From Chief to Ball

"Victory will change the world; defeat will lead to paradise."

Volume [-]: The Eve of the Great Change

Chapter 1 Go forward, don't look back

The meeting about the future, ideals and how to live well now lasted fifteen days.The transfer of power, recent plans, and long-term plans are all internal matters.Relevant to some, not to some.

In this era of imminent change, if it is slow, the ethnic groups that are a few steps behind in the future will choose different ways to combine with the traditional spirit implanted in the bone marrow to gather strength: the Chinese understanding is a selfless saint-like revolutionist, the Orthodox Church’s The saint-like builders, the adventurous revolutionaries of Spanish descent, the romantic fanaticism of German petty citizens... Many people understand the future in their distorted ways, using the purest core of national traditions that seem to be ignored, With the most traditional spirit of the nation, we head towards the broad road of capitalism by different routes.

On this road, the development of capitalism will cut off the fetters of feudal morality, the warmth of family, the sacred emotion of personal cultivation, the pity of the middle class, the cover-up of religion... cut off all these, the whole world Only the pure money relationship and the union of capital remain, and then those who have dedicated their lives will understand that their blood was not shed in vain, it just flowed on one side of the railway track, and the other side has to be paved by capital itself.

This meeting is not that complicated, not in such a complicated era.

This meeting involves the future of the entire Wangbei City and the people on the island, including the vast majority of people who did not attend the meeting, but it does not mean that all the people on the island at this time are related to this meeting.

The unrelated have completed their mission, and they will be the second to return to their homeland to the cheers and triumphant return of their circumnavigation.They were the officials who followed Chen Jian to sea, scholars outside the organization, the wives of soldiers who got married here, and several Confucian scholars who went to the Republic to see for themselves, as well as the official envoys of the Japanese shogunate and the Thai god king that had to be brought along.

The meeting has nothing to do with them, but not everyone who is leaving the island.For example, some of the third batch of people who followed Chen Jian to Nanping to find a new continent and a new route to do a formal, the first time that belongs to the dignity of the country, and a new geographical discovery that was earlier than Europe, were going to leave the island.

The Southern Continent, maybe, maybe not.In this era of great voyages and great discoveries, just maybe two words are enough for many people to make a decision.

Those who voluntarily followed Chen Jian to the south to search for the southern continent wrote their own letters or suicide notes before the second batch of return fleets set off.

No one can say for sure about matters at sea. The understanding of the Southern Cross is far less than that of the North Star. It is even more difficult to predict what will happen on the vast sea.

Many scholars on board the ship couldn't bear to be buried in the bottom of the sea with their achievements in the past three years, so that no one would know, but they couldn't help but want to be the first to see the new world.

The new world includes new species, new animals and plants, new lands, new islands, and new social forms of people.

The heavy special wooden box was being packed, and inside it was wrapped with a layer of special turpentine-soaked paper for waterproofing. Most of them were notes or books, and the package was far more tightly wrapped than those gold and silver.

The ballast stones use a large amount of sucrose. Once something is dangerous, the sugar can be dissolved in water for easy repair and less likely to sink.

Many people are organizing their notes and stuffing them into tight waterproof buckets.

Lan Qi sat in the room, next to some of the notes that had been sorted out. The titles of the notes that were inadvertently exposed were all content such as "Land System Experience", "Serfs Bound by Law and Serfs Bound by Economics", but Accompanied by a good-looking, feminine delicate pen.

The ink on a piece of paper on the table has not completely dried, and he is still frowning and thinking hard.

As a woman, as a woman who does not have fame in the Republic because of her parents or her husband, when the last ship arrived, she received many letters from women from her hometown, and she was just thinking about how to reply.

"Dear sisters out of the boudoir."

"The place where I wrote this reply is in Wangbei City, latitude 25 degrees [-] minutes north, and the longitude is unknown, so I can't know exactly how far the distance between me and you is."

"Fortunately, there is an ancient country here. The people here are very similar to us, and their historical records are very rich. Chen Jian and a Chinese who is proficient in astronomy in the academy compared the lunar eclipses recorded in the historical books here. The solar eclipse and other phenomena roughly calculated the longitude here, but they said that the error is about six to ten degrees...For the huge earth, this is a very long distance."

"This is a surprising coincidence like a distorting mirror. I think you must have heard the first batch of people who returned to China talk about it. I won't say more here."

"It has been more than three years since I set sail from Min County. I have also seen many different, but somewhat similar worlds after careful consideration. Those things can be seen in the notes I sent back. If you If you can see this letter, you will definitely see those contents. If you can’t see it, it proves that the ship sank to the bottom of the sea. Maybe one day with good luck, the wooden barrel will float back to your hometown and be picked up by people on the beach.”

"Forgive me for not being able to reply to you one by one, but, sisters, there are many similar questions in your letters. Especially the doubts about the changes in the large workshops and hydraulic plants that are taking place in Min County today, and the last so-called ' In March of Dignity, there are doubts about whether our gender should support or oppose. As a member of the new Mexican party, I think you have heard too much about the ideal of the whole world, so I will write some random, Just what I heard about women."

"In this place called Wangbei City where I am writing now, there are many tribal villages that are still hunting with stones and bows and arrows. The villages here are very primitive. Stories detailed in the history books that now seem unbelievable."

"Three months ago, I went up the Danshui River to visit the village community, and just in time a woman gave birth. The ancestors they believed in left behind many interesting habits, and they also have a custom that must be followed when it comes to children. , or taboo."

"Babies are forbidden to be touched by men for a long time after birth. Including their fathers. The reason is that newborns are weak, which will make the men who hold the children weak and have no strength to hunt."

"This reason can be justified from the principle of ancestor spirit worship, because religion or customs seem to always change without reason. But after setting sail from Europe, many people with skin color in the ends of the earth and on the coast of Africa are either black or black. I've seen similar and similar customs in brown or yellow tribes. From an inductive point of view, there should be some hidden way to peel off this surface. As for whether it is just a way of explaining, but science and God say Isn't that what the right distinction is?"

"After arguing with Chen Jian for a while, I feel that the habits of these ethnic groups in Wangbei City are a manifestation of women's right to equality or participation in the tribe. This kind of behavior is even conscious."

"Because they are too backward, the knives used in slash-and-burn farming are still made of stone, and the men have to rely on hunting to supplement food. Therefore, in this case, the members of the tribe have become the most important factor in maintaining the tribe. And the members of the tribe, only It can be obtained through childbearing, that is to say, the more backward, the higher the status of a woman."

"No way, children crawl out of our stomachs. For a tribe, even if all the men die, there are only a few left. As long as there are women, they can continue to have children, and men cannot give birth to children. One hundred women and one man, lucky enough to collect enough, and 20 years later it will be a tribe. One woman and one hundred men... this tribe is very dangerous."

"But we know that this situation only exists in very backward areas. With the increase of population, the improvement of tools, the surplus of food and the exchange of society... the role of simple people is getting smaller and smaller. Relying on birth It will no longer be able to take the place it once was, because hereditary possessions, land, farm implements will be more important in life than mere people."

"In fact, the women in the first villages we came into contact with have fallen into an embarrassing situation. After the men in the villages learned how to farm cattle, I don't see any equality for women who can't become the main force of agriculture. Opportunities. I think the reason why there are such habits and equality is more traditional habits, and habits and traditions are always slower than changes in material conditions and tools, and they are decades or even hundreds of years later.”

"In addition to these villages, there are also some settlements seen in the ends of the earth and Africa. They are also in the process of this change. But in some more primitive settlements, the status of women is still not as low as an item. That's because If those settlements want to survive, they need women's labor—and women's labor is of great significance in the primitive settlements, and it is labor recognized by the settlement society, so they can have such a seemingly equal status. "

"In fact, we are also working, but many women's labor is not recognized by society, because their labor does not participate in social exchange. Such as taking care of children, doing housework, or simply being a reproductive animal. This is precisely the It is the reason and process of our degeneration step by step."

"So, it looks like we're in that 'march for dignity' — is it going back to a more backward era in exchange for so-called dignity? Or is it a belief that there will be better times going forward?"

"So the 'March of Dignity' is not only the choice of those laborers, but also a choice from a purely female perspective. My sisters, when our labor is recognized by society and participates in social production, It is time for us to regain our freedom—either to return to the primitive state where weaving hemp, taking care of children, and collecting are all social labor; or we can move forward to a new era. Participate in textile and hydraulic factories where there is little difference between men and women, and women Among the jobs that are more suitable for nurses, teachers, accountants, etc., a kindergarten school for caring and caring for children will be established on the basis of a large factory, so that the work of caring for children that does not participate in social exchange will become a recognized and cost-effective labor. money-hired labor.”

"Big factories and kindergartens where there is little difference between men and women are not what we can bring to us by going back to patriarchal clans and guilds. It is a retrogression and a bondage to the freedom we pursue."

"Yes, you are right. Those hydraulic factories brought about cruel labor, extreme exhaustion and numbness. You tell me that there is indeed no more oppression of men and women, because many female workers are afraid of getting pregnant. Being expelled and starving, and having no time to do the things that men and women should do, they don't even have the right to be oppressed."

"You ask me, what is the price of freedom? If there is a superior life to be a bird in a cage, how good is freedom and a cage? I can't answer this question. What my family brought me since I was a child is bright Jade birdcages with gaps, so I have to evade and remain silent on this issue. Therefore, I am not qualified to talk about it, and I have not gone to a hydraulic factory to experience the desperate lives of female workers in person, imagination alone is not enough.”

"Emotionally, I want to say that freedom is priceless. But because my parents are rich enough and pamper me enough, the price is meaningless to me personally, and I don't generally have a single sensibility. Applicable. I can leisurely ride horses, hunt, and raise a few wolf cubs that eat meat every day just to see if they can become "moral" like dogs, but the female workers have to work fourteen or five hours in the factory, from It's shameless to talk about it from an emotional point of view."

"But in theory, the internal logic of my idea is correct. Actively participating in the labor of large factories and the socialization of family labor employment and raising is the way for women to lead to freedom. What is wrong is not the model of machines and large factories. But something else."

"So, since the logic is correct, we have to move forward for freedom and liberation, and we don't need to dream of going back to the primitive era of slash-and-burn hunting and hunting, and we shouldn't fight for actions like 'March for Dignity' Bewitched and deceived. At least, the light is ahead, how to go is our next step, at least we can see the hope ahead, the hope that belongs to the sisters all over the world."

"Okay, the sailors are urging again, we must hurry up and pack the box and seal it. I will stop here. I will continue to go south to find the southern continent based on geometric symmetry and see if the original clan life universal, if they exist."

"—Because I have seen too many novelties at sea, I don't have much time to miss you Lan Qi, Zhu An."

Chapter 2 Cabbage, Black Swan

Under the urging of the sailor again, Lan Qi folded the reply letter and put it in the wooden box, and asked the sailor to help carry it to the ship.

The sunlight outside was a bit dazzling, and the eyes that had seen too many small black characters were not used to the blazing light near the Tropic of Cancer.He raised his arm to cover his eyes, looked at the busy crowd on the pier, and saw Chen Jian who was talking to Lin Xi there.

It is not in front of the pier, but beside a nursery of cabbage planted by Lin Xi for experimentation. The cabbages collected from all over the world along the way have been carefully cared for and grow very well here.

The pale yellow or purple flowers protruding out, in Lan Qi's eyes, there is no difference, but she believes that in the eyes of the woman on the edge of the field, it may be the same as the land systems she saw, each of which is different.

For some unknown reason, he walked to the side of the two almost unconsciously.

After approaching, I realized that, in order to avoid possible embarrassment, I hurriedly asked: "Have you packed all your notes? I see that you have written a lot."

Lin Xi shook her head, and said with some distress: "I haven't decided whether to send it back or not."

"why?"

"Because of you."

Chen Jian smiled bitterly, and Lan Qi joked, "What do you say? You are thinking about flowers, birds, fish, insects, and these cabbages. I don't know what the person next to you is thinking, but what I think is freedom and the like What do cabbages have to do with freedom?"

Lin Xi felt that what Chen Jian was thinking was obviously closer to freedom and farther away from cabbage, so she couldn't help but feel a little annoyed, so she said, "It's not cabbage, but the truth in cabbage, you probably don't understand it. "