Singapore, American Protectorate

February 5th, 1812

"Call."

Corporal William McKenney gave his comrade a shit-eating grin, "Alright, reveal your cards then."

Private Samuel White placed the two cards in his hand out into the open, "Two pairs."

"Well that's too bad," Corporal McKenny revealed his own cards, "Four of a Kind."

"God damn it! That's the third time you beat me today."

"Maybe practice a bit more on your bluffing before challenging the New York Holdem master," McKenny replied pointedly as he shuffled the deck.

Three other Marines, not including White, were playing New York Holdem with him. Since Singapore was ways away from most American protectorates/territories, there was only a single regiment stationed within the port city (Second Marine Division, which was tasked overseas to protect Iceland, Greenland, South Africa, and Singapore). The Eight Marine Regiment, which had its own small artillery company, an engineering company, and a medical platoon, was the group assigned to Singapore, totaling just over a thousand men. The regiment was excused for the afternoon and the men were resting within the barracks. The corporal had night duties at 1900, but until then, he was enjoying his time with his fellow Marines in this far-flung American outpost.

Lance Corporal Xiao Shirong frowned as he gripped one of his wooden coins tightly. The Marines were not allowed to gamble with actual money, but the nightly New York Holdem matches were very competitive, "I swear that you're rigging the deck or something."

"Nah, just pure luck and skill. After all, it's all I've been playing since we got here."

Singapore was a small port town that served as the American gateway to China. American merchants docked at the town for resupply and trade while Chinese traders sold goods to any interested American merchants for decent prices. Usually, Chinese traders came to Singapore to sell Chinese goods without the stringent requirements made by the Qing government, which allowed them to net a hefty profit from hungry American merchants. Due to the existence of American Singapore, the Lanfang Republic was losing a bit of profit from the former "middleman" trade it had between China and the United States.

A sergeant entered the barrack and tossed a large bag into the building, which turned the heads of more than a few Marines, "Mails and newspapers are here!"

All the Marines in the barrack scrambled to their feet and rushed the bag with frightening speed. Corporal McKenny was at the head of the pack and managed to grab the bag, "Hell yeah!"

He opened the bag and sifted through the dozens of envelopes to find an envelope addressed to him. It was from his parents, who were living in Virginia. After he ripped his envelope open, he tossed the bag to Private White, who was instantly mobbed by the other eager Marines. As the private fought for his life to get his letter, Corporal McKenny read his letter and smiled. His parents were doing well in Richmond, with his father working as an administrator for the local Internal Affairs office. Apparently, he was busy with his work as an official watching over elections was caught taking bribes from a candidate, which caused a firestorm to blaze through Virginia. The Department of Internal Affairs was busy auditing every official tied to the elections and making sure that the elections happened fairly and on time. His mother was pregnant, which wasn't a surprise since William already had three siblings and his parents wanted more kids.

After reading through the letter, McKenny unfolded the newspaper, the Richmond Star, that was attached to his letter and read through the content. The newspaper was from months ago (to be precise, October 15th) since the distance between the United States and Singapore made communications difficult. However, the headlines of the newspaper made him groan, "Damn Yanks, won the American Series again."

"Of course they did, they're the best baseball team in America!" Lance Corporal Xiao shouted over the huge ruckus in the barrack.

"You're only saying that cause you're from New York. The Richmond Scouts are so much better..."

"And you're saying that because you're from Richmond! Besides, the Scouts was only formed ten years ago. The Yankees was one of the founding teams of the MLB and they've won six championships in twenty years..."

William was about to argue with the Chinese-American about baseball when he heard a loud bell sound echo through the barracks. He tossed the newspaper and the letter on to his bed and dressed in his blue dress uniform. Several other Marines followed suit, including the lance corporal. After he finished, he walked out with his Lee rifle in hand and took up his post near the harbor with his card game mate.

"Guard duty near the harbor. This is my favorite night time task," His partner said as he held his rifle at shoulder arms, "The light sea breeze always feels nice since it's always hot out here."

Thankfully, the military was sensible to provide the Marines stationed in Singapore with some summertime uniforms. Instead of the stuffy, long-sleeved uniforms, the blue dress uniform the two Marines wore was short-sleeved and a bit loose.

"At least we're not stuck in god-forsaken Greenland. I heard it's three times colder than Quebec up there," William replied.

"Damn right. And at least we get to see a few ships and mingle with the locals here. I heard Greenland is empty."

"You can speak to the locals. I can't."

Xiao shrugged, "Well that's my job here, to translate and help the other Marines understand what the locals are saying."

Every platoon had at least one translator that could speak Chinese or Cantonese. The population of Singapore (which was around five hundred individuals) was primarily Chinese, which meant that translators were needed to communicate with the locals. As such, Xiao was tasked as the translator for his platoon.

"You and like a hundred other guys. Why did y'all sign up for the military?"

"Steady pay, see the world, pensions, healthcare, do I need to go on?"

"Point taken."

The two stood in silence for a few minutes until an American warship leading a smaller Chinese junk made its way into the harbor. The warship, the USS Providence, docked and several sailors stumbled out onto the deck. One of them approached the two Marines and gave them a crisp salute, "Can you call the colonel over?"

"What for?" William asked.

"It's... a delicate situation. Lieutenant Commander Jones demanded it."

Xiao tapped his partner's shoulder, "I'll get him. He's probably in his quarters."

A few minutes later, Colonel David Walker, a tall African American man from North Carolina, walked towards the harbor with Xiao by his side. The Marine officer looked at the sailor with a raised eyebrow, "I heard that Lieutenant Commander Jones wanted to see me?"

Everyone in the vicinity snapped a salute and the sailor nodded, "Yes, sir. It has something to do with slavery."

William had never seen his commanding officer lose his cool before, but Colonel Walker had a look of loathing on his face as he looked at the Chinese junk behind the USS Providence, "I'm guessing that there are slaves on that ship?"

"You are correct, colonel. But it's even worse than you could imagine. The Chinese merchant that owns the ship wanted to sell uh... "virgin female Chinese slaves from Guangxi" to us specifically."

"To us?"

"Apparently, it's because there are a lot of single, "wealthy" men here... I think it's better for the lieutenant commander to explain it."

As the colonel walked onto the ship, he turned to his two subordinates, "Tell Baker Company to make ready and assemble at the harbor immediately."

The pair obliged immediately and ran towards the barracks of Baker Company as they talked, "Slaves for us? What the hell does that mean?"

"Seeing that "virgin" was used, I think that the merchant was trying to sell soldiers like us "female prostitutes," as they call it in China," Xiao scowled, "I heard a few stories from my mama, she's from China. If a family is poor, they sell one of their daughters as a slave. Most of them are sold to be laborers or servants, but there are more than a few that are sold as brides or as prostitutes."

"You're joking," William replied, absolutely abhorred by the notion of selling girls as wives, "Please tell me you are joking."

"I'm not. China has some really questionable aspects, and this happens to be one of them."

William grew up in a Christian household. His parents followed the Vicinusum sect, which was founded by Revolutionary War hero General George Washington. From a young age, the importance of equality, abolition, and liberty was drilled into his head. When he attended the Richmond primary school, he learned about the terrible ways that slaves were treated on plantations and grew to hate the concept of slavery. The fact that he had a number of African American friends only reinforced his belief that racism had no place in a free nation like the United States and that slavery was morally wrong. While he had witnessed a few slaves before he was ten years old, he never saw a slave again after the nation abolished the institution. As such, it had been years since he had even thought about slavery.

"You know, I know we're not supposed to attack civvies, but is it wrong that I have an urge to punch that Chinese merchant right now?"

Xiao snorted, "You're not the only one. I'm getting that urge too."

"But you're Chinese."

"Chinese American," Xiao corrected, "I was born and raised in good ol' Yankeeland. I'm an American citizen, voted for Hamilton in the last election, I'll probably vote for Jackson in the next one. All the things I know about China are from stories. My mama and papa were some of the first Chinese immigrants to America, so I grew up as an American."

"I know your life story, Shirong, we've been stuck here for over a year together. Now let's rouse up Baker Company before the colonel gets pissed at us."

Baker Company of the Eight Marine Regiment was stirred into action by the two Marines and before the colonel even got off the American warship, the entire company was lined up and ready to go at the harbor. Colonel Walker returned the salutes of his men as he spoke, "You might not see action, lads. Lieutenant Commander Jones is clearing things up with our "enemy." Apparently, there are a hundred female slaves on board that ship, some as young as twelve. They were to be sold to us, apparently, for ten taels each, which is about seventeen dollars."

An outcry of anger was silenced by the colonel, who waved his hand to silence the assembled men, "As you know, the United States is a free nation. We do not allow slavery, in any shape or form. As such, the moment the... captured Chinese women were brought into Singapore, an American territory, they were automatically freed by our laws. However, in accordance with the 1804 Compensation Act, we are currently negotiating with the merchant to free the... captives for a reasonable price in order to prevent a potential conflict or international incident. As such, all of you are here as a precaution."

"Fucking hell, we're gonna pay that slaver money?" William swore under his breath.

"Do you not read the handbook? It's one of the most important Acts outlined. If any American military personnel capture or free any slaves, they are to provide reasonable compensation to the person they liberated the slaves from in order to prevent any diplomatic scandals..." Xiao answered.

"It just feels, wrong. We're doing the right thing by freeing them."

"Well, the Act was passed Congress since we captured a few British slave ships heading to Jamaica..."

"Thank you, my primary school teacher. What's the next class, English?"

Finally, after some wait, the slaves were offloaded from the Chinese junk and escorted into the harbor. None of them were in chains or in bad conditions, but there was a heavy atmosphere surrounding the liberated Chinese females as they saw dozens of men lined up awaiting them. Some even panicked at seeing the men. Luckily, Colonel Walker knew exactly why they were panicking and dragged Xiao and a few other translators to let the former captives know that they were not being sold into prostitution or slavery and that they were being freed. William saw at least a few girls that looked younger than fourteen and blanched. Were they really going to be marked off as wives? He felt his stomach protest against the sight.

"Tomorrow, the entire regiment will be tasked with building suitable housing structures for them until we can figure out what to do with them," Colonel Walker shouted, "As such, you will be tasked with guarding them and making sure that they remain comfortable and safe. Under the Compensation Act, they will be provided with an allowance so they can support themselves and within two months, a decision will be made on where they will go next. So until then, we are to keep an eye on them."

William finished up his evening duties and went to bed. It was a sleepless night.