Today, there is a story circulating on the Internet about the remnants of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom sweeping through South America, which reads roughly: In 1865, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had been suppressed by the Qing Dynasty. Li Shixian, the former taiping king of heaven, led the remnants to Fujian to continue guerrilla warfare. However, for this remnant army, it is only a matter of time before it is wiped out. In desperation, a Taiping army under Li Shixian chose to cross the ocean to South America. They worked locally in the area of bird droppings and saltpeter mines. Later, Chile in South America broke out the "South American Pacific War" with Peru and Bolivia. This Taiping Army, which fled to South America, helped Chile against Peru and Bolivia, and they fought bravely and tactically advanced, and soon defeated the troops of Peru and Bolivia. In the end, this outstanding Taiping Army integrated into the life of the local people in Chile and lived the life of ordinary people.
The above story is naturally quite proud for most Chinese. However, the truth is much crueler than in the story.
The first thing that needs to be explained is that the remnants of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom came to South America as real, not made up, but the process of their crossing the ocean was a miserable course of blood and tears.
In the late Qing Dynasty, in Guangdong and Fujian in China, there was a very evil trade, that is, the trade in human trafficking. It is not the same as today's traffickers who abduct women and children. At that time, the focus of trafficking was on adults, and the more lean the labor force, the more valuable it was. These trafficked people have a very unpleasant name: Piglet.
At that time, the traffickers were all criminal groups formed by some overseas Chinese gangsters and foreigners colluding with each other. They use pit deception in various ways to portray foreign countries as gold everywhere and lure victims into deception. It was in this context that the Taiping Army mentioned above was lured into boarding the ship of the traffickers.
Once the ship left the dock, it meant that their lives were almost beaten into the "eighteen layers of hell". Heavily armed gangsters patrolled the ship. Victims were not allowed to speak on board and were severely beaten if they were found to have violated the rules. The thugs are experienced and can beat people to death without being killed. Although these Taiping armies originally lived under the knife's edge, once their bodies were controlled and there was no leader, they could only go against the grain.
The slave ships transporting the Taiping Army were no different from other "piglet" ships, and the living conditions on board were extremely harsh, and the mortality rate of victims in transit was as high as more than 30%. After much hardship, the survivors of the Taiping Army finally arrived in Peru, South America. However, what awaited them was not gold everywhere, but the leather whips and hooves of the local slave owners.
They were divided into many squads and sent to many places to dig for guano and saltpeter mines. The slave owners did not regard them as human beings at all, and gave them the least amount of food every day, but they had to do the most work. A little bit of tiredness is indispensable to a meal of flogging and abuse, and the skin of the beaten flesh is commonplace.
A few years later, the remnants of the enslaved, almost humanoid Taiping Army finally revolted. They killed slave owners and overseers and snatched weapons. Encouraged by them, enslaved Chinese workers in other mines and plantations also rose up, and the insurrection team grew rapidly, and fierce battles broke out with the army sent by the Peruvian government.
At this time, the "South American Pacific War" broke out, and Chile went to war with Bolivia and Peru. The rebels believed that only by helping Chile defeat Peru could they free themselves from slavery. As a result, this rebel army, mainly composed of the remnants of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, unconditionally helped Chile against Peru. In order to encourage the Taiping Army to be more desperate, the Chilean government promised to let the remnants of the Taiping Army establish an autonomous town as long as they could successfully defeat their opponents. These Taiping armies were originally brave and good at fighting, fierce and fierce, coupled with the feeling of mutual hatred, the Peruvian army was not their opponent at all, and it was quickly defeated.
In the end, Chile managed to defeat its opponent. However, the remnants of the Taiping Army, which had made outstanding achievements in the war, were not rewarded in advance, and even their combat deeds were deliberately concealed. However, these Taiping armies were not completely unrewarded, at least they liberated themselves and did not need to continue to be slaves. Although in the process, they made a lot of sacrifices.
After that, these remnants of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom began to integrate into the local society in Chile and live the lives of ordinary people. For these warriors who have been through hardships, this may be what they are most looking forward to.