Chapter 641 You Need a Great Tribe (Please vote and subscribe)
Although Luo Chong only received this news in early June, the issue of choosing a place for the delegation to stay on Zhudao had already been under discussion for more than a month. Since Shouya and Commander Xin had agreed on the "aid construction" of Zhudao, Commander Xin had made it clear that he would allow Elder Zhu to take Shouya to choose a place.
As one of the few pro-Han elements in the Xin tribe, Elder Zhu was very concerned about this matter. In addition, he was also very interested in various civil engineering projects of the Han tribe, especially the cross-sea bridge project proposed by Shouya to connect Zhudao and the mainland. When he led Shouya to introduce the situation of various places on Zhudao, he also pestered Shouya from time to time to ask many questions about construction.
Of course, Shouya didn't understand these very well, so he just talked about some water conservancy projects of the Han tribe to dig large artificial rivers to fool him, which made Elder Zhu stunned. He took this opportunity to find a suitable place to start recording the geographical features, cultural customs, agricultural and animal husbandry specialties, forest and mineral resources and other information of various places on Zhudao in detail.
However, due to the limitation of conditions, the places he can understand now are still very limited.
The long-term station selection of the delegation is mainly for the future sea trade. The place suitable for developing sea trade with the mainland is of course to choose the coastline across the sea from the mainland. Therefore, the range of activities of the beast tooth is basically on the coastline near the mainland. In these primitive lands without any signs of artificial development, he could not find any useful information. In the end, he could only choose the station.
The place that meets the conditions for sea trade must first have a large port, otherwise there is nothing to do if the ship cannot stop. The most important indicator of the cargo port is the water depth. In order to obtain these hydrological data on the north shore of Zhudao Island, the delegation also fought hard. They did not bring a ship, so they had to cut bamboo to build a valve with the permission of the Xin tribe, and measure along the long coastline north of Zhudao by manpower.
The measurement method is also very simple. It is completely to paddle the bamboo raft over and then use a plumb bob to measure the water depth. Elder Zhu is very curious about this strange behavior and often asks questions to the beast tooth because of things he does not understand.
"Han envoy, what are you fishing for? Are you fishing in the sea?"
Shouya was very enthusiastic about Elder Zhu's question. In order to collect more detailed information about Takeshima, he didn't mind chatting with the old man.
"We are measuring the depth of the sea water near the shore. We use a rope to drop a heavy object to the bottom of the sea, and then we can measure it by looking at the length of the rope."
"Does the depth of the sea water have anything to do with the location of the envoy?" Elder Zhu asked puzzledly.
Shouya nodded very confidently, "Of course, Elder Zhu, you know that the only passage from Zhudao to the mainland is the unopened secret bridge, and the transportation capacity is too poor, so our leader plans to trade with the Xin tribe by ship. Shipping is not only fast, but also has a very strong transportation capacity. The cargo loaded on a large ship can replace the load of countless carriages. For long-distance trade, it is actually much more cost-effective than land transportation." "
What if our cross-sea bridge to the mainland is built? The kind of bridge you said that can carry several large carts side by side at a time, can't it be compared with shipping?" Elder Zhu asked again.
"Of course not." Shouya said very confidently, and seeing Elder Zhu's confusion, he began to explain.
"Land transportation is nothing more than horse-drawn carriages, ox-drawn carts, and the like. Whether you have a two-wheeled cart or a four-wheeled heavy vehicle, it has to be pulled by livestock. It takes several months to travel such a long distance from the Han tribe to the Xin tribe. The number of cattle and horses consumed, as well as food and fodder, will be a huge cost. The most important thing is that the cargo capacity is limited and is very restricted by the number of accessible roads.
But shipping is different. Rivers and waterways are natural transportation routes, and ships are huge in size and can carry thousands of people at a time. You can only carry a few people in a horse-drawn carriage, and it takes a lot of time to carry cargo. If the boat is full, it can hold more, because the goods do not need to move, nor do they need to eat or drink. As long as the boat does not sink, you can stuff as much as
you want. The most important thing is that the boat is powered by the wind, which does not cost money and can save a lot of cattle, horses and fodder, so the cost can be reduced. "
Elder Zhu's eyes lit up when he heard this. He now wanted to see what the Han tribe's boat looked like. This thing was said so well by Shouya. It could hold so many things, and it did not need to be eaten or drunk, and it did not need people to push or pull it. It could travel on the water with the wind. It was simply a magical tool.
However, after thinking for a long time, he could not figure out what it was. Looking at the bamboo rafts made by the delegation, the image of a super-large bamboo raft gradually emerged in Elder Zhu's mind. He quickly shook his head and threw this idea out of his mind. According to his understanding, the Han tribe would never make such a low-tech thing. Besides, the raft could not be blown away by the wind. It was obviously not the same thing.
"Han envoy, I wonder if our Xin tribe has a chance to build the kind of ship you mentioned. Is the Han tribe willing to help us?" Elder Zhu asked eagerly.
Shouya thought about it for a while, and finally shook his head. Because he was afraid of being misunderstood by the other party, which would affect the cooperation between the two sides, he explained to Elder Zhu.
"Shipbuilding is not a job that can be completed by any single type of work. Take the three-masted sailing ship of the Han tribe as an example. It requires countless young and strong people to go up the mountain to cut down huge trees. After several years of drying, it also requires a very advanced huge processing plant to process and split the wood.
It also involves various metal tools for processing wood, as well as a large number of steel parts needed to build sailing ships. However, this also involves mining and metal smelting and processing.
After having these raw materials, precise mathematical calculations and navigation technology design are also required, as well as a large number of skilled carpenters and blacksmiths.
These are not enough. In addition to the ropes and sails used on the ship, the agricultural planting technology and collection and processing technology of plant fibers, and superb textile Technology, just the sails used on a three-masted sailing ship require hundreds of different looms and thousands of weaving women workers, working continuously for many days to complete.
In short, this is not something that can be completed by a single department. It is a pinnacle product that reflects the overall manufacturing level of the Han tribe. It is the largest individual man-made transportation tool built by the Han tribe with the strength of the entire tribe.
In other words, if you want to build a ship, you need a tribe as great as the Han tribe. "
Elder Zhu was stunned by this. He never thought that just building a ship would require so many advanced technologies, covering almost all the manufacturing industries he knew. However, none of these things were possessed by the Xin tribe. It was even more ridiculous to want to build a ship. Build a ship? What to build it with?
Just like Shouya said, does the Xin tribe need a ship? No, they need a great tribe.
Of course, there were some exaggerations in what Shouya said, but they were generally true. As we all know, shipbuilding is not a problem that can be solved by a single type of work. Even if it is built, you cannot drive it without advanced navigation technology. This most advanced means of transportation in the world is simply not something that the Xin tribe can handle.
The reason why Shouya said this was to make the Xin tribe give up the idea of playing with ships. Just go and build your cross-sea bridge honestly. How can you play with such a high-end thing as a ship? Wouldn't it be good to let the Han tribe monopolize all the sea trade?
Maybe the Xin tribe would not think it was good, but it was not important, as long as the Han tribe thought it was good.
In this way, under the harassment of various questions from the elders of Zhu, Shouya took the delegation and spent more than a month to explore the situation on the north shore of the entire Zhudao Island. Finally, three places were selected as alternative bases. However, Shouya did not make a decision personally, but sent the topographic maps and all the information of the three places to Luo Chong, letting the leader make the final decision.
The long letter about the base that Luo Chong took at this time contained Shouya's detailed information about the three alternative sites, as well as some information he collected about the Xin tribe, which were not mastered before. It can be said that this set of information is very valuable to the Han tribe.
The first is an important piece of information that the Han tribe just learned, that is, the problem of the organizational form of the Xin tribe.
The organizational form of the Han tribe is a centralized model of central control and county division, but the Xin tribe is different. It is an organizational form similar to the control of the suzerain and the division of foreign states.
In the past, the Han tribe had received news that Zhudao was not a monolithic entity, nor was there only one Xin tribe, but was composed of six tribes. However, the Han tribe had no idea how it was composed and which tribes it was. However, this time, the missing information was made up by the beast tooth.
According to the division of strength, the six tribes of Zhudao are Xin tribe, Yan tribe, Shi tribe, Yu tribe, Lie tribe, and Bu tribe from strong to weak.
Among them, the Xin, Yan, and Shi tribes are the strongest, and the population of the three tribes accounts for 70% of the entire Zhudao. The strength of the Yu, Lie, and Bu tribes is very weak.
The second-ranked Salt Tribe, because its territory is close to the coast, controls a large number of coastal mudflats, and mainly engages in salt boiling and salt drying. 80% of the sea salt exported from the entire Zhudao is produced by them. Although the other five tribes can also make some sea salt to meet their own needs, if they want to export, they cannot do without the Salt Tribe, so they have a very high political status.
The Food Tribe controls the most fertile land in Zhudao and produces a lot of food, so the population is also very large. In terms of population alone, it can even rank second, so its status is also relatively high.
The Fishing Tribe occupies the cliff mountain area on the easternmost side of Zhudao. The land there is barren and there are few mudflats. It is not rich in food and cannot dry salt. However, there is always a way out. The people of the Fishing Tribe have all mastered the ability to catch turtles in the five oceans.
They don't have fishing nets, and rely on bamboo spears to hunt fish. The most powerful fishermen can dive 20 meters offshore without any equipment, holding a stone as a counterweight in one hand and a spear in the other, and walk on the seabed for five minutes. They are all great divers, but correspondingly, under such harsh and primitive living conditions, the population of the fishing tribe is very small.
As the saying goes, poor mountains and bad waters produce unruly people, and the fishing tribe is no exception. Although they have a small population, their combat effectiveness is explosive, so they still maintain independence in several major annexation battles in the history of Takeshima. The other tribes acquiesced to their existence because they looked down on their broken place and wanted to completely defeat the fishing tribe because the price they had to pay was too high.
The hunting tribe is the origin of bows and arrows on Takeshima, and they are good at making bamboo bows and bamboo arrows. They occupied the mountainous area in the middle of Takeshima. They first made a living by hunting and gathering. Later, after introducing livestock from the grassland, they began to engage in breeding, but the hunting tradition has never been abandoned. Like the fishing tribe, they have a small population but strong combat effectiveness, and they also occupy a place on Takeshima.
The last one is the Bu tribe, which is a pure charlatan tribe. They are very feudal and superstitious. They don't even know how many gods they worship in their tribe. They don't have many people and their combat effectiveness is also scum. But since they can maintain their existence, there must be a reason.
Because the Bu tribe is not useless. In addition to superstition, they also know medical skills.
People eat grains and cereals. Who can guarantee that they don't have a headache or fever? When a patient appears, he still asks the doctor, right? So he also preserved it.
At the same time, the Bu tribe is also the tribe with the least population on the entire Bamboo Island. According to the intelligence provided by the beast tooth, Luo Chong analyzed that it might be because they were poisoned too much by "tasting hundreds of herbs". In addition, the Bu tribe is also good at raising poisonous creatures. They play with scorpions, poisonous snakes and other things every day. It would be strange if they can survive. In addition, their special customs make it difficult for other tribes to intermarry with them, which further affects the population development of the Bu tribe.
However, the other tribes dared not to provoke such a thing that people both needed and feared. In the several great changes in the history of Zhudao, the Bu tribe has always been as stable as an old dog.
Needless to say, the most powerful Xin tribe is left. This is a tribe favored by God, because the Xin tribe occupies the most strategically advantageous land in the entire Zhudao. The Xin tribe has fertile fields and can be self-sufficient in food. They also have coastal beaches and can also make salt. Although the output is not high, it can meet their own needs, so they will not be controlled by others.
At the same time, the Xin tribe also controls the source of fresh water in the entire Zhudao. The only big river on Zhudao flows out from the Xin tribe. In addition, there are metal veins, all in the territory of the Xin tribe.
The most important thing is that the underwater bridge connecting the mainland and Zhudao is also in the territory of the Xin tribe. They control the only channel connecting the mainland, which is a strategic advantage.
The salt produced by the Yan tribe can only be sold with the help of the Xin tribe in order to exchange for some livestock and tools they need. The Shi tribe mainly farms, and they also need the Xin tribe to get them livestock from the grassland, as well as metal farm tools produced by the Xin tribe.
After controlling the two largest forces, the Xin tribe was too lazy to care about the remaining three.
In this way, in the evolution of thousands of years, the Xin tribe became the overlord tribe of the other five tribes. The other five tribes recognized it as the overlord and accepted the rule of the Xin tribe. However, due to the lack of a complete management organization and information transmission mechanism, the Xin tribe usually does not interfere in the internal affairs of the other five tribes, allowing them to manage themselves. However, when there are any external matters, the Xin tribe's words are still very effective, and the other five tribes obey.
In Luo Chong's view, this situation has already changed from the "Yellow Emperor Tribal Alliance" to a unified "kingdom".
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
