In late January 1896, northern China was a serious cold winter month. The om Tianjin Port was frozen and the port was frozen, and only two small icebreakers ensured the operation of a few piers. Most of the porters Liba had no work and had to stay at home in winter.

However, this year they are much easier than usual. Since spring, the entire generation from Tianjin to Beizhili has no shortage of work. As long as they are not cheating lazy people, they follow them firmly in spring and autumn, the money they earn is enough to make the family have enough food. Even some lucky ones can bring some new clothes to the festival and eat a few meals of rice, white flour, chicken, duck, fish and meat.

In the past, this was an unimaginable life. Although it was not as good as the master in the yamen, it was almost the same as the small landlord with a hundred acres of land at home.

It is easy for ordinary people to be content, so the old and young men in Tianjin can hide in the house and listen to the radio in the loudspeaker for a day when the white-haired wind is shaking outside, or a few old guys make a few taels of two pots and pick a plate of peanuts with dry pots, so that they can enjoy it with a beautiful taste.

Those young people at home who go to the factory to work will live more well. The wages of forty or fifty oceans a year are something they never dared to imagine before. Fresh fruits, eggs, meat, and even off-season vegetables that are sold once a month have become important items for every family to show off or make favors. Some of them are smarter, so they simply contact a few companies to save up and sell them at a good price.

As the saying goes, "Food and Clothing" know honor and disgrace, and full granaries know etiquette. If you can eat enough food and wear new clothes, the etiquette and self-esteem in the blood of Chinese people will be back on you. Everyone subconsciously wants to make themselves look "decent". So there is almost no need for the newly established revolutionary military government to call more. The spirit of the people you can see on the streets and alleys has improved significantly. The number of those annoying blind green skins has dropped sharply.

The emergence of tens of thousands of working class and new school students has undoubtedly brought about a significant group effect. With the rapid development of industry and commerce, talents gathered from all over the country have caused Tianjin Macao to expand almost every day, and various service facilities in buildings and halls have always been in a tight situation of supply and demand.

At this time, the urban expansion plan made in advance by the military government led by Yang Hao seemed extremely wise. The huge building complex that wrapped the concession area inside and extended to the sea along the banks of the sea and river was growing at an astonishing speed. So much so that the Beiyang University Hall, which was originally in the wilderness, became an important part of the new urban area.

Some businessmen who have experienced many experiences in the world sincerely sighed: "If you continue like this, it will take less than ten years. Tianjin will become the largest city in the north."

The size of the population cannot be guaranteed, at least no one can surpass the level of development.

The locals are naturally proud of themselves. They have no work to do in the winter. Every day, they walk towards the clean streets towards their sleeves, and smile at the merchants coming from all directions. When they hear their surprised admiration, their faces are filled with smiles.

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

Those who are rich go to the American concession to watch dramas, movies, tea, food, shopping and consumption. After a circle, they can’t tell whether they have enough money. However, this is mostly exclusive to factory owners or compradors. In addition, there are also some wealthy officials and nobles in the capital who have been rich for many generations. They come to eat foreign meat every now and then to satisfy their cravings.

The Xiaofu family that has been waiting for the rest of the way is mostly to go to Zizhulin Sister, or to listen to opera, drink tea and watch juggling on the street of Tianhougong in the city, which is more elegant than the boring days of the past.

The lowest-level civilians are reluctant to drink new tea even when they go to restaurants. In addition to listening to the radio, they also have another fun to watch. That is to go to the dock or station construction site to watch foreigners do hard work.

In the middle of winter, the ground was frozen hard and even wearing fur coats could freeze people, prisoners of war from all over the country 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 debts on credit.

The pier, station, and on both sides of the highway construction site, surrounded by barbed wire, and the view was clear and bright. The young and old men squatted on Tulingzi in their arms, happily watching a group of foreigners waving pickaxes and wheels. They were so tired that they were steaming all over, and they were tilted around and unlucky. The idle mouths made unbridled comments and joked randomly, which was simply unimaginable before.

Watching the fun as entertainment makes it very difficult to watch.

Since they were captured, for a whole month, they have not received ransom from the country, so they can only work hard day after day. Even though they were originally physically good, and most of them came from the northern hemisphere, which was also cold in the climate, they still couldn't bear it.

Fortunately, all the lower-class soldiers work, and officers with a little bit of status can be spared. This is also based on the premise that others bear the amount of labor that belongs to them.

Most of the officers of foreign devils came from extraordinary backgrounds, and many of them were nobles with titles. Not only did they not work, but their usual consumption level could not be low. The food that could not be hungry even if they were not full by labor alone could certainly not satisfy their stomachs and intestines. Therefore, owing various high-end consumer goods from Yang Hao at a high price became the most common practice among them.

Red wine, highly liquor, fragrant bread, sausage, cigars, coffee, steak, fresh fruits, etc. Even many good things they could not enjoy before were supplied in almost unlimited supply. As long as they wrote the IOU, handprinted it, and reported the family's property status, they could get it after investigation and approval.

After a month, many officers not only lost weight, but also had a fat belly.

However, the only drawback is that they are still prisoners of war. In addition to following the soldiers to do exercises and supervise labor every day, they are mostly cramped in a narrow space. Not far from the American Concession, which is known as the No. 1 casino in the Far East, they cannot go to play freely, ride around on horseback, and go hunting with beautiful clothes, and cannot hold cocktail parties. This kind of life still makes them crazy with depression after too long.

On this day, a group of prisoners of war were pulled to the edge of the dock to level the ground. Before early winter, the construction site where digging and laying pipes was already completed, was filled with piles of sand, soil and gravel, which were backfilled bit by bit by bit by bit by cart. Then they pulled the heavy grinder back and forth to compact it.

In fact, this job can be done with a steam engineering vehicle. However, now people who learn to drive are in short supply. They are all going to build railways and roads. Anyway, these prisoners of war don’t need to treat them too much, but they are just trying hard.

The staffing of the work team is also quite particular. The lazy French are responsible for pulling mills, the most resistant to troubles, the most stubborn Russians are responsible for bulldozing, the oldest British are loaders, and the most serious Germans are supervisors and recorders. The division of labor is clear and the cooperation is smoother.

Lieutenant General Seymour, as the leader, could not always have a shameless attitude to drink tea in the prisoner-of-war camp. He came out with several officers to calm the morale of the army. He would not be able to come. The officers who did not have enough weight to overtake the formation. The rude lower-level soldiers rushed to madness, and it was easy to create excuses to be punished by the cruel guards.

However, it was not long before I got to the construction site. A large number of people watching quickly appeared on the mounds around, including old and young, and they were ridiculed while watching. Some brave naughty children were excited to see it, picking up small stones and throwing them hard over the wire. The Russian Russians with the worst temper couldn't stand it. They waved their fists angrily, but they roared at them, but they caused bursts of laughter.

The guards warned twice symbolically. Let them continue to watch, as long as they don't do too much, let them go.

The officers standing outside the tent, watching with their chests and belly folded, couldn't stand it and complained angrily: "Damn Chinese, always like to watch! Do they have no serious things to do?"

Lieutenant General Seymour has protested countless times but has not received any positive response. He understands that he will not stop him at all. Gradually, his mentality has calmed down. He complained to the officers, but he just said lightly: "China has too many people, and their total number is almost equivalent to that of the whole of Europe. People with jobs cannot catch up with a city in London. More than half of the people cannot eat enough, and it is already a miracle that there is no terrible famine and refugee wars."

As the world's number one British Empire, there is enough capital pride. Similarly, Lieutenant General Seymour also felt deeply worried. Even if he could not go out for communication at any time, he also collected a large amount of latest information through newspapers and radio. From this he could tell that this country was undergoing an incredibly rapid change, from a backward and ignorant agricultural country to a large-scale approach to an industrial country.

Over the past month, he followed different prisoner-of-war labor teams to visit every construction site, witnessing the unprecedented scale of construction being swarmed. In just one place in Tianjin, a large number of heavy industries such as steel, shipbuilding, chemicals, machinery, and munitions were launched, and each of them was astonishingly large in scale.

According to several exact figures known to Seymour, the newly built berths at Tianjin Wharf can be docked up to 50,000 tons of ships, and the shipyards have 10,000 tons, 20,000 tons or even larger, which is enough to show the ambitions of the Chinese.

The total size of that steel plant, chemical plant, and cement plant is said to be at least 500,000 tons! This means that the import vacancy can be filled at one time. As for mechanical processing, steam-powered agricultural, engineering and commercial locomotives are rapidly increasing, with the output of two-wheeled and three-wheeled vehicles in tens of thousands.

The transportation and electricity representing modern civilization, and its achievements surprised Seymour. Western countries have just begun to promote alternating power generation and lighting, but they have been used in industrial production. It can be judged through some information that China has even started to conduct remote power transmission and transformation! The generators and various equipment materials used are produced by themselves!

Related to the amazingly performing warships, Lieutenant General Seymour can conclude that China has unknowingly owned the foundation for becoming an industrial power. In time, as long as they cultivate enough intellectual talents and with a population base of up to 400 million, it will not take too long to rise to become a world power.

As the pioneer of British colonialism, Seymour knew very well that once the current revolutionary military government gained a foothold and occupied half of the country, the country would irreversibly have the ability to protect itself. After that, all the British Empire's deployment in the Far East would become a castle in the air.

Therefore, when others angrily condemned the people watching the fun, he was secretly worried. Because it had been so long, he had not received a positive answer from the country. When did they redeem them, Congress was still quarreling, but there was no result.

Seymour knew the mentality of the nobles. They had difficulty accepting terrible failures in the early stage. After confirming, they were confused and clueless about the sudden change in the enemy's strength. When they tried to collect more accurate information through diplomats in the Far East to make new judgments, they were easily misled by ambitious diplomats.

During several meetings, the Lieutenant General discovered that whether it was the new ambassador Borkele, or Dounale, Boshid and others who were deputy, they still had the theory of colonizing Africa. Their views on China remained in the first two victories. Compared with the peaceful diplomacy of the conservatives, they were more inclined to shock them with force, and then blackmail or even divide them without any scruples, turning China into the second Indian colony.

Even if there was such an unprecedented tragic failure, diplomats still felt that they could get enough rewards from the negotiating table. As a result, when they arrogantly threatened, the mysterious Mr. Yang left them aside without hesitation, and waited for a month!

In an era when telegrams can communicate with the world at any time, there is no progress in a month, which is simply incredible.

However, no matter how threats the various countries threatened, the revolutionary army led by Yang Hao was still unmoved. The Qing government, which was highly anticipated, could not help at all. The officials and nobles in the capital were as unscrupulous as headless flies, but the governors and governors from all over the country prepared for the de facto situation in the military.

The whole situation is really, terrible!

"We can't wait any longer, we must find a way to save ourselves. Otherwise, we will not be able to pay back the loans we owe."

Thinking about the statistics obtained by the financial officer yesterday, Lieutenant General Seymour shook his head with a wry smile. This time, he might be bankrupt.

At the beginning, like the officers, he couldn't stand the days of eating black bread and drinking water, and had to put a large amount of high-end consumer goods on credit at a high price. At that time, they were thinking that they didn't have to pay it back. As long as they could return home smoothly and make a comeback, they could write off their debts and extort a lot of money.

But after waiting for a month, they didn't get any results. When they came back, they found that the debt was owed to tens of thousands! Not to mention that their salary was not enough, they would have to sell the manors at home! And the cunning vendors kept raising interest rates. Now every officer is in debt and is in a difficult situation.

Taking a deep breath of the biting cold wind to keep your head awake enough, Seymour said to the follower beside him: "Go tell the Chinese that I want to negotiate with their leader."

Hearing this, the officers next to him shouted in surprise: "General, are you planning to compromise with the Chinese?! This time, there will be irreparable terrible consequences! Please be sure to consider it clearly!"

They can accept working as prisoners of war, but they must not bow their heads to the Chinese. In that case, they will completely lose trust in the country and embarrass the empire. The consequences of their military career will be the complete end of their lives and the condemnation and humiliation that they cannot lift for the rest of their lives.

Seymour said quietly: "No, I want to try to ensure our dignity and dignity as soldiers."

The officers were at a loss and didn't know what he was going to do. But everyone was a little worried because they had already personally realized that the Chinese surnamed Yang was not easy to deal with. The general's decision should not fall into the pit!

The officer guarding the Revolutionary Army was very cold and told the news to his superiors, and soon moved to the headquarters.

After seeing this, Yang Hao couldn't help laughing: "I thought they could last until the New Year, but now I can't hold on, it's great."

The reason why he kept the thousands of prisoners of war was not just to make things difficult for them to watch the people. His real function was to seek more help for the navy, which is now seriously lacking in manpower and has a sharp increase in expansion speed. It is not necessary to say how hard it is to train a qualified naval officer, but it is not always possible to get all of them at any time.

Now that he has these thousands of prisoners, he can use them all as instructors to train, using the warships brought by the prisoners as training ships to bring a group of novices in the shortest time. (To be continued, please search for astronomy, novels are better, updated and faster!
Chapter completed!