Master Yuan, start!

In 1899, the subtropical high-pressure belt moved excessively northward, affecting not only the climate of the East Asian continent, causing severe droughts in Huainan and southern Jiangsu, but also the Bihar region in central India, which in turn triggered a peasant uprising caused by excessive taxation.

The local British colonial government is transferring lobster soldiers from the east and west coasts of India to the inland to quell the peasant uprising.

Therefore, Indians cannot be used for the time being, at least until the riots are quelled.

Therefore, for Yuan Xiangcheng, this is a natural time difference!

"I sent a telegram to Zhang Jian, asking him to make some concessions during negotiations with the British and not to get too entangled with them over labor jurisdiction.

But remember one key point: the monthly wages of Chinese workers must not be lower than those of Irish coolies, and compensation for casualties must be paid in accordance with international labor law. And one more thing: British customs must reduce the tax on Chinese raw silk by 30%!

...

The telegram was quickly transmitted back to London along the submarine optical cable, but in July 1899, fog and soot rolled over the Thames in London.

On the riverbank, the cranes at St. Catherine's Dock were as silent as dead steel monsters, rows of cargo ships were rusted, and their masts were filled with the wailing cries of seagulls.

The ship was docked and the shoreline was filled with various supplies waiting to be loaded.

The train stopped at the station, and the materials originally intended to be transported to the southern coast from all over the country could only be piled on the ground with no one to move them.

The Boer War consumed hundreds of thousands of British young people, not only paralyzing the mines and railways in the South African colonies, but also gradually causing problems in Britain itself.

The most basic social operations gradually began to become blocked.

There is a shortage of people, everywhere!

Looking around the world, the British Colonial Office had to turn its attention to the Far East.

"3 pounds per person per month? God, these yellow people only deserve half of that!" The Derbyshire mine owner waved his cane, and the golden lion on the top of the cane almost poked his nose.

I heard that a lot of yellow people from the Far East have come to London recently. Their arrival has greatly supplemented the current shortage of labor in London's market.

However, most British employers are still skeptical about the capabilities of the Asian race.

"Chinese people, are Chinese people really not lazy?"

"You're not even as good as the Irish, are you?"

"I bet gold production will drop 10%!"

"20%! These coolies are not like the Indians who can work for 16 hours straight."

If private bosses lack workers, it would only mean that their interests are damaged and they are worried.

The consequences for the British Empire, which was at war and faced a shortage of labor, were even more serious.

After all, no one wanted the war in South Africa to drag on any longer, as the British Empire had already paid enough for it.

Inside the British Parliament, Foreign Secretary Joseph Chamberlain slammed a stack of telegrams onto the long oak table: "The Boers have blown up the Kimberley Railway! The Cape Colony needs 30,000 laborers to replenish its manpower, and they must be on duty within the next month!"

Under the dome of the parliament, the sound of quarrels shook the dust off.

The Boer War not only consumed the honor of the empire, but also paralyzed the South African gold mines, caused Indian coolies to riot, and conscripted local youths. Even the riveters in the Liverpool shipyards were replaced by white-haired old men.

The Irish would rather travel to America on an empty stomach than go to London to eat a bite of England;

The Chancellor of the Exchequer loosened his tie and replied in a hoarse voice, "The bankers are asking the government to show greater determination to change the status quo, otherwise the interest on the government bonds next quarter..."

Search 9667+91+02

"Then go to the East to find someone!"

Old Chamberlain punched the sleeping giant lion in the east on the map, "Didn't the Chinese say they wanted to buy gold? Don't they have a population of 4 million? Let's ask them for it!

How much gold you give, how many people you can get in return!"

Chapter 505: London Troubles

If you look down from the sky, the slums and industrial areas on both sides of the Thames look like an ugly moss, with scattered "matchboxes" crowded together, stretching for dozens of kilometers.

Since the outbreak of the South African War, a large number of lower-class British people have been displaced due to unemployment.

Yes, unemployed.

The outbreak of war should promote economic prosperity, whether it is the arms business, transportation industry, or the procurement of war materials.

However, the Second Boer War caused widespread unemployment in London.

One of the reasons for unemployment was that the army conscripted a large number of workers to serve as temporary soldiers.

However, this does not mean that the remaining British workers are unwilling to continue working.

Of course they are willing to carry sacks and load and unload goods, and work as porters on ships and trains.

However, the scope is limited to the UK.

If the scope is expanded to South Africa, it will be absolutely unacceptable.

More than half a year after the outbreak of the Boer War, detailed news gradually spread back to Britain. Thanks to the propaganda of developed media and newspapers, everyone now knows that South Africa is unsafe.

Whether you landed as a soldier or worked as an unarmed worker on the railway, it was all the same in the eyes of the Boers.

They are all invaders.

The Boers didn't care about that. As long as they were British, they would not be able to escape the cold guns hidden in the South African plateau.

If you were to participate in the South African Campaign as a soldier and encounter the Boers, you would at least still have the ability to resist.

But if you go to South Africa as a laborer and encounter the Boers, you will be at their mercy.

Just last month, more than 2000 bodies were repatriated, most of them poor people from the lower classes of London who had been summoned by the Admiralty to South Africa as laborers.

Yes, even the poorest patriot in the East End of London cannot help puffing out his chest at the thought of Britain's wealth and industry.

The origin of this sentence was recorded by Engels in the late 19th century.

However, under the propaganda of the Second International political party organizations, London workers actually stood on the "anti-war" side in this Boer War, which was rare.

However, rather than saying that they are against the war, it would be better to say that they cherish their lives.

After all, no matter how "patriotic" the British people are, they will choose to temporarily put national honor aside when their lives are threatened.

The "anti-war" slogans advocated by the Second International were just used as a fig leaf by them.

Therefore, London is currently experiencing a strange combination of prosperity and decline. On the one hand, factories are working overtime to produce munitions, with black smoke billowing from chimneys day and night; on the other hand, non-manufacturing workers would rather be unemployed in London than go to South Africa to die.

Whenever adults have free time, they will go to the other side of the Thames to try their luck. Children will drop out of school and help collect all the garbage and metal that can be sold to supplement the family income. Women will go to the suburbs to pick wild fruits and mushrooms.

This is Britain today. For some lower-class people, Britain has lost its dreams, future and color. They are confused and bewildered, and live numbly every day just to fill their stomachs.

The glory of the Victorian era had not yet faded, and the upper-class lords and parliamentarians were still immersed in the dream of a global empire.

The British Empire recruited personnel from Europe, America, Asia, and Oceania, and summoned warships from the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, and sent them to South Africa in a steady stream.

All these things demonstrate the grandeur and power of the British Empire.

But decline has quietly spread throughout this world.

The Second Boer War in South Africa greatly accelerated this process.

The Red Cross relief center was crowded with people in the early morning, including adults who had lost their jobs and lonely children who had to work.

Many of them still don't understand that the prosperous and powerful Britain is just going to Africa to teach a small country a lesson, just like the many "armed patrols" it has launched in the past 100 years.

Why, only this time, has the domestic environment become so bad?

Thinking of this, they inadvertently glanced at London Bridge, their eyes filled with pain that they could not bear to look back on.

...

Faced with this situation, not only the lower-class people are suffering.

The capitalists, especially those who invested heavily in building factories in South Africa, suffered even more.

They pray every day and dream that someone will come to solve the problem!

But who can save Britain now?

They once fantasized about the United States, but the Americans closed their doors, raised tariffs, and did not want to participate in the British war. Their domestic construction was in full swing, so how could they transfer personnel to South Africa?

Not to mention, the vast majority of Americans immigrated from Europe. If they wanted to go to South Africa, they could have taken a boat directly from Europe. Why would they have to go through the United States via South Africa?

The East Asian president who was originally reported to be actively sharing the pressure with the British Empire has been delayed due to domestic disasters.

The 5000 laborers initially brought by the Chinese delegation were quickly snatched up.

South Africa was short of people, so after arriving in London they quickly left by boat.

What about the remaining gap?

The British capitalists, who were complacent and always thought they lived in the most powerful country in the world, discovered, when they needed help from their friends, that even though Britain controlled important locations around the world, it could not create a population.

According to the most optimistic military scientists, about 40 troops would be needed to end the South African campaign, a full 40, not including laborers.

If workers are included, the number will be an order of magnitude higher.

My God, there are only so many people in the British Army. Are they all going to be deployed to South Africa?

How could Gibraltar, Suez, India, Malaya, and the Spice Islands be without garrisons?

At the end of the 19th century, the total population of the British Isles was less than 4000 million, and the total number of soldiers and navy was about 40, accounting for 1%. In the eyes of economists, this was an "excellent ratio" that could maintain national defense strength without affecting the economy.

It is precisely because South Africa lacks military manpower and has recruited a large number of soldiers in a short period of time that the London job market has been affected.

It's not that the capitalists haven't thought of a way out, but those members of the House of Commons and the nobles in the House of Lords who used to talk big have recently been afraid of seeing them come to them for help, so most of them have made excuses to go back to their hometowns.

The London capitalists understood that these people were clearly powerless to do anything about the current situation in South Africa, so they avoided them.

But at the darkest moment, a ray of light suddenly emerged from the Far East, dazzling and even exciting.

"10000 people, 10000 workers will be transported to South Africa on time next month! Is this true?" The capitalists who have invested heavily in South Africa gathered in an estate on the outskirts of London and whispered, all talking about the big news coming from London's Chinatown.

Although the newspaper said that these people all started from East Asia, stopped in Singapore and went directly to South Africa, they would not come to London.

But another piece of news makes people fall into endless reverie.

"And more!" Some capitalists with connections in East Asia produced telegrams and added, "The Chinese president has already departed from East Asia!"

The moment they heard the news, the seven members of Parliament were instantly forgotten by the British capitalists.

If that president really brought in hundreds of thousands of workers, would South Africa's factories and the war in South Africa be able to revive?

Soon, under the operation of these capitalists, several major British newspapers, led by The Times and The Daily Mail, quickly published this highly topical slogan in their newspapers.

The Chinese are coming!