Chapter 1466: White Mountains and Black Waters, Iron in Exchange for People!

"Chief Maha, who is as brave as a tiger and has a head like Zandahan! Do you really want to exchange the prisoners of this village? For good things made of iron?"

"Haha! The ancestors witnessed it, of course!..."

"What price?"

"Um…"

Maha Aguda on the boat turned around and talked to Zuvalo for a few more words, with obvious surprise on his face. Is this kind of transaction price too generous for Beidi? After arguing for a moment, he looked towards the shore with some pain and yelled.

"Good price, don't miss it! A warrior who can fight, exchange for an iron pot! An ordinary warrior, exchange for an iron axe! A Yu Ding who cannot fight, exchange for an iron spear! An extra woman or child, Replace it with three iron arrows, or half an iron spear!…”

"…!What!"

Hearing this, the three Wuzhe chiefs looked at each other with disbelief on their faces. With such a price, either the other party has eaten too much mushrooms, or they have eaten too many mushrooms themselves! Anyway, one of them must have something wrong with his brain!

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Ming Dynasty has imposed a strict embargo on ironware from Mongolia and Liaodong. Iron tools from the Han Dynasty were strictly prohibited from flowing into various parts of the Northern Territory, leaving the vast northern Xinjiang in a state of severe shortage of iron tools. In the limited amount of tribute trade, facing the strong demand for ironware from various Mongolian ministries, the Ming Dynasty also offered very outrageous prices.

According to the official pricing of tribute goods, an iron pot can be exchanged for a high-quality horse, or a high-quality horse can be converted into two treasure notes at a low price. An iron ax would cost an ox, or four or five sheep. As for iron spears and iron arrows, the same is true. The price has increased at least eight times, and the quantity is limited. You can change it if you like!

This official iron trade with a limited amount and impressive prices was partly due to the empire's strong wariness against the northern ministries. For the tribes who came to pay tribute, the Ming Dynasty would rather reward more valuable cloth and wine than iron tools. On the other hand, there is the tribute transaction link in the middle, where all parties are passing hands and kicking back one after another. Moreover, the army and officials at the border must leave enough space for lucrative private trade.

With such huge profits, the smuggling business of later generations of Shanxi merchants was naturally widespread in this era, but the scale was much smaller. If you are caught smuggling salt and iron into northern Xinjiang, you will definitely be severely punished and your head will be lost! Of course, just like sea trade, behind northern smuggling there are also many frontier big shots who meet the survival needs of border people. No matter how much you kill, there will always be people who are not afraid of death. The root of it is unstoppable...

"The captured warriors and warriors can be exchanged for rare iron pots and iron axes?!... Chief Maha of Zandahan, do you keep your word?! Don't go back on your word!"

"Ha! I, Maha Aguda, never go back on my words! This iron ax is given to you by me, Maha Aguda, just treat it as a friend!"

After saying that, Maha Aguda took an iron ax from Zuwaro's hand. He took a deep breath, swung his arm violently, once again showed his magical power, and threw the ax towards the shore, dozens of steps!

"Roar! Stay!"

"Ah! Such great strength, such great strength! What a great chief of Maha Dahan!... Hey! This iron ax is better than the old axes captured before!... Change ! We agreed, let’s change! Come and bring all the new prisoners!…”

Wu Zhe Aguda held the iron ax and personally inspected the sharp edge and the thick back of the ax with surprise on his face. Soon, the three chiefs of the Wu Zhe tribe in the forest agreed without any hesitation or counter-offer. Ancestors witness! This kind of exchanging prisoners for iron tools, this kind of huge opportunity, it will be lost if you miss it!

You know, the vast inner and outer Northeast, like the Mongolian grasslands, is in short supply of iron! An iron pot and a few iron axes are all heirloom treasures of the small tribe. As for the iron armor, it can only be owned by the mature tribe of true women who work as dogs for the Ming Dynasty!

Although the so-called "Thirteen Iron Armors Raid the Army" is not comparable to the Ming Dynasty's border troops, in this era, in the eyes of the Jurchen tribes everywhere, it is not shabby at all!

Of course, there is certainly no shortage of iron ore in the Northeast. It's just that the source of iron supplies was completely controlled by the Ming army, and there were special military supervisors to supervise it. The center of the Ming Dynasty artificially reduced the scale of iron smelting in Liaodong. Large-scale iron quarries can only be found in Liaodong Town at the moment. For example, in the Anshan area, there is the "Ten Mile Iron Mountain" and the "Six Guards Iron Field", but the scale is smaller than that of the Yuan Dynasty. "Far less than 12/10."

As for the Liaodong border wall, there are indeed some scattered iron ores. But the embargo on salt and iron in the North is a national policy of the Ming Dynasty and has been implemented for nearly a hundred years. The Ming Dynasty took clear measures to ban mining and strictly prohibited the development of these iron mines. It not only abandoned many iron yards established in the Yuan Dynasty, but also strictly monitored the surrounding Mature Jurchen tribes and prohibited mining! Further north, the savage tribes in the Heilongjiang River Basin have insufficient population and technology, and do not have the ability to find or smelt iron ore...

"Nurha! Daimin! Go there in person and tell the tribe not to rush to looting! Hurry up and bring those prisoners who are still alive! ... Finally met the chief of Dahan Dahan. I will exchange for as many iron weapons as I can. How much!...Hurry! Get the iron quickly, don't let him regret it!

"Okay! I'll go right away!..."

"Yes! Let's go now... No matter how much we get in exchange, we will share it equally!..."

"Da da da!"

The sound of horse hooves hurried away, and thirty or forty wild cavalrymen turned their horses around. They were as skilled in horsemanship as the Mongols, but they could not shoot on horseback like the Mongols. The strengths of the wild Jurchens were mainly in cavalry and foot shooting...

"The chief said! Don't rob them yet! Bring all the living and mobile captives here! All of them! Men and women, old and young, bring them here!..."

The village of the Harman tribe only had an outer wall, and there was no inner fort or inner village. With the influx of hundreds of wild warriors, the shouting and killing in the village soon subsided. Then, there was a chaotic looting, the distribution of spoils, and the capture of prisoners.

The people of the Harman tribe did not cry or shout, but just accepted the treatment of the victor with numb expressions, whether dead or alive. The tribes in the north were all like this. Death was common, and there was no room for sadness. Everything was just for survival.

"What! The old ones are gone? Damn it! Who told you to act so quickly!... Bring the injured ones here too! What? Those who can't move are gone?... What a bunch of idiots, a bunch of stupid roe deer!..."

This is the cold and vast Baishan Heishui, where the most severe natural laws are followed. The annexation of the wild tribes never existed in any warmth and affection, or respect for the elderly and love for the young. They are like the wind and snow here, cold and ruthless. In just a few quarters of an hour, the old captives who couldn't work, and the injured captives who couldn't move, had all turned into cold corpses, without even leaving their clothes.

"Quick! Get everyone out! Stop digging! Those few pieces of tattered leather are not as important as ironware!..."

After a few more quarters of an hour, driven out by the wild warriors, the remaining one or two hundred men, women and children were all driven out of the village. Many people's clothes were robbed, and they stumbled, bloodstained, and ran towards the river beach half naked. Dozens of cavalrymen followed them from behind, like driving a herd of deer during hunting, and drove them to the river.

At this moment, neither the "deer" being driven nor the "hunters" driving people shouted loudly, as quiet as the forest in the distance. This indifference to life, this habitual cruelty, is the tradition of the north for thousands of years, even among the same ethnic group!

Whether it is Mongolia, Jurchen or Qinghai-Tibet, the so-called "Confucian morality" in the Han area does not exist. Because of the harsh natural environment and tribal fighting, there is no condition for the survival and continuation of such a rich and stable culture and thought!

Inside and outside the Ming Dynasty's border wall, there are two completely different worlds, from soul to life tradition, they are incompatible. Once the northern tribes break through the border wall and bring their accustomed cruelty to the rich Han land, it will be an unimaginable doomsday and disaster for the south...

"Ah! My people! My village!..."

On the longboat, Ali, the chief of the Harman tribe, was heartbroken, watching the village that he had inherited for generations being breached, and the people of the tribe were either killed or enslaved. He watched more than a hundred remaining tribesmen, driven by the wild cavalry, running half-naked towards the river beach. From time to time, someone fell, but quickly got up and ran towards unknown death or hope.

Soon, the two separated wild cavalry reunited again. The sun was setting by the river, and it was about to set. The three chiefs of the Wuzhe tribe personally led people to count the captives, and then shouted to the anchored longboat and the "silly" Maha Aguda.

"Great Chief Maha of An Dahan! These newly captured captives have been brought here! There are five warriors worth iron pots, twenty warriors worth iron axes! There are also twenty remaining men worth iron spears, and one hundred women and children worth iron arrows!..."

"Ancestor! So many useless captives, especially those women and children... Do you want them all? Do you have so many iron tools?..."

"Haha! Yes, all! Hand over the people in one hand and the iron tools in the other!... One hundred and twenty women, children and remaining men, no need to look at them, I will give you fifty iron spears and one hundred and twenty iron arrows. You bring the warriors and soldiers forward, and let me send two confidants to take a good look... Are they real warriors, and are they worth the price of iron axes and iron pots!"

"Okay! Come on, bring the bows! Let them shoot the bows for you to see!..."