Patrick's statistics on the refugees' weapons quickly came out.
Most of the refugees originally lived inland, and many of them didn't have weapons, but Americans have a very long tradition of carrying guns.
Among the more than a thousand refugees, there were still over three hundred various firearms, and many people even carried two or three guns each.
Unfortunately, these guns were primarily cavalry short guns, and the long guns included old antiques like matchlocks.
The smoothbore guns and single-barrel rifles truly suitable for infantry combat only amounted to just over a hundred.
Adding the original weapons in Pittsburgh, a total of over five hundred various firearms could be assembled.
Additionally, there were over two hundred horses of various colors, with about a hundred suitable for irregular cavalry use.
There were more people who knew how to shoot than there were firearms, totaling seven or eight hundred, and three to four hundred were skilled marksmen who could shoot proficiently.
Charles and Patrick were much more at ease now.
Combined with the eight small-caliber cannons originally on the fortress and Bergnan's three breech-loading cannons, the entire small town's armed forces were still very strong.
They could easily defeat a group of about a hundred natives with a single sortie.
The next day, before dawn, while Charles was still sound asleep in the trading center, Antoine suddenly burst into the trading center with a militia soldier soaked in dew and sweat.
Charles was quickly woken by Charlotte and came to meet them.
Seeing the soldier's soaked appearance, Charles quickly told him to drink some wine to warm himself while reporting the situation, and at the same time, he didn't forget to have someone notify Patrick to come to him.
After Patrick arrived, they quickly learned about the natives' situation and intentions.
The scout cavalry had set out in the afternoon, advancing in eight directions.
This soldier was relatively lucky; he found the right direction, searched forward on horseback until nightfall, and then, even more fortunately, easily found the natives' camp in the wilderness based on scattered campfires in the dark.
It was estimated to be only about half a day's normal cavalry ride from Pittsburgh (cavalry usually maintains a slow trot or fast walk), right at the reconnaissance critical point for Pittsburgh's scout cavalry.
If walking to Pittsburgh, it would only take less than two days.
The scout cavalry didn't know much about the specific situation of the camp, but judging from its size and sounds, the number of people should not be less than five hundred.
Fortunately, they were basically infantry, and judging by the whinnying, there were about a hundred horses.
As soon as this result came out, Patrick couldn't help but gasp.
If it were a tribe of one or two hundred people, that would be normal, as war often broke out among natives, and once a war ended, entire tribes would often migrate.
But now, with five hundred people appearing at once, the trouble was immense.
Even if not all of them were warriors, a native tribe of just five hundred people would be enough to cause huge damage to the small town.
At this time, the Midwest of America was vast and sparsely populated.
When the British and French fought in the Ohio area, the total forces participating on both sides, including natives, never exceeded ten thousand.
A small conflict involving a hundred people was already considered a formal engagement.
This time they had over five hundred, so their side would certainly have to mobilize at least four or five hundred people.
If this war really broke out, it would be the largest battle in the western region since the British-French war.
"Antoine, you know more about the natives here.
Which tribe do you think these people belong to?
Are they allied with those hostile natives?" Charles was a little disbelieving that such a powerful native army would suddenly attack Pittsburgh.
"Absolutely no tribe around Pittsburgh is this large, let alone has so many warriors.
Only the Great Lakes region to the northwest has six native tribes: the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and Tuscaroras.
The alliance they formed is also known as the Iroquois.
I think it's most likely their warriors.
Fortunately, they only mobilized five hundred people.
With their capabilities, if they deployed their entire army, it would definitely not be less than two thousand," Antoine replied gloomily.
"It must be the Iroquois!" Patrick nodded in agreement.
"I remember they played an important role in the recent war between France and Britain for America.
It's actually a tribal alliance, formed by public meetings of clan and village leaders, with each tribe having one vote, and operating under the principle of unanimous decision.
Fifty chiefs jointly handled civil disputes between tribes.
One hundred and twenty years ago, the Iroquois blocked the route from Albany to the Great Lakes region, preventing the French from establishing permanent settlements and restricting the invasion of the Netherlands and Britain.
The struggle between native tribes for control of the fur trade lasted for two centuries, until the Iroquois finally defeated most of their opponents in 1675.
This was a powerful tribe capable of both resisting European whites and subduing other natives.
Fortunately, due to a lack of administrative institutions, the actions of various clans could never be coordinated consistently, and many tribal chiefs were relatively enlightened, which is why they never posed a threat to settlements like our Pittsburgh."
"But now they've already reached our territory, haven't they?" As soon as Charles heard it was the Iroquois, he knew there was big trouble.
"Antoine, now is the time to prepare for battle.
We have five hundred firearms and eleven cannons; we have absolutely nothing to fear from them.
You know the most about combat, so tell us what preparations we need to make, quickly."
This was indeed a very powerful tribe, and it had left a considerable reputation in history.
Charles had happened to read about it and knew that these tribes were very united in the early days, causing great trouble for Britain, France, and other countries.
They split during the war of Independence and were easily dealt with by the American militia.
He didn't know if this attack had happened in history, but since they had already arrived, whether they were pro-American or anti-American, he had to be fully prepared.
Moreover, his desire to use the Great Lakes to develop Pittsburgh's steel industry would, in fact, inevitably lead to conflict with this Iroquois Alliance sooner or later.
"That's right!
Since we know their location, we can prepare.
Mr. Councilman, we don't have much gunpowder, so please have the iron workshop make more firearms and fewer cannons."
"Okay!
No problem, I'll listen to you entirely now!" Charles immediately agreed.
"Sir Patrick, please reinforce that wall as soon as possible; it is our greatest protection."
"Understood.
I'll go supervise them on site." Patrick also generously complied with the arrangement.
However, he added:
"Should we send people to neighboring towns for reinforcements?"
"The closest neighboring towns are more than a day away from us, so a round trip would take at least three days; reinforcements probably won't arrive in time.
Moreover, no town can gather soldiers of a hundred or more at once.
Let's just inform them of the situation here and have them prepare as well.
The natives wouldn't attack for no reason.
I think it's very likely they were incited by the British, an action targeting all the western settlements," Charles decided.
As soon as the discussion ended, Charles immediately rushed to the smelting workshop to personally direct the workers to prioritize the production of firearms and cannons, while Patrick went outside to rally ordinary townspeople to participate in building the walls, and Antoine went to organize the militia.
As soon as dawn broke, the entire small town quickly shifted from civilian construction to military construction.
The entire small town began to bustle.
Charles, Patrick, and Antoine, these three controlled the overall situation, while ordinary residents actively participated.
Fortunately, the white people who came to Pittsburgh were already mentally prepared for possible native attacks.
They even felt a sense of shared hatred because the natives were disrupting their peaceful lives, and they all cooperated with the town's arrangements.
Moreover, after seeing the cannons set up and a large number of brand-new firearms, they felt there would be no problem in defeating the natives, so there was no chaos in the entire town.
The few timid ones who tried to flee were immediately confined to the newly established prison by the militia led by Antoine.
Cases of natives (who are actually East Asians, but because natives liked to paint their bodies red, their skin often appeared reddish, leading white people to mistakenly believe they were a red race) defeating white people were not uncommon.
For example, the garrisons of Fort Dearborn in 1812 and Fort George in 1813 were completely annihilated by natives.
As for the white militias they swept away, those were even more countless.
Moreover, the disparity in firepower could be compensated for by flexible tactics.
The Second Seminole war, which broke out in December 1835, lasted seven years for the American army, cost 20 million, and resulted in over a thousand deaths, yet still failed to achieve the goal of forcing the natives to fully relocate.
The reason for such hardship was that the Seminoles utilized the complex local terrain to develop a successful guerrilla tactic.
In one Christmas attack, they even achieved a casualty ratio of one to ten for natives versus white people.
It can be said that, as enemies of the American army, the natives' military disadvantage in the 18th century was no greater than that of the Vietnamese in the 20th century.
In fact, military disparity could not be the primary reason for victory.
Among all technologies, military technology is one of the fastest to spread.
natives discovered the great power of European weapons very early on, and they used the European market's demand for animal hides to exchange for a large number of weapons.
Once armed, combined with their indigenous natural advantages, natives became a formidable force on the American continent.
Unfortunately, more white people realized this and constantly imposed gun bans on them.
Coupled with the natives' own systems and cultural differences, their current strength has not yet reached a point where they can truly pose a threat.
The high-ranking officials of Pittsburgh spent two days in tension and unease, while ordinary townspeople, on the contrary, many felt nothing special.
Because the vast majority of them came from the east, influenced by public opinion, they had only heard of the cunning and ferocity of the natives, and did not understand their combat capabilities. They took the threat of the natives very lightly, and many even did not believe the natives were coming for war, but for trade.
On the morning of the third day, as the sun was about to reach its zenith, a galloping horse raced towards Pittsburgh, carrying a militiaman with a musket on his back.
The rider shouted a few words from a distance outside the town gate, then galloped non-stop towards the town center.
As soon as the rider entered, the modified town gate was immediately closed. Subsequently, large numbers of armed civilians and regular militiamen appeared behind the reinforced palisade walls, slowly resting their muskets on the firing slits.
Soon, a piece of news spread throughout Pittsburgh.
The natives, rumored for days, finally arrived within Pittsburgh's security alert range, and showed no signs of stopping, heading straight for Pittsburgh.
Initially, some people were skeptical of such news, as there had been upper-level reports yesterday that natives might arrive, but in reality, the entire town had waited in vain for a day. However, those skeptics quickly realized that Mayor Patrick and Continental Congress Representative Charles had already led the main militia force towards the town gate.
Seeing this situation, everyone naturally no longer had any doubts, but they did not feel fear about this news. After all, they had nearly two thousand people on their side, while the rumored natives seemed to number only a few hundred. The town had cannons and muskets, and it was absolutely impossible to lose to natives armed with short spears.
Not long after Charles and others arrived near the town gate, they could already see the native contingent through their telescopes.
"That's not right!" Charles asked, turning to Antoine beside him. "The cavalry seems to be around a hundred, but why are there old and weak mixed among the rest? How did our people scout? They even got the movement speed of such a contingent wrong, and even said they would arrive yesterday! Also, did natives only bring so little food when they fought in the past?"
He didn't quite understand the war tactics of this era. These past few days, besides supervising the manufacture of firearms, he had re-positioned and adjusted over a dozen cannons according to the calibration methods mentioned in Charles' notes. But having been influenced by thousands of years of Chinese war culture, he knew that war involved nothing more than ambushes, burning enemy provisions, and a few other clever strategies. So, when observing, the first thing he looked for was the natives' provisions, even hoping to try and use cannons to destroy their provisions first.
This way, perhaps they could win without fighting, and he could also make a name for himself in one battle. But no matter how much he searched, he couldn't find the large amount of provisions they should have been transporting. There was only a single pouch hanging on the horses of the cavalry, which seemed to be food, while the main items carried by the others were clearly animal furs.
"No!" Antoine also lowered his telescope. "In the past, natives generally didn't directly attack our settlements, but sent cavalry to harass our personnel and soldiers who went out, coming and going like the wind. They didn't carry much food when fighting. However, if they were to engage in a frontal attack, they would carry a lot of food and logistics, just like us. As it is now, I'm afraid..."
Patrick had also been in Pittsburgh for several years and immediately understood:
"Are you saying they aren't preparing for a direct assault, but are planning to use cavalry to raid outside?"
Antoine did not give a definite answer, only saying:
"It's hard to judge, I hope they aren't."
Charles and Patrick's hearts tensed up again. This was the most crucial moment for Pittsburgh's development and construction. Even if they didn't raid outside, merely appearing occasionally to harass would be enough to cause a headache. Charles hadn't been worried about the native attack initially, so he hadn't run to Philadelphia, because Pittsburgh, after all, had once been a fortress.
The cannons and muskets here absolutely could not be conquered by a few hundred natives. Coupled with the new weapons produced by his arsenal, he felt that defeating the natives was just a matter of time, so the fear-of-death Charles had no intention of fleeing.
But now it was different. Once the natives engaged in guerrilla war outside, his cannons would be largely useless, and due to the lack of warhorses and qualified warriors, he wouldn't be able to eliminate them. At that point, it would be very dangerous for people in Pittsburgh to go out, let alone produce and build. Rather than being passively beaten, it would be better to take the initiative to attack, but this would undoubtedly lead to very heavy casualties among his militiamen.
"It's a good thing their main weapons are spears and short spears," Charles consoled himself.
The weapons of these natives were very complex; most carried muskets, but the styles and types of those muskets looked to be at least three or four. Such equipment, unable to form a volley, would greatly reduce the power of the muskets. It seemed the natives themselves knew this, as each of them still carried various long and short spears, and some who didn't carry muskets had bows and arrows on their backs.
However, as soon as Charles' self-consoling words came out, Antoine and Patrick almost simultaneously exclaimed:
"Don't you know that natives using short spears are more terrifying than natives using muskets?"
"How is that possible?" Charles asked, looking disbelieving.
"Natives lack standardized muskets. Except for a few sharpshooters, most people don't like to use muskets because, for them, muskets have low power and poor accuracy, making them inferior to short spears and bows and arrows. They generally only use guns during ambushes; when truly attacking, they prefer to use spears and bows and arrows.
It's fortunate that this is the case, allowing us to have a greater chance of winning when engaging them. The fundamental reason they don't use muskets is that they have few muskets. They are natural warriors. All of us white people don't like to sell advanced muskets to them.
You see those muskets they carry; many are old matchlock guns that we no longer use. Not only are they low in power, but our musketeers can hit them completely outside their range. However, their bows and arrows and short spears are only slightly shorter in range than ours, but their accuracy and lethality are even more terrifying than our muskets."
Antoine, as an old militiaman who had fought against natives many times, was very knowledgeable about their war methods and capabilities. His words immediately made Charles feel a cold sweat on his back.
"So what should we do now? Should we just wait here for them to set up their battle formation?" Charles noticed that although these natives didn't rush towards the town shouting like in Western movies, they had already begun to form a battle line on a small slope.
"Let's wait and see," Antoine said hesitantly. "If they really intend to harass and raid, they shouldn't come to town so neatly to display their strength, and they also brought women, children, and the elderly. I estimate they might have other plans. However, if they really plan to harass and raid, then there's no need to worry too much. Anyway, we are quite familiar with the nearby native tribes. When the time comes, I'll directly lead a troop to attack them and force them into a decisive battle."
For Pittsburgh, where population is precious, a decisive battle with active engagement, compared to eliminating enemies one by one in a defensive war, is undoubtedly the last resort. Given the current combat strength of the Pittsburgh militia, facing natives whose main force is cavalry, there would certainly be heavy casualties in a field battle.
While they were discussing, those natives had already lined up about two hundred meters beyond the range of Pittsburgh's cannons. They looked very much like something out of a Western movie, with a long horizontal line of cavalry in front, and some native men and women faintly visible behind. In the very center of the contingent were two native chiefs wearing feathered headdresses and tall, strong warriors.
"What is that person trying to do?"
Immediately after forming the line, a native warrior, holding a short spear and painted in a flamboyant manner, shouted and galloped back and forth, rolling on his horse, circling and charging towards the front of the town.
With a "whoosh," a black object was thrown far by the rider towards the town gate, and it landed on the ground with a "thud."
When that thing was thrown, Charles almost instinctively wanted to duck, but fortunately, he quickly saw clearly that it was just some kind of animal hide. After it fell to the ground, Patrick immediately exclaimed:
"Cowhide!"
"Cowhide?" Charles also exclaimed.
He didn't know the customs of the natives. Throwing a cowhide like this, was it a declaration of war or a warning? If he had known this, when he first received news of the natives' appearance, he should have sent merchants who were friendly with the natives to their camp to ask what they meant, instead of blindly preparing for battle based on a militiaman's words.
"Hahaha! Throwing cowhide, sending gifts, this means friendship!"
"I said it before, these natives are here to trade with us."
"Mayor! Enemies don't send gifts, let's open the gate and welcome them!" Several ordinary residents watching at the town gate shouted loudly, among them not a few small merchants from the east.
Charles and the others, of course, would not be swayed by the words of these idlers and continued their discussions among the high-ranking officials. However, upon seeing the cowhide thrown by those natives, their hearts immediately relaxed a lot.