North America 1849, from Gold Rush to Warlord

Chapter 52: Alive? Female?
"Alive? Female?"

"Take her back!"

Two other people were brought back alive along with the female bandit.

After killing the rest of the Razor Gang bandits, they were all thrown far away into the woods. In a few days, the wolves would have wiped them out.

Counting the casualties on his side, he found four dead and a dozen injured. Most of these were caused by the Razor Gang's surprise attack in the dark, which caught them off guard at the beginning.

Collecting corpses, treating the wounded, repairing damaged wooden walls... This is destined to be a sleepless night.

In the middle of the night, the Blackfoot tribe who were chasing the Razor Gang came back with more than a dozen bloody scalps!
"Li, my brother from the Far East, this is a gift for you!"

Blood Eagle proudly placed the bloody scalp in front of A-Zu.

Ah Zu looked at the table full of scalps and did not feel as uncomfortable as he had imagined. "Blood Eagle, my brother, this is a testimony of our friendship cemented in blood!"

"A friendship forged in blood? I like that phrase, hahaha!"

Including the scalps hunted by the Blood Eagle, at least fifty to sixty people from the Razor Gang died tonight, and the remaining ones are no longer a threat.

Unless, they contact and entangle other gangs!
The three elders of the Blackfoot tribe did not participate in the battle, but they watched the entire process.

"Lee, your camp has a strong military force, why do you need the friendship of our Blackfoot people?"

One of the elders, who had a diamond pattern tattooed on his forehead but with three extra horizontal lines, actually started speaking English.

A Zu looked at him with a little surprise: "Respected elder, can you speak English?"

The elder nodded slowly. "Many years ago, when I was young, I saved a white man. While he was recovering from his injuries in the tribe, he taught me English."

"This is the great elder of our tribe, Bearskin!"

Blood Eagle introduced.

"Respected Elder Bearskin, I once told Blood Eagle that you and I share a common ancestor. We share the same blood. We are the most distant brothers."

A Zu continued: "So, I have always had a brotherly affection for you, not just a simple friendship!"

A-Zu waved his hand, asking Old Martinez, Jason and others to go out first, and then continued.

"In this vast land, those white people slaughtered you, drove you away, and made you suffer from deadly diseases that you have never had before. You are struggling on the brink of life and death!"

"This is your land, this is your home. The white man not only took your land and home, but also wants to kill you all."

"We Chinese, like you, are also suffering from the oppression and enslavement of the white people. They poison my compatriots with opium and seize our land and homes with guns and cannons."

"So, we all have the same experience! No matter what, we should never point guns at our own people."

"We should join hands to fight against this unfair fate and take back everything that belongs to us!"

"Am I right, respected Elder Bearskin?"

The bear-skin elder, who was already very old and had few teeth left, said with droopy eyelids: "But, there are obviously quite a few white people here. Why?"

"There are good white people and bad white people! I will use these good white people to fight against the bad white people. Only in this way can I succeed."

"Okay white guy... hehe!"

Elder Xiongpi seemed to disagree with what A-Zu said and sneered.

"Only dead white people are good white people! Including the white man I saved. After he recovered from his injuries, he stole the most beautiful flowers from our Blackfoot tribe...!"

Having said this, Elder Bearskin fell silent and fell into long memories.

"Lee, I'm not interested in what you're saying about joining forces to resist the white people, because that's doomed to fail."

Elder Bearskin continued, "Let's talk about how much food and wine you can give us so that my people can safely survive this winter." The Blackfoot people's main resource for survival is the huge herds of bison on the North American continent.

Only by hunting enough bison can the survival and reproduction of the tribe be guaranteed.

However, due to the uncontrolled and crazy hunting by white people, the number of bison is decreasing.

This also put most Indians, including the Blackfoot, into the most fundamental survival crisis.

The Blackfoot tribe was in urgent need of food, so Bearskin and two other elders took the risk to come to A-Zu's gold mining camp.

Of course, the food and wine that Blood Eagle brought back were also very convincing, making them feel that it was worth taking the risk.

A Zu thought for a moment and said, "Elder Xiongpi, how many people are there in your tribe? How much food and wine do you need?"

Elder Bearskin replied, "Ten more times the food and wine that Blood Eagle brought back last time."

Last time, Blood Eagle brought back over 3,000 pounds of grain and five barrels of wine. Ten times, that would be over 30,000 pounds of grain and 50 barrels of wine.

Seeing that A-Zu was silent, Elder Xiongpi thought his offer was too high, so he said, "If you give us enough food and wine, I will not only allow you to pan for gold here, but I will also send some warriors to ensure your safety."

"Haha!" A Zu smiled and shook his head: "Respected Elder Xiongpi, what you asked for is really too little!"

"I'll give you thirty times the supplies I gave you last time!"

Thirty times means one hundred thousand pounds of grain and one hundred and fifty barrels of wine.

It sounds like a lot, but it's just the amount of supplies Captain Vic would have delivered one extra time.

One hundred thousand pounds of grain is only more than forty tons. For a paddle steamer with a displacement of 300 tons, this amount of supplies cannot even fill an entire ship.

Due to the population explosion, the prices of all kinds of materials are skyrocketing, but the total value of these grains and wines will not exceed 20,000 to 30,000 US dollars.

"Three... thirty times?" Elder Xiongpi was quite surprised. "Li, are you telling the truth?"

"Of course! But I have one more request."

"What do you want? As long as you can give us enough food and wine, our Blackfoot girls are famous for their beauty and ability to bear children..."

"Ah, this... Elder Bearskin, what are you thinking about?"

"So what are your requests?"

"Elder Xiongpi, come and see!" A Zu pulled him to the door and pointed to the source of the stream upstream, the distant mountain shrouded in darkness.

"Is that big mountain the land of your Blackfoot people?"

"Lee, you want that mountain?"

"No, no, no, what I want is not the mountain, but your right to allow me to pan for gold in the mountain."

Elder Bearskin gazed at the shadowy ridgeline and recalled, "That's our Elephant Mountain!"

"Legend has it that our ancestors once hunted many giant woolly elephants on this mountain!"

Mammoth?

After hearing this legend, A Zu became more certain of his inference.

This mountain should be the place where the "mother mine" of all gold sand is located!
In other words, almost all the gold sand in the numerous gold mining sites throughout the Bay Area was washed down from the "mother mine" by floods.

There is a legend among gold diggers that where there are mammoth ivory, there must be rich gold mines!

"Next year, next year I will mine the gold on this mountain, Elder Bearskin. I hope to get your permission!"

(End of this chapter)