William? Hessian's eyes widened, and he asked his boss loudly, "What's wrong with reading a book for fun?"
"Where did you get that book from?" The mercenary boss didn't care about William. Hessian still asked, dissatisfied.
"What's wrong with that book? Isn't it just a pornographic book? " Hessian didn't want to answer the question. What was wrong with everyone reading a few pornographic books?
"Just tell me who you bought it from," the mercenary boss continued to ask.
William? Hessian felt annoyed, so he could only say, "There are always people selling books before the dock leaves the port. You know what I mean."
The boss asked, "How many did you buy?"
William? Hessian sighed. "A set of twelve."
"Let me see." The mercenary boss said to William. Hessian hooked his finger.
"I haven't finished reading it yet!" Hessian said angrily.
"Don't worry, I'll return it to you." The boss looked like he was going to pursue the matter to the end.
Not only did the Germans search, but the French also searched. When the Americans informed them, they used the phrase "Chinese conspiracy propaganda," so the Germans and French were quite serious. Therefore, the leaders of both sides searched the crew and found that it was a set of twelve books called the "Black Lace Series."
Many years later, Europe recorded this incident as follows: "Even the officials who really thought that they were being attacked by China read the 'Black Lace Series' in private with great interest. Not to mention the people who bought the books and the officials who didn't … "
Many people tried to reconstruct the origin of the series. The common belief was that with the rise of China's urbanization, a group of "low-class" authors emerged to deal with the large number of young people who moved into the cities. Chinese Emperor Vézé ordered a purge of these people and tried to replace the low-class works with works of "workers, peasants, and soldiers."
During the Sino-American War, some Chinese officials discovered the use of these "low-class" authors and organized them to write collectively. The Chinese didn't expect to publicize the dark history of Europe and the United States through sincere and earnest mosquitoes, so these authors used propaganda and superstition as gimmicks to describe the slave trade, colonial expansion, and the killing of Native Americans by the United States and the United Kingdom. Thus, this set of twelve 'Black Lace Series' appeared.
The authors were all pseudonyms, so later readers could only guess based on the style of writing. For example, the author of "The Slave Breeding Farm" described how the owner of the slave breeding farm killed his wife out of anger because his wife had slept with a black stallion. After that, he sent his wife's head to the sacrificial plate in the church. He was known as the "Wife Killer Sect Master Xue". For example, the author of The Slave Ship of the Angry Sea described a brave and determined slave-trading captain. Apart from sleeping with white girls, the captain's pleasure was to let the black slaves have sex with all kinds of trained creatures. Although he had a heavy taste, he created the heavy taste genre with his brutal descriptions, and was given the nickname 'shou style'.
In any case, this set of twelve erotic novels in four different languages suddenly became popular when Europe decided to aid the United States. The Americans accidentally received a gift from the crew and were keenly aware of the problem.
President Garfield was furious. After hearing the question, he immediately said angrily, "Shameless! These China people are too shameless! " President Garfield was a Puritan, though he was used to being beaten and humiliated by his "intermittently psychotic" adoptive mother. However, ever since he became the president, his adoptive mother's "intermittently psychotic" never acted up again. Therefore, President Garfield's tolerance for provocation was getting lower and lower. In the eyes of a Puritan like him, the Chinese's way of doing things was downright shameless.
"Should we also write books to fight back against the Chinese?" The Secretary of State followed the president's meaning.
"Do we have talent in this area?" President Garfield asked.
The Secretary of State was a bit speechless. As the Secretary of State, he naturally had no shortage of women. Since he had no shortage of women, he wouldn't have the idea of obtaining satisfaction through reading. Therefore, the Secretary of State really didn't know where to find such people. Because he couldn't find anyone, the Secretary of State said angrily, "Let's accept these volunteers immediately and send them to the plains to fight."
Although this thought jumped quickly, President Garfield's mind could keep up. He just asked with some doubt, "Why send them to the plains?"
"We don't know their combat effectiveness in the mountains. It's easier for us to know where they are in the plains," the Secretary of State replied.
The word "suicide" immediately appeared in President Garfield's mind. However, at this time, Secretary of War Lincoln Jr. said, "I also support sending them to the plains. It's not easy for the federal government to recruit troops in the plains. The first batch of cowboys was wiped out on the battlefield. Although the second batch of cowboys is still shouting that they are willing to fight, the recruitment officer there said that it is difficult to recruit soldiers. Instead of forcing the people of the plains to come out and fight, it is better for the federal government to send people there as the backbone to organize the local counterattack against the invasion of the Chinese. "
"Is the military strength in the plains that low?" President Garfield was very surprised by this information. The Great Plains was one of the main natural geographical areas of North America, also known as the "Great American Desert." It stretched from the Mackenzie River Delta in the north to the Rio Grande River at the border between the United States and Mexico in the south, bordered by the Laurentian Low Plateau and the inland low plains in the east, and reached the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains in the west. It was 4,800 kilometers long from north to south and 480 to 1,120 kilometers wide from east to west. It covered an area of about 2.9 million square kilometers. There was no way to rely on the terrain to fight on such a vast plain, and many areas on the Great Plains had very little rainfall on average, which made these areas very sparsely populated.
"According to the information we received, a unit of the Chinese is moving south along the Great Plains. The states of the Great Plains saw that they could not win, so many people chose to move south with their cattle. The number of people staying there to continue fighting is very small, "Secretary Lincoln Jr. replied. After reporting this serious news, he added another sentence. "We have not been able to contact those who stayed."
In such an era, not being able to contact someone was basically considered dead. President Garfield was also a war hero in the past. He did not expect that the federal army that could sweep across the South like a tiger would be beaten so badly by the Chinese. The unique characteristic of the Great Plains was that as long as there was enough military strength and logistics, an army could fight from the North to the South without stopping. Recalling the ferocity of the northern army, the president suddenly felt a burst of heroism and could not help but ask, "Do we not have the ability to organize an army to fight against the Chinese on the Great Plains?"
"Sir, based on the current situation, we can't do it." Secretary of War Lincoln Jr. gave a ruthless answer. "Based on our previous experience, the Chinese can march more than 50 kilometers a day for at least three days in a row. Our troops can't do that. If the previous army of more than a million soldiers was still here, I could probably consider such a campaign. But the current army can only carry out such a large-scale operation with a small force. Such a scale is useless against the Chinese. Even Major General Pershing can't immediately counterattack in the face of the Chinese's attack. He chose to rush into Pittsburgh to avoid a field battle with the Chinese. "
These words were like cold water poured on the hot-blooded President Garfield. An army of one million was actually a large number. For the United States, it was a very, very large army. However, this army of one million was simply wiped out like dust. Along with all kinds of news of defeat, or no news at all. The army of one million disappeared like water droplets under the scorching sun. Of course, President Garfield could condemn the brutality of the Chinese, but what made him feel more was the power of China.
"Let's let the Germans and French go to the Great Plains to fight against China. At least through their battle, I hope to find out the characteristics of the Chinese, "Secretary Lincoln Jr. replied.
Without waiting for President Garfield to express his opinion, Secretary Lincoln Jr. added another sentence. "Sir, please discuss this privately with the members of the Senate …"
The president of the United States was known as the commander-in-chief of the three armed forces, but the real battle was never managed by the president. The president only had to make decisions about the war. When President Garfield walked into the Senate, this group of members had been notified and came to attend the meeting. The name of the Senate of the United States was the same as the Roman Latin Senate (Senatus). The model of the Senate of the United States was to adopt the model of two senators, regardless of the size of the state. There were more than 80 senators in the United States of more than 40 states. The Senate decided the bill, which was the core of the American ruling class.
However, now that the three northern states had announced that they would be annexed to China, there were more than a dozen states that had been beaten to the point that they could no longer communicate with the federal government. There were more than 30 powerful senators who could no longer represent the people. They could only become a symbol that the United States was still "intact." Therefore, these people were all frowning. When these guys saw the president walk into the Senate with a sad face, they felt a little better because they felt something.
"Everyone, this is a secret meeting, so there will be no record, just a simple vote," President Garfield said to the senators first.
The elders looked at each other in dismay, not knowing what to say. Then they heard President Garfield continue, "I would like to ask all of you, if, if the Chinese were to invade Washington, would we evacuate? If the senators think that we don't need to die on the front line, we will use that place as a temporary capital to command the war. "
For a moment, no one spoke. The news that the Chinese had attacked Pittsburgh had reached Washington, causing great unrest and shock on the streets of Washington. There were already people in the south who chose to flee there. Not long ago, in response to the problem of the shortage of soldiers, the Senate passed a "forced conscription" law. The law was not aimed at the local tyrants, but at foreign immigrants in the big cities in the eastern part of the United States. Because of their initial inexperience, the Senate did not have time to completely block the newspapers. As a result, the news of the defeat of the federal army was constantly publicized to the city.
Many of the city residents were immigrants who chose to leave the United States in panic. As a country of immigrants, the old immigrants always discriminated against new immigrants. When the streets became quiet, some of the old immigrants felt very good. However, when the war was in full swing and the Americans found that more soldiers had to be sent to the battlefield, the Senate, which represented the people's will, did not hesitate to order a "forced conscription," not accepting any American citizens or immigrants to leave the United States without permission. Those who violated the order were punished with confiscation of their property and forced labor in the labor camps, in addition to being imprisoned immediately.
Even so, the Senate found that with the manpower in the northeast region of the United States, their limit was to "recruit" three million soldiers. Of these three million soldiers, they had already lost 600,000. The remaining 2.4 million soldiers were either lacking in training, equipment, or both. Sending these people to the battlefield was probably a dead end.
Now that the president had publicly said that he would choose to move the capital, the senators did not know what to say. After a moment of seeking death, everyone's eyes fell on the faces of the southern senators.
It had only been more than 20 years since the end of the Civil War. These southern senators had all participated in the Civil War and had deep memories of the Civil War. For a moment, they did not even know if they should feel sincerely happy when the country was in danger. After all, these northern b * stards had destroyed the south, and now they were shamelessly hoping to get the protection of the south.
The two Virginia senators looked at each other and broke the silence. "We think Richmond is a good choice."
This statement made the faces of the senators interesting. Richmond was the capital of the Confederate Confederacy during the Civil War. It was obviously an irony that the Washington government fled to Richmond.
President Garfield, the war hero of the Civil War, had an ugly expression on his face. Although this suggestion was actually quite reasonable and in line with the needs of the war. However, the tone and expression of the two Virginia senators were really intolerable.
It was not only President Garfield, but the northern senators who had participated in the Civil War were also very unhappy. Someone immediately rejected the suggestion with the reason that it was "too close to Washington."
"If we're talking about distance and safety, I think our Atlanta is not bad," the representative of Georgia said.
As soon as the name of the city came out, President Garfield's expression became even uglier. Atlanta, Georgia, was a city that was the main target of the US Northern Army. Atlanta used to be considered to have developed rapidly with the railway, but it was plundered and burned by the Northern Army. In addition to the heavy casualties, the entire city was burned to the ground. Until now, it had not recovered. Even if this place was far from the frontlines, it was not a place that people had a good impression of.
This time, the northern senators were temporarily silent. It was not only Richmond and Atlanta, but the capitals of the Confederate states had also been ravaged by the Northern Army. Under the leadership of the butcher General Sherman, the capitals of the Confederate states were looted and burned. All the towns, villages, and farms of the Confederate states that entered the attack range of the Northern Army were looted and burned. The southern states used to be the wealthiest in the United States, but after the Civil War, they were inexplicably poor. They had to thank General Sherman's "kill, burn, and loot" policy for this.
The southern councilmen went silent after venting their anger with their words. They actually wanted to take the opportunity to declare independence and reorganize the Confederacy. However, to them, the China people might not be as hateful as the Northerners, but they were even less trustworthy than the Northerners. Just because of the difference in appearance between the two sides, it made the leading figures of the southern states feel very uneasy.
President Garfield was not a weak person. Seeing that the situation was not optimistic, it actually stimulated his fighting spirit. "Everyone, it seems that you do not oppose the proposal to move the capital when it is necessary, right?"
The northern and southern senators looked at each other. Everyone felt that the proposal was completely inappropriate, but they found that opposing it was even more inappropriate.
President Garfield continued, "Then let's vote on where it is more appropriate to move the capital."
Since President Garfield had already said in advance that this was a secret vote, the contents were all confidential. Everyone just raised their hands to vote. So the capitals of the United States that were considered safe were taken out for everyone to vote again and again. President Garfield found that the representatives of the southern states of the United States raised their hands in agreement no matter what city they came across. They had an indifferent expression on their faces.
The state senators who had not fallen into the hands of the China people all showed considerable caution. On the other hand, the senators from the fallen states had a clear stance in the voting. Although there was only voting and no speech, President Garfield could see that the senators from the fallen states had shown a strong sense of responsibility. At least they voted after thinking about it.
The final choice was Columbia, South Carolina. If Washington fell, Richmond was too close to Washington, and it was easy for it to suffer a chain reaction. The second choice was Atlanta. The reason why Atlanta was not chosen was because the city was far from recovering.
After the voting, President Garfield immediately left the Senate. The atmosphere in the Senate made him extremely unhappy. Not only had the clouds of darkness not been dispelled, but because of the war, the power of the federal government had been weakened, causing the ghosts of the past to rise again. The United States, which had been torn apart by the Civil War, was far from being united again.
At this time, President Garfield had already forgotten about the Chinese man's pornography. Although that matter made President Garfield very angry, he just thought that it was a Chinese man's little trick. The Secretary of State's anger was only because he felt that the United States' massacre of the Native Americans was condemned by the Chinese as an evil atrocity.
But mercenary William? Hessian did not think so. In William Hessian's opinion, although the twelve small books were not worth much and he had finished reading them, the books were not returned after being confiscated. This was unjust and unjust. Without reading to pass the time, he went to a hotel to drink. A young man came up to him and whispered in German, "Big brother, did you come here by boat?"
William? Hessian almost wanted to scold him. If I didn't come here by boat, did I swim?
However, the person who spoke had no intention of spouting nonsense. He did not wait for William Butler. He did not wait for William to answer and continued in a low voice, "Big brother, I want to take your boat back to Germany. Can you give me a price?"
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