Chapter 726: The second kingdom exploration, fleet meeting, Cuban population
"How will the Kingdom's manpower left in Cuba get along with the simple Taíno people?"
Hearing this question, Priest Tomat touched his chin and roughly guessed Chihuaco's position. He was noncommittal about the soft-heartedness of the old militiamen. He looked around at the surrounding woods with blazing ambition flashing in his eyes.
!
On its south side, there are black and gray stretches of iron mines and sparse and low forests. On its north side, beyond the hills two miles away, there is a flat and open coastal plain. The plain is covered with long grass.
Due to the impact of the hurricane, the trees are not very tall. Under the long grass, there is fertile land that is easy to cultivate. The fertile land on the seaside, coupled with the iron ore belt, is connected to several crisscrossing streams and rivers, and the coastal areas are good.
The transportation conditions... There is no doubt that whether it is farming, mining or trade, this is a real "fertile soil"!
"The kingdom must control this iron mine and the entire coast. The nearby Taino villages must supply food and labor. And most importantly, the belief in the main god must be ignited in the nearby Taino tribe and become the only supreme light.
!”
Priest Tomat looked calm and declared the goal he needed to achieve. He had no hostility towards the simple and kind-hearted Taino people, and even had some appreciation. However, in order to complete the mission of the kingdom and spread the faith of the Lord God as quickly as possible, he did not hesitate at all.
Will hesitate to use force.
"Haha! The Taino people are so weak. If we want to control this coast and spread the faith of the Lord God, isn't that easy?!"
After hearing the conversation between the two, the dust warrior Puap laughed loudly. He patted his chest confidently and looked to the northwest, with a cold flash in his eyes.
More than twenty miles to the northwest is the Mayari tribe where they set out. The large Taino tribe has about three thousand unarmed and weak villagers, and one or two hundred unarmored militia with wooden spears and short bows. The entire tribe
, almost defenseless, and had not seen much blood.
The kingdom's fleet has a total of four hundred warriors, most of whom have been in battle for many years and are capable of killing many people. The warriors are equipped with refined leather armor or even bronze armor, two bronze spears and axes, and one or two hundred large bows.
, as well as several Tiger Crouching Cannons whose gunpowder was dampened but could emit thunder. With such overwhelming force, it would be easy to defeat any large Taíno tribe on the island of Cuba!
"We will go back now, assemble the warriors and sailors on the ship, and distribute bronze spears and armor. Then, let me and the guards wear bronze armor as the vanguard of the assault! ... Tonight, we can break through
The Mayari tribe captured all the men and women together!"
Speaking of this, pure murderous intent appeared in Puap's eyes. He could be regarded as a senior warrior who was killed in a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. In his eyes, the lives of ordinary people were nothing at all.
"Then, we first beheaded all the chiefs, leaders, and sages who had the final say in the tribe! Then we made the remaining captives swear a blood oath and convert to the Lord God. Those who were unwilling to obey were all beheaded! Next!
, and then let Ding Zhuang, who had surrendered, burn all the Zemi tablets in the village with his own hands, and put an end to his thoughts. Finally, he led them to attack other Taino villages, with blood on his hands and no way out.
..”
"Haha, the Lord God has witnessed! As long as you give me half a year, I can attack and conquer all the Taíno villages within hundreds of miles around the Cuban Snakehead! And all the conquered Taíno people will also convert to the Lord God!
"
Upon hearing Puap's harsh words, Chihuaco's eyebrows jumped and his old face twitched.
"Damn Puap! I knew you couldn't say anything nice, and all you could think about was sticks..."
What Puap said is completely the brutal approach of General Black Wolf. It is feasible, but it requires killing heads and mountains of corpses to make the conquered tribes fear from the very bones. It really takes a lot of effort.
If the Taíno villages within a hundred miles were buzzing like this, then the hundreds of thousands of Taíno people in the Cuban snakeheads would probably be lost in half.
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Moreover, in Taíno villages, there are actually no sharp conflicts between nobles, warriors and civilians that are common in Mesoamerican tribes. The kingdom can subvert the order by killing the upper class, and it will not win many lower-level leaders.
"The Taino villagers have never shown any hostility towards the kingdom. Their clean eyes have never been as blood-red as those on the plateau..."
The old militiaman lowered his eyes, thinking about the kindness and hospitality of the Taino villagers along the way, and finally couldn't sit still. The reason why he raised such a question at this time was because he was keenly aware that as the first
The Kingdom's fleet, everyone's choice at this time, will officially open the diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of the Lake and the tribes of Cuba.
If it is true, as Puap said, to use force and killing to gain a foothold and push the Taino tribes to the opposite side of the kingdom... then successive waves of kingdom warriors will continue to get along with each other in this way and promote the bloody process.
Until he completely conquers the entire Cuban Snake Island by means of killing!
In this process, tens of thousands of Taíno people will inevitably die, Taíno villages large and small will be destroyed, and the tranquility and peace of various tribes in Cuba will be completely broken... All of this is contrary to his original intention.
It was hard for him to accept it, and he even felt guilty.
"O Lord God! Since I have the power of choice and influence, I cannot watch this happen!...The kingdom and the Taíno tribes should be like corn and beans surrounding each other, promoting each other's growth, and it should never be
The hungry wolf and the captured hare were fighting one-sidedly to eat..."
The old militiaman Chihuaco lowered his head and pondered for a while before slowly speaking. He did not immediately refute Puap's words, but looked at the divine priest Mecat who had not yet spoken, and raised a new question.
"Dear Priest Mecat, you are good at statistics and have made detailed observations of various tribes in Cuba... In your opinion, how many tribes are there on this Cuban Snake Island?"
"Huh? The tribal population on the island of Cuba?..."
Hearing Chihuaco's sudden inquiry, Priest Mecat was startled. As a divine priest who masters technology, he has a gentler personality. In the discussions of the fleet leaders, he usually only talks about navigation issues and mineral deposits.
Speaking, he will not participate in other fleet decisions. However, with his status as a second-level divine priest, he is indeed enough to occupy an important place in the discussion and voting.
" Along the way, we circled half of Cuba's Snake Island, and heard about or came into contact with nearly thirty large tribes with thousands of people... As for small tribes with thousands of people, there are countless small tribes."
Priest Mecat pinched his fingers and calculated silently in his mind. In fact, along the way, he did keep recording the size of the tribes along the way, and he had a rough estimate of the population on the island of Cuba.
"The length of Cuba's Snake Island from east to west is at least 2,500 miles, and the distance between the north and south coasts is between 200 and 400 miles... The entire island is warm all year round, with abundant precipitation and fertile land.
All can be cultivated...The yield of cassava crops is amazing. Without the need to apply fertilizer, the yield can reach more than 500 kilograms per mu..."
After a bunch of analysis, Priest Mecat paused and gave a preliminary conclusion.
"This fertile Cuban Snake Island, conservatively estimates, has a tribal population of 400,000-600,000! And if the entire island is fully developed like the Mexica Valley, it should not be difficult to feed 2 million people!"
After hearing Priest Mecat's conclusion, everyone nodded in agreement. Along the way, the richness of Cuba's Snake Island has indeed become deeply rooted in people's hearts.
In fact, this large island with an area of 110,000 square kilometers is only slightly smaller than England with an area of 130,000 square kilometers. The entire island has a savannah climate suitable for farming. More than two-thirds of the island's area
, they are all long grass plains and low-tree grasslands that can be converted into good cultivated land, and they are definitely not the difficult and dangerous tropical jungles on other Caribbean islands.
From an agricultural point of view, "Cuba", as its name means, is "fertile soil." In later generations, even though Cuba faced a blockade, there was a serious lack of agricultural machinery and fertilizers, and large tracts of cultivated land were used to grow sugar cane, it still provided food.
Twelve million people! From a disease perspective, Cuba, which is dominated by savannah, is the only place in the entire Caribbean Islands that can control the spread of malaria.
"Well, the tribal population is 400,000-600,000. To put it simply, it is 500,000."
The old militiaman Chihuaco straightened up slightly, looked at Puap seriously, and asked in a deep voice.
"Lao Pu, there are 500,000 Tainos on the island of Cuba, more than the bees in the woods! And the fleet has only more than 200 people left!... You are really sure that with the force of 200 people
, to conquer hundreds of thousands of Taínos?”
"Eh? I...ah? Laoqi, that's not quite right, is it? We are fighting tribes one by one..."
"I'm not done yet, listen to me!"
Chihuaco waved his hand, interrupting the confused Puap, and continued in a deep voice.
"Even if we can win this battle, how many soldiers will die? And even if the Taíno are not good at fighting, won't they flee? Where do we have enough manpower to watch them?... If they
How many of us will chase them after they escape into the interior? Even if we catch them, what will happen? If they are caught, they can continue to escape. If they want to be killed, why bother to catch them?..."
"What's more, how many thousands of Taino villagers will be killed in such a bloody conquest? His Highness once said that human heads are not weeds. If they are cut off, they will not grow back... The Taino people are not hostile to the kingdom. As long as they are
With the right method and enough patience, we could have surrounded us like kidney beans and become devout believers of the main god!... Well, Priest Mecat, what do you think?"
Chihuaco glanced at the missionary priest Tomat, who was listening attentively, and then asked the divine priest Mecat. Priest Mecat thought about it and found that he actually had a good impression of the Tainos, so he nodded in agreement.
"That's right! Captain Chihuaco, what you said makes sense! The Taino people are numerous in number and have a very gentle temperament. We should not treat them the same way we treat enemies, but turn them into subjects of the kingdom!"
..”
Priest Mekat has a gentle temperament. Although he rarely speaks out, his status on the ship is not low. At this time, the weight of his suggestions is still higher than that of Puap who made mistakes. And the exploration captain Chihuaco, plus Shenqi
Priest Mecat is the two most important votes, and others cannot ignore them.
Priest Tomat bit his mouth, looked at the old militiaman Chihuaco, and finally asked.
"Dear Captain Chihuaco, you said that with the right method, the Tainos can be conquered peacefully. So, what is your method?"
