The leader took the team to an empty field outside the village and told them to rest here. [Full text reading] This Li village is completely different from the Li villages in Hainan folk tours that everyone has been to in later generations. First of all, it has no village walls. From the outside, it looks like a slightly larger ordinary village. Surrounding the village are densely planted thorny dwarf trees, which are also covered with all kinds of vines and bamboos. Not to mention the people. Not even a rabbit can get through it. This is the first time for everyone to see such a fence.
Secondly, the iconic boat-shaped houses of the Li people that everyone learned from the folk village are nowhere to be seen here. This kind of house has people living on top and livestock below, making it look very "ethnic" at first glance. The current village is filled with pyramid-shaped straw houses. The walls of the house are made of fences made of bamboo and then covered with mud. It looks very special. This Nanan Village is where the "mansion" of this cave is located.
The so-called Lidong in Hainan is generally divided based on natural terrain and is generally composed of several villages. The cave owners have all been recognized by the government, have hereditary positions, and have seals and bronze medals. Li local officials such as cave masters and tushes, firstly, suppress the people and maintain local security and social order; secondly, they complete the various assessments sent by the government on time every year, including official taxes and private officials. "Lucky money". Of course, their own income is indispensable - no matter how big or small the local officials are, the government does not give them salaries and they have to collect them themselves. In other words, as long as you pay the various official and private "member money" on time every year, the native officials can do whatever they want in their own territory, and they are basically the emperor of the native land.
The people who stayed outside the village were all managed by Zhang Bolin. Everyone was tight on the outside and tight on the inside, and took the time to rest. Lu Rong, Wen Desi and Mu Min were led by the leader into the village to meet the owner of the cave.
There were many curious people inside and outside the village, pointing and watching on the roadside a little further away. Wen Desi saw a few old ladies sitting on the stones by the roadside, weaving rattan utensils. Her face was densely covered with black patterns, but her mouth was completely black. It was really scary. I thought to myself that this was the "Old Lady Looks Like a Monster" among the Eighteen Monsters of Hainan. As expected, it is better to meet than to be famous. (Note: The habit of tattooing among Li women did not disappear completely until the 1950s. Tattooing was to prevent being robbed by outsiders, and secondly, to represent fidelity to feelings. As for the color of the lips and teeth, it is purely the result of chewing betel nut every day. A little bit If you pay closer attention, you will find that almost all women have tattoos, except for those who have not given birth to children. This completely shatters everyone's illusions about minority women.
"This custom must be revolutionized." Wei Aiwen muttered. In his original plan, recruiting Li soldiers was only the first step. Then he would take control of the team by serving as the commander of Li soldiers - the most important thing. One part of his life was to marry the daughter of a Li leader - the Li girl in his impression was based on the image in the movie. However, the sight before him seriously shook his plan.
If a leader really wants to betroth his daughter to him, should he accept it? It's so nerve-wracking. Moreover, women here get tattoos as soon as they reach adulthood... He just became worried about the bubbles in the sky for no reason.
Not to mention the leader, even ordinary girls from the common people did not fall in love with him. To the Li people, these are a group of scary people: they have heard that these people have "powder guns" in their hands (Note: Li people have a powerful name for gunpowder guns. They can shoot continuously and kill people from a long distance away. Those who escaped said they could only hear continuous gunshots, and a large area was destroyed when a person died.
Lu Rong and his party were taken into a big house in the center of the village. This house is taller than ordinary houses and is built on a pedestal. Except for the corridor in the middle, there are bamboo beds on three sides of the house for everyone to sit and sleep on. The fire pit is on the back wall, with bamboo rafts hanging on it, used for smoking food. There are windows on the side of the roof, but the lighting is still very poor. As soon as you enter, it feels dark, and it takes a while to get used to it.
The owner of the cave was an old man, with a white head and a bad complexion. Later they found out that the owner was in his early fifties, but by the standards of the 17th century, he was considered an old man anywhere. Lu Rong presented a specially prepared gift: a bottle of Red Star Erguotou, a pack of rock sugar and two folding knives.
Among these three things, the Erguotou in a glass wine bottle attracted his attention the most. Liquor had become popular in the Ming Dynasty, but wine packaged in pure, colorless glass flat bottles was unattractive to anyone in this time and space. It's very visually impactful. Obviously in modern times, glass bottles, which are just used as packaging for goods, are of much greater value in his eyes than wine.
As for the two folding knives, the owner of the cave played with them a lot and scratched a few times on the wooden board with admiration in his eyes.
"You can't buy such a good knife even in the county town." The owner of the cave raised his head and looked at them, very surprised, "Where are you from, Qiongshan?"
Wen Desi started playing his Australian maritime stuff again. He had become very familiar with this stuff because he had talked about it a lot. The owner of the cave didn't know much about the outside world. He had only been to Lingao County in Han District. In his eyes, the "big official" in Qiongzhou Prefecture - the prefect - is the biggest official. However, when he heard that they were not Ming people, but Han people from overseas, he was obviously a little more relaxed, and ordered people to bring wine to entertain the guests - rice wine brewed from the glutinous rice grown by the Li people. This kind of wine was shown in later generations. It became a local famous local yellow wine "Shanlan Yuye".
Shanlan wine is the simplest glutinous rice fermented wine. The brewing period is only seven days. The alcohol content is very small, similar to later generations of fermented wine. All three drank a bowl.
With wine as a lubricant, it was much easier to talk about things, and we also took the opportunity to ask a lot about the local situation. The surname of the owner of the cave is Zhu, but this Zhu Ke has nothing to do with Zhu Yuanzhang. Their family is the so-called "child of Bajiao". He has been the leader of this village for generations. During the Ma Ya riot in the Wanli year, many Li Dongs in Lingao were also involved. Only his family was not involved. After the incident subsided, the neighboring villages were merged into a cave and the owner of the cave was sealed. The entire cave consists of seven villages, with more than 2,000 men, women, old and children. It is a large cave in Lingao.
Mu Min asked how many Li people there were in Lingao, but Zhu Dongzhu himself couldn't tell clearly. In addition to this cave, there are more than ten caves in Shuli in Lingao. The number of people is as small as a few hundred, and as many as one or two thousand. After passing Fanbao Mountain and further south is the place where Li is born. In addition to them, there is also Li Dong called Gamoli nearby. In short, the Li people are also quite complicated because of their different languages and living customs. There are not many interactions, and there is not even much intermarriage.
As for the government, Zhu Dongzhu said that the last two county magistrates were easy to talk to, and they didn't ask for much. They just sent the regular money every year, so they didn't bother. It's just that the road has not been peaceful in recent years. There have been a lot fewer Han hawkers coming to Li District. Salt was already expensive, but now it is even more expensive. If the merchants could transport salt, they would be willing to exchange it for animal skins, red and white vines, betel nuts and cattle. Then the Futou man who was bribed by them suggested that it would be best to sell some iron tools. There is a shortage of farm tools and knives here.
These conditions were all expected, and Lu Rong agreed. Salt and iron cannot be manufactured yet, but they will be put into production in the near future, so supply will not be a problem. In contrast, Li District can provide quite a lot of useful things: wood, cotton cloth, animal skins, vines, pigs and cattle, all of which they urgently need.
In terms of price, Wen Desi decided not to use high-priced methods of exploitation - doing business like those small traders who carry and push things can indeed make huge profits, but the result is that there are very few things that can be sold. Of course, productivity levels in ancient times were low, transportation capacity was low, and there were risks on the road. The method of making huge profits at high prices is still reasonable. It is not suitable for people like Chuanzhong who have mastered large-scale industrial production capabilities. If the price of salt is too high, the profit will be huge, but people will reduce their salt consumption to the lowest level to survive, and as a result, they will still not be able to sell much salt. Once the price is low, people's consumption of salt will immediately increase.
The price of salt he quoted satisfied both Zhudong Master and the leader. It was only one-third of the price of the small traders. However, even at this price, Wen Desi felt that it was a profiteer. For the time being, official dou was used as the measurement unit for measuring salt. Wen Desi decided to make a batch of weighing instruments immediately after returning and promote the time traveler's unit of weight and measurement as soon as possible through trade. As for the price of ironware, he did not yet know the market price of pig iron in the Ming Dynasty, so he only promised that it would be lower than that of traders.
After some bargaining, the two parties finally reached the first trade agreement with Nanantong after coming to this time and space. Historically known as: "Nanancun Trade Agreement". The agreement stipulates that Chuanchuanzhong can sell all goods to Nanantong, but they must carry a certain amount of salt and iron for each trade. Nanantong exchanges any items needed by the traverser, but does not include population.
The 80 kilograms of salt brought this time were exchanged for more than 70 pieces of cowhide, deerskin, and wild boar skin. Forty pieces of jhumbu and one buffalo. The piles of stuff on the empty lot made everyone feel like they were profiteers. They didn’t know that a hawker who specialized in trading in the Li District could exchange one pound (old pound, or 594 grams of coarse salt) for a pig of twenty or thirty pounds. .
The Li people also felt that they had benefited: there were many animal skins in every village, and they regarded them as easy-to-get items; the jiongbu was spun by women for their own use and was not worth much.
The master of the cave gave another twelve pieces of Gebu. Gebu is a famous product of Hainan in the Ming Dynasty. Because it absorbs moisture and dissipates heat, it is a high-grade fabric used for summer clothes. Each captive who was returned was given a pig as a thank-you gift for being released. Everyone was happy. Lord Zhudong sent a message to all the Oyas in each village to come and drink. At the banquet, he took out two arrows. He first asked people to read the agreement loudly, then he cut the arrows nine times, and then cut the other arrows. An arrow to Lu Rong.
"You can cut nine times." Mu Min told him: This is the ceremony of cutting arrows, which means that both parties must abide by each other's rules. If they violate the agreement, they will be fined ninety cows and ninety taels of silver.
After cutting the arrows, he drank a few more bowls of rice wine. Both parties also designated contact persons: Lu Rong for the time traveler, and Oya Fu Dayou for Nandong. Wen Desi took the opportunity to propose that they could stay in Nandong for a few more days to see what local products they needed. If possible, these local products can be used to offset the price of salt and iron in the future. This request was readily agreed to.
