Chapter 1531: The Chinese Are Coming! Their Numbers Exceed Three Hundred

The largest silver mine in the world is only six hundred li away!

But both Zhu Hehao and Zhu Cihuan knew they could not immediately lead their men over to seize all the silver and gold there — although they really, really wanted to!

Still, the two of them had sense enough, because neither had discovered Don Juan José's main army, which meant Don Juan José had already withdrawn his forces from the Pacific coast and fallen back to Zacatecas Province to set up defenses — as long as this regent of the Kingdom of New Spain had even a passing grade in military competence, he would know he had no chance of stopping the enemy at his borders.

He could only settle for the next best thing now: first fall back and hold the silver and gold of Zacatecas Province (which was equally rich in gold), and then decide. As long as he held great quantities of gold and silver, he could obtain arms and mercenaries from Europe and keep the Kingdom of New Spain going one way or another. If Zacatecas Province and the neighboring Guanajuato Province — both treasure lands rich in gold and silver — were lost, then Don Juan José's Kingdom of New Spain would probably fall apart.

And once the New Spain army of more than twenty thousand men withdrew to Zacatecas Province and set up defenses at several critical silver and gold mines, the forces the uncle and nephew Zhu Cihuan and Zhu Hehao had on hand would not be enough to take Zacatecas Province — Zacatecas Province was high plateau and mountain country, with difficult terrain, easy to defend and hard to attack. The Spanish had been operating there for over a hundred years, building fortresses in several important mining districts and passes on the main routes. Moreover, the Spanish and mestizo population there was very large, and the Catholic Church was extremely powerful — even the native Indians devoutly believed in God.

So if the armies of Zhu Cihuan and Zhu Hehao attacked Zacatecas Province, they would certainly be treated as invaders — winning would not be easy!

Rather than risk advancing west, it would be better to first swallow up all the territory that was easy to take, spend a few years properly digesting it, and then think about how to grow stronger.

Therefore, in early April of the year 1674 by the Western calendar, the expeditionary forces of the United States and the Jiaqing Kingdom (soon to be renamed the Qing Kingdom), after seizing the territories of Nayarit Province, Colima Province, and part of Jalisco Province of the Kingdom of New Spain, temporarily halted their offensive and sat down to discuss how to divide the spoils.

There were a great many spoils! They would have to discuss the division carefully!

Territory alone yielded five new provinces: Suo Province, Xi Province, Na Province, Ha Province (part of Jalisco Province), and Ke Province (Colima).

Among them, Suo, Xi, and Na Provinces had long been agreed to be handed over to Zhu Cihuan's rule, so naturally there was nothing to discuss there. But the status of Ha and Ke Provinces was undecided.

Zhu Cihuan naturally wanted to get his hands on them, while Zhu Hehao only wanted a few ports to establish free cities to fool investors from the United States — in truth, under the current circumstances, these ports were not worth much.

But what Zhu Hehao had his eye on was their future "growth potential." Once Zacatecas Province was taken, the value of Silver Port and Ke Province Port would immediately shoot up.

However, Zhu Hehao would not easily give ground on the territorial question either. Ha and Ke Provinces had both been taken by his troops — this was a bargaining chip in his hand, and he could not hand it over casually.

In addition, the populations of the five provinces of Suo, Xi, Na, Ha, and Ke were also an enviable wealth!

The warriors of the Qing Kingdom coveted the Indian serfs, while the investors of the United States valued the captured white and mixed-blood girls.

Since the spoils were considerable, the parties involved in the war would have to discuss carefully how to divide them, wouldn't they?

On April 12, after hastily settling the territories of Suo and Xi Provinces, Zhu Cihuan left the Guasave fort, which had now become Xi Province City, and traveled south to Silver Port to conduct friendly negotiations with Zhu Hehao.

By this time, the southern front of the North New Continent battlefield had temporarily quieted down. But on the northern front, on the great plains of the New Continent, the prelude to conflict between the two sides had just begun.

At the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, a triangular fortress built of earth and wood and countless small Indian tents appeared harmoniously together on the same stretch of land.

That small wooden fort belonged to the French and was named Fort Saint Louis. The name Saint Louis came from King Louis IX of France, who had been canonized as a saint by the Pope because he had joined the Crusades many times and died of illness on campaign, becoming Saint Louis. The Marquis de Marignane had named this wooden fort after him precisely to show the world France's determination to defend the Catholic faith in the New World.

And the Indian tents scattered around Fort Saint Louis belonged to the Great Sioux and the Apache — they had all been invited by the Marquis de Marignane to "protect the Great Chief Louis." Their numbers exceeded "two hundreds," with the two groups combined amounting to about ten thousand.

Not ten thousand warriors, but men, women, old and young all together numbering around ten thousand!

"Why are there only this many people?"

Above the wooden fort, the Marquis de Marignane, who had just arrived by water from New Rome, looked at the small Indian tents with great displeasure and was sharply questioning the newly ennobled de Pierre — the fur trader who had contacted the Great Sioux and the Apache on behalf of the Marquis de Marignane.

"Wasn't it said that the Apache tribe alone could field 5,000 warriors?" The Marquis de Marignane pointed at the tents outside. "Look — no matter how you count them, you can't count out 5,000 warriors!"

De Pierre smiled bitterly and thought: That's because Your Lordship's arithmetic is too good — you can actually count past 5,000. What learning!

"My Lord Marquis, the Plains Apache really do have 5,000 warriors, it's just very difficult to gather them all together," de Pierre explained.

"Why?"

"Because the Apache and the Great Sioux are both hunting and gathering peoples, and they live very scattered," de Pierre said. "If they concentrated too much, they would quickly eat up a large herd of bison and then fall into famine."

"Famine? That's just laziness!" the Marquis de Marignane said. "They could herd livestock. They could catch some bison and raise them, like the Mongols!"

Is Your Lordship joking? de Pierre thought. If they were like the Mongols, would New France even exist? There were quite a few Indians on the great plains — two million at least. If they practiced nomadic herding, they would form enormous nomadic tribes, and it would be possible for them to send out a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand men at a time.

If there were that many horse-riding, bow-shooting Indians, could New France with its ten-odd thousand people even survive?

"My Lord Marquis, the bison of the great plains are very difficult to domesticate," de Pierre said. "Bison have very bad tempers, like European bison, and are very hard to tame. Moreover, bison produce few calves, so herding bison is not worthwhile."

The Marquis de Marignane shook his head repeatedly. Just as he was pondering whether to get some European cattle and sheep for the great plains Indians to raise, the sound of hoofbeats came through.

De Pierre glanced over. "My Lord Marquis, the Apache warriors who went west to scout are back!"

The Marquis de Marignane said to de Pierre, "Go and ask — ask whether the Chinese have come! And get a clear count of their numbers!"

"As you command, My Lord Marquis."

De Pierre answered well enough with his mouth, but in his heart he had little confidence — the Indians of the great plains couldn't count! How could he ask clearly?

But even if he couldn't ask clearly, he still had to ask! He could only hope today's luck would be a little better and he would run into an Apache mathematician.

"Pierre, they've come, in great numbers!" A very young Plains Apache chief with a high forehead and a clever-looking face said to de Pierre, "Their numbers exceed 300!"

Exceed 300 — de Pierre thought: I really have run into a mathematician!

He identified the other party and found that this was the son of Crazy Horse, the great chief of the Plains Apache, named Eagle.

"Eagle," de Pierre said, not entirely certain, "exceed by how much? Much more than 300?"

Eagle shook his head. "Not much, not much. Just 300."

De Pierre smiled. "That's fine then. 300 is not many — we can kill them all!"

(End of Chapter)