We are a string of pearls held out by the East China Sea,

Ryukyu is my brother, and I am Taiwan.

I still have the heroic soul of the Zheng family in my chest,

The red blood of Jingzhong stained my family legacy.

Mother, the scorching summer day is going to kill me,

Give me an order, and I can fight against the city.

Mother! I'm coming back, Mother!

- Wen Yiduo "Song of the Seven Sons. Taiwan》

The seven sons were in tears, and the poet sang sadly. In that era when jackals were in power and foreign powers were rampant, the country's mountains and rivers were broken, the wind and rain were like rocks, and the motherland was occupied by foreign powers in seven pieces of land. Feeling that the homeland of Shenzhou was "lost in the motherland and abused in a different way", Wen Yiduo wrote "The Song of the Seven Sons". Today, Hong Kong, Macau, Kowloon, Weihaiwei, Guangzhou Bay (Zhanjiang, Guangdong) and Luda (Lushun and Dalian) have all returned to the embrace of the motherland, and Taiwan has returned to the Chinese territory, while the Ryukyus, a former part of China, are still under Japanese rule and enslavement.

On the afternoon of September 4, 2015, Li Yuanhao, Lin Yue, and Wang Qiang came to a suite at the Shangri-La Hotel in Wenzhou, where they were greeted by a polite man with glasses, in his 40s, and of medium height.

After the man welcomed the three of them into the living room and sat down, he instructed a young man in his twenties to make tea, and introduced himself: "Everyone, my name is Cai Tang, this is my son Cai Gui, I found Lin Yue through friends, and I want to find a few people to escort me and go out to sea." ”

Lin Yue also introduced Li Yuanhao and Wang Qiang.

After Cai Tang served tea to the three of them, he continued: "You can rest assured, I am the chairman of Fujian Jiumi Industrial Group, and I will not let you do illegal things, but just escort us to escort the ashes of the four generations of our ancestors back to their homeland." ”

"Where's the destination, Mr. Cai?" Wang Qiang asked suspiciously, nowadays, where do you need to ask special forces to escort you?

"Diaoyu Island." Cai Tang slowly said three words that shocked the three of them.

"We will also rent two large 960-horsepower fishing boats there, we have to climb to the top of the highest mountain in the middle of Diaoyu Island, and we need to stay at the top of the mountain for seven days, sailing at sea, and living in the wild on Diaoyu Island for about seven days are dangerous, so we need to find someone with experience in wild survival to guard." Seeing that the three of them didn't speak, Cai Tang said the entire content of the task.

Lin Yue looked at Li Yuanhao and found that Li Yuanhao had regained his composure, and seemed to be waiting for Cai Tang to explain the situation more clearly. Although a few years ago, there were also Chinese island protectors who landed on Diaoyu Island, but to stay on the island for seven days and seven nights sounds a little apprehensive. It's not that he's worried about life in the wilderness, but he's not sure that one day the Japan Maritime Guard's patrol ship will come, and he won't burp. I thought it was a simple escort task, but who knew that the inside story was like this, if the boss and Wang Qiang were a little mistaken because of this, it is estimated that Zhao Yunxiao and Liang Dapeng, who were ghosts, would not let him live in peace. After thinking about it, Lin Yue said apologetically: "Mr. Cai, I'm sorry, we didn't understand the situation clearly, I'm afraid we can't do anything about it." ”

"Hey, it's okay, we've contacted several waves of people before, and everyone refused as soon as they heard that they had been on Diaoyu Island for so long." Cai Tang looked at Lin Yue with a look full of loss, he thought that the three of them were Lin Yue in charge.

"Everyone, if it's the reason for the remuneration, we can talk about it, this matter is the regret of our family for more than a hundred years, as long as you can help, we can mention the conditions we can do." Cai Gui still had a hint of luck in his heart, hoping that the other party would agree, even if the conditions were harsh.

"Hey, it's not a matter of payment, I'm afraid we won't be able to help you complete this trip, it's really limited." Lin Yue was telling the truth, this guard estimated that it would be almost the same as asking the Chinese Navy to escort him.

Lin Yue got up and was about to pull Li Yuanhao and Wang Qiang away, but was pulled by Li Yuanhao to sit down, and then said to Cai Tang with a smile: "Mr. Cai, we want to understand clearly before deciding, okay?" As far as I know, Diaoyu Island should have never been inhabited, why did the ancestors bury there? And what does it mean to look east to your homeland? ”

"Mr. Lin, this" Cai Tang looked at Lin Yue suspiciously, meaning that he could call the shots.

"Hehe, he is our boss, the former captain of the detachment, we all listen to him." After Lin Yue finished speaking, he told Li Yuanhao's previous legends in the army one by one, and said that although his legs and feet were inconvenient, the captain's wisdom and skills were still first-class. After speaking, he stared at Cai Gui viciously, because Cai Gui saw Li Yuanhao's inconvenient legs and feet from the moment he came in, and there was some disdain and invisibility in his eyes.

Cai Gui knew his faux pas, and quickly lowered his head, which was extremely unnatural.

After listening to Lin Yue's introduction, Cai Tang couldn't help but be in awe, then stood up and hugged his fists at Li Yuanhao and said, "Mr. Li, disrespectful, disrespectful." ”

Li Yuanhao stood up and returned the salute and apologized: "Mr. Cai, you don't have to be polite. Forgive me for being abrupt, if it's your family's secret, you can't say it. ”

Cai Tang pondered for a while, as if he was sorting out his thoughts, and as if he was recalling something, and then said slowly: "This matter has to start with my great-ancestor Cai Dading, and I have to talk about the '36 surnames of Fujian Boat Workers' first."

In 1372, after Zhu Yuanzhang, the Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, issued an edict to Chadu, the king of Zhongshan in the Ryukyus, the three kings of Beishan, Zhongshan and Nanshan in the Ryukyus began to pay tribute to the Ming government, and Ryukyu became a vassal of China. In 1392, in order to facilitate the tributary and trade between the Ryukyus, Zhu Yuanzhang gave this small country many large sea ships, and sent boatmen and sailors who went with the ship, and gave the boatmen and sailors "Thirty-six surnames of boatmen in Fujian". After arriving in the Ryukyus, these immigrants established and settled on the floating island near Naha Port.

In 1823, Cai Dading was born in Kumi Village, and his ancestors were the Cai family in the "Thirty-six Surnames of Fujian Boat Workers", and Cai Dading went to the Qing Dynasty to study in his youth.

In 1875, Japan forced the Ryukyus to stop paying tribute to the Qing Dynasty. On December 10 of the following year, King Shotai of the Ryukyus secretly sent the Purple Turban official Xiang Tokuhong to the Qing Dynasty to ask for help under the pretext of inquiring about the tribute envoy Mao Jingchang who had not returned to China. Cai Dading (serving as the director), Lin Shigong and 19 others also went with him. The group arrived in Fuzhou in April 1877 and handed over the secret letter for help to He Jing, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, who delivered it to the Qing court. The group waited for news from the Rouyuanyi in Fuzhou on the orders of the Qing court, but the Qing court did not respond after that.

In 1879, Ryukyu was annexed by Japan and changed to Okinawa Prefecture. Seeing that the matter was urgent, Xiang Dehong and his entourage decided to shave their hair and dress up as vendors and go to Beijing to negotiate. On 14 August, Cai Dading, Lin Shigong, and others arrived in Tianjin by sea with Xiang Dehong and asked Li Hongzhang to make representations with Japan. Xiang Dehong stayed in Tianjin in order to avoid the pursuit of Japanese spies and was protected by Li Hongzhang; At the same time, it also conveyed the dynamics to the Ryukyu envoys and their entourage. Cai Dading, Lin Shigong and the rest went to Beijing. Together with the tribute envoy Mao Jingchang, they sent a letter to the Prime Minister's Yamen, the Ministry of Rites and other places, asking the Qing court to negotiate with Japan.

In 1880, under the mediation of former U.S. President Grant, Li Hongzhang, a representative of the Qing side, negotiated with Shinichiro Takezoe, a representative of the Japanese side. At one point, the Qing Dynasty wanted to accept Japan's proposal to assign Miyako and Yaeyama to China, and was preparing to restore the Ryukyu Kingdom here. However, Cai Dading, Mao Jingchang, Lin Shigong and others pointed out in their letters that the land on the two islands was barren and absolutely unacceptable. In the end, it was shelved due to differences between the Qing and Japanese dynasties and the different views of the Qing court ministers on the Ryukyu case. Lin Shigong even committed suicide in front of the Prime Minister's Yamen to protest Japan's annexation. The Empress Dowager Cixi believed that Lin Shigong was a loyal minister and buried his body, but the Ryukyu case was still shelved for a long time. Cai Dading and Mao Jingchang refused to return to China, and continued to fight for the Ryukyu issue, and finally settled in Lingchuan Township, Putian, Fujian.

In 1882, Cai Dading and Mao Jingchang took their family and the descendants of Lin Shigong's family to Fujian to recognize their ancestors and return to their ancestors.

Cai Tang's face was already full of tears after he finished talking about his great-ancestor, and Cai Gui comforted him on the side.

Li Yuanhao and the three of them were even more awe-struck, Li Yuanhao walked to Cai Tang's side, but he didn't know where to comfort him, and said after a little contemplation: "Mr. Cai, I deeply regret your ancestor's experience, we took over your escort mission this time, and in addition, I am deeply saddened by the failure of the Qing government at that time to protect Ryukyu." ”

"Hey, at that time, the great powers tried to carve up China, the Manchu Qing government was corrupt and incompetent, and they were too busy to take care of themselves, and the Chinese people were all fighting, where could they have the spare strength to save Ryukyu, everything was the way of heaven, it was the calamity of the Ryukyu people, no one to blame, no one to complain about!"

"Your ancestors are all heroes who are trying to save the Ryukyus, hey, if you fall behind, you will be beaten!" Wang Qiang was full of tears and grief.

"Little Japan on dog days, I really want to kill them!" Lin Yue was also in tears.

"China is not strong enough, and now little Japan is jumping, and the United States is eyeing it behind. At present, China cannot afford to withstand war, and in the first war, it will be backward and bullied, and the dignity of the country and its people will be trampled on again. I believe that one day China will be strong enough to take back all the debts owed by little Japan. Li Yuanhao took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down.

"A few people, there may be unforeseen dangers in this mission, a few of you can agree, I thank you in advance here." Cai Tang led his son and bowed deeply to Li Yuanhao and the others.

"Mr. Cai, please rest assured that we are well prepared to minimize the danger." Li Yuanhao helped Cai Tang and his son up, and a question flashed out in an instant, and he couldn't help asking: "Mr. Cai, why did you choose to settle your ancestors in Diaoyu Island." ”

Cai Tang took a few deep breaths, tried to stabilize his emotions, and then expressed the thoughts of several generations from his great-grandfather to his father: "Great-grandfather Cai Dading died before the warlord secession, he deeply felt that the motherland was turbulent, and Ryukyu was enslaved by Japan, after all, the family has been in Ryukyu for hundreds of years, so he made a will, and the descendants of the Cai family need to remember: One Tang Tu is the father, Ryukyu is the mother, but my Cai family has Yanhuang blood, no matter when, Yanhuang's heart is immutable, and the belief that the roots are in Fujian is unmovable; Second, my descendants should try their best to work for the rejuvenation of China, and after the Ryukyus are stable, let my ashes return to Kume Village, and also choose a place where I can look east to my homeland and the motherland. ”

Li Yuanhao was extremely shocked by Cai Dading's last wish, when Ryukyu needed the motherland, the motherland as the suzerainty was sick and powerless to help, but the Yanhuang blood in the blood seemed to make him dare not forget that he was the descendant of Yanhuang, hundreds of years have passed, but the inheritance of these families has not changed, the heart of China, but also the memory of Ryukyu. On the other hand, some people always sigh about the injustice of the world in their spare time, think about the disproportion of pay and return, and feel a little dark about the country. Compared with Mr. Cai Dading, Li Yuanhao suddenly felt ashamed and insignificant.

After a pause, Cai Tang continued: "Before my grandfather Cai Liugui died, the Northern Expedition had just ended, and the Central Plains War had just begun, and China was still in internal and external troubles, so I once again asked future generations to remember the last wish of my great-grandfather, and add one more to make unremitting efforts for the rise of China. ”

"When my grandfather Cai Fangting died, reform and opening up had already been carried out, so he asked not only to remember the last wishes of his ancestors, but also to do his best for China's strength. When my father Cai Fuhan died in the first half of this year, he only left a will to bury the ashes of my four generations on the highest mountain in Diaoyu Island, facing the Ryukyu Islands and with his back to China. For four generations, I have looked east at the Ryukyu Islands, believing that with the motherland as a backer, one day the remains of my ancestors will return to Kume Village. ”

The loyalty and patriotism of the four generations of the Cai family deeply moved Li Yuanhao, Lin Yue, and Wang Qiang, Li Yuanhao looked at Lin Wang and the two, for a long time, the three of them made a deep bow to Cai Tang and his son, and then said very resolutely: "Mr. Cai, the inheritance of your family is deeply admired by us, here, the three of us promise to successfully complete the heroic souls of the four ancestors to look east to the homeland, we will not regret dying!" ”

Cai Tang hurriedly stepped forward to help Li Yuanhao and the three of them up, and then excitedly shook the hands of the three and said, "Thank you, but if you encounter an emergency, you must still ensure safety, and my ancestors of the Cai family definitely don't want you to suffer from accidents." ”

"This time, the Lin family and the Mao family also have to escort the three deceased family ancestors with us, Mr. Li will take time to meet tomorrow, and we will discuss the plan and preparation by the way, okay?" Cai Tang looked at Li Yuanhao, waiting for him to decide.

"Okay, Yuan Hao is not very honored, we will also plan well, and we will discuss it together tomorrow to ensure that nothing goes wrong."

"Cai Mou thanks the three of you again, the room has been opened, Cai Gui will accompany you over in a while, you have a good rest."

Pay attention to the official QQ public account "17K Novel Network" (ID: love17k), read the latest chapters first, and grasp the latest information at any time