"That's right." "The Plains tribes will not participate in this war, and we will not affect the outcome. We will not attack the Mexicans and, of course, the Americans. ”

General Carney stared at him and asked, "Then what do you think the outcome of the war will be?" ”

Ma Whistle smiled slightly: "Of course, the righteous side defeats the evil side, and the counterattacking side defeats the aggressive side." ”

Carney was silent for a moment: "Of course you can be neutral, but I must say that your integrity has always been questionable - you don't have a spirit of contract, at least traditionally. ”

"We just don't have a contract." "Any fair and valid contract is at least in duplicate, but in the past, we did not have our own writing, so we could not sign a contract." ”

Carney was slightly stunned: "You mean, you have words now?" ”

"Yes." Ma Whistle nodded, "If you don't feel comfortable with our neutrality, we can sign a neutrality pact now." How's that, General Carney? ”

"Yes." General Carney would have liked to see what Apache's writing looked like.

Ma Whistle immediately took out the two contracts that he had prepared a long time ago and handed them to Carney: "This is the contract we prepared in advance, the content is very simple, you can take a look." ”

Carney took the contract and looked at the English on it.

The content is really simple, with few words. Roughly speaking, during the war between the United States and Mexico, the tribes of the Apache Plains will remain neutral and will not even appear on the battlefield between the two sides. Of course, if it is a counterattack after being attacked, it is not subject to this limitation.

"I can't read your words, although they're made up of letters." General Carney said.

"Apache script is a phonetic script, and the phonetic rules are similar to those of English." "As long as you know Apache, it is not difficult to understand our writing." ”

Close to English pronunciation, this is one of the principles of Hanyu Pinyin scheme design.

General Carney thought for a moment, then turned his head and said, "Call a translator." ”

Soon a translator who knew Apache came over, and Ma Whistle slowly read the contents of the contract for him in Apache, and then said, "I believe you already know what Apache words these letter combinations correspond to." ”

"That's right." The translator nodded, "It's really not difficult to tell, the pronunciation rules are very close to English." ”

General Carney asked, "Is there a problem with the content?" ”

Translation: "No, the content of the Apache text is exactly the same as the content of the English language. ”

General Carney looked at the contract again, and then couldn't help asking, "Grand Chief Albert, I'm a little curious, who invented this set of scripts?" ”

Ma Whistle: "It's me, of course, with the help of a friend of mine. ”

General Carney was surprised: "You have made the Apache the second Indian tribe to have a written word. ”

The two sides soon signed a neutrality pact.

General Carney: "I believe you are a man of integrity, Grand Chief Albert, but I am still not sure if you have the ability to restrain your tribe, after all, a tribe often has many scattered clans. ”

Ma Whistle: "Please rest assured that the Plains Tribe has gathered all the clans. All members of the clan live in Sleeping Bear City behind me, and there will be no breach of contract by one clan. ”

General Carney nodded: "In that case, you will definitely not bother when our troops pass through here." ”

"Of course." "Also, General Carney, we got a batch of advanced pistols from an unnamed European country, I wonder if you would be interested in buying some?" ”

"Pistol?" General Carney thought for a moment, "Pepper shaker pistol?" ”

Before revolvers became popular, pepper shaker pistols were a relatively common type of pistol.

This pistol has many barrels, a dense muzzle, and a shape that looks a bit like a pepper shaker, hence the name.

"No, it's a revolver." The sentry pulled out a Browning revolver and handed it to General Carney.

Seeing this novel revolver, General Carney's eyes couldn't help but light up, and he played with it in his hand, and couldn't help but nod his head again and again: "It looks very good." I've used Colt's pistol, and it's better than Colt. ”

He looked at the text on the gun: "Browning...... Is it the name of the company that produces it? ”

"Not really." Ma Whistle said.

"So who produced it?" General Carney asked.

Ma Whistle smiled: "I said that this is from an unnamed European country, and they don't want anyone to know where this gun came from. ”

Carney frowned, and then seemed to think of something: "Because of patent law? ”

The sentry did not answer, still smiling and noncommittal.

"So you're actually an agent?" Carney smiled.

The whistle still didn't answer.

Carney looked at the Browning revolver in his hand again: "Anyway, this is definitely a good thing." I'm willing to buy it, so how much does it sell? ”

"General Carney, you know, it's a time of war." "So, as a weapon with good performance, the Browning revolver sells for fifty dollars a piece." ”

"Fifty dollars!" Carney's expression changed, "It's too expensive, more expensive than a Colt pistol." ”

"But it's better than a Colt pistol, isn't it?" "At least it's far more reliable than a Colt pistol, and if you don't believe me, you can compare it now." ”

General Carney didn't try, because it couldn't have been more obvious.

The American army was already armed with a number of Colt pistols, so they understood the advantages and disadvantages of the Colt.

Not to mention anything else, just the appearance and feel, Browning obviously surpasses Colt, exuding a gorgeous and solid temperament.

It was precisely because he was a professional soldier that General Carney thought that the Browning pistol was superior to the Colt pistol.

If it is a layman, after Browning's comparison, he will definitely directly conclude that Colt is garbage.

So in all fairness, in a time of war like this, fifty dollars is not outrageous, that is, the price of two Colts.

But it's still too expensive.

Fifty dollars a handful, a thousand dollars for fifty dollars.

Fifty thousand dollars!

Carney felt that bribing Amicho would not cost so much money.

So after a short period of thought, he said, "Twenty-five dollars at most, otherwise no one will buy it." ”

"Well, then, we'll have to give up on the deal." Ma Whistle had no intention of lowering the price, he knew that it would not be long before someone would rush to buy it for fifty dollars.

Seeing that he was so calm, Carney was a little uncalm: "Wait." ”