From Robinson Crusoe

Chapter 256 One Year

The remote island was like a mist that swallowed everything, and the rumors about the gems disappeared after Monidez sent three armed merchant ships.

For Killian, no news was the worst news.

He remained in the mansion, feigning illness; beneath his seemingly calm demeanor lay a difficult struggle.

Rising from humble beginnings to his current position, Killian has achieved what most sailors envy.

Fame, fortune, honor, power...

But he was never willing to accept it; he was unwilling to be trampled underfoot after a lifetime of hard work.

Kylian was already quite old. He originally planned to transport the last few batches of treasure back to Spain, then bid farewell to his life at sea, return to land in peace, take care of his business, enjoy life, and socialize with the upper class.

Sometimes he would console himself—

Monidez's birth is an unchangeable fact, just like the Queen's children, who stand at a height that is unattainable for ordinary people from birth.

There's no need for him to overthink it. His efforts have already paid off, his abilities have been proven, he has transcended social classes, and he has fulfilled the dreams of many.

Shouldn't we be content at this point?
Logically speaking, people should feel content, and Killian had been instilling this idea in himself.

But that's just a way to numb oneself—

He was powerless to change it, but that doesn't mean he willingly accepted it.

If one day he sees a staircase that leads to a higher place, he will still rush towards it without hesitation; that is the nature of Kylian.

Even though he is now wealthy enough to live a life of comfort, his ruthlessness has not faded.

He had been enduring, avoiding, and convincing himself not to confront Monidez, having seen no hope before.

Now, he sensed something unusual about the three missing armed merchant ships—

That island, and those who caused his treasure and men to "evaporate" on it, did indeed possess some kind of powerful force, at least far exceeding that of Monidez.

When he was a boy, he was willing to embark on a journey to distant lands for the sake of legendary wealth, just so he wouldn't be the poor boy people talked about.

Now, though he is old, faced with yet another unknown and thorny path, he hesitated only for a moment before making the same choice—

Set sail for that island!

……

Chen Zhou, far away on an island in the ocean, was naturally unaware of Kylian's struggles and choices.

From these newly captured prisoners, he obtained a startling piece of intelligence.

It turns out they didn't belong to the Kylian, but to their arch-enemy, a nobleman named Monidez.

However, Sunday's attack was not unjustified; although they were not Kilian's subordinates, their trip to the island was not without ulterior motives.

If left unattended, they will surely plunder and kill on the island, and will not give up until they find a "ruby bigger than a pigeon's egg".

……

It turns out that Westerners are indeed inherently bullies who prey on the weak and fear the strong. They not only do not hate those who can crush them, but instead harbor a kind of admiration for the strong.

Despite having their three armed merchant ships wiped out on Sunday, and many of their comrades killed directly or indirectly, these Spanish sailors showed no resentment in prison. When they saw Sunday or the sailors in blue overalls, they bowed and scraped with great respect.

Perhaps, as the ancients said, "Barbarians are not of our kind, so their hearts are bound to be different. When they are strong, they will be bandits and thieves; when they are weak, they will be subservient and servile. They do not care about kindness and righteousness; this is their nature."

If you beat them until they feel pain and are afraid, they will become extremely respectful.

If you give them a little kindness, they'll try to turn the tables and become the masters.

If the indigenous people of the archipelago had not yet developed their own culture and thought, and had been like blank sheets of paper directly imprinted with the mark of Han culture by Chen Zhou, they would probably have become ungrateful wolves.

……

The prison was not built with the intention of holding so many Spaniards in mind. After the prisoners of three armed merchant ships joined the prison, the number of cells became insufficient.

Chen Zhou felt it was inappropriate to keep such a large group of intelligent, skilled, and physically fit workers in prison and let them eat for free.

To give these people something to do and prevent them from getting bored and staging a prison break like in "The Shawshank Redemption," Chen Zhou had Saturday set up a "labor camp."

The captured Spanish sailors underwent labor reform in labor camps, starting with the most basic farming to help build the island.

They also had to learn Chinese so that the prison guards could communicate with them.

Those who are proactive and have a desire to join forces will be given priority to become "foremen" among the prisoners.

As their Mandarin became more fluent, foremen of good character were able to get "promotion opportunities," moving out of their cramped concrete cells and into labor camps.

The labor camps were situated on a large expanse of farmland, offering much more space to move around than prisons. There, the prisoners could rediscover a semblance of freedom.

……

Time flies, and it was 1667 in the blink of an eye.

Both the Kylian, whose treasure had been stolen, and Monidez, who had sent out three armed merchant ships, mysteriously disappeared without a trace.

The Spanish sailors, who were forced into labor on the island, initially held onto the hope of being rescued or redeemed, but as time passed, their hopes slowly turned into despair.

Now, after washing up every morning, they have to go to work in the fields before they can eat breakfast.

Then they would attend classes to learn Chinese and memorize classical poems and prose.

They can no longer drink excessively, nor gamble or fight; any violation of the rules will be punished.

They didn't care about being whipped; what they feared most was being locked up in solitary confinement.

Having lived in a concrete shack, no one wants to go back to that cramped and confined place; it's like hell.

……

The rainy season has passed, and the dry season has arrived.

The island's third steamship was also successfully launched, and on Sunday, this "veteran of the sea" changed its vessel for the second time, moving from the Ironheart to the third steamship.

Due to material limitations, the shipyard ceased construction after the completion of the third steamship.

The remaining metal and welding rods were insufficient to support the construction of the fourth steamship. However, the workers who were "laid off" from the shipyard did not lose their jobs. They would learn the techniques of building sailing ships from the Spanish sailors and then combine them with their previous shipbuilding experience to create wooden sailing ships with an island style.

As the saying goes, "There is a sequence to learning, and each profession has its own expertise."

Although the islanders have become qualified carpenters and welders under Chen Zhou's tutelage, they still need to consult Spanish sailors when it comes to building traditional sailing ships.

Especially the captain, first mate, and carpenter on the ship, these people have the best understanding of the ship's structure.

Moreover, because they have lived at sea for so long and accumulated so much experience, their ideas about traditional wooden sailing ships are even more advanced than those of shipyard workers in the 17th century.

With their help, the shipyard workers, who were already quite skilled, made significant progress every day.

In less than two months, two small wooden sailboats were added to the island.

During the dry season when the weather is clear, these two small boats can travel to more distant seas, bringing the islanders exotic new varieties of seafood. They can also travel between the main island and the archipelago, ferrying islanders who are "going home to visit relatives."

Not long after Oshima acquired three steamships, on Sunday, under Chen Zhou's instructions, all the small islands near Oshima were brought under control.

Besides the main island, there are five other islands in the distance.

Three of the islands are larger and inhabited by several indigenous tribes, while the other two are smaller and uninhabited, consisting only of sparse trees and bare rocks.

However, the two small islands have become a paradise for wild animals because they are uninhabited. One of the islands is a breeding ground for hawksbill turtles. During the breeding season, the beaches on the edge of the island are covered with female hawksbill turtles of all sizes, and you can dig out their eggs with a simple scoop.

The other island is a habitat for seabirds, and the rocky hills on the island are even stained grayish-white by bird droppings.

The bird droppings accumulated in the pigeon holes on the big island have been almost completely depleted during the land reclamation efforts over the years. Chen Zhou plans to send sailing ships to collect bird droppings from the seabird island and transport them back once the bird droppings in the pigeon holes are depleted.

Pigeon Cave is only a small part of the island. Pigeons have limited excretion capacity and their manure production is far less than that of the seabirds on the entire island. If the bird droppings on Seabird Island could be utilized, there would be no need to worry about fertilizer for at least ten years.

……

As the days went by, the island's infrastructure became increasingly complete.

The planned stone-paved roads were laid out one by one, and the fields were changed from being "pieces of land scattered here and there" into flat squares that were connected together.

Two watermills and windmills for processing grain were built, and irrigation canals were also planned.

The old-timers' log cabins were renovated and replaced with more spacious wooden and stone houses.

The new islanders' homes have also been improved, now featuring kitchens and living rooms, comparable to the older wooden houses.

The brick kiln was completed in June 1667, and Chen Zhou promised that it wouldn't be long before all the islanders would be able to live in sturdier and more beautiful brick houses.

In September, a tile kiln specifically for firing tiles was also completed, along with a blast furnace for firing porcelain.

Chen Zhou's long-cherished dream of glazed porcelain has finally found a home.

However, due to immature technology and insufficient understanding of the properties of materials, the yield of the first few batches of porcelain was very low, and the glaze color was not very attractive.

Nevertheless, porcelain became a new trend on the island, with even poorly made porcelain bottles fetching prices of around 100 coins.

Both the zebras and the newly powerful elites who rose to prominence with the establishment of various small factories on the island were willing to pay for all of the leader's new measures.

Although Chen Zhou appears in the public eye less and less these days, it doesn't stop them from recognizing who the true master of this island is.

……

Chen Zhou thought that the year would just pass by like this.

With 20 years left in the challenge, he wasn't in a hurry.

If he hadn't wanted to find a mate for Laifu as soon as possible while it was still able to reproduce and to leave offspring for it, he wouldn't have spent so much effort researching wooden sailboats.

He had originally planned to bring Killian to the island. He thought that if he could capture this experienced captain who was influential in Europe and South America, he could force him to send his men to bring him mineral resources and female dogs.

Unexpectedly, these old men who once dominated the seas turned out to be more cunning than foxes.

Kylian had a large amount of treasure stolen and could bear it in silence. However, the captain of the ship, Monidez, who was said to be extremely irritable and arrogant, also disappeared. He did not send any more ships, and did not even dare to observe from a distance.

This left Chen Zhou at a loss—

Of the three armed merchant ships sent by Monidez, two were severely damaged and sunk. The remaining ship managed to sail back to port, but it was also badly damaged.

Although it has been barely repaired, it has lost its ability to sail long distances. If it encounters a storm after setting sail, it is very likely that the "old wounds will relapse" and the lives of all the sailors on board will be lost at sea.

The three steamships were limited by fuel and could not sail far, while the newly built small wooden sailboats were easily capsized by the wind and waves.

Furthermore, the islanders were not qualified sailors; once they entered the vast ocean, they had no sense of direction and no experience in dealing with sea storms.

Even if they brought Spanish sailors as "human compasses," they wouldn't be able to communicate and trade normally with the locals after arriving in Spain or Brazil. They might not even be able to find dogs, let alone coal and iron ore.

Many things require the intervention of local powerful figures to resolve. Chen Zhou even worried that these islanders, with their limited worldly experience, would be taken advantage of by contemporary maritime traders and end up helping them count the money.

The manufacturing technology of wooden sailing ships was derived from traditional Spanish armed merchant ships, so its leakage had little impact. However, if steamships fell into the hands of the Spanish, British, or Dutch, the consequences would be unimaginable.

The First Industrial Revolution, which began more than 100 years earlier, would likely have led to the early appearance of machines such as the spinning jenny, steam locomotives, and steamships.

The bourgeoisie may very well begin to establish its dominance over the world as a result.

If the Qing Dynasty, which was already on the decline, had fallen behind for another 100 years, the fate of China in this world might have been far more than just the humiliation of the late Qing Dynasty; it was not impossible that the country would have been destroyed.

For various reasons, Chen Zhou did not send out a fleet on a long voyage until the second half of 1667, and always focused his energy on the construction of the island.

Unexpectedly, as the year drew to a close, an unforeseen guest suddenly appeared at sea—Kilian.

……

Fearing an attack from this mysterious force, Killian specially purchased a medium-sized sailing ship.

These ships could not carry much cargo or many cannons, so their firepower was limited. Their advantages lay in their speed and maneuverability, and they were often used by pirates.

Having never witnessed the speed of a steamship, Killian staked his life on this vessel.

Little did he know that, just as he entered the archipelago waters and before even reaching the island where the sailors had disappeared, he was surrounded by three strange steel ships.

Daring not to reveal his weapons, Killian shouted at the top of his lungs in Spanish to express that he meant no harm, and was thus escorted to the big island.

(End of this chapter)