“…… East Africa under imperial rule is mysterious and bizarre. There, the gentry, mainly large farmers, wore black floppy military hats, surrounded by black servants, and guarded them strictly; In the vast central grasslands, tax officials collect taxes everywhere with the sun blazing on their heads; In the summer resort of Qilimanjaro Snow Mountain, on the rich feast of the empire, the table is full of delicacies from the mountains and seas, and the essence of the elixir and jade; On the lawn of the high-class club, the golf game climaxes; In the Serengeti savannah, horse races are fought in the dust, in the tropical jungles, hunting races are exciting, and in the lush forests, the chief executives, dressed in tuxedos, set up camp and solemnly raise their glasses while tasting delicious food and wishing His Majesty the Great Emperor, the owner of all the lands of East Africa, a long life, while listening to the howl of African coyotes in the dark; Under the scorching African sun, officers in combat uniforms pursued the remnants of the German garrison......

The sizable family of the manor owner has a large restaurant, and for immigrants, in addition to sports competitions, banquets have always been the best choice to relieve homesickness. These people, who had not been related to Ren Bao before, held intimate family feasts every day, attended by at least dozens of guests, and behind each guest stood a black servant.

Here, almost everyone enjoys a rich and comfortable life, sports competitions, banquets, and even Western-style dance parties are their main way of life! ”

"Dreamland: Imperial East Africa" - Imperial Times

The colony is so foreign to the Chinese that when the officers and soldiers who will go to the plantation to recuperate, it is difficult for them to adapt to being in the colony, only the sign on the door written in Chinese and German "Blacks are not allowed to enter" reminds the officers and soldiers in the carriage that they are colonies in the Empire.

“…… At that time, the German East African authorities also erected telegraph and telephone cables along the railway line, but it was soon discovered that this was a decision that caused them a headache for a long time: the rhinoceros began to use its cumbersome body to rub the telephone poles for fun, and no normal baboon could resist the pleasure of swinging on the wires, and the giraffes could easily cross the railroad tracks without deigning to bend over the metal wires erected by the whites when they occupied their land. The herds of giraffes to the Serengeti steppes and the Masai steppes became the terminators of the strategic communication lines of the German overseas empire, ...... of course"

In the carriage, the conductor deliberately emphasized in a strong Shandong accent.

"Now the giraffe herd is also the terminator of the strategic communication line of the Chinese overseas empire!"

"What is a giraffe?"

Suddenly, a question rang from the carriage, many of the soldiers of the expeditionary force had left home for the first time after serving as soldiers, and not all of them knew what a giraffe was.

"Oh, that's the giraffe ......"

The conductor shouted as he pointed to a herd of giraffes in the distance.

"It's a giraffe!"

A good-natured laugh rang out in the carriage.

On the red horizon, the train came on a straight one-way line.

The stationmaster, dressed in a German-style hairy serge uniform, walked out of the station, wiping the wrinkles on his pants with his hands. The station is a small brick house with high eaves raised. The migrants from the nearby settlements, who waited under the awning, prepared for a commotion, most of them dressed in clothes that they would only wear on festivals, men dressed in crisp new costumes, and women mostly dressed in Confucian skirts, which were not suitable for work, but which was a festival today.

A woodcarved creature burst into its pocket, poking out a surprised face. The children did not go to class today, but wore school uniforms, lined up, held the national flag in their hands, and looked anxiously in the direction of the train. …,

They were anxiously waiting there at this time, but near the train station, a long Western-style carriage was parked on the road, and on each carriage sat a black coachman.

"Woo......"

Finally in the sound of the train's whistle, the train entered the station, when the train entered the station, slowly stopped, the school's band played the national anthem, and other comrades-in-arms, Wang Ze, who was carrying luggage in his hand, stood up, he looked out of the window with some curiosity, looking at the more than 100 people who came to welcome at the train station, only to feel like returning to China.

After the train stopped, when the conductor opened the door, he said to the more than 20 officers and soldiers who had already stood up in the carriage.

"I hope you have a great time here, and we'll see you in a month!"

Like the other soldiers, Wang Ze was recuperated by an expatriate family, which was the most wonderful place in Chinese East Africa, where they did not recuperate in the hospital, but in the homes of the expatriate.

"Brave soldiers, welcome to your arrival, your arrival is the most pleasing thing since the establishment of this town, except for the annexation of East Africa to China, you have fought bravely on the front line, and you have paid ...... for your heroic battles and sacrifices."

When the mayor of the town gave a speech to welcome them, Wang Ze looked at the smiling expatriates who could see their living standards through their clothing, their lives were obviously richer than those of the peasants in China, and even the women were a little more comfortable than the women in China.

After the reception, Mr. Wang saw the head of his sojourn family for the next month, an Anhui expatriate surnamed Wang, who was scheduled to live in their hometown's home.

"Welcome, welcome, welcome ......, Sir Wang"

Wang Simao rubbed his hands and said with some excitement, he is the only one in the whole town from Anhui, and the chief Wang he received today is the first fellow villager he has seen three years after immigration.

"I'm sorry for your trouble!"

When Wang Ze is polite,

"No trouble, no trouble, as it should be, as it should be!"

Wang Simao pointed to the women and children around him.

"It's inner, huh...... Uchiko, this is the ...... of the dog."

At this time, Wang Simao's whole person looked crepe. Turning his face, Wang Simao shouted behind him again.

"Quick, Ah Ping, carry the luggage for the chief!"

A black girl in a ring suit walked over, that appearance only startled Wang Ze, he was still a little unaccustomed to the appearance of black people.

"Sir, you see, this is my plantation, a total of 850 acres, because the soil here is poor, contains low organic matter, and has poor water retention capacity, which is suitable for growing drought-tolerant crops such as sisal, so my plantation is full of sisal ......."

Wang Simao pointed to the sisal fields on both sides of the road, and when he introduced his plantation to Wang Ze beside him, his face was full of pride, and this land was cultivated by him.

"When I came here three years ago, it was just an overgrown barren land, so to speak, nothing grows except wild grass, and the Germans are not very kind, their plantation companies and immigrant circles have the best land, and we get this kind of bad land......"

In his words, Wang Simao was still full of dissatisfaction with the former German East African colonial government.

As the carriage reached the middle of the plantation, there were small gray mud houses on both sides of the road. Chickens and dogs running out of the house, skinny and skinny, followed a group of "little black monkeys" on the dirt road. The western sky was burning, and the hot glow faintly and indifferently reflected the plantation, the small nun houses, the cattle pens enclosed by earthen walls, and hundreds of black men stood by the roadside and bowed to the owners of the carriage as it approached.

"When our group of immigrants came here, the natives here did almost nothing, they used that kind of prism every day except dancing, hunting, hunting, and still using that kind of prism, purely to tell the heavens to eat, and after we came here, not only to reclaim the wasteland, but also to teach the locals techniques. And I hired them to work on the plantations, like these thirty-six families, who worked on my plantations, well, long-term workers, yes, in domestic parlance, they were all long-term workers in my family. ”…,

Like any Chinese family who immigrated to East Africa, they often have a look of pride and pride when they mention their plantations, and before they came to East Africa, they often lived in poverty at home, but everything in East Africa changed their lives, and they quickly became rich by clearing the land and building plantations.

Especially today, because there is no need to fulfill the contracts of German companies, almost every plantation is far more profitable than in previous years, and if it were not for the Governor's Palace's restrictions on the size of the plantations, perhaps they would have expanded their own plantations.

Although it was only a few days, Wang Ze was conquered by the life here, not only because of the abundance here, or the sumptuous meals on the table every day, at the beginning, when food such as meat and chicken was served every day, he thought it was the host's courtesy to entertain guests, but he noticed that the children of the family did not seem to be interested in these things, obviously they ate meat every day.

In addition to the affluent life, compared to the compatriots in the country, the expatriates here always seem to be full of enthusiasm, even women, compared to the reserve of domestic women, they are more passionate, those women will be the same as the men, wearing that kind of Western-style clothing, riding on horses, with hunting dogs and rifles to pursue the prey, when the prey is caught, they will laugh loudly, every night, there will always be a nearby expatriate family to hold a Western-style dance, invite them to participate, in the dance is full of laughter, Until the wee hours of the morning, the ball was still going on, until the men were carried into the carriage by the black servants in the smoke of cigarettes and liquor.

All in all, everything here is so fantastic.

"Look at the sunset, I've never seen a redder sun."

Standing in the corridor of the Wang family, Wang Ze and Li Haoran, the comrades-in-arms of the same division whom he had met on the train, both looked into the distance, past the seemingly boundless sisal field of the Wang family, and the black figures working in the sisal field, until they reached the red horizon. Now the sun is slowly setting in the surging red glow behind the mountains on the other side of the river, and the warmth of the April day is gradually fading, revealing a faint coolness.

In the distance, the whitewashed brick houses of the Feng family farm are like islands in the vast Red Sea, and the open space to be planted and miles of sisal fields make everything here so different from those in China. At the edge of these fields there are patches of woods, which are dark, cool, and mysterious even at the hottest noon, and the rustling of leaves makes one want to rest in the shade there.

The two soldiers sitting in the corridor heard the sound of horses' hooves, the clanging of harness chains, and the laughter of the black slaves; The men who were doing the farm work and the mules and horses returned from the fields. At this moment, the gentle voice of Wang Simao's wife, Wang Wuli, came from the room, and she was calling to the black girl who was carrying the key and the basket, and the latter replied in a sharp tone:

"Ma'am, here,"

Then there was the sound of footsteps walking from the back aisle to the kitchen, the black girl trusted by Wang Wuli was going to distribute food to the black long-term workers who had worked all day, and the remuneration of those black long-term workers was pitifully small from the perspective of the country, and they were only three yuan a month for two meals a day.

Perhaps, because of this, expatriates like Wang Simao can enjoy such a rich life now, and this is the biggest difference between the colony and the country, but whether it is for Wang Ze or Li Haoran, all this is not what they care about, in fact, although it is only a few days, they have already liked this dreamy place, like this Chinese colony.

Then I heard the busy sound of the maids in the dining room, apparently already setting the table and preparing dinner. …,

And at this time, they saw the "master" in the mouth of the black servants, Wang Simao came back on horseback, unlike usual, the face under the cowboy hat looked very ugly, and behind him, his eldest son, only eleven years old Wang Huien rode on another horse.

"Mr. Wang!"

Wang Simao looked at the two sitting in the corridor with some embarrassment, and after saying hello stiffly, he glared back at his son.

"Get on your knees!"

After the two entered the house, Wang Ze heard a loud shout from inside the house, followed by a series of questions, and the content of the questions seemed to be related to black people, obviously his son had a problem with the treatment of black people.

As guests, Wang Ze and Li Haoran left the corridor out of politeness. It wasn't until dinner that the two of them learned from Wang Simao that he was going to send his son back to China for education.

"He must not be tainted with the lazy habits of black men!"

This is the reason given by Wang Simao.

Although it was just an episode, all this did not affect Wang Ze and Li Haoran's good impression of this dream land.

"Land of Dreams!"

On the grass of the Governor's Palace in Dar es Salaam, Li Zicheng, who was sitting on a chair, looked at the letters of thanks written by the wounded soldiers in his hand, with a smug smile on his face, from each letter of thanks, he could fully understand the wounded soldiers' fascination with this land, and this is exactly what he needed, what he needed was to praise this land through the letters from these wounded soldiers to their families and friends, and eventually these praises would not only make more people immigrate to East Africa, but more importantly, there would be a group close to East Africa in China.

"China wants to open up colonies, and this kind of motivation should not only be filled with high-level people, but also have the same sentiment among the people, and only with these two can China's colonial cause be truly expanded!"

As the first governor of China's first colony, he couldn't help but think of those "peers" in Africa, those white-skinned "peers" were obviously extremely uncomfortable with Africa jumping out of his yellow-skinned and black-haired peers, but it didn't matter, he never thought of letting them adapt to him, for Li Zicheng, he was even full of interest in the jurisdiction of "peers", of course, if he could.

"Zifang, do you know what China's advantages are in the process of overseas colonization?"

"Please make it clear to the Governor!"

"China's advantages have a total of two points, the first is that the Chinese Empire has a population of 50,000, a huge number of people and a narrow land area, which is a prerequisite for overseas colonization, in terms of the proportion of population and land, only through overseas development, can relieve the population pressure of our country, there is now an argument in the country, if the Ming Dynasty from the Zhengde period, our country to carry out overseas colonization, through a large number of overseas immigrants, the Ming Empire may not die in civil strife."

What Li Zicheng is talking about at this time is a historical assumption made by scholars who supported overseas colonization at home, that the dynasties in Chinese history that died in civil strife were not so much due to civil strife as to the contradiction between land growth and population growth.

"Second,"

Smiling, Li Zicheng looked at his secretary and said seriously.

For Europeans, the first generation of immigrants is European, and the second and third generations are Africans and Americans, this psychology will only make them more and more localized, and eventually this localization leads to the collapse of the colony, but the Chinese are different, we Chinese, even if we live overseas for hundreds of years, we still pay attention to Tangshan. In Nanyang, after the death of the expatriate, their tombstones are all facing Tangshan, so the colonies we have opened up will always belong to China, and will not gradually be localized, causing the colonies and the suzerains to be separated from Germany, but it is a pity that ......"

Looking at the sunset, Li Zicheng said with pity.

"Our history of colony development is too short! If we could advance it a hundred years earlier, I can guarantee that we will become a true empire on which the sun never sets! ”

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