Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 239: How powerful is the Ming tribe? Mingchang Immigration Base! [Subscribe]

Zhang Chengdao: "Don't worry, they didn't run away, they are all hiding in the house."

After saying this, he came to the stone wall and shouted, "Father, we have driven away the enemy. Come out, let's continue to exchange salt! Salt!"

In order to identify himself, Zhang Cheng shouted "salt" several times in a row.

There was finally movement inside the stone wall. The doors of the houses opened one after another, and the natives came out to look around.

Then the two young men came out supporting the white bear - although the wooden bow and bone arrows were not effective and the white bear was not hit in the vital parts, it was still seriously injured.

The young tribal shaman had applied herbal medicine to his wounds, so his life was not in danger for the time being, but whether he could eventually recover depended on his luck.

Bai Xiong felt a little relieved when he saw that although Zhang Cheng, Lei Ming and other Ming army soldiers were full of murderous intent, they did not rush into the tribe.

But when his eyes fell on the bird guns carried by Zhang Cheng and others (the bird guns of the Ming army spies were shorter, heavier and slightly thicker, making them easier to carry), he still felt fear - he also suspected that these people were sent by the devil, but he also knew that it was these people who saved them.

White Bear had the wooden door opened, walked out, placed his right hand on his chest and bowed slightly, saying, "Warriors from the strange tribe, thank you for driving away the Apaches and saving the White Bear tribe. I, White Bear, the chief of the White Bear tribe, thank you on behalf of the entire tribe!"

Bai Xiong spoke in dialect, so Zhang Cheng and the others naturally couldn't understand him, but they roughly understood his meaning of gratitude.

Because the white bear's chest-touching and bowing gesture is too similar to the etiquette of the nomadic tribes in the northern grasslands of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Cheng immediately stepped forward to communicate, "Father, although we have driven the enemy away, they may come back to attack your tribe. Your tribe's warriors should all be dead, right? Why not come to our tribe and let us protect you?"

Zhang Cheng said this more than ten times, gestured repeatedly, and even drew pictures on the ground before Bai Xiong understood what he meant.

The white bear looked back at the tribe.

At this time, the remaining men, women, young and old of the White Bear Tribe all came out.

All the young and strong men had died, and even among the elderly men, only he was left, and there were less than ten young men.

The rest were women and children under ten years old.

He knew very well that with only the current number of people in the tribe, if the Apache attacked again, they would definitely not be able to withstand even one wave.

What's more, they still need to go hunting - all the adult men are gone, only the elderly, women, and children are left, and they have to be on guard against attacks by the Apaches at all times. How can they possibly catch prey?
As for people like Zhang Cheng, to be honest, Bai Xiong still doesn't trust them very much.

But he has no better choice right now.

He was also worried that if he did not agree to follow Zhang Cheng, the warriors of these strange tribes might take action, and someone from the White Bear Tribe might die again.

Too many people have died in the White Bear Tribe, and he doesn't want more deaths.

Thinking of this, White Bear shook his head.

Lei Ming stared at him and said, "Did the old man understand? He shook his head. Does that mean he disagrees?"

At first, Zhang Cheng also thought that the other party disagreed, but he found that the old native man's shaking of his head was very strange - he did not shake his head left and right like the Han people to express denial, but used his neck as a support to shake his head in circles.

He pondered and said, "He's not shaking his head, but nodding his head. Perhaps he means agreement."

"Huh?" Lei Ming was surprised and shook his head imitatingly, saying, "Does this mean you agree?"

"I'll have another conversation with him and it will become clear."

Zhang Cheng smiled, walked forward again and gestured to Bai Xiong and started talking.

He soon confirmed that the other party agreed to leave the tribe and go with them.

So he signaled Bai Xiong and others to pack up.

The White Bear Tribe mainly relies on hunting, and there is not much worth taking away or that can be taken away.

Therefore, an hour later, seventy-eight natives of the White Bear Tribe, carrying large and small animal skin packages and several seriously wounded soldiers, entered the forest and headed west under the leadership and protection of twenty Ming army spies.

There were elderly people, women, children, seriously injured people, and they were carrying a lot of belongings, so it was natural that this group of people could not move fast.

In addition, they could not travel at night, so it was not until the afternoon of the next day that Zhang Cheng and others brought the White Bear tribe natives back to the Ming Dynasty Seattle to explore the forward base.

That is their centurion.

When Liu Wenzhong and others saw that Zhang Cheng and his team brought back so many natives, they were surprised and became alert.

Only after they saw that the natives were mostly elderly people, women and children did they relax a little.

Then many people thought: Could it be that Zhang Cheng, Lei Ming and others attacked the native tribe, killed the young and strong men, and captured the others?
But these natives don’t look like they were captured, do they?

When Zhang Cheng and Lei Ming arrived, Liu Wenzhong asked, "What's going on?"

Zhang Chengdao said, "Return to the captain, we happened to encounter this tribe being attacked by another large native tribe, and all the young and strong men were killed."

"We helped them drive away the natives, and since we saw they were no longer able to protect the tribe, we brought them back."

Liu Wenzhong frowned and asked, "Do you know how many people are in the native tribe that attacked them?"

"I asked about this on the way, and they say there should be more than 300 people, with more than 100 men. However, we killed dozens of men from that large tribe today, and their strength has been greatly weakened."

Although Liu Wenzhong was not afraid of a native tribe of more than 300 people, he still did not want the other party to target the base.

So he said, "You and Lei Ming should lead your men back the way you came. Try to eliminate all traces of your journey, or set up a false formation to mislead those who are pursuing you to another place!" Lei Ming couldn't help but say, "Cai Hu, they are just a bunch of locals. There's no need to be so cautious, right?"

Liu Wenzhong was too lazy to explain and frowned, saying, "This is a military order!"

Zhang Cheng and Lei Ming didn't dare to say anything more. They immediately clasped their fists and said, "As you command!"

The departure of Zhang Cheng and others made the people of the White Bear Tribe feel a little uneasy.

Upon seeing this, Liu Wenzhong ordered people to bring food and boiled water to entertain the natives, and also called the only doctor in the centurion's office to treat the injured natives.

At the same time, he did not forget to secretly count the number of natives, old, young, women and children.

"Fifteen old men and women, thirteen children, eight young men, and forty-two young and strong women! Not bad!"

Seeing that the proportion of young and strong women among the natives was so high, Liu Wenzhong was secretly happy - this saved some of them the effort of finding wives.

"Next, we must be wary of that large tribe seeking revenge."

"But there's a saying that goes, 'You can't be on guard against thieves for a thousand days.' Once we understand the situation of that large native tribe, perhaps we can take the initiative to send troops and destroy them to prevent future troubles!"

While Liu Wenzhong was planning to eliminate the Apache tribe, Bai Xiong and his people were still in shock about the tribe called "Daming".

Someone kept looking at the watchtowers and arrow towers of the camp and marveled, "Oh my God, how could they build wooden houses so high?"

"Their tribe is so big, and all of them have wooden walls and houses. It's so strange."

"Why is this Daming tribe full of young men? Where are the elderly, women, and children?"

"···"

The white bear did not exclaim in surprise like his fellow tribesmen, but he was just as surprised and confused in his heart.

Compared with the strange buildings, clothing and weapons of this Ming Dynasty tribe, he was even more puzzled by the fact that the entire tribe was composed of warriors.

As an old man who has lived for more than fifty years and has rich experience, Bai Xiong quickly thought of a possibility.

"Perhaps this is not the tribe called Daming, but a temporary residence for their warriors."

Thinking of this, White Bear was even more shocked.

"How powerful must the Daming tribe be to send a hundred such formidable warriors here and build such a large temporary settlement? And what was their purpose in sending them here?"

After the shock, White Bear had even more doubts in his mind.

···
···
After leaving Seattle, the First Exploration Fleet headed straight for the Mexican region on the map of America.

In order to save time and avoid accidents, they did not set up any other supply points or observation posts along the way.

In less than a month, they reached the west coast of the Mexican region on the map and landed at Mingchang Port (Acapulco Port, just west of Mexico City) on the map.

Zhang Bingyi stood on the deck, feeling the sea breeze and gazing at the natural harbor, the beach, the grass, and the forest on the shore. He couldn't help but say, "It is said that the name Mingchang Port was chosen by His Majesty. This shows the importance His Majesty attaches to the Mexican region."

Chen Zhongming had already seen enough of the scenery on the American coast, so after taking a few glances and finding no trace of the natives, he put away the telescope.

Hearing this, he said, "Didn't the 'Guidebook for Exploration of America' given by the imperial court say that there are many silver mines here, and that the ore contains extremely high amounts of silver?"

"Plus, this is already considered Central America, so it's very likely we'll find corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, and maybe even rubber trees."

"These two points alone are enough to make His Majesty and the court pay attention to the Mexican region."

"You've missed a point," Zhang Bingyi said with a smile. "According to the handbook provided by the imperial court, a fairly large indigenous nation has likely emerged here, and the indigenous people are more civilized than those in North America."

"Our Ming Dynasty wants to develop America. Given the shortage of population, it is important to make full use of the local natives. More civilized natives are easier to utilize than uncivilized ones."

"Zhang Tongzhi's words make sense," Chen Zhongming nodded. "Let's get off the boat. According to the imperial decree, this place is to be built into a permanent immigration base, initially with a capacity of 1,000 households."

After saying that, Chen Zhongming strode down the deck.

Zhang Bingyi followed and said, "The weather is scorching hot right now, so it's not convenient for us to send people inland to explore. This is a good opportunity to concentrate our manpower on building a base."

Chen Zhongming said, "There's no need to rush inland, but we still need to understand the situation within the surrounding thirty miles."

As he was speaking, Chen Zhongming got off the Chengfeng, stepped onto the land, and immediately issued a series of military orders.

Soon, the Ming army soldiers who came on and off the ships began to work in an orderly manner...
For Chen Zhongming and other Ming Dynasty soldiers, the summer in Mingchang Harbor was even hotter than in Guangzhou.

However, amidst the busy construction, September soon arrived and the bay finally felt a little cooler.

After more than two months of construction by more than 3,000 people, the Mingchang Immigration Base in America was finally completed.

If you look from the observation deck of Chengfeng at this time, you can see that the Mingchang base is actually a small city with a mixed structure of earth, wood, brick and stone!

The city wall has a circumference of only four miles, is only 15 feet high and 10 feet wide, and is made of rammed earth.

There are three city gates in the east, west and south. The gate towers are more than three meters high and are made of bricks and stones.

　Second update.

　　Thanks to [zxdao123] for the reward of 500 Qidian coins!
　　Good night~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)