Chapter 1628 - 1534: Jungle Master

Chapter 1628: Chapter 1534: Jungle Master

Early the next morning, Napoleon led his army into a vast forest where the leaves had started turning yellow.

Dalmagne stared at the giant oak trees towering in front of him and painfully covered his head with a coat, then asked his attendant to check the seams of his boots.

Though it was already October, the forest still had plenty of active poisonous insects. Especially spiders, which seemed to be in a reproductive period and were extremely aggressive, attacking if people got too close.

He was truly frightened by the bites.

An Indian officer saw his predicament and smiled as he handed over a small wooden bottle: "You could try applying some of this."

Dalmagne shook his head in frustration: "No thanks."

This insect repellent concocted by the Indians was quite effective, but when he applied it earlier, his skin turned as red as if scalded by hot water, and it itched terribly.

He gritted his teeth and urged his horse into the thicket.

Even the privilege of riding would be enjoyed for just another half day; once they entered the forest’s depths, the dense branches would force him to dismount and walk.

He couldn’t help but recall the sticky feeling beneath his feet and sighed once more.

Soon, the team of 5,000 disappeared into the forest.

However, unlike Dalmagne’s awkward state, the soldiers moved quickly and quietly, as if water flowed silently between the trees.

Leading were a row of middle-aged soldiers who barely glanced at their feet. Despite the thick fallen leaves covering the forest floor, their steps always landed on the firmest spots, occasionally snapping a few branches with a crisp "crack."

Those following seemed as though they were well-trained, precisely stepping into the footprints of the leading soldiers, with an error margin of less than half a foot.

The rustling footsteps continued uninterrupted; the team didn’t move fast but never paused for a moment. Meanwhile, the mounted officers at the sides of the formation had to carefully avoid branches, often lagging behind.

Ah, and the 500 soldiers at the back, despite handing their caplock guns to others for carriage, were still downcast, tripping every hundred steps...

Indeed, the troops Napoleon brought for the strategic maneuvering this time were primarily Indian soldiers.

These indigenous people lived alongside the dense forest for years. To them, the trees were as familiar as the stone path outside their door, providing no obstacles for their stride.

Were it not for the march, they might even catch some partridges or snakes nearby to supplement their rations.

Though still far from the main battlefield, when nearing the American defensive line, they would send men to scale the highest oaks for surveillance. Previously, Indians utilized the jungle advantage to resist European colonists for centuries.

As for their combat capability, after Napoleon’s rigorous training, it was barely close to the level of second-rate European armies. At least formations and responding to drum signals weren’t an issue.

Of course, most times, Napoleon still had them fight according to traditional Indian methods.

The last 500 soldiers in the troupe were French soldiers, primarily artillerymen, grenadiers, and hussars.

From the start, Napoleon hadn’t planned to engage the American army head-on but intended to use large-scale maneuvers to attack their weak spots, throwing them into chaos. This made the absolute combat power of the troops less critical, as timely appearances in the right places rendered one-sided pursuits.

The biggest obstacle to this tactic was logistics.

Northeast of the Mississippi River was nearly all forest, desolate and uninhabited, making logistics convoys unable to pass. This is why the Americans thought the French would never attack from the north—before reaching Tennessee, they’d starve first.

However, the Americans didn’t know Joseph had shipped Napoleon several loads of canned goods.

Currently, the Saint Malo coastal cannery in Brest could produce nearly twenty thousand cans daily and was continuously expanding.

The canned goods ordered by the military could be loaded onto ships right beside the factory and directly shipped to Louisiana. If not for the government needing to pay smuggling subsidies to captains, the shipping cost was even cheaper than shipping to Paris.

These cans could be neatly placed in specially designed wicker boxes on horseback, allowing forty days’ worth of rations to be carried with the army without using supply vehicles.

Nevertheless, Napoleon wasn’t fully reliant on canned goods for sustenance; some of it had to come from generations of survival experience accumulated by Indians.

That afternoon, Major Otto, also known as Little Turtle, climbed a tree and surveyed the surroundings, then slid down to catch up with Napoleon and saluted: "Commander, about four to five kilometers south, we should find a good amount of ’duck potatoes.’ I suggest we camp nearby."

Napoleon was pleased with the day’s marching pace and nodded immediately, telling Lucien: "Let’s stop here for today. Order the troops to rest here."

"Yes, General."

As the army halted, Indian soldiers skillfully cleared away the undergrowth and enclosed a camp area.

Little Turtle then led two to three hundred men to a pond south of the camp, pulled knives from their waists, and waded into the shallow water.

Arrowhead-shaped leaves of ’duck potatoes’ began to shrink across the water’s surface. Without much investigation, they grabbed a handful of deep green stems and pulled out clusters of tubers, then sliced the roots with knives.

Some directly scraped the thin skin off with knife backs and stuffed them right into their mouths, crunching away.

Officers cast stern looks: "Hey, Quinn, don’t eat sneakily. You’re a soldier now."

Before nightfall, Little Turtle and the soldiers returned, each carrying about ten kilograms of arrowheads, or what they called duck potatoes.

Thus, the dinner of arrowheads stewed with canned fish was aromatic as ever.

In North America’s deep autumn, almost everywhere there was wild rice, arrowheads, American lotus, and wild pecans available.

And searching and collecting these things were as simple as breathing for experienced Indians.

They used to dare to take only a few pieces of jerky and rely on these things for journeys spanning hundreds of kilometers.

Until the Indian soldiers were nearly full did the weary white soldiers catch up. Behind them were horses carrying cannon parts, shells, and gunpowder.

Even if it was a relatively light six-pound cannon, Napoleon still insisted it be dismantled into parts for horseback transport.

Despite this, in the forest’s depths, the cannon barrel still needed human labor to move.

Dalmagne caught the whiff of stewed meat, felt a bit energized, and took the food packed in a can from an Indian officer, nodding in gratitude: "Thierry, thank you so much. Oh, this is... potatoes? Where did you get them?"

The canned mix with fish was nothing more than potatoes slightly larger than walnuts.