Chapter 6: Guilt (I)

The Cherokee were the most warlike of the North American Indians, and in the war with the British, the Cherokee also helped the United States fight the British, and President Jackson once swore that beyond the borders of the American states, "as long as the grass grows and the water flows," the Cherokee will keep their land forever. ”

But when more and more immigrants from Europe came in, and the original land was no longer enough for the immigrants to reproduce, the U.S. government began to set its sights on the land of the Cherokees.

In 1771, the U.S. government signed a treaty with the Cherokees, solemnly guaranteeing that they would forever possess the mountainous lands of northwestern Georgia and promising to take all measures to help civilize the Cherokee people.

In 1804, the first school was established in the Cherokee area by a Christian Moravian mission. By 1817, missions were coming, with Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist and other Protestant denominations sending missions. The mission also teaches agricultural techniques.

In this way, the production lifestyle and cultural composition of the Cherokee people are playing a significant role. Under the direction of the federal government, using the mission and white Southern farmers as models, the Cherokees began to learn to farm, grow cotton, sell their produce in the market, and accumulate capital. Even like the white people, they owned black slaves. Wealthy Cherokees opened roadside hotels, went out to sell, set up shops, and operated ferries at ferry crossings. The women of these families no longer went to the fields, but let black slaves work in the fields, or leased the land to white people.

After a short twenty or thirty years of "civilizing" programs, by the 1820s, a new generation of Cherokee leaders emerged. Many of them are white and Cherokee mixed-race, and some have only one-eighth Cherokee ancestry. They were educated at mission schools and were able to communicate fluently in English. Some helped the Union Army in the war, while others went to Philadelphia or Washington, D.C., to work with white people. Since they lived in Georgia, where slavery had not yet been abolished, many of them even had black slaves.

However, after the discovery of gold by the locals in 1828, the Georgian government began to do everything possible to force the Cherokee people to move westward. The Cherokees did not dare to resist on the surface, and began to refuse to move westward with passive delay.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Cherokee lands used to dominate most of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Although the roads in the area are rough, it contains large areas of fertile farmland and valuable timber and mineral resources. These gifts of nature attracted land-hungry white settlers. In 1830, after the Cherokees had endured more than 200 years of war between Europeans and Americans, the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act. The Act applies to all tribal proceedings in the United States, and the initiation of legal proceedings compels Native Americans to abandon their lands and move to Indiana, which is now Oklahoma, which is the land that crosses the feet of the people.

In 1835, the federal government induced a handful of bribed tribal leaders to sign a relocation treaty, and the Cherokees, who knew of the situation, naturally chose to resolutely oppose it.

In a fit of rage, in 1837, Winfield? Scott led thousands of regular troops and militia to begin to forcibly relocate the Cherokees: they set fire to the Cherokee houses, drove the old and young Cherokees, beat the young Cherokees, and forced the Cherokees to leave their homes in humiliation under the drive of the American ** team.

But despite this, on the way to Oklahoma, the U.S. ** team was still angry and often used violence against the Cherokee and abused them in every way. Hunger and cold disease, when they set out, there were nearly 20,000 people, but along the way, many frail Cherokee people fell to the ground one after another, and many of them never got up again due to hunger and cold. The harsh natural conditions killed more than 4,000 of the nearly 20,000 Cherokees. History calls this westward migration of the Cherokee people "the Road of Blood and Tears." ”

However, when there are fewer and fewer companions around them, I don't know how far away the destination is, and there is still the nasty leather whip of the American ** team waving with teeth and claws, the mood of the Cherokee people has become more gloomy, and the depressed people are just mechanically dragging their legs, pulling the family old and young, numb to move forward.

But when they saw the Mohican youth Encas, who had left their ranks not long ago, reappear in front of them, the lifeless people began to stir.

"Encas, aren't you already gone, why are you back again?" People were anxiously asking him.

"Yes, what's good here, isn't it enough for the Yankees to make you suffer." Although the brave and kind-hearted Encas is not a Cherokee, he has long won the acceptance and recognition of most Cherokee people with his actions.

"Good news, guys, I have good news." Encas suppressed his excitement and said in a low voice, "Chiefs, we have found help, as long as they are willing to help us, we will definitely be able to defeat those Yankees, and we will not have to suffer from their anger anymore." ”

Sure enough, they soon saw the group of capable and mighty soldiers who were following Encas, but as soon as they saw their number, their enthusiasm that had just been ignited couldn't help but cool again: "Only a few dozen people? How could it be possible to beat those murderous Yankees. ”

"They can do it, trust me, they will be able to help us." Encas hurriedly argued, "I've seen their weapons, and the Yankees are no match for them." ”

Of course, Xu Yongquan and his fighters naturally did not understand their dispute. But the sight of thousands of Cherokee people looking like ashes and listless looked even more angry in their hearts.

"Fight, Captain, let's kill all the Yankees at once." The fighters were indignant.

"Hit? How to fight? Why fight? "In a fit of anger, he came here with the soldiers, but when he saw these suffering Indians, Xu Yongquan hesitated again." These Indian people, what exactly did they do to make them suffer such barbaric treatment from the Yankees? I want to kill those Yankees, but in what name are we going to kill them? ”

"Captain, I can't care so much," Cui Sikai, the leader of the indignant youth squad, said without thinking, "We didn't make any mistakes, because the Europeans and Americans thought they were noble, so everything better than them, they had to destroy, German engineers came to China to travel, found China's prosperity, felt a big loss of face, and after returning to China, they said that the Chinese do not deserve these good days." The Indians, in the same way, had such fertile land, and the Americans were not satisfied with the fact that they had come across the sea to beg for a living, because these noble people thought from the bottom of their hearts that the Indians did not deserve this beautiful land, and that it would be better if the land remained in their hands. This is the sin of the Waibi, this is the original sin of the Indians, no one has judged the Yankees before, and now that we are here, let us be the judges of their fate. Because Napoleon said that the truth is only within the range of the cannons, let us kill the bandits the way the Americans did, as they did Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi, and what more reasonable reason could there be? ”

"You?" Xu Yongquan stared at Cui Sikai in surprise, and didn't come back to his senses for a long time, "How can you think so, we can't ignore organizational discipline." ”

"Hehe, captain, there is no one else here, now you are representing the organization, as long as you give an order, the big guy will listen to you." Cui Sikai said with a hippie smile.

"I know that whatever you say is reasonable," Xu Yongquan glared at him badly, "That's it, let's be crazy about him, to be honest, I have been training every year, and even I have never seen real blood, so let these Yankees let us test the gun." All right. All of them are there, and we are on our way. ”

Clinton walked lazily at the back of the group, and to tell the truth, let them be in charge of driving the pair of Indians away, and after spending the first novelty and searching every copper plate on the Indians, there was no excitement at all. Now, seeing that the Indians were about to reach their destination and his mission was about to be completed, he couldn't help but relax. Hehe, the United States, now it's their territory, which team dares to touch their tiger whiskers?

"Lieutenant, everyone is tired, come and smoke one?" Private Bob, a former porter by the Thames, came up with a hippie smile and handed over a cigarette.

"You kid, you have such a good mind, did you find any treasure from that group of pigs?" Clinton shouted with a dark face, but took the cigarette in his hand very neatly.

"I know that I can't hide it from the lieutenant, damn, that dead woman, for a bite of a golden tooth, actually bit Lao Tzu, if Lao Tzu hadn't knocked her out, this gold tooth couldn't be taken off." Bob looked at his right hand with palpitations, the scar still visible. As for the Indian woman he knocked out, it was no longer something they needed to think about.

"Stop, stop, take a break and hit the road." Clinton ignored Bob and waved tiredly.

The team slowly stopped, and the American soldiers began to sit together in groups of three or five, eating dry food with cold water, while the crumbling Indian people were in vain looking for everything that could be filled in their stomachs in the grass on the side of the road, and chewed into their mouths indiscriminately.

In the midst of the fleeing crowd, there was also a group of capable men, stubbornly guarding a middle-aged man who was getting thinner and thinner, and they surrounded him with their own bodies, saving them the best food they could find for him to eat, but in spite of this, the sadness on his face became darker and darker, and his body became more and more emaciated.

"Disperse, disperse, everyone ignore me, let's all go and escape. It's over, we, the Cherokees, are going to be finished, and the thousands of Cherokee brothers and sisters, I don't know how many will be left who can escape this. O all-powerful god's residence, what have we Cherokees done to make us suffer this hatred of extermination? Alas, it's useless, even God doesn't care about us anymore, don't delay everyone, everyone takes care of their own families, stop thinking about the founding of the country, and pray that the Americans can find out with their conscience, let us live, and let's talk about it. ”

"Chief, no, only you, we must still have hope, we have been fighting the Americans for decades, and we will continue to fight under your leadership in the future. Hold on, you have to hold on. Several dignified men, when they said this, they couldn't help but choke up emotionally.

"Alas, what are we going to fight, although we have more people than them, but we are fighting on our own, and the only ones who can listen to me are our Cherokees, the Delaware, the Mohok, and the Mohicans, they are all busy fighting with their own people, where did they think that the Americans are our henchmen. Fight? The Americans have guns and cannons, what do we fight with? Our sticks and bodies? Or our teeth and saliva? It's over, it's all over, I'm afraid that all our tribes will inevitably escape this catastrophe. ”

The north wind blew down the leaves again, and the whining sound seemed to echo the leader's sad sigh, but did the god they believed in hear their sincere prayers?

"Disperse, disperse, it's useless, let's take care of it in the future." A yin and yang weird tone added some sadness to everyone's sad mood. everyone's sad mood made everyone look at him angrily: "Noah, the leader is in a bad mood now, don't talk nonsense." At this time, everyone should unite and not spoil everyone's mood. ”

"Joke, what chief? The leader of our Mohoks is Warsaw, and what is his leader Logan? We just happened to be on our way with you. No, we didn't go all the way, Logan was called to disperse, then let's disperse, I'll lead my people, let's go. ”

"Noisy, noisy, have you eaten too much?" The quarrel that took place here finally alarmed the Americans who were standing on the sidelines, and shouted violently.

Driving away such a group of kind and cowardly Indians gave the American GIs no sense of accomplishment, they just had to follow the Indians with their guns and drive them west of the Mississippi River like a flock of sheep. Of course, if the Indians like to make something happen and kill someone, it will be in their hands, but there is a premise, just don't disturb their peace.

The crowd fell silent again, but looking at the Yankees' arrogant expressions, in addition to the anger and unwillingness of a few people, there was more numbness and forbearance.

"Scattered, all scattered," the American soldier waved his hand angrily, Logan and the others had to disperse, the American soldier scolded and walked towards his comrades, "Fuck, it's not to send away you plagues, Lao Tzu will be accompanying Jenny shopping, let your women sleep with Lao Tzu, and live or die, Lao Tzu can't find a woman for the time being, and he doesn't want to touch you." ”

"Yes, we listened to you, and we will disperse immediately, immediately," Noah said with a flattering look, flattering to the American GIs.

"Go, die a little farther away." The American GI's eyebrows furrowed, revealing a look of disgust. Noah was bored, so he found a place where no one was and sat down.

Logan clenched his fists tightly, his eyes spurting with anger, staring directly in the direction of the American soldier's departure, but soon, he released his fist helplessly and shook his head helplessly.

"Chief, Encas is back, Encas is back." The crowd suddenly burst into a burst of suppressed exclamations, and a young man ran to Logan's side excitedly, unable to hide his joy and said.

"Encas is back? Didn't this kid leave us, what did he do when he came back? Go, let him come over and see what he has to say to me. ”

"Encas is back? What did he come back for? Didn't you make a fortune. Noah bracked his ears and just caught these words, and guessed suspiciously.