Chapter 255: Indians Lying on the Ground

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

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

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 big feathers on his head, two full feathers more than him. He is 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 various companies to serve 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 bear skin 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 ghosts 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 Bowin 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.

"Eating meat every now and then, staying in the camp with good food and drink, isn't your life comfortable enough?"

"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, he now wants to vomit just by looking at it.

"I don't know how blessed I am. In Guangdong, I can't eat this thing 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 fish. I just want to eat some vegetables to get rid of the meat and fish." 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."

"Go away! The Indians here are no better 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 into the truck next to him and continued to talk 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 men, I don't believe these guys won't take the bait." Deng Yan stopped what he was doing, put Bao Yin's 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 annihilate all these ghosts. No one can let them escape!"

"Yes! Sir!" the signal soldiers replied.

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

The infantry can be used as bait to hide from the ghost elders at a distance, but if the ghost elders 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 soldiers took the order and left, Deng Yan said to Wang Shu again.

"Let the brothers continue peeling skins, do what you are supposed to do, don't let the ghost bosses stare at us, don't let the ghost bosses notice anything unusual. Put our tied skins in a more obvious and neat place, so that the ghost bosses can 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 trust 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 it was strange. He just couldn't tell where it was. He just intuitively felt that something was wrong compared to usual. My eyelids were twitching quite a bit today.

"Let's do it! These fine leathers are simply the best gift God has given us." Sanders geared up, looking eager and ready to take action 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.

It is not new for Indians to use muskets. During the Spanish rule in Oregon, the local Indian tribes in chaos exchanged furs with the Spaniards for muskets to improve the combat effectiveness of their tribes.

But it is good that three or four out of ten Indians are equipped with muskets. About half of the Indians are equipped with muskets, which seems a bit abnormal to Bernat.

"Many of our subordinates are retired veterans, and many 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.

What if the Indians are equipped with muskets? Aren't they just a group of loosely organized rabble?

They have dealt with Indians equipped with muskets in their previous battles with Indians.

Nettman urged Bernat impatiently, "Go ahead! Such good leather is in the hands of the Indians. It's a sin and a waste of natural resources! The Oregon region is the territory of the United States, and these leathers should belong to us, the legal citizens of the United States!"

"Yes, sir, give the order quickly! In addition to these leathers, there are hundreds of excellent scalps of adult Indians! I haven't seen so many adult Indians gathered together for a long time."

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

After the United States annexed the Oregon and California regions, the massacre of local Indians became more severe.

Compared to the Americans, the Spaniards and British in the west coast of North America became very amiable, kind and friendly in the eyes of these Indian tribes.

In the conflict with the Americans, the Indian tribes on the west coast of North America also learned their lesson. When hunting animals for furs, they were no longer as high-profile as usual. Friendly tribes gathered together to hunt and cooperated to improve the efficiency of obtaining furs.

Because when they hunted furs, it was the time when these white people were most active.

The reason why the white people in the Oregon area chose to act at this time was that, on the one hand, they could directly kill them to get their scalps and get rewards from their great chiefs in Washington, and on the other hand, they could directly occupy their furs, which could be said to kill two birds with one stone.

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

Not only Bateman and Sanders, but also other subordinates urged Bernat to give orders quickly.

"Prepare to attack!"

Bernat had to give orders.

His team was not a regular army, and he could not use military orders to restrain his unruly subordinates. The only thing that could restrain these subordinates was gold and dollars.

This is a group of guys who will do anything to get gold and dollars. It is unrealistic to expect them to obey orders.

In addition to his own 50 guards, the remaining 300 people, Bernat's ability to control them is very limited.

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

After Bernat gave the order, these white people quickly lined up under the order of the small leader and approached the Indian camp.

Looking at the Indian camp, Bernat couldn't help but laugh at these Indians for having no military common sense at all. They actually chose to make their camp in a valley with no danger to defend and backed by the Columbia River.

Once attacked and surrounded in such a terrain, it would be difficult to even run away.

However, thinking of the identity of these Indians as barbarians, they felt normal. If these Indians knew some military common sense, the price of their scalps would not have dropped again and again.

"Drive these Indians into the water, drive them into the Columbia River! Let them have no way to escape!" Bernat ordered with the Colt six-shot revolver in his hand raised high.

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

The Indians who heard the gunfire fought back with their muskets and bows and arrows.

But the accuracy of the muskets at long distances was limited, and the sparse arrows were even more touching.

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

"After all, they are a group of savages, just a mob!"

Seeing this scene, Sanders became more and more excited.

It seemed that the furs and scalps of these Indians were already in the bag.

"Look! Look at what these savages are doing. They were so scared by us that they lay down with their guns! How can they 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 barbarians don't know how to use them! Will they lie down and wait for the bullets in their guns to run out before being stabbed by our bayonets?"

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

Indians who lay down on the ground and hid behind logs and stone shelters to shoot back at them seemed to be using rifled guns, which were extremely accurate and could hit anything they pointed at.

After a round of shooting, more than 20 companions were shot and fell to the ground in an instant.

Indians using breech-loading rifled guns?

Bernett had a vague feeling of uneasiness in his heart.

Since these Indians were lying on the ground and shooting behind logs and stones, the damage caused to them by the shooting of Bernat and others was very limited.

As far as he could see, Bernat did not see any Indians lying behind logs and stones being hit.

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

Rifled guns are more expensive than smoothbore guns. In this era, the American army, whether it is the army or the navy, did not have many troops that completed the replacement of rifled guns, not to mention the civilian armed forces of Bernat.