Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 416: New Year's Eve Part

ps: This week, the novel has been recommended for the first time since it was published more than two years ago. I hope everyone will vote for it! Thank you very much! (Two chapters in one)

In midsummer (January is summer in South America), the days are long and the nights are short, the sun is directly overhead, the weather is hot, cicadas and birds are chirping incessantly, and the leaves of the newly planted willow trees beside the road are drooping, as tired and exhausted as pedestrians returning from a journey.

Walking through the country road, not far away is a coastal village surrounded by greenery and dotted with ponds.

To the south of the village, under the oak trees near the blue brick and tile houses, farmers in twos and threes sat in the shade of the trees or under the slates of the eaves, chatting while looking at the white smoke coming out of the chimneys, estimating the time when the meal would be ready.

After walking forward for dozens of meters and avoiding the cover of trees, you can vaguely see a Western-style building with a pointed roof and more than ten meters high. The building has two floors, the lower floor is several spacious houses, and the upper floor is an attic with a Western clock. About twenty years ago, when the Chinese had just settled in Rio Grande do Sul, this Western-style building was still a country church with many believers. However, with the departure of missionaries, the church was taken over by the government. It was first used as a barracks in the first two years. Later, a primary school was built in the town. The students lacked a place to go to school, so the soldiers stationed in the church at that time gave up the church, slightly renovated it, hung the national flag of the Han Kingdom, and it became the first primary school in Jingbian Town.

In the past ten years, the economic situation of the Han Kingdom has been getting better and better. The populous town of Jingbian has built two primary schools in the town. The original school, which was converted from a church, was moved to Xincuo Village as the village primary school because it was far away from the town center. The three or five teachers in the school were mainly responsible for the education and management of school-age children in Xincuo Village and several nearby villages.

The primary school, which looks a bit strange with a red national flag and a pointed roof, has witnessed the historical changes of the Chinese people in Xincuo Village over the past 20 years and also carries the memories of hundreds of people living in the area.

The eldest son Yang Guangzong, the second son Yang Guanghai, the third son Yang Guangzhong, and three younger girls all spent their childhood and elementary school life in this school.

Walking into the village, Yang Kaifu habitually looked up at the primary school in front of him, and his heart was filled with a sense of happiness.

The ancestors of the Yang family were genuine poor farmers. In his father's generation, the family only rented five acres of thin land from a landlord. Every autumn harvest season, after paying 50% of the rent, the remaining food was barely enough for the family to live. If the harvest was a little worse, after paying the rent, the remaining food was not enough to feed the five or six people in the family. Whenever this happened, Yang Kaifu's father and mother often went to the county town to find some work, and did odd jobs for the masters in the city in exchange for a few copper coins, and then bought a few pounds of coarse grains to get through the difficult days.

The days of hardship are the hardest to forget. Yang Kaifu often recalls his experience of picking mushrooms, fungus and wild vegetables in the mountains to satisfy his hunger when he was a child.

The father and mother went to the city to do odd jobs to earn money, while the four or five children aged seven or eight or early eight or nine in the family, in order to find more food for the family, often went together with a few sticks and baskets to look for mushrooms, fungus, wild vegetables and fruits in the mountains not far from their home.

The number of edible wood ears and mushrooms in the mountains is scarce because they are often picked. Several children would fight with each other from time to time to compete for a bunch of mushrooms. Yang Kaifu often fought with other children when he was a child. At the beginning, there was an older brother who was two years older than him. Whenever there was a fight, he would protect his younger brother. But later, because he accidentally ate a poisonous mushroom, his brother died. Without his brother's protection, Yang Kaifu suffered a lot in the process of fighting with other children.

Recalling his childhood, Yang Kaifu couldn't help but feel sorry for his brother who died young. If his brother had not accidentally eaten poisonous mushrooms, and had grown up safely and moved to South America with him, the previous tragedy would not have happened.

In the same era, people of different identities and status had completely different destinies. While officials and landlords in the Far East lived a life of luxury and servants, many poor people like Yang Kaifu were struggling on the boundary between life and death.

Yang Kaifu had five brothers and sisters. His elder brother, a younger brother and a younger sister died of hunger and poverty. When his other sister was seven or eight years old, she was sold to a master named He in the city as a maid because the family could not afford food.

Children from poor families have to grow up early. When his father gave his sister to a master in the city to be a maid, Yang Kaifu once saw his mother hiding in the house and secretly crying.

Sons and daughters are both flesh and blood of their mother. If there is any other way, the mother would not send her children to others to be maids.

Although Yang Kaifu was already thirteen or fourteen years old at the time, he was unable to make changes. But now the situation is different. Sixteen years ago, when Yang Kaifu had just settled down in South America, he took out all his savings and returned to the Far East with more than a dozen familiar local neighbors. Then he spent money to redeem his sister, who was only thirteen years old at the time, and brought her to live in South America.

Sixteen years ago, there was a serious gender imbalance among Chinese men and women in South America. In order to encourage Chinese women of marriageable age to immigrate, the government not only waived immigration fees for all female immigrants between the ages of five to thirty-five, but also allowed female immigrants in this age range to directly obtain formal citizenship and ten to fifteen acres of land per person upon arriving in South America without having to go through a two-year probation period.

Thanks to the preferential policies issued by the government, after Yang Kaifu brought his sister back to his hometown, the round-trip transportation costs were all reimbursed after review by the officials of Jingbian Town. Because his sister was just thirteen years old, not yet twelve years old, she was sent to a literacy school to receive education.

My sister studied in a literacy school for three years. After completing her studies,

She entered a state-owned textile factory in Xinjing Prefecture and worked as a textile worker. Two years later, when her sister was 18 years old, she married a major officer on active duty. From then on, the fate of both herself and her sister was completely changed.

Now, not only has his only sister escaped from the sea of ​​suffering and is living a happy life with her husband and wife in harmony, but even his three sons have become successful.

"Kaifu and Guangzong" are the names that my father and I gave to our descendants. They embody the most straightforward expectations for them: to create wealth and bring honor to the family. Although I failed to fulfill my father's expectation of creating wealth, my eldest son, Yang Guangzong, was admitted to the Naval Academy and became a naval school-level officer. Considering the three generations of the Yang family being poor, this can be considered as bringing honor to the family.

Yang Kaifu was very satisfied with his current life. His eldest son had a bright future and was able to start a family with his help. His three daughters and one son were still young and at school age, so he did not need to worry about their future too early. Apart from his five children, the only one Yang Kaifu could care about was his second son, Yang Guanghai.

The second child will be sixteen after the Chinese New Year. He will have to take the intermediate education examination in May or June after the Chinese New Year, and after the examination he will have to face the problem of choosing a higher education institution.

In my opinion, I still hope that my son will go to the Naval Academy and serve in the navy after graduation like my eldest son.

Having two naval officers in the family is something that an ordinary Chinese family should be very proud of.

I was thinking about my second son's academic choices after graduation, and soon I arrived home.

"Daddy! My brother is back and he brought back a lot of gifts!"

I opened the door of my yard, and a small body threw itself into my arms, saying happily.

"The boss is back?"

Yang Kaifu was stunned for a moment, and asked in confusion: "Didn't he have to wait until the 27th or 28th of the twelfth lunar month to get home in previous years? How come he came back two days earlier this year?"

"The fleet has a new plan this year, so we've had two days off early." Lieutenant Commander Yang Guangzong, who was wearing a blue navy officer uniform and a wide-brimmed hat, walked out of the house with a smile, picked up the five or six-year-old girl hanging on her father's feet, and teased, "Is Xiaoying obedient at home? Did she make her mother angry?"

"Xiaoying is obedient. Mother likes Xiaoying very much."

The little girl stared at the military rank insignia on her brother's shoulder, and while answering in a serious manner, she fiddled with the rank insignia with her little hands.

"Haha, Xiaoying, you can't touch this thing. If you take it away, your brother will be criticized when he returns to the army."

Yang Guangzong laughed and gently reminded his sister, but did not take any action to stop the little girl.

"Is it just like when mother scolded Xiaoying?" The little girl quickly retracted her hand upon hearing her brother's voice.

"Yes, just like when Xiaoying makes a mistake, your mother scolds you."

Yang Guangzong scratched the little girl's nose with his finger, put her on the ground, and coaxed her: "Brother has put a lot of fun toys in the room, Xiaoying, go to the room to play with the toys first, and after lunch, brother and father and mother have finished talking about things, then play with Xiaoying, okay?"

"Brother, you chat with dad first. Xiaoying has gone to the house."

The little girl nodded vigorously, looking like a little adult.

"Haha, Xiaoying is so obedient."

After coaxing his happy sister away, Yang Guangzong welcomed his father into the living room. The two first chatted about some family matters, and then talked about his younger brother's choice of college after the college entrance examination.

"After the college entrance examination, the choice of which college to attend is mainly based on Guanghai's own ideas."

"That's different. If you apply to the Naval Academy or the Army Academy, you can become an officer directly after graduation. But if you choose an ordinary state university, after four years of graduation, you can either be a teacher in a primary or secondary school or a technician in a factory. The salary is much lower than that of becoming an officer directly."

Yang Kaifu shook his head and objected.

"Dad, you have an old-fashioned mindset. After graduating from the college entrance examination, you don't just have to apply to a military academy to join the army. You can also get into a regular state university or one of the eight national universities directly under the Ministry of Education, which have stricter requirements. After graduation, there are good options."

Yang Guangzong patiently persuaded him, "Applying to a military academy and joining the army is a way to serve the country. Going to university and becoming a teacher or engineer after graduation is also a way to serve the country.

The country is vigorously developing industrialization. The more than 20 local colleges and universities generally focus on science and engineering. Every student who graduates from science and engineering majors has good salary packages, whether they enter state-owned factories or private enterprises. "

“No matter how good the treatment in a company or enterprise is, can it be better than being an official?”

Yang Kaifu still clings to his old views.

"It's true that being a soldier or an official is a good thing, but the country is preparing to implement a constitutional monarchy. In the future, people from all walks of life will have the same political status. Engineers who graduate from colleges and universities and have good skills may be paid more than ordinary officials and officers. We can't just focus on joining the army or becoming an official."

"No matter how the outside world changes, the teachings passed down by our ancestors for thousands of years will never be wrong. Studying and becoming an official is the best choice. If there is a chance, let the second child apply to a military academy."

With the successful experience of his eldest son, Yang Kaifu was determined to train his second and third sons to become naval officers. Seeing that he could not change his father's idea, Yang Guangzong changed his perspective and persuaded him to choose a science and engineering university to study, so that he could become a government official after graduation. For example, Zhou Sheng, Lin Shenhe and Tang Yuanzhan were examples. Not only did they become technical officials who dominated the science and technology industry, but they also obtained noble titles.

Yang Guangzong patiently persuaded his father for more than half an hour, and finally made his father change some of his ideas. He agreed to let Yang Guanghai choose to go to a higher education institution according to his wishes. If he did not go to military school, he would go to a science and engineering school, and then after graduation, he would strive to get a job in a government-run technical institution or a large industrial enterprise.

After the father and son finished their conversation, several younger brothers and sisters helped their mother to bring the prepared meal to the stone table under the oak tree in the yard. The family of seven or eight people gathered around the spacious stone table, eating and chatting.

"Uncle Yang, I made a whole pickled pork in the winter, but we couldn't finish it at home, so Dad asked me to come over and give you a piece."

The family was having dinner when a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl with tied hair came to the gate. (The traditional hair-tying procedure in the late Qing Dynasty was complicated and inconvenient to wash, so the Han government issued a hair-tying decree on the basis of cutting the braids, advocating women to keep their hair tied.)
"Brother Zhuangzhuang, you're back!" The girl saw Yang Guangzong sitting at the table, still wearing his brand new military uniform, and said with surprise on her face, "Daddy said you would be back for the New Year in two days, how come you're back so early without notifying me?"

"The fleet was given two days off early, and I just got home, so I haven't had time to visit Uncle Wu at your house."

Yang Guangzong had heard that his father and Wu Silang were trying to arrange an engagement between him and Wu Songlan, and a rare hint of shyness appeared on his face.

"Songlan girl, the boss is now a naval officer, not a bald boy who has not grown up. When we meet in the future, you must call me by my full name."

Yang Kaifu looked at the girl who walked in with familiarity and said jokingly, "Your father told you that he would arrange your marriage with Emperor Guangzong after the new year. Three years later, when you turn 18, we will hold your wedding. After you get married and become Emperor Guangzong's wife, you will have to change your words when you see him. You can't keep calling him Zhuangzhuang, Zhuangzhuang."

Although Wu Songlan was a country girl, she was somewhat knowledgeable about human nature and knew the joke behind Yang Kaifu's words. She blushed, put the bacon on the table beside her, and ran out shyly but happily. …………

(End of this chapter)