In the early morning, in Chang'an (Córdoba), the capital of the Han Dynasty, there were several Chinese women standing in front of a pharmacy on the street. A little fish belly white was just showing in the east. There were only a few shops selling steamed buns and steamed buns on the street, which were open and ready for business.
All other shops have their doors closed.
Three Chinese women with natural feet knocked gently twice. After a while, the door of the pharmacy opened, and a woman in her early thirties walked out. She greeted the three Chinese women to enter the pharmacy.
"Each person takes two sets of medicine, one for oral administration and one for smearing on the patient's skin. Take it every day and apply it once each day. Remember not to have sex for one month before and after taking the medicine."
The kind-faced doctor grabbed six packs of traditional Chinese medicine and handed them to the three women who were seeing the doctor.
To cure hidden diseases, you still have to go to the Royal Hospital in the city. There are several doctors there who are knowledgeable about Chinese and Western medicine. They are responsible for treating women. Next time the disease occurs again, I will prescribe a condition for you and introduce the medical history, and you can go to the Royal Hospital.
Ask Dr. Zhou Xianlin and Zhou to see a doctor."
The three women may be familiar with the doctor and his wife. A woman wearing a colorful scarf said worriedly, "The Royal Hospital is crowded with people, and the diseases we sisters suffer from are not visible to others. It is good to go to the Royal Hospital for medical treatment, but
From Nanyang to America, all the money the sisters earned in two years in the pigeon cage was spent. Each of them only had a pair of silver jewelry given by grandma when they went to Nanyang. There was really no extra money."
"Amei, you and Xiangqiao are good sisters. When Xiangqiao was in Nanyang, you took good care of her. If you don't have enough money, there are some in the pharmacy. It won't work if your illness lingers. I asked Xiangqiao to take 20 yuan first.
I'll give you two taels of silver to treat you. If you don't have enough money, take it from here."
After the doctor finished speaking, he shouted to the yard behind the pharmacy, "Xiangqiao, go to the accountant and pay twenty taels of silver. Alan and the others are in a hurry to use it."
"Hey, boss, I'll go get it right now."
A reply came from the yard. After a while, the woman wrapped a few coins in a handkerchief and handed them to the three women and said, "Sister Qiulan, it is important to see a doctor. You and your two sisters have just been married for less than two months. You will be married soon."
Maintaining good health is the most important thing, and besides, this is not Nanyang, so few outsiders dare to gossip."
"Hey, sister, you don't know our difficulties. Among the six sisters in Nanyang Pigeon Cage, Sister Guichun married a Chinese laborer from Nanyang. Later, her man heard some nonsense remarks from his neighbor and beat Guichun.
Sister Chun was stunned, and Sister Guichun was so ashamed that she ran to the beam behind the pigeon cage and committed suicide. Sister Aju was weak, and on the way to America by boat, she suffered a disease and all the patients died, leaving us four sisters.
When they arrived in America, they all found someone to marry. Although the head of the house was an honest man and was born as a coolie, he didn't beat or scold any of the sisters. I was just afraid that after finally being a good man, I would be gossiped about by other people and spread to the ears of the head of the house.
, then I wouldn’t have the shame to live anymore.”
When the doctor's wife heard what the other party said, she couldn't help but show a bit of bitterness and sadness on her face.
When the woman was in her teens, her family was poor, and she was sold by her parents to human traffickers in Yangcheng. Later, she was resold to Nanyang. Fortunately, she met a husband who worked as a laborer during the day and also treated Chinese patients at night. Most of the Chinese who went to Nanyang were poor, but a few
Among several doctors, only one accepted the treatment of Chinese prostitutes. After three or five contacts, they all came from poor families. In addition, due to the scarcity of Chinese women in Nanyang and other reasons, the doctors married each other as their wives, married well, and lived a good life.
Her situation had greatly improved since she was in the pigeon cage, but the pointing fingers from some Chinese people around her still made her feel ashamed and inferior. Seeing his wife's depressed look every day, the doctor chose to sell some land and houses he purchased in Nanyang.
, with all his personal belongings, he immigrated to South America on a transport ship. South America was full of Chinese who had migrated from various places. In a new environment, no one knew about his wife’s previous experience, and his wife’s mentality slowly changed.
Well, after the wife gave birth to her first child, more and more Chinese people came to see the doctor. From summarizing their own experience in treating patients to becoming famous, the doctor also came to the doctor not long ago with the migrating people.
Chang'an City is preparing to start a new stage of life at the feet of the Emperor.
The influence of clan power and traditional culture on the Chinese is deep-rooted. The stubborn feudal diseases of favoring boys over girls and disrespecting women are still largely left over in the Han Dynasty. In the ten years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, more than hundreds of thousands of Chinese have immigrated to South America every year. To correct this,
Efforts to improve backward and bad habits have been ongoing, but there is still a large gap between the ideal country that Li Mingyuan expected.
It is forbidden to drown infants and abandon newborn babies. Newborn female babies, like male babies, can receive 5 acres of cultivated land or 30 acres of mountainous land as rewarded by the government. Similar policies implemented by the Han government are all for several common purposes: to encourage childbirth,
Change the traditional bad habit of favoring sons over daughters and eliminate the mortality rate of newborn baby girls.
In order to implement these policies, local governments severely punished a group of families who privately abandoned their baby girls. In the mild case, the parents were ordered to take back the abandoned baby girl and were fined a large amount. In serious cases, the baby girl died.
Incidents will be treated as criminal cases, and the parents and others involved will be fined and imprisoned for a few years at the least, and the land granted to them by the government will be taken back and distributed to African colonies to open up wasteland and station in the border areas.
Compared with mainland South America, the environment in African colonies is harsh. High temperature and disease alone take away the lives of at least a hundred Chinese people every year. They are accustomed to the suitable and cool climate environment in La Plata, and about one-fifteenth of them are sent to the Chinese.
The Chinese who came to the Congo colony could not adapt to the local climate and died of diseases and other causes within the first year.
The severe punishments imposed by the government and the tragic situation of the Chinese being sent away shocked batches of newly immigrated Chinese. With the pronouncement of more than a thousand similar cases in the first few years, the phenomenon of favoring sons over daughters in the Han Dynasty was greatly improved. Although one man and one man
The concubine system was not publicly discussed and implemented because it was too advanced. However, policies such as limiting the number of concubines and giving equal status to wives and concubines legally, and ordinary people can only marry up to three women as wives were gradually promulgated. The status of women in Han Dynasty has been
It has increased significantly. In various parts of the Han Dynasty, except for a few businessmen like Lin Yaxiang who do not know how to restrain themselves, they still take more than three women as concubines in violation of the government order. More than 90% of the families have a monogamous structure, with one husband and one wife.
Three-wife family structure accounts for less than 2% of the population. In the early years, some officials and military officers who used their political power to marry four or five women were warned by Li Mingyuan and solemnly stated that they would not follow suit and would never dare to marry more young women.
Women are wives and concubines.
The problem of female infant abandonment has basically been solved, and the concept of equal rights for wives and concubines has gradually been recognized by the people. Only the stain of selling one's body is still pointed out by the Chinese. The doctor's wife carefully enlightened the three sisters, and soon convinced them to go to the Royal Hospital for treatment.
, a burst of lively cheers suddenly came from the street,
The doctor, his wife and five other people opened the door and came to the street. They pulled an acquaintance and asked, "It's not a holiday today, why is it so lively?"
"Haha, great news. Mr. Li, who is in charge of our neighborhood just now, sent someone to announce that the British took the initiative to come to us for peace talks. Moreover, under the persuasion of the civil and military ministers of the imperial court, His Highness the King of Han officially announced that after the peace talks are over, he will change the Yuan Dynasty and proclaim himself emperor before the end of the year!"
The scene on the street was lively and illegal, and many people even performed the ritual of kneeling, which had been abolished early in the morning, and solemnly saluted in the direction of the Chang'an Imperial Palace.
"Hey, it's time for His Highness the King of Han to proclaim himself emperor. Our Han Dynasty has established itself overseas and has nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty. We have always claimed that the rank of the vassal king is unfair. Now it's okay. The Han Dynasty covers an area of thousands of miles from north to south. The Chinese and
The total number of white people is 8 million, and the Brazilians and Mexicans have both called themselves empires, so our Highness the King of Han should be replaced by another emperor!"
"His Royal Highness the King of Han proclaims himself emperor, does that mean he wants to amnesty the world?"
"More than just a general amnesty for the whole world, His Highness the King of Han, no, it should be His Majesty the Emperor."
The shopkeeper of the grocery store next to the pharmacy smiled and said, "His Majesty the Emperor is much more generous than the Tartar Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. It has spread on the street. From the day His Majesty ascended the throne and changed the Yuan Dynasty, all South American Chinese, regardless of whether it was a year ago,
Those who have just arrived have all obtained official Han nationality status."
"Not only that, Mr. Li also said that after the Yuan Dynasty is changed, each family will be exempted from being allocated five acres of land, and unmarried Chinese can also be allocated one to two acres of land each."
"There are four people in my family. If we divide the land into five acres, it will add up to 30 acres. I want to go back and discuss with my mother-in-law quickly to see which piece of wasteland outside the city is in a good location and decide on it in advance!"
This is the first time that the Chinese people have encountered the good news of free land distribution. After all emperors in the past dynasties ascended the throne, only Li Mingyuan had the determination and conditions to take advantage of the expansion of new territories and the vast land and sparse population of the Han Dynasty to distribute land as a welfare.