On March 31, under the watchful eye of Japanese Prime Minister Gonbei Yamamoto and members of the cabinet, Xiao Zhenlei and his entourage boarded the fleet, which then headed for Hawaii. The distance from Tokyo to the West Coast of the United States is too long, and although many ships can now reach Los Angeles directly, supplies and fresh water must be replenished in Hawaii on the way, because fresh water and some food cannot be stored for too long.

It took more than ten days for the fleet to arrive in Hawaii, where a large number of American officials and overseas Chinese in Honolulu, Hawaii, were greeted at the wharf, where Xiao Zhenlei and his entourage visited cane sugar and pineapple plantations and other industries. More than two-thirds of the arable land here is grown with sugar, which is extremely productive, and the production of pineapples is the highest in the world.

After a two-day rest in Honolulu, the fleet then set sail from Pearl Harbor for Los Angeles. On April 20, the fleet arrived in the port of Los Angeles.

When the fleet flying the flag of the Republic of China appeared in the waters near Los Angeles, tens of thousands of overseas Chinese on the dock immediately cheered, the dock was crowded with people, and it had become a sea of overseas Chinese, and this was just the dock, on the streets of Los Angeles outside the dock, there were black hair, black glasses and yellow skin on both sides of the street.

"Lao Chen, haven't you arrived yet?" A middle-aged Chinese man in a long gown, glasses, and a long braid hanging from the back of his head asked the sweaty old Chen.

Lao Chen is in his forties, he has cut his whip, is wearing a plaid suit, and wears a tie, after he squeezed over, he took out a handkerchief to wipe his sweat, panted and raised his hand to say hello: "Lao Li, I went to ask just now, but not yet." But it's said that it should be soon, so wait slowly! ”

The robe on Lao Li's body is a satin robe. This is his best dress, and he only wears it during the New Year's holidays. I usually don't want to wear it.

Half a month ago, after the newspaper reported that the Chinese president was coming to the United States for a state visit, the news suddenly spread throughout North America like wings, not only the Chinese in the United States are rushing to Los Angeles, even the overseas Chinese in Canada have a lot of people who have put down their jobs and come all the way over, for a time the hotels and inns in Los Angeles are overcrowded, but the Chinese in North America during this period are generally low wages, and the cost of eating, drinking, and living so far away is certainly not a small amount. But they didn't care, they just wanted to see the president of China in Los Angeles with their own eyes. The state visit of a Chinese president to the United States is an unprecedented feat, and it may not happen again for a long time to come.

Lao Li took out a pack of cigarettes and handed one to Lao Chen, Lao Chen took the cigarette and lit Meimei to smoke one, this kind of cigarette is trafficked from China, and it is very popular in North America and the world, but this kind of cigarette is quite expensive, and ordinary people can't afford to smoke it at all, but today I came to greet the president, and I was happy and excited. You should also smoke a good cigarette.

Lao Chen took a few puffs of cigarette and asked, "Lao Li, guys are ready, when the president arrives, don't drop the chain at a critical time!" ”

Lao Li hurriedly patted his thin chest and promised: "Don't worry, rest assured." My Li family class will definitely take out all their skills! ”

Li Jiaban is a drama troupe, and the team has a fixed venue for performances, and performs twice a week. The local Chinese in Los Angeles often go to see performances in their spare time to chat about homesickness. This time, the head of the Li squad brought in all the gong and drum teams in his team, and the gong and drum team had drums, clipping leaves, gongs and other musical instruments. As soon as the president appears, he immediately beats the gongs and drums to welcome him.

The members of the gong and drum team behind Lao Li also gathered together and were very excited, obviously very excited about the arrival of President Hua Guoda and his entourage, and they were talking about what the president looked like, how old he was, and whether he was an old man?

At this time, a white policeman came over to the crowd and pointed at the gong and drum team and shouted: "You instruments can't be played here, they're too noisy, take them away, take them away!" ”

Lao Chen couldn't see it well, so he hurriedly squeezed over and took out a pack of good cigarettes and stuffed them into the white policeman's coat pocket and said with a smile: "Mr. Officer, help, today is the day of our president's arrival, we want this musical instrument to welcome him, please help!" ”

The other Chinese around also chimed in, "Yes, yes, Mr. Police Officer, help!" ”

The white policeman touched the cigarette in his pocket, and his face looked better, but he still refused to let the people of the Li family class beat gongs and drums here, "No, no, these instruments are too noisy, and people are very irritated after listening to them, take them away quickly, otherwise, I will arrest you all!" ”

Lao Chen said a lot of good things and gave cigarettes, but there was no effect, and the originally happy mood suddenly became extremely bad, and the mood suddenly got out of control, and shouted: "We are going to beat gongs and drums here, and we are still here today, what do you want?" Catch us! ”

Seeing that Lao Chen was so excited, the other Chinese around him suddenly felt the same way, and immediately became angry with the enemy, and began to push the white police. I immediately had to pull out my gun.

At this time, another white policeman came from behind and hurriedly grabbed him and persuaded: "Hey, man, don't be like this, today is the day when the president of Huaguo arrives, it's normal for them to want to be happy, let them knock here, as long as there is no chaos, let's go, let's go and see, it's better not to happen today, you must know that our job is not easy to come by!" ”

On the wharf, the fleet finally docked, and the black and oppressive overseas Chinese on the wharf waved small national flags and shouted, and Xiao Zhenlei and the accompanying officials heard a wave of cheers in the process of getting off the ship, like a mountain shouting a tsunami.

"Long live the President!" Such a harsh sentence suddenly came out of the cheers.

Immediately, people began to shout, "Long live the president!" ”

"Long live the President! Long live Huaguo".

In just a few seconds, tens of thousands of overseas Chinese on the entire dock shouted neatly, this long live is definitely not a salutation for the emperor, but a kind of respect!

At the moment when he stepped off the deck, Xiao Zhenlei reached out with tears in the corners of his eyes to tidy up his clothes, fastened the top buttons of his jacket, and then walked down the bridge with a smile on his face, waving to the tens of thousands of people on the dock who came to welcome him as he walked, and shouted at the same time: "Long live the Chinese, long live the overseas Chinese!" ”

When Xiao Zhenlei and the accompanying officials stepped on the ground of the dock, the sound of gongs and drums suddenly sounded among the welcoming people, this sound was deafening, and Xiao Zhenlei had only heard this kind of gongs and drums a few times in China for so long, and now he heard this sound here in Los Angeles and suddenly felt very cordial.

After the sound of gongs and drums, the surrounding overseas Chinese separated, and the two lion dance teams appeared from behind the crowd and began to dance in the open space vacated by the crowd, Xiao Zhenlei looked at the two lion dance teams with a smile, and applauded when he saw the highlights, and the officials were also very happy, they did not expect to be received so ceremoniously by the overseas Chinese here.

It is impossible for US President Wilson to come from Washington in the east to Los Angeles in the west to greet Xiao Zhenlei, and the local officials in Los Angeles are not good to greet the president on behalf of the president, after all, the level is too low, the specifications are too low, if the Los Angeles officials greet them, it seems to be contemptuous, and the United States side also has considerations, so it was decided not to arrange reception in Los Angeles, but the US government has chartered a luxury hotel in Los Angeles as the accommodation of Xiao Zhenlei and his party, and the reception was taken over by the local Federation of Overseas Chinese. This is one of the reasons why so many Chinese people are coming to greet them at the pier today.

At this time, a young man in his twenties wearing a tuxedo came over with several old people, and Lu Zhengxiang hurriedly stepped forward and whispered to Xiao Zhenlei: "President, this is Gu Weijun, my country's minister to the United States!" After speaking, he introduced Gu Weijun, who was walking over.

Gu Weijun bowed and began to introduce several old people behind him, the youngest of them was in his forties and close to fifty years old, this person was Situ Meitang, the head of the Zhigong Court, and the welcome ceremony was presided over by him in the center.

Gu Weijun introduced: "President, this is Mr. Situ Meitang, and now the Chinese and overseas Chinese in the United States are very prestigious, and Mr. Situ has contributed a lot to this welcome ceremony!" ”

Greeting these people, Xiao Zhenlei of course did not come forward to shake hands, but arched his hand and smiled: "I have heard a lot about the names of Mr. Situ and your gentlemen, I have heard a lot in China, and I often hear Mr. Sun Wen mention that he was grateful to the princes for taking care of him when he was raising funds in the United States, and this time he bothered Mr. Situ and the princes, thank you very much!" ”

Situ Meitang and the others were both excited and frightened, and hurriedly bowed and said, "It should be, it should be!" ”

Then Situ Meitang stood up and said loudly to all the overseas Chinese on the dock that the president should come out and say a few words to everyone, Xiao Zhenlei nodded and smiled and walked to a high platform to open the black crowd under the stage and said: "The success of the revolution has benefited from the many uprisings led by Mr. Sun Wen before, although those uprisings did not overthrow the Manchu Dynasty, but they shook the foundation of the Qing court, which made preliminary work for us to overthrow the Manchu Dynasty later, Mr. Sun Wen told me that overseas Chinese are the mother of the revolution, Without the donations made by overseas Chinese, they would not have been able to raise funds to buy guns and funds for the revolution, and the success of the revolution would not have been possible today!

The old era has passed, the new era is coming, and the lion in the new China in the East has begun to awaken, which is inseparable from your contributions. The new government has just been established, and it still needs to restore the people's livelihood, and it also needs to vigorously develop construction, and the construction of a new China needs your active participation. I believe that with your participation, we will be able to build a rich and strong country! (To be continued......) R1292