I Became The Crown Prince Of The Mexican Empire - Chapter 122



Only Noblemtl

The Mexican Air Makes You Free (1)

It was not uncommon for slaves from the South to escape to the North.

As opposition to slavery grew, secret organizations emerged to help people escape to northern states or Canada, where slavery did not exist.

It was an organization called the ‘Underground Railroad’.

‘It’s impossible to get their help here either.’

It was a remote ranch in the southern state of Louisiana, near the border. Any nearby town where secret society members might be located was dozens of miles away, and Mexico might be closer.

The slaves of this farm endured each day believing that the organization called the Underground Railroad was just a rumor. It was not that they did not long for freedom, but since they could not see a way, it would have been even harder to endure if they did not believe it was a rumor.

WHEEK – bang!

However, the hard labor of more than 14 hours a day, as well as the whipping that came with breaking the rules or being slightly less productive, made it difficult to give up the desire for freedom.

Then one day it happened.

“They say the Mexicans took over eastern Haiti.”

It was the words of the farm owner’s eldest son. Tom tried to pass by carrying his things as he had been doing, pretending not to hear them, but he could not ignore what they said next.

“Those hypocrites, they pretend to be righteous and abolish slavery, while they rob our cousin George of his property, but in reality they are taking over the territory of Haiti, which is clearly an independent nation.”

The second son said that slavery had been abolished in Mexico.

‘What does that mean?’

Tom was carrying things calmly, but his mind was swirling with anticipation, joy, fear, and dread.

‘I’m sure the first guy said before that there were too many people immigrating to Mexico. He said that they accept everyone except criminals and even give them benefits.’

Mexico accepts immigrants unless they are criminals. And there is no slavery in Mexico. Tom thought, combining these two pieces of information he had obtained by chance.

‘Then, if I could somehow get to Mexico, I could be free. But how would I get there? How would I avoid getting caught?’

If adults had heard this, they would have told him it was too dangerous, but Tom, a young man in his late teens, began preparing to escape from that day on.

“Sir, let’s go together! This is really possible!”

He couldn’t run away alone. His parents had long since died and he had no blood relatives, but he had people who were like family to him.

“Go alone, Tom. You might be able to do it. I can’t go.”

Tom, a healthy adult man in his late teens, and John, still a young man in his mid-thirties, could run dozens of miles to escape if they were lucky. Many slaves actually do. But John has a wife and a daughter.

He couldn’t leave them behind. But if he were to take them with him, their speed and physical strength would be seriously inferior to those of adult men. In fact, many slaves were caught during the escape process because of their families. If they were caught, they would be severely beaten or even killed, so John had long since given up on escaping.

“···Okay, I understand. Thank you for your help.”

John thought Tom’s idea was risky, but he realized that he couldn’t stop him from seeing his hopeful face, and he helped him to give it as much success as possible.

Everyone knew that Mexico was to the west. So they needed a way to escape to the west, away from the eyes of the ranchers and their sons.

When the farm owner and his sons went out hunting, they brought their slaves with them to do chores, so they knew the surrounding terrain to some extent, and they planned an escape route using the terrain they remembered. It was a crude plan, as the slaves’ knowledge was limited, but it was not a plan that was completely impossible to implement.

“Wait a little longer and go in the spring.”

John immediately stopped Tom from trying to escape.

“No. Rather, I should go now. It will be hard because of the cold weather, but it will be the same for those who will come after me. The security will be weak, and the night will be long.”

John nodded.

“Okay, I got it.”

If you want to hire a professional chaser, you have to go to a city dozens of miles away. The city is on the opposite side of Mexico, so if you were thinking about it, you wouldn’t do it. By the time you hire a professional chaser and start chasing them, you might already be close to Mexico.

‘At best, the farm owner’s sons and a few employees.’

It is not a short distance. It takes three days on horseback. Can they afford to camp in this cold winter and pursue them? This is a matter of life and death, but to the plantation owner’s sons, they are just one of many slaves.

As they say, they won’t give up easily since they ‘bought it with a lot of money’, but they can’t be as desperate as this.

Tom planned to run away with a horse, food, and warm clothes, as this was a remote area where no one would dare escape and there was relatively little surveillance.

“Uncle John, how are you?”

“Tom, be careful.”

Tom, who had said his goodbyes in advance in the evening, waited until dawn with his heart pounding like crazy.

Squeak-

John opened the door cautiously, but as expected, there was no one guarding it. It must have been winter, so they were probably holed up somewhere because it was cold.

Louisiana is one of the warmest states in the United States, and even in the southernmost part of the country, but the winter was still winter.

Tom, who had easily obtained warm clothes and food thanks to the help of his employees, walked cautiously between the farm buildings in the still dark early morning.

His steps were light and cautious, and even his breathing was barely audible.

‘They’re not even guarding this place.’

It would have been normal for the staff to be guarding it, but fortunately for Tom, he cautiously approached the horse he had fed several times.

Tom walked up to Sam and gently stroked his large head.

“Sam, you have to wake up, buddy.”

The horse opened its eyes quietly. Sam’s large eyes looked at Tom, and Tom, careful not to make a sound, untied the rope that bound Sam.

“let’s go.”

Sam, who had put his clothes and food on his saddle, carefully left the farm. He did not ride his horse rashly.

The night is still long, and there is plenty of time.

***

“You little shits!”

From the morning, the shouts of George, the eldest son who took charge of the farm in place of the old farm owner, rang out.

“Do you think that’s what I paid you to do?”

Although most of the labor on the plantations was done by slaves, their management and supervision were strictly the responsibility of paid employees.

There were some plantations that gave authority and privileges to obedient slaves, but the owners of these plantations did not trust black people.

match!

George slapped his employees across the face without hesitation.

Although he treated him like a slave, he was the law on this plantation.

“Come here right now!”

“yes!”

“Brother, I’ll come find you.”

The second, William, who had been standing quietly behind his angry brother, said.

“Yeah. You have to have at least one person you can trust.”

“I’m a little relieved now,” said George, slapping the staff member’s cheek.

So the farm owner’s second son, William, and five farm workers set out to catch Tom.

“Ha, if we ran away at dawn, we would have gone several miles already. What should I do?”

“George, he doesn’t have a map, does he? If you follow him steadily while he’s wandering, you can catch him.”

“Well, that’s true. And I fed the horse, but I’ve never ridden it, so it probably couldn’t have gone very fast.”

Even though the management was a bit lax, they didn’t leave things like maps in places where they could be easily taken.

‘I’m sure you’ve prepared well, but you can’t travel 140 miles (225 km) without a map.’

“I don’t know which way they went, so let’s split into three groups of two and search for them. Let’s meet here at the halfway point.”

“yes.”

William handed out the maps he had brought and began to look for traces of the slave.

It was difficult to track the site because the ground was hard in the winter and it didn’t snow much, but the traces of camping could not be hidden.

“I guess you took a rest here.”

“Yes, the traces are clear.”

It’s further than I thought, but considering the time, this way is faster.

We’ll catch that shameless bastard soon.

***

“at las!”

If they started chasing them early in the morning, there was an eight-hour gap. I don’t know how long they followed them during those eight hours, but Tom barely slept, and when his horse got tired, he got off and walked.

I don’t know how close the pursuers are, but once you pass this gate, you’re free!

As he approached the city, someone came out. It was a soldier.

The soldier shouted something, but Tom couldn’t understand because it was in Spanish. Instead, Tom shouted in English.

“I am an immigrant! I want to immigrate to Mexico!”

“···A black person alone?”

Fortunately, the soldier in the lead seemed to understand English.

“Just follow me.”

The Mexican border town he entered following the soldier was small but clean. He was guided to the government office, where he was interviewed by someone who claimed to be an immigration officer.

“What’s your name?”

“Tom… Tom Freeman.”

He didn’t have a last name. But since not having a last name was the same as saying he was a slave, Tom unconsciously blurted out that he was a freeman.

‘Damn. A freeman? Anyone can tell he’s an escaped slave.’

“Hmm, Freeman···.”

As expected, the Mexican immigration officer seemed concerned about the last name Freeman, but did not ask if he was a slave.

dripping-

“We are having an interview!”

“Sir! The Americans have come! They want to see you just once because they have something to tell you.”

Tom didn’t understand Spanish, but he heard the word “Americano.” That was America.

From then on, Tom’s heart started pounding.

‘Are you saying they chased you all the way to this Mexican government office?’

“···Please wait here for a moment.”

The immigration officer said that and walked out the door.

Tom was still sitting there, but he could hear a commotion outside.

‘This is… the second guy’s voice.’

Knock knock knock-

At that moment, when I felt so nervous that my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my mouth, the second one, who was talking to me but I couldn’t hear him clearly, shouted in anger.

“Then what about this! He stole our horses and food! Then he’s a criminal, so shouldn’t he be allowed to immigrate?”

The second boy’s voice, shouting in English, pierced through the wall and into Tom’s chest. Tom felt his heart sink.

Yes. Mexico is a good place to accept immigrants, but it doesn’t accept criminals, so at least I had to abandon my horse and food along the way. However, I couldn’t bear the thought of abandoning Sam, who had been with me for several days.

‘Is this the end?’

As Tom was thinking that, he heard something different from what he expected outside the door. It was English.

“Well, I didn’t see anything like horses or food… Captain, have you seen anything?”

“···No. I haven’t seen anything like that.”

The moment he heard those words, tears poured out of Sam’s eyes. He couldn’t hear the angry words that the second son poured out afterwards.

Finally, I am free.

He sobbed softly.

***

“Your Majesty, articles like this are pouring in all over America. The response is incomparably hotter than the last joint statement.”

It was a report from the Military Intelligence Agency.

“ha···.”

We could probably fix this by sending the slaves back now and disciplining the immigration officers, but is that really necessary?

It is true that we do not have slavery in Mexico, and it is true that we have been carefully selecting and accepting immigrants who have come to the border since the last census when we discovered the problem of illegal immigrants in the Costa Rican region. However, it is also true that Tom Freeman stole, so there is a reason to send him back.

I really want to just accept them, but if I just send them back, wouldn’t the war be delayed by a few more months? But this alone won’t cause war right away, and it will eventually happen. My worries continued endlessly.

“···What do you think would be a good idea?”

Director Ricardo of the Military Intelligence Agency opened his mouth cautiously.

“It’s very likely that the US government was involved in this, as the news has been reported nationwide so soon after the incident. It must be a strong will to somehow get behind this. In my opinion, even if it’s not this incident, James Polk will make up a pretext by lying.”

Diego agreed.

“That’s right. Aren’t they guys with a track record? And judging by their reaction, it doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to end it nicely by sending them back now.”

“···Both are correct.”

I made a decision.

“Diego, prepare for the second census of the Mexican Empire.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

He did not add that he might soon have to invoke the previously enacted mass conscription law.

You probably already understood it all.

“I will go to Vega Defense Industries, so relay the order to the administration and have them come over.”

I headed to the Vega Defense Industry Research Institute for the first time in a long time.

Being able to mass-produce steel also means being able to mass-produce weapons that were previously too expensive to mass-produce.

It’s time to check the results.