Chapter 125: [Freedom for Freedom]

Chavez's actions shocked everyone in the room. No one thought that he would kill Magofin directly.

Looking at Magofin lying on the ground, Armijo came back to his senses after several seconds and looked up at Chavez: "What did you do?"

"I killed the American messenger." Chavez took a deep breath, "Now we can organize our defense with peace of mind."

"Oh my God!" Armijo rushed around the room, waving his hands up and down. "I shouldn't have brought you here!"

Chavez: "Uncle, there is no need for you to be so anxious. We are not without hope. After all, we are the defenders, and we have better weapons."

Armijo stamped his feet again: "Buying those weapons was also a mistake!"

Chavez said nothing.

Archuleta then said, "Governor, no matter what, we only have one choice now - drive the Americans back."

Amijo was silent for a moment, and finally sighed: "Alas, you are right."

"Archuleta, tell the soldiers and the people that the whole city is on combat duty and ready to fight the Americans at any time!"

"yes!"

…

August.

As temperatures rise, the stability of the virus is clearly weakened.

Although the prevention and control measures in Mianxiong City were crude, it was only a place with a few thousand people after all. After about half a year of isolation and control, the epidemic was finally brought to an end on a sunny day, and there was no longer a single infected person.

During the whole process, Mianxiong City lost more than one hundred lives.

Objectively speaking, this is a big loss, but compared with the plagues that the Indians had experienced in the past, this amount of death was definitely a big victory.

Since ancient times, disaster relief has been an important way to gain legitimacy.

For example, in agricultural civilizations, it is not uncommon for people to become sages or even monarchs by controlling floods.

Plague to the Indians was like flood to agricultural civilization, or even worse.

After all, agricultural civilizations always have people who can control floods, but the Indians have never seen anyone who can control the plague. In the face of the plague, they have long been left waiting to die.

Horse whistles helped the plains tribes overcome plague, which was the first time in Indian history.

So naturally, no matter how much prestige he gains, it is not excessive.

The prisoners in the labor camps also developed a worship for Ma Shao. Many of those who originally resisted reform became devout believers of the Spiritual Oracle Church, or followers of Ma Shao, after the epidemic ended.

They chose to fight for parole, learn Apache, and move their families to Sleeping Bear in order to gain conditional freedom.

They did this not only to fight for their own freedom, but also for the future safety of their families. After all, Sleeping Bear City was the only place that could resist the plague.

Ma Shao sent messengers and prisoner representatives to help the prisoners convey messages.

In July, the prisoners' families had already arrived in Mianxiong City one after another, and some even came with their entire clan.

Hearing that Mianxiong City was a "holy city" that could resist the plague, some clans moved here. Not only the clan where the criminals were, but also the neighboring clans came here after hearing the news.

As a result, throughout the month of July, the population of Sleeping Bear City increased by about a thousand people.

There are even more in August.

Mianxiong City began to grow rapidly again.

The larger the scale, the more problems there are.

One of the more troublesome issues was the slave issue. Some Indian clans also had a tradition of slavery. For example, the forest tribe headquarters where the owl was located was a major slaveholder.

The clan had more than 200 people and more than 40 slaves, most of whom were captives captured from the Utah clan.

Of course there is no slavery in Mianxiong City, but Ma Shao did not forcibly release these slaves. Instead, he formulated a compensation plan.

First of all, slave owners cannot settle in Sleeping Bear City. If they want to live in Sleeping Bear City, they must free their slaves in Sleeping Bear City.

As long as their slaves became residents of Sleeping Bear City, they would receive compensation.

The compensation was certainly not high, far below the market price of slaves, but slavery among Indians was not a serious problem, and most slave owners were willing to do so in order to live in the "Holy City".

If prisoners or their families owned slaves, they could choose to release the slaves and receive compensation like ordinary slave owners, or they could choose "freedom in exchange for freedom."

The so-called freedom for freedom means that they give the slaves freedom, and Mianxiong City reduces their sentences by at least one month and at most two years.

Obviously, this will lead to some special deals.

A shed was set up at one of the entrances of Mianxiong City. Several soldiers and shamans were sitting in the shed, with various documents piled on the table in front of them.

At this moment, a Comanche clan and several Arapaho families were gathering here to go through various formalities before entering the city.

"Slave owners can't settle in Sleepy Bear?" A Comanche slave owner widened his eyes when he heard the news.

"That's right. Slavery is prohibited in Sleeping Bear City." The soldier continued to explain while registering.

"Why?"

Soldier: "No reason. This is the teaching of the Oracle and the decision of the Great Chief. Slavery is a barbaric system, and the enslavement of fellow citizens is particularly shameful."

"Of course, as long as you free all the slaves, you can obtain settlement qualifications."

"If the freed slaves become residents of Sleeping Bear City, you will also receive compensation equal to one tenth of the market price."

The slave owner couldn't help but say: "One tenth, this is too little!"

"It's good to have compensation. Strictly speaking, slavery is a crime," said a shaman.

The slave owner hesitated for a moment, then took out some silver coins and wanted to hand them to the soldier and the shaman: "Brother, can you..."

Seeing this, several soldiers and shamans burst out laughing.

Although Mianxiong City has not completely eliminated corruption, this kind of bribery in broad daylight has long had no room to survive.

In their view, this retro behavior is like performance art, and only outsiders who have just arrived would do this.

"This is bribery, a crime, do you understand?" the shaman said, "Considering that you don't understand the laws of Sleeping Bear City, you can be exempted from punishment this time."

At this moment, an Arapaho family next door suddenly said something to a shaman, and then the shaman said to the Comanche slave owner: "They plan to buy some slaves to exchange for freedom for their families. You can sell the slaves to them."

"How much?"

"Twice the compensation, which is one-fifth of the slave price," said the shaman.

"One fifth? This is still too little." The slave owner was still not satisfied.

"You can also choose to take your slaves and leave Sleeping Bear City." The shaman said calmly, "Sleeping Bear City needs warriors, shamans, farmers...but it does not need slave owners."

If you like the story join my patreon as a free member

patreon.com/Theshadowreader179