Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 287 War Machine ([-])

"Because the people on the east coast have built the castle to their doorstep." Second Lieutenant Porter said a little discouraged, "If they don't take any action, the few barbarian tribes attached to them in the west river valley will either be killed by the east. Conquered by the Shores, or forced to relocate, and they would also lose an excellent place to winterize their livestock, not to mention an invisible loss in prestige. A combination of factors made it necessary for them to wage this war, although it was The times and places where the battles were launched were not chosen by them, but they believed that they had no way out."

While several people were talking, the priests over there had already finished a certain stage of the ceremony.What followed was an even more cruel and bloody scene—living sacrifices. Even old mercenaries like Second Lieutenant Porter and Hagel Jr., who had been on the battlefield for many years, still couldn't accept the scene in front of them. Cruel, savage.As for Pastor Systrom, his eyes were closed, he held a cross in his hand, and kept chanting.

"This is a tradition." Shawei didn't know when he walked up to several Europeans, and regardless of whether they understood or not, he said to himself: "The gods have guided us and blessed us, but this requires Sacrifice with blood."

The Europeans are silent, maybe it's not a good idea to visit their pre-war religious ceremony today.

"A hundred barrels of gunpowder and buckshot?" Sawi asked Reverend Strom, who knew a little of the common language of the Xhosa, so he often acted as an interpreter between the two sides.

"It's here. It's on the cart over there. I hope the gunpowder and lead bullets will bring you good luck." Pastor Systrom relayed Little Hagel's words intermittently.

Shawei nodded and did not speak again.Although these Dutch people sent a hundred barrels of gunpowder, lead bullets and matchlocks in the name of supporting the Kama tribe, they did not charge money.Although its price is a little cheaper than usual, it is still a lot of money for the Kama tribe, whose economic situation is not very good after years of war.But now that the war is imminent, the tribe is also very short of these war supplies, no matter how expensive they are, they have to grit their teeth and buy them.

Thinking of the current predicament of lack of food and clothing in the tribe, Shawei shook his head for a while.The brutal tribal annexation wars that lasted for many years made the Kama tribe an extremely powerful tribe in the nearby area, but just as the war between countries in the civilized world will cause economic crisis, the barbarians are naturally unavoidable.A large number of young and middle-aged men were incorporated into the army, resulting in no one to graze cattle and sheep, and no one to cultivate the land. Even though the Kama tribe won a lot of spoils and captured a large number of slaves in the war, the rapidly expanding tribe The population size still allowed the tribe's economic situation to slowly deteriorate.

Shawei also helps Kama manage some internal affairs of the tribe, and knows more or less about the economic situation of the tribe.Since the year before last, the production of sorghum, the staple food of the tribe, has gradually declined after reaching its peak. Although this is due to the increasingly dry climate, the reduction in the sown area of ​​sorghum is also an indisputable fact.In addition to sorghum, the production of watermelon, sesame, peanut, and flax, which are important economic crops for the tribe, has also been severely reduced. This makes the Kama tribe often lack enough exchange commodities when bartering with a few friendly tribes.

The main reason for all of the above lies in the serious shortage of labor force in arable land.Although many wars launched by Kama brought back a large number of slaves, firstly, these slaves have to eat, and secondly, their work efficiency is the same. In addition, Kama has explained that ordinary slaves should be treated kindly, and strive to gradually bring these people together. Turning into the population of the Kama tribe, these have led to low slave work efficiency, delayed increase in farmland production, and even a slight decline in the sown area.Over time, it is not so surprising that the tribe's food production began to gradually decline.

This is the case in agriculture, and the same is true in animal husbandry.Over the years, as the climate has changed abnormally, the grazing pastures have become less and less, which greatly limits the size of the cattle and sheep herd.Had it not been for the fact that Kama led the tribe's warriors to quarrel here and there, snatching large tracts of land and pastures, and gradually banned the tribe's bad habit of slaughtering livestock and offering sacrifices to gods on a large scale, perhaps the number of cattle and sheep in the Kama tribe would be even smaller .But even so, the combined number of cows and goats can only exceed [-], and with the frequent transactions with those Dutch people, the Kama tribe, who lacks hard currency, can only sell batches of cattle and goats. They were sent to those outsiders in exchange for muskets, ammunition, leather armor and other items that the tribe was in short supply, which further restricted the growth of the number of cattle and sheep.Because of this, the Kama tribe cannot accept the loss of water sources and pastures by the "Lake of the Gods" in the west of the mountain, because there are abundant water and grass, and it is a good place for livestock to spend the winter, which is extremely important for the herdsmen who depend on it for their livelihood.

In any case, this war seems to have to be fought.Sha Wei sighed deeply, the East Coast people really picked a good time.The tribe is now fighting frequently on various fronts. If the people on the east coast hadn't built the castle directly near the mountain pass, I believe Kama would continue to endure until he thinks that the tribe has done enough to fight the people on the east coast. until ready.

But unfortunately, the tribe is not ready yet.Although Kama began to gradually adjust the focus of the tribe's war after the Eight Banners tribes of the East Coast people moved eastward more than half a year ago. On the one hand, it began to gradually end the war with some tribes in the east, and it would not hesitate to suffer some small losses for this.On the other hand, Kama also asked the tribes to continuously exchange "hard currency" such as cattle and sheep, sesame, peanuts, and flax with some friendly tribes in the north to exchange war supplies such as iron products, arrowheads, and hemostatic herbs.However, the time is short, and the policy that has lasted for more than ten years is not so easy to reverse. At present, a large number of fighters of the Kama tribe are still restrained in the east, confronting those hostile tribes.In this way, after defeating the hostile tribes in the east, Kama's plan to bring all [-] elite fighters to launch a thunderous strike against the people on the east coast in the west went bankrupt.

Today's Kama tribe is caught in the dilemma of fighting on two fronts-although the people on the east coast have not explicitly launched a war against them, facing such a difficult situation, even the almighty Kama seems a little caught off guard.However, this resolute king quickly expressed to Shawei and his trusted generals and priests that the people on the east bank are evil and cruel enemies, their greed will never end, and their shameless desires must be drowned with blood. The Kama tribe must defeat this vicious enemy and keep the winter camp for the tribe's livestock given by the gods.

Under the command of the prestigious king, the war machine of the Kama tribe also began to slowly start.A large number of cattle, sheep, and flax were sent to the Dutch in exchange for some muskets and ammunition; at the same time, the tribe also hired a considerable number of Netherland soldiers to teach the tribal warriors the skills of using muskets and the derivatives. Strategies and tactics - these of course also cost a lot of money.

While turning to the Dutch for help, the Kama tribe also began to fully tap their own war potential.First of all, Kama ordered that the slaves who had been in the tribe for more than three years be incorporated into the army, and promised them that they would be free after the war and rewarded with land and women.These policies raised some morale among the slaves and increased the strength of the Kama tribe's army.Secondly, he organized all the musketeers—about 700 people into a team, because the Dutch told them that the most popular tactic nowadays is for the musketeers to gather together and line up in a dense formation to shoot salvos. Karma is convinced of this.In the end, he withheld more than half of the rations of some old people and stubborn slaves in the tribe to ensure that the frontline soldiers had enough food to eat during the war.

On this last point, the new Reverend Strom once raised an objection to the great King Kama, but was evaded by Kama by saying, "All tribes do this now."Reverend Strom at this time wrote instead to the Dutch governor of Cape Town, asking the colonial authorities to send some valuable food to Reverend Strom, who would represent the new The completed Kama Tribal Church personally gave food to these barbarians to honor the glory of the Lord.The devout Governor Dejan praised the noble soul of Pastor Strom, and he readily donated some wheat to the Kama tribe for free, which made many people, including Shawi, feel great respect for them. Good impression.Even, many people converted to the arms of the Lord Jesus on the spot and became Christians.

After straightening out the internal affairs of the tribe, at the beginning of May, when the crops in the field were harvested, the Kama tribe held a sacrificial ceremony to pray for the gods to bless the tribe to achieve a great victory over the people on the east coast.But now, the ceremony had come to an end. The warriors of the Kama tribe killed the slaves one by one and praised the gods loudly under the leadership of the priest.

Shawei ignored the Netherlanders beside him and strode towards Karma. He had already carried out a large-scale mobilization in the tribe under the order of Karma. More than [-] tribal fighters and [-] slave fighters was incorporated into the army.After a while, it will be the day for them to set off. In addition to these soldiers, there are also a large number of personnel who transport food, arrows, gunpowder and other materials.After all, tens of thousands of people are going to fight, and all kinds of things are complicated.Although this is not the first time for the Karma tribe, Shawei still has many things to discuss with Karma.

(End of this chapter)