Battle of the Third Reich

Cadillac travels west along Pine Street. This is an uphill ramp. The streets are lined with three- to four-storey masonry buildings. The ground floor along the street is basically a variety of shops.

The great earthquake of 1906 almost razed the city. The earthquake wave destroyed the wooden support structure of the old western building. It happened at more than five o'clock in the morning. Most of the hardworking Chinese families had already got up to make breakfast, and the broken natural gas The pipeline and the overturned stove eventually caused a huge fire that swept the entire city. Therefore, in the subsequent plan to rebuild Chinatown, the newly-built houses chose masonry and concrete structures with stronger seismic and fire resistance at that time.

Local Chinese residents call Pine Street "Pan Street", which is a transliteration of the English word Pine Pine in Taishan dialect. This situation is very common near Chinatown. Each street here has a street name of Taishan dialect. After all, residents Many of them do not speak English at all.

There was another traffic jam at the intersection ahead, and Cadillac stopped more than thirty meters from the intersection.

"This is St. Mary's Square. The tall red building at the other end of the square is the famous St. Mary's Church... Well, at least it's famous here." Cray took advantage of the waiting gap and pointed to an open space on the right side of the car Speaking.

At this time, the location of St. Mary's Square has not yet built a parking building for later generations. It is still a garden and grass built against the slope, and some benches for passersby are placed on the flat **** top.

"There is a statue of Sun Yat-sen, said to be an artificial man made in Italy. By the way, do you know Sun Yat-sen?" Cray asked back.

"A well-known Chinese politician, the party he led set off a revolution that overthrew the Qing Empire." Welbey lowered his head and dusted the soot that fell on the front of his suit, his attitude replied casually.

"Listening to the Chinese here, he used to have American citizenship." Crayley dropped into gear and the car moved slowly forward again.

Sun Yixian’s possession of American nationality in San Francisco is not a secret story. In 1940, he was detained by the San Francisco customs when he entered the United States with a US passport issued by Hawaii. Because it was recorded that he used Chinese nationality to enter the country eight years ago, the US Customs He was detained on the grounds of suspected forgery of the US passport, and he was eventually released on bail by the local Hongmen Zhi Gong Tang for paying the money.

Zhi Gong Tang also hired a lawyer to sue him and the customs, claiming that Dr. Sun was born in Honolulu and grew up to study there. It is a legal American citizen Yun Yun. This incident was very well known in Chinatown of San Francisco. .

In fact, Sun Yixian was born in Xiangshan, Guangdong. At the age of 11, he followed his mother to Hawaii and turned to his elder brother Sun Mei. At that time, Sun Mei had already become a famous large plantation owner of Maui Island by his diligence and business acumen, and was called "Maui King" by local people.

From elementary school to pre-university preparation, Sun Yixian was studying in a Hawaiian school. Until the age of seventeen, he was forcibly returned to his hometown in Xiangshan, Guangdong for religious reasons.

It stands to reason that Sun Yixian did not qualify for naturalization in the United States at the time, but through the relationship between revolutionary comrades and the township party, he obtained two legal documents sworn by American citizens to prove that he was indeed born in Hawaii, so he got the Hawaiian government. US passport issued.

To put it bluntly, this identity was forged from the beginning to bypass the "Exclusion Act", and US government officials somewhat overestimated the bottom line of the revolutionaries.

This identity played a significant role in Sun Yixian's revolutionary activities. In addition to allowing him to be free from the influence of the "Exclusion Act", he could randomly enter and leave the United States to raise funds and personnel, and also became a talisman, blocking the Qing Dynasty's Its intent to catch.

Until 1909, Sun Yixian’s American citizenship was finally cancelled by the US State Department on the grounds of “unfulfilled US citizen obligations and illegal participation in anti-government activities against AIA.” Therefore, some media said that Sun Wen's naturalization is because the US government's support for the Chinese democratic revolution is completely groundless.

At the intersection Cadillac turned right and turned onto Grant Street, also known as "Duban Street".

This street is one of the oldest in San Francisco. It is well known that San Francisco was originally developed by the Spanish colony. After the independence of Mexico, the area was classified as Mexican territory. It was only transferred to the United States of America after the Mexican-American War. Therefore, like other ancient streets in San Francisco, Grant Avenue also had a Spanish name at the earliest, called Calledela Fundacion, also known as "Jianguo Avenue".

After American occupation of San Francisco, many major roads in the urban area were given English names. This street was renamed "Dupont Street" to commemorate the US Navy's Admiral Dupont.

The "Duban Street" is obviously a transliteration of the Taishan dialect of "Dupont Street". It can be said that this street has witnessed the birth and growth of San Francisco Chinatown, so that the San Francisco government renamed Dupont Street to Grant in honor of President Grant. After the main street, the local Chinese were accustomed to the name "Duban Street", which could not be changed anyway. (Now Grant Street is still written as Chengdu Banjie on the Google Chinese map, which is really an anecdote in Chinatown.)

Even if you enter the core of Chinatown here, as part of San Francisco’s old town, the streets of Chinatown are relatively narrow, and the width is still in the era of carriages, which is the European standard two-lane lane.

Before the time was noon, a lot of cars had been parked along the right side of the street. Finally, the width of American cars in the 1940s was quite satisfactory, so there was still enough space on the road for relative driving.

At that time, the size of the American car still followed the British and European standards. Although there were already signs of a huge body, it was not as exaggerated as the later 60s and 70s. At that time, many roads in downtown San Francisco could only be changed to one-way streets because of the trendy wide-body cars.

As soon as he drove on Duban Street, the two sides of the street were full of Chinese characteristics. The dragon lamppost immediately attracted Welbey’s attention. He had never seen anything similar in this place. This street lamp was designed as a golden four-claw. The style of the Panlong holding the palace lantern is a unique symbol of Chinatown in San Francisco. As long as you see this street lamp on the street, it means that you have entered the Chinese community.

"It's exquisite, isn't it." Cray slowed down.

"What did you say?" Welbe turned his face.

"I mean, these street lights are exquisite, like a piece of art." Cray said with a smile.

"Ah, you're right, it's very artistic. How far is it?" Welbe said, looking out the window.

"We have arrived." Cray lightly braked, and the car slowly leaned towards the side of the road.

"This is the Shanghai Tower." The driver turned his head and pointed out the window.

"It's here?" Welby turned his head upwards, only to see the colorful lights on the door of the nightclub, with a string of English letters "shanghailow" in the middle.

"As agreed on the second floor, we have been late for twenty-three minutes, but I heard that the Chinese are always very patient." Cray looked at his watch, then opened the door and got off the car.

Cray walked from the back to the right and opened the door respectfully for Verbella. "Remember the password." the driver asked.

"The triad is awesome?" Welbey frowned slightly, and said a bit rigid Cantonese.

"Well, it's great, my car is just across the street." Cray said with a nod.

"You just stay in the car and wait for me, pay attention to observe the surroundings." Welbe arranged his cuffs and put on a black top hat.

"Follow your orders, sir." Cray owed his life slightly.

PS: Thank you for your support. It is in a state of restoration.