In the golden autumn of October, the golden wind is blowing, the autumn is high and cool, and the fields are full of hard-working farmers, who are harvesting ripe crops.

Although this year has experienced some turmoil, the harvest is not good, but a bad harvest is better than no harvest at all, and the day will go on. What's more, the arrival of overseas Chinese has also brought great changes to the lives of the people.

The overseas Chinese first defeated the foreigners, recovered Tianjin, and also took down the concession, and they did not harass and plunder the people like the Qing army, on the contrary, they also organized and helped the people to seize the last time, grab seeds and harvests, and try their best to minimize losses. Therefore, the people of Tianjin feel that there is still hope for this day, so everyone is full of enthusiasm.

At this time, almost all the peasants were rushing to cut in the fields, and on the roads of the fields, there were countless people pushing carts to carry burdens, transporting harvested wheat, sorghum, etc., constantly passing back and forth. And the observant person can find that these people who are responsible for transporting the crops are all foreigners with different skin and hair, convex noses and concave eyes.

When they arrived in the villages, there were even more foreigners, preparing the land, digging soil, moving bricks, carrying water, mixing mud, putting up beams, building tiles, and even some people did carpentry work, one by one they were very busy, shouting and shouting in foreign languages that the people could not understand, and from time to time there was a burst of laughter. Behind the work of these foreigners are rows of new houses under construction, flat and wide roads, good drainage systems, and reserved pipe culverts.

And on the earthen walls of some old houses that have not yet been demolished, there are still some colorful slogans. For example, "building a new countryside, building a beautiful new life", "working hard for a month, spending the New Year with peace of mind", etc., and also posted a bird's-eye view of the new countryside, so that the farmers born and raised in Tianjin feel very fresh and interesting.

At this time, it was noon, and I saw more than 20 women in military uniforms, pushing several steaming carts, led by a young woman, wearing an octagonal hat, a grass-green military uniform, and a wide cow belt tied around her waist, looking very capable and neat, shouting at the working foreigners: "Eat, eat, let's rest for a while, let's do it again after eating." ”

Although the foreigners could not understand Chinese, they had heard these words for a period of time, and they immediately put down their work, went to the side of the cart, took the steaming white flour steamed buns from the hands of other female soldiers, as well as a large bowl of gruel and salty lai, and then sat on the road and ate it.

The leading female soldier took down a large food box from the car, came to the door of a house, opened the door, and said, "Chief Li, it's time to eat, let's be busy later." ”

The door opened, Li Songchen poked his head out of the room, took a look, and said, "Comrade Geng Jinyan, why is it only you, Captain Gao didn't come today?"

Geng Jinyan said: "The executive committee has decided to hold a celebration meeting to celebrate the defeat of foreign ghosts this time, and Captain Gao will stay to prepare for the celebration meeting, and he will not come for a few days, and I will lead the team." ”

Li Songchen took the food box, nodded, and said, "So that's the case, then I've worked hard for you in the past few days." ”

Geng Jinyan said with a smile: "It's nothing, these are what we should do, the chiefs will eat first, just call me when you finish eating, I'll clean up the dishes and chopsticks." ”

Li Songchen brought the food box into the house and said to the other crossing staff working in the house: "Come on, let's eat." ”

It turned out that after defeating the German fleet and the Eight-Nation Alliance, the military superiority of the crossing group in the Beijing-Tianjin area was unshakable, even if other countries sent reinforcements, there was no need to be afraid, because the arrival of reinforcements must be the same as the German army, from the sea, and the crossing group in this era of the sea, has an absolute advantage, even if the British Royal Navy is dispatched, it can be completely destroyed. It can be said that for quite some time, there was basically no military force in this area that could threaten the crossing group.

And on the second day after the defeat of the Eight-Nation Alliance, the Provisional Executive Committee immediately convened a meeting to discuss the next step, after all, it was not easy to achieve the current situation, the crossing group sacrificed more than 30 soldiers, and also consumed a large amount of ammunition, from which rifle shells, more than 40% had been consumed. Then the next step is to enter Shandong, establish a formal base area, and start to develop the construction model.

However, it is not a matter of making a move to make an inroads into Shandong, and a great deal of preparatory work must be carried out in the early stage, at least the current army is not enough, and the size of the army that needs to be further expanded must be at least doubled. Therefore, the Provisional Executive Committee decided to take advantage of the momentum of the great victory over the Eight-Nation Allied Forces to hold a celebration meeting to sum up the work of the previous stage in a phased manner, and at the same time to commend the meritorious personnel in the combat work in the previous stage, so that the soldiers of the New Army who had performed outstanding performance in this battle should be commended, and arrangements should also be made for the bereavement of the dead and wounded. On the one hand, this is to enhance the sense of honor of the soldiers of the new army, and on the other hand, it is also to improve the social status of the soldiers and establish among the people the concept of the glory of joining the army through the areas ruled by the group.

Although in this era, China once formed a modern navy - the Beiyang Naval Division, after the Sino-Japanese First Sino-Japanese War, Yuan Shikai at the Tianjin Station, modeled after the German and Japanese army structure and regulations, organized into the Beiyang New Army (in the official name of the Qing court, the Wuwei Right Army), which can be regarded as the beginning of the modernization of the Chinese army, but after all, the Qing court is a decadent and backward feudal dynasty, and it is impossible to really establish a modern army.

Although the soldiers of the Beiyang Navy Division and the Beiyang New Army are very high, an ordinary soldier can get 4.5 taels of silver per month, but the overall status of the soldiers is not high, and the whole society still regards the soldiers as inferior occupations, generally only the poor and destitute will sign up to join the army, and there are not many people who hope to make contributions through the army, because they are intellectuals, and even fewer are soldiers, even if there are people who are willing to do things in the army, most of them choose to be officers' staff, which is not a real soldier.

Of course, this is not the patent of the Qing court, but since the Song Dynasty, the common characteristics of Chinese dynasties, the emperors of all dynasties have been very vigilant against the army, and the military generals are more restricted, left and right, and in the Qing Dynasty, it is a higher level, and the Hanchen in charge of the army is more guarded, whether it is the original Zeng Guofan, to Zuo Zhongtang, Li Hongzhang, and now Yuan Shikai, all of them are suspicious of the Qing court when they are in charge of the army, and they are hindered in many ways. In this way, the stability of the imperial power can be guaranteed, but the price is the decline of the entire national defense strength, and there is almost no resistance in the face of foreign enemies.

The ultimate goal of crossing the group is to replace the Qing court and establish a modern country, and in a modern country, the military is the cornerstone of the country, is the general force to defend the country, to build a strong modern army, it is not possible to improve the treatment of soldiers, countless histories have proved that an army that fights for money is impossible to become a strong army, it is necessary to start from improving the social status of soldiers, and enhancing the sense of honor of soldiers, so that soldiers should be respected as a matter of course, and have a social status consistent with themselves。 Bi Hao people still need a little mental strength.

Although the recruits have been instilled with the glorious concept of joining the army in the cultural class, the prejudice formed by the society for a long time cannot be changed by talking about it, so this celebration meeting is the first step to change the image of the soldier by taking advantage of the aftermath of the great victory, and it is also to attract and stimulate more enthusiasm of the people at this time to sign up for the army.

Since the Tianjin Conference, Li Songchen has been working in the countryside, taking responsibility for leading and organizing the work of several other working groups, and he has always lived in the countryside, at first he built a tent to live and work, and later after the first batch of new houses were built, he chose a house as an office and a dormitory.

During this period, the focus of rural work was to build new rural areas, in addition to the autumn harvest. The Provisional Executive Committee also pulled out 3,000 prisoners to assist Li Songchen in his work in the countryside. Of course, these captives were all selected Europeans and Americans, or Indians, while the Japanese and Annamites who looked similar to the Chinese stayed in the Tianjin concession to work.

And there is a clear difference between the appearance of Europeans and Americans and Chinese, so that there is no need to be afraid of them escaping, in this land of China, the language is not understood, and the appearance is obviously different, and escaping is basically a dead end, it is better to do it well. After all, the Crossing Group is still able to ensure that they are fed, sometimes improve their lives, and get treatment for injuries and illnesses. Anyway, when the battle is over, the two sides will negotiate, and then release the prisoners, and then they can go home.

Most of the captives are young and strong, and they are all good at work, and they are always locked up, and it is really boring, and everyone is locked up, so it is better to come out and do a little work, and have something to do and be fulfilling. What's more, the crossing group has also formulated some incentives, and those who do well will get some prizes, such as cigarettes, alcohol, meat, fruits, etc., which also makes the captives more motivated.

The arrival of these captives caused quite a stir among the villagers, and although they later heard that this group of overseas Chinese had defeated the foreigners, Bi Jing did not see it with his own eyes, so it was inevitable that there were some half-believers, and the myth of the invincibility of foreigners was still very marketable in China. But now that I have seen so many captives with my own eyes, all of them are authentic foreigners, working honestly under the command of overseas Chinese, it seems that the rumors are indeed true.

Li Songchen sent 1,000 captives to help the peasants harvest in the autumn, mainly responsible for transporting the harvested crops back to their respective villages, after all, these foreigners are all warriors, and they don't know how to do farm work, so it is better to be responsible for transportation, so that the peasants can harvest wholeheartedly, and also save a considerable amount of work. The other 2,000 captives were arranged to build houses in the villages.