At about 11 o'clock, the military bands of both sides had already entered the venue, while the guard of honor was on standby.

In order to welcome the arrival of 00:00 on July 1st, the military bands and guard of honor from both China and Britain conducted multiple rehearsals, with the time being accurate to seconds. The British side was unwilling to end their ritual before 0:00, and China was unwilling to raise its national flag and district flag before the time was up. If that happens, it would cause the Chinese people to lose face and national sports, because the joint statement clearly stated that starting from 0:00 on July 1st, Hong Kong's sovereignty changed hands, and the rising of the national flag was a sign at that moment.

In order to show that the handover ceremony was jointly organized by both parties, all the items and procedures were half of each party, and even the invitations to guests were shared, one in English and the other in Chinese, so there was no need to distinguish which guests were invited by which side, forming the fact that each guest was jointly invited by both China and the UK.

The emcee who served as the presidency is also one of China and India. English and Chinese are used intersectingly. Before 0:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:

Seeing the appearance of the military band, the crowd began to quiet down. Everyone knew that the solemn ceremony had begun to enter the normal procedures, and the staff of both Chinese and British were also exercising their effectiveness and their organizational functions.

The British staff began to feel depressed, while the Chinese staff present began to rise. This clue can be seen from the red and white faces of the two staff members.

At this time, Chen Kangjie also sat upright and was in a good mood to welcome the solemn moment, and no longer talked to Wei Liang.

Today's Chinese military bands are all excited and passionate. Although they have seen many big scenes, at this special time, Chen Kangjie guessed that some of them would be nervous. After all, more than 4,000 guests from the world sat in the empty hall, and for the time being, this is still the land of the British.

Behind the wide rostrum, a huge five-star red flag and a huge rice-shaped flag were hung high, and the British flag was flying on the flagpole on the right and the old Hong Kong flag with the upper left corner of the rice-shaped flag pattern in the lower right corner of the British national emblem. After a while, the lowering of these two flags is a sign of the end of the British sovereignty and governance in Hong Kong. They will declare the end of an old era, and the special guests between the two governments behind the rostrum have already sat down.

The two flagpoles on the left are still vacant. After the British flag is lowered, the Chinese national flag and district flag will rise immediately, which in turn will announce the beginning of a new era.

At 11:38, the celebrants on both sides of the rostrum began to speak, introducing the leaders of the two countries who attended the handover ceremony today.

The UK is Prince Charles, who has not ascended the throne for decades. Prime Minister Blair, Foreign Minister, Last Governor of Hong Kong and Defense Minister, China is the Prime Minister, Vice Premier and Foreign Minister, the newly elected first Chief Executive and Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission.

The ten leaders were all one by one. In fact, Prince Charles should not be the one who came to participate in this ceremony, but the Queen of England. She was the real head of state. Perhaps she was worried about face and was unwilling to come here in person to lose the face of the Empire that the Sun never sets, so she actually found an excuse to push her son to come.

However, no one would be angry with the old white-haired lady. Such an unlucky thing would be considered as a reason if no one wanted to rush forward and replace her mother with her children. China did not hold on to this point.

At 11:42, among the thunderous applause and festive music, the leaders of China and Britain entered the hall from the left and right sides at the same time, perhaps it was a consensus or a tacit understanding. The steps and frequency of both sides were almost the same. At the same time, they met in the middle position in front of the rostrum, and then walked towards the rostrum at the same time. The Chinese side was on the left and the British side were on the right, tending to be parallel, regardless of order.

Before the leaders entered the court, the mighty guard of honor had already attracted everyone's attention.

Usually, the British are taller than the Orientals, but today it is not the case. The average height of more than 100 Chinese honor guards is 1.85 meters, with an average age of only 19 years old, and they are simply and clearly dressed in simple and clear manners, which are the honor uniforms of the navy, army, air and army. Due to tradition, the clothes appear solemn, but they seem to be dragging. There is an extra piece of cloth here and a skirt highlighted there. This mixed outfit actually makes the young man on the opposite side stand tall and cool.

In order to ensure that no mistakes occur, the Chinese guard of honor conducted thousands of drills for this handover ceremony. As soon as they entered the venue, everyone present could feel the imposing momentum of their uniformity and standing upright. They did not seem to have difficulty gritting their teeth, but instead fell lightly. However, the floor was still trampled by them, and it was heard from a distance.

The guard of honor on both sides stepped onto the small square of the flagpole on the rostrum. After some exercises, he stood in a straight line. Under the command of the host, Prince Charles delivered a brief speech on behalf of the British side.

I don’t know if it was because the atmosphere today made him uninterested. This middle-aged man with a thin face always felt gloomy, as if rain would fall from his face at any time. When he spoke to the microphone and spoke in the speech, there was a sense of loneliness in his voice, with a faint resentment and continuous swearing.

In such an occasion, the British side represents a kind of failure. In the atmosphere of failure, it is impossible to speak majestic. It is normal to have a little more sad and resentful look.

Although there was no word about losing dignity in his words, Chen Kangjie, who was sitting in the audience listening to the slow voice, still realized that they were very unwilling to give up on this international metropolis, and were not willing to give up this disgraceful head by himself.

Thinking of the history more than a hundred years ago, when the British people holding foreign guns and carrying foreign cannons stepped onto the Chinese territory, how arrogant they were, how arrogant they were, how arrogant they were, and how powerful they were. In that era, foreigners on the land of the Chinese nation could walk sideways like crabs, and all their national character and dignity were lost. It was the prelude to a century of humiliation history, and every Chinese would remember it in their hearts.

Today, we can give this history a happy ending. As the old leader said, from now on, we will not sign any unequal treaty again, and no one can force us to sign such a humiliating treaty again.

As a pure British aristocrat, Prince Charles' attitude put a lonely end to the relationship between the two countries over the past hundred years, and then a new era will begin in the relationship between the two countries.

After Prince Charles finished speaking, the procedure was carried out by the British flag-lowering ceremony. The time was approaching zero minute by minute, and the remaining time was only enough for the British to carry out their last independent procedure in Hong Kong.

Three British flag bearers in military uniforms and skirts and three Chinese army, navy and air force flag bearers first stepped under their flagpole, followed by six Hong Kong police flag bearers in white uniforms, and three went under the flagpole of the Chinese side to prepare for the Hong Kong flag of the colonial period.

In the end, everything was normal, and there were slight waves that others could not notice in the last program, but it failed to escape Chen Kangjie's keenness.

Chen Kangjie had heard of the British national anthem. At this time, he raised his left hand and looked at the watch on his wrist. It was less than one and a half minutes before the handover of Hong Kong. If the British side walked strictly standard time, then the time would be just right.

On the football field, it is important to have a short kick. This handover ceremony is key in the last minute. After a complete set of slogans, the melodious music of "God Bless My King" finally rang out.

According to conventional rules, the British flag-lowering music is 36 seconds, and the Chinese flag-raising national anthem is 46 seconds, which is just right in terms of time.

Just when others' attention was on the two slowly falling flags with the rice-shaped pattern, perhaps for professional reasons, Chen Kangjie was attracted by the strange music of the Chinese.

It’s not that the music is very charming. At this moment, for Chen Kangjie, no matter how charming the music is, it can’t beat "The March of the Volunteers". He keenly realized that the British music beat slowed down, and the music had already slowed down by two seconds after the first short section.

If it is in a normal situation, it doesn't matter if it is faster or slower, but this occasion is absolutely not allowed. Their rhythm will slow down, which means that the time for China to raise the flag will be reduced. The flag bearer is directed by music. If the Chinese military band still plays the national anthem at the prior rhythm, it means that our national flag and district flag cannot be raised on time by 0:00:00,000, but will be delayed by a few seconds.

No one would have thought that the British would make trouble in such small details. If such mistakes were allowed, then this handover ceremony would be imperfect and would also be a kind of damage to our dignity.

In fact, what Chen Kangjie didn't know was that Prince Charles' speech was delayed for three seconds. If the two were superimposed, the time gap would last for more than six seconds.

Chen Kangjie stared at his watch with his eyes and focused on the British music with both ears. Just as the last beat of the British side was about to be completed, Chen Kangjie calculated the time. The British delayed the time for a total of seven seconds, and the time left for China was not 46 seconds, and at most 40 seconds.

In desperation, Chen Kangjie couldn't take much care of it. Fortunately, the military band was right in front of him. Just when the British music ended, Chen Kangjie had quickly flashed to the side of the military band commander, and gently threw a sentence into his ear: "Pull the time fast for 7 seconds" and then returned to his position very quickly.
Chapter completed!