Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 99 Dragon Boat Festival
The fifth day of May.

Dragon Boat Festival.

Lin Quanwu took two rice dumplings from the girl who was serving rice with some surprise and was stunned for a moment.

By the way, how long has it been since you last had this?
It was not until the man behind him pushed him impatiently that he came to his senses, picked up his bowl, and found a seat in the cafeteria hall.

"Is today the Dragon Boat Festival?" Lin Quanwu couldn't wait to open a rice dumpling.

The filling is not traditional glutinous rice, but ordinary white rice, but the stuffing is a few pieces of pork, fat and lean, with a fragrant aroma, which really gives people a strong appetite.

"Probably... right." Xu Xinghuai looked around, searching for his wife and children. "Otherwise, I wouldn't have left work so early today."

"Hey, there's a lot of meat today!" Lin Quanwu devoured the rice dumpling in two or three bites, then glanced at the dishes in the bowl and smiled. "There's cod, venison, and bone soup. ... Wow, this is almost as good as the food for Chinese New Year!"

"Look at you!" Chen Wangquan also came over with food and said in a low voice, "I heard from the masters in charge that in the evening, there will be a bonfire party... . They will kill two sheep and a few elk, and some fish, and roast them over the fire. So, take your time with this meal, and don't fill your stomach too much, otherwise you won't be able to enjoy the delicious barbecue!"

"Really!" After hearing this, Lin Quanwu immediately felt that the corn bun in his hand was no longer fragrant. He changed from swallowing in big mouthfuls to chewing it carefully in small bites.

"Of course!" Chen Wangquan said with a smile. "Just now, when I passed by the playground, I saw a few stewards directing the locals to clear the ground, carry firewood, and build a bonfire frame. There were also two sheep and two elk tied nearby. Oh, and by the way, I heard they said that during the bonfire party, they would organize the students from the school to perform a few operas for us."

"What drama?"

"I suppose they'll sing some songs, tell some stories, or play some fun games. ...Yeah, just like they do during Chinese New Year."

"Hey, we can have some fun tonight. Hey, Brother Xu, aren't your children studying in school? Do you know what kind of play they are performing tonight?"

"Theatre?" Xu Xinghuai looked at the two with disdain. "That's not a drama! It's a performance, called something... a chorus, and gymnastic dance, and, um, a storytelling session. ... Humph, do you think my child and those students are all low-class actors? They're all so ignorant!"

"Oh my... you act like you're educated!" The two of them were interrupted by his retort and said sarcastically, "Do you think your child will be able to become the top scholar or a Jinshi if he studies? Forget it. Peasants like us can't make a name for ourselves except farming and working."

"You're ignorant, and you truly are!" Xu Xinghuai glared at the two of them. "The teacher at the academy said that studying can change your destiny. When my son graduates from school, he'll definitely be much more successful than you! Think about it, in the entire Shixing Fort, apart from the masters in charge, how many people can read and write? Who knows, he might even become an official in the future. You'll all have to kneel down and kowtow to him when you see him."

"That's all nonsense..." Chen Wangquan retorted, "With so few people in Shixing Fort, even if your son were educated, how could he possibly become an official? Besides, the stewards said that except for kneeling to heaven and earth and honoring ancestors, we don't need to kneel or kowtow to anyone else. We should be upright people and not kneel down to serve others! Do you think this place is still like Guangzhou Prefecture, where you have to kneel and kowtow when you see the county magistrate?"

"Tsk!" Xu Xinghuai snorted coldly, his disdain becoming more and more prominent. "Do you think our Shixing Fort will always have this many people? Don't you know what those two ships at the dock are doing when they sailed to the Ming Dynasty? Just wait and see, in a few months, they'll bring back hundreds of people again. By then, our population will have doubled to over a thousand!"

"Think about it, if things continue like this, within eight or ten years, there might be tens of thousands of people here. By then, we'll definitely need more officials to manage so many people. Humph, after my child graduates, even if he can't become a county magistrate, he'll definitely be able to be a clerk in the sixth house."

"What's so great about that!" Chen Wangquan said defiantly, "In the future, when I get married and have some children, they can still go to school and become successful. The steward said that as long as a child is six years old, he must go to school and learn to read and write."

"Then you must first find a wife to marry you!"

"..." Chen Wangquan was suddenly speechless.

Oh, there don’t seem to be many women in Shixing Fort!
There were about six or seven hundred people in total, but less than two hundred women were eligible for marriage, and more than half of them were native women and Western women.

As for the more than 20 young women from the Ming Dynasty, it is said that they have all been reserved by the masters in charge and will be married off after being raised for some time.

If you want to get married and have children, apart from hoping that the manager can bring back some women from the Ming Dynasty, you can only look for those local women.

Well, it’s okay to be a little ugly or look a little weird.

In this wild land, being able to eat and dress warmly depends on the continuation of the family line!

I just don't know if these native women are easy to teach or if they can give birth to sons. Damn Xu Xinghuai, he was really lucky. The three of them came here safely and lived an enviable happy life at home.
-
night.

The evening breeze is blowing.

The bonfire burned brightly in the night sky, the flames leaped, accompanied by the sound of firewood crackling, illuminating the surroundings like daylight.

The air was filled with the smoke of burning wood and the aroma of food: grilled fish, grilled meat, corn, potatoes, and peanuts.

Hundreds of residents of Shixing Fort gathered around the roaring flames, grabbing the greasy barbecue and tearing into it, while watching the group of children in the center of the venue singing not very pleasant songs in their childish voices and dancing in an uncoordinated manner, all of them looking very interested.

Their faces looked particularly vivid in the light of the fire. Some were smiling and humming along with the children's songs. Some were excited, their bodies swaying uncontrollably from side to side. Others were a little sad, looking at the lively scene and recalling their past years in the Ming Dynasty.

The younger children chased and played carefree around the campfire, their laughter intertwined with the cool night breeze, drifting across the empty and open wilderness.

The atmosphere of the bonfire party was warm and lively, and the air was filled with the aroma of barbecue.

The colonists sat together, sharing food and festive joy, their eyes shining with satisfaction and hope in the light of the fire.

A breeze blew, and the campfire crackled, and the flames seemed to become more vigorous with the fresh oxygen.

The faces of the pioneers appeared and disappeared in the light of the fire, and their eyes revealed their longing for the future and their homes.

Bonfire nights were not only a release from daily drudgery, but also a celebration of life in this new land.

Although the road ahead is full of unknowns and challenges, at this moment, everyone can feel each other's warmth and the power of unity.

In this warm atmosphere, although they are in a remote and wild continent, they can more or less feel a sense of warmth and belonging here.

"What a pity, there is no alcohol to liven up the atmosphere!" Kuang Xu looked at the lively crowd with an extremely gratified expression on his face.

"If we want to make wine, it'll probably take two years," Li Xianqing said with a smile. "By then, when all the residents have enough food to eat, there'll be enough left to make wine. Well, once we make this stuff, we can smuggle it to Spanish America. I'm sure it'll fetch a lot of money."

"I wonder if rum was 'invented' around this time?" Kuang Xu said. "It seems to have come from the Caribbean. It's very cheap to make, using molasses and waste residue from sugarcane milling. If it were produced on a large scale, it would definitely be much cheaper than our wines made from sorghum and grains. If that were the case, our wine wouldn't necessarily have a price advantage, and we might even be unable to sell it."

"At this time, the Dutch seem to have already been planting sugarcane on a large scale in Taiwan. We could then purchase large quantities of molasses from them and use it to brew our own rum. I remember that before independence, the Thirteen Colonies in North America seemed to have developed a large-scale brewing industry from molasses in the Caribbean, which greatly promoted and enhanced the industrial and commercial development of the North American colonies."

"Rather than relying on the Dutch colonists in Taiwan, it would be better to seize Hawaii directly when the time is right," Li Xianqing said. "You know, this archipelago is not only geographically crucial, but also an excellent base for sugarcane cultivation. If developed and utilized, it would absolutely monopolize the sugar supply and rum demand along the Pacific coast of Spanish America."

"Yes, that's true." Kuang Xu nodded. "Otherwise, when we go to Daming next year, we can go to this archipelago to conduct an on-site investigation and see what the situation is like there."

"In the future, we will definitely occupy this archipelago, there is no doubt about that." Li Xianqing said with a smile: "However, our current development focus is still to accumulate population and lay a solid foundation."

"Over a month ago, you led a team to successively sweep through the Native American tribes within a 20-kilometer radius of Shixing Fort. You wiped out four tribes, large and small, and captured over 270 people."

"Among them, there are young women over sixty years old. After a little comfort, we can consider selecting some of the gentle women and marrying them off to the Ming immigrants to further win their hearts and minds."

"Then, it's your turn..."

As he spoke, Li Xianqing felt his face tense and embarrassed, so he turned his gaze towards the bonfire area and looked at the cheerful and noisy crowd.

"..." Kuang Xu also looked extremely embarrassed. He lowered his head and stammered, "How about we... wait a little longer. After the Wavebreaker returns, we'll... deal with this matter."

"..." Li Xianqing was silent for a moment, then he sighed, smiled wryly, and whispered, "We will eventually have to face... a new life."
-
(End of this chapter)