"Jeronimo!"

Seeing the turtledove calling his name in the letter, Geronimo was startled. He knew that he had made Turtledove angry by not following Turtledove's order to take over the Mountain Tribe's action against Texas not long ago.

He looked at it boldly:

"I will lead the army south and expect to reach El Paso in early May, pacify Texas in June, and have a decisive battle with Zachary Taylor in July."

"In this battle, I will defeat Zachary Taylor and kill all the American troops on Mexican soil, and achieve the first decisive victory since the Madre Mountains and Forests!"

】

……

Jeronimoti's heart sank in his throat.

……

"Your main tasks are twofold:"

"One is to send me at least 100,000 slaves, the more the better!"

"The second is to lead the army to attack all the villages in Mexico, plunder the population if it can, and burn it if it can't, the cleaner the better!"

"To your east, there's a Neville-Crockett legion, and you can work with each other."

……

100,000 slaves?

There weren't even 100,000 people on New Mexico's soil, and it wasn't enough to send all of your army as slaves!

Geronimo's eyelids jumped, and he let out a scream in his heart.

But after seeing the turtledove and asking him to plunder and sweep up the territory of Mexico, this scream was quickly replaced by a lament—

Turtledove, you might as well let me die!

……

"Hereby, you are appointed commander of the Western Legion of the Mexican Theater of Operations, promoted to the rank of colonel!"

"Please continue to command the Tescat Lipoca Legion, with the letter of appointment attached!"

***

About half an hour later.

Jerónimo shouted out the door, "Pablo! ”

After a while, Juarez walked in.

"Finished reading the letter?" Juarez asked.

"I'm done!"

"Say, what do you decide?" Juarez asked.

Jerónimo shook his head, and instead of saying his choice at the first time, he said: "Neutrality is unrealistic!" ”

"Why?"

"If the Americans win, the best outcome is to draw us a reservation in Oregon or Ohio, the so-called 'Governor of New Mexico', just listen to it, don't take it seriously!"

Juarez smiled.

The old credit of the United States has long been bankrupt, not to mention whether there is such a thing as a reservation in the end, and even if there is, I don't know if it will be painted in the ice and snow in the north or on some island in the Pacific Ocean! Naturally, Geronimo understands this.

"If the Americans are defeated, the turtledoves will dominate all the tribes of the Indians—" Geronimo paused.

"Is he going to kill you?" Juarez asked.

Jerónimo shook his head, "I don't know. ”

"And what are you afraid of?"

Geronimo pondered for a moment, as if organizing language, and finally shook his head, sighed, and said, "Alas, you may say that I am afraid, but even I don't know what I am afraid of!" ”

"Pablo, my brother!" Geronimo said, "It's a strange feeling of fear, and I don't know what to say to you—"

"—not the fear you plead at the guns of the white man, not the fear that your legs tremble in the face of the wolves, nor the fear that now sees Zachary Taylor's army coming to fight us...... All these fears are nothing more than taking our lives! ”

It's like you're lost alone in the endless wasteland, dark on all sides, you can't hear the wind, you don't know what the ground is, and all the insects and beasts are gone...... You shout, but there is not a single echo in the dark wasteland......"

"—You don't know where to go, and you don't know if you should stop......"

"—but that's when you notice a little bit of starlight looming ahead......"

"—that's the starlight, creepy horror......"

Juarez listened to Jerónimo say these words incoherently, but he felt a little ridiculous in his heart: "Jerónimo, isn't that little bit of starlight the hope you see in despair?" ”

"But it wasn't supposed to be there!"

Geronimo exclaimed: "- Pablo, the wasteland is the wasteland, and the abyss is the abyss!" The wasteland should be barren and dead, and the abyss should be gloomy and gloomy! You shouldn't have found a green tree in a desolate and depressed wasteland, nor should you have seen a sturdy and stable boat in the abyss—Pablo, just as you suddenly found me with two heads, don't you feel fear? ”

Juarez opened his mouth and hesitated for a moment before asking, "You mean to say, turtledove...... Is that little bit of starlight? ”

Sweating profusely and agony, Geronimo said, "Therefore, I am more afraid of it—than of the dead wasteland and the bottomless abyss!" ”

In Juarez's heart, the turtledove is a person.

But in Geronimo's mind, the turtledove has become a symbol.

……

"I've tried to snuff out that little bit of starlight!"

"It was weak then, and of course, I wasn't strong. But the first time I saw him, I knew he wasn't supposed to be there – he was so weird! It's as strange as the mural you painted, with angel wings on the devil's body, gold coins and honey spitting out of the snake's mouth, who would have thought that those delicate tulips would be the most ferocious poison in the world—the first time I saw him, he was like a green shoot in the middle of a thousand trees in the wasteland, like a boat in the endless abyss! ”

"I should have died in the flames of hatred, like all the Indians of the Great Plains, skinned and thrown on the side of the road, let the wolves gnaw off my ass and limbs, let the vultures peck at my eyes, let the vipers and rats run through my chest, and finally become a delicacy for a bunch of flies and maggots!"

"But when I first saw him in the woods of Mount Madre at a place called Turkey Ridge, I seemed to see that little bit of starlight—do you think I saw hope in despair?"

"Nope! No! ”

Geronimo shook his head bitterly and said, "It is a pain that is deeper than pain, a despair that is sadder than despair!" ”

"I knew that sooner or later he would unify the Indians - but were the Indians at that time still Indians?"

"When the Indians ceased to worship the mountains and their ancestors, the priests of the tribes began to use candles to pretend to be gods, the crown feather, which was originally a symbol of glory and pride, became a commodity of one peso, and the ancient words were replaced by the English of Iyiya—was he saving the Indians or destroying the Indians?"

"But, Pablo—"

Geronimo crouched on the ground in pain, holding his head in his hands, as if he was seriously ill, and said in a voice as fragile as the last yellow leaf on an autumn branch: "Do we have any other choice?" ”

"We don't have a choice!"