The Great Empire
J. B. Melo
© J. B. Melo
© The Great Empire
ISBN ePub: 978-84-685-4675-9
Edited by Bubok Publishing S.L.
Tel: 912904490
C/Vizcaya, 6
28045 Madrid
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing by the Author, or as expressly permitted by law, by license or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
The Great Empire is a fictional novel,
based on historical facts.
By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.
REVELATION 21: 24-25 (ESV)
Acknowledgements
Recognition and gratitude to my wife and daughter,
for the incentives and the suggestions.
Índice
The Decision of the Gods 19th century
PART II
Rebirth from the Ashes 20th century
Night In 20th century
The Dawn 20th century
PART III
The Great Opportunity 20th century
Between Wheat and Shaft 21st century
The Great Empire 21st century
Prologue
The hero of our book reveals himself as a singular being, who becomes a legend of timeless evolution, in memory of his ancestors who wrote unique passages of history and helped him achieve his great goal. Those, by their particularities, distinguished themselves from their fellow countrymen. They became gregarious, intelligent and odd, producing profound transformations around them. In their epic contradictions and grandiose deeds they were, simultaneously, strong and fragile, because of the achievement of their dreams in their attachment to possess and to dominate. Their stories, full of singular and collective accounts, led our man to find, in these roots, the distant horizons of his ambition.
His legend invites us to go through his struggles for the conquest of an Empire on a planetary scale. This time, without the need to resort to weapons of mass destruction or the slavery of conquered peoples.
It thus fulfills an old dream, passed down from generation to generation, where prosperity and brotherhood among men is placed within the reach of all, fostering, for a long period of time, peace among peoples.
The author sought nothing more than to provide a pleasant reading about the journey through three centuries for the search of his world.
PART I
The Curse 19th century
In the palace and for how long the horizon stretched, that morning had awakened different from all the others. It was not every day that in a giant country like that, its people woke up with the news of their Emperor’s death! For all those who accompanied him in life and also watched his last moments, that night, dark as it may have been, could not reproduce the darkness that was in their hearts, not only because the sun of their lives had passed away, but above all because of the outcome that awaited them. Secular habits imposed that, with the death of the Emperor, those who shared his very close life were buried with him: wives and concubines; not because they had to serve him in the afterlife, but rather because they were an extension of his powerful and majestic person. The ancestral traditions were still very strongly rooted in the people of that nation and had the strength to remain alive, in memory of the footsteps of their ancestors. For the Emperor, that last moment of life represented nothing more than a final journey, even without a return. For wives and concubines, everything was quite different. They knew that with the arrival of this last hour, they would have to leave too. This acceptance of secular habits, admirable for all, did not admit different results. To defect at the time of the death of their Emperor was an unworthy idea with a great loss of social prestige, both for themselves and for the rest of one’s family. On the contrary, leaving this life in the company of one’s Emperor was a triumph over death that no one at that time dared to question!
The Emperor had left a will clearly and unequivocally written: “His will was above any previous tradition or law, so everyone had to fulfill it. Through that document he ordered that “his successor would be his youngest son and, if by his tender age he could not exercise it, Empress Xi would take his place, as regent, until he came of age”. In his will he also praised the achievements of several noblemen who, in the service of the nation, exercised high positions of State, attributing to them material benefits that he listed; he also emphasized the affective value of his wives and concubines who, throughout their lives, gave him particular attention; He made it clear in the document that “he was to be buried alone, thus revoking all the laws and traditions of his ancestors regarding this matter”; he attributed particular privileges and material benefits to one of his concubines named Li and left a great material legacy to Empress Xi. In the private life of the Emperor these two women exercised a great influence on his affections. To understand all this, we have to go back in time many years and assess how much they represented in his life.1
At that time there was another Empress named Zizi. Li was the first to arrive at the palace. She came from the countryside, accustomed to harsh winters, and had in her blood the strength to withstand adversity. Her youth was spent among rice paddies that extended as far as the eye can see. Perhaps because of this, from a very early age, she had had an exuberant relationship with nature, especially in the rice harvests with which she had always been fascinated. At that time she was ecstatic with the poultry fauna that joined her, from grebes to herons, passing by insects, like the friendly dragonfly, lending the whole diversity and beauty. It was there that Li realized how much weeds can destroy. She knew that it was not enough to prepare the soil and take care of the quality of the seeds or create the adequate and necessary water medium for the rice to grow, it was necessary to prevent so that the weeds did not prevail. This was achieved by preparing the ground properly before sowing the seeds. The secret was to make it difficult for these weeds to germinate and grow, which was achieved with work, time and patience, but the results were always frankly rewarding. Li was a girl made of “good spices” and very early on learned to handle the defense shield with skill and knowledge. Her greatest asset was, without a shadow of a doubt, her great ability to anticipate the low and dirty blows of her opponents, handling like no one else a skillful, strong and determined power of mind. Li preferred that the opponents to have the initiative of the attack and, when this happened,