1850 American Gold Baron

Chapter 258 Indian lying on the ground

"Lieutenant Colonel, we have been staying here for more than half a month, why haven't we seen Bernat's gang of ghosts come? Could it be that these ghosts have stopped coming?"

Wang Shu, who was wearing a bear skin and with seven big feathers on his head, said anxiously.

After putting on the animal skin suit, the feathers on his head became a symbol of his military rank. The more feathers, the higher his military rank.

For example, Deng Yan in front of Wang Shu had nine large feathers on his head, two more than him. He was the person with the most feathers on his head in the entire camp.

After the training of the teaching company established in New York, they were assigned to each company as grassroots officers and non-commissioned officers.

Wang Shu, who had been demoted to the rank of private in New York, was reinstated because of his excellent performance during the training period and continued to serve as the commander of the first company.

Of course, in addition to feathers, Wang Shu's military rank can also be seen from the entire bearskin he wears.

According to regulations, only company commanders, that is, officers with the rank of captain or above, can wear bearskin.

The reason for the distinction in clothing is to distinguish the Indians and California soldiers in the camp, so that when the enemy attacks, the soldiers can find their commanders as quickly as possible and organize them into battle quickly.

"Why are you so anxious? It's only been twenty-one days. It will take some time for those ghost guys to find this place. There are no trains in Oregon, and there are no roads in the forest."

Like a skilled Klamath tribesman, Deng Yan skillfully slashed open the chest of a beaver with the sharp Bowie hunting knife in his hand, neatly separated the beaver skin and meat, and then threw the beaver meat into the

In front of Wang Shu.

"Isn't your life comfortable enough these days, eating meat all the time, eating delicious food and staying in the camp?"

"It's because Dundon is meat, that's why"

Wang Shu glanced at the beaver meat on the ground and almost vomited it out.

He has been eating beaver meat for more than twenty days in a row. Not to mention the smell of beaver meat, just the sight of beaver meat makes him want to vomit.

"I don't know how to be blessed when I am in the midst of blessings. In Guangdong, I can't eat this stuff every time I want." Deng Yan glared at Wang Shu, "Looking at the bad habits you are used to, I am the commander-in-chief of the Guangdong Navy.

When I was young, I couldn’t eat meat more than once a month.”

"I'm just complaining. I've eaten too much of these meat and fishy foods, and I just want to eat some vegetables to get rid of the meaty and fishy food." Wang Shu scratched his head and laughed.

"There are so many poisonous insects like this. If we stay here for a little longer, I'm afraid we will become Indians too."

"Go away! The Indians here are no better cooked than the Indians in California. They can only fish and hunt. Where can they find vegetables? We have already planed all the wild vegetables nearby."

With that said, Deng Yan pointed to the meat that had been loaded onto the truck next to him and continued to speak to Wang Shu.

"Send a few brothers to pull this cart of meat to the artillery company's camp."

As soon as Deng Yan finished speaking, a sentry came running to report to him: "Lieutenant Colonel! They are coming, they are coming, our camp is being targeted."

"I've been waiting for this day! With so many good pieces of leather, I don't believe these guys won't take the bait." Deng Yan stopped what he was doing, put the Bowie hunting knife back into its scabbard, and then called five signal soldiers.

"Inform the artillery company and cavalry company to get ready. Tell them that the colonel has an order. This combat mission is to wipe out all these ghosts. No one can let them escape!"

"Yes! Sir!" the signal soldiers replied.

"Take it easy, don't let those ghost guys know that our people are hiding nearby." Deng Yan emphasized.

The infantry can be used as bait to hide the ghosts from a distance, but if the ghosts find out that they have established cavalry and artillery, they will definitely not be able to hide it.

Therefore, Deng Yan did not let the cavalry and artillery stay in the camp beside the river valley together, so as not to alert the enemy.

After the signal corpsmen took the order and left, Deng Yan said to Wang Shu again.

"Let the brothers continue peeling skins, do what you are doing, don't let the ghosts stare at us, don't let those ghosts notice anything unusual. Put our bundled skins in a clearer and neater way, so that those ghosts can't

Look at our good skins. I don’t believe we can’t catch these ghosts with so many good skins.”

Bernat has more than 350 people, and more than 350 people have more than 350 mouths. Faced with so many high-quality furs that are "at your fingertips", he doesn't believe in Bernat's gang of ghosts.

Can bear it.

Deep in the jungle, Bernat and others looked at the Indian camp in the river valley from a distance.

The mountains of fine furs piled up in the camp made them itchy.

In their eyes, these fine furs are dollars and gold!

Bernat always felt that something was wrong. Since his killing spree in Oregon, few Indian tribes dared to hunt beavers blatantly along the Columbia River.

Although this camp was not obvious and far away from the nearby white settlement area, Bernat still felt very strange. He just couldn't tell where it was. He just intuitively felt that something was wrong compared to usual. His eyelids were twitching today.

It's also a bit awesome.

"Let's do it! These fine leathers are simply the best gift God has given us." Sanders geared up, looking eager to give it a try and ready to do it at any time.

"These Indians have a lot of guns, and about half of the Indians carry guns on their backs!" Bernat noticed that the musket equipment rate of these Indians was quite high.

The use of muskets by Indians is not a new thing. During the Spanish rule in the Oregon region, the local Indian tribes who fought in the area traded furs with the Spanish for muskets to improve the tribe's combat effectiveness.

But it would be good if three or four out of ten Indians were equipped with muskets. About half of the Indians were equipped with muskets, which seemed a little abnormal to Bernat.

"Many of our men are retired veterans, and many of them are veterans who participated in the Mexican-American War. There is no need to worry about these Indians being equipped with muskets."

Bernat's partner Netman was quite disdainful of this.

So what if the Indians were equipped with muskets? Aren't they all a loosely organized mob?

In their previous battles with Indians, it was not like they had never dealt with Indians equipped with muskets.

Nettleman urged Bernat very impatiently: "Let's do it! Such good skins are actually in the hands of the Indians. It is simply a crime and a waste of nature! The Oregon region is the territory of the United States, and these skins should belong to us legal citizens of the United States.

citizen!"

"Yes, your Excellency, hurry up and give the order! In addition to these skins, there are hundreds of fine adult Indian scalps! I haven't seen so many adult Indians together for a long time."

Sanders couldn't wait to take out his Colt five-gun revolver.

After the United States annexed the Oregon and California regions, the massacre of local Indians also intensified.

Compared to the Americans, the Spanish and British on the west coast of North America have become very amiable, kind and friendly in the eyes of these Indian tribes.

During the conflict with the Americans, these Indian tribes on the west coast of North America also learned to behave. They no longer hunted animals for skins in the usual high-profile manner. Friendly tribes gathered together to hunt and divide labor and cooperate to improve the acquisition of furs.

s efficiency.

Because when they were hunting for skins, it was when these white men were most active.

The reason why the white people in the Oregon area chose to move around at this time was because, firstly, they could directly kill them and obtain their scalps to receive a reward from their big leader in Washington, and secondly, they could directly seize their skins, which could be said to kill two birds with one stone.

"As long as we get these skins and scalp these savage Indians. Take the skins to California and exchange them for gold, and take the scalps to Portland and exchange them for U.S. dollars, we will also be rich and wealthy."

Not only Bateman and Sanders, but also other subordinates came to urge Bernat to give the order to take action.

"Prepare to attack!"

Bernat had no choice but to give the order.

His team is not a regular army, and he cannot use military orders to restrain his rebellious subordinates. The only thing that can restrain these subordinates is gold dollars.

This is a group of guys whose father is whoever can give them gold and dollars. It is unrealistic to expect them to obey orders and prohibitions.

In addition to his own 50-man guard, Bernat's ability to restrain the remaining 300 people was very limited.

Even if Bernat didn't give the order, these people would definitely not be able to bear the temptation of these furs and scalps and do it themselves.

After Bernat issued the order, the white men quickly lined up under the orders of the small leader and approached the Indian camp.

Looking at the Indian camp, Bernat couldn't help but laugh at the fact that these Indians had no military knowledge at all and would actually choose to build their own camp in a valley with no danger of defending and backed by the Columbia River.

Once surrounded by such a terrain, it would be difficult to escape even by running.

However, when I think about the status of these Indians as savages, I feel like normal people. If these Indians knew some military knowledge, the price of their scalps would not drop again and again.

"Drive these Indians into the water and into the Columbia River! Leave them with no way to escape!" Burnett ordered, holding up the Colt Six revolver in his hand.

A sudden burst of gunfire broke the silence of the Columbia River.

The Indians who heard the gunshots fired back with muskets and bows and arrows.

However, the accuracy of long-distance muskets is limited, and the impact of sparse bow and arrow throws is even more impressive.

After a round of shooting, only two unlucky guys in Bernat's team caught an arrow and two bullets. The rest were unscathed.

"After all, they are a group of barbarians, nothing more than a bunch of rabble!"

Seeing this, Sanders became even more excited.

It seems that the furs of these Indians and the scalps on their heads are already in the bag.

"Look! Look what these barbarians are doing. They were so frightened by us that they lay down with guns in hand! How to load ammunition while lying on the ground?"

Bateman fired a shot at the Indian camp and couldn't help laughing.

"Even if we give them the most advanced weapons in the world, these yellow savages don't know how to use them! Are they lying down waiting for the bullets in their guns to be discharged before they receive our bayonets?"

But very quickly, the smiles on the faces of Sanders and Bateman, who had never seen the world, disappeared without a trace.

In their eyes, the Indians who lay down on the spot and hid behind logs and stone bunkers to fight back at them seemed to be using rifled guns, which were extremely accurate and could hit wherever they pointed.

After one round of shooting, more than twenty companions were shot and fell to the ground in an instant.

Indians with breech-loading rifles?

Burnett had a vague premonition of uneasiness in his heart.

Since these Indians were lying on the ground, hiding behind logs and stones and shooting, the damage caused by Burnett and others' shooting was very limited.

As far as his eyes could see, Bernat saw no Indians lying behind logs and stones who had been hit.

Bernat's weapons were mainly equipped with muskets, and only a small number of people in the team were equipped with rifled guns.

Rifled guns were more expensive than smoothbore guns. In this era, the American military, whether it was the army or the navy, did not have many units that had completed the replacement of rifled guns, let alone civilian armed forces like Burnett's.

(End of chapter)