The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 224 Looking East
A ray of sunshine in the morning shines through the misty paper window into the slightly messy room. As the sound of chopping wood comes from outside the house, Liu Azhu wakes up from his deep sleep again.

Staring at the curtains on the bed, he was stunned for a while, then turned his head to look at the layout of the room, and then let out a long breath.

Oh, this is Yinzhou.

The weather seems to be good today, and the sun is shining. Looking out through the window, there is a bright scenery.

Is it about time?

Oops, I got up late!
Liu Azhu wanted to sit up from the bed immediately, but he didn't want to move too much and cause a dull pain in his lower body.

"Well..." A blush immediately appeared on his face.

Last night, the man didn't know how long he struggled before letting people sleep peacefully. At about ten o'clock, the sky became dim and the person woke up again. Finally, he collapsed from exhaustion and fell asleep again.

Oh, what a shame!
After getting dressed, I got out of bed and walked out of the bedroom.

Outside is a spacious hall, with a few simple pieces of furniture scattered here and there, wooden tables and chairs, wooden cabinets, and a few wooden boxes.

The first meal of the day will be something simple until noon, a little rice porridge mixed with a lot of vegetables, leaves and grains. There are also steamed buns, but they are mixed with too many miscellaneous things, and it is difficult to have wheat. The aroma of noodles can only fill your stomach.

Yesterday, when I was returning home in an ox cart, a wild wolf jumped out of nowhere and slipped into the yard, preparing to eat the chickens raised at home. Fortunately, although the family dog ​​is small and weak, it rushes up to bite the wild wolf without fear and bravely defends the small home.

Opening the lid of the pot, you will find hot rice porridge, which exudes an attractive rice aroma, is thick and soft and glutinous.

"Follow me and you won't have to worry about being hungry anymore!"

"It doesn't cost a lot of firewood. ... There is a lot of wood in the forest, which can be chopped hard." Xu Guangtian smiled.

This woman also knows how to save firewood for her men. Well, she is a good woman living a good life.

Liu Azhu couldn't help but turn his head and look in the direction of chopping firewood outside the house. A different emotion suddenly surged in his heart, and he felt an inexplicable sense of stability and peace of mind.

"Oh, don't wash it with cold water." Xu Guangtian, who was chopping firewood in the yard, saw her carrying a bucket of water and was about to wash clothes under the eaves. He quickly dropped the ax in his hand and walked over quickly, "Winter water It’s extremely cold, so don’t let it freeze. If the fire in the room goes out, I’ll reheat it for you. You, the laundry guy, should get a pot of hot water first!”

In another pot, there is a steamer wall with a large porcelain bowl containing several steamed buns and a hard-boiled egg.

The fire in the furnace has burned out, but with the residual heat, the two pots are still warm, and a trace of white gas is emitting from the gap between the pot lids.

"Aren't there grizzly bears and wild wolves in the woods? Just save as much firewood as you can at home, and don't go to the woods too often..." Liu Azhu had a look of concern on his face.

There are two pots on the kitchen stove, one large and one small, with lids on them.

I washed the pots and dishes, tidied the house, cleaned out three or five pieces of dirty clothes, soaked them in the basin, and carried them outside the house, ready to starch the clothes for the man.

This man actually thoughtfully prepared breakfast for him!

"No need." Liu Azhu looked up at his man and smiled, "When I was at home, I washed my clothes with cold water in winter. ... If you boil water, it will cost firewood!"

Xu Guangtian rushed over with his rifle and fired a shot at the wolf. Although he missed, the explosion still scared the wolf away and it fled to the distant mountains and forests.

In this wild Yinzhou continent, there is no one he is familiar with. From now on, he can only rely on the man in front of him, but he must not get into trouble and be injured by wild beasts.

Unfortunately, in Qin's hometown, except for wealthy landowners and businessmen, ordinary people would not eat breakfast at all after getting up in the morning.

Perhaps because he had consumed too much last night, Liu Azhu, who was empty in his stomach, ate two steamed buns and drank two bowls of rice porridge in one go. Then he put down the bowl and chopsticks lovingly, then touched his bulging belly and leaned back comfortably on the wooden chair. Go up and experience this endless fulfillment and...safety.

I took a bite of the steamed bun. It was soft and delicate, with a faint aroma of wheat and the sweetness of flour. Although it was the leftover steamed bun from yesterday, it still had a rich aroma after being warmed, which made people feel comfortable and warm, and even increased my appetite.

Oh, even the entire house is made of wood.

Not long after, several neighbors living nearby heard gunshots and ran over with muskets and long knives.

After hearing that it was a wild wolf looking for food, everyone felt relieved. However, after seeing the daughter-in-law Xu Guangtian had brought back from Baozhai, he kept congratulating her and looked around Liu Azhu for a long time.

In the evening, more villagers arrived. They brought wine, bacon, dried fish, and dried fruits to the house to celebrate the master's wedding.

Xu Guangtian was so happy that he directly invited a few helpers, slaughtered a fat sheep, killed a few chickens, and held a "wedding banquet" happily.

The banquet lasted from dusk to midnight. A huge bonfire, several long tables, twenty or thirty dishes, and several bottles of spicy shochu filled the entire courtyard with a joyful and peaceful atmosphere.

After the banquet was over, Liu Azhu carefully helped Xu Guangtian, who had had a few too many drinks, into the room to wash up. Who knows, just after wiping his face and revealing a bit of clarity, he suddenly carried him to the bed.

After several twists and turns, the man took a few sips of tea, hugged himself tightly, kept talking, and finally fell asleep.

Under the early morning sun, the man in front of him had a stocky figure, and there was an indescribable joy between his brows. After taking off his felt hat, he revealed a simple face, and his deep eye sockets revealed a bit of perseverance and vicissitudes of life. Although he is wearing simple and crude clothes, he feels warm and friendly.

In just a short time in the morning, he had already chopped a large pile of firewood in front of the woodshed and scattered it everywhere. There was a fine drop of sweat on his forehead and nose, dripping down continuously, showing that he was a very strong man.

This is the man that I will stay with for life!

"Hehe..." Seeing his woman looking at him so absorbedly, Xu Guangtian couldn't help but feel happy. He stretched out his hand and wiped his face, wiped away the sweat, and smiled naively, "That..., that..., What’s your name?”

"..." Liu Azhu was startled for a moment, and then a blush appeared on his face again. He lowered his head, bit his lip, and responded in a weak voice: "...My name is Liu Azhu."

So ashamed of myself!

They have become someone else's daughter-in-law. Last night they became husband and wife, but they didn't even know each other's names!

"Hey, Liu Azhu! This name is so nice!" Xu Guangtian looked at his wife, feeling more and more happy, and an inexplicable desire suddenly rose in his heart.

It’s great to have a woman!
"Um..., my name is Xu Guangtian." Xu Guangtian stretched out his right hand, touched the woman's forehead, helped her smooth the hair between her eyebrows, and then slid it down her smooth face, "Back then, my father named me When I was young, I was mostly thinking about having my own piece of land at home. Now that I already have so much land in Yinzhou, I will definitely buy more land and have more children, so that I can have my own land. The name is worthy of its name..."

"Um……"

Liu Azhu buried her head deeply, but the man's fingers touched her face, which made her feel inexplicably flustered and at a loss. Her face and neck felt extremely hot.

"Xu Guangtian!" Suddenly, a shout came from outside the yard, causing the little black dog that kept circling around the two people to immediately raise its ears and start barking outside the yard. "Xu Guangtian, are you up?" A thin man wearing a felt hat and an old fur coat shouted as he pushed open the courtyard door and walked inside.

"Zhang Erhei, what are you yelling at so early in the morning!" Xu Guangtian angrily pinched his woman's face, then turned around and faced her.

"Hehe..." Zhang Yongkuan glanced at Liu Azhu who entered the room, and then looked up and down at Xu Guangtian, who looked slightly stunned, "Did you just get up? Oh, look at the sweat on your head, I'm afraid you were in the room You put a lot of effort into it, right? Hehe..."

"If you have something to say, get out of here!" Xu Guangtian said angrily: "I have to clean up the barn later, but I don't have time to talk nonsense with you."

"Hey, who knows if you're going to clean out the barn later, or if you're going to crawl into bed and exercise your strength?"

"..." Xu Guangtian was a little annoyed when he heard this, and glared at the other party, "You still haven't woken up from the cat pee last night? Are you trying to fool me?"

"Hey, have you disturbed your good deeds?" Zhang Yongkuan continued to talk nonsense, "Mom, you've been tossing all night and it's not enough!"

"Zhang Erhei, if you keep talking nonsense, I won't be polite to you anymore!"

"Yo yo yo, are you angry?" Zhang Yongkuan saw the other party's change of expression, and hurriedly laughed with him, and informed him of the reason for the search, "An order came from the castle, requiring each of our households to Every household must go out and gather with their own muskets... In five days, there will be a military review."

"Huh?" Xu Guangtian was stunned after hearing this, "What, are you going to fight the natives, or are you going south to fight the Spaniards?"

"No." Zhang Yongkuan shook his head and said: "I heard that our Xuanzhou Governor-General has a new deputy commander of security, who is also a serious army officer. He will inspect various Baozhai settlements and inspect the local armed self-defense situation. Our tide The colonial officer of Anbao felt that he could not let others look down on him, so he had to practice it first to prevent everyone from making a fool of himself. "

"Oh." Xu Guangtian couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this.

At this time, he didn't want to go anywhere, he just wanted to stay at home with his wife.

Since it's just a drill for rural soldiers, it doesn't matter. Although it has delayed the family's farm work, at least there is no need to prepare dry food by yourself. In this cold winter, I can cross the mountains and go to the mountains to eliminate the indigenous people.

Hey, you said that our Xuanzhou Governor-General already occupies such a vast territory, with large tracts of vacant land everywhere, why do we still want to explore and colonize to the east?

It is said that many immigrants who settled in several valleys in the East Kunlun Mountains (today's Rocky Mountains) were attacked by severe wind and snow, and many people died. Coupled with the armed conflict with the local indigenous people, it seems that there are not many left, and life is miserable.

Thinking about it, it's quite pitiful.

Oh, by the way, many of the settlements in the south that were close to the Spanish forces also had conflicts and disputes with the Spanish from time to time, causing the entire viceroyalty to mobilize rural soldiers several times in preparation to teach the "aggressive" Spaniards a lesson. However, in the end, due to the power of Daqi, the Spaniards made concessions, so that the two sides are now in peace.

Alas, in this world, no matter where we go, there are disputes and conflicts. What do we, ordinary people who want to live a peaceful life, do?
However, now that we have settled down in Yinzhou, we must take up arms to defend our land, our home, and our women, and we cannot allow others to destroy them in vain.
-
January 1, three o'clock in the afternoon, Lechang (now Santa Clara, California).

"Disband!"

As an Army Imperial Martial Arts Officer (captain) shouted loudly, the rural soldiers arrayed in a crooked formation immediately lost their momentum and scattered to pieces like a bursting firework.

The militiamen dragged their muskets, chatting and laughing in groups of three or five, playing, and even made an appointment to sit for a while in a tavern in the city.

This poor guy knows how to do exercises, but he is exhausted, no less than after a day of intensive farm work.

Is this necessary?
We are not an organized army, so we do not need to have the same strict requirements as those regular soldiers.

Is it possible that there are still foreign enemies that can attack our Yinzhou?

"What a bunch of stragglers!" Tan Shunde, the training staff officer of the Xuanzhou Garrison Command and Yuwu Colonel, shook his head and said with a bitter smile: "I only need to lead a platoon of army troops and launch a wave of bayonet charges to kill these hundred Many people were defeated!”

"Yes, a bunch of bad soldiers." Li Yanliang, the new deputy commander of the Xuanzhou garrison and Xuangjie captain (major), said expressionlessly: "To defeat them, there is no need for regular troops. We will transfer a garrison from Hengguan. They can all be annihilated. It seems that the local soldiers in Xuanzhou can only use their firearms to bully the local indigenous people... If they want to use them, they will probably not succeed!"

"Sir, do you want to..." Tan Shunde asked carefully.

It is said that this master caused trouble in Hengguan and interfered in Japan's overthrow war without permission, so he was "sent" to Xuanzhou by his superiors so that he could reflect on it.

Why, from his tone, it sounds like he is going to do something "big" again?
"Just preparing for a rainy day." Li Yanliang smiled, then turned and walked outside the school grounds.

"Preparing for a rainy day?" Tan Shunde's mouth twitched, "The Spaniards have a warm relationship with us, and they are also jointly building the Panama Isthmus Railway, so we should not be able to attack them. In this case... Sir, don't you want to go there? Should we start in the direction of Louisiana? No, the steep East Kunlun Mountains stretch for hundreds of kilometers. Even if we climb over through the trail, we can't eat such a big area of ​​Louisiana!"

"The decline of the Spanish is hard to conceal, and they can no longer become an important opponent of our Qi State. Furthermore, with the dense population of Spanish Mexico, not to mention that our Xuanzhou Viceroyalty cannot cope with it alone, even if we add Yifan and Pengzhou to the north I'm afraid I won't be able to chew down the Governor's District." Li Yanliang walked to a carriage and sat in, "However, compared to dealing with French Louisiana, we have a lot of geographical advantages, crossing the east coast. Kunlun Mountain can face the vast plain area and rush down. More importantly, the number of French immigrants is quite small and they cannot gather much armed force. "

"Sir, France is a big country in Europe, with a population of more than 20 million, and the most powerful country in Europe. It is not that easy to deal with."

"Because France is so powerful, it will be the country that Qi will focus on containing in Europe for a long time to come." Li Yanliang patted the wall of the carriage and motioned for the carriage to start, "I'm afraid you don't know. , France has strong opinions on our country’s transfer of Acadia and Newfoundland. It believes that it is unacceptable for a group of Catholic people to be ruled by pagans like us, and it also has concerns about their territories of Hudson and Canada. It poses a certain threat. In addition, in the Mediterranean, the French have developed a vague hostility towards the expansion of our Qi power in the region, and feel that our Mediterranean squadron is sailing too close to the southern coast of France. "

"Sir, what do you mean, our Qi country will go to war with France at some point in the future?" Tan Shunde still doubted himself. "The French army has hundreds of thousands of soldiers. I'm afraid we can't afford to provoke it."

"Only those who are determined will think of sending the army to Europe to fight France." Li Yanliang said with a smile: "We don't need to fight with the French too much on the European continent, just fight with them at sea. As long as we work together The Chinese Navy can cut off the maritime connection between the French mainland and the New France Territory. Not to mention Louisiana, even Canada and the Hudson, it is just a dish on the table, let us slowly savor it. "

"But, the stretching East Kunlun Mountains..."

"In the past few decades, we, including ours in Xuanzhou, have sent several expeditions to the eastern region, and we should have discovered and mapped many passable valleys and paths. In this situation, we can set up Several settlement points were extended eastward little by little, and eventually a marching supply line was laid out leading to Louisiana. Oh, by the way, I heard that Yi Fan sent an expedition as far as the Great Lakes area. Can you think of a way to use this line?”

"Prince Yi's Mansion may not be willing to share this route with us. It is reported that every summer and autumn in Yizhou, a caravan of dozens of people will be sent to the eastern mountainous area to collect furs. Oh, a nail, They can exchange for a good mink skin, a few sharp steel knives, and a valuable bear skin from the local indigenous people. They even exchange muskets for the indigenous women in the territory. Immigration marriage.”

"Did Yi Fan leak firearms to the indigenous people?"

"Probably...but they are all second-hand old muskets."

"Oh."

"Sir, where are we going now?"

"Go back to Huaiyuan City."

"Huh?... No more parades for rural soldiers?"

"The Chinese New Year will be coming in a few days, and those country soldiers have no intention of reviewing. Let's talk about it after the New Year. In addition, after the weather warms up, we need to organize an expedition team to go east and see Louis. What’s going on in Anna?”

"Well, it would be great if we could build a railway to the east in Xuanzhou just like we built the Panama Isthmus Railway. Wherever the railway goes, the land will be leveled!"

(End of this chapter)