Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 309 Rectification III

After sailing upstream for half a day, several security intelligence agents who had infiltrated the labor team arrived at their destination on a small steamship.

While the ship was docked, several security intelligence officers looked around and observed the surrounding environment.

To the west of the river are rolling mountains and dense primeval forests.

The east side is located at the edge of the primeval forest, with small patches of shrubs and weeds spread out in disorder on the flat ground. As the line of sight extends into the distance, all you can see is rich green and hazy mist and clouds.

The flat land on the east side of the river bank is the land they are going to cultivate. If nothing unexpected happens, these workers will have to work on this land for two years until the wasteland is transformed into a regular plantation.

The first batch of more than 200 workers who came ashore carried simple axes, hatchets and other tools and walked into the forest. The lush branches and leaves covered the sky above the forest. Not a single wind could pass through the blockade formed by the branches and leaves and reach the interior of the forest.

The hot and closed primeval forest was like a big stuffy box, torturing the more than 200 laborers below.

Beads of sweat the size of soybeans dripped from his forehead and fell on the worn and faded coarse cloth sandals. As the sweat gathered, even the sandals became wet.

The climatic conditions in the primeval forests of northern Argentina are close to those in tropical regions, and the natural environment is even hotter and more humid than that in Guangdong, Guangxi and southern Fujian in the south of the mainland. When ordinary mainland Chinese first arrive here, they have to go through a six-month adaptation period.

The managers of the Yixing Shipping Company did not have the time to give their workers time to adapt. When the ocean-going transport ships arrived in South America, after the necessary health inspections and immigration registration, the Chinese immigrants, who had only two days of rest, had to experience two years of life as hired laborers.

The Second Industrial Revolution brought about a significant increase in productivity, which changed the living conditions of ordinary people. The Chinese who fled from the mainland took transport ships to South America, seeking hope of survival. They worked in the plantations like animals every day, sweating profusely. They were like puppets deprived of emotions, with no time to rest or entertain themselves, no time to think about their future. All they had was to persevere and endure in order to survive for themselves or their families.

The roar of steam engines brought about technological progress and gave ordinary people an organized, fast-paced lifestyle.
However, compared with the classical agricultural society, Chinese workers have lost the idyllic classical rural life, the freedom of working from sunrise to sunset, and the natural tranquility of "picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence and leisurely seeing the southern mountains" during the slack season.

In a way, the industrial development based on the struggle of ordinary Chinese workers to survive was a historical regression of a specific period and a bloody price that had to be paid for accumulating original capital in the early days of the country.

Relying on exploiting the lower classes of the country's people to obtain the original capital for industrial development is a choice that a conscientious national leader has to make. However, if the sacrifices of the lower classes are turned a blind eye, and ten years after the founding of the country, the achievements of industrial construction are still entirely attributed to the contributions of the king and the national defense forces. If businessmen and certain meritorious people are not stopped in time from stealing the national capital accumulated by ordinary people with their blood and sweat, and then allowed to become a monopoly class and new vested interests, then the new ruling order will inevitably fall into the earlier historical vortex and will sooner or later be overthrown by the dissatisfaction and anger of the lower classes.

The rotten leaves and wood beneath the primeval forest had been piled up for hundreds or thousands of years. The thick rotten leaves were nearly half a meter deep. When the Chinese workers walked on it, it was like stepping on layer upon layer of cotton mattresses.

Unknown poisonous insects, snakes and ants often live in the thick layer of rotten leaves. During one afternoon of labor in the primeval forest, eight Chinese workers were injured by poisonous insect bites.

There were too many injured Chinese workers, and continuing to order them to work might lead to more casualties. Therefore, the managers in charge of supervising this group of workers temporarily suspended the reclamation task and gave the more than 200 Chinese workers a rare rest time.

In the evening, more than ten bonfires burned lonely near the river bank. Groups of Chinese workers who had worked hard for half a day gathered in groups of three or five, wearing only a pair of coarse cloth shorts to cover their bodies. They were very excited and half-lying in the clear river water, using the cool river water to wash away the sweat and fatigue on their bodies. The river water near the flat land is a rare place to cool down and rest in the primeval forest. Not only did the Chinese workers lie in the water to rest and escape the heat, but even several managers and men of the Yixing Company chose a good place to go down to the river to cool down and escape the heat.

The Chinese workers stayed in the river for about half an hour. When it was about time for dinner, they gradually left the river, put on their shirts and prepared to eat.

"Everyone, please be quiet. I have something to tell you before dinner."

More than 8 Chinese workers came out of the water. A manager stood among them and said, "There were several minor accidents when we started working today. Eight workers were injured. For everyone's safety, you have been allowed to rest for half a day, but the progress of reclaiming the plantation cannot be slowed down. I have just discussed with several managers and decided to start tomorrow morning to set fire to the wasteland. First, burn the bushes outside the forest, and then gradually reclaim the wasteland deep in the forest. Everyone, have a full meal tonight and have a good rest. Tomorrow morning, you will be fully refreshed and work. As long as you all work hard and reclaim the wasteland in front of us and plant sugarcane, rubber, and cocoa, maybe in two years, you will not only be able to pay off the money you owe to your employer, but also save some private money to marry a wife. ..."

The manager of the Yixing Company loudly described the beautiful future life for the Chinese workers in front of the campfire. Most of the Chinese workers had just arrived in South America and did not understand the actual situation of the Yixing Company. They were attracted by his words and stared at the manager of the Yixing Company with their eyes revealing their beautiful hopes for future life.

"Brother, you don't seem to agree with what the steward said?"

On the outskirts of the crowd, the intelligence officer noticed a man with messy hair and a gentle appearance. While everyone else was listening attentively to the manager's speech, only he had a blank expression and didn't care at all about what the manager said.

"I don't know how many times I've heard his nonsense. My ears are callused from hearing it again and again."

The man curled his lips in disdain and said, "I arrived in South America two years ago. Because I was weak and couldn't do heavy work, I worked as a laborer in the plantation under the name of Yixing Company for two years. I didn't pay off the original ship fare, so they arranged for me to work with you guys again."

"From your words and actions, you seem like a scholar. How did you end up working as a laborer on a plantation like me?"

"A poor and failed scholar, how can he be considered a scholar?"

The gentleman laughed at himself and said, "It was a common practice in the Qing Dynasty to sell official positions and titles. Even if a scholar spent money, he might not be able to buy a county magistrate position, let alone a poor scholar like me."

"Brother, you are also a miserable person. I heard that the disaster under the rule of the Qing Dynasty has lasted for several years without any improvement. Five provinces including Zhili, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu have all been affected by the disaster. The people in the affected provinces have wandered to other provinces to survive. Nearly 10 million people have fled the famine and left the province. I don't know when this disaster will end."

"The Qing court is unjust, and the people are angry. If there is no way to survive in the Central Plains, the next poor scholar would not abandon his ancestral property with his wife and children to seek a way to survive in South America."

The Dingwu famine that broke out in 1874 affected a wide area and lasted for a long time. From 1874 when the famine only occurred in a few small places to 1879 when it ended, about 2000 million people died in various places under the rule of the Qing Dynasty. Due to the impact of the famine, similar lower-class scholars such as students and scholars were also left without food and clothing, and many of them fled overseas to survive. The Han Dynasty was developing rapidly and was no longer in urgent need of lower-class scholars like it was ten years ago. Therefore, some lower-class scholars who had traveled to South America by private transport fleets or smuggled themselves into the country lost the opportunity to directly enter the government. …………

The security department intelligence agents sent by Sun Bin infiltrated the Yixing Company disguised as laborers, businessmen, etc., and then relied on their skilled intelligence skills and experience to continuously summarize the information they had obtained to Sun Bin, who then submitted it to the central government for personal review and decision by Li Mingyuan.

(End of this chapter)