Chapter 473: Exploration of the Kingdom in the Lake, Fair Deal
The fire was shining brightly, the fields were green, and the sea not far away was vast. In the fields near the sea, the Kingdom's Prepecha warriors and the warriors of the Yorem tribe gathered in a circle by the firelight, their expressions were all relaxed and joyful.
In the center of the bonfire, the two leaders stood facing each other, with smiles on their faces and thoughts flashing in their hearts.
At the feet of the two people, a rattan basket fell to the ground. A large pile of gold nuggets were scattered, shining with a moving golden light, falling into everyone's eyes and dancing in everyone's hearts. The Prepecha warriors showed yearning in their eyes, and about
The warriors of the Rem tribe didn't care.
Chihuaco, the old militiaman, looked at the shiny gold nugget for a while, scratched his head, and asked aloud.
"Friend, how would you exchange this gold stone for a spear? This time we go to sea, there are not many rich weapons on the ship..."
Hearing this, Chief Kalan nodded. In his opinion, since the tribe in the lake was looking for a holy land, they naturally sent out the most elite warriors with the best weapons... Chief Deer Head's eyes flashed, and he stretched out his hand first.
He held out one hand, and then another.
"Hmm...a big basket of gold and stone like this, I want to replace it with...fifteen...no, twenty bronze spears!"
"Ah! Friend, twenty bronze spears? In exchange for a basket of gold nuggets?!"
"Hmm! The weight of twenty bronze spears is about the same as a basket of gold and stone, right? It's fair to say that they weigh the same when replaced..."
"Is this fair?!"
Chihuaco's mouth opened in shock, and he was speechless for a moment. A two-meter-and-a-half-meter-long spear weighs about four to five kilograms, and the bronze spearhead only weighs about four or five taels. Twenty copper spears
Added together, it weighs less than a hundred kilograms, including not even ten kilograms of copper. And the large basket of gold nuggets in front of me weighs at least one hundred, fifty or sixty kilograms. Looking at the color, even if the gold content is lower than that of the Alliance, it is at least
It’s worth one hundred catties of gold sand... In this way, ten catties of copper are exchanged for one hundred catties of gold sand?!
"Uh...friend, I know, this request is a bit excessive..."
Seeing the shocked expression of the leader opposite, Chief Lutou felt a little guilty.
The spears of the tribe in the lake are not only sharp at the tip, but also very strong. They are obviously made of fine pine or fir. These woods are very tool-intensive, whether they are felled or processed. And using this useless stone, in exchange for
There are so many good weapons in the opponent's hands, it seems not worthy of a friend...
Thinking of this, he hesitated, took a step back, and stretched out his hands again.
"Otherwise, eighteen, no, fifteen will do! After all, although there are many gold and stones in the mountains, some are not pretty enough and have to be smelted with flint. And to get flint, we have to go far away to dig.
..."
"Ah? Fifteen bronze spears?"
Chihuaco was still in a state of shock and didn't know how to reply. Puap next to him couldn't help but excitedly took two steps forward and pulled Old Man Qi's arm hard.
"Change! Give it to him! Fifteen spears per basket, there are sixty spare spears on the ship, give them all to him!"
You know, in the Kingdom in the Lake, one pound of gold sand can be exchanged for more than one pound of copper. The difference of more than ten or twenty times is the profit of the expedition fleet!
Being pulled by Puap, Chihuaco finally recovered from the shock. He pursed his lips, thought for a moment, and shook his head in opposition.
"No, Lao Pu, the sixty spears are the fleet's spare weapons. You can't replace them all. You can only replace ten...twenty spears at most. As for cocoa, cotton and gems, if the other party accepts them, you can replace them with more.
some."
Then, he restrained the greed in his heart, looked at Chief Lutou, who had been paying attention, and said sincerely.
"Friend, good friend! In our place, these golden stones are very popular among the priests and nobles! It's just that the fleet does not have many weapons and can only exchange twenty...for this basket of golden stones, we will give twenty long ones.
Spear, ten cloaks, and a gem!"
Hearing this, Puap let out a low voice of dissatisfaction.
"Old man Qi! What are you doing!..."
"Lao Pu, shut up! I am the captain!"
"ah?!"
This time, it was Chief Callan's turn to look surprised. After he understood Chihuaco's meaning, he looked at him deeply for a while. Then, he spoke again, and the smile on his face was obviously much more sincere.
"Friend, good friend! Thank you for your honesty! It doesn't matter. There are a lot of gold and stones around the tribe. It doesn't take much effort to pick them up. Anyway, you can't eat them or wear them. When you leave, I can give you five baskets of unburned ones.
Raw ore...these few baskets of stones left are not gold stones, do you still want to see them?"
"Good friend, okay, great! Thank you too!"
Chihuaco nodded repeatedly. The gold ore was brought back to the Alliance and could be smelted by himself... Then, he thought of the flint that the other party mentioned repeatedly, and he responded affirmatively.
"look!"
Chief Kalan didn't waste any time and dumped the second basket of stones on the ground. In an instant, a bright silver light appeared in front of everyone's eyes, but it was a basket of silver stones.
Seeing this basket of rough silver, no one's expressions changed at all.
The kingdom in the lake originally produced silver, and the price of silver in the kingdom has never been high. In the world of Mesoamerica, gold and copper symbolize the rays of the sun and have high religious value. Silver symbolizes the moon and is used in temples.
There are not many, the value is relatively limited, and they are often used to make silverware and silver jewelry.
"This is the silver stone exchanged with the wandering wasteland tribes in the eastern wasteland. There are also some in the mountains in the east, but there are far less gold and stone."
Seeing the looks on several people's faces, Chief Kallan understood that the southern tribes probably did not lack silver stones. Things were rare and valuable. In fact, among the Mayo tribe, the value of silver stones was much higher than that of gold stones.
.
"This basket of silver stones is more expensive than gold stones... Friends, do you want it?"
"Thanks, friend."
Chihuaco shook his head. Chief Kallan said nothing more. Then, he raised his foot and kicked over the third basket of stones. A red-orange light appeared in front of everyone's eyes.
"Ah? This, this is!..."
Chihuaco's eyes widened and he stared for a long time. Then, he turned back to look at Puap. The well-informed gray earth warrior's eyes flashed and he nodded affirmatively.
"It's thick copper...and it seems to be very pure."
"Well..."
"Friends, this is red stone from the mountains in the north. It is made from flint and can be used to make containers. There are many in the mountains, but it is very laborious to dig them out. The Opata people in the far north will collect the refined red stone and make it into
All kinds of utensils, and then sold to other tribes... Do you want them?"
Chief Kallan blinked, looking expectant.
The Opata people have established a powerful alliance in the mountains and valleys in the far north, consisting of three large tribes, with several small tribes attached. There are more red stones there, and some can be made directly without smelting.
Utensils. The Opata people will use these red stones to make containers, bells and trinkets. Desert tribes further north will even use these red stones to make various short axes, knives and spears. However, this red stone
Although there are many stones, the weapons made after smelting are still too soft, far inferior to the spears of the tribe in the lake.
"Uh... we need this kind of red stone!"
After a moment, Chihuaco looked complicated and nodded heavily. He knew that the kingdom's bronze weapons were made using copper as raw material and using confidential methods.
"Then...how to change?"
"It's half more expensive than gold and stone. A basket contains thirty spears. My friend, it takes a lot of effort to dig red stone, and it has to be burned with flint. It's more troublesome for tribes to make it..."
Chief Kalan lowered his head slightly, hiding the expression on his face. Not far to the north of the tribe, there is a red stone mine. It is not troublesome to burn it with flint, but mining requires more tools. In fact, the veins of this red stone are the same as those of gold stone.
Same, it is found in all parts of the north, and the purity is still very high. The further north you go, the more raw red stone ores are, and the purer they are. Legend has it that in the land of the Sri people and the desert people, there are large piles of raw red stone in the open air.
It forms a small mountain, shining with golden and green light. There is even a natural red stone mountain, and the entire mountain top is a high-purity reddish yellow!
Red stone is copper. What everyone doesn’t know is that the entire coastal Sonora region is located in the violent collision zone between the Pacific Plate and the American Plate. It is full of rich mineral deposits and contains more than half of Mexico’s copper ore!
The Cananea copper mine in the northern part of Sonora, close to the US-Mexico border, is the second largest copper mine in the world, and it is an open-pit mine! Its future reserves are estimated to be 4.52 billion tons, and its annual output is 51
10,000 tons, enough to supply 2%-3% of global copper demand.
"A basket of thirty spears...More than a hundred kilograms of rough copper, in exchange for ten kilograms of spearheads..."
Chihuaco pursed his lips. Although he didn't know what scissors meant, he still felt a little pain in his conscience. He thought for a while and then spoke with the simplicity and sincerity unique to farmers.
"Good friends, we don't have so many spears...but we have a lot of expensive gems that can be exchanged with you! Of course, there are also practical cocoa and cloth."
"Gems for red stones? Hmm...that's okay too!"
Chief Kalan thought for a while and hesitantly agreed. The tribe's demand for gems is actually not big. But gems can be traded with tribes in the north in exchange for cloth, food and refined red stones. Especially the Opata people,
They particularly admired turquoise and were willing to exchange a lot of red stones for it. However, the distance of the transaction was too far, and it had to be transferred to several tribes in the process, requiring a lot of discounts.
"Then a basket of red stones for ten emeralds!"
"good!"
Chihuaco thought for a while and concluded that based on the value of gems and copper in the kingdom, the deal was fair and did not deprive his new friends. He calculated the difference and added some more.
"I'll give you another bag of cocoa and three cloaks!"
"Okay, good friend!"
Chief Kalan nodded repeatedly and shook the deer's head, feeling very satisfied. The two discussed it and reached a fair deal: the Yolem tribe used one basket of coarse gold, one basket of coarse copper, and five baskets of gold ore in exchange for the gold ore in the lake.
Twenty spears from the tribe, thirteen cloaks, a bag of cocoa, and eleven emeralds.
After reaching the agreement on the deal, both parties were very satisfied. Chihuaco and Puap faced each other, smiling from ear to ear.
Chief Lutou laughed heartily and felt extremely proud. It was a great deal to exchange these useless and common stones for weapons and items useful to the tribe! However, he seemed a little sorry for these kind friends who came from afar.
..
He shook his head, thought for a while, and then waved his hand generously.
"My friend! The Yolem tribe and the Lake tribe speak similar languages. They must be brothers who are far away from each other and share a common ancestor! And as brothers..."
With a loud voice, Chief Kalan pointed to the last basket of black stones. The black stones shone with a dark light, plain and simple under the firelight, but they contained burning power.
"This basket symbolizes the ancestors' flint, I give it to you!"
