Chapter 645: Exquisite Gifts (Please vote)
"Captain, look, there's a man in a robe coming out of the city. He should be the big shot you mentioned."
"And he doesn't seem to have any soldiers with him. Look, he's going to the river alone."
The bored sailors stood by the side of the ship, looking at the strange tribe in front of them in surprise, discussing their lifestyle and the women's clothing.
"It shouldn't be dangerous for one person to stand there. It seems that the other party is interested in communicating with us. Who of you is willing to go first and say hello to them?" You Fu quickly judged the situation in front of him, and then asked everyone on the ship.
"Captain, ask me to go."
"I'll go too, you must take me with you."
"Don't argue, I row fast, and I'll be the one to send anyone off."
Seeing that everyone had signed up enthusiastically, You Fu waved his hand and said, "Okay, okay, don't argue. The other party this time is a big tribe, and we can't be too casual. We'll only take a landing craft to the river this time, and we're absolutely not allowed to go ashore. Just give them some gifts, and we don't need to make close friends for the time being. Oh, by the way, you can ask if they have any ideas about trade, and then ask about their specialties, and nothing else is necessary. If nothing else, we have to continue downstream and find the estuary that the leader mentioned as soon as possible."
After hearing what You Fu said, everyone realized that the purpose of this negotiation was just to say hello, but some people still signed up actively. In the end, the captain of the flagship brought several sailors, changed into the formal crown, robe and clothes of the Han tribe, prepared exquisite gifts, and then drove the landing craft carefully over.
On the other side of the shore, some people around Tang Ji saw someone on the Han tribe's large sailboat coming to the shore in a small boat, and they immediately became nervous, wondering what the people in front of them wanted to do.
But they didn't have time to think too much. The Han tribe's large boat was more than 100 meters away from the river bank, and it could be reached with a bow and arrow. The small boat would be even faster. In the blink of an eye, the landing craft had reached the river.
Seeing the few strange people so close, someone on the shore immediately blocked Tang Ji with his body, fearing that she would encounter an accident.
The captain of the flagship ship was very familiar with this routine. He didn't care about the nervousness of the people on the shore, but calmly bowed to Tang Ji and said, "Dear friend, we are merchants from the Han tribe who came from the upstream, and we are going downstream to find the sea. We met your tribe on the way and presented a little gift of meeting. We hope to exchange some food supplies in your tribe. Is it okay? Of course, if you have any good things, we are also willing to exchange them."
The captain gestured while speaking, and then pointed to the gifts held by his men and introduced them to the other party one by one, and finally explained that he hoped to exchange some food with them with such things.
Many people on the other side understood this meaning, and then they all breathed a sigh of relief. As long as they didn't have any bad intentions towards them, it was a good thing. These people came to exchange for food, which was easy to understand.
After all, the Tang tribe was also a tribe with a very developed handicraft industry. They could also produce cloth, grain, white salt, coarse pottery, metal and other things. If they could not use up all the things they produced, they would sell them to small tribes or wild people around them. Therefore, they were not unfamiliar with the transaction proposed by the Han tribe. What made them a little uncomfortable was that the sellers this time became other tribes, and they themselves became buyers.
Tang Ji did not say anything, but just nodded, and then signaled the tribesmen around her to take the gifts. Several people from the Han tribe did not go ashore as agreed before, and handed the gifts in their hands to the other party very generously and appropriately. Although they knew that such a transaction would be a loss for themselves, how could they make friends with the other party without a little loss?
At this time, Tang Ji was surprised by the gifts brought out by the Han tribe, including the Tang tribe members around her, all of whom took a deep breath and were all impressed by the exquisite gifts of the Han tribe. In their opinion, this was already a rare treasure.
There were ceramic vessels with white glaze, and the most valuable one was a set of colorful tea sets, which were first glazed, then painted with five kinds of mineral pigments, and finally carefully fired. However, they were fired by the top kiln master of the Han tribe, the Cripple. Of course, he was not the only one, but the official kiln of the Han tribe
that he was in charge of. The ceramic firing level of the Tang tribe, the best technology at this time, was still at the stage of red pottery and black color, that is, the red pottery base with black patterns painted on it. The top pottery already had three-color patterns, but it was obviously incomparable to the glassy porcelain of the Han tribe.
There were also many other ceramic vessels, including tableware, bowls, plates, and other messy ceramic lamps, pen washers and other ornaments, which added up to a lot.
Another gift was a roll of plain linen, a piece of colorful brocade, and a piece of plain brocade. When these three treasures came out, everyone around was stunned and couldn't help but exclaimed.
The Tang tribe also had linen, but it was not as smooth and dense as the one woven by the Han tribe. However, they originally used linen as sacks. The people of the Tang tribe basically did not wear clothes made of linen, but cotton. The cotton they used was similar to the cotton melon that the Tiger Guards had discovered at the beginning. However, this crop had long been popularized in the Tang tribe, and the planting area was wider than linen. After all, this thing could not only be used to weave cloth, but also as a filler to make cotton-padded jackets, cotton-padded pants and quilts, which was completely incomparable to linen fiber.
However, no matter how powerful the cotton cloth of the Tang tribe was, when they unfolded the colorful brocade and plain brocade of the Han tribe, they still thought it was a divine object. Compared with gauze, colorful brocade was relatively thick and dense, with colorful patterns woven on it. The overall color tone was blue and green peacock color, with yellow, red, brown and green colors in between. The pattern was a picture of hundreds of birds paying homage to the phoenix, with a green forest with clear springs and waterfalls in the background, and countless colorful birds in the forest, each of which was vivid.
The other piece of plain brocade was pure white, but it was as thin as a cicada's wing, like smoke and fog, giving people a hazy feeling.
The most important thing is that there are relatively few mulberry silkworms in the Han tribe now, and most of the silk used is chestnut silkworms. The biggest feature of chestnut silkworms is high reflectivity. Even at night, a little light will be reflected on it, so the people of the Han tribe prefer to call it luminous cloth.
It was morning at this time, and two pieces of brocade, one plain and one colorful, were unfolded in front of everyone. Looking at the fine weaving patterns, bright and bright colors, and the reflection of divine light, a group of people were all stunned. Even Tang Ji, who had always been knowledgeable, was fascinated by the treasure in front of her. However, she had seen big scenes after all. After hearing the exclamations of the surrounding tribesmen, she quickly came to her senses, and then asked people to put away the brocade and cloth, and continued to look at other gifts.
In addition to the two high-end goods, ceramics and brocade, the rest are some small things. Opening two exquisite carved wooden boxes, one of them contains a knife and a sword, not very long, about the same as a dagger, the sheath is made of ordinary black iron wood, and the handle is made of sheep horns that are common on the street. The shape is unique, but it can't cover up the fact that the material is ordinary, but it's not bad, at least it's made of steel.
In the other small box is a pair of sewing scissors, as well as tape measure, colored thread, dry powder, large and small steel needles and other sewing tools.
The last larger box contains the four treasures of the Han tribe, including pens, ink, paper and inkstone, as well as two books of Han etiquette and poetry selection. These things can't be called exquisite packaging, but not every tribe will give them as gifts.
For a small tribe that doesn't even know how to farm, Youfu would at most take out hard currency such as white salt, cloth, iron pots, and pottery bowls. However, after seeing that the Tang tribe had such a huge city, fertile fields that stretched as far as the eye could see, and the people who were fishing just now, Youfu knew that ordinary things would not be appreciated by the tribe. It must be something with some cultural connotation, such as books. Of course, printed books are nothing, the most important thing is the text on them.
As expected, when Tang Ji took out two horizontally printed thread-bound books that exuded the fragrance of ink from the box, she opened them and was stunned on the spot, as if she was more shocked than when she saw the brocade just now.
She flipped through them twice in a row, and then read them carefully from the beginning, pointing her finger at each word and reading two pages, as if she had sensed some pattern from them, and then she found that many of these symbols were repeated and looked exactly the same. Although she didn't understand what they meant, she also gained a lot from observing them.
Coincidentally, since the Tang tribe began to prosper and stabilize under the leadership of Tang Ji, Tang Ji also began to optimize and supplement the existing characters of the Tang tribe. However, creating characters is not a job for ordinary people. Tang Ji did it herself and realized how difficult it was. Now seeing the book of the Han tribe, of course, she was greatly inspired.
In addition, the material of this book and the printing method are much better than the oracle bone script and bamboo slips and wooden tablets currently used by the Tang tribe. Such a small book of the Han tribe has so many characters, and it is very thin and light, which is very convenient to read, which is much easier than turning the lid of a turtle.
Seeing so many exquisite gifts, Tang Ji had a good impression of this tribe that asked to trade with them. She put the book in a box, and then smiled and invited everyone from the Han tribe to come to the city to rest. The Tang tribe will treat them with delicious food, and the two sides can also discuss the specific transaction.
However, the captain of the flagship rejected the proposal, claiming that he was not the leader and needed to go back to ask for instructions before going ashore. So the Han tribe returned to the sailboat under Tang Ji's expectant eyes, and then after a while, You Fu personally led the people to the river again.
Tang Ji knew that the main person was coming this time, so she invited You Fu and his friends to come to the city as guests. You Fu was not afraid, and smiled and went into the city with Tang Ji. The other Tang tribe members stayed around them for a long time, most of them came to see the treasure after hearing other people's legends.
Not long after, in the separate courtyard of the city lord's mansion, on a huge stone square table in the courtyard, several maids had already brought up a lot of local specialty fruits in pottery plates, wooden plates, and even huge leaves, and many of the gifts that the Han tribe had just sent were also placed on the stone table.
On both sides of the stone table were straw mats, on which were placed several cushions like futons, and Tang Ji and You Fu sat opposite each other.
"These are fruits that are unique to our place. Please enjoy them, friends from the Han tribe." Tang Ji first greeted them and then continued to ask, "I heard that you are from the Han tribe upstream. I wonder how far the Han tribe is from here, how many people are there, how much territory is there? How many cities are there?"
Tang Ji gestured as she spoke, and her accent was very obscure and difficult to understand. It was somewhat different from the Chinese language family, and it was also different from the dialect of the Xin tribe and the grassland language. Communication between the two sides was not very convenient. Fortunately, Youfu and his group had been living with strangers for a long time, and they had a very good understanding of body language and facial expressions. In the end, they understood what Tang Ji meant.
"Our Han tribe is very far from here. It takes many trips to go upstream by water. It takes more than three months to travel. There are hundreds of thousands of people and more than 20 cities.
By the way, do you know what month means? It is the cycle of time and the speed of the rotation of the sun and the moon. I have a calendar of the Han tribe here. I can let Chief Tang take a look."
You Fu said as he took out a book, but it was not very thick. It looked like a booklet. The six words "Da Han Jianyuan Calendar" were written on the cover. The first few pages were all diagrams printed with woodblocks. The patterns on them were similar to the patterns on the scapula calendar that the rat witch had taken at the beginning. It explained in detail the close connection between the Han tribe's understanding of the cycle of changes in the sun, moon and celestial phenomena and time and the four seasons.
After reading this, the next one was the monthly calendar for each month, but they were all handwritten. There was a lot of blank space after the date of each day, and some places in the front were written with dense small characters.
In fact, this is the calendar memo that Youfu carries with him. It has the function of a calendar, and can also be used to record some major events that happened on the day, or to record what you will do on a certain day in advance. It is very convenient to use.
Tang Ji was very interested in this. The illustrations in the front of the calendar that were modified by Luo Chong were also easy to understand. In addition, the Tang tribe had a certain knowledge of astronomical phenomena and time concepts, so it was not difficult to understand. So Tang Ji asked to buy Youfu's calendar. The Tang tribe could exchange it for food or other things needed by the Han tribe.
This time, Youfu was embarrassed. There was only one calendar in total, and there were so many things recorded on it. If I sold it to you, what would I use it for? But he had other ways.
I saw Youfu pointing to the box containing the four treasures of the study in the pile of gifts. Under Tang Ji's gaze, he took out the pen, ink, paper and inkstone, moistened the brush and copied a simplified version of the calendar on the spot. There were only a few pictures at the beginning and the specific dates of each month at the end. After copying and drying, Youfu marked the date of the day for Tang Ji so that she could understand it herself.
However, Tang Ji's attention was no longer on the calendar, but on the writing tools of the Han tribe. Unlike the knives used by the Tang tribe to carve oracle bone symbols, the brushes and ink of the Han tribe were more convenient to write with. And judging from the quality of several books, they should be able to last for a long time if properly preserved.
Therefore, Tang Ji once again proposed that she was willing to exchange a certain amount of money for the Han tribe's method of making these things. This request immediately stunned You Fu and others.
(End of this chapter)
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