1840Indian rebirth

"That's right." Ma Shao said, "The plains tribes will not participate in this war, and we cannot affect the outcome. We will not attack the Mexicans, and of course, we will not attack the Americans."

General Carney stared at him and asked: "So what do you think the outcome of the war will be?"

Ma Shao smiled slightly: "Of course, the righteous side defeats the evil side, and the counterattacking side defeats the aggressive side."

Carney was silent for a moment: "Of course you can remain neutral, but I have to say that your integrity has always been questionable - you have no contractual spirit, at least traditionally."

"We just don't have a contract." Ma Shao said, "Any fair and valid contract must be at least two copies. However, in the past, we didn't have our own writing, so we couldn't sign a contract."

Carney was slightly startled: "You mean, you have writing now?"

"Yes." The horse whistle nodded, "If you are not convinced about our neutrality, we can sign a neutrality contract now. How about it, General Carney?"

"Okay." General Carney actually wanted to see what Apache's writing looked like.

Ma Shao then took out the two contracts that had been prepared long ago and handed them to Carney: "This is the contract we prepared in advance. The content is very simple. Take a look."

Carney took the contract and read the English words on it.

The content is indeed very simple, just a few words. The general meaning is that in this war between the United States and Mexico, the Apache Plains tribe will remain neutral and will not even appear on the battlefield where the two sides are fighting. Of course, if they are attacked

Counterattacks after an attack are not subject to this restriction.

"I can't read your words, even though they are made up of letters," General Carney said.

"Apache writing is a phonetic writing, and the phonetic rules are similar to English." Ma Shao said, "As long as you understand Apache, it is not difficult to understand our writing."

Close to English pronunciation, this is one of the principles of the design of the Chinese Pinyin program.

General Carney thought for a moment, then turned around and said, "Call the translator."

A translator who knew Apache quickly came over. Ma Shao slowly read the content of the contract to him in Apache, and then said: "I believe you already know the Apache words corresponding to these letter combinations."

Already."

"That's right." The translator nodded, "It's really not difficult to tell. The pronunciation rules are very close to English."

General Carney asked: "Is there anything wrong with the content?"

Translation: "No, the content in Apache is exactly the same as the content in English."

General Carney looked at the contract again, and then couldn't help but ask: "Chief Albert, I'm a little curious, who invented this set of writing?"

Ma Shao: "It's me, of course, with the help of a friend of mine."

General Carney was surprised: "You made the Apaches the second Indian tribe to have writing."

The two sides quickly signed a neutrality pact.

General Carney: "I believe you are an honest man, Chief Albert, but I am still not sure whether you have the ability to restrain your tribe. After all, a tribe often has many scattered clans."

Ma Shao: "Please rest assured about this. The Plains Tribe has gathered all the clans. All members of the tribe live in Mianxiong City behind me. There will be no situation where any clan will violate the contract."

General Carney nodded: "In this case, you will not disturb our troops when they pass through here."

"Of course." Ma Shao said, and then changed the subject, "Also, General Carney, we have received a batch of advanced pistols from an unnamed European country. I wonder if you are interested in buying some?

"

"Pistol?" General Carney thought for a moment. "Pepper bottle pistol?"

Before revolvers became popular, pepper bottle pistols were a relatively common type of pistol.

This kind of pistol has many barrels, the muzzles are densely packed, and the shape looks a bit like a pepper shaker, hence its name.

"No, it's a revolver." The horse whistle took out a Browning revolver and handed it to General Carney.

Seeing this novel revolver, General Carney couldn't help but his eyes lit up. He took it in his hand to play with it, and he couldn't help nodding his head: "It looks very good. I have used Colt pistols, and this is better than the Colt pistol."

Walt is better."

He looked at the writing on the gun: "Browning...is it the name of the company that produced it?"

"No." Ma Shao said.

"Then who produced it?" General Carney asked.

Ma Shao smiled: "I said, this comes from an anonymous European country. They don't want anyone to know the origin of this gun."

Carney frowned, and then seemed to think of something: "Because of the patent law?"

The horse whistle did not answer, still smiling and noncommittal.

"So you are actually an agent?" Carney smiled.

The horse whistle still didn't answer.

Carney looked at the Browning revolver in his hand again: "Anyway, this is definitely a good thing. I am willing to buy it, so how much is it selling for?"

"General Carney, you know, this is war time." The horse whistle said slowly, "Therefore, as a weapon with excellent performance, the Browning revolver sells for fifty dollars a piece."

"Fifty dollars!" Carney's expression changed, "This is too expensive, more expensive than a Colt pistol."

"But it's better than the Colt pistol, isn't it?" Ma Shao said, "At least it's far more reliable than the Colt pistol. If you don't believe it, you can compare it now."

General Carney didn't try it because it was so obvious.

The U.S. Army already fielded some Colt pistols, so they knew the Colt's strengths and weaknesses.

Not to mention anything else, Browning clearly surpasses Colt in terms of appearance and feel, exuding a luxurious and solid temperament.

It is precisely because he is a professional soldier that General Carney believes that the Browning pistol is superior to the Colt pistol.

If you are a layman, after comparing Browning, you will definitely conclude that Colt is garbage.

So to be fair, in this war period, the selling price of fifty dollars is not outrageous, it is the price of two Colts.

But it's still too expensive.

A handful costs fifty dollars, and a thousand handfuls costs fifty thousand dollars.

Fifty thousand dollars!

Carney felt that it would not cost so much to bribe Armijo.

So after a brief thought, he said, "Thirty dollars at most or no one will buy it."

"Okay then, we have no choice but to give up on this deal." Ma Shao had no intention of lowering the price at all. He knew that it wouldn't be long before someone would rush to buy it at the price of fifty dollars.

Seeing him so calm, Carney became a little uneasy: "Wait a minute."