The remnant sun was like blood, and the emerald green grassland was dyed a dazzling red by the blood-colored light.

Prince Savida also suffered a knife wound on his right chest, and the linen clothes on his chest were stained red by dazzling blood, and he was in a trance for a while looking at his wounded subordinates. After a while, Savida said coldly to the cavalry leader opposite: "Yorg, you're late!" ”

Yargo turned over and dismounted in some panic, lay on the ground and explained: "It was Yorg's poor inspection that allowed the Boer cavalry to take advantage of the loopholes, and I, Yorgo, am willing to accept the punishment of His Royal Highness the Prince!" ”

Ever since the Xhosa and Dutch fought again, small groups of Boer cavalry frequently crossed the Big Fish River and attacked the pastures of the Xhosa people. These Boer cavalry took the company as a unit, with the intention of fighting the autumn wind, and came and went like a shadow in the big fish river for a generation, which really made the Xhosa people unable to guard against it.

As the leader of the younger generation of the tribe, Yargo was entrusted with the important task of patrolling the border by the tribal chieftain, leading the elite Xhosa cavalry to patrol the border. Since accepting the mission, Yagoe has been diligent and has never dared to slack off. But the frontier line of the Big Fish River was more than a hundred miles long, and from time to time some Boer cavalry took advantage of the loopholes and crossed the river.

Prince Savida took a deep breath, he knew that he was angry with his subordinates, but he couldn't feel better at the thought that he almost confessed here. I thought it was just an easy escort mission, but who would have thought that I would encounter an attack by the Boers.

But Yago's loyalty to him and his current military power were still in his possession, and Prince Savida was not too harsh on him, so he changed his tone: "Okay, okay, now is not the time to be held responsible, clean up the battlefield, and quickly transport this batch of munitions back, so as to save anything going wrong." Yargo hurriedly said yes, turning his head to assign the task to his entourage.

After issuing the order, Prince Saveda remembered Wickham who was shot and fell off the horse, and felt a little regretful in his heart. The thinking pattern of the Xhosa people is very simple, if you are kind to me, I will repay it a hundredfold. Wickham's choice to stay and fight alongside the Xhosa at a crucial moment has made Prince Saveda see Lin Zihan as a friend to rely on.

For friends, they Xhosa people have always been sincere. On the other hand, the tactics and army formation in Wickham's mouth were very interesting to the young Prince Xhosa, and he originally wanted to go back and ask Wickham to help him train a new European-style army, but he didn't expect Wickham to be shot and fall off his horse, and he must have gone to see the sun god, how not to make him feel sorry.

Just when Prince Savida was a little emotional, a Xhosa soldier ran over and hurriedly said: "Your Royal Highness, when we were cleaning up the body, we found a white man who was injured and unconscious, but his clothes were not like Boer cavalry, what should we do with this white man?" Please also ask His Royal Highness the Prince to show me. ”

After listening to the soldier's report, Prince Savida felt a burst of ecstasy in his heart, the wounded white man in the soldier's mouth must be Wickham! Unexpectedly, Wickham, who was shot and fell off the horse, was still alive, and Prince Savida excitedly pulled up the soldier: "Where is that white man?" Take me there! ”

The Xhosa soldier, though a little puzzled by the prince's gaffe, honestly brought Savida over. Yargo was also a little curious about the white man, why did Prince Saville, the heir of the tribal chieftain, lose his temper when he heard the news that the man was alive? Thinking of this, Yargo also quickly followed.

"Your Royal Highness, you were already like this when we found him." The soldier pointed to the man on the ground and said to Savida that the man with a bloody face was none other than the fallen Wickham. At this time, Wickham had fallen into a coma due to excessive blood loss, his face was unusually pale, and his original white riding pants were covered with blood, I don't know if it was the blood of the enemy or his own.

Prince Savida crouched down, probed Wickham's snort and heartbeat, and immediately relieved, and said to the soldier next to him: "This is my friend Mr. Wickham, who was injured because he fought alongside me. Now carry this gentleman to the ox cart, and we will bring him back to Priest Kochib, who will surely have a way to save him!" ”

Yargo also crouched down, briefly examined Wickham's injuries, and then shook his head and said to Prince Savida: "Your Royal Highness, your friend not only lost too much blood, but also fell his head when he fell off his horse, even if he brought him back to the tribe, Priest Kochib could not save him. ”

After a moment's hesitation, Yargo added, "Besides, he's white, and white people have a blood feud with us Xhosa. We can't bring a strange white man back to our tribe. "Years of conflict with the Dutch colonists had given Yargo a natural distrust of the white people, and he did not want to bring this unknown person back to the tribe, and now the Boers alone were already a headache for the Xhosa, but he could not provoke another group of greedy whites.

Prince Savida stared at Yargo with some anger and said slowly, "Yargo, am I a prince or are you a prince?" ”

Yargo felt a chill rise on his back, and he didn't dare to take this kind of rebellious remark. But when he thought of the Portuguese who went to the tribe to collect intelligence under the banner of an iron merchant last year, he still stubbornly said: "Your Royal Highness, I don't mean anything else, but ......"

"Do as I say!" Prince Savida snapped, and was repeatedly confronted by his own men, which made his heart burn with rage. Some people, if they are not reminded all the time, will not be able to find their own place, and they will not know who is the master of the house.

Aergo looked at His Royal Highness the Prince, whose face was getting darker and darker, and quickly realized that his behavior was inappropriate, and hurriedly leaned over and said, "As you wish, Your Royal Highness the Prince." ”

Then, several Xhosa soldiers loaded Wickham onto an ox cart that transported military supplies. The most common bullock cart in South Africa, although slow, is relatively smooth, and for the badly injured Wickham, the risk of bleeding again due to the bumps can be avoided.

In this way, the convoy crossed the Great Fish River at a shoal and entered the core territory of the Xhosa.

Prince Savida's tribe is one of the largest among the Southern Xhosa people, with a population of more than 20,000 people. It turned out that fifty years ago, there was no such a large tribe near the Great Fish River, and this large tribe was the generation of Savida's grandfather, who had migrated from the royal court of Xhosa on the north bank of the Kai River.

Prince Savida's grandfather was the eldest son of the Great Chief of the Xhosa Tribal Alliance, and it was only because of the failure to compete for the position of the Great Chief that he moved to the area of the Big Fish River with the small tribe attached to him. Fortunately, the water and grass in the Dayu River basin were delicious and suitable for growing crops, and this tribe soon developed and became the largest branch in South Xhosa.

Such scenes of fratricidal slaughter are not uncommon among the Xhosa people, but are a common phenomenon. The reason for this is also due to the unreasonable inheritance law of the Xhosa people.

The Xhosa people have an unwritten rule on the succession of a chieftain: the office of chief can only be inherited by the eldest son of the wife of the main family, just like the primogeniture system of the ancient Chinese royal family.

But the chieftains of the Xhosa generally marry the "right room" first, and then the main room. As a result, concubines were generally older than the eldest sons, and often held the position of "regent" in the court of the great chief.

Most of the older concubines were not content to be calm, and they vigorously cultivated their henchmen during the regency, and then staged a coup d'état when the time was right, driving out the eldest son who had the right to inherit in one fell swoop.

Because the concubine is young and his power is not stable enough, the position of chief always falls into the hands of those concubines, which has also become a major feature of the Xhosa people.

The losers of the political and political struggles usually left with their henchmen to establish their own tribes, which led to the declining power of the Xhosa chieftains, and thus the inability to resist the encroachment of the Dutch colonists.

Savida's grandfather, because he was deprived of the right of inheritance by his elder brother, ran away to the Dayu River Valley to establish his own tribe, and after two generations of development, it has today's scale.

It was only in recent years that the Boers had expanded their pastures to the north and east, and that there had been several major battles with their tribes.

When Prince Savida returned to the tribe, it was completely dark, and the whole tribe was completely dark, except for the sparkling fire in the chief's tent. As soon as Prince Savida dismounted, a big man rushed over on horseback with a torch and said, "Your Royal Highness Prince Savida, the chief has asked you to come over immediately. ”

Prince Savida squinted and saw that this big man was Kitty, the squire at his father's side, but this guy was his eldest brother's confidant and often spoke ill of him in front of the chief.

"I'll go right away. By the way, Kitty, your horse is good, how about letting me ride it? Although Prince Savida was speaking in a consultative tone, he grabbed the reins directly in his hand, forcibly pulled Kitty off his horse, and jumped on his horse.

Kitty looked at the arrogant prince, and Yargo, who had been pressing his hand on the hilt of the knife beside him, had to swallow the abusive words hard, and only wanted to wait for the eldest son to win the chieftain position, and he must make this bullshit prince look good.

Seeing that Kitty dared to be angry and did not dare to speak, Prince Savida was in a very good mood, and he pulled the reins and said to Algo: "Yargo, you quickly send Mr. Wickham to the High Priest, and I will go to my father now." Then he took the belly of the horse and beat the horse towards the chief's tent.

Prince Savida came to the chief's tent, turned over and dismounted, handed over his horse to the guards beside him, and went into the tent. I saw an old man with gray hair and beard, sitting on a woolen carpet and wiping a long sword from Europe, and his expression was as focused as if the sword in his hand was a beautiful woman. This old man, who is already in his twilight years, is the most honorable person in this tribe - the Grand Chief of Cohensa.

"Father, I have brought back the British arms safely, a total of 1,500 guns and guns, as well as gunpowder and buckshot to accompany them." Savida bowed respectfully to the old chieftain, with great respect for his father.

The old man was a well-known warrior among the Xhosa people, who was able to kill an adult leopard with his bare hands. It's just that the warrior who was infinitely powerful back then is now old, and he can only watch his concubines elevate his power step by step, but there is nothing he can do.

The old chief inserted his sword into the scabbard, and then looked up at his youngest son, who was also the rightful heir to the chieftaincy, and said, "Is it so?" The Boers have been on the offensive lately, and many small tribes have been raided by the Boer militias, and we urgently need the advanced weapons of the whites to stabilize the situation. This time, I'm going to build a 1,000-strong musket team so that I don't always fall behind when I encounter the Boers. It's up to you to pick the people of this unit, and you will nominate the commander of the new unit. ”

Who said that the old chief was already dizzy and unreasonable? This hand is quite beautiful, and the latest army is in the hands of the younger son, and it can also balance the concubine who holds great power.

Prince Savida quickly understood his father's intentions, and saluted his father gratefully: "Father, I will definitely form the most elite troops, you can rest assured!" Also, this time I brought back a brave and wise heroic ** officer, this person is capable and courageous, and with his help, the Musket Team can basically achieve half the battle. ”

The old chief frowned and said uneasily, "White? The British can't be a little calculus, right? It soon occurred to the old chief that the British were trying to install a pawn in their new army.

However, the old chief was wrong, Lord Magalny was not interested in the pitiful strength of the Xhosa, and the current kingdom of Britain could use a well-equipped army force of more than 10,000 men overseas at any time, and there was no need to infiltrate a tribal army. What he hoped was for Wickham to instigate the Xhosa to launch a large-scale attack on the Dutch, so that the British would come forward to take charge of Cape Town in the future.

Prince Savida knew what his father meant, but he was quite confident in the control of the troops, so he said, "Father, the British only sent an officer this time, and they can't control our musket team at all. Moreover, Mr. Wickham was a true warrior and a master of the white man's way of fighting, which is the knowledge we desperately need. But now that Mr. Wickham is seriously wounded, it is up to the Sun God to survive or not. ”

The old chief raised his eyebrows: "Okay, let's wait for this white man to survive first." ”