This winter is not peaceful. Not only the Sea Tribe is fighting hard, but the Purple Tribe and the Cowhide Tribe are also making plans.
To put it bluntly, none of them are good.
The emergence of wildebeest snowmobiles provided the best load-bearing transportation tool for large tribes' winter journeys, and also provided the prerequisites for larger-scale wars.
Before the Purple Tribe attacked the Cowhide Tribe, their trading party, which had been heading to the Sea Tribe, suffered a heavy defeat on their way back. They lost sixty to seventy men, and most importantly, a large number of pottery basins brought back from the Sea Tribe were stolen.
In this area, only the Sea Tribe and the Cowhide Tribe can make pottery.
The Cowhide Tribe took advantage of the Purple Tribe's weakness.
The biggest weakness of the Purple Tribe is that there are too few wildebeests. Even if there is a wildebeest snowmobile, you don’t have enough wildebeests. How can you fight against the Cowhide Tribe in the snow season?
Let alone the snowy winter weather, even in summer, the Purple Tribe's large population is useless. Can a large number of people defeat a group charge of wildebeest cavalry? The Niupi Tribe, with its developed commerce, relies on wildebeests for its greatest asset.
Even though the Niupi Tribe sold sixty wildebeests to the Hai Tribe last summer, they still had sixty wildebeest cavalry this winter. The superiority of the cavalry had already been proven in the war with the Hai Tribe.
The two leaders of the Cowhide Tribe and the high priest had already reached a consensus: no matter how miserable the Sea Tribe was, we couldn't afford to offend them. As for the ambitious Purple Tribe, with its inherent disadvantage of cavalry, why would they pretend to be so arrogant?
Is it so great that your Purple Tribe can boil salt? The Cowhide Tribe doesn't need to trade coarse salt with your Purple Tribe. The price of coarse salt from the Sea Tribe is already quite low, and bringing it to Sun City would be a significant profit. Did the Cowhide Tribe thrive solely on trade?
"High Priest, is the Sea Tribe really still okay?"
"Yes, the Grassland Tribe dealt a heavy blow to the Sea Tribe this time. Two villages and the second branch of the Grassland were uprooted. According to our information, the Sea Tribe suffered heavy losses that time." The two leaders were still most concerned about and coveted the wealthy Sea Tribe.
"Don't even think about it. How are you going to attack such a big stone city? We can't do anything to a bunch of old and weak people defending the city. Do you think we have so many able-bodied men? We couldn't defeat two thousand grassland cavalrymen, and we only have a few people?" The high priest refused to do it.
"It's just a thought." Niu Tou scratched his head. "I don't know where the Sea Tribe got so many people from. Can they afford to support them?"
Food is always the biggest problem.
"As long as the Sea Tribe has salt, there will never be a problem. Fortunately, their salt is not expensive." The second leader, Horse-faced, just said it to vent his anger. If he really asked him to lead people to attack the Sea Tribe, he would have no way to do it.
Taking down the Purple Tribe was easy. This time, it was Horse-Faced who led the Wildebeest Cavalry to raid the Purple Tribe trading party. The Purple Tribe, so weak, was still engaged in wars everywhere, claiming to be a powerful tribe. Tsk! Horse-Faced even looked down on the Purple Tribe.
"High Priest, why are you targeting the Purple Tribe?" Niu Tou asked curiously.
"Once the Purple Tribe develops, it will inevitably rush out of the forest and go to Sun City. Sun City already has our Cowhide Tribe and Sea Tribe. Think about it, if there is another Purple Tribe that can boil salt, will our Cowhide Tribe still have room for trade?" What the high priest said made sense.
Relatively speaking, the Sea Tribe was quite well-behaved, whether trading nearby or going to Sun City. Even in Sun City, the Sea Tribe's main trading partner was the Moon Tribe, and they had no close relationship with the Sun Tribe, the main trading partner of the Cowhide Tribe.
Everyone has their own trading partners, which is good. Everyone has food to eat, right?
If the aggressive Purple Tribe developed, how could they possibly give the Cowhide Tribe a chance to survive and trade? Everyone knows that monopoly is the best way to develop.
"That charlatan is quite interesting. He knows that our trade with the Sea Tribe ultimately ends up in Sun City, yet he's still willing to sell us coarse salt and salted radish at a low price," said the great chief, Niutou, with a smile. He wouldn't be so generous. He has so many good things, and if he trades directly in Sun City, the margin will be bigger, and the profit will be higher.
"We don't understand, so we don't want to provoke the Sea Tribe." The high priest also didn't understand why the Sea Tribe did this. Didn't the Sea Tribe worry that their Niupi Tribe would become stronger and pose a threat to them?
"High Priest, the stone city of the Sea Tribe is really great. Why don't we build it too?" said the second leader, Horse-faced.
"Yes, if we have a stone city, we will no longer be afraid of powerful threats." said Niu Tou.
"How can such a high pile of stones not fall down?"
"How about we ask the Sea Tribe for help?"
"Why should they help us?"
"Who knows? The Sea Tribe's actions are always uncertain, aren't they?"
"No, let's just trade. As long as there's some benefit, the Sea Tribe might actually help us build a stone city."
…
Excitedly running to the Sea Tribe, only to be met with rebuff? Are you crazy? Stone City is the Sea Tribe's exclusive domain. Why would they leak it to you? Trade? You have no idea.
He traded a batch of sheep and wildebeests with the Niupi tribe and sent away the Niutou trading team.
Salt is the foundation. As long as they have salt, the Sea Tribe has everything. They can't stop making salt. And now, food from the Purple Tribe and the Cowhide Tribe has been brought to them for trade.
Of course, the Hai tribe never treats the members of the winter salt-boiling team unfairly. Even if they are wounded and no longer able-bodied men, they should be rewarded with mutton for the hard work of boiling salt.
Sheep are also good things. The meat is edible, and the thick fur can also keep out the cold. This winter, the men of the Sea Tribe are out foraging for grass and grain. Long-distance trade teams are not possible, so local exchanges are also good.
The Purple Tribe was the only one left feeling upset. Their trade caravan was robbed by the Cowhide Tribe, resulting in massive losses. Wildebeest were few to begin with, and now, even the wildebeest trolley they had painstakingly built was gone.
The biggest difference between the Purple Tribe and the Sea Tribe back then was that the Sea Tribe, when it was weak, had weathered the most difficult phase and had a certain amount of early accumulation. After the most dangerous early accumulation phase, it had acquired basic self-defense capabilities.
The current Purple Tribe does not have this critical early accumulation stage. Especially the emergence of salt has posed a huge threat to the Cowhide Tribe. This robbery has seriously damaged the Purple Tribe.
It could be said that the Niupi Tribe's contribution to the Sea Tribe's gradual rise was significant. They attacked the Sea Tribe, right? Even if they lost, they still provided the Sea Tribe with a rare pottery captive. Without sufficient pottery basins, the Sea Tribe's salt-making capabilities would ultimately be severely limited.
And what about the Purple Tribe? Without their crucial weakness, pottery making, they couldn't develop their salt production. They wanted to trade pottery plates with the Sea Tribe, but the Cowhide Tribe refused and instead targeted the Purple Tribe's trade caravan.
At present, the Purple Tribe’s seaside salt-boiling team only has three or four pottery plates, which is really pitiful.
The Purple Tribe has a population of one or two thousand, and that little bit of salt is not enough for the tribe to eat. What's the point of going out to trade?
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