Chapter 8: Land and Memories

  "Young master, you're going to be the death of me."

  After Sima parked the motorcycle, Gao Chuanliang still had a lingering fear, holding onto the somewhat trembling legs of the motorcycle and getting off from the side, taking two deep breaths before saying:

  Gao Chuanliang used to think that in the future, he might ask Master for a "mud cart" like this. After experiencing the life-and-death test of more than ten miles, Gao Chuanliang completely gave up on this idea.

  "Haha! Old Gao is used to it, the road is just too bad. If we were on a cement road, it wouldn't be so bumpy. But riding a sidecar can only find its feel on this kind of road."

  Simar hung his helmet on the handlebars and said, "Maybe it's psychological reasons, but Sima felt that once he stood with both feet on this land, the feeling was completely different from before. What's the difference?"

  Simma for a moment really couldn't think of what word to use to describe his mood, hmm! It's kind of like being at ease! Maybe that feeling of standing on one's own turf is just this feeling!

  "Young master, isn't cement road also known as foreign ash road? I'm afraid even in the capital city, they can't build such a long foreign ash road."

  Gao Chuanliang sighed and said, "That foreign cement stuff costs several silver dollars per bucket. To repair a road this long, how much money would it take?" Gao Chuanliang didn't even want to think about how many silver dollars it would cost to fix this bumpy road.

  As far as the eye can see, there are weeds and yellow earth, and gravel everywhere. Sima bends down to pick up a handful of soil from the ground, half of which is gravel.

  This gravel land may still have some value in the 21st century, of course, if it's used to build a house, that's another story. Although it has no agricultural value, it can be used as a foundation for building houses, although it's difficult to dig, but once it's built, it's very solid. Building a large warehouse here is the most suitable thing to do.

  Simma could even see the white smoke emitted by the steam train running on the railway a few miles away. Simma couldn't believe that this land had just been given to him with his surname, if it weren't for the deed in his pocket and the soil in his hand. How much would such a large piece of land be worth in the 21st century?

  Simma didn't dare to imagine that if his family's land hadn't been confiscated after the founding of the country, there might be so much now! Simma suddenly remembered the glorious past of his own family in the mouths of the old people at home.

  Simma suddenly understood that for the sake of many elderly people in their families, they would often involuntarily fall into memories. What they remembered was not the glory of the family, but the pride of standing on their own land.

  The land often inherits the family's honor, and the historical records of the land record the family's past glory. However, all of this became a distant memory decades ago. Countless families that had been passed down for hundreds of years were destroyed overnight, and countless family histories and honors were lost in that one revolution.

  "Master, from now on, this vast land will be under your control, surnamed Sima."

  Gao Chuanliang looked at Sima who was deep in thought and said: To be honest, even if it were Gao Chuanliang himself, seeing such a large piece of land would make him feel that it's really too comfortable to own such a big piece of land, more comfortable than earning a few thousand dollars. Unfortunately, this is a barren and rocky wasteland where nothing can grow.

  It would be great if this was a large piece of land, even if it's just a thin layer. Thinking about this, Gao Chuanliang couldn't help but laugh, thinking that if his own family had such a large piece of thin land, even if it was only a thousand or so mu, he might as well stay at home and collect rent now.

  "Lao Gao, did you know? In the past, our family's land was much more than this. In our hometown, if we walked out of the house and went east, south, west, or north for half a day, even sprinkling water wouldn't reach other people's fields."

  Simma looked at the rubble in front of him with a hint of sadness and said softly. Maybe one day he could go there to take a look, to verify with his own eyes what the grandeur of his ancestors was like in the mouths of the elderly people from the big households?

  Simma didn't know Simma only remembered the sweet feeling that flashed in the eyes of those old people when they recalled the past.

  "Hehe! The young master's land must be much more than this, and it's definitely all good fields, not like this kind of barren land that can't grow anything."

  Gao Chuanliang did not notice the word "past" in Sima's words and continued to talk about Gao Chuanliang, even thinking that this young master might be homesick. However, Gao Chuanliang suddenly realized that this was the first time Sima had mentioned his family in front of him.

  "Yes! They are all good fields, pinching a handful of soil is oily and fertile. What a pity! What a pity!"

  Simma suddenly understood why he had a passionate and even obsessive love for the land since childhood, it turned out that his family's over 100 years of infatuation with the land was already carved into his bones from the day he was born.

  Simma suddenly had an urge to cry, which was even stronger than when he first earned his first million. But now, facing this vast expanse of barren land where nothing could grow, Simma felt like crying, and wanted to have a good cry.

  Simma still remembers the sobbing sound when his grandfather passed away, and he also remembers the infatuation in his eyes when his grandfather held his small hands and walked with him in the field as a young child.

  Suddenly, Sima felt a little sympathy for the old master of Kongjiazhuang. The Kongs probably never thought that decades later, the tens of thousands of acres of land their ancestors had cultivated over hundreds of years would be taken away by a single notice, and their own children and grandchildren would become "black five categories" and suffer humiliation in that special era, just like his own family had experienced in the past.

  "Lao Gao, having money doesn't mean you should invest in real estate like the Kong family. In today's chaotic world, the more properties you have, the more they'll tie you down. When the situation gets out of hand, taking your money to Hong Kong or Macau is a good option. Buying some houses there and living off rental income will set you up for life."

  Simma didn't know why he said that to Lao Gao, maybe it was because after a long time, he had developed feelings and didn't want Lao Gao's family to go through the same experiences as his own family in those years.

  "Young master is thinking too far ahead, in this chaotic situation it can still get even more chaotic, besides I'm an old man already over 50 years old, how many more years can I hold on?"

  Gao Chuanliang didn't know why the young master Sima in front of him looked so melancholic, and he continued to say that it wasn't until he got older that he realized he had developed a chronic illness from doing business abroad when he was younger.

  Nowadays, this body is getting worse day by day. Fortunately, now that I'm with the right person, at least my son's generation won't have to worry about food and drink. As for what happens in the future, who can think that far ahead?

  "Lao Gao, do you know why I bought this piece of land?"

  Simar calmed down and asked. After all, many things still need Gao Chuanliang's help, it's always better to inform him in advance.

  "The young master always does things that are hard to understand. This land is definitely not suitable for farming. I don't know if the young master has other uses for it."

  Gao Chuanliang was also puzzled as to why Sima, who had always appeared so astute, would engage in such a business. Buying up this useless rubble land.

  "This place is very convenient for railway transportation, I think of building a factory here, and later we can produce watches like the ones you are selling now and other things. By then, we will not only sell those watches to Beijing, Tianjin but also to Shanghai and Europe."

  Simulated truth and falsehood. Arbitrarily building a warehouse here would be too conspicuous, but if we build a factory, it's easy to cover everything up. The anomaly in space-time can be repaired at the center of the factory area, where a large steel-framed warehouse can be built, and then a reinforced concrete wall can be built around the perimeter. The factory area can be repaired on the periphery of the warehouse.

  It's better to come to Europe and fight with this kind of watch, which is much more convenient than a pocket watch. Selling it to the Allied officers in the trenches in Europe should have some sales potential. Then produce gold and silver watches that can be sold in the US and Shanghai.

  "Master... you want to build a big factory here?"

  Gao Chuanliang found himself really unable to understand what this young master Sima was thinking, others built factories near big cities like Tianjin.

  Not to mention the fact that building a factory in this place is already problematic, with dozens of bandits lurking outside. If those bandits find out that we're producing watches worth hundreds of dollars each here, they'll be like cats smelling fish and will all gather around. At that time, it's likely... Just thinking about the possibility of bandits storming the factory and slaughtering everyone makes Gao Tianliang's scalp feel numb.

  "Master, you... haven't heard of 'the grass on the wind'?"

  Gao Chuanliang asked tentatively, having spent decades roaming outside the pass, he was of course aware of how notorious the bandits were outside the pass. But looking at this gentleman in front of him, it seemed like he didn't even know that there were bandits who had been rampant for decades outside the pass. Building a factory here was equivalent to holding a golden doll and rushing into a den of thieves.

  "What's floating on the grass?"

  Simma heard this name and was taken aback, feeling that the name seemed to be not quite right, similar to some movie characters' nicknames.

  "Master! He is the greatest leader of horse thieves outside the pass, roaming freely for over a decade. Even those Mongolian princes have to detour when they see his flag."

  Gao Chuanliang saw the old man in front of him, and upon hearing this name, he was obviously very unfamiliar. His heart skipped a beat as he secretly thought "this is not good". It seemed that this old man had really never heard of this name before. Apparently, he didn't know much about the bandits outside either.

  Horse Gang?

  Simma thought of the horse team that had been introduced on TV, but then felt it was wrong. Could it be bandits? Suddenly he remembered the doctor who had been shot multiple times when he first arrived in this time and space.

  Also, if it weren't for those few gunshots, I'm afraid I wouldn't have noticed the existence of this abnormal point in time and space at all. Suddenly, Sima felt a chill run down his spine and he couldn't help but feel lucky that these days he had been carrying so much gold and silver here hadn't encountered any bandits, otherwise...

  "My goodness! You probably don't know that every year our Kong Family Village has to send thousands of bushels of grain as protection money, or else they would have come to kill us long ago. If you build a watch factory here, aren't you openly inviting these bandits to rob us?"

  Gao Chuanliang hastily explained that Gao Chuanliang realized that this piece of land was bought in vain, and it cost thousands of dollars!

  "Are the bandits here really so formidable?"

  Simba felt it was unbelievable that even the village head had to pay protection fees? Was this possible?

  "Master! What kind of place is this? This is a bandit-infested area, and it's been like that for hundreds of years. Even during the Kangxi Emperor's time, bandits had attacked the city. In recent years, after the revolution, those big and small bandits were all pacified and became part of the Iron Blood Army, bringing stability to the region for a few days. But who would have thought that President Yuan would disband the Iron Blood Army just a few days later? Those pacified bandits then scattered and became bandits again. In this area, it's been a centuries-old habit for bandits to roam freely."

  Gao Chuanliang suppressed his anger and said to the old man in front of him, even with some doubt in his heart, how did this old man survive in this place, not knowing that it was actually a bandit's den.

  Bandits! Only then did Sima realize how naive he was. The stories of bandits often shown on TV and in movies, where civilians were killed when they appeared, he had also encountered before, but he chose to ignore them, blinded by the glittering silver light.

  Although I was afraid of encountering it, but always had a lucky mentality. Now that I'm building houses and factories in this place, it's no different from setting up a flag for the bandits to see, and those bandits won't surround me, which is strange.

  If at that time, when building a factory here, bandits came to attack every other day, I'm afraid that within two months, before the factory was even built, all the workers would have been killed or scared away.