C3266 French POW camp (2/2)
The army is a very wonderful place. It's not like soldiers can't take hardships; they can bravely kill enemies on the cruelest battlefield. However, these people aren't hardworking. If you make them do high-intensity work day after day, they really won't be able to adapt to it!
Soldiers were intrinsically different from blue-collar workers, especially different from those lowly miners!
Excavating mines and cutting down wood was a job that only those slaves who had been completely tamed by life could adapt to. It made people like mules who had to work hard every day, which was tolerable for a period of time. However, people who had to endure for more than a month would go crazy!
Resistance erupted from almost every military camp. The French army began to secretly make weapons, sharpening wooden sticks, storing stones, using iron wire to make boxing gloves, and even began to steal iron tools from the mines!
On the coldest winter night, the rebellion began! But unfortunately, the strict German had always been good at making rules and regulations, and those rules would never be ignored.
The French sentries who were patrolling openly dodged, but they did not avoid the hidden sentry!
The sound of gunshots immediately rang out, and German Army, who was in charge of guarding them, immediately started to suppress them without mercy. Fresh blood splattered across the snowy plains, and on the second day, these frozen corpses covered the ground.
No one knew how many people had died in that riot, but there were nearly a hundred thousand French prisoners of war in the Alsace mine area. One could only imagine the scale of the riot, and it was recalled that at least six or seven thousand French soldiers had died that night!
The brutal massacre suppressed the French resistance. The desperate soldiers could only accept the conditions of working for 16 hours a day. Twelve hours for their food and lodging, and the remaining four hours for their winter fuel!
Despair filled the POW camp, and some of the injured soldiers even committed suicide!
The German wanted to exchange these captives for money. If they all died, what would happen? In the end, they could only imprison the high ranking generals of France here, hoping that their superiors would be able to calm the despair of the POW camp.
McMahon came to the Alsace Mining Area under such a background. He was the marshal of the Empire of France, and was also a high-class noble.
The German had provided them with very good living conditions. What they did every day was to wait, to wait for a long time!
When McMahon heard that he was going to be transferred to POW camp, which had a harsh living condition, not only did he not complain, he even packed his luggage and headed to POW camp!
The envoy of the French Emperor was looking at such an old marshal of the empire!
When the famous general of the France, who had become famous among the Crimean War, saw the secret envoy of the Emperor, he was together with the prisoners of war, pushing a mine cart and transporting iron ore on the iron tracks.
Dirty towels were draped around his neck, and his work clothes were covered in black mud and dust!
”Marshal!” The emissary was on the verge of tears. He pointed at the German officer in charge of the prisoners of war and cursed, ”You bastards! How dare you humiliate the The French Empire's Marshal! ”
”Just you wait, I want to complain to the Emperor... I am going to sue you in front of His Majesty William I in Berlin! ”
McMahon stopped him, ”Stop messing around, I was the one who decided to come here … They can't stop me! ”
”My soldiers, my children are too bitter... I have to stay with them to give them some hope! ”
”I have to atone for my sins!”