Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 206 The "Liberated" Indians
From the 16s to the 60s, the Indian population in the once densely populated central and northern regions of Mexico continued to decline due to many reasons such as plague, massacres, abuse, and the continued deterioration of the living environment.

A rough estimate shows that in the past sixty years, the Indian population has decreased by 60%-70% (in some areas the population reduction has even reached a terrifying 90%), leaving the land desolate and bleak.

Instead, Spanish private estates continued to expand and strengthen, which to some extent consolidated the foundation of Spanish colonial power in the vast rural areas.

In these Spanish haciendas, different forms of labor organization exist.

Permanent laborers, who had severed ties with the Indian tribes, had their own homes on the plantation and received a weekly ration of corn or wheat as part of their labor compensation.

The Spanish colonists legally recognized these people as "free", and local prosecutors' courts generally supported the "freedom" of these Indian laborers to choose their jobs when actually hearing cases.

However, the key issue was not the indebtedness of labourers living on the estates to their employers, but the fact that employers, burdened by market pressures, were often unable to meet their financial obligations to Indian labourers.

Well, to put it bluntly, Spanish landowners often took the fruits of the Indians' labor for free and didn't even give them basic compensation.

Under such circumstances, the accumulated dissatisfaction and anger of the Indians will gradually reach the critical point of their tolerance, and violent "wage-demanding" actions will often occur.

Of course, given the Indians' loose organization and weak military force, it was no surprise that they were brutally suppressed by the Spaniards. In the process, countless "free" Indians were transformed into slave-like "contract workers" on estates or miners in mines.

In addition, in order to vigorously promote Catholicism, those devout and stubborn missionaries wantonly attacked and desecrated the original religious rituals of the Indians.

They banned Indians from performing native dances, wearing masks, and praying with feathers, and, despite the anger of the Native Americans, forcibly destroyed a large number of masks that the Indians cherished.

There is no doubt that the Spanish actions not only enslaved and exploited the Indians' bodies, but also further ravaged and trampled on their spiritual world.

When you can no longer endure it, there is no need to endure it anymore.

On January 1632, 1, in a manor in Los Mochis, a small coastal town in the northwest of Culiacán Province, Mexico, more than a dozen Indians, wearing masks on their faces, with feathers on their heads and holding daggers in their hands, danced traditional tribal dances around several Spaniards on the ground.

The mournful tunes, the wild dance steps, the corpses and blood scattered on the ground, and the fireworks rising all around made the manor look like the end of the world.

"Hoohoho..."

The dancing Indian growled and raised his knife, slowly approaching the several tied Spaniards in the middle.

The faces of those Spaniards all showed expressions of despair and fear. They huddled together a little tighter, trying to gain a little comfort of security by relying on each other.

"Roar!……"

"Roar!……"

"what!……"

"Oh, God, please save my soul..."

"..."

When they got closer, more than ten Indians immediately waved their daggers and stabbed the Spaniards frantically, causing blood to splatter and screams to be heard.

In a moment, the Spaniards were stabbed into a bloody mess and fell in a pool of blood.

"Well, they've submitted their pledge of allegiance." Cui Dacheng was too lazy to read on. He curled his lips, turned around and left with his musket in hand. "From now on, I'm afraid these natives will have no choice but to go down this path and continue to fight the Western Barbarians!"

"Sergeant, can they defeat the Western barbarians?" Li Defa followed behind and turned his head from time to time to look at the Indians shouting and rushing into the Spanish hacienda owner's house.

Well, I guess they are going in to search for some valuable things.

However, after our Marines had cleaned out these houses for several days, there was nothing good left for them!

"We don't expect these natives to defeat the Western Barbarians!" Cui Dacheng said with a smile, "As long as they can cause some trouble for the Western Barbarians and keep them busy for a while, that's enough."

"Oh..." Li Defa nodded as if he understood. "So we're asking the Western Barbarians to delay their attack on us, right?" "That's right. The higher-ups said that as long as Xinhua has one more day to prepare, we'll have a better chance of repelling the Western Barbarians' attack. So, we have to make as much trouble as possible on the Western Barbarians' territory and stir up the natives who have been bullied by the Western Barbarians, making them restless. That way, the Western Barbarians won't have the time to bother us."

"Then why don't we kill all the Westerners here?"

"What are you thinking?" Cui Dacheng glanced at him. "We're not bandits who kill and rob. How can we just start a massacre? Transporting these captives back to Xinhua will at least give us some extra labor to help us cultivate the land, mine, and build roads. They'll be very useful."

"At worst, if the war goes against us, we can push them onto the battlefield to be our cannon fodder, letting them fight among themselves. How wonderful would that be!"

"That's right!" Li Defa nodded and said, "Then do we still need to continue fighting inland?"

"That's enough!" Cui Dacheng licked his lips as he watched the smoke rising from the distant town. "If we go any further inland, we might run into the Spanish army. We only have two or three hundred marines and the armed sailors on board. We could be wiped out in one encounter."

"I'm thinking we might need to retreat. We've been going on for four or five days now. We've captured a small town and destroyed seven or eight barns. It's been quite a commotion. The Spanish have probably heard the news and are heading this way. If we don't leave now, we're going to be stranded on land."

A few days ago, after wandering in the Gulf of California for a long time, the raiding fleet led by the "Wavebreaker" finally selected the coastal town called Los Mochis through the capture of several fishing boats.

Perhaps it was because there was a long and narrow California Peninsula outside the bay that gave the small town an inexplicable sense of security, so that the area did not have any defense measures to deal with the attack of the raiding fleet.

Of course, it is not accurate to say that it has no defense at all. At least a simple wooden fence was built on the outskirts of the town, and there was also a police station in the city with a sheriff and several Creole militiamen.

The town has a small population of only about 300 people, and it seems a little weak when facing the fierce and ferocious Xinhua raiding fleet.

When the landing marines and armed sailors launched an 85 mm (4-pounder) land battle gun, the townspeople who planned to hold out and wait for help immediately lost their courage.

After a few hasty rounds of musketry, the town sheriff raised the white flag and gave up resistance.

They only hoped that the pirates who landed would let all the residents go after extorting some money.

However, they never expected that this group of armed men, who were obviously different from European pirates, would not only frantically plunder the residents' wealth and supplies after quickly taking control of the town, but also tie up all the young and strong men and take them to the church for imprisonment.

In the following days, they plundered the surrounding estates. Gold, silver, copper, iron, tools, livestock, and food were transported to the shore in carts, and then transferred to the large ship bit by bit by small boats.

It would be fine if they only looted property and searched for supplies.

Pirates are definitely greedy.

However, to the astonishment of the town residents and many farmers, after these pirates captured their city and destroyed the surrounding estates, they actually released all the Indian laborers who were "hired".

Not only did the pirates restore the freedom of these Indians, they also distributed many weapons such as swords and spears to them.

Under the instigation and encouragement of the pirates, the Indians first hesitantly beat up the few "compatriots" who had surrendered to the Spaniards.

Seeing that the once high-ranking Spanish lords were under the control of the pirates, they were too afraid to rebuke them, let alone stop them, so they became more and more daring.

Several Indians who had been severely abused and humiliated tried to take revenge on their former masters by burning their houses, raping their women, and killing their children.

In the end, the evil of human nature was slowly released, and the Indians, driven by hatred and desire, began to retaliate against the Spaniards on a large scale.

If the pirates had not controlled the town, those frenzied Indians might have rushed in and carried out a brutal massacre.

Therefore, when the pirates began to organize the townspeople to board the ship one by one, they did not show much resistance.

On February 2, the Xinhua raiding fleet loaded the looted supplies and more than 1 town residents onto ships, then left the Gulf of California one after another and headed south.

The small town of Los Mochis and the surrounding farms on the shore were almost turned into a wasteland, leaving behind a scene of devastation.

Countless "liberated" Indians are enjoying their carnival and venting, giving full play to the endless desires in their hearts.

(End of this chapter)