A humid evening breeze blew from the seaside, blowing away the hot air over the well-side village.

Jingbian Village is a small coastal mountain village under the jurisdiction of Quanzhou Prefecture, and like ordinary coastal villages and towns in southern Fujian, Jingbian Village, which has many mountains and few lands and is overpopulated, also has the custom of going to sea to the South Seas.

Under the bright moonlight, seven or eight cautious figures appeared on the path at the entrance of the village on the side of the mountain, carrying heavy burdens on their backs, wearing shabby coarse cloth and straw sandals on their faces, and cautiously watching the surrounding environment.

"Brother Yingji, the front has reached the fork, Shangcuo Village is at the west intersection, you and your sister-in-law, nephews and nieces will reunite for one night tonight, tomorrow night at noon, after all the brothers have taken their families to prepare, we will meet at the entrance of Hutou Village according to the agreement."

"Meet tomorrow night at noon, I remember."

Sun Yingji replied in a low voice.

"Okay, then the three of us brothers will go first, and Brother Sun will pay more attention to safety on the road."

The three young men said goodbye to Sun Yingji, and then quickly disappeared into the night.

A group of companions who came back left one after another, and after about half an hour of walking on the mountain road, Sun Yingji returned to his hometown, Yangshu Village, which was not far from the well.

Low, dilapidated thatched houses, narrow village paths, mossy stones under the eaves, and the faint moonlight allowed Sun Yingji to see the familiar scenes of the village again.

Yangshu Village is still the same remote, quiet, and poor as it was when I left two or three years ago.

Looking at the village where he grew up, when Sun Yingji found a familiar taste of his hometown, he felt an indescribable feeling in his heart.

"Twilight"

Remembering that when he served in the garrison of the Nanyang Legion, cultural instructors often used a sentence to evaluate the Manchu government, Sun Yingji suddenly felt that this word was used in Yangshu Village, but it was also very vivid.

The more I think about it, the more I feel that it makes sense, although I haven't lived in my homeland, the experience of serving in the Nanyang Army for a short time makes Sun Yingji feel an atmosphere different from his hometown.

High-spirited, hard-working, and vigorous, every regular army, garrison, and militia of the Nanyang Legion are training hard, and in order to get the land promised by the officers and officials, they are not afraid even when they are with the French foreigners and those African barbarians who look like orangutans, but several soldiers in groups, cooperate with each other, use muskets and bayonets in their hands to repel the attacking enemy again and again, and win the war with fewer casualties than the enemy.

As a member of the Sino-French War, after the war, Sun Yingji, like most of the temporarily recruited garrisons and militiamen, obtained official national status, and at the same time, in the central plain of the mainland, he was given a 260-acre pasture as a reward for his combat merits.

The 260 acres of pasture includes 100 acres and 160 acres of military merit rewards that ordinary citizens have, but it does not include his wife and children's share of land, only when his wife and children arrive in South America and register with the local government, they can obtain another piece of land, so when he learned that the French had lifted the blockade of Annam and the mainland routes, Sun Yingji followed seven or eight military acquaintances in the same county, and hurried home, took his wife and four children with him, and took them back to live in South America.

"Wangwang", walking into the mountain village, one after another dog barking6 sounded one after another.

"Kuroko, stop screaming."

Sun Yingji quickened his pace, walked to the door of his house, and whispered to the barking black dog at the kitchen door.

"Woo, woo"

Recognizing his master, the black dog suddenly stopped barking, wagged his tail and ran to the owner, pulling Sun Yingji's clothes with his upper limbs.

"Who?"

There was a flash of light in the room, and a woman's voice was heard.

"It's me, Aji, who just came back from Nanyang, hurry up and open the door."

"It's coming, it's coming."

The woman replied as she walked towards the door.

"Click", pull the bolt of the door, and welcome Sun Yingji into the room, the woman was happy and complained, "Go to the sea and go to Nanyang, I have not heard from you for two or three years, and I thought you had an accident outside, and I was worried every day. ”

Sun Yingji understood his wife's difficulties, and said with a smile, "I left home by boat at the beginning of the previous year, first stayed in Borneo for half a year, and then heard that a large coal mine (Hongji Coal Mine) was found in the north of Annam, and then I took a boat to Quang Ninh Province in Annam. ”

"Then what about when you arrive in Annam, don't bully me for not going far, Master Li from the neighboring village, his son who stayed abroad came back, saying that a group of overseas rebels and foreigners are fighting in Annam, and Annan is next to the Great Qing Kingdom, but not as far as Borneo."

The woman chattered, "You don't know how I've come over the years, people in the village often bring letters back, saying that the husband of which family was shipwrecked, killed by foreigners and natives, every time I hear such news, my heart is worried, if I know that you have arrived in Annan, where the war is fighting, I am afraid that I will not be able to wait for you to come back, I will worry to death every day." ”

"The French foreigners are not as terrible as the people in the village say, this summer, I followed the troops to fight with the French, and personally killed a black French soldier and captured two Annam colonial soldiers, they also looked taller, but in fact they were very timid, and when they encountered hundreds or thousands of people in the army, some French soldiers had not yet engaged us, so they dropped their muskets and fled."

"What, you've fought with foreigners?"

The woman was surprised, "Have you joined the army of that little long-haired remnant?" ”

Li Mingyuan was slandered by the Manchu government as a murderer who did not blink an eye, and the little long-haired remnant was his official name in the Manchu government's wanted notice.

"Shhh, be quiet, that's His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Han Kingdom, not a long-haired remnant!"

Sun Yingji realized that he had missed his mouth, and hurriedly covered his wife's mouth, explaining, "Listen to me slowly, His Majesty the Emperor is a good person, not like the court slandered. ”…………

When Sun Yingji roughly served in the army, the set of propaganda by the cultural instructors, after a brief introduction to his wife, he said seriously, "Because I am in Annan, I joined the Nanyang Army and fought a big victory with Lord Mei and the foreigners, and the court of the Han Kingdom awarded us more than 200 acres of land, I came back this time to bring your mother to South America to enjoy the blessings, if you go to South America, you can't be like now, you can't figure out anything, just say bad things about Your Majesty, if people listen to it, spread it to the emperor of the Han State, The land I had earned so hard was gone. ”

"What you said is true, not lying to me?"

"Of course it's true, except for remote and closed small villages like Yangshu Village, big cities like Quanzhou Mansion and Xiamen, many people know that the South American Han Kingdom defeated the French."

"There is really a good emperor in the Han Kingdom of South America."

Listening to her husband's explanation, the wife sighed.

"The emperor of the Great Han Kingdom is naturally a good emperor, if the emperor of the Han Kingdom is not a good emperor, how can he give our family more than 200 acres of land, and our family has no chance to live a good life, right?"

Sun Yingji said as he opened the burden on his body and took out a tightly wound money bag.

"In addition to the land rewarded by the imperial court, all the silver money accumulated in Nanyang for more than two years is in it, a total of 103 taels of silver."

"Boss, how did you save so much money?"

The wife carefully spread out the broken pieces of silver, surprised and delighted.

"Hehe, didn't I fight with foreigners once, that time I killed a black soldier, and found more than forty taels of silver from him, as well as a silver hairpin, No, this is the one, I specially kept it for you."

Sun Yingji took out a hairpin wrapped in a strip of cloth from the package as if offering a treasure, and continued, "Those black savages are really not things, there are six or seven hundred good Annan girls in the Kitasaka area who were spoiled by the blacks, when I killed the black soldier, the company commander also praised it in the company, and took the confiscated silver and hairpins as a reward, and returned them. ”

The people at the bottom are not so particular, Sun Yingji helped his wife put the hairpin on her head, his wife glanced at the bronze mirror, carefully put the hairpin away again, and said, "Very good-looking hairpin, presumably its owner is also a girl from a big family, so young to be ruined by black people, so pitiful." ”

"There are countless people in Annan's life, although the owner of the hairpin has suffered misfortune, but I killed the black soldier, it can be regarded as avenging her, if she knew it underground, she should also be blind."

The husband and wife have been separated for more than two years, and when they get together again, it seems that they have endless words.

"A-Niang, I'm hungry."

A skinny little girl had just woken up, rubbing her eyes, and hadn't noticed that there was one more person in the room.

"It's four girls."

Sun Yingtai looked at the little girl on the bed and said lovingly, "Little Qing'er, look at what good things Daddy brought back, roast chicken, chicken legs、............ And the sugar man, all of them are delicious. ”

"Ah, Daddy, Daddy is back!"

When Sun Yingtai left home, the little girl was about six years old and already had a little memory, so she recognized that the person in front of her was her father, and the little girl happily rubbed into Sun Yingtai's arms.

"It's so fragrant, Siya likes to eat meat the most, Siya wants to eat meat."

Children from poor families would be sensible and restrained on the outside, but sitting in her father's arms and seeing the row of delicacies on the table, the little girl regained her childlike nature.

"Siya can eat whatever he wants, and Daddy bought a lot of delicious food to ensure that Siya is full."

Sun Yingtai put his daughter on the ground and doted, "Go and wake up my brother and sister, after you finish eating the meat in a while, Daddy will have something good for you." ”

With her father's promise, the little girl ran to the bed barefoot and woke up the other three sleeping children.

A family of six, in the dim candlelight, eating rare delicacies from ordinary people, when the four children all ate round stomachs, Sun Yingtai took out the gadgets specially bought for the children and distributed them to each child.

"Siya, look at this little green bottle, it's amazing."

Sun Yingtai shook a small bottle filled with green and clear liquid in his hand, and teased, "The contents of the small bottle are comfortable to apply to your body, which of you wants to try it!" ”

"Daddy, I want to,"

"Daddy, I'll come first!"

A few kids scrambled to get ahead.

"Siya is the youngest, and Siya comes first."

Sun Yingtai chose his youngest daughter, he carefully poured out some of the liquid in the small bottle, smeared it on his daughter's arm, and said with concern, "How does Siya feel?" ”

"It's so cool, it's so comfortable! Daddy, I want a little more! ”

The little girl said happily.

"No, this thing is very precious, I will give it to your mother for safekeeping in the future, if you feel unwell or sick, apply some more to your body."

"Boss, what is this, can it still heal?"

The wife wondered.

"I heard that it is called a panacea, it is a secret recipe made up by many people in the local medical school, that is, it can repel insects and prevent heatstroke, if you have a fever and a cold, you can also cure the disease after drinking it, this thing works very well, when you are in Annan, many people rush to buy it."

"That bottle costs a lot of money, such a good thing, save a little use, don't let the children spoil it."

The wife complained that her husband did not know how to cherish it.

"The price is not expensive or cheap, it is left outside, 10 bottles of silver for one tael, and there is no market, but in the army, each soldier is given ten bottles for free, so it doesn't matter if you try to use a little bit for the children, it doesn't cost money anyway."

"If you don't spend money, you have to save some money, and if you run out, you don't have to spend money to buy it again." …………

Within a few months of the end of the Annan War, some retired soldiers like Sun Yingtai secretly returned to their hometowns on the mainland, intending to bring their families and children back to their homeland for resettlement.

The farmland and pastures given by the local government as a reward for the soldiers who participated in the war were the main attraction to them, and the never-before-heard of novelty like the jack-of-all-trades was the main factor that aroused their fantasies about life in South America.

There is a common name in later generations, cool oil, gold oil, or cool oil, is a kind of inexpensive, pure Chinese medicine formula prepared mosquito repellent, heatstroke products,

Originally, in 1910, it was invented by Hu Wenhai, a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner in the mainland, for the common dispensing of Chinese medicine to remove the heat, and after the launch of the local large-scale chemical strategy, it was one of the fields of medicine and biology. In 1880, the local government recruited Cai Xiaoxiang, Ding Fubao, He Lianchen, Wang Wenqiao and other famous Chinese medicine experts from the mainland to form the Han Medical Society.

And began to implement Li Mingyuan's proposal with practice: to improve the study of traditional Chinese medicine, to learn from Eastern and Western medical theories, to brainstorm and develop

Enterprising four guiding tenets.

In July 1880, through the efforts of Western medical experts invited by Lang Zhonghe, a local medical institution, the Han Medical College completed the compilation and translation of the book "Compendium of Western History", which was immediately used as a guiding book for various local medical colleges. In December 1880, Cai Xiaoxiang, Wang Wenqiao and others based on the secret recipe of traditional Chinese medicine "Yushu Shensan", and referred to the ancient recipes of China, India and Burma supplemented with litsea cubeba, peppermint, camphor and other medicinal materials, and then used the scientific method of Western medicine to manufacture, after more than 3 months of hard research and development, in March 1881 to create a new medicine that can be wiped externally and taken internally, and can also treat colds, headaches, nasal congestion, motion sickness, and seasickness, which is the well-known tiger balm at home and abroad.

In May 1881, the first batch of low-cost and simple production of panacea oil was delivered to the army in the hot northern part of the country, Nanyang, and the Congo colony, as a mosquito repellent and heat repellent, as well as a backup medicine.

In July 1881, more than 30,000 bottles of panacea balm appeared in the Nanyang and African private markets, and then in just one month, because of its excellent insect repellent and heat repellent properties, it was welcomed by many Nanyang whites, wealthy Chinese merchant families, and African indigenous chieftains.

More and more shipments were made, and the price was getting higher and higher, and by the end of July, the last batch of 3,500 bottles of panacea was even sold at a high price of one or two silver per bottle.

Due to its monopoly and small number of products, the price of universal oil has been able to rise all the way, but with the expansion of production scale and the gradual saturation of the market, the unit price of universal oil will gradually drop to normal levels in the next two years. Before that, ordinary Nanyang Chinese families, indigenous people, and African aborigines still couldn't afford to consume the golden balm.