Chapter 485: Crossing the River

The Columbia River is the dividing line between Oregon and the Northern Oregon Territory, which is the Washington State region in later generations.

This is not only the administrative dividing line between the two places, but also the dividing line between civilization and barbarism, openness and stubbornness, modernity and primitiveness, and development and backwardness.

A river divides the north and south into two different worlds.

The south is the thriving and rapidly developing Oregon, where new immigrants come every day and new buildings are rising from the ground.

The north is still a vast land with a lot of resources waiting to be developed.

Northern Oregon is also a rich land. There were immigrants who wanted to cross the Columbia River and enter the Northern Oregon region to open up new settlements.

Unfortunately, these immigrants were driven back to the south bank by the unfriendly racism in the Northern Oregon region. They claimed that the Northern Oregon region did not welcome immigrants of color and that Northern Oregon was the Northern Oregon of white people.

The two sides have also had many conflicts because of this.

The current Governor of the Northern Oregon Territory, Stevens, is a Democrat from Washington, DC.

He saw political opportunities in the conflict between racists and Chinese immigrants in Northern Oregon.

He held high the flag of pure Oregon and gathered the whites and racists on the west coast under his command, trying to keep colored immigrants from the south bank of the Columbia River. In the future, he would make the northern Oregon region a Democratic constituency, expand the power of the Democratic Party, and then strengthen his voice in the party.

April 29, 1856, was an ordinary day.

Thousands of organized immigrants carried their luggage and took the ferry to the north bank of the Columbia River, a taboo place for Chinese immigrants.

The white immigrants in northern Oregon nearby soon learned the news. As usual, they threatened these immigrants crossing the river with rifles, trying to drive them back to the south bank.

"You damn yellow monkeys! Get out! Get back to the south bank! This is northern Oregon, you are not welcome!"

"Get out! Get out! If you don't get out, I will shoot!"

"Don't be ungrateful!"

The two sides pushed each other, refused to give in, and almost fought.

These immigrants were not afraid of the intimidation of the white people in northern Oregon. Facing their threats, they had no intention of retreating.

Collins, who was mixed in the immigrant team, took out his improved camera and set it up ready to shoot at any time.

"Hey! You damn traitor running dog! Put away your camera quickly, or I will smash your camera to pieces!"

Collins' camera was still too big and conspicuous, and was soon discovered by a white man. The white man scolded Collins.

In the eyes of these racists, Collins, who was mixed among the Chinese, was naturally a traitor running dog.

These racists were very radical. They believed that the white people who lived with the Chinese in the West Coast were all traitor running dogs. Only the white people who stayed in the pure land of northern Oregon were the real white people. They were also proud of this.

On a loach boat on the Columbia River, Liang Yao was observing every move in the North Coast of Oregon through a telescope.

This immigration action was planned by his Wu Yuanhua. He wanted to take this opportunity to complete the last piece of the puzzle in the West Coast region and bring the entire West Coast region into his sphere of influence.

He did not allow the West Coast region to have a racist base like the Northern Oregon region.

The immigrant team that landed on the North Shore was not a pure immigrant team. There were two battalions of Oregon militia members mixed in this immigrant team.

The few observant white people on the North Shore seemed to realize that something was wrong.

Compared with previous immigrants, the scale of this immigration was too large, and these immigrants were all young and middle-aged, and some of them had murderous intent in their eyes.

These people were definitely not simple immigrants, this was the idea of ​​a few observant white people.

"We are American citizens! American citizens have the right to settle in any American territory!"

The leader of the Chinese immigrants stood up and confronted the immigrants who blocked their northward advance, and threw his ID card in the face of the white leader.

In the early history of the United States, there was no paper nationality certificate. The main way to obtain U.S. citizenship is through the principle of birth or naturalization.

Since the mid-19th century, some states and cities have begun to issue their own resident certificates, but these certificates are usually only used to prove identity and residence, and do not include nationality information.

California is the state with the most complete household registration system in the United States. Californians' ID cards contain detailed information such as nationality, household registration, date of birth, and place of residence, and each citizen is given a unique ID number based on the place of residence (place of birth) and date of birth.

The ID card thrown out by the Chinese immigrant leader is the California ID card.

"American citizens? You are also American citizens?" The white leader sneered at this, snatched the ID card with a sneer, and tore it up in front of everyone.

"Don't think you are an American just because you hold a piece of paper. We are Americans! Give you five minutes, take your people and get back to the South Coast immediately! Otherwise, don't blame me for being rude!"

The white leader's actions won the applause of the white people in Northern Oregon.

The actions and words of the white leaders aroused the indignation of the Chinese people, most of whom were militiamen and old immigrants from the Oregon Militia.

Their civic awareness is stronger much than that of new immigrants.

In California, Liang Yao often instilled in immigrants that paying taxes means becoming a citizen, and the more taxes you pay, the more glorious you are, and the more rights you can enjoy.

Citizenship is also one of the things that these former Qing Dynasty cattle and horses value most.

"Taxpayers are citizens! You poor guys don't pay as much tax as we do! A bunch of parasites!" One of the old immigrants retorted.

"Damn it! You foreigners deserve a beating, don't you?!" The leader of the immigrants whose ID card was torn into pieces instantly went berserk and burst out with Chinese quintessence, "Do you know that it's very difficult to reissue your ID card?!"

White people in northern Oregon basically don't speak Chinese, but they can still understand some of the Chinese quintessence under the influence of their ears and eyes.

In anger, the two fought together.

Collins, who was on the side, secretly raised his camera under the cover of Chinese immigrants and recorded this moment.

The conflict quickly escalated, and the two sides instantly evolved from pushing and shouting to fighting.

There were few white people in Northern Oregon, and a fight between 300 and more than 1,000 people was definitely a disadvantage. They were soon at a disadvantage in the fight, and were beaten so badly that they ran away with their heads in their hands, not knowing where to go.

In order to regain their ground and control the situation, the white people in Northern Oregon, relying on their guns, fired warning shots into the air, hoping to scare these ignorant Chinese immigrants and make them retreat.

This scene was naturally recorded by the quick-eyed and quick-handed Collins.

Who would have thought that after hearing the gunshots, these Chinese immigrants not only did not intend to retreat, but became more excited.

"Brothers! The ghosts fired!"

"They fired first! Grab your weapons and shoot them!"

After the gunshots, these Chinese immigrants took out long guns and short guns from their luggage.

In front of the long guns that were several times larger than their own, the white people in Northern Oregon, who were still aggressive in the last second, instantly wilted like eggplants hit by frost.

The Oregon militia disguised as immigrants skillfully disarmed and captured the stunned Oregon whites.

Two months ago, these Oregon militias disarmed Mexicans in Mexico many times, and they were very familiar with this set of procedures.