Chapter 170

Before the transaction between the gaoshu tribe and the Xiaohe tribe officially started, four inland river armed transport ships went out first.

This time, however, we did not go to the river tribe, but to the more distant fortress of okron.

After more than 20 days of labor in gaoshu tribe, the captured fransies finally decided to send them back.

Although the French are not very good, they can make trouble for the British when they put these guys back. The most important thing is that major Armand has agreed to use the food stored in Fort okron as a ransom to redeem himself and his French brothers.

The king of France is now Louis XV, the great grandson of Louis XIV, the once famous "Sun King", the fourth king of Bourbon Dynasty. Although he miraculously kept the Bourbon Dynasty, the French Empire at this time is already at the end of the day.

Especially with the defeat of the seven-year war, everyone can see that the once invincible Bourbon Dynasty is coming to an end now, let alone the stone bear whose soul comes from the future, who knows more about the history of Europe in this period.

So at first major Armand prepared to use the currency of the French Empire as a ransom for self redemption, and the stone bear would not hesitate to refuse.

I'm kidding. Now the currency of France has been devalued severely. As the Bourbon Dynasty is becoming more and more decadent, the currency of France will be further devalued. At this time, if you use the currency of France as a ransom, don't you give yourself eye drops?

The French are not short of salt, but the gaoshu tribe has its own salt farm, and the salt made by the gaoshu tribe is much better than the salt made by the French. Only a fool would exchange salt.

As for muskets and other hot weapons, Shi Xiong knows that even if he wants them, I'm afraid major Armand's superiors will not agree.

Therefore, the stone bear finally made a firm decision to use grain as ransom.

No matter now or in the future, food has always been one of the most important materials.

"Food is the most important thing for the people" and "there is no stability without agriculture" have proved the importance of food. Almost every year, the chairman's order No. 1 issued by the later Chinese president was related to agriculture.

In later generations, whether developed or developing countries, or underdeveloped countries, food has always been the foundation of a country. Even in the more developed countries, their people can not afford not to eat food.

Even those aliens in science fiction movies of later generations have to eat! As long as you eat, you can't do without food!

Maybe the food of aliens is different from that of our earth people, but you can't deny that those aliens can't do without food!

Therefore, food is the most basic and important material no matter in which era, country or region, or even in different solar systems.

In the new world of North America in this era, food is a hard currency comparable to gold.

The silver Egyptians minted by the French may not be able to be used in England, and the British pounds may also not be able to circulate in the French territory. However, it is undeniable that grains such as wheat, barley and corn are accessible in any country, which is even more powerful than gold.

Now the gaoshu tribe doesn't have enough food, and the Xiaohe tribe also wants food, so the stone bear decided to use food as ransom.

For major Armand and captain Constantine, it is also most appropriate to use food for self redemption,

Even though the Egyptians of the French Empire depreciated in Europe, they were still valuable in their countries. Moreover, they were all poor soldiers, and military salaries were paid in this currency. But even so, they don't have much silver on hand to redeem themselves.

But it's different to use food or other goods as ransom. Major Armand is at least the supreme commander of a military fortress. Even though there are only more than 500 Frenchmen living and living in the military fortress of okron, there are still a lot of goods and materials to and from this fortress every day. After all, this fortress is the largest military fortress on the Ohio River and close to the Mississippi River, There are still considerable supplies going in and out of the fortress every day.

As the highest military officer of a river transport fleet, Captain Constantine distributes a lot of materials every month through his hands. He is familiar with the military fortresses along the Mississippi River or on the Ohio River, and he also has a lot of "stocks" in those military fortresses.

Therefore, both major Armand and captain Constantine readily agreed to the big man's request for food as ransom.

At first, the stone bear lion opened his mouth. A captive needed 1000 French pounds of food for self redemption. In this period, the French pounds were a little more than the British British pounds, which was almost 1:1.1, that is, 1 French pound was almost equivalent to 1.1 British pounds. This weight was not much different from that of China.

In other words, a French prisoner needs 1000 Jin of grain in exchange for a total of 47 prisoners, which means about 47000 Jin of grain, or about 23 tons of grain.

This number frightened major Armand.

Even if he was in charge of an important military fortress, where there were about 200 soldiers and 300 French people living, he didn't have so much food on hand.

The grain of this era is not like that of later generations. A town with 500 people can gather dozens of tons of grain. Nowadays, dozens of tons of grain are not for fun.

Just like okron fortress, although the location of that fortress is very important and there are many people living in it, the fortress can collect less than 30000 Jin of grain at most, which also contains more than 200 soldiers' rations for half a year, that is, about 18000 Jin of grain.

As for captain Constantine, although he also has stocks in various military fortresses, it will take a lot of time to gather these stocks together. Therefore, major Armand and they must gather so much grain from Fort okron at one time if they want to redeem themselves.

But it's clear that even with major Armand's ability, he couldn't have come up with so much food.

Finally, at the entreaties of major Armand and captain Constantine, the stone bear finally determined a quantity of 500 Jin.

That is, a prisoner needs to exchange 500 Jin of grain.

Forty seven prisoners, that's 23500 Jin of grain!

So much food, together with the food owned by shanggaoshu tribe, is enough for the tribe's people to spend the two most difficult months that are coming.

In order to carry out this operation, 100 soldiers of gaoshu tribe were sent out.

These soldiers are all trained with muskets. Maybe their shooting skills are far from being comparable to those of the franceans. But after all, they have guns in their hands and guns on board. Even if someone doesn't want to fight, they have to weigh them up.

These days, a hundred Riflemen are no small force even in the colonies. If we take into account the 24 84 mm caliber valerian guns on these four armed transport ships, the deterrent force is not a bit big.

Forty seven French prisoners were put on board. Forty four of them were put into cabins. Only three were left on the deck. They were major Armand, Captain Constantine and one of major Armand's adjutants, Captain pieno. Because he was the adjutant of major Armand, he was also a big man in Fort okron, so he had his own horses. As a result, with his mount, he survived the firebull raid. But he was captured with Armand in the end.

The French soldiers were locked in the cabin, one by one not only had no opinions, but also were very excited.

Because they know it's time for them to go home.

Although it takes more than 20000 pounds of grain to pay for this, no matter what, life is more important than grain. Even if we bear a heavy burden for this, as long as we live, there is hope, isn't there?

The fleet started. As the person in charge of the operation, Shi Xiong naturally stood in the bow of the first transport ship. This operation is a long voyage to the letter, but also a practical training.

From gaoshu tribe to okron fortress, the whole journey was down the water, and there was no heavy load on these ships, all of them were people, so the speed was very fast.

When you get into the Tennessee River, it's faster.

Now it's snowy month (February). Although it's the snowiest month of the year, the frequent snowfall just shows that spring is coming.

The situation in the West foot of the Appalachian Mountains is quite different from that in the east foot. In the West foot of the Appalachian Mountains, the precipitation is the most abundant at the end of winter and the beginning of spring every year. Although the northerly wind going down south is very cold, it rises due to the blocking of mountains. In the process of rising, these cold winds will turn into precipitation and fall down.

Whether it's snow or rain, it's precipitation.

At this time, the weather is relatively cold, so the precipitation at this time is mainly snow, which is why February is called "snow month" by Cherokee.

Once the snow turns into rain, it represents the arrival of spring.

The frequent snowfall makes both sides of the Tennessee River Plain, but also brings plenty of water to the Tennessee River, which has been quiet for several months. So the Tennessee River, which has been quiet for several months, has quietly become manic at this time.

This can be fully reflected from the ship's speed.

When they fled from the longhaired cattle tribe to the tall tree tribe, they crossed the Tennessee River. At that time, the river was still very clear, but now, the river has become turbid.

The melting snow not only added a lot of water to the Tennessee River, but also brought a lot of soil. Once the river is completely muddy and yellow, the Tennessee River's flood season will come.

When the Tennessee River got rid of the shackles of the Appalachian Mountains, it began to flow from southwest to northwest.

This big bend in a mountain at the foot of a turn of almost 90 degrees, mighty toward the downstream whistling away.

Because of the lack of the constraints of the mountains, the river became much wider from this moment, the flow rate of the river gradually decreased, and large swamps began to appear on both sides of the river. However, because there is a large area of low hills on the east side of the river, the remnant of the Appalachian Mountains, there are less marshes on the East Bank of the river. But in the flat area on the West Bank of the river, you can see large swamps at a glance.

Yes, the water condition of the Tennessee River at this time is much worse than that of later generations.

The Tennessee River is a very dangerous river, and the Americans are the most aware of this. Before the advent of dam construction technology, the middle and lower reaches of the Tennessee River were almost uninhabited, because the Tennessee River, which floods more than ten times or even dozens of times every year, has completely turned the vast areas along both sides of the river into swamps.

Later, the Americans spent a lot of money to build several dams on the middle and lower reaches of the Tennessee River. Relying on the power of the dams, the manic Tennessee River was completely restrained, which turned this vast and fertile area into an important food producing area.

Now, there are no dams on the middle and lower reaches of the Tennessee River. Although the West Bank of the river used to be flat, the swamp on the west side of the river also surprised these tall tree tribe people who have never been out of the mountains.

This vast swamp area is the front line of the war between the Cherokee and the chekasa. To use a war term of later generations, this area is the front line.

It's just that this kind of front line can't be compared with that of later wars. The huge swamp makes it impossible for the two sides to have direct contact at all. The way of operation here is more like the way of operation of small units of sneak attack and anti sneak attack.

Because the Cherokee occupied far more territory than the chekasa, most of them attacked the Cherokee. Like last year's battle of the longhair cattle tribe, and the exterminated pumpkin Bay tribe, are all examples of successful attacks by the chekasa people.

But more often, small groups of the chekasa were wiped out by the Cherokees. After all, once you cross that swamp and the Tennessee River, you're in the Cherokee territory.

But every year, from late February to October, there is almost no fighting between the two sides in the middle of the eight months, because during this period, the abundant water of the Tennessee River will completely turn this area into a swamp. No one dares to fight in such a place at the risk of being swallowed up by the swamp.

It is only when the manic Tennessee waters subside that small groups of troops on both sides will fight.

In other words, from next month, the Cherokee and chekasa people who have been fighting for hundreds of years will enter a period of calm.

The fleet sailed down the wide Tennessee River. When they got to this place, all the soldiers were on guard. After all, this is the front line of the battle between the two tribes. Who knows if there will be any chekasa troops.

After driving so carefully for more than a day, the river in front of me began to open up