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A simple cottage with only a few pieces of wood is only about a dozen square meters, and there is no other room, because there is only a small window, which is insufficient light and looks very dark. There is nothing in the room, only a small table with an ordinary person’s knee height, with two small scoops on both sides of the table, and two wooden beds leaning against the wall are also very simple, as if they were just a few pieces of wood. The bed is stuffed with a messy quilt, which has not been washed for a long time. A strange smell fills the entire cottage, making people unable to help but surging stomach juice...

This is everything in the house.

It makes people unable to help but think of the dormitory of some college students who don’t love hygiene. However, although the house is small, the space outside the house is very large. In the yard at the door, there are at least a dozen wooden poles two or three meters long, with all kinds of clothes hanging on it. Even if you just estimate it roughly, there are at least hundreds of pieces!

So many clothes, what are you doing?

The guy who was sitting on a stone at the door and was holding his clothes and working hard on the washboard obviously had already explained the answer!

This is a laundry room!… not a dry cleaner!

"Washing clothes, washing clothes..." Guo Jinzhang skillfully rubbed the clothes in his hands, as usual: "No matter how bad I am, I have also opened a CNC machine tool, built a nuclear power unit, repaired cars, created accidents, provoked police, and put on the traffic police brigade blacklist... I actually asked me to wash clothes, but I was all hand-washed... What's the matter?"

"If those bastards know about this one day, I'd rather laugh to death?"

"God, even if you can't stand me deliberately creating a traffic accident or finding someone to crash a car, but that's just a small cheat. I just want to cheat repair fees. I save my little auto repair shop. In the final analysis, I just want to make a fool of myself and get a copy. You don't have to throw me here directly, right? This is 1880, 1880... It's not China yet, it's actually the United States. You're not called cheating people, it's cheating father!"

After a burst of powerless grief, Guo Jinzhang looked up at the sky and continued to wash his clothes.

There is no way, this is his current work and life support. He doesn't wash clothes and doesn't even have food... because this is the United States in 1880. There was no humanitarianism at all during this period, and there was no system where he could get government relief funds if his monthly income was less than 1,000 dollars. If he didn't work, he would starve to death and no one would pay attention to you.

"It's better for socialism!"

Recalling my past life, although it was not very comfortable and even a little hard, at least I could eat a large piece of fat every day, sleep until soft Simmons, and see the not-so-small LCD TV... I live in more than 100 bungalows with finely decorated buildings. Although it is just a second-hand house in third-tier cities, I bought it three years ago, but it is better than the brothers in big cities who can't even make up the down payment, right?

But these are not very important. What is important is that even if the original life is not satisfactory, under the management of a powerful people's government that advocates harmony, Mr. Guo at least doesn't have to worry about too many dangers, let alone worry about living on his own land and being bullied and played all day long... But now everything has changed.

This is the United States in 1880!

Guo Jinzhang is still Guo Jinzhang, but he is no longer a part-time owner of an auto repair shop, nor a contract worker who has opened a large CNC machine tool and built a nuclear power unit in a famous domestic motor company. Instead, he left his hometown, traveled across the ocean to the United States to find relatives, and finally followed his uncle to wash clothes for others... The only thing that can be thankful is that he is young! He was already thirty years old, but now he is only twenty years old, and he is still a vain year!

But Guo Jinzhang would rather not be the young ten years old. Even if God takes away his five-year life, as long as he can go back, he will never be able to do anything! After all, five years of life is worse than being beaten at any time, and he is not as good as a pig or dog.

Now in 1880, the anti-Chinese movement in the United States is in full swing. Although it has not reached its peak, Chinese people have already suffered extreme hostility in the United States!

In this period, especially in the western United States, where Chinese workers are generally more common, beating Chinese people has become a pastime for white people. Knocking their heads on the streets will surely attract the attention and cheers of passers-by, just like the ones written by Lu Xun, Wang Hu beat Ah Q in Weizhuang. Those white policemen will not only not interfere with this kind of unreasonable beating, but will also say that Chinese workers have fought with others and arrested Chinese workers.

"Your ancestors are eighteen generations, a group of bastards. When you built the Pacific Railway, you were asked to get all the hardest, tiring and dangerous work. You paid less than half of the white workers. Now that you have finished the construction, you blame the Chinese workers for robbing your job... If you can't do your economy well, you will only blame others and other things!"

Thinking of this, Guo Jinzhang couldn't help but curse again.

His current uncle Guo Changyi was first recruited from Shanghai by Americans and transported to San Francisco, San Francisco, San Francisco. He was then hired by the Central Pacific Railway Company. With an extremely low salary, he bleeded and sweated in the mountains and vast deserts. Finally, this railway that spanned the entire North American continent and was 4,500 kilometers long was completed in advance, making great contributions to the cultural and economic exchanges between the eastern and western United States and the national unity of the United States.

However, as soon as the railway was repaired, the Americans immediately forgot the "hard-working" Chinese workers they once praised... At the beginning, the Pacific Railway was jointly contracted by United Pacific Railway and Central Pacific Railway. United Pacific was responsible for the eastern section of the project, mostly plains, and the Mississippi River as the transportation artery, and the project progressed quite smoothly. The western section of the project contracted by Central Pacific passed through the Sera Ridge and Nevada, California, where the western section of the project contracted by Central Pacific passed through, with steep mountains, complex terrain and harsh climate. The Sira Mountains often had snowstorms in winter, the desert area was dry and hot in summer, and the construction conditions were extremely difficult. Many white workers could not withstand the harsh conditions shortly after applying for the job and left one after another. Two years after the start of construction, the Central Pacific Railway had less than 50 miles of track laying.

When the company was in a desperate situation, Charles Clauke, one of the four giants of Central Pacific Railway, made a suggestion... to hire Chinese workers. However, Lelan Stanford, the then governor of California and chairman of Central Pacific Railway, refused. Strobridge also said firmly: "I can't be responsible for the work done by Chinese workers. I don't think they can build railways." With Clauke's repeated insistence, Strobridge first hired 50 Chinese workers to try it out, but the hard work of the railway workers made them admire them. The outstanding performance of the Chinese workers quickly dispelled the company's concerns, and the railway company immediately hired 3,000 Chinese workers.

On October 10, 1865, Clauke reported to President Johnson at the time: "In order to solve the problem of the stagnation of the Nevada project, we hired a group of Chinese workers... They are calm and quiet, they are very hardworking, love peace, and have much stronger endurance than other nations... Although we have hired more than a thousand Chinese workers at present, we still intend to increase the number of Chinese workers with the best conditions through the assistance of the introduction operators. This is different from the employment organization of slavery." "Without them (the Chinese), it would be impossible to complete the western section of this great national project within the time limit required by the Congress Act."

In 1865, the Chinese railway workers made good achievements in the construction of the Pacific Railway, but at this time the number of Chinese workers in the United States could no longer meet the needs of railway companies. The railway companies decided to recruit Chinese workers on a large scale. The railway contractors even sent people to hire workers in Guangdong Province, China, and negotiated with the ship company to transport Chinese workers to the United States with preferential ship tickets. At the same time, the upper levels of the railway companies advised the US government, and even lobbled the diplomats of both China and the United States to strive to create convenient conditions for Chinese workers to immigrate to the United States.

In 1865, the US government passed the "Encouraging Immigration Act" and quickly established a sea postage steamship service with China. On July 28, 1868, Pu Anchen, a former US ambassador to China who was commissioned by the Qing government to be in charge of cooperation with Europe and the United States, without authorization, and signed the Sino-US Treaty of Continuing Increase (i.e., the "Pu Anchen Treaty") with US Secretary of State W. H. Sihuad in Washington. In which "people of the two countries can freely exchange, travel, trade or live for a long time at any time." A provision provided a legal basis for the United States to expand the recruitment of Chinese workers in China.

After the adoption of the Pu'anchen Treaty, the number of overseas Chinese traveled to the United States increased sharply. Among them, when the Transcontinental Railway was completed in 1869, Chinese workers accounted for 90%, about 9,000.

What a huge number is 9,000 people in the western United States, where people are often out of sight for dozens of miles? At least Guo Jinzhang knew that these 9,000 people were almost the sum of all the residents of the nine big towns! And how many towns are there in the western United States now?

What's more, these 9,000 people are just the total number of surviving Chinese workers, they are surviving!

As a member of the Chinese workers hired by the Central Pacific Railway Company, Guo Changyi once clearly told Guo Jinzhang that only the project in Sierra Nevada had at least a thousand Chinese workers killed!

Guo Jinzhang still remembers that when Guo Changyi told him these things, his whole body couldn't help but tremble in fear: it was 1867, when the Nevada area encountered the largest blizzard on record, and the thickest snow reached 14 meters deep. However, the four giants of the Central Pacific Railway Company ordered workers to continue construction regardless of the weather. When the Chinese workers were forced, with astonishing patience and sacrifice, they were in the deep snow.

The roadbed was dug and the railway tracks were laid. People often took their lives by impermanent blizzards during labor. Sometimes the entire camp was buried in avalanches. Many people's bodies were not discovered until a few months later when the ice and snow melted. They were still holding pickaxes tightly in their stiff hands. Guo Changyi had just arrived in the United States. Whenever he saw the bodies of his colleagues lifted out of the snow pile, he couldn't help but be frightened, fearing that one day he would become one of them.

To be precise, "there is a corpse of a Chinese worker under every sleeper in the western section of the Pacific Railway."

However, after the railway was merged, Americans celebrated it in a big way, but no one mentioned the contributions made by Chinese workers in this. The celebration ceremony drove Chinese workers far away! Because the railway project was completed, tens of thousands of Chinese workers were quickly fired by the railway company and had no support... You know, at that time, white workers received $35 a month in the project and were also responsible for food and accommodation. Chinese workers only had $26 a month, regardless of food and accommodation. Therefore, many Chinese workers had no savings at all. Once they were fired, their lives immediately fell into difficulties, even though they were already very difficult!

But that's not counting. After 1870, the world economy fell into a trough, and the economic crisis came. Americans could not find a job, so they immediately turned the blame on Chinese workers, believing that the Chinese people had snatched their jobs, but they never thought that what Chinese workers were doing was the dirtiest and tiring, and that was the job they were unwilling to do in the most difficult times.

However, no matter how wronged Chinese workers are, it is useless.

At this time, China was still under the control of the Qing government, and this ignorant and backward government had never thought about paying attention to the life and death of Chinese workers. The reason for ignoring them is very simple. Those bastards who say "master" and "slaves" every day think that Chinese workers "going to the country and leaving their hometowns are actually unfaithful and unrighteous people"!

Therefore, Guo Changyi has been in the United States for 13 years.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to go back, but that he can’t go back. Because in Guo Changyi’s memory, when he was leaving, the “fa bandits” had just been pacified not long ago, and the Nian Army was still in chaos in the north. In this case, the Qing court only knew to constantly squeeze the people and take away the last grain of rice and the last copper plate in the people’s homes, and would not leave any way for people to live. Instead of doing this, it’s better to stay in the United States. At least, as long as you are careful here, you can still live.

Guo Changyi once told Guo Jinzhang his plan: "When we save enough money, buy a few horses, and get some family life, we will find a place with fewer people to buy a few pieces of land... The United States is so big, not as young as our Qing Dynasty, it is impossible for all places to hate us Chinese, right? Then we will have a good life..."

"Let's have a good life? Can you really have a good life?"

Guo Jinzhang shook his head and sighed again. Guo Changyi actually thought of avoiding the world... A standard guy from the Qing Dynasty was actually thinking of avoiding the world? Isn't this what the so-called celebrities did during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties? Besides, in the United States, where can you, a Chinese, avoid? Denver has a residential area of ​​Chinese workers, which is very partial, very broken, old, and small. But even so, he is still often harassed by some white people. From the moment Guo Jinzhang came to this world, in half a year, the laundry room of the uncle and nephew was plagued by white people more than thirty times. It is precisely because of this that Guo Jinzhang came to the scene... the back of a small hill three miles away from downtown Denver. This made the laundry room more stable. White people could not have gone such a long way to make trouble.

This can be regarded as "avoiding the world"... But this is different from real avoiding the world. Moreover, in twenty years, it will be the 20th century. Wait a minute, the Qing Dynasty will be over and the Republic of China will come. That is a great opportunity! Not to mention anything else, it should not be difficult to return to China and get rich, right? Guo Jinzhang has no other skills, so it should not be difficult to get a minister of industry or something. At least he has also opened a CNC machine tool, knows a little common sense in processing, and understands the importance of the machinery industry to a country, which is much better than many Chinese people now!

"It's a pity that the Xinhai Revolution will have to wait for another thirty years. At that time, I'm fifty years old. Can I hold on to it older than Sun Yat-sen?"

After picking up the teeth, Guo Jinzhang felt that this ideal was a bit too backward.

"But it's hard to make a fortune in the United States these days... You can't go find Li Hongzhang and live a life in the Beiyang Navy, right? I don't understand this industry. One day I will meet the little Japanese, and if I have Lao Li and Cixi, the old witch, will I be seeking death?"

"Jinzhang, Jinzhang..."

Guo Jinzhang is still a little confused about his future, so he can only continue to lower his head and scrub the clothes in the basin hard... If you can't think about it well, you will think about it now. Don't talk about returning to China, you just want to take a train to San Francisco. Those white people may not be willing to sell you tickets. So, instead of thinking about those far away, it's better to think about practical things, such as: What can you eat tonight?
Chapter completed!