Since the launch of the counteroffensive on June 1, the British Expeditionary Force has taken in about 120,000 German prisoners of war in a week, evenly housed in 12 prisoner-of-war camps between Arras and Reims.

Initially, the Indian Legion was in charge of the prisoners, but soon the captives and the Indian guards were at odds with the Indian guards, and the Southern African Expeditionary Force was forced to take over.

Major Shen Shenxing, who was in charge of the 13th Division of the Southern African Expeditionary Force, which was in charge of Camp No. 9, still remembers the scene when he came to the prisoner of war camp on the first day.

It was the afternoon of June 11th, according to the regulations of the expeditionary force, these prisoners of war had to rely on labor in exchange for food and maintain the most basic life, the intensity of "labor" here was not large, and the prisoners of war would not be allowed to brave the fire to repair the trenches, basically the basic work of repairing roads or bridges, and there were no hard requirements in the prisoner of war camp, the main purpose was to find something to do for these prisoners of war, so that they could start to get busy, so that they would not have the energy to think about some strange things.

In the afternoon of the same day, Major Shen Shenxing led a platoon of about 1,000 prisoners of war to the Scheldt River near Cambrai to repair the embankment of the Scheldt River.

In order to prevent the river from overflowing, the Expeditionary Force Command has made the maintenance of the embankment the most important job of the prisoners of war, and this work is normal in southern Africa, and the conscripts in southern Africa have to carry out the work of maintaining the river every year, repairing the embankment in the rainy season and dredging the river in the dry season.

Not long after leaving the camp, the sky began to drizzle, the soldiers of the expeditionary force brought raincoats, in order to prevent the American flu, many people also wore masks, they all walked on both sides of the road, in the middle of the road is a queue of four prisoners, a team of 1,000 people is not much long, more than 200 meters, a platoon of soldiers can complete the task.

"Major, it's raining, it is estimated that the task cannot be completed today, no, let's go back, and come out to work tomorrow." Platoon Commander Houston was half British and half French, fluent in English, French and German, a clerk at the Rand Bank before the outbreak of the World War, and only enlisted in the army in the third year of the World War, otherwise he would not be a second lieutenant platoon commander now.

"Okay, go back the way you came, damn the weather, I just changed my shoes yesterday-" Shen Shenxing was not happy, the expeditionary force only distributes four pairs of shoes a year, two pairs of single leather shoes and two pairs of leather shoes, Shen Shenxing will only wear one pair, and then send the other pair home to his younger brother to wear.

Shen Shenxing has three younger brothers, last year's single leather shoes were given to the second child, this year's single leather shoes were given to the third child, the fourth child has no opinion, he is still too young, he has no feeling for shoes, and is only interested in Shen Shenxing's hat.

Compared with military boots, curved brimmed hats are much cheaper, so Shen Shenxing sent back two hats to the fourth child and asked the fourth child to wear them instead.

"Stand up—turn right—" Houston began to form a group, ready to turn around and return to the camp, and even if the prisoners returned to the camp, they didn't want to rest, tidy up the housekeeping, clean up, and concentrate on studying, anyway, the camp administrators always had a lot of work to do.

At this time, the rain became heavier and heavier, the trees and buildings in the distance began to be unclear, and a layer of mist appeared on the ground, and the soldiers of the expeditionary force were better in their raincoats, and the prisoners in thin clothes felt very uncomfortable.

In addition, when Houston was in formation, the surrounding expeditionary force soldiers began to be subconsciously vigilant, which gave the captives a very bad feeling.

"What are you going to do?" Some captives had the audacity to ask questions.

"Shut up! Don't speak! Houston was in a daze, his rifle still on his shoulder, one hand already holding the holster of the pistol at his waist.

"Are you going to kill us? We didn't do anything wrong—" A German prisoner trembled and his voice trembled, wondering why the expeditionary soldiers were taking them out into the wilderness, especially in such bad weather.

"What? You're going to kill us? ”

"Why is that? Please don't do that—"

"Oh my God, please spare us, I want to go home-"

The unknown German prisoners of war immediately began to stir, and the neat ranks began to disorganize, and many prisoners of war were agitated and the danger was imminent.

"Shut up!"

"Quiet!"

"Don't talk, get back to your place!"

The surrounding expeditionary force soldiers also realized the urgency of the situation, and some people pulled the bolt when they picked up their rifles, which made the German prisoners of war even more nervous.

"Shut up!" Shen Shenxing had a loud voice, and while yelling, he took out a pistol and fired a warning shot.

Bang!

For a moment, both the soldiers and the prisoners of war were a little sluggish.

"No one wants to kill you, today's labor task is canceled, go back to tidy up housekeeping and clean up-" Shen Shenxing appeased in time, if more than a thousand prisoners of war were in a commotion, it would be really difficult for a platoon of soldiers to control.

Of course, even if these prisoners of war took advantage of the chaos to escape, they would not be able to escape far, and tens of thousands of expeditionary force troops stationed around the prisoner of war camp were stationed in rotation to rest, and as long as a report was sent to assist in the investigation, the escaped prisoners of war would be captured in minutes.

With Shen Shenxing's promise, the prisoners of war finally calmed down, if they were really shot, the expeditionary force would not only send such a few people, and the soldiers would not only carry rifles and automatic rifles, at least there must be a heavy machine gun or something.

There was no danger along the way, and after returning to the prisoner of war camp, Shen Shenxing felt that his shirt was already soaked.

"Wow, what's wrong with you, didn't you go out with a raincoat?" Shen Shenxing's colleagues noticed Shen Shenxing's shirt.

"No, it's really dangerous today, the captives thought we were going to shoot them, there was almost no riot, we were only more than forty people at the time, facing a thousand German troops-" Shen Shenxing was terrified.

Shen Shenxing's colleague didn't speak, looking at Shen Shenxing with a strange expression.

"What's wrong?" Shen Shenxing didn't know what was going on yet.

Shen Shenxing's colleague handed Shen Shenxing the newspaper that had just been issued, and the headline on the front page of the newspaper was very eye-catching - a riot broke out in a German prisoner of war camp in Verdun, and the French troops were urgently dispatched, and nearly 4,000 German prisoners of war were killed!

"How could this be—" Shen Shenxing was surprised.

"Who knows, maybe there was a real riot, maybe the French deliberately retaliated, everything is possible." This kind of thing is not uncommon on the Western Front, and laying down arms does not mean a write-off.

Shen Shenxing was in a heavy mood, and during dinner in the evening, Shen Shenxing deliberately came to a large warehouse where prisoners of war lived.

This kind of makeshift warehouse is very simple, with wooden walls and a thin canvas roof, and two rows of wooden paved bunks when you enter the door, and one such warehouse can accommodate a hundred people.

The prisoners of war, who had just returned to the warehouse, were packing up their housework, and many of them did not change their clothes, so they had to strip off their clothes to dry after they were soaked by the rain.

Fortunately, there are men in the warehouse, and there is nothing to be embarrassed about, someone even got a basin of water to take a bath in the corner of the warehouse, when he heard the officer on duty shouting "Lizheng", the guy who took a bath was very embarrassed, he directly blocked it in front of him with a basin, and his face was so embarrassed that he almost cried.

"Okay, relax, don't be so nervous-" Shen Shenxing tried to ease the atmosphere, but to no avail, the German prisoners all looked at Shen Shenxing with vigilant eyes, some of them were fearful, some of them were calm, and some of them were full of provocation.

"I hope you can understand one thing, in my place, no one will hurt you at will for no reason, as long as you cooperate with our work, you should know, the old man above is negotiating, maybe soon, you will be able to go home, I hope you will not miss the coffee in the prisoner of war camp by then-" Shen Shenxing does not talk nonsense, the British Empire is indeed rich, and the captives can also drink coffee.

Of course, there must be more water, and the concentration of coffee is not comparable to that of the soldiers of the expeditionary force, and there is no sugar and milk.

Even so, the coffee was enough to surprise the POWs.

In addition to coffee, the prisoners of war also ate a slice of bacon, an apple or two bananas a day, and each person had five cigarettes a day, so it can be said that the treatment of prisoners of war was better than that of the German troops on the Western Front.

"Sorry sir, we misunderstood you this afternoon." A German prisoner of war apologized to Shen Shenxing.

"It's okay, I didn't think it through, I didn't expect it to rain today, you can rest today, and the food is carried out according to the highest standards." Shen Shenxing didn't take it to heart, he pushed others by himself, if Shen Shenxing was replaced by German prisoners, then maybe Shen Shenxing's reaction would be more intense than these German prisoners of war.

The highest standard of food is the nutritious meals prepared for wounded soldiers.

Since the British government wanted to support the Germans to get back on their feet after the war, Roque simply increased the treatment of these German prisoners of war, the wounded of the German army also had milk and eggs to supplement nutrition every day, and the doctors of the expeditionary force were also trying their best to provide medical care for those wounded German prisoners of war, medicine was still a big problem, and the expeditionary force itself was also short of medicine.

A little later, another group of German prisoners of war was sent to the prisoner-of-war camp.

It was dinner time, and the German prisoners of war were lined up in a neat line to receive food with cutlery distributed by the expeditionary force.

These tableware are stainless steel tableware produced by Favart Iron and Steel Company, a cup used to drink soup, a stainless steel dinner plate divided into four compartments, for safety reasons, the tableware does not include a dinner knife, only a fork at one end, and a spoon at the other end of the tableware to eat, which seems to be common in southern Africa, but in the eyes of the Germans who lack steel, it is indeed a verification of the boldness and humanitarianism of southern Africa to be able to distribute high-priced tableware to prisoners that can be called "luxury".

Just when the newly assigned prisoners of war walked into the prisoner of war camp with trepidation.

The German prisoners of war, who were queuing up to receive food, suddenly erupted in earth-shattering cheers and neat applause.

This is to welcome these new prisoners of war.

ps: A new round of crackdown has begun, and the editor in charge reminded me that the rich world may also be blocked, and I have been busy revising in the past two days, hoping to escape, and my brothers have less communication, please forgive me - I have to read more than 3 million words from the beginning, I hate why I wrote so much in the first place-