In a river valley, tens of thousands of troops were stationed.
Taking the tribe as a unit, there is a tuo in the east and a tuo in the west, with strict boundaries between them.
At night, the sky is full of stars.
The astrologer sat by the campfire, holding many wooden boards in his hand, each with a pattern on it. He tinkered with it carefully for a while, then suddenly stood up, opened his arms and shouted.
A makeshift altar with a cow placed on it was a sacrifice to the gods.
The astrologer chirped, and the king was immediately overjoyed and asked the speaker to announce the divination results.
The speaker is also an official, responsible for conveying and executing the king's orders. He climbed up the hillside and announced loudly toward the river valley: "The wise astrologer has communicated with the supreme sun god. The Thunder God tribe in the north believes in an evil god.
.That evil god will bring droughts and hurricanes, and they must all be killed. Now, follow His Majesty the King and pray to the gods for victory!"
In the western part of Madagascar, the indigenous people believe that everything is animistic.
The God of Creation is called "Zarahari", and there is the Sun God under him. The God of Creation has disappeared and is no longer involved in worldly affairs, so the Sun God is the most authoritative. They like to paint their faces with signs similar to sunflowers.
In this way, you can obtain the blessing of the Sun God.
In addition, a mountain, a river, a tree... all have spirituality and can be worshiped.
The king is the messenger of the sun god in the world, responsible for ruling the people of the world, and everyone must be loyal to the king.
But there is no high priest here, but a kind of royal astrologer, and their astrology is likely to come from Arabia.
After a series of rituals, the king sanctified this expedition as the sun god's crusade against the evil thunder god. The warriors who died in this battle could enter the kingdom of God after death and receive the blessing of the gods forever.
For a time, morale was at an all-time high.
Even those small tribes and indigenous soldiers were eager to try, and only the tribal leaders expressed doubts. Because in normal times, the leaders of small tribes would also use gods to deceive their tribesmen.
In the winding and narrow river valley, more than 10,000 people advanced slowly, forming a long snake that stretched for two or three miles.
Damo is the "prince" of a small tribe. His father is old and frail, so he will lead the tribe on this expedition. In fact, he is very reluctant to come because last year's wind disaster caused a severe reduction in food production. There was not enough to eat in the first place.
, and you have to bring your own dry food to fight. There will definitely be a famine when we go back this year.
Walking in front of Damo was the Longniao tribe. He knew the leader of the Longniao tribe. The Longniao tribe was not doing well this year either.
The rhinoceros is much larger than an ostrich. A rhinoceros egg is as big as seven ostrich eggs. This kind of bird is flightless and is almost extinct. You can only see one or two if you are lucky.
This river valley was too far away. Damo had never been there before, so he curiously looked at the scenery along the way.
"Boom boom boom!"
Three cannon shots were heard from the other side of the river.
The terrain on the other side is steeper and not suitable for large-scale marches, but the erection of forts can cover this side with firepower.
This place was nearly ten miles away from the Han village, so the battle started in advance.
"Thor is angry!"
Hearing the rumble of cannons, the natives began to panic, stopped and looked at the other side at a loss.
Although the king is the messenger of the Sun God in the world, the Thunder God is not something that mortals can deal with. The cannonball fell into the crowd of two small tribes. The nearby natives were so frightened that they knelt down and prayed, silently begging the Thunder God to forgive them.
King Zahal pulled out his bronze sword, faced the sun and shouted: "The Sun God has given me divine power, and I will bless you with divine power. All the warriors who died in battle today can enter the kingdom of God and serve the gods forever and ever.
Rush to the other side of the river and kill the followers of the evil god!"
A large number of messengers and speakers were sent from the king to various tribes to deliver the news.
The astrologer also took out the wooden sign, pretended to be a ghost, and shouted: "The gods tell me that we will win this battle!"
"Sun God bless you!"
The nobles around the king shouted, and the other civilian soldiers also shouted. The shouts spread to both sides, and finally more than 10,000 people shouted collectively, which not only prevented the collapse, but also increased morale.
"Boom boom boom!"
Three more cannonballs came, and the sun god obviously failed to protect them. Some unlucky ones were smashed to pieces.
"Kill across the river!"
Thousands of soldiers jumped into the river and swam with their bare hands.
Although they have shipbuilding technology and can build some small boats, the rivers here run east-west, and this time the troops were dispatched from south to north, so they did not bring any ships with them.
On the other side of the river, there were only three artillery pieces, and the ambush was all on the hillside here.
In the woods on the hillside, Deng Youzhang raised his telescope and after observing for a long time, he said: "The enemy's commander is over there. There are about three to four thousand troops around him. The whole army is approaching and preparing to attack. Don't worry about anything else, go straight to the enemy's commander!"
When Deng Youzhang led his troops to move in the woods, the artillery on the other side obviously also figured out the king's specific location.
All three cannons adjusted their directions and fired cannonballs at the king.
The indigenous soldiers in the lead were still swimming in the river, and the third round of shelling had already begun.
One shell missed completely, one hit the small tribe, and another hit the king.
King Zahal was stunned. He saw with his own eyes that his nephew had his head smashed by a black object. This was not over yet. After his nephew's head exploded, the black object continued to fly forward and smashed a clan member.
arm, and then broke the thigh of a civilian...
Is it really the arrival of the God of Thunder?
Zahal was so frightened that he looked at the astrologer subconsciously.
The astrologer was stunned, looking stupidly at the other side, and then ran to look at the flying iron ball.
"Boom boom boom!"
There was another round of shooting, and the astrologer who was studying the iron ball was hit in two by the cannonball.
King Zahal was so frightened that he fell to the ground. A cannonball just flew over his head. Although he was not injured, the roaring sound made him sweat on the vest.
The more than 10,000 indigenous troops were now in panic and confusion.
The troops who were ordered to cross the river were almost swimming ashore. The tribes who stayed here did not know what to do and were walking back and forth restlessly.
"Boom boom boom!"
This round of bombardment was still aimed at the king's position.
Finally, some of the natives realized something was wrong, and directed the anger of the God of Thunder towards the king. The king must have angered the God of Thunder, and they had to stay away from the king so that they would not be harmed.
The native nobles took the lead in running in both directions, wanting to get as far away from the king as possible, and some soldiers also ran after them.
In the blink of an eye, there were only more than 300 people left within a few dozen meters of the king.
The natives who swam across the river had already begun to climb the mountain. The artillerymen did not dare to confront them head-on, so they abandoned the artillery and retreated, hiding in the dense forest on the top of the mountain to observe the situation.
Finally some of the natives discovered the artillery, and they were all afraid and dared not move forward.
After being stunned for a while, a brave man walked over and boldly touched the barrel of the gun.
"ah!"
The indigenous warriors screamed miserably, covering their hands and wailing.
The other natives were frightened and quickly retreated a long distance away. After waiting for a while, they found nothing unusual, so they approached cautiously.
The indigenous soldier who was stroking the barrel of the gun had several blisters on his palms.
The natives looked at each other, thinking that this was a curse from the God of Thunder. Anyone who dared to touch the God of Thunder's weapons would lose their hands.
One by one, the natives knelt down in front of the three cannons and sincerely begged the God of Thunder for forgiveness.
Then, they slowly retreated until they reached the river. They neither dared to use the artillery nor to swim back. Thousands of indigenous soldiers just sat there in silence.
Several tribal leaders even got together to chat:
"The thunder god here is the true god. The king has angered the gods. We can no longer help the king fight the war."
"The God of Thunder is a subordinate of the God of the Sun. The God of Thunder will not oppose the God of the Sun. The king must have been bewitched by the evil god. He believed in the false Sun God, so the God of Thunder sent the God of Thunder to punish him."
"Yes, the king must be believing in false gods. Since he became king, our tribute of food has been increasing every year, and our tribesmen are starved to death every year. The sun god is kind and will not let such people
Be a king."
"..."
King Zahal was shouting filial piety at this moment. He ordered his soldiers to come back and to protect themselves and not to escape far away.
At this moment, Deng Youzhang led his troops over and cautiously went down the slope to kill the king.
The king also saw them and quickly summoned his army.
More than a thousand indigenous soldiers hurriedly gathered and raised their weapons toward the hillside.
Deng Youzhang had more than 300 soldiers under his command. In addition to Han people, there were also indigenous people armed with bronze or wooden spears.
The natives were trembling, but no one retreated because they firmly believed that they were protected by the God of Thunder.
"Uu!Uu!"
The king's herald blew the whistle and ordered the tribesmen on both sides to come quickly to surround and annihilate the enemy. The nearly ten thousand people could not stand there dumbfounded.
The various tribes on both sides showed obvious hesitation and slowly gathered towards the king.
On the frontal battlefield, Deng Youzhang's soldiers had completely descended the hillside. The front row was full of musketeers, and sword and shield bearers were guarding them. The shields were simple wooden shields. The long gunmen followed, and the indigenous soldiers were further behind.
The two sides were getting closer and closer, and the enemy was already throwing stones.
It was a primitive sling made of wooden sticks and ropes. A hit on the body would cause bruises, and a hit on the head would probably cause him to faint on the spot.
"Puff puff……"
Stones hit the wooden shield one after another, and occasionally the legs and feet were hit. There was even a Han soldier whose tibia was cracked by a stone.
The two sides continued to approach, and the native spearmen were already preparing to throw their spears.
"Bang bang bang bang!"
There was a burst of gunfire, followed by smoke, and the native soldiers facing each other fell to the ground.
"Thor's weapon! Run!"
The indigenous soldiers who were not hit were so frightened that they turned around and ran away, thinking that the fire cannons could fire continuously. The indigenous nobles ran the fastest, completely ignoring the king, and ran in the direction they came from, leading thousands of tribal soldiers there to collapse.
.
The tribal soldiers on the other side did not dare to return the same way, so they jumped into the river to escape.
There were also some tribes, led by their leaders, who knelt down collectively and begged for submission.
Damo did not run away or kneel down, but said to the tribe: "The king has failed. The God of Thunder is the true god. Come with me to help the God of Thunder fight! Kill the king!"
If you kill the king, you won’t have to hand in this year’s tribute...
The king wanted to gather the defeated troops, but no one was obedient at all, so he could only escape with the prince.
"Charge!"
"Fire the bayonet!"
The Han soldiers pointed at the king and pursued him, and the indigenous soldiers they brought with them also started to chase him with red eyes.
