The people of the Ming Dynasty began to take root in the American continent.
Just looking for the indigenous residents is a troublesome task, but one good thing is that the European colonists all landed from the east of the American continent. In the past ten years or so, the Central American tribes have declined or even perished.
During this period, most of their people migrated to the west coast.
The Ming army happened to be marching in the opposite direction of the American colonists, so there was no need to worry about encountering a fierce battle upon arrival.
With A Da and others as guides, as well as Ming army generals such as Guan Jing who had once raided the American continent, it became much easier to complete an invasion into the interior.
"Sir, shall we sail over?"
After Zhu Hao made the plan to march into the army, Lu Song asked Zhu Hao.
Zhu Hao glanced at the creek in the distance, smiled and shook his head: "The main purpose of the ship is to help us reach this land, and to transport people and goods to the south and north, and even provide transportation for us to return to Daming in the future.
It is a tool, but if we engage in naval battles deep inland, the effect is not good. One is that the enemy sets up artillery on the shore to bombard the river. It is difficult for the ship to avoid it. If it is sunk, the gain outweighs the loss. In addition, our main opponent, the Franji, is in the river.
On the other side of the continent, it is impossible for ships to come over for a decisive battle with us in a short time."
"Then we will fight all the way to the east coast and fight the Folangji?"
Lu Song asked worriedly, always feeling that he was too frustrated for not using all his strength.
Zhu Hao shook his head again: "Let's establish our footing first, and then talk about anything else. Next we have to capture a city. According to the captured natives, there is a city about a hundred miles away from here, and there are about 50,000 residents in the city.
, there are more than 10,000 soldiers stationed in the city defense, which is a very arduous task for us."
Are you going to attack the city when you come up?
You said you need to gain a firm foothold first?
Lu Song was a little anxious.
But soon his son Lu Bing gave him some confidence: "Dad, I attacked their village before. They only threw stones and couldn't even use bows and arrows. It would be too easy to defeat them."
"It's just an ordinary stockade. If it was protected by a city wall...how could it be so easy?" Lu Song seemed difficult to understand.
Lu Bing hesitated a little and said uncertainly: "I think the situation should be about the same."
Zhu Hao unfolded the simply drawn map in front of him towards Lu Song, pointed to the northeast and said: "It's about a hundred miles to the north from here. If everything goes well, we can arrive there in two days, but the horses have to go through the dense forest.
Easy, given you ten days and five hundred cavalry, can you defeat this city?"
"A city of fifty thousand people? There are ten thousand soldiers stationed there?"
Lu Song's eyes widened in disbelief.
Just give me five hundred cavalry?
Can you still play like this?
Zhu Hao said: "The weapons I gave you are all the best muskets, and the bullets are all allocated in full. In addition, they are equipped with ten lightweight Folan cannons. If you arrive at the city gate and find it difficult to capture it,
, you can send a message back to ask for help, and I will send another thousand troops and horses. The number of people I can transfer to you at present is five hundred people... There are no horses in this place, and our cavalry is very valuable. Don't let me down."
"yes."
Lu Song accepted the order in embarrassment, not knowing what to say.
Zhu Hao said to Lu Bing again: "Cooperate well with your father. This battle is our first tough battle in the New World. It all depends on you and your son!"
…
…
Zhu Hao did not choose to lead the fleet south, but first aimed at a bone that seemed difficult to chew and captured a city. At present, it seems that this city should still be there...
This is just a guess, because the Aztecs may have been destroyed, and if this group of people passes by, it is very likely that they will encounter European colonists.
Therefore, in Zhu Hao's mission to the Lu family and his son, it was clearly stated that if the opponent is found to be using firearms to fight back, they must retreat as soon as possible and send back the news in time, and Zhu Hao will send a second group of troops to reinforce.
However, Zhu Hao was not too worried, because he knew that, like the troops he brought, the European colonists also liked to "defeat more with less." Perhaps they felt that the natives of the American continent were too easy to bully, so they usually gathered a group of
Hundreds of people came to dominate the country.
…
…
The Lu family and his son set off.
Four days later, the Lu family's father and son sent back news that they had begun to attack the city, but it seemed not as easy as imagined.
"Sir, do you want to send someone for reinforcements?"
Lou Suzhen asked worriedly when she saw that Zhu Hao had been busy leading people to build the camp these two days.
Zhu Hao said: "If it's just local residents, there's nothing to worry about. I really need indigenous manpower now, and I hope they can bring them back."
Four days later, the Lu family and his son returned with their troops.
At the same time, he brought less than four thousand "captives". Lu Song went on an expedition. When he came back, his eyes were bloodshot and he felt extremely haggard. However, his return still made the camp on the coast cheer. After all, this was the first time after landing.
A decent battle, considered a victory.
What a good sign!
Seeing a large number of prisoners being escorted into the camp, the soldiers and craftsmen who had built a temporary walled city on the coast all came out to watch.
"Sir, when we entered the city, we thought there were many residents there, but after we entered the city, we found... the city was desolate."
When Lu Song spoke, there was still some worry in his words, "I probably asked about the situation through the guide. They made some gestures and said that someone also entered the city last year. Eighty-nine percent of their residents died, and the remaining residents were originally
They all ran away, but then they had nowhere to go, so they returned to the city. Then... we killed them..."
Lu Song couldn't bear it.
Initially, he was worried that the Ming army would encounter fierce resistance when attacking the aboriginal fortresses.
But when the natives in the city fortress discovered that the colonists had returned, and their weapons were more advanced than before, they only made a symbolic resistance, and then opened the city to surrender. Moreover, these people were very docile. It seemed that as long as they could save their lives, they would even
They just want to keep the blood of their clan and not hesitate to become slaves.
"It's too tragic." Lu Song said.
Zhu Hao said: "Lu Qianhu, you should put aside all your prejudices. I said that the purpose of our coming here is to cooperate with them. Otherwise, with the people we bring, if we want to mine, we will have to build a city-state from scratch."
, this is unrealistic."
At this moment, Ada was brought to Zhu Hao.
"The city lord wants to see you..."
Ah Da didn't know how to express it. In fact, Ah Da and the residents of this indigenous city-state didn't speak the same language at all.
This reflects a unique feature of Central America, that is, the indigenous people living here are divided into different tribes, and the different tribes are constantly fighting against each other. This is equivalent to the end of China's primitive society. Today you beat me, tomorrow I will beat you, continuous wars.
However, no common language and culture have been formed, and because the land is fertile, the climate is pleasant, and the resources are abundant, including corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, the people can have enough to eat with a little effort, so there is no willingness to climb the technological tree, resulting in extreme productivity
behind.
As the center of the world, Europe and China have had constant trade exchanges since ancient times, as well as frequent exchanges of science and technology. Under mutual promotion, productivity has long been far ahead of the isolated continent of America.
…
…
Zhu Hao met the so-called city lord, or the indigenous king.
He didn't know his name either. It was too long-winded to pronounce, so Zhu Hao asked someone to name him "Jing Jing Er". It wasn't that he had to give him such a name, but Zhu Hao felt dizzy when he heard the complicated and difficult-to-pronounce name.
, just shorten it according to its pronunciation.
The main body of this city-state is not the Aztecs, but more like a small vassal country free from the rule of the Aztec dynasty.
The communication between the two parties was almost entirely accomplished through drawings. It seems that Jing Jingji is very "good" at this. Based on the drawings and the content relayed by Ah Da, we probably learned that they had had contact with European colonists and paid a certain amount of money.
Taxes, gold and silver and other items were exchanged for temporary peace for the European colonists.
But two years later, when the European colonists came again, they directly led their troops and bloodbathed their city-state.
"awful!"
Ada also said this word just like Lu Song.
Precisely.
It was because the European colonists had no intention of taking root here for a long time, and there might not be the gold and silver mines they wanted around this city-state, so they chose to massacre the city directly. According to Kyouji's description, there were about two thousand European colonists.
, the weapons they carry are very similar to those of the Ming Dynasty army, but they are obviously lagging behind.
All in all, the number of residents in this city-state has dropped from 50,000 to 60,000 to only 4000 to 5000 today.
Fortunately, the young and strong among them escaped, and more of the old, weak, women and children were massacred. They also had a small town in the deep mountains and dense forests, with hundreds of people living in it. They said they could lead the Ming army to destroy that town later.
Take down the small town.
"I'm afraid everyone inside has already escaped, right?"
Zhu Hao said something to Lu Song who was lamenting the cruel living environment in the New World.
Lu Song was startled and said hurriedly: "I didn't understand what they meant in time, otherwise I should have taken down that small city first."
"It's okay. These four to five thousand people are also a good supplement for us." Zhu Hao said, "Ask him, if the remaining people are divided into families, how many families are there?"
After complex communication, the result was roughly that among the four to five thousand people, more than three thousand were men, and there were only more than a thousand women, plus a few children and the elderly... It is actually difficult to build a family, and many of them are still in the process of building a family.
After the city was destroyed, the family was reorganized.
After experiencing the bloodbath of the Fo Langji people, they completed the reconstruction of the internal order by themselves without Zhu Hao reorganizing the order.
In this way, as long as Zhu Hao can provide them with shelter and keep them alive while having food to eat, it seems that the people in this city-state don't mind becoming subjects of the Ming Dynasty.
"I've seen the city fortress before. It's okay...it's just a city wall made of stone...I'm afraid even ordinary gunpowder can't withstand it." Lu Song was actually a little worried.
He understood that Zhu Hao might want to send troops to take over the city directly.
But according to Lu Song’s meaning.
There was no need to garrison that fortress at all.
The city wall alone can be blown up casually, and the houses inside are basically made of wood. When the enemy attacks, the city wall will not only be unable to provide help, but will also become a burden to the actions of the three armies.