Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 613 The Dawn of Peace (Part 5)
In October, the summer heat in the Iguara Valley has subsided, and the sunlight has become warm and bright.

This fertile land, known as the "breadbasket" of the Taxco mining region, exhibited an unusual tranquility after the turmoil of the early stages of the war.

Golden cornfields rippled in the breeze, their heavy ears of corn a sign of a bountiful harvest.

Compared to the Spanish rule, this land seems to have gained new life, but this life is tinged with an indescribable sense of alienation.

In the central square of Iguala, the fountain still flows, but the flag flying above the municipal residence is no longer the Spanish royal flag, but a dazzling red flag with five stars.

The streets were bustling with pedestrians, including indigenous people in traditional clothing and Spanish or Mestizo residents in a hurry. But the most eye-catching were the Xinhua military police patrols in black uniforms and the auxiliary troops with their mixed attire and varied expressions.

In a semi-abandoned courtyard at the eastern end of the city, Chen Shitou was clumsily building a stove.

He arrived in Mexico last year as part of the fourth batch of Yongning Bay militia reinforcements (on rotation). After months of rigorous training and several battles that were not too intense, he can now be considered a "veteran".

His once blue militia uniform had faded to white from washing, with thick patches on the elbows and knees, but it was still fairly clean.

He carried a captured Spanish dagger and a leather water bag at his waist, but nothing else of value.

Unlike the disciplined and well-equipped Xinhua Army, these militiamen received only meager mobilization allowances and small combat stipends, with their main income coming from a share of the spoils of war.

For this reason, in the early stages of the occupation, this group of people did quite a few petty thefts, until the military police whipped a few out of place and they became much more restrained.

"Brother Shitou, your stove is built crookedly, will it even work?" A young man dressed in the same militia uniform came over and said with a grin. His name was Li Changgui, and he and Chen Shitou were from the same hometown of Dengzhou and Laizhou.

"It'll have to do." Chen Shitou didn't even look up, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand covered in mud and dust. "It's better than eating cold pancakes every day. Maria said... she and her brother are used to eating something hot."

When the name "Maria" was mentioned, Chen Shitou's tone softened unconsciously.

Maria was someone he had met six months ago; she was a girl with mixed Native American and Spanish features who lived in the suburbs.

On that occasion, while on a routine patrol with several companions, he encountered a group of Indian servants who were trying to take advantage of Maria. Chen Shitou immediately grabbed his rifle butt and chased them away.

From then on, he would often use patrol as an excuse to detour to Maria's neighborhood, sometimes bringing her some stolen (later bought) candy, and sometimes helping her family with some heavy work.

Maria was initially very scared, but over time, she was also touched by this Eastern man who spoke a different language but had honest and kind eyes.

Through simple gestures, a few words learned sporadically, and an inexplicable tacit understanding, the two gradually came together.

"Hehe, Brother Stone, you really are..." Li Changgui winked, "You're even going to take her back to Yongning Bay to be your wife?...By the way, does the higher-ups allow it?"

"..." Chen Shitou paused for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "The higher-ups didn't say anything about forbidding it!"

"Oh, so you're really determined to marry her?"

Chen Shitou's face flushed slightly, and he mumbled an "Mmm".

The Xinhua garrison seems to have an ambiguous attitude towards such matters. As long as there is no major trouble and no coercion, and both parties are "willing" and willing to return to Xinhua's mainland, they generally don't interfere much. This can be considered a form of tacit approval, given that the severe gender imbalance within Xinhua's territory is a well-known fact.

Chen Shitou had already made up his mind that once the situation stabilized further, or if a ceasefire was indeed reached as rumored, he would apply to the Xinhua officer in charge of their militia brigade to formally take Maria away.

“But, Brother Stone, you’d better hurry,” Li Ergou said in a low voice. “Everyone’s saying that we’re going to make peace with the Westerners! If the war is over, will we have to leave? We don’t know if the girls will be willing to leave their homes and go with you then!”

Chen Shitou paused in his movements, feeling inexplicably irritated.

He had naturally heard about the peace talks, which was a good thing, meaning he no longer had to go to the battlefield in fear.

But the thought of possibly being separated from Maria made his chest feel tight.

He looked up at the entrance to the courtyard, where a string of small ornaments woven by Maria from corn husks hung, swaying gently in the wind.

"She...she will come with me." Chen Shitou seemed to be encouraging himself, but his voice lacked confidence.

Language, faith, being separated from their homeland... these chasms between the two seem to have become clearer and more insurmountable in peacetime.

Maria de la Cruz, or as she preferred to be called by her Native American name "Little Deer," was hiding behind the window of her low mud house, secretly watching Chen Shitou busy in the yard.

She just turned eighteen this year, with dark hair and amber skin inherited from her Native American mother, and slightly deep-set eyes and a high nose bridge from her Spanish father.

This mixed-race identity was not well-received in the colonies; the Spanish viewed them as inferior, and the surrounding Native Americans were alienated from them.

When the new Chinese army stormed into Iguala, she, like all the other residents, was filled with fear.

Spanish officials say these infidels from the East are cruel and bloodthirsty, and all of them will suffer terrible consequences.

However, reality is not entirely like that.

Xinhua's regular army had very strict discipline and rarely harassed ordinary people except for collecting food and maintaining order.

However, the auxiliary forces, especially the militia and Indian auxiliaries, were a mixed bag.

The incident six months ago still terrifies her; if it weren't for Chen Shitou's appearance...

At first, she felt only gratitude and fear towards Chen Shitou.

The Asian man was not tall, but he was very sturdy and had dark skin. She couldn't understand a word he was saying.

But the way he looked at her didn't have the condescending possessiveness of a Spanish gentleman, nor the rudeness of some Native American men; instead, it carried a kind of clumsy sincerity.

Every time he came, he would try to bring a small gift, sometimes a brightly colored piece of oriental silk, sometimes a small bag of sweet candies he had never seen before.

He had helped her repair her leaky roof and chopped mountains of firewood, but he never tried to do anything inappropriate to her, until one day he blushed and gestured, asking her if she would like to go with him to a place called "Yongning".

Her heart was in turmoil.

Go with a heretic, an invader?

Go to a completely unfamiliar place, supposedly in the far north?
God will punish her!
But... what good would staying in Iguala do?
Her Spanish father had long abandoned her and her mother, and her mother died two years ago. She was all alone, struggling to survive in this chaotic world with her younger brother who was not yet ten years old.

Although Chen Shitou was a new Chinese, he seemed to genuinely care about her, and...

She subconsciously touched her still flat stomach, a blush and worry rising on her face.

Her period was almost half a month late, and she wasn't sure, but that vague premonition made her panic.

The recent rumors of peace talks in the city have intensified, further exacerbating her anxiety.

If the war ends and the new Chinese leave, will Stone also leave?
Will he keep his promise and take her away, or will he, like many Spanish soldiers did with their Indian mistresses, simply leave her behind with the possible child?
She dared not ask, nor did she know how to ask.

“Sister Little Deer…” The little girl from next door peeked in and whispered, “I heard that Father Lopez at the church said again during his sermon that we should be wary of the temptations of heretics, saying that they… they will eventually abandon the women here and return to their devilish land.”

Maria's heart sank.

She forced a smile, dismissed the girl, but felt a heavy weight on her heart. The conflict of beliefs, the uncertainty of the future, and her faint yet real attachment to Chen Shitou tore at her heart.

Looking at the man in the yard, covered in soot from building a stove for her, her eyes were filled with contradiction and confusion.
-
Mr. Diego Alvarado was a fairly respectable small landowner in Iguala, owning a nice cornfield and dozens of cattle and sheep outside the city.

At this moment, he was sitting in his living room, holding a cup of slightly bitter beverage made from Grenada coffee beans, listening to the butler, Mestizo, report on this year's harvest forecast.

"...Master, judging from this growth, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the corn and wheat harvest should reach 80% of last year's. Although the share of military rations collected by the Xinhua people is not low, it is less than expected at the beginning of the war, and they...pay money." The butler's tone became somewhat strange as he said this.

Diego nodded, his face revealing neither joy nor anger.

The way the new Chinese ruled was indeed beyond his expectations.

Contrary to rumors, they did not commit arson, murder, and looting. Instead, they quickly restored order and were even more effective than the Spanish colonial government in cracking down on bandits and thieves in the surrounding area.

They needed food, but it wasn't requisitioned without compensation. Instead, they purchased it using a kind of "military scrip" they issued themselves, printed with strange oriental characters, or by directly using captured Spanish silver coins, at a fair price.

This at least ensured that small estate owners like him wouldn't lose everything.

"I heard there's news about the peace talks?" Diego put down his cup and asked casually.

“Yes, sir. There’s a rumor going around town that peace may be restored soon.” A hint of anticipation appeared on the butler’s face. “Then, these new Chinese should leave, right?”

withdraw?

I'm afraid it won't be that easy!
Diego sneered inwardly.

Look at the city of Iguala now. The Xinhua Army has built strong fortifications in a strategic location outside the city, which is clearly not intended as a temporary encampment.

Even if the peace talks succeed, the new Chinese will likely extort a hefty ransom from the Mexican colonial authorities.

Moreover, those auxiliary forces, especially their militia and armed immigrants, became increasingly intertwined with the local population.

He heard that many people had "possessed" local young women, and there were even cases of them having children.

Some Xinhua soldiers and merchants have begun exchanging the goods they brought from the East with local specialties, and some have even started learning Spanish.

This infiltration is more unsettling than guns and swords.

“Peace?” Diego sighed. “Even if a peace treaty is signed, I’m afraid Iguara will find it hard to return to what it was before.”

He walked to the window and watched a group of Xinhua Army soldiers walking down the street. They marched in perfect formation and were well-equipped.

In contrast, the Spanish colonial army, which had been easily defeated by them on the battlefield, was filled with a sense of powerlessness.

These new Chinese brought not only military conquest, but also a completely different order and culture.

They don't seem to be in a hurry to destroy everything in Spain, but rather to influence and even transform the place in a subtle way.

“We can only adapt, Mr. Alvarado,” the butler said softly. “Under the rules of the strong, we must choose the most suitable way to survive.”
-
The afternoon sun slanted into Maria's small courtyard.

Chen Shitou finally finished building the stove. Although it wasn't very aesthetically pleasing, it looked quite sturdy.

He stood up, patted the dust off his hands with satisfaction, and turned around to see Maria standing behind him with a bowl of water.

“Drink…water,” Maria said in broken, newly learned Chinese, her eyes shining.

Chen Shitou paused for a moment, then grinned, took the bowl, and gulped it down in one go.

The sweetness of the water dispelled his thirst from working and warmed his heart.

“From now on, you and your brother can start a fire and cook. I will often bring you delicious food.” He pointed to the stove and gestured as if he was starting a fire and cooking.

Maria understood, nodded, and a faint smile appeared on her face.

At this moment, language is no longer a barrier.

The laughter faded into the distance. Although Maria couldn't understand it, the unfriendly gaze and flippant tone made her shrink back in fear.

At this moment, the language barrier seemed to disappear temporarily.

However, this brief moment of warmth was soon shattered.

Several men dressed in mixed clothes, clearly militiamen or armed immigrants, walked past the courtyard arm in arm. When they saw Chen Shitou and Maria inside, they whistled and jeered in heavily accented local dialect: "Hey! Shitou, so you're living the good life now?"

"Not bad! This mixed-race girl is quite pretty!"

"When are you going to invite us to your wedding? Haha..."

Chen Shitou, feeling embarrassed, snapped, "Get the hell out of here! Stop talking nonsense!"

The group laughed and walked away.

Although Maria couldn't understand what they were saying, their malicious gazes and flippant tone made her uncomfortable. Her smile vanished, and she subconsciously took a half-step back.

Looking at her panicked expression, Chen Shitou felt a pang of guilt and anger.

He knew that many of these people were hooligans and scoundrels, and if it weren't for military discipline and the army military police keeping them in check, who knows what kind of trouble they would have caused.

He also understood that, in the eyes of many, his relationship with Maria was nothing more than a fleeting affair between an occupying soldier and a local woman, or even worse.

He took a deep breath, walked up to Maria, looked into her eyes, and said very slowly and earnestly, "I... will... take... you... away... I promise."

Afraid she wouldn't understand, he patted his chest forcefully and pointed towards the western sea.

Looking into his eager and sincere eyes, Maria's unease eased slightly.

She nodded slightly, but the worry deep in her eyes could not be completely dispelled.

The news of the peace talks hung like a dark cloud over Iguala, and also over the hearts of all those involved in the war and occupation.

Peace is on the horizon, but for some, it may bring not relief, but new choices and the pain of separation.

As evening fell, the church bells rang as usual.

Many Spanish residents and Mestizo people went to the church seeking solace.

In his sermons, Father Lopez would still subtly remind believers to maintain the purity of their faith and be wary of the influence of paganism.

However, some militiamen and soldiers who had "connections" with local women secretly slipped out of the camp under the cover of night and headed to their respective love nests, seizing the time together that they didn't know how long it would last.

The dawn of peace seemed to be just around the corner, but for everyone on this land—whether conquerors or the conquered, whether Spaniards, Mestizos, Indians, or new Chinese from the north—no one could say whether what lay ahead after this dawn would be a smooth road or another journey full of unknown challenges.
-
(End of this chapter)