Chapter 12
After a simple breakfast, all seven members of the hunting team went out, including the elders. They carried a water jar, a clay pot, and three pottery bowls in a backpack to exchange for people and salt.
Luo Chong's task was not to take adult men, as it was not easy to subdue those who were not from their own tribe. The water jar could be exchanged for two adult women. Adult women had high combat effectiveness and could give birth to children, which was much more cost-effective than men, and there were two of them.
The clay pot could be exchanged for two boys who were about to become adults, so it was relatively easy for young people to integrate.
All three pottery bowls were exchanged for salt. If there was no salt, the pottery bowls could be exchanged for girls. It was still cost-effective to exchange one pottery bowl for two underage girls.
The transaction was conducted with a tribe to the west of the tribe. The tribe could be found by crossing a mountain and a valley. The elders led the whole process, and the others were responsible for protection, and they tried to return before dark.
The hunting team would not hunt today. Luo Chong asked them to collect some wooden sticks that could be used as spears on the way, and not to waste time on other things unless the beasts took the initiative to provoke them.
All the children went to pull weeds and clean up the open space in front of the cave, clearing away the bushes and burning those that could not be removed.
The gathering team did not go out today, and all went to the river to fish or smoke bacon. For those who had nothing to do, Luo Chong taught them how to twist grass ropes, and also taught the lame man to make pottery. Except for pregnant women and little kids, no one was idle.
In the jungle, an old man with goat horns on his head led six men with tied hair and hurried along a narrow path that the hunting team often walked. After
crossing this mountain, a valley less than 200 meters wide appeared in front of them. On the other side of the valley was the location of another tribe.
This tribe was larger than Luo Chong's Han tribe, with a population of about 80 to 90 people. They had some exchanges with the Han tribe. The two tribes had borrowed fire from each other, and the Han tribe had also exchanged dried meat and animal skins for salty stones.
After more than half of the morning, the group of seven people finally arrived at the mountain opposite the valley.
Before they reached their tribe's residence, the elders encountered the other hunting team. Their hunting team had more than a dozen people, but they were not together. They were all scattered to find prey. The one who
discovered the elders and their group was a young man. As soon as he saw people, he began to call out to his companions loudly. Then, shouts came from the woods one after another. In less than two minutes, 12 people ran out and surrounded the elders.
The leader of the other side was a middle-aged man with solid muscles bulging on his bare upper body and a wide animal skin skirt around his waist. If Luo Chong was here, he would definitely shout: Third Junior Brother, is that you, Third Junior Brother?
Their leader was bald, with a bald head, but there was a circle of short curly hair on other parts of his head. If he wore a string of big Buddhist beads, he would be exactly the same as Monk Sha.
At first, the leader of the bald tribe didn't recognize these people with their hair tied up and backpacks on their backs, but after a closer look, he found someone he knew. He had seen the elder with goat horns and the ferocious-looking one-eared man before. He felt relieved when he saw that they were familiar people.
The leader of the bald tribe and the elder started to communicate with each other through gestures and words.
"What are you doing here?" Xie Ding was very confused.
The elder smiled warmly and took out a pottery bowl from the backpack carried by Dali and handed it to Xie Ding, "Exchange this for salty stone."
Xie Ding's eyes lit up, and he took the pottery bowl that was smooth inside and out, and looked at it in the sun. The shining light of the pottery bowl made Xie Ding's heart beat. This small red stone basin was a treasure, so beautiful, and much lighter than ordinary stone basins.
"Okay, come with me to my tribe."
Xie Ding agreed generously, and asked the hunting team to continue to hunt separately. He only took two people to lead the elders back to the cave, but he had no intention of returning the pottery bowl to the elders.
The residence of Xie Ding's tribe is also a cave, and it is a karst cave. There is a clear mountain spring flowing out from the cracks in the cave, and a small pool of less than two square meters is gathered in the depression. This is the water source of their tribe. However, in winter, the water here will be cut off. At that time, they can only drink snow water or go to a distant river to fetch water.
There are more than a dozen pregnant women watching children near the karst cave, and those underage children are weeding or collecting berries from bushes nearby.
The group stopped at the entrance of the karst cave. Xie Ding asked two younger brothers to go in and get a small bag of salt stone for the elder.
This is a bag made of marmot skin, and there is only half a bag of salt stone in it. This amount of salt can't be eaten for a long time, and it is all coarse salt particles as big as soybeans. If Luo Chong purifies it, there will be even less left.
The elder took the bag, looked at it, and shook his head: "This is not enough, too little, we need more, and we want to change people this time."
When Xie Ding heard this, he got angry and frowned, saying: "No, your stone basin is too small, it's of no use. If we change people, we can't give you salty stones, and we don't have much salty stones."
The elder laughed, his gray beard trembling, just like an old goat. He waved his hand and asked Dali to take out the water jar.
"We'll use this to exchange people."
Xie Ding's eyes widened immediately, and the children and pregnant women around him also ran over to watch.
"What a beautiful stone basin."
"Wow, this stone basin is so big."
"It's bigger than the big stone basin in our tribe."
The surroundings immediately rang out the chirping of the indigenous language that they couldn't understand.
Xie Ding stroked the small water jar and compared it with the pottery bowl from before. It was made of the same stone, and the surface was so smooth. How did they polish it? Such a big stone basin must have been polished for several generations.
"Use this to exchange for two adult women. If it doesn't work, don't exchange it." The elder asked Dali to take the water jar back and said to Xie Ding with a very determined expression.
Xie Ding hesitated now. Their tribe really needed this kind of big stone basin. He felt it was a good deal to exchange two women for one, but it was autumn now, and one less person would mean less harvest, so he was a little undecided.
"Can you exchange them in winter? Now our people still need to collect food. I can give you some more salty stones." Xie Ding said in a tangled way.
The elder shook his head again, indicating that it was not possible. "If you exchange people with us now, you can save two people's consumption in winter, and it's okay to collect less food."
Xie Ding heard it, yes, one less person means one less mouth to feed, then there is no need to prepare so much food for the winter, this deal is worthwhile.
"Okay, this big stone basin in exchange for two adult women, I will give you some more salty stones." Xie Ding generously agreed to the elder's conditions.
One of Xie Ding's younger brothers pointed at the cave and said something in a gibberish. Xie Ding smiled and nodded, asking him to find someone.
After a while, two naked and thin women were brought over. They were a pair of sisters. The younger sister was a young girl who had just reached adulthood, and the older sister was a few years older than the younger sister. She was holding a four-year-old naked boy in her arms. The boy closed his eyes and did not move. His face was flushed. It was obvious that he was sick. His mother held him with a sad face.
"We will exchange these two people for your big stone basin, and the little boy will be given to you."
Xie Ding waved his hand with a look of disdain, as if urging the two women to leave quickly.
The child was sick, and Xie Ding asked her to abandon the child and go to collect food quickly. As a result, the woman was unwilling to do so. She stayed in the cave with the sick child all day and did not work. Her sister did not go out to
work either. Xie Ding had not distributed food to the two of them for two days. It was just right to drive them away today and exchange them for a beautiful big stone basin. He was so happy. The elder looked at the two weak women and said nothing. Now is the season when labor is needed. If it were him, he would not exchange the two strong women.
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(End of this chapter)
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