Chapter 8 Anecdotes of the South Seas

"I still can't forget the scene when my mother gave me when I left home, although I have turned around, but I can still see in my heart, tears rolling in her eyes." ———— "My Childhood", Chen Zeyu, written in Zhongnanhai, Yanjing, 1915

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In this way, eight-year-old Chen Zeyu and his uncle took the steamer "Shengping" and crossed thousands of kilometers across the South China Sea to Luzon Island in the South Sea.

Luzon, in fact, is the modern Philippines.

It's been half a year since I came here, and the braid on my head has long been thrown away. Thinking of his uncle's expression when he found out that he was wearing fake braids, Chen Zeyu was particularly funny. However, his uncle also brought a lot of surprises to himself.

When he first came to his uncle's residence in Luzon, he was startled, it turned out that his uncle had already found a beautiful foreign aunt for himself, and when he just got off the carriage with his uncle, Chen Zeyu was still surprised, this aunt with a good appearance had already pulled him into his arms and kissed him.

Chen Zeyu was stunned all of a sudden, and the uncle and housekeeper next to him were quite amusementous and laughed.

Here, Chen Zeyu changed into the Western-style children's clothes prepared for himself by his uncle's family, and his refreshing short hair made his already beautiful little face even more radiant.

Chen's villas occupy a large area, and several walled buildings appear to occupy a large area. All the land that could be seen outside the wall was in my uncle's name, and in addition to the thousands of hectares of cultivated land, there were also many forests, lakes, and rivers around it. Outsiders are allowed to drive or take a boat to pass by, but they are not allowed to hunt or fish in their own territory. There are also many endemic nala trees in the surrounding forests, a tree that can be used as both medicine and top timber.

The tree is tall and straight, evergreen all year round, and blooms golden flowers in the sun. Wood is hard and delicate, and it is the top material for high-end furniture and musical instruments, and my uncle made a fortune selling wood when he came here in the early days.

I forgot to mention that in fact, the nala tree is a kind of red sandalwood, and the red sandalwood may not have reached the time of extinction in this era, but as a modern person, of course, I understand the preciousness of red sandalwood, and it has become a must-have thing for Brother Chen to go outside and cut two nala trees.

Cutting the bark, the Nala tree oozes a bright red liquid. Just like the blood that flows in the veins of human beings, it is a good natural dye.

Place looks big, but the most important thing is not this.

The area with a radius of more than 10,000 square kilometers is all steep mountains in the west, except for the harbor when it came, leaving only a few narrow corridors connected to the outside. Dangerous places are also guarded, so that the safety surname is guaranteed. The Spaniards originally wanted to attract people from other places to come to the Philippines to settle the land, although there were many preferential immigration policies. Over time, however, the colonial authorities became revealed. The robbery of Chinese merchants by local Spaniards is not once or twice. Of course, until this point all has not seen the light of day.

Compared to this, my uncle's land is especially precious.

My uncle's thousands of acres of fertile land were cultivated by hired local Chinese, and unlike in China, everything here was "mechanized", and although there were no tractors at this time, the abundance of local livestock was unimaginable to the farmers on the mainland. In addition, the land is vast and sparsely populated, and as long as the people who come to reclaim the land are not too lazy, they will generally live well.

Compared with the past few centuries, there have been many Chinese immigrants to Nanyang in the past few decades, and rice and wheat have been planted in many places. The climate in the Philippines is very suitable for crops, and in addition to paying attention to preventing pests and diseases, farmers can get a good harvest with little care. In addition to the land in the name of the Chen family, many Chinese have their own land sporadically, and this is only for agriculture.

The number of Chinese immigrants living with my uncle has long exceeded the 100,000 mark, and if it hadn't been for my uncle's concealment, the authorities would have set up a new town here. If the above conditions are true, the corresponding taxes will also increase a lot, of course, the above is only if, in fact, the Spaniards may not dare to come to this Chinese paradise. More than 20 kilometers to the southeast is a wharf under his own name. It is said that it is a wharf, but it is actually modest, this pincer-shaped deep-water seaport that is not marked on the map has all the facilities, and the Huaxing shipyard under my uncle's name is built here.

Yes, in this time and space, on the east coast of Luzon Island in the Philippines, which was still quite wild in the 19th century, stands a fairly modern shipyard, which cannot build iron-hulled ships, but has been able to make steam-powered wooden sea ships.

Of course, the reason why his uncle Chen Yanyu was able to put such a large fortune in this mess was not only because of his American passport. What is more important is to make good use of the contradictions between various interests in the Philippines, and the conflicts between various ethnic groups in the Philippines are far more complex than imagined.

There was a conflict not only between the Spaniards and the indigenous Malays, but also between the Spanish immigrants who settled there and the rulers from Spain. Of course, the Chinese also have contradictions with them, and in addition to the fact that there is no major war in the Philippines now, various places have long been in chaos.

The poor presence of the Spanish authorities in the archipelago not only had to suppress the rebellion of the indigenous tribes scattered throughout the Philippine Islands, but also had to deal with constant provocations from the Dutch and American fleets. In contrast, the security situation in my uncle's territory was much better, and my uncle had thousands of Chinese armed armed with Mauser guns, except for a little less artillery, and it was also one of the few deterrents in the entire Philippine Islands.

In addition, although the current Qing court is no longer in the eyes of first-class European continental powers such as Britain and France, in the eyes of Spain, the Netherlands and other second-class European powers, the Qing State is still a building that can bluff people.

"Young Master Yu, did the master call you" Chen Zeyu, who was thinking about the problem, was interrupted and looked up.

It turned out to be a little maid in the family, the little girl looked a few years older than herself, she looked like a local Malay, she was very beautiful, Chen Zeyu knew that she actually had a quarter of Spanish blood on her body, think about the corrupt military discipline of the soldiers of the Spanish colonial army on the island, and the source of her bloodline is unknown.

When Chen Zeyu saw her for the first time, a word popped up in his mind, Filipino maid.

Smiled in response, "I know" The little maid's cheeks turned red, and she was a big ghost.

Chen Zeyu trotted downstairs, where his uncle and Aunt Helen were entertaining the dark-nosed and blue-eyed American uncle in the hall on the first floor.

"Come on, Ben, sit here," Aunt Helen patted her couch seat with a smile on her face.

"Hello, Stern!" Sitting next to Helen, Chen Zeyu greeted the Yankees opposite him in fluent English without hurry.

When she first heard that she could speak English, Aunt Helen's mouth was surprised to put down an egg.

As for this old beauty named Stern, he is a very good friend of his uncle, to be precise, he is also his uncle's brother-in-law, that is, Aunt Helen's brother. The uncle ran a trading company in the United States, and many of the machines in his uncle's domain were now purchased through him.

"Oh! Hello, Ben", this is the English name that Helen gave Chen Zeyu, which means black-haired man in ancient Hebrew, describing him as quiet, lovely, easy-going, and gentle. When I first chose this name, I didn't protest a lot.

A maid next to him poured a cup of coffee for Chen Zeyu, "thank you" Ah Yu politely thanked him, the coffee beans used to brew these coffees were all grown by his uncle's own farm, and the smell of it made people drool.

"Ben, this time your Uncle Stern is here to pick you up to go to school in the United States", Uncle Chen Yanyu brought Ah Yu to him and straightened his collar for him, "When you get there, you have to listen to Uncle Stern, do you know" Because of Stern, Uncle spoke English.

Chen Yanyu made up his mind as early as the beginning to send this child to study in the United States and receive a comprehensive American-style education.

"Hmm," Chen Zeyu nodded vigorously. Helen walked over, took Xiaoyu's big head in her arms, and whispered.

Early the next morning, when the genius was bright, Chen Zeyu, who was already dressed in new clothes, carried his small luggage and followed his uncle and Stern to get into the carriage and leave his uncle's villa under the farewell of Aunt Helen. Uncle Chen Yanyu will send Chen Zeyu all the way to the dock.

After entering the carriage, Chen Zeyu immediately jumped into the back seat, kept waving his little hands from the glass window, and said goodbye to Aunt Allen, who was getting farther and farther behind. It wasn't until the carriage had crossed the horizon that Ah Yu sat down in the carriage.

There were also two Chinese in the carriage, who were security guards of my uncle's steamship company, and they also carried a Colt pistol that Chen Zeyu was very interested in, which is commonly known as a revolver, but unfortunately Aunt Helen had explicitly forbidden these people to "bring damage" to themselves, alas.

"What's the matter, it's a little sad, isn't it" Stern looked at Ozawa with a smile.

"Well, a little," Chen Zeyu said listlessly.

Stern: "Don't be so listless, little one, you should be happy for a new and beautiful life."

Chen Zeyu rolled his eyes, he was usually quite used to his strange movements, and both his uncle and Stern laughed.

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