According to the information given by the Senegalese side, Puginsky and the 45 surviving Mao Gonggong companions around him are currently in control of about 1,000 black young archers. However, about half of the thousands of black boys were the sons of the leaders of the local tribes near the Dakar Peninsula and important people in the tribe (such as elders, prophets, etc.), and could not be taken with them.

The number of people who were able to follow Puginski north to the north bank of the Senegal River did not exceed 500, and even, less than 500. Moreover, Marin had to pay a lot of money to get the local clan leaders to agree to Puginsky's removal of these people. After all, those people were also male laborers of various tribes.

Of course, this cost is also affordable. After all, the local indigenous tribes are all turtles who have never seen the world. Take anything worthless and fool around. For example, shiny glass, as well as salt, cloth, and cane sugar, which are worthless in the civilized world, but are valuable in Africa. Locally, for example, a pound of cane sugar or two pounds of salt can be exchanged for a strong black slave.

Of course, the teenagers who could ride horses and shoot arrows were no ordinary slaves, and it was difficult to get them for a pound of cane sugar or a pound of salt. However, according to Eschwein's report, bows and arrows that appear to have been made in Europe were very popular among the locals.

The local aborigines mainly hunt, and they are naturally very fond of bows and arrows used for hunting. A 60-pound hunting bow, plus a barrel of iron-headed arrows (24), can be exchanged for 4 black slaves. Although the black teenagers who could ride and shoot arrows were among the more valuable "technicians", as long as they were not the children of the chiefs or elders, the exchange price would never exceed 5 pairs of bows and arrows. After all, although the local natives thought the archers were powerful, they thought it was the bow and arrow that they were all about.

The aborigines have limited ability to think, and they only see that the black teenagers kill enemies and prey with bows and arrows, and do not realize that archers on horseback are more powerful than archers on the ground. After all, with the minds of the natives, it is difficult to understand the significance of the horse's ability to maneuver.

They only saw the enemy and their prey dead by the blows of the bow and arrow, and did not realize the great significance of the horse's ability to maneuver. Therefore, the locals are very popular with European bows and arrows, especially iron-headed arrows.

Iron-headed arrows can easily penetrate the pelts of their prey, and are much stronger than the stone javelin heads used by the local natives. The local tribes that had good relations with the Senegalese company, after defeating other tribes, would often exchange captured prisoners of war slaves for more bows and arrows with Eschwein, especially iron-tipped arrows.

Of course, bows and arrows are indeed sharp in local tribal conflicts. Tribes that were heavily armed with European bows and arrows were often able to defeat rival tribes and flee from the desert, which deepened their pursuit of European bows and arrows.

As for the musket used by the rhinoceros hunting team led by Royce, because of the loud noise, the superstitious natives did not dare to approach, thinking that it was a thunder in the sky, let alone wanting to use it.

In other words, as long as Malcoln provided enough European-made bows and arrows, it would not be a problem to exchange them for ordinary black young archers of humble origin. It really doesn't work, adding some other goods will always make their chiefs tempted.

Not much, as long as he can take four or five hundred black young archers, plus Marin can buy hundreds of Egyptian slave cavalry trained by Mamluk cavalry from Egypt, he can be invincible in the West African steppe.

The Egyptian slave cavalry was trained in scimitar combat on horseback by the Mamluk cavalry, and were good melee light cavalry. With four or five hundred black young archers, he is not afraid of any black tribe. After all, most of the blacks in this era still use javelins with stone spears.

Eschwein's report describes a battle between the local black tribes, in which the locals were fighting with each other armed with javelins and at a distance of forty or fifty yards. Then, if one side can't resist, it begins to retreat. Often, after a battle, the casualties are only a few people or a dozen people, and the casualty rate is very low.

This is due to the fact that the javelin has a close range and poor accuracy. If you throw a javelin, the hit rate is comparable to that of a smoothbore gun, and the killing of the enemy depends on the ......

Bows and arrows were different, and the 60-pound bow that Eschwein sold to local blacks could easily aim and shoot at the enemy at a distance of fifty or sixty meters. And if you throw it, you can easily reach a range of one or two hundred meters.

Such a striking distance is much more powerful than the earthen javelins of Africans. When the enemy on the opposite side tried to "blind" a few enemies at a distance of forty or fifty yards, the archers on this side were able to kill the opponent accurately at this distance.

Although the local black people have a low level of bow and arrow shooting, they can't shoot as many rings as they want. However, at a distance of forty or fifty yards, the black target on the opposite side was so large that most of them were unclothed...... In this way, the damage inflicted on the opposite side by the 60-pound bow is very staggering......

Think about it, a group of unclothed second-hand goods standing there on the opposite side for you to shoot with bows and arrows, no armor, no shields...... It would be strange if the archer couldn't deal a lot of damage to the opposing side......

And with the virtue of the black natives, a few were shot dead in the front row, and it was especially devastating......

Therefore, Esch Weyne sold bows and arrows to whichever tribe soared in combat effectiveness, and was able to beat the surrounding tribes to the ground, and captured many black prisoners of war and sold them into slavery. Of course, the premise is that none of the surrounding tribes bought Eschwein's bow and arrows...... If both sides have bows and arrows, it depends on which side has more bows and arrows and shoots accurately......

Moreover, Eschwein also found that the locals did not seem to be keen on annexing surrounding tribes to strengthen themselves......

Why? Because the local blacks were still in the most primitive hunting era. Their main mode of survival is to hunt for food. Therefore, the tribes attach great importance to the hunting area, that is, the territory.

Generally speaking, a tribe is not very happy to share its hunting grounds with people from other tribes. Because, sharing the hunting grounds, it means that the food is to be shared with others......

At the same time, if the tribe is overpopulated, then the pressure of hunting will also increase. Therefore, the local tribal chiefs are not willing to annex other tribes, and only like to drive away hostile tribes and occupy more hunting grounds. Then, at most a few strong men of the opposing tribe are captured and sold as slaves......

In the simple concept of the local aborigines, there are not too many people, just a few hundred. However, the hunting ground must be large enough. In this way, there can be more food than you can eat......

As a result, the local tribal population is generally a few hundred people, and there are few large tribes of thousands of people. Obviously, without farming, it is not easy to create large tribes with a population of thousands of people.

In addition, the locals do not have horses and have a small range of activities, so naturally they have no idea of annexing the surrounding tribes.

This is similar to the Saurons, a hunting people, and the general tribal population is not large, mostly the size of a few hundred people. Because, with a larger population, the greater the pressure of hunting. In the absence of horses, the range of people hunting is limited. If there is too much population, there will not be enough prey to kill.

Only when they enter an agrarian society will there be large tribes of thousands or even thousands of people. Then, slowly form a national ......

The indigenous Negroes of Senegal, who were still in the hunting era, apparently had no idea of annexing other tribes. Most of the conflicts between their tribes are based on the grabbing of hunting grounds. Of course, he also took some prisoners of war and sold them as slaves. Because, Eschwein also bought slaves and exchanged them for bows and arrows. If it weren't for Eschwein's acquisition of slaves, they wouldn't have been happy to take prisoners......

In other words, the local tribal conflict is generally on the scale of 100 people, and the kind of guns that bid each other is not as good as gangs cutting each other.

And Puginsky and others, if they go out with 500 Egyptian slave cavalry and four or five hundred black young archers. There is no need for Egyptian slave cavalry to rush up and slash, only need to use bows and arrows, and you can easily defeat those black tribes.

Moreover, Eschwein had not yet sold his bow and arrow to the indigenous tribes north of the Senegal. Those indigenous tribes can only use javelins made of stone spearheads when fighting, and their combat effectiveness is quite rubbish. Thousands of cavalry can definitely sweep the tribes over there. It is actually not very difficult to open up the trade routes of the Songhai Empire.

If you take the conquest of the black indigenous tribes north of the Senegal River and on the southern border of Mauritania as a copy, the difficulty is probably at the novice level, very easy......