Invincible urban management

46. ​​Early morning in Port Hope

In the faint morning light, accompanied by a deafening explosion of firecrackers piercing the sky, Hope Harbor ushered in a new dawn.

The 25-year-old Hongxiutiz lumberjack Kokom immediately fell into a sound sleep. He was so frightened by the roar of the second kicker firecrackers that he danced and rolled down from the thatch pile that was used as a bed, and then He bumped his head against a pillar, and his eyes were filled with pain, so he could only hold his swollen forehead and wailed in pain.

"...Slacker! What the hell are you yelling about here! It's time to go to work! Breakfast is ready for you!"

Getting up early before dawn, the wife who was making a fire and cooking poked her head out from the stove and complained angrily, "... hurry up and eat!"

"...Oh, I'm going to wash my face first...then I'll come over to eat right away..."

The rather guilty Kokom agreed, and then stepped out the door, raised his head and took a deep breath of fresh air.

——Although it is said that this is in a city, the cities of the Central American Indians in this era, even the cities built by the traversers, cannot be full of stones and cement.Therefore, between the streets and houses of Port Hope, there are lush coconut trees and palm trees, as well as weeds, wild flowers and small vegetable beds... The hot and humid tropical marine climate makes the vegetation always grow in amazing The speed is crazy.

And the dense tropical rainforest outside the city, as well as the never-ending strong sea breeze, make the air here hardly turbid.

Kokom casually picked up a gourd ladle from the window sill, walked to the public pool in the center of the street, and, like other citizens who woke up in the morning, bent down to scoop up a ladle of clean water from the pool, rinsed his mouth first, and then washed his mouth. After brushing his face, he immediately felt much refreshed.

——Although after the camel machine was used to pump water, Port Hope began to build a tap water system.However, the current Port of Hope is too late to train a sufficient number of plumbers.Moreover, many thatched houses in the slums are expected to undergo large-scale renovations in the future.

Therefore, the traversers just installed domestic tap water and sewer systems that are connected to each house in the color steel simple houses ordered from the modern world in the "Noble District" (these simple houses have preset water pipes).As for the vast slums in the periphery, in order to reduce the amount of engineering and save investment, the ancient Romans' urban water supply method is adopted-every household generally does not have a single water tap, but a water tap is poured with cement in the center of each block. The public pool is filled with flowing tap water.Then, a group of elders and aunts similar to the directors of the later generations of neighborhood committees were appointed to be responsible for maintaining the cleanliness of the public pools, picking up floating objects on the water surface, and regularly cleaning the mud at the bottom of the pools, etc.

In order to avoid the pollution of clean water sources, all public pools are stipulated that only clean utensils can be used to draw water.If anyone scoops water directly with his hands, or buries his head in the water to drink, he will be punished with a whip if he is found. Whip is staring at it, always watching to see if anyone makes a mistake.

After washing up, Koukum shook his head again, borrowed a small round mirror from a neighbor, looked at his own face, grinned, showing a mouthful of white teeth, and stretched out his mouth. Lazy, go home.

When he walked into the house, his wife had already brought out all the meals and placed them on a reed mat, and then the husband and wife sat on the ground and had breakfast face to face—the same as the ancient Chinese and Japanese. Similarly, Indians rarely use furniture such as tables and chairs.

Today's breakfast at Cocombe's house is two bowls of hot cornmeal, plus a few delicious roasted sweet potatoes, and a plate of sliced ​​tomatoes sprinkled with sugar.The condiments that go with the meal are bright red dried chili peppers and snow-white jing salt-chili peppers have always been indispensable in the recipes of Mexican Indians, and the hotter they are, the stronger they are, just like the Sichuanese, Hunanese, and Koreans in later generations of China. same as people.

The hot corn paste is served in two delicate and smooth white porcelain bowls, and the cold tomatoes, peppers and Jing salt are served in small blue and white porcelain dishes—because Ma Tong not only owns a ceramics shop at home, but also Many of her family's relatives and friends also run ceramic products factories, and the other world is facing an economic crisis, and business is very difficult. Almost all of her relatives have a large backlog of inventory...

As a result, all kinds of ceramic products that were unmarketable in the 21st century were bought by Ms. Ma Tong, who was willing to help relatives, and dumped them in Mexico in the [-]th century. It is a daily department store that everyone in Hong Kong can afford.

For Koukum, not only such exquisite and gorgeous tableware, but also such rich and delicious food, he, a commoner, never dared to expect.Even the crystal white salt in the dish was something he had never seen before two years ago.

——It is pitiful to say that although the Hongxiutizgan people live in the Pacific coast area, they have learned how to cook sea salt from a very early age, and have been using homemade sea salt to trade with inland tribes. Logically speaking, they should not There will be a lack of salt.However, due to the unqualified technical level, most of the finished products they obtained were thick black salt bricks—that was the color of the salt block after being repeatedly boiled and smoked by smoke.In this kind of rough salt brick, there are countless impurities mixed in, rich in all kinds of harmful ingredients, and the bitter taste can overwhelm the salty taste.

But the sad thing is that even such thick, black and bitter salt bricks require a lot of firewood to make, and the actual price is very high. Many poor people are reluctant to eat more. Next to the stove, when using it, just put it in a pottery urn for a while.

Kokom once saw it in the saltworks of the Hunxiutizgan Kingdom when he was a child. Even the so-called "pure salt" that is exclusively enjoyed by nobles and rich people is at least slightly yellowish and slightly bitter. The refined salt transported by the "gods" is white in color, fine in grains, and delicious in taste... Right now, I am actually blessed, being able to eat such refined salt every day, I'm afraid it can strengthen my body and prolong my life. !

And with the fine seeds rewarded by the "God Man" and the pungent small particles called "chemical fertilizers", the sweet potatoes and corn cultivated not only taste much sweeter, but also produce ten times more than before. Even a commoner like him can let go of his stomach to eat every meal.

There is also a new variety of tomato bestowed by the "man of God", which is as big as a fist when it grows out. If it is not that the taste and color are similar to the original, Kokom can hardly believe that it is the same plant. (At that time, the tomatoes of the Indians were still very small, roughly equivalent to the volume of modern fruit tomatoes, or cherries. It was not until they were scientifically cultivated by Europeans that tomatoes expanded to modern volumes)

Recalling the hungry days in the past, Kokom sighed slightly, sprinkled a pinch of fine salt into the cornmeal batter, put in a few pieces of crushed dried chili, and used a handful of plastic that seemed to come with instant noodles. After stirring it with the spoon a few times, he began to eat it.

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When Kokom finished his hearty breakfast with a satisfied face, the second round of firecrackers this morning had already crackled at the top of the pyramid.Urging citizens to get out of their homes and rush to their jobs.

He wiped his mouth quickly, and stepped out the door again, the bright sun shone on his face, making him squint his eyes.

Looking at the people rushing to work on the street, Kokom couldn't help feeling a little dazed.

Although he saw the city grow from nothing, from a wasteland to prosperity, Koukum still felt very unreal about the scene in front of him.

He and many people around him were once residents of the old royal city.However, although that ancient city can be called majestic and magnificent, and its scale is even larger than Port of Hope, it gives people a completely different feeling from the Port of Hope in front of them—the former is lifeless, while the latter is full of vitality.

Moreover, after the attack and massacre of the Aztecs, that city no longer exists.

Six years ago, wearing the armor stripped from the dead, dragging his wife and children, carrying arrows and javelins, he escaped from Hunxietizgan, which was captured by the Aztec army, in a pool of fire and blood. Wangcheng; four years ago, he was naked, holding a spear and a sling, struggling with poisonous snakes and jaguars, relying on hunting wild animals and picking wild fruits, struggling to survive in the wilderness.

Although after being found in the forest by the search team of the Hongxiutizgan Kingdom and forced to relocate to Hope Port, Koukum's small family suffered another disaster-his eight-year-old only son died more than a year ago Because of the great plague that happened in the past few days, the couple struggled to survive after having a fever for several days because they received the "miracle medicine" generously donated by the "men of God" in time.

But in general, life is still getting better day by day.Relying on hard work, Kaukum not only never went hungry anymore, but also ate fine salt and candy, put on cotton clothes and plastic shoes, and also had his own house, vegetable plot, many utensils, tools, and a Nice work.

Although his son is gone, he is very sad, but he and his wife are still young, and there will definitely be more children in the future.If it really doesn't work, anyway, there are many boys and girls in the Hongxiutizgan Kingdom today. As long as you can save some wealth, it seems easy to find a concubine...

Kokom squinted his eyes and fantasized about this, but immediately recalled his wife's roar and rubbing stick, and couldn't help shivering suddenly.

He prayed silently in his heart again, thanking the "man of God" for the wonderful new life he had brought to him, and then quickened his pace of going to work.

In short, like the name of the city, Port Hope is indeed a good place full of hope.

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ps: Regarding the issue of tomatoes, some readers mentioned the famous "Wolf Peach" legend, that is, in the early days when tomatoes were introduced to Europe, they were said to be poisonous plants by some brainless scholars (they foolishly threw away the fruit and went to eat it tomato leaves, which turned out to be really poisoned), sent the tomatoes into the flowerbed instead of the vegetable garden, were labeled as poisonous, and named "wolfpeach" (wolfpeach) to show its "poisonous and fierce", a long Time can only be cultivated as an ornamental plant, until a certain bold French painter tried to eat tomatoes and found that nothing happened, and then he began to popularize tomatoes as vegetables.It can be deduced from this that the Indians in Central America should not eat tomatoes, but only regard them as ornamental plants.

But according to other records, the Aztecs did refer to tomatoes as "expanded fruits" and used tomato paste as a condiment.Tomatoes had been widely grown in many parts of Central America at least before Cortes landed in Mexico.Of course, the tomatoes at this time were still very small, completely different from the big tomatoes we cook and eat, but more like the modern finger-sized fruit tomatoes.

In addition, in an ancient tomb of the Western Han Dynasty excavated in China in 1983, a 1700-year-old "Han Dynasty tomato" was also found, but I don't know why it was lost later - if it was not lost, the Chinese The history of cultivating tomatoes is probably longer than that of Indians!

Regardless of the variety, early tomatoes were pocket-sized.But from the time when tomatoes joined the vegetable and fruit team, the pursuit of larger and more tomato fruits has become the main goal of breeding.Afterwards, continuous cross-breeding made the tomatoes bigger and bigger, but these large tomatoes were neither fragrant nor sweet, and even the sour taste was omitted, completely losing the personality of "Wolf Peach".

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