Chapter 2464 New Avalon "Massacre"
In fact, most of these young soldiers who came to serve in Jotunheim from Fizen’s native land were from poor backgrounds and had no other way out except to serve as soldiers. Otherwise, who would want to leave their hometown with a warm and humid climate and come to the dry and cold Jotunheim? Suffering from the cold, but also being looked down upon by the locals, suffering from this idleness.
The lives of ordinary soldiers and low-ranking officers are not as glamorous as their military uniforms, and their meager salaries are not enough to support their families.
In order to subsidize their families, many soldiers took off their military uniforms every weekend and went to the dock to work part-time as stevedores.
The salaries these soldiers demand are lower than the average wages of local dock workers, and they work hard, so they are very popular with employers. Of course, it also aroused the resentment of the local dock workers, who regarded these soldiers as the scourge of taking their jobs away.
The wharf is precisely the sphere of influence of the "Sons of Liberty Association", and most of the porters are members of the association. Now, apart from lofty but somewhat vague political slogans such as "No Taxation Without Representation" and "Give Freedom or Death", "Sons of Liberty" "Our vital interests are also threatened, prompting them to take more active retaliatory actions.
On January 13, 1626, the steamer on the stove finally burst into flames.
That evening, a Fizen soldier named Hughes White finished loading and unloading for the afternoon, took off his overalls, changed back to his military uniform, left the wharf warehouse, and went to the customs building to take over the post of another young soldier.
Two men dressed as stevedores had been secretly watching White, and followed him to the gate of the customs building, finding fault and insulting the Feizhen soldier who was standing guard.
White, young and energetic, tried to drive away the two scoundrels out of patience, which resulted in a rough push and a fight that turned into a fistfight.
The quarrel attracted passers-by to watch, and in a short while, hundreds of people gathered. Among the onlookers, there were many dock workers. obvious.
People first gathered around White to provoke and abuse, and when White's companions came to maintain order and tried to disperse the crowd, the mob grabbed snowballs and stones on the spot, and rained them on the Fizen officers and soldiers.
At this time, White and the others barely restrained their anger and did not fight back against the provocation of the demonstrators. Unexpectedly, their forbearance fueled the arrogance of the mob, and murderous shouts came from the crowd:
"Let's hang these executioners!"
Street mobs swarmed up, pushed White and others to the ground, and tried to seize the rifles in their hands.
The sound of fighting spread into the customs building. Captain Thomas Preston, the captain of the guard, looked out the window and realized that the situation was not good.
Including Captain Preston, there were only eight soldiers outside the customs building, but there were no less than two or three hundred mobs gathered around them, and they kept throwing snowballs, stones and various sundries at the soldiers, cursing viciously. endlessly.
Although the Shangguan had repeatedly restrained military discipline before and strictly prohibited shooting without authorization, under such circumstances, every Feizhen officer and soldier knew in his heart that if he fell into the hands of this group of mobs, he would be skinned if he did not die!
Captain Preston saw the panic state of the soldiers under his command, and quickly warned them loudly:
"Don't shoot!"
However, the environment at the scene was too noisy. A soldier who was far away only heard the last word shouted by the captain, and thought he was giving the order to shoot. Seeing the crowd approaching him clamoring, the young man panicked and buckled down. Pull the trigger.
In the streets of New Avalon on a winter night, the first shots are fired.
The rest of the soldiers seemed to be infected, and subconsciously raised their guns and fired.
After a burst of gunfire, 11 people in the opposite crowd were shot, 3 of whom died on the spot, and 2 were seriously injured, moaning for hours before dying.
The demonstrators, who were still extremely arrogant just now, saw the fallen corpses and blood everywhere on the street, and they all ran away in fright. As for the "Sons of Liberty" who took the lead in making trouble, they were far from being heroic. They all ran away as soon as the gunshots sounded.
Before dawn, news of the street murders had spread throughout New Avalon.
When Joseph Adams received the news, he realized at once that this was a golden opportunity to drive the Fizen garrison out of New Avalon once and for all.
He immediately found a painter friend named Paul Revere, and asked him to quickly draw a picture of the street conflict that happened last night and engrave it on a copper plate, so that it could be printed in many copies and distributed as soon as possible for publicity.
But what should I draw?
Mr. Revere witnessed the military-civilian conflict last night with his own eyes. If the painting is completely based on reality, it can only depict groups of mobs besieging a few panicked Feizhen soldiers. Of course, this does not reflect the cruelty and evil of the enemy. His kindness and innocence do not meet the needs of the revolutionary struggle.
"If you want to paint, you should paint the ferocity of Feizhen's soldiers and the innocence of the citizens, paint blood, paint anger, paint hatred!" Adams confessed in this way.
Revere is a member of the "Sons of Liberty", Adams' younger brother. The elder brother gave an order, and the younger brother understood, so a masterpiece was born.
In this copperplate painting, the soldiers of Figen, in orderly formation, under the command of Captain Preston, shoot at the unarmed, peace-loving innocent citizens, like a butcher slaughtering a flock of poor lambs.
On the screen, gunpowder smoke filled the air and blood flowed like rivers. It was simply an organized and premeditated massacre!
The corpses lying on the street made the viewers feel pity and sympathy for their sufferings; on the contrary, they aroused deep-seated hatred for the Fizen officers and soldiers who slaughtered innocent civilians and the Fizhen government!
Sure enough, when the painting was published in the newspaper, it quickly caused a sensation in the city.
People who didn't know the inside story were deeply infected and inspired by this painting. They took to the streets and gathered in front of the Governor's Mansion. They were furious and shouted loudly, insisting on severe punishment of the murderer.
Joseph Adams boarded the stage that people used crates to temporarily set up on the street, gave a speech to the protesters publicly, and named last night's massacre the "New Avalon Massacre".
I have to say that the word "massacre" is very powerful and particularly eye-catching.
When newspapers and periodicals reported on this incident, although they felt that only five people were killed in one conflict, calling it a "massacre" would be too exaggerated and exaggerated, but considering the eyeball effect of news dissemination, major newspapers and periodicals did not mind Borrowing the so-called "massacre" redefined by Mr. Adams as the headline of the report, so as to attract readers and sell a few more newspapers at any rate.
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Historical Materials: Another Factor in the Boston Affair ("A Brief History of the American Revolutionary War" [British] Stephen Conway)
In 1768, anti-tariff riots occurred in Boston, and the British government sent troops to suppress them. The presence of British soldiers did little to ease the tension.
Bostonians saw these soldiers as representatives of tyranny and criticized them for their sinful tendencies. Perhaps more importantly, workers on the Boston coast felt threatened by competition from soldiers who would take part-time jobs for less than the prevailing wages.
In March 1770, terrified British soldiers shot a hostile group of men threatening them in an incident that was immediately called a massacre by locals who opposed the British army .
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Paul Revere's famous engraving "The Bloody Massacre in King Street" gives the impression of the British commander, Captain Thomas Preston, ordering the troops to shoot - but this impression is not precise.