Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!-Chapter 1468 - 1020: The Surprise of the Itelmen Hunters, the Powerful Island Tribe—Enemies or Friends?
"Praise the Supreme Main God! Praise the Divine Revelation of Your Majesty!..."
"Uwa! The Chief Divine is high in the sky! The Great Great Chieftain is high on the peak!..."
"The Divine Mountain of the Ancestors, sits the Great Great Chief God! His firstborn is the Great Great Chieftain!..."
The red sun was setting in the west, and the sky was gradually darkening. On the Kamchatka Peninsula in November, it gets dark very early, and the nighttime temperature can drop a few degrees below zero. The Kingdom’s Warriors and Tribal Sailors gathered around the lit campfire, eating meat and drinking soup, loudly praising and blessing. Various shouts and songs of joy spread out over the cold seaside. Although the languages of the sailors from various tribes were not the same, their joy and their animated gestures at this moment were heartfelt and evident!
Of course, on this cold and unknown coastline, whether it was the robust Kingdom’s Warriors or the tall Tribal Sailors, they maintained the most basic vigilance. They wore thick leather armor inside, wrapped in soft fur outside, and never took off the bronze axe at their waist.
And all of this was seen by the eyes, heard by the ears, and smelled by the noses of the two Itelmen hunters lurking in the grass!
"Sniff!...Gugu!...What kind of meat is this? It’s so enticing, smelling warm?...Huh! What they’re using to make soup, the fire is so big, it doesn’t seem like wood, but...a black stone?..."
Hunter Mulu lay in the grass, sniffing the aroma of meat in the air, unable to resist licking his lips and swallowing several times. This bunch of tribes from who knows where, cooking some sort of meat soup, utterly unaware of saving fuel...yet it smelled more delicious than anything before!
"Shh! Keep your voice down, don’t startle them!...Black stones for soup?...Such fragrant soup! Gugu!..."
The hunting team leader, Mukun, bit his lips, looking at the pot on the distant campfire, striving not to drool. He was unaware of his extraordinary, historic fortune! They were the very first in the vast Old Continent to smell the fragrance of chili peppers!
"Damn it! They’re feasting so happily, while we’re out here scouting with empty stomachs..."
For the tribes of Kamchatka, who live off fishing and hunting, winter food and fuel have always been scarce. Even though Mukun was the tribe’s hunter leader, second only to the Grandmother Elder in the tribe, opportunities to feast like this on meat and soup were rare.
"Yes, Captain, they’re so loud, speaking softly like we are, they definitely won’t hear...Strange! I don’t know what tribe these people are from, I can’t understand a word!"
"Hmm...May the Spirits of the Ancestors witness! It is indeed peculiar!..."
The hunting team leader, Mukun, furrowed his brow, his pancake-like face full of confusion. Even though he hunted far and wide, seeing tribes from the south to the north, he couldn’t figure out where these people came from.
"Those tall hunters carry very large greatbows, somewhat resembling the northernmost nomadic tribes...But they don’t have the distinctive winged armor of the nomadic or Rokube tribes, nor can I understand their language!"
"Those not so tall warriors all carry golden metal axes, could they be from the southern raiding island tribes? But they don’t have the island tribes’ abundant body hair, nor are they that short...Hmm, the island tribes have metallic weapons and small boats, could they be more powerful island tribes further south!"
With this speculation, the hunting team leader, Mukun, tightened his lips, silently gripping the sharp flint axe at his waist, some killing intent appearing on his face. Hunter Mulu also took down the compound recurve bow from his back and counted the number of bone arrows in his quiver.
Upon closer inspection, this compound bow is clearly a three-layer compound structure, with black birch wood as the bow face, larch wood as the bow back, the middle layer is deerskin, and the three are meticulously glued together with fishskin glue. The bowstring is tightly twisted from deerskin, and the body of the bow has a conspicuous recurved arc. This bow-making technique, derived from the centuries-old technical diffusion of North Asian nomadic tribes, far surpassed the Kingdom’s longbow!
"May the Spirits of the Ancestors witness! The metal axes should be copper, not iron...And those who wield copper weapons, are only the island tribes on the southern islands, our ever-attacking enemy island tribes!"
The hunting team leader Mukun grasped the stone axe, then felt the three stone javelins behind him, his expression very solemn. Before the Russians came in the 17th century, the use of metal tools among the tribes of the Kamchatka Peninsula was very rare. Most tribes used finely processed bone artifacts and stone tools.
It wasn’t that they didn’t have the opportunity to trade expensive ironware from the nomadic Evenki and Even races of the west. But for these tribes of Extreme North Asia, unless it’s high-quality steel that withstands low temperatures, ordinary ironware doesn’t suit the environment and isn’t as practical as stone tools!
Indeed, in the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula, where winter can last half a year, with temperatures plunging to tens of degrees below zero, or even thirty or forty degrees below zero in the northern tip, ordinary inferior iron tools become quite brittle and very prone to breakage, not as durable as bone and stone tools. So, among the Chukchi, Koryaks, and Itelmens, the daily use of metal implements was quite limited.
Only the Ainu people living on the warmer islands to the south learned metal smelting and casting through gradually increased contact with Wa Country, using simple bronze and iron tools. These Ainu, who used metal tools, would raid the tribe’s coasts, attack solitary hunters, and poach deer herds in the tribe’s territory. In other words, the Ainu Island tribe was the enemy of the Itelmen mountain tribe!
"Mulu, how many arrows did you bring?"
"Four hands, 20 arrows. Captain, the number of people opposite seems a bit much... four hands per team, two teams, three teams, four teams, four and a half teams... Luba, there are so many of them!" 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎
"Oh Ancestors! Four hands per team, a total of four or five teams, all elite hunters in leather armor!... Hiss! What kind of island tribe can gather ninety elite hunters?"
The sunset dipped into the mountains on the west side of the peninsula. Hunting Team Leader Mukun gritted his teeth, took a clear look at the number of landing tribes, and his face instantly showed unease. Ninety elite hunters are a formidable force in the entire frigid, barren peninsula! What made him more uneasy, however, was the enormous large ship docked by the bay, one he had never seen before!
"Oh spirited ancestors! Their large ship, it’s... it’s so big! So Luba, Luba, Luba big!"
Seeing the Great Snow Wolf moored by the shore, with a hull as long as 36 meters, the two Itelmen hunters were so shocked that they stared wide-eyed and blankly for a long time. Compared to their tribe’s fishing boats, which are only two to three meters long, this giant oar-sail ship was like a whale in the sea, and who knows how many able-bodied men it took, and how much effort it required, to build! Just using the wood from this ship as firewood would be enough for their hundreds of people in the mountain part of the great tribe to last through the long winter!
"Oh ancestors! Luba’s large ship! Exceptionally tall islanders! An unprecedented powerful island tribe!"
It took a while for Hunting Team Leader Mukun to barely regain his composure, and there was a hint of fear on his face. His uneasy, chubby face looked downcast, like a dejected Samoyed bear-hunting dog.
"Captain, should we fight?"
"Fight? Hell no! Four teams of Luba’s elite hunters, how could the two of us take them on? The spiritual ancestors bear witness, the entire tribe needs to be mobilized, everyone needs to be mobilized!"
"Ah! This, mobilizing the whole tribe to fight?... Captain, maybe they aren’t enemies, maybe they are just passing by... or maybe they are heading to attack the Rokube?"
"Huh? Not enemies? The Big Sea is about to freeze over! If they leave their large ship here for days, it won’t be able to leave! ...Winter is so long, with so many strong hunters needing food, if they can’t fish, they’ll hunt the deer, the deer in our territory... those are the tribe’s food for the coming year!"
At this point, Hunting Team Leader Mukun gritted his teeth, his face showing both anxious unease and helpless anger. He couldn’t help but raise his voice a bit while scolding hunter Mulu, who couldn’t see the situation clearly.
"Mulu, the spiritual ancestors bear witness! This land of shrubs and tundras, although vast, every hunting ground and fishing ground has tribal ownership, it’s the tribe’s source of food! Furthermore, such numerous hunters, they’ll need to find a sheltered winter camp, right? And if they go north to the warm mountains, they’ll bump straight into our mountain part’s winter camp! That warm mountain spring is fundamental to the tribe’s continuation, not an inch of it can be given away!"
"Captain, the winter camp is so large, having dozens more people stay won’t be an issue... as long as they are willing to maintain peace with us, and leave when the snow melts next year..."
"What? Are you a foolish snow rabbit, leaving them in our winter camp?... What if they won’t leave? What if they are like the northern tent tribes and try to take our camp and population?! No, no! We must quickly return and mobilize the entire tribe, prepare for a fight... it’s best to ambush them as they just land, before they figure things out!"
"Swish, swish!"
As the two Itelmen hunters were whispering, a sharp whooshing sound suddenly arose, shooting toward the thicket they were crouched in!
"Swish, swish, swish!... Bam!"
Over a dozen sharp copper arrows shot from several dozen meters away, brushing past the tribal hunters’ leather armor, even grazing their leather helmets. Both of them shivered, instantly lifted their heads, with their faces changing!
"Ah! Oh spiritual ancestors! Oh this? ...These sneaky island tribe ambushers!"
The distant sounds of banquet celebration continued as usual, without any noticeable difference. But at some point, more than a dozen short Kingdom’s Warriors were already armed with bows and arrows, spreading out to the east and west, sandwiching them in the middle. Meanwhile, six or seven tall and robust Unanga hunters wielded bronze axes and copper spears, slightly hunched, ready to pounce and chase like polar bears hunting!
"Chief Divine bear witness! Gummy People Tribal Group from afar, faraway Jiao brothers... we mean no harm, we are your friends!"
Exploration Captain Zuwaro, dressed in leather armor and holding a bronze axe, stepped out from the crowd, followed by several elite warriors of the kingdom. He squinted his eyes, scrutinizing the two nervous and fearful tribal hunters hidden in the thicket. His sharp gaze swept over their sturdy leather armor, flat leather helmets, and then glanced at their waists’ stone axes, the stone javelins on their backs. Finally, he noticed hunter Mulu’s uniquely shaped composite recurve bow, his pupils slightly contracted, and a sincere smile appeared on his face.
"Haha, praise the Chief Divine! Since friends are here! Why not join our feast, have a delicious, spicy whale meat and kelp soup! Then, let’s talk around the bonfire all night..."
