At Nicholas II's command, Saint Petersburg was placed under full martial law. The city garrison was ordered not to leave its barracks, while the police were gathered into their stations.
Ever since the last revolutionary outbreak, Nicholas II had harbored doubts about the loyalty of Saint Petersburg's garrison. Naturally, he would not let them come out and cause trouble now.
As for the police, there was even less to say. They were drawing capitalists' wages, after all. With prices in Saint Petersburg so high, how else were they supposed to live?
The moment Saint Petersburg went under martial law, many people knew things had gone bad. By Russian tradition, the consequences when the Tsar flew into a rage were terrifying!
Many began to regret getting involved. If they had known, they would never have joined in—but it was too late now. They had wanted to seize power from Nicholas II, only for him to flip the table outright and declare that he was done playing!
The weakness of the bourgeoisie did not mean they were truly weak. Before profit, there was nothing they would not dare do! But before bayonets, they truly went soft!
The capitalists were immensely powerful when united, but once scattered, they were nothing much. Without armed forces of their own, even if they had bought off quite a few government officials with gold and money, no one dared speak up for them at this moment!
There was no helping it. Perhaps the capitalists' influence had penetrated every corner of Saint Petersburg, but that depended on their being able to unite!
Now that Saint Petersburg was under martial law, individual capitalists had become meat on the chopping block. Would Nicholas II go easy on them?
Clearly, that was impossible! Apart from the struggle for power, Nicholas II