Xiao Nian is the day when the god of the stove goes to heaven to report the good and evil of the family to the Jade Emperor, and it is also the day when everyone begins to prepare for the New Year.

On Xiamen Island, people are busy, preparing New Year's goods, pasting couplets, cleaning, and getting ready to welcome the New Year. Chen Python's army also retreated from Yunxiao Zhao'an and other places, and returned to Xiamen to prepare for the New Year.

Originally, Hokkien people did not have the habit of celebrating the New Year, and the meaning of the small year in the Hokkien language is that the twenty-ninth day of the lunar month is called the small year. Therefore, the 24th day of the lunar month is just the beginning of the preparation of New Year's goods by the Hokkien people. Of course, at this time, Xiamen's New Year will not be so simple and sloppy, although the people of southern Fujian do not have the custom of worshiping the god of the stove in the New Year, but there are many outsiders in the Zheng family's army, in order to take care of their customs and habits, this small year will still be lively.

In the Zheng Mansion, Liu Er, who was dressed in a light cyan dress, stood in the middle of the compound, shouting for the little maids and the little maids to paste couplets and clean the yard. When the little maids and the little maids were busy, she went to paste paper cuts on the young lady's boudoir herself.

"How's it going, Miss? This was cut by Liu Er herself. Liu Er held her little head high triumphantly, boasting about her craftsmanship.

Zheng Yun looked at the paper-cutting, pursed her lips and smiled: "Liu'er's skills are good, you will have to cut the paper for that big-headed soldier in the future." By the way, you'll have to write your own couplets. Miss Ben heard that Li Rui didn't even seem to know how to write his own name. ”

Because Wang Xinyu resolutely refused to accept a girl who had a room, Zheng Yun was helpless. Seeing that Liu Er and Li Rui were in love with each other, she also figured it out, anyway, Li Rui was a personal soldier, and marrying Liu Er to him was not a bad treatment for Liu Er.

Hearing Miss say the word Li Rui, Liu Er's face turned red: "Miss, who said that?" Brother Li Rui said that Wang Gongzi taught him to read! Wang Gongzi's soldiers are both civil and military! ”

"Yes, yes! It's all both civil and military! In the future, we will give birth to a lot of small soldiers in Liu'er, and all of them will be both civil and military! Zheng Yun pursed her lips and smiled very happily.

Liu Er blushed when she was said, and she didn't know how to refute it for a while. Suddenly, she had an idea and said, "Miss, don't talk about Liu'er!" Wang Gongzi is about to come back. He said that when he came back, he would marry the young lady. If you want to say that you have a lot of soldiers, Liu Er also thinks that Mr. Miss has a lot of soldiers, right? Saying that, Liu Er pursed her lips and smiled, turned around and ran.

Zheng Yun feigned anger and chased after him.

The two girls played for a while, tired of playing, and when Zheng Yun calmed down, she remembered the appearance of the white-robed young general. She secretly said in her heart: Wang Gongzi, you should be back soon, right? Are you doing well at sea? Thinking that the wedding date was approaching, and the handsome white-robed young general was about to become her husband, Zheng Yun only felt that her face was slightly hot.

On the vast sea, the white sails of the fleet flying the flag of the bright sun and moon were blown full by the wind, splitting the blue waves, and sailing on the coastline of Guangdong.

On every ship, the smell of boiled porridge wafted from the air. The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty put glutinous rice, lotus seeds, peanuts, red beans, black beans and other ingredients into the pot, boiled it fragrantly, added brown sugar, and boiled it into a sweet and delicious Laba porridge.

Although Zheng Jiajun's station is in Xiamen, Xiamen did not have the habit of drinking Laba porridge during the New Year, but there were many outsiders in the army, and even many northerners. In order to take care of their customs, Laba porridge was boiled on the boat for everyone to use.

Drink laba porridge in the morning, at noon, the cook on the ship mixes oysters and starch together, adds eggs, and makes oysters fried as the main dish at noon, which is the custom of the Tong'an people, called "dipping money and silver", which is considered to be the Tong'an people's small year. However, because there are many outsiders in the fleet, they can't all follow the customs of southern Fujian, so they still prepare a lot of wine and food, and the fleet is ready to temporarily dock at Wanshan Island off the coast of Macao at night, so that everyone can land and have a lively New Year.

On the returning fleet, there is a lively preparation for the New Year, and equally lively, there are Yanping City on Hainan Island and Luzon Island.

It was a newly developed town, strictly a military fortress, and there were no bazaars or merchants. However, this does not affect the Chinese people who are far away from their homeland to celebrate the New Year.

People put couplets on the doors, window paper on the windows, and the house was cleaned.

The farmers fattened up the chickens, ducks, pigs and cattle, and prepared to sell what they could not eat to the Nanyang Company that came to receive the goods; Fishermen go out into the sea to catch more seafood to sell so that the New Year can be better. The local aborigines saw these Ming people preparing for the New Year, heard the sound of firecrackers, saw the lights in the castle, and were inexplicably excited to follow the Han people.

"This is a grand festival of the Ming people, and we should send the gifts to the past. In addition, go to the mountains to catch some deer and exchange them for wine and porcelain. The king of Banshiran commanded him.

Now the king of Banshilan has also learned some simple Chinese, and can communicate with the Ming people in a simple way.

Among the Sulu tribes, many schools were opened, and some literate Han Chinese Zhuang came to teach the local Sulu people to teach Chinese characters and speak Chinese. With culture, the Banshiran people are entering a civilized society. Because of the strength of Han culture, they chose Han culture. Whenever a storyteller arrives and tells them stories such as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Sui and Tang Dynasties, most of the adults in Banshilan can't understand it, so they can only let their children translate on their behalf.

After listening to the heroic stories of the Han people, the Banshilan people admired the Han heroes. Through their children, they learned about Qin Shi Huang, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the heroes of the Three Kingdoms, Wei Qing, Huo Quzhi, Ran Min, Xie An, Chen Qingzhi, Xue Rengui, Wang Xuance, Yue Fei, Li Tingzhi, Zhang Shijie, Wen Tianxiang and other national heroes, as well as contemporary national heroes such as Sun Chengzong, Lu Xiangsheng, Shi Kefa, Yan Yingyuan, Xia Wanchun, and Li Dingguo, Li Laiheng, Zheng Chenggong, Zhang Huangyan and other living national heroes.

The story of the Han heroes made the blood of the Banshilan people boil; The charm of Han culture made them already regard themselves as a member of the Han people, and they couldn't wait to ask for the Banshilan tribe to be incorporated into the Ming Dynasty as soon as possible.

A few years later, many of Sulu's children who had grown up joined the Ming army. In order to obtain the nationality of the Ming Dynasty and truly become the Ming people, these Sulu native soldiers followed the army to conquer the South Seas, and when facing those Sulu people of Java Island and Jinzhou Island Sulu who were of the same race as them, they were even more ruthless than other Ming soldiers!

Pan Ying sat alone in the study of the Governor's Mansion of Yanping City, her fingers quickly calculating. Everyone else was preparing for the New Year, but she did not return to Manila, but stayed in Yanping City. Because there are so many things going on here, the city needs to be expanded, the port needs to be built, and the steel plant and coking plant need to be prepared. In order to obtain high-quality coal, Nanyang also sent people to Annam, and reached an agreement with the locals to prepare for coal mining in Annam.

Hainan has already taken it, and the high-quality iron ore on Hainan Island will soon be developed. However, the steel mill and coking plant in Yanping City do not even have a shadow, and they only stay on the drawings. The progress of the project here is much slower than in Borneo. Because there are so few Chinese here, except for the thousands of people brought by Wang Xinyu, there are no other Chinese. With insufficient manpower and no infrastructure, it is very troublesome to start from scratch.

When she was free, Pan Ying thought of the heroic appearance of the white-robed young general, and she felt that her face was a little hot. Picking up the small glass lenses imported from Europe, a beautiful face with a slightly crimson face appeared in the mirror.

"Brother Wang Yu, it's been so long, you don't come to see my little sister!" Pan Ying muttered to herself.

In Tong'an, Zhangzhou, and Quanzhou, opposite Xiamen, the Qing army was also preparing for a lively New Year. In the barracks of the Qing army, the lanterns were decorated with lights, red lanterns were hung, couplets were pasted, and the officers instructed the soldiers to purchase New Year's goods; In the mansions of the dignitaries, the people were busy, buying New Year's goods, cleaning the yards, and posting couplets. Inside the pot, there are delicacies such as sea cucumbers, bear's paws, and deer tendons, and in the barrels, live crabs, live sea fish, live abalone and other seafood are stocked.

But not everyone can celebrate the New Year happily, and some people are worried about whether they can wrap their stomachs.

In that small village in Guangdong, women boil porridge mixed with wild vegetables, grass roots and rice bran in a pot. The son, who was already hungry, sat on a tree stump and waited to eat.

In the village, there are several families missing. In order to improve the life of their children, men risk their lives and want to go to the beach to catch a little seafood to make a living. Who knew that the Qing soldiers were still guarding the seaside during the Chinese New Year! The man who went was beheaded by the vicious Qing soldiers. Hearing the bad news, the family that lost the man couldn't survive anymore, so the whole family had to commit suicide.

Mao Mao's father, Zhao Haisheng, is a timid and fearful man, and he doesn't dare to do this kind of risky thing. Women don't have to worry about men going out in distress. But when will such a hard life be the end!

Just then, the door creaked open.

"You're back?" The woman asked.

"I'm back! Look what good stuff I've brought to you! Zhao Haisheng walked into the dilapidated house.

The woman saw that the man was carrying a large bag on his back and a small cloth bag in his hand, so she asked, "What did you bring back?" ”

Zhao Haisheng put the big bag on the ground, and handed the small bag to the woman: "The big bag is sweet potatoes, and the small bag is white rice." With these things, we can go to the river to catch some small fish and dig some wild vegetables, and we can have a good year. ”

The woman was shocked: "Where did you get these things?" It's not going to be loan sharks again, is it? ”

Zhao Haisheng shook his head: "How is it possible?" Now we can't afford to pay it back, who else will lend us a copper plate? ”

"And where did you get all this stuff? You're not going to go to sea secretly, are you? The woman asked in a frightened low voice.

Zhao Haisheng smiled bitterly: "That's a head-losing thing, how can I do it?" I, Zhao, am not afraid of death, but if I die, how can you two live! For the sake of our Liu family, I can't do that. ”

"And where did you get all this stuff?"

"He is a high monk who has done good deeds in several of our villages and has given food to everyone. I went to get it, and I got a bag of sweet potatoes and a small bag of rice. Liu Haisheng explained to the woman.

The woman was stunned, immediately knelt on the ground, and bowed to the sky: "God has eyes! A living bodhisattva has been sent to bless our family! Oh my God, you've finally opened your eyes! ”

Doing good deeds everywhere and distributing food is Cai Jiuyi, a high-ranking monk. He was ordered by Wang Xinyu to come to the coastal areas of Guangdong to carry out activities. I happened to pass by here and saw that the people couldn't live anymore, so I bought some food to do good deeds, hoping that the people in the nearby villages would starve to death.

Just when Zhao Haisheng was thinking about going to the nearby creek to catch some small fish and shrimp so that his family could have a good New Year, a large group of people broke into the outside of the small village.

The first guy with triangular eyes, white and black eyes, a few mouse whiskers on his chin, a melon skin hat on his head, an abacus in his left hand, and a fan in his right hand, broke into the small village with a group of scoundrels. When the man entered the village, he called out all the villagers.

"Hahaha! Our Master Zhang heard that you poor ghosts have made a fortune! Someone gave you something for nothing! In this case, the rent you owe, and the money you owe to our master, must be paid back now! The end of the year is coming soon! Paying off debts is a matter of course! The triangular eye shook its fan and roared.

The villagers looked at the wolf-like villains, and dared not speak out.

A more daring villager stood up and begged: "Steward Chen, it's okay, this is our New Year's rations." ”

Two splashes stepped forward and dragged the villager out of the crowd, kicking him to the ground, punching and kicking him.

Triangle Eyes roared: "Mud legs still want to celebrate the New Year? I don't pee and take care of myself! Someone! Give it to me! Retrieve all the food for me and take it away! With that, Triangle Eye waved his hand, and a large group of scoundrels rushed into the village.

PS: Newcomers ask for recommendations, collections. In addition, all readers help me and support the book of the beautiful author Xiang Cha Cha, title: Concubine, you can't waste Miss Chai.