Hearing the conversation between the two, his eyes were filled with fear: "So, if the Sun Tribe wants to attack other tribes, as long as they don't exchange salt for us, they can wipe us all out without any effort?"
"Yes." Qiao Yu nodded.
When the others realized this, they were all shocked.
"So we must store as much salt as possible. We must store at least enough salt for two or three years, so that we can have the ability to resist risks and not be strangled by others with salt." Qiao Yu said.
Everyone then understood Qiao Yu's intention.
The person who originally wanted to exchange a large amount of dried meat for bone knives and bone spurs quickly changed his mind: "We will exchange them for salt."
"Go separately, and don't carry the wicker baskets," Qiao Yu said. "Don't let others notice our intentions. We also need to be wary of the people from the Shanyin and Giant Stone tribes."
Everyone nodded.
Aside from the few that had been exchanged, the only people in the market now were the Valley Tribe carrying wicker baskets. Carrying these baskets to trade clearly told others what the Valley Tribe had exchanged.
Qiao Yu placed the ceramic bowls on the stall.
The people of the Stone Tribe have been keeping an eye on the movements of the Valley Tribe.
As soon as he saw the pottery bowl on the stall, Shuo exclaimed in surprise, ran over from the opposite side, stared at the pottery bowl and asked, "Did you make this yourself?"
Shu still looked innocent and said with a smile, "I made it by accident."
He said with an embarrassed look, "I was very happy when I made it. But just now I went to see the pottery of the Sun Tribe and the Shanyin Tribe, and I realized that what we made is really not good enough to show off."
At this time, Shuo also saw clearly these not-so-good-looking pottery bowls.
He asked, "Can I pick it up and have a look?"
"Okay," the tree said, "but be careful. If you break it, you'll have to replace it."
Shuo didn't say anything else. He picked up a ceramic bowl and examined it carefully. Then he pointed at a thin crack on it and said, "You can't hold water in this bowl, right?"
"Yes." Shu said.
This bowl was carefully selected by Qiao Yu. It may seem to have cracks, but in fact, the cracks are only on the outer wall and do not affect its use. It can hold water without leaking.
Having just decided to sell the pottery, Qiao Yu put the snow in a pottery bowl and placed it next to the fire.
The snow had melted by now. She winked at Liushui, who took the water and said to Shuo with a smile, "You'll know if it can hold water if you try."
As he said that, he poured the water into the bowl that Shuo had just been looking at.
At this time Ming also came over.
The two of them leaned over and looked at the bowl. After a long while, they didn't see a drop of water leaking out from the bottom of the bowl. So Shuo asked, "How do I change this bowl?"
"Ten bowls of dried meat." Shu said.
This is the price Qiao Yu gave him.
"Ten bowls?" Shuo shouted, "Your bowl is far inferior to those from the Sun Tribe and the Shanyin Tribe. Why are you asking for the same amount of jerky as them?"
"Well, Shuo, you haven't seen the wooden bowls of the Sun Tribe and the Shanyin Tribe, right? A bowl of dried meat from the Sun Tribe is the same as our two bowls; and one and a half bowls from the Shanyin Tribe is the same as ours. Although our bowls aren't as beautiful as theirs, they are bigger and more practical."
"In such a cold day, if you use this bowl to make meat soup and drink a bowl of it hot, it would be so comfortable. The gods in heaven live just like this." Mandao.
When Qiao Yu heard this, he almost laughed out loud.
Is this how the gods in heaven live? He really dared to say that. It's similar to the saying "Emperors use golden hoes to farm."
Shuo hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, I'll change it." He then asked the tribesmen to bring the dried meat. However, he didn't ask for the bowl with the crack, but for the bowl that Qiao Yu used to boil water.
He hadn't originally planned to exchange them. After all, he was about to attack the Valley Tribe. He owned everything in the Valley Tribe. If he wanted pottery bowls, he could have as many as he wanted. Why would he even need to exchange them?
But he has to make friends with the people of the Valley Tribe and follow them to visit the Valley Tribe smoothly. How can he do that without spending some money?
Besides, even if he traded the dried meat with the Valley Tribe, the people of the Valley Tribe had their own food reserves, and they wouldn't be able to eat the dried meat he exchanged for for a while. Wouldn't the dried meat still be his by then? It was just temporarily kept by the Valley Tribe.
Ming stared at the bowl for a long time, hesitated for a long time, sighed, put the bowl back, and walked back to his tribe without saying a word, looking very lonely.
Shu and Man didn't expect Ming to exchange their pottery bowls. After all, the Shanyin tribe could make their own pottery. Trading pottery within their tribe should be cheaper than with outsiders.
But seeing this, I'm afraid there's something going on. The internal strife within the Shanyin tribe might be even more intense than the rumors say.
In the afternoon, another small tribe arrived and set up a stall at the lower end of the Boulder Tribe.
This tribe seemed smaller than the Stone Tribe and the Valley Tribe, and was farther away. They didn't always attend the fair, and when they did, they were usually the last to arrive. I had no idea what they were saying; it was completely incomprehensible, and all transactions were done through gestures. But they were all smiling and friendly.
Qiao Yu pretended to be a curious teenager and went to communicate with them, but he returned empty-handed because of the language barrier.
Returning to her stall, she whispered to Shu, "I suspect they are refugees."
The tree was shocked: "What?" and couldn't help but look over there.
Qiao Yu quickly pulled him back: "Don't look."
Shu's heart was pounding, and he asked Qiao Yu, "What should we do then?"
"Just pretend you don't know," Qiao Yu said. "They are more scared than we are."
The refugees also needed salt. Since they couldn't find salt mines themselves, they had to pretend to be from small tribes to exchange for salt.
Although Shu didn't dare to watch openly, he still observed secretly, and finally he discovered a clue: those people would cover their faces with animal skins, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed.
He didn't think much of it at first, because the people in this tribe have always been like this. He thought it was a custom of this tribe, just like the Sun Tribe liked to wear feathers on their heads.
Besides, it’s cold, so it’s normal to cover your face.
Now that I think about it, they were all driven out of their tribes because they committed serious mistakes. If they hadn't covered their faces, they might have been recognized.
Seeing the clues, Shu thought about how his tribe had always had a booth next to theirs at every trade fair over the past two years, and how Shan had repeatedly expressed goodwill to them. He thought about Qiao Yu's analysis of tribal security, and the actions the Stone Tribe had already taken, and Shu broke out in a cold sweat.
"Since we only want to exchange salt, and we have almost exchanged everything else, we might as well go back early." He whispered to Qiao Yu.
The Sun Tribe held a monopoly on salt, charging a high price for its salt when trading with foreigners. However, they sold it at a lower price to those within their own tribe. Because of this price difference, Sun Tribe members often traded salt when shopping, and people from other tribes naturally enjoyed this as well.
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