In early April 1917, the first Chinese laborers arrived in London. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

After the arrival of 50,000 Chinese laborers, a large number of Chinese in Britain were hired by the government to work as translators. The laborers were immediately assigned to dozens of munitions factories outside London. Under the deployment of the British, they began to undertake some tasks that were not technically demanding, but required a lot of manpower and physical strength. Of course, there were also a small number of young people with a little bit of education, who were selected and began to study with the British workers, who were more eager for skilled workers than coolies.

The part-time job in a foreign country began with a difficult start.

It is not easy for the Chinese government to organize these laborers, after all, there are not many people willing to travel through mountains and rivers to work. Fortunately, in addition to food and shelter, the British government also offered a salary of one pound a month, almost ten oceans!

This figure is extremely attractive to young Chinese people.

Don't look at the current wages of the workers of the Huntelaar consortium have risen to four or five dollars a day, that is, one pound, and they can get more than twenty pounds a month, but that is the United States, a world power, and they are also regular employees of the Huntelaar consortium. You must know that a survey conducted by a foreign teacher at Tsinghua University in Beijing in 1918 showed that the minimum living standard of a family of five in the suburbs was only 100 oceans a year. In 1929, someone surveyed hundreds of workers' families in Shanghai, and the monthly salary of male workers was only about 22 oceans.

Eating and living in a month can also net ten oceans, which is definitely not bad for China in 1917.

In addition, in order to attract more young people to sign up, the Chinese government announced that all salaries would go to the workers themselves, and the government would not take a penny, which caused the number of applicants to skyrocket! In just one month, more than 300,000 young people were organized in the northern region alone, and the Huntelaar consortium organized thousands of skilled workers and teachers to begin simple training for them.

By August 1917, more than half a million labourers had arrived in England!

Like the migrant workers who left their homes a hundred years later, the Chinese's quest for a better life is unstoppable. And when they found out that the British government paid Chinese who had learned the skills of two pounds or even three pounds, the young workers set off a learning upsurge. There is no need for the government to promote it, and there is no need to make any big senses, and the stimulus of money makes them study hard in spite of the hard work of their work, and use the only rest time to study hard, and master the technical knowledge that was not particularly advanced at the beginning of the 20th century......

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In early August 1917, the first Chinese troops arrived in France.

This point in time is precisely calculated.

Because just a month ago, the first American troops to enter the war arrived in France. Although the Americans are tyrants and have a large population, their army strength has always been very weak because of their natural geographical advantages. Before Wilson declared war, the U.S. Army had only a few hundred thousand men, so the number of this force was also small. According to the British and French meaning, this American army should go to the front immediately, but Pershing, who led the team, obviously did not have this idea, and he insisted on completing the training before going to the battlefield.

In this case, the Chinese came.

The 30,000-strong force completed the final repairs in France before going to war, during which it received weapons and equipment that had already been delivered by the Huntelaar consortium, including 27,000 rifles, 200,000 grenades, 4 million rounds of ammunition, 60 artillery pieces, and countless military uniforms, boots, shovels, and other supplies. Because of the insufficient number of domestic tank drivers, they were not equipped.

As soon as the armament was completed, the French could not wait to give the order again.

At this time, it was in the middle of another large-scale German offensive, and the British and French forces were almost out of breath under the pressure of the huge pressure, and the number of 30,000 men, although not much, had already played a certain role. It's just that in view of the distrust of the quality of the Chinese army, the French dared to assign them the task of defending only a small area, and the Germans did not have a very strong impact on that area.

To put it simply, it is actually a test of the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army.

Completely different from the cautious Americans, the Chinese readily agreed to this request and moved into the position as quickly as possible. And on the fifth day after the completion of the deployment of positions, the Germans came!

Until the end of this battle, the Germans retreated, and the Chinese were on the ground.

3,600 men were killed, more than 7,000 were wounded or even disabled, and after a battle, the Chinese army completely realized the strength of the Germans and the cruelty of this war in Europe - in just a dozen days, according to the standards of the French, they lost their combat effectiveness!

When the heavy losses reached the country, they were stunned.

Before they actually participated in the battle, the Chinese soldiers were also quite proud, because these 30,000 soldiers had received two years of rigorous training, and the instructors were all elites who had returned from studying in Germany and the United States. And as a provider of weapons and equipment, the Huntelaar consortium also gave detailed guidance. Coupled with the powerful and unprecedented weaponry, the government has full confidence that it will be able to confront the same number of Germans head-on!

But the result of the battle made the proud soldiers lose their voices.

According to the information provided by the French, the Germans who attacked head-on were only one division, less than 20,000 people, but it was these 20,000 people who crippled more than 30,000 Chinese troops in just a dozen days! Moreover, according to the French, the Germans suffered far fewer losses, and only a little more than a thousand were killed, and this disparity in casualties immediately made the officers feel the cruelty of the European war......

Compared with the loss of the Chinese soldiers, the French were overjoyed.

Although it was much worse than the Germans, the French were very satisfied with the outcome of the battle, because they saw the great potential of the Chinese army - brave, disciplined, and above all, well-trained! Even with heavy casualties under the onslaught of the Germans, the experienced French saw very well that the comprehensive quality of the Chinese soldiers and even the commanders was not weak, at least not weaker than those French troops, and the only thing lacking was combat experience, and what was missing was the test of bullets and bullets on the European battlefield. They believed that after a few battles at most, the soldiers would be reborn and become an elite on a par with the French.

Therefore, after observing the whole process, the officers immediately reported the situation.

The French government, which received the report from the military department, was also overjoyed, and immediately contacted the British, and then sent a telegram to the Chinese government together: they hoped that China would send a second batch of troops as soon as possible, and that the more this number, the better!

Needless to say, the Chinese government's response for the time being, the pressure on the Americans instantly increased.

The same army, which was despised by the European powers, came to Europe almost at the same time, but the performance of the Chinese army and the American army was both ice and fire. The Americans had not yet completed their pre-war training, but Chinese had already confronted the Germans head-on, and had received great praise from the two old powers, Britain and France, and even hyped it up in the newspapers......

Even if Lao Cheng is as serious as Pershing, his face is a little unsightly.

If we talk about the contribution to the war, China certainly cannot be compared with the Americans, after all, in addition to the million army, there are loans, industrial products and so on, but the Chinese also promised a million army, and a larger number of laborers, which is as important as the Entente.

Therefore, after also seeing the outstanding performance of the Chinese army, US President Wilson sent several telegrams to Pershing, which also allowed the US military to go to the battlefield a month earlier than in history......