Chapter 1245 The Most Turbulent River
The poisonous smoke from iron smelting drifted with the wind, bringing the first "industrial atmosphere" on the west coast. Following the south wind and going north for 300 miles, passing the towering divine revelation tree, there are tens of thousands of Tolowa tribes. For the salt marsh at the boundary of the tribal hunting ground, tens of thousands of Tolowa people were completely divided into two small tribal alliances, with the Redwood Tribe and the Leaf Grass Tribe as the core, and they continued to fight and kill each other frequently. And due to the emergence of the kingdom fleet and the intentional influx of metal weapons, the scale of the war between these tribal alliances is intensifying!
The passing fleet of the kingdom would transport metal weapons, shining gems, and planted grain crops every six months. But what the kingdom fleet took away was not only the products in the mountains, but also the captives of the warriors in the war between the two large tribes. In more than two years, 400 captive warriors who could fight had been transported north one after another and supplemented to the North Port of the kingdom. And the one who led this strategy was the ambitious chief priest Kejie who was stationed in the North Port!
"The Lord God bears witness! In the entire developed west coast, apart from the core Xishan Port, the second most prosperous port must be the North Port where I personally sit! The North Port is the lower reaches of the thousands of miles of river. Starting from here, whether it is the downstream estuary tribe alliance, the upstream Kalapoya tribes, or even the mountain hunting tribes further upstream, they will all be influenced by the kingdom and will eventually convert to the arms of the Lord God!..."
Three kingdom long ships, loaded with salt and coal, and sixty newly exchanged Tolowa captives, slowly docked at the kingdom's North Port on the south bank of the river.
The long Columbia River, originating from the distant eastern mountains, flows for more than 4,000 miles, nurturing countless tribes along the river, and finally merges into the Pacific Ocean here, and even the estuary is several miles wide. This is a truly turbulent river, the mother river in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of tribes along the river, and the incarnation of the running and surging river god. The Kingdom of North Port at the mouth of the river is the starting point of faith for the entire turbulent river, and it is the first source of divine fire!
At this moment, the chief priest Kejie stood by the port, lit a pot of blue holy fire, and personally held a sacred blood oath for every captive warrior who disembarked.
"Bless the Lord God! Carve the emblem of the Lord God and recite the name of the Lord God! From now on, you are the sacred warrior of the Lord God Huizilobo, a glorious glue man who returns to the ancestral clan!"
The chief priest Kejie chanted loudly, and most of the kneeling captives showed awe, not daring to look at the blue flame, but just bowed their heads and repeated the familiar name of the Lord God. Because when they passed through Kus Bay, they had already been taught once by the priests of the kingdom there...
These young captives boarded the ship from two large tribes fighting each other, went north for more than 400 miles, and stayed for several days at the Kingdom of South Port on the edge of Kus Bay. The priest of Nangang, Keshu, is a good corn grower, and the naturalized Kus people are patient farmers. Therefore, with only a population of over a thousand in Nangang, he reclaimed 6,000 acres of corn fields and had the largest corn reserves on the entire west coast! The Nangang in Coos Bay was also vividly called "Corn Port" by the warriors.
Not long ago, the fleet anchored at "Corn Port". Priest Keshu specially treated everyone in the transport fleet, including the escorted kingdom warriors and Tolowa captives, to several delicious corn cakes, and also prepared some extra dry food for the warriors. Under the temptation of these rare "hometown delicacies", the kingdom warriors turned a blind eye and tacitly allowed Priest Keshu to intercept a quarter of the captives, that is, more than 20 warriors, in the name of spreading the faith of the Lord God...
"Huh, praise the Lord God! Finally, they have all converted! With the addition of these warrior captives, we can continue to expand to both sides of the river and seize more tribal populations from the expansion of the Karapoya tribes!..."
The holy fire is blazing and the spring sun is bright. Under the bright sun, the chief priest Kejie was sweating all over. He took off the heavy ritual robes and put on the light rattan clothes of the northern tribes, looking more and more like a local chief.
"Merciful Lord God! Keshu, the guy who stretched out his hand, always intercepted a quarter of the warriors... Well, considering that he provided corn tortillas for the fleet, even as a chief priest with a higher status, I can only acquiesce to his behavior!"
The chief priest Kejie arranged many confidants in the fleet, and naturally knew that the priest Keshu had been "secretly" intercepting. However, Beigang expanded too fast, and there were not many fields planted, so the output of grain has always been limited. These fields are mainly grains that are easy to grow but difficult to eat, so they can't provide many corn tortillas that the warriors love most. In order to appease the kingdom warriors who rowed back and forth and worked very hard, he could only choose to acquiesce to this "greedy" behavior of intercepting people.
After all, in this distant northern land, the authority of the priest must rely on the support of the warriors! When facing many fierce hunting tribes, the priests can only rely on the bows and spears of the warriors, just like the highly aggressive Karapoya Alliance in the upper reaches of the river.
The priests of each port actually have great autonomy and act boldly for the benefit of local colonization. As long as they can develop ports in various places and control more converted tribes, they will naturally be promoted to the priest level! In the face of such an almost unlimited future, no one will give in and give up their bright future, so they can only compromise with each other based on their strength...
"Blessed by the Lord God! Northport, where I am personally in charge, already has 2,000 tribes, firmly controlling the 100-mile radius of the lower reaches of the river. The alliance of the estuary tribes that have allied with Northport has a total of more than 30,000 people, and more than a dozen chiefs of each tribe have united to fight against the upstream Kalapoya tribes! This long and cruel tribal melee has lasted for more than ten or twenty years before the arrival of the kingdom. And the Kalapoya tribes are also rising and prospering with their fierce military force that exceeds that of other tribes..."
The sources of the alliance of the estuary tribes are indeed very diverse. In addition to the kingdom of Northport, which is dominated by the Classope people, there are also Chinooks, Cathlamets, Wahkiakums, etc. And the enemies of each tribe, tens of thousands of Kalapoya tribes, mainly centered on the Portland River Valley, formed a rather tight tribal alliance, which is much more united and brave! Of course, the bravery of their stone hunting clans was obviously not enough to face the experienced warriors of the kingdom with bronze weapons. They could only rely on their superior numbers and familiar terrain to fight a rough battle in the forest, and drag the kingdom's warriors to the same level without forming a formation...
Facing this flexible small-scale rough battle, Priest Kejie was also very troubled. The kingdom's main warriors were too few and too precious to withstand piecemeal losses. The Classope people, who served as auxiliary soldiers, were too docile. They were good at farming and fishing, but they performed poorly on the battlefield and collapsed at the first blow.
Priest Kejie thought about it, until he found the Torowa people fighting in a melee, his eyes suddenly lit up. He specially dispatched a fleet, even at the cost of selling weapons, to trade captured warriors from the Tolowa tribes who had fought many small-scale battles and had sufficient mountain and forest combat experience, to serve as reliable auxiliary soldiers for the kingdom's warriors...
And the priest Kejie continued to fight with the Kalapoya tribe at all costs, not for the upper river valley occupied by Kalapoya, not for the hunting grounds with abundant water and grass. Beigang has never lacked land, but it is very short of people to farm! The main purpose of the priest Kejie is to save the large and small tribes that were defeated in the upper reaches of the river from the population of Kalapoya, and continuously replenish them in the kingdom's Beigang to quickly increase the number of tribes. As for the longer-term plan, it is to establish a stable leadership position in the Estuary Alliance, and constantly promote the blessing of the "Lord of War" to plan for the long term...
"Lord God's blessing! In this process of fighting, Beigang has fully proved the kingdom's military power, gradually becoming the largest force in the Estuary Alliance, and has the opportunity to become the leader of the alliance! And the warlike Southern Lord God has gradually become one of the important gods worshipped by the various tribes in the Estuary..."
"Lord God is my witness! I should plan for the long term and spread the glory of the Lord God at all costs!... If I can truly become the leader of the Estuary Alliance and lead the more than 30,000 tribes of the Estuary Alliance to convert to the Lord God... then the vast land of the lower reaches of the river will become the starting point of the 'Coy' family! And the future priest group on the west coast will definitely always have a place for us!..."
The sun sets in the west, and the Columbia River rolls. The water flows westward into the sea, washing away many future heroes. Everything is just a joke~~
Note: The Easter egg chapter is a detailed map.