Chapter 985: The Colonial Era of the Empire (First Update, Please Subscribe)
Heaven!
That's all!
Any Chinese person who lives in an African colony will have such thoughts when he first arrives.
It’s nothing but reality!
Here even the most ordinary Chinese people can live a very rich life. This is the biggest feature of the colony and also the reward that the colony gives to the brave colonists.
In this colony, they had long been accustomed to being carefully served by servants. They were used to enjoying sumptuous dinners in the gentle evening breeze. While they were enjoying their dinner, the servants standing by the table would provide any service to their masters attentively.
Of course, for a newcomer like Cheng Tao, such a life is bizarre and even unbelievable.
However, the life he enjoyed was just an ordinary life of ordinary people.
But for some upper-class people, their lives on this land are truly incredible.
A cool and refreshing breeze blew on the grassland in the early morning. After entering the dry season, the boundless green grassland has withered a little. All the plants on the grassland, including animals, are waiting for the arrival of rain.
With a rifle in his hand, Long Dingchuan carefully searched for prey on the grassland. He saw several beautiful antelopes appearing on the nearby hillside. They were tall, dark in color, and had long and curved horns on their tops.
"My lord, they are on their way to find water."
The native man who was following Long Dingchuan and was only wearing shorts pointed at the antelope and spoke in a low voice in stiff Chinese.
"Captain."
Without waiting for Warrant Officer Tamura to finish, Long Dingchuan spoke.
“Catch up!”
As soon as he finished speaking, he chased after the antelope without thinking. He had already made up his mind to put a stuffed antelope head in the living room, so a group of more than a dozen people tiptoed along the river valley, hoping to intercept them by the river.
Before they reached the river, two antelopes had already crossed the river safely. When the third saw them, it turned around and ran back, disappearing quickly on the hillside like an elf. But a quarter of an hour later, Long Dingchuan and his men caught up with it at the top of the hill and shot it with a gun when they were more than 400 meters away.
“I hit it!”
Like all hunters, after hitting the prey, Long Dingchuan shouted excitedly and then chased after it. Before hitting the prey, people took every step carefully, avoiding the windward side of the bushes, carefully bypassing the reeds, and being alert and always observing the left and right. However, once the prey is about to fall into the hands of people, they will run desperately, not caring about what accidents may happen ahead.
The antelope led them for nearly two kilometers on a rocky hillside, occasionally giving them hope but not giving them a chance to shoot. Finally, it led the hunters around a ridge.
Just as Long Dingchuan raised his rifle again, a rhinoceros suddenly appeared.
"Don't shoot!"
Suddenly, Warrant Officer Tamura whipped up his rifle.
"There's a rhino!"
Yes, it's a rhino!
What appeared before Long Dingchuan's eyes was a scene that he would never forget - an open plain and vast grassland extending all the way to the foot of the distant mountains.
A rhino stood in the middle of the plain, about 400 meters away, with a dark silhouette. It was quietly eating grass there, and above it, the snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro stood under the blue dome.
The snow-capped mountains and rhinos form an eternal picture.
Hunting rhinos in the wilderness is an absolutely simple matter!
Holding the rifle, Long Dingchuan was confident that he could hit it with one shot - just shoot it in the head or heart.
If you hit its vital point, it will definitely fall to the ground.
Of course, if he hits other parts of the body, the rhino will rush towards him frantically. At this time, he either has to shoot at it again or it will be too late to shoot. It all depends on luck.
However, he knew he couldn't shoot.
"Sir, all rhinos belong to His Majesty the Emperor. No, you cannot shoot!"
Yes, according to Ming Dynasty law, all rhinos on Ming Dynasty land belong to His Majesty the Emperor, and ordinary people are strictly prohibited from hunting them, otherwise it will be regarded as "disrespect for the royal family."
Not just rhinos, but elephants too.
Why was such a law enacted?
The reason is very simple. A few years ago, when the immigrants who poured into Africa discovered that there were a large number of rhinos and elephants living on this land, they went crazy.
Rhino horns and ivory - these are all priceless treasures!
In the eighth year of Shengde alone, more than 30,000 pairs of ivory and more than 5,000 rhino horns were exported from various ports. Faced with the reality of large-scale hunting of rhinos and elephants, the royal family directly issued a decree, not directly prohibiting hunting, but declaring that all rhinos and elephants belonged to the emperor!
From then on, hunting elephants and rhinos became disrespectful to the royal family.
This kind of animal protection is simple and crude. Of course, at the same time, large protected areas have been designated to protect African wildlife.
And now, they are on the edge of the reserve.
Looking at this spectacular scene, Long Dingchuan took back the gun and said with some regret.
“What a pity!”
Just as he finished speaking, the antelope appeared in his sight again, giving him a chance to shoot.
Without any hesitation, Long Dingchuan raised his hand, picked up the rifle, aimed, and pulled the trigger.
"Bang!"
With a gunshot, the antelope fell down, while the rhino in the distance was still eating grass quietly, as if everything in the world had nothing to do with it.
When Long Dingchuan put away his gun, the natives following them ran towards the prey. This was exactly the job of the natives. They were not only guides, but also needed to provide various services.
"Congratulations, Captain, you have a new exhibit in your living room."
Warrant Officer Tamura complimented,
"It's just an antelope. There's a lion in Chief Chen's living room. Unfortunately, lions don't hunt casually these days..."
Lions can still be hunted, but there is a quota. The Ming colony of Kenya is so large, but the annual quota is only 100. Such a small quota is not enough for local officials and wealthy businessmen, and he... is just an outsider.
"Haha, Captain, if you had come two months earlier, it would have been hunting season. Commander Chen and his men would have definitely invited you to the hunting party. Every year there is a quota of 10 lions for the party..."
The gatherings mentioned by Warrant Officer Tamura were very common in the colonies. Officials and officers would ride on horses and hunt at will during the hunting season. They would specimen the prey and send them as compensation to a school in the empire - mostly schools in their hometowns. Not only would they have specimens of the prey, but also their majestic hunting postures.
Luxurious banquets, grand hunting parties, this is the simple and ordinary life of most of the upper class in the colonies.
In fact, this is just the ordinary life of most people in the colonial powers. What does the power of the empire have to do with ordinary people?
Perhaps they did not have much direct experience in their homeland, but in the colonies they could clearly feel the series of benefits brought about by the strength of the empire.
In this land, even the most ordinary Chinese are still superior to others...
(End of this chapter)
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