The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

In the 21st century, there are "Chinatowns" in every corner of the world, and the Chinese gathering place in Paris is called "13th Street".

In Paris in 1929, there was no such thing as the "13th Street", but many Chinese had already gathered. For example, Zhou and Deng, two great men in my dynasty, lived here when they were studying in France.

Surrounded by many students studying in France, Zhou Hexuan came to a block on the left bank of the Seine River.

Strictly speaking, it cannot be called a block, which is somewhat similar to a shantytown or an urban-rural fringe. There are no high-rise buildings here, and it is not as prosperous as the main city of Paris, but it is not called a slum.

The buildings here obviously have not been strictly planned, and they are built in a crooked manner, mostly bungalows and small buildings with two or three floors. Although it is messy and complicated, it is orderly in the chaos. There are many Chinese signboards hanging on both sides of the street, and some small shops are also quite busy.

Li Shi once introduced: "Most of the students studying in France are from poor families. They cannot afford to rent a house in the city, so they can only live in the suburbs of Paris. This is the best choice."

Zhou Hexuan asked: "How many permanent Chinese are there here?"

"I'm not sure," Li Shi thought for a while and said, "At least 10,000 to 20,000 people. Not only the Chinese, but also many immigrants from Southeast Asia and East Asia will choose to settle here after arriving in Paris. So don't look yellow-skinned everywhere. , but not all Chinese.”

Zhou Hexuan asked: "How is the life of the Chinese here?"

Li Shizeng said with a wry smile: "That's it. As long as you work hard, you can still survive. The key is that your social status is relatively low, and you belong to the fringe people in Paris. Although they have naturalized in France, they don't have the right to vote."

Hundreds of people walked on the street, and the residents here watched curiously.

The owner of a steamed stuffed bun shop met an acquaintance in the crowd, came over and asked, "Student Lin, are you organizing a parade?"

The foreign student smiled and said, "We just picked up Mr. Zhou from the train station. Did you see that the one in front is Mr. Zhou?"

"That Mr. Zhou who is praised by the French?" the owner asked in surprise.

"Of course it is him." The international student said proudly.

The shop owner immediately ran back to the bun shop, picked out more than a dozen meat buns, wrapped them in high-quality kraft paper, rushed to Zhou Hexuan and said, "Mr. Zhou, you eat buns!"

"Thank you." Surprised, Zhou Hexuan smiled and took out the money.

The shopkeeper quickly refused: "No money, it's all free."

Zhou Hexuan said, "How dare you?"

The shopkeeper said with a smile on his face: "Mr. Zhou has given us Chinese people a face. This is just a little wish of mine."

"Thank you very much." Zhou Hexuan clasped his fists and asked Sun Yongzhen to put away the buns.

Since the First World War, France's population has dropped sharply and it has begun to receive a large number of immigrants. Nowadays, it is very easy for Chinese to immigrate to France, but in the traditional concept, no matter which nationality they have acquired, they still consider themselves Chinese.

The same is true in the United States, where Chinese Americans consider themselves Chinese.

Whether it was Sun Yat-sen's revolution, Chang Kaishen leading the Northern Expedition, or the subsequent War of Resistance Against Japan, these Chinese have been actively donating money. There are even some elders who send their children and grandchildren back to the country to fight, and their patriotic behavior is more pure than that of many native Chinese.

The biggest reason is that China is too weak. Overseas travelers are often bullied, and they dream that the motherland will become stronger as soon as possible.

When I heard that Zhou Hexuan was here, many Chinese people along the street came to watch, and there were not a few gift givers. Although they were all small things like fruits, buns, and snacks, Zhou Hexuan was very moved. Looking at their simple smiles, Zhou Hexuan had the urge to wipe away tears.

The destination of everyone was a restaurant called "Zhonghua Hotel".

The name of the store is very famous, but it is only a two-story building, which cannot accommodate hundreds of people to eat at the same time.

After Li Shizeng entered the store, he clasped his fists and said to a middle-aged man, "Boss Chen, I'm going to trouble you today. Mr. Zhou is giving me a big treat."

Boss Chen looked at Zhou Hexuan in surprise: "That Mr. Zhou in the newspaper?"

"Exactly," Li Shizeng introduced, "Mingcheng, this is Boss Chen Yingchen, from Shandong, and he cooks authentic Shandong dishes."

"Hello, Boss Chen." Zhou Hexuan said in greeting.

"Rare customers, rare customers," Chen Ying glanced at the crowd outside, and shouted to the shop assistant, "Hurry up and prepare food, and then go to the next door to borrow some tables and benches. If there is no room in the shop, they will be placed outside!"

The store clerk was embarrassed and said: "Boss, there are not enough ingredients in the kitchen."

"Then go buy it, borrow it if you can't buy it! Hurry up and come back!" Chen Ying shouted without doubt.

"Hey, I'll go right away." The shop assistants all dispatched.

Chen Ying called out the French woman at the counter again, and introduced: "Mr. Zhou, this is my wife, her name is Michelle."

"Hello, Mrs. Chen." Zhou Hexuan nodded and smiled.

Michelle is pretty, but has a lot of freckles on her face. She seemed very withdrawn, shrank behind her husband, and said in awkward Chinese: "Ni Hao."

Due to the large number of people, it was too late for the food to be served.

Chen Ying had no choice but to invite everyone to sit down first, and then came out with a bag of peanuts, grabbed a few handfuls for each table, and asked his wife to pour wine for everyone, and said apologetically, "Let's talk first, the food will be ready soon."

"Boss Chen, please sit down too." Zhou Hexuan said with a smile.

Chen Ying sat down with a smile, and apologized: "Mr. Zhou, the shop has nothing to offer, please forgive me."

Zhou Hexuan asked casually, "When did Boss Chen come to France?"

"The Fifth of the Republic of China..." Chen Ying subconsciously said the year of the Republic of China, and then changed her words, "1916 in the Western calendar."

"Chinese workers aiding France?" Zhou Hexuan understood.

"Yes, Hua Gong." Chen Ying said with a smile.

In World War I, although China did not send troops, it sent 140,000 Chinese laborers to support the Allies. These Chinese workers were very important, because French men suffered heavy casualties at that time, and even women were sent to factories, but there was still a shortage of manpower. Without 140,000 Chinese laborers going to work in France, the French soldiers could not even supply bullets.

Zhou Hexuan said: "Can you tell me about it? I'm very curious about it."

Chen Ying shook her head and smiled bitterly: "There is nothing to talk about. I used to be a farmer in Shandong. My parents sent me to work as a waiter in a restaurant in the town with half a bucket of grain. I remember that it was the spring of the fifth year of the Republic of China. At the end of the new year, the officials in the county suddenly posted notices everywhere, saying that Britain and France wanted to recruit workers. The wages were very high, and as soon as my brain got hot, I signed up without telling my parents."

Zhou Hexuan asked: "And then?"

"Then I signed a deposit and left a ten-dollar deposit for my family, which was actually the settling fee," Chen Ying gradually fell into memories. "At that time, we didn't board the ship directly to go overseas. The French military officers took us to the seaside to set up camp and taught us to line up, Standing at attention, walking, speaking foreign language. I was also divided into groups. Because I could write a few words and do some simple arithmetic, I was assigned to be the group leader. I trained like this for more than two months, and then everyone sat down. The ocean-going ship sailed across the sea to France."

Zhou Hexuan refilled the wine for him: "You continue."

Chen Ying took a sip of liquor and said, "I'm seasick. I still had a high fever on the boat, so I came to France in a daze. However, a brother in my group got sick and died on the way, and was thrown into the sea by the French directly. We couldn't find it. I don't know how long it took, but the French officer took us to a small town called Noyelle. I still remember that everyone was panicked at that time, not knowing what would happen next. Until we went to When I came to that town, there was a large stretch of wheat field outside the town, and the wheat was golden yellow. Everyone felt at ease when they smelled the wheat. At that time, I thought, it would be great if I could farm in France with peace of mind. .”

"Chinese farmers love the land the most," Zhou Hexuan said with a smile.

"That's it," Chen Ying also laughed, "It's a pity that we don't have the opportunity to farm. Outside the town is a large camp, square and surrounded by two layers of barbed wire. I lived in the camp for half a month, and the people who came with me Brothers were elected one after another, the lucky ones went to the factory, the unlucky ones were sent to the front line. I was very unlucky, and went to war in a daze.”

Zhou Hexuan said, "Can you shoot?"

"It's a fart," Chen Ying said, becoming more and more angry. "It was agreed in the contract that we came to France only to work, and we didn't say that we were going to fight at the front. The French don't keep their promises at all. I went to the battlefield On the first day, I was sent to dig trenches, and I was exhausted. The war finally started, I thought I could take a break, and hey, I was sent to deliver ammunition. There was a lot of bullets, machine gun bullets Flying around. You see, my ear is missing a piece, it was blown by shrapnel, and the ball was almost dead. On the battlefield, I was regrouped, and I was still the team leader. There were 12 people in my team, but we only played for two months. , only 7 of them died."

Chen Ying opened the chatter box without Zhou Hexuan answering the question, he continued to say: "The French are actually okay, the worst thing is the British. When we gathered in the small town for training, the guards were British officers. Look a little We were not pleasing to the eye, and the British officers beat us like dogs. After beating us, they wiped us clean with a brush and hot water, and then sent the half-dead Chinese workers to the hospital. Why do they need to be cleaned? Because there are reporters in the hospital, the British People are afraid of being reported by reporters for mistreating Chinese workers. It’s okay to beat them. I had a brother who was tied to a tree and beaten until he was beaten to death. The British officer felt that he couldn’t save him, so he shot him to death.”

"At that time, there was a Scottish doctor named Green in the Huagong Hospital. He was a kind person. He wrote a letter to his superiors to report the situation, but it was useless. Doctor Green was also taught by the British military officer because of this."

"These are nothing. The most disgusting thing is to arrange for us to clear the mines. The mines on the battlefield are so easy to clear. They explode when they are lined up. The corpses can't be seen intact. Some brothers are very scared. He simply dug a hole in the barracks and buried himself in it to commit suicide. This way, at least a whole body can be left, and the three souls and seven souls will return to China intact in the future. A brother in the village next door to me committed suicide like this..."

Chen Ying's narration continued, Zhou Hexuan was speechless.