The fire was shining, the fields were green, and the sea not far away was vast. In the wilderness near the sea, the Kingdom's Prepecha warriors and the warriors of the Yorem tribe gathered in a circle by the light of the fire, with expressions of relaxation and joy. In the center of the bonfire, the two leaders stood opposite 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. Large piles of gold nuggets were scattered, shining with moving golden light, falling into everyone's eyes and dancing in everyone's hearts. The Prepecha warriors showed yearning in their eyes, but the warriors of the Yorem tribe didn't care.
The old militiaman Chihuaco looked at the shiny gold nugget for a while, scratched his head, and asked aloud.
"Friend, how would you exchange this kind of gold and stone for a spear? This time we go to sea, there are not many rich weapons on the ship..."
Hearing this, Chief Kallan 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... The deer-headed chief's eyes flashed, and he first stretched out a hand, and then extended it again Come with one hand.
"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 replace them with the same weight..."
"Is this fair?!"
Chihuaco opened his mouth in shock and was speechless for a moment. A two and a half meter long spear weighs about four to five kilograms, and the bronze spearhead only weighs about four to five taels. The total weight of the twenty bronze spears was less than one hundred kilograms, including not even ten kilograms of copper. The large basket of gold nuggets in front of him weighed at least 1,560 kilograms. Look at this color, even if the gold content is lower than that of the Alliance, it is still worth at least a 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 Deer Head 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, whether cut or processed, are very tool-intensive. And using this useless stone in exchange for so many good weapons in the opponent's hands seems not worthy of our friends...
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. ..."
"Huh? 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 Lake Kingdom, a pound of gold sand can be exchanged for more than a pound of copper. After all this time, the difference of more than ten or twenty times was entirely the income of the expedition fleet!
After 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 the deer-headed chief who had been paying attention, and said sincerely.
"Friend, good friend! In our place, the priests and nobles like these golden stones very much! It's just that the fleet doesn't 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. They can't be eaten or worn anyway. 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 look at them?"
"Good friend, okay, great! Thank you too!"
Chihuaco nodded repeatedly. The gold ore can be brought back to the alliance and can be smelted by oneself... Then, he thought of the flint that the other party mentioned repeatedly, and he responded affirmatively.
"look!"
Chief Kallan 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, everyone's expressions did not change.
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. It is not used much in temples and has relatively limited value. It is 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 are rare and valuable. In fact, among the Mayo tribe, the value of silver stones is 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, and a red-orange light appeared in front of everyone.
"Ah? This, this is!..."
Chihuaco stared for a long time with his eyes wide open. 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 Various utensils and then sell them to other tribes... Do you want them?"
Chief Callan blinked, looking expectant.
The Opata people established a powerful alliance in the mountains and valleys in the far north, consisting of three large tribes and several smaller tribes attached to them. There are more red stones there, and some can even be used to make utensils without smelting them. The Opata people use these red stones to make containers, bells and trinkets. The desert tribes further north even use these red stones to make various short axes, knives and spears. However, even though there are many red stones, they are still too soft to be made into weapons after being smelted, and are 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 secret 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 Karan lowered his head slightly, hiding the expression on his face. There is a red stone mine not far to the north of the tribe. It is not troublesome to burn it with flint, but mining it requires more tools. In fact, the veins of this red stone, like gold stone, are found in various parts of the north, and their purity is very high. The further north you go, the more and more pure the red stone is. Legend has it that in the land of the Sri people and the desert people, large piles of open-air raw red stone were piled into hills, shining with gold and green light. There is even a natural red stone mountain, and the entire mountain is high-purity red-yellow!
Redstone 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 at 4.52 billion tons, with an annual output of 510,000 tons, sufficient 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 some 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 Kallan thought for a while and hesitantly agreed. The tribe's demand for gems is actually not great. 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 admire turquoise and are willing to exchange a lot of red stones for it. It's just that the transaction distance is too far, and it has to be transferred to several tribes in the middle, which requires a lot of discounts.
"Then a basket of red stones for ten emeralds!"
"good!"
Chihuaco thought about it for a while. Considering the value of gems and copper in the kingdom, this deal was fair and did not cheat 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 Kallan nodded repeatedly, his deer head shook, and he was very satisfied. The two discussed it and reached a fair deal: the Yorem tribe used one basket of coarse gold, one basket of coarse copper, and five baskets of gold ore in exchange for twenty spears, thirteen cloaks, and one basket of gold ore from the Lake Tribe. Bag of cocoa, eleven emeralds.
After the deal was agreed upon, both parties were satisfied. Chihuaco and Puap faced each other, smiling from ear to ear.
Chief Deer Head laughed heartily and felt extremely proud. These useless and common stones were exchanged for weapons and items useful to the tribe. It couldn't be a better deal! It's just that I feel a little sorry for these kind friends who have come 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 separated far away and share the same ancestor! And as brothers..."
Chief Kallan’s voice was loud and he pointed at the last basket of black stones. The black stone shines with a dark light, plain and simple under the firelight, but it contains burning power.
"This basket symbolizes the ancestors' flint, I'll give it to you!"
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