Chapter 1 Chinese Laborers
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In the vast expanse of the sea, the wind swept up the dark clouds.
Between the clouds and the sea, the Victory Message cruise ship is struggling to navigate like a lost cub.
"Hurry, hurry, Wilson, tell the Chinese in the cabin to tie themselves to their beds and hold on to everything they can move, if they are smashed, we have no ability to treat them." Tell them that we have a storm, it could be level six, or it could be level seven, or even level eight...... Forget it, go ahead, even if you say it, they may not understand. "Captain Henri was a native of Marseille, France, and although he was not yet 40 years old, he was more appropriate to say that he was 50 years old, judging by his unkempt beard and wrinkled forehead.
The Victory Message is an old fellow, she was launched 20 years ago at the Manchester shipyard in England, and from the day she was launched, Henry served on the Victory Message, working from an ordinary sailor to captain. Henry knew very well that if the wind and waves were less than level eight, the Victory Message could survive it, and if the wind and waves were up to level eight, then 40° north latitude and 10° east longitude (near Sardinia) would be the end of the life of the Victory Message.
"Yes, Captain, as you wish, let me know at once." First mate Wilson is from Paris, a physically strong lad who is always energetic and energetic.
Shortly thereafter, Wilson's warning sounded over the ship's cabin pager, repeated three times before being silent.
"Little Brother Qin, what is this foreigner talking about?" In room 106 of the bottom cabin, Qin Zhiyuan's upper bunk, Gao Hongshi, stared at the small speaker on the roof with great interest, looking curious.
"The storm is coming...... Tie yourself to the bed...... Tie the knot strong...... If you get hurt, no one will save you. Qin Zhiyuan's voice was very low, echoing in the small cabin and showing a little ethereal, he himself was just like his voice, from the moment he got on the ship, he was a little demented and couldn't give up.
Qin Zhiyuan was very confused, obviously the plane he was flying in suffered a plane crash, how could his consciousness travel through time and space, and it was worn for more than a hundred years, and it was attached to a 20-year-old young man named Qin Zhiyuan in 1916.
Yes, it's 1916, shortly after the First World War began, and Qin Zhiyuan, a Chinese worker, was on a cruise ship to France.
Qin Zhiyuan in his previous life had just turned 26 years old when he had an accident, and when Qin Zhiyuan was still in middle school, his parents sacrificed for the country. Because of family reasons, after graduating from high school, Qin Zhiyuan was admitted to the Beijing Institute of International Relations following his parents' orders.
During his time in school, Qin Zhiyuan studied very hard and was particularly talented in language and shooting. Qin Zhiyuan is proficient in English, French and Spanish to communicate with people, and there is no problem in reading and writing, so he can be called proficient. For German, Portuguese, and Dutch, Qin Zhiyuan can basically communicate with people, but he has a little difficulty in reading and writing.
In terms of shooting, Qin Zhiyuan is proficient in using a variety of long and short firearms, and his shooting performance between the march is even more outstanding, and he once set an astonishing record of 45 rounds and 45 shots (two magazines for assault rifles and pistols) in the school.
After graduation, Qin Zhiyuan was assigned to the Operations Section of the American Department because of his excellent grades, and finally in an operation, due to an accident, the single-person small plane he was riding in crashed.
The red stripes come and the red stripes go, Qin Zhiyuan's life in his previous life has a lot of philosophical meaning of returning to the basics.
It doesn't matter, anyway, I don't have any relatives in the original world, so I don't have anything to worry about, just leave...... Soon someone will fill their place, and the earth will rotate the same way without it. Qin Zhiyuan let out a long sigh, turned his eyes to look around at the small cabin, and looked at the surrounding environment.
It is a long, narrow cabin about three meters high, one meter five wide, and nearly four meters long. There are two three-layer beds in the small cabin, and the six-square-meter space is enough for six big men.
Qin Zhiyuan sorted out his belongings, a set of uniforms, including outerwear, pants, belts and underwear, straw hats, shoes and socks, etc. In addition, there is a kit with blankets, covers, drinking glasses and iron cutlery, everything is standardized.
When he was tidying up, Qin Zhiyuan suddenly felt that someone grabbed him and pressed him to the bed.
"What?" Qin Zhiyuan's shoulders shook, and with a slight stretch of his arms, he shook the man's hands.
"You're going to die, the storm is coming, don't tie yourself to the bed, do you want to turn into a rolling gourd for a while?" The speaker's name is Qin Zhisheng, who is five years older than Qin Zhiyuan.
Qin Zhiyuan and Qin Zhisheng are from the same village, if you talk about it, Qin Zhiyuan should be called Qin Zhisheng's cousin.
"It's okay, I'll do it myself." Qin Zhiyuan's plane can be driven, how can he be seasick.
Qin Zhiyuan didn't want to tie himself to the bed, in that case, if something happened, he wouldn't be able to escape. As long as it is under normal conditions, Qin Zhiyuan can swim forty or fifty kilometers. After all, when he was in school, Qin Zhiyuan's armed swimming results were excellent.
Thinking of this, Qin Zhiyuan suddenly remembered one thing, it seemed that he should confirm the strength of this body, so as to have a preliminary estimate of his strength.
"Yuan, how can you understand the words of foreigners? Would you say? Qin Zhisheng was very concerned about this little cousin who was demented as soon as he got on the boat.
This kind of care is habitual, Qin Zhiyuan in this world has been growing up in Qin Zhisheng's family since he was a child, and he is similar to Qin Zhisheng if he is not a brother. Qin Zhisheng is much older than Qin Zhiyuan, according to rural habits, older children are born with the obligation to take care of small children, so taking care of Qin Zhiyuan has become Qin Zhisheng's habit.
"Isn't there a church at the head of our village, and there's a big-nosed pastor there, and I learned from him." Language was originally not easy to explain, but fortunately, at this time, Hebei and Shandong were full of churches, and it was a good idea to push it to foreigners.
"Why haven't I heard you say, when we were in Weihai, if you said that you could speak foreign, you would definitely be able to be a battalion officer or something, at least you could be an interpreter, so we wouldn't have to suffer so much." Qin Zhisheng was still babbling, perhaps using this way to relieve his tension.
These laborers first gathered in Weihai, Shandong, a British concession, and after a period of replenishment of nutrition and a certain level of physical training, they boarded the cruise ship Victory News and headed for Europe a month ago.
"At that time, there was an interpreter, what are we doing in the limelight. Now that we're on the boat, there's no turning back, if we go to Europe, we don't know the place well, we have to rely on ourselves, what can we do, or don't hide it. In just a short period of time, Qin Zhisheng had already figured out his situation.
Since the beginning of World War I last year, the major European powers have been exhausted, and have fallen into a dilemma of a sharp decline in troops and a shortage of labor. For this reason, Britain and France of the Entente bloc set their sights on distant and impoverished China, and they tried to borrow the abundant and cheap labor force of this large country in the Far East to engage in all kinds of war logistics work, so that more young and middle-aged people from their own countries could go to the battlefield and win the final victory in the war.
At this time, the Beiyang government was hesitating.
Just earlier, the Beiyang government had already announced that it would be absolutely neutral in this war. If you enter the war at this time, you will leave behind an international image of not keeping your promises. But if it does not enter the war, it is tantamount to rejecting the demands of Britain and France, which may lead to serious consequences that the Beiyang government cannot bear.
No matter how entangled the Beiyang government was, Europe was bleeding, thousands of European youth were dying in desperate wails every day, and the British and French could not allow this tragedy to continue. So, in the remote coastal area of Shandong, Yuan Shikai's henchman Liang Shiyi's Huimin Company quietly began to recruit laborers.
It was in this situation that the previous stupid boy Qin Zhisheng was tempted into the labor camp by a daily wage of five francs, and signed a five-year labor contract.
In July 1916, the first batch of 530 laborers boarded the Victory News from Weihai and set sail to distant Europe, embarking on an unknown journey.
Qin Zhiyuan: They are already the third batch.
According to statistics, during the First World War, about 140,000 laborers arrived in Europe, many of whom received their initial modern technical education in England and France, including building railways, operating machine tools, building tanks, driving cranes, and so on.
During the war, the scope of work of Chinese laborers went beyond what was contracted, not only to build trenches under German fire, but also to deliver supplies and ammunition to the front line, and to repair machine-gun positions in the trenches, and even in some localities, Chinese laborers were directly involved in the fighting.
The number of casualties among Chinese laborers is no longer statistically significant, but it is well documented that there are about 1,800 of them, and more than 10,000 Chinese laborers remained in France, becoming the first Chinese in France. Most of them returned to China after the war, never to be accomplished again.
Now, there is an unknown variable among the Chinese workers who went to Europe, Qin Zhiyuan. So, will the Chinese workers who also fought bloody battles in World War I disappear in the long river of history as silently as in the original history?
Qin Zhiyuan didn't want this.