128 China can say no

"My compatriots, you are free!" Li wanted to wave his hand.

Jin Yingwei rushed up and cut off the braids tied behind their heads.

They are very nervous. Their fate has been doomed since the day when the pig was branded and sent to the colony's ship. Fate suddenly turned around, which made them a little overwhelmed.

In these days when they are regarded as pigs, all the panic, hardships and worries have turned into tears of excitement at this moment.

Even Li Xiang's eyes are moist. Song Que stood aside and cried. Sometimes he likes it to the extreme and is sadness. The tragic experience of his compatriots overseas can infect any bloody Chinese.

"Your Excellency!"

These rescued compatriots sobbed and bowed to Li.

"Get up!" Li wanted to help him quickly, but how many of them can he lift with one hand? He shouted, "Our alliance will put people first and govern for the people. We always remember these eight words. Everything done here is to help our own compatriots.

They were so excited that they burst into tears.

Li wanted to pat Wang Jingwei on the shoulder: "China can say no! Just see if you have the courage to say no!"

"Can we go?" The Dutch official said with a big face.

"OK." Li wanted to make a very foreign gesture to Lord Chaoyang and said to the person concerned of the Chinese Hall, "I came to negotiate the Surat tragedy this time to protect the rights and interests of overseas Chinese..."

"We know how to do it." The people of the Chinese Association scrambled.

"Lord Yang, please lead the way." Li wanted to smile and turned around and said, "Two... 'pigs', I have a question to ask."

Surahi Street has the congestion and vitality unique to colonial port cities.

There are figures of various skin colors everywhere. Mariners from all over the world wearing white summer uniforms are wearing hats and rampaging on the streets. White or mixed-race policemen, wearing shorts, white leggings, and swaying lazily. Floating in the air is the sweet aroma of mixed fruits and the taste of milk. There are naked locals everywhere. Most of the local men are equipped with a cold knife in their waist, which is cold and shiny.

The surrounding streets are full of all kinds of shops. Look at the signboards. Most of them are in Chinese and Dutch. But most of them have been locked, and Chinese businessmen are still in Ba City.

The local indigenous young bookt gathers at the door of closed shops, squatting there, passing on the cigarettes in their hands to each other, and whisperingly not knowing what they are talking about in the local language of birds.

Along the way, Li wanted to ask a lot of questions.

"I was cheated by the abductors!" The eyes of the tough man who spoke turned red.

The so-called fraud is that the abductors do everything they can to lure Chinese workers under the guise of recruitment. They either make sweet words, make up some beautiful stories about making a fortune, try their best to exaggerate the money-making opportunities and the comfort and comfort of life in the Straits colonies, or give benefits to the fraudsters. No matter what conditions the recruited laborers put forward, they will agree. Or lure young people into the city, introduce them to casinos, brothels, and empty, and then use **, coercion, and coercion to make them into pigs. The so-called fraud is that the brokers do not hesitate to invite their fellow villagers, acquaintances and even relatives to the teahouse and pubs for the intermediary fee of three or four yuan. After they get drunk, they unconsciously bet on some unnecessary IOUs. As a result, Chinese workers always have to sell their bodies to pay off their debts and become pigs.

When the lure and blackmail can't meet their needs, the mobstainers use the last trick - plunder. Under the protection of the secret party forces, the abductors often lie in remote places and wait for the target to pass, they suddenly come forward to knock them down, put them in cloth bags, and transport them to the "pig house". From then on, their families do not know their whereabouts. The act of deception, fraud and plundering by the abductors is called the three steps of abducting and selling laborers by some historians.

What's more, some powerful secret party members simply hunt "pigs" directly in Singapore and Malaya with the strength of the party. Generally speaking, those free immigrants who pay their own travel expenses should not be affected by the morators in theory, but in fact, many of them are reduced to piglets. The reason is that members of the secret party in New Malaysia or hired by a moat are entrusted by them to lure free immigrants to the port of New Malaysia. These villains dressed up as guides and pretended to be new guests to help. Many free immigrants were estranged and soon fell into a trap. All belong to this case. By the late 19th century, the demand and profits of "pigs" had increased greatly in the development of Nuri and North Borna in northern Sumatra, and some secret party members simply abducted "pigs" who had been contracted in Singapore and Penang Island.

"Your Excellency, we Chinese workers work so hard in Nanyang!" A tough man sobbed and couldn't talk any more.

Li Xiang couldn't bear to ask again. He doesn't need to ask about the suffering of Chinese workers who are sold overseas as "pigs". If he wants to talk about it, he is afraid that their suffering is enough to fill this sea area, and he doesn't want to listen to it anymore.

Li doesn't want to hear it, but Wang Jingwei wants to say, "The pig trade is a profitable business. The price of piglets to those who sell pigs to Nanyang is slightly lower, and the cost is about. At the beginning, the prepaid pig's settlement fee or petty fee is about ten yuan, and the introduction fee is three or four yuan, from the departure to the warehouse to the Haikou shore, and the meal during the gathering period. About seven or eight yuan, the ship freight, there are many small people on the ship, and the freight is cheap. However, the trafficker makes a profit, which is slightly more expensive than the ordinary freight, about 10 yuan. When you arrive in Singapore and enter the pig restaurant, the various bills and meals are about 10 yuan, a total of more than 40 yuan, and the final sale with the employer is always about 100 yuan.

In fact, my estimate of this cost is too high. Generally speaking, the cost of a pig is only twelve or three yuan, and the final price is always twice or several times the cost price. Taro fields and tobacco gardens in northern Sumatra and Sarawak have been developed in large quantities, and there is a shortage of labor. A "pig" with a cost of about 30 yuan can be sold to 125 yuan in the past, with a profit of up to four times. Such a high profit has attracted many secret party members. It is said that a total of 800 pig dealers are opening business in Macao. A large part of these people are members of the Chinese Association Party in the Straits Settlements. They are not only associated with the "Pig House" in Singapore, but also have the advantage of speaking Cantonese dialect, which is unfaitable to others in the "pig trade".

"Who knows the role of Yixing in the "pig trade"?" Li wanted to ask. Or, which of you will have something to do with Yixing.

The strong control required by "pig trade" makes the Chinese scum of New Malaysia: Yixinghui has the unique conditions to control this business, and the high profits brought by the "pig trade" also make the secret party will not let go of every opportunity to make money, from the supply, transportation to sales of "pig", every The whole process is controlled by the secret party.

President of the New Malaysian Chinese Association, Chen Bijun's father Chen Gengji's eyes were like burning lava, staring at the officials of the Consulate in Surai. I don't know why several officials were swept by his eyes and couldn't help avoiding them.

"Yixinghui is a bredder and abductor" who supplies "pigs". After receiving the news that labor was needed, the British who opened a foreign bank or agency at the mainland treaty port began to let the mobchers and abducts near the port hunt for enough labor as quickly as possible. Due to the illegality of human trafficking and the hatred of human traffickers by the general public,brokers and abductors are often people with a dark background, and even some people try their best to join the party organization in order to engage in the work of the moker. There are various means for the abductor and the abductor to obtain the "pig", mainly the deception, fraud and plunder mentioned by Zhaoming.

"The pig transport ship is called "floating hell", because the ship owner and the account house do not consider the life or death of Chinese workers in order to make more money. Although the British Parliament passed a bill on September 9, 1853 stipulating that ships exporting Asian passengers from Hong Kong must guarantee a seat of 12 square feet per passenger, few ships are carried out according to the regulations, often with a capacity of 300 people and carrying 600.

"How did you come from the floating area?" Li wanted to sigh for a long time. He lives in the presidential suite on the Changfeng.

"If Yixing will be the main force of the new and horse operation and control of the "pig trade", then the British colonialists are the behind-the-scenes manip of the "pig trade" and the culprit who promoted the emergence and development of the "pig trade" system. On the surface, they do not directly operate the "pig house", just because such a division of labor is more conducive to their hypocrisy. In fact, the British colonialists not only manipulate and shelter those Chinese secret parties engaged in the "pig trade", but also interfere in China's internal affairs through diplomatic means and try to give "pig vendors" as much as possible. Create favorable conditions for plundering Chinese workers. Wang Jingwei said in a trembling voice.

"After Penang Island on the Malay Peninsula became a colony of the British East India Company, the governor of the department hired Chinese craftsmen and farmers through the company's representatives in Guangzhou for years to send them to Penang Island with the company's ships..."

The disastrous faces of overseas Chinese have not had much emotional fluctuations for a long time.

"Your Excellency, Yixing Association is armed and extremely destructive. They are engaged in the "pig trade" and often treat the "pig" with iron rods. The colonial government police officers knew that Chinese workers were oppressed by them, but they did not interfere and deliberately indulged. I know that among the many Ganshu gardens in Penang, the only hospital is a small shed in the stable yard of the employer's private residence, where it is said that "pigs" are often starved to death. But that place is less than 50 yards away from the police station.

"I remember that the British Colonial Department promulgated the Chinese Immigration Decree." Li wanted to remember some information he read on the way here.

Since 1874, when Britain launched an invasion of the Malay Peninsula under the pretext of mediation of the Napoleonic War and turned various Malayan states into colonies, the investment of the British bourgeoisie in the Straits colony has increased sharply. The influx of Western capital urgently needs to import a large number of Chinese workers. At this time, relying solely on secret parties for abduction, kidnapping and looting is far from meeting the needs. At this time, the dark inside story and ugly crimes of the "pig trade" have been ruthlessly exposed and fiercely attacked by world public opinion. The British colonial authorities feel that There must be a special agency to plunder Chinese workers and sell "pigs" with legal clothes, so as to import Chinese workers more openly and on a large scale, and effectively control and manage the newly relocated Chinese workers. At the same time, the colonial bourgeoisie in the Straits was also dissatisfied with the secret party's control of the "pig trade", which increased the cost of importing Chinese workers. They hoped that the colonial authorities could directly manage the import of Chinese workers and reduce the intervention of the secret party, so as to reduce the cost of imported labor and share more surplus value of Chinese workers. In this case, in 1877, the Straits Colonial Government promulgated the Chinese Immigration Decree, and in accordance with the decree, in the same year

On June 1, the Chinese People's Guard Department was established to manage Chinese immigration and cancel the secret meeting party, and stipulated that new guests must go to the Chinese People's Guard Department as officials before voluntary helpers sign the contract.

Wang Jingwei's father-in-law Chen Gengji sneered and said, "At the beginning of the establishment of the Chinese Guard Department, the colonial government still did not have enough power to control Chinese immigration, so it privately condoned Yixing to force "pigs" to go abroad voluntarily. It's just gradually turning into underground activities.

Although it was an underground activity, Li Xiang still saw this tragic situation in broad daylight.

"Don't worry, if I can't abolish going to the contract with Chinese workers, I will not return to China!" Li wanted to say in a loud voice.

"Amitabha! ..." The overseas Chinese around were so excited that they didn't know what to say.