Chapter 547 Jing Yan's Ambition (Please vote and subscribe)
In fact, the Lu chieftain and their elders rejected the idea of the Han tribe sending people to scout the terrain around the Lu tribe, but the Han tribe was too powerful. Not to mention anything else, the population alone was much larger than that of the Lu tribe.
Although it was unknown how many people the Han tribe had, the people on the large ships that were seen so far were no less than theirs. The Lu tribe had only about 400 people in total, and this was the number of all men, women, old and young combined, but there were almost 300 adult men on the four ships of the Han tribe. What a huge gap.
In addition, there was the non-aggression treaty promised by Youfu. The team sent by the Han tribe would operate in a range far away from the Lu tribe's residence. Their main purpose was to find this black stone. Youfu had already informed them of this, and let them know that the Han tribe had no intention of attacking them.
Of course, if it was just like this, the actions of the Han tribe would not be of any benefit to the Lu tribe. What really impressed the Lu tribe's top leaders was Youfu's "market" plan.
This is not a new routine. Every time the Han tribe develops a new stronghold, when there is a shortage of manpower in the early stage, they will first set up a market in the local area. At first, they only sell daily necessities, and in the later stage, they will directly recruit labor.
This is a quick way to quickly integrate with the surrounding tribes and understand the situation of the surrounding forces. This market method wins the hearts of the people around, and conveys the idea that the Han tribe is "very developed" to the surrounding tribes. At least the various daily necessities of the Han tribe are not what they can produce.
The most important thing is white salt. The Han tribe can use white salt to indirectly control the surrounding tribes. Whoever disobeys will be directly cut off from his salt. See who dares to go against the Han tribe.
When Yu Mao came with the fourth sailboat in the afternoon of the same day, You Fu introduced the two sides as a representative. After all, You Fu will not stay here forever. It is Yu
Mao and his people who have to deal with the Deer Tribe for a long time. The next morning, the fleet consisting of three sailboats of You Fu continued to set off downstream. The matters of the Deer Tribe, the coal mine and the market were all handed over to the geological exploration ship headed by Yu Mao.
This sailing ship was fully loaded with 90 crew members, 60 of whom were responsible for the exploration of the coal mine, and the remaining 30 stayed on the sailing ship to be responsible for logistics support, and to build docks and garrisons. They also had to carry out market activities around the garrisons, and the mission was very important.
The support personnel who stayed behind was a civilian clerk named Jing Yan, who was transferred from Liuyang County. He usually served as a recorder of the household in the county governor's office of Liuyang County, doing some statistical work on materials, money and goods. Recently, he also did some work organizing migrant workers to carry out construction.
For the construction of the new base this time, Luo Chong asked Dashu to find someone for him, and Dashu summoned the clerks of the county governor's office to talk about this matter.
Because it was an unfamiliar place, far away from the Han tribe, and it was built from scratch in a barren wilderness, the living conditions were extremely poor, there were many unfamiliar tribal forces around, and it was not safe, so many clerks were unwilling to go.
But no matter how small they are, they are still officials. In the system composed of various rules, regulations, laws and etiquette of the Han tribe, they belong to the kind of superior people, they are officials of the upper class, and they enjoy a superior social status than ordinary people.
But this is limited by region. Within the territory of the Han tribe, you do have a sense of superiority and are indeed superior people, but outside the small acre of land of the Han tribe, who will care who you are? Two shoulders carry one head, who is afraid of who? !
For this reason, there are even fewer people willing to take the initiative to take this task. Who doesn't want to stay at home steadily and enjoy the treatment of being looked up to by everyone?
But Jing Yan, this weirdo, is an exception. He took the initiative to ask to lead the team for this operation.
Unfamiliar areas, important mining areas, new bases, new markets, what is this process, what is this task, this is clearly the leader wants to open a new map, ah, no, to build new counties.
If I can lead this task and complete the work well, then I am afraid that I will not be appreciated by the leader? Maybe he will be the governor or county magistrate of this newly built county.
"Are all my colleagues fools? They can't see such a good future. Since you don't want to be this big official, I won't be polite." Jing Yan thought to himself.
There is no doubt that Jing Yan is the most ambitious and aspiring person compared to the large number of petty officials in Liuyang County. No matter how capable he is, at least he dares to take this task, which is better than most people.
And he is more confident about this task, which depends on his recent frequent organization of construction work by migrant workers from outside tribes. Long-term work also makes him better understand the thoughts of these migrant workers from outside tribes.
So on the second day after arriving at the Deer Tribe, Jing Yan started his work. He first found a wider river section, about 130 meters wide, and marked the place where the water level was deeper on the shore. He planned to build a relatively large dock here for future material loading and unloading and large-scale landing of personnel.
This is the primary goal. If we decide to develop this place, there will definitely be a lot of people and materials coming later. If there is no dock for landing, so many ships will come. Then the people who come later can only row small landing craft to the shore. How inefficient is that?
Moreover, there is no way to transport large equipment to the shore with only those small boats, such as getting a bullock cart here. How can we get ashore?
However, if we want to build a dock, it is not enough to rely on the remaining 30 people. The 60 people brought by Yu Mao are specialized in prospecting. The logistics support still needs to be presided over by Jing Yan. It is even more impossible to expect Yu Mao to help him, so he has to recruit talents from the local area.
At noon that day, after sending some supplies on the ship to the shore, Jing Yan started to cook a hearty lunch, and then asked people to carry the pot to the residence of the Deer Tribe to "visit".
In the summer, at noon, the Deer Tribe was hiding from the sun in the residence, and no one went out for activities. It happened that everyone was there.
In a thatched shed of the Deer Tribe, a straw mat brought by Jing Yan was laid on the ground, and in the middle was a rectangular low table. On the table were stewed meat, fish soup, fried shrimp, fried peanuts, and smoked meat brought by the Han Tribe, all neatly cut and placed on ceramic plates.
In front of the Deer Chief and the Deer Elders, each had a large bowl of rice, and even more rare, there was a small pot of rice wine.
The two high-ranking officials of the Deer Tribe were so frightened by such "exquisite and rich" food that they didn't know how to eat it, but the delicious food cooked with seasonings was tempting their appetite.
"Elder, Chief, please use it, try the food of our Han Tribe. These are chopsticks. If you don't know how to use them, the spoon next to it will also work."
Jing Yan gestured and demonstrated to the two of them, and when he saw Chief Deer's children running over and around, he generously took out a small box of brown sugar for the children to share. However, before giving it to the children, of course, he had to get their parents' consent, so he asked Chief Deer to taste it first.
The deer leader first looked at the exquisite wooden box, then looked at the rectangular red translucent hard candy inside, and asked in surprise.
"Is this something to eat?" To be honest, he would rather believe that it was some kind of transparent gem, because no matter how he looked at it, he felt that such an exquisite thing was not edible.
But seeing Jing Yan nod affirmatively, he still picked up a piece and tasted it. In view of the embarrassing incident of the "chili pepper incident" before, he seemed very cautious this time. He just licked it with his tongue first, and after tasting a special sweetness, he put it into his mouth without hesitation. The sweet taste exploded in his mouth all of a sudden, making him feel like he had eaten honey, but it was not quite the same as the sweetness of honey.
It is said that sugar can enhance human happiness, which is indeed true. The deer leader immediately showed a simple smile, then took a few pieces of candy from the box and gave them to his children, and carefully put the box away and placed it in front of him.
Elder Lu was a little reluctant to eat and drink. This meal looked extremely rich, but in their minds, food was the most precious thing. No tribe would give its food to others for nothing. Even the hunting teams of two tribes would fight each other for a prey, even if one or two people were killed or injured. What was the purpose of the Han tribe giving them such good food?
In addition, the Han tribe sent people to station here. What exactly did they want to do? What impact would it have on the Lu tribe?
He was a wise man and elder of the Lu tribe. He was responsible for the future of the Lu tribe. He didn't want the Lu tribe to end up in a tragic end.
Some seemingly good things were like the tail of a poisonous snake. It made a pleasant sound to tempt you to reach out, and then turned around and bit you hard, taking your life. Elder Lu was actually very worried. He was already old. With the current leader, could he continue to lead the Lu tribe?
"Friends of the Han tribe, why did you give us food?"
After figuring out what this sentence meant, Jing Yan immediately replied with a smile.
"Oh, I'm just showing you the goods of the Han tribe."
"Goods?" Elder Lu asked in confusion.
"Yes, goods are things that can be traded and exchanged." Jing Yan explained.
"Then you mean this container for food? Or the pot for cooking? Or the seasonings for cooking? Is it the sugar just now?" Elder Lu continued to ask.
"All the things you mentioned can be traded, as long as you want. Oh, and the rice in the bowl, if you are short of food, we can also sell you this kind of rice."
"Rice? This? It's really delicious."
Chief Lu also drove away the child, picked up the rice bowl and took a bite with a spoon. After tasting it carefully, he swallowed it in one gulp, and then suddenly continued Jing Yan's words.
"Yes, this is it. If you want, we can also trade it, so that all your tribesmen will have enough to eat every day. The tribesmen of our Han tribe also eat this kind of rice every day. This is one of our staple foods." Jing Yan also explained while entertaining them for dinner.
This surprised the deer leader and the elders. Although they didn't know how big the Han tribe was, it must be very big. But even so, the Han tribe could not only ensure that their people had food every day, but also had extra food to sell to other tribes, and even supply food to the entire Lu tribe. Where did they get so much food? !
However, they didn't need to consider this issue for the time being. They were concerned about another issue.
"Friends of the Han tribe, the person before you said that you can exchange things with stones, especially the black stones, but why did he say when he left that we can't exchange things with that kind of stone, but let your people come and dig it by themselves? Why is that?
Also, you don't want black stones now, so what should we trade with you?"
Elder Lu wiped his beard stained with fish soup and questioned Jing Yan again. If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't beat the Han tribe, Elder Lu would have turned against him because of this matter.
"No, no, no, you misunderstood. We didn't stop the trade of black stones on purpose, but because this kind of stone is special. It can burn like firewood. Do you know?" Jing Yan said excitedly.
However, Elder Lu and the chief had a sullen face. Although they didn't say anything, their expressions had already expressed their dissatisfaction, as if they were saying, "Whether it's special or not is your business. What does it have to do with whether we can use black stones to exchange for things?"
"Well, I've already said that we are going to use that kind of black stone as firewood, so we need a lot of it. If we rely entirely on trading with you to get it, even if we can afford it, you can't get so much to meet our needs.
This is why we sent people to find stones ourselves. We have to dig it ourselves, otherwise it will definitely not be enough if we rely on you alone." Jing Yan had to explain.
"How do you know that our tribe can't get it? Isn't it just that kind of black stone? How much can you still use? Even if that thing can be used as firewood, it can only cook two meals a day. How long will you use it?" Elder Lu said with some disbelief. Even if the stone is high-grade, you can only cook two meals a day. How many black stones can you use?
"Well, although our leader hasn't said anything yet, I know that we will definitely need a lot. With our large sailing ships, we can probably use up ten ships a day, but your tribe only has so many people, so you definitely can't transport that much." Jing Yan thought about it and said so.
Elder Lu and the leader were both shocked, "Ten ships? And that's for one day. Do you Han tribe eat stones? Even if you really eat stones, you can't eat that much."
(End of this chapter)
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