African Nationhood

Chapter 212 Rand’s Gold

In March, everywhere in Rand is golden, and it’s the harvest season again.

Standing tall and tall, Li Yaru looked out from the third-floor window of Rand Fortress City. The endless corn fields, rice fields and soybean fields were all golden. This season will be another good year for a bumper harvest.

As the female owner of Rand Fortress Mall, a female teacher, and a member of the Rand Fortress City Committee, Li Yaru is truly at the forefront of the times.

Thanks to the implementation of Mr. Shi's "Equality for All" bill, she, a second-generation Chinese American immigrant, finally emerged under the rule of Nanhua Company.

As early as 1879, she moved to Southwest Africa with her family.

At that time, Southwest Africa was still very backward and all kinds of infrastructure were incomplete.

At that time, their whole family settled in a settlement on the outskirts of Hot Springs City. The land there was quite fertile, and the whole family was crowded into a shack.

Although the days at that time could provide enough food and clothing, there was nothing bright about it.

Because there were only some wild beasts left in the settlements at that time except bushes, and the adults did not allow children to run around at will to avoid encountering wild beasts.

Li Yaru's father's hometown was an immigrant from Fujian Province in the Qing Dynasty. The people there were never good at caring for the land, so his father was thinking about starting a small business to make a profit.

He had learned the art of tanning fur in the United States, so he took the initiative to find the mayor, and then found the regional government through the mayor.

The regional government was very happy to hear that Li's father knew how to tan fur, and immediately brought Li's father to Fu Tong, the then mayor of Zhongyuan District.

After a conversation, District Mayor Futong took Father Li to a workshop and asked him to tan the furs on site.

After some operation, Father Li was more skilled than the old man in the workshop.

Therefore, the mayor of Futong District appointed Li's father as the foreman, and the Li family also moved into Hot Spring City.

After arriving in Hot Spring City, Li Yaru got the opportunity to enroll in school.

At that time, Li Yaru had no education at all in the United States, so she only received elementary education in Hot Spring City.

But she is very talented and learns things quickly.

Within a year, she was able to write Chinese proficiently and mastered the knack of rapid mental arithmetic.

The school teachers all praised Li Yaru as a genius. Li's father grinned happily and said that it was not a bad idea to immigrate to the United States.

After another year of study, Li Yaru's academic performance is getting better and better. Her learning progress has surpassed that of most of her classmates. She has passed elementary education.

Therefore, she was recommended to Anhai Town Children's School to receive secondary education.

After three years of study, Li Yaru graduated from secondary education in 1884.

Following the recommendation of her teacher, she came to Rand Fortress City to work as a teacher.

Rand Fortress City is home to many immigrants, all of whom have just been naturalized.

At that time, the company had changed its naturalization policy. New immigrants had to work for the company for free for three years, and after three years they would be eligible for free land allocation.

Rand Fortress City and Rand Farm are the company's most important external properties, and more than 2,000 Chinese immigrants are stationed here.

It is not easy for Li Yaru to work as a teacher in Rand Fortress City.

But as she spent more time as a teacher, she became more experienced and more relaxed.

Because the fur factory where Li's father worked was developing too fast, there were insufficient fur sources in Southwest Africa, and there was an urgent need to expand the source of furs.

At this time, the company issued the "Interim Regulations on Encouraging People to Carry out Diversified Businesses". Li Yaru took the initiative to contact her father after studying the document.

She can help their factory purchase Boer furs in Rand Fortress City and earn the price difference.

Father Li naturally agreed with this and immediately reported it to the owner of the fur factory.

The boss of Zhongyuan Livestock Products and Fur Processing Factory naturally agreed with this good thing and immediately authorized Li Yaru to open a counter in Rand Fortress City to purchase cattle and sheep skins on behalf of Zhongyuan Factory.

Since then, Li Yaru has been helping her father's factory purchase furs. After more than a year of development, she has handled more and more furs.

From the initial few thousand a month, it has grown to more than 30,000 a month. With the expansion of the scale of acquisitions, she has become a rich woman with a huge amount of money.

The money gave her more confidence and capital, and she rented a giant counter in Rand Fortress City.

In addition to purchasing cattle and sheepskin, she also plans to get involved in firearms sales.

Commissioner Shi Jinyong of the Commercial Bureau of Nanhua Company held an internal business promotion meeting two months ago. He hoped that powerful businessmen could act as agents to sell the Martini-Henry rifles produced by the Anhai Town Arsenal.

If you have better overseas connections and the quantity you want is large, the price can be discounted.

The Boers recognized the quality of the Martini-Henry rifle. After all, it was the standard equipment of the British Empire.

In the past, due to the hostility between the Boers and the British, the Martini-Henry rifle was basically unavailable within the Boer's sphere of influence.

Most of the rifles used by the Boers were rifles produced in Germany or the Netherlands. If her store could steadily supply Martini-Henry rifles and bullets, sales would not be bad.

……

Commercial success does not satisfy Li Yaru.

She recently received shocking news that Mr. Shi, Lord Shi, was getting married!

This news hits young girls like her the hardest.

Not only her, but many female immigrants in Rand Fortress City also suffered a huge wave of blows.

They are usually teachers and students, but in private they are all sisters. When they have free time, they will get together to talk about Mr. Shi and his women.

Mr. Shi is too young, tall and handsome. He is the ideal son-in-law of many young girls in Southwest Africa and the object of their daily fantasies.

He has only had one North Korean woman by his side for so many years, and the position of the first wife has always been vacant.

I don’t know how many girls dreamed of becoming Mr. Shi’s wife, but the North Korean woman who climbed onto Mr. Shi’s bedside first earned their envy.

Later I heard that the North Korean woman had fallen out of favor and another immigrant girl had taken her place.

After many young girls learned the news, they were happy but still did not forget to laugh at the Korean woman who had fallen out of favor.

Then their focus shifted to the new immigrant girl, and they began to look for the immigrant girl's shortcomings.

After paying attention, I found that the immigrant girl was young and beautiful, and her appearance was completely worthy of Mr. Shi, but her background was a bit too low.

So they collectively attacked the immigrant girl because she was of low origin and her status was not worthy of Mr. Shi.

As the immigrant girl appeared frequently around Mr. Shi, many people gradually accepted her.

But they still couldn't hide their dissatisfaction, but they couldn't influence Mr. Shi's mind.

Unexpectedly, the turning point came so quickly. Mr. Shi's real wedding partner was his adoptive mother's sister in the United States.

Mr. Shi's family members all died during the Qing Dynasty's disaster years, and he had a deep affection for his host family in the United States.

Therefore, it is not unacceptable to marry the sister of the adoptive mother's family as the first wife.

It was better than letting Mr. Shi marry an immigrant girl from the same background as them.

In this way, many people felt relieved. After all, no one could criticize Mr. Shi's childhood sweetheart's feelings.

While Li Yaru lamented Mr. Shi's emphasis on feelings, she couldn't help complaining about why she couldn't meet Mr. Shi in the United States earlier. Maybe that great good luck would fall on her.

While he was looking at the scenery outside, the door of the room was suddenly pushed open, and a panting young woman ran in.

"Teacher Yaru, something big happened. A giant gold nugget was discovered at Rand Farm!"

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  (End of this chapter)