Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 25 Destiny
December 12th, Christmas.

As early as 529 AD, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian designated December 12 as the day to commemorate the birth of Jesus. This traditional religious festival soon spread to the Kingdom of Spain where Catholicism was prevalent.

Even after being conquered by the Arab Empire in 711 AD and ruled by the Christian Religion for seven centuries, the Kingdom of Spain still maintained its Catholic religious beliefs and held regular Christmas celebrations every year.

On Christmas Day, the Spanish will stockpile enough food and fuel to fight the harsh winter. People will sing Christmas carols, decorate Christmas trees and Belém, and enjoy the rare festive warmth of the year.

However, during such an important religious festival, more than 30 residents of Banderas Valley (now Puerto Vallarta, Mexico) were forcibly taken onto ships by pirates and forced to leave the coastal town.

They were the town's blacksmiths, silversmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, brewers, bakers and other craftsmen, as well as several experienced farmers.

Perhaps in order to better control them, or perhaps to prevent their loved ones from being separated, these pirates were very "thoughtful" and brought their families along as well.

As a family, we should be together, right?

"Where are we going?" The wife of blacksmith Pablo Escuete held her six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter tightly in her arms, one on each side, and looked at her husband helplessly.

"Where are we going?" Pablo Escuete looked blankly at the endless sea and said with a wry smile, "I don't know either... Where are we going? Obviously, we might be going to an unknown place, perhaps an isolated island, a wilderness, or even a pirate's den. Our lives will change drastically from now on, and our fate will become unpredictable..."

"Are we going to die?" As soon as the wife said this, tears couldn't stop flowing down her face, and she hugged her daughter tighter in her arms.

"No, we won't die. We will all be alive and well." Pablo Escuete held his wife in his arms and said with certainty, "Even the most brutal pirates would not rashly kill a craftsman who is very useful to them. Moreover, this craftsman is a skilled blacksmith. Don't worry, dear, they won't harm you and the children."

Back then, when his father taught him how to forge various iron tools, he told him that there was nothing in this world that could save one's life better than mastering a sophisticated craft.

Whether in the war-torn European continent or the indigenous American continent, as long as you have a skill, you can not only have enough food to eat, but also rely on the skills you have mastered to escape danger when danger comes.

Because, no matter whether it is a king who massacres cities and destroys countries, or a barbaric and tyrannical pirate, when killing people, they will always pick out craftsmen first and use them for their own purposes.

Besides, this group of pirates did not seem to be that cruel. Except for killing the sheriff Mr. Treros and two annoying sailors during the midnight raid on the town, they basically did not harm the ordinary residents of the town.

They simply locked up the women, children, and the elderly in the church and forced all the men to transport supplies. After everyone obediently followed their instructions, there was no beating, no abuse, and no massacre.

Oh, not really. Three sailors tried to escape and were shot dead on the spot.

There were also pirates with European appearance who tried to violate the women in the town, but were stopped by pirates who looked like Indians.

Although both were pirates, the latter seemed extremely restrained, even civilized.

Oh, God, to say they were more civilized is definitely not to excuse these pirates. Because, these non-European pirates showed a rare "politeness" and "gentleness" throughout the robbery.

Their eyes were firm and wise. They rarely killed people or destroyed houses as brutally as the Native Americans, nor did they abuse and beat civilians as rudely as the European troops.

They are also not like ordinary pirates who show ugly greed for the looted property.

Although these pirates robbed the entire town and took away almost everything they could use, they seemed to be very disdainful of the things they had robbed - yes, they had an expression of disdain - and only showed a slight curiosity, and this expression had a faint sense of condescension.

Could it be that they have something more advanced and superior?
Then why are you here to rob?
"Instructor Wei, should we get that ship back as well?"

Cadet soldier Zhang Chunlei stood at the side of the ship, looking at the sailing galleon on the shore that was engulfed in flames and a lifeboat that was rapidly rowing towards the "Breaking Waves", with a look of regret in his eyes.

"We only have thirty people. Not only do we have to operate the 'Wavebreaker', but we also have to assign some people to monitor the Spanish sailors. Now we have to look after the townspeople who were captured in the cabin. How can we spare more people to escort this ship back to Qiming Island?" Wei Yingbin followed his gaze, looked up and down at the burning galleon, and secretly said to himself what a pity.

"If we can bring this ship back to Qiming Island, we can not only bring back more supplies, but also gain a third ship to use." Zhang Chunlei sighed upon hearing this. "If we go to Daming to recruit people in the future, we can at least carry a hundred or eighty more people."

"You're thinking ahead!" Wei Yingbin smiled and patted his shoulder. "Don't worry, in the future, we'll not only have these sailing galleons, but also mighty and powerful sailing battleships, and even countless thousand-ton and ten-thousand-ton ships. By then, we'll be able to bring back tens of thousands of people in one go, and eventually fill the entire American continent!"

"Then why don't we return to the mainland? In the future, when we have such strength, can we conquer the mainland, unify China, and then build a huge empire across the Pacific?"

"The Ming Dynasty today is a giant mud pit!" Wei Yingbin shook his head and said, "If we jump in, we probably won't even see a splash before we're completely swallowed up."

"What about after that?" Zhang Chunlei asked. "After that, the Qing Dynasty destroyed the Ming Dynasty and held hundreds of millions of Han people in captivity like slaves. We were just going to watch helplessly? Then came the Opium War, the burning of the Old Summer Palace, the Eight-Nation Alliance, oh, yeah, the First Sino-Japanese War, the Anti-Japanese War—it's infuriating just thinking about it! If we had developed, wouldn't we have overthrown the Qing Dynasty first, then directly occupied the mainland, or supported a new Han dynasty?"

"The Manchus entered the country in 1644, wasn't it?" Wei Yingbin thought for a moment, then said with a wry smile, "And now it's 1625, nineteen years away. Do you think, after more than a decade of development and accumulation, we're capable of crossing the vast Pacific Ocean and intervening in or occupying the entire continent?"

"That may not be the case," Zhang Chunlei said unwillingly. "Even if we can't build ironclad ships in a dozen years, we should be able to develop steam-powered sailing ships, right? With steam-powered sailing ships, we won't have to worry about wind direction and ocean currents when traveling across the Pacific. The distance and time will definitely be greatly shortened. A trip across the Pacific will only take a month or so. Then, we can mobilize an army of 100,000 and destroy the Qing Dynasty in one fell swoop. Then, we can establish a brand new country, develop together with the Americas, and turn the entire Pacific into our inland sea."

"So, are we going to dominate the world and unify it?" Wei Yingbin said jokingly, "Have you played too many computer games? Scientific development and technological advancement require steady progress. The formation of a country or a society is also gradual and layered. You can't just randomly click on a computer mouse and instantly conjure up an army of 100,000 or 1 million! Theoretically, the probability of conquering the Qing Dynasty and unifying the continent in the future is probably less than 20%. But most of us won't see it."

"Even if there's only a 10% chance, we should still strive to do it, rather than watching the Chinese mainland sink into an endless abyss under the rule of the Qing Dynasty. Otherwise, it would be a century of shame!"

"Well, very good! Young people have goals, so they should work hard to pursue them." Wei Yingbin smiled and patted his shoulder. "Then, what you need to do now is to check the ship's equipment again and prepare to hoist the sails and set sail. ... It's time for us to go home!"

(End of this chapter)