Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 318: Enjoying with the People
Early in the morning in Chang'an (Cordoba), the capital of the Han Dynasty, several Chinese women were standing in front of a street-side pharmacy. The sky in the east was just beginning to turn pale, and except for a few shops selling steamed buns and steamed buns that opened their doors and prepared for business, the rest of the shops on the street kept their doors tightly closed.

The three Chinese women, all with natural feet, knocked twice gently. After a while, the door of the pharmacy opened and a woman in her early thirties walked out. She invited the three Chinese women to walk into the pharmacy.

"Each person should take two sets of medicine, one for internal use and one for application on the patient's skin surface. Take it and apply it once a day. Remember not to have sex for a month before and after taking the medicine."

The benevolent doctor grabbed six sachets of Chinese medicine and handed them to the three women. He said, "Your illness has accumulated for a long time. The medicine I prescribed can only temporarily suppress the onset of the disease, but cannot eradicate the stubborn disease. If you want to completely cure the hidden disease, you still have to go to the Royal Hospital in the city. There are several doctors who are proficient in both Chinese and Western medicine. They are responsible for treating women. The next time the disease recurs, I will give you a medical history and medical history, and you can go to the Royal Hospital to see Doctor Zhou Xianlin."

The three women were probably familiar with the doctor and his wife. One of them, who was wearing a colorful scarf, said with concern, "There are too many people in the Royal Hospital, and our illnesses are too embarrassing to be seen. It's good to go to the Royal Hospital for treatment, but we have spent all the money we earned in the pigeon coop for two years on the way from Southeast Asia to America. Each of us only has a set of silver jewelry that our mother gave us when we went to Southeast Asia. We really don't have any extra money."

"Sister, you and Xiangqiao are good sisters. Xiangqiao didn't lack you when she was in Nanyang. If you don't have enough money, you can find some in the pharmacy. It's not good to keep putting off your illness. I'll let Xiangqiao get 20 taels of silver for your treatment first. If you don't have enough money, you can get more from here."

After the doctor finished speaking, he shouted to the courtyard behind the pharmacy, "Xiangqiao, go to the account office and withdraw 20 taels of silver. Alan and the other three need it urgently."

"Hey, boss, I'll get it right away."

A voice of reply came from the courtyard. After a while, a woman wrapped a few ingots of silver in a handkerchief and handed them to the three women, saying, "Sister Qiulan, it is important to see a doctor. You and your two sisters have just been married for less than two months. It is most important to take care of your health. Besides, this is not Southeast Asia. Few outsiders dare to gossip about it."

"Alas, sister, you are not unaware of our difficulties. Among the six sisters in the pigeon cage in Nanyang, sister Guichun married a Chinese worker who went to Nanyang and became a good woman. Later, her husband heard some gossip from the neighbors and beat her up. Guichun was so ashamed that she ran to the beam behind the pigeon cage and committed suicide. Sister Aju was weak and fell ill on the way to America. The remaining four of us sisters arrived in America and at least found a family to marry. Although the head of the family was honest and came from a coolie family, he did not beat or scold the sisters. I was just afraid that after finally becoming a good woman, other people would gossip about her and the news would reach the head of the family's ears. Then I would have no face to live on."

When the doctor's wife heard the other party's words, she couldn't help but show bitterness and sadness on her face.

When the woman was in her teens, her family was poor and her parents sold her to a human trafficker in Yangcheng. Later, she was sold to Southeast Asia. Fortunately, she met a husband who worked as a laborer during the day and treated Chinese patients at night. Most of the Chinese who went to Southeast Asia were poor people from the lower class. Among the few doctors, only one accepted the treatment of Chinese prostitutes. After three or five contacts, they all came from poor families. In addition, there were few Chinese women in Southeast Asia. The doctor married the other party as his wife and married a good woman. Her living conditions were greatly improved compared to when she was in the pigeon cage. However, the pointing and criticizing of some Chinese people around her still made her feel ashamed and inferior. She watched her wife depressed every day. Seeing his wife's depressed look, the doctor chose to sell the land and house he had purchased in Southeast Asia, took all his personal belongings, and immigrated to South America on a transport ship. The Han territory in South America was full of Chinese who had migrated from all over the place. In a new environment, no one knew his wife's previous experiences. His wife's mentality gradually improved. And since his wife gave birth to her first child, more and more Chinese people came to see the doctor. From his own experience of treating patients to becoming a little famous, the doctor also followed the migrating people to Chang'an City not long ago, ready to start a new stage of life under the feet of the emperor.

The influence of clan power and traditional culture on the Chinese is deep-rooted. The feudal ills of favoring sons over daughters and disrespecting women still remain to a large extent in the Han Dynasty. In the ten years since the founding of the country, more than hundreds of thousands of Chinese have immigrated to South America every year. Efforts to correct and improve backward habits have been ongoing, but there is still a big gap between this and the ideal country that Li Mingyuan expects.

Infanticide and abandonment of newborn babies were prohibited, and newborn female babies, like male babies, could receive 5 acres of arable land or 30 acres of mountain land as a government reward. Similar policies implemented by the Han government all had several common goals: to encourage childbirth, change the traditional custom of favoring boys over girls, and eliminate the mortality rate of newborn girls.

In order to implement these policies, local governments strictly punished a number of families who privately abandoned baby girls. In minor cases, the parents were ordered to take back the abandoned baby girls and fined a considerable amount. In serious cases, the death of baby girls was treated as a criminal case. The parents and other people involved were sentenced to several years in prison. In serious cases, the land issued by the government was taken back and they were sent to African colonies to open up wasteland and station on the border. Compared with South America, the environment in African colonies is harsh. The high temperature and disease alone take away at least 100 Chinese lives every year. Accustomed to the suitable and cool climate in the La Plata region, about one-fifteenth of the Chinese sent to the Congo colony could not adapt to the local climate and died of disease and other reasons in the first year.

The government's severe punishments and the tragic conditions of the exiled Chinese shocked batches of newly immigrated Chinese. With the sentencing of more than a thousand similar cases in the first few years, the phenomenon of favoring boys over girls in the Han Dynasty was greatly improved. Although the monogamy system was not publicly discussed and implemented because it was too advanced, policies such as limiting the number of concubines, giving wives and concubines equal status in law, and allowing ordinary people to marry no more than three women as wives were gradually promulgated. The status of women in the Han Dynasty has been greatly improved. In various parts of the Han Dynasty, except for a few businessmen like Lin Yaxiang who did not know how to restrain themselves and still violated government orders by marrying more than three women as concubines, more than 90% of families were monogamous, and families with three wives accounted for less than 2%. In the early years, some officials and officers who relied on political power to marry four or five women as wives, after being warned by Li Mingyuan, solemnly stated that they would not do so again and would never dare to continue to marry more young women as wives or concubines.

The problem of abandoned babies by women has been basically solved, and the concept of equal rights for wives and concubines has gradually been recognized by the people. Only the stigma of selling one's body is still pointed out by the Chinese. The doctor's wife carefully enlightened the three sisters. Soon after persuading them to go to the Royal Hospital for treatment, there was a burst of lively cheers on the street.
The doctor, his wife and the other five people opened the door and came to the street. They pulled an acquaintance and asked, "Today is not a festival, why is it so lively?"

"Haha, great news! Lord Li, who is in charge of our neighborhood, just sent someone to inform us that the British took the initiative to seek peace with us. Moreover, under the persuasion of the court's civil and military ministers, His Royal Highness the King of Han officially announced that after the peace talks are over, he will change the era name and proclaim himself emperor before the end of the year!"

The situation on the streets was chaotic and illegal, with many people even performing the long-abolished kneeling ritual and bowing solemnly in the direction of the Chang'an Imperial Palace.

"Hey, Your Highness, it's the right time for you to be emperor. Our Great Han Kingdom is an overseas country, and it has nothing to do with the Great Qing Kingdom. It's not right to always be a vassal king. Now, the Great Han Kingdom covers an area of ​​10,000 miles from north to south, and there are 8 million Chinese and white people in total. Those Brazilians and Mexicans have called themselves empires, so it's time for Your Highness to be emperor!"

"If His Royal Highness the King of Han declares himself emperor, does that mean he will grant amnesty to the entire nation?"

"It's more than a general amnesty, Your Highness the King of Han, no, it should be His Majesty the Emperor."

The owner of the grocery store next to the pharmacy said with a smile, "Your Majesty is much more generous than the Tartar Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. The word has spread on the streets that from the day when your Majesty ascends the throne and changes the era name, all Chinese in South America, whether they arrived a year ago or just arrived, will all obtain official Han nationality status."

"Not only that, Lord Li also said that after the change of the reign title, each family will be exempted from the five mu of land, and unmarried Chinese people will be able to get one to two mu of land each."

"There are four people in my family, and if we divide it into five acres, it will add up to 30 acres. I have to go back and discuss with my wife to see which piece of wasteland outside the city is in a good location and decide on it in advance!"

This was the first time that the Chinese had encountered the good thing of free land distribution. Among all the emperors in history who ascended the throne, only Li Mingyuan had the determination and conditions to take advantage of the expansion of new territory and the sparsely populated Han Kingdom to distribute land as welfare.

(End of this chapter)