What is Civilization? What is Barbarism?

Later generations of people often despise the practice of dividing the world with "civilization" and "barbarism" since the Age of Discovery, but in fact, this practice did not originate from the spirit, whether it is the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period Zhuxia to Zhuyi, or the ancient Greece to the barbarians, Rome to the barbarians, in fact, it is a kind of civilization is a manifestation of the superiority, this superiority and the 21st century Chinese sarcasm India, contempt for Vietnam and other countries There is no essential difference, the only difference is that the world in the 17th century is an era of "law of the jungle", Everything was so naked, so honest......

In this era of the "law of the jungle", the so-called barbarism is often divided into two types, one is the "barbarian state" with a sense of state but weak strength, and the other is the "barbarian" without a national concept. Or among the so-called "civilized countries", they are always careful to maintain relations between the two countries, but they do not show the slightest caution in dealing with barbarian countries, especially barbarians, and they are eager to swallow the whole world in one bite. Although they profess to be "civilized", in their eyes, those "barbarians" who have not yet developed the state of the state and still drink blood are only "humanoids" to a certain extent, so the land they live in is naturally a terra nullius.

Because there is no owner, almost since Columbus discovered the American continent, this land that is still in ignorance has become the hunting ground of the great powers. On a first-come, first-served basis, after Spain and Portugal carved up South America. The French, who were latecomers, founded New France along the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Dutch established the New Netherlands colony in the Hudson Valley. The British also established a series of colonies, including Virginia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, North and South Carolina, and so on.

And as the last Ming to arrive in the Americas, the most powerful powers of the era, the interests of biting on this prey in the Americas are almost worthless compared to them, and they only took New York from the British, that is, the New Netherlands colony they seized from the Netherlands.

However, the West Coast, located on the Pacific coast, is noticeably quieter than the competition for the North American coastal map. Here there is only the new Spain of the Spaniards. It wasn't until more than ten years ago that the Ming Dynasty set foot in this strange land for the first time as Fang Zhonglu's expedition discovered Xingqian Island (Vancouver Island) as a starting point. The first colony, the New Town, was built here.

In the following ten years, those Ming immigrants who crossed the sea and arrived in this land after a lot of hardships relied on their industrious hands to turn this wild land into a rich agricultural area, and the new city also became a thriving city. The immigrant population of the Xincheng colony also rose from more than 2,000 in the seventh year of Hongwu to more than 15,000, and the colony also expanded from Xingqian Island to the mouth of the Duwamysh River opposite Xingqian Haishan, and there is a great tendency to continue to expand inland.

However, the expansion was accompanied by increasingly intense conflicts between immigrants and natives, and the natives, known as "red fans" by the immigrants because of the red dye on their faces, never stopped attacking the settlements.

As in previous years, in July, the wheat in this field is one color a day, looking at the wheat field that is slowly turning golden, looking at the undulating wheat waves, Liang Qingyuan's face will show a smile.

"The harvest here is really good, this year, it's really good, the wind and rain are smooth......"

Again, sitting in the corridor of his house, Liang Qingyuan smiled and said to himself, he was approaching his old age, and he seemed to have forgotten the pain of being exiled and the curse he had against Emperor Xingqian.

"It's not, since we got here, it seems that there hasn't been a year that has been rainy, not waterlogged or drought, and it's rare to see it,"

When Li Weizan spoke, he held a cigarette pouch and pot in his mouth and said with a smile.

"But it's not, the land here, one acre can harvest wheat and two stones, and if you can collect one stone in the hometown of Zhili in the north, it will break the sky......"

When mentioning Beizhili's hometown, Liang Qingyuan's dim eyes revealed his longing for his hometown.

"Liang Gong, homesick again?"

Again, in the face of his friend's question, Liang Qingyuan first sighed, and then waved his hand and said.

"I don't want to, I don't want to, everything is fate......"

After a long sigh, Liang Qingyuan closed his eyes.

It's all fate!

He was a second-class scholar in the third year of Shunzhi, and he was an official to the prefect...... But he did one thing wrong, when the Qing Dynasty was defeated and retreated, in the face of the fact that the Ming Dynasty was in the middle of the rise, he made another choice, he neither became a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty, nor did he dedicate the city to Shun, but abandoned India and returned to his hometown, and returned to the countryside.

Originally, he thought that after returning to the countryside, he would be a hundred, but who would have thought that that kind of peace would only last for a few years, and a few years later, with the will of the imperial court, as a hypocrite of the Qing Dynasty, he was still exiled overseas when he was nearly seventy years old.

The only thing that can make him feel a little fortunate is that he abandoned India and returned to his hometown, so that there are no three tribes involved, only his own family, and even an adult grandson can be left in his hometown. This is also a blessing in misfortune, at least the ancestral tomb of the Liang family is still worshipped. If he had chosen to be loyal to the Manchu Qing Dynasty back then, he would have been exiled to the three clans.

Da Ming will not forget the loyal servants of the country, and will not forget the betrayers!

When he was first exiled here, he never cursed the Xingqian Emperor who "killed the people", and even reached the point of understanding the hatred to the bone, but even this could not change the reality of being in a foreign land, and slowly, he accepted his fate and accepted all this.

Especially when he watched his children and grandchildren start a new life here, and watched the Liang family flourish and spread here, he accepted everything, only the ancestral tablet in the house reminded him that the Liang family had ancestral roots in Zhengding, Beizhili.

"If one day I amnesty me and other sinners, will Brother Liang still return home?"

Putting down the cigarette pouch, Li Weizan asked rhetorically.

After a moment of silence, Liang Qingyuan shook his head.

"No ......"

A long sigh followed.

"These legs can't move anymore, what do you want to do so much."

yes, I can't walk anymore......

Closing his eyes, Liang Qingyuan said in a low voice.

"Back then, when I first came here, I hated Jinshang, but now, but I also figured it out, today is in our waiting, it is considered to be benevolent and righteous, after all, back then, I waited for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, said that it was the "Five Elements Cycle", its own destiny, but the Manchu Qing was a foreign race, the so-called Huayi Great Defense, Spring and Autumn Righteousness, even if it is the so-called "Five Elements", it is just among my Han people, and he Manchu Qing What is the pass? The Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the Kou and killed more than 10 million Han people, who treated me as slaves, but we were willing to drive them, willing to help them abuse, even if they later abandoned the seal, all they thought was "to repay the king's kindness", how is this behavior different from traitors? But Your Majesty still thinks that we are lost and have been gracious, and if we are not grateful for Your Majesty's kindness, we will really be ......."

With a long sigh, Liang Qingyuan stared into the distance and said.

"It took more than ten years to figure out all this, no wonder we have become stupid and stupid, once a traitor without knowing it, aiding the abuse without knowing the harm......"

"The great husband acts, judging right and wrong, regardless of profit or harm; On obedience and disobedience, regardless of success or failure; For all ages, no matter one lifetime. ”

After pondering for a moment, Li Weizan lowered his head and said.

"What is a hero? The sword points to the sky and carries the mission, this is the hero. What is a hero? Acting upright, like the sun and the moon, this is a hero. What is a hero? They are born mortal but are not willing to be mortal, so they are born in the world and live in the ......"

Recited Huang Zongxi's words in a low voice, and sighed again.

"Mr. Lizhou's words are good!"

"Yes! Isn't it ridiculous to think that I, as a man, am far from being a hero or a husband, and have been lost for decades without knowing it? ”

It's ridiculous, but it's more of a wry smile.

"Fame and fortune are hard ......"

After such a seemingly self-deprecating, but more helpless sigh, Li Weizan stood up and stared into the distance, as if he wanted to vent his inner helplessness, his eyes suddenly opened, and he muttered in horror.

"Red, Red Fan......"

Seattle's eyes became more and more frenzied when the yellow wheat waves came into view, and the warriors on horseback around him were all looking greedily ahead.

It was not the wheat in the fields that aroused this greed, but the useless waste to them, and they gazed greedily at the houses at the end of the wheat fields, knowing that in the houses they had everything they needed—cloth, silk, muskets, wagons, irons, and, of course, wine, all that they needed, in short, everything they needed could be obtained there.

It's just that those Han people will never hand over these things easily, and if they want to get these things, there are only two choices, one is to exchange them for furs, and the other is to steal or plunder, and they are more willing to obtain all this through the latter than to exchange them for furs. After all, fur is limited, and stealing and robbing can give them much more, especially the various firearms that the Han will never sell.

Thinking of the riches that could be obtained in the settlement, Seattle's throat suddenly burst into a frenzied shout, a cry that bordered on savagery, and for a moment the whole forest echoed with this savage shout. With that shrill scream, hundreds of horses rushed out of the forest. Running through the wheat fields, rushing towards the settlement.

"Red Devil!"

The red fan in the wheat field made Li Weizan cry out in horror.

By this time, Hongfan's howl could reach their ears, and a look of horror appeared on everyone's faces.

Red fan!

For the immigrants, the cruel weather here has never been their enemy, they quickly adapted to the weather here, only the red fan, has always been the nightmare of the immigrants, although the humble character makes them try to tolerate the natives with a broad mind, try to educate them, but the cruelty of the red fan is still beyond their imagination, and the conflict has never been avoided.

"Quick, fast forward to the market......"

After years of assault, the women were no longer as frightened as they had been when they first arrived, and they immediately mounted their horses and loaded some of their belongings onto it, while the men had already picked up their muskets and pulled the trigger on the attacking land.

For a while, the sound of guns echoed in the settlement, but compared to the natives of nearly a hundred people, the firepower of this settlement of only a dozen families was obviously too weak, and when the men saw that the women had fled from the village with the carriage, they immediately jumped on their horses and protected the women to flee to the market, which was protected by a thick wall, and there were even small artillery, which was equivalent to a fortress, and the natives would never be able to conquer a fortress.

As the people retreated to the market, the natives on horseback continued to attack them from all directions, although they did not know what horses were a few decades ago, but the horses that came from New Spain made the natives quickly accept this four-legged monster, plundering horses, and was the reason for their attacks on the settlements.

"Boom, boom...... Ahh......h

In a burst of strange screams, bows and arrows, battle axes continue to fly from all directions, the men on the horse, can only continue to use the six guns to fight back, at close range, the six guns are almost invincible, when the men are resisting, the women on the carriage are not idle, there are some women, also with fire guns, aimed at the enemy to shoot.

In the colony, men and women must learn to use weapons to protect themselves in the face of the influx of natives from all directions.

"Hui'er, give you ......"

Sitting in the carriage, Liang Qingyuan put on the gun for the fire and handed it to the daughter-in-law on the side, the daughter-in-law who usually looks virtuous and quiet seems to be a different person, when the granddaughter was driving the carriage, she squatted in the carriage, aiming at the local people in the distance.

With a bang, Liang Qingyuan could see a native man fall off his horse.

"Knock ......"

At this moment, the sound of the feather arrow hitting the carriage startled Liang Qingyuan.

"Ah......h

When Liang Qingyuan's frightened face turned pale, Hui'er, who was loading the fire gun with a gun, turned her head and asked with concern.

"Dad, are you alright?"

"No, it's okay......"

Looking at his daughter-in-law's calm appearance, Liang Qingyuan couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed, the environment can change everyone, but he still can't be like the children, after the initial panic, he slowly became calm.

"Dad, if you feel tired, lie down for a while, and after a while, you will be at the set."

Hui'er's words made Liang Qingyuan even more embarrassed, he looked at the fire gun beside him, gritted his teeth, and picked up the fire gun.

Just as he was recalling how to use the firecracker, he saw someone on horseback in the distance falling, it was Li Weizan, who immediately threw the firecracker, and shouted urgently while holding the carriage trunk.

"Brother Jiaming......"