Liu Liang has forgotten the specific month and day of the summer of the 10th year of the Hongxing reign of the Ming Dynasty.
He forgot on purpose because he knew that he was serving a "life sentence" and would never have the chance to return to China. He couldn't even go to Japan and could only spend his whole life in the Gulf of America...so he didn't have to count. Waiting for the day to be released.
The Chinese colonists who arrived in the Gulf of America with him all had a similar fate, so no one mentioned the date, so they just muddle along!
Of course, life is hard. How can it be possible for dozens of people to be thrown into a wild place tens of thousands of miles away from home and not be miserable?
By the way, some of them did not survive and died in a foreign country!
Liu Liang was squatting next to a grave and talking to himself. The man buried in the grave was called "Lao Zhang" and he was also a foreigner. His life was even more miserable than that of Liu Liang. He was a native of the Liao Dynasty. He was a slave of the bannermen from birth. He also followed his master of the bannermen into the Pass and fought against the Ming army. However, he did not perform any meritorious service, so he has always been a cover-up. It is said that he was married, but his wife was slept with by the bannerman master, became crazy, and later died, leaving a doll for him to pull alone. The last time Duduo sent troops to recruit troops in front of the pass, he was also cruelly treated The bannerman master was killed...
However, the banner master did not end well either. He was killed by Shi Kefa's black spearmen in Deshengdian. Lao Zhang was taken as a prisoner and later sent to America. He was assigned a wife while passing through Japan and was pregnant with him. With his flesh and blood, life seemed to be running fast, but this spring, Lao Zhang was killed by a herd of bison in order to protect the newly sprouted wheat.
It was Liu Liang who collected his body and buried it beside the wheat field where he died. These wheat are winter wheat, and the harvest is now around the corner.
"Old Zhang, look, the wheat is almost ripe. When the wheat is ripe, you can eat steamed buns... Your Michiko will have given birth by then. If it is a boy, so will your Zhang family. We have a queen. Don’t worry, I will take care of your wife and children! If I have a mouthful of steamed buns, I’ll share them with him!”
What a good brother!
Lao Zhang's wife Michiko now lives with Liu Liang, a family of three, enjoying themselves...so Lao Zhang can feel at ease down there.
After chatting with his old brother for a few words, Liu Liang took a look around with his flintlock gun, checked the wooden fence to prevent bison, and then walked towards the peanut village in the distance.
Peanut Village is a small village surrounded by ditches and wooden fences. The village is full of wooden houses. There are about thirty houses in total. Except for two houses, smoke is coming out of cooking.
Walking in, Liu Liang smelled a disgusting fishy smell... Needless to say, today's dinner is beef stew with seafood again!
Before coming to the Gulf of America, eating meat had always been a luxury for Liu Liang!
In his mind, the enjoyment of eating meat was only available a few times a year. Before he went out to work as a wrapper, the whole family would usually get together during the Chinese New Year and wrap up hundreds of cabbage and pork dumplings. Dumplings, a delicious meal that can be remembered for half a year. After I left the country, my life became a little better because I had more land to cultivate, but it was just a matter of killing a lean pig during the Chinese New Year and eating it for a few days. I miss it now when I think about it!
But since arriving at the Gulf of America, I have lost even this enjoyment!
It’s not that they don’t eat meat, but they eat meat every fucking time!
And it’s beef…bison meat! I don’t know what’s going on, but there are stupid bison everywhere here! It's easy to catch when he's not losing his temper.
I was very happy at first because I had beef to eat! And I still ate with my stomach open. Those days were quite good. Men grew hairy chests and beards, and Japanese women grew taller. Many of them even grew taller!
But I got tired of it after eating it!
Especially after the rice brought from Japan and the flour brought from Daming were almost wasted, they had to eat beef as their staple food - food is very precious, so they have to be careful when eating. But after arriving at the Gulf of America, everyone suddenly discovered that food can be thrown away...
In addition, because life is so boring, many people just want to drink a few cups, so they use their precious rice to make wine!
So, starting from this summer, when eating here in the American Bay, instead of eating beef and seafood, beef is served with noodles, gnocchi and small rice balls!
It's really beyond everyone's expectation that life will be so difficult.
"You're back! Thank you for your hard work..."
Two pregnant women bowed to Liu Liang. They were his eldest wife Liangzi and his second wife Michiko. They were all good wives and mothers, which made Liu Liang very ashamed.
He says he worked hard every day... Why did he work so hard? The wheat was planted in a mess, and no one was pulling out the weeds in the fields!
If you don’t have time to pull weeds, why not go to the beach to pick up some shells, catch a few fish, catch some lobsters or something like that.
"Dinner is ready!" Liangzi said to Liu Liang. "Just now, Chief Xu personally sent over two fishes. I asked Michiko to cook them, as well as some salted bean sprouts and noodles with beef."
Beef noodles and beef noodles are different. The latter is a few thin slices of beef and a large bowl of noodles, while the former is a few thin noodles and a large bowl of beef.
Michiko added: "The village chief asked you to go to his place after dinner."
"Oh, I understand." Liu Liang frowned slightly.
He knew why Xu Kan was looking for him, it was about catching minks.
Last winter, Liu Liang was bored, so he practiced archery with Xu Kan and he did pretty well. So in the spring, I went hunting with Xu Kan. I wanted to hunt bison, but I ended up hunting a few minks.
Mink fur is very valuable over there in Ming Dynasty!
Xu Kan thought about arresting more, but he couldn't catch many by himself, so he organized the villagers to go out together.
But there are not many people who are willing to follow him... Anyway, I just eat meat and seafood to get by, and I don't need any money. Why do I have to deal with those minks?
But Liu Liang couldn't refuse Xu Kan, because Xu Kan "rewarded" Michiko to him, and this favor must be repaid!
After finishing the noodles and beef, Liu Liang left his cabin and walked to the big wooden house where the commander of the village, Xu Kan, lived.
Xu Kan will not stay in America forever - at least he doesn't think he will become a United States citizen, because he is an officer and can return to his hometown.
And he also found a way to make a fortune by catching mink in the Gulf of America!
There are so many minks here that you can’t even catch them all!
Mink fur is extremely expensive in Ming Dynasty! If he could return home with hundreds or thousands of mink skins, he would be a rich man.
But Liu Liang is the only one who is willing to do it with him... People who can't go back think that they don't need money in this life, so no one wants to catch minks.
When Liu Liang entered the house, Xu Kan was preparing his bow and arrows. The bow is a wooden bow and the arrows are bone arrows, very primitive. However, it is a super weapon here in the Gulf of America. The natives here do not have bows at all... They are so backward that it is unbelievable.
And a group of hunters who didn't even have bows didn't starve to death here in the Gulf of America, which fully demonstrated the wealth of this territory.
Seeing Liu Liang walking in, Xu Kan warmly greeted him to sit down, and then asked his mother-in-law to bring out a pot of rice wine.
"Old Liu, drink two cups... here we have no other enjoyment but to eat and drink." Xu Kan smiled, "Eat and drink enough, and then sleep with the ladies, then you will be a god It’s the same day! Isn’t this what you were thinking about when you were in the Qing Dynasty?”
Liu Liang sighed: "At that time, I had the same suffering as that time, and now I have the same suffering now..."
"Why is it hard?" Xu Kan smiled and said, "Get rich!"
"Get rich?" Liu Liang looked at Xu Kan, "Captain, we don't need money here, so how can we get rich?"
"You idiot, it's so nice here. There's food, drink, fields, and endless minks to catch. How could it always be like this? Look, in less than ten years, Peanut Village will be a prosperous place! By then, What you do depends on whether you are willing to do it with me!"
