"Ivan, are you really going to sign up for the mercenaries recruited by overseas Chinese?"

"Yes."

"You really believe in the words of overseas Chinese, and if you join the mercenary, you will be free after the war is over?"

"No, I don't quite believe their promise."

"So why do you still have to join the mercenary? Are you not afraid of dying on the battlefield so hard?"

"I just don't want to be a coolie for the People's Army, so I survived so hard, and only on the battlefield can my value be reflected. At least I have worked hard to gain freedom. If I die in the end, I hope to die on the battlefield, not on the mines or on the construction site."

"Damn overseas Chinese, they are simply a group of uncivilized savages, and they are treated well in Japanese prisoners of war camps. I really envy those who were sent to Japan. They must have lived well in Japan and are much better than us."

"I don't think so. Japan has been defeated by the People's Army now. I guess the pressure in China is quite high. Therefore, the current situation of those sent to Japan may not be much better than ours."

"You're right."

"Andre, what were you planning? Don't you want to fight for freedom by your own strength?"

"I... haven't thought about it yet. But Ivan, I heard that Britain and France have sent troops to join the war to help Russia. Maybe it won't take long to stay free and there is no need to take risks."

"No, Britain, France will only fight for its own interests. Even if they send troops, they will not help Russia. Therefore, we cannot place our freedom on Britain, France, and we have to rely on ourselves. Only the freedom we strive for is the most reliable. How about it? Andre, let's sign up together and fight for our freedom."

"This...let me think about it again."

After being captured in the Battle of Shenyang, Ivanov met his fellow countrymen in the prisoner-of-war camp. Andrei Belinzov, the second lieutenant of the Russian army captured in the Battle of Fengtian, Japan and Russia. Most of the Russian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese army were sent to Japan to imprisonment. There were only more than 10,000 people left in the northeast. Because Belinzov was captured late, he was imprisoned in the prisoner-of-war camp in Lushun. After the People's Army sent troops to participate in the war, he became a prisoner of the People's Army and later met his fellow villager Ivanov.

During the Russo-Japanese War, Japan treated Russian prisoners quite preferentially. The prisoner-of-war camp provided Russian prisoners with quite a lot of food, including some European food, with meat almost every day, alcohol, coffee and drinks. It did not require Russian prisoners of war to work, and there was still a certain amount of space for free movement. It even caused dissatisfaction among many Japanese soldiers, because the treatment of prisoners was better than that of soldiers. This was mainly because Japan had just squeezed into the ranks of the great powers and still had a sense of awe for Europe, and was desperately trying to pretend that he had become a civilized person, so he regarded Russian prisoners as a man.

But after the People's Army took over, the situation changed. The food in the prisoner-of-war camp was much monotonous. The staple food was rice and bread. The meat had to be eaten every few days. The portion was less than that of the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. There was even less wine, coffee, etc., and I had to work every day. Although it was not a cool laborer, it was not easy. If the task could not be completed, the diet would be reduced by half.

Ivanov was just captured and had never entered the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, so he did not compare and accepted it. However, Belinzov, the prisoners who came from the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, stopped doing it. They had never fought with the People's Army, nor did they know how powerful the People's Army was. They were used to being an old man in the Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, so they naturally would not be satisfied. So they deliberately made trouble in the prisoner-of-war camp. Some people smashed basins and bowls while eating, some did not work when working, and some even attacked the guards. However, the People's Army was not polite, and shot five prisoners who attacked the guards in public, and imposed confinement on other prisoners who dared to make trouble, such as whipping, and reducing food. When the prisoners saw that the People's Army really dared to take action, they were immediately timid and became honest.

At this time, the East China government also made a formal resolution to make full use of the captive labor and recruit mercenaries from the captives of the Russian army to participate in the battle to enter the Japanese mainland. After all, it is indeed a huge expense to have the East China government support these more than 600,000 captives now, so it is necessary to make full use of these captives to create value for the East China government. The officials of the East China government are all pragmatic people and interests first, and do not care about how Europeans view themselves. Moreover, the experience of the old time and space has been enough to tell them that how Europeans view China is not based on what China has done, but based on their own needs. If Europe needs China's support or needs to establish good relations with China, then China is civilization, openness, and progress; on the contrary, if it is a competition with China and what is an enemy, China is barbaric, closed, autocratic, and dictatorial. Anyway, it is up to them to say what they should do or what they should do.

Now only about 100,000 of the Japanese and Russian prisoners captured by the People's Army were transported back to Shandong for custody. All of this group were Japanese prisoners, mainly captured in the early stages of the People's Army's participation in the war. Most of them were Japanese logistics personnel, while other Japanese and Russian prisoners were custody in the Northeast. Most of the troops of the People's Army are concentrated in the Northeast, and with logistics personnel, it is convenient to manage nearby. The prisoners of war in the Northeast are basically divided into three parts. Lushun custody 230,000 prisoners, including 170,000 Japanese and logistics personnel. Basically, after the Yalu River Battle and Zhennanpu landed, they entered North Korea for the battle. The Russian army was captured during the early battles with the Russian army; about 70,000 Russian prisoners were arrested in Vladivostok, which were captured in a series of battles after the People's Army landed in Vladivostok; and about 260,000 Russian troops were also arrested in Shenyang, which was captured in the battle of Shenyang.

The East China government decided to send all the Japanese prisoners to Harbin except for the 70,000 yuan in Shandong to maintain, and to engage in the logistics of the People's Army there. Because Harbin is close to Russia and the People's Army is fighting with Russia, if Russian prisoners are used, it is easy to cause large-scale defection, and Japanese prisoners don't have to worry about these. First of all, it is impossible to escape back to Japan; and it is not realistic to escape to the Russian army, and not to say that language barriers are a huge obstacle. It is the hatred of both sides, which is an unsolvable problem. Although Japan and Russia have cooperated at the government level to jointly fight against the East China government, the conflicts between the two countries' armies are not so easy to be eliminated. Both sides have worked dozens of times in prisoners of war camps, and no less than 10 lives have occurred. You can imagine what the outcome would be if the Japanese fled to the Russian army. After the war, these prisoners stayed in the local area and engaged in the development of Heilongjiang Province.

The 70,000 Japanese prisoners who remained in Shandong were basically farmers, mainly engaged in agricultural work. Due to the war, the East China government recruited a large number of young and middle-aged agricultural people to join the army or engage in logistics, which had a great impact on agricultural production. With this group of prisoners, the dilemma of insufficient agricultural labor in Shandong can be alleviated to a certain extent.

The Russian prisoners in Vladivostok remain unchanged. Firstly, Vladivostok also requires labor; secondly, Vladivostok is too far away, so it is too costly to transport these prisoners back to Shandong. The rest of the Russian prisoners are also staying in the Northeast. At present, in addition to carrying out transportation work at each railway station, the main purpose is to build roads, because this is the lowest cost job at present. The road surface can be not done for the time being, just do the roadbed and the grassroots. The raw materials used are nothing more than sand, mud and a small amount of cement. The road surface is constructed after the war is over. Anyway, these prisoners do not need to be used for road construction. After the war is over, they will be arranged to engage in other work.

In the past, although the prisoners had to work in prisoners of war camps, most of the work was like opening stones and digging soil. Although it was not completely useless, the actual effect was indeed not great, and the main purpose was to prevent the prisoners from having trouble idle. But now the prisoners were engaged in practical work. Although the prisoners did not take jobs, they also had to find ways to improve the prisoners' work efficiency and mobilize their enthusiasm for work. Therefore, the East China government implemented a work-point system among prisoners, and obtained a certain amount of work-point according to the workload of each person every day. The work-point can be exchanged for some extra food, such as adding vegetables alone, or dried bottles, chocolate, coffee, sugar, wine, tobacco, etc.; or daily necessities such as clothes, shoes, soap, toothpaste, etc.; it can also be exchanged for a day's rest time and freely moved in designated areas; it can even solve physiological problems, of course, this is expensive.

In addition, recruit mercenaries from Russian prisoners to participate in the battle landing in Japan. Of course, the treatment of mercenaries is better than that of prisoners. The East China government promises that Russian prisoners who join mercenaries will be free after the war is over, and the East China government also pays the cost of sending them back to Russia. And they can also get work points when making meritorious service and completing tasks on the battlefield, which can be used to exchange food and items. After the war is over, the excess wages can also be exchanged for money; in addition, the items snatched on the Japanese battlefield can be owned by the mercenaries, or exchanged for work points.

The last article caused some controversy during the discussion, because the goal of landing in Japan this time was to destroy and loot. If the items robbed can be owned by the mercenaries, then wouldn’t the East China government have nothing left? But after analysis, in fact, mercenaries cannot rob anything, just valuable and small items such as banknotes, gold and silver, and other items such as large items, machines, fabrics, food, and population. It is useless to rob them. Therefore, there is no need to worry at all. Instead, this can arouse the enthusiasm of mercenaries. What the mercenaries do is to lick blood at the tip of a knife, and they always have to give them some benefits.

After the announcement of recruiting mercenaries was released, it attracted a lot of interest from Russian soldiers. Although the applicants were not flocked to them, they were not very rare. It was somewhat beyond the expectations of the East China government. First, Russia is brave and warlike in nature, not afraid of war, and generally does not want to let go of the opportunity to fight. Second, there are soldiers or low-level officers in the Russian army who are of little aristocratic origins, and they also have a strong sense of honor. By gaining freedom on the battlefield, it can not only wash away the shame of failure, but also increase the honor to themselves. Anyway, it is not fighting with Russia, so there is no psychological burden to fight against Japan.
Chapter completed!