When you think of Cuba, you have to mention the late former head of state, Lao Ka, the bearded man with a cigar in his mouth, who has lived his life as a global icon.

When it comes to Lao Ka, people talk about him the most about being the person who has suffered the most assassinations in the world, according to statistics, he has been assassinated 638 times, ranking first among the leaders of various countries, and finally the CIA was desperate and simply gave up the assassination of Castro.

This incident actually comes from a book, which is the memoir of Fabian Escalante Fonte, the former director of Cuba's counterintelligence bureau (now the predecessor of the Cuban Ministry of Internal Affairs), called "638 Ways to Assassinate Lao Ka", which made a British documentary director make a documentary of the same name after seeing it, and then this statement was widely circulated.

In Lao Ka's own words: "I have escaped numerous assassination attempts, and if it had been an Olympic event, I would have won the gold medal." ”

However, this claim is debatable, because in 1977 the Stars and Stripes had a decree prohibiting government employees from participating in political assassinations, prohibiting the CIA from participating in assassinations, on the grounds that they were not Israel's 'Mossad', which was known for its assassinations. (Of course, whether the C.I.A. is really obedient or not is another matter.) ）

638 times is indeed a bit exaggerated, but dozens of times should be no problem, right? After all, when it comes to Castro, the seven or eight presidents of the Stars and Stripes have hated it so much that there is no way to ------ this guy is too capable of living!

No matter how many times Lao Ka was assassinated, the Cuban Ministry of the Interior was definitely behind the scenes, and major events such as the 'Bay of Pigs Incident' were the first warnings issued by the Cuban Ministry of the Interior to thwart such a conspiracy. If it weren't for them, I'm afraid Cuba would have become a different country long ago.

Hearing that Xiao Peng was interested in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Garcia hurriedly said, "Mr. Xiao, if you want to go and see, I'll take you there now." ”

Xiao Peng waved his hand and said, "Forget it, I'll just go to the door and take two photos, otherwise your colleague will feel like a monkey in the zoo." ”

Listening to Xiao Peng's words, several people laughed.

Xiao Peng asked curiously, "Dana, what are you doing now?"

Dana replied, "I'm working in a television factory now, and I studied mechatronic engineering, right?"

Xiao Peng pondered: "Dana, please forgive me for being rude, I have a question for you." ”

"Mr. Xiao, may you ask. Dana looked at Xiao Peng.

Xiao Peng asked: "You are studying mechanical and electrical engineering in the Maple Leaf Country, this is very promising, if you stay in the Maple Leaf Country, I am afraid it will be easy to enter the middle class, why did you choose to return to Cuba?

Dana laughed: "Mr. Xiao, everyone who doesn't understand Cuba asks this question. Believe me, life in Cuba is much better than you think, and you should see for yourself what life is like for us Cubans before you draw conclusions. ”

Xiao Peng smiled: "That's for sure! Of course, you have to look around when you come here." Isn't the first thing I'm going to do when I come to Cuba is to come here and open my eyes?"

Dana waved her hand at Xiao Peng: "Then let's go, but before I go, I want to give you a gift first." ”

Garcia raised his hand after hearing this: "I want it too, I want it too!"

Dana smiled, "You are indispensable, come with me!"

Xiao Peng followed Dana into a room in confusion, there was a workbench in this room, and there were tobacco leaves on the workbench, Dana sat next to work, found two suitable tobacco leaves to put together, and then rolled the tobacco leaves together like spring rolls, and then rubbed them repeatedly to make them set. There is a wooden mold like a Chinese washboard on the left hand side of the workbench, and the rolled tobacco leaves are stuck in it, so as to control the length and thickness, and the long part is cut off directly with a knife.

Dana was so skillful that it took a short time for twenty cigars of the same thickness and length to be placed in the mold. She snapped the other half of the mold on, put it in a manual screw press, and pressed the mold tightly. After a while, it will be a cigar.

Xiao Peng blinked: "Wow, this is the first time I've seen the process of making handmade cigars, it's so amazing? Dana, how do you know how to make cigars?"

Dana smiled: "My mother turned out to be a smokemaker at the Cohiba Cigar Factory, Mr. Xiao, don't underestimate this cigar, it looks like it's easy to make, but it's really not like that, you must know that there is a unique recipe for making this cigar tobacco leaves, and this cigar is not as simple as it seems, it's not too tight, it's not too loose." My mother made great tobacco, and she made money selling cigars one by one in Havana. ”

Xiao Peng asked curiously: "As far as I know, it is very cheap for Cubans to buy cigars by themselves?"

Dana blinked, with a playful look: "Sell to tourists!"

Xiao Peng gave a thumbs up, "Can I taste it?" he gestured to the freshly made cigar.

"Of course!" Dana nodded, "Is this a gift for you?" ”

Xiao Peng picked one up and lit it and tasted it.

"Huh?" Xiao Peng's eyes lit up: "Cinnamon with cane sugar?And the flavor of smoked roasted coffee and oak?With salt and pepper added to it?This taste is so complicated." There's a handful of honey and cloves, and there's a hint of banana! Such a complex flavor shouldn't be easy to smoke, but how can it be so comfortable?"

As a result, after listening to Xiao Peng's words, Dana was dumbfounded: "Mr. Xiao, you are too godly, aren't you? You are the first person who can draw out my cigar recipe, how did you do it? Garcia, didn't you tell Mr. Xiao my cigar recipe?"

Garcia smiled wryly, "Dana, what are you kidding? I don't even know if your cigar recipe is good?"

Xiao Peng blinked: "Well, maybe my taste buds are better." Your blending technique is simply amazing, so many flavors are kneaded together and it becomes a very pleasant smell. If you don't distinguish carefully, you really can't tell the difference. ”

Dana gave a thumbs up: "Mr. Xiao, you are amazing, if my mother knew about this, she would be terrified." ”

Xiao Peng smiled and asked, "Where is my aunt, why didn't you see them?"

Dana replied, "They're harvesting tobacco, and my family grows some tobacco." Are you going to check it out?"

"Of course!" Xiao Peng nodded: "Your mother shouldn't be an ordinary tobacco maker, why doesn't she work in Cohiba?"

Dana said as she walked: "How to say, before 1985, my mother had been making cigarettes specifically for Mr. Laoka, and after Laoka quit smoking in 1985, Cohiba cigars began to be sold to the outside world, and it was just in time for the Cuban economic depression, so many cigar technicians began to disperse. That's when my mother became a tobacco farmer. My family also moved here from downtown Havana. But it turned out that she made the right choice. ”

Dana led them along a path for more than half an hour, and before they saw the tobacco plantation area, they first saw several thatched huts made of palm leaves, and an old lady bent out of one of them.

"Mom!" Dana said hello.

"Mr. Xiao, Mr. Sun, let me introduce, this is my mother Regra, Mom, this is Mr. Xiao and Mr. Sun from Huaxia, and they are Garcia's honored guests. Dana introduced her mother to everyone: "Mom, you will never believe what happened just now, Mr. Xiao took a puff of cigar and tasted the recipe of your cigar, it is amazing!"

"Really?" Regra and Xiao Peng had just finished kissing, and they were stunned when they heard Dana's words: "Comrade Xiao, how did you do it?"

Xiao Peng hadn't heard the term 'comrade' for a long time, but he heard it in Cuba.

Xiao Peng smiled: "I can only say that my sense of smell is better." ”

The people next to him were stunned again: "Mr. Xiao, do you know Spanish?" because the old lady spoke Spanish, and Xiao Peng also replied in Spanish.

Xiao Peng waved his hand: "Don't care about these details, Mrs. Grayla, what are you doing here?"

Greila laughed, "Just call me Grela, if you should call me Mrs. Armas, it would be too out-of-the-box." It's called the 'Tobacco House', and I'm making tobacco here, so why don't you come and have a look?"

Only then did Xiao Peng see that behind this row of huts was a stretch of tobacco as far as the eye could see: "Grela, have you grown so many tobacco leaves?

Greila smiled and waved her hand: "According to the regulations of our country, eighty percent of the tobacco leaves here must be handed over to the state." Only one percent is our own. ”

Xiao Peng frowned after hearing this: "This doesn't seem fair, right?"

After hearing this, Greira shook her head and said: "Mr. Xiao, planting tobacco leaves is not as simple as you imagined, pests and diseases, fertilizers, farm machinery, irrigation, all of which require money, and when we grow tobacco, the money is provided by the state, so it is still more cost-effective in comparison, and for me, it is completely enough to leave eighty percent of tobacco." And that's because the tobacco I grow is so good is a reward for me. If it is another tobacco farmer, only one percent can be left. ”

After hearing this, Xiao Peng asked curiously, "Tobacco is so good?

Greila pointed to a few tobaccos thrown on the ground with a smug face: "Look at these tobaccos, either they grow too tall or too short, these are all unqualified, and the thickness, size, and height of the appropriate tobacco leaves should be about the same." Those genetic mutations are not very good. And in my large tobacco field here, there are only a few unqualified trees, which shows how good the quality of my tobacco leaves is. ”

After speaking, she lifted the curtain of the door of the 'Tobacco House': "A few people come in and have a look!"