"Everything for the front line, everything for victory!" Under the call of the Bolshevik Central Committee in Russia, the Russian people threw themselves into the war.

1919 was an arduous year for the Russian Communist Party, and also a glorious year. Foreign invaders, domestic White Armies, and Mensheviks finally stood together nakedly. In Russia, in addition to the Soviets established by the Bolsheviks, a large number of Mensheviks also established their own Soviet regimes. While resisting the White Armies and foreign intervention forces, the Bolsheviks strove to win over the masses and forcefully eliminate Menshevik regimes in various places.

Any regime that does not stand with the people, any regime that cannot be combined with the people, will be helpless in the face of people's war. On this point, there is actually no difference in countries all over the world.

Strategically speaking, the Russian Communist Party had prevented the two military forces of Kolchak and Denikin from joining forces. If these two had completely opened up contact with each other in 1918, the result would have been terrible.

However, by 1919, the Bolsheviks had established their own grassroots organizations in the vast Russian countryside, uprooting the weak grassroots organizations of the White Armies and Mensheviks from the Russian land. The remaining battles became merely heavy troop encirclement and suppression of the enemy.

In July 1919, the Red Army besieged Kolchak's stronghold, and the battle for the city of Zlatoust had entered a critical moment. But when a not-so-large British force resolutely broke through the Red Army controlled area and entered Kolchak's controlled area, the situation became even stranger.

The Russian Communist Party did not want a full-scale war with the Entente Powers. Any conflict that could lead to an excuse for greater intervention by the Entente Powers was something the Red Army tried to avoid. Especially since this British force openly marched under the banner of delivering humanitarian aid, the Red Army wanted to avoid trouble even more. After all, this was just a British force with a scale of less than a regiment. Such a number of troops could not fundamentally reverse the war situation. Moreover, after contacting Kolchak, the British force retreated quickly.

Next, the Red Army soon discovered that the situation had changed greatly.

Kolchak's army was not bad in number, and its combat capability and level were not inferior to the Red Army troops. Their biggest problem was low morale. As the army of exploiters, they did not fight for themselves. This army was not rooted in the people of this country but attached to the ruling class. In simple smooth-sailing battles, the army might still show certain combat effectiveness. Once entering a cruel war of attrition, or when great willpower was needed to overwhelm the fear of death, such an army would wither.

Although the Russian Red Army did not have the systematic theoretical construction and large amount of practical summary of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army under the People's Party, compared with Kolchak's troops, the Russian Red Army was still a force rooted in the Russian people.

Therefore, through the arduous battles in the early stage, the 5th Army and the 2nd Army of the Red Army had completed preparations before the campaign. Then the 5th Army attacking Zlatoust and the 2nd Army attacking Yekaterinburg encountered stubborn resistance from Kolchak's troops.

This was truly stubborn resistance. In every trench, on every high ground, in every combat place, Kolchak's army fought fearlessly of death. The qualities of being unyielding, fighting to the death without retreating, and persisting to the end, originally possessed by the Red Army, were vividly displayed in Kolchak's troops.

The most special thing was the spirit of daring to attack. The Red Army relied on this offensive spirit to finally overwhelm the enemy in every battle. When Kolchak's army encountered heavy casualties, they always lost morale quickly, or tried to seek an easier attack route for victory, or gathered firepower to try to overwhelm the Red Army. The Red Army relied on will to defeat these quite experienced White Armies time and again.

Now the White Army faced by the Red Army fought to the death without retreating during the day. At critical moments when positions were in danger of being breached, many White troops did not call for artillery support, let alone abandon positions to flee. Led by officers, the White troops raised their bayonets and launched counter-charges against the Red Army. The officers in front were beaten down, and those behind held up the White Army's military flag to continue charging. When entering a bloody competition of combat capability and combat skills, the advantage of the White Army was displayed. Many positions were occupied by the Red Army only after paying huge sacrifices and after all the defending White troops died in battle.

And after a day of arduous fighting, the White Army launched a counterattack at night. The exhausted Red Army had never encountered such a large-scale comprehensive night counterattack. Both the 5th Army and the 2nd Army of the Russian Red Army suffered heavy losses in the night battle.

After three days of fighting, the party members and backbone elements in the 5th Army and the 2nd Army were exhausted, and the White Army also suffered heavy casualties. At this critical moment, it was the White Army that "mustered up courage." They launched a desperate attack with fanatical fighting spirit, almost completely defeating the 5th Army and the 2nd Army of the Russian Red Army. Seeing that they could no longer achieve the campaign objectives, the two Red Army armies could only retreat with hatred all the way.

The Russian Communist Party was not without gains. After interrogating the White Army personnel captured in these two battles, they finally figured out that the "humanitarian aid" provided by that small British force to the White Army was a kind of drug. Through channels of people in the Entente Powers who sympathized with and supported the Russian Revolution, the Russian Communist Party learned that these drugs were "Divine Body Protection Pills" purchased by Britain from China.

According to intelligence obtained from Britain and France, Britain and France had no intention of continuing the war with China after World War I. Because this "Divine Body Protection Pill" developed by People's Party Chairman Chen Ke showed terrible power in the just-concluded World War, the high-level officials of Britain and France lost their will to fight just by imagining the scene of British and French ground forces invading China facing the charge of millions of Chinese troops taking this drug. No one was willing to fight a war destined to fail.

After the Russian Communist Party obtained a small amount of "Divine Body Protection Pills" through channels, they conducted experiments in the Russian Red Army. Physical strength, brain power, attention—in every aspect, the users showed great improvement. Moreover, this drug could promote a strong desire to attack, and desire to attack is one of the pillars of victory on the battlefield. The drug could trigger physiological impulses that overwhelmed class consciousness, which greatly surprised the Russian Communist Party.

Chen Ke's attribute as a chemist was recorded in the archives established by various countries in the world targeting Chen Ke. The sulfonamides and Chuanbei Loquat Syrup used by the medical teams of the People's Party in helping Britain and France treat the "Spanish Flu" had good efficacy, which made the Russian Communist Party believe in the credibility of this drug even more.

The only thing that could make the Russian Communist Party feel "relieved" was that this "Divine Body Protection Pill" was expensive, and Britain only provided it to Kolchak's troops when seeing the situation was extremely unfavorable. It was said that the British's own stock was also very limited. But this "relief" itself was also very limited. Because Britain could purchase these drugs in large quantities from China and provide them to various White Armies including Kolchak.

Britain didn't even need to do it; Kolchak controlled the western part of the Ural Mountains, and they could purchase these drugs directly from China via land routes.

This counterattack also repelled the offensive of the Russian Red Army. In particular, in order to obtain victory on the Eastern Front, the Red Army supplemented a large number of party members, Communist Youth League members, and trade union members to the front line. The hard fight with Kolchak certainly caused heavy losses to Kolchak, but the backbone of the Russian Red Army also suffered heavy losses.

Most importantly, Kolchak had a brand-new means of controlling the army. If the drug could effectively stimulate the fighting will of the White Army, Kolchak could use a large number of troops with weak fighting will to launch terrible offensives against the Red Army. This would be a terrible problem.

Next, the Russian Communist Party indeed saw a chain reaction. In June, counter-revolutionary rebellions occurred at the Krasnaya Gorka (Red Hill) Fort and Grey Horse Fort near Petrograd. The Red Army Navy risked sending a fleet and a large number of troops to suppress the two forts occupied by counter-revolutionaries, but the numerically superior Red Army could not conquer them for a long time. Even tragic hand-to-hand combat could not make the enemies in the forts lose their will to fight. The rebels could go without sleep for days and nights, resisting fiercely day and night.

After strictly blocking the news, the Russian Communist Party had to reformulate its strategy. When the enemy might erupt with unexpected combat effectiveness, this new situation made the Red Army feel extremely thorny.

The Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party believed that a large amount of "Divine Body Protection Pills" must absolutely not be allowed to continue flowing into the Russian Civil War. Even if they tore their faces with the British and French intervention forces, they could not allow the situation to undergo such a major change. In addition to controlling the contact between foreign intervention forces and Kolchak, they also had to find a way to prevent China from providing "Divine Body Protection Pills" to the White Army side. In the news brought back by Comrade Belkov, Chen Ke made territorial demands to Russia, and listening to Chen Ke's meaning, Chen Ke might want to paralyze the Russian Communist Party, or genuinely want to maintain good relations with the Russian Communist Party. Anyway, the People's Party did not hold hostility towards the Russian Communist Party at this time. Then negotiation was an effective way to solve the problem. Even if deceptive means were used, China, this seemingly weakest link in the imperialist chain, must be pried off from the noose put around the neck of the Russian Communist Party by imperialism.

Millions of drugged Chinese troops killing their way into Russia from the empty Siberian direction, or even killing their way towards Moscow through Central Asia—Comrade Lenin, who imagined this, also felt very uncomfortable in his heart. If they wanted to solve the China problem through diplomacy, they couldn't simply send a Comrade Belkov. While the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party had not yet decided on the candidate, the White Army had already started launching offensive battles against Moscow again from various directions. The White Army, supplemented by lumpenproletariat, rich peasants, and even a large number of middle peasants, showed considerable combat effectiveness on various fronts.

The failure of the offensive battle on the Eastern Front triggered a chain reaction. Not only these White Armies, but also the intervention cannon fodder troops dispatched by small countries around Russia showed a considerable degree of "combat effectiveness" in the subsequent battles. From July to September, after a series of bloody battles, the Red Army finally stabilized the situation. Every "outstandingly performing" White Army and intervention force showed signs of taking drugs before the battle. A small amount of "Divine Body Protection Pills" was found in the pockets of many officer corpses.

Such losses were almost unbearable for the Russian Red Army. The backbone elements in the Red Army, especially political commissars, led the attack in large numbers during battles, and the loss rate far exceeded that of ordinary soldiers. In previous battles, as long as these elite backbones defeated the enemy's backbone, the remaining enemy troops would collapse without fighting. In current battles, the elite of the Russian Red Army had to be exchanged for the enemy's cannon fodder troops. Such an exchange ratio was almost unbearable for the Red Army.

The main forces of the Red Army were also composed of ordinary people. Without enough leading examples, they would also feel fear and panic. When these troops faced the subsequent attacks by the elite troops of the White Army, the outcome was not favorable to the Russian Red Army.

To avoid the worst-case scenario, the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party finally chose Trotsky to go to China with Comrade Belkov. Just before this ultra-high-level diplomatic team started to go to China, the Russian Communist Party received good news: the "Divine Body Protection Pills" purchased by the Entente Powers during World War I were running out. If the supply channel from China could be cut off, the pressure on the Soviet Communist Party in the subsequent war would be greatly reduced.

Although Kolchak controlled the eastern region of Moscow, the Russian Communist Party opened up a transportation line. Through this transportation line, the Russian Communist Party delegation could contact the People's Party as soon as possible.

By mid-October, the Russian Communist Party delegation, which took a great risk to notify the People's Party in advance, finally met the Chinese troops entering Russian territory through China's Outer Mongolia. This meeting itself proved one thing to the Russian Communist Party: the People's Party was still willing to establish good relations with the Russian Communist Party as they said.

When the Russian Communist Party delegation went south from Outer Mongolia, they found that China was intensively building a railway connecting Kulun (Urga) to southern China, and some sections were even temporarily open to traffic. Like most railway trial runs, the first to run were "road-pressing" freight trains loaded with a lot of things. The vehicles from south to north naturally carried railway construction materials. Those from north to south carried large quantities of goods such as ores and wool.

If a war broke out between China and Russia, this railway would be China's transportation artery. Russia did not have much population in the Far East and Siberia. Such a railway would allow China to transport a large number of troops and materials to the war front. A protracted war on the ice field would be a disaster for Russia.

The meeting place was not Wuhan, but Zhangjiakou. People's Party Propaganda Minister Zhang Yu was already waiting for Comrade Trotsky in Zhangjiakou.

In this talk, Trotsky first stated that the Russian Communist Party was willing to implement good-neighborly and friendly relations with China. But he personally did not support the action of changing the border line, "Peace is by no means unilaterally imposed by one party on the other. If we want to maintain true peace, I think mutual recognition based on the current status quo and agreeing on future friendship is the most important."

"Comrade Trotsky, the treaty we want to sign with the Russian Communist Party is different from the 'Treaty of Brest-Litovsk'," Zhang Yu didn't care about provoking Trotsky's mood at all; he said straight to the point, "The so-called cannot be imposed is because your Russian Communist Party tries to inherit the treaties imposed on us by Russia. Of course, it is easy to have self-confidence in such things. But what we advocate is that we want to take back what we were once forcibly deprived of. This feeling is more urgent and intense than the feeling of justice you possess."

Trotsky knew the proposition of the People's Party, but he didn't expect Zhang Yu to be tough to this extent.

However, this was just the beginning for Zhang Yu. He handed a thick document to Trotsky. "Comrade Trotsky, we want our army's propaganda to be based solely on facts. To what extent will these facts stimulate the fighting will of our troops? I hope you can say something after reading these."

Trotsky opened these documents; some were in Chinese, and some were in Russian. The top part was the record of the Hailanpao (Blagoveshchensk) Massacre.

The massacre of Chinese residents living in Hailanpao by Tsarist Russia from July 16 to 21, 1900, caused the death of more than 5,000 Chinese people. The Hailanpao Massacre and the Sixty-Four Villages East of the River Massacre that occurred on July 17, 1900, are collectively known as the "Gengzi Russian Disaster."

After the "Heilongjiang Incident," an atmosphere of terror shrouded inside and outside Hailanpao City, and incidents of persecuting Chinese people increased unabated. Representatives of Chinese residents asked Gribsky for instructions on whether the Chinese in the city needed to evacuate. He deceived the representatives, saying that Chinese people "can stay where they are without worry." Subsequently, he ordered a ban on Chinese people crossing the river, detained all ferries, and sent cavalry to disperse the crowd preparing to cross the river.

On July 16, 1900, Gribsky ordered the arrest of all Chinese people without leaving a single one. A crazy massive arrest began. Fully armed Tsarist Russian soldiers broke into Chinese residences and shops, arresting and taking away everyone regardless of gender or age, "even infants in arms were forcibly pulled out." More than 1,500 Chinese fled outside the city to hide but were also searched out by Russian soldiers. Many were stabbed to death alive by bayonets, and the living were "driven into the police station like being driven into a beast pen." Nearly 3,500 people were arrested that day. The police station couldn't accommodate them, so they were escorted to a sawmill by the Zeya River that night.

On July 17, 1900, the Hailanpao City Police Station drove all the detained Chinese to the bank of the Heilongjiang River (Amur River), lying that they would be ferried across to the other bank by boat. But there was not even a single boat on the shore. Arriving at the riverbank, Russian soldiers waved their sabers and drove all the Chinese "straight into the water." "When women threw their children onto the shore, begging to spare at least the children's lives, Russian soldiers caught these babies, picked them up on bayonets, and cut the babies into pieces." A mother "left her child on the shore and walked into the river herself," but after walking a few steps, she came back to hug the child and walked into the water. Finally, she had to go ashore again to "put down her precious child," and the inhumane Russian soldiers slashed and killed the child and his mother.

A Russian soldier who participated in the massacre recorded the entire massacre process:

"When arriving at Blagoveshchensk, the eastern sky was crimson, illuminating the Heilongjiang water like blood. Russian troops holding bayonets surrounded the crowd, leaving the riverbank side open, and constantly compressing the encirclement. Officers waved sabers and shouted crazily: 'Those who disobey orders will be shot immediately!' The crowd began to be pushed into the turbid current of the Heilongjiang like an avalanche. The crowd screamed madly, their voices shaking the blue sky. Some tried desperately to push through the crowd to escape the net; some trampled on the squeezed-down women and babies in an attempt to escape. These people were either kicked into mid-air by cavalry horses' hooves or stabbed to the ground by cavalry bayonets. Immediately, Russian soldiers fired together. Shouts, cries, gunshots, and angry curses mixed together. The tragic situation was indescribable, simply a picture of hell."

Yang Jigong, a clerk of the Aihun Deputy Commander-in-Chief's Yamen, recorded: "At 11 am on the 21st (July 17th in the Gregorian calendar), looking across to the other bank, Russians drove countless overseas Chinese to surround the riverbank, the noise shaking the wild. Looking closely, Russian soldiers each held swords and axes, chopping east and slashing west, severing corpses and crushing bones. The sound shocked the nose with sourness. The heavily injured died on the bank, the lightly injured died in the river, and those uninjured all threw themselves into the water and drowned. Skeletons floated and overflowed, covering the river and ocean."

Those who witnessed this massacre all felt "hair stand on end and heartbroken." Even the slaughterers were condemned by their conscience. A Russian volunteer soldier said, "The killing side completely exterminated humanity; they were either devils or beasts. To see such a tragic scene in the human world... is simply a nightmare. If the people killed were all men who still had the ability to struggle, perhaps it would not be so tragic," but seeing "mothers clutching babies trying to escape being stabbed down one after another, and babies rolling from their bosoms being crushed," "only those beasts with absolutely no humanity can stand it!"

Zhang Yu looked at Trotsky, whose face was terrible, and said coldly: "These facts are our propaganda materials. And this is only 19 years ago from now."