Chapter 1403: Aunt and Nephew and a Secret Talk (Please Subscribe)

The shamisen, plucked by the mistress of Kikuya, produced a light and lively melody that made the listeners feel as though bathed in a spring breeze. Then suddenly came a rapid succession of striking and plucking notes, one wave pressing hard upon the next, lifting the audience's emotions along with it. When the rhythm of the striking and plucking grew so fast it could go no faster, it stopped abruptly, and then came the long, drawn-out Japanese chanting.

Outside the window, the grass was green and the flowers red, and the sea waves rose and fell. Several men and women dressed in Daoist robes and Wu-style clothing were seated in the glass pavilion of the Kikuya main store facing the harbor bay, sipping tea as they quietly listened to the performance and singing of the Kikuya mistress, Yamamoto Kiku.

Yamamoto Kiku was the wife of old Yamamoto Shigezumi. The old man had settled down on the Malacca Peninsula, remarried, and had children, and was now contentedly waiting to die—over seventy, nearly eighty, with only a few years left to kick about!

But Yamamoto Kiku, in her twenties and with a son, had unexpectedly made a splendid life for herself in the United States of Xinzhou. A woman as young and beautiful as she was, with a head for business and a willingness to climb by any means necessary, could easily rise on the soil of the United States of Xinzhou. And she had also found an industry at the crest of the wave—transnational matchmaking!

She had arrived in Xinzhou aboard the "Marriage Ship" of the Xu-Liu-Liang Company. Because she was clever and diligent, and especially willing to learn and work hard, she quickly won the appreciation of Liu Liang, the chief manager of the Xu-Liu-Liang Company in the United States of Xinzhou. Not only was she not "sold off," she even became an employee of the Xu-Liu-Liang Company, and later rose to shop manager. Still later, she connected with Zheng Xi and became his lover, and through that connection left the Xu-Liu-Liang Company to start her own business, opening Kikuya.

Kikuya's main business was also "matchmaking," but it expanded upon the "matchmaking trade" by providing "one-time services" to the large number of bachelors in the United States of Xinzhou—in other words, it ran a brothel!

It sounded low-class, but considering the gender imbalance within the United States of Xinzhou, this industry was a necessity, and its profits were substantial.

As Kikuya's financial strength grew ever greater, and its backing was as solid as a steel plate, its market share in the matchmaking trade also rose higher and higher. It had now replaced the Xu-Liu-Liang Company as the number one player in Xinzhou's matchmaking business.

And the people for whom Yamamoto Kiku would play and sing like a geisha were naturally no ordinary figures.

Those who came to the Kikuya main store today were, besides Yamamoto Kiku's lover Zheng Xi, Yao Daqiao, who had just returned from the Kingdom of Jiaqing, and Shimazu Nobuhisa and his uncle Kabayama Naohisa, the brother and uncle of Shimazu Nogi.

The Princess Consort of Jiaqing, Nogi, had now arrived in Huafu and was staying at Yao Daqiao's residence within the city of Huafu, waiting to meet with Zhu Hehao.

Meanwhile, Nobuhisa, Naohisa, and Yao Daqiao took the opportunity of enjoying themselves at Kikuya to hold a private meeting with the big shot of the United States, Zheng Xi, and incidentally probe the other side's bottom line.

The singing stopped abruptly. Yamamoto Kiku, with a faint expression, gave a slight nod in salute, then rose and left.

Seeing Yamamoto Kiku leave, Zheng Xi smiled and spoke: "Listening to a little tune, watching the sea view, leisurely and at ease—this is the life of immortals! The United States is vast in land and sparse in people, abundant in all things, and there is no need for any fuss—just living well is enough. The land of Jiaqing was a bit poor in the past, but once it joins the United States, all will be well. If the south is too dry, then come north, and let us all advance eastward together along the great river. Follow the great river eastward, and when you reach the region of the great river basin, the river channel splits into two branches—one going north, one going south. The northern branch, we will pacify; the southern branch, you will pacify. Wouldn't that settle it?"

The great river Zheng Xi spoke of was the Columbia River, and the fork he mentioned was where the Snake River flows into the Columbia. If one set out from Bozhou and followed the Columbia—Snake River westward, that would roughly be the main stretch of the historically famous Oregon Trail. And the route of the Oregon Trail crossing the Great Stone Mountains (the Rocky Mountains) was actually relatively flat, and basically followed the river channels. Although these channels might not always be navigable, they could all be used to irrigate crops.

So the development value of this piece of territory that Zheng Xi privately promised to the King of Jiaqing was actually quite high!

Of course, the Columbia Basin that Zhu Hehao had his eye on, as well as the territory extending northeast from the basin, was of even higher value—the climate was more humid, and the navigability of the Columbia River's main channel was stronger, with the water route reaching all the way to the northern edge of the Columbia Basin. And eastward from the basin, there were two high-plateau lake regions of great development value. From the more easterly of these plateau lake regions, going further east and winding four or five hundred li through the Great Stone Mountains, one could enter the Great Plains of North America.

Although the northern route through the Great Stone Mountains could not compare with the Oregon Trail to the south, compared with the great mountains of western China, it was nothing at all. The more troublesome part was opening up farmland and establishing outposts along the way—from the Bay of America eastward into the Great Plains of North America, one had to travel over two thousand li no matter what. If the entire route were untamed wilderness with no way to obtain supplies, the logistics of the eastward advance would not hold up.

Therefore, in Zhu Cilang's plan, the greatest historical mission of the Tycoon King in this lifetime was to advance eastward step by step, steadily and surely, opening a passage to the Great Plains of North America.

Huafu, the White House.

The Tycoon King, dressed in a neat riding jacket, sat quietly in his study. A cup of clear tea before him had long since lost its steam. From after breakfast until now, he had been grading examination papers—the papers from that "wife-seeking examination."

He had only six hundred "little sisters-in-law" who could be married off, so he had to choose carefully, selecting the people most useful to himself—ideally the upper-middle elites of every stratum, and moreover distributed across the four most important central cities of the United States and their surroundings: Huafu City, Shanhaigang City, Bozhou City, and Jinmen City.

Although the United States now claimed to have four states, the only territory that truly counted as important was these four cities—half of the United States' population lived in these four cities and the surrounding countryside.

As long as he could control these four cities, Zhu Hehao controlled the entire United States!

Therefore, before the "marriage examination" began, Zhu Hehao ordered the Prince's Household Chief Clerk Chen Yonghua to conduct background investigations on all the examinees—a thorough investigation was impossible; at most it was a questionnaire.

After completing the investigation, they were classified, and all of the more than ten thousand examinees were divided into six major categories: "scholar, farmer, herder, merchant, miner, hunter." The so-called scholars included officials, teachers, soldiers, and the like; the so-called farmers were farm owners; herders were ranch owners; merchants referred to industrial and commercial operators; miners referred to gold prospectors; hunters referred to fur traders.

The seven or eight hundred thousand people of the United States of Xinzhou could roughly also be grouped into these six major categories.

In order to win over talented people from all sides, Zhu Hehao also custom-designed six sets of examination plans for these six categories of identity—otherwise, if all who passed were scholars and none from the others, that would not do at all!

The scholars of the United States of Xinzhou were not comparable to the scholars of the Great Ming—in the United States of Xinzhou, everyone had a gun! So the status of scholars was not as high as in the Old World, and it was difficult for them to oppress the other classes.

Just as Zhu Hehao was buried in grading examination papers, the soft sound of footsteps suddenly came from outside the study, and then the office door was pulled open. Two figures slipped in one after the other. Zhu Hehao merely glanced up, and this King of the United States immediately set down the examination paper in his hand and rose to greet them.

The people who could make Zhu Hehao, this King of the United States, rise from his chair were truly few and far between in the New World. And today's visitor was a young woman dressed in a kimono, who had come together with Zhu Hehao's Japanese concubine Xu Jingzi.

Xu Jingzi lived up to her name—refined, quiet, and delicate, with fair skin, dignified features, and a baby face. She was somewhat short, wearing a red front-opening jacket, and looked very adorable. She performed a blessing curtsey toward Zhu Hehao, then said in a sweet, soft voice: "Your Highness the Great King, the Princess Consort of Jiaqing has arrived."

Zhu Hehao looked at Shimazu Nogi, dressed in a red kimono, and nodded slightly in acknowledgment. "Aunt, was your journey peaceful?"

Shimazu Nogi also smiled and gave a slight bow, her beautiful eyes fixed on Zhu Hehao: "Your Highness the Great King, may I ask why Your Highness has summoned me here? What matter is there to discuss?"

(End of Chapter)