Chapter 18: Great Chief

The chief of the plains tribe was named "Tent Keeper". He looked to be in his forties. There was nothing special about his appearance, except that he was tall. He wore a war crown with eagle feathers on his head that dragged down to his back, which made him look quite majestic.

To Ma Shao, this great chief is his immediate superior.

Like most other Indian tribes, the Apaches had no tribal leader, and tribal affairs were discussed among several tribes.

If they agree, they work together to complete the task. If they fail, they just go home. There have even been cases of overturning tables and fighting among themselves. For example, the Lipan tribe and the Mescalero tribe once fought each other.

Fortunately, the external conflicts are now severe, the Arapaho are aggressive, and the Western colonists are approaching step by step. Under this situation, the Apaches are still relatively united... I don't know whether this is a good thing or not.

The chief's tent was naturally the largest in the tribe, eight or nine meters high and covering fifty or sixty square meters. No wonder his name was "tent keeper."

The tent keeper sat on a large bear skin, and next to him was his high priest, a gentle-looking young man.

"Respected Great Chief." Stone Crow bowed and saluted. "The Sleeping Bear Clan obeys your call and will fight for the Apache and Arapaho to the end."

"Yeah." The chief nodded casually, then looked at the horse whistle next to Stone Crow.

Only Ma Shao went with Shi Ya to meet the chief, while the other tribesmen were busy setting up camp outside.

Shi Ya introduced him: "He is my shaman apprentice, his name is Ma Shao..."

Ma Shao did not pay attention to Shi Ya's introduction. He was secretly observing the high priest next to the chief.

The high priest intrigued him.

First of all, his age. The tribal chief priest looked to be in his early twenties, no more than twenty-five years old, quite young.

The second is temperament - bookish air, which is even rarer among Indians. Although many shamans have good temperament, such as Stone Crow, who looks calm and wise, there is still a difference between him and bookish air.

In a trance, the bookish air of the high priest made Ma Shao feel like he was back in school in his previous life, because a similar temperament could only be seen in some top students and geniuses, and once leaving school, this kind of temperament in the top students would often fade away slowly.

It is really strange for an Indian to have such a temperament. Could it be that this person has studied outside the tribe?

Of course, Ma Shao is not superstitious about the so-called "temperament".

After all, temperament is a visual signal that can be captured by a camera and imitated by an actor, and has no absolute connection with a person's inner qualities.

For example, Mr. Shi Ya, who looks wise and steady, could probably play Zhuge Liang if he dressed up. However, he is actually an avid fan of shaman dance, and he leads the whole clan, young and old, in having fun as soon as the ceremony starts.

"Horse whistle!" the stone crow suddenly shouted.

Ma Shao was startled, and then suddenly realized that the chief had shown an unhappy look on his face because of his distraction just now.

"Respected Great Chief." He greeted quickly.

The chieftain said with some dissatisfaction: "Stone Crow, your heir doesn't seem to be that good."

Stone Crow bowed his head and explained: "I'm sorry, Chieftain, he is only thirteen years old this year and is indeed not mature enough."

"Thirteen years old?" The chief was a little surprised, and looked at Ma Shao's burly figure. "He's so tall at the age of thirteen. It seems that he is more suitable to be a warrior charging into battle, rather than a priest."

The stone crow said nothing.

"Okay, you guys go out. Rest early today. There may be a battle tomorrow. Those lowly Arapaho people can't wait to die." The chief waved his hand.

"Yes." Stone Crow replied, and then led Ma Shao out of the tent.

Just a few steps out of the tent, he couldn't help but scold Ma Shao: "What were you thinking about just now? Have you forgotten what I told you?"

At the same time, the chief said something similar. He looked at the high priest beside him and said, "What are you thinking about on a rainy day?"

The high priest replied calmly on a rainy day: "The shaman named Ma Shao looks very special."

"Special?" The chief disagreed. "I think it's rude. A real shaman should be like you."

"Everyone behaves inappropriately sometimes, and that's okay," said the high priest.

"Haha, I don't think so. Aren't you always very decent?" The chief laughed and patted his shoulder. "You never make mistakes. You never did before and you won't do so in the future."

"Maybe." Rainy Day looked calm and noncommittal. But he didn't think so in his heart. He knew that everyone makes mistakes, and making mistakes is even a normal thing for people, but not every mistake will be noticed.

…

This place was the front line of the battle and the only way for the Arapaho to go south. The Plains Tribe stationed about 200 warriors here (note). Several other tribes also stationed a lot of troops here, with a total force estimated to be 1,000.

From the Chinese perspective, a garrison of one thousand people would generally be considered a small-scale conflict, and would probably not be recorded in many history books.

But for the Indians, this was undoubtedly a great battle.

This line of defense guarded by thousands of people is like the Great Wall of the Apache nation. Correspondingly, the Arapaho people who attacked from the north are like the Huns in the eyes of the Apaches.

The plains tribes stationed there were mostly Apaches, but there were also some Kiowas.

It is not difficult to distinguish the Kiowa people, the language is different. Communication is not a problem, after all, we have lived together for a long time.

After the Mianxiong clan arrived, they naturally had to say hello to the other clans, especially the close brother clans that had been one family fifty years ago.

At Shi Ya's request, Ma Shao became a tool and performed whistling for relatives and friends.

Ma Shao had long been accustomed to his identity as a singer, and he immediately sang a song called "Return_of_the_Ancients" from Warcraft.

As expected, everyone was attracted by the magnificent and melodious tunes. The charm of music that transcends time and space conquered every Apache warrior here.

To his surprise, while he was whistling, a tall and thin young man started to beat the drums, and the drum beats matched the song very well, which made the audience enjoy it even more.

"sounds amazing!"

"I didn't expect the whistle could be blown like this, it's better than Federer's!" When the music ended, the audience cheered.

Feidier is the drum in the young man's hand. The drum is not big and can be easily hung on the body. It is painted with colorful patterns.

"Hello, I am Long Stick from the Tequila Clan." The young man who had just played the drum introduced himself to Ma Shao enthusiastically, and then said, "Whistle is really amazing."

After learning the name of the horse whistle, he asked again: "Can your whistle call a war horse?"

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Autor Note:

According to the information I have found, the population of the Plains Apache tribe in real history seems to have always been very small, and it is unlikely that they could send out a force of 200 people. This is definitely an exaggeration.

There is too little information about Indians, and even less in Chinese. It is also impossible to write a novel completely based on the information, so I hope everyone will not be too serious about it.