African Entrepreneurship Record

When words go against each other, even half a sentence is too much; seeing that there was no way to drag this fellow townsman onto the boat with him, Royaevsky could only choose to give up.

He said in the end, "Since that’s how it is, then look after yourself. For the sake of our being from the same place, I’ll give you one reminder: if something happens in the coming days, find yourself a safe corner and don’t get involved."

Karchichev said coolly, "Thanks."

Since that was that, Royaevsky could only stand up from the crate and walk off in another direction, leaving Karchichev nothing but a cold, austere back.

...

Night.

In a trench somewhere, Royaevsky was conspiring with a man whose face he didn’t know.

"Well, Royaevsky, how many men today did you manage to win over who see eye to eye with us?"

Royaevsky shook his head and said, "Mr. Ilya, it’s going very badly. There are quite a few who stand on our side, but they’re not willing to take part in our action."

Ilya asked, "That’s understandable too. After all, most people don’t have the courage to resist an unjust fate, so you don’t need to blame yourself."

"Sigh!" Royaevsky let out a breath and said, "It’s just as you say: many people aren’t exactly satisfied with how things are, but most of them choose to muddle along."

"Take my fellow townsman for example—he’s perfectly clear in his heart about how rotten the Imperial Army is, but he chooses to compromise with himself."

Ilya comforted him, "That kind of thing is inevitable. If the path differs, you can’t plot together. Since that’s how it is, we can only fight on our own. Our demands actually aren’t high: to get out of the war, especially a war where we can’t see any chance of victory."

In fact, whether they won or not wasn’t that important to Russian soldiers. When a lot of those grey beasts were conscripted, they joined up with a mindset of just muddling through; or rather, they didn’t have any spare thoughts at all, they only joined because the Russian government called them up and there was no avoiding it.

But once the cruelty of war was laid out before them, even Peasant Slaves with no thoughts of their own would form an idea: war gets people killed.

If the Russian government could at least give them some outlet psychologically, it might still be tolerable. But as the most decayed army among the great powers, Russian rank-and-file soldiers found it very hard to empathize with the officers and officials.

Of course there were Russian officers who led from the front and set an example, but the proportion was clearly many times worse than in the other belligerents.

And the Russian army’s problems were far more numerous than the Allies’, especially in logistics—this was practically a chronic ailment the Russians had never been able to cure.

If this problem could be solved, even half solved, the grievances of the Russian soldiers probably wouldn’t have built up to this extent.

Ilya said to Royaevsky, "Tomorrow at six in the afternoon, we’ll launch our action. The men we have in Third Company will be under your charge. All you need to do then is respond to the main force. The signal will be three gunshots—once the signal goes off, you lead your men to set out for the main command headquarters in Vinnytsia."

"At that time, we’ll send people to negotiate with General Makayev."

Royaevsky nodded and said, "So it’s fixed for six tomorrow afternoon!"

Ilya: "That’s right. But if you don’t hear three gunshots, you’re not to act rashly."

After the time and place of the operation were confirmed again, Royaevsky returned to camp and started calling in "his own people." Over the past ten-plus days, he had stirred up more than thirty men; now he informed them of the action plan.

The next day.

The air in Vinnytsia was particularly fresh today. In the urban district there was no sign at all that war was drawing near: elites in suits and ties and busy citizens formed a sharp contrast with the grey beasts outside the city.

Of course, inside Vinnytsia you could also see plenty of Russian soldiers patrolling, keeping order in the whole city.

One citizen of Vinnytsia said, "I’ve no idea how far the Austria-Hungary troops have come now. Should we go take shelter in the countryside?"

Another citizen said, "Relax. Vinnytsia is still very safe. We have the Southern Bug River as a natural barrier, and hundreds of thousands of troops defending along the river. Vinnytsia is solid as a rock."

"I hope so. But it’s also a fact that the front collapsed in June. Austria-Hungary isn’t some weak player. If they really fight their way to Vinnytsia, it still won’t be completely safe."

"We’ll talk about it when the time comes. We don’t have the means to run off to other places or the countryside. Those who could run have already gone."

"And fleeing to the countryside isn’t safe either. Who knows if you’ll get grabbed for conscription? At least in the city there’s still something like order. Right now leaving town is not a wise move."

"It’s soldiers everywhere at the moment, and they’re not easy to reason with. Still, if we’d known the front would collapse, we should’ve fled early last month."

It wasn’t that Vinnytsia’s citizens didn’t want to flee; it was that lagging information meant many people didn’t have time to get out of the city and take shelter. Of course, at this point, refugees mainly ran toward cities in the rear.

After all, when it comes to war, in most cases the propaganda offices only report the happy news and not the bad. Just last month the papers were saying the Russian army had won a great victory inside Austria-Hungary.

In less than a month, that "great victory" had turned into a great victory for Austria-Hungary instead! The Austria-Hungary troops had even pushed forward from the border into Moldova and Ukraine.

Of course, Bulgaria was unavoidably ignored by the Russians. In the Russians’ eyes, Bulgaria was just an add-on; but in reality, there were nearly two hundred thousand Bulgarian troops on the Russian front assisting Germany and Austria-Hungary.

And under the backing of Germany and Austria-Hungary, all supplies for Bulgaria’s expeditionary force were borne by the two countries, which made the Bulgarian army’s combat strength not to be underestimated.

That was also the maximum level of support Bulgaria could offer. After all, Bulgaria still had to garrison Serbia and at the same time shoulder the heavy task of watching over Romania and Greece, to prevent these two "temporarily Neutral Countries" from stabbing the Allies in the back.

Time quickly came to six in the afternoon.

Most of Vinnytsia’s citizens were at home, enjoying their dinner.

Suddenly, gunshots sounded from the distance—"bang bang bang......"

Not more, not fewer: exactly three shots. But most people didn’t pay any attention. Ever since Vinnytsia had become a frontline city, gunfire and cannon had turned into everyday noise. The Russian troops in Vinnytsia couldn’t just sit on their hands waiting for the Austria-Hungary army to arrive; they also had to train, or execute deserters.

But this time the gunshots were clearly different. Twenty minutes later, Vinnytsia’s citizens realized something was wrong, because the city center suddenly turned chaotic and firefights even broke out.

Some citizens peered through cracks in their window frames and saw a dark mass of Russian soldiers marching along the street. Their clothing was clearly less neat than that of the Russian troops stationed in the city; many of them had bandages wrapped around wounds.

And the Russian soldier leading the way was holding a red flag high, moving forward.

This group of Russian soldiers numbered at least over a thousand, packing the whole street solid, while on the other side of the street were Russians as well—but they had their guns raised. One Russian officer shouted at the men opposite, "No passage allowed here! And you lot—who gave you permission to enter the city without orders?"

"Brothers, don’t let him scare you. Everyone, charge the headquarters with me!" At that moment, a man dressed like a soldier, the leader of the "troublemaking" Russians, shouted.

And this man was none other than Ilya, who had been talking with Rozhovsky yesterday.

The Russian officer decisively chose to give the order to open fire. After all, a group of Russians with unknown intentions suddenly appearing in the city—by any look they weren’t here with good intentions.

The "troublemaking" Russians were not about to be cowed either. Once the other side opened fire, they started shooting too, and the two sides immediately began a street battle inside Vinnytsia.

This terrified all of Vinnytsia’s citizens. Everyone hid inside their houses, stopped watching the commotion, and tightly shut their doors and windows.

Vinnytsia was in utter turmoil, alarming the other units stationed in the city. Just like that, the Vinnytsia mutiny broke out. Under the pressure and pulling-along of Ilya and the others, Russian soldiers were all mixed together, with no way to tell who was who; everyone muddled along in confusion, following Ilya’s main force toward the center of Vinnytsia.