Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 19: Buying and Selling Chinese Workers
"Deputy Captain Sun, why didn't you rescue those miners after entering the city just now?" Wang Chenglin asked while walking on the streets of Arequipa.

"Platoon Leader Wang, our main mission is to investigate the distribution of Arequipa's military forces. As for other things, we can only do them after completing the mission. I hope you can distinguish the priorities and not ruin the prince's plan because of your impulse."

Sun Qisheng stopped and said seriously.

"That's true, but I feel uncomfortable when I see my compatriots being mistreated by Peruvians."

"Even if you are unhappy, you have to hold it in. Always put the overall situation first." Sun Qisheng scolded.

Wang Chenglin said nothing and turned a street. Sun Qisheng and a group of more than a dozen people came to a commercial street in the north of the city. Most of the goods sold on the commercial street were livestock. Large plantation owners in Peru often traded on this street.

Sun Qisheng and his two companions walked into the commercial street. In addition to the common alpacas (commonly known as *****), they also found more than 300 slaves in the corner, most of whom were Chinese.
In 1854, Peru abolished slavery. At the same time, in order to save production costs, Peru introduced a large number of workers from China to replace the original slave labor.

When Chinese coolies arrived in Peru, their employers would sign an eight-year labor contract with them, stipulating that they would receive a meager monthly salary (8 pesos per month) and that after the eight years, the employers would have no reason to extend their labor term.

In fact, due to the meager wages, Chinese coolies usually could not afford to return home after 8 years and had to choose an employer again to renew their contract or engage in other low-level labor to make a living.

In the Spanish part of the contract, the Chinese workers were referred to as "Asian settlers." In fact, their employers never treated them as settlers. In the eyes of their employers, the Chinese workers were coolies or slaves.

This can be seen from the fact that the employer is often referred to as the "consignee" or "owner" in the contract.

The labor contracts of the Chinese coolies and the relevant Peruvian laws actually recognized the fact that during the eight-year service period, the coolies were the property of the employer and constituted part of the fixed assets in the employer's plantation or enterprise.

The overseers who managed the Chinese coolies were recently freed slaves.

In order to control the coolies, supervisors could directly use the methods used to control slaves, such as whips, sticks, shackles, confinement, and even execution.

Corporal punishment is commonplace on any Peruvian plantation or mine.

Headlines such as "Coolie Escapes" and "Coolie For Sale" were common in local newspapers, even though according to the law at the time, coolies could not be bought and sold.

"Captain, please save these Chinese brothers. They all have scars on their bodies. If they are bought by other plantation owners, they will definitely not survive."

The Chinese workers on the commercial street were different from those seen before. They all had scars on their bodies, and some had gunshot wounds.

Wang Chenglin's brother came to South America with him. A year ago, his brother was beaten to death by a Peruvian supervisor, so he was so excited when he saw Chinese workers who had the same experience as him. His hatred for white people was also because of his brother's death.

"Captain, to save the Chinese brothers escorted by the middle-aged white man, we need to kill those Peruvians, which may alert the Peruvian army in the city. But now we can buy them and save their lives as long as we pay. I hope the captain will consider it."

Another Chinese soldier beside him said.

Sun Qisheng, like the soldier who made the request, was a laborer who had suffered. He could understand how they felt when they saw their compatriots suffer. However, he was the commander of this unit and he needed to look at the problem from a higher perspective, so he stopped Wang Chenglin's impulse to rescue the Chinese workers.

The current situation is different from before. In order to deal with the Peruvian inspection, Sun Qisheng and others brought a lot of money in advance to bribe the Peruvians when needed.

So Sun Qisheng had enough money to buy them. After careful consideration, he felt that there was nothing wrong with saving these Chinese workers.

Sun Qisheng said, "I agree to rescue them, but let Anthony do it. Don't say anything, or you will be exposed."

"Yes, sir. We will definitely pay attention to it." The soldier next to him whispered. "Anthony, let two soldiers go to the front with you and buy those Chinese back," Sun Qisheng said as he handed him a dozen Peruvian banknotes.
"Okay, I'll go now." Anthony understood that Sun Qisheng sent two soldiers to monitor him, so he didn't waste any words, took the money and walked forward.

"Brother Cai, we are in the hands of those plantation owners this time. I am afraid we won't survive for long."

A Chinese worker tied up with ropes in the fence.

Two months ago, more than 200 Chinese workers escaped from the mine and were caught by the Peruvian army and thrown into prison.

Then the Chinese Independence Army revolted, and the defenders of Arequipa released them from prison to build fortifications. These trafficked Chinese workers were injured during the arrest and could not bear the labor of building fortifications, so they were bought by a human trafficker in collusion with the defenders and resold on the commercial street.

"If I hadn't failed to grab any weapons when I escaped, I would have killed all those damn Peruvian supervisors." The man said with hatred in his eyes.

"These Peruvians don't treat us as human beings. In order to make us work more, they lure us into smoking opium. Many of our brothers have died from smoking opium." said the man who spoke at the beginning.

In the plantations in Peru, Chinese workers got up at 4:12 a.m. for roll call and began their long work of more than 7 hours a day. They worked seven days a week and were locked in dilapidated, dirty and crude wooden houses at night.

Due to heavy labor and the inducement of plantation owners, some Chinese workers numbed themselves by smoking opium.

The plantation owners took advantage of the Chinese workers' dependence on opium and used it to threaten those opium-addicted workers, threatening not to give them opium if they did not complete their daily work tasks.

Chinese workers tried to exchange goods for opium, and the crime rate of robbery and murder increased, including suicide. Suicide was also a crime under Spanish law. Of the 1860 criminal activities registered by Chinese workers in 1878, 900 were suicides, 203 were robberies, 210 were murders against Chinese, 418 were premeditated murders against whites and blacks, 72 were arson of sugarcane plants or buildings, and 12 were uprisings or collective protests.

On the one hand, plantation owners used opium to prevent coolies from erupting in large-scale rebellion. On the other hand, in addition to hanging, jumping into wells, and drowning in sugar vats, the most common and easiest way for desperate Chinese workers to commit suicide was to take an overdose of opium.

"I heard that our compatriots outside have launched an uprising and have occupied Moquegua. Unfortunately, I cannot join them and fight in the battlefield."

The two men who were talking, one named Cai Jiu and the other named Chen Lu'er, were both poor farmers from Guangdong. They had been deceived by human traffickers from the Qing Dynasty and taken to Peru two years ago. Now they had no hope of returning and only wanted to kill the Peruvians for revenge.

"Brother Cai, someone wants to buy us," Chen Luer asked curiously.
"It's death in anyone's hands. There's nothing to be surprised about."

"No, the person who bought us this time is different from the others. He bought all of us Chinese. And look at the two Indians next to him, do they look like Chinese?" Chen Lu'er pointed at Anthony who had finished the transaction with the human traffickers.

Cai Jiu looked up at Anthony and the other two and said, "That white man only uses two Chinese as his subordinates. He may not be very good to the other Chinese workers."

Cai Jiu thought that the two Chinese around Anthony were his subordinates, and they disguised themselves as Indians to avoid inspection by the Peruvian garrison.

A very small number of Chinese in South America also live a good life, but most of these people obtain a relatively better status by helping Peruvians oppress other Chinese workers. This can be seen from the Chinese Kapitans in Southeast Asia.

The British colonists appointed some Chinese as Kapitans and used them to monitor and suppress the lower-class Chinese, thereby exploiting the value of the Chinese to the greatest extent.

Anthony completed the transaction procedures with the human traffickers, rejected the traffickers' kindness to send people to help him escort the Chinese workers, and brought 104 laborers to where Sun Qishen and others were.

Originally, Anthony did not have enough money to buy so many Chinese workers. However, because these Chinese workers were all injured, the traffickers sold them to Anthony at a price that was one-third cheaper. In the eyes of the Peruvian traffickers, one hundred and four Chinese workers were just commodities that could be bought and sold at will. One Chinese worker could be bought for fifty or sixty pesos (Peso is the currency of Peru). They could even use fifty or sixty pesos to buy a Chinese worker's life. The lives of Chinese workers were so cheap here.

(End of this chapter)