"Whoosh!" With a thud, a white-feathered arrow flew out and struck an antelope in the eye. The antelope groaned and fell to the ground, its body still twitching unconsciously.

"Banga! Bangka! Bangka! Several black men, naked, with bursserie and other fabrics around their waists, cheered as they rushed forward to grab the dying antelope and carry it on their shoulders, and then trotted back again.

The tall black man named Banga threw the longbow in his hand into the hand of the attendant behind him, then took a musket from the hand of the attendant, skillfully loaded the ammunition, and aimed it in the distance, and then shook his head helplessly, put the gun down, and said to the attendants behind him in Xhosa: "Although the power of these weapons of those outsiders in the south is very powerful, the accuracy is too poor. And the rate of fire was slow, and if someone had pointed a gun at me, I would have been able to stick a string of white feather arrows in his chest before he had finished his ammunition and fired. ”

"Banga, that shouldn't be a reason for you to hate muskets." A burly Xhosa man behind Banga said that he, like Bonga, was wearing a shirt that had never been seen before among the Xhosa. And obviously, the style of this shirt is not the European style with a lot of intricate lace patterns stacked on the neckline and cuffs, but the simple and bright style of the cotton shirt of the East Coast, and I don't know where he bought it.

"Of course I know the benefits of the Shodao Musket, Shavi." Banga unbuttoned the wooden buttons of his shirt in two, revealing his well-proportioned pectoral muscles under the fabric, and then saw him pull up a heavy wooden shield and say, "Even a big shield like this." It was also difficult to withstand the bombardment of muskets at medium distances. However, it can easily block arrows from front of it at the same distance. It's just that. The price of the musket was simply too expensive, and we couldn't afford to buy too much. ”

"Two sheep can be exchanged for an arquebus, and if it is a flintlock gun, it will take a cow to get it." Shavi said with a blank face, "Those outsiders in the southwest easily defeated the two tribes that were about to be conquered by Kama with this weapon, and Kama was angry, but he was impressed by this weapon. He believes that we should master the art of using such weapons and maintain a good relationship with those who come from outside. It is better not to break out with them in a short time. ”

"Karma was too cautious." Banga was a little unimpressed, "The outsiders in the southwest are only a few hundred in total, and they only dare to hide near their sturdy houses all day long to graze and cultivate the land, and only come to the mountains when they need to trade with us, they are too timid, just like Kama. ”

"Banga!" Shavi raised his voice with some dissatisfaction, "Kama is our patriarch and your brother, and he is the king of our tribe. Kama was, and still is, the most courageous warrior in the tribe. At the same time, he is also the wisest man in the tribe. For more than ten years, Kama has led our tribe to continuous battles. Now it is a powerful tribe with a population of tens of thousands. Even the Zulus, the Bechuana tribes to the east and north, have to face up to our rise. Much of this is due to Kama, who is unique and our tribe thrives on him! ”

"You went out to fight with Kama when you were twelve, and you were too influenced by him, Shavi." Banga still disagrees with him, "Kama has no respect for tradition, and he even ordered that no one in the tribe should slaughter livestock for sacrifice to the gods, and the elders are a little unhappy about this. However, Kama was very uplifted, believing that the slaughter of large numbers of animals to the gods in order to expand the herd of cattle and sheep and reproduce the tribal population must be outlawed, which would anger the gods and bring disaster. ”

Hearing Banga say this, Shawi was also a little speechless for a while. Although he faintly agreed with Kama's approach, the fear of the gods in his heart was also real, and he did not know where to justify it.

Seeing that Shawi was choked, Banga became more energetic, only to see him continue to complain: "Kama even let us fight those cunning ...... Well, the Dutch made trades, buying muskets, ammunition and leather armor from them. Not to mention, he even asked us to learn the Dutch script, learn their techniques, and wear their clothes, which was especially difficult for me to accept. ”

"Bonga, there's nothing wrong with learning the Dutch language." Shavi retorted, "I have considered these issues carefully, and Kama is right, we Xhosa people do not have our own writing, so we will not be able to record the history, culture, and even some techniques of our tribe and pass them on to future generations. As a result, a lot of things can only be passed down by word of mouth, which is often full of errors, so we need to have a practical writing to record everything about our tribe. ”

"But I'd rather learn the language of the people from the west and the people from the east, at least it's more pleasing to the eye and easier to understand." "And if you look at the tribes that are attached to the East Coasters, their children are well fed, they are all very stocky, and they even have money to spend on the goods of the East Coasters......"

"The East Coasters are dangerous enemies." Shawi suddenly became excited, "Kama said that the people of the East Coast are cruel, and the treatment of the free tribes who refuse to submit is usually a bloody conquest accompanied by a large number of deaths. And they are different from those Dutch people, who are only concerned with business, they are not interested in our land. The people on the East Coast are different, they only had more than 100 people here at the beginning, but after all these years, do you know how many of them are now? According to the reports of our spies in the tribes attached to the East Coast, there are already thousands of settlers in the vicinity of their castles, and there are more than fifteen hundred men ready to fight. Their territory was constantly expanding, their thirst for land, their cattle and sheep, and their insatiable thirst for slaves, and the eight tribes that depended on them, made the Easterners a much more realistic threat than the Dutch. Kama is right, we have to make friends with the Dutch people, the Dutch and the East Coast people are not on good terms, and they are happy to do something to us. ”

Shawi's words, even Bonga could not refute. Over the years, the aggressive expansionist policies of the East Coast have swept away many of the small indigenous tribes that had been scattered between the Kama tribe and the Fort in the River, and those small tribes were partially wiped out, partly integrated into the eight tribes attached to the East Bank, and some of them packed up and fled to the mountains to be annexed by the Kama tribe, and now the Kama tribe, which is almost directly adjacent to the power of the East Bankers, knows better than anyone the aggressive attitude of this new neighbor.

Although more than half a year ago, Gonga personally commanded more than 2,000 elite warriors to take advantage of the rugged terrain in the mountains to defeat an eastward attempt by the easterners, but in that not fierce battle, Bongka's elite men also paid a heavy price of one or two hundred dead and wounded, and their opponents seemed to have only killed and wounded a few dozen people, most of whom were even lightly wounded.

The fighting power of the people on the East Coast is beyond doubt. Although after that battle, the people of the east bank did not know why Lu Dao stopped his attempt to advance eastward, and began to search for the remnants of the San tribe to the north. However, some of the vassal tribes that depended on them began to gradually move eastward, pressing the grazing area to the foot of the mountain, and there was a lot of friction and disputes with some small tribes attached to the Kama tribe over the ownership of certain pastures and water sources, and even several skirmishes broke out for this, resulting in some casualties. Fortunately, however, the upper echelons of both sides were restrained and did not allow the fighting to continue to spread, thus maintaining the fragile peace between the two sides for the time being.

However, it is clear to everyone that this peace between the two sides will not last long, and perhaps in the near future, the people of the East Coast will gather an army larger than the last one and start an eastward march for some purpose, and then a full-scale war will break out with the Kama tribe. And this does not seem to be good news for the Kama tribe, which is still fighting and annexing small tribes.

In the face of such a strange and critical situation, and in the face of changes that have not been seen in hundreds of years before and after the Xhosa people moved into South Africa, not everyone can face it calmly and soberly. Perhaps, it really depends on the strength of the Dutch people? Bonga thought a little lonely that the relationship between the Dutch and the East Coast was also very tense, and perhaps he could find a way to exacerbate the conflict between them, so as to buy some more precious time for the Kama tribe.

However, after full contact with the outside world, how much of the traditions and culture of the Xhosa people that have been maintained for hundreds of years will be left under the invasion of foreign strong cultures? How long can the independence and integrity of the tribe be maintained under the oppression of superior force from outsiders? Bangka Zhilu said that "using razing to control razing" and "mastering the skills of Yiyi to control razing" are not so fun, and if you are not careful, the tribe may be wiped out, just like those countless tribes that have disappeared in history.

"Shawi, I'm going to the Dutch castle the day after tomorrow." After a long silence, Banga smiled a little self-deprecatingly, "Although I was reluctant, Kama still insisted that I lead some of my children to study in the Netherlands. When I go, Kama will definitely let you go to the valley in the mountains to the west, Shavi, beware of those people on the east coast, they are like poisonous snakes, insidious and cruel. I don't want anything to happen to you, my friend! The gods will bless you and me as well—although Kama has angered the gods, the tribe needs to change now, and it takes time, so let's work together. (To be continued......)