Before the transaction between the Gaoshu tribe and the Xiaohe tribe officially began, four armed inland water transport ships were dispatched once.

　　 But this time the dispatch was not to the Xiaohe tribe, but to the more distant Alcron Fortress.

　　 After the captured Frenchmen were reformed through labor in the Gaoshu tribe for more than 20 days, Shi Xiong finally decided to send the guys back.

Although the French are not good, they can add trouble to the British after putting these guys back. The most important thing is that Major Armand has agreed to use the food hoarded in the fortress of Alcron as a ransom, and he still has his subordinates. Help the French brothers to redeem themselves.

The king of France is now the great-grandson Louis XV of the famous "Sun King" Louis XIV. Although the fourth king of the Bourbon dynasty magically saved the Bourbon dynasty, the French empire is already at dusk. Xishan.

　　Especially with the defeat of the Seven Years' War, everyone can see that the once invincible Bourbon dynasty is now almost over, let alone the stone bear whose soul comes from the future knows more about the history of Europe during this period.

　　 Therefore, at the beginning, Armand did not calibrate the spare French empire's currency as a ransom for self-redemption, so Stone Bear would refuse without hesitation.

Just kidding, France’s currency is now depreciated severely, and as the Bourbon dynasty becomes more and more decayed, the French currency will further depreciate. At this time, using French currency as a ransom, wouldn’t it be that you put yourself eye drops ?

　　The French don’t lack salt, but the Gaoshu tribe has a salt farm, and the salt made by the Gaoshu tribe is far better than the salt made by the French. Only fools can exchange salt for it.

　　 As for firearms and other thermal weapons, Shixiong knew very well that even if he wanted it, Major Armand’s superiors would not agree to it.

　　 Therefore, Shi Xiong finally made a firm decision to use grain as a ransom.

　　 Food, whether it is now or in the future, has always been the most important material, not one of them.

　　 "Food is the heaven for the people" and "no agriculture is unstable", these old Chinese sayings have actually fully proved the importance of food. The Chairman's No. 1 Order issued by the chairman of the subsequent generations of China almost every year was related to agriculture.

　　 In later generations, whether it is a developed country, a developing country, or an underdeveloped country, food has always been the foundation of a country. Even in a more developed country, its people will not be able to eat food.

　　 Even the aliens in the future generations of science fiction movies have to eat! As long as you eat, you cannot do without food!

　　Maybe the food of aliens is not the same as the food of our people on earth, but you can't deny that those aliens can't do without food!

　　 Therefore, food is the most basic and important material no matter in which era, country and region, or even in different solar systems.

　　In the New World of North America in this era, food is a hard currency comparable to gold.

The Egyptian silver coins minted by the French may not be used in England, and the British pounds issued by the English may not be circulated on the French territory. However, it is undeniable that grains such as wheat, barley, and corn, no matter in any country. It is unimpeded, which is even stronger than gold.

　　 Now the Gaoshu tribe does not have enough food, and the Xiaohe tribe also wants food, so Stone Bear decided to use the food as a ransom.

　　For Major Armand and Captain Constantine, it’s most appropriate to use food to redeem themselves.

　　Even if the French Empire’s silver coins depreciated in Europe, this currency is still more valuable in their country, and they are poor soldiers, and all military expenses are paid in this currency. But even so, they don't have many silver coins to redeem.

　　 But using food or other materials as a ransom is different. In any case, Major Armand is also the highest officer of a military fortress. Even if there are only more than 500 French people living and living in the military fortress of Okron, there are still a lot of materials that come and go in the fortress every day. After all, this fortress is. The largest military fortress on the Ohio River, and close to the Mississippi River, the supplies that enter and leave the fortress every day are still considerable.

As the highest military commander of an inland water transport fleet, Captain Constantine is also familiar with the large quantities of materials that pass through his hands every month, and he is familiar with both the military fortresses along the Mississippi River and the military fortresses on the Ohio River. It's very, he also has a lot of "stocks" in those military fortresses.

　　 Therefore, both Major Armand and Captain Constantine happily agreed to the scary big man's request for food as a ransom.

At the beginning, the stone bear and the lion opened their mouths. The food needed for a captive to redeem is 1,000 French pounds. The French pounds in this period are a little more than the British British pounds. It is almost a ratio of 1:11, that is, 1 French pound is almost equivalent At 11 British pounds, this weight is about the same as the Chinese catties.

　　 That is, a French captive needs to exchange one thousand catties of food. For a total of 47 captives, it needs about 47 thousand catties of food, which is about 23 tons of food.

　　 This number frightened Major Armand.

　　 Even if he is in charge of an important military fortress with 200 soldiers and 300 French people living in it, he does not have so much food on hand.

　　 The grain of this era is not like that of later generations. A town with five hundred people can collect dozens of tons of grain. These days, dozens of tons of grain is not a joke.

Just like Fort Ocron, although the location of that fortress is very important, and there are many people living in it, but the fortress can collect less than 30,000 catties of food at most. This also includes There are more than two hundred soldiers' rations for half a year, which is about 18,000 catties of food.

As for Captain Constantine, although he also has stocks in various military fortresses, it takes a lot of time to gather these stocks. Therefore, if Major Armand and the others want to redeem themselves, they must collect them all at once from Alkron Fortress. So much food.

　　 But obviously, even with Major Armand's ability, he couldn't make up so much food.

　　Finally, under the bitter pleading of Major Armand and Captain Constantine, the stone bear finally settled on an amount of five hundred catties.

　　 means that a captive needs five hundred catties in exchange for food.

　　 Forty-seven prisoners, that is 23,500 catties of grain!

　　 So much food, coupled with the Gaoshu tribe’s own food, is enough for the tribe’s tribe to survive the two months of lack of green and yellow, which is about to be the most difficult to pass.

　　 For this operation, Gaoshu tribe dispatched a hundred soldiers.

These fighters are all trained with guns. Perhaps their marksmanship is far from being comparable to that of the French, but after all, they have guns in their hands and cannons on the ship. Even if someone doesn’t have eyesight and wants to use them, they have to be weighed. .

　　 This year, even if the 100 Musketeers are placed in the colony, they are still a large armed force. If you count the twenty-four eighty-four-millimeter-caliber Valere guns on the four armed transport ships, the deterrence is not even a bit big.

Forty-seven French prisoners were escorted aboard the ship, of which 44 were locked up in the cabin. Only three people remained on the deck, namely Major Armand, Captain Constantine, and an adjutant of Major Armand. Captain Pieno. Because this guy was the adjutant of Major Armand, he was considered a big man in Okron Fortress, so he had his own horse, but with his mount, he managed to survive the Fire Bull Array raid. But in the end he was captured together with Armand.

　　 The French soldiers were locked up in the cabin. Not only did they have no comments, but they were all excited.

　　Because they knew that it was time for them to go home this time.

　　Although it has to pay more than 20,000 pounds of food for this, no matter how you say it, life is more important than food. Even if it bears a heavy burden, there is hope as long as you live, right?

　　 The fleet started, and Shixiong, as the person in charge of this operation, naturally stood on the bow of the first transport ship. This operation was an out-and-out voyage, and at the same time it was an actual combat training.

　　The whole journey from the Gaoshu tribe to the Alkron Fortress was down the water, and there were no heavy loads on these ships, and all people were pulling, so the speed was naturally fast.

　　 After entering the Tennessee River, the speed is even faster.

　　 is now the Snowy Moon (February). Although this month is the most snowy month of the year, this frequent snowfall also shows that spring is coming soon.

　　 The situation in the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains is quite different from the situation in the eastern foothills. At the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, precipitation is the most abundant in the late winter and early spring. Although the northerly wind going south is very cold, it is uplifted because of the blocking of mountains. During the uplifting process, these cold winds will turn into precipitation and fall down.

　　 Whether it is snow or rain, it is precipitation.

　　 The weather is still relatively cold at this time, so the precipitation at this time is mostly snowfall, which is why February is called the "Snow Moon" by the Cherokee.

　　 Once the snowfall turns into rain, it means that spring has come completely.

Frequent snowfalls have turned both sides of the Tennessee River into silver, but likewise, these snowfalls have also brought abundant water to the Tennessee River, which has been calm for several months, so the Tennessee River, which has been calm for several months, is here. Time has begun to quietly become manic.

　　 This can be fully reflected in the speed of the ship.

　　I just came out of the stone bear and followed the Gao Niu. When they crossed the Tennessee River when they fled from the Shaggy Niu tribe to the Gaoshu tribe, the river water was still very clear at that time, but now, the river water has begun to become turbid.

　　The melting snow not only replenishes a lot of water to the Tennessee River, but also brings countless soil. Once the river water becomes completely muddy and yellow, the wet season of the Tennessee River will come.

　　 When the Tennessee River got rid of the shackles of the Appalachian Mountains and completely drilled out of the mountains, it began to flow from the southwest to the northwest.

　　 This big bend turned a bend of almost ninety degrees at the foot of a certain mountain, and whizzed down the river mightily.

　　Because of the lack of the constraints of the mountains, the river channel has become much wider from this moment, the flow rate of the river has gradually decreased, and large swamps have begun to appear on both sides of the river channel. However, because there are still large areas of low hills on the east side of the river-the remnants of the Appalachian Mountains, there are much less swamps on the east bank of the river. But in the flat area on the west bank of the river, you can see a large swamp at a glance.

　　 That's right, the water conditions of the Tennessee River at this time are much worse than in later generations.

　　 The Tennessee River is an out-and-out damaging river, and the Americans have the most experience of this. Before the emergence of the technology of dam construction, the middle and lower reaches of the Tennessee River were almost uninhabited. Because the Tennessee River, which was flooded more than a dozen times or even dozens of times a year, had already completely transformed the vast areas along both sides of the river. Marshland.

Later, the Americans spent a lot of money to build several dams on the middle and lower reaches of the Tennessee River. Relying on the power of the dams, they completely restrained the manic Tennessee River, which completely changed this vast and fertile area. It has become an important grain-producing area.

Now, there are no dams on the middle and lower reaches of the Tennessee River. Although the west bank of the river looks like a flat river at a glance, the invisible swamp on the west side of the river also makes this group never rise above the mountain. The tree tribe people looked scared.

　　 This large swamp area is the front line of the Cherokee and Chekasha war. To describe it as a war term in later generations, this area is the front line.

It’s just that this frontline is far from being compared with the frontline of a later warfare~lightnovelpub.net~ The huge swamp makes the two sides unable to directly contact at all. The combat method here is more like a small group of forces fighting a sneak attack and an anti-sneak attack. the way.

　　Because the Cherokees occupy much more territory than the Chekashas, ​​most of the Chekashas attacked the Cherokees. Just like the battle of the Shaggy Cattle Tribe last year and the exterminated Pumpkin Bay Tribe are examples of successful attacks by the Chekashas.

　　 But it is more that a small group of Chekashas were wiped out by the Cherokees. After all, once you have crossed the swamp and the Tennessee River, you will even enter the territory of the Cherokee.

　　 But every year from late February to October, the two sides can hardly fight for the eight months between them, because during this period of time, the abundant water of the Tennessee River will completely turn this area into a swamp. No one dared to fight in such a place at the risk of being swallowed by the swamp.

　　Only when the manic Tennessee River's water volume has subsided, the small units of both sides will start fighting.

　　In other words, starting from next month, the Cherokee and Chekasha who have been fighting for hundreds of years will enter a period of calm.

The fleet drove down the wide Tennessee River as quickly as possible. When it came to this place, all the soldiers increased their vigilance. After all, this is already the front line of the battle between the two tribes. The ghost knows if there will be Chekasha. Human forces appear.

　　 After driving so carefully for more than a day, the river in front of me began to gradually open up

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