Chapter 740 Undercurrents
While Luo Chong was obsessed with machinery in the Han tribe, the currency promotion of the mission in Zhudao was in full swing.
Shiploads of currency and iron ingots were delivered to the mission's residence, and then quickly transported to branches in various places. Of course, it is not quite accurate to say branches, because the Xin tribe has not yet allowed the Han tribe to station and build houses at will outside the mission's residence, so those so-called branches, or currency exchange points, are more like a temporary currency market.
After applying, Shouya contacted Dashu of Takumi County and negotiated that Dashu would organize manpower from Takumi County to build a small caravan, and then send it to various places on Zhudao through the mission to carry out commercial activities, mainly engaged in metal trading, that is, currency promotion.
From the first landing of the Shuya mission to the subsequent multiple replenishments, it was actually only a scale of three or four hundred people. If it was only responsible for the affairs within the residence, it could be busy, but if it was to promote currency in various places on Zhudao, it was obvious that it could only transfer people from the Han tribe.
But this is only the surface situation. In fact, the currency promotion activity has long become a joint action of multiple departments.
They took the population power resource distribution map of Zhudao given by Niuwei, and the delegation took the lead in the name of currency promotion. Then let the Jinwuwei spy led by Youzhi be the leader of the caravan, the fleet of Shuda was responsible for water transportation, the Huben guards of Xuetu served as the backbone of the caravan, and the captured herdsmen served as the working guys.
With such a large-scale joint action, the entire Zhudao was thoroughly scouted. In fact, this is a very easy and convenient thing.
This currency promotion is actually to use iron and currency to plunder all the copperware in the hands of the people of Zhudao, so the amount of currency required is not very large, but the consumption of iron is relatively huge, but this also provides cover for the reconnaissance of the Han tribe.
First, the fleet escorted a group of single-masted boats with oars to the mission station on Zhudao, and then the fleet patrolled and reconnaissance around the island in the offshore, and those single-masted sailboats were used as the main means of transportation to provide transportation services for the caravan.
Because the Xin tribe is also an agricultural civilization, the caravans approached along the main river and could radiate to most of the inhabited areas of Zhudao.
Every time they arrived at a place, there would be several such small boats forming a team to temporarily settle down there, and then the caravans would go to the villages and other settlements of the Xin tribe to promote, exchanging ironware for copperware. If there were more copperware, they could exchange it for money. If they didn't want money, they could exchange it for daily necessities from the caravan at the price. This was a very attractive way of trading for the local indigenous people.
The local indigenous people needed to exchange mostly knives or farm tools. As for cooking utensils, they generally did not use metal. Most of the people in the Xin tribe still used pottery jars and other things to cook, and used natural containers such as bamboo pots to eat.
So every time a caravan arrived, the local people would actively take the copperware in their homes to exchange for various good things, especially important production tools such as knives and farm tools.
Iron farm tools are much lighter than copper farm tools, and they are also sharper and more durable. They have no reason not to exchange them. Moreover, the Han tribe exchanged them by weight. The price of different irons was different from that of copper, but generally much lower than that of copper.
Generally speaking, sickles, hatchets, kitchen knives, axes and other iron tools are basically the same price as copper. The next lower grade is agricultural tools, which are generally cheaper than knives. Iron pots and iron spoons, which are used as cooking utensils, are the lowest grade of iron tools, so they are also very popular in the local area.
The Han tribe can just use the number of transactions of these things to count the actual situation of Zhudao.
For example, how many iron pots are sold, basically this transaction amount can be used as a household registration unit, because under normal circumstances, a family has one pot.
The number of agricultural tools sold can be used to infer how many adult laborers there are in the local area. For example, this family bought three sickles, which means that this family has at least three people who can work in the fields. By the same token, since these three people can do farm work, they can also hold weapons, so these must also be used as the combat power of the Xin tribe to estimate.
Through the sales of ox-powered plows and human-powered plows, as well as the sales of advanced agricultural tools such as plows, the Han tribe can also infer the local cultivated land area, the approximate output, how much food can be provided, etc. from these data.
Starting from the mission, more than 200 small boats with single masts sailed upstream along the Qingshui River of Zhudao Island. According to the map and the intelligence of the previous reconnaissance, every time a large settlement was found, three or four small boats would stop by the shore.
This time was no exception. When the fleet sailed to a large settlement of the Shi tribe, five small boats broke away from the formation. The boat in the middle raised the flag of the Han tribe and slowly approached the shore under the gaze of the people along the coast.
"Wow, there are so many boats. The Han tribe is really rich." On the shore, a boy about thirteen or fourteen years old said with emotion while holding a heavy copper shovel in his hand.
"Brother Zhugen, I heard that the people of the Han tribe came from far away. I also want to sit on such a boat and go out to see the outside world. I heard that the outside world is very big."
Next to the boy, a little boy of seven or eight years old said with longing, holding a large bamboo tube for drinking water.
"I want to see it, but I don't have the chance. Besides, the boat is not ours. I heard that the boat is very valuable and the Han tribe won't sell it." The boy adjusted the bamboo hat on his head and said to his brother.
"Brother, look, how come they are coming? There are five boats!" The younger brother next to him stood on tiptoe and looked at the river. When he saw a boat leaving the team and heading for the shore, he immediately exclaimed.
"The people from the Han tribe must be coming here for something. Little brother, go to the village and invite the elders. If you meet other adults on the way, call them over. I'll watch them here first."
The boy named Zhugen was also nervous for a moment, but fortunately, the Han tribe had a good reputation. Since they had exchanges with Zhudao, they had not been reported to have done anything bad. On the contrary, many advanced products brought by them were quite popular among the natives, so the boy was not very scared. It was just that he had never come into contact with people from other tribes, so he was a little nervous.
"Okay, I'll go right away."
The child next to him dropped the bamboo tube in his hand and ran barefoot to the village, calling out to the adults working in the fields. Soon, many people holding various farm tools gathered on the shore, watching the Han tribe sailboat slowly approaching the shore.
Bang, the bow of the sloop touched the mud on the shore, making a muffled sound, and then several young men wearing Han tribe costumes appeared on the bow.
"You Han tribe people are here, but what's the matter? Why did you come to our village?"
Next to the young Zhugen, a middle-aged strong man in his twenties or thirties stood out from the crowd and asked.
The leader of the Han tribe team belongs to the Jinwu Guard. He is an 18-year-old boy named Wen Xi. He was one of the first batch of Wen tribe boys traded by Luo Chong at the Rumeng Water Valley Spring Meeting. He had just reached adulthood when he joined. Now, after a few years, he not only has three children, but also was selected to join the Jinwu Guard because of his cleverness, reliable identity, and being a veteran member of the Han tribe.
However, the other members of the team did not know his true identity. They only knew that this person was proficient in Bamboo Island and Grassland languages, so he was specially sent down to be the leader.
Wen Xi, wearing a brown shirt and tied hair, stood at the bow and greeted with a smile.
"Hello, fellow villagers. We are here to do business with the permission of the leader of your Xin tribe. May I ask if the elders of your village are here? Maybe we can talk face to face. This time we are here to sell farm tools and knives. You will definitely like them."
"Doing business? Farm tools and knives? How to sell them?" The leading man was immediately attracted by this gimmick. It is said that the tools of the Han tribe are advanced and made of exquisite materials, but he has never seen what they look like.
"Haha, I guess you must need them. We will exchange iron tools for your copper tools by weight. A copper hoe like the one in your hand can almost be exchanged for two of our farm tools." Wen Xi explained with a smile again.
The leading man was surprised again, "Is it true that the copper hoe in my hand can be exchanged for the same farm tools of yours?"
"Of course it's true. We in the Han tribe never cheat people when doing business. We are honest and fair." Next to Wen Xi, a strong man wearing a sleeveless waistcoat also hurriedly helped. This man's real identity is actually a small flag officer in the Tiger Guard Army. This time he was specially ordered to assist in reconnaissance and escort of the caravan.
"This, this is good, but I can't make the decision. How about you wait a while? Someone has already gone to invite the elders, and they will be here soon."
Although the leading man was very interested in this business, he was still embarrassed and didn't let Wen Xi and his men go ashore.
"Don't worry, don't worry, we will stay here for two or three days, there is no rush for a moment." Wen Xi also smiled and replied, and then asked his men to disperse and rest, and got some cold water for everyone to quench their thirst.
The two sides waited like this, and more and more people gathered on the shore. After about a quarter of an hour, several people from the village a little further away also gathered an old man and walked towards the shore.
The old man came to the shore and first looked at the boats of the Han tribe, as well as Wen Xi, who was the leader. He also whispered a few words with the young man who had just led the way, and then he said to Wen Xi with a walking stick.
"May I ask this Han envoy, are you serious about exchanging one farm tool for two farm tools?"
"Of course, we exchange by weight, and different tools have different prices. One knife for one, one farm tool for two, and one cooking utensils for three, all by weight."
Wen Xi waved his hand behind him, and the herdsmen who followed the team carried out several baskets of iron tools and placed them on the shore. There was no shortage of kitchen knives, sickles, axe knives, shovels, hoes, and plowshares.
The elders who had just arrived were immediately attracted by the eyeballs, walked up and touched the iron tools, and the man next to him also picked up an iron hoe and looked at it.
The blade of an iron hoe is generally thinner than that of a copper hoe. After all, the toughness of iron is not comparable to that of copper. However, although the material looks thin, it is much lighter than a copper hoe and is much easier to wield. It must be easier to work with such a tool, and you can do more work in a day.
If such iron farm tools are durable, then maybe you can plant two more plots of land with them, the elders and the strong men thought at the same time.
"Han envoy, do you dare to let us try this iron tool?" The old man asked expectantly.
"Why not, come on, give them a few with handles, let the old man try it." Wen Xi agreed immediately.
The guys also hurriedly took various tools and placed them in front for the natives to try. The farmers who came to watch were also not vague. After all, it was related to the family's food, so they all picked up the things that were convenient to try.
One of them put aside his copper shovel for digging the soil and took a similar iron shovel from the caravan. Looking at the ridiculously thin shovel, he said, "How can this thing be strong if it's so thin?!"
But when he watched the caravan's demonstration, he couldn't help but widen his eyes. He saw that the thin iron sheet with a wooden stick inserted in it could be deeply inserted into the soil with a hard step. Then, when the wooden handle was pressed back, a full shovel of soil was dug out, and a small pit appeared on the muddy ground on the shore.
"Oh, this thing is good. If you use this thing to dig a ditch, it will definitely be light and labor-saving, and the work will be faster. No, I want to change one, no, two."
The people watching nearby immediately became happy.
Others took hatchets to chop bamboo. A bamboo as thick as an arm could be knocked down with two cuts. I don't know how much better it is than a copper axe or a stone axe.
The women in the village were also circling around spatulas, scissors, kitchen knives and other things. The caravan also specially prepared a few pieces of rags for them to experiment.
The elders and young men tried several plowshares and hoe carts on the wasteland nearby, and also tried sickles and other things. After a lot of trouble, everyone was overjoyed and said that they would replace all the copper tools in their homes with iron tools from the Han tribe.
It was understandable that they would think so, because in the eyes of these farmers, copper was originally used to make tools. It was good, but its value was limited to making tools. After all, it could not be used for other things. But now it was obvious that the iron tools of the Han tribe were better, and the price was much cheaper than copper. There was no reason not to exchange them.
The two sides agreed on the price, and the caravan immediately landed, cut bamboo poles to build a tent, and moved all the goods up.
A large scale was placed under the shed for weighing, and a bamboo mat was laid behind it, and a low table was placed as a desk. The business was officially opened.
Outside the shed, villagers came in line carrying their copperware, and Wen Xi, who was sitting behind the desk recording account information, also began his currency promotion activities.
"Old man, your copper axe can be exchanged for two sickles, and you'll be a little richer, but the remaining amount is not enough to exchange for other things. How about I give you a few copper coins?"
(End of this chapter)
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