The old shadows fade away, and the memory freezes.
The roar of steam at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata will become a permanent memory engraved in the hearts of immigrants.
The mouth of the Rio de la Plata is the starting point for entering the mainland's inland areas and the largest terminal point for overseas immigrants to arrive in the mainland.
About 40% of the overseas immigrants set foot on the land of South America here, and then dispersed to the vast land of the mainland through the tributaries of the Paraná River and the Chang'an-Songjiang railway line.
Send away large ships flying the British flag,
Welcoming batches of trawlers loaded with marine fish products, on the busy water channel at the mouth of La Plata,
The Han Empire, with its firm and broad mind, ushered in a Far East immigration fleet consisting of more than 60 large and medium-sized ocean transport ships.
After nearly two months of long sea voyage, surviving the bumpy and boring life in the cabin, and seeing that they were about to arrive at their final destination, the immigrants on the transport ship were so excited that they ran to the deck and looked up at the end of the ocean, the familiar and familiar land.
A strange land.
The reason why I say they are familiar is because before arriving in South America, they had already learned a lot about the customs and customs of South America and Han from their neighbors and friends. For example, South America and Han are covered with fields growing wheat, sorghum, and rice.
There are countless cattle and sheep in the mountains, forests and grasslands. The people there have mountains of food piled up in their homes. They can eat rice made from rice every day without having to worry about starvation.
In southern Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Guangxi and even the northern coastal areas, various magical legends about the Han Dynasty are spread everywhere.
The common people who had never traveled far or traveled a hundred kilometers away from their surroundings did not believe this rumor when they first heard it. They just regarded it as an anecdote, because based on their inherent experience,
After working hard for a year to cultivate the land for the landlords, being able to eat two meals of vulgar steamed buns and rotten food every day is a rare happy life. Like the rumors, you can eat exquisite rice and steamed buns every day.
Eating meat once every three to five days is like a life lived by gods. Ordinary people can just listen to it as a joke. It is almost impossible to expect such a good thing to happen to them.
Being at two ends of the world, coupled with the closed and backward areas under the Qing government (there were only more than 100 government-run and private industrial enterprises in the 1890s, the degree of closedness can be imagined),
Not only ordinary people do not understand the real economy and living standards of Han in South America, but also those officials who claim to be proficient in foreign affairs also know very little about the real situation in Han in South America.
The people who have heard or know something about the Han Kingdom in South America account for less than one-tenth of the total population in the Far East Continent. However, just this less than one-tenth of the population has also brought many problems to the local area.
The immigrant population far exceeds the transport capacity.
It accepts 400,000 to 500,000 immigrants every year, and more overseas immigrants are resettled in Songkhla, Lanfang and other places.
The huge and magnificent wave of overseas immigrants changed the population structure of Han in South America, and also changed the fate of nearly ten million Chinese in the Far East.
The transport ship docked at the shore, and immigrants with sallow faces and skinny faces lined up in a long queue. Under the guidance of government officials in charge of immigration affairs, they were moved to the shore in an orderly manner to repair and rest.
Not far from the entrance to La Plata, Songjiang Prefecture's offshore port is located. In order to relocate and transfer a large number of immigrants, the local government has built a total of more than 100,000 independent brick houses within a radius of 20 kilometers of the port, and is equipped with sufficient
Accommodate 200,000 immigrants for temporary residence at one time and provide them with necessary living and medical supplies.
Absorbing Chinese immigrants is a basic national policy alongside encouraging childbirth, establishing education, and developing industry.
The Han government vigorously absorbed and resettled Chinese immigrants not only out of local development needs, but also out of moral and responsibility for the nation and country.
Looking at the four, five, seven and eight year old orphans coming off the boat one after another, and seeing the fear and fear in their arms with their younger brothers and sisters, no passionate young man with a conscience would let them go.
The Emperor of the Han Dynasty was famous for his emphasis on rescuing and raising orphaned children in the mainland, and those young naval officers who had just graduated from military academies and entered the ocean-going transport fleet for a one-year internship as ordinary sailors were even more concerned.
The emperor's teachings and ideas are regarded as beliefs. Every time he returns with the immigration fleet, he seems to have become a fighter with blood boiling, and his whole body is full of inexhaustible energy.
According to the young officers of the army and navy, this is called national responsibility and sincere patriotism. In their eyes, every Chinese child who has migrated to South America and lost his or her parents is the future and hope of the country. Seeing them immigrate
Despite their poor appearance at the beginning, they felt sad and blamed themselves, but they also became more diligent and passionate!
If young people are strong, the country will be strong! If young people are weak, the country will be weak! Orphaned children are a generation that has suffered. Young officers have the responsibility and obligation to strive for the rise of the country. They do not want to see what the orphaned children have experienced in their descendants.
Repeatedly!
The words that the young officers of the Songjiang Port Naval Military Base talked about every day appeared in my mind. Niu Shangzhou, the deputy director of Han Guoxinghe Shipyard, did not understand it too deeply at first, but after seeing the orphaned children with his own eyes, he was afraid,
After seeing the helpless eyes and their poor physical condition, Niu Shangzhou's mood also changed drastically.
Niu Shangzhou (born in 1861, one of the first children to study in the United States) was born into a wealthy family in the south. When he was young, he followed the orders of the Qing court and went to study in the United States.
Because he left home when he was young, Niu Shangzhou did not know much about the real life conditions of ordinary people in his hometown. Later, in 1881, the program for young children studying in the United States was suspended. Niu Shangzhou, Xu Zhixuan, Kuang Rongguang, Tan Yaoxun and others accepted the recruitment of the Han State and successively
After returning to South America, he studied in Germany for another five years. In 1887, he returned to China and was sent to work at Xinghe Shipyard. As a result, he came into contact with young officers at the naval base near Xinghe Shipyard. Niu Shangzhou became more and more interested in the Qing Dynasty.
The fundamental reason for the backward rule of the imperial court and the hardship and hardship of ordinary people in the Far East are getting deeper and deeper.
And to this day, because Li Mingyuan and several central officials are coming to Xinghe Shipyard to inspect the completion of the 5,000-ton ship, Niu Shangzhou, factory director Tong Longfu, ship technical consultant Thomas Villar and others personally went to the port to greet them.
Only with this opportunity did Niu Shangzhou truly understand the true feelings of those young naval officers when they saw the orphaned children one after another.
Near the offshore dock of Xinghe Shipyard, unkempt children were wearing gray cloth clothes that had obviously been changed and did not fit well. Although there was a trace of rosy on their faces (the immigration fleet's material distribution standards are different, young children are weak, they
The food and medical care provided were more generous.), but the sequelae of long-term hunger still showed on the face.
After all, the life and medical standards of the transport fleet are not as good as those on land. Although the young children receive better care than ordinary young immigrants, this care only meets their basic life and medical needs on the ship.
But it can't be said to be abundant.
In the temporary resettlement base for immigrants, the orphaned children are of different ages. There are children aged three to five years old and teenagers aged eleven or twelve. Some have migrated from the Jiangnan area, while a few belong to the northern area.
In the young immigrant team, which totaled two to three thousand people, Niu Shangzhou even saw many children who were pulling each other. They were either biological sisters, brothers, or close relatives and the same race. However, regardless of their blood relationship or
Whether close or distant, when they lost their parents and adult relatives, they were young and faced the threat of death, but they were able to support each other, which moved Niu Shangzhou the most.
Xinghe Shipyard is like a small society. Every year, the shipyard recruits a group of orphans who have received primary education to work as apprentices in the factory.
In Niu Shangzhou's impression, although many orphans have just turned 14, their physical strength and technical experience are not as good as those of graduates who have received secondary education.
But perhaps because they have experienced a more difficult life before and know how to cherish the hard-won opportunities in front of them, they are very attentive when learning technology and their technology progresses very quickly.
In September 1888, when Niu Shangzhou was promoted to deputy director of Xinghe Shipyard, a German engineer who was about to return to Europe after his contract expired lamented: "The entire process of ship construction is done by Han workers, and their skill level is no less than
Compared with any European factory workers. And some of them are apprentice workers who are orphans. They surround Han Chinese workers and European technical engineers every day, and very carefully record every step and operation of the engineers. They
Their learning spirit is very admirable, and a country with such a group of workers is both respectable and terrifying.”
The performance of Han skilled workers and even orphan apprentices may be a bit incredible in the eyes of European engineers. However, after experiencing the exaggeration of various local propaganda and public opinions in Han and personally experiencing the tenacious character inherited by the Han people since ancient times, in those ignorant and pure
After being manifested in orphaned children,
Niu Shangzhou became accustomed to the evaluation of European technical experts hired by the local government with high salaries.
"Han shipbuilding workers work very flexibly and quickly. They obviously have innate skills in controlling and using machine tools. In all aspects, except for being physically weaker, Han workers are comparable to workers in any country in the world."
After the first locally built 5,000-ton ocean-going ship completed its trial voyage, similar praises from foreign technical experts were often heard.
Faced with more and more praises, Niu Shangzhou just expressed polite gratitude and was not complacent, because he knew that compared with European powers, Han's civilian shipbuilding industry was only at the second-rate level, and Xinghe Shipyard
The civilian shipbuilding industry still has a long way to go before it can reach the level of a first-class industry.