Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 3 Everyone has their own plans
"Captain, the native camp isn't very large. It's about... one-twelfth of a league (about 400 meters) from the shore, and it's surrounded by dense forest. If we hadn't done a thorough investigation, it would have been impossible to find this native camp on the shore!"

Towards evening, the St. Louis chased the escaping canoe to a secluded semi-open bay, then lowered a lifeboat and carefully rowed towards the shore with seven or eight sailors on board.

It was not until it was completely dark that the sailors who went ashore to explore returned. The boatswain Harvey then reported their findings on the shore to the captain Juan Gomez Goyer.

"So how many natives are there in the camp?"

"I'm sorry, Captain, it's dark, so we can't see the camp clearly," Harvey said, shaking his head. "But we estimate there are between forty and fifty natives in the camp. They seem to have offensive weapons, probably wooden spears and perhaps stones. Oh, and we also saw a tall watchtower in the camp."

"A towering watchtower?" Captain Goyle was surprised. "I remember those missionary priests who went to California mentioned that the Indians in the north were very ignorant and backward. They couldn't even build basic houses, let alone a towering watchtower! Could it be that there are our Spanish missionaries in that native camp?"

"Oh, and we saw the natives hanging a red flag in the camp." Harvey suddenly thought of something and said quickly, "Yes, a red flag! It might be a symbol of the natives' tribal identity. ... This is unbelievable! I think there must be civilized people in the native camp. Well, maybe one of our Spanish missionaries is among them. ... You know, the natives don't even have a piece of cloth."

"The presence of civilized people? Ha, that's very interesting. ...So when you were exploring the native camp, did they discover you?"

"...Captain, there's a watchtower in the native camp," Harvey warned cautiously. "So, they must have noticed us. They might have seen us when our ship reached the coast. Besides, we were following a small canoe, and the native in that canoe must have been a member of this tribe."

"Have you tried to approach?"

"...No." Harvey's face showed a hint of embarrassment. "Captain, you know, it's getting dark. We can't take a close look at the situation in the native camp. I'm worried that if we rashly approach them, we'll be attacked by the natives."

"Well, you made the right choice." Captain Goyle patted Harvey on the shoulder and said with a smile, "Well, take your men to dinner. Let's have a good rest tonight, and we will visit the native camp tomorrow morning."

"Yes, Captain!"
-
The night was deep, and the forest was pitch black all around. A breeze blew, bringing a rustling sound and a chill.

Li Liang tightened his long-sleeved jacket and turned to look at his companion next to him.

But Wei Zhonglong was seen wrapped in a crudely tailored mink vest, leaning against the wall with his head tilted, snoring softly, obviously asleep.

Li Liang looked outside the village wall again. It was pitch black and he could not see anything. However, he felt vaguely uneasy, as if there were some terrible ghosts hiding in the darkness, ready to pounce and devour him at any time.

He couldn't help but grip the Type 95 assault rifle in his hand a little tighter to give himself some courage.

Yes, in this world, there is no weapon that can compare with the Type 95 assault rifle in his hand. The 5.8mm bullet can penetrate 100mm steel plate within 8 meters and still have a slight lethality.

If those unexpected Spaniards dared to break into the village, the dense firepower of several assault rifles would surely make them unable to return and would all die here.

Besides, they are just a bunch of crude Spanish colonists. What's so scary about them?
"Huh..." Thinking of this, Li Liang let out a breath.

"What, are you scared?"

Suddenly, a voice came from the side, which scared him so much that he almost turned around and raised his gun to shoot.

"Aren't you asleep?" Li Liang watched Wei Zhonglong hunch his neck, wrapping his mink vest a little tighter around him, sniffing as if he was a little cold. "How can I sleep like this?" Wei Zhonglong said with a wry smile. "It's only around 10 degrees Celsius tonight, about the same as the winter in my hometown in the mountains. I can only take a nap and close my eyes for a while. If I sleep here for a while, I'll definitely catch a cold tomorrow morning! ... Doctor Dong is so stingy, he will definitely not give me any medicine."

"Those medicines are all for our lives. We can't waste them unless it's absolutely necessary," Li Liang said. "However, the small amount of medicine we brought with us won't last long. Sooner or later, we'll run out. By then, if we get any more headaches, fevers, external injuries, tetanus, or other illnesses, we'll have no choice but to endure them."

"Yes, the medicines we've brought will eventually run out," Wei Zhonglong whispered. "Everything we've brought will be used up at some point in the future. What will we do then? Are we going to live a primitive life of eating raw meat and drinking blood like those Indians?"

"How is that possible?" Li Liang shook his head and said, "We are from the 21st century after all. If we can just come up with something, we can live a hundred or a thousand times better than those Indians."

"But we've been here for three months, and we've only just built this simple wooden fort to shelter in." Wei Zhonglong said quietly, "If we want to live a modern life in the future, it will probably take a long time!"

"...We've been lacking the necessary tools!" Li Liang was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said, "It took over a month just to chop wood, clear the land, and build the house. You know, we don't even have a chainsaw, and we're chopping trees by hand. How could that not be time-consuming?"

"But now even the few axes we have are broken. What are we to do now?"

"Didn't the Spanish send this to me?"

"Spaniards?" Wei Zhonglong subconsciously glanced towards the dark jungle outside the camp. "Are you sure that the Spanish ship has the tools we need?"

"Of course there are," Li Liang said confidently. "An ancient sailing ship like theirs must have all kinds of tools on board. Think about it, when a ship is sailing on the sea, the mast, planks, and sides of the ship are damaged accidentally, or if it encounters a storm, wouldn't the crew have to repair the ship themselves? I think that in addition to the tools we need, the Spanish ship may also have food and wine."

"Food and wine?" Wei Zhonglong perked up immediately upon hearing this. "In the past few months, in order to save the few remaining canned goods, we've been eating fish, meat, and wild fruits every day. I'm getting tired of it. Oh, and do they have any tea on the ship?"

"Maybe." Li Liang was a little uncertain. "I don't know where this Spanish ship came from. If it came from Mexico, it might not have tea. If it came from the Philippines, the cargo it carried would be very rich, and there might be a lot of tea."

“Why are there so many goods coming from the Philippines?”

"Spain once conducted trans-Pacific trade between Mexico and the Philippines for over two hundred years," Li Liang said. "Shiploads from the Philippines would have been loaded with silk, porcelain, tea, lacquerware, cotton cloth, ivory, carpets, tea from China, India, Persia, Japan, and other countries, as well as Philippine embroidery, pearls, wood carvings, and other goods. These would then be shipped to the Mexican port of Acapulco and sold throughout Mexico and Spanish America, with some even being re-exported back to Spain."

"So what would a ship carrying come out of Mexico?"

"Ships sailing out of Mexico are usually loaded with large quantities of Spanish silver dollars, copper ingots, and other precious metals," Li Liang said with a smile. "However, ships engaged in trans-Pacific trade generally don't sail north to the vicinity of Vancouver Island. Normally, they follow the equatorial current westward, heading directly to the Philippines."

"Hey, you know so much! Hey, tell me, if it were not an normal situation, would they come to our side with a ship full of gold and silver?" Wei Zhonglong's eyes were shining with gold, as if the area in front of him was full of gold and silver.

"For us right now, a shipload of gold and silver won't be of much use. We're broke and have nothing to offer. Instead, we're hoping this ship will be loaded with goods from the East. Especially cotton cloth and carpets. Winter's coming here soon, and they're exactly what I need."

"Oh, that's right," Wei Zhonglong said sheepishly. "Even if we get a shipload of gold and silver, we can't buy food or clothes in this shabby place. ... In other words, we must do everything we can to capture that Spanish ship?"

"Right!" Li Liang gripped the 95 assault rifle tightly in his hand. "We must capture that ship. With the supplies on board, we can truly gain a foothold here, instead of freezing to death in the extreme winter."

(End of this chapter)