Chapter 1020: The Bitterness of Colonization (Please Subscribe)

In the summer of the tenth year of Hongxing of the Great Ming, the exact month and day, Liu Liang had already forgotten.

He had forgotten on purpose, because he knew his sentence was "life without parole" — in this lifetime he would never have the chance to return to the Central Plains, could not even dream of going to Japan, and could only grow old and die in America Bay. So he had no need to count the days waiting for release.

The Chinese colonists who had arrived in America Bay together with him all shared more or less the same fate, so no one mentioned dates either — they just muddled through the days in a daze.

The days were bitter, of course. Several dozen people, dumped in a savage wilderness who knew how many tens of thousands of li from home — how could it not be bitter?

Right — some among them had already failed to hold out, and died in a foreign land.

Liu Liang was crouching beside a grave mound at this moment, talking to himself. The man buried in the mound was called "Old Zhang," also a booi from beyond the pass. His fate was even more bitter than Liu Liang's — he was a native-born Liaodong man, born a slave of the bannermen, and had followed his bannerman master through the pass to fight the Ming army. But he had won no merit, so he had always remained a booi. It was said he had been married, but his wife had been slept with by his bannerman master, gone mad, and later died, leaving behind a baby that he raised alone. Then, when Dodo conscripted troops before his last expedition into the interior, the child had also been done to death by his heartless bannerman master.

But that bannerman master had met no good end either — he was killed by Shi Kefa's black-gun soldiers at Desheng Marsh. Old Zhang was taken prisoner, and later transported to America. Passing through Japan, he was allotted a wife, and she even became pregnant with his flesh and blood. Just when life seemed to hold some promise, Old Zhang was this spring gored to death by a herd of wild bison while protecting newly sprouted wheat.

At the time, it was Liu Liang who collected his body and buried him beside the wheat field where he had fallen. The wheat was winter wheat, and now the harvest was imminent.

"Old Zhang, take a look — the wheat is almost ripe. Once it ripens, we can eat steamed buns by the mouthful. Your Michiko should be giving birth around then too. If it's a boy, your Zhang family will have an heir. Don't worry — your wife, your child, I'll raise them! If I have one bite of bun, I'll share it with him!"

What a good brother!

Old Zhang's wife Michiko now lived together with Liu Liang — a family of three, happy and harmonious. So Old Zhang could rest easy down below.

After rambling a while with his old comrade, Liu Liang hoisted his flintlock and made a round of inspection, checked the wooden stockade against the bison, and only then headed toward the distant Peanut Village.

Peanut Village was a small settlement surrounded by a moat and wooden palisade. Inside were all wooden houses, some thirty-odd in total, and all but two had cooking smoke rising from them.

As he drew nearer, Liu Liang caught a nauseating fishy smell. Needless to say, tonight's dinner was beef stewed with seafood again!

Before coming to America Bay, eating meat had always been a luxury for Liu Liang.

In his memory, the pleasure of eating meat came only a few times a year. Before he went beyond the pass to become a booi, it was usually at New Year, when the whole family, old and young, gathered together and wrapped a hundred or so cabbage-and-pork dumplings, ate a fine meal, and savored the memory for half a year. After going beyond the pass, because there was more land to farm, life got a little better — but still it was only at New Year that they slaughtered one scrawny pig and ate well for a few days. Even now, thinking back on it made him nostalgic!

But ever since arriving here in America Bay, even that small pleasure was gone!

It wasn't that they weren't given meat to eat — damn it, it was meat at every single meal!

And beef at that — wild bison beef! Who knew what the story was, but the place was full of stupid wild bison everywhere! When they weren't throwing tantrums, they were easy to catch.

At first he was quite happy — there was beef to eat! And he could eat his fill with his belt loosened. Those days were actually pretty good. The men ate until they grew chest hair and big beards, and the little Japanese women ate until they developed — many of them even grew taller!

But after eating it for so long, he got sick of it.

Especially after the rice brought from Japan and the flour brought from the Great Ming had been more or less squandered, they had to start eating beef as their staple food. Grain had originally been precious, to be rationed carefully. But after arriving in America Bay, everyone suddenly discovered that food could actually be thrown away.

Besides, because life was too boring, quite a few people wanted a drink or two, so they took the precious rice and brewed wine with it!

Thus, starting this summer, at mealtimes in America Bay, they no longer used beef and seafood to go with rice — instead they used noodles, dough lumps, and little rice balls to go with the beef!

That life could become this bitter truly exceeded everyone's expectations.

"You're back! You've worked hard."

Two women with large pregnant bellies bowed to Liu Liang in greeting. They were his first wife Ryoko and his second wife Michiko. Both were virtuous wives and good mothers, which made Liu Liang feel deeply ashamed.

Every day they said he had worked hard. Worked hard at what? The wheat was planted all in a mess, and no one even bothered to pull the weeds in the fields!

The time spent pulling weeds was better spent going to the seaside to gather some shells, catch a few fish, or grab some lobsters or the like.

"Dinner is ready!" Ryoko said to Liu Liang. "Just now Chief Xu personally delivered two fish. I had Michiko cook them, and there's also some salt-pickled bean sprouts, and noodles with beef."

Noodles with beef was not the same as beef noodles. The latter meant a few thin slices of beef plus a big bowl of noodles; the former meant a few thin strands of noodles plus a big bowl of beef.

Michiko added, "The chief wants you to go to his place after dinner."

"Oh, got it." Liu Liang's brow furrowed slightly.

He knew why Xu Kan wanted to see him — it was about hunting marten.

Last winter, because Liu Liang was bored out of his mind, he had followed Xu Kan in practicing archery, and had gotten quite good. So in the spring he went hunting with Xu Kan. They had meant to hunt bison, but ended up casually shooting a few martens instead.

Marten pelts were worth a fortune back in the Great Ming!

Xu Kan got to thinking about catching more of them, but he couldn't catch many by himself, so he wanted to organize the villagers to go out together.

But only a handful were willing to work with him. They were content to eat meat and seafood and drift through the days — they didn't need money, so why pick a fight with those martens?

But Liu Liang could not refuse Xu Kan, because Xu Kan had "bestowed" Michiko upon him. That kindness had to be repaid!

After finishing the noodles with beef, Liu Liang left his little wooden hut and walked toward the big wooden house where Chief Xu Kan lived.

Xu Kan was not going to spend his whole life in America — at least he believed he would not become a citizen of the United States, because he was a military officer and could return to his homeland.

And he had also discovered a road to riches: hunting marten in the America Bay region!

Martens were especially plentiful here — you couldn't catch them all!

And marten pelts commanded sky-high prices in the Great Ming! If he could bring back several hundred or several thousand pelts, he would be a very rich man.

But the only person willing to work with him was Liu Liang. Those who could not go back all believed they would never need money again in this life, so no one wanted to hunt marten.

When Liu Liang entered the house, Xu Kan was preparing his bow and arrows. The bow was a wooden bow, the arrows were bone arrows — very primitive. But here in America Bay they were super weapons, for the natives here had no bows at all. They were backward to an unbelievable degree.

And the fact that a group of hunters without even bows had not starved to death here in America Bay fully demonstrated the richness of this land.

Seeing Liu Liang walk in, Xu Kan warmly invited him to sit, then had his woman bring out a pot of rice wine.

"Old Liu, have a couple of drinks. Here in our place, there are no other pleasures — only eating and drinking." Xu Kan smiled. "Eat your fill, drink your fill, then sleep with your woman — that's a life fit for immortals! When you were in the Qing country, wasn't this exactly what you dreamed of?"

Liu Liang sighed. "Those days had their own bitterness, and these days have their own bitterness too."

"What bitterness?" Xu Kan laughed. "Get rich!"

"Get rich?" Liu Liang looked at Xu Kan. "Chief, there's no need for money here. Get rich from what?"

"You brainless fool. A place this good — food, drink, farmland, and martens you can't catch all of — how could it stay like this forever? Just watch: within ten years, Peanut Village will be a bustling place! And what you become by then will depend entirely on whether you're willing to work with me now!"

(End of Chapter)