The sun never sets

The Ming Dynasty suffered various military failures because of its economic collapse. Our Great Qing Dynasty... The Great Jin Dynasty learned from the lessons of the Ming Dynasty and announced that it would "never increase taxes" after entering the country. However, after two hundred years, it ended up in the same situation as the Ming Dynasty.

The same problem occurred when the Central People's Republic of China came to power. Lin Yongchang initially wanted to take the third path and conduct a moderate "land reform" by "buying up" the land. However, when he did the math, he realized that the government was extremely poor and had no money to do "buying up" the land. If the government continued to exploit the peasants like the imperial court, why would the peasants support the new government?

The only option left was to get rid of the third path. The new government could not follow the old path, so it could only target the big landlords, big businessmen and bureaucrats. Many people in the new government had doubted the necessity of various policies, but after looking at the financial statements, they shut up.

No money! Really poor! Government departments and military generals are all clamoring to go south, on the one hand because of the Chinese people's deep-seated "great unification" plot, on the other hand because they have no money. The North is so poor, so let's go and grab Shanghai and Guangzhou... and liberate them!

If Lin Yongchang's prestige was not high enough, the military would have continued fighting.

But he was a man of advanced vision after all, and he knew that development was the only way forward. It was not that you couldn't make a fortune by seizing spoils, but in the end it still had to come down to development. It was impossible to make China strong just by robbing...seizing spoils. Only steel, railways, and chemicals could support a strong China.

The Beiyang Army's surrender saved a lot of money, so Lin Yongchang decided to be more polite to Yuan Shikai. "General Yuan, I have heard of your fame for a long time, and today I finally see you in person."

Lin Yongchang was a little surprised by the thin Yuan Datou. After signaling to Yang Du with his eyes and getting a positive look, he was sure that the dark and thin middle-aged man in front of him was Yuan Shikai. In his impression, Yuan Shikai was the "thief who stole the country" who could make things happen with a wave of his hand. Even if he had not grown to the level of the Hongxian Emperor, at most his mental state was a little different. He did not expect that this man would be so thin.

Yuan Shikai looked at the high-spirited bald man, sighed and said, "The waves behind push the waves ahead, and heroes are born young. I have heard of the Marshal for a long time, but I didn't expect him to be so young."

In fact, he was still very young. Forty-two years old would be too young for a general, a commander, or a politician. In later generations, those who wanted to enter the central government had to be forty-five years old. Yuan Shikai was only forty-two years old, and he was at the right age in terms of experience and physical strength.

But Lin Yongchang looked younger, even too young. When he swore brotherhood with Li Dayan and Wang Qi, Lin Yongchang said he was only 18 years old, and no one thought there was anything wrong with it. In Yuan Shikai's eyes, Lin Yongchang was younger than his son. How could he be defeated by such a young man?

Yuan Shikai was initially dissatisfied, but when he thought about the fact that the Beiyang Army was defeated in just three days, he was defeated by reality. "Dissatisfied" then turned into a sigh. In history, Sun Bofu led his army to sweep across Jiangdong at the age of 19, Li Shimin led his army to rebel against the Sui Dynasty at the age of 14, and Champion Marquis Huo Qubing traveled far and wide at the age of 17 or 18. He thought that young heroes like these were only in history books, but today they appeared in front of him.

After hearing Yuan Weiting's sigh, Lin Yongchang smiled and said, "What kind of young hero am I? I just took advantage of the situation and responded to the call of the times. This Liu Nineteen is the real young hero!"

Liu Chengxiang's nickname is "Liu Nineteen" because he is nineteen years old this year. At this time, Liu Chengxiang raised his head and said, "I will be twenty years old after the Chinese New Year!"

Lin Yongchang laughed and patted Liu Chengxiang's chest, saying, "Then just call me Liu Twenty!"

He introduced the generals of the People's Army to Yuan Shikai one by one, and Yuan Shikai introduced him to Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang and others. The generals of the Beiyang Army were still quite capable and enjoyed a great reputation in another world. The Beiyang warlords once dominated the fate of China. Although they were soon swept into the garbage dump of history, they were once glorious after all.

However, in this world, the Beiyang warlords are impossible to appear. The Beiyang heroes who surrendered after being defeated are like eggplants hit by frost, and they look listless. On the contrary, Liu Chengxiang, Yan Shuqin, Dong Fuxiang, Li Dayan and others are full of energy and vigor, which is incomparable to the Beiyang people.

Chapter 144 Big Brother is Watching You

History is written by the victors, and winning is the most important thing. When Liu Bang won, the butchers and petty officials in Pei County became famous officials throughout the ages. When Zhu Yuanzhang conquered the world, the local tyrants in Huaiyou became famous generals of the founding of the country. The same is true now. When Yuan Shikai was defeated, the generals of the Beiyang Army were just chickens, while the heroes of Hebei were shining brightly.

Zhao Sanduo, Jing Tingbin and others died in battle and their names were left behind.

Inscribed on the stone tablet, Wang Qi, Wang Zuolin, Zhao Bi, Li Dayan, Liu Chengxiang and Yan Shuqin became famous generals. Many people lamented that Baldy Lin was so lucky that he could easily pick out so many capable warriors.

It wasn't luck at all, they just won.

Everyone else thought that the Beiyang generals were incompetent, but only Lin Yongchang knew how glorious the Beiyang generals were in another world. He was very kind to his defeated generals and did not insult them just because they were prisoners, which made everyone in the Beiyang army feel very good about him.

"If General Yuan is willing to stay, he can contribute to the construction of the People's Republic. If you want to leave, we will give you money and will not make it difficult for you. The same goes for all the generals. Those who want to stay can stay, and those who want to go home, we will not force them to stay."

Lin Yongchang smiled and said, "Personally, I still hope that you can stay. If China wants to be strong, it must industrialize, and if the army wants to be strong, it must modernize. There are not many people in our army who understand modern military affairs, and you are exactly the talents our People's Army needs."

Yuan Shikai's heart moved, he touched his bald forehead, and asked tentatively: "Can the Beiyang Army serve as a whole to guard the border for the country? The Russians have occupied the three northeastern provinces, I am willing to lead troops to fight the Russians."

Lin Yongchang smiled and said, "General Yuan is very courageous, but we should take a long-term view on this matter."

What a joke! Let Yuan Shikai fight the Russians? I'm afraid he would turn around and become a guide, leading the Russian army into North China. In the territory controlled by the Central People's Republic Government, it is impossible to keep a traitor with evil intentions. If it weren't for the fact that Yuan Shikai surrendered at the last minute and saved Jinan Prefecture, Marshal Lin would have chopped off his head.

Still leading troops? Forget it!

Yuan Shikai was very disappointed, but this was understandable. If he had won, he would have shot all the leaders of the Boxers. Now that he could still save his life, he should be happy. "Well, then I'd better go to Wuchang. Zhang Xiangshuai is also working on constitutionalism. We are all working for China's constitutionalism, it's the same wherever we go."

He didn't want to stay, mainly because he was afraid of being chopped to death. He had killed so many people in Shandong, and there were too many people who wanted to kill him. There was also old man Wang Wu, Wang Zhengyi, who had tried to assassinate Yuan Shikai several times because of Tan Sitong's incident, but each time he failed, and instead lost a lot of his disciples.

Now Wang Zhengyi is the mayor of Peking and did not come with us. Otherwise, he would definitely settle old scores with Yuan Shikai.

Yuan Shikai did not dare to stay in the north, and Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang and others followed him, while Wang Shizhen, Cao Kun, Yang Shiqi and others were willing to stay. Wang Shizhen and Cao Kun's families were in Peking or Hebei, and it would be better for them to stay in the north because they were unfamiliar with the south.

Yang Shiqi was Li Hongzhang's staff. He stayed not because of his family, but to have a channel to contact the north. Marshal Lin first destroyed the Eight-Nation Alliance, and then easily defeated the Beiyang Army. The fighting power was too amazing, and the governors and governors in the south were all stunned. The Beiyang Army was fine, but the South also had a new army, which was not necessarily worse than the Beiyang Army.

However, the 50,000-strong Eight-Nation Alliance was destroyed so easily that the governors and governors-general in the south were terrified. Lin Yongchang and the senior officials of the People's Republic government saw that they lacked ammunition, food, officers, cadres, engineers, and professional talents, and had various problems, but outsiders saw that these fierce bandits were galloping on the battlefield and were invincible.

The People's Army was worried that the new armies of Hubei and other southern provinces would invade Henan and Huaihai, and the governors in the south were also worried that the peasant army in the north would cross the Yangtze River. In general, it was like using a stick to fight a wolf, and they were afraid of both ends.

The Central People's Republic Government in the north was not very stable. There were enemy forces everywhere. The biggest problem was the nearly 20 Russian troops entrenched in the three northeastern provinces. With such a large group of enemies, Lin Yongchang had no intention of using force at all. The current People's Republic Government was just a mere decoration. It was a bit difficult to defend, let alone fight. If the Beiyang Army had not stayed in Shandong, Marshal Lin would not have led his army to encircle and suppress it.

It is better to maintain peace with the South for at least a few years.

Yuan Shikai left with Duan Qirui and others, and Lin Yongchang and his men saw them off. Yuan Shikai and his men were horrified, probably thinking that Baldy Lin was going to imitate Cao Cao in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and attack them after they were on their way. But he didn't. Lin Yongchang still valued his reputation and would not do such a shameless thing. He was not Yuan Shikai.

Time is on his side. As long as there is two or three years of development, the strength of the Central People's Republic Government will be greatly improved. Well, this is based on his cheating. If there is no cheating, it is better to make plans to move south earlier. In the Song Dynasty, China's economic center had already shifted from the north to the south. Under normal circumstances, the north cannot compete with the south.

But now that there are plug-ins, the situation is different.

One of the biggest problems of the ruling class is that they cannot understand the real situation at the local level. Even Mr. Li Desheng said that his orders could not leave Zhongnanhai, and some people even installed eavesdropping devices in his office. He spends half of every year touring around the country, but he still cannot avoid being deceived by the bureaucracy and the people below him. It is even more common for other monarchs and presidents to be deceived.

Like something flying on the grass, and Yuan Datou, in

Before he became the Hongxian Emperor, his sons and subordinates all prayed to him for good fortune and spoke well of him. The newspapers they bought also praised him highly, saying that China could not do without an emperor and that only an emperor could save China. The only person who could be emperor was Yuan Shikai, Yuan Weiting.

What was the result? It was later discovered that those newspapers were all "special editions" made by Yuan Keding and his people. In order to fool Yuan Shikai, the people around him made more than a dozen fake newspapers that looked like the real thing. Poor Yuan Shikai still thought he was really the chosen one and was warmly supported by the people of the whole country.

As a result, when Yuan Shikai came to power, the first people to oppose him were Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang.

Lin Yongchang was different. The output, manpower, prosperity and barrenness of each place were all clearly displayed on the system, and even the mineral deposits of each place could be seen. The people below did not want to deceive Marshal Lin, but in front of Marshal Lin who had turned on the trick, all the deceptions and concealments were exposed.

Marshal Lin once said in public, "Big Brother is watching you."

Although everyone didn't know what "Big Brother" meant, they all felt that Marshal Lin was not so easy to deceive.

Chapter 145 Seeking Help

After dealing with the Beiyang Army, Shandong still had the problem of the German concessions in Qingdao and Jiaozhou Bay. The generals in the army were eager to take back the concessions by force. They wiped out the 50,000 troops of the Eight-Nation Alliance. The German troops in Qingdao had only one or two thousand people, and the fortress had not been built yet. As long as they attacked, they could kill them all.

"You all agree to attack Qingdao?"

"Of course!"

Li Dayan shouted: "Those foreign devils have done so many evil things that they should all have their heads chopped off!"

Liu Chengxiang was from Hebei and had never dealt with the Germans in Shandong, but like other Hebei heroes, he had a deep hatred for the foreigners and wanted to kill all of them. He shouted, "Marshal, give me a division, and we can take Qingdao in two days!"

Li Dayan sneered, "I only need one day!"

Both of them were heroes in Hebei and they had a good relationship. However, when it came to fighting and making contributions, Li Dayan would not give in to Liu Shijiu. Li Dayan was now a major general and wanted to move up. Liu Chengxiang said angrily, "Li Dayan, you are already a division commander, so you should let the rest of us improve, right?"

Liu Chengxiang admired Li Dayan's martial arts, but not his fighting skills. If it weren't for the fact that Li was the sworn brother of the Marshal, how could he be the commander of the Southern Expedition Army? With so many ammunition supplies and manpower replenishment, I can do it too!

"That's right! Li Dayan, you are already a major general! We are still colonels! It's time for us to make progress!"

"No! I'm just afraid that you can't do it, right?"

Li Dayan was also anxious. He was a major general and a division commander, but his second brother Wang Qi was a lieutenant general. Although Wang Erge was transferred to the reserve, he was not demoted, but became the Premier of the State Council, second only to the emperor. In other words, the eldest brother did not want to be the emperor, otherwise, Wang Erge would be the prime minister.

In comparison, Li Dayan is only a major general, far inferior to the second brother. Why don't you people understand?

But other people didn't care what Li Dayan thought. The Central People's Government was very strict on corruption. If you wanted to get promoted and make money, you had to either learn cultural knowledge or lead troops to fight. They knew a little about the Four Books and Five Classics, but could people understand the periodic table and chemical equations? It was easier to fight and kill people.

Everyone started arguing in front of Lin Yongchang, and neither of them would give in. As they were talking, Li Dayan was about to compete with Liu Chengxiang in martial arts. Lin Yongchang was pleased with everyone's fighting enthusiasm, but impatient with their quarrels. "Okay, okay, stop arguing. There won't be a war this time. Li Dayan, take the First Division to Henan and deal with the situation over there. They are making too much trouble."

Henan was a place that had been attacked four times. Whenever there was a great turmoil in the country, there would always be some outstanding figures there. Li Dayan had deployed dozens of troops in Henan, each of whom ruled a certain area and dominated the local area. They neither gave Zhang Zhidong face nor showed much loyalty to the Central People's Government.

At that time, in order to concentrate forces to deal with the Eight-Nation Alliance, Lin Yongchang gave out many official titles, such as Jiedushi and Zhenshoushi in Henan. Now that the Eight-Nation Alliance is finished and the Beiyang Army has been overturned, it is time to deal with the group of self-proclaimed kings in Henan.

Even if we don't say that we can make them obey, at least we can't make them fight every day, right? There are also people who want to rush into Hubei and seize Wuchang, but they have never defeated the new army in Hubei... In order to make those people in Henan quiet down, it is better to let Li Dayan go back to Henan as soon as possible.

"Just ignore the German devils in Qingdao?"

"We can't just think about fighting and killing. If the problem can be solved by diplomatic negotiations, then don't fight." Lin Yongchang said, "It doesn't matter if Qingdao is kept. We need to develop China's industry. Where will the machinery and equipment come from? The industrial strength of the Germans is second only to that of the United States. Let's keep it for now. If we can't reach an agreement, it won't be too late to start a war."

"How can the foreign devils speak human language? It's better to beat them into submission first!"

"Yes, foreigners are all beasts, they can't speak human language at all!"

"Get out, all of you!"

Lin Yongchang drove out the generals who were full of nonsense, leaving only Dong Fuxiang and Yamaguchi Suchen.

, what do you think should be done with the Germans in Qingdao?"

Dong Fuxiang said with a serious expression: "I am a rough man, I will do whatever the president says!"

Lin Yongchang shook his head and asked Yamaguchi Suchen, "What does General Yamaguchi think?"

Yamaguchi said: "I think we should stay."

"Oh? Why?" Lin Yongchang said with a smile: "General Yamaguchi, don't say that just because I want to stay in Qingdao."

Yamaguchi Sushin said: "I am not saying this because of the president, but because it is necessary. The world today is dominated by Westerners. If we yellow people want to establish our position in the world, we cannot close our doors to the outside world. We must introduce Western technology and systems to be able to fight against them."

"That's true." Lin Yongchang turned around and said to Dong Fuxiang, "Although Li Hongzhang did a lot of bad things, he said one thing that was very right. Now is a major change that has not happened in 3,000 years. If we want to make China strong again, the old methods will not work. If we lag behind, we will be beaten. We have been beaten by foreigners so many times, and it's time to wake up. We should not only learn foreigners' military technology, but also their political and economic systems. No matter whether they are Westerners or Easterners, as long as they are more advanced than us, we should learn from them."

Dong Fuxiang nodded silently, not because he had any feelings about Lin Yongchang's words, but out of habit. He didn't know much about politics, and what he was good at was fighting. When he was in the northwest, Dong Fuxiang ruled the place with an iron fist and made the Hui people obedient.

"After we finish discussing things in Qingdao, General Dong will go to Taiyuan with me first. After the army changes into winter clothes, we will go to Guanzhong."

The heroes of Guanzhong established a military government and sent their Shanxi cousins back to Jin Province, hoping that the Guanzhong people would handle Guanzhong's affairs themselves. However, their fighting power was not enough, and after the foreign aid from Shanxi withdrew, the Guanzhong army was beaten by Sheng Yun's troops and lost their temper, and was killed all the way to the city of Xi'an.

Dorote* Shengyun was a member of the Mongolian Bordered Yellow Banner. Like Dong Fuxiang, he was a brave general and had led troops to fight against the Eight-Nation Alliance. Half of Shengyun's men were killed or wounded in the battle, but they still managed to repel the foreigners. Later, he led his men back to Shaanxi and Gansu to recruit soldiers to continue fighting against the Eight-Nation Alliance. However, just as the army was recruited, the imperial court was destroyed. Yu Youren and others occupied the entire Guanzhong area and killed all the Jurchens.

Sheng Yun was furious and led his army eastward, conquering more than ten cities and approaching Xi'an. Yu Youren and his men sent several envoys, but they were all killed by Sheng Yun. The Guanzhong army had no choice but to fight several battles with Sheng Yun's troops, but they did not gain any advantage, so they had to swallow their pride and ask Taiyuan for reinforcements again.

Chapter 146 Hoover

The heroes in Guanzhong were brave enough to fight, but their weapons and equipment and organizational structure were not strong enough, and their combat effectiveness was no better than that of Sheng Yun's troops. If Yu Youren and others were determined, they could still fight, but they suffered too much loss when attacking Xi'an City, and the leaders of each tribe did not want to lose their troops.

Now that the entire Guanzhong area has been conquered, it is time to enjoy the good life. Who can still fight like they did when they first started the war? Well, there are some, but they are few. Most people are corrupted faster than the Eight Banners soldiers hundreds of years ago. Without anyone to supervise them, occupying a piece of land can make you a ruler. With the land, you can have houses, cars, money, women, and everything else.

The land of gentleness is the grave of heroes. In just a few months, many leaders have fallen into the land of gentleness. It is no longer the time to start an uprising barefoot. On the other hand, the equipment of the Guanzhong Army was very poor.

Lin Yongchang first bought some old rifles to form a troop. The Guanzhong Army used broadswords and spears the most. The swordsmen from Shaanxi were the main force of the Guanzhong Army, and they fought with courage. If that courage was lost, the combat effectiveness would drop rapidly. As a last resort, Yu Youren could only swallow his pride and ask for reinforcements from Taiyuan.

Lin Yongchang also wanted to control Guanzhong. He had withdrawn from Shaanxi before to deal with the Eight-Nation Alliance. Now that the Eight-Nation Alliance was defeated, he could not let go of the opportunity to regain control of Shaanxi. This time, the People's Army would not withdraw again.

He could already imagine that someone would attack this, saying that the People's Army did not attack the Russians in the three northeastern provinces, but instead attacked the Chinese. There was no other way. The nearly 20 Russian troops in the northeast were too scary. It was better to pick the soft persimmon first.

They were originally planning to continue southward and take Shanghai after destroying the Beiyang Army, but now they can only put Shanghai aside for now. This time, it is estimated that it will take several years, or even longer. The opportunity and window are only very short, and it will not be so easy to take action again in the future. Just like Taiwan later, if you miss it, you miss it. You have to wait until your strength completely suppresses all unfavorable factors before you have the opportunity to take action again.

The main force of the First Field Army was split up and stationed in the vast lands of Henan, Jiangsu and Shandong. The Mongolian Iron Cavalry was also split into two parts, one of which was stationed in Beijing, controlling Hebei and ready to support Liaoxi and Rehe at any time. The People's Army had no intention of advancing eastward to fight a decisive battle with the Russians, but it was necessary to send guerrillas. It was impossible for the Russians to calmly encircle and suppress the various resistance forces in the three northeastern provinces.

The Russians' greed for land is endless, and only force can calm them down a little.

Another part of the [Mongol Iron Cavalry] was taken to Taiyuan, where they will be equipped with the Gansu Army.

Then he would go to Guanzhong to deal with Sheng Yun's army. Dong Fuxiang and Sheng Yun knew each other. Both of them were extremely fierce. Because of their similar personalities, they had a lot of common topics. But now one of them had become a general of the new government, and the other was a remnant of the previous dynasty. The two had taken completely different positions.

When Lin Yongchang returned to Taiyuan with his troops, he was warmly welcomed. The peasants who benefited from the land reform were grateful to Lin, and many even built ancestral temples for him at home. The same was true for workers and craftsmen. In addition to them, many other local people also changed their mindsets, from hating outsiders to being hostile, from being hostile to being uncooperative, and from being uncooperative to being warmly welcoming.

The change in attitude did not occur suddenly, but there were various reasons. There were several main reasons. One was that Taiyuan became the capital of the Central People's Republic Government, and the locals were ecstatic about it. The establishment of the Central Bank gave Shanxi's ticket houses a chance to be reborn, and the factories built in Taiyuan and various parts of Shanxi also brought many benefits to the locals. With the benefits, the desire to resist and confront naturally weakened.

Of course, the most important reason is that the People's Army is so powerful that it even annihilated the Eight-Nation Alliance. The Shanxi people should think about whether they can fight better than the foreigners. Of course, they can't. Since they can't beat them, they can only join them.

The effect of land reform was amazing. After eliminating the middlemen who took advantage of the price difference, the farmers firmly supported the new Central People's Republic Government. This was the fundamental reason why the People's Army could quickly gain the support of the people. The People's Government greatly reduced agricultural taxes, but the income did not decrease much because it was earned back through commercial taxes.

With the central bank, the new government had more tools at its disposal than the previous court. More than 60 million taels of silver were seized in the Battle of Hebei, plus gold and silver obtained from conquering various places, the central bank had 80 million taels of reserves. According to the most conservative approach, the RMB was issued at a ratio of one to two, and a currency with a face value of 160 million taels of silver could be issued, which was 40 to 50 billion RMB.

Compared to the hundreds of billions of tax revenues in later generations, 40 to 50 billion yuan may not seem like much, but in this era, 40 to 50 billion yuan was already a huge sum of money. Not all of this money was spent in Shanxi. A large part of it was spent on supporting the army, helping the people of Hebei, purchasing food and machinery, and some was kept as a reserve fund. It cannot be said that all the money was spent at once.

This year only one twentieth of the money was spent on Shanxi's industry, which is about 2 billion yuan, nearly 7 million taels of silver. Although it is called a small steel plant, a small cement plant, a small machinery plant, and various factories, they are not considered small in this year.

In addition, training workers, building factories, mining raw materials, transporting raw materials and finished products, etc., all cost money. This year's investment is just the beginning, and the money to be invested next year will double. Heavy industry is so expensive. In the early stage, you have to keep investing and burning money, and lose money to the point of dying, in exchange for a little chance to change your fate.

If we hadn't dismantled the rails in Tianjin and the various machines in Tangshan, we would have spent more money this year. Thanks to the British, if it weren't for them, the railway in Shanxi would not have been built in a short time, and the coal plant would not have ready-made machinery and equipment. And those skilled workers were brought over from Kaiping Coal Mine, they are all experienced and can be used right away.

In addition to the workers, the army also captured a number of foreigners, one of whom was a guy named Hoover, Herbard Clark Hoover, the president who led the United States to hell during the economic crisis. Of course, these were things that had not yet happened.

Chapter 147 Escape

Hoover had been working in the mine for a month, eating rough food every day, which could not even be called human food. Was rice bran really for human consumption? Hoover had seen the guards feed the same food to pigs. The black sow and her piglets were so full of food that their bellies were almost touching the ground.

After a month, Hoover was so thin that he lost his shape. He was now dark and thin. His biggest wish every day was to eat more. But that was impossible. The prisoners of war had a fixed amount of food every day. All the prisoners were starving. It was lucky that his food was not taken away by others. There was no way he could steal other people's food.

"I confess, I confess!"

Hoover swallowed the steamed rice ball made of broken rice and rice bran in two or three bites, then shouted to the guard, "I can repair machinery, I am very useful, I want to eat pork!"

The guard frowned and asked unhappily, "What is this foreign devil shouting?"

Not everyone could understand English. Hoover's cries did not bring more food. The guard whipped him a few times and released the big wolfhound, which almost bit through Hoover's calf. Hoover, with his skin torn and flesh torn, returned to the mud-walled house and lay on the straw pile groaning. The Irish living in the same house not only did not sympathize with him, but beat Hoover again.

"What are you yelling about? Shut up!"

Hoover was beaten with his skin torn and his face swollen. He lay in bed and could hardly get up. When it was time to start work, everyone else was busy digging coal. Hoover also struggled to get up and wanted to go to the mine to dig coal. The work point system was implemented here. If you don't work, you don't eat. If you can't dig coal, you won't have food to eat.