Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 676 Miscellaneous Thoughts
The suffering of Native Americans began the moment colonists arrived on the North American continent: they were deceived, killed, driven away, and imprisoned.

The colonizers were not ashamed of this; on the contrary, they proudly made a movie about it and showed it off to the world.

At the same time, it turns around and promotes so-called universal values ​​to the world.

They truly took saying one thing and doing another to the extreme.

The leaders of the new Chinese colonies adopted a relatively moderate attitude towards the indigenous people, but this did not mean they were unconditionally weak.

Generally speaking, it's best if they're willing to cooperate, but we won't force them if they're not. However, they shouldn't have any ulterior motives, otherwise we will definitely retaliate in the most brutal way.

The Mexican gangs in the Pingyuan Prefecture (Los Angeles) area are well aware of this.

No chaotic era lacks bandits, especially in this vast and sparsely populated land, where bandits, unrestrained by the law, have a natural stage.

The Chinese colonists, who were initially attacked, did suffer some losses, but the situation later reversed.

Just like at this moment in the wilderness, a group of bandits are swaggering along towards their lair, a valley.

Just before they reached the valley entrance, Miller, the leader, suddenly pulled on the reins and looked around warily. Everything was so quiet and there was nothing unusual, but Miller still felt a strong sense of unease.

It seemed as if a ferocious beast was watching them from the shadows.

"Hou Liu, make sure you hit the mark later!"

Hou Liu, hidden behind the hillside, aimed his rifle while the squad leader beside him spoke in a low voice.

"Too far, can't hit it!" Hou Liu didn't fire, but instead put away his rifle, hugged it to his chest and lay on his back.

"It's not like you're being asked to attack now; not everyone's in the ambush zone yet." The squad leader lightly kicked Hou Liu.

A cavalry unit has over a hundred men, and not everyone is a good marksman. If a unit can produce a sharpshooter, it's all thanks to the blessing of Mazu.

Looking back at the soldiers waiting to attack down the hillside, the squad leader picked up his binoculars and looked at the opposite hillside, where another group of people were lying in ambush.

While the bandits were busy looting the colonies, the Pingyuan Prefecture guards were also keeping an eye on the various bandits, hoping to find their hideouts and wipe them out in one fell swoop.

This gang of ruthless bandits had previously robbed a transport convoy, resulting in dozens of casualties. As a result, they were targeted by the Pingyuan Prefecture military, which dispatched a large number of scouts and finally located their hideout.

These bandits were not picky; they not only robbed Chinese settlements, but also villages and towns in Mexico.

Miller breathed a sigh of relief after his unease suddenly disappeared. Thinking of his belongings hidden in the valley, he decided to move as soon as he got back; he couldn't stay in this place any longer.

After walking about two hundred meters further, Miller's unease returned. As he turned to look around, suddenly there was a "bang," his pupils contracted slightly, and he shrank back.

His mount let out a mournful cry and collapsed with a crash.

A barrage of gunfire erupted like raindrops, and the volley of gunfire from both sides instantly felled more than half of the horses.

At the same time, smoke and dust rose from both ends of the valley, indicating a targeted ambush.

The experienced bandits immediately turned their horses around and charged toward the nearby valley entrance.

Faced with a well-prepared regular army, the bandits were constantly hit. The lucky ones fell to the ground directly, while the unlucky ones were caught in the stirrups and dragged along by the horses.

Knowing the terrain well, Miller realized something was wrong. He rolled over and hid in a ditch, carefully observing the enemies who had suddenly appeared.

The gunfire stopped after only an hour. Miller crawled behind some bushes and saw that the enemy was Chinese. They had uniforms and straw hats, which were unique in the area.

The gang of nearly a hundred men was wiped out in an ambush. Miller secretly regretted that he shouldn't have robbed the newly opened Chinese colony last month.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" A soldier fired a finishing shot at a wounded bandit with his revolver, only to be reprimanded by his officer: "You son of a bitch, don't you know how to use a bayonet? Metal bullets are so precious!"

More and more surviving thugs were captured, dragged out to check for injuries, and those deemed beyond saving were immediately finished off.

Miller observed carefully, inwardly groaning. Suddenly, his head stiffened, and he slowly turned around, his face contorted with rage. He saw a seemingly honest face with a pair of murderous eyes.

Miller wisely raised his hands, turned around, and took the knife off his body, throwing it on the ground.

A battle has ended, a gang has been wiped out, and similar small-scale battles will continue for a long time, possibly every month, with different opponents each time.

In short, it's all about living space; this is the competition that determines the ownership of this land.

Xinhua Mansion, though popularly known as New Gold Mountain, is a place where a fleet of ships slowly enters the harbor under the warm early winter sun.

The deck was filled with immigrants speaking various dialects, their eyes filled with confusion or excitement as they gazed at the bustling docks and city.

The discovery of the gold mine undoubtedly accelerated the pace of immigration. Whether it was spontaneous voyages by ordinary people to seek wealth at sea or the purchase of people from the interior with gold, it all contributed to the prosperity of this sea route.

This route is also known as the New Jinshan Route! The starting point is Shanghai County under Songjiang Prefecture, and the destination is New Jinshan or Kaiyuan Prefecture in North America.

The three cities have entered a period of rapid development in the past few years, especially after the advance team from Kaiyuan Prefecture discovered iron and coal mines near a major river.

The docks are bustling day after day, but this day is especially lively.

As the massive man-made crane lifted huge components onto the dock, Li Heng and Xue Fang arrived at the dock together.

"These machines can process the parts needed for steam locomotives, and the craftsmen were hard to come by. At the latest, within three years, the major cities will be connected by rail."

Xue Fang was much more excited than Li Heng. The country already had railways and trains, and the colony had been applying for them for a long time. Now, they finally had a solution.

"Watch out, everyone! This is what he got in exchange for two meals of gold!" Xue Fang shouted at the top of his lungs.

Li Heng smiled without saying a word. Was it worth it to exchange two tons of gold for railway and steam locomotive technology? Wasn't that obvious?
The Zhou Empire's railway technology was the best in the world, and Europeans wanted to import it, but the domestic population paid no attention to it.

The train was certainly not obtained because of Li Heng's status; Li Heng knew this very well, and his dear second brother would never consider such a thing.

Li Heng now owns a fleet of one hundred ships, all at the Empress Dowager's behest, not Li Yuan's.

Of course, Li Heng felt that he was much luckier than his other brothers. Those brothers who were not born of the main branch of the family were all sent to various places in the new province, with the most fiefdom being a prefecture.

To reduce the threat, Li Yuan was ruthless. The reason for sending them to the new province was simple: it was too far away and too desolate; once they went there, they would pose no threat to the imperial power.

Not to mention, there was also the Prince of Xining not far away.

The Prince of Xining recently received news, the nature of which he did not know. The imperial court had decided to send an elite army to Anxi for border defense. The force was small, consisting of only one brigade, according to the standards of the new army.

It comprised two infantry regiments, one artillery regiment, and one cavalry regiment, with a total strength of just over eight thousand men.

When the association arrived, they also escorted the Crown Prince of Xining back, accompanied by a large convoy, traveling along the official road that had been under construction for ten years.

We departed in June and arrived in June of the following year.

The aging Prince of Xining had lost much of his fighting spirit and was unwilling to expend his strength to squeeze out the sphere of influence of Tsarist Russia in accordance with the imperial court's orders.

Winters in Anxi are exceptionally cold, and the area controlled by the King of Xining consists of vast valleys. Due to geographical factors, these valleys are difficult to connect with each other.

Although the King of Xining has not expanded northward in recent years, he has still done a lot of work within his territory, especially in road construction, which has taken a great deal of effort.

The local indigenous people still live in tribes and lead a nomadic life, making it difficult to concentrate local human resources.

Whether expanding northward or westward, the King of Xining worried that his stronghold would be attacked by local natives.

While the Crown Prince's return is certainly a good thing, the King of Xining is still worried that the Crown Prince may not have enough skill to subdue the various tribes, large and small, in the region.

The current situation in Anxi is quite similar to that during the Tang Dynasty. Chinese people control one city after another, while the local natives are scattered and nomadic. Their daily relations are only based on trade, and their subordination is only superficial. In essence, they are still under the control of the local people.

This place is hard to compare with the Central Plains!
The independent mixed brigade, composed of elite troops drawn from the new army, departed from Beijing, traveled by train to Luoyang, and then turned towards Xi'an.

After the train arrives in Xi'an, we will need to get off and rest for a while before preparing for the next, more arduous journey.

Suffering is a normal part of life for people in this era, and it is even more arduous for soldiers.

Fortunately, the imperial court spared no expense, and the train to Lanzhou has been completed. However, some sections of the route are difficult to travel, requiring the use of a "human" method, with one locomotive pulling in front and another pushing from behind.

After arriving in Lanzhou, the mixed brigade was reinforced with 3,000 new recruits and a cavalry battalion. After a month of reorganization, they embarked on a long and distant journey.

The cavalry originated from various tribes on the grasslands. Now, the former leaders on the grasslands must settle down. Since there are no houses, the court will help build them. They also have to farm and grow pasture.

The various tribes on the grasslands acquired products from the Central Plains through the wool and cattle-sheep trade. When natural disasters occurred, the imperial court would also provide relief, and life was much better than before.

The tribes near the northeast gradually settled down, engaging in a combination of farming and herding.

The real hardship was in the northern desert. When I followed Li Ni to the tribes near the North Sea, life there was absolutely miserable.

Not only were they still nomadic, but they also had to engage in minor conflicts with Tsarist Russia every now and then. Fortunately, Tsarist Russia did not invest much power in the East, so they rarely suffered losses in the fighting.

After three requests and three resignations, Lin Ruhai finally officially retired. Regarding the position of Grand Secretary, the cabinet appeared calm on the surface, but in reality, undercurrents were surging.

On the surface, the rule was that Li Qing would take over as Grand Secretary, but under the Zhou Empire's system, the emperor's attitude towards the cabinet was the decisive factor.

After retiring, Lin Ruhai is packing his bags, preparing to return to his hometown of Suzhou.

It was winter, and the emperor had not urged him to set off. He could wait until the spring of next year to depart at his leisure.

Having nothing to do after retirement, Lin Ruhai was a little unaccustomed to it for a while, and it took him several days to gradually recover.

Lin Ruhai was tidying up his documents in his study, preparing to write a memoir. As he reminisced about the past, his thoughts were in turmoil when a maidservant lifted the curtain and entered.

"Master, your aunt is back!"

Lin Ruhai was in a daze for a while. As political differences arose, the relationship between Lin and Jia, the father-in-law and son-in-law, gradually faded.

This resulted in Daiyu rarely returning home. Even when they were both in the capital, she would only come back for a day each year during the New Year, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival.

Jia Lian, her son-in-law, was even more distant, only visiting once a year during the New Year, and never making a visit during the Dragon Boat Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival.

The conflict between the father-in-law and son-in-law was also clear: Jia Lian advocated restricting the gentry and cracking down on land annexation, allowing the court's power to penetrate downwards.

That's what he thought, and that's what he did. Whether in the capital or in the provinces, he was exceptionally ruthless whenever landlords and gentry were involved.

Any gentry who fell into his hands and were found to have committed murder could not escape death.

This is what Lin Ruhai couldn't understand: although the world belongs to the emperor, it is essentially still the domain of the gentry.

Because the gentry were the ones who truly controlled the grassroots. Of all the counties in the country, which county magistrate dared to say that he was truly deserving of the title?
Being sidelined by landlords and gentry was the norm!
But Jia Lian didn't care. Whenever he went down there, he would bring an army with him, as if he were hoping that the landlords would rebel.

It's fair to say the landlords were just unlucky. Anything that required Jia Lian's intervention was usually quite serious, and without the army's support, it was difficult to accomplish.

Why did the other ministers have different working styles? Lin Ruhai knew the reason: these ministers all came from landlord families.

Even the Jia family were large landowners, owning a farm of several thousand acres in the suburbs and a fiefdom directly outside the Great Wall. This doesn't even include the large farm the Jia family used to manage outside the Great Wall.

Lin Ruhai couldn't understand why Jia Lian was targeting the landlords, when they were all on the same side.

Just as Lin Ruhai was racking his brains but still couldn't figure it out, the study curtains opened, and Daiyu came in, her eyes already fixed on her father with great interest.

"Daughter kowtows to Father!" Daiyu said, about to kneel down, but Lin Ruhai hurriedly got up to help her up, tears streaming down his face: "No, no need!"

The father and daughter have a genuine and deep bond; that cannot be faked.

Daiyu helped Lin Ruhai sit down and stood by his side, talking to him. It seemed as if she had returned to the days when she would snuggle on her father's back and act spoiled.

"Why didn't Buqi come along? Does he look down on this old retired official?" Lin Ruhai couldn't help but say sourly.

Daiyu said in a low voice, "How could that be? My husband still respects my father very much. Isn't it just that the old lady of the Jia family is dying? She's been lying in bed for three days now! She's delirious, only occasionally becoming lucid."

Lin Ruhai's expression immediately turned serious upon hearing this: "Hey, why didn't you say so earlier? Your mother and I went back to visit the old folks."

Daiyu said, "I wanted to tell her, but my husband stopped me. He said that even if I did, it wouldn't be of any help. I'm hoping that the old lady will get better so I can let her know."

As they were talking, Jia Min came in, her voice trembling, and said, "It seems that Mother won't make it this time?"

Daiyu turned around and nodded with difficulty.

Jia Min swayed, only managing to stand up thanks to the support of her maid. She cried out, "Then what are we waiting for? Quickly prepare the carriage!"

(End of this chapter)