Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 384 Youth Awakening
In San Francisco's Chinatown, Ho Bing-huan, who was nearly 40 years old, received bad news from the Chinese employees of his company. Claiming that his medicine business was potentially harmful, the San Francisco City Government ordered him to close his medicine company and related businesses such as clothing, tea, and grocery stores within a week.

He Binghuan was from Mian Village, Nanhai County, Guangdong Province. His ancestors had lived in Mian Village for generations, making a living by farming, and their lives were hard-working and frugal.

He Binghuan's father had previously gone to Foshan Town in Guangdong to do business, and the family was only moderately well-off.

The Qing court's brutal political oppression and economic exploitation led to economic decline and commercial depression. His family's business was unable to make ends meet and was on the verge of bankruptcy. In order to get out of the predicament, he asked his son Ho Bing-huan to visit his old friend Liao Jing-chang in Hong Kong, which had just been built. With Liao's connections and care, he opened a small grocery store in Hong Kong.

Young Ho Bing-huan was smart, capable, alert, and courageous. His family's financial difficulties dealt him a heavy blow, but also strengthened his determination to revive his family business. He worked hard to run a small grocery store, took the initiative to contact overseas business trends, and continuously imported Western machinery and equipment that were relatively new at the time. Because of his keen vision and integrity, the capital he accumulated gradually increased, and he slowly grew from a small businessman to a medium-sized businessman.

Later, Liao Jingchang's son, Liao Zhubin, who graduated from St. Paul's College in Hong Kong, received a notice from the Hong Kong HSBC office that he would be transferred to San Francisco, USA to assist in handling HSBC's business in the United States.

The fathers of Liao Jingchang and He Binghuan were old friends. In order to continue the friendship between the two families, He Binghuan, who had made a name for himself in business, and Liao Zhubin, who had received Western education, also maintained close contact.

Before leaving, Liao Zhubin suggested that He Binghuan move with him to San Francisco and use the assets and wealth he had accumulated over the years of business to expand his business to the United States.

Influenced by the gold rush of Chinese workers to the United States in the 1870s and 1880s, Ho Binghuan believed that the Chinese worker group in the United States was a market with huge potential economic benefits. If businesses such as medicinal materials, tea, cloth, and clothing were brought to the United States, the profits would far exceed those in Hong Kong.

He Binghuan was a decisive man. After analyzing the benefits, he took his family of more than ten and followed Liao Zhubin to move to San Francisco, USA.

With a vision superior to that of most mainland businessmen, He Binghuan's career has risen to a new height.

Between 1870 and 1881, the average wage of a Chinese worker in the United States was around US$26. Although it was less than half of the wage of a white person, if they were saved, the salary they could save in a month was ten times that of the people under the rule of the Qing Dynasty.

The relatively generous wages provided the Chinese workers with the conditions for consumption. Relying on the grocery stores and herbal medicine stores set up in San Francisco and other Chinese communities, He Binghuan's business grew bigger and bigger. The number of Chinese employees under his name gradually increased to more than 200, and he himself quickly became a leading figure in the Chinese business community in the United States.

Seeing his business becoming more and more prosperous, Ho Binghuan originally planned to bring his old friend Liao Zhubin into the business development together. Unfortunately, the increasingly difficult situation of Chinese workers in the United States and the formal promulgation of the Chinese Exclusion Act completely cut off the possibility of expanding his business in the United States.

White thugs attacked Chinese shops one after another, arbitrarily beating, scolding and humiliating Chinese people walking on the streets. In recent months, newspapers have continued to publish news of Chinese people being killed. Seeing the situation becoming more and more chaotic, even Ho Bing-huan, who thought he had experienced many ups and downs, was at a loss for a moment.

"Dad, Uncle Liao and Enbai are here and are waiting for you in the front hall."

A girl of about seventeen or eighteen walked in quickly and spoke.

"Let your eldest and third brothers follow Uncle Anan to the medicine store to guard it. If you encounter white people causing trouble, be patient and try not to conflict with them."

He Binghuan stood up, temporarily put aside the San Francisco government's executive order, and gave orders.

"Okay, Dad, I'll go tell my eldest and third brothers right away."

The girl walked away with big strides, without any of the restraint or inhibitions that other young ladies from wealthy families usually have.

"Alas, a girl is no longer under the control of her father. When I saw my daughter running to me and crying for help, I softened my heart and gave in to her wishes and stopped her from binding her feet. But now she has grown up and turned into a tomboy. She hangs out with a few male students every day and doesn't look like a lady from a noble family at all. I don't know whether the decision I made ten years ago was right or wrong."

Looking at his daughter running away, He Binghuan sighed.

Like any other wealthy family, the He family was a large, grand garden-style family with a large population and many children. He Binghuan had three concubines, twelve children, Chinese guards, male and female servants, and an accountant who was responsible for business and property accounting, totaling no less than fifty or sixty people.

The girl who ran away was He Peizhen, his fourth child and his first daughter. She had two brothers, one brother, and three sisters from the same mother.

In total, she had twelve brothers and sisters (five brothers and seven sisters, that is, three older brothers, two younger brothers, and six younger sisters. He Xiangning was the fourth child, so the servants all called her the Fourth Miss. The Fourth Miss, who was called "Noble Flower", was thin and petite. On the surface, she was a petite and weak little girl. However, her clever and lively talent and brave and strong character were extraordinary.

Even at a young age, she had her own opinions and ideas, and had a stubborn and competitive temper. She often showed a willfulness that made it difficult for her elders to control her. Once she made up her mind, no one could change her mind. She would never obey easily if she thought something was unreasonable and would fight to the end.

In the 1870s and 1880s, the mainland still retained the bad custom of binding feet for women. Almost all women (especially

As a rule, the feet of the upper class were bound.

Although Hong Kong was the first to have overseas communications and was at the forefront of trends, the bad custom of foot binding still remains.

When He Peizhen was five or six years old, her mother began to force her to bind her feet. She first scalded her tender feet with very hot water (it was said that this would soften the bones). Then she bound them with long white cloth layer by layer.
The four young ladies did not want to suffer this pain. They cried and made a scene during the day, protesting against this cruel and inhumane custom with tears.
Late at night, with all ten toes swollen and burning with pain, she could no longer endure the pain, so she quietly got up. She mustered up her courage, secretly used scissors to cut open the seams of the foot binding cloth, threw the white cloth strips under the bed, and freed her feet.

The next day, her mother scolded and beat her, then took away the scissors and hid all the scissors in the family. Then she bound her feet again, sewing them tighter than last time. But she didn't cry or make a fuss. She secretly bribed the maid to buy a pair of scissors for her and hid them in the safest place - under the big incense burner on the ancestral altar. She got up quietly in the dead of night and angrily cut off the foot binding cloth. She cut it into flying flowers and butterflies, then crumpled it into a ball and threw it under the bed.

Despite her mother's increasingly severe beatings and scoldings, she never stopped crying and fighting.
This heroic struggle probably lasted for dozens of rounds, with the child entangled and cut again and again, resisting constantly and never yielding. His peculiar character began to emerge at such a young age.

She firmly opposed foot binding, not only because she did not want to suffer the pain of the flesh, but also because she had her own opinions. As a child, the fourth daughter loved to listen to the stories of the "long-haired" rebellion, and she admired and yearned for the female soldiers of the Taiping Army who fought bravely with their natural feet. In her young mind, she had long since nurtured the idea of ​​taking them as role models, and she longed to grow up to be like these heroines, traveling around the world with her natural feet, so she hated foot binding even more and became an "anti-foot binding advocate."

So, she made up her mind to fight foot binding to the end. The mother insisted on foot binding, and the daughter resisted stubbornly. Neither of them gave in, and the matter became more and more serious. Finally, her strong and unyielding tenacity moved her doting father, who intervened in the matter and said with the dignity of a parent: "Just let her go!"

With her father's protection, her mother sighed and finally agreed reluctantly not to bind her feet anymore.

As she grew older and moved to the United States, she was able to receive a Western education under the love of her father and the relatively open social atmosphere in the West. In 1879, she entered the coeducational Hill House High School, which had accepted young Chinese students studying in the United States and the first batch of female students from Japan. When she first enrolled, Sheehyung came into contact with them: Kwong Wing-kwong, Kwong Hin-chou, Kwong King-yeung, Yang Zhaonan, Huang Jiliang, Lin Peiquan, Zhan Tianyou, and the five young Japanese girls studying in the United States, the younger Nagai Shigeko (born in 1863), Yamakawa Shamatsu (born in 1860), and Tsuda Umeko (born in 1864), all of whom were her friends.

A group of idealistic and young people gathered together to discuss their experiences and influences on the fate of their country and nation. In particular, the legend of the South American Chinese who came from the remnants of the Taiping Army and step by step built a new and vibrant Chinese country attracted her all the time and she read tirelessly without sleep.

The vivid images of the South American Han heroes who resisted the attacks of foreign countries, which were discussed by everyone, left a deep impression on her passionate heart, and she gradually developed the idea of ​​emulating them through admiration and respect.

He Binghuan could not have imagined that his daughter, whom he had watched grow up, would become a famous female politician and leader of the women's liberation movement in the history of the Han Dynasty. While he was still worried about his daughter's personality problems,
In another reception room, Liao Enbai bid farewell to his father and secretly went to the backyard to meet He Peizhen.

"Ah Zhen, the situation outside is very chaotic recently. You'd better stay at home and don't go out."

Liao Enbai found He Peizhen and expressed his concern.

"I heard that today is the graduation day of Shanchuanshesong University. Why didn't you go to celebrate with her?"

He Peizhen ignored the other party's relationship and asked back.

"The United States enacted the Chinese Exclusion Act, and all Chinese Americans were in a state of panic. How could I be in the mood to attend the graduation ceremony of Shanchuanshesong?"

"Humph, we still have some national pride. The Americans are going too far. As Chinese people, we should set an example and call on our compatriots in the United States to march and demonstrate against the Chinese Exclusion Act!"

He Peizhen was very excited. She looked at the other person seriously and said, "Liao Enbai, do you dare to go to Chinatown with me to call on everyone to march and demonstrate?"

"Ah Zhen, it's useless. The Chinese embassy in the United States signed an agreement with the Americans. The Americans provided machinery and railways to the factories in the Westernization Movement in exchange for the Qing government's agreement to upgrade the Chinese Exclusion Act to an international treaty.

Two days ago, Chinese Minister to the United States Chen Lanbin made it clear that he recognized the United States' right to require Chinese people to register and wear "dog tags" to identify their Chinese identity. He also persuaded Chinese people in the United States to abide by American laws and not to gather together for no reason to cause trouble.

After listening to Liao Enbai's explanation, He Peizhen couldn't help but burn with anger.

At this point, the matter could not be clearer: the Qing Empire abandoned its people, and the fate of the Chinese stranded in the United States was completely exchanged from the Qing court to the U.S. government.

"Overseas Chinese were brutally massacred by foreigners, and the Qing government just let it happen. What is the difference between the so-called Han Chinese prime ministers and famous emperors of the Restoration and those invading foreigners?"

At this moment, He Peizhen completely lost hope in the Qing court, and all that was left in her heart was the deep sadness.

"The Qing government has always been on high alert against the Han people, so it doesn't care about the lives of overseas Chinese. Ah Zhen, listen to my advice. The United States is the most powerful country in the West. Even if we mobilize our Chinese compatriots to march and protest, it will be useless. Instead of waiting for the foreigners to wake up and stop persecuting our compatriots, we might as well respond to the call of the South American Han country and organize our compatriots to evacuate South America."

“The Americans are like ungrateful hungry wolves. The Indians took them in with good intentions, but what they got was a massacre by the white people. It is better not to keep such a country!

Enbai, according to your idea, let's discuss with Daddy and Uncle Liao, mobilize the employees of the two companies and the students studying in the United States, and organize our compatriots to evacuate the United States!"

"Okay, let's go see Father and Uncle He now!"…………

(End of this chapter)