Bert leaned into Lin Zihan's ear and whispered, "Sir, I don't think we need to waste time with this woman, it's best to hurry up and rush to London." Bert glanced at the tavern proprietress with some disdain, he thought that the woman's deal was to use her body as a weight, but Bert, who had played too much with the actress of the London Opera House, really didn't look down on the middle-aged proprietress of the middle-aged house. As for her knowing where to conscript, no kidding, what can an old woman who runs a tavern know?

Lin Zihan waved his hand, motioned for Bo Special to speak, and then said to the woman: "If what you said is true, Madam, I think I can consider your request." Lin Zihan also has the mentality of trying, anyway, it is only a few minutes left and right, even if this woman is delaying time, she can't lose anything.

The female owner of the tavern nodded hurriedly and said, "Sir, there was originally a water-powered textile factory in our town, and the business was very prosperous, employing more than three hundred textile workers at the most. But a week ago, the textile factory caught fire, and most of the equipment was burned down, and the factory owner had no choice but to fire the textile workers. Those workers used to be sharecroppers who had lost their land in the neighborhood, and now the textile mills are slow to start, and their livelihood is completely lost, and you can call them all into the army, sir. The mill was not far from town, and she only found out about it when she heard a guest chatting over a drink.

In order to protect the interests of the big landowners and aristocrats, the British Parliament first launched the land enclosure movement in the eighteenth century, and a large number of land enclosure decrees were signed in just a few decades, and many small yeoman farmers and tenant farmers lost the land on which they depended. Farmers who had no means of production had to go to the towns to find a job to support their families. Objectively speaking, these unjust landless peasants provided a large amount of cheap labor for Britain's industrial take-off. If there was no enclosure movement, the factory owners in those towns would have to worry about the source of workers, so there are two sides to everything, and one cannot blindly stare at one side of the other.

The news of the tavern owner made Lin Zihan's mood suddenly improve, there are more than 300 of these textile workers, and they are still all unemployed, he has enough reasons and legal procedures to make up the number of soldiers from these people. If the workers were unwilling to join the army, he used the excuse that they were unemployed vagrants to resort to coercion.

Lin Zihan patted Bert's shoulder and said, "Lieutenant Bert, you take your people to look at the people in the tavern, especially the tavern's hostess's mistress, don't let him run away, you know?"

Bert had a hundred people in his heart who didn't want to stay here and do this kind of guarding's work, so he said with a sad face: "Sir, do you see if you can let Barnett come, and I will go with you to catch those damned weavers, okay?" If Barnett knew that this guy had sold himself in the blink of an eye, he would probably be so angry.

Lin Zihan straightened the saber on his waist and looked at Bert with slanted eyes: "Are you questioning my orders, Second Lieutenant Bert?" Encountering Lin Zihan's eyes with a hint of ridicule, Bert, a big man with a height of nearly one meter eighty-five, trembled very undisciplinedly, and the experience of being beaten several times has left a psychological shadow on poor Bert. After explaining to Bert, Lin Zihan took Barnett and the remaining ten sailors, led by the tavern hostess, to the water-powered textile factory located by the river.

The tavern's proprietress is recognizable as the water-powered textile mill, which looks like a small village on the edge of a river southwest of Winterson's town, and around the factory there are a large number of low-rise houses that look like a small village. In many people's perception, factories are typical of industrial societies, which generally appear first in larger towns, where there are markets, labor and capital are concentrated. But in fact, the first factories were found in sparsely populated rural areas, or even in the wilderness. Because at the beginning of the industrial revolution, in addition to being used as a pumping power for mines, the steam engine was not suitable for the production power of the factory.

Therefore, when selecting the location of these factories, priority is given to nearby rivers with abundant water, rather than in places with well-developed infrastructure, such as towns. Once these factories were built, the workers who attached to the factories built their humble and shabby houses near the factories, thus forming small villages and towns centered on the factories. And those factory owners are the well-deserved "emperors" in these small villages and towns, and even the factory owners, who are magistrates, even have judicial jurisdiction over the workers.

However, the small village and town centered on the cotton textile factory in front of me are no longer as lively as they used to be, and the factory area by the river is still emitting black smoke that has not yet dissipated, and some workers living close to the factory have also been affected by the fish pond, leaving only the stone walls that have been smoked black by the thick smoke. It seems that the fire in the factory was very large at that time, not only the equipment in the factory area was burned, but also the entire factory was burned, all because some factory workshops and warehouses where cotton yarn was stacked were mixed together.

The blind-eyed workers and their families soon boiled over the entire small village like boiling water dripping into an oil pot after discovering that the sailors led by Lin Zihan had broken into the village and town. A little fellow wearing only a shirt and a snot on his upper lip was pulled into the house by his mother, and then there was a "bang", and the tattered wooden door was shut, if that could be called "shut-up". However, Lin Zihan was sure that the somewhat rotten wooden door couldn't even help himself kicking it.

Barnett looked at the scene in front of him with some bewilderment, and asked in a low voice, "Is the kingdom's army more terrible than Satan?" Why do these workers see us faster than the prey sees the hunter? Lin Zihan pursed his lips, and said in his heart that this is not the European soldier loss rate during this period, the terrifying loss rate of the navy, even in the cruising state, there are nearly 20% losses (mainly due to sepsis and yellow fever), let alone when it is in a combat state.

Not to mention the Army, the pit father's platoon shooting tactics is simply the rhythm of sending to death. When these workers and their families saw the heavily armed sailors coming, they didn't understand that this was another conscription procession. If in the past they were absolutely not afraid of any conscription army, because they were textile workers who created wealth for the kingdom, but now they are all unemployed, and they are automatically classified as vagrants.

Just when Lin Zihan felt like a little devil entering the village, an old man in his fifties walked up to Lin Zihan who was riding a tall horse: "Mr. Lieutenant, I am Sir Smith, the owner of the factory here, may I ask what is the matter with you coming to my textile factory?" ”

It turned out to be the factory owner here, Lin Zihan looked the knight up and down, and found that this old man with gray hair was already a little gray, his eyes were bloodshot at this time, the originally expensive Lyon silk vest looked a little wrinkled, and the white silk scarf and shirt even had some traces of black smoke. Sir Smith's most important property, the textile mill, had been wiped out by the fire, which had left him emaciated and exhausted for the past few days.

Since the other party was a person with a knighthood, Lin Zihan also dismounted and saluted: "Sir Smith, I am Lieutenant Wickham, and we are here to recruit for His Majesty's Marines." It is the duty of every citizen to serve the United Kingdom of Britain and His Majesty the King. We heard that the workers of Sir Smith's factory were unemployed, so we came to see that these unemployed people should go to the army to play their rightful role. ”

Sir Smith said a little tiredly, "As it should be, Mr. Lieutenant. I'll get these damned inferior people to cooperate with you. Oh, these damn pigs, if they weren't careless when they lit the lights in the cotton warehouse, the factory wouldn't have burned down! Damn bed bugs, they should be given a taste of bullets on the battlefield! The old man grunted as he staggered back.

A man dressed as a servant said to Lin Zihan and his party embarrassedly: "I'm very sorry, Mr. Lieutenant, our husband has been hit hard, and his thinking is a little confused. But I'll stay with you. After saying that, the manservant of the knight's house picked up a tattered iron basin on the ground, and shouted as he knocked it: "Damn pigs, why don't you hurry up and gather at the entrance of the village!" Hurry up, you bedbugs, and if anyone dares not come, I'll drive their whole family out of the village!"

After a while, the workers reluctantly came to the open space at the entrance of the village, they had no work and could not risk being kicked out of the village by the overseers, so that their families would not even have shelter from the wind and rain. Lin Zihan looked at the workers with vegetable faces and wilted spirits, and couldn't help but sigh that the eighteenth century was worthy of being the backdrop of the story of "Les Miserables", except for the aristocracy, the squire and the emerging bourgeoisie, the lives of the people at the bottom could not bear to look at directly.

Lin Zihan moved an oak barrel containing ale from the corner of a house, and then stood on it: "Everyone, please be quiet, for the sake of the great United Kingdom of Britain and His Majesty King George III, I declare that you are all obliged to join the Marine Corps. Now, there is still a gap of 120 people in my company, and I hope that everyone will come forward enthusiastically. Those who are willing to join the Marine Corps, please raise your right hand. ”

When they heard that only a hundred people needed to join the army, the workers below began to discuss it, at least each of them had the hope of not having to join the army. Lin Zihan looked at the workers below who were talking to each other with black lines, but none of them raised their hands, so he had to agitate again: "I can tell you the news here, this time our company is about to go to the Far East to carry out a great diplomatic mission. That's the East! Guys, think of the rich guys of the East India Company, it's a place of gold, with blood-red gems, dazzling gold, and glamorous, fiery Indian princesses! Oh God, that's a paradise! I can assure you, worthless bedbugs, will come back from the East with a lot of money! What are you waiting for, are you willing to eat bread that is hard enough to kill people all the time, and live in a house that leaks everywhere? Instead of living like this, it is better to join our company and go to the East to make a fortune! After saying this, Lin Zihan felt that he had goosebumps, if he had joined the MLM team back then, maybe a MLM master would have been born.

Ai Wen looked at his commander dumbfounded, and after a while, he sighed in his heart, his company commander must be very good at rhetoric, and those encouraging words even made him a little moved when he heard them! Maybe this trip to the East can happen something with the princess of the princely states of India? Ai Wen said to himself in his heart.

Lin Zihan was a little narcissistic for the super-demographic talent he had cultivated when he was selling, and he didn't believe that these native buns in the British countryside could withstand the temptation of money? Instead of starving here, it is better to go overseas and give it a try, such a simple multiple-choice question even a pig knows how to choose. But soon, Lin Zihan found out that he was wrong, how wrong it was.

How can those who have just turned from farmers to textile workers, who have never even been outside Hampshire, have any idea of the East? These workers looked at Lin Zihan who was spitting on the stage suspiciously, and did not show any emotion, not that they did not want to get rich, but that the East was too far away from their lives, and when the imagination was not even very specific in their minds, those demagogic descriptions were no longer attractive.

In the end, Lin Zihan had to be deflated, uncle, since these workers don't give face, then Lao Tzu has to use strong ones. "Second Lieutenant Barnett, take someone down for me to pick someone, and if you meet a tall and healthy person, escort me away!" Lin Zihan felt like a hypocritical robber, and after the temptation failed, he showed his true face.

As the wolf-like sailors rushed into the crowd, the whole village was thrown into chaos, and some of the selected workers were driven out of the crowd by the soldiers with the butts of their guns, while their wives and children cried out in tears.

At last, under the threat of bayonets and rifle butts, the sailors selected a hundred or so sturdy adult men from the crowd, and the workers cowered together, their eyes sparkling with anger. Lin Zihan couldn't help but wipe the sweat from his head helplessly, what is this called! Isn't it just a conscription, like a devil entering the village? This kind of depressing atmosphere that he didn't dare to speak with anger made Lin Zihan shudder, he really didn't dare to imagine what would happen to bring such a group of guys with fierce dissatisfaction in their hearts to the battlefield, maybe a few officers would die under the black guns of the soldiers, right? Just like the American army in the Vietnam War in later generations.

In any case, Lin Zihan's team can be regarded as pulling up, and he is no longer a bare-rod commander with only three subordinates.