Master Yuan, start!

"CBI!"

Dozens of fully armed British, Indian and Chinese policemen rushed into the bar.

Seeing that no exchange of fire occurred, the British inspector outside the door walked in with weapons in hand, and the Chinese police captain Bai Lang followed closely behind.

Zhong "Now, in the name of the Cape Police Investigation Department, I arrest you Boer rebels who intend to cause chaos!"

Watching the Boers being escorted out, the British inspector adjusted the belt around his waist and looked at the "informer" Bai Lang with great satisfaction, revealing a satisfied smile.

"Lang, you did a great job!"

Looking at the tall figures of Bai Lang and a group of police officers, the British inspector suddenly remembered the disastrous defeat of the British army in the heart of South Africa a few days ago, and also remembered the news that the assistant governor asked him to recruit personnel from the police force to join the expeditionary force.

: Suddenly, he probed: "Lang, would you like to join the army and take your police officers with you?"

9. "Join the army, or lead your own people?"

Si Bailang was delighted. He had finally waited for it. It was worth it for him to be a snitch!

2 Churchill did not expect that he would return to the barracks so soon.

4 But this time, he returned not to the British military camp, but to the Boer prisoner camp.

3. “I am a journalist. According to the Geneva Convention, I have the right to freedom!”

Churchill was shouting and tugging at the bars in prison. His brown-red hair had not been combed for many days and looked extremely messy.

Hearing Churchill's call, a blond and blue-eyed Boer came over from outside the cell, holding a Mauser 1896 rifle:

"You were on a train with British soldiers and you were clearing roadblocks for them. That's not what a journalist should do."

"Reporters... journalists can't help clear the roadblocks?" Young Churchill argued, his neck stiff. "This is not an act of war!"

Seeing Churchill still making noise, the Boer soldier knocked heavily on the door frame with the butt of the 1896 Mauser rifle:

"Forget it. We won't let you go, playboy. After all, it's not every day we catch the son of a noble."

Seeing that the Boers were unwilling to release him no matter what, Churchill sat down on the ground dejectedly.

After returning to Britain from the Far East, he resigned from his military post in the 4th Hussars of Bangalore. Based on his experiences in the Far East, he published an article entitled "A Chronicle of the Nanjing Field Army", which detailed his participation in the Hunan Expedition.

Because the book contained many descriptions of Chinese society, cities, villages and even the army, which were quite mysterious to the British in the late 19th century, it immediately aroused the curiosity of London citizens, who bought and read it in large numbers.

The reason why Churchill was successful in his first book was that

All this was because when he published The Military Chronicles of the Nanjing Field Campaign, the Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle, another famous British detective novelist, was coming to an end.

After Conan Doyle published the final chapter of the Sherlock Holmes series, The Last Case, he had Holmes and his enemy fall off a cliff and die together.

The ending of the novel surprised many readers. They did not think that Holmes would die so easily. There were even many people wearing black armbands on the streets of London to commemorate this great detective.

Some readers also threatened Conan Doyle, claiming that he had insulted the character of Holmes by causing him to fall off a cliff and die. These readers even issued death threats to Conan Doyle.

Finally, under pressure from readers, Conan Doyle reluctantly announced that "Holmes is not dead. He simply took the opportunity to leave London and travel around China. He will soon return to England."

Therefore, while waiting for the return of "Sherlock Holmes", the British people are very interested in all works related to China.

Churchill accidentally took advantage of the popularity and became a little famous in London.

After becoming famous, his books also attracted the attention of some literary critics, who claimed that Churchill had created a new literary genre: wartime documentary literature.

Later, Churchill relied on his family connections to find a job as a reporter for The Times.

After the outbreak of the Second Boer War, the people of Britain were outraged by the actions of the Boers, and Churchill keenly realized that this was another excellent opportunity.

So, having tasted the sweetness, Churchill decided to repeat the same trick and went to the South African war zone to collect information in preparation for the publication of his second war literature.

He followed the British troops heading south and arrived at the Cape Colony in South Africa. In order to obtain the most authentic intelligence, he even rushed to the front line with a team of British soldiers.

But unfortunately, the British army failed in the battle, and this team of British soldiers was no exception. They were ambushed by the Boers and more than half of them were killed or wounded.

Fortunately, Churchill was not injured, but unfortunately, he wanted to pretend to be dead to escape, but was discovered and became a prisoner of the Boers.

He had just taken the first step towards his dream of becoming a writer when he ended up being imprisoned.

The British army's disastrous defeat left Churchill very confused.

He couldn't understand why the British Army, which had superior weapons, equipment, money and numbers, was defeated by the Boers.

Before the war, all the military commentators in London claimed that the Boers' military quality was far inferior to that of the British.

The British Army has many years of experience in overseas colonial wars. Its soldiers are all veterans of many battles, and there are many professional officers.

In contrast, the Boers did not even have professional soldiers. Their army was composed of farmers, miners, and hunters.

In Churchill's eyes, defeating the Boer army was as easy as crushing an ant, but what he never expected was that the ant would bite John Bull right away.

However, although Churchill was captured, he did not accept his fate.

Even though he was just a small reporter, his aristocratic blood made him think about the future of the British Empire.

Next, no matter how this battle is fought, one thing must be made clear.

Why did the semi-professional Boer army not feel afraid when facing the professional British army?

...

Later, while being transferred to the rear, Churchill gradually understood this.

There was no distinction between the Boer army and the civilian population.

The Boers captured many British soldiers on the front line. In order to prevent riots, they sent a special army to escort these British soldiers to the heart of South Africa, to Pretoria, the capital of the Republic of Transvaal.

Churchill was among them.

When the army passed through the village, most of the boys and girls took out food and clean water from their homes and, encouraged by their fathers and mothers, presented them to the Boer soldiers.

Churchill was extremely surprised when he saw this scene.

Because within the UK, although the British army will not do things like oppressing civilians or extorting people, they will not be kind to ordinary people.

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As soldiers, they are naturally required to maintain their dignity and a sense of boundaries with civilians.

However, the Boer army was not like this. Churchill saw with his own eyes a Boer cavalryman get off his horse, pick up two children on the roadside and caress them intimately.

"These Boer soldiers, when they put down their guns, are civilians, and when they pick up their guns, they are soldiers. No wonder they have the support of ordinary Boers."

Thinking of this, Churchill suddenly discovered a serious problem.

He realized that the British Army was not fighting the Boer army, but the entire Boer people.

"No wonder the early 3 troops were defeated. Queen, these are 50 Boers. Does the British Empire need to send 50 troops to win?"

In the Boer settlements, Churchill truly felt the power of the so-called "Boer people" and understood that the British Expeditionary Force's defeat was not unfair.

The gold capital of Pretoria was right in front of us. There were more and more Boer villages along the road, and the roar of machines coming from the gold mines was getting louder and louder.

Is this what the Boers rely on to fight?

The power of people and gold?

Looking at the scene in front of him, Churchill in the prison van made up his mind to escape.

"I want to get out, I want to leave the Boer territory and bring this news out!"

He was unwilling to be a prisoner of the Boers. He wanted to return to London and write down everything he saw and heard in the Boer territory, so that the top leaders of the British Empire would know how to deal with the Boers most effectively!

"Gather all the Boer civilians, old men, women and children!

Without this, the British Empire will not be able to achieve final victory in the war!"

Chapter 462: Pretend to Negotiate, Preparing for War

The British war in South Africa was still raging, but on the other side of the world in the Far East, the fighting had briefly subsided.

After the carnival, the big cities gradually calmed down. In the city of Guangzhou, people went to work, opened shops, and studied.

It seemed like everything was back to normal.

But when you go deep into the streets and alleys, you will find that some emotions of confidence and pride have been integrated into the lives of ordinary people.

The impact of the Battle of Hanoi was so great that even officials of the French Indochina colonial authorities had to admit it.

The attitudes of the people of the two countries towards this war have also changed.

In French politics, there has been a gradual emergence of discussions about "stopping the war," especially among left-wing parties, with some claiming that the government should be held accountable for the army's disastrous defeat.

On the other hand, across China, there are more and more calls for a tough stance against the law.

Against this backdrop, waves of whistles blew away the mist.

On the deck of a British merchant ship, the newly appointed French Minister to China, François Francine, stood at the bow, gazing at the approaching shores of Guangzhou.

The arrival of the French envoy marked the beginning of a short-term ceasefire and dialogue between China and France.

Fang Suya did not like Yuan Xiangcheng. After all, he was once a consul and was humiliated by Yuan Xiangcheng in front of the British, German and American envoys in Guangzhou.

However, even so, facing the situation of having to negotiate, he still had to obey the order of his immediate superior, Paul Dume, the Governor-General of Indochina, and go to Guangzhou again to "pretend to make peace" with Yuan Xiangcheng.

Yes, although there are voices in the French public opinion calling for an end to the war, and even within the French Parliament, a motion of no confidence has been launched against the current government.

However, the French government, headed by two right-wing leaders, ignored the opinions of the parliament.

Especially when they heard that the British had suffered a crushing defeat in South Africa, they were determined not to compromise.

On the one hand, they relied on the center-right wing, which held a majority in parliament, to easily block the motion of no confidence initiated by the left wing.

On the other hand, a telegram was sent to the Governor-General of Indochina, requesting that the situation be stabilized as much as possible and that no major battles be launched until support troops arrived.

After all, the current situation in Indochina is that the National Revolutionary Army has the upper hand.

In order to buy time for the French troops still on the way, the French government planned to launch a political offensive.

... 1

The Consulate in the British Concession in Guangzhou is brightly lit at night.

Yuan Xiangcheng was dressed in republican clothes, holding a bottle of "Changyu Cabernet Sauvignon" produced by Yantai Changyu Winery in his hand, and moving back and forth among the crowd.

Clink glasses with the British ambassador, chat with the American consul, and talk with business and student representatives from all over the world.

Everyone focused their attention on the not-so-tall figure in the crowd.

Everyone understood that the president of the country was the protagonist of the night.

After a long time, Yuan Xiangcheng finally pulled himself away from the crowd and walked towards the French ambassador, where there were not many people around him.