costs us to play along quietly, and they will continue ...
“We definitely need to push Russia into the war with Japan, which England will support,” Holstein steadily instilled.  — Required.  Push both sides.  Kindle appetites, arm, equip, train, Japanese, in any case, play on the feelings of national pride, use the slightest contradiction, provoke territorial claims, introduce elements of jealousy, resentment, personal, I repeat, the personal interest of those in power, tie them financially to such extent so that they could not even think to part with the invested capital.  There is a difference between responsibility, official debt and mercantile interests.  It is inherent in every person.  People will conscientiously carry out their official functions, defend the interests of the suzerain, the state, but it is possible relatively easily and even painlessly to renounce them, under pressure.  But if there is a personal interest, personal funds are invested, there is a personal and rather large material interest, and then they will stand for it to death.  Therefore, I draw your attention to the capital of Emperor Nicholas and his wife, nee Duchess of Hessen, Darmstadt citizen of our Kaiser, were invested in Chinese affairs.  Large capitals, very large.  However, I will deal with this personally.  By the way, for the successful implementation of the line we are developing, we need capable performers. ” He looked around attentively at his listening.
Chancellor Hohenlohe is indecisive, amorphous, and passive, I know this quite well from the joint service in the Paris embassy.  And the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Marshall is not active enough, does not always share our point of view, tries to pursue his own line, and it is unable us to firmly pursue the necessary foreign policy of Germany. “Bernhard B;low,” recalled Earl Eilenburg. — Yes, I am impressed by B;low.  He, I hope, will be an executive tool in our hands.  You, Fili, insistently inspire the emperor to replace, at first in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then the Chancellor. “According to reports of Baron Rostock, who created a quite extensive, mosaic system of espionage in Russia,” said Count von Schlieffen, “on the eighteenth of May, on the day of the Tsar’s coronation, Finance Minister Witte presented him for approval a draft agreement of the Russian government with the Russian-Chinese Bank on education of the society Sino-Eastern Railway.  In this way, Witte destroyed our attempts to create a joint-stock company, where the main owners of the shares would be personally Emperor Nikolai, Duchess of Hesse, — Schlieffen specifically named the Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna to emphasize her German origin and undoubted spiritual connection with her homeland — and the closest king .  Instead, by agreement, the Russian State Bank redeems the seven hundred shares of the Society of the CER, and the remaining three hundred shares will be placed in private hands, preferably between the French, to increase the attraction of French capital.  On the same day, Vice-Chancellor of the Chinese Empire Li Hungzhang, who was present at the coronation, telegraphed permission from Beijing to sign the Russian-Chinese defense treaty.  Under this agreement, to Russia is granted the right to build a railway from Transbaikalia through Manchuria to Vladivostok; the right to use the road at any time for the transfer of troops and any cargo, and the right to take in case of war any Chinese port.  The defense agreement is directed only against Japan.  On May 22, Li Hungzhang from the Chinese side and Russian Foreign Minister Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky signed this agreement.  But there is an interesting detail.  Finance Minister Witte tricked Li Hungzhang, who did not agree that the concession for the construction of the road belonged to the Russian government.  After all, acquiring seventy percent of the shares, he actually makes the Trans-Manchurian Highway the property of the Ministry of Finance, the Russian government.
— By the way, what happened on the day of the coronation in Moscow?  — with malicious curiosity asked Holstein.
— The coronation took place in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin, and for the celebration of the people took the so-called Khodynska field, which served as a training ground for the troops of the Moscow garrison.  Training shots were conducted on this field; trenches, trenches, wells, bunkers and parapets, and other earthworks were dug in many places.  With the characteristic disorderly behavior of the Russian, without having completely leveled the pits and trenches, they set up stalls, tents and booths in this field, where they were going to give bags to citizens for snacks.  Many people gathered, according to estimates of their newspapers — more than half a million.  They were gathered in the evening, the crush on an area of eight square kilometers was awful, by the morning there was fog, and for some reason a panic broke out.  People rushed across the field, falling into the pits, and trampling on each other.  Up to one and a half thousand people died, up to ten thousand were crippled and wounded.  Responsibility rests with the chief master of the court von der Palen and the Moscow Governor-General of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich.  An investigation is being conducted, which is entrusted to the same Grand Duke.  Consequently, the result is known.
— Von der Palen?  — surprised Holstein.  — The German did not take care of the celebration of the emperor’s coronation?
— Palens moved to Russia more than a hundred years ago, during the time of Empress Catherine II, nee of the Princess of Anhalt-Zerbt, and since then has finally become Russified. However, in Russia there is such an abyss of a poor, hungry, silent, and downtrodden people that they do not stand on ceremony.  Ten million in one direction, ten million in another ... They do not even know how many of them all are.  Like the Chinese.  The same Li Hungzhang, seeing some agitation of the Russian dignitaries, calmly noted that when he was the governor-general of the state capital and he had several tens of thousands of people died of the plague, he did not pay attention to it at all, and certainly did not darken Emperor’s peace is sad news.
— And one more good news for us.  Present at the coronation, the head of the General Staff of France, General Bouadeffre, impressed by the Khodynka  tragedy, pointedly rejected the tsar’s invitation to take part in the pigeon hunt, which could lead to some cooling of the tsar’s sympathy for France.
“The autocratic Russian tsar has no sympathy for the Republicans, and cannot be,” thought Count Eilenberg considered it necessary to clarify.  — There are financial, military and political interests.
“But do not overlook this crack and try to use it on occasion,” Holstein did not allow them to be distracted by barbs.
“While pushing the Russian tsar to go to war with Japan, one should not forget about his own interests in China,” von Hasse worried.  — In Shandong, in particular, large sums have already been invested in the mining industry, in the Yangtze basin we are fighting English trade, in Hubei province we have built a railway linking the three major cities of Wuchang, Wuhan and Hanyang ...
“The envoy Baron Gaiking is now engaged in strengthening our place in China, and the former envoy in Tokyo and Beijing, von Brandt, appointed to Beijing by the director of the German bank, helps him,” Holstein squinted at von Hasse, dissatisfied with his interrupt 
 — Now we need to get down to business with renewed energy and immediately from two directions.  The first is to look for an opportunity to create in the Far East a large private Russian joint-stock company in which the Romanovs and their close associates would invest a lot of money.  With a large amount, expect large dividends.  And they will not wish to part with such money.  The company should be created in China or Korea, — Holstein thought a little and firmly continued, — better in Korea.  This will immediately cause an aggravation of Russian-Japanese relations, and their confrontation with our and God’s help will lead to the goal we need.  Second, it is necessary to push Russia to territorial seizures in China.  And not even in the north, in Manchuria, but in central China.  The capture of the Port Arthur left by the Japanese would be politically advantageous for us.  This will greatly hurt the Japanese national pride, arouse their acute hatred for Russia, and will force them to take revenge.  All this is moral and ethical considerations.  But there are more significant — economic.  Based in Liaodong, Russia is thus blocking China from Japan.  And that they will not allow Russia.  China after the Japanese-Chinese war, victorious for Japan, seems to them a defenseless victim, and they will not forgive Russia, which is seizing the fruits of victory from the hands.  In order to excite the greedy greed of the Russian emperor and push him to more decisive actions, we must carefully plan and seize the Chinese port somewhere near Liaodong.  Moreover, to throw up the idea of annexing the Chinese port of Austria-Hungary or, say, Italy.  A couple of armadillos, to give weight to their claims, they will scrape.  Nicholas II, having heard that even tiny Italy acquired possessions in China, will be in a hurry.  All this is desirable to carry out in two years, not more.
After lunch, Count Eilenburg sat down at the grand piano of Arar, which was taken out of France by the owner of the house, which was in the corner of the hall.  After the suppression of the Commune and the occupation of Paris by German troops, the instrument of even such a famous master could be acquired for a pittance.  Having started to play “Glorify in a wreath of victories” — the Prussian anthem, he turned around and saw that all those present were standing in complete silence.

JUN MEI RETURNS TO BEIJING


then there was a long journey through the countries of Europe, visits to Germany, France, England and the North American United States, and everywhere Jun Mei served Li as an interpreter for days, and at night she was warming up his bed.
From America, the delegation on the steamer through the Great Ocean returned to the Tianjin port closest to the capital of the Celestial Empire, but before going to Beijing, Jun Mei asked for a couple of days in Jing-chou-ting, since it is not far.
She walked around the main hall of the temple with old Heshan Yan, and both of his chapels, lit candles and lit incense, and then put incense candles on the funeral table to the spirit of her son.
Allowing her to grieve for a short time, the old Heshan carried her into his closet and ordered her to tell about everything she had seen and heard on a long journey.

He was leisurely and attentive.
“Speak, girl, speak,” he repeated, occasionally raising eyes dark, covered with heavy wrinkled eyelids. He repeated, occasionally raising his dark eyes covered with heavy wrinkled eyelids.  Everything that you know is very important for the salvation of the Celestial.
“I tried so hard to fulfill your mission, to know and see as much as possible, to penetrate the most secret plans of Empress Cixi and Li Hungzhang, that I became his concubine,” she admitted and wept bitterly.
“And a flower thrown by an indifferent wind into mud, and jasper that has fallen into dust, remain a flower and jasper and do not become dirt and dust,” comforted old Yang, gently and gently stroking her head.
“Live a few days in the annex, stay close to your son, strengthen your soul, take a rest, wake up with your body, cleanse yourself in the prayers of our gods and return to Beijing, to Empress Regent Cixi.  Everything you said is very important.  This helps us accumulate strength and look for a way to save the Celestial Empire from being captured by the barbarians.  You help us learn the plans of the mad rulers and gather strength to repel enemies.  Try to be close to Empress Cixi and Li Hungzhang.  He, as we have known it, will soon be appointed head of Tsungli Yamin, and all relations with the outside world will pass through his hands.
Returning to Beijing, Jun Mei brought the Empress rich gifts and delicious overseas delicacies — canned food and sweets.  The old woman for a long time, with love, greedy, undisguised curiosity and with obvious pleasure, went through foreign  high-heeled shoes, even tried to walk in them, but almost fell down, for which the servant who had supported her was cruelly scolded; giggling, trying on lace panties and bras; wrapped in bright fabrics; carefully examined and, pressing to her ear, listened to numerous gold, silver and steel watches brought from different countries of Europe and America; marveled at the phonograph, singing and talking to different voices; admired rings strung on fingers and rings with precious stones; poked fingers in ointment and ointment; with admiration, forced the maid of honor to smell all the bottles of perfume and colognes; grimacing in front of the mirror, trying on Paris, Berlin, London and New York hats ... Empress had enough joy and fun for almost a week.
She was very pleased with Jun Mei.  Yes and Li Hungzhan pleased her, saying that the secret agreement, according to which Russia pledged to protect the Middle Kingdom from all barbarians, was signed.  She demanded to bring this contract, looked at the French letters for a long time and carefully, and then ordered to take it to the main storehouse in  Tsungli-yamin and store it especially carefully.
Now the agreement concluded in Moscow should be discussed in the Supreme Imperial Council, and then approved by the emperor.
The silver bell rang three times, fragrant smoke from ancient bronze smoking rooms ascended to the sky, flutes played and flute at the lips of the musicians dressed in green and blue robes.  Eunuchs threw open heavy precious ebony doors, and Empress Cixi stepped to the throne.  Guansuy, as usual, felt unwell and asked the empress to deal with state affairs in his absence.
Down on the floor in front of the throne, kneeling high dignitaries stood in multi-colored brocade robes, adorned with woven gold hieroglyphs denoting wisdom, longevity, honor, loyalty — liars, thieves and hypocrites.
Ahead of everyone in a purple dressing gown with the image of a crane, a red belt with a jade and ruby buckle and ruby balls on a hat, stood Li Hungzhang swollen with arrogance from the consciousness of the empress’s well-executed commission and out-of-reach superiority over those Gun, Qing and Duan who looked at him with envy, hatred and passionate desire to set. Jun Lu looked preoccupied, and Yuan Shikai, after a crushing defeat in Korea suddenly elevated, just puffed up with complacency; he did not take part in intrigues, so far, although it was noticeable how flattering he clings to the triumphant — Li Hungzhang.
“Report,” the empress waved her hand.
- Nutsay Li Hungzhang signed on behalf of Grace, Happy, most importantly, protect, healthy, thoughtful, clear, calm, stately, loyal, long-standing, revered, the Most High, the Wise, Sublime, Radiant Empress Celestial Empire defensive alliance with Russia — proudly, with a sign of man who won a tremendous victory, he pronounced. “Hao, hao,” the Empress nodded, “we know that.”  And what else? — Also, for the gift from Russia of eight million lans a concession was signed for the construction of a railway from Transbaikalia to Vladivostok through our Manchuria.  The concession is concluded for eighty years, after which the road will go free to the possession of the Celestial Empire.  Is free!  — He triumphantly looked jealously listening to his dignitaries. 
 — although, out of caution, Nutsai Li Hungzhang in the concession contract stipulated that after thirty-six years we can proceed to the redemption of the railway.  The Russians pledged to pay another five million lans to the Empress Government on the opening day of the movement on the way.
— What participation in the management of the construction and operation of the railway will we take?
— Nutsai Li Hungzhang achieved that the Chairman of the Board of the Society of Chinese Eastern Railway, in Russian, it is called, will be the representative of the government of the Empress.
But here the Grand Duke Duan intervened, fiercely hated the upstart Chinese Li Hungzhang.
— Nutsay Duan dare to ask — who will conduct the survey of the road, who will be the track engineers, whom we do not even have, where will the supervisors, the roadbed construction specialists, bridges, stations, water pumps, depots and many other structures come from?
And old Li Hungzhang had to answer all these questions: Russians, Russians, Russians ...
— Nutsay Duan knows what is the construction of a railway, at least by the example of the British and German in South China.  Building a railroad means taking a huge strip of land along the road, and is completely free; caused by unrest among the local population; flooding of the road with many arrogant and arrogant white devils; the emergence of foreign troops and police to protect them; exclusion of the right of way from our jurisdiction and the establishment of laws of the state of redheads there.  That is, the real dismemberment of the Middle State, the seizure of our territory with our own permission.  They will use the labour of our population, rob the riches of our bowels, set their own laws, introduce their troops, deceive and rob the people ... And for what?
“But the Russians pledged to defend us for all of this from all other barbarians,” Li Hungzhang exclaimed, offended that his diplomatic victory was not appreciated, but on the contrary, it was subjected to merciless criticism.
“Oh, defend,” Jun Lu, who was still silent, could not stand it. 
They will not be able to pull up their armies here, too far.  In addition, if it succeeds, it will be the most terrible thing that you can think of.  Voluntary occupation — what a shame the day of the Celestial Empire!  If we find their troops on our territory, we will not be in power in own lands, which will be deprived of the taxes collected, and the people will become impudent and disobedient ... He listed all the conceivable and inconceivable troubles that awaited the Middle Kingdom from the diplomatic success of Li Hungzhang, and Jun Mei saw that the empress was reassured that, even with the help of Russian soldiers, she was protected, she would not have to run away and hide from the Japanese or any other barbarians. Then the angry muttering of the dignitaries and the shreds of the Empress’s thoughts caught by her merged into a smooth, soothing buzz of the thick with the brown abdomen of the hairy bumblebee, the image of their twitching figures misty as if she looked through the sweaty glass, trembling, smoothly draped, and it was in a smoke, and the rose was melted.  Jun Mei tightened her hand on the Empress’s chair, gave them a hand and quickly rushed to her cute, cheerful, and fluffy, with smooth white teeth, shiny curious eyes, strong foxes and smooth red hair fox. They are extremely missed each other, and it is time for classes.  Now Jun Mei taught her son smells and tastes.  Autumn, the time of harvest, and they enjoyed the fruits of the earth from northern Manchuria to southern Yunnan and from Shandong in the east to Tibet in the west.
Besides, she needed to retell everything she saw and heard to the old wise Heshan Yan.  He is waiting for her news, he will listen to her attentively, and he asks to describe in detail everything she reads in the thoughts of the empress, hears from the lips of dignitaries, sees on their faces, and learns from gossip and gossip of palace servants.  Insightful Heshan Yan sees all the dangers of mindless and risky decisions made by these evil spiders, called the Supreme Imperial Council, and only he knows how to resist them.
Awful troubles wait
mired in the depths of debauchery.
How many people do not cheat
payback always comes.  *

*.  Dispelled Enchantment, p. 396. Trans.  I. Smirnova.

ANDREY MEDNIKOV. IN THE FIELD OF ANFELTS, ON GOLD MINING, ON CONSTRUCTION OF DRY DOCK

Two days Andrei Melnikov walked in frenzy, He was afraid. A police officer came from Nikolsk, spent days wandering around the grove, sniffing out, looking out, and in the evenings, he summoned of the workers one by one and spent a long time talking to the empty Kirillovich’s house. Turn came to Andrew.The bailiff was polite,
Sit down and tell. What? - Decided to stand to death Andrew. - Everything from the beginning. - When was born, or what?
This is useful for the protocol. “At he master’s metric,” Andrei frowningly averted his eyes.
Where did the Bryan go? - Suddenly asked the bailiff.
He was taken by the police, and then to the prison on Korean street about the past year, the soldiers.
Sly, you know where. Your tattered boot covers with tattered soles leave a noticeable mark. Now I will show you a plaster cast from a grove, and then admire your prints, - the bailiff pulled out from under the table a dirty-white stone with rods sticking out of it and began to poke it under Andrei’s nose.
What is it? - Andrei recoiled. “I’ve never seen anything like it.
“Let’s go to the courtyard,” the bailiff firmly grabbed Andrew by the sleeve and pulled him to the door. Outside the hut, there was a plank for rubbed on feets, scraping off dirt, so as not to haul into the house, the police officer pointed to a damp, greasy ground.
Step foot! Andrew stepped. - Yes, stronger, - shouted the bailiff. Andrew, not understanding what he wants from him, leaned on his leg with all his weight. » Get away,” the bailiff commanded, crouched over the track and looked it over carefully. “Ah, bastard,” he suddenly cursed, “sly, you bastard. You go right!  Andrei boots were thin and thin, leaking and rolling up, causing him a lot of trouble, and just yesterday, he stuffed new thick leather onto old soles. And fit the horseshoes, than was very proud. This day they did not let him down. Glancing at the trail of his right foot, the bailiff was furious. » Well, shoot out them,” he said. » There is no such law,” Andrei disobeyed, “to walk barefoot.” Or will you change? - He nodded to the brilliant boots of the bailiff, polished, dull, chrome tops accordion. Officer already understood the futility of his demand and decided to try Andrew from the other side. - Where did you go that night?
In what? » The second before last,” the bailiff mocked him. » Slept I because was tired, tired.”- No, went, went, people saw. I do not know..., because of need, it can. The failure of the shoe prints undermined the bailiff’s confidence in the built version, and the information obtained by ingenious inquiries of the men who were afraid of the power were, apparently, vague and foggy, so he waved his hand – Get away!
Andrey was glad to that. However, the next day he was kicked out of the railroad. The benefit of the Koreans and the Chinese on the road hired a lot. And the money that time to pay was found. Andrey was upset, but was delighted. Away from sin. Immediately he went to Nikolsk and bought an ox. Quite frozen, true, but the Little Russian man advised, take it, he said, will eat fresh grass, bones, skin, and will be strong. So, proud of the buy, he entered Ivanovka.
Last year, the Melnikovs did not do what they tried to – the half land was rented to the Korean, and the house itself was built, they were engaged in a garden, a green garden, an apiary, in a word, they got off in a fright. Yes, and some money saved a little, sold the barley in the commissariat. They bought an ox, and the second Andrew brought, they can plow again, which they immediately did. However, Andrew, having lived in a new hut for a week, he gathered in the city.
- Badly, I got used to something there. I’ll go to the city to look for a job,” he explained to his father-mother. And he went to Vladivostok. With work in the city was bad. Everyone was happy to use cheap yellow labour, and Andrei had no speciality. He stumbled around the city, asked the work, but to no avail. Valet, however, was offered a tavern, but Andrei was haunted by the habits of outwardly pleasing and impudent young men, and he decided that he would never do that way. Then he heard that the local merchant Jacob Lazarevich Semenov was picking up a team for sea cabbage collect, and leaned toward him. Semenov and his companion Dembe organized cabbage fishing, in past years they did well, so they expanded their business. Teams recruited, for the most part Korean, about thirty or forty people, but five or six Russians are obligatory. Although the Koreans will never deceive and they always agree with the payment, but on the Russians, out of habit, there is more hope. His gangs Semenov delivered around the coast of Primorye, and on Sakhalin, cabbage was a lot. But Andrew was lucky, not far sent, in the Strelok Bay. The workers built their own sheds, branches on the spruce-fir- fir trees bed, laid it up with a tarpaulin, so they settled down. Where in shallow water, where Koreans dived under the water with sickles, and on the shore long anfeltia leaves were laid on the frames to dry. Then they packed it in tight bales and sent it to the city with scows, and from there it went to China and Japan. The work was hard, quite Andrei became skinny and sun-roasted. But Semenov paid well, twice as much as Andrew earned on the construction of the road. By the end of October, when it was already quite cold, they got into the city. Semenov gave the money, but was satisfied with Andrew, calling for the next year to work at the same place. For the winter, he had no work for Andrei. He wandered around the city; again, he poked around, but without much effort. Missed the house. Then he went to “Kunst and Albers” shop to the Maltsev ravine, bought presents for brothers, a colorful shawl for mothers, good shoes for father, and for himself a Tula harmonica, girls in Ivanovka to lure, and carried all the goods to Matrosskaya slobodka, whose streets behind the Gaydamakovsky ravine from the hill to Sea hospital at the bay rolled down, and where he housing the night at the woman Avdotya. Tomorrow in the morning, he decided to go home, and in the evening with a friend at the cabbage field, he went to drink beer in the tavern “Petersburg” shabby, in the same place, in Matrosskaya Slobodka. Without much wish, Andrew agreed to go to the pub. And there is a smoke there, and the air is stale, from what the next day the headache, and longing, and obscenely, and fights endlessly flash, it is necessary to appease the neighbors. But you cannot refuse to comrade. Not to face, not a man come out. They arrived early, until the workers from the mechanical workshops and servicemen from the naval crew flooded in, took a comfortable corner, behind a focus ramified in the tub, it was more peaceful here, and ordered a dozen beers. They drank the first mug in one gulp, greedily, did not sit for long, listening to bliss inside themselves, chewed on a sandwich with keta caviar and reached for the second. Then Andrew felt the view from a different angle, also with focus blocked. He gulped half of a mug dissatisfied, interfered in fact, put the mug on the table and peered into the next corner. And from there, Buyan bared his teeth through the beard. That was a joy. And they pounded each other with their fists on the chest, and, embracing, tucked on their backs, and kissed even from the fullness of their feelings. Matvey was also with a friend. They gathered with their goods at one table, “booze”, which was served in Matrosskaya Slobodka, told to bring and the feast continued. Matvey Buyan began to ask Andrew about life and life, recalled old comrades. “Whoever wandered off, only a little remained on the iron way,” answered Andrei, and told how the summer worked on the harvesting of seaweed to merchant Semenov.
And how are you doing? He asked carefully. Matvey was already drunk, his tongue was unleashed, but he was still trying to control himself. He kept back a little, let the fog in, and then took it out of his jacket pocket and put a large round translucent stone with a dark sprig in the middle on the table. - Here, admire! Andrew took the stone, he seemed heavy to him. And the sprig was yellow and glittered with gold.
Yes, yes, - seeing Andrei surprised, nodded Matvey, - Gold!
So you went to the prospectors? » How to say,” Matvey Buyan hesitated. - Summer I worked for the Old Believers in Osinovka. Serious men, in the work of the descent do not give, but they paid well. They live hard, pampering is not allowed. However, someone was envied by the good, they added to the village of Little Russia-settlers. There were men among the Little Russians and the right people, but there were also many foolish little men. For every bit of shouting, they are fighting for fights; they will be interested to rob someone else’s. The whole order was torn down. The bailiff began to visit, I had to hide. Yes and the Old Believers are fed up with this pendulum, they moved to Petropavlovka on Daubihe River. Andrei knew Osinovka, it was not far from Ivanovka, since the Old Believers settled there for a long time. - And who am I to them? - continued Matvey, - the employee hired. And I had to go on all four sides. After all, there is nowhere to go. In Nikolsk, you will not hide yourself – everything is visible. The blessing of a friend met, the year together the calluses beat in hard labour. And before that, he had cut coal on Sokolin Island, had seen a lot. Sakhalin people called Sokolin Island, a terrible place. In this comrade, Andrew recognized Matthew’s companion after his escape from hard labour and the flogging of Kirillovich-foreman. - Here he this pebble and showed me. Comrade Matthew, also in a strong drunk, smiled kindly, and tried to take away and conjugate the pebble.
The place, he says, knows where the gold is found. And a stone from there. Calling for the future summer in the gold prospectors. And Comrade Matthew, Korzh, nicknamed, in a stranded tongue, but very excitedly, began to whisper mysteriously about the riches in the mountainous taiga rivers of the South Ussuri region lurking. He told about his friends, who had fabulously grown rich over the summer or two, about nuggets, hail spilling from taiga moss, about golden sand in river sand banks, about pits, from which gold was thrown with shovels.
“Something you don’t look like a rich man in particular,” Andrei doubted. - And saw it? - led Korzh decisive argument, and rolled down the river quartz pebbles on the table. A sprig of gold seemed impressive. Then to them four beauties, whores taverns tried to settle down, smelled, apparently, that money, though a little, is found among men.
 Matvey barked at them, scatter, he say, they were offended, answered with a foul language, quite professionally. No wonder they served Sailor’s streets. Send away and not far away, settled over the table. They departed and not far away, settled down over the table, ordered a carafe of Morse, waited for customers to pay.
They sat for a long time in the tavern, was drunk, but agreed on Ascension to meet at the Nikolsk Church. And broke up after midnight.
You will go? - Andrei asked his friend in the morning. » No,” he answered, “I already heard about gold prospectors, and I saw a lot of them.” But the cabbage case will be more reliable
 Andrei spent the winter at home helping his father around the house, went hunting, and in the spring, his soul darted up. He fastened, fastened, followed the Sakkov plow, still like father’s pride, the most valuable purchase last year, and  in spring he went to Ascension in Nikolsk. He went to church, crossed his forehead, wandered through the bazaar and returned to the cathedral. Before the fence, an unfamiliar person made way for him. - Are you Matvey’s friend, Andryukha Melnikov?- Yes, - Andrew nodded, - agreed to meet ...“Follow me,” the guy winked, and they met in the corner of the bazaar, met each other, squeezed their hands, patted their shoulders, but for some reason felt uncomfortable, insecurity. The six of them, having bought at the blacksmith’s shop crowbars, axes, sledgehammers, pickaxes and shovels, stocking up with bread, salt and grits, tying all the belongings into knapsacks and taking their tools on their shoulders, they followed Korzh. One of the guys behind him had a hunting rifle hanging. They walked through the taiga, avoiding roads and even paths, with overnight stays. Korzh explained that the gold-bearing place lies on the Tashekhez, the left tributary of the Siyanhe, at the day of the walk from Atamanovsky. But local Cossacks should be feared. People, how saying, they are bestial, with white swans and blue pheasants, Koreans and Chinese, ginseng and Spirit carriers, by the color of the clothes is so nicknamed, they constantly hunt, no matter how their gold is coveted. Therefore, must be careful. In four days, having gone badly, they came to the place sought. A transparent small river quickly ran, the forest was green with fresh foliage, the soft grass of the eye pleased. Having thrown their belongings on a glade hidden from prying eyes, they immediately rushed to explore the sand and sands of the pebbles. Only Korzh and Matvey were in no hurry, as experienced people. » Soon, gold is not being given,” Korzh explained, “to sweat him, you will have to search.” Korzh knocked out a tray with an ax from a pile of woods, cradled it affectionately, and while they were building two huts, a campfire was and put on handles of a shovel, kayles and sledgehammers. The next day, Korzh ordered everyone to dig holes in the sandy spit, the pits, he explained importantly. In addition, he walked with a cradle from the pit to the pit; spit threw sand at it from different depths, and ran to the river. There he gently washed the sand with water, leaving very little on the bottom. He dried it in the sun on a piece of paper, agitated it with a chip and carefully examined it, whispering something under his breath. Surely, the prospectors laughed, looking at him hopefully. Korzh showed them small grains of gold, but was not pleased, crooked, as if from a toothache. » I have no experience,” he complained, “I saw how others were doing, and  found a nude with a golden sprig here last summer, when  was returning from Manchuria, buried from people, just like there was a fugitive convict wanted. For a week, they had been tormented here, and then Korzh ordered the sandpits to be thrown with sand and to move higher up the river. Again, their hopes were empty. However, in third place, Korzh remained satisfied, bloomed with his wrinkles, his teeth rotten, open on the sun. He showed a pinch of dark gold and ordered to dig deep holes. They reached the root rock and found the loose quartz veins with fine gold dust. However, the branches of gold came across small ones.  They broke down the rock with scraps and gave locks, dragged with willow baskets to their clearing and, having shifted firewood, annealed it. Afterwards, it easily crumbled with sledgehammers and Korzh personally, trusting only occasionally, washed the rock with care. The hole was dug wide – five fathoms on the side, and deep – two height. They pawed their hands into blood until they came up with the idea of making fires and burning rocks. Work went a little easier. The lumpy gold Korzh hid somewhere in a secret place. » Out of sin,” he said, “anything can happen, and your friend and comrade can covet for good,” and his lips were pressed sorrowfully, recalling something far away. But they hoped for him. Therefore, they were carried away by their efforts, that they lost all caution. And they thumped loudly with sledgehammers, and there was smoke in their camp over the camp, even in Atamanovka they ran for bread, cereal and lard occasionally, trying to play nice games with the local girls.
Already in late August, in the middle of the day, the Cossacks surrounded their camp. Fierce faces, beards on the chest as shovels, with dilapidated guns - berdans, horses, pounded into the hole and let us ask. Who are why and where? They tried to explain to them that they are Russian, Orthodox, peaceful people, they do not cause any harm to the Cossacks, they are trying to find gold, but for now there is no use.
Do you have an application for diligence from the police? - The senior with ribbons sternly asked out .It was clear that they were voluntary gold prospectors, without permission. The Cossacks conducted a search of the camp, searched everyone, although apart from the tattered pants and their shirts, there was nothing on them, but everything was empty, they did not find anything. Then they ordered to get the hell out.
Another time we will kill out everybody, - promised. The documents were asked, Matthew and the Korg already covered with sweat, yes, pleaded that the at house in Nichols left, which don’t drag into the forest, shaggy bear, can’t to show ... Two guys Cossacks recognized for Nicholask that it was, and the rest of the word believe. In good mood were, apparently, or did not want with such a jerk to tie in vain, and then to embarrass. Young Cossack them on the way to Nikolsk two hours accompanied, then by berdan shook under his head and galloped back. Tired, suppose…
Matvey and Korzh for the gold taiga along immediately rushed, and they told Andrei and the lads to wait at the bazaar at Nikolsk. And for sure, three days later they returned, satisfied that not all was lost, they would have money for the winter, and they would not have to put their teeth on the shelf. Andrei met the father in the bazaar with Athanas, they came to sell honey and agree with the commissariat. The father was mournful to the sight of Andrew the wanderer and asked to return home. It will be safer to peasantry on earth, but the son has become completely wild, if there are not enough bags on his shoulder, it is embarrassing for people will say what? However, in Vladivostok, all six went, Gold Korzh knew whom to sell. He sold for three hundred and another place gold bearing for a hundred rubles to sell contrived. They divided them by sixty, and left to themselves and Matthew Korzh by eighty, as chiefs. September passed, it would be necessary to return to Ivanovka, but Andrey managed to get a job on building a dock. The dry dock was laid in Vladivostok in May of the year before last, ninety-one, to repair the ships of the Siberian military flotilla, while the ships went to Japan and Hong Kong. The first day or two at work, Andrei felt insecure, but soon almost everything was familiar and familiar to him. Chief and the master had no complaints about him: he did everything quickly and sensibly. But the rockwork soon ended, and the lining of the dock began with stone blocks, pouring them with concrete and cement, the construction of a pumping station, and the installation of a bataport ... So Andrei mastered the specialties of the stonecutter and the bricklayer.
Three years passed and now in the beginning of October ninety-seven, a week after the Protection of the Most Holy, in the morning around the dock its builders sat down on sod-covered slopes, and down below the dock, the naval authorities gathered, companies from ships of the Pacific Squadron, a noble public, women with bouquets of bright asters and dahlias, the prayer began. The priest of the Assumption Cathedral talked about the situation, walked around the dock with the clergy, waving the censer, then the music of the national anthem began to play, the steam engine whistled, filling the dock with sea water, the bataport rose and moved away, and at the dock it was important and slow, adorned with all the colours of the coloring board, with the crew built along the sides and screaming”“Hurray” roll, waves, entered the cruiser Dmitry Donskoy. Then Andrei and his comrades celebrated this event on the lawn in the Gaydamak ravine, drank and, with a feeling of joy and emptiness, exactly squeezed as a lemon, went home. The joy was from the huge work successfully accomplished, and the emptiness from the uncertainty that was languishing ahead.
The work was done, and he again remained without work.
IVAN IVASHNIKOV AT KOREA

And the service began ensign Ivashnikov in the place of guard officer, unexpectedly troublesome. He lay the drill sessions, study manuals, literature, control over the cleaning of weapons, inspection of the guard, ration formulation and control for boiler contentment, in short, who served knows. His relationship with two other officers guards the mission first, did not work, but than everything fell into its place. Military staff, families of officers who have completed the preference of Moscow and St. Petersburg military schools, they took the appearance of the ensign out of the ordinary with a pinch of irony, if not mockery. Lieutenant Korn, bon Vivian and womanizer, he is actually in the common room, where was going almost all the male and female population of the mission, holding a glass of wine and glancing askance at Ivasnikov, allowed myself to sing,
I hate civilians
I call them spakami,
And even my grandmother
hit them in the face with shoes.
But I love the military,
they are right; enough
that even my grandmother
went willingly to the soldiers.


Ivashnikov then still not psychologically matured in his officer rank, it is not morally mature, or something, and was confused about what to do — skip past the ears or duel? Go to give face punch? However, no, anything but to violate accepted among the aborigines of the Russian colony the rules of decency, he would not have dared. But then, all those present stared at him, what will be the reaction?
— Well, let’s compare our ability to martial the case is mocking said Ivashnikov, What they taught you                    a governess and tutor in the military school, and what I learned, being children riding on horseback and
at five years old shooting from Berdan.
Ferra et cogni* — he added, hinting that it is not against the match.
— Infant terrible ** — Lieutenant Korn was found with anguish, not expecting such agility from a young warrant officer.
— Bonn mine au manvais jeu *** — summarized Mr. Pokotilov who was present here.
Six months later, Ivashnikov had to rescue Korn, and at that time, he had the look of a wet chicken.

Soon, Ensign Ivashnikov and a group of soldiers were sent to Chemulpo to receive a batch of Mosin three-line rifles for the Russian mission that arrived on the steamer of the Voluntary Fleet.  There was rearmament of the army, and they, too, were eager to change long, heavy, single-shot berdans for convenient five-charge rifles.
The “Russia” walked through Shanghai, and among the people who met it at the birth, Ivashnikov noticed Yuli Ivanovich Briner.  A tall thin man with a military bearing, a representative elderly man, followed a Chinese man carrying two expensive, good-skinned, bulky suitcases; Briner stepped toward him, they patted each other on the shoulders and spoke German.  Ivashnikov only heard that they inquired about the health of their spouse — Natalia Iosifovna and Frau Zlza and their children.
“Mollendorf,” Tereshin, the farm manager of the mission who was standing next to him, nodded in the direction of the newcomer.  — This is he replaced at the post financial adviser to the king and the head of the customs office of the Englishman Brown.  Obviously, he came to the aid of Briner forcing out the concession.  The Germans, like the Jews, are not for us, the Russ, as an example — they are not lazy to help each other.
— So is Briner Russian?  — With done na;ve Ivashnikov asked.
— according to the passport.  Mimicry.  It’s easier to cash in, newspapers won’t cry out that foreigners are plundering ...
Having received long dark green heavy boxes with rifles, by the end of the next day Ivashnikov returned to Seoul in a mission.  His duties doubled — they warmed the spindle oil, removed the conservation, studied the material part, instructions and instructions, then classes with the lower ranks, training firing ...
* Sword and fire / Latin.
** Horrible child / Franz. /
*** A good mine when a bad game / Franz./


Ivashnikov told Lieutenant Minaev about the arrival of Mollendorf and a warm meeting with Mr. Briner.  Oleg Nikolayevich obviously became thoughtful.
“Although I never saw Mollendorf, and he came to Beijing when I was there, but I was not a walker to the Germans, I didn’t like their arrogance, but I had heard enough about him.  Bright figure.  After graduating from Berlin University, he arrived in China as a student of the German embassy, quickly learned the language and was appointed consul in Tianjin.  Then the Germans were looking for any loophole to penetrate, to the peak of the British and French, in mainland China.  In Tianjin, Mollendorf was able to charm Li Hunzhang, then the vice-king of the Zhili province, and entered his service as secretary.  We must pay tribute to him — first he took care of re-equipping the local garrison with German weapons and training it with German instructors.  In the eighty-second year, Li Hunzhang, worried about the onslaught of the Japanese in Korea, sent von Mollendorf there to seize the finances of this kingdom.  King Kojong appointed him head of customs, which, by the way, was not yet there and which he had to create.  As head of the customs service, Mollendorf talked a lot with foreigners who brazenly climbed into the country, so Kojong appointed him a year later and head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  At this time, the British tried to lay their hands on Korea and offered Mollendorf to get out.  Then Mollendorf decided to push the British with us, and through one Russian engineer who was at that time in Korea, informed the Russian envoy in Tokyo that the Korean king wanted to give his country under the auspices and protection of the White Tzar.  Mr. Speyer, then secretary of the Russian Embassy in Tokyo, immediately arrived in Seoul, where he was solemnly met, but during a personal audience, King Kojong did not express his intention directly, and Speyer was not authorized to conduct such negotiations, and even Mollendorf’s words can be interpreted in two ways. Using the status of Vice President of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea, Mollendorf asked to send Russian military instructors here, but this clearly smelled of conflict with Japan and Great Britain, and this petition was rejected by Petersburg.  At the same time, diplomatic relations between Russia and Korea were established, and a full state adviser, Karl Ivanovich Weber, who had previously served as a consul in Tianjin and knew Mollendorf, was appointed envoy here.  The envoy handed Mollendorf the sign of the Order of St. Anne of the 2nd degree granted by the sovereign-emperor, but recommended refraining from the proposal of the German to set up a protectorate over Korea.  In the eighty-fifth year, the British were able to insist on replacing Mollendorf with the current customs commissioner, Brown, who had to retire to China.  But he is well aware of all Far Eastern affairs and came, of course, not in vain.  Let us see what he will do closely here.  This will clarify the intentions of Germany.  I do not know if he is still listed as the German Foreign Ministry, since time has passed enough, but he, of course, does not lose contact with it.

Oleg Nikolayevich led a secular life — he quickly acquired a wide circle of acquaintances, often visited neighboring foreign missions, invited them to his place, and often went to visit familiar foreign officers, and the local, Korean nobility enjoyed his attention.  The women favored him.
After another couple of weeks, Ivashnikov sighed a bit more freely: he chose the necessary least, greatest, like God, out of reach, but he felt satisfaction from the work done and the solid knowledge of his soldiers.  It was then that the lieutenant Minaev finally turned to him.
— The opinion about you in the mission was quite good, Ivan Ivanovich.  Diligent, commanding abilities are felt, even though you are young.  But with this negative quality in the eyes of the elders, we are parting very soon, imperceptibly and, alas, forever.  But to the point.  Mr Pokotilov, in a conversation with Mollendorf, found out that he was struck by the size of Brown’s thefts.  Of course, Mollendorf assures, gesheft has always existed and gold dust itself sticks to fingers, but Brown’s appetites exceed permissible limits.  Instead of buxom Rachel, to put it in our Korn’s freestyle language, a flat Leah settles in the treasury.  Therefore, Mr. Pokotilov asked unofficially to check, it is possible that the difference between customs duties and state revenues from customs.  I made one useful acquaintance with the customs officer in Chemulpo.  Get ready; tomorrow we will go to visit him on the holiday of chrysanthemums.  Dress uniform there will be women.
Kim Sungari, head of customs at Chemulpo, fully justified his last name. Golden teeth, golden rings on plump fingers overgrown with black hair, golden clocks on a thick golden chain across a thick belly, he beamed with gold, stupidity and complacency. His wife was a match for him. But the daughter is not. She was clearly ashamed of her parents, swollen in fat and gold, and the ostentatious luxury of their home against the background of the blatant poverty of the surrounding shacks, and hated them – foreigners, in many who had attacked her impoverished homeland, and with difficulty played the role of a hospitable hostess. Ivashnikov liked she terribly – both with a thin figure, and straight, blue-shiny black hair, and flexible graceful gestures of hands and, most importantly, with a fiery, undisguised hatred in deep black slanting eyes; He liked she so much that he with great difficulty kept himself so as not to pull her by the pigtail, which he would surely offend to tears ]In the spacious courtyard built according to the Korean custom, the sign ; of the house, dimly lit by several Chinese lanterns, was laid a long table on which, alternating with white and yellow chrysanthemums, stood assorted bottles of beverages from all over the world. Richly fed from the post. Oleg Nikolayevich said quite loudly with a fair amount of sarcasm, confident that no one speaks Russian here. There were a lot of people – local merchants and representatives of foreign trading firms who had recently filled Korea, captains of merchant ships stationed in the harbour, Japanese, American, French and British officers from warships, gray irons frozen in Chemulpo Bay, local nobility and even a couple of Chinese mandarins in robes with a picture of a heron and a duck and colorful balls on the caps. And the hubbing stood corresponding – laryngeal-shrill-melodious. The translator of our mission, Yon Pan-sa, introduced Ivashnikov to the owner of the house, then the misses, who had to kiss her hand, and the younger miss. His thoughts it was, to kiss her hand, but she pulled her hand back, making a prettier scornful grimace. Later, by the end of the evening, Ivashnikov managed to chat with her a bit. She made a compliment to his Korean, though not entirely sincerely, with a fair amount of irony, and he was surprised that she was very lively, not at all difficult to choose words, she spoke in English. By his youth, alas, his age betrayed the boyish face, and by the rank of a little, Ivashnikov did not take part in conversations with respectable gentlemen who gathered in groups of three to five people, but Oleg Nikolayevich, in an excellent civilian suit, felt like the fish in the water, and having already a wide circle of acquaintances, he spoke animatedly, then frowned thoughtfully in many, as Ivashnikov noted, companies. He himself joined the group of young people who were discussing new fashions, qualities of different brands of champagne and even the merits of oriental beauties. The little host was in the center of the group, accepted the compliments coldly, with visible indifference, almost did not take part in the general conversation, and kept her eye on the solid guests dressed in black tuxedos, with glasses in their hands, like black dung flies clustered in honey droplets. Apparently, she came up with a similar comparison, because she briefly, without a spark of fun, laughed and said, “Like a flock of black crows at the dead body of a deer. She was misunderstood, and she explained, these men came together, by calling pull my Korea apart, causing widespread confusion. The group around them somehow quickly and imperceptibly melted away, and Ivashnikov tried to transfer the conversation to a neutral topic. She listened to him inattentively, continued to think about her, and then put a finger to her lips, asking him to silence.
Listen, she said, and Ivashnikov listened. Not far from one of the fanz who clung to the rock, there were sounds of music and quiet singing. “This is Tuna — our flute, and this is a boogie — a drum.” The song is called Sin-Zan-Tian-Chuk and it is impossible to translate it into your languages. This is a song about my poor homeland, about an oppressed people and a bleak future. Poor people, powerless and illiterate, and not knowing, composed the song the way out. But in Korea there are still honest and courageous people ..., - and she, fearing that she had said too much, was silent. Ivashnikov understood the truth of her words, he was inwardly in agreement with her, but it was also a shame that she counted him among this gang of robbers. “I know a little about the history of Korea, especially in the course of recent events, but agree that your rulers are not able to rule the people, cannot offer people with work and food, sell the country and, like the queen who died tragically, consider foreigners guilty for their troubles.
“I know,” Kim Jin-ho, agreed bitterly, “we are a small people, we have terrible and greedy neighbors – the Chinese and the Japanese, who constantly suck blood from us, use cheap products to crush our weak handicraft industry, the economy. We have a weak, weak-willed king. Yesterday he signed an agreement on granting a concession to the Russian merchant, - this word she uttered in Russian, - to Briner; sold him a huge mountain forest country in the north, near the border with China. Prior to this, the king granted the right to foreigners to build railways, the Japanese are already building their plants in Fuzan and Mokpo. The Japanese are building, she sadly repeated, the Koreans are building, the Koreans are doing all the hard work, and foreigners are cashing in on their labour. They get richer, and we get poorer. My country has become very poor.
Ivashnikov understood that she was familiar with the basics of political economy and, apparently, had like-minded people.
“Jin-ho,” he touched her by the elbow, “the rich foreigners, like all the robbers in the world, grab what is badly lying.  - Look, look, did you see a Korean, so dazzling in gold, like your parents?
My dad works a lot, he often does not sleep at night, and he helps to give the country with cheap rice and fabric. Customs officers do not sit idle: the port works – people work, they have money, food, clothes …
“Evil tongues say,” Ivashnikov was angry at her naivety, “that after the war, under Brown, there are more ships coming to Chemulpo, more cargo passes through the port, and less money goes to the treasury than at Mollendorf. “Dad, no, he’s honest and kind ...,” she flushed with a thick blush and tears appeared in her eyes.
Good, yes, for yourself and for you. And how many beggars in the country and how many people are fleeing from hunger from Korea to Russia. There are thousands of them in Vladivostok, but tens of thousands work on the construction of the railway, I saw …
Not true,” she protested pleadingly.
You know better than me that this is true. Want evidence? Or afraid of them? And why should you, a little girl, know a lot? Fed, watered, clothed and shoes. Still, I can find out the figures of treasury income from customs during the years of work of Mollendorf, and you – during the time of Brown, well, at least in the port of Chemulpo. And compare. Do you agree?
Ivashnikov watched with pity as her entire childish face reflected the struggle that was taking place in her soul. And the wish to prove to him that his words – a lie, and the consciousness that he is right, and childish stubbornness, and self-oppressive wish to know the truth, the depth of the fall of her father and herself. Then she decided,
“Well, I will find out how much money goes to the treasury from Chemulpo customs.”
On the way from Chemulpo to Seoul, Ivashnikov told Oleg Nikolayevich about his conversation with Kim Jin-Ho and asked what success Briner had achieved.
- Mollendorf helped Briner swindle the local king. They told him about the unprecedented prosperity of Korea, the flow of gold from deforestation in the basins of the Tumen and Yalu rivers. But seriously, Briner concluded a concession to develop forests in the basins of the Tumen River, which flows into the Japan Sea, for one year, and the Yalu River, which flows into the Yellow Sea, for a period of five years, and on the island Dazhlet in the Japan Sea. But according to the terms of the agreement, Briner can sell the concession in a named time to any trustworthy person. Under the concession, Korea will receive a quarter of the company’s income. The agreement is designed so that we have the right to keep our military units there and to erect buildings. Briner hopes to get rich on the concessions, he boasts that at relatively low costs he will have an abundant ripe forest and almost free labour – there are many Koreans and they are extremely unpretentious. But it seems to me that large sharks are hiding behind merchant Briner. From fragments of conversations in the mission lounge, I realised that Pokotilov and Weber are now hoping to climb into Korea with both feet and from here get over to Manchuria.
They laughed merrily.
“And as for the golden donkey,” continued Lieutenant Minaev, “if you can find out the exact amounts of customs revenues and receipts to the treasury, and the difference is palpable, the king will have to get rid of Brown. And this will benefit either Japan or Russia, depending on who succeeds in taking the post of director of customs and the financial adviser to the king. In a word, use the opportunity; squeeze out of the girl all that you can. You claim that she keeps back a lot. Well, it is quite possible that she will be able to learn something about the internal situation in the country through the eyes of young people. Very interesting – who is now stronger - Russophiles, independent or supporters of rapprochement with the Mikado?
And I will say in advance: those who build more enterprises here will prevail, will attract local rich people to cooperation, and will give people jobs.
“Then the Japanese have priority,” answered Oleg Nikolayevich after a short pause, “they have no competitors here.”
Ivashnikov was greatly disturbed by his cynicism about Kim Jin-ho. He was not going to squeeze anything out of her, only opened her eyes to obvious truths. The words of Oleg Nikolayevich, after a brief reflection, attributed to some of his rudeness. Ivashnikov knew that he was obliged to collect economic and political information, but he believed that he had the right to be cruel, cynical, even ruthless, cunning, sneaky and cunning in relations with people greedy, selfish, enemies of Russia, but this green twig is what the enemy is. However, let, in any case, only the British will lose, and he had no sympathy for them.
And where do you think to meet her? “Kim Jin-ho said that her uncle, the father’s brother, the king’s close, is in his retinue and is now living with the king in our mission.” And that she had already visited her uncle twice, being in Seoul, she handed him gifts from her father. When she manages to look into the papers of customs, she will find a reason to visit her uncle and try to meet me. Call through the duty officer.
Some kind of baby talk, - muttered Oleg Nikolayevich. - However, for the first time come down, taking advantage of an opportunity. My omission is that you still need to be taught everything. But in the countries of the East, it is hard to work with agents. They are very different from us in appearance.
Oleg Nikolaevich, see attentively at me because I am a guran – a little make-up and cannot be distinguished from a Manchu man.
I already thought about it. In the future may be useful.

In the evening, messrs. Pokotilov, Briner and Mollendorf appeared in the common room, pretty drunk, washed, if Ivashnikov correctly understood their remarks, the messenger had a deal. All three were lively beyond measure, generous and talkative. Briner ordered to bring a dozen of champagne and asked those present to drink for his good fortune. Then he set off into memories, and Mollendorf, who understood Russian well, but did not dare to speak, as he confused cases and inclinations, which caused, if not laughter, then listeners’ smiles, nodded and repeated like this, like this ...- I first visited Korea in the eighty-third year. In Chemulpo, at the place where the customs building now stands, a fort of sixteen cannons was located, and customs officers and other Europeans lived in a wooden rampart. Customs was in a small Korean fanza, and the port of Chemulpo represented rather a camp of gold-predatory predators, such as Klondike, than the only port of Korea open to Europe. Why did I say predators of gold miners? Because the Europeans who were flooding Korea back then thought that, the gold here was that the hens did not peck. Some customs officers openly declared that they firmly expect to get rich at the cost of the stupidity of the Koreans. The expedition behind the Golden Fleece, undertaken by the Greek monk-defroker in the late seventies, was still fresh in memory. He organized it well – he chartered a steamer, gathered and armed a gang of robbers from various representatives of the “barefoot” Europeans of the Asian Far East. The purpose of this expedition was to search for the treasures of the ancient kings of Korea. The monk defrocked asserted that he knew from reliable sources that in the old days kings were buried in gold coffins filled with precious stones. This expedition for the “Golden Fleece” ended, as expected, ingloriously. They did not find the burials and, having finally become impoverished, after a number of clashes with the local population, they managed to drag off one calf, a couple of goats, and a dozen hens. Then in Pyongyang they took a bit of inferior coal and returned to Shanghai in disgrace.
At the mention of the treasures, the listeners’ eyes flared, they had heard a lot about ancient tombs, and everyone moved closer to Briner. He noticed this and, obviously mocking, continued,
“Then American treasure hunters arrived in Korea.” On the Dai-Tung River, they climbed all the way to Pyongyang – about forty miles from the sea. Koreans by nature are quite hospitable people; they were delighted with the newcomers and brought a lot of vegetables, chickens and eggs to the ship. It is important to note that all the Koreans who brought them were unarmed and, of course, had no bad intentions. Everything would be fine, but the Americans were looking for any excuse for conflict; so they declared that people that had illegally climbed aboard them, and detained the Korean Mandarin who had arrived to visit them as a hostage had abused them. By the way, do you know why Chinese and Korean officials are called mandarins? As you noticed, they are not similar to this fruit and rather have a repulsive appearance. This name came from the Portuguese verb “mandar”, which means» to manage”, and the Portuguese were the first Europeans to begin to master this part of the world. Therefore, the captured Mandarin was frightened, the Koreans were scared on the shore, they decided that this was a slave-owning vessel, and the American “desperado” behaved extremely militantly. It must be said that in Pyongyang the ebb and flow is almost the same as in Chemulpo, and when the ebb begins, the ship may be aground. What happened. Mandarin panicked, jumped into the water and swam away. On the shore, he gathered a large crowd of Koreans, told them about the terrible treatment with him on the ship, maybe he even said that they wanted to kill him. At night, the Koreans tied the boats and scows, loaded them with hay and brushwood, set fire to these firefighters, and adrift. With fire, the Americans could not cope, jumped into the water and partly drowned, and some were killed. In short, they were to blame for their fate. Listeners confused laugh.
A year earlier, Mr. Mollendorf arrived in Korea. Von Mollendorf nodded, - so, so, so ...- He started a new state machine – customs, and the glory. All arriving goods were inspected, evaluated, cleared, just like at any other customs of the world. Only one circumstance always gave rise to conflicts and misunderstandings - the insolence of the Chinese, from the Chinese consul in Chemulpo to the poorest coolies. There have often been cases when the Chinese consul receives, such as, a box of opium or a batch of silk from Shanghai. The customs inspector arrests smuggling, while the consul runs to the customs office, spreads the commissioner to pieces and forces the Chinese soldiers to bring this cargo to him at the consulate. Or a simple coolie extracts a consul’s business card through the consular gatekeeper and, using it as a cover, smuggles in opium, ginseng or silk.
Ivashnikov did not listen further and went to sleep.
At about five o’clock Ivashnikov returned from a walk, cleaned Amethyst, gave him a piece of sugar, and while he was nibbling, mowing his lilac eye on him, quietly talked to a horse. So, about anything. He said that he was well-behaved today, he was not hot, and he looks fine when Lieutenant Korn today the duty officer for the mission, looked in the stall,
“Go, ensign, a woman is waiting for you,” and he winked playfully, snapped his fingers, “Korean, but fante de mieux.” *Ivashnikov made the most ferocious grimace he was capable of, and Korn retreated, Chaeun son gout. **
But Ivashnikov already took himself in hand.
Kim Jin-Ho was waiting for him by the pool, throwing crumbs to the ornamental fish, which had pushed for a handout. They greeted somewhat strained. Ivashnikov was very happy and shy to show it to her, and she apparently took his restraint for more than indifference. But freely, without any tricks, she accepted the invitation to enter his room.
September in Korea, as in Primorye, is a golden season. The air was warming up in the evening and it would be unbearably stuffy if the wind did not blow. The window was open, and the lack of a ceiling under the roof much increased the volume of the room. Ivashnikov treated the girl with tea biscuits, and they chatted a little about the weather, that appeared near Seoul tigers and she told him about the symbolism of the arrangement of bouquets. It was time to get down to business, but they were timid.
She was brave. - My father went to Genzan, will stay there for a week, and I took the reports by months for this year. Ivashnikov already had a copy of the consolidated report on customs revenues for the last year of Mollendorf. With the increase in cargo turnover of the port almost five times, mainly due to the Japanese ships, the income from customs to the treasury almost did not increase. Jin-Ho was so upset that she almost burst into tears. Ivashnikov sympathised with her and did not know how to console.
“This is Mr. Brown who makes the father write the wrong reports,” she said, biting her lips and stammering. He could not find the right tone, he felt that all his words would sound out of tune, and began again to treat her to tea, but she barely took a sip and began to say goodbye.
 In the absence of the best. / French /
** everyone to your liking. / French /
Ivashnikov escorted her to the guardroom and watched her walking down the street – hunched up, with an unsteady, shaky gait. Even Korn noticed this and reacted in his usual way - Le vin est tiro ...
For almost a month already Ivashnikov wore a white Korean shirt during his free time, white pants, a wide-brimmed hat made of waxed yarn, rice straw shoes on a straw sole, very uncomfortable, by the way, and went through a small gate in the back wall of the mission fence on walks around the city, often at the bazaar. At first, his masquerade was misleading, but after two weeks, he could already appear in this relatively large city – for two hundred thousand people – a city without the risk of being mistaken for a European. Yes, and in the mirror he saw an ordinary Korean with yellow skin, Asian eyes, black hair ... Even his behavior in Korean clothes on the street, imitating the natives, became frightened and obsequious, and not only in front of the American or Japanese military, but also  in front of Korean yanban officials. It so happened that, returning to the mission, Ivashnikov once missed with Oleg Nikolayevich and remained unrecognized. How he rejoiced – I will not save. True, the next day, Lieutenant Minaev nodded to him – not bad, but Ivashnikov did not understand what this refers to.
He met Kim Jin-Ho twice more. Once in Seoul, and the other in Chemulpo. In Seoul, they roamed the streets, climbed Mount Nyanza and chatted about the little things – the weather, nature, and Russian and Korean customs. She is told Ivashnikov about the concerns of Korean youth, about her plans for the future – she was going to go to study in Japan or even maybe to America, but it is as difficult as it is a pity that she is not a man. Jin-Ho spoke about a sharp increase in national identity among young people, an increase in the number of insurgent troops in the mountains, their frequent clashes with the army and attacks on foreigners. Insurgents, mostly“Tongaki” - proselytes of a religious sect, one of the heresies of Buddhism. They have strong ties with a similar movement in China, and the Chinese nationalists are united in the “Da-Chuan – Big Fist” or “I-he-Chuan – Big Fist in the name of justice and harmony” sect and have support even in the Bogdykhan palace. It seemed to Ivashnikov that cordial agreement had been established between them; they said goodbye, in any case, sad and very reluctant. Then, if he had not been so busy, every day he would go to Chemulpo to see Kim Jin-ho. She is a good girl.

* Wine is open ... / French

They sat with Oleg Nikolayevich, sipped light wine and shared their observations about the behavior of the Americans and the Japanese in Seoul.
“Many rich Koreans,” Minaev said, “although where they are rich from, local Yangban do not give them time to get rich, are torn off as sticky, so they tend to invest their money in Japanese companies on nominees, with the consent of the Japanese, of course.  According to the most conservative estimates, there are at least seven thousand Japanese here and they own up to eighty percent of industry and almost all trade.  Nothing serious, natural, kerosene, paper fabrics, needles, aniline dyes.  But they economically bind Koreans to themselves.  Trade ties are hard to break, people are conservative ... Now the Japanese are faced with the American firm Mors and Townsend Company for the construction of the Seoul — Chemulpo railway.  These eighty-two — whether two Korean ones make up one mile and a half — it’s not God knows how far, but with the current state of the Korean roads, the contractor will dictate its terms.
In addition to the land road, from Chemulpo to Seoul, it was possible to climb the river to Mina, a suburb of Seoul, a distance of about a hundred versts, and from Mina to Seoul itself — these are four and a half versts of extremely broken roads.  It was clearly a busy marketplace around the contract for the railway.
— The persistent aspiration of the Japanese and Americans to enslave Korea economically, to which our moneybags and the ruling circles are assigned in the future to the pitiful role of the colony, is disturbing.  This is at best; they will not disappear like foreigners in the Amur region.
— By the way, Ivan Ivanovich, — Minaev noticed that Ivashnikov was very flattered when he was so-called: not by rank, it was very tiny, namely, by name and patronymic; and sometimes used, confident that his trustful request would be fulfilled with greatest zeal, even more than an official order, — Did you notice that Briner and Mollendorf lingered in Seoul pretty much, constantly circling in our mission and weaving lace around Weber and Pokotilov?  Weber and Pokotilov are official persons, the first is a diplomat, a messenger, is waiting for a replacement, is going to be a messenger to Mexico, and the second is the personal representative of Finance Minister Witte, who has, as far as I know, more weight in the state apparatus than even the new Foreign Minister Muraviev.  The former minister, Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky, you know, recently died.  What do our Germans need from them?  They are business people, they are very specific, they value time, but they do not hurry here at all.  Briner had already missed two steamboats to Vladivostok, and Mollendorf had no problems getting to Shanghai.
“Almost every evening they spend time in the common room,” Ivashnikov shared his observations.  — Weber and Pokotilov often come to the hall, and then Briner and Mollendorf begin to greedily paint the riches of Korea and Manchuria, the weakness of the native armies and the poverty of the population.  Especially the latter inspire them.  After all, the Koreans and the Chinese can pay pennies, and the labour market is inexhaustible.
“Perhaps, perhaps,” Oleg Nikolayevich muttered thoughtfully, “but please be careful, I don’t always have the opportunity to attend.”  In my opinion, there is something more.

That evening, in the common room, Mr. Briner entertained the women and young people with very juicy details of the life of Vladivostok.  He is very observant, Ivashnikov thought, and very keen on the tongue.  Yes and the material are rich: the life of a provincial town, cut off from the world by ice and off-road for the winter, provides abundant food for curses.
“Let’s say, here,” said Briner, “as recently as ten years ago, to get a tube glass instead of broken one, you had to buy a new lamp every time, because there was no glass in retail; and God forbid you have a toothache — you will have to take a passport and wait for the steamer to Japan; there was, however, a “dentist” in the city, who was tearing out rotten teeth with unwashed fingers, but the pure public did not risk contacting him. The women looked at each other and sneered disgustingly, while the men twisted, imagining that a half-drunk man, with his nails, like a horse hoof treading on his feet heavily leaning on with a greasy belly,, ,  and taking advantage of the opportunity to feast, angrily command,- widely open your mouth... your mother ... your honor ...
— And what morals reigned!  Such one can hardly be seen anywhere in the world, or even imagined ... There was, such as, in Vladivostok the “Club of Lances.”  At first, these were the names of the meetings of men on long winter evenings somewhere in a restaurant or a maritime club.  From innocent lessons — joint readings of an unintentionally discovered piece of a year-old newspaper, or a book that had never been boring, ordinary gossip or indifferent cogs on the events that happened during the day, gradually moved to the wineries — first they were annoyingly torn by the elderly, married under the influence of the spouse from the club gradually were eliminated, and left a riotous youth — naval and land officers, who took the custom to annihilate professionally, inventing games with a “twist”.  One such game of the Lance Club is particularly famous.  It was called “Tiger is coming.”  On the big table according to the number of participants in the game, wine glasses or large glasses were placed, roomy, filled with vodka up to the top, and the players themselves were on the command tiger is coming from the next room they tried to break through the narrow door first, pushing mercilessly, losing buttons and axel ants, to the table, and drink as many foreign glasses as possible; those who did not have enough, served as a general ridicule, but had a head start for the next round, because the winners could barely keep their feet from the exorbitant amount.  However, in the end, this game degenerated into a revolving hunt for a “tiger.”  The sluggish one was put out the door, put out the candles and closed the windows with mats, and then shouted for him to enter. And he had to walk around the table, soundless because the hunters fired at the rustling, at the feet, but who want to stay crippled ... And the courtly adventures, — and then Briner told a couple of such stories, from which the women became crimson, and the men only distractedly quacked.
Waiting for the appearance of Weber and Pokotilov and continuing the topic, Briner sadly clicked his tongue, “Yes, for five long months in the city barred by ices, they caused all these adulteries and madness.  And suicide?  It does not take a month to not hear about one or two, or even three ones.  After all beautiful young people — officers, or officials with university education.
“It is dangerous to have a navy to spend the winter in Japan,” corrected the conversation in the needed direction von Mollendorf with German directness.  Briner mixed up, but he was immediately found.
“Karl Ivanovich,” he turned to Weber, “tell me, for God’s sake, once again that exciting story about the sinking of an English steamer carrying Chinese soldiers to Korea the year before last.  What an illustration of the helplessness of the Chinese!
“Yes, yes, we ask, we ask,” the audience, as Ivashnikov noted, was very impressed with the theme of the superiority of the white race over the Asians.  Although, in this case, the Chinese were beaten up by the Japanese, the same Asians.
“I heard this story from a direct participant in this battle,” Weber did not shy away from the flowery, old Slavonic expressions, “von Heneken.  This German officer spent twenty years in China as a military instructor and did a lot to train the Chinese army.  So, when the conflict between Japan and China over Korea began, the Chinese chartered the English steamer “Kao-Shin”, loaded two thousand two hundred soldiers led by von Heneken and sent to Assan — a port about fifty miles to the southeast  from Chemulpo.  The day before, the Japanese, had a sea battle at Assan with fighting Chinese ships, and the Chinese battleship Cheyen, hitting a seemingly hopeless situation, raised a white flag, and then with purely oriental perfidy suddenly shot down the Japanese who believed in their own victory and fled from them. Imagine the mood of the Japanese, when, checking how much the English ship was carrying, they found Chinese soldiers there.  The Japanese offered the Europeans who were on the steamer to go ashore, but the Chinese did not allow them to do so, but began to raise the guns hidden in the hold onto the deck to defend them.  Then the Japanese let a mine, which exploded at the coal pits “Kao-Shina”.  The ship began to sink.  People jumped overboard, and those who remained on the ship began shooting at the floating ones.  Von Heneken miraculously escaped and then told us who had gathered at the German consul in Chemulpo: unhappy, distraught, unable to swim savages had the insane idea that if they were to die, then none of their brethren also survived, and therefore shot at their floating around tribesmen.
Listeners by the storm of indignation condemned this barbaric custom.
— Von Heneken?  — Loudly asked M;llendorf.  “Is this not the officer who is building the military fortress of Dagou, Port Arthur, and Wei-hi-wei?”  Oh, Port Arthur, — he rolled his eyes in admiration, — a wonderful haven, there is never ice, an impregnable fortress!
“The fortresses for the base of the Russian Pacific squadron cannot be better,” repeated Briner.
And they both stared with yellow arrogant eyes on Weber and Pokotilov.

The next day, Mr. Weber summoned Minaev and Ivashnikov.  A Korean servant opened before them high white, finely carved, wooden double doors of the envoy’s cabinet and bent in a deep bow. Karl Ivanovich Weber in the address was dry, strictly official, and somewhat arrogant.  In the mission, everyone was afraid of him, and the demonstration of democracy to them alerted Ivashnikov.  In addition, Weber was a civilian man, about sixty years old, in his youth he was a student of the Russian embassy in Beijing and lived all his life in the East, and apparently, therefore, he considered all military rank lower than a colonel did equal to each other; to talk, however, he became with lieutenant Minaev.
— We have a small errand for you and Mr Pokotilov.  You must go for a week to Port Arthur and see the bay, the city, and the surroundings there.  In a word, you should know how a military man is ... And God forbid that Russian officers were recognised in you.  Someone ... The Germans are dangerous, they definitely are there, there are a few of their military instructors in China, suddenly fake.  Better by the British or the Americans.  Especially the Americans — among them are a mixed tribe.  However, do not linger.  Dmitry Dmitrievich, — he nodded in the direction of Pokotilov, — by the beginning of November he will leave us.

Three days later, two citizens of the United States — Mr. Morrison, head of the California-based construction company Morrison and sans, and Mr. Chang, a translator, a representative of the third generation of Chinese immigrants, arrived in Pyongyang.  At the central, the best hotel in the city, they came out of the stretchers, which were carried by eight people, thin, almost exhausted, coolies — porters of palanquins, paid them two rubles —  enough, Americans — business people, not generous aristocrats, and entered in the cool lobby.  The hotel was an ordinary Korean residential structure, which had been tilted from antiquity — a letter ;, with a high massive roof covered with an unimportant porous tile, with mats on the floor and canas in the rooms.  The only thing that the eyes could dwell on was mats, large square rugs woven from special grass with a side of eight feet and bright colour patterns in the center.
According to the legend proposed by Oleg Nikolayevich, they were business people who arrived in Korea to conclude a contract for the construction of the Seoul-Pyongyang-Iiju-Andong railway.  The same could be explained by their conducting an eye topographic survey along the road.  Local officials, Yanbans were fierce to their fellow citizens, but they did not touch foreigners, in extreme cases they were content with a dollar bill.  The Japanese, however, were jealous suspicious of all foreigners, and Russians in particular.
Traffic on broken rocky roads was lively. 
Leaving large leather suitcases in the rooms, the Americans went to explore the city.
Pyongyang, the main city of North Korea, in the distant past of its capital, was the most important node of the routes leading from the south, east and north. From the west, along the Dai-Tako River, the city was connected to the seaport by steamboat traffic; the right bank of the Dai-Taco River all along commanded the left.  Around Pyongyang, the valley of the river expanded considerably and, especially on the left bank, formed a vast open plain.  Among this plain, Pyongyang and its surroundings were a group of hills commanding the surrounding area.  The turn of the river in the northern part of the city formed a ledge from which it was possible to keep the valley of the river under shelling.
“The most convenient place for defence,” said the lieutenant Minaev.
— From whom are you going to defend here?  — With irony asked Ivashnikov.
— You, the ensign, as a scout, should be clear aspirations of Russia in Manchuria, China, Korea.  Yalu and Port Arthur will become outposts, and our opponent will not be China, torn by foreigners, but the young predator Japan.  Notice, the Japanese are already everywhere in the role of owners.
— You like Pythia predict the future.
— Read the newspapers, young man, the future is already written in them.
And he was right.  After seven years and four months, Ivashnikov will have to fight precisely in these places.  However, more about that later.
 On the crossings of mountain rivers, swollen after the recent typhoon, which are frequent in the fall, there was a crowd.  The large flat-bottomed boats and ferryboats pulled by the ropes were crowded with people to such an extent that the water poured over the sides.  But there was always a vacuum around them; people, judging by their behaviour and rather sidelong views, treated them unfriendly, if not hostile.  Korean commoners were firmly convinced that all the misfortunes — wars, hunger, pestilence, ruthless Yanbans — all from the invasion of foreigners.  Do not hesitate, but rather thinking that foreigners do not know their language, they told each other tales about Korea that supposedly flourished before foreign worms, especially the Japanese, flooded it.
Crossing from Iiju across the Yalu River to Andong, a city on Chinese territory, they got into great trouble.  The wide and long scow has accommodated quite a lot of Chinese, who were returning to their homeland after doing some work in Korea.  About fifty people were there.  Ivashnikov and Minaev settled on a slightly raised stern.  The scow was set in motion by a large sail, raised to the mast with the help of two thin ropes, and, near the shore, with oars.  Noisy and merrily talking, the Chinese people occupied the middle and nose of the scow.  The ferryman threw off the mooring rope from the coastal log, and the scow quietly carried over from the shore.  It was time to raise the sail.  The ferryman, looking displeased at foreigners, shrilly ordered the young Chinese passengers to take on the ropes.  They, full of wish to return home soon, jerked gaily, lifting the sail to the middle of the mast, pulled again and the sail took off to the top.  Shuddering, they yanked once more, one of the ropes broke, and the free end of the yoke fell down, smashing the head of the passenger who stood under it to blood.  People rushed from the falling yoke to the opposite side, the scow nodded, almost overturned, and many fells.  The reason was clear from the beginning — the old rotten rope could not stand the friendly jerk of young healthy guys hurrying home, but the boatman, an old restless Chinese man, clearly wanting to take the blame from himself, shouted, pointing to well-dressed foreigners, Yanguizi — Overseas Devils!  That they are to blame.  They must be killed.  Throw them in the river, otherwise we will all drown.
The mood of the Chinese passengers has changed dramatically.  From fun-good-natured to implacable-hostile.  The hottest ones were already clutching at long strong oars.  And Ivashnikov’s heart swiftly sank down into the heels.  Minaev, turning pale and biting his lower lip of rabies, snatched out Smith-and-Wesson from under his coat, and deafeningly shot low over the heads of excited people.  The sight of a hefty black revolver, a sheaf of flame and the harsh sound of a shot sobering affected them.  Oleg Nikolayevich sent a revolver to the boatman and in a voice that left no doubt about the indispensability of performance, ordered him to shut up, tie a new rope and move on, or he would shoot him.  And he shoved the barrel, from which the smoke was still curled, under the nose of the old man.
The composure of Lieutenant Minaev, the Manchurian dialect well understood by them, his great revolver and, most importantly, his firmness and confidence, quickly reassured people.  With shaking hands, the boatman took out a new rope, tied it to the end of the yoke, climbed onto the mast, let it through the block and shouted to the passengers to raise the sail again.  This time everything went well. At the pier in Andun, the passengers rushed to the police officer, unanimously shouted, pointing fingers at the foreigners, and the police officer asked them to go to Guan-ting — the local police station.  There the duty officer hid a green paper in his pocket, and they went on.
A month later, two American businesspersons got off the English steamer in Fusan.  Three more days they traveled to small South Korean towns and then disappeared.  And a week later, in the first days of November 1896, on the table at the Russian envoy in Korea, Karl Ivanovich Weber, there were five copies of the typewritten copy stitched notes “Historical and geographical sketch of the Liaodong Peninsula. Port Arthur and Da-Lien-Wan. With the map of Liao Dun and two plans. “
“The name Port Arthur became known to the world forty years ago, when the English squadron cruising the Yellow Sea thus named one of the harbours of the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula in honor of its mythical King Arthur, called by the Chinese Liu Shun-kou. In the seventies, this port was only a tiny parking lot for local junks. The village located near this harbor consisted of sixty to seventy clay fanzas with several shops and three or four hotels, or rather, inns in this place, Port Arthur remained until the early eighties, when the Chinese government decided to adapt it for the parking of its northern Beiyan squadron and build a strong sea fortress here. In the autumn of the eightieth year, German lieutenant von Heneken, who served in the Chinese service as a personal adjutant Lee Hungzhan, the then Zhili governor-general and the chief of the northern squadron, was sent for topographical and engineering surveys, and in December of that year, according to the statement, about their plan of fortifications, work began, which were later brought to four thousand Chinese workers.  In the era of the Tonkin War * port defence was strengthened.  Initially, all the work was carried out under the direction of German engineers led by von Heineken, but in 1886, the port equipment was entrusted to the French syndicate in Tianjin, and English and German engineers under the general leadership of Lieutenant von Heneken took over the construction of the forts.  Krupp and Armstrong were suppliers of fortress guns.  As they say, it was spent up to eighty million rubles for to make a first-class fortress and the best military port in China from the village of Liu-shun-kou.  After twelve years of tremendous effort, a port was created, the dock and workshops of which could serve for all kinds of repairs and repairs to ships.  In addition, mine depots, a naval arsenal, a mechanical factory, an ammunition store, and food depots were set up here.  All institutions were lit by electricity; everywhere the latest improvements and inventions have been applied.
As a formidable, almost impregnable fortress from the sea, Port Arthur was poorly protected from the land.  Aware of this, the Chinese government set about building fortifications in the nearby Da-lian-Wan Bay.  However, it made a mistake by not taking at the same time any measures to strengthen the city of Ching-chjou-ting, relying on, probably, on the strength of its mud walls and narrow isthmus, which opens the only road to Port Arthur from land, than it left almost defenseless.  Meanwhile, in the past war with Japan, the actions of the enemy troops, who received orders to take Port Arthur, turned out to be directed primarily against Ching-chjou-ting.  Having landed north of Bi-tzu-in, a small village at the mouth of the Hua-yuan-he river, the Japanese, after small skirmishes with the Chinese troops, approached Ching-chjou-ting by land, and after a light hour-long bombardment, which did not harm the city walls, Japanese sappers blew up the northern and eastern gates, through which the besiegers broke through.
The Chinese could not stand it and fled to Port Arthur.  It happened on October 25, 1894. The Japanese immediately turned against Da-Lian-Van and the next day, three columns of one infantry regiment, a cavalry squadron and field artillery batteries in each column appeared in view of the Da-lian-Wan forts built by Lieutenant von Heneken on the newest system, armed with heavy guns and having a garrison of six and a half thousand people.  Keeping in mind such defensive
Da-lian-Wan means, the Japanese began to thoroughly prepare the offensive, but this turned out to be superfluous: a significant part of the Chinese troops, having learned about the capture Ching-chjou-ting, retreated to Port Arthur before the appearance of the Japanese, and the rest, barely giving a few volleys, fled with such haste, that the Japanese found in the fortress several guns still charged.  In addition to the mass of valuable combat material, a detailed minefield plan fell into the hands of the winners, which greatly facilitated their destruction of the latter.
The capture of Da Lian Van was the most significant step in the Japanese campaign against Port Arthur.
The road to Port Arthur was open to the Japanese.  For acting against the fortress at the disposal of Count Oyama, commander-in-chief of the Second Japanese Army, there were up to twenty thousand soldiers and artillery from eighty guns.  Leaving small garrisons in Ching-chjou-ting and Da-lien-wan for the protection of the rear, the Japanese moved along two roads to Port Arthur.  The attack was scheduled for November 9.  At this time, in Port Arthur, together with the retreating from Ching-chjou-ting and Da-lian-wan, there were over fourteen thousand people.  But of this number, only three thousand were old troops, while the rest had almost no military training.  Meanwhile, from the landside, Port Arthur was weakly protected.  Fourteen kilometers of the defensive land line, where the struggle against the Japanese was ahead, there were only twelve redoubts of the simplest type and in the center between them there was an open gap along which the road to the fortress lay.
During the night preceding the attack, the siege troops with great caution took the places indicated by them on the eve and by six o’clock in the morning the Japanese army stood at a distance of two or two and a half kilometers from the Chinese fortifications, stretching along the front for nine miles and having only one reserve battalion.  At half past six, the first shot rang out with the siege battery, and a quarter of an hour later, field guns opened fire.  The Chinese did not hesitate to answer, without, however, causing any losses to the enemy.  Noticing the irregularity of the fire of the Chinese fortifications, the Japanese immediately launched an attack, according to the plan outlined by Count Oyama, and these redoubts fell one by one, not lasting until late in the evening.  The seizure of further fortifications was no longer difficult for the Japanese, since the Chinese troops, abandoned by their commanders, thought only of salvation and at the first onslaught rushed in different directions.  The next day, November 10, all coastal fortifications were occupied without a fight, and Port Arthur was in full power of the Japanese.  The role of the Japanese fleet during the capture of Port Arthur was limited to a slight exchange of fire with coastal forts, since Admiral Ito chose to keep out of the shots of Chinese fortress guns.  However, it is worth mentioning the attack made by the Japanese destroyers on the harbour.  Taking advantage of the tide, twenty-five destroyers successfully passed minefields and, opening fire from their gunners, made dismay at the forts.  At the same time, one battleship entered the Pigeon Bay, on the western coast of Guan Dong, and with its fire contributed to the land attack.  The next day, fifty minutes of barrage were caught, and the Japanese fleet entered the harbour.
The capture of this first-class fortress was very cheap for the Japanese: they lost about four hundred people killed and wounded, while the Chinese lost more than four thousand.  Such a significant number of those killed is due to the extreme bitterness of the Japanese soldiers, who, on their way to Port Arthur, found several terribly mutilated corpses of their comrades who had been captured by the Chinese before. Having penetrated into the fortress, the Japanese celebrated a bloody trifled on them, not giving even mercy to women and children.
Liao-dun, or translated from Chinese, “The country lying east of the Liao-he river” is commonly called the part of southern Manchuria, which juts into the Yellow Sea as a triangular peninsula and forms two large gulfs: in the west — Liaodong and East — Korean.  The extreme southern tip of Liao-dong is a peninsula stretching from the northeast to the southwest, about a hundred versts long, divided into two parts by a narrow isthmus near the city of Ching-chou-ting.  The southern part of this last peninsula is known on English maps under the name of the Regent’s Sword, and in Chinese it is called Guan Dun and ends in a cape on which the rocky secluded Lao-te-shan Mountain — the Old Iron Mountain — reaching one and a half thousand feet.  The coastline of the Liaodong Peninsula is generally rather poorly developed; only in the southern part, there are several voluminous and deep bays both on the eastern and western shores.  The eastern coast of Liaodong, starting at Cape Lao-te-shan, stretches for a distance of three hundred miles, first in the northeast direction, and then eastward to almost 125 degrees east longitude and forms the bay of Liu-shun-kou (Port Arthur),  Da-lian-wan, Kerr and a few others less important.
The bay of Liu-shun-kou occupies most of the seaside depression, which is formed by rows of hills stretching from the north, completely devoid of vegetation and surrounding the bay like a ring.  This oblong cove, having a length of more than two miles and a width of one and a half miles, connects with the open sea by a narrow, long passage of seven eighths versts with a width of fifty or two hundred fathoms stretching from north to south.  A narrow curved sandy strip of land that goes deep into the bay forms the western coast of this strait.  This spit, having a length of more than four hundred fathoms with a width of fifty fathoms, the Chinese gave the characteristic name Lao-hu-wei — Tiger’s tail and it really resembles the tail of this wild animal, if you look at it from a height of one of the surrounding hills.  In its southern part, Lao-hu-wei expands and, turning to the west, reaches turning to the west, it gradually reaches a width of one and three-quarters of a mile, thus forming the peninsula that separates the inner bay of Liu-shun-kou from its outer raid.  This peninsula is filled with two parallel ridges of hills, having a height of three hundred and fifty to five hundred and eighty feet.
Liu-shun-kou bay is very shallow, so that until now only Chinese destroyers use it.  For this reason, ten years ago, the Chinese government took measures to build an artificial basin in the eastern part of the bay, which could be available to large modern battleships.  For this purpose, a lake located east of the bay was deepened to four and a half fathoms at low water, and a pentagon-shaped basin thus formed, having a length from west to east two hundred and fifty fathoms and a width of north to south one hundred fifty fathoms, known as the Eastern Port, while the natural bay is called the Western Port.
Before entering the Lieu-Shun-Kou Bay there is an external raid eleven to twelve miles wide, convenient for maneuvering many ships, perfectly protected by coastal elevations from the north and west winds, but rather dangerous with south and east winds, which raise strong here excitement and often force large vessels to seek refuge in the nearby Da-lian-Wan bay.
A detailed description of the Liaodong Peninsula with fifty pages of typewritten text with a map and two plans for Christmas Eve lay on the tables of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Muravyov, the Minister of Finance Witte, the Minister of War Vannovsky, the Minister of the Navy Chikhachev and the Commander of the Amur Military District of Dukhovsky.

* Kotvich, L. Borodovsky.  “Liao-tung and its ports: Port Arthur and Da-lian-wan.”St. Petersburg, 1898.

VATATSUBASHI.  BEIJING. ABDUCTION DOCUMENTS FROM RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC MISSION.

At the beginning of May 1896, Vatatsubashi returned to Maizuru and submitted to Commander Todashi Ozu a report on the work done on the northern voyage agreed with Lieutenant Gunzi, a plan of fortification protection of the Tsisima Kaykio Strait separating the island of Sumusu from the Russian Kamchatka, and the settlement of Tsisima rattoo by Ains of Nippon Islands. By the end of the month, he had successfully passed the exams for the rank of sub-lieutenant and was waiting, finally, to be assigned to a warship, but again his hopes burst like a soap bubble.  Todasi Ozu dryly ordered him to appear in the Secret Department of Gai-mu-sho Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. “Count Munemitsu Mutsu, the foreign minister, takes care of his friend’s son,” the commander said goodbye, “but your personal contribution is also appreciated.” As a department official said in Gai-mu-sho, they were already waiting for him.  The Japanese embassy in Beijing had a unique opportunity to be acquainted with the documents from the personal safe of the Russian envoy, Count Cassini, and for this, there was an urgent need for a person who was fluent in Russian.  When the Japanese envoy in Beijing reported to Tokyo to his minister that they managed to hook and threaten the Chinese — the servant of the Russian embassy.  And that, in turn, managed to take the cast of the keys to the personal safe of the dispersed Russian envoy. And that this servant knows how to penetrate the envoy’s office uncontrollably.
Then erected a year ago for successfully crafted conditions of capitulation of China to the county dignity of Munemitsu Mutsu recalled his stormy youth friend and his son, who perfectly knew Russian, had completed the important task of naval intelligence, delivered a plan of action of the Russian army in case of war with Japan, and made a difficult winter hike on Tsisima Rattoo under the leadership of Lieutenant Gunzi, who had high authority in Gai-mu-sho.
In a brand-new officer’s uniform — a black jacket, a wide golden chevron on the sleeve, white trousers, a cap with a shiny cockade and a tiny, latest-fashioned visor, and a saber in lacquered black leather sheath — he arrived at the high command.
The head of the Secret Department put him in the background story.
“Russia did not allow Japan to take advantage of the victories in the Japan-China War and, with the help of France and Germany, forced it to remove the Japanese fleet and army units from mainland China, forcing it to settle for Pescadores Islands and Formosa.  Certainly, the Russians are afraid of increasing our influence in the Far East and will try to fill the vacuum themselves.  According to the information we have, they are being pushed towards this by Germany, which wants to manage Europe itself, and its own envy of territorial acquisitions in China, France and England.  Russians have eyed Manchuria for a long time.  The territory of this northeastern part of China is vast; the wealth of its subsoil is completely unexplored, but potentially very large.  Yes, and it is rarely inhabited, although recently there has been a certain influx of population from China.
In April of this year in Beijing, negotiations began between China and Russia on a concession for the construction of the Manchurian railway, but they ended in complete failure, as the Chinese understood the political background of the Russian concession in time.  According to the information of our people from Tsungli-Yamin, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Russian envoy Cassini in rather strong terms urged the Chinese ministers to grant a concession to a joint Russian-Chinese company, and justified their demands by saying that, having a concession, Russia will easily be able to protect China from the dangers in the event of new military clashes with Japan, and in general by any other power.  But the Chinese now have a number of proposals for concessions — from the French envoy Gerard, from the American Bush, representing the American China Development Company, and from the British, who have already built the Beijing-Shanghaiguan railway.  Therefore, the ministers of Tsungli-Yamyn declined a positive answer for the Russians.  Count Cassini was left to declare that the refusal of the concession would have the gravest consequences for China.  But on the same day, April 18, when the Russian envoy Count Cassini assured the Chinese ministers, the chamberlain of the Russian emperor, Prince Ukhtomsky, who was in the retinue of Tsarevich Nicholas, now the Russian emperor, in his trip to the Far East Japan, delivered by emergency train from Odessa to St. Petersburg, the first chancellor of the Chinese empire, Li Hunzhang, the ambassador extraordinary to Bogdykhan at the coronation of the tzar. Prince Ukhtomsky publishes the newspaper “St. Petersburg Vedomosti” and considers himself an expert on the East, has repeatedly visited China, has close ties with French capital, as a member of the Directorate of the Russian-Chinese bank based on French money, and Rothstein, Rothschild’s son-in-law, as director -the manager of this bank.  He is actively pursuing the political line suggested to him by the Germanic entourage of the tzar on Russia’s widespread penetration into China and almost on the annexation of Manchuria.  Ukhtomsky met Li Hunzhang back in Suez and worked him on his way to Petersburg.  We have approaches to Li Hungzhang’s personal doctor, Englishman Irving, but he was dead drunk all the way and we could not learn anything intelligible from him. In Petersburg, Li Hunzhang conducted secret negotiations with Russian Finance Minister Witte and even had a secret audience with Emperor Nikolai.  Naturally, the emperor solicited the Chinese Chancellor of benefits for Russia.  Thus, we know what the Russians want concessions for a railroad with a wide, Russian, track to the center of Manchuria, so that it can eventually be taken over and, possibly, an ice-free port in the Yellow Sea.  We did not receive any specific information from St. Petersburg. The tzar, the Minister of Finance, Witte, Rotstein, who, as the financier of all Chinese affairs, should be kept abreast of events, the Foreign Minister, Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky, and from the Chinese side, were very modest.  Li Hungzhang.  Even in the capitals of Europe, where he went from St. Petersburg in search of loans, he did not let it slip, otherwise we would certainly know.  But, since the talk in their conversations was about China, then the Russian envoy in Beijing must necessarily have information about concrete next steps.  It is he who will have to apply through official channels to Jung-li-yamin for the implementation of a preliminary oral agreement, and even more so for concluded agreements.  Your task is to familiarise yourself with the contents of the Russian envoy’s safe, copy it, but so that the Russians do not have suspicions about the compromise, all the documents, make a rough translation into Japanese, later the experts will work on the documents, and deliver the copies here.  The sooner, the better. While appointed secretary of the embassy.  Going to Beijing tomorrow.  Tickets are ordered, a suitcase with everything you need in your new place is ready.
After disembarking from the steamer to Dagu, Vatatsubashi boarded a steamboat along the Baihe River to Tientsin and, hiring a rickshaw on the pier, ordered him to be taken to the Japanese consulate.  Here they were waiting for him.
“The embassy is eagerly waiting for you, ordered you to deliver to Beijing without delay,” the consul said.  — Junk is hired, coolie ready, you can go now.  Alternatively, would you like to take a break from the road and take the trip to tomorrow?
Vatatsubashi knew that a trip on a rowing boat along the winding Baihe River from Tianjin to Tongzhou, which was twenty miles from Beijing, took two days, and decided that he would not take a rest.  Yes, and he did not feel tired, slept well on the boat and knew how to relax on the way.
The consul personally escorted him to the waiting junke and waved the coolies to immediately get under way.  Junks turned out to be small, no more than eight steps in length, but without a deck, so you did not walk, and besides, it would roll.  With a dozen skinny coolies that barely moved their oars, the sun was mercilessly scorching, huge black fatty flies buzzed heavily over their heads, and the battle with the boy slept with open eyes, and had to let him a slap to wag more energetically.  The boy came to life, but now he looked so viciously that Vatatsubashi thought it was possible to drive him away from the junks, but the fan gave such relief ... In general, the journey could be called convenient, but an overwhelming want to move appeared on the narrow and short junkie is impossible.  Vatatsubashi was eager to be at the embassy soon and go to work, would jump to the beach and rush off at a run, but noblesse oblige * ... He remained calm to enjoy green tea,
who constantly brewed here another boy, and admire the tiny bright green, cultivated by half-naked peasants rice fields spread all over from sea to the capital of the Chinese Empire.
Finally, these dead, although the consul in Tianjin and assured that he hired the best, the coolies dragged the junk to the pier in Tongzhou, where he was met by a tribesman in a European suit, who identified himself as the head of the diplomatic mission’s guard, Colonel Sheba.
“After the defeat in the war, the Chinese became extremely daring, especially the youth, had to strengthen the security of the mission,” said the colonel.  “These twenty miles to the embassy will be carried in palanquins, so we’ll talk about business on the spot.”
And another seven hours had to suffer in immobility, cursing the ceremony, mandatory for the official, whom he unexpectedly found himself taken to the mission late at night.  Colonel Shiba escorted him to a tiny house with windows open for nightly cool, but with mosquito nets dragged in by the windows.  Soon the servant introduced a lacquered tray with porcelain cups painted with blue lotuses, in which sushi — cooked rice balls with raw fish and vegetables, seasoned with vinegar and sugar, steamed mussels, fried octopuses and a bottle of black sake — were deliciously white.  They had dinner, and the colonel left him, ordering him to rest and gain strength in the morning.
* Position obliges.  / French /

In the morning, Vatatsubashi was escorted to the main building, in which, apart from the apartment of the envoy and the office, there were rooms of advisers.  Here he was met by Colonel Sheba.
— Mr. Envoy is now in Shanghai, departed on official business, but you act at my disposal and must follow my orders.  With Mr. Sugiyama, Advisor to Mr. Envoy, we will bring you up to date.
In the counselor’s office, they sat down on the sides of a large desk and Vatatsubashi prepared to listen.

— Do you know Russian well enough?  — Mr. Adviser asked him.
— I know it perfectly, because I was born, grew up and graduated from a gymnasium in Russia, in Vladivostok, but later, while studying at Nautical College at Etajima, I regularly read Russian newspapers, which were specially written for me by Kannusi Sumimoto.
“I’m acquainted with Mr. Sumimoto, this is a good mentor,” Sugiyama’s advisor nodded his head.
Vatatsubashi kept silent about the fact that he was in Vladivostok after graduating from college.  Ask — answer. - Did you read this book in Russia?  — asked Colonel Sheba and put in front of him a volume with hieroglyphs on the cover: “Weeping flowers and grieving willows, the last dust of bloody battles in northern Europe.”
“Yes,” he answered, “this is the novel“War and Peace” by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.
“I don’t know how successful the translation is, but the Russians seem to me worthy opponents,” Mr. Colonel remarked with a note of respect.
“Living and working in a foreign country and in a hostile environment, we are compelled to be interested in their plans and intentions,” continued the adviser.  — Mr. Colonel once discovered that a Chinese servant who worked at a Russian mission was selling stolen products from Russians at the bazaar — rice, which they eat little, and wine, which they consumed a lot.  Mr. Colonel had a conversation with this Chinese servant and convinced him not to be fired by the Russians and not to receive severe punishment from the Chinese authorities, to help us.  The Chinese servant said that his duties included cleaning the premises, including the office and the envoy’s office.  By order of Mr. Colonel, this Chinese, taking advantage of the bad attitude towards his duties of the Russian envoy and secretary of the embassy, quietly made prints of the keys to the safes in the envoy’s office and in the mission office.  A month ago, the coronation of the Russian emperor took place in St. Petersburg and Moscow, which Li Hongzhang, vice-chancellor of China, traveled to.  It is possible that in Moscow, Li Hongzhang concluded some agreements, information about which should already be in the embassy vaults.  With the help of this Chinese servant and Mr. Colonel’s people, you will have to familiarize yourself with the terrain, the location of the premises in the Russian embassy building, enter the Russian envoy’s office and the office and extract documents from the safes.  A person who is fluent in Russian is needed here so that he can distinguish an important document from a minor piece of paper, because there can be many papers in the vaults and it will be difficult to take everything out of the embassy building and the mission area.  Ideally, we suppose to take a photo of all the documents from the safes and put them back in place so that the Russians would not guess about their compromise.  And in the future, we hope to have access to safes.

How much time do I have to complete the task? - A little, no more than two weeks, because unforeseen circumstances may arise, and we will lose our opportunities. The main thing, however, is that we should rather learn the plans of the Russians about politics in China. Colonel Sheba gave him as a guide student of the dragoman, who introduced himself as a student at Kyoto University, Itaro Kabura, but Vatatsubashi himself was already a student and realized that this was also an officer. They left the mission on the street, and the guide began to acquaint him with the terrain.
- The ambassadorial town is a settlement, which is forbidden for Chinese citizens to enter. From the south, it is separated from the Chinese city by a high wall, and from the north, it adjoins the wall of the forbidden imperial city. To the east of the territory of the Japanese mission is the French mission, and between them wedged built-in the characteristic Chinese architectural style of the Peking Hotel. The territory of the German embassy and the diplomatic club are located across the Embassy Street, opposite the Peking Hotel and the French mission.
Vatatsubashi attentively listened, vigilantly looked and tried to remember everything better. - Do not strain yourself. We will take a several walks; the territory of the settlement is generally small, so remembering the location of buildings and missions is not difficult for you. However, the responsibility was assigned to him, as he understood, enormous and the task must be completed, otherwise even seppuku. They marched east to the Italian embassy and turned back. They walked slowly, quietly speaking, the street was sultry and deserted, and the guide shared his observations.
- Here, in the ambassadorial settlement, eleven diplomatic missions. Ten of them are European and one Eastern is ours. And all these Europeans, including Russians, half-savvy, in general, the nation, although they call us ”“the British of the East”, do not consider themselves equal, treat with a certain disregard and do not even bother themselves to recognize us by sight. Of course, they know Mr. Envoy, Counselor Sugiyam and Colonel Shiba, the elderly and even outwardly, respectful people, but the rest, especially the young, are not distinguished from the Chinese. At first, it causes irritation, then anger ... but often helps. Personally, I have already visited the Russian missions five times, dressing either a Chinese merchant, a messenger from a store, or a garbage cleaner, but the guards only drive, go, manza, lazy to remember my face and body shape.
They passed the Japanese mission, the Spanish mission, and along the bridge crossed a narrow channel through which water flowed slowly. The channel starts in the territory of the Forbidden Imperial City and goes further to the city,” the guide waved his hand toward the city wall. “And here’s the Russian mission,” the guide said in an undertone, pointing with his eyes to the right. Behind the high wall with the Chinese gates in the center, one could see the steep roofs of several houses and the central, large house.
- Two hundred years ago, the Chinese defeated the Russian Albazin jail on the Amur and took about fifty Cossacks with them. At the same time, having concluded the Nerchinsk Treaty with the Russians, the Chinese formed a detachment of bodyguards of the emperor Kansi from prisoners and allowed them to freely practice their religion. Tzar Peter the Great sent Orthodox clergy to China and they founded two farmsteads in Beijing: the north - Beguan, and the south - Yuguan. When Count Ignatiev in 1860, taking advantage of the victory of the British and French and wanting to get benefits for Russia, began to mediate between them and the government of the emperor of China in besieged Beijing, the Chinese for the diplomatic mission and took him to the southern farmstead. Then he concluded an agreement on the border between Russia and China. A Russian envoy is now living here, a Frenchman by nationality, Count Cassini with his niece and her governess Mademoiselle Chelle, first secretary of the embassy Pavlov, secretary Solovyov, dragomans Popov and Kolesov, doctor of the mission Korsakov and students Stein, Grosse and Rozhdestvensky. Opposite the mission, across the street, is the Russian post office. It boss, Buryat Gamboev, is also constantly in the mission. Among themselves, the Russians are not friendly and are divided into two parties. In one, the envoy Cassini and secretary Pavlov, and in the other all the rest. Twenty completely dissolved Cossacks guard the mission, but they do not carry weapons and rather serve as night watchmen. We have a file on the envoy of Count Cassini. Here is some information. A Frenchman by his father, Artur Pavlovich Cassini, an extremely frivolous man, squandered a small fortune in St. Petersburg and was in great debt. By patronage, he received the position of Consul General in Hamburg, where he spent some years. Under the same patronage, he was transferred by the envoy to Beijing, which, with maintenance of forty-five thousand rubles, allowed him to settle accounts with creditors. His niece Margaret, a girl of twelve years old, lives with him, and the governess of which consists of a certain Mademoiselle Chelle. With this Chelle, the Russian envoy is in a close relationship. In addition to his native French and Russian, Count Cassini is fluent in German and it looks like English. Man, as we have repeatedly seen, is optional, he performs his official duties without due diligence, relies entirely on his secretaries, and keeps official documents carelessly. Wanting to look like a well-informed interlocutor, in conversations among foreign diplomats, the information is blurted out, making it possible to make predictions about the next steps of Russian diplomacy in the Far East, which we, the Germans and the British, often use. Sometimes a military agent of Russia in China, Colonel of the General Staff Vogak, comes to the mission, but he lives in Shanghai all the time. The Russian Embassy almost every night the French envoy Gerard, the Belgian Lumier and the Dutch Knobel visited. They usually sit at the Russian ambassador’s place after midnight, play cards, smoke, and drink wine. The secretary of the embassy Pavlov and Mademoiselle Chelle share the company with them. Another big company – Popov, Gamboev and others – usually gather at Gamboyev, they love to eat, they play cards, and they drink a lot. Cossacks, lulled by a quiet service, sleep more and limit themselves to bypassing the mission at midnight. Sentinels without weapons are exposed at the main gate, overlooking Embassy Street, and the north, overlooking the alley to the English mission.
They walked past the Russian embassy, opposite which, across the street, behind a low fence on the flagpole, the star-striped flag of the North American United States mission developed, then there was a building with a signboard of a Russian post office, then a building of the Russian-Chinese bank, a Chinese idol, a Belgian and Dutch mission, and ended street with a powerful paylow at the intersection with the imperial road from the Forbidden Purple city to Beijing proper.
But immediately after the Russian mission, a small area turned out to be crammed with poor Chinese fanzas, from the pipes of which haze stretched toward the sky, the specific smells of the ready food were noticeably felt, the linen dangled on the ropes and, splashing on thick dust with bare heels and loudly screaming, the children played.
- What is it? - Vatatsubashi was amazed; - after all, the Chinese are forbidden to appear in the settlement?
- It was in Shanghai and Tianjin that the English and French tensions managed to rigorously keep up the rule, but there is no common policy, rather an unwillingness to be firm and consistent, and a miserable flavor in front of the imperial court, although messengers should be firm. However, the fact is that all missions need servants, garbage collectors, laundresses, coolies, messengers, peddlers, gardeners, stove-makers; you never know ... These are the people who gradually settled on this so-called Mongolian square.
They turned into the square, walked along a typical poor Chinese street, and once again turned right into the passage between the territories of the Russian and English missions.
“The most convenient place to get into the mission at night is from the roof of Fanza on Mongolian Square to climb over the palisade onto the roof of the Russian stables,” the guide winked at him.
Then they went to the canal and returned to the embassy. Later in the evening, they once again walked around the embassy town, but from the north, from the wall of the imperial city and, bypassing the English embassy, again went to Mongolian Square to the fans of the Russian mission next to the fence. Vatatsubashi was eyeing appreciatively. Yes, it was not difficult to move from the roof of the fanza to the roof of the stables that was visible behind the palisade of the Russians. In the evening, Mr. Colonel Sheba inquired about his success. Vatatsubashi shrugged his shoulders, “I am getting acquainted with the locality ... It would be advisable to visit the territory of the mission, look around how it is there, see the approaches to the embassy building.
The colonel nodded, - This is provided. We will give you the opportunity not only to visit the mission, but also to look into the envoy’s office.
- Even so? - He was amazed. - Yes; you will go with the Chinese servant. He will call you son.
Early in the morning, dressed in a blue Chinese clothe, with patches, but clean, freshly washed, Vatatsubashi with his guide, a “student,” approached Mongolian Square from the north, from the side of the imperial city. At the extreme fanz, a thin, middle-aged Chinese with a wrinkled brown face and frightened eyes was waiting for them.
The guide said something harshly to him in the Peking dialect, and the Chinese only bowed their heads, hao, hao …
Between the fences of the English and Russian missions, they approached the north gate, the Chinese pushed the unlocked gate, and they found themselves in the green coolness of the garden. The slanting rays of the morning sun barely penetrated through the dense foliage of the trees, the air was filled with the sweet aroma of flowers, the beds of which approached directly to the open windows of the embassy building, curtained from the inside with loose mosquito netting. To the right, through the sunny lawn, were visible the open gates of the stable, from which a slight throaty neigh of horses, the smell of manure were heard softly ... To the left, hidden by trees and bushes, small houses for mission staff could be seen. Following the beaten-hung Chinese, Vatatsubashi walked around the embassy mansion and went to its southern fa;ade, on the porch of which was a Cossack and smoked a pipe. The gate to Posolskaya Street was wide open; the young man had just brought a beautiful black horse into the street, stepped into the stirrup, jumped into the saddle and, pushing the horse with his knees, directed it towards the canal towards the Japanese mission. Holding the rider with his eyes, the Cossack, deeply drawn out, idly glanced at the Chinese, - Wow, Li, whom did he bring?
- My little-little sick today, son brought, need help. » And when did you get your son?” “He is working in Tianjin, ricksha run,” the Chinese explained. “Well, come on,” the Cossack waved his pipe, losing interest in them. Climbing the stairs, they entered the dark coolness of the house. An open door from the hallway led to the office, as Vatatsubashi understood from a table with a copper ink device, glazed cabinets with cardboard folders in marble stains, and a high desk by the window, an iron simple safe and a row of chairs by the wall. From the hallway, the door to the right led to the apartment of the first secretary of the embassy, which the Chinese servant gave him, and to the left – to the residential quarters of Mr Russian Envoy. Already from the office, the door led to the envoy’s office, with windows on the north, shaded side, as he understood it, into the green of the garden. In the corner, a broom hung on a carnation, and there was a bucket and two copper basins, and in them were rags, a piece of soap, pumice ... And the cleaning of the house began. They washed and rubbed, scrubbed, and carried water from the well at the stable, and again washed, rubbed, scrubbed ... the house, starting with the office and the envoy’s office, whose open windows really went out into the garden, then the five rooms of the Russian master first secretary of the embassy, and already at noon they began to work at the apartment of the late awakened envoy. He had lunch, brought from the kitchen by a Chinese servant of specially cooked rice for them. » The Cossacks gave food,” Li explained in Russian, somehow realizing that his Russian Vatatsubashi would understand better than the Chinese would. After dinner, they went to clean the courtyard in front of the embassy, then the tracks on the right side of the mission, around the staff houses, and by the end of the day began to clean around the stables, lavatory and shed with wood left over from the winter.
In the evening, he spoke in detail about everything to Colonel Shiba and Mr. Adviser Sugiyam and suggested that he get into the Russian embassy that night, but they told him not to hurry, help the Chinese servant for at least a week, carefully read and get used to the Russian mission and the envoy’s office. Each every evening he told about the smallest details of the situation in the building of the Russian mission, to attentively listened Messrs. Shiba and Sugiyama and they went through different versions of plans for abduction of papers.
Finally, it was decided to perform the operation on Saturday night to Sunday, given that Mr. Cassini will definitely have guests this evening, they will drink hard and will disperse no earlier than one in the morning. At two o’clock, Vatatsubashi will move from the fanza to the stable roof, jump into the passage between the stable and the woodshed, using the new moon and the usual deserted person, cross the courtyard in front of the stable with a jump, and sneak into the window of the envoy’s office. The nights are stuffy, so the windows are not closed, and he can easily get into the office. There he, illuminating himself with a flashlight, will open the safe, put all the papers out of it into a bag, and if a lot of them, he will go over in search of the most interesting, from his point of view, and return to the roof of the fanza in the same way. It was decided not to touch the safe in the office, as Mr. Adviser Sugiyama said that there should not be any special securities there, the messenger keeps them. And, secondly, the door from the office is constantly open to the hallway, and that is on the porch, where the Cossack is always on duty. The Chinese servant and the “student” from the Japanese mission will help him deliver the papers to the embassy, and on Sunday, all documents will be re-photographed. On Monday night, he will have to return the papers to the safe and try to put them in the same order as they lay. Chinaman Li, as a dangerous witness and a possible traitor, will be eliminated.
On Saturday, having worked, as usual, together with Li at the cleaning of the mission, Vatatsubashi returned to his room in a roundabout way, ate tightly and fell soundly asleep. He owned himself, and was not going to frighten possible troubles.
At midnight, Mr. Col. Sheba woke him up. He quickly got up, washed, ate, and soon Ichiro Kabura called on him to report that the guests of the Russian envoy had dispersed. Vatatsubashi and Colonel Shiba once again discussed all the options for contingency and, accompanied by Ichiro, went to the fanz of Chinese Li.
Ichiro Kabura raised a sleeping Li and told him to walk on the roof and help him move to the stable of the Russian mission, Mr. Vatatsubashi. Although the Chinese Li had long been expecting something like this, he knew that he would have to pay a high price for the rice and wine stolen from the Russians, but his hands and feet barely obeyed him. His face lit by the pitiful yellow light of a butter bowl, wet with sweat, imploringly shook. A premonition of the most terrible tormented him. » General, don’t go,” he asked, “I feel bad, don’t go ...”Ichiro jerked his hand, “Keep quiet,” and threatened with a revolver. From the roof of the fanza, Vatatsubashi swung send, caught with his hands the sharply hewn logs of the stockade, pulled he up and threw his foot on the roof of the stable. Below, it snorted, stepped over, and the awakened horse leaned heavily against the wall. Vatatsubashi lurking. He spent at least a minute on the roof of the building, listening to the darkness, then crouched low, jumping down into the passage between the stable and the barn. The horse sniffed again. The whole distance from the stable to the kindergarten, from the flowerbed to the flowerbed and up to the fourth window from the corner of the mission building, was repeatedly measured by him in steps and sharpened exactly in memory. Only gently crunched the sand under his feet, but the glossy large leaves of magnolias beat on the face. But here is the window on the vaguely whitening wall of the embassy mansion. Lurking, he sat in the bushes for a couple of minutes, stood up, pushed aside the slightly rustling canopy of the mosquito net with his hand and looked into the room. It was dark, quiet, anxious and mysterious. He knelt on the windowsill, took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the soles of his sandals so as not to leave damp earth on the floor. Quietly dropped into the office and froze. Suddenly, footsteps sounded in the night silence of the sleeping house, and the voice of the Russian envoy asked, “Are you awake, Taras?” “No, sir, Count,” answered a Cossack on duty on the porch at the open door of the house. Steps sounded closer, the door from the main office to the envoy office swung open, and the envoy Count Cassini appeared at the threshold with candelabra about three candles. Vatatsubashi barely had time to sit down beside the writing-table, which stood at the right wall, sideways to the window. The envoy took three unsteady steps from the door to the table, put a candelabrum on it, and turned to the safe. Frozen, Vatatsubashi peered out from around the corner of the tabletop, praying the gods not to interfere, lead the Russian envoy away and not allow him to call the Cossack’s office for any need; otherwise, they would surely find him. However, the envoy poked, without getting into the well, with a key, quietly clicked the lock, and the safe door slowly opened. Graf took out a bundle of papers from his blue satin gown pocket with his left hand and put them on the middle shelf. Then he closed the safe, put the key in his pocket, took the candelabrum, turned, lighting and examining the office, and went out, quietly closing the door. This time he did not say a word to the Cossack, walked over to him, and it was heard how three doors slammed deafly and floorboards squeaked. The house again fell into a sleepy silence. Holding his breath, Vatatsubashi listened and listened, then began to count to himself, deciding that up to fifty would be enough, the Cossack overcame a dream. He counted, exhaled the air, tune in to the first movement, but changed his mind and again counted up to fifty.
The house was quiet and sleepy. Stored so that the floorboards would not creak, he went to the safe, gently stroked it, persuading not to resist, in total darkness he felt the lock hole, quietly inserted the key, froze, listening, but everything was calm. Gently, carefully, sneaking up, afraid to latch the bolt loudly, he turned the key and pulled the handle. Safe opened! In the light of the Russian envoy’s chandelier, Vatatsubashi saw that there was not much paper in the safe, so he decided not to risk rummaging through the light of an electric torch in documents, took a stack from the top shelf and put it in the first pocket of the bag, then took the paper from the next shelf and put it in the second pocket. On the bottom shelf laid a thick book. Is it needed? Then he remembered that this could be a cipher book, and put it in a bag. Squeezing the safe door with his left hand so that the clang of metal would not be heard, he closed the safe, turned the key and felt how the heavy bolt fell into place. It is done! He crept to the window, froze again and heard the Cossack Taras whistle in his sleep with his nose on the porch. “Sleep well,” Vatatsubashi wished him and dived into the garden.
Among the minor papers in the safe of the Russian envoy, a documents in French, diplomatic language were clearly found, which were re-photographed, quickly translated into Japanese and urgently delivered to Tokyo, to the Political Department of Guy-mu sho, where experts attacked it.Thoroughly, diligently examining it, they came to the conclusion that the documents presented in the copy cannot be considered a copy of the text of the agreement between Russia and China sent to Beijing by the Russian Foreign Ministry, as indicated by the absence of the last part – signatures, dates and other details; in the introductory part, the representatives of the Chinese side are not mentioned by name, whereas Cassini is called Russian; the text of the treaty itself is not divided into articles and there are a number of stylistic errors that are impossible for this kind of documents. On the other hand, the stolen documents were of much interest, since, no doubt, it fully reflected the size of Russia’s appetites and, quite possibly, fully included the articles of the treaty, which Russia insisted on. These documents stated the following. China represents Russia the right to build a railway from one of the stations of the Siberian Railway to Aygun-Tsitsikar-Bodune-Jilin and from Vladivostok to Hanchun and further to Jilin, and to use it for thirty years, after which it can be bought by China. Russia has the right to build a railroad from Jilin to Mukden and further to Shanghaiguan, with the right of redemption by China in ten years. The network of roads from Shanghai to the depths of Chinese territory will be built with a five-foot Russian track, to help trade relations between the two countries. To protect all these railroads, Russia is granted the right to keep infantry and cavalry units at important stations. In view of possible hostilities on the Asian mainland, Russia is leasing the port of Jiaozhou for a period of fifteen years, but only in the case of a direct danger of the outbreak of hostilities, so as not to arouse envy or suspicion of other states. In the event of the start of hostilities, Russia receives the right to occupy the ports of the Liaodong Peninsula, and until then China is committed to strengthening them militarily and not giving in to anyone. In addition, Russia receives the right to explore and develop ore wealth in the Girin and Heilundzyan provinces, but in each person case with the permission of not state authorities, but local authorities. Sumitsu-in, the Privy Council of the Empire, assembled to discuss the document did not reach a unanimous opinion. First, what is it? A carefully designed fake, slipped to provoke Japan to seize Liaodong and, using the pretext presented in this case, using the forces of three allied fleets – Russia, France and Germany – to blockade the coast of Japan, destroy its fleet and, perhaps, after the British, bombing its ports? Either a genuine, already developed, but not yet approved in the last version of the draft convention, sent for probing further steps in Tsungli-Yamin? And if the authorship of these documents belongs to Count Cassini himself? Judging by the available dossier, Cassini fancies himself Talleyrand. And is it not the tricks of the British, at least with the goal of activating Japan to a more harsh opposition of Russia? Secondly – what response should be taken? Diplomatic demarche? Military? For example, to occupy Korea and stand on the border with China, albeit in violation of the treaty just concluded with Russia, during coronation celebrations in Moscow? Tighten financial requirements for China to change the Shimonoseki peace treaty? Or maybe to pretend that they do not attach importance to the treaty being prepared or are not at all aware of the machinations of Russia in China? After lengthy discussions, it was decided to publish the stolen document in the English-speaking Shanghai newspaper, in Beijing it was not like that, to draw the attention of all countries involved in trade with China to Russia’s desire to start its commercial operation, even if veiled under the transit railway line, to push them to kind of claims to China, and thereby provoke internal discontent in China, a reaction of resistance. Moreover, there are very strong populist, nationalist movements, not only in the lower classes, but also among the highest Manchu nobility. Then in every way possible to work to discredit the Russians in China and Korea, using any opportunity for that. To provoke indignations, organize clashes, even armed ones, and local people with Russians, and in general Europeans, regardless of the nature of their activities. So that in time, we can get our hands on China. Hakkoitiu! - The world is under one roof! - should begin with the accession of Korea and China to Japan.

IVAN IVASHNIKOV.  SEOUL-FUSAN.  RUSSIANS IN KOREA.
 
Surprisingly easy, Ivashnikov got close to En Pan-sa, a Russian mission translator.  He lived for several years in Vladivostok and was distinguished among his fellow members in large numbers, of tall stature and the habit of wearing European clothes.  Despite the well-known democracy inherent in the inhabitants of multinational Russia, here, in a small Russian colony, there was a certain tension in relations with the natives, apparently due to the complete ignorance of the local language, the palpable hostility of Koreans to all foreigners and successfully introduced by the British, Americans and Germans spirit of ”White man”. En-pan-sa lived in the mission area, at a half of the king, and enjoyed the many respect of the royal retinue.  Ivashnikov several times addressed him with insignificant requests, purely linguistic, trying to improve his Korean, and En pan-sa eagerly enlightened him.  The translator belonged to those noble people who barely overpower themselves by asking for a favour, but with great joy seeking to help others.  A Korean of Ivashnikov, poor knowledge of realities and customs, all this needed a hint, if not permanent care.  And En-pan-sa soon gladly undertook to be his guide through the city and a teacher of language and customs, although he was extremely busy.  Yes, the responsibilities of Ivashnikov did not diminish, despite the arrival in Seoul of Colonel Putyata with fourteen junior officers and the military doctor Chervinsky, for training Korean troops and the bodyguard of King Kojeong.
Through the back gate of the mission, they slipped out onto the main dusty street and started wandering around the city, scrambled up the steep hills, bypassing the city wall made of large boulders with interest, slowly, inspected all six city gates, the cornices of which were decorated with cast-iron images of mythical animals  the wooden gates were painted as a national coat of arms of folded head to tail blue and red tadpoles;  admired from the most higher part of the city - from the Northern Gate - the view of the capital, in a narrow valley, between hills and even hills;  inspected loopholes, made in the fortress wall for defense against the enemy;  low arches over streams to supply the city with drinking water, taken away by strong wrought-iron grates;  visited the ancient monastery located next to the Northern Gate, behind the city wall, near which, under a roof with upturned edges on a huge stone block, stood a carved Buddha stone;  with difficulty, gliding and stumbling, moved through the city streams along the ancient stone bridges, which had become unusable, but not repaired;  climbed up a cone-shaped hill called Hill Nyanzaam, almost in the center of the city, where they listened to the guardian’s story about how, when the bell was ringing, they kindled lights on five stone pillars to send messages and orders from the capital to all ends of the Korean kingdom;  with special curiosity, examined a red wooden chapel with an altar adjoining the guardhouse-pyrotechnics, which stood not far from the hut, and a young, beautiful, full of strength, sweetly smacked monk, the head of this often visited church, stay at night, which, according to popular rumor, relieves women from infertility; marveled at the bazaar to the countless multitude of various Korean, Chinese and Japanese petty items and knick-knacks laid out on bright mats, piles of seaweed, iridescent with all the colors of the rainbow with blue moir; backs still alive with mackerel, dried and very salty Pollock,, become popular with Korean mackerel, as a vobla on the Volga, ram in Little Russia and Keta on Amur, with the bright green of the fleshy leaves of tannamuli and tsu going to the soup, gently touched the fingers of small lifeless octopuses; they went into the front rooms of the  fanzas, which were adapted to the shops, gray rows frozen along the narrow streets, where they mainly sold rice, dried fruits, and occasionally game and drugs of oriental medicine, including those from the roots and seeds of lotus, ginseng, antlers of deer and hearts and tiger liver; again inspected the walls, arches, bridges, bullied heads in a stone bag between the old and later towers of the East Gate; they were amazed at the art of the ancient stonecutters, who had cut a wide road through the rock, the so-called “Peking Pass” to the Western Gate, through which ambassadors of God arrived; they stroked the warm wood of the varnished carving of the side columns of the triangular arch that had been destroyed for more than a year, erected six years ago in honor of the last visit to Seoul by the ambassadors of the Emperor of the Heavenly Empire; wandered through the old, painted red paint with a massive roof bent up on the Chinese style long-abandoned royal palace, accompanied by two fat, yellow, unhealthy type of eunuchs-guides, who occupied the small room in the ruins of the palace, with nasty child-female voices scared in disgusting stories about ghosts, allegedly inhabiting the palace; they put their ear to a low, no more than a foot above the ground of the hanging “Big Bell”, which, after being hit on it with a heavy hammer, hums for a long time; They tasted great grapes, unusually sweet and fragrant bright orange tangerines, watery pears, large fragrant striped apples and other fruits that they bought from stray traders.
In these long wanderings around the city, En Pan-sa introduced Ivashnikov to the history of the country, which helped him understand current events.
- The name Korea comes from the abbreviated name of the small kingdom of Ko-Koray, lurking in the snowy mountains in northeast Manchuria.  The warlike people of this small kingdom alternately conquered their neighbors, the kingdoms of Fuyu and Cho-Sen. Wise Chinese historians claim that the Korean nation is descended from descendants of the Fuy tribe.  In immemorial times, a clan made up of several families left Fuyu and south of the Ielo River, founded its own state.  A man named Ko-Korai was elected king.  As the number of inhabitants increased, the kingdom expanded until it swallowed the neighboring small states.  During the period of the Three Kingdoms in China — the third century according to the European calendar — the kingdom was established in the northern part of the peninsula and its capital, Pingyang, was established on the bank of the Tethong River.  Seeing the growth of the new state, and considering it still weak, China in the sixth century went to war with him.  However, the brave Korean people put the many Chinese armies to flight.  The Chinese gathered forces and again attacked a small state, and they were so many that the Korean army could not resist, the Chinese managed to conquer the country.  The kingdom of Ko-Korai was destroyed, and for a long three centuries, the country was annexed to China, until, having gathered forces at the expense of newcomers from the northwest, in the tenth century the people revolt.  The uprising was led by a Buddhist monk Kung-Wo, who declared himself king.  One of the officers of his army named Wang, who considered himself a descendant of the dead Ko-Korai dynasty, overthrew the monk king, established himself on the royal throne, and even taking advantage of the civil war in China, he annexed the kingdom of Shinra to his state.
This made it possible to avoid for nearly two centuries the devastating invasions of the Chinese armies.  However, the Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan in the thirteenth century overwhelmed Korea and tried to move to Japan from here, but without success.  The mighty hurricane disheveled Genghis Khan’s numerous flotillas and destroyed a significant part of his troops, and the survivors had to leave.  Korea, which was constantly vassal of China, began to attract the greedy eyes of neighboring Japan.  First, in agreement with the ruler of the neighboring island of Tsushima, the Korean king in the port of Fusan allowed the permanent residence of Japanese merchants and regular trade between the two countries.  Not content with this, at the end of the sixteenth century, the Japanese shogun Hideyoshi sent a hundred and fifty thousand strong army to seize Korea, which the Japanese could easily do.  Bought out a light tribute from China, Korea had no enemies, its army was weak, the cities were poorly protected, and the weapons were outdated.  Moreover, the Japanese have already used firearms, bought by them from the Portuguese traders.  With the help of China, which sent the two hundred thousandth army, the Japanese were driven to the very edge of the peninsula, but this five-year war cost Korea such enormous casualties among the population that the development of the country hopelessly lagged behind the flying time.  Moreover, conquering China, in the seventeenth century, the Manchus invaded Korea, seized the capital and forced the king, as a sign of obedience, to send their two sons to Beijing as hostages.  Having experienced such terrible upheavals, having lost a mass of people and seeing the country plundered and devastated, the Korean kings decided to completely abandon all sorts of ties with the outside world in order not to give anyone reasons to interfere in the affairs of the country.  We could not build a giant wall, like the Chinese one, but formed a barrier on the borders, setting up armed cordons and prohibiting any economic activity there.  In order not to be a bait for foreign seafarers, the seacoasts were devastated, shipping was sharply limited, and foreigners, who, like the Portuguese Hamel, had gone to Korea, were delayed for long, long years.  Therefore, Korea and became known as a “hermit state” and “forbidden country.”  Until the beginning of our century, little trade with China was conducted only for two or three days a year at the border and in Fusan there was little trade with Japan.
Ivashnikov repeatedly visited him in a small but neat fanza where his father lived — an official of the Seoul governorate, mother, wife, a very attractive young woman, who had a happy smile when meeting her husband, two younger brothers who had studied in Russian school and grandmother.  And En Pan-sa gradually overcame his restraint, and increasingly began to enter his room in the mission. “My poor country,” he continued to say, “Is so poor that very often, because of floods or drought, people are starving and are forced to sell their children into slavery or go to the Russian Maritime Region. — Slavery?  — For Ivashnikov it sounded crazy. — Yes, all the land in the state belongs to the king, who appoints from among the privileged Yanban class, the same as the Russian nobility, to all official posts in the kingdom — from the village headman to the minister.  The king rents the land only to Yanbans, and they, in turn, process it with the forces of their slaves or servants, and only the most inconvenient, bad and tiny parts are rented out. Those born from slaves become slaves, trapped in debt bondage also become slaves, and only by hiding in the Russian limits can slavery be avoided. “I myself,” En Pan-sa continued, with a guilty smile, “Yanban was of origin, but since I do not occupy a bureaucratic place in the royal service, but I work as a translator in the Russian mission, I began to relate to the middle class — Chunying.  We also have commoners — the Yanginas — all those who live by their labour and trade — peasants, artisans, merchants, musicians, singers, dancers ... State religion — Confucianism — persistently pursues the dogma of the unquestioning obedience of the people to the power of the king and the firmness of separation society on the estate.  All of this, together, so squeezed my poor Korea in the rigid framework of hopeless hopelessness, that, willy-nilly, eventually, people should have thought of searching for a way out.  From time immemorial Korea was in vassal dependence on China, but the Celestial Empire itself was so hardened in ancient canons, itself was so interested in the inviolability of the existing situation in Korea, that it was necessary to look for another, if not suzerain, patron in any case.  And there was a lot of harassment.  About thirty years ago, the French and Americans attempted to set up themselves in our land by force, but we responded to force with force and successfully repelled their military landings.  There was such a situation that we could enter into an alliance with one of the three powers — China, Russia or Japan, as our closest neighbors.  The Celestial Empire suited the royal court by guaranteeing the usual mode of government and existence.  However, she did not suit the one, albeit a small, circle of enlightened ones, — he singled out this word, — young people who want to modernize the country.  Moreover, the example of something closes.  Yes, — he nodded to Ivashnikov, — the Japanese empire of the current Meiji era.  What a leap from closure, stagnancy and backwardness to the growth of industry and commerce, education and culture.  Our “progressives” began to orient themselves towards Japan. Ivashnikov and Minaev already had a close meeting and a serious conversation with the “progressists”, so the ensign and pricked up his ears.
— Fifteen years ago, great unrest began in the country, caused by the oppression of the people by our rulers of all levels and ranks.  It was possible to extinguish these unrests by unlimited promises, and then by police measures, but discontent inevitably had to break out again.  And two years later, yes, on eighty-third, the “progressives,” enlisting the Japanese envoy with promises of the broadest support and help, attempted a coup.  The time they chose was seemingly good.  China at that time was occupied by a war with France over Ton kin.  As often happens in such cases, the “progressives” believed in their strength and luck.  The head of the movement was Kim Ok-kyun, the first person in the kingdom after the king.  He pinned his hopes on top officials, army officers and soldiers, who, for a long time, had become a habit, if not a custom, had not been given a salary for months or even years.  But his opponents in the Chinese party did not sleep either, and ready for a fight that became known to Kim Ok-kyun.  The Progressists began to exterminate their opponents and called for help the Japanese, of whom there were more than two hundred in the capital as part of the protection of the Japanese mission, and even captured the palace along with the king.  The Chinese party raised its supporters, brought Chinese and Korean military units to the streets in Seoul, and forces more than three thousand people knocked out the Progressists and the Japanese from the city.  At that time, relations between China and Japan became aggravated to such an extent that they almost led to war, and China had to retreat, pledging under the Tianjin Treaty not to keep troops in Korea.  Kim Ok-kyun fled to Japan, his family was completely exterminated, and he, ten years later, was killed in Shanghai.  After the Japanese were expelled from Seoul, the Mikado had the idea to send troops to Korea and seize the southern part of the country, but the Russian envoy to Tokyo Davydov, who managed to prevent the war, intervened. Since then, our relations with Japan have become strained, which was noticeably felt in the king’s entourage, and especially among the people.  Ordinary people were extremely unhappy with the dominance of the Japanese in the trade and production of goods, because their cheap products filled Korea, and local goods did not find buyers.  It was then that the first time the hope arose in the immediate vicinity of the Queen to find a strong patron in Russia.  The Russians were given the right to settle in the capital and major port cities, buy land and cost homes.  But you know Russian indiscretion.  Except, perhaps, the merchant Shevelev and the whaler Dydymov, at that time there was not a single Russian interested in trade with Korea.  And the persistent harassment of China, Japan, European countries and the United States of North America continued.  Europeans cautiously crawled into Korea, sending missionaries here and opening religious schools.  Then the monks were alarmed, because the alien missionaries attempted upon the minds of people, averted them from the religion of their ancestors, taught heresies, forbade them to pray in temples and idols, and deprived the monks of their already meager food.  Religious sect To-gaga something, that is, Eastern Sciences, persecuted by the official Korean religion, excited the rural and poor urban population, blaming foreigners for the deterioration of life.  Their mottoes are - “Society must be transformed according to the virtuous principles of Confucius. Law must be restored, for which Japanese barbarians must be expelled. Officials and noblemen must be expelled from Seoul by armed force. Moral concepts will again come into effect on the basis of the teachings of the Chinese sages” — found widespread support especially among the poor Yanban, Chunin and Yangin.  Three years ago, in the spring, a small group of Tongkak — proselytes of this sect — the villagers came to the palace and petitioned the king to stop persecution of them, to recognize the founder of their sect as a martyr, holy and innocent of the charges against him Our poor king promised to carry out their petition, but the governors of the provinces began to seize the well-known tongaks, which led to an explosion of discontent and an uprising broke out next spring.  Excited by Tongak people seized power in the settlements — from villages to cities — and forced all men to join them.  During this uprising, many Japanese died, not only because they were not particularly loved in Korea, but also because a great many of them multiplyed here.  Then the Japanese introduced their troops and suppressed the uprising by force.  Suppressing the rebellion, they captured Seoul and the palace with the king and queen.  The Chinese, outraged by the clear violation of the Treaty of Tianjin, tried to offer armed resistance to Japan, but were cruelly defeated.  And you know about the Shimonoseki peace treaty.  Our queen did not want Korea to be dependent on Japan, but most of all she feared for the welfare of the Min family, from which she was born and which is considered the richest in the country.  Having a great influence on the king, she demanded that he seek the protection and patronage of Russia.  The Japanese were well aware of the mood of the queen; they everywhere had their spies, knew her strong character, feared her influence on the king, and plotted to kill the queen.  In September of last year, at night, the Japanese surrounded the royal palace, dispersed the guards and rushed inside.  The king, powerless to protect the queen and himself, ordered Lee Bom-chzhin, his cousin, to flee for help to the Russian and American missions.  Meanwhile, the Japanese were looking for the queen in all the rooms of the palace.  They were so brutalized that, not knowing the queen in the face, they began to kill the women from the queen’s retinue.  The queen, who was among her maids of honor, could not stand the sight and rushed to run.  A Japanese officer caught up with our poor queen, knocked her down with his fist, jumped up on her chest and slaughtered with saber.  Then the Japanese took the queen to a nearby grove, poured kerosene and burned her.  The Russian envoy, Mr. Weber, arrived late at the palace when this crime had already happened.  Immediately after the murder of the queen, all the supporters of rapprochement with China and Russia were removed from the number of ministers and then killed.  The Japanese, who had seized the country, began  forcefully change our national customs, forbade wearing Korean clothes, smoking long pipes, and told the men to cut coiffures on their heads, which was perceived as an insult.  The king was afraid to share the fate of the queen and in January of this year, in a palanquin, where the maid of honor, guarding the body of the queen, arrived at the palace, he and the heir managed to slip out of the Japanese guarded palace and hide here in the Russian mission.  The people with glee learned about the salvation of the king and tore to pieces on the market square two ministers, henchmen of the Japanese.
In the words of En Pan-sa there was such bitterness, such pity for the deceased queen and the disgraced king, such indignation towards the Japanese that Ivashnikov only needed to breathe out, — I see, you have a stormy life.
— Now, especially after the conclusion of the Russian-Korean agreement in Moscow this May, the situation in the country is such that only strengthening of Russian positions, mainly in finance, the army and industry of Korea can join the sympathies of the king and the people towards you, the Russians …
Autumn was cloudy, rainy.  One by one typhoons fell upon the city, from the provinces’ news of many disasters brought on by terrible winds and turbulent floods from the mountains flooded, food prices in shops and in the bazaar grew dramatically, that commoners met with a storm of indignation.Ivashnikov continued his, mostly solitary, forays into the city, without fear of being recognized, mainly from distant, narrow, cramped, dirty, covered with fallen yellow leaves, broken off by the wind branches and brought by water from where did the garbage from the streets; he squatted and savored the fruit of the braziers of the bushes, conspicuous in his wide white hats, tradesmen in food, went to the little poor shops and tried to master perfectly distinctive, sharply different from Chinese, Manchu and Japanese Korean languages, perfectly true, recent borrowing from the languages of neighbors and even English and Russian.  English is understandable: numerous missionary schools introduced mainly church phraseology into the lexicon; Russian, however, was rarely and sharply, in the form of short orders and was learned, it is not difficult to guess, by many spectators watching the drill squad of Korean platoons led by Russian officers on a wide parade ground near our mission.  Sometimes the problem of the dominance of foreigners raised in conversations of people was reduced mainly to the hopes of the king’s wisdom.  Commoners often expressed displeasure with the crafty Japanese, but willingly bought their cheap goods. Several times in the past two months, Kim Jin-ho came to Seoul, but he was only able to meet with her once.  Her uncle for the important services to the king during his flight from his palace to the Russian mission was appointed metropolitan governor and moved from the mission to his residence.  But Kim Jin-ho under a far-fetched pretext visited the mission of half the king.  Ivashnikov was lucky to see her, and they took a minute to meet   The conversation really did not work.  Ivashnikov admired her face more, felt anguish that the meeting was so short, and she, too, was constrained.  Their conversation was incoherent.  Kim Jin-Ho, however, said that she hoped to move to Seoul, to her uncle, by the end of the year.  Then she confided to him that the sympathies of young people who studied in missionary schools belong more to Americans, British and even Japanese than Russian, and that a hostile Russian speech is being prepared at the upcoming Kechkhunchhol festival — the Day of the National Establishment of Korea.  The initiators of this venture are young noble people united in the so-called “Society of Independence”, where an active role is played by the young Yanban Lee Syn-man. Ivashnikov immediately informed Oleg Nikolaevich after the meeting, and he went to report to Colonel Putyata.  Colonel General Staff Putyata, who had long served in the Far East and wherever he had not been, was sent to Korea with the authority of a military adviser to the king, the main instructor of Korean troops and a detachment of bodyguards of the king.  At the envoy’s meeting, the current situation was assessed, the confrontation of two of the most prominent parties in Seoul — the Russophiles, interested in staying the king in our mission as a guarantee against the persistent economic harassment of the Japanese, and the Tonnip Hephwe party — the Independence Society, using the slogan of struggle for a strong, prosperous Korea for support among all segments of the population.  It was decided to place the Korean soldiers who carried the King’s guard in the mission outside the fence, and to be ready to repel a possible attack. Two days later, the Day of the National Establishment of Korea came.  In the morning, the sun was shining brightly, but the air was fresh and sharply cool in the autumn, only smelled of smoke from the autumn garbage, vegetable tops and fallen leaves in the gardens and streets.  By order of Colonel Putyata, who knew warrant officer Ivashnikov wearing Korean clothes about the city about walks, he went to a holiday, to the Western Gate, where the “Peking Pass” ended and the triangular arch, which had been destroyed and burned for about a month.  Now, a new one, called the “Arch of Independence”, has been erected in its place. For the opening of the arch, a crowd of thousands of five people gathered, most of them exalted young people in elegant rich clothes.  Members of the English, French and American missions and missionary priests held a separate handful.  Our and Japanese envoys were not present, thus finding polarization of interests.  Young people loudly chanted slogans of independence of Korea, sang the hymns “Korea” and “Song of Independence”, shouted about the future prosperity and the fight against the domination of foreigners.  Then Mr. Sill, the envoy of the North American United States, climbed onto the da;s and, through an interpreter, began to promise widespread support for Korea and the English and French envoys promised unselfish help after him. Ivashnikov listened to exclamations, laughter, jokes, read mood swings on his faces — from approvingly enthusiastic to harshly hostile, and felt that the youth was warmed up cautiously to attack the Russian mission to “free our poor king.”  Getting out of the crowd, he hurried to the mission, where he was eagerly awaited.  Having listened carefully, Colonel Putyata ordered that hour to saddle his horse and rush to Chemulpo for help.
Past the blue Korean tents with soldiers sleeping inside on red paper blankets and Remington rifles in disarray lying in front of the tents, past low fanzas with blue and yellow haze over the pipes, past stone fences, along narrow streets, through the south-west gate along the road to Chemulpo galloping Ivashnikov on his black Amethyst, fearing being late, did not have time to bring help, to find the defeated mission and his comrades killed.  The Koreans, wandering towards, looked with amazement at the galloping Russian officer and hurriedly made way for him. These twenty miles to the river Ivashnikov galloped in a single spirit.  And here he did not wait for the small sluggish ferry, always hammered with the eternally dissatisfied loud ferryman, and crossed the river on the shallows upstream, wetting his trousers.  At the hotel, which was kept by Japanese, he jumped off his horse, ordered the Korean servant who had approached to give the horse a measure of oats and decided to have a snack and rest for a while.  It was the last shot to Chemulpo and the horse needed rest.  The dining room to the right of the entrance was reserved for Europeans and furnished in European style: tables, wooden chairs with high backs, white tablecloths on napkins, and chinaware and cupronickel appliances.  Ivashnikov sat down to the table sideways and made an order to the waiter. As he entered the hotel, he noticed a keen gaze thrown in his direction by the owner, who was standing by the window and talking to a low, dense Korean, but did not attach much importance to this.  Five minutes later Ivashnikov heard the restless neighing of his Amethyst and some fuss at the entrance to the hotel.  Jumping out into the yard, he knocked down a dense Korean, who was obviously trying to detain him, making way for the door.  The other two Koreans in tattered and dirty clothes and hair hats incrusted to the new manners tried to take Amethyst away, but he was wildly neighing and strove to press them sideways to the concord. “Away, the bastards,” Ivashnikov snatched the revolver out of its holster and shot at the sky, remembering the lesson of lieutenant Minaev.  The door slammed behind him, and with lateral vision, he saw that he already bringing an iron poker over him had shot down the Korean.  Instinctively, Ivashnikov swung to the right with his last effort and felt a sharp pain in his left collarbone.  Not holding back, from the heart he struck with the heavy grip of a revolver on the head of the enemy and had already decided to shoot at the attackers on Amethyst, but they soberly assessed the situation and, screaming in fright, ran in different directions. The owner who jumped out to the shot incessantly bowed and repeated - tongkak, Tongkak, Tongkak ... Galloping, holding the bridle in his left, and the revolver in his right hand, choking on pain, anger, lack of air, Ivashnikov rode the remaining way to the sea, saw the harbor and the town Chemulpo and began to search for the”Koreyets” gun boat standing on the roadstead.  He was terribly pleased with the familiar silhouette, and, having given Amethyst a will, let him go.  On the way, through the hollows and manes of the hills, he descended to the bay and immediately saw a boat from the ”Koreyets” standing at the shore.  Due to the high tides, the steamboats did not come close to the coast here, and the communication with them was carried out by dedicated boats.  The sailors already knew him in person, and that time they brought him to the ship.  Captain 2nd rank commander Lindstrom listened carefully, played alarm and, having built a crew, appointed eighty lower ranks and two officers, almost the entire crew, on an immediate trip to Seoul.  Having taken one mountain mortar and having rented fifty horses and two dozen carts for three hours with the help of our sales agent in Chemulpo, they set off after dark after the march.  Early in the morning, they entered the city, producing a commotion and causing horror of the inhabitants, which was clearly readable on the faces of the people they met.  The attack on the mission did not take place, and the king, having believed in the power of the Russians, ordered the arrest of all those whom he considered to be supporters of the Japanese.

King Kojong occupied the right half of the main building of the Russian diplomatic mission, recently built a large beautiful house.  Although the Russian soldiers carried the guard of the mission, they naturally did not have the right to prevent foreign diplomats accredited in Seoul from visiting the king and his ministers, who for the most part lived on the half of king.  It must be said that during the days in the mission and next to it, an enormous amount of all kinds of courtiers and servants dangled — eunuchs, ministers, military leaders, servants, servants of ministers and officials, greengrocers, pontoonmen, cooks, grooms, porters of decorated wooden palanquins, outside of which courtiers were not  dared, according to etiquette, appear on the streets.  And all this created a hefty crowd, hubbub and bustle in the mission area and deprived it of respectable peace and tranquility of the cozy missions of the Americans and the Japanese.  Therefore, when foreign diplomats approached the stone gates of the mission crowned with a Russian double-headed eagle, the guards froze into a crutch, and the duty officer was obliged to escort them to the king’s chambers.
Recently, the Japanese envoy of Komura, who has long been concerned about the deterioration of Japanese-Korean relations, has become visibly frequent with the Korean king.  According to Korean etiquette, he usually arrived in a wooden palanquin draped with yellow and green silk with golden balls on the roof, carried by eight porters at once and surrounded by a detachment of armed guards for greater importance. First, King Kojong tried, observing his royal dignity and as a sign of indifference, to make waiting envoy Komura in a small hallway, but the Japanese, after waiting a couple of minutes for decorum, resolutely moved on, and the king was forced to give him an audience.
Everyone in the mission was terribly intrigued by the negotiations, but the king and his closest associates, despite their sympathy for the Russians, did not devote themselves to the details.  The general direction of the negotiations was clear from the beginning — the restoration of the positions lost by the Japanese.  The most knowledgeable was, as expected, En Pan-sa.  After almost daily conversations with him, our envoy made the longest dispatches to St. Petersburg.  Ivashnikov’s joint walks with En Pan-sa stopped for some time, but one evening, after a polite knock, the translator went to Ivashnikov.
Ensign slowly brewed fresh Chinese jasmine tea, which he loved very much for the indescribable aroma, and in deep silence, but with obvious mutual sympathy, they drank a cup, and then started talking.
“I understand that everyone is very interested in Komura’s talks with the king.”  Until recently, I knew little, but now the situation has cleared up.  I will not show any secret; I will only tell you that the world will know literally these days.
Ivashnikov shook his head in disbelief, “But how many people in the world are interested in events in such a remote corner of the globe?”
But En Pan-sa misunderstood his doubt and assured him ardently, “Yes, very soon.”  And I have already told Mr. Weber everything, and I have learned from Lee Bom-chjin, the cousin of the king and his closest adviser, ” En Pan-sa added ingenuously.
— The Japanese envoy, Mr. Komura, told the King about the secret articles of the Russian-Japanese treaty about Korea.  He presented it to the king in such a way that Russia in his eyes turned out to be a deceiver and traitor to Korea.  According to Komura, it turned out that it was Russia that proposed the partition of Korea between Russia and Japan.
Ivashnikov was outraged by such low defamation.  “But the king sees our disinterestedness and can compare it with the greed of the Japanese!”
— Komura imposed on the king the opinion that Russia does not want to help Korea with anything — the loan does not represent, private capital does not invest, behind the king’s back agreed with Japan about dividing the country and increasing the number of its military here, which, although provided by the Russian-Korean agreement very dangerous and confirms her intentions.
“However, it was he who came running to us to hide,” Ivashnikov objected, “he knew that only the Russians could save him.
— The memory of good people is short, and the king — just a man.  Now the Japanese are offering him money, asking for concessions for the construction of railways from the extreme south to the border with China and have launched a wide trade of their goods throughout the country.  Americans, French and British — everyone is in a hurry to give loans to Korea, ask for concessions for the construction of railways, including Seoul — Chemulpo, and connecting the capital to the port is very important.  Russia does not invest money in Korea; it only requires that the construction of railways be conducted with Russian broad gauge.  Then it will be impossible to use it — no one in the world produces such locomotives and cars.
“How does the king understand that the Japanese need railways to quickly deliver troops from ports to any part of Korea and further to the borders of Manchuria, China.”
“And to your borders,” Yong Pan-sa anxiously looked into Ivashnikov’s eyes.
“Well, the Japanese won’t dare to fight with us,” Ivashnikov smiled indulgently at the interlocutor’s naivety.
“Who knows,” he said thoughtfully.  — In a word, under the influence of Komura and Brown, the gratitude of our King of Russia is rapidly diminishing.  Mr. Weber told the king that a Russian finance adviser will arrive here soon and that Russia will give a large financial loan through the Russian-Chinese bank, but these are just promises.  The king hesitates: whether he should give in to the insistence of Komura, Brown and the Tonnip Hephwe party and move to his Chandokkun palace or stay in the Russian mission.
— Indeed, his memory is short ...“Yes, only the fear of the Japanese keeps him here,” added En pan-sa.
In early December, Ivashnikov and Lieutenant Korn summoned the envoy and, describing briefly the political situation in Korea, asked to go to Fusan, where, according to his information, Vladivostok industrial commerce adviser Shevelev was now located.  They were instructed to discuss with Mr. Shevelev the possibilities of expanding Russian entrepreneurship and trade with Korea and to find out how deeply Japanese had their roots in the south of the country. Mikhail G. Shevelev was a prominent figure in Vladivostok.  One of the pioneers of the region, he was engaged in all kinds of industrial and commercial activities: he maintained a bank office and loan office, organized an insurance company, sold gunpowder, cut the rope, made matches, supplied the entire Far Eastern region with agricultural tools and, moreover, was a pioneer of cultural agriculture and herding — his farm Kangauz was considered exemplary, and the products from it were the best in the region for a long time.  And most importantly, he laid the foundation for small cabotage in the Far East, buying and chartering steamboats and organizing regular voyages along the Primorye coast and to Sakhalin.  In Vladivostok, Mr. Shevelev was famous for hospitality and kindheartedness, and Ivashnikov knew his beautiful daughter well. On a small boat, belonging to the Japanese company Nippon Yuzen Kaisha and making flights from Nagasaki along the Korean and Chinese coasts, from Chemulpo on the second day the Russians reached Fuzan.  Extensive Fuzan bay, protected from the sea by the Deer Island, divided the high cape into two parts.  On the shore of the western part, the Japanese city of Fusan is spaciously located, and by the end of the eastern one, the Korean town of Busan was stuck. Having descended to the customs pier, they hired two porters to deliver the suitcases to Mr. Shevelev’s house and set off after them. A small plot of land and the house of Mr. Shevelev were in a Japanese city. He met them hospitably, took two rooms on the second floor, offered to sit and rest off the road, and he went to his sales agent American Smith. “In two or three hours I’ll be back,” he added, “then let’s talk in detail, and slowly.” Ivashnikov and lieutenant Korn took baths, dressed in fresh linen, had lunch and, waiting for the owner, decided it was to walk around the city, but then they heard confident steps.  The owner returned soon. They are comfortably seated in low leather armchairs in a spacious room with wide windows to the bay and Deer Island.  The servant brought coffee and Japanese mineral water in a tall dark glass bottle, and Mikhail Grigorievich began to question them about the situation in Seoul and the latest embassy news. Ivashnikov was more silent; Lieutenant Korn with a fair amount of sarcasm spoke about recent events and gossip, and then outlined the request of the envoy. Shevelev rose, walked over to the window, looked thoughtfully at the bay, Deer Island, the blue Tsushima Islands far away on the horizon, turned around and spoke sadly. — Have you been to Vladivostok?  Khabarovsk? “Yes, yes,” Ivashnikov and Korn nodded. “Then, without a doubt, you paid attention to the signs of trading establishments on the central streets: Langelitje, Lindholm, Conrad, Elvanger, Kunst and Albers, Tun-li... and many others.  Virtually all trade in the Amur region took in hands foreigners.  Why it happens?  Relatively large merchants and entrepreneurs of Vladivostok, Semenov, Startsev and I are trying to widely introduce the Russian name and Russian money, but the laws of fierce competition reign here, which we do not withstand.  Our funds are limited, it has already been invested in various areas of industry, commerce, banking and insurance, but do not bring large dividends.  Semenov is now busy fishing for seaweed and seafood in Primorye and in the south of Sakhalin; Startsev, mainly in the family tradition, have sold tea, disappearing for months in Tianjin; I am trying to set up small cabotage and flights along the Korean coast.  We do not have an industry as such, that is, a wide fabrication of products for sale in the Far East, and we cannot set up trade with Korea.  Yes, we buy some livestock, rice, chumiz, and all ... But, due to lack of funds, in very small quantities.  Tit Titichi and Pud Pudychy, as the merchant brother in Russia ironically calls our country, do not want to invest here.  The main reason is that in our Far East there is very little Russian population.  Yes, and those that are, or clumsy, got little houses, belongings, families, and you can’t move them, can only drink bitter and play the harmonica... And, as if in confirmation of his words, a harmonica, obviously drunk, began to play quite badly somewhere nearby. — Here’s another Russian, behind the steamer, comes to beg for money and lower them in Japanese taverns. — For flights on the Korean coast and the expansion of trade erratic in Korea, I managed to acquire, with the greatest difficulty, here and in Genzan, it is not far from our border, small tracts of land.  But the plot in Fuzan, as you can see, is very uncomfortable, on a steep bank, below the sea are Korean fanzas and, most importantly, in a Japanese city.  The Japanese consul has already demanded to sell the house and clear the warehouse.  And in Genzan, I was offered only a narrow strip of swamp steps about ten wide and one hundred fifty long.  I drained the marsh and built a house and a warehouse for storage of cargo there, but the Englishman, the customs director, who is completely disposing of it, demands that the authorities demolish my buildings, as they allegedly impede the expansion of customs.  My telegrams are not accepted at the post office, referring to the telegraph is damaged, although this is an obvious lie.  Moreover, the Japanese broke into the warehouse and looted all the goods, but refuse to pay for them.  We are accustomed to considering the merchants dashing merchants-cunning rogues. However, we are here and pioneer — remember the development of the Okhotsk seacoast, Kamchatka, Russian America, Sakhalin; and the founders of civilian settlements — even though Yakov Semenov, without him, perhaps Vladivostok would have remained a military post; and the engines of education, and patriots, and defenders of Russian interests.  I look at young people with university badges, of whom many sit in the office of the Kunst and Albers trading house on Svetlanskaya Street and become bitter to me.  What do you spend yourself on — wine, cards, women ... But don’t you give your knowledge for the benefit of Russia, will you start fighting a foreign merchant who uses our inertia, laziness and ignorance? It was clear that Mr. Shevelev was ardently and jealously worried about sluggishness, awkwardness, so that, out of complete indifference of Russian merchants, not only to Korea, but even to his own Primorye.
— Now about foreigners in Korea.  In Genzan, such as, there are several missionaries — Americans, British and French.  The North American Presbyterian mission was founded there twelve years ago and, above all, they opened a school for children and a hospital, which Koreans attend very readily.  A Japanese consulate, a Buddhist temple, a Japanese school, three pharmacies, three hospitals, two post offices, about three hundred shops with various Japanese goods, a hotel with billiards, a Japanese restaurant and several taverns were opened in Genzan.  A young Japanese man opened a school for Korean kids in Genzan.  He bought a house, school desks and textbooks with his own money, the training is free.  Here he is — a patriot of his fatherland, seeking to place the Korean people towards Japan.  In Fuzan, and even more.  It has been open to the Japanese for about twenty years now, and they have practically built their own city here.  The Japanese population has already exceeded five thousand and at least eight thousand fishermen are fishing nearby and constantly enter Fusan.  Japanese police and a large, more than two hundred soldiers, a detachment of the Japanese army turned the city into a colony of Japan.
Ivashnikov and Korn were noticeably depressed, although not all this was a secret to them.
“But, Mikhail Grigorievich,” asked Korn, “perhaps the prospects for Russia in Korea are not so pitiable.”  After all, this is a state matter; we must somehow look for opportunities to strengthen the Russian positions, especially since in terms of diplomacy we have greatly overtaken the Japanese.  Yes, they are adventurous and capable, but then we are not tarred with the same brush. ...
“If it is a state matter,” answered Mr. Shevelev in the hearts, “that should be decided at the state level.”  The treasury should invest, and not small, in Korea, and create, say, a Russian-Korean bank, not afraid to subsidize Russian and local entrepreneurs and merchants, which will not be slow to bring undoubted benefit.  The Japanese have tried to conquer Korea for three hundred years.  Another shogun Hideyoshi in 1592 seized Fuzan and from here the of Korea.  Only with the help of China, they managed then to save their kingdom.  Five years later, Hideyoshi again landed in Korea, and this invasion cost the kingdom two hundred thousand dead.  Therefore, Koreans are traditionally mistrustful of the Japanese, but business considerations are overwhelmed by emotions, and our overseas neighbors have taken a strong place here.  More or less wealthy Koreans, fearing to be robbed by their Yanbans, invest in Japanese enterprises and trade, which strengthen their position. Recently in the Japanese newspaper Jimmin, and I read the Far Eastern press and pay a lot of money for translation from Japanese and Chinese newspapers So, in the Jimmin article flashed, claiming that Korea is already economically a colony of Japan.  They take out goods on five million yens, and import on ten.  Here is a trade!  And we?  Crumbs miserable, no more than twenty thousand rubles, moreover, that the yen is equal to the ruble in value.
Here and Ivashnikov dared to ask Mikhail Grigorievich a question.  — And how do you assess the concession recently acquired by Mr. Briner for deforestation in the Tumen-Yalu basins?
— No more than an adventure!  — Mr. Shevelev waved his hand. “The point is, if you take on this for the present, a multimillion-dollar one, while Briner has no such money.”  And he will not find his companions in Vladivostok.  Who else can tell me the possibilities of our dealers?  — Do not pull Briner such an enterprise — decisively concluded Mikhail Grigorievich.
“Unless he will resell to whom he has a concession and will warm his hands on it,” decided Mr. Shevelev after a little thought. “But he will also have to look for merchants not in the Far East.
Ivashnikov, with lieutenant Korn, went to a lot of upset on a Fusan street to assess, so to speak, the situation with his own eyes. Here reigned eastern crowds and discord. Light structures of Korean and Japanese types with tiled roofs were thickly hung with all sorts of signs, filled with hieroglyphs, almost always with an English double – hairdressing, groceries, fish shops, meat, poultry, beer pubs, which, however, was worth a look, turned out to be tiny cracks with two or three tables, restaurants, a lot of tea houses with pictures of pleasingly curved geishas in the windows, pharmacies, bank branches, workshops for the manufacture of Japanese tatami, Korean hats, pipes, earthenware and cast iron, chalks little shops with a wide choice of colorful multicolored fans, umbrellas, paper lanterns, leopards and tiger skins, ivory and porcelain statuettes, blue majolica vases, oriental paintings on rice paper and straw, pearl buttons, big pink shells and then dash.
Lieutenant Korn instantly chose a long bamboo stack with a white rubber grip and a leather loop at the end on the counter of the little shop and covered with fine carvings and varnish. He saw exactly this in an English naval officer on the wharf at Chemulpo and, judging by the grimace on his face, envied him greatly. The Englishman casually twirled the stack in his fingers and Korn immediately turned out just as if he had a congenital habit. “Everywhere you need to feel like a master and lead so,” he said through gritted teeth, “especially among Asians.” He soared high, and the look of the army ensign was clearly not to his liking. - I will make a promenade, rest somewhere in the teahouse with a geisha, perhaps I will come to Shevelev to spend the night, - looking aside he said and with an imperious gesture he motioned to himself with a stack of jinrikisha, dzin-rici-xia - man-force-carriage, in Japanese. A thin, elderly man ran up with the eyes of a beaten dog and famously unfolded his lightweight two-wheeled carriage with a seat woven from golden straw between the high wheels. Lieutenant Korn, obviously flaunting himself in front of an imaginary someone, gently, the rickshaw muscles immediately tightened, even study anatomy, jumped into a carriage, tapped the rickshaw on the shoulder with a stack and pointed to the top of the mountain that separates the Fusan bay, from which a beautiful view of the sea opens and neighborhood, and where man could see the colorful signs are clearly entertainment places. The rickshaw straightened still, gently shook the stroller that had sagged slightly in the soft earth after a rain, and at first walked heavily, pulling out the thin, wiry neck, and then ran tightly. Sahib Korn airborne divinely drove off, and Ivashnikov slid along. He also wanted to admire the bay from the mountain, very convenient for placing an artillery battery. “However, I have already become a completely military man,” he thought about himself with a sneer. Not far, about twenty meters away, God-like Korn rushed away, when suddenly the wheel fell into a hollow covered with dirty water, and the wheelchair tilted. Almost losing his balance on his hearth, Korn swayed and, with a short wave, hit the rickshaw on the back with a stack, apparently hurt, because the rickshaw, not expecting a strike, grabbed his right shoulder blade, releasing the strollers from the armpits. And Sahib Korn flew back into the mud. It only seemed to Ivashnikov that everyone in the street was busy with their business and did not pay any attention to them. Numerous men, women and children instantly fled and raised a wild hubbub, where words were indistinguishable, but the intonation of hatred was clearly felt. Without a cap, with a wet back and clods of dirt in blond hair, frightened, with an expression of horror and helplessness in his eyes, Korn was standing, and men fists were already hanging over him. “Stand, stand,” Ivashnikov shouted in Korean and rushed to defend, not even Korn, but the uniform of a Russian officer. He poked himself in the back of a hostile men wall, and from the opposite side, shouting out something, a Japanese police officer with a white sixteen-petal imperial chrysanthemum ensign on his cap penetrated to Korn. The Koreans were afraid and instantly parted before him. Korn’s expression began to gain confidence, his back straightened, but then the police officer firmly grasped his sleeve and unceremoniously dragged him to the nearby police station. And Lieutenant Korn wilted again. Ivashnikov made way for them, but the police officer pushed him aside and, like the mother of a guilty boy, dragged Korn along with him. Another police officer hurried to help him, and, not to arrange an international incident, he had to go with them to the police. Lieutenant Korn talked justifiably in French, Ivashnikov tried to explain himself in Korean, the Japanese police were silent in Japanese, and then the savior god in the person of the Japanese consul, Mr. Kato, arrived, almost without an accent. Mr. Kato almost without an accent politely talked with “representatives of the great neighboring empire,” as he politely put it, without haste told that he had spent five years in Russia, traveled along the Volga, the Don, the Black Sea, strongly recommended that before the steamer and the nose not stick out into the street and promised, so as not to be bored, send a box of beer. It had to swallow. “You,” he turned to Korn, “have a weak character, easily excitable, but just as quickly and lose confidence.” Therefore, from now on, think carefully about each of your actions. Without knowing the ford, do not poke your head in the water, - he finished, smiled affectionately and walked to the door. Accompanied by three policemen, one in front and two on each side, so that no one offended the Russian officers, as Mr. Kato explained, they were taken to Shevelev’s house and spent two days before the steamer each in his room. Ivashnikov often recalled this embarrassment, tried to read, but nothing worked; he could not take possession of himself, he did not bother him, he was very worried. What thought Lieutenant Korn did not know, but on the way, he asked not to report on the incident in the mission. Ivashnikov averted his eyes, - You are the eldest, and report to you.
 To the left of the Russian mission is located the Diplomatic Club, which on Saturdays gathered almost all Europeans living or visiting in Seoul. The atmosphere of the club was the most free – colorful stickers on the bottles in the bar, constantly sounding phonograph, performing the Strauss waltzes fashionable at that time, card tables, smoking rooms with spacious armchairs and wide sofas, all of which disposed to rest, making friends and free, free communication . Yes and the interlocutors here could be found very interesting. And, importantly, practice the languages. The speech in the club sounded the most diverse. Moreover, the linguistic features of the speech of the Welsh, Scots, Normans, French, Prussians and Mecklenburg could be well mastered. Classic Oxford, the jocular patter of the London Cockney, New York English with rich enclaves of singing Italian, live Yiddish, embossed Spanish and harsh German, adjoined here.[BR]High-ranking diplomats – envoys, elderly and, as a rule, burdened with families, rarely attended the club, but young people gathered often, and the classes in the club were of interest. Adherents of the card game sat at green diamond tables and exchanged only clear remarks for them, the billiard players surrounded two big billiards and sharp dry clicks of the hitting balls sounded, lovers of sharp taste sensations gathered in the bar, and more often in the left smoking room, where the valet brought a tray with different colored bottles and a vase of ice; smoked, savored drinks or their mixtures and vividly discussed the events in the world.[BR]Ivashnikov was not a frequent guest at the club; He was entrusted, as a native Far Easterner, which was associated in providing the authorities with the taiga, hunter and tracker, the defense of the mission from tigers![BR]So, so, exclaim any reader. What an abyss of exotic. And is it true – almost in the center of the capital of the state, and suddenly – defense from tigers? And, nevertheless, - the fact. After the start of the Sino-Japanese war, the rural population of the country, fearing military operations, did not start fieldwork and, having collected a very small crop, was in such a need that people died like flies. Hunger and disease reigned in the country, a lot of people ran to the capital, hoping to feed here, but the royal bins were empty, and the free lunches distributed by the missionaries could not satisfy the hunger of all those suffering. According to the Korean custom, the dead are buried only a few months after death. And before the funeral, they are wrapped in straw mats and placed along the fields, often not far from the house. Hungry dogs and wild animals gnaw the dead, and the tigers, in general, began to attack the houses on the edge of the villages and eat the living people. In this hungry winter, the tigers also got into the capital, so they had to put up armed guards to protect the mission from striped predators. [BR]Tiger Ivashnikov has not yet killed one, he has not even seen it, but he already had the reputation of a great hunter and felt heightened interest towards himself, especially from women. It was not a problem to buy the skin of a tiger or a leopard in Seoul, but women asked him to give the skin of a tiger killed by him personally, and he was quite embarrassed, clearly realizing that it was rather a game, promised, promised, promised ...[BR]That evening, they gathered in the lobby by the fireplace, drank dry vermouth, a whole box of which was kindly presented to the club by the captain of an Italian steamer standing at Chemulpo, and rolled along a well-groomed rut.[BR]Oleg Nikolayevich, to begin with, told the bike about the traditional Korean method of hunting tigers, which aroused general interest.[BR]“Imagine,” the lieutenant said in English, “two Koreans are going to hunt a tiger.” First, they eat soup from the heart of a tiger, tiger meat or drink broth from the bones of this animal to become as brave and not to give in to him in strength and dexterity. Then they put on blue linen jackets, tie their heads with a blue or green turban with colored beads, cover their necks with necklaces of colored beads, and hang beads on their breasts with bean grains. One of the hunters is armed with a long spear, and the other with a short spear. Knowing about where the tiger can be now, they wade through the bushes or undergrowth with the utmost care, asking the beast to appear before them, but not calling it by name. When hunting for a tiger, in no case can, you call him by name – this is taboo. Having discovered the beast, the first hunter, armed with a short spear, builds atrocious grimaces, swears, spits, insults the tiger in every possible way to anger him and provoke an attack. Having lost patience from the annoying offender, the tiger rushes at him, but the clever hunter sends a spear into the mouth of the beast. While the tiger is trying to eat or knock a spear out of the hands of a hunter, the second hunter from behind pokes a long spear at his soft parts. Surprised, moreover, struck by such audacity, the tiger eerily erupts, and wide open mouth. The first hunter, using his mistake, plunges his spear further into the tiger’s mouth and kills the beast.[BR]Listeners quietly clapped their hands to the courage of the hunters and the art of the narrator. Slightly longer than anyone else, two measures to attract attention, a rare guest clapped here – the Catholic bishop the Frenchman Mitel. Dressed in a wide purple robe, with a white lace collar and shaved tonsure at the top, he looked so harmless and homely, the claps of his soft palms sounded so warm and dull, and the smile was so sweet that he seemed like an old tender grandmother who wanted good housekeeper coziness. His memory was wonderful and, once he met, he was not mistaken in the names, even unusual for the ear of Europeans and difficult in correct Korean pronunciation.[BR]- It was with great pleasure that I listened to a very entertaining story about the local tiger hunting method, which I did not know at all, despite the rather long knowledge – I listened with great pleasure to a very entertaining story about the local method of tiger hunting, which I did not know at all, despite the rather long acquaintance with the country and customs. Ways, without a doubt, worthy of the highly esteemed Baron Munchhausen. Can you tell us about the equally wonderful way proposed by some Russians to colonize Korea with your convicts? The method, alas, is not new; the British and French when settling their colonies successfully used it. Recall the exploration of Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, New Caledonia and other islands. However, Korea is not an island or your colony, is it? And what is it – a private initiative, or the implementation of the plans of the imperial government?[BR]Ivashnikov felt extremely awkward, and Oleg Nikolayevich mixed up.[BR]The bishop had in mind the odious Savin, a former cornet, a student of the page corps, the hero of high-profile criminal cases and trials in Paris, London and Berlin. After serving penal servitude, he settled in Blagoveshchensk and began to bombard the Amur governor-general with projects for the settlement of Korea with exiled settlers, Siberian vagrants and criminals. For these “witty” searchlights it was ordered to examine his mental abilities; he, through Vladivostok, snuck into Korea and again turned, already to the envoy, with his proposal. He was told to clean up immediately, which he did, by rumors he moved to San Francisco. “This is not the intention of the government,” seeing everyone’s attention, Oleg Nikolaevich answered in the ensuing silence. - The author of such a ridiculous, shameful and provocative proposal is an international adventurer Savin, whom you all should remember about his scandalous adventures in Europe ten years ago. Since then, despite the shackles, he has not changed a bit. Our policy here, in Korea, is to carry the light of the teachings, of the mind, of cultural agriculture, of the concern for the destruction of epidemic diseases and famine. “It would have been wonderful, but the facts show the opposite,” Bishop Mitel still smiled sympathetically. - Take the light teaching. In Korea, missionaries are Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and there is not one Orthodox priest. Only Catholic missionaries from the Society of Foreign Missionaries have founded here nearly three dozen churches, a seminary, and two shelters for half a thousand pupils; They converted more than twenty thousand Koreans to the Christian faith. The American Society for the Distribution of Religious Literature, through its emissaries, sold, handed over, donated nearly forty thousand copies of religious books – mainly the Bible. The “Seoul Religious Center” takes care of the introduction to the Christian religion, Western culture and way of life of the capital Yanbans and Chunins, mostly young people. We have created the ”“Society for the Promotion of Women’s Enlightenment” - after all, women are not only the keepers of home comfort, they are the main educators of the younger generations and the seeds of Christian dogma easily fall on the cultivated soil. Missionaries set up Korean teacher training colleges. These are our catholic colleges, Peugere and Halbert colleges founded by Americans, and English colleges in Seoul and on the island of Ganghwa. Graduates of these colleges already occupy key positions in the king’s entourage and in ministries. But let us leave this question, although you can talk for a long time. Now take the cultural farming. On your Russian, truly boundless expanses of excellent arable land, you shamefully beggarly harvests, hunger and diseases and riots caused by it reign there. What can you teach Koreans? And the missionaries succeeded here. The same father of Bodune attaches people to the Christian religion, heals them and teaches proper land use. Missionaries in Seoul, Pyongyang, Genzan, Fusan and other major cities contain foster rooms with first-aid kits, and even small, but hospitals, which are constantly turning to local residents. We, the missionaries of the Christian religion, gradually, every day, every hour, every minute we conquer, conquer and enlighten young hearts and minds, create societies such as “Tonnip Hyophwe” - “Society of Independence”, “Society for the Promotion of Women’s Enlightenment”, “Seoul Religious Union” ”“... You, Russians, except the detachment of soldiers in Seoul, have nothing here. And all your politics here reminds you of a hunt with a spear for a tiger ...A week later, King Kojong, yielding to the harassment of countless foreign and local intercessors, moved with his horde to his own palace. In the Russian mission, silence and despondency set in.

BARON GOLSTEIN. PREPARATION FOR THE VISIT OF KAISER WILHELM II TO PETERSBURG

The brief July rain brought some relief from the strong dullness of the dull day, all the windows were wide open and into the room, along with the freshness of the greenery of flowers growing under the windows, Tirgarten close and the cool breeze came the resounding trickling drops from the roof of the house and the cheerful chirping of tasty sparrows. Fawn silk curtains swelled in taut sails. They had just had their dinner and, sitting at ease in the armchairs, smoked and sipped with pleasure, the excellent Shustov brandy brought as a gift to the owner of the house by Prince Radolin. At the end of the month, the return visit of Emperor Wilhelm II to Russia was coming, and the German envoy Radolin arrived in Berlin to discuss all the details of the diplomatic actions scheduled for the time of the visit. This time, among the regular guests at the traditional dinner on Thursdays, there was not only the old friend of the house’s host, Prince Radolin; he was amused by his guests with stories about the exotic customs of the far East, the envoy in Beijing Geyking, appointed to this post thanks to the efforts of his ambitious wife – a rather popular writer, very unceremonious and assertive.[BR]- Closed Purple City - the residence of the Chinese emperor - is located literally next to the settlement of the embassy town, only a high stone wall separates them, so it takes little time to arrive at the appointed time from the emperor. But it is infinitely annoying, literally infuriating the inherent Chinese style to drag out your ceremonies, to bring them to a meaningless monotony. Therefore, for example, they make it rather long to wait for the ceremony to begin in the blue tents broken before the palace hall appointed for reception, and then bring the envoys, in order of accreditation, to the emperor. On the way to the throne, it is necessary to weigh three low bows and then give a brief speech. But I decided that I had to be tough with them, to show the power of the great German Empire. Going to the throne, I casually weighed three half-bows, which almost put into shock numerous emperors of the emperor Guansuyu, and then, speaking my speech, turned and went not through the side doors, but through the medium, intended for the emperor’s exit, resolutely stopping the attempt to stop me. Moreover, to ridicule the ridiculous Chinese custom to distinguish the titles of dignitaries by the color of balls on headdresses, yarns on belts and stripes depicting birds and animals in dressing gowns, I ordered Chinese servants to wear white, red and blue balls in my mission, which at first caused amazement and then the fury of the Chinese courtiers, equating them with garbage-cleaners, grooms and gardeners.[BR]Count Schlieffen smiled encouragingly, Prince Radolin tried to keep equanimity, although on his face one could read dissatisfaction with violation of generally accepted norms of elementary courtesy to the customs of the host country, von Hasse even applauded, admired by the diplomatic art of the German envoy, but the owner of the house, Baron Holstein all the same noticed that it was hardly worth demonstrating a disregard for the customs of the state.[BR]The white light of lightning momentarily filled the room, dimming the candles in the bronze girandoles, and highlighting the sweaty steamed faces of drunken men.[BR]- And how is the German Empire in China now, in general, Herr Baron?[BR]“Something has been accomplished, something,” answered Geyking, not without complacency. - Although, I must admit, this is a great merit of my predecessors – von Brandt and von Schwenzburg and representatives of German business circles in China. The main way to increase our influence is the development of trade. Here we are inferior to the British. But we strive to set up ourselves wherever possible. England’s exports to China are five times ours, although we are already catching up with them in the number of trading companies represented. The British seized key markets for the sale of textiles and metal products, weapons and gunpowder. For the time being, we have to be content mainly with trifles, haberdashery, in large, however, sizes. The policy here is to seize the markets, to accustom the Chinese to our cheap but good goods, and then gradually force out the British. North German Lloyd and Bremer Lloyd, who managed to buy up shares of English shipping lines in East Asian waters and take all the shipping in their hands, have already achieved serious successes. To this end, they began the construction of river ships in Shanghai, to oust the British from the Yangtze basin. In addition, Krupp bypassed Armstrong in northern China and made lucrative deals on arms supplies to provincial local armies. In general, our current general weakness in China is mainly due to the lack of a base for the navy. While our fleet is completely dependent on the Hong Kong docks, that is, from the British mercy. And to throw a huge amount of our products on the Chinese market, we desperately need our own Hong Kong. - Where in China do we have the strongest positions? - inquired attentively listening to Radolin. - The south of China and the Yangtze basin are being intensively mastered by the British and French, although we managed to strengthen our positions in the Yangtze basin. But we are most firmly entrenched in Shandong and Tianjin. Right after Japan’s ultimatum jointly with Russia and France two years ago, we began to look for a port in China, which is urgently needed to increase our penetration into this country, but neither our persistent harassment in the Chinese Foreign Ministry, nor negotiations on this issue with Li Hunchgang during Last year’s visit to Berlin, after the coronation celebrations in Russia, did not bring any results, reminded Baron Holstein. “We missed the auspicious moment in April-May of the ninety-fifth year, when the widowed empress was still grateful for removing the Japanese from the mainland, but this is the fault of von Schwenzburg,” said Gaiking. - And last August, the commander of our East Asian cruising squadron, Rear Admiral Tirpitz and Baron, on a warship, went around the coast of China and chose Jiaozhou for our future base, - the laconic Schlieffen came to the rescue. Gaiking thanked and explained, - Admiral Tirpitz told me that, initially, three places were considered as an eventual base for our navy and trade center. It is the densely populated Amoi Island located near Hong Kong; then the deserted bay of Dapengwan, it is also not far from Hong Kong; and Zhoushan Islands, lying near Shanghai. There was no talk about Jiaozhou - it was believed that he was lying far to the north, away from the great trade route. Before he received information that on this port is Russian species. A year earlier, Tirpitz personally examined all three points I mentioned and found them unsuitable. The Amois were traditionally hosted by the British, and to occupy it meant to come into conflict with them. In addition, he is experiencing a decline caused by the development of the shipping message instead of the sailing fleet, for which only seasonal monsoons were favorable. The entrance to Dapenwan Bay turned out to be shallow, a strong current and many whirlpools in the bay, which complicates navigation. And the islands scattered in the bay, at low tide, turn into sharp reefs. In addition, the bay is surrounded by high mountains, which cannot be overcome without pack animals, which makes it extremely difficult to deliver goods and much affect their cost: it will be difficult to compete with the half-million city of Fuzhou, located beyond the ridge of mountains near the Ming River. The Zhoushan Islands lie in front of Shanghai, like Helgoland in front of Hamburg, and trying to transfer the center of commerce to them, in spite of the British, is not only risky, but also impossible from a military point of view – they cannot be protected in the event of a conflict with the Anglo-Saxons. Then Tirpitz went to Jiaozhou and found it almost an ideal place not only for trade, but also for the base of the military fleet. There, a sheltered bay protected from the winds, it is quite possible to build fortifications on elevations around it, the Chinese, by the way, have already built something, plus a healthy northern climate, which is a huge advantage. Further, we found that Jiaozhou is geographically more beneficial for us than even the south of China. Through it, it is possible by sea to import and export goods for almost all the central and Northern provinces of China. Here are concentrated the vast masses of the population, that is, labor. Not far rom Jiaozhou, there are rich deposits of excellent hard coal – this is another important advantage for military and merchant shipping. True, there is no navigable river here, but let us build the railroad and own the transport network exclusively ... - Jiaozhou is where? - usually von Eilenburg was not interested in the details, thought globally, but here he felt a common interest. “In Shandong,” said Geyking briefly. - But after all, the Russians have chosen this port for wintering their squadron? - protesting exclaimed Radolin. - The main goal of our diplomacy during the visit of Emperor Wilhelm to Russia will be the task of ousting the Russians to the north. Korean ports, as our informant managed to find out in the Russian Maritime Ministry, for various reasons they are not satisfied. If we manage to oust them from Jiaozhou, then the only place where they will have to be located is the ports of the Liaodong Peninsula - Dalianwan and Port Arthur, - Holstein answered him. Count Eilenburg recalled how nine years ago, it seems, in the eighty-eighth year — the year of the three emperors, when old Wilhelm I died and, after ninety-nine days of rule and the death of his son, Fidrich-Wilhelm, Wilhelm II, his friend of the young emperor, was crowned , probed the South German and Prussian junker landowners, financiers and industrialists. Everyone was interested in one question – will Germany swing into Russia’s arms or not? Knowing that the deceased Frederick William did not love his son and, as a response, Wilhelm’s lack of sympathy for his parents, which was transferred to his grandmother, Queen of Great Britain Victoria, everyone believed that Germany would side with Russia. Autocratic Russia! Not that this flabby England with its parliamentarism. Who did not know about the hostility of Wilhelm II to the constitution and the Reichstag. About his admiration for the Russian emperor Alexander III and friendship with the future heir to the throne Nicholas? Oh, what then flared passion! After all, it was from the Russian Tzar that the young Kaiser took an example, declaring that there is only one Reich master, and he will not tolerate another, meaning the Reichstag. General interest was understandable – after all, it was about many millions, hundreds of millions of marks. Then Wilhelm had a long consultation with Chancellor Bismarck. Before him was a dilemma – either to conquer Russia peacefully, which has been done little by little since the times of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, or to prepare for war. And Bismarck confirmed that at one time there were two of these paths. It was possible to ask Emperor Alexander II to colonize the empty lands on a large-scale in the Volga region, Siberia, Russian Central Asia, even in the Far East, and given the weakness of their industry, use Russia as a raw materials appendage to Germany. But already in the early seventies, under the pressure of the South German landlords-junkers, who did not want to put up with the import of cheap Russian bread produced by semi-slaves peasants, had to impose high customs duties, which immediately worsened relations with Russia – after all, among its rulers were large landowners who suffered heavy losses. At one time, German industrialists and financiers were interested in developing relations with Russia, who avidly gazed at the endlessly capacious market. And they eagerly set about building railroads, factories and plants. Again, this did not have to appeal to the cadets – after all, the railways connected the Russian outback with ports through which cheap Russian bread poured into Europe, and factories and plants mainly produced agricultural machinery and equipment, which contributed to the competition between Russian bread and German bread. Although industrialists and financiers were already gaining strength, it was the nobles -landowners who had real political power at that time, and they insisted on banning loans for the development of Russian industry. And so it happened that Russia had nothing to do, how to apply for loans to France, even to go with her to a military alliance, and Germany had to finally set up itself in the thought of the inevitability of war with Russia. - Russians traditionally fear the British, - continued Baron Holstein. - They remember very well about the seizure of Sevastopol and the attempt to seize Petropavlovsk-on-Kamchatka in the fifties, and they are not sure that in the event of a conflict they will be able to hold the Far Eastern ports with cash. It will be necessary, through our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to organize the leakage of secret information that, allegedly, there was a meeting at the highest level, during which the idea supported by the Kaiser was expressed that it was desirable not to let the English along with the Russians into the Yellow Sea him on spheres of influence – the Russian Liaodong, Zhili and Korean Gulfs, and we – the coast of Shandong. They, no doubt, will analyze this information and find it trustworthy – after all, they know, from their envoy and trading consuls in China, about our competition with the British. - Oh, yes, - Hollstein supported the Chief of the Big General Staff, Count Schlieffen. - The Russians will willingly swallow such a bait, because half a year ago, after the Armenian massacre in Constantinople, we promised them to make sure the inviolability of their territory in the event of their seizure of the Bosporus. - And you, Hugo,- said Holstein to Radolin, - even before William’s visit to Russia, probe Muravyev’s reaction to the possibility of our acquiring Jiaozhou. - I highly doubt a positive reaction, - the eyes of Prince Radolin behind the round glasses blinked in confusion -After all, it is well-known that the Russians have already deployed their Pacific squadron for the winter in this port and are unlikely to wish to leave it.[BR]- Well, no, - Holstein disagreed. - The first reaction will be, without the slightest doubt, negative. But, having learned that we are interested in this port for the long-term base of our military fleet, they will look at all the options and, in the end, will find it unprofitable for themselves. They need access to the railway to the Yellow Sea, they have already spoken about this with Li Hongzhang, and although they did not get agreement, they did not give up the idea. Shandong is completely uncomfortable for them it is too far. This they understand perfectly, and they will not insist on it. - Do we have enough strength to occupy this port? - Dr. Hasse looked at Count Schlieffen. - Certainly, - smiled Schlieffen arrogantly. - We have in the Chinese waters a fully combat-ready squadron with a landing force attached to it. In addition, it will be possible to send another squadron to several battleships, over which command Admiral Prince Henry of Prussia should be entrusted. According to the reports of Admiral Tirpitz, we are in dire need of a fleet base, and it is in Shandong, because of the proximity of coal. Tirpitz is not satisfied with the need to use the English docks in Hong Kong, and in our own port, we will equip the ship repair base. - But the reason? After all, can’t we just start a squadron in Jiaozhou and capture it? There are also the rules of decency in international relations ..., - Prince Radolin clearly became nervous and, with shaking hands, began to wipe his glasses suddenly sweaty with a snow-white handkerchief. - Oh, how na;ve you are still a young man, - admired Baron Holstein. - Mr. Baron Geyking will offer us a reason, - and he smiled encouragingly at the envoy to China. - Yes, I have already considered this problem, - Gaiking hurried to show his foresight. - Bishop Anzer, head of the German Catholic Mission in Shandong, complained to me that the local population has recently become very unfriendly towards missionaries and Christian converts to their fellow tribesmen. Their forced removal from villages, and even beatings, has become frequent. Yes, here I, during a trip to the Yellow River, was pelted with lumps of mud. What is not a reason – revenge for insulting the guides of the teachings of Christ? - Well, beatings are not a reason for entering troops - the property owner frowned. - In any case, not a serious reason. Although there is, something here ... The French thirty years ago used the murder of missionaries as a pretext for capturing Cochin China, and twenty years ago the death of missionaries for capturing Tianjin. Think again. And boost our efforts. Jiaozhou before the end of the year should be ours! Saying goodbye to the guests, Baron Holstein asked Gaiking to convey his best wishes to von Mollendorf.

IVAN IVASHNIKOV. EDUCATION RUSSIAN SOLDIERS. KOREAN “INDEPENDENTS”

“Independent” long interested lieutenant Minaev.  A year ago, about a month after arriving in Seoul, he suggested that Ivashnikov go for a walk with him at night to Ta-ban-hol — the rich Seoul quarter.  Late in the evening, when the city plunged into darkness, and the narrow streets were illuminated only by the narrow sickle moon accompanied by a Korean escort, a little explained in English, they went to some festival of Europeanized local youth, held secret from the authorities.  Lieutenant Minaev did not consider it necessary to clarify to Ivashnikov what they deserved this honor, but, apparently, the owners knew who and why they were invited.  Ta-ban-hol was built almost in the style of a fort: the rear walls of the courtyards, completely without windows or any openings, merging with each other, formed an external blank wall.  After passing through the slightly open gates, the conductor hastily led them narrow, no more than a step, by the streets winding between houses.  It was mysteriously quiet, and they went almost to the touch, fearing to hurt their foreheads about the corners and walls.  After protracting for a long time, they stopped at the wooden gates of the house. The conductor quietly scratched at the gate and, after a while, knocked a little louder, steps sounded behind the gate and Ivashnikov realized by sniff after them that they were trying to be seen into the slot.  The darkness was Egyptian.  The conductor made a mysterious gesture and the gates swung open.  After brief negotiations with the person they met, they were led through dark yards to a spacious house under a wide roof with curved roofs in Chinese style.  The windows of the house were open, from the inside came the sounds of music and female singing.  Night butterflies and midges circled around the curtains lit from the inside.  In a spacious room on the colored mats were sitting young men and women, partly in European costumes and dresses, and between them were teacups and bottles with bright French and Italian stickers.  In the corner is a small orchestra — a violin, flute, harp and drum. The men rose from the mats, and came to meet.  The women remained on the ground, and only the brilliance of their eyes betrayed curiosity.  The master of the house introduced the patters, who were in the hall, but this was done so quickly and indistinctly that Ivashnikov did not remember them.  They were also offered to sit on mats and put a table with bottles, glasses and plates with spicy national food nearby. Then it hits the drum, sang flute and violin, the girls entered the room — ki-san — Korean geisha, and swam in a slow dance.  A tall, slender young Korean in an American checkered suit, still hooked to them, and raising his voice a little to be well heard amid the music, spoke in decent English, — How did you like the country and its capital, gentlemen? The lieutenant Minaev replied, “We hardly saw the country, but the ancient city of Seoul made a great impression on us. — Delicacy, I heard, is an intrinsic Russian property.  What is the impression — good or not? — The city is original, unusual, and rich in sights ...
— Khabarovsk and Vladivostok are more beautiful and comfortable?  — smiled inquiringly their interlocutor.
— Have you ever been there?  — Minaev also asked kindly.
— No, it was not done.  But I lived for ten years in the United States of North America and, I suppose, is it something like their little western towns?
— And I suppose so, — Minaev responded.  — Did you go to study or on business?
— I was forced to, — the Korean answered briefly.  After a pause, he added, — Call me Mr. Jesson, it will be easier to remember.  Korean my name is So Zhe Pil.
Ivashnikov was on the alert.  In the conversations in the mission, this name was mentioned several times.
— Yes, — Mr. Jasson noted his keen interest, — Twelve years ago I took part in a conspiracy to end Chinese influence on the king, but the plot, as you know, failed, and I had to flee the country.
- Now that the Japanese have expelled the Chinese, did you get the opportunity to return?  And even appointed member of the State Council?

- Lieutenant Minaev showed his awareness.
- America is certainly a rich country, but poor Korea is my homeland, - answered Mr. Jesson evasively.
The music stopped, the kisanks went to rest, and the crowd filled the glasses with wine.
- Let’s drink to the Russian officers present here, in whose face our northern great neighbor is represented, - said Mr. Jasson’s toast.
They all drank, and that time was thrown with questions by Lieutenant Minaev and Warrant Officer Ivashnikov.
As the Russian officers understood, all the guests of this house had studied in English and American missionary schools in their own time, were fluent in English and were quite belligerent.
- Why did you come here?
- Are you going to send your troops into Korea?
- Is it true that there is already an agreement on the division of Korea between the Russians and the Japanese?
- Russia is the same clay colossus, like China, is not it.
- Will Russia fights with Japan to enslave Korea.
- Why did you keep the king captive in a mission for so long?
Mr. Jasson raised his hand, reassuring friends, and continued.  - Not being official persons, we are still real, and, in my opinion, quite a significant force.  Therefore, we did not come into contact with persons officially representing Russia - Mr. Envoy or Mr. Pokotilov, but with you - just-arrived officers.  We believe that, having arrived in Korea at such a hot time, you have certain assignments, such as, to assess the existing situation with your own eyes and tell your commanders.  I hope it has already become clear to you that now there are four about equal parties in the country.  They are supporters of rapprochement with Japan, very strong economically, but now, after the king fled to the Russian mission, who have lost their political positions; supporters of seeking protection from Russia, now in power, but without any economic base and support among the country’s population; further - the political movement”Uyb;n” - Army of Justice, very widely supported in the lower classes, but not connected with the king’s entourage, personifying power; And we.
- Who are we?  Asked Lieutenant Minayev coldly.   - Is this a small company of young people?
- We are a significant number of educated people, and not only young, sincerely caring for the prosperity of Korea.
- Educated by whom?  - Minayev asked rather rudely.
- Yes, of course, educated in American, English and French missionary schools, or who have visited those countries.
- And how do you imagine the prosperity of Korea?
- Korea is now something like Japan before the Meiji revolution.  The conspiracy of the eighty-fourth year was aimed at ending the rule of feudal China and the organization of power and all economic life in the Japanese way.
- So, you are something like a branch of the pro-Japanese party?
- No, the years have passed, and we have gained experience, have widely met the world, and now we consider it preferable to develop the country along the American way.
As far as I know, the United States of America is a republic; - Minayev put an edge to the question.
Mr. Jasson averted his eyes and, after a moment’s hesitation, replied, - We will consider England as a model ...
- Everyone knows that the British constitutional monarchy relies on land owners and all kinds of industrial goods, bankers and merchants.  You do not have this, and is not yet in sight, - Ensign Ivashnikov reminded.
- Thirty years ago, Japan was in a similar position, - one of the young people responded.
- They didn’t have such rigid centralization as you have, - Minaev frowned.  - For the development of the country need initial savings, which you also do not have, as far as we know.  Yes, plus the debts of Japan and China ...- The financial situation of the country of the day is not a secret.  But there are very interesting offers from Americans, British, French and Germans.  Japan, too, is seeking to invest more money in our economy, - said Mr. Jesson.
- And the Russians began to invest in the development of Korea.  Briner and Nishansky, Count Keizerling and Shevelev ..., - added the same young man.
- Informing you about the views of a significant number of young people grouped around the Tonnip newspaper, we would like you to understand that time flies, national self-awareness is awakening in the country and, most importantly, we are afraid to once again be an apple of discord between neighboring empires.  We want to become a truly independent state, a good neighbor and trading partner for China, Russia and Japan.  We have already got rid of the dominance of the Chinese, Russia’s economic interests are insignificant here, and we hope to overcome the economic influence of Japan with the help of America.
- And how do you hope to avoid military capture of the country by Japan?  Minaev still asked impassively.
For the time being, we rely on the treaty between Japan and Russia, but in the future we believe to create an efficient Korean army.
- What do the Japanese think about your program?
- They are well aware of the activities of our party and assured of their benevolence, - answered Mr. Jasson firmly.
- It is unpleasant to say something unpleasant, but you, in my opinion, are very na;ve, - said Lieutenant Minaev with an apologetic smile.  - I will tell the envoy about our conversation, and he, in turn, will retell the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Personally, I believe that you will plunge Korea into the depths of misfortune.
Here, by a barely perceptible gesture of the host, the orchestra again began to play, and the Kisankies continued the dances.
Soon the Russian officers would take their leave and, accompanied by the former chicherone, left for the Russian mission.

After listening to the wish of Colonel Putyata, take a closer look at the activities of the Tonnip Hophwe party and remembering his first acquaintance in such an unusual and mysterious situation, if not with the party leadership, then with persons in it prominent place, Ensign Ivashnikov asked the same evening who was returning from the city Lieutenant Minaev go to him.[BR]“Colonel Putyata is an old and experienced scout – a Far Eastern wolf, he feels the main danger with his nose and gives her the main attention,” the lieutenant agreed. - A representative of our Ministry of Finance, Mr. Alekseev, arrives the other day, who is instructed to strengthen the position of Russian capital in Korea. And finances are always closely linked to politics. Colonel Putyata thoroughly was acquainted with our reports to the envoy and reports to the district and now he is interested in every detail, detail, every stroke, to make a conclusion and prompt Mr. Alekseev in the right direction. In our case, the nuances are. Meet the other day with your passion, ensign, talk to her about the topic you have been told. Kim Jin-ho had lived in uncle house in Seoul for several months and was completely immersed in charity work. From En Pan-sa, Ensign Ivashnikov heard that she was active in the women’s educational society, created schools for children and taught them lessons. Once he saw her on the street in the company of young people, among whom he recognized one of the hacks of the newspaper Tonnip, in his notes attacking the Russians, but she either did not notice him, or pretended not to know. And they met only twice. Meetings were tightly cold. Kim Jin-Ho looked away and mumbled something about an independent and prosperous Korea and decisively rejected his invitation to come in for tea on his mission. Ivashnikov was upset, but he understood her well. She could not be apart from the events that shook the country. [BR]Understanding that Kim Jin-ho would not wish to meet on the street with a Russian officer, Ivashnikov walked in Korean clothes at her uncle’s house in the afternoon for several days in a row, and nevertheless waited for her to go outside. Passing a little after him, he caught up with the girl and, trying to give himself a casual look, greeted her cheerfully. Kim Jin-ho smiled happily in response, but immediately mixed up and became arrogantly official. She refused a joint walk and hesitantly asked not to seek more meetings with her. Ivashnikov was offended and said that he did not see her very often, no more than once a month. Kim Jin-ho nodded in agreement, but more firmly told him to leave her. [BR]In the fall, in early September, a commercial agent of the Ministry of Finance Alekseev arrived in Seoul. And began official and unofficial visits to the palace of the king.[BR]Shortly before that, the Korean king Kojong took the title of Hoan-jae - the emperor, and it was very flattering for him to receive a dispatch from the Russian tzar, where he was called the new title, from the hands of Mr. Alekseev. How weak a man is! The newly-baked emperor melted so much that the emperor of the vast Russian empire addressed him as an equal to an equal, that he yielded to the persuasion of the charg; d’affaires of Russia, Mr. Speyer and Mr. Alekseev, dismissed the cabinet ministers, where the supporters of rapprochement with Japan again gained strength, and appointed a new Cabinet, entirely from the adherents of Russia.[BR]Once in the middle of October, returning from a walk outside the city on his Amethyst, Ensign Ivashnikov saw Kim Jin-Ho, heading towards the Russian mission, to which it was already within reach. He stopped the horse. It seemed inconvenient to overtake the girl, and it was impossible to catch up and walk beside her. He restrained the impatient Amethyst and watched as the girl approached the gates of the mission and spoke to the guard sent out to meet. He listened to her and waved his hand to Ivashnikov, making it clear that he was a guest to him. Ivashnikov, having been delighted, instantly rushed to the gate, jumped off his horse, gently took the girl’s hand and kissed it, out of mischief, gently tickling the newly released nifty mustaches. Lifting his head, Ivashnikov unexpectedly caught the appraising look of the girl, replaced by a friendly smile. - Ivan,” she turned to him, “I conduct classes at a school for children of government officials, and now we are getting acquainted with the geography of neighboring countries. You already know Korean well, and I thought that you could tell about Russia. Please find time in the coming days and come to my uncle’s house. - Let’s discuss this question with me, - suggested Ivashnikov, - for a cup of tea. - I do not know what exactly I should say. The girl declined the offer. - Tell what you find right. Children will be interested in everything.[BR]Ivashnikov escorted her to the corner of the street, they chatted about any trifles, and then Kim Jin-ho asked her not to see off.[BR]- Waiting, - she reminded.[BR][BR]Two days later Ivashnikov went to the lesson. He was nervous, but the lesson, according to Kim Jin-ho, was a success. Ivashnikov told in brief about the history of Russia and a little about the city closest to Korea, Vladivostok. He tried, of course, to present the goods with his face, he was eloquent and persuasive, the children listened with interest, and Kim Jin-Ho was heard. After the lesson, releasing the children, Kim Jin-ho invited him to her place. In the small, girlishly clean and elegantly decorated room, she treated him to cakes with a filling of chrysanthemum petals and fruits. - Tell me, Ivan, - she went over childishly to the main reason for inviting Ivashnikov. - What kind of big dignitary came recently from St. Petersburg?[BR]- Commercial Advisor to the Ministry of Finance Alekseev came to help Emperor Koan-mu to understand the finances of your empire and collect money to pay the debt of Japan and China.[BR]- But only?[BR]- Of course, this is already known to all.[BR]- Then why did the emperor dismiss so many ministers?[BR]- The Emperor knows better ...[BR]- But it is obvious that this is due to the arrival of Mr. Alekseev. - Anything can happen, - Ivashnikov shrugged. -I do not know. - I am only an officer in a small rank. - Ivan, - after a brief hesitation, the girl said plaintively with obvious excitement, -do you remember a year ago you asked to know how much money goes to the treasury from customs duties? - I then brought you that fat book with notes. Then I suffered a lot that you consider my father a thief. The ensign averted his eyes and spread his hands helplessly. - Your superiors came to the same conclusion. Mr. Alekseev learns about customs fees and expels my father. Recently, quite by accident, I was witnessing a difficult explanation between my father and Mr. Brown. - And she hesitantly paused. [BR]Ivashnikov was on the alert, - Go on, girl ... [BR] - I went home. In the morning, my father and I were talking in his office, when a servant reported that Mr. Brown had arrived. I went into the next room and started helping my mother around the house. I heard Mr. Brown shouting loudly at his father, and then came out purple with anger. His father followed him, repeated that the Japanese, taking advantage of the victory over the Chinese, were in charge of the country, and forced him not to impose customs and fins fees on their court. Mr. Brown stopped, turned around and said that the reports of customs duties had come to the Russians, and they found them greatly underestimated, and the recently arrived Mr. Alekseev reported this to the King! However, he reported in this form that all the blame falls on Mr. Brown. The king had to issue a decree on the deprivation of Mr. Brown of the post of chief commissioner of Korean customs and an adviser to the Ministry of Finance, and on the appointment of Mr. Alekseev to these most important Russian posts![BR]- Clear, - thought Ivashnikov, - this explains the unexpected fall of Brown and the rise of Alekseev.  Ivan, - said Kim Jin-ho pleadingly, - ask Mr. Alekseev not to chase my father away. - After all, I know that everyone in the Russian mission listens to you, - she flatly flattered.  I am just a little officer, - Ivashnikov admitted again. But do what you can, - insisted Kim Jin-ho. Then she again treated him to pies, juice, and fruit.  They say you are moving forward almost to the leadership of the party Tonnip Hophwe Ivashnikov noted. - I am glad for your success.  Who is talking? En Pan-sa? - The girl’s nostrils flared angrily. - Yes, I know about this party, but I have nothing to do with it, I am only engaged in the creation of Korean schools and the education of children. t was already getting dark, and Ivashnikov needed to hurry to the mission, today he stepped in as a guard officer. He next afternoon, the warrant officer was summoned to Colonel Putiata. In the small house behind the mission building, the lieutenant Minaev, Mr. Alekseev, Colonel Putyata, and Mr. Speyer, recently transferred from Japan as resident minister to Korea, were already in the building; the former envoy Weber was appointed envoy to Mexico. Upon entering, Ensign Ivashnikov reported on the arrival, and he was offered to sit down.[BR]- Tell us, Ensign, about yesterday’s conversation with the girl, - Colonel Putiata ordered.[BR]Ivashnikov realized that Lieutenant Minaev had already conveyed the content of the conversation to them, and they were only expecting personal impressions from him. Having told as much as possible about the conversation with Kim Jin-ho, Ivashnikov expected to hear that he might be free, but Colonel Putyata was in no hurry to let go. - You seemed to me observant and thinking young man. Try to remember your feelings during the conversation, without touching, naturally, peculiar to your age – he joked rudely.[BR]Ivashnikov flushed, embarrassed, but got ready and carefully answered, - I constantly had a feeling of some duality in the words and demeanor of Kim Jin-ho. On the one hand, she was sincere in caring for her father and his reputation, however, she clearly kept back many things, and there was some subtext behind her words. You know, the taiga people say that when they were hunting a tiger, they got into a situation where the beast left, made a circle and hunted the pursuer himself. I still thought that I was becoming suspicious, it was ridiculous to expect such a thing from a girl.[BR]A brief silence, when the audience pondered the words of Ivashnikov, was interrupted by Mr. Alekseev.[BR]- Well, let’s not take into account the ensign’s story about tigers’ hunting for a human being and discuss the financial situation of Korea. Reporting started; it is extremely difficult to understand it, although Mr. Brown did some positive work. The most neglected, consciously, I must say, budget revenues. Large revenues expected from customs duties and from the mining industry; such is in its infancy. But customs fees from the captains of the vessels are received by Japanese banks, for lack of others here, and it is almost impossible to verify the correctness of their payment. Customs officers are bribed, or are afraid of the Japanese, and write down the measure and cost of cargo, and the amount of customs duties according to their instructions. There is simply no one to replace these people. Further, the mines are under the jurisdiction of the ministry of the court, at the cash desk of which the newly made emperor constantly launches his hand, so it is difficult to show the exact amount of income from the mining industry. In addition, seventeen thousand officials — an unbearable burden for the empire’s empty treasury — have already been indebted to about half a million yen. Mr. Pokotilov in St. Petersburg informed me that in the ninety-second year, Chinese insurance and telegraph companies had made loans – each of one hundred thousand lans, the first for eighty months, and the second – for one hundred months at the rate of seven percent per annum. In addition, in March of ninety-five years was made three million six thousands loan of the Japanese Imperial Bank, the repayment period which is set in December ninety-nine. Need somewhere to find the amount to pay these debts, otherwise revenues will be enough only to pay the annual interest and penalty interest. The Treasury, empty.
- The only way to keep here the Russian place, - said the Minister-resident, Mr. Speyer, for the simple reason that our economic interests in Korea is negligible, this is to bring clarity and order to the finances of the Kingdom and become necessary to the king.[BR]-The matter is complicated by the fact that Mr brown refuses to hand over financial statements and otherwise prevent the inauguration of Mr. Alekseev said impatiently remarked the Colonel Putyata. - Let me, - the lieutenant Minaev, who was listening carefully, intervened. - For a year and a half of my stay in Korea, I figured out the intricacies of the opposing forces here and, in my opinion, found a solution to the behavior of my friend Ensign Ivashnikov. - Well, go on, - everyone became interested, knowing from their own experience that big politics is closely intertwined with the lives of little people and often depends on their behavior. - Of the party of independent, I know it for sure there are two currents. The first – supporters of rapprochement with Japan. This is Yanbans, having deposits in Japanese banks. The second trend is people who lived and studied in the United States and the United States of America, and for the most part in their Catholic and Protestant missions. Kim Jin-ho was repeatedly seen in the company with the latter. Independents fear strengthening of Russia’s place in Korea. But you can play on their differences. Namely- are bypassing Brown, through the pro-American wing of the “independent”, collect information about customs equipment, the main source of income for the kingdom, and income from the mining industry. This information will help Mr. Alekseev to take the necessary decision. In addition, Kim Jin-ho will help us gather this information, because objectively this is in the hand of her Korean friends of pro-American orientation and to the detriment of the opposing wing of their party. - Brilliant, - Colonel Putiata concluded, - does take action... In officer’s uniform, Ensign Ivashnikov drove up to Uncle Kim Jin-Ho’s house – at that time, the mayor of Seoul – and ordered servant to call the girl. She ran out at almost that hour, looking to be gracious and welcoming. - Come in, Ivan, - she invited him into the house. - Hello, Kim Jin-ho, - Ivashnikov greeted her, - I have some news for you. - Well, thank you. Tell me! - I spoke with Mr. Alekseev about you and your father. Mr. Alekseev is very dissatisfied with the amount of income to the treasury. He believes that they should be enough to pay all debts and close the expenditure side of the budget. I told him from your words that the Japanese forbid levying customs duties on their goods, or they give incorrect information for the calculation of fins fees. The matter complicated the fact that Mr. Brown does not want to part with the post of general customs commissioner and does not give away the books held by him. And Mr. Alekseev intends to change all customs officers. - And my father? - It is not about the person, he wants to bring order to the financial affairs of empires. Where will he get new people? He thinks there are enough honest young people in the country who care about the interests of Korea. - What does he care about the interests of Korea? Moreover, these debts ... Let those who lend care about them. - I admire your naivety, Kim Jin-ho. - First, debts should be repaid and interest should be paid for loans. This is a lot of money. And the longer you give, the more interest grows. Secondly, penalties are charged - this is also a lot of money. However, do not be offended, I understand you – mostly the poor pay, why pity them ... There is another side to the question. The Chinese are not afraid of you yet, but the Japanese, under the pretext of ensuring the payment of debt, will withdraw all customs revenues, as indicated in the loan agreement. And your poor country will become even poorer. In addition, not content with customs duties, they can occupy the country. The wish to do this has not dried up. - Do you think that you can cover the national debt with customs duties? - Kim Jin-ho asked hesitantly, thinking about something. Yes, Mr. Alekseev believes that properly collected customs duties and fins fees in the three main ports of the country - Chemulpo, Fuzan and Genzan will amount to a huge amount, which is quite enough to pay off debts in the next two or three years. He says that in the offices of a Japanese bank, where customs fees are leased, there is double bookkeeping. One with authentic figures, and the other for misleading the Treasury Department. He is interested in genuine reporting. - But it is in the offices of a Japanese bank ...- Yes, but in which only managers and cashiers are Japanese, mostly Koreans work and all money documents pass through their hands. - Good. Go, Ivan. I have to go to class. I will think about your words. And if I manage to get the records of that, the correct accounting, he will not dismiss my father? - It is hard for me to say, but he will be in great need of experienced specialists. I will ask for your father. Kim Jin-ho took a deep breath, decided on something, and repeated, - Go, Ivan.  She walked him to the gate and promised to visit his mission in a week. And she came, really in two weeks. But however, she brought copies of the summary reports of customs and flippers dues for the three main ports of Korea for this year, reflecting the real receipts. Luck was unheard of! Lieutenant Minaev calculated correctly – she would never have been able to receive such information alone. There, no doubt, had a firm and domineering hand. Using these data, Mr. Alekseev demanded a revision of the financial operations of the branches of a Japanese bank and secured a huge sum of money back to the treasury! Of these, not only Chinese debts were paid, but also two of the three millions employed in Japan. Moreover, Mr. Alekseev insisted that the emperor issued a decree transferring the management of the gold and silver mines to the Ministry of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry with the direct control of the Ministry of Finance. However, when assisting Mr. Alekseev in collecting purely economic data, Lieutenant Minayev did not take into account that it hurts the interests of literally all the officials of the state apparatus, who disposed of monetary charges at their discretion and robbed the country. The anti-Russian propaganda of the “Independents” party was superimposed on the hatred of even former supporters of rapprochement with Russia. In March of the next, ninety-eight, demonstrations took place in Seoul demanding the expulsion of foreigners, during which En Pan-sa, an interpreter of the Russian mission, was wounded. The anti-Russian orientation of these demonstrations, skillfully organized and directed, was obvious. And the resident Russian minister, Mr. Speyer, had to make a request, for which the Korean emperor replied that he was extremely grateful for the help of military instructors, the palace guard and financial adviser. However, circumstances have changed and now he does not need them.  The exception of a few mission diplomats, the Russians had to leave Korea. The district headquarters also recalled the lieutenant Minaev, but Ensign Ivashnikov was left in the mission guard unit. Saying goodbye, Lieutenant Minaev sadly remarked that, having received a new appointment, he would tell Ivashnikov and, if possible, would try to draw him to him. - If you agree, - he added, clapping Ivashnikov on the shoulder. - You know, I thought a lot that by doing a good thing, we allowed to wrap it in evil. Leaving, we leave Korea in the hands of the Japanese. And the just-concluded agreement between Russia and Japan is nothing more than a paper. He was referring to an agreement by which both empires recognized the full independence of Korea and pledged to refrain from any interference in the internal affairs of this country.


WITTE. VISIT OF KAIZER WILHELM II IN PETERSBURG. CAPTURE LYAODUNG
It took a lot of time, but Sergei Yulievich tried to recall in his memory all the events of that autumn of 1897, of which he had been a participant or had learned about it from many sources. All of them with sad inevitability emerged from our earlier actions or omissions, as well as the ill-considered, hasty steps taken by Count Muravyov, caused by an acute envy of the successes of the Minister of Finance and, in part, of his predecessor as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Prince Lobanov-Rostovsky. With him, Count Muraviev, and should start. Sergey Yulievich considered him an empty person, and others, who knew him, say that he is a literally poorly educated person, and in many respects simply ignorant, a zhuir, a lover of good dinner, and a decent drink during dinner. Yes, and official affairs, he devoted very little time. He became Minister of Foreign Affairs only because he served as envoy in Copenhagen. And this place gave certain proximity to the imperial family, and in the time of Alexander III, and later visited Copenhagen due to close relationship with the Danish royal house. The field of activity of the envoy in Denmark, of course, is very narrow, but to show the ability of the courtier gave many opportunities. Hence the career ... At the end of July, on the eve of the visit to Russia of the German emperor Wilhelm II, Sergei Yulievich was informed that Muravyov was visited by the German envoy Prince Radolin and, among other issues of the upcoming visit, casually inquired how long Russia was thinking of using Jiaozhou’s Chinese harbor. To this, Muravyov responded that Russia was not going to give up parking for her Pacific squadron and the coming winter. As Sergei Yulievich now guessed, this was the first test step. Soon followed by other persistent steps very viscous Germans. On the very first day after the arrival of the German emperor Wilhelm II in Peterhof, according to the accepted custom, a formal official dinner was organized. Sergei Yulievich did not have time to arrive at the appointed hour at Peterhof, when one of the officers under William approached him and said that the German emperor wanted to meet him, and now asks to go to his apartment. After a brief conversation, Wilhelm declared that he knows what a wise and distinguished statesman Sergei Yulievich is, and, as the perfect exception, he favors the Order of the Black Eagle! And he added that this order complains only to royal persons and ministers of foreign affairs, and for him, the Minister of Finance, he makes a special exception, since this exception has never been made. And handed the order. A few days later, in Petersburg, Prince Radolin once again invited Sergei Yulievich to his emperor, and he spoke that it would be advisable to set up military duties against American agricultural products that flooded European markets. Sergei Yulievich replied that it would be better to set up strong allied relations between Russia, Germany and France, to which the rest of Europe would join. This continental single international alliance will free Europe from the burden it has imposed on itself for mutual rivalry. Europe will inevitably flourish and show for a long time its dominant place over the world. Now, recalling that the order of the Black Eagle, the German emperor handed him in the Chinese garden of the apartments allotted to him in Peterhof, Sergei Yulievich understood that the conversation about military duties against North Americans was just a red herring, and he received this bribe so that he would not oppose Germany in her Eastern Policy.[BR]Shortly after the departure of the German emperor, Sergei Yulievich had a meeting on some business with Admiral General Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich. And he said, from the words of the sovereign that when together with the German emperor they returned peacefully from a trip in one crew one day, Wilhelm, quite unceremoniously, asked whether Emperor Nicholas would object if Germany would occupy Jiaozhou port for their parking ships. The sovereign is a very delicate person, moreover, Wilhelm was his guest, and he was very embarrassed to refuse flatly. But what he said, he did not say to the Grand Duke. It seems that by his mild nature, the sovereign-emperor could not directly refuse this highly incorrect ask, and the German emperor insidiously interpreted that the Russian sovereign gave his blessing to this, and decided to take advantage of it. Then the Germans began to develop success. At the beginning of October, the Deputy foreign Minister Lamzdorf was the German charg; d’affaires Chirshki, Prince Radolin was on vacation, and stated that in the near future, the German warships intended to enter Jiaozhou, and the oral agreement was reached between the emperors in Peterhof . Vladimir Nikolaevich Lamzdorf is a man of excellent, excellent heart, a friend of his friends, highly educated, although he only finished the page corps, knows all the secret affairs of the ministry very deeply, but he is very careful. He calmly listened to Chirshki and replied that Russia had obtained the right to park its ships only for the past winter. And now there are no Russian ships there and it is not known what face the Chinese will meet there with the sudden appearance of German warships. The Germans understood the position of the Russian Foreign Ministry unequivocally that their hands were untied. Soon there was a message that two German missionaries were killed in Shandong. Even then, Wilhelm II feared the tough place of Russia, and sent a telegram to the sovereign to dispel all doubts. And the sovereign emperor responded with a much-needed insidious William’s answer that he could not approve or disapprove of his orders to send a German squadron to Jiaozhou, as he had recently learned that Russian ships occupied this harbor for only one winter. Naturally, the Germans were delighted, because Russia formally waives all rights and claims to this harbor. Moreover, literally on the same day, November 14, 1897, the German squadron was in Jiaozhou. The highly incorrect actions of the German emperor, who took advantage of the youth and delicacy of the Russian sovereign, brought certain difficulties to the activities of Count Muraviev. He was put in an uncomfortable position, because Tsungli-Yamin at one time promised to keep for Russia the preferential right to this harbor. And he had every reason to fear that other nations would pounce on Chinese ports to the north of the English zone of influence. Count Muraviev enlisting the well-known support of Emperor Nicholas, began, through diplomatic channels, to insist on the withdrawal of the German squadron from Jiaozhou, offering to demand that the Chinese side punish the perpetrators of the death of missionaries, and threatened not only to introduce the Russian squadron into Jiaozhou, but also to involve the Shandong incident in other powers, referring to England, with which Germany had strained relations.[BR]Sergei Yulievich was also outraged by the very insidious behavior of Germany. It has not even two months since Prince Ukhtomsky returned from Beijing, who went there to hand Li Hongzhang the first million bribes and whom, he asked, confident of the well-known relaxation of the takers, to persuade the Chinese side to agree on our line from the Trans-Manchurian to the Yellow sea. But Li Hongzhang categorically refused Ukhtomsky, stating, literally, that he would not let us into the rooms where they have wives and small children. Then Sergei Yulievich had to come to grips with Korean affairs, where a government sympathetic to Russia was formed. He appointed a financial adviser to the king there, and managed to get the transfer of control of Korean customs from the Englishman Brown to him. Muravyov continued to insist on the withdrawal of German ships from Jiaozhou, but the naval ministry manager Admiral Tyrtov, in a relatively recent past, the head of the united Pacific Squadron of the Pacific Ocean, without coordinating his actions with him, went to the emperor, and reported that sending Russian ships there seemed to him uncomfortable, since the Germans occupied it. Moreover, the maritime Navy ministry does not consider this harbor suitable for the base of the Russian squadron due to its remoteness from Vladivostok and perfect isolation from Russia. And the sovereign again, due to the softness and indecision of his character, faltered and agreed with Tyrtov. What a fiasco of Russian diplomacy! However, from Muraviev other and should not have expected. In the meantime, the Germans turned to Head of the Cabinet of Her Majesty’s Government Lord Salisbury in London. And he responded in the sense that Great Britain would have nothing against it if Germany settled in any Chinese port, and the north, the better. Gloating, the Germans dismissed the pill by replying through the Russian ambassador in Berlin Austen-Sacken that their presence should not restrain Russian ships if they chose to stay there until Russia acquired its own permanent settlement in the inland Yellow Sea. And, by the way, Jiaozhou is not inside, but near the Russian sphere of interests, and it will be more convenient for Germany to come to the aid of Russia, even if against Japan. Moreover, Emperor Wilhelm personally arrived at the Russian embassy in Berlin, and began to convince Austen-Saken that the issue of Jiaozhou was fraternally resolved by both emperors in Peterhof, and that solidarity of interests would inevitably lead both empires to unity of action in the face of common danger, alluding to Japan.The Japanese, said the emperor with shameless German cunning, are generally repulsive subjects, and you can expect anything from them, but the German squadron, having a base not far from the Russian, will always be side-by-side with Russian ships, against any enemy – will they be called Japanese or British. However, the Japanese would not be ready for the war before 1905, and until that time, our squadrons would have melted down all their ships. This was Sergey Yulievich and he was afraid. After all, William directly pushes us to war with Japan. Then he went to Chirshki and told him that German appreciates him very much, and said that when he wants to ask the German emperor for something, he can do it through the embassy. And now he is asking the emperor to telegraph that in the interests of Russia and Germany you should leave Jiaozhou, because this step will entail other steps that will have the most terrible consequences. A few days later Chirshki arrived at the ministry to Sergei Yulievich and showed the reply of the German emperor to his telegram. Wilhelm wrote, - “Tell Witte that I saw from his telegram that he didn’t know some of the circumstances that are very significant and relevant to this case, and therefore we cannot follow his advice.” The next day, a meeting was held under the chair of the sovereign, Emperor Nicholas II. The Minister of War Vannovsky, Sergei Yulievich, the head of the naval ministry, Admiral Tyrtov, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Muraviev, attended the meeting. Discussed the note of Count Muraviev. The first word was given to Muraviev. He immediately stated that he was very much afraid of the capture of Port Arthur by the British and that Jiaozhou had to take advantage of the German occupation and, finally, solves the issue of the port. Although he is not competent in maritime affairs, it is highly desirable for Russia to have a harbor in the Pacific Ocean in the Far East, and Port Arthur and Dalianwan are of paramount importance in their strategic position. In addition, such an opportunity, as it is now, cannot be repeated. There is nothing to put beads in front of them ... We should act like, say, the Germans in New Guinea, Togo and Cameroon, and now in Jiaozhou, instead of almost currying favor. And to whom? - He rhetorically asked, theatrically wringing well groomed, in old brown buckwheat hands. - China is now accustomed by the Japanese to respect strength and power, and is no more dangerous than any Siam or any Negro principality in Africa, so it is useless and waste less to waste time on friendly exhortations in Jung-yam, you must immediately follow the example of Germany. Of course, it may seem strangely wild and unbelievable that a state, an empire with a population of 400 million people, was unable to defend itself against several tens of thousands of enemies. However, this indisputable fact exists, and for the past three years since that time, the situation has not changed and could not change. “To every true Russian person,” continued Muraviev conviction, “the road is his homeland; the roads are his honor and glory and old traditions, his benefit of the past and the present. There is an opinion that in the event of war with Japan, our warships can go out into the Pacific through the Okhotsk Sea and between the Kuril Islands, and if, say, the passages in the Kuril Islands are closed, then why does the fighting fleet exist? And why Vladivostok, our outpost in the Pacific, is given such a name – Lord of the East – if we have to depend on pitiful Japanese or Koreans? After all, instead of passing through the dubious Okhotsk Sea to force our way through the thick Kuril archipelago, would it not be better not to risk losing ships, but to have another military fleet base, but further south, in the Yellow Sea? Therefore, we should not go to bow to the Chinese to beg for what we can, without squatting in front of savages who have claims and audacity to consider us and other Europeans as barbarians and ”“devils of the West”, but to take it ourselves, casually and simply, like a falling overripe fruit ... Seen amateur in diplomacy. Sergei Yulievich for many years prepared penetration into Manchuria and China by purely economic ways, cultivating in the Chinese a feeling of affection and even gratitude to Russia for our help in developing desert, marginal lands, and he wants to grab them almost by the throat with brute force. Of course, Sergei Yulievich began to prove the recklessness of Muraviev proposal. A year and a half ago, we concluded an agreement with China, according to which, for agreeing to allow us to run a railway line through Manchuria, we promised to protect each other and Korea. So how can we now follow the example of Germany and capture the harbor? Such a move on our part would look extremely outrageous and insidious. In addition, China and other countries now in our country will hate us for being cunning. We had better enter our squadron into Jiaozhou and keep it there until the Germans can go home. Because in response to the provocative actions of the Germans, we should not stir up the hostility of China. Why, if we seized Port Arthur, we will have to build a branch line from the Trans-Manchurian Main Line to Liaodong through densely populated Chinese territory and through Mukden, the birthplace of the Chinese imperial house! Here Sergey Yulievich was a gossip — he was negotiating with such a branch with Li Hungzhan in Moscow. After all, he proposed to hold it based on mutual economic interests, and not by brute military force. However, Count Muravyov firmly stood on his point of view, stating that under the contract, we are obliged to protect China only from Japan, but we cannot prevent Germany. And to seize Port Arthur this treaty does not bother us. Sergei Yulievich understood him – after losing the diplomatic clash with Germany, he is trying to win back China. His Minister of War, General Vannovsky, wishing apparently to have a reputation as a tough politician and great commander in the eyes of the sovereign, supported Muravyov, saying that if according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs report this port was found convenient for our ships, then from a military point of view there would be no problems. He made it clear that he would have enough strength to chop off this port from China, that he would manage ... Sergei Yulievich, in response, pointed out that many other maritime powers could follow our example, and Japan may not limit itself to the occupied territories of China, but head for Korea, where we now have quite good positions. In this case, very serious consequences will inevitably occur. Why, we have just begun to build a highway through Manchuria, and it will take several more years to build a branch to Port Arthur, during which it will be completely cut off from Russia. It is good that he was supported by Admiral Tyrtov. According to him, even if we cannot now acquire a port in the southeastern part of Korea, it is better to keep a fleet in Vladivostok for other two or three years. Sergey Yulievich once again emphasized that we build our relations with China on the basis of mutual economic interests, and later, having built the Manchurian road, we will find an outlet to the Pacific Ocean. Unlike the European powers, we should support good neighborly relations with China. And Japan, which is extremely interested in developing its economic relations with Europe, will be quite happy to take this road. The sovereign emperor listened attentively to the arguments of the parties and, although Sergei Yulievich arguments were unpleasant, he decided to disagree with Count Moravia’s proposal. Sergei Yulievich hoped that the sovereign’s prudence prevailed, and he would adhere to the decision taken at the meeting. However, he did not take into account that Count Muravyov is capable of an incorrect deed. And after the meeting, he played on the subtle strings of his majesty’s soul – jealousy for Cousin Wilhelm and the secret wish to see himself as the Lord of the East. Count Muraviev reported to him that the British ships were pulling up to Port Arthur, and were about to capture him. And the sovereign emperor decided to send our military flotilla there. On December 1, 1897, a detachment of ships of the Russian squadron under the command of Rear Admiral Reunov entered Port Arthur. And soon as a telegram was on a table of tzar from his cousin, the German emperor Wilhelm, ”“Russia and Germany at the entrance to the Yellow Sea can be honored as if represented by St. George and St. Michael, protecting the holy cross in the Far East and guarding the gates to the Asian continent” . On March 16, 1898, at six o’clock in the morning, the land detachment and landing force from the Russian squadron were landed on Port Arthur, after which the occupation of the city and fortifications protecting Port Arthur from the sea and land began immediately. At eight o’clock on the forts of Golden Mountain, His Imperial Highness, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich raised the Russian military flag, which the squadron saluted with thirty-one shots, and behind this, the fort of Golden Mountain saluted the squadron. And on March 17, the Russian Telegraph Agency reported that on March 15 in Beijing, the Plenipotentiaries of Russia and China signed a special agreement, by virtue of which the Russian Imperial Government ceded to use for twenty-five years, a period that can be extended by agreement, Port Arthur and Dalianwan with the relevant territories, as well as the right to build a railway branch to connect these ports with the great Siberian railway. Then Sergei Yulievich learned that His Majesty and his spouse had invested huge sums in a timber industry enterprise organized on the territory of the concession in the Yalu-Tumen basins, not so long ago bought by Vladivostok merchant Briner. Moreover, an armed detachment of guards was sent to guard the enterprise. By deploying troops on Liaodong and the border between Korea and China, Russia blocked Manchuria from its competitors, Japan. And only then, when all this happened, at the end of March at the big reception in the Winter Palace, when the Russian tricolor and naval Andreyevsky flags were already flying over Port Arthur, and everyone around him was jubilant, clinking glasses of champagne with each other, and the women were charmingly smiled and repeated, “Glory to the Russian arms,” that is, General Vannovsky and Admiral Tyrtov, and, “Glory to Russian diplomacy,” that is, to Count Muraviev, who only nodded coldly to him, him, who spent the abyss of energy, time, mental and yes, yes, yes – physical, and only he may be called a true hero for the day, he bypassed the attention and almost disgraced, embittered, he thinks, and a contradiction – Well, imagine that I led my guests to the ”“Aquarium”*, and they, having drunk, got into a brothel, and made a scandal there. Is it really my fault? I wanted to be limited to the “Aquarium”. Next, others pulled. And that fatal step was accomplished, which entailed all further consequences – the Russian-Japanese war, the collapse of the Chinese empire, and the revolution in Russia ...
* Aquarium – a trendy Petersburg restaurant.

ANDREY MEDNIKOV.  TIGER HUNT.  SEARCHING FOR A JOB.
 Andrei bought for his mother, father and brothers of gifts and went home.  To Ketritsevo station, near Nikolsk village, he traveled by train, in a mixed car, mixed for the common people, and from there he went to the road leading to Ivanovka, but he was hailed by familiar men sitting at the extreme house, fellow villagers. — Stop, — shout, — do not go alone, wait a bit soon we will go together. — What is it?  — asked Andrei, — Malaykis are naughty? The Malayki were called fugitive convicts, who were scattered from the construction of the railway.  They had nowhere to go too much: they didn’t go to the city, the police and troops were there, and China-Korea was not going away, there the local authorities did not complain about their robbers, let alone the Russians and all the more.  Here Malaykis and arranged large gangs along the roads, lived robbery and murder.  They were afraid, periodically organized raids and soldiers combed taiga. “No,” they answer, “now the Malaykis flee from the taiga themselves.”  Tigers are now rabid .... In Ivanovka, Grandma Ustinya Mokrenok was dragged away from the garden, she was digging potatoes, and in Razdolnoye, they say, they ate a soldier with a gun. “No,” the others objected, “it spat out the gun.” — Anyway scary ... They waited a bit more until other fellow villagers from the market pulled themselves up and, loading their guns, in a handful, cautiously followed the cart to their Ivanovka. Andrei was greeted happily at home, admired with renewal and gifts, praised for their success in the household, rather, it must say modest.

The brothers grew stronger, taller and stronger than Andrei became, but he was a vein.
For the next day, they have to go to the zaimka, sow winter crops, but Andrew sees that Dad and brothers are going with great reluctance.  And the gun was loaded, and the axes in the cart next put.  Yes, and horse hides it ears, too, afraid, apparently.
“One of these days, to Krivosheyev was climbing in the window,” Dad tells, “the impudent face, yellow eyes.”  Ivan grabbed him, was at hand, pokes in the face, and the tiger just waved his hand and further breaks out the frame.  Well, Kolka, Ivanov’s son, ripped the gun off the wall, and shot it out.  Straight in the head.  However, the tiger sees, grunted only.  Now somewhere near wanders, wounded.  And it is necessary to go to sow, and scary.  In addition, we cannot make a raid on him — the taiga is all around, and the leaf has not fallen.
Andrew here says, “I heard of the manzas in the Shooter Bay as they catch the tiger.”  Come on try
The father called Ivan Krivosheev with his sons, armed with guns, and four Melnikov men.  Three guards were carried, and the rest the little Christmas trees and the birch trees were cut, a sazhen of three lengths of logs was made and they were driven into the ground in a clearing near the fence.  They drove in closely and so that the circle turned out in a sazhen diameter.  Then around the palisade, another one was erected, so as not more than an arshin between the walls.  A hole saw in the external chisel for the tiger was done and hung the door from the inside, so that the tiger would be able to open with its face, but that the door would be pressed tightly against the logs and would not let it out.  In the inner circle, a pig at night launched the hungry.  Well, it let a grunt, and then squeals.  The hungry tiger heard the pig scream and came in for dinner at night.  It walked around the fence, smells it, the pig squeal hears, but cannot get to dinner.  The picket fence is high; the tiger will not jump over.  The tiger became more aggressively trying to try logs, tried to topple, but it is firmly dug in and tied to each other, for do not fall.  But the hungry tiger is diligent.  Bypassed the entire stockade, tried all the logs, and came across the door. It opened freely and the tiger went in the door leaned back, missed the beast inside, and even lay back. A tiger runs along a narrow corridor around a pig, and cannot get inside or out, growls brutally with rage.  The dogs were the first in the village to hear a roar, in the hall forgot, yes, it rose barking.  The owners were notified that those guns were ready to keep their dogs ready to protect.  The dogs knew that the tiger is a great lover of dog.
All seven in the morning, with guns went.  They are afraid, they hold together, but, interrupting each other, they boast of feats of hunting.  When went to the palisade and it cracks and moves.  In the gap between the logs was visible tiger-father.  Hefty, with a bull in stature, the sides are yellow, striped, the eyes are red, ferocious, and the fangs are white and blood drips from them.  He tried to gnaw logs, but to no purpose.  And on the forehead the wound is visible caked, the one that Nikolai Krivosheev instructed.  Well, they hid a couple of charges to the tiger in the side that put him to death.  Then ran after the cart, they brought the tiger to the village.  The horse, poor, all mowed down on the passenger of the dead, striped.  And the piglet died with fear, had to be thrown away.

And Andrei spent the winter in Ivanovka, and in the spring, he moved to the city again.  He already had a lot of acquaintances and friends in Vladivostok, and they called for a job, promised the word to put in a word to the master or chief, to go around.  With housing, however, it was bad.  All his friends did not live, but huddled in crowded hovels.  And although friends invited Andrei to live with them, until he settled in with the shelter himself, their spouses as wolves looked at their husbands while listening to the hospitable, drunken host.  It is known that nobody don’t go on a visit without a bottle, and after it the second and the third appear, and the smoke comes from the yoke, and then the children roar, and the wife shines with a bruise, blacked out.  Andrew the person was shy and intelligent, in gratitude for the kind words, a friendly conversation and a snack table trying to get out before dark.  It was dangerous to walk alone in the dark streets of one, the drunk, — may be beaten and robbed.  And he spent the night at a lodging house on Korean street, near the Chinese joss house.  There were going to the same griefs homeless and unemployed.  Work in the city was, but the owners were spoiled.  Come on, they say, work, but I will pay like a Chinese or a Korean, a penny.  Well, offended men, we eat dogs or shells?  Not accustomed to... And left.
Here the rumor passed that the teams were gaining in China.  From Port Arthur to the Trans-Manchurian Railway, an iron line to build.  He already knew that in August of the past, in 1897itbegan to build a road through Manchuria, and now, in May 1898, it is going to the Yellow Sea.  The name of the highway was already given: who called the munkhurka, and who the hunhuzka, and it was clear to everyone.  They went to join the crowd on Svetlanskaya Street, at its very beginning, where the prison windows on the Korean street with curtains were closed with their grates, and there, at the door of the new Chinese-Eastern Railway Department, they huddled together.  Some engineer came out in a cap with hammers, a green edged girdle, and well, let us write.  He took all.  People, he said, need a lot, to the survey party.  But not the Chinese — Koreans, to hold out against them in China in a handful.  The passports were chosen, but in return, he gave five rubles each, so that before the steamer, which is going to China in a week, they did not die of hunger.  And as a ragged city, sub-fence, learned that money was being given here, so the house surrounded with a cloud of black.   Many with passports.  And an engineer with a hundred people scored and said that rather no more.  Then for the money of the lucky ones on the Semenov mowing, by the sea, they organized a feast.  Andrei was a companionable person, and it was necessary to get together with new comrades, he also took part in the festival.  He drank, ate, listened and was amazed.  Well, and folk ..., really, the lower classes of society.  It became very scary.  But he thought maybe, drunk for nothing, they were boasting, they were boasting about bestiality ...
However, on the boat and in the Chinese town of Dalianwan, he was bitterly made of some new friends by him.
Dalianwan, as a survey engineer told, first suggested that Slavorossia or Port Slavia be called, but then they came to their senses.  Who knows what will happen in the future, no matter how embarrassed.  And they decided to call Far.  Therefore, it will be consonant with the Chinese. The exploratory party into small groups, a man of ten was smashed, in each group a technician with a transit theodolite — a bronze tube on three legs — the eldest and they went to build a route.  The technician at the theodolite stands bow-legged, bent over, and Andrei and his group of comrades landmarks feets at twenty above the ground lead to the right, then to the left, until the technician “bet” does not command.  Then the pole with a sledgehammer will be hammered a couple of inches and the next one, so that they stand behind each other and evenly.  Or curve arc hung out.  Then at the place of landmarks the stakes were flat, sanded, from the nearest fishing line, they were scored into the ground.
At first, the Chinese, local residents, silently watched their actions, and then, when the route had to be led through their yards, kitchen gardens, fields, and even through idols, cemeteries, and a cry were raised.  Men, women shout loudly in their own way, small children, but with malice; began to throw stones, not to laugh.  Already the end of May was the beginning of June, the Chinese are waiting for the harvest, and here the Russians tell to get out.  It was possible to understand the Chinese, but the road should be traced.  The benefit that the Cossacks with whips, checkers and guns were sent.  Those did not stand on ceremony.  The Chinese are shouting, throwing stones at them, and the Cossacks with their whips, or even shot at them.  Those scatter.
Spend the night in the Chinese fanzas located.  Comrades Andrei are determined people.  By fists, the owners to the street kicked out, and if they will give the Chinese vodka, then in the corner of the hosts allowed spending the night.  Andrei was disgusted with them and scared.  Get drunk and swear.  Or they will want a woman, and let us pester the host.  And the stories were pre-hostile — where someone snuffed a Chinese, robbed a fanz or idol, ransacked a bench, took a shale or vodka from a shelf in the bench without asking, and did not pay a penny, chokha in their style, with a hole in the square in the middle of the copper coin.
Engineers and technicians forbade the rampage, the most impudent to calculate and expel were frightened, but they spent the night separately, did not know much.  And on Andrei’s requests to calm down, on timid attempts to protect the whale and on Andrei’s requests to calm down, on timid attempts to defend the Chinese offended, he was beaten once, and then his comrades threatened to kill him.  From China, you will not go home, to tell the authority is also not accepted.  Yes, and he knew — a knife stuck in the back, or throat cut, asleep.

JUN MEI.KILLING MISSIONERS. IHETHUANS
In Shuang Jiang - the day of the autumnal equinox – the twenty-third year of Guangxu (10.23.1897), Tsungli-Yamen received the news that two German missionaries had been killed in Shanghaihaghan. Li Hungzhan was terribly alarmed. “They say the truth,” he murmured, wiping abundant sweat on his face with shaking hands, “the fun ends, sadness comes, joy ends, sorrow comes.”[BR]He immediately sent the Empress to the palace for Jun Mei, with her help, hoping to appease the Empress. “Again in Shuang Jiang,” Jun Mei threw up her hands, and her heart ached from foreboding. - What will happen? The Germans will trust in our justice or will demand guided by the ancient Chinese custom: borrow, return, kill a person, and pay with your life? “Oh, no,” Li Hungzhan replied in a trembling voice. “I know them.” In the ninth year of Tongzhi (1870), two missionaries were killed in Tianjin and the French consulate was burned. The French were not satisfied then with the execution of eight people. They demanded the highest measure for the Tientsin governor and a huge monetary reward. Since then, the barbarian appetites have increased significantly. They are insatiable you will not feed. Big, oh, big misfortunes fell on the Celestial. “So, we must hurry to the German mission and convince the envoy that the local authorities and the imperial government will take the necessary measures,” Jun Mei jumped abruptly. “Maybe there are still not aware of what happened, and they will not attach much importance to the incident.”- It is necessary, it is necessary Jun Mei,” old Li Hungzhang was shaking. - It is unlikely that it will help, but condolences are necessary. The missionaries are not official representatives of the state, anything happens in life, perhaps the envoy will soberly assess what happened, - Li Hongzhang cheered up. But then again the donkey bag. - No, it is useless. Remember, in Berlin, we paid a courtesy visit to their old Chancellor Bismarck, and how arrogant he was. The Germans will long be interested in Shandong, there are a lot of them there now. The governor of the province reports that the Germans are behaving extremely unceremoniously. Oh, trouble, trouble ... A messenger rushed in and ordered Li Hungzhan to urgently arrive at Empress Cixi. - Come with me, - old Li pleaded, - maybe the two of us can calm the empress. Palanquins of the great princes Gun and Qing were already standing in front of the empress’s chambers. Tall eunuchs snatched Li Hungzhan from his palanquin, instantly took to the hall of the empress and threw on his knees. He just had to strike his forehead three times on the floor. Noticing Jun Mei, who had crawled after his, the empress with her eyes told her to go around the hall along the wall and stand behind the right behind the throne. - What happened in Shanghai, Li Hungzhan? The empress asked ominously. - They killed two German missionaries ... - Who are the missionaries and how did they get there? Grand Prince Kung answered, - Missionaries are monks of many religions of Western barbarians. According to legends, the first missionaries arrived in the Middle Kingdom back in the days of the Dong Wei dynasty. At the same time, one of the emperors issued a decree permitting the religions of the Western barbarians to spread freely throughout the Middle Kingdom. Then, however, they were told to get out. But already in the time of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, five hundred years ago, here, in Beijing, then Khan-Balik, two Catholic monks settled. When the Min dynasty was established, they were again driven out. But they climbed back to the Middle Kingdom and even enlisted the support of the emperor Wanli. Then they became so impudent that they demanded that the emperors of the Celestial Empire recognized themselves as subjects of the head of their church, as they said of the Holy Father. Emperor Yongzheng was angry and banned the spread of these religions, and even drove the missionaries from the Middle Kingdom. But these restless, terribly nosy monks under the emperor Daoguan flooded like worms after the rain and again actively began to spread their muddy religion. We know the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Orthodox religions. - Hao, - cried the Empress, displeased. - But what is being done in the Middle Kingdom now, including in Shanghaiguan? - Each of these religions has many sects, and all of them have already taken deep roots in the Middle Kingdom. Now in the empire about seven hundred European monks converted more than a million of your subjects to their faith. Especially there are many in Shandong, where Germanic Catholics settled ten years ago. Their main missionary, Bishop Anzer, darts across the province and often happens in Beijing, in the German diplomatic mission. By engaging your subjects in his religion, he promises them protection and support. Monk Europeans roam all over the province, recruit the rabble, fallen people, give them money, buy the best houses in the villages where they spend their prayers. These monks are behaving ugly, mocking our faith, breaking into our temples, insulting the religious feelings of the Chinese. These outrages and overflowed the cup of patience of your subjects, caused the killing of two missionaries. -Can we get rid of all these barbaric monks from the empire? - Cixi was angry. - But this will bring the wrath of all the Western powers to the Celestial Empire, and they know how to act together, - Prince Kung cautiously reminded. - What do you think to do,” the empress addressed Li Hungzhan. - I do not know – he hesitated. - We must go to the German mission and express condolences. Empress stared hard at Gun and asked with hostility, - What do you think, old fox?  Guan bowed his head guiltily, showing with his whole appearance that he fully agreed with Li Hungzhan. - Maybe you add something, honey? - turned the Empress to Jun Mei. It’s not for nothing that they say that there are no men whom a woman could not deceive. - It’s hard to say, - Jun Mei mingled, - we must go to the German diplomatic envoy ... - And if he is not satisfied with your condolences? If he demands anything else? - It will be so, - Li Hungzhan confirmed with a fallen voice. - More recently, the German envoy demanded Jinmyndao Island in Fujian Province, and the port of Jiaozhou in Shandong, but I resolutely refused him. - Stand tight, Li Hungzhan, - Cixi shouted. - Stay tight, no concessions! After all, we have a contract with Russia. She asked hopefully. Right from the Forbidden City, Li Hungzhan went to the German envoy. The Empress ordered Jun Mei to accompany him. From the gates of the Forbidden City, their palanquins slowly and importantly sailed down Ambassador Street and soon stopped at the German Mission. The gates were tightly closed, and no one thought to open them. A servant of Li Hungzhan scribbled timidly, and then drummed in the gate more aggressively. He knocked for a long time. Finally, the guard soldier opened the hatch at the gate and gestured for them to enter. Li Hungzhan and Jun Mei had to leave the palanquins and walk, losing face, into the mission area. The soldier, carelessly and silently, pointed his finger at the mission building and slammed the hatch behind them.Hunched over, Li Hungzhan shuffled to the building, slowly, with difficulty, climbed the steps and went inside. Jun Mei, wearing her man’s dressing gown, supported his arm. The young man inside the building looked at them curiously and pointedly pointed at a wide leather sofa. - Sit down and wait. Mr. Ambassador is busy – and went out. Rudeness had to swallow. They waited a long time. At last the doors of the envoy’s cabinet opened, and the same young man invited them in. In the depths of the cabinet, under the portrait of the emperor of the Germans, was the envoy Gaiking. He slowly got up and went to meet them. - What can I serve? - neglecting diplomatic etiquette he asked with obvious hostility. - We have arrived to express deep condolences of the emperor of China and the imperial government in connection with the grief that has befallen the murder of two missionary monks, subjects of your Kaiser. - Jun Mei translated the words of Li Hungzhan. “I just sent the dispatch to the German Foreign Ministry about this incident, - answered Gaiking indifferently. - The imperial government officially declares that the most severe punishments will be taken against the criminals, and large sums of money will be paid to the families of the victims. Von Gaiking laughed shamelessly. - No, you will not fob with money off. I regard the incident as an international incident and am awaiting instructions from my government about further actions and demands about China.
- Missionary monks are not official representatives of the German Empire and do not enjoy immunity status. In diplomatic practice, there is a rule according to which the government of the country in whose territory a similar incident occurred with a private person is not responsible. The criminals will be severely punished according to our laws, - Jun Mei translated. - You think so. - We believe that the German Empire should take care of its subjects with all its might, wherever they are. Gaiking was determined and merciless. Jun Mei saw and understood that all their persuasions would come to nothing. Li Hungzhan persistently persuaded the envoy, Jun Mei translated, but everything was in vain. Gaiking became inflamed and began to resort to threats and insults.  The Empress immediately accepted Li Hungzhan. - What did the German envoy said? But old Li Hungzhan just hung his head guiltily. - Why don’t you answer? - In anger stamped foot Cixi. - Shameless and arrogant red-haired barbarian said he was waiting for instructions from Berlin. - What will they demand? Jiaozhou? Tianjin? Hankow? After all, they will definitely must something ... How to resist them? - In Berlin, the German foreign minister demanded Jiaozhou, but I refused, citing the fact that this port was already provided for the Russians for the winter stay of their navy. - Our fighting fleet was sunk by the Japanese, and the ground forces are not armed and not trained. In addition, we do not know what the Germans will demand from us. Do not forget our previous attempts to defend ourselves against the red barbarians, and how they ended ... with great losses for the Celestial ...- recalled the Grand Duke Qing. - So, what can we do now? - Go to the Russians ..., - Cixi seized on. - And what shall we tell them? What are we going to ask them for? - Qing soberly reminded. - They already know about the murder of the missionaries. - But this is all for now. What are we going to ask about? - That there is a contract! - shouted Cixi. - But so far, no hostile actions have been taken against the Celestial ... - , Qing answered stubbornly, clearly forgetting about etiquette. But now Cixi was not up to him. The prolonged silence broke Gong. - Will have to wait... - What? - Cysi shot out. “We’ll have to wait, - repeated Gun. A week later, a dispatch came from Jiaozhou to Tsungli-yamin that three German warships had entered and two hundred landing troops landed on the shore. The squadron commander, Admiral Diedericks, filed a demand for the head of the Chinese military detachment to clear the port and military fortifications within two days. Under the vents of the imposed German guns, they had to obey and leave, leaving the Germans with everything — guns, ammunition depots, and fortifications ... - Honor, conscience, and dignity, - Li Hungzhan added bitterly. - We must hurry to the Russian mission, - Jun Mei reminded. - Yes, yes, - Li Hungzhan recollected, -let’s hurry ... Soon they were at the gates of the Russian diplomatic mission and charg; d’affaires Mr. Pavlov, who replaced Cassini, transferred to United State kindly received them. - We received a message that the Germans captured Jiaozhou, - Li Hungzhan almost groaned. - I sympathize with you very much, - Pavlov looked really distressed.- Why don’t you send your warships to the winter station there, because winter is coming in Russia?- But the agreement was only last winter. - Good. Last May in Moscow, an agreement was signed between the Chinese empire and Russia, according to which Russia undertakes to protect the Celestial Empire from everyone, everyone, - Li Hungzhan repeated, - the powers.- I was informed that the treaty was addressed only against Japan, - said Pavlov.
- No, - Li Hungzhan said firmly, - against all powers. Now I ask you to make an urgent dispatch to the government of the Russian Empire about the capture of Jiaozhou by the Germans. - Good, - Pavlov quickly surrendered. - I will make this dispatch now, but I assure you that the agreement is addressed only against Japan. On the letterhead of the Russian diplomatic mission with a double-headed predatory eagle with outstretched wings, he quickly wrote a dispatch and Li Hungzhan personally delivered her to the telegraph office and then hurried to the empress. Again, they had to wait. - You reminded him of the contract. - Excitedly asked Cixi. - Of course, of course, I referred to him. - And what did the Russian envoy say? - He made a dispatch to his government, which I took to the telegraph office. However, the Russian envoy said that the treaty directed only against Japan ... - Japan alone? - a disappointment grimace distorted Cixi’s agitated face. - Order the contract to deliver here! Half an hour passed in tense silence, and finally the out-of-breath messenger was delivered an iron casket. Li Hungzhan opened the lock and took out a bluish sheet of paper with black French letters. - Read, - said Cixi, pointing to the contract. Jun Mei took the sheet, quickly ran it through her eyes, looking for a point about joint defense, and was stupefied. The text said that Russia is committed to protecting China only from Japan! But this is impossible ... She clearly remembered that in Moscow texts were signed in which Russia pledged to protect China from all, all, all powers! - The witchcraft of the white barbarians, - is all that she could answer to the empress’s gaze. - She, she, she read the treaty in French and assured me that he is against all powers, - Li Hungzhang began to shake with fear. -  You fooled me so. - flushed Cixi. The empress’s gaze was cold and empty. - Her at whips, - she told chief eunuch Li Lianying who stood behind the throne. Late at night, the door of the closet, into which she was shut to give to the executioner in the morning, opened without a sound, and that terrible eunuch appeared on the threshold with a candle in hand. - Follow me, - he whispered to Jun Mei. - We will send you to Hushan Yan. Another, criminal will take your place here. Empress Cixi will not know anything. In the clothes of a commoner five days later she was brought in a wagon to the temple of old Yan. Old Hushan Yan sympathized with her, although he was clearly upset.
- Haste hides a mistake, - he said sadly. - So, you hurried not convinced that the contract was drawn up exactly as you wanted. Well, every failure makes us smarter. Know yourself, know the enemy – in a hundred battles you will win a hundred victories ... We will not correct this mistake, so we will have to start from the other end. Tomorrow you will go to the mountains of Shandong. Recently, a secret school was opened there, in which our people are preparing leaders of the uprising against foreign invaders. The school was created by Shan-dong zong-tuan - the Shandong main society. It unites and unites all secret societies for the upcoming uprising. It needs energetic, capable, highly educated patriots, especially people who know foreign languages, lifestyle, cunning and the vile habits of overseas white devils, to unravel and warn their secret plans, rally, and lead, train our people in fighting techniques and personally lead to battle. To defeat the overseas devils, as we have seen, we need to collect a large regular army. But this is beyond our power. We have no money for weapons, we will not be able to arm and train the army. However, if we raise all the people, relying on the hatred that people have for foreigners, their religion, their greed and cunning, then, as it says, rain and wind sweep away the dust, and thunder inspires fear. Your path will be long and long; on it you will meet good and bad, strong and weak, steadfast and cowardly, brave and cowardly people. However, be patient and persistent, diligently study yourself and transfer your knowledge to others. Go, girl, and do not be afraid of death. The fate of each of us is predetermined by heaven. Die for homeland. Dying for the Motherland means doing a good deed! On a sailing boat through the Zhili Bay, she was transported to Chefu, and from there on foot, in the usual clothes of a commoner – a wadded jacket and wadded pants, accompanied by a silent strong young peasant, she set off on her way to Shandong. In tiny villages and small towns, in taverns, where they stopped to have a bite, in the bazaars, where they went to admire the generous gifts of the earth and the fruits of hard callus hands of artisans, in idols and monasteries, where they were given a place to sleep, everywhere they saw the anger of ordinary people against foreign worms of missionaries and their Chinese followers. They often heard stories about the houses and lands that were taken away, about the injustices perpetrated by cowardly local officials in defense of foreigners, they felt the growing anger of the working people and rejoiced. Rejoiced and feared. They were afraid of the impending difficult and dangerous business, but were glad that they were not alone in their hatred and thirst for revenge many thousands. And maybe even millions of people are eager to expel all aliens from their homeland and live a quiet life of their ancestors. In a small monastery on Mount Nanhuashan, a school of Hong-den-chao society, the Light of the Red Lantern, was created. Among those who arrived were to comprehend the basics of the wisdom of Confucianism, Taoist and Buddhist teachings, the magic and art of fistfight, ways to arouse the masses, the ability to handle modern barbarians small arms, and ways to penetrate the Middle Kingdom, she saw peasants and merchants, artisans and teachers, coolies, boatmen and even officials. Jun Mei was especially happy when she found out that she was not alone, that there were almost a third of women among the students of the school. First in front of them spoke Zhu Hong-Deng, head of the Shan-Tung Tsung-Tuan. - With the advent of the Manchu Qing dynasty, the Celestial Empire suffers terrible disasters. Foreign worms tear it apart. This is especially clear now, when Emperor Guangxu is not at all involved in government. It is known that if there is no master in the house, everything in it goes upside down.  The country was flooded with ardent guides of an alien religion, which bribe greedy, lazy, depraved people, rob and enrich themselves at the cost of hard-working, flexible, meek artisans and peasants. Overseas devils brought their iron cars, build railways, arrange sea communication between the ports on huge voracious steamers, which made our canals and cities where live millions of boatmen, boaters, merchants, farmers, artisans, etc. people. Moreover, the redheaded devils seize more and more new lands of our ancient country. France demands that Ming and Ude in Yunnan province be given to her, they plotted to build a railway from Vietnam to Longzhou in Guangxi province, and they want to seize the underground resources in Yunnan, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces. England, in addition to the previous seizures, demanded the territory of Ezenshan on the border between the Middle Kingdom and Burma, flooded with her own machines and cheap goods the Yangtze and Xinjiang river basins, which ruined millions of artisans. The old Empress Cixi and her greedy assistants rob the Celestial even worse than foreigners do. Having spent enormous money collected from our poor people in the form of taxes, they left the state defenseless against the Japanese, and from the three hundred and seventy million lans employed to pay the contribution of Japan, one hundred and twenty were plundered. They constantly raise taxes, drive the peasants from the best lands and sell these lands for bribes to foreign worms. The sky gazes in horror at the unrest created in the Celestial, and sends out disasters – droughts and floods. Barbarians, like rats, ruin our villages and cities. Officials are cashing in on people’s grief. Therefore, we must save the Celestial. It is necessary to raise all the people and throw out foreigners. After all, if a poisonous snake or a wild beast only scares, and does not kill, then they become only more dangerous ... - Ever since the Manchus drove the Ming dynasty from the Dragon Throne of the Son of Heaven and began to oppress the Chinese in every possible way, secret societies began to be created to organize resistance. Their slogan was “Fu Min Fan Qing” - “Restore Min and overthrow the Qing.” The first such society was the sect Tsa-gua-hui, the symbol of which was Tai-chi -”“The Supreme Start”. From this sect, many secret societies arose in different parts of the Celestial Empire, the most famous of which was the Bay-Lian-Jiao-White Nenufar Society. The white lotus is the symbol of Maitreya - the embodiment of the Buddha. After the Qin emperor Jia-qing defeated the rebellion of this society that lasted for nine years in five provinces (five hundred years) , its members began to create sects in all the provinces of the Middle Kingdom and prepare new and new battles with the hated enslavers. Baishandihuei Society – Society for the worship of God, and Sanhaehui - Triad in the last year of Emperor Daoguang (1850) raised the people to a peasant war. The uprising of the Taiping, as it was called, lasted for fourteen years and almost overwhelmed the Qing, but foreign worms intervened. In Shanghai, they tried to resist the Xiaodaohui Society – the Union of Small Swords, which united all the secret sects of the central provinces, but after three years of resistance, it could not resist Qing and the red-headed devils, like the peasant war of the Taiping. But the secret, no matter how it was hidden, will surely come out, and the fire in the embers eventually will flare up. To educate a new generation of fighters against a Christian religion alien to us, against the domination of the overseas devils and the rotten Qing dynasty through, the Taoist monks created the Hong-den-chao society – the Red Lantern Society, in which boys and girls are taught Shen-chuan-chi-shi - Taoist gymnastics, through which the existing, gross body merges together with the new, spiritually nurtured, and this body becomes inviolable and immortal. You must comprehend the art of turning people into intact and immortal warriors, whom you will lead into battle. Our society, which is preparing an uprising, is called E-he-tuan-lien -”“Exercising in gymnastics with groups in the name of justice and harmony.” We are accumulating strength and waiting for the right moment to strike the final blow and revive the former power of the Middle State. And began the long months of study. The first cry of the roosters was barely heard, and the silver ladle paled in the east, as the old watchman pounded the fifth guard with a beater. It is time to get up. Quickly they rolled up the felt mattresses on which they slept, young women and girls hurried to the still mountainous lake covered with a mysterious mist, timidly fearing to disturb the sleep of the water spirits, washed and ran back to the monastery. Having quickly swallowed a small cup of beans or boiled millet and washed down with water, they were going to comprehend the teachings of reincarnation, witchcraft and magic in the yard. The Taoist monk explained to them that the power of the emperor rests on the power of De, which can be monolithic, like a rock, and can be divided or divided. If the power of De is united, then the reign of the emperor is just, the people live in prosperity and contentment. But if the power of De is dual, not virtuous, then the land is ruined, the sources run low, the barbarians are attacking everywhere, hunger sets in and people constantly feel discontent. Then expect trouble. But not only sovereigns own the power of De. Particles of this power can be found in many people, especially women. The main thing is that these people have the unified power of De. Together we will develop and unite her into the great De, and then the Tao and the sacred Heaven will help us crush the mired in debauchery and contentment of Nilasy and restore the power of the Middle Empire. - What is De? De – this is a love for relatives, friends and distant, it is a care for each other and mutual help. De is patience and wisdom. De is an internal force that helps to withstand severe trials. De is moral purity and chastity. De – this is a hatred of the barbarians who want to make our great people poor, hungry, to take away our homes and lands, they want to rule and ruin the Celestial. Both the farmer who cultivates rice, the carpenter who builds the house, and the excavator who digs the canals and erects dams against floods, and the artisan who manufactures many necessary things possesses virtuous power. And the greatest virtuous power of De are women who have children and thus support the existence of life itself. “But there is also De’s evil power — from a stealing official, from a thief and a robber, from a soldier who kills good people, from an unjust living and indifferently staring at the sufferings of people and the death of the ruler’s state. - The one who will long and diligently practice the art of Taoist gymnastics of the spirit - Sheng-chuan-chih-shi and do a thousand and more ke-tou  every day, he will become unharmed and immortal - Di-sien. And under the guidance of a fa-shea, a teacher of magical methods of transformation, women for a long time, until a frenzy, loss of strength and complete unconsciousness, repeated the movements of gymnastics, performed ka-t;u, walked around the bowl with clean water with quick steps, shouting ”“fay” - I would fly. Swiftly, day after day, time flew. Almost weekly, an experienced master taught them to shoot a bow, to wield a sword and a spear. Once on a rainy afternoon, the sand in the courtyard of the monastery creaked under the wheels of a cart, which was pulled by a small gray donkey with protruding, constantly spinning long ears. The donkey was led by a soldier of the Ho Piao squad, who maintains order in the Shandong province. The women surrounded the wagon with curiosity and began to treat the donkey with grass and bits of cakes. Of the monastery, the soldier embarrassed by the attention of a large number of young pretty women soldiers, was taken to the refectory by abbess of monastery. He soon went out and, trying to look menacing, began to pull out the guns of foreign devils from the wagon. Putting them on the grass, he called everyone – Hotchkiss, Winchester, Mauser, Snider, Spencer, Remington, Berdan.... Women retreated in dismay, staring at terrible black guns that could kill people at a great distance. And the soldier reassured them, saying that he was ordered to teach them how to use firearms, and each of them would have to shoot five cartridges from each rifle. For a whole week, the soldiers forced women to get used to their guns, hold them in their hands, press them to themselves, look into the black hole of the barrel, from where death flies, show cartridges, teach how to load the gun and what needs to be done to make sure that it shoots at the target. Women got used to it rather quickly and seemed to stop being afraid of long black pipes attached to the wood, but when it came time to shoot in a narrow mountain valley, and when these terrible guns thundered deafeningly and, breaking out of weak hands, they hurt in the shoulder, women again, it was, they forgot them, especially since one of them recoil broke the collarbone. However, the fashi inspired that it was possible to beat the barbarians with their own weapons, that they would soon have to join the battle and encourage, lift the offensive spirit of the people, and even cannons would resist them ... Fear was overcome and a white sandbag, clearly visible against the black rock in two hundred steps, with shots dishevelled into a dirty spot.  Zhu Hong-den visited the convent every month, talked with the prioress for a long time about the course of his studies, was interested in the progress of proselytes in mastering ancient knowledge, and hurried. The Middle Empire is great, and the enemy is strong, so you need to hit in all places at the same time and suddenly, but for this you need to prepare teams of young people, boys and girls. It is on them that the Ihetuan society places the main hope. Adolescents tend to flare up like gunpowder, and fight like a tiger in a battle. Zhu Hong-deng knew that Jun Mei had formerly been the Empress maid of honor and accompanied Li Hungzhan to the capital of Russia. He asked her for a long time about the empress’s entourage, their relationship, habits, weaknesses, likes and dislikes, tried to clarify whether the enemies in the camp were as one, whether the Chinese could be separated from the Manchus and who among them could support the uprising. Jun Mei faithfully answered, but her knowledge was superficial. Zhu Hong-dan brought the latest news about everything that happened in the Celestial Empire, about the ruins and atrocities committed by the missionaries and their Chinese followers. Once he said that Li Hungzhan appealed to the Russians for a loan of one hundred million lans to pay the contribution, which the Celestial promised to pay Japan before the end of the fifth month of the twenty-fourth year of Guangxu (1898). In exchange, the Russian emperor demanded to set up a monopoly for Russia in all three provinces of Manchuria and in Mongolia for the construction of railways and industrial enterprises there, the exclusive right to build a railway from the future Russian trans-Manchurian railway to the port of Dalianwan in the Zhili Bay, and the right to enter this port only Russian ships. Unheard of demands after the real capture by the Russians of Liu-shun-kou! The British learned about this and began to threaten that if China received a loan from Russia, and not from England, they would act like Germany. Truly, spring thunder struck and woke black dragons in a black lake. It is necessary to quickly and well comprehend the wisdom of the ancients and more likely to prepare a national uprising! In the tenth month of the same year, Zhu Hung-den said that there were great upheavals in the camp of the Qing ruling dynasty. The compradors of the Manchus and the Chinese, wealthy due to the robbery of their homeland, profited from the fact that with the help of foreigners they brought iron cars into the country and used the work of poor people in the factories built. They produced a lot of cheap products and plundered the peasants and artisans in large numbers. It was these compradors who made a secret alliance with the British to send more Devils into the Middle Empire and finally to economically enslave the country. The Englishman Richard Timothy, through some of the highest ranks of the emperor’s entourage, gave a petition in which he offered to send officials to England to convert them there and teach them how to turn the blood of ordinary people into gold. In addition, in the same petition, he, under the false pretext of protecting the Great Empire of Heaven, offered to introduce foreign military instructors into the imperial army so that they would force soldiers to kill commoners. One of the zealous supporters of the enslavement of the Middle Kingdom by foreigners was Kang Yu-wei. As early as the twenty-first year of Guangxu, when Li H;ngzhang signed a peace treaty with Japan in Shimonoseki, Kang Yu-wei collected signatures on a petition demanding that he give up peace. But then the Japanese would have killed much more of our people and captured even more of our land! Kang Yu-wei and his patrons — the emperor’s mentors, ministers Weng Tung-he, Sun Jia-nai and Wen Ting-shi, created a publishing house for the wide dissemination of their harmful ideas and greedy wishes, which printed and then distributed a newspaper to court nobility and officials. They formed a reform party, to which Emperor Tsai Tian himself joined! But Empress Cixi firmly knows the main principle of the ruler – autocracy and no parties, no alliances. Faced the party of the emperor, who wanted to flood the country with foreigners and follow the path of the “Meiji revolution”, and the relentless empress, unable to keep up peace and tranquillity in the Middle Kingdom, but wishing to keep their power mired in inaction. Cixi learned that behind her back the conspirators had already invited officers of the Japanese General Staff into the empire and were planning to kill her. While the emperor’s party issued insignificant decrees for a hundred days, Cixi ready for a decisive blow. And the old dragon was stronger than the young. The loyal empress generals dispersed the reform party, and the most active supporters fled the country. Emperor Guangxu himself was imprisoned in a tiny closet on one of the islands of the Iheyuan Palace-Park. In Chun-fen – the spring equinox of the twenty-fifth year of Guangxu (1899), the abbess of the monastery called Jun Mei to her. Jun Mei walked in, bowed three times, and crouched at the door by the mistress’s sign. - According to my observations, - the nun appealed to her, - and according to the teachers, you are quite well ready in all the sciences that we teach. - Are you ready to go on a journey to start learning yourself? Do you feel yourself strong enough to fulfil the main business of your life without doubts and shyness – to raise the banner of rebellion against the Qing and foreign devils? - Yes, - Jun Mei answered firmly, - I’m ready. - -Then go back to Jing-chou-ting, to old Hushan Yan, and start creating schools for teenagers – boys and girls. In Liaodong, many lo-cha – Russian devils appeared. They appropriated all of Liaodong and are going to build a railway there. Help Hushan Yan to create a center of rebellion and be ready to take the lead in Liaodong on a signal. Yan is old, he will tell you.
Enmity will respond enmity
For insult – a series of insults;
Evil and vengeance among themselves.
 A single bound thread
Returning to Jing-chjou-ting, Jun Mei immediately began to create a school of Hong-den-zhao society - “The Light of the Red Lantern”. On the advice of Hushan Yana, she travelled around the nearest towns and villages, gathering girls and teenage boys to school, trying to find active and mobile ones. Not all parents gave away their children, but, being mostly in poverty, they were content with several bundles of coins and the promise that their child would get knowledge at school and in time would become a shansha teacher. Jun Mei invited the parents themselves to visit the school, visit the children, console those who yearned for home, and themselves learn the light of the teachings of the Daoist monks. To the same stubborn people who did not want to give children into the hands of strangers, the two strong young guys who accompanied Jun Mei threatened with heavy sticks, promising to beat them off if they oppose the future happiness of their offspring. Jun Mei’s voice sounded gentle, and the sticks looked convincing, and even the most intractable, hesitating and taking honest words with Jun Mei that their child would only benefit from the new teaching, gave it up and let the children tearfully. In the village of Su-Jia-tun, which is five miles from Ching-chou-ting, Jun Mei occupied a large house, having paid its owner well, and having placed boys and girls separately, she began to train them. Having taught the first group of teenagers gymnastics, frequent earth bows, from which a bald head appeared and spells, Jung Mei dismissed children in groups of three or four, and they wandered from village to village, from town to town, gathered at crossroads of villagers and townspeople and chanting:
Europeans in the north and south
Strong unrest raised.
Small children join the Red Lantern Society
The sincerity of the heart creates the ”“Philosopher’sStone.”
And so that the local authorities or the police did not drive away the children, did not prevent them from gathering people, to protect them from the missionaries and the Chinese, who accepted a foreign religion, a guy with a strong stick would walk with each group of children. He always sat on the sidelines and intervened only when he saw that the people gathered did not protect the adolescents. If the guard saw that the village foreman or the police officer was trying too hard to fulfil his duties, he rushed forward with a stick and shouted to the public, “Listen, and listen to what the children sing! And teenagers were taken together to vote:
If I do my filial duty,
I am not afraid of a gun or a rifles!
Demons and angels will honor me,
And there will be a great way to achieve holiness!
 And started with a double energy to weigh bows, breaking their foreheads to the blood. Pink foam bubbled out of their lips, hands and feet began to twitch involuntarily, and excited teenagers made such wild gestures and jumps that people, seeing their holiness, ardently stood up for them and chased unreasonable peace and orders. And Jun Mei travelled again and again to villages and small towns, taught teenagers again and again, and by the fall hundreds of groups filled South Manchuria. Literally in every village, people only discussed such an inexplicable invasion of holy children and believed that the gods themselves are broadcast through the mouth of babies, the gods themselves are calling on people to fight against the dominance of overseas barbarians, for preserving the secular order and tranquillity of the departed ancestors’ spirits Following the children, Daoist monks roamed the villages and small towns, prayed to the god of war, Guandi, and urged the people to arm themselves, learn hand-to-hand combat techniques and be ready for a fierce battle for the prosperity of the Middle Kingdom. And so the boys and young men, young girls and women went to the forges, carried bundles of coins and asked the blacksmiths to forge them with swords and sabers, and long knives, and tips for spears, and put them on long shafts, honed hoes and shovels, and they tied copper weights to long laces, and made bibs and caps out of buffalo leather for themselves, and hardened the body in long physical exercises. And the teens were singing:
And from one flashlight sometimes,
cities burn down.
And in a pool of huge waves
Rising up sometimes.
 Pink foam bubbled out of their lips, hands and feet began to twitch involuntarily, and excited teenagers made such wild gestures and jumps that people, seeing their holiness, ardently stood up for them and chased unreasonable peace and orders.
In the middle of the second month of the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu (1900) from Shandong from Zhu Hong-deng, an order came to gather all the groups of Ihetuan of Liaodong and South Manchuria and go to Tianjin to help the Shandong brothers from the north and seize this city. Jun Mei instantly sent messengers to the commanders of detachments and groups, and less than three days, as a huge mass of youth with red and yellow armbands on their heads, armed with improvised weapons, moved along the road along the seashore to Shanghaiguan.

IVAN IVASHNIKOV. STUDY IN THE EAST INSTITUTE. TRIP TO CHINA.
 In March 1899, Ivashnikov received a letter from Lieutenant Minaev, who served in the headquarters of the Amur Military District in the intelligence department of Lieutenant Colonel Alftan. The letter was dry and brief as the lieutenant he was dry and laconic. True, in the end, saying goodbye, Oleg Nikolayevich attributed - I embrace! Ivashnikov was touched - this ”“Embrace” said a lot. In any case, the location of his former mentor, teacher, patron and guardian. Yes, but about the main thing. In a letter, Oleg Nikolayevich announced that the Eastern Institute would open in Vladivostok this fall, second, after Tomsk University, a higher educational institution in Siberia, and the first in the Far East. It will prepare for service in the administration and commercial and industrial institutions of the East Asian part of Russia and the adjacent states. The draft regulation developed by the Office of the Governor-General of the Amur Region and for the highest approval envisages admission to the number of students and five officers. Lieutenant Minayev reported that he would give a report, and advised to follow his example. Moreover, Colonel Putyata well certified Ivashnikov to Lieutenant-Colonel Alftan, and all officers as candidates for admission to the start will be considered in their department. The course of the institute is provided for in four years and is divided into four is going to enter the Sino-Japanese branch, considering that an excellent knowledge of these countries and languages will be extremely necessary in the near future. Ivashnikov deliberated not for long. Hopes someday to enter the St. Petersburg or Moscow University melted long ago, and for entering the Academy of the General Staff, as he already knew, deep military knowledge and the rank of a lieutenant were necessary. A diploma of a higher educational institution, even a civil one, meant a lot. Guarding mission at the mission tormented him, and a deep knowledge of languages, a diploma, and the study itself in the direction of the district intelligence department would give a perspective. Without delay, Ivashnikov wrote a report, to which Attorney of Russia in Korea, Speyer attached his recommendation, and sent to the district headquarters. In June, Ivashnikov recalled to the district headquarters, where he, among other officers, was given the next military rank, second lieutenant. And Oleg Nikolaevich, who warmly met him, was promoted to Lieutenant-captain. Having spent the leave granted to him in his three years of service in his native Turye Rog, at the end of September Ivashnikov arrived in Vladivostok to study at the Eastern Institute. Soon came Oleg Nikolaevich. Ivashnikov stopped at his uncle, a collegiate assessor who served at the city police department. Ivan Ivashnikov’s cousin Peter, his peer, second-year student of the law faculty of Tomsk University, left for August in Tomsk, and his room, in which Ivashnikov lived for seven years, while studying at the gymnasium, was again given to him in full order. And the uncle’s wife, Maria Aristarkhovna, loved Ivan as much as her son, and was glad that the house was revived by youth. Pyotr Lukich, Ivan’s uncle, was burdened by his service, he repeatedly said that he would throw her to the devil, but something kept him. Habit, apparently, and a relatively much salary. Though he did not carry out the guard service and did not chase the criminals, he returned home tired. He was not talkative, and when he was being asked, he sometimes advised them not to talk about a sensational crime and go about his business and not be overly curious. They lived on a quiet Japanese street in the crew suburb. Staff- captain Minaev lived with a comrade in the corner room in the company’s barracks, but it was impossible to attend there, often single officers gathered and arranged revels. Therefore, in the evenings, they would sit over textbooks in Ivan’s room, and already for the night, Oleg Nikolayevich walked along the bay to the Rotten corner. Though it is not far away, it will be a couple of miles away, but over the autumn mud, a broken country road, and besides, he had to keep the revolver ready – nightly thiefs were tricked. Maria Aristarkhovna, seeing his torment, and after consulting with her husband, once suggested that Oleg Nikolaevich move over to them, to divide the room with Ivan. Oleg Nikolayevich began, it was, to refuse, but Peter Lukich firmly supported his spouse, and Ivan was glad. And Oleg Nikolaevich did not persist. Lieutenant Ivashnikov and staff captain Minaev enjoyed great success with local young lassies, and successfully competed even with brilliant, somewhat arrogant, very well-dressed young navy officers in strict sea black and gold chevrons lassie , revelers however, they were not and indulged in science seriously. But youth took its toll, and on Saturdays, they attended the Maritime Assembly, where they acquired a wide circle of acquaintances and even friends. They did not abuse alcohol and in frequent clashes held firmly, for which they were respected, and the hottest heads of their rival friends were afraid.
Maria Aristarkhovna treated with understanding the entertainment of young people. - When and take a walk, if not in his youth, - she sighed, looking at Ivan. “And to you, sir,” she turned to Minaev, “and it’s time to marry.” Thirty years, will soon become a remake. Oleg Nikolayevich joked aside, said that he had not matured internally for such a crucial step, but once he was upset and objected that it was impossible to get married to him. Here is a look. The second lieutenant has salaries and canteens 477 rubles a year; I received 495 in guarantors, and now, by the staff captain, 522. A year. With this money, I am single I barely make ends meet. Especially in Vladivostok, where everything is more expensive than in Russia, almost doubled. They had to study a lot, but strong professors gave the lectures, so the teaching brought joy. The course was designed for four years and included a deep study of theology, Chinese, Japanese and English, a general course of geography and ethnography of China, Korea and Japan, with a general overview of their political structure and religious life, the political organization of modern China and Japan, and a review their commercial and industrial activities, recent history and the history of their relations with Russia, the commercial geography of East Asia, and the history of trade in the Far East, political economy, international law, state of Russian equipment and the most important European countries, the foundations of civil and international law and procedure, accounting and merchandising. Ivashnikov’s good service was also served by his own knowledge accumulated in Korea, especially since, being in the main zone of confrontation between Japan and China; he had an abyss of information about these two countries. There was nothing to say about Oleg Nikolaevich. Petersburg professors Pozdneyev, Taberio and Podstavin, who had universally recognized world-wide authority, often turned to him in lectures with a request to refresh their material with the latest examples. Like other students, Ivashnikov and Minaev were not content with lectures, but sought to master the lively speech, for which they dressed casually and entered Chinese shops, taverns and laundries, often on the Semenovskiy ladle, where the owners of the fish market were almost entirely Chinese. New knowledge lay on well-fertilized soil and grew. Ivashnikov was already fluent in almost any topic with the Chinese and Manchus, and there are no words about Minaev ... At the end of March 1900, Lieutenant Colonel Alftan arrived in Vladivostok and invited them to talk to the headquarters of the fortress. - According to the reports of our military agents in China, Colonels Vogak and Dessino, there is now a tense situation there. Secret sects, which have a great influence in the lower classes, , which have a great influence in the lower classes, immediately after the establishment of the rule of the Qing dynasty began to work in all provinces for the overthrow of the Manchus. Especially this work has intensified recently, in response to the capture of colonies in China by Europeans. But if earlier, foci of dissatisfaction smoldered, now, as our military agents and diplomatic representatives’ report, after the capture of Jiaozhou by the Germans and wide penetration into Shandong, as well as with the engagement of Port Arthur and the beginning of the construction of the railway through Manchuria, they are threatened with an explosion. In addition, the explosion of grievances of the lower ranks in such a densely populated empire as China can cause far-reaching consequences, unpredictable; it must be said, and fraught with aggravation of relations with Russia. The district headquarters intelligence department received some information about the situation in China from our officers in Liaodong and along the Chinese-Eastern Railway — the Chinese Eastern Railway, but we need information from Beijing and South Manchuria. Staff- captain Minaev should immediately go to Beijing, where he is appointed head of guard of the Russian diplomatic mission, which is still within the competence of the secretary of the embassy, and lieutenant Ivashnikov is in Tianjin, at the disposal of Chinese general Ne Shi-cheng leib Guard Hussars Colonel Voronov. We need right data from Beijing on the position of the various groups surrounded by the empress, since the information received through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the Russian envoy in China, Girs to the District Headquarters, is considered incomplete or far from reality. At the same time, if the uprising in Shandong flares up, then the excited masses of the rebels will move along the Great Imperial Channel to Beijing and the city of Tianjin will become a focal point of the struggle from which it will be possible to control the situation in Central China. Colonel Voronov is a competent, combat officer and he needs an intelligent assistant. And continue your studies at the institute as soon as the situation in China is discharged. There you will receive the most valuable experience of strategic intelligence work. With documents as a student at the Eastern Institute, Ivashnikov arrived in Tianjin and stayed in a fashionable, but relatively inexpensive Aster House, a European hotel, albeit in a very modest room. In the morning, having hired a rickshaw on the quay, he first went to the Tientsin branch of the Russian-Chinese bank, where he had a letter of recommendation, which he left with the secretary. Then Ivashnikov went to Colonel Voronov. Even in Vladivostok, he was informed that a colonel who was married to the daughter of a rich Vladivostok industrialist and a merchant, who led the tea trade of Startsev, lives in his house in Tianjin. The Chinese servant told Ivashnikov that the colonel was not at home now, but by noon, he should be back by noon.At the disposal of Ivashnikov was about eight hours, which he decided to devote to acquaintance with the city. The Leib Guards Colonel Voronov turned out to be a black-eyed tall, slim, young officer still dressed in Chinese cavalry uniforms. He firmly shook the hand dressed in civilian clothes, and only clicked his heels when presenting to Second Lieutenant Ivashnikov and with obvious sympathy invited to his office. Everything is among the Chinese, yes the Chinese, he said with a laugh, seating the guest under the slowly rotating wide wings of a new-fashioned electric fan, wife is staying with her father in Vladivostok. Sent out of harm’s way. Do you even know what is going on here? - In general terms, - answered Ivashnikov. - On the streets, however, quite a lot of children and adolescents do their rally gymnastics, but in general, in my opinion, everything is calm. - Oh, here you are deeply mistaken, second lieutenant. China is seething, and gymnastic exercises of young people are only white foam on the mighty shafts of popular indignation. Territorial concessions to Europeans, cheap goods and machines delivered by them, a mass of cheap and high-quality products, fast shipping between remote ports, replacing the message on slow channels through channels, plus the old Chinese discontent with their enslaving Manchus and served as a torch to the explosive abyss of the multimillion-empire population. - Well, where are the machines and junks, Mr. Colonel? - You underestimate the values of machine products and modern transport. By themselves, the machines and ships mean, really, not much, but they are ruining the Chinese. Let us say cheap goods deprive every nine people out of ten artisans, especially in weaving. The railways deliver these goods to the interior of China, and the steamships deprive hundreds of thousands of boatmen and coolies on especially dugout canals and cause the desolation of thousands of previously densely populated settlements along the canals. - Well, what can you do, this is an inevitable process ... - Of course, machine production is everywhere replacing manual labor, but the Chinese associate their rapid impoverishment with foreigners and take revenge in bitterness. - The authorities should have foreseen a similar result, using as an example, at least English Luddites, and somehow take people in ... - The authorities tried, in Europe they bought machine-building factories and equipment for factories, but you know what an official on salaries is. For him even the grass does not grow, but he will receive his salary regularly. It would be necessary to give this matter to private hands so that there is a personal interest that is when stone millstones would move. The reformers understood the essence of the problem and two years ago, they wanted to carry out a palace coup and push aside the widowed empress who is falling into senile insanity. However, they collected little power, and God clearly cheated their courage. Moreover, their hundred days of reforms ended in confusion, and for themselves – partly death, and partly – exile.   “I am a little familiar with the modern history of China,” Ivashnikov said modestly, “and I remember that the reformers are representatives of the same ruling classes. - Not really. You must be familiar with the general history, in military schools it is taught quite well ... - I have only a gymnasium ... - Is that so? Strangely, enough ... but it is studied in gymnasiums. Remember the Great English Revolution, the Great French Revolution, which was led by representatives of the new class. Alas, historical inevitability – the change of social formations, is accompanied by gigantic cataclysms. The same is in China. Under foreign influence, the nascent bourgeoisie threw off the shackles, rushes to political power. - However, in Russia, this is not happening ... - How to say, second lieutenant, how to say.... In addition, our fat cats are straining.... Yes, but about China. The situation here is this – representatives of the radical bourgeoisie were not able to stay on the ridge and a wave of elements threatens to demolish the light pavilion of the imperial power. Now the rebels, to cover their true intentions, use the slogan “Support Qing, death to foreigners,” but this slogan can suddenly transform in unexpected ways. It is not in our interest to be indifferent contemplators. We have significant interests in China, the guarantors of which are the widowed empress and her inner circle. Therefore, we cannot allow them to be overthrown. General Ne Shi-cheng, whose advisor I am, is under my influence. Using his army, I try to prevent the penetration of the rebel Chinese from Shandong to the capital’s Zhili province and then to Manchuria, and thereby save Qing. “And who is this general, Ne Shih-cheng?” Is he reliable enough for us as an army commander? “A fully competent officer, fought well in Korea against the Japanese,” Colonel Voronov answered briefly, without going into details. “And the serviceman, strictly following Beijing’s orders.” - And those who give him orders? “This is where the biggest obscurity is.” In the entourage of the Empress is a struggle of various currents. It ranges are alternately under the influence of one group, then another, and her orders are unpredictable... That is not in our power somehow to change the direction of thoughts of the Empress. Although, there is one very important fact. The Empress is very sensitive to the balance of power and tries to be at the head of the parties, taking precedence. Therefore, it all depends on the military successes and failures of the rebels. The mass of the rebels enormous, but they are armed with mostly improvised m;l;e weapons and General Ne yet able to show their impact. However, if the latest German and British weapons stored in the arsenals of Beijing will fall in their hands, then to oppose them would be impossible. I must admit I dread from day-to-day news that the firearms fielded in the boxers. The intelligence of the Amur military region is now conducting the big game in Beijing with the aim to leave the guns in the warehouses, but with reliable people for the operation of them bad. Therefore, Colonel Vogak, our military agent in China, asked me to send arriving to help me officer, referring to you, Lieutenant, in Beijing. There in the protection of the diplomatic mission appointed an experienced officer, at whose disposal you will do. The game is large, the outcome of which depends not only the future of our with China relationship, but also the fate of China itself. Ivashnikov realized that fate again brings him to Oleg, and cheered.
- Yes, sir Colonel. When shall I leave? - You are young and quick to lift. Let us do it right tomorrow. Recently, a detachment of military sailors arrived from Port Arthur. Together with them, you are quite well, I hope, you will reach Beijing. Seamen requested our diplomatic mission to protect their territory. The situation in Beijing has become much more complicated and the envoy can no longer rely on a dozen Cossacks.
On the afternoon of May 31, with the detachment of military sailors commanded by Lieutenant Baron Raden and Warrant Officer Den, Second Lieutenant Ivashnikov made at the last train of the newly built railway almost miraculously made his way to the Ma-Jia-poo station in Beijing and in the evening was in the Russian Embassy. Sailors have long been waiting and met happily.  The situation in the city was disturbing, the Ihetuans roamed around the streets in groups of red and yellow sash and loudly sang their songs, attracting crowds of citizens: They opened ports, let in foreigners. And they are fiercer tigers and wolves. They feed on human flesh and drink human blood. People emaciated like a skeleton. In China, there are mountains of silver, In China, there are mountains of gold, And foreigners are eager to seize them. The common people were kindled with anger, does not give away gold and silver Save precious mountains and rivers. Ihetuans dared even to wander into the embassy town, exciting residents of Mongolian Square. Captain Minaev, warmly meeting Ivashnikov, determined that he would reside in his little house on the territory of the Russian mission and, leaving to clean him up from the road, went to deploy the troops. Having washed and shaved, Ivashnikov went out to wander around the embassy town and immediately saw a small two-story building standing opposite the mission of a low two-story building with a sign of the Russian-Chinese bank, Mr. Pokotilov. Dmitry Dmitrievich recognized him and clearly was delighted, — Bah!  Whom I see!  The world of peace ... Is not the mass migration of Russian warriors from Seoul to Beijing.  Or are you with Captain Minaev like Siamese brothers?  Why not in the form?  Have you received a promotion in rank and in service? Talkative Pokotilov asked of Ivashnikov. Smiling embarrassed, confused by the attention of such a high person to his modest person, Ivashnikov reported that, as a student of the Vladivostok Oriental Institute, he came to language practice. — Yes, yes, — Pokotilov winked slyly, — Minaev is also a student, however, he was appointed to the responsible position of the head of the diplomatic mission security.  — And, slamming a friendly but heavy palm with a soft palm went to the embassy.  “I strongly advise you not to embark on a single voyage on such a stormy sea,” he said, turning around.  — You should not risk in vain.
After a moment of hesitation, Ivashnikov, in his heart, agreed with good advice and returned to the territory of the mission.  Having found Captain Minaev, he offered his help to him, but Minaev, busy with Lieutenant Raden by the guard station layout, just dismissed it, — Then. — Yes, Minaev immediately realized, I reported to your envoy on your arrival and in the evening, he invites us to his place for a cup of tea.
Envoy Mikhail Nikolayevich Girs, a hereditary diplomat, the second son of five years ago descendant of Russian Foreign Minister Nikolai Karlovich, has already managed to be both an adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and an envoy in Argentina and Brazil, and considered himself an experienced diplomat.  He carefully looked at Ivashnikov, dressed in white Linen, was the end of May, and it was quite hot, a jacket, gray pants in a small strip and gray canvas shoes.
—You are an officer and why not in uniform?
— I was recommended to wear a particular dress.  I am a student.
— Why not students form?
— It can be taken for the military.
— Oh well.  Captain Minaev informed me that you had arrived to help him carry out the delicate tasks of your command.  Therefore, I will not burden you with the task of guarding the mission, unless you express your desire and find opportunities.
Oleg Nikolaevich was here in the office of the envoy; with an indifferent look, he was looking out of a window that had already been taken in by a thick iron grille into a dark garden. — Yes, what delicate instructions are there, — Ivashnikov objected.  — It sounds rather ambiguous.  However, God forbid, the officer’s honor code forbids me from doing anything reprehensible, and inwardly I am not inclined to questionable adventures.  As I understand it, Colonel Voronov, the military representative in China, Colonel Vogak, gives general information about the military-strategic situation in the country and its armed forces, but I will deal with detailing, so to speak, to help Captain Minaev assess the military and political situation in the Beijing area.
— Everything is somewhat simpler and rather more complicated, — Pokotilov, with his own pun, laughed.  He sat on the couch in the corner of his office, smoked a cigar and amused himself with a colorful Chinese children’s toy.  — You, thank God, did not arrive to the Papuans on the Commonwealth islands.  And before you, people lived here and did something.  However, do not be angry, young man, and do not be upset — noticing a slight grimace of resentment on Ivashnikov’s face, he continued.  — This is a common misconception of youth — to consider you the center of the universe and take those who are over fifty, almost for miasmatic.
— The situation here is now such.  In the metropolitan ZhiLee province and in the neighboring regions — Shandong, Shanxi, and Shengjing, the movement of insurgents, who call themselves Ihetuan, took on a wide scale.  Dark, downtrodden masses of hungry and disfranchised people are considered to be guilty of their Life adversities as the guides of Christ’s teaching — missionaries and in general all foreigners — as the perpetrators of their Life hardships.  It would be possible to consider these events as a purely internal affair of China, but we, the Russians, now have quite significant interests in the Middle Kingdom.  In Manchuria, the CER is under construction, we rented the southern tip of the Liaodun Peninsula for twenty-five years for full and exclusive use, and in general, there are broad prospects for us here.  Therefore, we cannot look indifferent.
“Well, do not send troops here,” Ivashnikov could not resist.
“What are you talking about, Second Lieutenant,” Minaev looked displeased at him.  — You are an officer, sent here to help me, and will carry out orders for the service.
With a gesture of his hand, Pokotilov called for silence and continued, “The situation is complicated by the fact that the Ihetuans established constant monitoring of all residents of Beijing who had previously had any contacts with foreign diplomatic missions and missionaries.  Therefore, we are unable to transfer orders with them to those with whom we would like to establish contacts.  You, Ivashnikov, I remember it in Seoul, have the gift of mimicry, sorry, reincarnation into an Eastern man ...
“Yes, the diplomatic missions are blocked by the ihetuans and we don’t wait for ambulance from our landings or to pacify the uprising by government troops,” Minister Gears muttered weakly.
“Moreover,” Pokotilov continued energetically, “now there is an acute danger that government forces, especially green-flags ones, recruited from the Chinese, will go over to the insurgents, form regular units, train, arm with modern weapons that are stored and produced in arsenals in plenty.  Then they will destroy not only all foreigners, but also close China for the Western powers for long, long decades, if not for centuries.
— And can I help to change the situation?  — Ivashnikov doubted.
  - That’s what you called for, - Minaev nodded.
  - Lesten carefully, - said Pokotilov, who initiated the conversation.  - The situation here is this ... Despite the uprising, led, of course, by an experienced and domineering hand; the central government can not only control the situation, but also direct the course of events to the government needs, mainstream.  The Manchu armies are fully combat-ready and submit to Jun Lu, the supreme commander.  But in the government itself, there are several rival factions, and we cannot wait indifferently which one will win. Of course, you know that two years ago, the reformers supported by Emperor Guangxi tried to direct China along the path of attracting foreign capital, primarily British, and the widespread introduction of modern methods of production, transport, and communication.  Feudal landowners from the entourage of Empress Cixi, and she herself, saw the danger of reformers in their endeavors in time, and defeated them, and in fact, Guangxiu was put under house arrest.  But the danger of reformism, supported by the British, French and Germans, remains.  In the event of the death of Empress Cixi, and she, alas, far from being at a young age, all powers of authority will be transferred to the Emperor Guangxiu.  In this case, the heads of his opponents will fly.  Therefore, they conceived, it was the murder of the emperor, disguising his illness, but the French sent their doctor from a diplomatic mission, who did not find the emperor seriously ill.  Not wanting to worsen the already very tense relations with the powers of Western Europe, Cixi decided, again referring to his mental health, to force Guangxiu to abdicate, and even appointed him to succeed her nephew Pu Jun, the son of Prince Duan.  But the governors of the southern provinces, under the strong influence of the British and French, and, besides, having significant armed forces, opposed this.  Then Cixi and sent Lee Hongzhang, a person, of course, widely known, partly as a sign of disgrace, and mainly to change the situation in his direction, the governor of the southern provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi.  Prince Duan, full of hatred for foreigners, in which he sees the main opponents of the construction of his son on the dragon throne, warmly supports the ihetuans for their slogan ”“Death to foreigners.”  In addition, he is one of the largest feudal landowners and is afraid of reformers.  A large group of Manchus from the ruling dynasty closes around him.  They allowed the ihetuans to enter Beijing and set them on defeating the diplomacy of the diplomatic missions and the destruction of the foreigners living here.

 - A more cautious position is taken by the grouping of the commander of the troops, Jun Lu, an approximate empress Cixi.  According to our information, he is one of the authors of the plan of killing or renouncing the throne of Guangxiu, therefore he fears that he will come to power.  But he is witness of the occupation of China forty years ago by the British and French, knows the strength of the Allied powers, knows the very modest capabilities of the Manchu and Chinese armies and fears a new allied invasion and the seizure of Beijing by foreign armies.  Jun Lu is hesitant.  By soul, he is wholly on the side of Duan, but he is afraid of losi1ng not only the place, but also the head, which can happen with the inevitable defeat of the Ichuanians.  The existence of these two groups surrounded  Empress Cixi, in general, is in the hands of the British and French.  Already, there are plans for a punitive campaign of an Allied assault force on Beijing.  We are also invited to take part in it, and our detachment from Port Arthur is ready.  Then there will be a danger of the introduction of the open door policy to China.  Persistently pushed by the British, the French, and especially the Americans, We will not be able to compete successfully with their industry and capital.  Therefore, we want to support the third, strong group in the government of China.  It is headed by the ministers Yuan Chan and Xu Ching-cheng. Now we are deprived of the opportunity to act on them now, since our settlement is already blocked by ihetuans and visits to ministries and the palace are impossible.
 - You, Ivashnikov, have a difficult and dangerous mission. Chinese language you know enough to understand well and be understood.  But knowledge of the language is useful to you mainly on the streets of Beijing, so as not to be easily identified by ihetuans as a foreigner.  Tomorrow you will have to go to Tsungli Yamen, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and meet with Secretary of Xu Ching-cheng there.  This official named Tian Jing-qing Lived for a long time in St. Petersburg, at a time when CSU Ching-cheng was the envoy of the Chinese Empire in St. Petersburg and Berlin.  He knows Russian well enough and has certain obligations to us.  Tell him that Xu Jing-cheng and Yuan Chan inspire Empress Cixi about the urgent need to call Lee  Hongzhang, as the most experienced diplomat and statesman who also has an extensive practice of diplomatic relations with foreigners who visited Petersburg , the European capitals,  Berlin, Paris, London and personally knowing the policy makers of these states.  In a word, they know how to inspire need thought to Empress Cixi.  Li Hungzhan, and we have a certain confidence, will act in the right direction, will be able to end the Ihetuan uprising and will keep with great difficulty the achievements of Russia in Manchuria.  In the near future, Prince Ukhtomsky is urgently heading to Shanghai from Petersburg for a meeting with Li Hungzhan and related conversations with him.

 Early in the morning, in a dressing gown and spacious trousers, pulled a bureaucratic hat with a red ribbon over his head, he slapped through the northern gate of the mission into the dark streets and hurried to the Mongolian square at once.  Here he wandered a little among the sleepy fans, and then went through the Qian-myn gate to the city.  He remembered the layout of the streets well, but there was nowhere to hurry.  Tsungli-Yamen was not far, and officials were going there almost by noon.
 Despite the early hour, there were a few soldiers in uniform on the streets, with white circles clearly standing out on it, but without rifles.  They gathered in groups of five to ten people and talked animatedly about something.  Passing by, Ivashnikov noticed oblique, rather unfriendly glances at him and began to fear if they did not recognize him as a foreigner, but then he sensibly reasoned that his bureaucratic hat rather disliked him, but did not take it off.  Firstly, it would have been revealed that his braid was fake, and, secondly, this hat was supposed to serve him as a pass to Tsungli-amine. Most of all he was afraid to fake, to find himself in a situation that would have betrayed his ignorance of local customs in trifles, say, not so much to turn, not to do something.  Therefore, he decided to let on the kind of arrogant and impregnable.  To put on airs, he puffed out his chest, his gait was unhurried, he was already looking overheads, in a word, and he felt like an official.  As the saying goes, he gave the Buddha the appearance of a Buddha.  Still circling around the city a few times and checking to see if they were watching him, Ivashnikov decided that it was time to take it up.  Going up to Tsungli-amine , he confidently climbed onto the porch and, not condescending to questions of official trivia, walked through a suite of rooms in the left-wing and completely pushed the door with a hieroglyph sign Tien Ching.  That was alone in the room and clearly lounged around.
 - Are you Secretary of the Minister Xu Jing-cheng named Tian Jing-qing?  Ivashnikov asked politely, to make sure that he was talking with the right person.  However, Mr. Pokotilov described the right person in some detail and accurately, and the verbal portrait was in agreement with the original.
 “Yes, it’s me,” Mr. Tian calmly replied.
 - I am from Mr. Pokotilov, Ivashnikov almost whispered, remember that it should not forget that they can overhear, because in these places, in troubled times, the walls have ears.
 Mr. Tian nodded, as if he had waited for such a guest for a long time, got up, picked up his hat and offered to take a walk, and at the same time have lunch somewhere.
 “It will be more convenient for us to talk in a relaxed atmosphere,” he said already on the street.  - A good deed done in secret is valued at twice the price. “It’s nice to deal with a person who is sure of his rightness,” Ivashnikov noted to himself.
 His new acquaintance, from time to time looking around whether they were being followed, led Ivashnikov to the Eastern Calm market, which was false, and asked the owner of one of the taverns to bring them to eat in a separate room.
 Having waited until the owner brings plates with bean curd, hot pies with vegetable filling, roast lamb and a teapot of fragrant tea, and Mr. Tian has already said affably in Russian, “The way of a perfect man is creation, but not enmity.  I have long been waiting for a messenger from Mr. Pokotilov.  Have you known him for a long time?
 Ivashnikov decided to raise his reputation and importantly answered, “Four years ago, we served together with him in a diplomatic mission in Seoul.
 “That’s right,” said Tian Jing-ching.  - And I know him about the same.  We met in St. Petersburg when the question arose of building the Chinese Eastern Railway and Mr. Pokotilov had long conversations with Xu Ji-chen, then envoy of the Celestial Empire in St. Petersburg.
 They did not pause for long, wondering how to move on to the main topic, and, finally, Ivashnikov continued, “Mr. Pokotilov is very concerned about the development of events in China and believes that this situation may lead to a catastrophe of the empire.”
 “What was once born will surely someday mature,” Tian answered philosophically.  “We are reaping the fruits of our own weakness and indecision.”  Here is an example of Japan.  They, like us, tried to keep out foreigners, but if they saw that self-isolation would inevitably lead to the decline of the state, economic and military weakness, if they had endured an unceremonious shelling of the capital by American cannons, then they decided to upgrade.  We are clinging to decayed dogmas we are patching holes …
 - Mr. Pokotilov sincerely sympathizes with you and believes that to facilitate the renewal of China, you should not expel foreigners.  Without them, China will become even more ossified.
   Mr. Pokotilov sincerely sympathizes with you and believes that to facilitate the renewal of China, you should not expel foreigners.  Without them, China will become even more rigid.  Rapid progress is being made in all areas of science and technology, and only foreigners can help you become a modern power now.  Of course, this process is painful, but everything new is born in agony …
 - This is something everyone understands, but no one wants to lose income and privileges.  If yesterday the dignitaries swam sleepily in luxury, then tomorrow promises them a very hectic Life.
 “Mr. Pokotilov is sure that the extremes, in your case, Kan Yu-wei’s reformism and Prince Duan’s frank anachronism, are fraught with dire consequences for China.  Reformism Kang Yu-wei, his resolute readiness to open wide the doors to foreign goods lead to the rapid impoverishment of the already poor people, and, so, an explosion of rage.  The slogan of “We will throw out foreigners” is unreal, as you have already repeatedly seen.  Armaments are incomparable, and the forces of armies are incomparable.  Here you have the defeat from England sixty years ago, from England and France forty years ago, from Japan – five years ago.  Foreigners come to your house already and without asking permission of the owners.
 Mr. Tian calmly drank tea.
 - Mr. Pokotilov believes that the policy of Li Hungzhan is the most reasonable in the current situation – to keep the integrity of China, its traditional institutions and to attract foreign capital to create new jobs for the renewal of China.
 “Yes, we are already in debt, as in silks, as the Russian proverb says,” Mr. Tian replied.
 “But I’m not talking about cash loans,” Ivashnikov disagreed.  - Foreigners bring not gold or paper money;  they build railways, build factories and factories, hire your poor people to work, teach them to produce the necessary things, to trade either domestically or export them abroad.  People are getting richer – the state is getting richer.  This is not the old policy - do not be shy, take it and do not think when you give it away.  You develop economically and it will be easier for you to pay off your previous debts, and in the future you will be willing to lend, knowing that the Celestial is there than to pay.
 “So it is,” Mr. Tian agreed, “is that the man Li Hungzhan?”  You know that after the Japanese captured Formosa, Liaodun and Penghledao islands from us, the Germans took away Jiaozhou, the Russians unceremoniously settled in Lushunkou and Dalianwan, and the British in Wei hai wei, and Lee Hongzhang could not appease the hungry tigers,.  Trouble from the Middle Kingdom, his reputation at the court greatly shaken. The grand princes Qing and Duan openly say that the Chinese Lee is doing everything to make the Celestial world stop to be the property of the Qing dynasty.
 - Bad boss that does not look forward.  Mr. Pokotilov believes that Li Hungzhan is still full of strength, and fate itself has appointed him at this age to accomplish an outstanding feat - to curb the ihetuans, save the Manchurian dynasty and revive China.  Please tell Messrs. Xu Jing-cheng and Yuan Chan this opinion of Mr. Pokotilov, and ask them to show perseverance, to convince the empress to make the right choice and the right step, immediately call Mr. Li Hungzhan from Canton.
 Tian hesitantly replied, “Grand Duke Duan has already declared himself the Savior of the empire.”  He openly relies on ihetuans.
  - The last foreign troops, who arrived yesterday in Beijing, are very small and are intended only for the protection of diplomatic missions.  Now a big landing is being prepared, which the ihetuan cannot withstand.  Then Beijing again falls into the hands of rude and ruthless British and French.  This time, they will demand a lot.  And, after all, the Life of the Empress herself will be in danger, - Ivashnikov’s almost extreme argument cited.
 - In fact, the ministers Yuan Chan and Xu Jing-cheng tend to ask Empress Cixi to call Li Hungzhan to the capital of the Middle Kingdom.  However, apart from the very dubious arguments in defense of Li-diplomat’s tarnished reputation, something weightier is needed. Moreover, you clearly underestimate the power of our armies.  After all, five years have passed since the war with Japan, we have learned our lessons, the army is now well armed and trained by German and Russian officers, even Colonel Voronov.  The army, according to the assurances of the Commander-in-Chief Jun Lu and Grand Duke Duan, may well stand against your landing forces.
 - This is the mister Pokotilov and fears the most.  Having met strong resistance, the united powers will call out new and new regiments from the metropolis and colonies, and it may happen that the Celestial Empire is filled with blood, will bring innumerable misfortunes and destruction.  Diplomats in the embassy town discuss the situation and assess your potential for resistance.  They do not consider the ihetuans a serious opponent, and will give recommendations to their governments to break the resistance of your army if it takes the side of the rebels.  Consider the possibility of keeping Empress Cixi and Commander-in-Chief Jun Lu from this rash step; do not engage your army in confrontation with the united powers and do not distribute weapons to the Ihetuans.  This time, you will not be dealing with a pitiful Japan, but with almost a dozen powers.
 - Yes, but back to old Lee.  They truly say - spilled blood calls for vengeance, and the ringing of gold – to mutual satisfaction, - hinted Tian.
 - And I think that Mr. Pokotilov, director of the Beijing branch of the Russian-Chinese Bank, and Mr. Ukhtomsky, who are known to you, who, as I was informed, is going to Shanghai the other day to meet with Lee Hongzhang, will discuss financial aid from the Middle Kingdom and personally those  capable of something, - agreed Ivashnikov.
 Having agreed to meet here in a week, they parted.

 In the Russian mission, Ivashnikov was attracted to the preparation of the defense in case of ihetuan attempts to destroy the embassy town.
 And they met.  Mr. Tian said that he conveyed the essence of their conversation to Minister of Tsungli-Yamin Xu Ching-cheng and he, along with Yuan Chan, persistently urged Empress Cixi to disperse the ihetuan and call Li Hungzhan into talks about non-interference in the internal affairs of the Chinese empire with Beijing.  But the trouble is that at the court are strong parties who want, as they say, to scratch the face of a tiger.  Prince Duan flutters, pushing out his old chicken chest and promises to destroy all foreigners in the blink of an eye.  He even claimed that among the ihetuan there are wizards capable of turning piles of paper soldiers into formidable armed and trained warriors.  And the secret supporters of Emperor Guangxiu do not want to forgive Li Hungzhan for persecuting reformers in the southern provinces and promising a large cash prize for Kang Yu-wei’s head.  They are against the return to Beijing of the old cunning fox Lee.  Moreover, they are trying in every way to push the Empress Cixi to the actions of dubious and rash.  They praise the wisdom of Grand Duke Duan and fan the rumors about the invincibility of the Iheyuan, to involve the Celestial Empire in conflict with the powers, to provoke an intervention, the occupation of Beijing and thereby the removal of Cixi from power, the liberation of Guangxiu and the triumph of reformism.
 But the biggest trouble is that the chief eunuch Lee Lianying, the pimp of Empress Cixi with young men, her confidant and chief adviser on all issues is a secret supporter of the Ihetuans.  It is he who contrives; he also finds very convincing arguments to counteract all the causes of Yuan Chan and Xu Ching-cheng.  And Lee Lianying himself, and this is already whispering in the palace, through the former maid of honor to the empress, and now one of the leaders of the Beijing ihetuan, secretly associated with the leader of the White Lotus sect, a Daoism monk who lives in the temple on Mount Taishan and the gods themselves tell him, what to do next.
 However, Minister Xu Jing-cheng remarked that Empress Cixi is not so unshakable, she is not so sure of the strength of the ihetuans; she does not rely so much on Prince Duan and Jun Lu. Mr. Xu noticed that her lower lip feebly hangs down and her hands fall from her knees, her eyes are dull and cowardly and there are sparks of doubt in them and, therefore, fear in her soul.  And this is good and bad: she is capable at any moment at the most unexpected decision, the most inexplicable act, and any event can affect it.  Therefore, all is not lost, says Minister Xu Ching-cheng.  However, he is afraid of the upcoming landing and the intervention of the powers.  The Empress is vindictive and under pressure from Duan can declare war and arm the bandits.  Although, remembering the shameful and cowardly escape from Beijing forty years ago, she can order Jun Lu to disperse the Ihetuans and put down the rebellion.  That is the way it is, - finished Mr. Tian.
 Ivashnikov knew about the upcoming unified landing of the powers from Tianjin to Beijing.  He also knew about the attempts of the Russian military agent in China, Colonel Vogak, to persuade the English admiral Seymour not to hurry, not to provoke the Chinese government to armed resistance, not to allow their army to go to the side of the insurgent people.  But the Englishman lured the laurels, if not of Napoleon, then the conqueror of Africa, Sir Stanley, and he was eager to fight …
 “I will report to Mr. Pokotilov your thoughts,” said Ivashnikov, “and you continue to act in the same direction.”  God willing, everything will be settled …
 “All that remains is to hope for your god,” Mr. Tian nodded mournfully, “our gods have obviously gone over to the side of the ihetuan.”

 Three days later, the embassy received the news that a united landing party of the powers under the general command of Admiral Seymour made a report from Tianjin on the railway line to Beijing.  Russian squad is also involved in the landing.  And indeed, on the city wall that surrounded the embassy town, the soldiers of the Chinese army began replacing them.  The situation was complicated by the fact that the soldiers of military detachments of all foreign diplomatic missions, blocked in the embassy town, at the cries of hatred and abandoned stones opened aimed fire, killed the ihetuans and thereby provoked the reciprocal use of weapons.

.  The ambassadorial town, surrounded by the ihetuans, was pretty alarmed – would the Chinese, in response to the punitive landing party, undertake trying to destroy foreigners in the center of Beijing?

 The next day, the ministers of Jung-yang Yuan Chan and Xu Ching-cheng, accompanied by only a few accompanying people, walked on foot, like simple petty officials, and went around all the missions on the territory of the embassy town, asking them to stop the Seymour landing.  But the envoys remained adamant.  However, what now depended on them?  Without communication with the outside world, surrounded on the territory in heels of tithes, they only worried about their own lives.  In addition, Yuan Chan and Xu Jing-cheng informed the envoys that the Grand Duke Duan, the most dangerous enemy of foreigners in China, had been appointed as a member of Tsungli-amen!
JUN MEI. AGAIN IN THE PALACE OF EMPRESSES.
In Beijing, Jun Mei was escorted to the house of the old Chancellor, Xu Tong, who lived on Jiao-min-sien — Embassy Street. Jun Mei knew that Xu Tong was a scribe scholar and educator of the emperor Guansuy, who hated strangers passionately and even spat when he barely needed to hear about them. “Isn’t it so small and skinny,” thought Jun Mei, looking at the old, bowed Xu Tong, “after all, there are as many foreigners on Embassy Street as he has to spit every day?”. As soon as the gong rang, announcing to the first guard, a familiar eunuch came to her, who had once greatly frightened her.“Let’s go to the Forbidden City,” he ordered, refusing even a cup of tea offered by the servant Xu Tong. - A guard will miss me? - Uncertainly asked Jun Mei, knowing the strict orders of the Forbidden City.  “He won’t miss, even with me,” the eunuch laughed, “but there is a secret path.” Follow me and do not be surprised. They walked along Envoy Street to the Yu-he Canal, carrying slow waters from the Forbidden City to Beijing, and along the canal, passing the Russian and English missions, went to Han-lin-yuan, the court academy. Counter-stranger with obvious hostility and suspicion examined the huge eunuch who was thick in a blue robe and Jun Mei, dressed in a blue jacket, coarse woolen skirt and rag slippers on her bare feet. Through the side gate and the garden, the eunuch led her into one of the buildings, something muttered there to the guard and zigzaged along the narrow dark corridors, almost covered with ancient books to the ceiling. In a dark closet, the eunuch removed a foreign lantern with glass in a wire mesh from the shelf, Light it, pushed a table covered with a thick layer of dust in the middle of the closet, and the side drove away to the side, revealing a dark hole in the floor in the floor. “Come down,” the eunuch ordered, “there are steps there.” Cold, stale air breathed from the well. “Scary,” said Jun Mei. - Go, go, - the eunuch was angry, - I will follow, I will need to close the hole. He lit up, and Jun Mei saw dark steps going down, and with a broken heart, stepped down. The eunuch closed the hatch behind him, took Jun Mei by the hand and, lighting his way, carefully led him forward. “This tunnel is already two hundred and fifty years old,” he said softly, and his words sounded dull in silence. “It was dug by order of the last emperor from the Ming Chun Zhen dynasty, when peasant troops Lee Tzu-cheng surrounded the Forbidden City. However, the emperor did not have to use the tunnel – the rebels seized the capital of the Middle Kingdom. He needed to order his wife to strangle himself, slaughter his fifteen-year-old daughter with his sword and hang himself on a crooked ash tree. In almost complete darkness, walking behind the eunuch, sometimes touching her hand with the wet stone walls of the tunnel, Jun Mei was shaking with fear, listening to such words. The eunuch laughed harshly, pleased that he had frightened a woman. “But not so long ago, several years ago, through this tunnel, I drove young beautiful men to Empress Cixi.” Now two people know about this tunnel – me and Lee Leanying, the chief eunuch of the empress. The third one – you, - the eunuch turned around, - and that only because Hushan Yan sent you. For a long time they made their way through a snake-twisting tunnel until stone steps led them to a wooden wall. The eunuch quietly scratched her, and the wall moved away. In a room bathed in the last rays of the sun, Lee Lianying stood! She quickly dived into her fox fur coat, threw a tail, exposed her sharp white teeth, arched her back, like a cat preparing for a mouse jump, looked sideways at the tall, fat, with a rough face of commoner sage Lee Lianyin who held in her right hand, decked with gold fingers a brush for writing, and in the left – a thick ancient folio and, as if just remembering, often, Lee Lianying, Hushan Yan sent me to help you manage Empress Cixi. He ordered to convey that, expelling the redheaded worms from the Celestial Empire, one should begin from the capital. It is here that danger nests, it is from here that they scatter their spider snares, it is here that they create their missionary schools, build temples, corrupt people, make them pray to their gods, weave intrigues ... Moreover, here they even contain their troops! Yes, I am talking about the embassy town. We must act immediately and not lose sight of the chance, otherwise they may call themselves soldiers to help themselves and then Empress Cixi herself will be in danger! Moreover, if we seize the Embassy town and all foreigners living in it, it will be possible to force their governments to fulfill our will, to get out of the Middle State. The time has come and the opportunity cannot be missed. “I will hand over the order of Hushan Yang to the commander of the capital Ihetuans,” Lee Lianying nodded. “That’s not enough, Lee Lianying,” she said, turning her tongue over, “what can unarmed ihetuans do?” Indeed, while very few of them own magic spells. And the army – and rifles, and guns. Jun Lu will not let them go to Beijing, scatter them with his armies, inspire them with fear and undermine faith in their abilities. And Empress Cixi will think that the ihetuans are only crowds of rebellious mob. She does not understand that the truth is in the proverb: ”Becomes a tree in a thousand plots even a weak sprout. A wave height of a thousand Chzhans Heaving and shallow stream. ” - It is she who needs to be inspired that the legacy left to her by great ancestors is threatened with death, that the treacherous strangers from the Embassy town, located directly under the walls of the Forbidden Purple City, conceived to free Emperor Guangyu. He will give them all the Celestial Empire for them, make her herself inject a gold leaf, and Jun Lu, their daughter, Grand Duke Duan, Yuan Shikai, and many, many others will be beheaded off ... Lee Lianying’s face turned pale and sweat was made on his forehead. He remembered how, thirty years ago, rolling down the slabs of the palace, glittering with bulging eyes and red tongue sticking out, rolling down, dropping scabs of dried blood, his predecessor’s head eunuch Ahn Dehai, the favorite of Empress Cixi. But An opened the conspiracy and saved the Empress! Thirty years have passed and nothing has changed! And a day later, the ihetuans filled in, swept the capital of the Middle Kingdom, and besieged the embassy town.[BR][BR]Two days after the return of Empress Cixi, the State Council was convened from the Summer Palace of Ihetuans to the capital in the Imperial Forbidden City. How much has changed in these two and a half years! The Son of Heaven himself – the emperor Guangxiu no longer participated in the Imperial Council. Yes, and often called him scornfully named – Tsai Tian. His throne was closed carelessly thrown over a dusty yellow robe. The composition of the Council has also changed greatly. There was no disgraced Li Hungzhang. There was no deceased Grand Duke Gun, the former chief minister of Jung-yam, Grand Duke Qing wilted and grimaced like a rotten baked apple. Her great-uncle Jun Lu, before even kneeling proudly above the rest, is now a thick toad in his dark green dressing gown flattened himself above the floor, without raising his head. On the other hand, Grand Duke Duan, the son and brother of the long-late emperors Daoguan and Xianfeng, swelled with arrogance by the new head of Tsungli Yamen. And there were Chancellor Gan Yi, the head of the criminal order, Zhao Shuqiao, the Emperor’s mentor, Xu Tong, and the ministers of Jung-Lieng Yuan Chang and Xu Ching-cheng. Only Lee Lianying, as before, sat at the throne of Empress Cixi to give her lady the same moment any help, but Jun Mei rose to her place, ready to give her a yellow fan, or a silk scarf, a glass of peach juice or a tin of tiger ointment from migraine. “Report,” the Empress waved languidly at Prince Duan. “A huge, enormous amount Ikhetuans,” lowering the roofing felts in a hurry, felts deliberately indispensable and obligatory when reporting to the emperor or empress, the phrase “Nutsay reports” began Duan, “appeared immediately in all the provinces of the Middle Kingdom. Their troops under the slogan “Save the Qing, we will kick out the foreigners” successfully fight against foreign troops, winning victory after victory. And it is impossible to stop them. They have secret spells that make their bodies invulnerable to bullets and shells, bayonets and sabers, and turn paper soldiers into real soldiers. Numerous detachments of Ihetuans have already entered the capital of the Middle Kingdom and surrounded the embassy town. It is on them that your imperial majesty should rely to return the former glory and greatness to the Middle State! Yuan Chan seized his knees on the floor, cleared his throat to attract attention and began to humbly begin, - Nutsai Yuan dares to ask to the newly appointed head of Tsungli Yamen, Grand Duke Duan. Does he know what, with the exception of secret spells, are the ihetuans armed, the exact amount them, do they have experienced commanders, and can they actually resist foreign barbarians? Well, if our trained army could not resist the Japanese five years ago, now they are immediately pounced on us. Here, there was information that two thousand soldiers landed from Tianjin to Beijing. The Empress looked at Duan. -But in that, war the Japanese broke our small divisions, and now almost all the people have rebelled. - Yes, they only have spears, self-made swords and halberds, but many of them have magic spells and are able to destroy thousands of foreigners at once. Jun Mei felt that the empress thoughtfully in indecision. - Yes, of course, - having noticed her hesitations, Duan continued, - far not everyone owns this magical art, many have just begun to master the ancient mysterious ways of conducting battles, but we have an army, modern weapons, there are experienced commanders. . - What will troop commander Jun Lu tell me? Jun Lu, with obvious reluctance, straightened up, looked with hatred at Duan, drawing into this, clearly unpleasant and with unknown consequences, story, and with difficulty pushing words out of himself, spoke, - Numerous troops are in each province, and they carry out the orders of the governors. But it is known that very few governors of the provinces support the Ihetuans. Moreover, our troops everywhere carry out punitive functions and lead battles with the rebellious ihetuans. Yuan Shikai in Shandong used troops to disperse and destroy the Ihetuans. The same is done by General Ne Shi-cheng in the Tianjin region. Only Yu Xian sent Dong Fusin’s troops to help the rebels, and now they have entered Beijing. Up to two hundred thousand green flag, troops are stationed in the capital of the empire, but everyone knows what these troops are. For the most part, these are elderly, lazy, arrogant, who inherit their completely burdensome posts for the elder sons, which are difficult for the rise of Manchus from noble birth. They are poorly armed and trained ... - How, I have invested huge money in weapons and training of troops, and so what? Are we defenseless again? - There are armed and trained troops, but they are stationed in the places of the most likely battles with foreigners. In Shandong, this is the army of Yuan Shikai, in the area of the mouth of Baihe - Ne Shi-cheng’s troops, in the southern provinces ... And in Beijing traditionally serves the sedentary nobility, using every opportunity to be closer to their home. “What about weapons?” - Modern rifles are purchased and delivered, but they are in boxes and disassembled. Few foreign instructors have fled, and now nobody knows how to assemble, how to charge, how to shoot a rifle. Not to mention the guns. Lee Lianying, who was jealous of Empress Cixi for Jun Lu and his lover, whispered from behind, “He lies! He deliberately does not want to give weapons and troops, he is afraid of defeat as the commander-in-chief! The prolonged silence broke Xu Ching-cheng, - I dare to report, Your Imperial Majesty, that less than a month has passed since the beginning of the rebellion of the Ihetuan, and what a terrible picture has turned out! The landing of foreigners is moving here and, therefore, the capital is in a dangerous place. People everywhere are worried. All the powers of the globe predatory look at the Middle Kingdom. War begins – a disaster for the people. I believe that a situation similar to the present has never happened in antiquity. Such disasters, which are not foreseen, will happen. No wonder they say that people, like innocent girls, are characterized by modesty and modesty, but as soon as they cross the forbidden line, they lose their heads and no longer stop at nothing. In the reign of Emperor Xianfeng, the rebels of the Fa and Ne did rebel for more than ten years, and residents of more than ten provinces suffered from them. And in the reign of Jiaqing, a rebellion from the provinces of Sichuan and Shanxi spread to another four provinces. And the rebels mentioned managed to be destroyed only by the forces of the empire. But, comparing the ihetuans with the rebels of those times, one has to realize that the former are an internal disease, while the latter are an external one. The fact is that those rebels were recognized by everyone from the government to the common people for the rebels, and even some dignitaries consider the current ones to be loyal subjects, but they are not traitors. There are such people, - Xu Jing-cheng gently shook his shaved chin in the direction of Jun Lu, - who, considering them to be rebels, does not express his opinion directly. As the minister of Tsungli, I sometimes accept foreign envoys and myself pay visits to their missions. Yes, that’s it, just the other day, the envoys arrived at Jung-Lee-Yam, demanding to restore the railway communication with Tianjin ... “I let it slip,” giggled viciously behind the chair of Empress Lee Lianying, “the fish knows what kind of water they drink!” It was said quietly, but Xu Ching-cheng apparently heard, because he suddenly stopped talking and bowed his head. Yuan Chan spoke here, “Nutsai believes that the ihetuans would have been destroyed long ago if at the beginning of the rebellion any experienced military leader was entrusted to suppress the uprising. They do not have guns or cannons, they do not know the ranks, and they are dragging other villains to revolt under the pretext of the appeal “Hu Ching, me yen!” Yu Xian, the former governor of Shandong, indulged the boxers, Yu Lu, the vice-governor of the ZhiLi province, not only please treats them, but even supplies them with military supplies. Does this mean to supply the wings of a tiger? And if you think about what these words mean – Hu Qing, me? If the fact that boxers are ready to sacrifice their lives for the state is good. And I think in the current state of difficulty for the empire, they, although simple people, promise to support the state, there is nothing surprising if it turns out later that they are ready to destroy it ...“Do not invent anything superfluous,” cried Duan, “the ihetuans fight only against foreigners!”. “Not considering himself shrewd and far-sighted,” Yuan Chan continued stubbornly, “the Nutsai finds the settlements of foreigners within the Middle State unprofitable for the empire.” Still, we should do otherwise if we really want to drive them out. First, it is necessary to correct the disorder within the state, carefully continue relations with all states, and only then, having found an opportunity and an excuse, to start a war with one of the weakest powers, and then to show its value and power. Respectfully, Nutsai would treat someone who provides a plan of struggle against foreigners, and believes that only Lee Hongzhang has enough experience in conducting relations with foreigners, and is able to prevent the barbarians from seizing the country.  Everybody was afraid. It was felt that even Duan, who exalted the military prowess of the Ihetuan, was not particularly sure of them. Indeed, even though they are becoming more and more, they are constantly being defeated – in Shandong from Yuan Shikai, and in the Zhili province from Ne Shi-cheng ... And from the foreigners, the Middle Empire has suffered so much! Who would dare to take up the rectification now? And from what end? It has long been known that a frivolously initiated business is always fraught with sad consequences ... The Empress did not hesitate for long; she gave up and shouted, “Give Li Hungzhan my command to follow Beijing immediately!” Prince Duan’s face twisted into a grimace of confusion and hatred. - And to General Ne Shi-cheng, transfer the order to stop the landing of foreigners, not to let them into the capital. Let him prove his ability to fight not only against the ihetuans, but also against the barbarians. I very much doubt the military ability of the Ihetuans,”she added. “You,” said Empress Cixi to the ministers Yuan Chan and Xu Jing-cheng, “tomorrow go to foreign diplomatic missions and convey to envoys my wish that they appeal to their governments to return the foreign landing party back to Tianjing.” “But telegraph communication is broken,” Yuan Chan retorted timidly, “and the envoys will not be able to convey this message to their governments.” “Let them send messengers to Tianjin, then,” the empress waved impatiently. And in the evening, before bedtime, she said Jun Mei, “You will go with them and watch them very carefully.” The next day, Jun Mei, along with the ministers, went around the British, French, German and Russian diplomatic missions. Everywhere, the ministers Yuan Chan and Xu Ching-cheng in French, in a diplomatic language, roughly in one word conveyed the messengers to the order of the empress. But envoy in Russa Xu Jing-cheng spoke Russian, he knew the language, as he had previously been an envoy in St. Petersburg, and added that the empress summoned Li Hungzhang to Beijing. And something else, after mentioning the name of General Ne Jun Mei did not know Russian and did not understand the phrase. Jun Mei reported in detail to the Empress about the visits, and she was pleased with the execution of the order. But Lee Lianying was alert. - The fact that Xu Jing-cheng did not say about the call to Beijing for Lee Hungzhang to the English, French and Germans is understandable and understandable – they do not like Lee, consider him an insidious jackal, and learn about his call to Beijing, will try to quickly seize the city, and impose its own conditions of the Middle Kingdom. But why did Xu report this to the Russian envoy? We need to think about it. However, Lee Hongzhang will still have to get to Beijing through Shanghai, and in the south, you will not hide from the eyes of the British and French, so they will all know themselves. Now, before Lee arrives, foreigners must be detained in Tianjin. Tell Hushan Yan that it is ihetuans, and not General Ne, that the foreign landing forces won. Then the empress will believe in their power. You, Jun Mei, carefully watch Xu Jing-cheng.  He lived for a long time in the capitals of the Germans and Russians, and in general, I do not like it. I sense that he sold out to the red-headed worms. A day later, an adviser to the Japanese mission Sugiyama was killed by a soldier of the army Dun Fuxin near embassy town. As stated, he went, it was, to meet with his spy. Jun Mei presented an opportunity to look closely at the behavior of Xu Jing-cheng, when they bypassed foreign missions with a large group of Jung-yang ministers with expressions of condolence and assurances about the accidental tragic death. They also visited the Russian mission, but Minister Xu did not find anything to favor him. Almost daily Jun Mei, using Empress Cixi’s daytime rest hours, and sometimes late in the evening, when Cixi, having smoked opium, fell asleep, no longer hiding, called on Lee Lianying, and together they frantically searched for ways to solve their difficult task. Jun Mei whispered memorized spells, made obeisances, drew magical signs, made trigrams; Lee Lianying told the rumors that the eunuchs and palace servants who were snooping around the city brought him; they questioned astrologers, soothsayers and interpreters of dreams, but the desired solution did not come. The connection with Hushan Yan acted well, but the best messenger returned only after two weeks. Then there was a fight along the railway line from Beijing to Tianjin – the shortest and most convenient route to Ching-chou-ting. Hushan Yan conveyed one thing – for victory, the ihetuans need weapons and army support. Otherwise, they are waiting for a complete rout. His people tried to incite hatred towards foreigners in the souls of provincial governors, but they waited cowardly for whom they would take. They did not want to violate the laws of unconditional obedience of imperial authority prescribed by Heaven, they profited from trading with foreigners, and they were simply afraid of them. The governors of the southern provinces immediately began to fight the ihetuans, and they severely punished those who fell into their hands. Only Yu Xian, the former governor in Shandong, rightly pointed out that foreigners are always to blame for the conflicts that arise - removed from the provinces at the request of the Germans and, having been appointed governor in Shanxi, he fiercely hated them, ordered them to be expelled from the provinces, and sent General Dong Fuxin’s army to defend Beijing. Soon, the messengers delivered the news to Beijing, after receiving which Jun Mei and Lee Lianying rejoiced. Halfway from Tianjin to Beijing, the ihetuans defeated the joint landing of English admiral Seymour and forced the foreigners to flee! We must report this message to the Empress! And then she had already ceased to believe the words of Lee Lianying and Jun Mei about the magic power of magic spells, about the omnipotence of the Ihetuan, and even ordered Jun Lu to throw them out of the city. They hurried to the empress. She was still resting after dinner, and Jun Mei awakened her with a slight tinkle of tea cups.- Did you bring good news? - Cixi was delighted, seeing the happy face of her maid of honor. - Nutsay Jun Mei brought good news! A small group of Ihetuans, hardly more than a dozen, with empty hands, just shaking out of the baskets of paper soldiers and breathing life into them, with the help of magic spells destroyed an enormous several redheaded worms, and their guns were turned into simple sticks. The guns of the same foreign troops, under the influence of their witchcraft, began to shoot at each other and caused great damage. The landing of Admiral Seymour is crushed and runs to Tianjin! Then Lee Lianying entered, who had looked lately in the ancient files for the answer to the question that had tormented everyone – what to do next? - The first emperor of the Da-Qing dynasty – the Great Qing Shunzhi (1644-1661) taught: He who became the Sovereign replaces the Sky with people and spreads perfect government everywhere. He must certainly make people grow and develop, as expected, and bring the perfection of his rule to the limit. After that, he may, looking up, respond to the merciful commands of Heaven. Heaven begets people. Today, for a number of years now, they have suffered hard. They, without a master, are plotting confusion. Then the sky puts them sovereign to restore order. And now, to set up order in the Celestial Empire, it is necessary to send an army to the aid of the victorious ihetuans, so that it absorbs their fighting spirit and witchcraft, their military skills and reliance on the broad peasant masses, and leads them in the right ruling dynasty. Otherwise, the ihetuans, after such an impressive victory over foreigners, will think of themselves as all-powerful and, since they are mostly Chinese, they will remember their old slogan “Fu Min, Fan Qing.” And Empress Cixi ordered the armies of Ne Shi-cheng and Dong Fusin to join the rebels and finally defeat the foreigners. That evening, Jun Mei sent a messenger to report to Hushan Yanyu that she completed one part of the task. Jun Mei often saw her great-uncle Jun Lu in the palace and at the receptions of the empress, sometimes in the female half of his house, and once even tried to talk to him about the case. But Jun Lu, constantly preoccupied and angry, just rudely cut her off, “It’s not a woman’s mind!” Mind your own business... She was engaged in her own business, but how to explain this to the important, formidable in her military uniform and with a saber on his side to his grandfather? He just did not condescend to talk with her. And it was impossible to approach him through the home — everyone was afraid of him. But after all, it was only possible to get weapons for ihetuans! Then she decided to follow the advice of Hushan Yang and, after consulting with Lee Lianying, they began to work on Empress Cixi. The scribe Lee Lianying lingered at the Empress for a long time and inspired her, “Angry monsters, worshiping their gods and doing evil everywhere, flooded the land that your ancestors bequeathed to you. They do not put our religion at all and mock our wise men. It was under their influence that a disturbance arose in the souls of the highest dignitaries and even of the Emperor Guangxiu. We must fight them, but man is not able to fight evil spirits. And there are very few well-trained, possessing all the secrets of magic, who are able to defeat foreigners of Ihetuan. The hermits of the Five Ridges, those who live on Mount Taishan and communicate directly with the immortal, send their words that the enemies can and should be beaten with their own weapons, and the ”“overseas devils” - they invented rifles and guns. With the help of ancient magic spells and modern firearms, we can easily and quickly defeat them. These devils are made up of a wicked soul and a nasty body, and therefore, the immortal are taught, magic spells must be fought against their souls, and earthly weapons must be fought against their souls. After all, foreigners conquer our armies because they are better armed, their guns and cannons more often shoot further, and many of our soldiers and Ihetuans are killed at once. In order to successfully fight the enemy, possessing magical spells ihetuan should approach the enemy, but they have already become afraid of them and try to kill at a great distance. Generals Ne Shi-cheng and Dong Fusin do not help them with weapons, but use them as a shield, ruthlessly drive unarmed at the enemy in front of their soldiers and, as they say, often shoot them in the backs. Therefore, we can exterminate and lose the best, energetic, active, people possessing all the secrets of witchcraft and again remain defenseless against foreigners. They need modern weapons! In addition, we have it. In warehouses and in the arsenals, which are managed by Jun Lu, there are a lot of weapons purchased from foreigners or weapons manufactured from us. Empress, order him to distribute weapons to the Ihetuans. Bring him to arm ihetuans. Make him help them. Only in this way, it is still possible to free our lands from the redheaded worms, to save the Middle Kingdom from shame and humiliation. Empress Cixi was afraid of the people and therefore hesitated. But Lee Leianying was persistent and consistent. “The Empress,” he urged, “the immortals tell them to fight against foreigners with all their might, not to feel sorry for themselves about this holy cause.” Here, such as, a simple ca-bow is a bow to the ground, and if you make them five dozen a day, while speaking the spells, one barbarian will die. In addition, they, together with the empress, knelt and made prostrations, mumbling spells. At the meeting of Tsuntszichu - the State Council, the Grand Duke Duan several times demanded from Jun Lu weapons for the ihetuans, but he dissuaded that all weapons were distributed among the troops, and now there is simply no weapon ready for combat. And the arsenals, he says, do not work, the people all fled. And there is no one to let out the cartridges. And the powder from the powder factories do not bring. Duan did not believe, he was angry, he tried to threaten that he would send Dong Fuxin’s troops to take away the arsenals ... Jun Lu’s face was filled with blood, he was breathing loudly, but did not dare to answer the father’s heir to the throne. Once he asked for an audience with Empress Cixi. The Empress appointed him an hour and, when he came, ordered everyone to leave the room. The audience took place in her office, filled with bookshelves and tall vases of flowers. In the middle of the office stood a precious sandalwood desk with frilly curved legs, a wooden carved chair of the empress and, along the walls, soft sofas. Bright sunlight from the windows dimmed silk cream curtains, and two doors closed heavy velvet curtains, falling in large folds, like waves on a raging sea. Leaving the last, Jun Mei dived over the curtain and crouched. “Sit down Jun Lu,” came the voice of the empress. - Yes, yes, the brilliant empress ... - How is our daughter’s health? - All is well, the girl is healthy ... - How are you? “It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter, Empress, a lot of worries ...“Yes, there are many worries now,” Cixi sadly agreed. - I always think what to do next, and I consult with many people and here with Lee Lieanying, Xu Tong, and Duan.... And, in their opinion, I should arm them, rely on them and send them into battle with strangers. “I thought so too at first, Empress, but lately their reckless behavior has troubled.” - Reckless? You mean the ambassadors of the embassy town or the rout of the landing of the Englishman Seymour. - Alas, that too. In their recklessness, they went very far. In the capital, they gathered a few tens of thousands of people. And they are like locusts, with a cat - Alas, that too. In their recklessness they went very far. In the capital, they gathered a few tens of thousands of people. And they are like locusts, which will be very difficult to handle. They have already burned half of Beijing from the Qian-myn gate to the Square of the Temples of Heaven and Earth, robbing civilians, completely disobey the authorities, and are daring with respect to the flag troops. The same news comes from the provinces. - Why do you think the encirclement of the Embassy town and the rout of the Seymour assault is a mistake? - The fact is that these actions will cause retaliation of foreigners, and the Celestial Empire has repeatedly experienced their joint attacks and could not resist them. “And you give the weapons to the ihetuans and send them into battle ahead of the regular troops.” Let them use their magic spells and the power of foreign weapons, defeat the redheaded barbarians and suffer significant losses themselves. Then our troops will be able to disperse the ihetuans. - Not so simple, Empress.  There are no weapons in large numbers in the arsenals. Prince Duan misleads you, claiming that I hide him and do not want to arm the ihetuans. Although, in the latter he is right. Do not stop the fire, throwing firewood, and not cope with the rebels, arming them. Destroy the armed gangsters will simply be impossible their forces will be inexhaustible. After all, if they manage to defeat foreigners, then all well-trained and armed Chinese armies will go over to their side, and there is no end to the common people. Then they have the right to recall the old slogan “Fu Min, Fan Qing.” Prince Duan is an intriguer and a fool. His thoughts are transparent to me. Arming the people, he hopes to expel foreigners, and still build his son on the throne of throne. It would be good, but the trouble is that armed ihetuans will be able to overthrow the Qing dynasty. And to destroy you, and me, and our daughter ... It is necessary, before it is too late, to get out of the depths of evil! - But they say to me that the ihetuan are loyal subjects to me ...- The roots of the teachings of Ihetuan are in the heresy of the “White Lotus”, and this is already the reason they cannot be loyal subjects. Today they say white; tomorrow they will call it black. Before it is too late, they should be expelled from Beijing, the siege of the Embassy town should be lifted, and all foreigners should be met. In this case, it can be expected that the hungry tiger will be satisfied with small sacrifices. Otherwise, we will be swept away either by the ihetuans or the foreigners. - You are scaring me, Jun Lu ... - No, Empress, I say what I really am. It is better to tell the truth once than to lie a thousand times. - So what should I do? - Issue an order to expel the Ihetuans from the city and to protect the Embassy town. “Yes, but will it be executed ...,” said Empress Cixi hesitantly. - There is no certainty, but I will try to gather strength. - Well, go, I’ll think about it …
IVAN IVASHNIKOV.  IN THE CIRCLED DIPLOMATIC MISSION.
The head of Russian-Chinese Bank Pokotilov alarmed.  Still, would!  Admiral Seymour’s 2,000 detachment.  Although he did not find out what to do, he did not have to go.  Show courage to rebel He was a commander of the most combat-ready Chinese army general. It is a “beat” and “it can be a retreat” rebellious unarmed mob this is one side of the coin.  Surrounded by the embassy of the town of Europe, it is not worth it.  It was a danger that they would resist.  Things were worse than bitter radish.  There was no chance that he would have been able to receive his peace of mind. We had to do something urgently.  But what? Assigned to his right decision. “And you could,” If you are supporting it, “to find some extra possibilities ...” — Yes, I am pretended not to understand. — ... to influence the right direction for us?  — Finished thought Pokotilov. — All my life, one way or another, is connected with China.  I think that it is a lot of freedom.  It was the result of the coercion of religion — Ek, you, my dear, — Pokotilov frowned in annoyance, — we are not talking — However, everything is interrelated.  It is a fact that we have found that we have been refracting to our country.  It is a problem to save our Lives. — Do you mean something?  Girs asked cautiously. — Yes of course. A classic case — soldiers follow the merchants ... Sharply and directly looked into the eyes of Minaev Pokotilov. “The Russian Empire cannot pay the Chinese Empire,” Minaev grinned cynically.  “These are not people.”  There was no such message.  It is a very common bribe.  Again, this is a significant amount; then there must be traces ... — well, suppose you probably know that a lot of money was paid for the concession. It is not a sacrifice. Minaev calmly and coldly, and he said, “I’ve been thinking about it for a long time.  We are now in a place to act like noble maidens.  Vulgar demand can be a natural and, apparently, the only means of our salvation! Messenger Girs pursed his lips in confusion, and Mr. Pokotilov, who knew that he wasnot at a snow-white cuff. Transit-Manchurian highway concession between Finance Minister and Li Hungzhan was agreed that he would receive three million rubles in gold.  One he has already received.  The second, I suppose, now Prince Ukhtomsky is taking him.  In addition, after the commissioning of the road, it will be five million rubles.  Thus, our commitments are about eleven million.  I am not sure if I am not interested in making it. 
— This is the reason for demand!  Loss of money and international neighbors, international claims of our European neighbors ...
— whom are you going to threaten?  Do not talk to Empress Cixi personally?  After all, Li Hungzhan is far ...
“But I am familiar with the commander-in-chief of the Manchu troops, Jun Lu.”
— Wow, and from where?
“Fifteen years ago, Jun Lu, appointed by the Empress as the commander of the New Field Army, instead of Grand Prince Gong, fell in disgrace, turned to the German and Russian diplomatic missions with a proposal to send weapons and instructors to re-equip and train the army.  Then I served in the protection of the mission and was sent to Jun Lu for the ostentatious shooting of the Berdan rifles, which were in service with us at that time.  I did the exercises well, and Jun Lu asked me to teach him how to shoot.  Every day for two weeks, I conducted classes with him.  Jun Lu learned to shoot well, and he awarded me with a satin robe with the character “Happiness” on his chest.  At home in Kyakhta lies — smiled Minaev.
“And you think he remembered you?” asked Gears, doubtfully.
— Of course.  In my youthful years and official zeal, I treated him as a recruit soldier, I was very strict, he had to do the exercises many times, and he patiently carried out my orders.  No, he could not forget me.  Psychologically this is impossible.  It has long been noted that the process of teaching military affairs is personified in a teacher, and he unwittingly fixes himself in memory.
“Well, suppose he remembers you.”  And if he wants to talk to you, will not he is sent to prison right away?
— He is an intelligent man and understands that I have come as an intermediary.  And he will be curious to know what I have to tell the empress through him.
“Then,” envoy Gears staggered a little, “to fully guarantee the success of your mission, do not forget to add that if of the defeat of the Embassy town and the death of its inhabitants, the powers will need significant territorial concessions and a huge contribution.”  In addition, Russia — all of Manchuria!  And they, Manchus, have something to think about.
“How are you going to penetrate the Chinese city and the house of Jun Lu?”
“I will stand on the slippery slope of Second lieutenant Ivashnikov,” Minaev laughed.  — A little make-up, a fake braid, plus faith in luck.  At night, on the Yu-he Canal, I’ll go under the wall to the Chinese city and in a day or two, and Jun Lu should be in Beijing, I will try to meet him and go back the same way.
“Well, good luck ...,” Mr. Pokotilov summarized.
-And Ivashnikov will have to send Voronov to Tianjin with a warning about the order of Empress Cixi to General Ne, — the envoy was also worried about the landing party.
— An order to the General Ne has already been delivered, Pokotilov did not agree, — but it would be desirable to try to convince him not to show excessive zeal in his performance. - Let’s hope that Colonel Voronov succeeds.

In the middle of the night, Minaev and Ivashnikov lurked at the bridge over the Yu-he Canal, waiting for the ihetuans to sit on the wall to calm down and relax their guard.  The torches on the wall burned brightly and illuminated the dried-up canal, and, for the time being, there was nothing to think about trying to sneak over it under the wall.  It smelled smelly of herbs, cicadas rang, and behind the fence of a close American mission, the soldiers, while passing the night, sang quietly,
— in the city of Peking, with walls
for its streets, renowned,
we have been besieged for weeks,
by a beastly Chinese trick.
Burnt to ground.
Tramp, tramp, tramp, the troops are marching.
Cheer up, Comrades — they will come.
And beneath our various flags,
we must breathe fresh air again
Beloved home.
Captain Minaev was wearing a dressing gown and a hat of a Chinese official, and Ivashnikov was wearing a torn dirty jacket, girded with a red sash.  On the way to Tianjin, he decided to portray a half-literate, blunt person to avoid questioning and not be misguided.  He looked, in spite of his youthful harmony, fattened, which, in general, was noticeable against the general background of thin Chinese commoners.  And his palms were soft, not peasant, he invented a legend to himself — he was a servant in the tavern at the Jiangmen Gate, and the entire quarter burned the ihetuans, so he has to go back to Tianjin. And with his red sash, he peeped himself, so as not to stand out in the general mass of people, almost entirely rebelled with red sash and with a red bandage on his head.
However, little by little the Chinese on the wall settled down, the torches burned out, and silence settled.  The silver scoop in the sky crawled over the cloud, and Minayev tugged at Ivashnikov’s hand — let us go.  Tiptoeing, sneaking, they made their way to a tunnel covered with a hewn stone under a wide wall and, bending low, ankle-deep in the awful-smelling mud, moved to the other side.  It was also quiet here.  Captain Minaev gently hugged Ivashnikov, patted on the shoulder, wished good luck and melted in the dark.
And Ivashnikov set off on his way.  Keeping in mind the plan of the city, he stepped onto a wheeled road and, attached to a handful of relatively well-dressed people, walked toward Tianjin.  The travelers, at random, were Pekingeses, who lost their homes from the fires, and went to Tianjin, a rich city, where they hoped to survive the troubled times.  Ivashnikov himself tried to keep silent, answered questions reluctantly and monosyllabic, bent, pulled his leg, stupidly opened his mouth, hid his eyes, and did not pay attention to him, however.  Go and let him go.  It has long been known that a commoner has neither happiness nor well-being; he never does much good, but does not do much evil.
JUN MEI. THE DEFEAT OF REBELLION OF THE IHETUANS.
Empress Cixi lost all taste for life. She wandered aimlessly around the palace for days; she could look at one point for hours stupidly; ate a lot, but without any appetite, indifferently chewing the food served; she was not angry, as before, at the small missteps admitted by eunuchs, maids and maids of honor; demanded once caskets with jewels, but, casting a sluggish and cold glance at the pile of precious stones in gold-rimmed with all the colors of the rainbow, she waved her hand – bring it back. Even her favorite foreign mechanical watches with porcelain moving figures stopped, not turned on by her. The only grace of the Empress was her treasured pipe. And the news about the events brought by the daily messengers was no longer interesting for her. Let everything go, how it goes ...
White tiger and blue dragon.
Always appear together.
That is why it is immediately difficult to understand.
Where sorrow, where good news.
And the news really came strange and incomprehensible. At first, the ihetuans defeated the two-thousandth landing of the English vice-admiral Seymour, and after that, they captured the huge city of Tianjin. The troops of General Ne Shi-cheng first shot at ihetuans, and then, after the order of the empress, began to shoot at foreigners. Also in ihetuans too. Soon, foreigners from their huge warships landed troops at the mouth of the Baihe River, captured the forts in Dagu, took Tianjin by storm, and General Ne died in battle. The armies pulled from Manchuria fought poorly, were more fond of looting towns and villages, did not co;rdinate fighting with each other, and almost without a fight retreated from Tianjin to Beijing. In the capital of the Celestial Empire too, things were going badly. Jun Lu forbade his guard flag troops to take part in the storming of the Embassy town, and did not give them a weapon. The troops of Dun Fusin completely disintegrated, and more plundered the city together with the gangsters who had multiplied in a multitude, than helped the true Ihetuans to fight the enemies. And among the statesmen there was rivalry, intrigue, mutual envy, discontent, and for the most part – outright cowardice. Yes, and there was something to be afraid of – it became deadly to speak out loudly even to top officials. At one of the already rare Imperial Councils, Yuan Chan and Xu Ching-cheng had the courage to speak. Jun Mei listened to them in amazement and inwardly resented: pitiful, cowardly slaves, that they in turn mumble, touching their shoulders to each other? - While now the government of the Middle Empire wants to be friends with all the powers and to treat them sincerely, the ihetuans under the pretext of ”“Hu-ching-me-yan” introduce differences between the Celestial and foreign powers. They want to play a comedy in the world. But what do these two words say: ”“Me-yang”? Whether it is necessary to exterminate foreigners who are in China, or that it is necessary to exterminate all the ethnic groups of the globe, except the Chinese? Let them destroy those foreigners who live in China, but how can a new foreigner be banned from visiting us? Is it possible to destroy all the tribes of the globe? This question can also be answered by a not particularly intelligent person, knowing that there are ten times more foreigners than Chinese. Their speeches caused a storm of indignation between the old chancellor Xu Tong and the new chancellor Gan I. And not the empress, but the grand duke Duan satisfied even the living souls of Xu Tong and Gan Yi: a day later the heavy sword of the executioner cut off in the central square of Beijing head Yuan Chan and Xu Jing cheng. They rolled across the muddy boards into stinking dust, causing laughter to an idle crowd and horror in the hearts of other weak-minded officials. It is known: everyone has his own life, even some birdie or mouse, not to mention a man. And Prince Duan again demanded a gun and rifle from Jun Lu, complained about the lack of ammunition, and even admitted that they did not manage to defeat foreigners with witchcraft. He swore abusively cursed worthless generals for their enormous, but unfounded self-conceit and mass executions of the Ihetuans.But the empress no longer listened to him or Lee Lieanying, and did not even succumb to the fox charms of Jun Mei. Apparently, she firmly remembered the words of Jun Lu about the punishment that awaits her from foreigners. She realized that the matter was bad, she finally became disillusioned with the power of the Ihetuans witchcraft, stopped believing in the power of the Manchu and Chinese gods. And Prince Duan was no longer sure of the success of the uprising: Jun Lu’s troops did not support him, and the ihetuans not only suffered defeat after defeat from foreigners, but they could not even seize the Embassy town. The Empress Cixi, having learned that the governor of the metropolitan province Yu Lu was deceiving her, became angry and recalled the old, faithful, obedient and executive Lee Hongzhang, and ordered again to appoint him governor of the metropolitan province. Yes, and pass, so as not to pull, rather returning to Beijing before it is too late. We must begin negotiations with foreigners, she concluded, and Jun Mei understood that foreigners had won again, and the popular uprising had failed. Jun Mei ran into her closet, fell on the bed and burst into tears bitterly. Trouble after disaster is brought to her homeland by foreigners, and no one can overpower them. Neither the great gods, nor the ancient witchcraft, nor the popular uprising, nor the old Hushan Yang, nor the imperious omnipotent empress, and certainly not these old vile dignitaries who deceive everyone and deceive themselves. “You will pay me for this,” she whispered bitterly and vindictively, and decided to restore the lost influence on Empress Cixi tomorrow, to let her drink that right, tried, and such simple drug. Clenched into a lump, even more, she strained a bitter insult in herself, and then she remembered her little fox and rushed off to him ... Whose fate is bitter, he gets only grief. In the hottest time of the year, when gold, as they say, merges into gold ingots, foreign cannons thundered again under the ancient walls of the capital of the Celestial Empire. The people rushed in and rushed out of the city, saving their lives, and not even having the opportunity to save what they had acquired. The poor people are still well, grabbed the kids, simple belongings, who found the carriage, and away to the province. And what about the people of noble, famous, respected? They have nowhere to go.  Everywhere, they will be found, searched and given to death and humiliation. Neither the emperor nor the empress will protect. However, after all, there is a tradition: when the sovereign is offended, the officials die. Empress Cixi summoned to her chambers of Grand Duke Duan and old warrior Jun Lu, she aroused and with anger attacked them. “You brought the Celestial Empire to great humiliation, deceived me and the people, failed to defeat the foreigners, so you have to pay for it.” Jun Mei, preparing to escape to the provinces with the empress, selected the best jewels behind the screen, and Lee Lianying stood behind the empress, holding in his left hand the fan with which he fanned her, and put his right hand on the handle of the short sword that hung under the robe with the hieroglyph “Loyalty” weaved on his chest. “I carried out your will, Empress,” whispered Duan, frightened to death, defiantly. “By your decree, you appointed me as the head of the Ihetuans and told me to use all my strength to throw the foreigners out of the Celestial Empire. The Empress was at first taken aback by such audacity, but quickly found herself, - And why did you not fulfill my will? Duan hung his head, - The magical art of Ihetuans did not help, they could not resist the guns and rifles of foreigners, and Jun Lu did not give the weapon. - The one who begins to understand the reasons for the defeat after the defeat is unreasonable, and the one who does not want to understand them after the defeat is the dead man – Jun Lu angrily threw. - You, Duan, could not win and should not. Your victory would mean not only your defeat. The victorious foreigners, the ihetuans, would certainly have overthrown our Manchu dynasty and established their own, Chinese. And you and your son would die first. And foreigners would not have suffered defeat. Throw the crap out of your head and understand, finally, that no witchcraft will stand against firearms.  - Why did you say I am dead? - - furious Duan.- I am the Grand Duke of the second degree, the eldest among the princes of the imperial blood, how dare you call me a dead man? - During the uprising, you were at the head of a government on whose behalf numerous decrees and orders were issued. Now they will assign to you what was not there, and you will not be justified, even if you had a hundred mouths. It is too late to repent, foreigners are about to rush into Beijing, and tell the empress to behead you before this. It was hot and maybe that was why Duan’s face glowed brightly in scarlet, sweat plentifully protruded and dripped down his forehead, cheek and chin. - How to behead? They have no right to... “That’s what you think,” Jun Lu objected angrily. - I am a prince of the second degree and according to our laws no one can decapitate me. But you really have to tight ... - Soon, in the Celestial Empire, not our laws will act, but foreigners will demand payment for everything. It is known: the end of duty is repayment, the end of insult is revenge. As for me, the troops subordinate to me only kept the Ihetuans from attacking the Embassy town, and I almost personally delivered fruit and vegetables there ... - Traitor! - Duan exploded. - You, as the head of Tsunzjichu - the Council of State – should remember the words of Confucius: ”“When driving a state that has a thousand war chariots, you should be concerned with faith and reverent concentration.” You just rushed to personal power, and did a lot of stupid things. Now, as they say, collect iron from all the Middle Kingdom and forge one huge hieroglyph ”“Error”. Moreover, you put the empress in a bad place. “Yes,” the empress intervened angrily in their quarrel, “when the sovereign is offended, the officials die.” And so that foreigners do not force me to execute you, Duan, hurry to do it yourself! “I am the father of the heir to the Dragon Throne!” Remember this. The Empress was mixed; indeed, she herself fell into the placed snares. She had to subdue her anger and turn to Jun Lu. - Prepare a guard squad. We will have to leave, as the emperor Xianfeng, the capital. If this is despicable “I am the father of the heir to the Dragon Throne!” Remember this. The Empress was mixed; indeed, she herself fell into the placed snares. She had to subdue her anger and turn to Jun Lu. - Prepare a guard squad. We will have to leave, as the emperor Xianfeng, the capital. If this despicable people could not defeat foreigners, then let him pay with them. Jun Mei even choked with indignation, having heard such words of the empress. - How dare she say that! After all, she herself approvingly responded about the ihetuans, wished them victory, she herself made bows to the earth, so that another foreigner would die, she would give orders to declare war to the powers ... And now she gloats over the defeat of her people. Why, she and Jun Lu are guilty of defeat. Why did she not order all provincial governors to send troops to protect the capital and the Middle Kingdom? And if she was not sure that the governors, especially the southern provinces, would obey her, why not dismiss them? Why did not order Jun Lu to give them a foreign weapon? Because of her cowardice and indecision, because of her greed for money and her weakness for opium ... Due to lack of will, she completely lost her strength and became like a hair picked up by the wind. - Or maybe she, knowing for a long time about the upcoming uprising, deliberately did not suppress him in the bud, inflated and fueled the hatred of foreigners, to completely deprive the power of the emperor Guansu, hoping to rely on them? What lowness – so betray your people. Even Men-tszy said - ”“To let the people commit a crime, and then to punish him is to deceive him.” Oh, mean, low, insidious woman! She stood shocked, angry, devastated and did not hear the voice of the empress, who had called her for the third time. Lee Lianying looked behind the screen and slapped her on the shoulder with a fan, - Asleep?[BR]“No, I admired,” Jun Mei found.[BR]“Jun Mei,” the empress turned to her, seeing with her glance the departing Duan and Jun Lu, “you are known as my maid of honor and confidant.” Now Lee Lianying will write a decree, and you go with him to Xu Tun, the old chancellor. I will find someone to send to other officials. Zhu zhu chen sy – when the sovereign is offended - the officials die. For some reason, the empress suddenly sharply hated Xu Tong, a member of the court of the Hanlin Academy, but she had once revered him very much for his scholarship and even appointed the emperor Guansuy to be a mentor, presented him with a new house and great salary. Not for the fact that Xu Tong, an eighty-year-old sage, was perhaps the first to persuade her to rely on the ihetuans, to hand over her destiny and the Celestial to the Chinese gods. That is how it happens: One wanted to admire the moon in the sky, but lost the pearl from the dish. Even not a pearl, Xu Tong loses his head. Or, maybe, the empress broke off annoyance on the defenseless old man? Oh, he does not complain. Oh, the officials will not hear him. And they will hear it, and turn away indifferently – serving it right. The first to try his porridge. No wonder they say: wealth and nobility, as well as loud glory are like fleeting sleep. And it is clear that Duan is now unable to punish: he has an imperial name and, most importantly, still has troops in submission. Then, maybe ... Jun Lu is also not defenseless — he commands all the Manchu flag troops, and he is her daughter’s father, and his own blood is inviolable. Even a ferocious tiger devours everyone except its young. But Jun Mei was also eager for revenge for lost hope.
 From under the leaves on the flowering branch
Evil spines stick out.
In the darkness of the human soul
It can lurk poison.
You, the wise fools, should be the first to pay with blood for the defeat of the uprising and the torments of the people. She rushed to the house of Xu Tuna, near of the hand, very close to the Purple Forbidden City, just about shooting foreign barricades on the streets of the Embassy town, another reminder of the shame in the capital of the Middle Kingdom, climbed onto the porch, pushed the belted at once by two – red and yellow! - security guard belts, ihetuan. - From Grand Duke Duan with the decree of the government, - threw to the confused poor man, the peasant or the boatman as a straw the wind picked up by destiny. Xu Thun standing in the little room on his knees before the altar of the God of the hearth under the yellow canopy decorated with intricate patterns, bows were weighed, and wept bitterly. ”This is The old Buddha’s decree,”Jun Mei stretched out a scroll and a coil of yellow rope. ”“She commands you and all your household to join the souls of your ancestors immediately. - For what? Xu Tong begged. ”You know why,” Jun Mei replied rudely. - It is already impossible to extinguish the fire and dispel the smoke, and the state business is special. And mercy from The old Buddha do not wait, as there is nothing to expect from tigers or Boas. - But why rush. Maybe the Empress will have mercy, keep the thread of my family, and my descendants will live? Otherwise, where can the soul go after my death? ”Life and death are meant to be fate,” Jun Mei stood firm,”“and the thread of fate is in the Empress’ hands. Execute the decree, or the executioner will execute you and your home. You will be dishonored by public execution. On the same day, she informed the Empress that Xu Tong, followed by his wife, his sons, his sons ’‘ wives, his daughters, their husbands, and their children and grandchildren had hanged themselves. Behind Xu Tong, an epidemic of suicides swept the capital of China, the main cities of the provinces and thousands of County towns. Officials hung themselves, shot themselves, told their women to throw themselves into wells, ordered their servants to bury themselves with their families alive in dug holes... Of those who cowardly were hiding, few survived. Punitive detachments of foreign troops seized them and shot them, and their wives, daughters, concubines and maids raped in turn, and even turned the Beijing quarter into a brothel for the troops of the ”“Liberation armies”.
She climbed onto the porch, pushed the belted at once by two – red and yellow! - Security guard belts, ihetuan. “From the Grand Duke Duan with a government decree,” she threw to the bewildered poor man, the peasant or the boatman, like a straw blown up by the wind. Xu Tun stood on his knees in front of the altar with the image of the god of the home heart, , under a yellow canopy decorated with intricate designs, bowed and wept bitterly “This is the decree of the Old Buddha,” she said and handed a scroll and a hank of  yellow rope. “She commands you and all your family members to immediately join the souls of their ancestors.” - For what? - begged Xu Tun. “You yourself know why,” Jun Mei answered rudely. - It is already impossible to extinguish the fire and dispel the smoke, and the state business is special. And do not expect mercy from the Old Buddha, as there is nothing to expect from tigers or boas. - But why hurry. Maybe the empress will have mercy, keep the thread of my family, and my descendants will live? Otherwise, where to go after my death?“Life and death are destined for fate,” Jun Mei firmly stood on her, “and the thread of fate is in the hands of the empress.” Execute the decree, not the executioner executes you and your household. By public execution you will be dishonored. On the same day, she informed the Empress that Xu Tun, followed by his wife, his sons, wives, sons, his daughter, their husbands, and their children, and grandchildren hanged. Beyond Xu Tun, a suicide epidemic swept the capital of the Middle Kingdom, the main provincial cities and thousands of county towns. The officials hung themselves up, shot, ordered their women to rush into the wells, ordered their servants to bury themselves and their families alive in dug pits ... Of those who cowardly hid, few survived. Punitive detachments of foreign troops seized and shot them, and their wives, daughters, concubines, and maidservants were raped in turns, and even turned the Beijing Quarter into a brothel for the Liberation Army
 Vladivostok, 1986 – 89.
GennMeln@Yandex.ru