Chapter 75: Encounter with the Bolivian Indigenous
Thanks to kirito Tongzakaren and Tianjiao Laizhi for their rewards and support.
At noon, the warm sunlight shines through the dense leaves on the soldiers resting under the trees, making people feel warm.
Not far from the firewood pile for barbecue food, unsaddled military horses were leisurely eating wild grass.
Perhaps due to being too tired, a cavalryman lay under a tree with his eyes blurred, and soon fell asleep with a slight snore.
A soldier quietly walked up to the sleeping soldier, whispered to wake him up, and pointed with his right hand deep into the woods.
About three hundred meters away, a dozen alpacas were grazing with their heads down.
A dozen alpacas drove away the drowsiness of the cavalry, and waved to wake up the more than thirty soldiers in their platoon. They raised their guns and approached the alpacas carefully.
They advanced less than 200 meters when the grazing alpacas spotted them. Led by the leading llama, a dozen alpacas turned around and ran deeper into the woods.
The cavalry platoon leader stopped the soldier who was about to shoot, and first chased the alpaca in the direction in which it was escaping. The other soldiers followed closely behind the platoon leader.
Alpacas do not move as fast as wild antelopes. After running one kilometer, the cavalry platoon leader was about to catch up with them.
At this moment, the cavalry platoon leader running in front found an Indian holding a bow and arrow under the tree opposite.
The cavalry platoon leader, who had experienced the test of war, felt the danger and reacted instinctively, pounced forward and lay on the ground.
At this time, a bow and arrow hit the tree behind the cavalry platoon leader.
"There are enemies." Dodging an arrow fired from the woods, the cavalry platoon leader loudly warned the soldiers behind him.
There was more than one Indian ambushing in the woods. After the first arrow was shot, more than a dozen more bows and arrows were fired at the soldiers behind.
After being warned by the cavalry platoon leader, most of the soldiers hid behind the nearby trees in time. Only two soldiers who reacted slowly were injured by bows and arrows.
From the density of bows and arrows, the cavalry platoon leader judged that there were only about a dozen Indians in ambush.
So he made a gesture to the soldiers behind him, and then the more than twenty soldiers dispersed on both sides, leaving seven or eight soldiers in the middle to shoot to attract the other's attention, while he cautiously approached the other side.
Seven or eight muskets fired at the same time, suppressing the Indian offensive. They hid behind the woods and did not dare to attack the Chinese soldiers. At this time, more than 20 soldiers on both sides formed a formation to form a semi-fan shape to outflank the Indians.
The Indians in the woods realized that the situation was not good, and immediately left the big trees where they were hiding and ran towards the mountains behind the woods. The Indians who left the cover of the big trees exposed their backs.
The cavalry platoon leader aimed at the nearest Indian and was about to shoot him. He remembered the cavalry brigade commander's instructions, so he lowered the muzzle of his gun slightly and shot the Indian in the thigh.
"Be careful when shooting, and try to catch as many alive as possible," the cavalry platoon leader shouted to the pursuing soldiers after firing.
Because of the order from the cavalry platoon leader, the thirty or so soldiers were much more cautious when shooting, and as a result, half of the Indians were able to escape.
Four Indians were shot and wounded by Chinese soldiers, and five others were surrounded.
The surrounded Indians were wearing tight-fitting jackets, trousers that were only below the knees, and a cloak made of wool (a cloak is a cloak-like outer coat.). A coarse cloth belt was tied around the waist, and he held a bag in his hand.
He held his bow and arrows and pointed them at the Chinese soldiers vigilantly.
"Why did you attack us?" the cavalry platoon leader asked loudly.
But these Indians obviously didn't understand what he said.
He just stared at the Chinese soldiers with hatred.
Seeing that they did not understand what he was saying, the cavalry platoon leader said no more and ordered the Chinese soldiers to raise their guns and prepare to shoot, forcing them to surrender.
The Indians had been ruled by the Spaniards for more than three hundred years. Seeing the ferocious look of the cavalry platoon leader and the soldiers with guns ready to shoot on all sides, they understood that if they did not surrender, they would definitely be doomed, so they put down their bows and arrows and let the Chinese soldiers dejectedly
Tie yourself up.
After the battle was settled, the Chinese soldiers did not forget to carry back the two alpacas that were shot and wounded during the battle.
The gunshots from the battle between Chinese soldiers and Indians woke up Li Mingyuan who had just laid down.
Li Mingyuan stood up from the tent with a start, ran outside and asked the guard: "Where did the gunfire come from?"
"Report to the prince, it's the north."
To the north is the cavalry brigade's camp. Could it be that the cavalry brigade was attacked? A question flashed in Li Mingyuan's mind.
However, the Chinese Independence Army's security work has always been very strict. It is impossible for the enemy to sneak into the Chinese Independence Army camp quietly, and the gunshots were sparse, and it did not look like they were attacked by a large group of enemy troops. Could it be that the soldiers accidentally fired?
Li Mingyuan thought of many possibilities in his mind in an instant.
"The whole army is on alert to find out what happened!"
"Yes" the guard quickly rode towards the cavalry brigade camp.
News soon came from the cavalry brigade that nine Indians had been captured. Li Mingyuan called Zhao Youde, who had lived in South America all his life, and asked him to talk to the captured Indians and find out that they were attacking the Chinese.
military reasons.
"Your Majesty, they are the Aymara people in Bolivia. They said that our soldiers first robbed their alpacas, and then they fought back."
After Zhao Youde talked with several Indians, he reported to Li Mingyuan.
"So, those alpacas were raised by them?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, the Aymara people used to be nomadic people on the Andean grasslands. They used to drive alpacas and sheep to graze on the Peruvian and Bolivian plateaus. Some of the alpacas in our army are related to the Aymara people in Peru.
Obtained from trading with the Marathas."
Bolivia is a strange area for Li Mingyuan and the Chinese Independence Army.
In southern Peru, because Chinese workers have lived there for several years or even more than ten years, they can quickly occupy various areas based on their local knowledge.
Bolivia is different. Bolivia is the country with the highest proportion of Indians in South America. Indigenous Indians account for half of the country’s total population.
And unlike the Peruvian Indians who created the Inca civilization, there are many indigenous Indian ethnic groups in Bolivia, with more than 40 ethnic groups large and small.
These ethnic groups have a low level of civilization. Even if they account for the majority of the country's population, they still suffer from the oppressive rule of the descendants of European immigrants and the mestizo people after independence.
It was not until the late twentieth century, after Bolivia's reforms, that the Indians obtained their own land.
From a certain perspective, Li Mingyuan sympathizes with the Indians in Bolivia. They are simple and gentle, and have the same hard-working characteristics as the Chinese. Of course, their hard-working and non-aggressive characteristics have also led to the bumpy fate of the entire country of Bolivia.
In the previous life, Bolivia first lost its outlet to the Pacific Ocean in the Guano War, and then Paraguay won a large area of land in the Chaco War. It lost both wars and lost its territory. Bolivia gradually became the bottom country in South America.
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Li Mingyuan didn't want to bully these insignificant Indians, so he ordered the doctor in the army to treat their wounds and then let them go back.