Great Wall at Sea

Chapter Four: Chinatown

Li Guang spent two days wandering around New York and astutely realized how poor his business acumen was. A man decades ahead of his time had only focused on making money with ballpoint pens. Even in his cursory observation, Li Guang inadvertently spotted several business opportunities. First, Coca-Cola bottles in America were still entirely glass. Second, the hiking boots he was wearing were quite novel and advanced in design. Third, these days, whether high-ranking officials or ordinary people, cigarettes didn't use filters; most people lit them with matches, and while lighters existed, they weren't disposable.

These are all everyday items from later generations, knowledge that even a child would know. Li Guang listed dozens of designs for daily necessities, none of which were particularly difficult, but all definitely had a market. After several days of drawing, Li Guang handed over all these design patents to the Jewish merchant Laban Gamali, entrusting him to sell the patents on his behalf.

Li Guang estimated that these items would be enough to raise $200,000, so he would stop working on these designs. Wouldn't it be better to keep a few ideas for himself?

The saying "Even a hero can be brought down by a penny" is certainly true. Although Li Guang hadn't received the money yet, he now felt more secure and his spirits soared.

After days of confusion, Li Guang had finally made up his mind: to fight the Japanese with a naval force. The War of Resistance against Japan cost China dearly, but even in the end, victory couldn't be considered a complete victory for China over Japan—at least that's how Li Guang viewed it. This was a lifelong regret for a generation of Chinese, largely because China's weak navy was almost entirely annihilated shortly after the start of the war.

The Japanese navy, however, possessed the third most powerful navy in the world, while the Chinese navy's fleet was a fraction of Japan's. Even if the United States hadn't intervened and destroyed the Japanese navy, China, though capable of defeating the Japanese on land, would have been unable to achieve final victory; it couldn't possibly swim across the Pacific to reach the Japanese mainland.

Li Guang thus set his sights on a goal. To this end, Li Guang went to Chinatown, hoping to recruit some suitable men for himself.

Li Guang had visited New York's Chinatown once before. But what he saw before him was a Chinatown filthy and dilapidated.

The Chinese on the streets hurried about, devoid of any vitality, lacking any spirit or energy compared to the Westerners in New York. Their gait revealed this; very few walked with their heads held high, as if they were forever strangers in a foreign land. They came here simply to survive, to secure a stable meal.

This atmosphere made Li Guang feel extremely depressed, and his initial excitement vanished. Li Guang didn't see a single Chinese person in Uruguay. Although the white people there didn't show much affection for Li Guang, the contempt in their eyes was unmistakable.

However, Li Guang, as a visitor from later generations, possessed a deep-seated pride in his country and people that made him completely indifferent to those gazes. He even secretly despised those European immigrants; what was there to be arrogant about, those fallen nobles?

However, upon arriving in Chinatown, Li Guang truly experienced for the first time the poverty and weakness of his motherland, and how overseas Chinese were also subjected to humiliation, unable to walk confidently on the streets of foreign countries as they would in later generations.

Losing interest, Li Guang found a labor agency and reported the manpower he needed. In those days, there was no talent pool; the labor agency simply wrote the job postings on a large blackboard.

However, seeing a large number of people waiting for odd jobs around the area, Li Guang guessed that this labor agency was quite popular. Therefore, Li Guang chose to recruit workers through the agency, paying only one dollar. The agency guaranteed to find qualified workers for Li Guang within ten days. As for whether they would actually be qualified, Li Guang had no idea at the moment.

As Li Guang turned to leave, a young man approached him: "Sir, are you hiring?"

Upon hearing the sound, Li Guang turned around and saw a young man standing at the bottom of the steps. He appeared to be in his early twenties and was about 1.8 meters tall, similar to Li Guang. However, this young man was different from the other Chinese people Li Guang had seen in Chinatown; he was handsome and dashing.

Although dressed in thin clothes, he stood there like a pine tree, radiating vitality.

Li Guang replied, "Yes." Only after saying this did Li Guang feel a sense of familiarity. It was then that he realized the young man in front of him had the same accent as him.

Previously in Chinatown, Li Guang had not encountered a single northern Chinese person; most of the people there spoke with Cantonese and Fujian accents.

So he quickly asked, "Where is your hometown?"

Luoyang.

Li Guang was overjoyed to discover that the young man was from the same hometown. The two quickly became acquainted. The young man was from Guanlin, Luoyang, and his name was Xu Zhan. He had studied at an infantry school in the United States for two years, but due to family circumstances and financial difficulties, he had dropped out of school six months prior and was now making a living by doing odd jobs.

In those days, very few Chinese people came to the United States to study military affairs. Army soldiers usually went to Germany, and naval soldiers to Britain. Xu Zhan's decision to study military affairs in the United States was quite unusual. Li Guang had originally hoped to recruit a naval officer, but this man, though not a naval officer, was still a soldier. Thus, Xu Zhan became the first subordinate Li Guang recruited in this era.

Li Guang hadn't spoken Chinese in a long time, while Xu Zhan had also found a job. The two had a very pleasant conversation, and Li Guang quickly put forward his assertion that Japan was about to launch a full-scale attack on China.

Compared to Xu Zhan, Li Guang knew that Xu Zhan was a true patriotic young man. Xu Zhan immediately said, "To defend our homeland, now is the time for us to rise up." He was about to quit his job and prepare to return to China to join the war.

Li Guang quickly stopped him, thinking to himself that it would be unfair for the protagonist to leave so soon after finding a subordinate.

He quickly embellished his grand plan for resisting Japan, which Xu Zhan listened to with great interest. In the end, he decided to stay and follow Li Guang for the time being. However, they agreed that if a full-scale war broke out between China and Japan, he would return to China to fight no matter what.

When they parted, Li Guang gave Xu Zhan ten dollars, asking him to find more books about submarines and torpedoes. It wasn't that Li Guang was stingy; he only had a few dollars left. He didn't know when he'd be able to sell the patent for Laban Gamma. The cheap hotel Li Guang was currently renting cost half a dollar a day; it was filthy, the conditions were terrible, and low-class prostitutes frequented the place.

Li Guang lamented that he had suffered more these past few days than in the previous twenty years combined. He had nearly starved to death a few days ago and was now struggling to survive in a small hotel in the slums. If Labanjamale failed to sell its patents in a few more days, Li Guang would likely be reduced to doing odd jobs on the streets, let alone hiring anyone.