"Iron smelting, yes, that's it, the knife I gave you is made of this, yes, yes, yes!"

In the longhouse, the kerosene lamps were lit peacefully, and the light penetrated through the windows to create a curtain of light.

The leader of the Longhouse Alliance, Haifa Sha, still wears a feather crown on his head, a loose plain satin mid-top, and the flat hem of his shirt is tied in the waistband of his buckskin trousers, and he sits on a chair and looks at the chief of the land in front of him.

Leaning on the side of the chair was a long open-made arquebus, Haifa Sha's face was sad in the light of the kerosene lamp, he grabbed the arquebus with his hand, and said slowly to Yang Zhaolong in his unskilled Chinese: "How can I tell you, my sir, we already know what iron is." ”

The Iroquois are quick learners and very practical.

Hulan showed them the power of the cavalry, even if they only gave them sixteen horses, as long as Hulan was willing to give them, the Iroquois were good friends of Hulan.

The Black Cloud Dragon showed them the power of the infantry, even if they only gave them a few bird guns, as long as the Black Cloud Dragon was willing to give it, the Iroquois were good friends of the Black Cloud Dragon.

If Li Yuxi asked them to grow tobacco, the same thing would be true.

Yang Zhaolong's tongue pursed his lips and nodded slowly, the Iroquois people did know what iron was for a long time, especially in the Ming Dynasty gradually gained a foothold on the east coast, all the tribes used iron arrow clusters, iron swords, and iron hand axes, just like the leaders of Haifasha, each of them had a few Ming bird guns.

He rubbed his hands, looked at Haifasha with expectant eyes, and said: "The imperial court wants to smelt iron and build roads, there is not enough iron, people are needed, the engineers of the Zongmu University are building a workshop for the workers to live, and they will rest for two days every eight days, how many people can the longhouse recruit?" ”

Haifa Sha did not speak, and as the Ming people increased on the east coast, there were more and more people who looked similar to the indigenous people but were completely different, building huge houses, bringing new technology, and causing growing unease for the longhouse alliance.

When facing the people of the Ming Dynasty, Haifasha's thinking was always slow, and he thought for a moment before he spoke: "How many people do you need?" ”

"Longhouses alone are not enough, four thousand or more people are needed." Yang Zhaolong knew the details of the Longhouse Alliance, counting the tribes combined with the Hulan Tribe, there were only less than 10,000 soldiers from the six divisions, where could he draw four or five thousand people to work, he said with a smile: "I will also go to other tribes to recruit, as long as the longhouse can send some people to work without affecting their livelihood or violating agricultural affairs." ”

The reason why he said this is because Yang Zhaolong has inspected a large number of idle people in each tribe, who either leaned under the eaves and smoked, or sat on the ground and chatted, doing nothing.

"I'm willing to help you, we're willing to help you, you just need to say how many people the government needs."

Haifa Sha shook his head, and his thick calloused index finger shook in front of him: "I will help you, but I also want you to help me." ”

Yang Zhaolong blinked, this kind of conversation made him feel complicated.

Trading is not the same as helping, trading should be reciprocal, how many people he recruits, how much he pays, and it is mutually beneficial.

But sometimes the help was not necessarily reciprocal, and the more critical problem was that Yang Zhaolong really couldn't think of how the Iroquois with more than 30,000 people in his army could provide him with such help—to fill the gap of 4,500 workers for him.

Yang Zhaolong's idea of solving the problem is very simple, since his brother-in-law said that regardless of the cost, the biggest gap is that in addition to technology, he can't control the technical things, but he can make up enough manpower first, which is a simple addition and subtraction.

4,000 craftsmen are equal to 8 million catties, so 4,000 craftsmen plus 8,000 apprentices should be 16 million catties, right? Then try to get 8,000 people, as long as the output reaches 20 million catties, and then the apprentices are proficient, and it should be very simple to meet the requirements of the brother-in-law.

Although the truth may not be what Yang Zhaolong thinks, he does think it is quite beautiful.

The mining area can become another subordinate county of Makino, and the families of tens of thousands of people, the trade routes and trade driven, and the surrounding farmland, he can manage two counties with one county.

"How can I help?"

Yang Zhaolong said and asked: "How can you help me, how can I help you?" ”

Seeing that Yang Zhaolong had some intention to agree, Haifa Sha leaned forward and raised his hand: "The government has given the longhouse five hundred muskets and one thousand iron axes; The longhouse first sent 3,000 men to work in the iron works, and then exchanged them with the Huron people within six months. ”

Yang Zhaolong discovered that Haifa Sha's use of the Huron people's brain circuits is similar to Chen Mu's use of the Spaniards as a reserve for the issuance of Asian currency.

The most important thing is that both of them can say things that feel unbelievable as if they were stating something too normal to be normal.

Yang Zhaolong's eyes widened, he spread his hands, tried his best to say something but couldn't say it, and it took a long time to organize the language before he finally said: "The next thing I plan to go to is the Huron tribe, you are no longer enemies, Huron has been defeated, have you forgotten?" Before I came, the Black Shogun and Hu Senhu together with the longhouse defeated the Hurons, and they surrendered. ”

"Yes, we won last time." Haifa nodded rightly: "It's time to do it again." ”

"If the magistrate can't give me a bird gun and an axe, then let General Hei bring five soldiers from the Thousand Households Institute to go with me." Speaking of this, Haifasha was a little distressed, stretched out his hand and said, "As a war leader, I can no longer command them. ”

The five Thousand Households he was talking about were the army of the Makinowei, which consisted of the Iroquois tribesmen, and the officers and preachers were drawn from the Black Cloud Dragon Banner Army, and they were promoted from the lower to the highest rank, and then expanded to five thousand houses stationed around Makino.

That took away almost all the combat-ready young men of the Longhouse Alliance, and they also spread the influence of the Ming Dynasty in this land among the tribes during the rest of the year.

Yang Zhaolong lowered his head and pondered for a moment: "You want to completely defeat Huron?" ”

"You have cured everybody, and there are more of them than the Iroquois, and there are too many of them in the northwest, and there are too many of them." Haifasha nodded repeatedly: "I will attack, the longhouse can put 3,000 women with you, make up 500 warriors, and burn each of their tribes with 500 bird guns and 1,000 axes, and the government only needs to send people to bring the captives back." ”

"For every three captives you are given, a longhouse woman is to be returned, and another captive is to be sent to the tribe; When I defeat them, I'll continue westward, where I can't go back again. ”

"We will all have enough people for the tree of peace to grow on the land."

Yang Zhaolong panicked while feeling refreshed.

Five hundred muskets and a thousand axes are not difficult to get, but the difficult thing is that if he tells Chen Mu about Haifa Sha's suggestion, Chen Mu will definitely veto it, and even if he tells Zhao Shizhen and Heiyunlong, he will be vetoed - I'm afraid that the only court official in this land who is happy with such a practice is him.

Such annexation wars were not uncommon among the various consolation envoys, and most of the time the imperial court did not even know that the annexation war had occurred, and even if the imperial court knew, as long as the victorious consolation envoy was respectful to the imperial court and had no ambition to break away from the imperial court, he would usually only punish something.

"As the magistrate, I'm afraid Yang can't agree to this help."

Yang Zhaolong finally raised his head, he looked at Haifa Sha and said, "But as a friend, I need you to swear to the Great Tomorrow and the Tree of Peace, and then I will help you." ”

"That's not enough, you also need armor."