After hearing the description of "little flower", the protagonist immediately realized what those precious goods were and ran to the ground impatiently.
The caravan of bullet ants stopped in a flat area on the ground of [Xinyang City]. The huge, dark green locusts were densely packed together, and the bulges under their bellies were the goods.
The protagonist resisted the urge to go over and look at the goods. According to etiquette, he first met the captain of the bullet ant caravan, and then met the male ant trade representative of the black fire ant clan who came with the caravan.
Only then did the black fire ant male trade representative take the protagonist to see their goods.
I saw cargo bags woven from plant fibers tied to the stomachs of each locust. They were filled with black stones, which shimmered and reflected in the sunlight.
The protagonist touched it with his tentacles, and combined with the introduction of the black fire ant representative, he was sure that these were indeed coal!
Coal is a solid combustible mineral that was gradually formed by ancient plants buried underground and undergoing complex biochemical and physicochemical changes.
Coal is known as black gold, the food of industry, and is a very important fuel and chemical raw material.
The tentacles represented by the black fire ants came closer and began to introduce, interrupting the protagonist's association.
The representative of the black fire ant said that these black stones are sacred objects inherited by the God of Vulcan. With these sacred objects, the power of the God of Vulcan can be harnessed and delicious food can be cooked.
The black fire ant representative immediately summoned several worker ants that came with the caravan. The worker ants skillfully opened a cargo bag and built a cone-shaped pile in the open space with coal blocks that had been processed into suitable sizes.
They wanted to demonstrate on site and came prepared.
"Little Flower" followed the request of the black fire ant representative and ordered the worker ants from his country to transport some dried mealworms.
I saw the black fire ant workers bringing another small clay pot, opening the lid of the mud seal, carefully taking out some viscous blue-black liquid and smearing it on the coal pile, then quickly sewed the jar shut, and carefully dried it with the ground The sand and dirt wiped away the liquid on his jaws.
Two black fire ant worker ants picked up a hay stem that could be seen everywhere, and worked in tandem like a saw, using the hay stem to rub the coal pile stained with blue-black viscous liquid.
After a while, I saw a green smoke rising from the coal pile, and it was actually lit.
The protagonist knows that coal is not an easy fuel to ignite. In the past, earthen stoves in rural areas had to be lit with sawdust and fine wood to ignite the coal.
Unexpectedly, the black fire ants actually have the materials and methods to ignite coal.
The black fire ant clan did not know that the Ant Alliance also had fire technology. The black fire ant representative proudly asked his subordinates to demonstrate the technology of grilling mealworm jerky on the spot, and then tried his best to persuade the protagonist to try this "fire god" delicious.
The protagonist was not ready to expose the secrets of his country, so he waited patiently for the food to be roasted, and reluctantly ate some barbecue without salt or spices, and praised it against his will.
Representatives of the Black Fire Ants immediately stated that they were willing to exchange the sacred objects of the God of Fire for honeydew and crow honey, and would also teach the Ant Alliance the secret of barbecue with fire, and then gave a sky-high transaction price...
The black fire ants wanted to exchange a bag of coal for ten snail shells of honeydew or one snail shell of honeydew, and a fire starter was given as a gift, and this time they brought 12 bags of coal...
The protagonist is speechless, you are really profiteers. If I hadn't known about coal and had the skills to use fire myself, I might have been deceived by you.
The protagonist immediately said that these so-called holy objects can only be used to process food and have no other uses. They are not worth the price.
The black fire ant trade representative was anxious, and a burst of information came from his tentacles, saying that the holy fire can also make pottery. After saying that, the black fire ant representative felt regret again in his tentacles. Perhaps he had accidentally leaked the secret just now.
Baking pottery has always been the secret recipe of the black fire ant clan. This specialty has been used to return many things from other ant clans. Unexpectedly, it cannot be sold here in the Ant Alliance.
The Ant Alliance did not reveal the secret that it could use fire and make better pottery. It just firmly refused to buy the high-priced pottery from the black fire ant clan, and symbolically exchanged a set of snail shell honeydew for a set of pottery.
The elites of the black fire ant clan are already obsessed with honeydew and crow honey. After they learned that other clans had exchanged their special products for honeydew and crow honey, they couldn't understand why their own specialty products were not available. market.
Finally, the black fire ants decided to take out the treasures at the bottom of the box, which were coal and the mysterious fire-kindling liquid.
There is an open-pit coal mine in the territory of the Black Fire Ant Kingdom. For the human world, the reserves are at the level of a small black coal mine, but for an ant kingdom, they are inexhaustible.
This open-pit coal mine is easy to excavate and produces high-quality natural anthracite. The Black Fire Ant Nation relies on this resource to have inexhaustible fuel and develop its own food cooking processing technology and pottery firing technology.
Since the other party was not interested in pottery, the black fire ant family began to promote the technology of processing food with fire, and by the way, they sold fuel and fire starters together.
However, the price offered by the black fire ants was too outrageous. It was not that they were reluctant to part with these worthless coals and fire starters, but the cost of renting the bullet ant caravan was too high, and one-sixth of the trade volume had to be given to them.
In addition, the transportation volume of the locust caravan is not large, and the coal transported by 12 locusts at one time only adds up to a few grams. If the black fire ants do not bid a high price, they will not be able to exchange for the desired amount of honeydew and crow nectar.
The black fire ant represents regret for exposing the secret of pottery making, and is afraid that the other party will use the secret recipe as a threat to complete the deal.
But the protagonist was not interested at all, and directly slashed the price wildly. The Black Fire Ant representative also had a ulterior motive. In the end, both parties agreed to trade 1 snail shell crow honey for 12 bags of coal, and give away a can of fire starter.
The protagonist is still very interested in coal as a resource and expressed that he can continue to trade coal. After learning that the Black Fire Ant representative said that the transaction volume was too small due to transportation capacity, the protagonist made the decision and gave the Black Fire Ant clan a jar of honeydew and 1 jar crow honey
Although there is currently not much inventory in the treasury, this amount is still available.
The Black Fire Ant representative was overjoyed and said that he would continue to promote subsequent trade when he returned.
The worker ants on both sides began to deliver the goods, and the protagonist went home.
Coal, I didn't expect to get such a useful resource.
The protagonist has checked and found that these are high-quality anthracite coals. There was very little smoke during the barbecue, and there was no pungent smell, indicating that they contain very little sulfur. They can directly replace charcoal to smelt steel, and are very useful for raising the furnace temperature.
The current blast furnace of the Divine Envoy Army uses charcoal as fuel. It requires special collection of tree branches to burn the charcoal. The charcoal output is not high, resulting in the iron-making blast furnace being empty most of the time.
If sufficient coal can be used as fuel, the iron production of the blast furnace will be greatly increased. The black fire ant representative said that there will be as much coal as possible!
The key is how to transport it!
