San Francisco is the main settlement place for Chinese in the United States. In 1853, the first Hongmen organization in the United States was established in San Francisco. More than ten years later, Ping Kung Tong, Hip Sing Tong, Hop Shing Tong, Zhao Yi Tong, etc. appeared in the United States.
Among them, San Francisco is the main residence of Chinese Americans, with more than 20 local halls.
Huang Shengui was originally a gold mining laborer in California. After completing the labor agreement with an American company in 1862, Huang Shengui followed a group of freed Chinese workers and moved to Canada, and established Hong Shun Tang in 1863.
Hong Shun Tang was the first Hongmen organization in Canada. Because there was less competition from other Hongmen churches, the Hong Shun Tang established by Huang Shengui developed rapidly in Canada. By 1868, the number of Hong Shun Tang members expanded from the initial dozen to more than 600 people.
The synagogue headquarters was also moved from the gold mining area of Barkerville to Montreal, near the border of the United States and Canada.
The rapid development of Hongshun Hall gave Huang Shengui the intention to open a branch of Hongshun Hall in the United States. Therefore, after handling the local affairs in Canada, at the end of August 1869, Huang Shengui brought more than a dozen of his subordinates to leave Canada and come to the place where he stayed seven years ago.
of San Francisco.
In the original historical trajectory, Huang Shengui quickly opened up the situation after arriving in San Francisco. After just five or six years of development, the American church of Hongshun Church surpassed the Canadian church in strength. In 1876, the full-fledged Hongshun Church in San Francisco replaced the Montreal church.
It became the headquarters of Hongshun Hall. In 1880, Hongshun Hall united more than 30 halls to reorganize Zhigongtang. Huang Shengui served as the leader of the reorganized Zhigongtang. From 1880 until Huang Shengui resigned in 1887, the power of Zhigongtang expanded from San Francisco to the three eastern United States.
More than ten cities have laid the foundation for the future comprehensive development of Zhigongtang.
The successful development of Hongshun Tang and later Zhigong Tang had a lot to do with Huang Shengui's own efforts. From the moment he arrived in San Francisco, Huang Shengui already had a rough plan in mind for the development of the Tang Kou: to unite with the lower-level Chinese workers and use the power of the Tang Kou to protect ordinary Chinese from being immune.
Suffering the oppression of foreigners, he also made friends with other Hongmen disciples in the United States, gradually unified the forces of Hongmen, and formed a unified Chinese-American organization.
In troubled times, people's lives are like grass, and poor people in weak countries are bullied overseas. The Chinese workers and his own personal experience made Huang Shengui see the suffering and helpless situation of overseas Chinese groups, which also gave him the ambition to unite overseas Chinese. He left the United States.
The establishment of Hong Shun Church in Canada, where Hongmen forces have not yet invaded, was the first step towards realizing his ambition. The Hong Shun Church congregation reached 600 people. Moving the headquarters to the US-Canada border was the second step, and establishing a branch in San Francisco was the third step.
step.
The first two most difficult steps in the entrepreneurial period have been taken. Just when Huang Shengui was about to show off his talents and realize his ambitions in the United States, he was blocked by Wang Youtian and other forces of the National Defense Forces. The Chinese workers who were originally the source of the congregation were exposed by the National Defense Forces, and the remaining
Not only were the number of Chinese laborers limited, but they also faced competition from other gangs. Huang Shengui's career in the United States suffered a major setback at the very beginning.
The various Hongmen churches rejected Wang Youtian's solicitation. Although Huang Shengui downplayed the threat from the National Defense Forces, he felt a huge threat in his heart.
Since ancient times, the people have not fought against the officials. The National Defense Forces were able to defeat Peru and seize a piece of land from Brazil to establish a country. Their strength is certainly not weak. As for the Hongmen clans in the United States, they are all Hongmen brothers, but each clan has its own affairs.
, no one is convinced, the National Defense Forces are really attacking Hongmen, and it will be difficult for the various churches to resist.
Huang Shengui was aware of the threat that the National Defense Forces posed to Hongmen halls, but at the same time he did not want to give up the foundation he had built and join them. When he was struggling, two Chinese hurriedly ran in outside the synagogue.
"Hall Master, it's not good, Ruisheng Hall Hall Master Liu Xing rushed towards the synagogue with more than a hundred people!"
"Ruishengtang?" Huang Shengui whispered, frowning and said, "Zhou Accompanying Hall, have you ever invited Ruishengtang to attend the ceremony at the opening of the hall?"
"Four days ago, the villain personally came to deliver an invitation to Hall Master Liu, but was rejected by him. Today is the opening day of Hongshun Hall. Hall Master Ruisheng Hall came with more than a hundred people in an aggressive manner. I'm afraid he didn't have any intentions.
kindness."
"Soldiers will block it, water will cover it, and water will cover it. On the day when Hongshun Hall is opened, no provocation will be tolerated. Zhou accompanies the hall and orders the brothers in the hall to follow me out to welcome guests!"
"yes……"
As Huang Shengui stood up and left, all the disciples who had just joined Hongshun Hall poured out of the hall.
"Tangzhu Liu, Hongshun Hall is opening today, and a lot of people are coming from Guitang. What do you mean?"
Although the number of people in Hongshun Hall was small, Huang Shengui's momentum was not weak against Ruisheng Hall. As soon as the two parties met, they immediately started questioning him.
"Hongshuntang? When did there be a Hongshuntang in Hongmen?" Liu Xing refused to give Huang Shengui face as soon as he opened his mouth and did not recognize the identity of Hongshuntang Hongmentang.
In Hongmen, only Hongmen disciples can open a church. Huang Shengui was not a Hongmen disciple when he founded Hongshun Hall in Canada, so Liu Xing used this incident to pick a thorn in his side.
Of course, according to the ancestral teachings of Hongmen, there are many rules for opening new halls. However, as one or two hundred years passed, Hongmen split into hundreds of halls that did not belong to each other. Many Chinese who were not from Hongmen established the halls and opened them to the outside world.
Claiming that the hall belongs to Hongmen can be recognized by other Hongmen halls. The reason why Liu Xing did not recognize Huang Shengui's identity as a Hongmen disciple was not to maintain the rules of Hongmen, but to dislike him and deliberately find excuses to suppress Hongshun hall.
.
"Whether Hongshun Hall is a Hongmen hall or not is decided by the Hongmen hall masters. You, Ruishengtang, don't need to dictate."
Huang Shengui snorted coldly and said: "Hall Master Liu, I respect you as a Hongmen brother. Today is the opening day of Hongshun Hall in San Francisco. If you are here to watch the ceremony, I, Hongshun Hall, will open the door to welcome you. If you want to make trouble unreasonably, I, Hongshun Hall, will also open the door."
Stay with me until the end!"
"Huang Shengui, when you were working as a coolie in San Francisco seven years ago, I followed my uncles in managing the affairs of the church. In front of me, put away your pretense of winning people's hearts."
Liu Xing looked at Huang Shengui with disdain and said loudly, "Liu Xing asks all the hall masters to bear witness. Wu Anlong, a disciple of Hongshun Hall, injured my brother. Please comment on how this matter should be settled!"
Liu Xing bowed his hands to the many Hongmen hall stewards who came to watch the ceremony, and ordered his men to escort a Chinese with a blue nose and swollen eyes from behind. He walked up to Huang Shengui and asked, "Huang Shengui, recognize this person and see if he is
Are you from Hongshun Hall?"
"There are a total of forty-seven members of Hongshun Hall in San Francisco..." Huang Shengui did not distinguish the face of the Chinese being beaten in front of him, and directly retorted. Before he could finish his words, he was stopped by his subordinates.
"Master, Wu Anlong is indeed a disciple of Hongshun Hall. He was sent out by a villain five days ago to take over a batch of opium. There has been no news. I didn't expect that he would fall into the hands of Ruisheng Hall."
After hearing the reminder from his subordinate, Huang Shengui couldn't help but frown.
Opium and human trafficking are the gang's main sources of profit. Like other Hongmen gangs, in order to raise funds needed for the development of the gang, Hong Shuntang also secretly runs the opium business. However, because Huang Shengui had just returned from Canada, the opium trade has been
It was put in charge by Zhou Feitang, who had been staying in San Francisco all year round. Wu Anlong, who was specifically responsible for the opium trade, had been out trading opium a few days ago, and Huang Shengui did not have time to see him.
"Hall Master Liu, why do you decide that my men injured your men without any evidence?"
After learning that Wu Anlong belonged to Hongshun Hall, Huang Shengui immediately changed his words.
"You want evidence, okay? I'll give you the evidence!"
"Someone, bring up our injured brother!"
After Liu Xing finished speaking, two Chinese men wrapped in white cloth quickly came up from behind the crowd.
"Shen Quan, Ding San, in front of everyone, tell me how the people from Hongshun Hall injured you!"
"The day before yesterday, Ding San and I went to the brothel to listen to music. This damned bastard wanted to steal the girl we were interested in. If we didn't obey him, he would take the initiative. Master, the wounds on our bodies were all caused by him. You have to give us
Make the decision!"
Shen Quan, with a white cloth wrapped around his head and arms, cried.
"Hall Master Liu, my brothers took action out of a sense of loyalty. Your people have already taught Wu Anlong a lesson. I think this matter is over now. We won't pursue any further matters. What do you think?"
Wu Anlong and the people from Ruishengtang only had a conflict over a trivial matter, and Liu Xing brought Wu Anlong to question him. It seemed that the opium matter had not been leaked. Huang Shengui breathed a sigh of relief, spoke in a relaxed tone, and planned to reduce the big issue to a trivial matter.
thing, and then asked Wu Anlong about the opium situation.
"The people from Hongshuntang provoked me first. You Huang Shengui told me to let him go with just one sentence. Where can I put the face of Ruishengtang?"
Liu Xingcun was determined to make the matter bigger, and said resolutely, "Tanghuang Master Huang can either give Ruishengtang an explanation and publicly apologize to my two brothers on behalf of Hongshuntang, or he can become an enemy of Ruishengtang. Hongshuntang has only these two choices.
I hope Hall Master Huang will make a choice as soon as possible, my patience is very limited."
"Tangzhu Liu is deliberately trying to make things difficult for Mr. Huang. He really thinks that I, Mr. Hongshun, is easy to bully!"
The clay figurine was still very angry. Liu Xing asked Huang Shengui to apologize to his two subordinates in public. It was not just a simple matter of coming to the door for comment, but a naked slap in the face. If Huang Shengui put down his identity and apologized to the two juniors, he would be in trouble in the future.
People in Hongmen cannot hold their heads high, let alone make Hongshun Hall bigger.
"Whether you are easy to bully or not, you will only know if you try. Huang Tang is mainly unconvinced, so feel free to come over." Liu Xingsheng had the coupon in his hand, and continued to provoke the opponent while winking at his subordinates.
After receiving a hint from their own church leader, in addition to the two wounded lying on the ground, more than a hundred members of the Ruisheng Hall held weapons in their hands and were ready to rush towards the Hongshun Hall congregation opposite.
