"Vice Captain Sun, why didn't you rescue those miners after entering the city just now?" Walking down the streets of Arequipa, Wang Chenglin asked.

"Platoon Commander Wang, our main task is to reconnoiter the distribution of Arequipa's military forces, as for other things, we can only do it on the premise of completing the task, I hope you can distinguish the priorities of things, and don't spoil the great affairs of the son of the world because of impulsiveness."

Sun Qisheng stopped and said seriously.

"That's the truth, but I don't feel happy to see my compatriots being mistreated by Peruvians."

"If you don't feel happy, you have to hold it for me, and everything is based on the overall situation." Sun Qisheng reprimanded.

Wang Chenglin Nuonuo did not speak, turned a street, Sun Qisheng and a dozen people came to a commercial street in the north of the city, most of the commercial street sold livestock, and the big plantation owners in Peru often traded on this street.

Sun Qisheng and the three walked into the commercial street, in addition to seeing the common alpacas (commonly known as *****) and found more than 300 slaves in the corner, most of them were Chinese.

In 1854, slavery was abolished in Peru, and at the same time, in order to save production costs, Peru imported a large number of laborers from China to replace the original slave labor.

When Chinese coolies arrive in Peru, employers sign an eight-year labor contract with them, stipulating that they will receive a meager monthly wage (4 pesos per month) and that there is no reason for the employer to extend their working period after the expiration of the eight-year period.

In fact, due to the meager wages, Chinese coolies usually cannot afford to return to their hometowns after eight years, and have to choose their employers again to renew their contracts, or take up other low-level labor to earn a living.

In the Spanish part of the contract, Chinese laborers are referred to as "Asian settlers", but their employers never treat them as settlers, and in the eyes of their employers, Chinese laborers are coolies or slaves.

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

The labor contract of the Chinese coolie and the relevant Peruvian decree actually recognize the fact that during the eight-year service period, the coolie is the property of the employer, and in the employer's plantation or enterprise, the coolie forms part of the fixed assets.

The overseers who managed the coolies in China were newly emancipated slaves.

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

Corporal punishment is commonplace on any plantation or mine in Peru.

Titles such as "Coolie Escape" and "Coolie Sale" were often seen in local newspapers, even though coolies could not be bought or sold by law at the time.

"Captain, 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 laborers on the shopping street were different from what they had seen before, they all had scars on their bodies, and some had gunshot wounds.

Wang Chenglin's brother came to South America with him, and his brother was killed by a Peruvian overseer a year ago, so he was so excited to see Chinese workers who suffered the same as him, and his hatred for white people was also because of his brother's death.

"Captain, to save the middle-aged white escorted Chinese brothers, we need to kill that group of Peruvians, which may alarm the Peruvian army in the city, but now as long as we pay money, we can buy them and save their lives, I hope the captain will think about it."

Another Chinese soldier beside him said.

Sun Qisheng was a laborer who had suffered like the soldiers who asked for it, and he could also understand how they felt when they saw their compatriots suffering, but he was the commander of this army, and he needed to look at the problem from a higher perspective, so he stopped Wang Chenglin's impulse to rescue the Chinese workers just now.

The current situation is different from just now, in order to cope with the inspection of the Peruvians, Sun Qisheng and others brought a lot of money in advance to bribe the Peruvians when they used it.

So Sun Qisheng had enough money to buy them. After thinking about it again, I felt that there was nothing wrong with saving these Chinese workers.

Sun Qisheng spoke, "I agree to save them, but let Anthony do it, and you don't speak, so as not to show your feet." ”

"Yes, we'll pay attention." The soldier next to him whispered.

"Anthony, let the two soldiers go to the front with you and buy those Chinese back," Sun Qisheng said, handing him a dozen Peruvian banknotes,

"Okay, I'll go now." Anthony understood that Sun Qisheng sent two soldiers to spy on him, so he didn't talk nonsense, took the money and walked forward.

"Brother Cai, this time we fell into the hands of those plantation owners, I'm afraid we won't live long."

A Chinese road tied up by rope in the fence.

Two months ago, more than 200 Chinese laborers escaped from the mine and were captured 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, and these trafficked Chinese laborers were bought by a trafficker in collusion with the defenders because they could not bear the labor of building fortifications because they were injured in the arrest and sold on the shopping street.

"If it weren't for the fact that he didn't grab the weapon when he escaped, he would have killed all those Peruvian overseers." The man said with hatred in his eyes.

"These Peruvians don't see us as human beings, and in order to make us work more, they lure us into opium, and many brothers die because of opium." The man who had just begun to speak said.

On plantations in Peru, Chinese laborers wake up at 4:30 a.m. for roll call to begin their long day, which lasts more than 12 hours. They work seven days a week, and at night they are locked in shabby, dirty, crudely wood-paneled rooms.

Because of the heavy exertion and the lure of the plantation owners, some Chinese laborers relied on opium to anesthetize themselves.

The plantation owners seized on the Chinese laborers' dependence on opium and threatened the opium-smoking Chinese laborers not to complete their daily tasks and not to distribute opium.

Chinese laborers managed to exchange goods for opium, and crime rates of robbery and murder, including suicide, climbed. Suicide is also a crime under Spanish law. Of the 1,878 criminal activities registered in 1860, 900 were suicides, 203 were robberies, 210 were murders against Chinese, 418 were deliberate murders against whites and blacks, 72 were arson on sugar plantations or buildings, and 12 were uprisings or collective protests.

On the one hand, plantation owners used opium to prevent the coolies from erupting in a large-scale sense of rebellion, and on the other hand, desperate Chinese laborers were the most common and easiest way to commit suicide by overdose of opium, in addition to hanging, throwing themselves into wells, and jumping into sugar refining vats to drown.

"I heard that the compatriots outside have launched an uprising and have occupied Mokegua, but unfortunately I can't join them and go into battle to kill the enemy."

The two men who spoke, one named Cai Jiu and the other named Chen Donkey, are poor farmers in Guangdong, who have been deceived to Peru by Qing Dynasty traffickers for two years, and now they have no hope of going back, and only want to kill Peruvians to take revenge.

"Brother Cai, you see that someone wants to buy us" Chen Donkey said a little curiously,

"Death at anyone's hands, there's nothing to make a fuss about."

"No, the person who bought us this time is different from others, he bought all of us Chinese, and you see that the two Indians around him don't look like Chinese." Chen Donkey pointed to Anthony, who had finished trading with human traffickers.

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

Cai Jiu thought that the two Chinese around Anthony were his subordinates, so he disguised himself as Indians in order to avoid the inspection of the Peruvian defenders.

A very small number of Chinese in South America also live a good life, but most of these people have achieved a relatively better position by helping Peruvians oppress other Chinese workers, as can be seen from the Chinese Kapitan in Southeast Asia.

The British colonizers used them to monitor and suppress the low-level Chinese by appointing some Chinese as Kapitan, so as to squeeze the value of the Chinese to the greatest extent.

Anthony completed the transaction procedures with the traffickers, refused the traffickers' offer to send people to help him escort the Chinese laborers, and took one hundred and four laborers to the place where Sun Qisheng and the others stayed.

Originally, Anthony's money could not buy so many Chinese laborers, but because these Chinese laborers were injured, the traffickers sold them to Anthony at a price of one-third cheaper, and one hundred and four Chinese laborers were bought and sold at will in the eyes of Peruvian traffickers, and fifty or sixty pesos could buy a Chinese laborer, (pesos are Peruvian currency.) Or even buy a Chinese worker's life for fifty or sixty pesos, and the life of a Chinese worker is so cheap here.