Great time travel

Chapter 189, New Year in South America
This is a standard immigrant village of [-] families. The houses are all standard red brick and blue tile houses on the east bank, that is, three rooms on the left, middle and right, plus a pigsty, a firewood house, and a kitchen, all of which are hidden in the lush greenery. among the trees.The vines in the yard of the house covered half of the fence along the woven reed brackets. Some birds landed on the top of the fence from time to time, chirping and looking at the tall and straight Parana pine trees outside the courtyard and the crystal clear river. , dense irrigation canals, horizontal and vertical fertile rice fields, and the continuous smoke from the village.

Such an idyllic rural beauty made Xu Xiake, who was used to seeing all kinds of turmoil and displacement in Daming, feel unreal for a while.

It was almost noon, and everyone was rushing back to have lunch, so when Xu Xiake and his group entered the village, there were a few farmers with hoes on their backs.Behind the farmer there are several children bouncing around, carrying fat fish with sticks in their gills.These fish are huge, weighing about five or six catties, and they are still struggling even though they are held in their hands.From time to time, it caused the group of children to exclaim.

At the entrance of the village, there was a peddler pulling a small ox cart full of various goods, shouting and selling.The trolley is full of rural best-sellers ranging from needles and threads to farm tools and stoves.From time to time, a few housewives shouted to stop the hawker, and then stepped forward to choose the goods.

Behind the housewives, there are often one or two children. These children stare at the dried fruits, jerky, candy, cocoa powder and other snacks on the truck with big black eyes, and keep drooling. clamoring to buy.Some housewives were really annoyed, so they slapped their little kid on the buttocks twice. The kid blinked and then cried desperately.After crying for a long time and finding that no one was paying attention to him, the child slowly stopped crying.Then his attention was quickly drawn away by something else.

What a day of innocent happiness!Seeing the rosy faces of these children, who were flexible and quick-witted, Xu Xiake couldn't help feeling a little sad.As far as he knows, as early as several years ago, the northern provinces of the Ming Dynasty were already a thousand miles away, with no grass growing, and the wilderness was full of starvation.The people first scrambled to eat the grass in the mountains. After eating the grass, they peeled off the bark and ate it. After eating the bark, they could only eat Guanyin soil, and finally died of abdominal distension.And the Jiangnan hometown, which is known as Anle, was already suffering from famine and turmoil before Xu Xiake left, and the last sliver of prosperity was destroyed by war and tyranny.

All the children in Ming Dynasty are hovering between starvation and death, and quite a few of them are destined not to live to the day when they grow up.He either died on the battlefield, died of disease and hunger, or was caught and boiled.Compared with this overseas paradise in front of me, the world in Daming is already rotten!Xu Xiake has traveled all over the world for so many years, so he has seen many tragedies in the world, and he has long been numb. At this moment, he suddenly saw the happy childhood life of these children in the South American countryside, but he still felt a sudden soreness in his heart, and he couldn't help but sigh .

It's just that the traveler officer who accompanied him to visit didn't notice Xu Xiake's subtle emotional changes, but directly led them into the village hall: in such a small rural place, only the village hall can entertain so many people at once. guest.

Like most places in the East Coast Republic, the village head here is also a veteran. Although this simple country man has been retired for several years, he still wears the military cap he had served in the original service on his head. The brass pentagram glistens in the midday sun.As soon as he saw a distinguished guest coming, the village chief hurriedly put on his best clothes and went out to greet him, and ordered his wife and the old father-in-law's family to make tea and vegetables to entertain the visitor.Xu Xiake wandered around the village with him, and casually asked the village chief about his life, and the village chief also knew everything and talked endlessly.

It turned out that the village head had only been here for a year.His wife is a daughter of a peasant family from Shandong, Daming. Just this year, unfortunately, their home was burned during the melee in Shandong a few years ago, and they had no livelihood. The whole family had to go to a relief camp for refugees in Dengzhou Town to make a living. Eat, and met the village head who was not retired at the time, and after several turnovers, he followed the village head to the South American mainland of the East Coast Republic.

The old father-in-law of the village chief was a small landlord with dozens of acres of land in Daming, but he was a small landlord in name, but his life was actually quite poor.Let's not talk about the world in which there are wars and horses, and taxes are as heavy as mountains, but just talking about the seventy or eighty acres of dry land, their family alone can't handle it at all.Especially in the year of catastrophe when the land is thousands of miles away, even if you want to rent the land to others, you can't find tenants.

Finally, in desperation, most of the fields had to be abandoned, and the family of four picked the fatter half of the land to plant wheat.In this way, when it is harvested, the yield per mu is often only forty or fifty catties, and the seeds are not deducted.It was frustrating to the core.

It is such a poor grain harvest, but it has to pay all kinds of imperial grain taxes one after another, supported by layers of government, local big households, village heads, and apportioners in the village.In the end, the remaining grain that fell into his hands was still only a little tight, even if it contained chaff and bran.So I have to collect some wild vegetables and eat them mixed with bran, otherwise it will definitely not be enough to make ends meet.Even in the best years, we have to count on the whole family not to get sick or have any other accidents, so that we can save a little bit of surplus from the teeth, and at the end of the year, we can replace a few catties of meat for the whole family to eat. Two tooth offerings.On weekdays, I just cook a pot of miscellaneous porridge with clear soup and little water to deal with it.The men in the family are the pillars and the main labor force, and they have to remove all the thick stuff, while the women and children can only scrape the soup residue from the bottom of the pot to cheat their stomachs.If you accidentally have a headache and brain fever, you are forced to borrow a usury loan, or you encounter those official servants who will ruin your house if you point it out.Then it is certain that there is only one way to go bankrupt and flee to beg for food.

It's really pitiful to say that before entering the refugee camp in Dengzhou Town, the village head's father-in-law's family hadn't had enough food for several years.

So after arriving in South America, the family suddenly fell into Mitun like a mouse, and lived a happy life with round stomachs: Although the main grains are sweet potatoes, corn and coarse wheat, they are decent grains anyway. .As for fish and meat, it can be served every day.

As a result, the family quickly became hardcore "supporters of the new life" and were very active in the work of land reclamation.Every day, I take the lead in organizing the villagers to dig wells, cut down trees, dig ditches, and grow food. I am very busy.And this immigrant village was also rated as a "model village". All immigrants have fully accepted the new way of life at least on the surface: short hair, shaving beards, paying attention to hygiene and so on.At present, half of the residents who came earlier have reclaimed at least ten acres of wasteland per capita, and planted the first batch of beans, melons and potatoes.Although the new immigrants who came later had to eat the government's relief food, they also developed some vegetable beds, which shows that Chinese people are traditionally more motivated to work.

After all, there are currently only 60 households in the entire village, and the land area is limited, so the group arrived at the other end of the village within a few steps.Here is a small clear lake with rippling water. There are several Parana pine trees with a height of 20 meters that need to be hugged by five or six people. There are also some low shrubs. Under the pine trees are some giant reeds more than [-] meters high. , the local Guaraní people call it "Tacross".These reeds can be used to build houses or rafts, which are very practical.There are also a large number of giant reeds growing in the shallow water area of ​​the lake shore on the right side of the road. From time to time, a group of panicked wild ducks fly out of the reeds, and then you will see a few more yelling and screaming out of the reeds behind the wild ducks' buttocks. child.

"...these children were not so bold before." The village head glanced at the cheerful children chasing wild ducks, and couldn't help but smile and said to Xu Xiake who was watching intently: "...At that time, there were still people living on the shore of the lake. There are many crocodiles that eat people! It’s just that they were expelled or hunted down. Now it has become a children’s paradise. After school, a group of children will go to the reeds to dig wild duck eggs and catch Fish, some very courageous big children, will go to the woods on the other side of the lake to catch a kind of poisonous snake, the meat of that kind of snake is very delicious, but it is also very dangerous to catch them."

"...Uh, after school? Could it be that there is a school here?" Xu Xiake suddenly asked in surprise. Before he came here to visit, he also inquired about the situation in Guiyibao area, and he knew that it was still a barren land until last year. Unexpectedly, there is even a school now.

"...Of course there is a school in Guiyi Castle." The village chief said with a face of course, "...as long as the population reaches a certain size and the fort is officially established, there will be a school, and then the government will send a teacher to teach. The school in Yibao has more than 280 students. Unfortunately, there are only five teachers including the principal. The number is too small and the level is not good enough. In the future, my son must go to a good school in the county or the capital... "

Regarding this, Xu Xiake couldn't help sighing again and again, the people from the east bank seemed vulgar and easy to kill, but in fact they really attached great importance to enlightenment!
From what he has seen along the way, in this east coast country, not only adults have to attend some night school regularly, but this child has to go to school every day, and they don't charge money, it's really strange!Whether they are children of peasants, craftsmen, or military households, these children can read and read for free.

Is it just the content of this "enlightenment", which made Ming Dynasty scholars like Xu Xiake criticize: they hardly talked about the classics of saints, the way of benevolence and forgiveness, but taught children all kinds of fighting skills from an early age. The boy scouts are so aggressive, they are as aggressive as a demon... However, he also has to admit that Daming's method of emphasizing literature over military affairs and preferential treatment of gentry may indeed not work in the territory of the East Coast Kingdom.If you insist on advocating literature and restraining martial arts in this wild and exotic land where the jungle preys on the weak, it is almost like committing suicide.

Although Xu Xiake, out of his selfish heart, really hoped that the people on the east bank would rather commit suicide than worship culture and restrain martial arts, but he also knew that such stupid words of death could not be uttered, so he just smiled and praised a few words , ended the visit, turned back to the village office, and prepared to eat and rest.

At this time, there was a burst of fragrance coming from the village hall, and the village chief's wife and sister-in-law had used all kinds of tricks to arrange a sumptuous feast of food and wine.As soon as Xu Xiake entered the room, he saw a small stove on the table. The iron basin on the stove was bubbling with steam, and the milky white soup was rolled with green green onions. The strong smell made him swallow. Swallow.And Agui, Wang Hu and other young servants who came with Xu Xiake, because they had already carried the luggage for a day, they were already panicked with hunger, each of them was holding a big pottery bowl, and their eyes were shining into the boiling soup pot. Look inside.The village chief's wife poured slices of white radish into the basin, and said casually, "...don't worry, it won't be cooked until a while later."

Xu Xiake snorted unhappily at the servants' greedy and consumptive appearance, and began to reprimand them coldly.

The servants suddenly heard that the master was angry, and they were shocked immediately. They rushed up to say hello to the master, fanned the master to wipe off his sweat, and brought a blue and white porcelain bowl to serve the master to eat. He nodded and spared them, and concentrated on eating.

Although the food at the village chief's house is not as exquisite as that in the restaurant, the heat is not bad, and with all kinds of ingredients, it looks very attractive.Take a spoonful of fresh fish and mutton soup, add some mutton and radish, and pour it into the bowl, red dried chili and green onion will float up, the taste is really spicy and delicious.

Xu Xiake only took a sip of the soup, and couldn't help admiring in his heart, eating hot pot and drinking hot soup on a hot day is also a special enjoyment.

As for the servants, they were already greedy. Seeing the master acquiescing, they immediately scrambled to scoop up the mutton. The bowls were so full that they squatted in the corner of the wall, gulping. Swallowing, while eating, while praising: "... so fragrant, delicious."

Seeing that the guests were eating happily, the village chief's family was also very happy, and they brought out the sizzling roasted chicken with herbs, fried small fish, hot mushroom tofu and cabbage soup, and a few plates I don't know what they are called Named tropical fruit, and a jar of self-brewed mixed fruit liqueur.

Under the enthusiastic persuasion of the host, Xu Xiake drank a few cups of sweet and sour fruit wine, and couldn't help but think of a poem by the poet Lu You in the Southern Song Dynasty: "... Mo Xiao's farmhouse is full of dried wine, and there are enough chickens and pigs to stay in a good year. Mountains and rivers come back again." There is no way out, there is another village where the willows are dark and the flowers are bright..."

So, half awake and half drunk, he couldn't help raising his glass and sighing sincerely: "...In today's world, it really is 'the mountains and rivers are full of doubts, and the willows are dark and the flowers are bright and another village'! I, a Chinese nobleman, have this With a piece of heaven-sent land, we can rebuild the Chinese society overseas, so why worry about the chaos and famine in the Central Plains?"

——Of course, before hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the Central Plains swarmed to this "land of God" in South America, the Guarani Indian tribes who used to live on this land are now Where it goes, it is not enough for outsiders to know...

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Due to the fatigue of the journey, under the hospitality of the host, Xu Xiake and his party temporarily stayed in the village for a rest that night.

However, when the host was already snoring on the mat, Agui and Wang Hu, two coolie porters who followed Xu Xiake all the way from Shaoxing, Zhejiang, were lying on the floor of the village office each holding a bamboo tube of fruit wine. Thinking about things on the haystack, I can't fall asleep for a long time.

Looking up, outside the courtyard, it was already dark at this time. From time to time, there was a burst of crackling firecrackers. In the dark night sky, there would always be a group of gorgeous fireworks-it is already the New Year's Eve .Thinking about this, Agui found that his memory of the Jiangnan water town seemed to have gradually become blurred. At the same time, he suddenly felt that it would be good if he could spend the rest of his life in this wild and exotic land with abundant resources and affluent life: Especially when he heard that every immigrant who came here could get [-] acres of wasteland and a year's rations from the "kun thieves"...

However, as a traveler's servant, any stable pastoral life is just a dream before she gets rid of the shackles of this identity.

Next, after the hot New Year in South America, they will set off again soon, follow Xu Xiake on a naval ship, cross the equator north to the Caribbean Sea, experience the tropical scenery of sugarcane plantations, and meet famous people on the way Then they visited the Huamei Republic in North America, went boating on the Great Lakes, and looked at the majestic Niagara Falls; then went to the country rich in gold and diamonds, but also rich in severe plagues and bloodthirsty black uncles. In the Republic of South Africa, experience a thrilling jungle adventure...

In fact, according to the plan of the cultural department of Huameng, there was originally a plan for Xu Xiake to visit Europe.However, the 30-year war in Europe was in full swing at this time. From Spain in the Iberian Peninsula to Denmark and Sweden in Northern Europe, the entire Christian world was almost in a mess. It was not a suitable time for travel and sightseeing.And the Mediterranean Sea in the south is not peaceful. In order to keep the Eastern Colony torn from the remains of the Byzantine Empire, the "People of the Sea" of the Republic of Venice is launching an unprecedented cruel and tragic long war of attrition with the huge Ottoman Turkish Empire.The United Kingdom, which is isolated outside the European continent and has basically maintained peace for the time being, has recently had troubles with the Chinese League due to the disputes over the North American colonies. The plan of Xu Xiake's Travels in Europe.

Instead, after Xu Xiake leaves South Africa, he will follow the old route of Zheng He, the former eunuch of the Three Treasures, to appreciate the charming coral reefs of the Maldives, and then visit the ancient civilizations of Arabia, Persia and India in order to fully taste the Arabian barbecue. And the taste of Indian curry.Then I can realize Xu Xiake's dream for many years, and visit the Burmese country that is rich in gemstones and ivory in the southwest of Ming Dynasty.

As for the end of this long journey, as well as the most solemn and wonderful repertoire, it is the base camp of the legendary "Kun Thief": Australia.

——In the second half of 1634 A.D. in this time and space, the "China City", the capital of the Chinese League in the southwestern part of Australia, was finally announced to be completed.