Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 302 Heading North (Part 1)

"Have we been invaded by natives?"

On May 21, 1635, outside Beitunbao (now Port Hardy on Vancouver Island), located at the northern end of Qiming Island, the sea fog had not yet dissipated when more than a dozen large dugout canoes, as black as whales, quietly approached the harbor, forming a dark mass on the sea.

Each canoe is adorned with a menacing totem—a thunderbird with its crimson eyes blazing in the morning light.

The ship's sides were filled with natives wielding wooden spears and shields. As soon as the ship reached the beach, they disregarded the cold water and swarmed off, rushing towards the shore.

"Woo...Woo..."

The alarm horn ripped through the morning silence, and more than twenty men from the village, armed with muskets and daggers, quickly emerged from their wooden huts and lined up behind the village wall.

Gan Daquan, the person in charge of Beitunbao, stood on the watchtower, staring wide-eyed at the approaching natives, and remained silent for a long time.

This is outrageous!
How dare some natives try to take advantage of us Chinese? They probably don't know what death means.

"Village chief, they don't seem to be local people from around here," Chen De said to Gan Daquan after peering at them from the railing for a while.

"I can see that too." Gan Daquan licked his lips and said in a sneer, "Looking at them, they must be a bunch of native pirates from outside! ... Damn it, they actually dared to rob us."

Those canoes were twice the size of the boats of the nearby coastal tribes, with their hulls carved with coiled sea serpent patterns, and dried heads hanging near the waterline.

By the way, are there any indigenous tribes in the surrounding waters who make a living as pirates?
Beitunbao was only established last May. The entire village is just roughly surrounded by a wooden fence, making its defenses extremely weak.

Moreover, there are only twenty-six immigrants in the fort, more than ten of whom are new immigrants who arrived last year. They have not received much militia training and their combat effectiveness is quite limited.

At this moment, they held their muskets, propped them against the wooden fence, and peered outside with trembling eyes, their faces filled with panic and fear.

Good heavens, wasn't it said that once we arrived in the New Continent, we would have enough to eat and wear, and live a peaceful and tranquil life?
What, are we really going to fight to the death with the natives?!
The natives who landed did not immediately attack the wooden village. Instead, under the command of a leader-like native, they reorganized the chaotic group and devised an attack strategy.

They seemed quite adept at this kind of ashore raiding, and their organization was also quite high. The group of about 180 people, under the leadership of their leader, quickly formed a battle formation and slowly approached Beitunbao.

"Cowards!" After coming down from the watchtower, Gan Daquan glanced at the few trembling new immigrants by the village wall, pointed at them, and said, "You guys get to the back and load the muskets properly. Damn it, when the fighting starts, none of you should back down. Cheer up and fight alongside us against those natives outside."

"Hmph, no one should think about running away, and even less should they consider surrendering. The natives outside are a bunch of cannibalistic savages. If you fall into their hands, it won't be as simple as just getting a knife cut into your skin! You might even be skinned alive and eaten!"

"Therefore, our only option is to fight to the death. If we drive back the natives, we can all live and continue to eat meat and drink wine. But if the natives break through the village and storm in, then we'll all be fucking food for them!"

"Don't worry, village chief! Although we don't have cannons, these dozen or so muskets will still keep the natives out!" A short but extremely sturdy man nonchalantly raised his musket and swung it a few times. "If they dare to charge at us recklessly, we'll riddle them with bullets!"

"What utter nonsense!" Gan Daquan laughed and cursed. "It's not like an artillery shell firing grapeshot. How can you turn people into a beehive? Old Ma, when the fighting starts, you'd better take good care of this side of the village wall and make sure the locals don't rush in."

"Just you wait and see!" Ma Laowu said, setting up his musket on the wooden fence and keeping a close eye on the movements of the natives outside. "Sigh, if we had known we were going to have to fight the natives, we should have applied for a batch of plate armor from the higher-ups and sent it over. If we wore it, we wouldn't be afraid of their bone arrows and wooden spears!"

"Stop being a Monday morning quarterback!" Gan Daquan spat, picked up his musket, and walked toward the other side of the stockade wall.

"A-Gui, take the musket and go up to the watchtower to support Chen De."

"Kong Sheng, take a few men and move those dozens of barbed wire spikes out of the warehouse and throw them outside the village!"

"..."

Just as the new Chinese in the wooden village were hurriedly setting up defenses, the invading natives had already closed to within a hundred paces and were preparing for their final charge.

A tribal chief brandished a short knife, shouting loudly and clearly, as if he were giving a battle mobilization and boosting morale.

"Roar! Roar!..." The native warriors raised their wooden spears and shields, responding loudly with beast-like roars, their eyes bloodshot as they stared at the wooden fortress ahead. "A bunch of bandits!" Gan Daquan touched his missing right ear and said contemptuously, "Everyone, get your spirits up! We'll give them a good beating later!"

"No shooting is permitted without my order!"

Having been a veteran of Liaozhen, he considered this battle of a few hundred men to be nothing more than a minor skirmish and wouldn't take it seriously.

Back then, during the siege of Jinzhou, tens of thousands of Jurchen cavalrymen swept in with overwhelming force, a truly magnificent sight.

Yes, it was in that battle that most of his right ear was cut off by a Jurchen cavalryman.

If I hadn't dodged quickly, my head would probably have been chopped off.

However, he was eventually captured by the Jurchens, had his head shaved, and served as a slave soldier for several years, almost being tortured to death.

Later, he seized an opportunity to escape with several companions, and ran all the way to Gaizhou, where he hid in General Huang's territory.

However, Dongjiang Town did not trust these surrendered soldiers who had escaped from the Jurchens at all, and directly sent them to the labor camp to do hard labor, and to serve as cannon fodder on the front line when there was a battle.

Two years ago, Xinhua News Agency approached General Huang, saying that Xinzhou was going to fight against the Western barbarians and needed a group of soldiers with rich combat experience.

So he was sent to the new Chinese along with a group of cannon fodder, and then traveled by ship to the new continent.

Unexpectedly, when they arrived, the new Chinese had already defeated the Westerners and ended the war.

It's good that there's no war; at least I can live a few years of peace and tranquility.

However, last year the Xinhua government planned to establish a base at the northern end of Qiming Island and recruit immigrants to go there.

Hearing that all new immigrants who applied would have their service period shortened by one year and their performance evaluation would be more than 10% higher than those who stayed in developed areas, Gan Daquan immediately signed up.

When the officials in charge of the colonization department learned that he had been a veteran of Liaozhen and had served as a banner officer, they appointed him as the head of the new colonization base, assigned him a clerk, and brought more than twenty immigrants to the area.

Initially, everything went smoothly, whether it was building fortresses or purchasing furs from the surrounding indigenous tribes. Although these outsiders occasionally had minor skirmishes with the local natives, they did not escalate into serious armed conflicts, and their coexistence was relatively harmonious.

According to the government's plan, Beitunbao, where they are located, will be Xinhua's outpost for northward expansion and an important transit point for the fur trade, possessing extremely high strategic value.

In May and June of this year, as the weather warms up, the government's Immigration and Colonization Department will send more than 20 immigrants to Beitunbao while supplying them with materials, thus further enriching the manpower here.

Unexpectedly, before supplies and immigrants could arrive, they were attacked by a group of native pirates from an unknown place.

It is likely that these native pirates learned of their existence through nearby tribes, and then harbored malicious intentions, wanting to come and do a business with no capital.

Knives, axes, tools, wine, and even grains were probably all targets coveted by these natives.

Damn it, we've actually been bullied by these natives!
"Ready!" Gan Daquan silently calculated the distance to the other party through the gaps in the wooden fence; they were already close to sixty paces away.

Upon hearing the order, the immigrant with the gun raised his hand and his mind immediately sharpened; his finger gently touched the trigger.

Fifty steps!
The hideous faces of the natives were already faintly visible, and several short knives reflected a blinding light in the morning light.

Forty steps!
"Release!" Gan Daquan roared and pulled the trigger first.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!..."

More than ten muskets fired in succession, and plumes of smoke immediately rose up, blurring everyone's vision.
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(End of this chapter)