I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 470: Start contact

If we catch this thing and raise it for a few years, it might be able to be used to plow the fields.

A crew member named Li Dazhu even shed tears of excitement and cried, "If I had so many cows at home, I wouldn't even need to go out to sea!"

His companion laughed and said, "If you hadn't gone out to sea, how could you have seen so many cows?"

In fact, North American bison have extremely violent tempers and are extremely difficult to tame. An important reason for the low productivity of Native Americans is that there are no livestock suitable for domestication as power plants in America. The only domesticated one seems to be the alpaca.

If you really want to domesticate them, you have to go through many generations of selection and breeding. If you have the time, you might as well bring in cattle from the Ming Dynasty.
The American bison is extremely numerous in North America and is widely distributed. There are now about 5 to 6 million American bison in North America, scattered across the vast area east of the Rocky Mountains, mainly in the Great Plains. Later, due to the white people's indiscriminate hunting and grassland development, the number of American bison dropped sharply and almost became extinct, which can be called a tragedy in natural history. By 1889, there were only 541 American bison left.

Now, these American bison have recovered to hundreds of thousands through artificial breeding, becoming a national animal.
The crowd walked towards the bison with guns in hand, but the buffaloes ran away in shock before they got close.

Wu Liangshan was immediately alert: "No, these cows are afraid of people. They must have seen people before!"

Everyone advanced cautiously, set up tents and slept outdoors halfway, and continued their journey the next day, inserting wood or piling stones as marks every few hundred steps.

Suddenly, a herd of buffaloes were seen running wildly, and a group of natives dressed in strange clothes appeared.

Wu Liangchen suppressed his excitement, raised his telescope and observed: "They are half-dressed, and their weapons are simple, with only javelins and flying stones. Well, there are a few leaders with daggers hanging on their waists. Let's go over and take a look. If there is anything wrong, shoot immediately!"

There were no horses in America itself until horses were brought over from Europe.

Therefore, the natives were running on foot. There were about 20 to 30 of them, setting up ambushes along the way, constantly attacking the buffalo with flying stones and javelins until the buffalo were tired to death or bled to death and could not run anymore.

The natives were not greedy. They only hunted one bison and then stopped chasing it.

The men gathered around the prey and cut up the carcass. A strong native quickly cut open the bison, took out its heart and presented it to the leader.

The chief held the bloody heart and bit into it, while the other natives laughed and cheered.

After taking two symbolic bites, the leader put the heart away, tied it with dry grass and hung it on his shoulder. The bison carcass was cut into dozens of pieces, and each of the natives had one in their hands, but except for the heart, the rest of the internal organs were discarded on the spot.

Suddenly, the natives stood up alertly, pointing their weapons at the distance.

The Ming expedition team, a total of fifty people, slowly walked towards the natives. The natives did not attack immediately, but curiously observed the other party's clothes, as if they had never seen such a dress before.

The two sides stopped at a distance of 20 to 30 steps, and Wu Liangchen shouted loudly in the team: "We have no ill intentions.

The indigenous leader also stepped forward and said: "Jiliguala, Maka Maka"

It's like talking at cross purposes and I don't understand what you're talking about.

Li Dazhu was sent over to negotiate. This man held a steel axe and pointed the axe handle towards the natives to show that he had no ill intentions.

The natives also sent one of their own, who soon came face to face with Li Dazhu, gesticulating and talking incoherently. Li Dazhu scratched his head, not knowing how to communicate, but remembered a saying in the Ming Dynasty: "More courtesy, less blame", so he handed over the steel axe and said, "This is for you, take it."

The indigenous representative was stunned for a moment, curiously observing the steel axe in Li Dazhu's hand. This standard steel axe was produced in a factory in Tangshan. It was sealed with oil on the ship to prevent rust, so the surface of this steel axe was very smooth, without any rust, and shone with a silvery-white metallic light in the sun.
Just the appearance alone is extraordinary. The indigenous representative has never seen it before.
In addition, the axe blade of this steel axe is a perfect arc, and the entire axe face is a regular shape. In primitive society, regular shapes mean beauty.
So when faced with such a perfect steel axe, the indigenous representative showed an intoxicated look in his eyes, took the steel axe, then put down the bison leg on his shoulder and chopped into the beef leg meat with the axe. Looking at the chopped part, the indigenous representative was ecstatic and ran back to hand it to the leader, who also took the axe and tried it a few times.

This type of standard steel axe has a very reasonable handle design, the center of gravity is adjusted, and the grip feels good, so the leader immediately felt it was special after trying it twice.
Suddenly, the chief raised the steel axe high, and the natives around him cheered loudly and even danced around the axe to celebrate.

The Ming expedition team was amused. These natives were so ignorant that they were so happy about just an axe.

When the natives finished dancing, the leader hung his axe on his waist and led all his men over. Except for the beef heart, they piled all the buffalo meat they had hunted on the ground.

"Jiliguala." The leader pointed at the steel axe and then at the beef on the ground.

Wu Liangchen also began to gesture with a smile: "You mean, exchange beef for an axe?"

The leader thought Wu Liangchen was not satisfied, so he pointed to the herd of bison that were running away, as if to say that he could hunt a few more cattle to make up the difference.

Wu Liangchen watched the other party gesture for a long time, and finally understood it. He waved his hand and said, "No, no, this is a gift for you."

Wu Liangchen asked someone to move the beef back, then pointed at the axe and waved his hands to express his meaning.

The leader probably understood what was going on and became even happier. He walked to Wu Liangchen, chattered a lot, then turned around and pointed to the northeast.

"This is..., inviting us to be guests?" Wu Liangchen muttered.

A captain quickly reminded: "Brother Wu, it is better to be careful when you go out, don't let these natives harm you."

Wu Liangchen thought quickly for a while and said: "Load all the muskets with ammunition. If anything goes wrong, we will fight immediately. With their limited equipment, they can't defeat us at all."

The natives carried beef and sang an unknown tune as they led the Ming expedition team. After walking for about an hour, they finally arrived at their settlement.

They are all thatched houses, and there are not many of them. This tribe is estimated to have only a few hundred people.

Moreover, there are crops near the settlement!
One of the expedition members ran over to check and came back excitedly saying, "Captain Wu, these natives are growing broad beans!"

"Is there anything else?" Wu Liangshan continued to ask.

The expedition members shook their heads: "Nothing, only broad beans"

The Rocky Mountains served as a natural barrier, blocking the migration of humans and the spread of crops. These natives had never seen corn, sweet potatoes, etc. They mainly lived on hunting and gathering wild fruits, and also developed a relatively primitive agriculture, but the types of crops they planted were relatively single.

(End of this chapter)