ps: Thank you to fellow students of Yun Hai Shu You Shi Tong Zhou for the reward.
Youlan and her mother used sliced bamboo pieces to fix Huang Ping's injured arm, and then the group lined up to sign and board the Inderwood.
The Inderwood is a wooden three-masted sailing ship with a tonnage of 800 tons. According to the transportation standards at the time, a 1,000-ton transport ship can carry 500 crew members. That is, one crew member occupies a ship's tonnage of two tons. However, the owner of the Chinese labor coolie ship
In order to obtain greater profits, the tonnage of the ship was often falsely reported to transport more Chinese workers. The Inderwood's reported tonnage was 1,400 tons. The total number of Chinese people on board was about 700. The more than 700 Chinese people did not have enough space to rest.
Hundreds of people can be crammed into one cabin.
The coolie ship sailed at sea for six days and arrived in the waters north of Singapore on May 3. There were still two days left to sail from the British Straits Settlements.
The moon and stars are sparse, the cool breeze on the sea is gentle, and the wind and waves have subsided.
Huang Youlan and her parents were squeezed into the small cabin on the bottom of the boat. For nearly a week, the bumps on the sea and the smell of the bottom made her depressed. Her usually red and fair face turned pale due to her physical weakness.
"Ahem," Huang Youlan couldn't help but cough. She grabbed her mother's hand with her weak hands and said weakly: "Mom, I feel so uncomfortable."
There was only a weak torch for illumination in the dim cabin on the bottom floor. The mother moved down, helped You Lan get closer to the torch, took out a hand and touched her daughter's forehead, and said worriedly: "Master, hurry up and get the herbs in the package."
Come out, Youlan is sick."
"Hey, I'll look for it right now." Huang Ping took out the package from behind with his uninjured right hand. Huang Azhong, who was sitting in front of him, quickly opened the package, took out a small gray cloth bag, and handed it to Youlan.
Mother opened the cloth bag, carefully took out a handful of herbs, and put them in a small bamboo bucket.
Traditional Chinese medicine herbs generally need to be boiled in hot water, and fires cannot be made in the bottom cabin. Huang Ping took out the money to bribe the sailors in the cabin, and took the young and strong of the three tribes to help Youlan to the deck.
At midnight, there were only a dozen foreign sailors left on the deck drinking and chatting. Huang Ping and the others avoided the foreign sailors and came to a small corner of the ship where they were sheltered from the wind, where they set up clay pots to light a fire and boil medicine.
The fire was ignited, and the strong smell of Chinese herbal medicine spread on the deck. Three or four foreign sailors who smelled the smell came toward Huang Ping with wine bottles in their hands and cursed.
"Uncle Fifth, the foreign devils are coming towards us."
The four foreign sailors were staggering, their faces were red, and they were obviously in a state of drunkenness. Huang Azhong was worried that they were causing trouble, so he called out a warning.
"Wait a moment, the medicine will be ready soon." Huang Ping stared at the steaming clay pot and said without raising his head.
The deck area was not large, and four sailors quickly came to Huang Ping. A fat sailor with rosacea smelled of alcohol and was cursing and saying something that Huang Ping could not understand.
Huang Ping and a few Hakka men were squatting next to the clay pots. There were no foreign sailors who were managing money.
The foreign sailor's curses became louder and louder, and he suddenly raised his right foot and kicked the pot. Huang Ping, with quick eyes and quick hands, threw himself forward and blocked the pot, and received a hard kick from the fat sailor.
When Huang Ping was beaten, Huang Azhong and other young and strong men on the side impulsively forgot about their identity as foreign sailors and stepped forward to beat the fat sailor.
Huang Azhong kicked the fat sailor to the ground, then followed up and kicked him hard twice.
"Ah Zhong, stop fighting. We can't afford to offend foreigners."
Huang Ping turned around and stood up. It was too late to stop several people from taking action and shouted loudly.
The sea air was fresh and the space was wide. After Youlan got used to it on the deck for a while, her pale face gradually turned red, and she regained some energy.
Huang Ping's dissuasion had no effect. When he saw his companion being beaten, the foreign sailors on the deck quickly rushed towards him, and the situation immediately became chaotic.
More than a dozen foreign sailors had the numerical advantage, but due to too much drinking and the Hakka men's fighting skills that they had developed since childhood, the two sides were indecisive.
Huang Azhong dealt with three sailors by himself. After knocking down two sailors, he turned around and took two steps back to avoid the attack of a sailor. At the same time, he punched hard with both hands to repel two foreign sailors and pulled a fellow man who fell to the ground.
stand up.
Huang Azhong picked up his playmates from the same ethnic group and was about to continue helping another young Hakka man to rescue him from the siege, but he had to stop.
"Fuck", the fat sailor who was beaten first got up, ran to the side of the deck, took out his musket, and pointed it straight at Huang Azhong.
Huang Azhong was restrained, and Huang Ping and the other two young men had to stop.
More than a dozen foreign sailors surrounded Huang Azhong and the four of them. The fat sailor showed a cruel smile on his face. He raised his rifle butt and hit Huang Azhong on the head hard. "Bang." Huang Azhong quickly turned his head to avoid the fatal attack, and
The gun butt hit him on the shoulder, and the inertia of the gun butt's attack made him take a few steps back. Resisting the pain from his shoulder, Huang Azhong pressed his right foot backwards against the deck beneath him without falling.
The foreign sailors around him burst into laughter and watched playfully as the fat sailor beat Huang Azhong.
The opponent had a large number of people and held muskets in his hands. Huang Azhong suppressed his anger, protected his head with his hands and allowed the fat sailors to beat him.
"Bah." The fat sailor spat after fighting for a while. He looked at Huang Azhong who was lying on the ground bitterly, took the musket from his companion's hand, aimed at the opponent and started to attack.
"Bill, you are crazy!" A sailor immediately lowered the barrel of the gun with his hand and reminded: "The boss warned that if you kill Chinese workers again, he will throw you into the sea to feed the fish!"
"Disgusting Jew, vampire!" The fat sailor cursed and slowly put away his musket.
"These Chinese all owe the boss the shipping fee. If you kill them, who will pay the shipping fee." The sailor named Bill patted the fat sailor on the shoulder and said, "You have made the boss angry many times.
If you get into trouble, he won't let you go, just teach these yellow-skinned monkeys a lesson and don't kill anyone."
Merchant ships transporting Chinese workers are generally not operated by regular merchants. Ships sail on the ocean, and captains have many ways to deal with disobedient sailors. Thinking of the last scene where a sailor who was as good at gambling as himself was thrown into the water, the fat sailor's brain instantly
Much more awake.
"Ta-ta" a thin figure ran out from the corner and went straight to the direction where Huang Ping and others were.
When the two parties were fighting in chaos just now, Youlan was weak and could only hide in a corner to avoid becoming a burden to her father and others. When she saw that the foreigners were planning to stop and settle the matter, Youlan couldn't wait to run out.
Huang Ping supported Huang Azhong and was about to return to the cabin. When he saw his daughter running over, he couldn't help but frowned. He quickly pulled her over and walked faster inside.
"Stop." A nondescript foreign accent sounded from behind. Huang Ping paused, then immediately ran forward with his daughter in his arms.
"Bill, stop them, I want them to keep the girl." The fat sailor's eyes were shining, he couldn't kill the Chinese workers, and the Jews wouldn't care if they snatched a little girl.
More than a dozen foreign sailors immediately understood and quickly divided into two teams and surrounded the five Youlan people.
