I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 587 The Chinese in America

Of course, there were Fujian and Cantonese people in the Spanish colony in Beiyin. If you are lucky, you may even meet Chinese people from other areas such as Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Spanish poet Valbuena wrote this in his poem "Great Mexico" as early as 1604:

“Mexico City, you split the world in half;

In your place, Spain and China are connected;

Italy and Japan are connected;

In short, the whole world is full of connections and rules..."

This shows that in the early seventeenth century, Chinese maritime merchants had already had ocean-going trade and other commercial exchanges with Mexico in Beiyin.

It would take thirty years for the Chinese to actually settle in Mexico, and they would still be hired by the Spaniards as servants and barbers to provide services to the Spaniards who came to Mexico.

However, Spaniards are almost face-blind to all Asians, including the Chinese. In their eyes, all yellow people from Asia are uniformly classified as "Chinese".

But in fact no, the "Chinese" who usually served as slaves should be Filipinos, Malays, Indonesians and Japanese.

The real Chinese Han people were basically not slaves, but employed barbers and servants. The overall number of Chinese was very small, and they mainly settled in the port of Acapulco, and later gradually spread to Mexico City.

Over the past 100 years, these Han Chinese who were hired to come to Mexico quickly settled and took root there, and were once subject to collective protests by Spanish barbers. Because Chinese barbers charge so little, their skills are better, and they are more diligent than Spanish barbers. It doesn't matter whether the customer who comes for a haircut is Spanish or someone else.

This attracted the attention of Mexican colonial officials, who then began to recruit Chinese laborers to Mexico in large numbers.

However, until the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the total number of Chinese in Mexico was less than 100,000, and this did not include other "Chinese" from the Philippines, Japan and other places.

Kang Zifei was very surprised to learn that there were Han people here, and soon met the three local businessmen.

"I am Chen Fushun, whose ancestral home is Zhangzhou. He went to sea to make a living in Luzon in his early years, and then followed Spanish merchant ships to Mexico. It has been twenty-seven years now."

"My friend, Wu Wenjun, is originally from Chaozhou. He also went to sea to make a living via Luzon. Like Brother Chen, he also stayed in Mexico for more than 20 years."

"My Excellency Xu Weijun, my ancestral home is Quanzhou, but I haven't been in Mexico for too long. It's only been eighteen years now."

Kang Zifei stroked his beard: "It turns out they are all Fujian, Guangdong and Han people from Ming Dynasty."

These four Chinese people communicated directly in Hokkien in America, so as to prevent the Spaniards from overhearing them.

Don’t wonder why Chaozhou people can also understand Hokkien. Chaozhou and Hokkien originally belong to the same language family.

To tell another joke, later generations of Guangzhou people cannot understand the Chaoshan dialect, but Fujian people can barely understand it, and the ticket from Guangzhou to Chaoshan is more expensive than Chaoshan to Xiamen.

Chen Fushun said with emotion: "If the Holy Emperor of China, the Ming Dynasty, could have raised an army a few years earlier, Brother Wu, Brother Xu and I, as well as so many Han brothers from Mexico to the Americas, would not have had to travel so far across the ocean to make a living here. ”

Wu Wenjun nodded: "That's right. Brother Chen can still work as a barber when he first came to Mexico. He can help red-haired ghosts cut hair and accumulate savings safely. But I have to join forces with other Han brothers and fight with the natives outside. After cultivating wasteland for several years, I finally saved some money."

Xu Weijun said: "I am the same, but fortunately I have two old brothers taking care of me. Although they are both out to open up wasteland, at least they are not as dangerous as Brother Wu."

Kang Zifei keenly grasped the key point: "Are there many Han people in the Spanish colonial governorate?"

Chen Fushun thought for a while and said: "According to the statistics of those red-haired Spaniards, there must be at least tens of thousands of Chinese in the Spanish colonial governorate in North America. However, many of them are fake Chinese. They were Nanyang slaves trafficked from Asia by the red-haired ghosts. Real Chinese Han people basically cannot become slaves, because the red-haired ghosts think that the Chinese Han people are more hardworking and hardworking. These people, including those who marry and have children locally, are no longer good. Statistics, but there are at least several thousand people.”

The Han people who came to Mexico to survive basically no longer valued bloodline, so they were willing to intermarry with indigenous Mexican women to reproduce.

Wu Wenjun then sneered: "They are just a bunch of Nanyang fans. They can be called Chinese, but they are still very lazy."

Kang Zifei thought for a while, and found that several thousand Han people were not too many, but they were not too few either, and there must have been many mixed descendants.

If they really couldn't survive, no one would really be willing to travel thousands of miles to Yinzhou to earn a living. If they weren't careful, they might die on the ship. Since the founding of Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty and the recovery of the Luzon Governor-General, this phenomenon has become less and less common. Even if you really want to make a living overseas, you will probably go to Luzon. Now there is still Nanyang to choose from.

Kang Zifei asked: "Can these real Han people and their descendants still speak Chinese?"

Chen Fushun nodded: "Most of them speak Hokkien, but they also speak Spanish. We Han people have our own residential areas. Even if we enter the city of the red-haired ghost, we will be separated from the Chinese neighborhood."

Kang Zifei nodded: "What about religion? What religion do you believe now?"

Wu Wenjun sighed: "Every Chinese who comes to Mexico to seek life must first convert to Western Catholicism in Luzon. Those red-haired ghosts value this very much. We Han people who come here from China do not believe in these Western Catholics." , just forced to survive. But many of those who marry local wives and have children have already firmly believed in Western religion..."

Kang Zifei almost understood that the Han and mixed-race Han people here could still speak Chinese, but their religion had been forcibly converted to Western religion by the Spaniards.

Your Majesty does not pay much attention to the issue of mixed race. In the Luzon and Nanyang Governor-General's Regions, many mixed-race Han citizens have settled with Han nationality.

The key lies in religious belief. He has heard about the policy in Nanyang. Anyone who wants to be green or Westernized must convert to Chinese religious gods. They can believe in Taoism, Buddhism, Mazu, etc. If they insist on not changing, their Han nationality will be canceled directly and heavy taxes will be imposed.

As early as the early years of the Ming Dynasty, before the country was recovered, His Majesty was already continuing the Qing government's policy of indiscriminately cracking down on Western religions. All churches were banned and demolished, and taxes were increased on people who were unwilling to convert. In just a few years, Western religion was uprooted in China.

Kang Zifei thought for a while and said: "As long as you can speak Chinese, the Spaniards are cunning and massacred Han people in Luzon several times. If these Han people who settled in Mexico are unable to survive in the future or are oppressed and persecuted by the Spaniards, they can go there North. I, the Holy Emperor of Ming Dynasty, have decreed to establish a colony here. The land there is already being cultivated. They are fertile river valleys and plains. If you grow food well, you will never have to worry about food and drink. The relationship between the indigenous people there and us is also That’s right, there’s no need to worry about being attacked, in the future Daming will also go back and forth there every year to replenish supplies for them.”

Xu Weijun cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, you are wise! We will definitely live up to your entrustment."

Kang Zifei said: "It doesn't have to be like this. It's just to leave a way for the Han brothers overseas. At least there, you don't have to worry about being discriminated against and oppressed by the Spaniards. But I still remind you that if you go there, you should convert to me as soon as possible. Han religion. Even if you don’t convert, it’s best to give up the original Western religion. Your Majesty hates Western religion very much. Although the Yinzhou Colonial Zone has no special decree, it still needs to be prepared. By the way, this America has been officially named by Your Majesty. For Yinzhou."

Chen Fushun quickly assured: "Don't worry, sir. We don't believe in Western religions, but the red-haired ghosts attach great importance to this. If you don't believe in their religion, you can't stay here, and they will even impose heavy taxes."

Xu Weijun said: "The red-haired ghosts are a group of Western barbarians who actually use religious ghosts and gods to govern the country. These barbarians naturally do not follow rules."

Kang Zifei added: "I just heard that you have to work hard to cultivate land here and fight with the natives. I have brought some swords and guns this time to keep for you. I can go back to my country to apply for firecrackers and other things with Your Majesty to see if they can be sold. I’ll give you some. Also, I’ll leave two more soldiers to help you with some simple drills, which will make it safer to deal with the natives and prepare you for any danger.”

"Thank you, sir!"

The three of them suddenly beamed with joy. They had just committed suicide in front of Kang Zifei just for this reason. The Spaniards were very wary of the "Chinese", so they were not allowed to have weapons.

What Wu Wenjun said just now was relatively restrained. The reason why they banded together to reclaim land was largely because their weapons were too poor. They could only use wooden spears and stone spears to fight with each other like the native Indians.

Kang Zifei said: "I happen to have some surplus goods here, which I can sell to you privately at a cheaper price. You can go back and find a safe time to sell them to the Spaniards, and you can make more profits."

The three of them were instantly delighted, as they were giving weapons and money again.

Although selling at a low price is definitely more expensive than the cost price, but leaving out the travel, you won't actually make much money, which basically means selling it at a higher cost price.

However, the key is that this can exchange the gratitude of these Yinzhou Han people. If your Majesty wants to open up the Yinzhou colony, you need Han people. Immigrating from the mainland was too far and I couldn't bring many people with me at one time, but it was much more convenient to grab people directly from the Spanish territory.

Moreover, these people have lived here in Yinzhou for many years, and have already adapted to life here, and can better develop the colony.

This is much easier than building a colony from scratch.

When he returns home this time, he will have to report to His Majesty that it is best to be more relaxed about Yinzhou's religious issues.

After all, these overseas Han people are precious. It would be a great loss if a large number of Han people could not be absorbed into the colonies because of religion.

Even if His Majesty really hates it, the worst he can do is tolerate the first generation and let the second generation convert and come back!

(End of this chapter)