Ella stretched out her fingers to take a little of the green sticky substance from Dust's nails, put it under her eyes and observed it carefully for a while, and sure enough, she could see the grass clippings that had not been crushed. I put it under my nose and smelled it, and I could faintly smell the fragrance of food.
"If there are really aboriginal people here, it will be troublesome. It's best to talk to them and reach an agreement." Ella said, "Master, is there any way you can find the aboriginal people on this island?"
"To find people in the wild, the best way is to climb to a high place to look for smoke. Human life is inseparable from fire. Whether you make a fire for cooking or light a bonfire for lighting, smoke will be produced." Dast replied, " As long as they don't deliberately hide their whereabouts. If it's like that ambush in the English forest, this method will not work."
"If there is no smoke, we can only look for it along the river like last time, right?" Ella thought for a while, "Anyway, it's worth a try. There's still enough time. I'll send people to keep an eye on several mountains. See if there will be any smoke at night."
The soldiers went to investigate as arranged by Ella. This incident made Ella no longer in the mood to survey the location of the fortress, and she only waited anxiously for the results in the temporary camp.
"Your Majesty, if aboriginal people are really discovered, how are you going to negotiate?" Amy asked from the side. "The location of this island is great. Once it is connected with Vinland, it will definitely become a very important and prosperous port. . If we want to sign an exclusive agreement with them, the price will probably be very high."
"The other side may not know the value of this island yet, and maybe it can be obtained with a small amount of gifts." Dast said from the side, "But this is a deception in a sense. Once the other side realizes it, it can be taken at any time. Tear up the agreement with us."
"The best way is to occupy this place militarily," Estrade said. "Even if there are indigenous people on this island, there won't be many of them. We can easily take it."
"Military action?" Ella frowned, "We went to sea this time to trade, not to make enemies everywhere. There can be no military action!"
"Then," Estrade asked, "King of Sweden, do you want to give up the great value of this island?"
"I say it again, there can be no military action! Any matter must be resolved through negotiation first. Unless the other party does something extremely egregious to us, we must not engage in military action!"
Seeing Ella's persistence, Estrade had no choice but to give up.
"I hope the person on the other side is a smart person who can understand the good intentions of the King of Sweden." Dast sighed, "Don't be that kind of frog in the well who is sitting in a well and looking at the sky, with a short-sighted view."
When the sky was filled with glow, a reconnaissance team came back.
"We found rising smoke." They reported, "It's in the woods on the back of the mountain!"
Ella stood up immediately: "Take me to see it immediately!"
Taking Dust and a group of free soldiers with him, Ella followed the reconnaissance team for a short half circle. Sure enough, there was a curl of green smoke rising from the woods. She was about to walk in the direction of Qingyan without even thinking about it, but Dast muttered from behind: "It's weird, it's really weird."
Ella turned her head: "Master, what did you find?"
"If there are aborigines on this island, don't you think the smoke is too sparse?" Dast said, "Even in a small village with dozens of people, the smoke emitted when cooking is thicker than this. It’s much heavier. With the smoke in front of me, I’m afraid there are no more than five people there.”
After listening to Dust's words, Ella carefully observed the smoke in the woods:
"It's indeed a bit sparse. Maybe they're not aborigines, but sailors who were shipwrecked and drifted here. If that's the case, things would be simple."
They continued walking in the direction of the smoke. Soon we entered the woods. As the sky grew dark, Ella looked up to confirm the location of the smoke, but the smoke suddenly disappeared.
"Has the other party finished cooking?"
"It's possible." Dast said, "But it's also possible that the other party has noticed us and started to hide our whereabouts."
"If they are sailors in distress, they should take the initiative to contact us. People who are not in distress live on such an isolated island. There are only a few people, and they are unwilling to contact outsiders..."
"I know, this is a bankrupt businessman!" Amy clapped her hands as if she suddenly understood, "I ran to such a deserted place to survive in order to avoid debt, so I don't want to see anyone, and I don't want to go back!"
"It's no use guessing here. If I want to build a stronghold here, I have to meet them. Rather than being caught off guard later, it's better to understand the situation clearly now." Ella turned to ask Dust, "Master, smoke No more, what should we do now?”
"What else can we do? Just spread around and look for it." Dust shrugged, "Pay more attention to whether there are sleeping bags or anything like that on the trees, and whether there are anything like fences under the trees. It's best to look for them again." Look for caves. The woods will be crawling with all kinds of snakes and insects at night. Without measures, people will not be able to sleep soundly."
"Did you hear that? Search immediately as Master said!"
Ella gave orders to the soldiers who followed. But before the soldiers left, she thought of something else and added: "Remember, don't disturb the other party when you find a suspected hiding place. Come back to me and I will negotiate with the other party!"
——The identity of the other party is unknown. If it is left to those pirates, it will probably cause more trouble.
While the soldiers were leaving, Ella sat down and thought about the negotiation strategy. For her, the best result is to completely occupy the island. If the indigenous people on the island are willing to leave the island and live in the pirate kingdom, then she will not not set aside a piece of land for these indigenous people; if this road If that doesn't work, then the best thing is to put the island under the protection of the pirate kingdom; if that doesn't work, then at least they have to sign an agreement that makes them refuse to accept other countries' cargo ships.
For this kind of negotiation goal, if military threats are not used, inducements can only be used.
"Living in Gotland is definitely better than living on this island... I just don't know what these indigenous people like, whether they are closer to Aztlan or closer to us..."
If it's similar to Aztlan, then Ella's ship is filled with green glass and iron tools. Not to mention an island, she had asked Tesozomoc before going to sea. This amount of treasure would even be enough to buy an entire city-state in Aztlan.
The search team returned before it turned completely dark.
"King of Sweden, we found a cave."
"Oh? Is there really a cave?" Ella asked, "Is there anyone in the cave? Have you confirmed it?"
The members of the search team rubbed their arms with their palms as if they were frozen: "The cave is very dark and we can't see clearly what's going on inside. But there are constant sounds from the cave that sound like humans and wolves. The scream...it makes people's hair stand on end."
(End of chapter)
