According to the information provided by Senegal, Puginski and his 45 companions of Mao, who survived, currently control about thousands of black teenage archers. However, about half of the thousands of black teenagers were the heads of local tribes near the Dakar Peninsula and the children of important tribes (such as elders, prophets, etc.) and could not be taken away.
There were no more than 500 people who could follow Pukinsky north to the north bank of the Senegal River, or even less than 500 people. Moreover, if the local tribe leaders agreed to Pukinsky take these people away, Marin would have to pay a considerable price. After all, those people were also male laborers of various tribes.
Of course, this price is also affordable. After all, the local indigenous tribes are all locals who have never seen the world. They can fool them with anything worthless. For example, shiny glass products, salt, cloth and sugar, etc. are not valuable in the civilized world, but very valuable in Africa. For example, in the local area, one pound of cane sugar or two pounds of salt can be exchanged for a strong black slave.
Of course, those teenagers who can ride horses and shoot archers are not ordinary slaves, and it is difficult to exchange for one pound of cane sugar or two pounds of salt. However, according to Eschweiin's report, it seems that the bows and arrows produced in Europe are very popular among the locals.
The local natives mainly hunt mainly, and naturally like bows and arrows for hunting. A 60-pound hunting bow and a tube of iron-headed arrows (24 pieces), can actually be exchanged for 4 black slaves. Although those black teenagers who can ride horses and shoot archers are relatively valuable "technicians", as long as they are not children from the chief or elders, the exchange price will definitely not exceed 5 pairs of bows and arrows. After all, although the local natives think that the archers are powerful, they think it is the credit of the bows and arrows.
The natives had limited thinking ability. They only saw that the black teenagers killed their enemies and prey with bows and arrows, but did not realize that the archers riding on horseback had stronger combat power than those on the ground. After all, with the brains of the natives, it was difficult to understand the meaning of the horse's mobility.
They only saw that the enemy and prey died under the blow of bows and arrows, but did not realize the great significance of horse mobility. Therefore, locals are very fond of European bows and arrows, especially iron-headed arrows.
The iron-headed arrow can easily shoot through the fur of prey, which is much stronger than the stone javelin heads used by local indigenous people. After defeating other tribes, those local tribes with good relations with the Senegal company often use their captive prisoners of war slaves to exchange for more bows and arrows with Eschweiin, especially the iron-headed arrows.
Of course, bows and arrows are indeed very sharp in the conflicts between local tribes. Any tribe equipped with a large number of European bows and arrows can often defeat the hostile tribes and flee in panic, which deepens their popularity with European bows and arrows.
As for the muskets used by the rhino hunting team led by Reus, the loud noise made the superstitious indigenous people dare not approach, thinking that it was the thunder in the sky, let alone want to use it.
In other words, as long as Malincoln provides enough European-made bows and arrows to exchange for ordinary black teenage archers of humble origins, it is still no problem. If it really doesn't work, adding some other goods will always make their chiefs tempted.
Don't be too much. As long as you can take away four or five hundred black archers and Marin can buy hundreds of Egyptian slave cavalry trained by Mamluk cavalry from Egypt, you will be invincible on the West African grassland.
Egyptian slave cavalry have received training in machete combat on horseback of Mamluk cavalry, and are good melee light cavalry. With four or five hundred black archers, you won’t be afraid of any black tribe when you encounter it. After all, most black people in this era still use javelins with stone gun tips.
In Eschweiin's report, it described the battle between local black tribes. When the locals were fighting, both sides held javelins and bid each other at a distance of 40 or 50 yards. Then, if one side could not resist, it began to retreat. Often, a war ended with only a few or a dozen casualties, and the casualties rate was very low.
This is because the javelin is already close in range and has a very poor accuracy. If you shoot a javelin, the hit rate is comparable to that of a smoothbore gun, and killing the enemy depends entirely on the fog...
The bow and arrow are different. The 60-pound bow sold by Eschweiin to local black people can easily aim accurately at the enemy at a distance of fifty or sixty meters. If you shoot, you can easily reach a range of one or two hundred meters.
Such a strike distance is much more powerful than the African javelin. When the enemy on the opposite side bids for a distance of 40 or 50 yards and wants to "miss" several enemies, the archers here can accurately kill the opponent at this distance.
Although the local black bow and arrow shooting level is low, it is not enough to shoot many rings. However, at a distance of 40 or 50 yards, the target of the black man on the opposite side is so large, so most of them are not wearing clothes... In this way, the damage caused by the 60-pound bow on the opposite side is amazing...
Think about it, a group of unclothed blokes standing opposite you with a bow and arrow and shooting, without armor or shield... It would be strange if the archer cannot cause a lot of damage to the opponent...
With the virtues of the black natives, a few shot to death in the front row were so broken...
Therefore, the combat effectiveness of Eschweiin selling bows and arrows to which tribe soared, and could beat the surrounding tribes and capture many black prisoners of war as slaves. Of course, the premise is that none of the surrounding tribes bought Eschweiin's bows and arrows... If there were bows and arrows on both sides, the number of arrows on which side would be more accurate and accurate...
Moreover, Eschweiin also discovered that the locals seemed not keen on annexing the surrounding tribes to strengthen themselves...
Why? Because the local blacks were still in the most primitive hunting era. Their main way of survival was to hunt for food. Therefore, the tribes attach great importance to the hunting area, that is, the territory.
Generally speaking, a tribe is not willing to share the hunting ground with people from other tribes. Because sharing the hunting ground means that food must be distributed to others...
At the same time, if the tribe is too large, the pressure of hunting will increase. Therefore, the local tribe chiefs are not willing to annex other tribes, and only like to drive away the hostile tribes and occupy more hunting grounds. Then, at most, they will catch a few strong men from the opposite tribes and sell them as slaves...
In the simple concept of local indigenous people, there are not too many people, just a few hundred. However, the hunting ground must be large enough. In this way, there will be too much food to eat...
Therefore, the local tribe population is generally hundreds of people, and there are very few large tribes with thousands of people. Obviously, without farming, it is not easy to have large tribes with thousands of people.
In addition, the locals do not have horses and have a small range of movement, so they naturally have no idea of ​​annexing the surrounding tribes.
This is similar to the Sorens. The hunting ethnic group and the general tribes have a small population size, mostly a scale of hundreds. Because with more people, the pressure of hunting will be greater. In the absence of horses, people's hunting range is limited. If there are too many people, there will be no enough prey to kill.
Only by entering the farming society will a large tribe of thousands or even thousands appear. Then, a country will slowly form...
The indigenous blacks in Senegal, who were still in the hunting era, obviously did not have the idea of ​​annexing other tribes. The conflicts between their tribes were mostly about robbing hunting grounds. Of course, they also captured some prisoners of war and sold them as slaves. Because Eschweiin also acquired slaves and exchanged them for bows and arrows. If Eschweiin had not acquired slaves, they would probably not be willing to capture prisoners...
In other words, local tribal conflicts are generally of a scale of 100 people, and the type with javelins bidding each other is worse than gangs.
If Puginsky and others brought 500 Egyptian slave cavalry and four or five hundred black archers to fight, they would not have to rush up and kill. They could easily defeat those black tribes with just bows and arrows.
Moreover, Eschweiin has not sold bows and arrows to the indigenous tribes north of the Senegal River. Those indigenous tribes can only use stone spearhead javelins when fighting, and their combat effectiveness is quite garbage. Thousands of cavalry can definitely sweep the tribes there. It is actually not difficult to open up the trade route of the Sanghai Empire.
Chapter completed!