In the last month of the 22nd year of the new Qin Dynasty, at the beginning of February 1899 in the Western calendar, Beijing was already covered with ice and snow, and the Isthmus of Panama continued to be hot and hot.

The temperature of 267 degrees is enough for people to wear only single clothes to work! When you work and sweat profusely, you don't need to wear a single coat.

Fifty thousand Nanyang laborers have been in Panama for some time, and the dimensions of the two sides are not much different, both near the equator. So these Nanyang laborers are really quite adaptable, except for those who die on the job, the number of their 50,000 people who die of disease is not as large as the more than 10,000 Chinese and Japanese people who die of disease.

This cannot but be said to be ethnic!

There is no New Year here at the Panama construction site, and the natives of Nanyang who believe in the Green Religion are not even New Year. The Chinese and Japanese are frugal, and there have been no noticeable changes except for two window grilles on the dormitory windows, and the meals have recently become better and more abundant.

Everyone here is thinking about one thing - step up!

Since the start of construction, the total number of 16,700 Chinese and Japanese military workers has reached 2,700, 800 deaths, and a mortality rate of 30 percent, after completely deducting the casualties in the line of duty, just getting sick and being bitten by poisonous insects and poisonous snakes and hospitalized. It's a for a day!

In just three months, in addition to the 10,000 or so Chinese skilled workers at the beginning, there are now more than 6,000 left, and no matter how high the wages are, it is useless to spend them, and 4,000 people will either die or report to quit, and they would rather go to the most dangerous Nanyang or Virginia than stay in this hellish place.

All those who go to the Isthmus of Panama have a letter of contract, and these people apply for a report of withdrawal. The Canal Company may not agree to it altogether. However, because the Japanese can fill this vacancy, and their casualty pensions are much lower than those of the Chinese. The Canal Company could also deduct the wages of a large number of Chinese skilled workers in the name of unfulfilled contracts, so it agreed.

As a result, the number of Japanese on the construction site skyrocketed. From the first 1,000 or so people -- foremen and overseers -- to 5,000 or 6,000 now, the number is comparable to that of the armed forces responsible for security here.

Aren't the Japanese afraid of death? They are also afraid. But the attraction of money made them ignore the threat of death, and because the living conditions were worse than those of Chinese skilled workers, 800 Chinese and Japanese died in three months, the latter accounting for 45% of the total.

Because the mortality rate is too high, China has no way to completely eradicate the disease, lime, alum, coptis, bupleurum and so on in large quantities to the Isthmus of Panama, but at the end of the 19th century, when modern medicine was just beginning. These are just doing their best to obey the destiny of God.

At the current canal site, Buddhism, Taoism, Japanese Shintoism, monotheism and the Green religion practiced by the indigenous people of Nanyang are all in vogue.

The Chinese built a land temple in the first month of arriving at the construction site, and then built a plague temple and a Buddhist temple at a rapid pace, enshrined the Buddhist oriental glazed medicine master Guangrulai and the South China Sea Guanyin Bodhisattva!

The project's chief in charge last month deployed hundreds of people for Japan's Shintoism, the indigenous Green Sect, and a few monotheistic religions. Temples and churches were erected. I even worshiped all the gods and Buddhas. It's just a matter of eggs!

In a telegram sent to Beijing, he said: The extremely high mortality rate has cast a heavy shadow over the entire project, and the bad influence has dealt a heavy blow to the labor enthusiasm and work mood of the laborers, and religious and religious beliefs can soothe their inner panic and spiritual hesitation......

He also mentioned some bad rumors circulating among the Nanyang indigenous laborers -- that the extremely high mortality rate of Chinese and Japanese people was regarded by the Nanyang aborigines as the punishment of the Chinese and Japanese people. Because although the natives of Nanyang also died of three or four hundred diseases, the proportion was much lower than that of China and Japan. These people are now terrified of the natural environment of the Isthmus of Panama. However, because of the comparison of the heavy losses and experiences of the Chinese and Japanese people, the mood of joy is high, which is the standard schadenfreude.

The Canal Company arrested hundreds of Nanyang laborers on charges of spreading rumors. And according to the method of drawing one from two, let them first choose those who are willing to die. Of course, this did not work out, and then the half that was hanged was selected by drawing lots. In the short term, it suppressed the momentum of this bad rumor.

The Canal Company command had a hard time. Commander-in-Chief of Engineering. Lieutenant General Wu Dekai, the former head of the Hampton Anchorage Project, not only had to worry about progress and technical issues, but also had to care about the 'minds' of the workers. Even in order to counter superstition, that is, the previous rumors of a very bad nature, he also showed domestic primary and secondary school students health knowledge propaganda films and invited the army's art troupe to rehearse plays, operas, and so on.

If it weren't for Wu Dekai still wanting to make another contribution, and this appointment was personally issued by Liu Xian, he would have a special sense of honor, and he would have to bear the responsibility when he rushed to his feet, and he would have to pick a son when he was already in his sixties.

The cool night breeze blew on Li Yuanhong's face, the only person in Chinese history who served two terms as president and three vice presidents in his previous life, and he was not at all with the army in this life. He is now an engineer for the Canal Company, a middle-ranking figure at today's Panama Canal construction site.

In 1879, at the age of fifteen, Li Yuanhong immigrated with his father to Tianjin, which was in ruins. After years of operation, the Li family's business has continued to expand, and they may not be rich, but they can definitely be called rich.

When Li Yuanhong was 19 years old, he was admitted to Tianjin University, a local start-up in Tianjin for only two years, and enrolled in the Department of Civil Engineering. Four years later, Li Yuanhong, who successfully obtained his graduation certificate, married a beautiful lady that year, and then joined the Tianjin branch of North China First Construction Company as a construction technician.

The family is wealthy, knowledgeable, decent, and his wife is beautiful. The first 20 years of Li Yuanhong's life is simply a winner in the life of a red fruit.

Many years have passed now, and Li Yuanhong himself has long been promoted from construction technician to civil engineer. As a result, during the preparation for the establishment of the canal company, the first construction company in North China transfused blood to the canal company, and a group of cutting-edge elites had the name of Li Yuanhong, who came to Panama from the prosperous and stable mainland of China, which can be said to be the biggest disaster in Li Yuanhong's life!

Here, a sip of cold water may make you swing and get sick; A mosquito bite can infect you with a disease and die of weakness. Not to mention many poisonous snakes, that kind of cold-blooded animal is what Li Yuanhong is most afraid of. Just thinking about the way the snake twisted and twisted, he shuddered! But it's full of snakes, and it's still deadly vipers!

The only thing Li Yuanhong is satisfied with on the construction site is the Japanese geisha here, although he is not interested in the 'dance' of the little devil and the white powder that is all over his face, but the geisha is still very good after washing his face.

There is no way, the women in the country do not come to the Panama Canal construction site at all, and even Panama City rarely sees their faces. Li Yuanhong and most of the Chinese people were not interested in Nanyang indigenous women, so they had to give the money to the geisha and female branch girls of Little Japan. Especially for a high-income group like Li Yuanhong, who is not low, he prefers geisha to female branch girls! The reason needs not be said.

As for those with higher status, then bring the concubine or lover directly to the construction site. For example, the chief engineer of the project!

But 'think of your relatives every festive season'! The home of the Chinese will always be their roots.

In a ghost place like Panama, when the New Year is approaching, all Chinese really can't help but cry at the West.

Tomorrow is Li Yuanhong's rest day for the first phase of the half-month, according to the 'life' of the previous time, Li Yuanhong will definitely sleep drunk in the flowers tonight and go to debauchery all night, which is also one of the ways to release pressure.

And Li Yuanhong didn't go to the Art Girl Branch tonight, so he sat alone in front of the window of the room, looking up at the semi-circular moon in the sky, holding a bottle of wine in his hand and pinching the letters and telegrams sent by his family these days. An open letter revealed a photograph of his wife and three children two months ago. It was his birthday!

With tears in his eyes, Li Yuanhong never missed his home as much as this moment, he suddenly found that he really loved his wife, and found that his respect for her in the past was not because his wife gave birth to three sons for him.

But he still has to stay in Panama for two years and eight months, three years, and that's his mission. Ordinary skilled workers can leave everything behind and run back to their homeland, although there will definitely be punishments waiting for them, such as throwing them to the South Seas, Central Asia or North America, it is impossible for them to return to their native Han land comfortably. But this kind of thing must not happen to the middle class like Li Yuanhong, in that case, the hearts of the people at the entire construction site will be chaotic.

If Li Yuanhong wants to pick his son and return to Han, in addition to severe punishments, such as exploiting all political rights and work rights, as well as heavy financial fines, he is likely to be directly imprisoned.

As great as the Panama Canal is to China, so will the punishment that Li Yuanhong will accept. This is the core interest of the current dynasty. Who touched the tiger's ass and will not pay the price?

Li Yuanhong would not take this risk at all, he had no such thoughts in his head, and the only way to think about his wife and children was to let his wife and children come to the Americas with her children during the annual leave -- not the New Year holiday, but a long vacation once a year -- and not to come to Panama, but to stay in Los Angeles or San Francisco. It only takes a day or two to get to the west coast of North America by boat from Panama!

Who makes the annual leave too short, in the Americas, they simply do not have time to return to Chinese mainland. There's not enough time to travel on the road!

Although it was late at night, most of the construction site was plunged into darkness, leaving only a few scattered lights, but in a place not far from the river construction site - a market like a small town was lively. The lights are bright, the people are noisy, and the shadow of death and the fatigue of work are forgotten in the singing, dancing and drinking...... (To be continued......)