In late January 1896, northern China was in the middle of winter. The port of Tianjin is frozen and closed, and there are only two small icebreakers to ensure the operation of a few wharves, and most of the porters have no work and have to stay at home for the winter.

However, this year they are much easier than usual, starting from spring, the whole Tianjin to the North Zhili generation has not been short of work. As long as you are not a lazy man who is cheating and cheating, and you follow the spring and autumn seasons solidly, the money you earn is enough to make an old snack for a full meal. Even some lucky ones can pull a few new clothes and eat a few meals of rice, white flour, chicken, duck and fish during the festival.

In the past, this was an unimaginable fairy day, although it was not as good as the lord in the yamen, but it was not much worse than the small landlord who had 100 acres of land at home.

Ordinary people are easy to be content, so the old and young masters of Tianjin Wei can also hide in the house and listen to the radio on the loudspeaker for a day when the white-haired wind blows outside, or a few old buddies play a few taels or two pots, take a dry pot and a plate of peanuts, and enjoy it beautifully.

Those who have young people in their families who go to work in factories are even more nourishing. Forty or fifty oceans a year, which they had never dared to imagine before. And the fresh fruits, eggs, meat, fish, and even out-of-season vegetables that are priceless and unmarketed once a month have become an important item for almost every family to show off or do favors. Some of the smarter ones simply contact a few to save up and sell them at a good price.

The so-called food and clothing are sufficient to know honor and disgrace, and Cangqiao knows etiquette. Being able to eat and wear new clothes, the etiquette in the blood of the Chinese is respectful and new, and everyone subconsciously wants to make themselves look "decent". So there was little need for the newly formed revolutionary military junta to call for more. The spirit of the people who can be seen in the streets and alleys is obviously much better. The number of those annoying blind greenskins has plummeted.

Tens of thousands of working-class and new-style school students emerged. The resulting group effect is undoubtedly significant. With the rapid development of industry and commerce, the talents gathered from all over the country have made Tianjin Wei expand almost every day, and various service facilities in the building have always been in short supply.

At this time, the military government headed by Yang Hao made a plan for the expansion of the city in advance, and the huge buildings along the banks of the Haihe River, which enclosed the concession area and stretched out to the sea, were multiplying at a jaw-dropping rate. So much so that the Beiyang University Hall, which was originally a wilderness, has become an important part of the new city.

Some businessmen who have traveled south and north and seen more people sighed sincerely: "If it goes on like this, it won't take ten years." Tianjin will become the largest city in the north. ”

The size of the population is not guaranteed, at least in terms of development.

The locals are naturally and honored, and they don't work in the winter, so they walk on the clean street every day towards the sleeve cage, smiling at the merchants who keep coming from all directions. Hearing their surprised admiration, there were smiles on their faces.

Of course, the entertainment life of the locals is also much richer.

If you have money, you go to the American concession to watch plays, watch movies, drink tea, eat, shop, and spend, and you can't see that you are rich in a circle. However, this is mostly the exclusive property of factory owners or comprador generals, and in addition, there are some wealthy high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital. Every once in a while, we come to open foreign meat to satisfy our hunger.

Most of the small rich families who are waiting for the next go to the eldest sister of Zizhulin. Or listening to operas, drinking tea and watching juggling on Tianhou Temple Street in the city, it can be regarded as more elegant than the usual boring days.

The lowest-class ordinary people, who are reluctant to drink new tea even in the restaurant, have another fun to watch besides listening to the radio. That is, to go to the dock or the edge of the station construction site to watch the foreign devil captives do hard work.

In the winter, when the ground was frozen and stiff, and people could be frozen in leather jackets, the prisoners of war from various countries could not rest well. Under the custody of the revolutionary army, they had to work hard for their three meals a day and the huge amount of money they owed on credit.

On both sides of the wharf, station and highway construction site, barbed wire fence encloses, and the view is transparent and bright. The old and young masters squatted on the soil ridge with the soup woman in their arms, and happily watched a group of foreign devils wielding pickaxes and shovels, tired and steaming, and staggering to and fro. The unscrupulous comments and ridicule of the idle broken mouths were unimaginable before.

Watching the lively is entertainment, and being watched is very hard.

For a whole month since they were captured, they have not received ransom from the country, so they have to work hard day after day. Even if they were originally exercising well, and most of them came from the northern hemisphere, where the climate is also cold, they still couldn't bear it.

Fortunately, the people who did the work were all lower-level soldiers, and the officers with a little status were spared. This is also based on the premise that other people have taken on their share of the amount of labor.

Most of the officers of foreign devils are from extraordinary backgrounds, and many of them are nobles with knighthoods, not only do they not work, but their usual consumption level cannot be lowered. The little food that they can't eat and starve to death just by the remuneration for their labor cannot, of course, satisfy their stomachs and intestines. As a result, it became the most common practice among them to pay various high-end consumer goods on credit from Yang Hao at high prices.

Red wine, high white wine, fragrant bread, sausages, cigars, coffee, steak, fresh fruits, etc. Even many good things that they could not enjoy before were supplied in almost unlimited quantities, as long as they wrote an IOU, put a handprint, and reported the status of the family's property, and after investigation and approval, they could get it.

Over the past month, many officers have not only lost weight, but have a fat stomach and a big belly.

However, the fly in the ointment is that they are still prisoners of war, and most of them are cramped in a cramped space, except for accompanying the soldiers to conduct daily exercises and supervise labor. Not far from the American Concession, which is known as the No. 1 casino in the Far East, but they can't go to play freely, can't ride around on horseback, can't go hunting beautifully, can't hold a drinking party and dance, this kind of days have passed, and they still go crazy with depression.

On this day, a group of prisoners of war were pulled to the edge of the dock to level the ground. The construction site, which had been excavated and ditched and piped before the early winter, was littered with piles of sand and rubble, which they used small carts to backfill little by little. Then pull the heavy grinder back and forth.

In fact, this work can be done with a steam engineering truck. However, the supply of people who learn to drive nowadays exceeds the supply. It's all going to build railways and roads, anyway, these prisoners of war don't need to take them too seriously, but the toss is hard.

The team was also well staffed, with the laziest Frenchmen pulling the mills, the most resistant Russian hairs bulldozing, the most old-fashioned Englishmen as loaders, and the most serious Germans as supervisors and recorders. The division of labor is clear, and the cooperation is relatively smooth.

Lieutenant General Seymour, as the leader, could not always be cheeky and drink tea in the prisoner of war camp. He came out with a few officers to make a show to calm the morale of the army. He can't come if he doesn't come, there are not enough officers to suppress the formation, and the rude lower-level soldiers go crazy, and it is easy to make excuses to be punished by the ruthless guards.

However, not long after arriving at the construction site, a large number of onlookers quickly appeared on the surrounding mounds, both old and young, and ridiculed while watching. Some bold bear children watched the rise, picked up small pebbles and threw them over the barbed wire, and the Russian hair, who had the worst temper, couldn't stand it. He roared angrily at them, but it drew bursts of laughter.

The guards gave two symbolic warnings. Just let them continue to watch, as long as they don't go too far, let them go.

The officers standing outside the tent couldn't stand it, and complained angrily: "Damn the Chinese guys, they always like to watch!" Don't they have anything serious to do? ”

Lieutenant General Seymour had protested countless times, but he didn't get a positive response, and he understood that people would not stop him at all, and his mentality gradually calmed down. The complaints of the officers were full of complaints, but he said lightly: "China has too many people, and their total number is almost the same as that of the whole of Europe, but there are not enough people with jobs to catch up with the city of London." It is a miracle that more than half of the population did not have enough to eat, and that there was no terrible famine and war among the displaced people. ”

As the world's largest British Empire, there is enough capital to be proud of. Similarly, Lieutenant General Seymour was deeply worried. Even if he can't go out and communicate at any time, he has collected a lot of up-to-date information through the newspapers and the radio. From this, he could tell that the country was undergoing an incredibly rapid change, from a backward and ignorant agricultural country to an industrial country.

For a month, he traveled to every construction site with different POW labor teams and saw first-hand the construction of unprecedented scale being swayed. In Tianjin alone, a large number of heavy industries such as iron and steel, shipbuilding, chemical industry, machinery, and ordnance industry have been launched in an all-round way, and the scale of each one is amazing.

According to the exact figures known to Seymour, the new berths at the Tianjin terminal can accommodate up to 50,000 tons of ships, and the shipyard's slipways have 10,000 tons, 20,000 tons, or even larger, which is enough to show the ambition of the Chinese.

And the total scale of that steel plant, chemical plant, and cement plant is said to be at least 500,000 tons! This means that the gap in imports can be filled at one time. As for machining, steam-powered agricultural, engineering and commercial locomotives are rapidly increasing, with tens of thousands of two- and three-wheeled vehicles produced.

The results of transportation and electricity, which represent modern civilization, surprised Seymour. Western countries have only just begun to promote AC power generation and lighting, but they have already been applied in industrial production, and through some news, it can be judged that China has even begun to do remote power transmission and transformation! The generators and various equipment materials used are all produced by themselves!

Linked to the amazing performance of the warship, Vice Admiral Seymour can conclude that China now has unwittingly possessed the foundation to become an industrial power. In time, as long as they cultivate enough intellectual talents, with a population base of more than 400 million, it will not take long for them to rise to become a world power.

As the vanguard of British colonialism, Seymour knew very well that once the current revolutionary military junta gained a foothold and occupied half of the country, the country would irreversibly have the ability to protect itself. After that, the deployment of the British Empire in the Far East will become a castle in the sky.

So, while others angrily condemned the crowd, he was secretly worried. Because it's been so long, he hasn't received a positive answer from home. When to redeem them, the Congress is still arguing, and there is no result.

Seymour was well aware of the mentality of those aristocratic lords, who had a hard time accepting terrible defeats in the early stage, and then felt at a loss at a loss for the sudden change in the strength of the enemy army. And when they tried to gather more accurate information from the diplomats in the Far East in order to make new judgments, they were easily misled by ambitious diplomats.

During several meetings, Mr. Lieutenant General found that whether it was the new ambassador Bao Kle or the deputies Dou Nale and Bao Shide, they still had the same set of theories in their heads as colonizing Africa. The perception of China is still stuck in the first two victories. Compared with the peaceful diplomacy of the conservatives, they are more inclined to use force to deter, and then extort and even carve up without scruples, turning China into a second Indian colony.

Even in the face of such an unprecedented and tragic defeat, diplomats still feel that they can extort enough money from the negotiating table. As a result, when they arrogantly threatened, the mysterious Mr. Yang unceremoniously hung them aside, and the wait was a month!

In an age when the telegraph could communicate with the world at any time, it was unbelievable that there had been no progress in a month.

However, no matter how threatened by various countries, the revolutionary army forces led by Yang Hao remained unmoved. The Qing government, which had high hopes, could not help at all, and the officials and nobles in the capital had no idea like headless flies, but the governors of various places openly and secretly planned for the de facto pattern of military force.

The whole situation is really, terrible!

"We can't wait any longer, we have to find a way to save ourselves. Otherwise, the loan owed alone will not be repaid. ”

Thinking about the statistics brought by the treasurer yesterday, Lieutenant General Seymour shook his head with a wry smile. If you don't do it this time, he's going bankrupt.

In the beginning, he, like the officers, could not stand the days of nibbling on black bread and drinking water, and had to buy a large number of high-end consumer goods on credit at high prices. At that time, they had the idea that they didn't have to pay it back, as long as they could return to China smoothly and make a comeback to defeat Yang Hao in one fell swoop, the arrears could be written off, and a large amount of extortion could be made.

But after waiting for a month to no avail, when they came back to their senses, they found that the number of arrears was tens of thousands! Not to mention that their salary is not enough, the family has to sell the manor if it is not good! And the cunning traders continue to raise the interest, and now every officer is in debt, and it is difficult to ride a tiger.

Taking a deep breath of the biting cold wind to keep his head clear enough, Seymour said to the entourage on the side: "Go and tell the Chinese, I want to negotiate with their leader." ”

Hearing this, the officers on the side cried out in surprise: "General, are you planning to compromise with the Chinese?!" This time it will have irreparable and terrible consequences! Be sure to think about it! ”

They can accept working as prisoners of war, but they must not bow to the Chinese and admit defeat. In that case, they will completely lose the trust of their country, and the consequence of disgrace to the empire will be the complete end of their military career, and they will have to bear the condemnation and humiliation that they will not be able to carry up for the rest of their lives.

Seymour said quietly, "No, I'm trying to guarantee our dignity and decency as soldiers. ”

The officers were at a loss, not knowing what exactly he was going to do. But everyone was a little worried in their hearts, because they had now personally experienced that the Chinese surnamed Yang was not easy to deal with. The general's decision, don't fall into the pit!

The officer guarding the revolutionary army coldly relayed the news to his superiors, and soon transferred to the headquarters.

Yang Hao couldn't help laughing when he saw it: "I thought they could survive until the New Year, but now they can't hold on, it's good." ”

The reason why he kept those thousands of prisoners of war was not just to toss them to show the excitement to the people. The real role is to seek more help for the navy, which is now short of manpower and has a sharp increase in the speed of expansion. Needless to say, how laborious and time-consuming it is to train a qualified naval officer, it is not always possible to produce a capable sailor.

Now that he has these thousands of captives, he can use them all as instructor sparring, using the captured warships as training ships to bring up a group of novices in the shortest possible time. (To be continued......)