Before leaving the shop, Captain Dan thanked the owner profusely. Prices in the United States were currently four times what they had been, yet the shopkeeper had sold Dan food at only double the original price.

Faced with Dan's gratitude, the shopkeeper remarked with some emotion, "Captain, you're a West Point graduate. The colonel and major of the regiment I served in were both your seniors. They looked after me because they heard I knew you."

Dan felt a similar sense of resonance regarding the nature of human connections in the South. To get into West Point required a recommendation from a heavyweight figure; while ordinary people might have seen politicians during campaigns, they rarely had such specific ties. The shopkeeper's ability to remember Dan’s face and full name spoke to an impressive memory and a deep understanding of social relations.

On his way back, Dan changed into the regular soldier's uniform he had exchanged with the shopkeeper—one without rank insignia. The shopkeeper had made it clear that within the Southern states, some members of the National Guard were assassinating federal officers. In an era where most American men had served, the uniform of an ordinary discharged soldier provided a measure of safety.

Carrying a large bag of food, Captain Dan set out on the long walk home. As an outstanding graduate of West Point, a two-hundred-mile journey was not particularly daunting. By managing his physical strength according to the principles of military endurance marches, he would have enough to return home before his food ran out.

His first two days of walking went smoothly. On the third day, dust suddenly rose from the distance of the empty dirt road. Soon, the sound of hoofbeats followed, and a troop of cavalry approached from ahead.

The leading rider wore an old-fashioned uniform that Dan had seen in history book illustrations and museum displays—it was the uniform of the Confederate Army from the Civil War.

Of the two riders behind the leader, the one on the left bore a flag. The flag had a red background with a blue X-shaped cross edged in white. On the blue X were white stars—one in the center and three on each of the four arms, totaling thirteen stars, representing the original thirteen colonies.

This was the Confederate flag. Dan had seen some radical Southern soldiers use this flag during the Pacific War. Those arrogant Northerners thought themselves superior but were too foolish even to know the significance of the banner.

Seeing Dan, the cavalry troop showed no fear. Instead of merely moving to the side of the road to let him pass, they stopped. The leader, wearing the Southern Civil War uniform with the rank of colonel on his shoulders, looked down at Dan from his horse. The other riders naturally surrounded him.

"What is your name?" the Colonel asked.

"Dan."

"What rank?"

"Captain." Dan did not hide the truth. It wasn't that he wished to cause trouble, but he could see that the man before him was a school-trained officer, not some country bumpkin in the National Guard who had self-commissioned as a colonel. There was no point in trying to deceive such a man; it would only provoke his anger.

The Colonel studied Dan for a moment before asking, "Where are you going?"

"Home."

"Do you need a horse?"

"Thank you, but I don't."

"Give him a horse," the Colonel ordered one of his men. He then turned back to Dan. "If you wish to return the horse, find Colonel Bourbon in Louis Town."

With that, the Colonel spurred his horse and rode off without another word.

Soon, leading an old horse, Dan watched the silhouettes of the cavalrymen receding down the road like a dark cloud. He felt a deep admiration for the Colonel's style. This was the true demeanor of a Southern grandee—generous, unconstrained, and benevolent. Dan had never seen the wealthy South of the pre-Civil War era; he had only heard of it from his grandfather, and later read about it in history books and works like *Gone with the Wind*.

The South had been built on slavery, but back then, it was wealthier than the North. It was the Civil War that had seen the South's wealth plundered. Afterward, the United States had banned the South from selling cotton to Britain, ordering them to sell their raw materials to the North instead. Under the predatory trade of the Northerners, the economies of the Southern states had plummeted.

When the South was wealthy, crimes certainly occurred. However, as long as one was a respectable person and lacked a horse, they could usually borrow one from a manor.

Patting the old horse beside him, Captain Dan climbed somewhat awkwardly into the saddle and slowly urged the animal toward home. Along the way, the fields were desolate and the inhabitants few. This state of affairs made Dan wonder if he had returned to a world that had just been burned and plundered by the North. Normally, even if the Southern population was sparse, it shouldn't have reached a point where one saw no one for tens of miles.

It wasn't until he reached an intersection and saw a dozen corpses hanging from a tree, with a sign reading "The Fate of Thieves" beside them, that Dan began to understand the current situation in the South.

With a massive number of men conscripted, bandits had appeared. The Colonel and his cavalry were likely patrolling the area to hunt down these thieves and protect the peace. This was a Southern tradition: private armed forces, under the leadership of local grandees, ensured the security of their districts. When trouble struck, the people would go to the grandees' doors, and the leaders would tirelessly take the local figures out to punish evil and maintain order.

Naturally, during elections, the Southerners would return the favor by voting for these grandees.

Three days later, Captain Dan arrived in Louis Town with two of his cousins. Colonel Bourbon’s grand estate was heavily guarded, and the parking lot was filled with horses and cars.

The people stepping out of the cars were all well-dressed, looking like individuals who wielded considerable power. Dan had originally thought Colonel Bourbon merely wanted to be a local leader, but seeing this, he realized the Colonel’s ambitions were far beyond being a simple "grandee."