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The railroad is open!

As the train roared and drove on the railway, the road builders shouted in the dense rainforest beside the railway, sweating so much for the railway that they had to die in the past few years. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Near the railway, you can see everywhere the cemetery with the cross, which is the cemetery of the road construction workers. Too many people died for this railway.

Hundreds, thousands!

And even more, and many of them are Chinese who have not even left their names.

Now, however, there is almost no difference between the Chinese and Indian laborers.

Standing in the dense rainforest on the side of the road, Deng Mingzhao's thin face showed a smile.

"It's finally over!"

Thinking of the hardships he had suffered on this construction site in the past two years, tears slipped from Deng Mingzhao's eyes.

Two years ago, he and his countrymen were sold as "piglets" to Colombia, to the construction site of the Isthmus Iron in the province of Panama, where they worked day and night like slaves. There will be people dying here, and many people will die because of diseases, just like Uncle Suozi in the same village, who died of fever on the construction site.

In the past two years, the fellow villager who went out of the village to pick salt together but was kidnapped and sold "piglets" was the only one who survived, and how many people survived on the boat that year?

"356 people ......"

Reading this number silently, they all died, they all died on this construction site, they had come here by boat with Deng Mingzhao, but they all died here.

Deng Mingzhao, who had read books, wrote down their names and places of origin, and he thought that one day when he returned to China, he would tell their families about their whereabouts.

Okay, now it's over, and the job is finally done.

I'll be home soon!

It's been this thought that has sustained him for the past two years. sustained him alive.

Now I finally see that hope.

Thinking that he would be able to go home soon, Deng Mingzhao had a smile on his face, he could go home!

"Deng, Deng......"

At this moment, someone behind him kept shouting about him.

It's Marman.

Turning around and seeing his friend calling him, Deng Mingzhao hurriedly walked over, it was time to say goodbye to his friend.

"Deng, quick, come with me!"

Marman took Deng Mingzhao's hand and said nervously.

"Let's go? Go there? ”

Deng Mingzhao asked puzzled. By two years, he had been able to speak Spanish fluently, even though Marman was an Indian.

"I heard that the company wants to sell the rest of the Chinese workers to Cuba......"

"What?"

Deng Mingzhao couldn't believe his ears, didn't those foreigners say that they would be let go home when the railway was built in the future?

"How is this possible? They promised us ......"

"Deng, hurry up, it's too late if you don't leave, they said that your contract still has a six-year construction period, and if you sell it to Cuba, you can sell it for a few hundred pesos per person......"

Marman pulled his friend and said nervously. As soon as he heard the news, he immediately ran over and told Deng Mingzhao to let him go with him.

"Let's go? Go, go there? ”

Deng Mingzhao looked around blankly, where could he go when he was penniless? It's a place for foreigners.

"Come home with me and go to Bolivia ......"

Although it is not known where Bolivia is? But Deng Mingzhao, who didn't want to be treated as a slave in the past two years, still chose to leave here with his friends.

The rest of the journey was completely on his legs, there was neither a ship nor a train, at most he took a carriage on the road, and so he went all the way south, and after a month's journey, Deng Mingzhao looked no different from the Indians under the wind and sun, and even his dress was the same as the Indians.

"My friend, wait until you get there. I can introduce you to your prettiest girl if you wish, and the two of us will be living in ......."

Marman, who was lying on the hay, was fantasizing about the future, Deng Mingzhao looked at his friend, and now he was a little lucky, glad that when he was building the railway bridge, he fell into the water, and everyone thought that he would definitely die, only Deng Mingzhao jumped into the water and rescued him from the bottom.

Because of this, the two became friends. Deng Mingzhao saved him once, but he saved Deng Mingzhao twice, and then Deng Mingzhao contracted malaria twice, both of which were saved by Marman from the bark of his hometown, and now he has rescued himself from the tiger's mouth.

This is the third time.

This kindness will not be over for a lifetime, but ...... My home is not here?

"How about it, Deng, do you think that's okay? When the time comes, we will be neighbors. ”

Marman's enthusiasm made Deng Mingzhao stunned for a moment, and he shook his head and said after a moment of silence.

"I still have my brother and sister at home, and I'm going to go back to see them first anyway."

Yes, my home is not here, and neither is my family. I have to go back! But how do you get back? How can you afford a ferry ticket when it is so expensive?

"You want to go home?"

Although his friend was reluctant to stay here, which made Marman feel a little disappointed, he still said.

"Okay, but you need to buy a ticket to get home, well, I've heard that someone has opened saltpeter and phosphate mines in the desert, and when I get back home for a while, then we'll go there together, and I've heard that it's more profitable to build a railroad than to build a railway, and maybe in a few months, you'll be able to earn a ticket home......"

In fact, the opportunity to go home comes faster and earlier!

Pisagua is a small town on the Pacific coast, and although it is very small, it is an extremely important port, from which tens of thousands of tons of saltpeter are shipped from all over the world every year, and there are always merchant ships from all over the world moored on the docks, and there are always sailors from all over the world in the bars of the town, and prostitutes from Chile, Peru and, of course, Bolivia are there to have fun.

While the sailors were having fun in the bars, coolies carried barrels of saltpeter onto the docks, a hundred pounds each, and more than 150 pounds with the barrels. And the pay for each bucket carried on the ship is only 2 cents!

50 barrels earn one peso, a ticket to Valparaiso is 25 pesos, from there to San Francisco is 56 pesos, and from San Francisco to Hong Kong is 194 pesos......

Almost every day, Deng Mingzhao would always keep chanting this sentence in his head, and then calculate how many barrels this was, the coolies at the dock were the hardest, and the reason why he was willing to work as a coolie at the dock was because he earned more money here than in the mines.

You only need to earn 300 pesos!

That's 15,000, it should be 20,000 barrels, and you can go home!

Compared with other coolies on the docks, Deng Mingzhao worked more, and naturally earned more, and for him, the reason why he was willing to work more was because his belief in returning home supported him.

"2000th barrel ......"

Just as Deng Mingzhao was calculating that he had already done a tenth of the work, the nearby words attracted his attention. The reason why it caught his attention was because the two men spoke Cantonese.

That's right, Cantonese!

Because there are many Cantonese people on the ship and on the railway construction site, Deng Mingzhao can not only understand Cantonese, but also speak Cantonese.

"You're Cantonese?"

Deng Mingzhao walked over excitedly, before he was only concerned about work, and he didn't notice the crew on the ship at all, at this time, he noticed that most of the sailors on the ship were actually the same yellow skin, black hair, and black eyes as him. Because there are a lot of Indians here, even if he sees it, he doesn't feel anything.

But Cantonese, these sailors speak Cantonese!

"You're also Cantonese?"

As the second officer of the merchant ship, Li Mingliang looked at this guy who was dressed like a native and his eyes widened in surprise. At first, he thought the man was a native of the earth. Who would have thought that when he opened his mouth, he actually spoke Cantonese.

"I, I'm ......"

I'm from Hunan.

Although he wanted to say this, Deng Mingzhao still changed his words when the words came out.

"I'm from Cantonese and ...... from Guangzhou"

The reason why Deng Mingzhao said this was because he wanted these people to treat him as a fellow countryman, and then agreed to take him back to Guangzhou with him, as long as he returned to Guangzhou, he could also go home if he wanted food.

"You're from Guangzhou? How did you get here? ”

It doesn't matter if you don't ask, Li Mingliang asked. Tears flowed out of Deng Mingzhao's eyes in an instant, what's wrong with this, he, he doesn't want to......

"I ...... I was sold......"

Perhaps because he met his compatriots tens of thousands of miles away, Deng Mingzhao, whose heart became extremely fragile, suddenly cried, as if he wanted to cry out all the sins he had suffered in the past two years, and his crying immediately attracted the sympathy of his surroundings.

“…… I thought I would die in a foreign country like everyone else, but I didn't expect to meet you here........."

Before he finished speaking, Deng Mingzhao cried loudly again, looking at Deng Mingzhao who was in pain, Li Mingliang said without the slightest hesitation.

"Let's go, let's stop this work, you get on the boat and hide, and go home with the boat!"

Go home!

Looking at this dilapidated hut, Deng Mingzhao, who was holding his luggage, once again looked at this hut that he had lived in for more than a month, and he could finally come back, of course he didn't need to hide in the cabin, because he was not a coolie who was sold to this dock. He can leave here openly.

"It's finally time to go home!"

Deng Mingzhao said silently, but he still had some pity in his heart, because he couldn't say goodbye to Marman in person, he was working in the mine, and the ship from China couldn't wait that long, and the ship would return to Guangzhou tomorrow.

And what does this differentiation mean? Maybe we will never see each other again for the rest of our lives!

"Goodbye, my friend......"

Deng Mingzhao said silently in the direction of the inland, but his heart was excited, because he could go home...... (To be continued.) )