In November, everything in Ukraine was in depression. The fields were covered with large areas of withered yellow color, and there were not even a few living people in sight.
Dmitri reined in the reins and frowned involuntarily. Although he had expected that the situation in Ukraine would be bad, he did not expect it to be this bad.
We passed five or six villages along the way, but almost none of them were inhabited, and they were as desolate as Siberia.
He raised his riding whip and said to the accompanying guards: "Go to the village and see if there are any survivors!"
To be honest, he didn't think there was much hope. This small village had been devastated by war at first glance. The houses had visible traces of being burned, and dark red blood stains could be faintly seen. It was conceivable that something terrible must have happened.
things.
But it is always a good thing to have no corpses. After all, corpses will not disappear on their own. People will definitely be needed to clean up the corpses. And the reason why people clean up the corpses must be to continue to survive.
Sure enough, the guard quickly brought back a little old man.
He was in his sixties or seventies, with a bald head and dark brown skin like orange peel. He was wearing a crappy burqa that was too big and obviously didn't belong to him.
The old man was very frightened and looked at Dmitri tremblingly. He didn't know where to put his hands. Before Dmitri could ask any questions, he knelt down with a thud.
"Dear Sir, I really didn't do anything. I didn't kill Mr. Bashar's family, and I didn't rob him of his food, let alone his money. This was all done by others. I am just cold.
, the steward Guy died, took his robe..."
In fact, it doesn’t take the old man to tell Dmitry that he probably knows what happened. It may be that the local serfs revolted, or it may be that the serfs revolting from outside came to this village and killed the so-called Bashar master and took away his money.
..
The poor old man may have been frightened, or he may have been born timid and did not dare to participate in the carnival. After the revolting serfs left, he sneaked out to clean up the scene and stole a trivial and possible item.
The most important item to him - a ridiculous leather robe.
Dmitri didn't care what he did. For him, what if the old man really participated in the carnival? This tragedy was not caused by him as a serf. It was the millions of Russians who caused the tragedy.
The master of thousands of serfs.
As long as they can exercise some restraint, their whole family will not be wiped out.
But the old man was frightened. He kept kowtowing and begging for mercy. He even started to take off his clothes and promised again and again that he would never steal anything again.
This made Dmitri feel very uncomfortable. He could see that the old man really needed this leather robe, because this leather robe was just a piece of rags. The winter in Ukraine was not warm, and he would definitely not be able to survive with this little piece of cloth.
winter.
He couldn't help but think of the thousands of serfs. These poor people were not much different from this poor old man. Most of them had no clothes and no food, doing the heaviest and most tiring work day after day.
But they couldn't get enough clothes to keep out the cold and a full meal. When winter came, they were struggling on the verge of death!
And this kind of day may have been passed by their ancestors for thousands of years!
"You can keep the robe!" Dmitri sighed and asked, "How many people are there in the village?"
The old man was obviously stunned. From the moment he was brought to Dmitri by the soldiers, he felt that he was in danger and that his life would most likely be lost.
He really didn't expect that the officer in front of him, who looked like a high official at first glance, would let him go and allow him to keep this leather jacket. When did the gentlemen become so easy to talk to?
"Sir, I'm asking you something! Answer me quickly!"
The old man trembled, kowtowed and replied: "Thank you, noble master, for pardoning my sins and allowing me to keep this robe... There are probably three or four families left in the village. Apart from me and my old wife, there are
There is Ivan, old Vasily and his little grandson..."
Dmitri asked again: "Where are the others? Are they all dead?"
The old man was hesitant. This question made him very embarrassed. To be honest, he felt a little sorry for his former neighbors, but the lying man couldn't forgive him. What should he do?
Dmitri sighed and said: "You don't have to be afraid. I have no intention of holding you accountable. If you are really in trouble, you don't have to answer."
The old man's eyes widened, he swallowed, and asked cautiously: "Are you really not going to hold people accountable?"
Dmitri replied: "As long as they lay down their weapons and confess their sins, Your Majesty will pardon them!"
The old man swallowed again, and then crossed himself on his chest with great excitement: "Thank God, thank your great Majesty, I finally have a way to live!"
After that, he told Dmitri: "Dear Sir, after the thugs from outside killed Mr. Bashar, some young and unscrupulous young people in the village were bewitched by them and robbed a lot of food towards Chel.
Nisif walked away and said that he wanted to kill all the masters... My God, I was so frightened at the time. How could I say such treasonous words? It would mean cutting out my tongue!"
"After they left, we old guys packed up the bodies, and several groups of thugs came behind them, and then you came."
Dmitri nodded. It was exactly as he expected. It seemed that the Chernihiv area was in chaos.
After sending the old man away, Dmitri's face was very serious. After coming out of St. Petersburg, he rushed all the way to Chernihiv. He was worried that the situation would turn out like this.
But now the worries have come true, which shows that it is more difficult to put down the rebellion.
After all, he only had four to five thousand troops on hand. Although they were all elite troops loyal to the Tsar, these few people were just a drop of water in the ocean to the vast Ukraine.
If all the serfs in Ukraine were incited, there would be tens of millions of them. How many rebels could they kill with just these people?
To put it bluntly, the Ukrainian rebels would be exhausted if they beheaded them!
Obviously, the most important thing about Ukraine’s counterinsurgency is not to suppress bandits, but to appease people’s hearts!
It's just that it's not easy to do this. When they left St. Petersburg, those conservatives were still clamoring to hang all the rebels. These hard-earned iron roosters would rather shed rivers of blood than take out a copper plate from their own treasury.
To appease the serfs. Telling them the benefits of appeasing people's hearts is completely like a chicken talking to a duck playing the piano!
What's more, Count Rostovtsev's attitude is also there. He is eager to make Ukraine more chaotic...