The Polaris correspondent station in Manchester was originally located in a textile factory owned by the Ommen-Engels Textile Company.

The scale of this textile factory is very considerable, it occupies half of the street, and several small factories around it are combined to make it so large. Even the signboard at the gate of the textile factory is much bigger than others! But what caught Zhu Jishi's attention the most was the name of the textile factory.

"Omen should be Peter. Mr. Oumen's surname, which he sponsors at the Oumen Hospital where you now work, is one of the largest textile mill owners in the United Kingdom, and this factory is supposed to be Mr. Oumen's property. ”

When he got out of the carriage, Zhu Jishi inquired about the situation of the "Oumen-Engels Textile Company", but Madame Duran only knew about Mr. Oumen's situation, but Engels, who was very interested in Zhu Jishi, knew nothing!

Although Zhu Jishi did not know much about the history of Europe in the 19th century, Friedrich Friedrich. Engels still knew after all. As a former member of the Young Pioneers and the Communist Youth League, how could he not know who Engels was? When he was in school in China, the big portrait of his old man was pasted in the classroom, and it was side by side with the portrait of the great leader Chairman Mao! What a man this is! Moreover, Zhu Jishi also knew that Engels' family opened a textile factory, and this "Oumen-Engels Textile Company" would not have their shares, right?

"Roman! How did you come to Manchester? ”

I was wondering whether to make friends with Engels, so it was best to ask Engels to help introduce Marx, and then take a few photos of the three of them for future generations to commemorate the time. A voice with an Irish accent came. Zhu Jishi looked over, it was the one who used the musket in Robert. Churchill's big fat man's belly was cut in Will. Hamming

Long gone, this Will. Hemming has changed a lot, there are a few more vicissitudes in his eyebrows, and he is no longer the high-spirited young officer he was when he first met.

"Will, are you alright?" Mrs. Duran and Will. Heming made a kiss - this kind of etiquette is common in Europe, and close friends will come when they meet, and Zhu Jishi kissed many European female classmates with whom he had a good relationship in Germany more than 170 years later...... And, of course, male classmates!

"It's okay, it's good to be a reporter, at least there's no risk of getting shot, this is ...... Ah, you are the Doctor Tatar! ”

Will. Heming shook it with a pair of very strong big hands, and said with a smile: "Great, it's great to see you here, to be honest, I saved Robert's life last time thanks to you, otherwise I would still be in prison now!" ”

Zhu Jishi had a bitter face, this Will. Heming doesn't look particularly tall and burly, but his hand strength is surprisingly big, and this pinch made Zhu Jishi take a cool breath: "Mr. Heming, I came to Manchester to ask you for help...... By the way, my name is Jason. Zhu, call me Jason. ”

"Help?" Will. Hemming hahadaxiao, let go of Zhu Jishi's hand, make a gesture of Suke, and lead the way in front. "Come to my office and talk slowly. By the way, Jason, Jason the ripper in Omen Hospital, is you? ”

Jason the Ripper!? Hearing this nickname, Zhu Jishi could only smile bitterly. I don't know who came up with this nickname? But then again, he, the surgeon with two knives, has really done a few cases of disemboweling and disemboweling, although he didn't kill people immediately, but the pain was enough to choke - morphine hydrochloride injections have not yet been put into use, ether and chloroform have already been invented, but one of these two things is flammable, and the other will interact with oxygen after encountering light, gradually forming a highly toxic phosgene, Zhu Jishi does not dare to use these two dangerous goods in the dirty, messy, poor, and broken hospital of Oumen Hospital. Therefore, he performed several caesarean sections in the obstetrics department of Oumen Hospital, and the pregnant women who had been full of opium were firmly tied to the operating table, and they had to be gagged with a rag before going under the knife. This scene is really not very elegant, and it is no wonder that he is called Jason the Ripper.

……

Zhu Jishi and Will. Heming chatted as he walked inside the textile factory, observing. The textile mill was as dirty and noisy as the factories Zhu had seen in London, and the machines were all powered by steam engines, so there were several large chimneys erected inside the factory, which emitted soot day and night, and smoked everything black.

It was factory commute, and the passages in and out of the workshops were crowded with emaciated, shabby British working-class people. Many of them are with children...... Zhu Jishi knows that those children are child laborers! Child labour is rife in every factory at the moment, and most working-class parents want to bring their 11- or 12-year-old children to the factory so that they can earn 1 to 2 pence a day.

Workers work 12 hours a day, and the eight-hour workday is unheard of, and workers usually work in two shifts to keep the factory running day and night. As for paid leave, there is certainly no such thing as a Sunday rest - but Zhu Jishi himself has paid leave and a day off a week, because he is a doctor, and doctors and teachers refer to civil servants in terms of salary and benefits, and the benefits of British civil servants in this period are very good compared to workers!

Not only is the wage level much higher than that of ordinary workers, but the work is also relatively easy, and if you retire after a certain number of years of service, you can also receive a generous pension. By the way, the average British worker in 1840 had no pension to receive! So becoming a civil servant, a doctor, or a teacher was the dream of almost all the people at the bottom of Europe in the mid-19th century.

However, Zhu Jishi knew that this dream was difficult to realize, because there was no compulsory education in Europe in this era, and it was difficult for the children of ordinary working people to have the opportunity to go to school.

Therefore, education, especially a good education, is essentially the privilege of the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. But there is also a difference between the two ways out, young people from aristocratic backgrounds generally enter politics or the army, and nine out of ten senior officials in the British government and the military are from aristocratic backgrounds, and it is not easy to get ahead without an aristocratic background. Therefore, young people from bourgeois families, if they do not inherit the family business to become businessmen, most of them will become doctors, lawyers, teachers, accountants, engineers, and other more decent jobs.

Seriously, Britain in this era is really a little similar to the rising Celestial Empire in Zhu Jishi's impression, but there are also differences, and the current mass movement instigated by the Chartists is impossible for the later Celestial Empire, because the working masses of the Celestial Empire know very well that the democratic election of one person, one vote will not change anything, but will only disturb society - in fact, the movement initiated by the British Chartist almost led to a revolution to overthrow the Hanoverian dynasty in 1848 and 1849!

However, the British workers at the moment do not seem to have figured this out, and of course Zhu Jishi did not know about the European Revolution of 1848. What we don't know is that after the Revolution of 1848 and more than two decades before the Second Industrial Revolution, the income and social security of the working class in Western Europe increased by leaps and bounds. Of course, this should have nothing to do with universal suffrage, because at that time only France achieved universal suffrage for male citizens after the revolution of 1848......

On the way to the Polaris reporter's station, Zhu Jishi asked about the protests that took place in Manchester in the past two days. So after arriving in an office belonging to the Polaris, Will. While making coffee for Zhu Jishi and Mrs. Duran, Hemming introduced the Chartist movement.

“…… The movement was first initiated by six members of the London Workingmen's Association and six members of the House of Commons, who in May 1838 proposed a People's Charter at mass meetings in various places, which they would submit to Parliament for consideration. The People's Charter contains a total of six requirements:

1. All men who have attained the age of 21 and are in good health and have not been sentenced to imprisonment shall have the right to vote;

2. Secret ballot by secret ballot to ensure that voters fully exercise their right to vote;

3. Members of Parliament shall not have property qualifications or any other restriction on their constituencies to elect those they love, rich or poor;

4. Members of Parliament shall receive a salary to enable honest tradesmen, workers and others to leave office to serve as representatives of their constituencies in the service of the interests of the State;

5. To divide the country into 300 electoral districts with roughly equal population, and to elect one member of the House of Commons in each constituency according to the number of voters in each region;

6. The parliament shall be re-elected once a year to prevent the occurrence of bribery, intimidation, disobedience and betrayal of electors;

By February 4, 1939, the Chartist faction of the whole country had convened its first congress in London and passed a petition to Parliament. By May, more than 1.25 million people had signed the petition. However, the British Parliament also rejected the People's Charter. In July 1840, however, the National Chartist Association was founded, and in February of this year, the Chartists submitted a new petition to Parliament, with more than 3 million signatures. In addition to the demand for universal suffrage, there are also demands for the extraordinary New Poor Law, restrictions on working hours and the separation of church and state. However, it was still rejected by parliament, and in September, the government used the military to suppress Chartist demonstrations and rallies in various places. ”