Chapter 1298: Land of Sin

Liu Zheng believed that these Feudatory Kings were not stupid.

The most important point, naturally, was the establishment of Private Ownership.

What did this mean?

It meant that even if they previously owned an entire large province, if the Emperor were to fly into a rage, he could reclaim their fiefs or even their lives at any time.

This was an era where imperial power was supreme.

But what about now?

No.

No one could take it back; these Feudatory Kings had already secured Confirmation of Rights for much of the land and property in their own territories, and legally, these things belonged to them. In other words, no matter who they offended in the future—the Emperor or even Liu Zheng—these things were theirs, and no one could change that.

This was the core point.

Which Feudatory King could guarantee that their own son would be as capable as they were?

Which Feudatory King would not consider their descendants and leave them a way out?

Therefore, without realizing it, they were actually very satisfied with the current Longyan and very supportive of Private Ownership.

Everyone has selfish desires; as these Feudatory Kings grew wealthier and their power grew stronger, they actually lost much interest in the title of "Prince" of Longyan. What they cared about was tangible power and gold and silver.

Therefore.

In Liu Zheng's view, no matter how unwilling the Prince of Qin, Xie Zhao, was, no matter what kind of trouble Xie Fang wanted to stir up, and no matter how much those remnants of the old era wanted to return to the feudal times of the past.

It was all very unrealistic.

The current Longyan was already an economic society.

In an economic society, relatively speaking, as long as the entire economic system did not collapse, the country would be quite stable. What was the use of these Feudatory Kings supporting someone like Xie Fang? Could they live more comfortably than they did now?

No one was stupid.

As for the time ahead, Liu Zheng was not actually busy.

Three months of preparation time was still quite ample.

Moreover, with departments like the Ministry of Rites helping out, Liu Zheng was still quite leisurely.

……

"Sir, Sir, is your health alright?"

A Yinzhou ship slowly docked at a very primitive port.

Qin Zhangfeng looked at Qingyang Shuo with concern.

Qingyang Shuo smiled, shook his head, and asked, "Have we arrived in America?"

"It should be!"

Qin Zhangfeng laughed heartily.

Qingyang Shuo's complexion was not very good; he was old and also disabled, so his physical constitution was not sound to begin with, and thus the journey had been a series of stops and starts. These two Yinzhou ships, followed by a fleet and accompanied by ten thousand soldiers, had set out from Australia and then passed through a series of islands; along the way, they had indeed experienced many different customs and cultures.

The world was vast.

That was how Qin Zhangfeng and Pei Yanran sighed.

Qingyang Shuo, however, was incredibly excited.

To him, nothing was more joyful and exciting than discovering a new world.

On Hawaii Island, Qingyang Shuo stayed for a long time; firstly, to nurse his health, and secondly, because he felt the weather here was pleasant, and playing on the beach every day always gave one a feeling of being so happy that one forgot home.

Of course.

Qingyang Shuo knew that he still had a mission.

The port where they landed was a small village called Tijuana. In the map Liu Zheng gave them, this place was too remote. So remote that when their ships arrived here, the entire indigenous population of Tijuana was scared silly.

Their port was so backward that it could only accommodate fishing boats; where had they ever seen such big things as Yinzhou ships?

The dark-skinned indigenous people initially launched a resistance against the invasion of these big things, using the Javelin and various backward weapons in their hands, but this posed no threat at all to the fully armed Longyan Soldiers.

Qin Zhangfeng even wanted to laugh when he saw this situation.

He ordered the soldiers not to attack these natives and not to harm them.

Thus, they successfully docked.

Inevitably, these natives still held strong vigilance toward the Longyan.

Although there was no attack here, the hatred in their eyes remained.

Qin Zhangfeng and Pei Yanran were somewhat puzzled.

Qingyang Shuo, however, knew that these natives were likely the American indigenous people the Young Master had spoken of.

In the Young Master's narrative, the Ice Age, which had wiped out countless creatures, had not defeated the ancestors of these indigenous people, but their destruction began with the Europeans.

When Columbus discovered this place back then, the indigenous people were very friendly to them.

They were willing to exchange items with them and were willing to give all their possessions to the Europeans. They were very gentle, and they did not even know what evil was. They did not kill, nor did they steal. They were the best people in the world.

That was what Columbus said at the time.

But human desire began to sprout wildly at this time.

He felt no gratitude or reciprocation for the friendliness of the indigenous people. Instead, he intended to occupy and conquer them. At the time, he violated a nine-year-old indigenous girl and abducted several people, taking them as spoils of war back to Spain.

When he came a second time, seventeen warships were loaded with soldiers and weapons, and even Cavalry.

He even openly promised his crew that they could plunder and enjoy the indigenous people and their women without restraint. This was not enough; he also began to act as a slave trader, selling the indigenous people back to his country as slaves. Thus, he also became the first person to initiate the Atlantic slave trade.

In the eyes of these self-proclaimed civilized Europeans, these indigenous people were not considered human at all; they were merely existences that accepted a beast-like state, and they were not worthy of approaching their superior civilization.

Therefore, after squeezing the gold and food here to the maximum, he carried out a massacre and then left this place.

However, the misfortune of these indigenous people had not yet ended.

In the seventeenth century, another group of Europeans broke into this place, and that was the British.

Thus, after these British established a stronghold here, they began to formulate a horrific system. That was the system of offering rewards for the scalps of indigenous people. So-called civilization was torn to pieces by their own hands at this time.

The parliament of Britain passed a law: for every scalp of an indigenous person peeled and every red-skinned person captured, there would be a bounty of forty.

Afterwards, this price rose to 100!

Of course, a scalp in itself had no use; their true goal was to clear the indigenous people from this land. These people who boasted of being the most devout believers, the most holy existences, turned into the incarnations of devils when facing these indigenous people.

The entire America also became a true land of sin.

Afterwards, the slaughter and clearing of indigenous people became the basic national policy of this land.

Therefore, it is also normal that they are full of hostility toward the arrival of the unfamiliar Longyan people.

Qingyang Shuo immediately gave the order.

Camp in place, do not harass these indigenous people, and distribute the large quantities of grain, medicinal herbs, and other daily necessities brought on their ships to them, in order to gain their goodwill.