The fire was shining brightly, the field was green, and the sea not far away was vast. On the wilderness near the sea, the kingdom's Prepecha warriors and Jorem tribe warriors gathered in a circle by the firelight, with expressions of relaxation and joy. In the center of the bonfire, the two leaders stood facing each other, with smiles on their faces and thoughts flashing in their hearts.

At the feet of the two, a rattan basket fell to the ground. A large pile of gold nuggets was scattered, shining a moving golden light, falling into the eyes of everyone, and dancing in their hearts. The Prepecha warriors looked yearning, but the Yorem warriors didn't care.

The old militiaman Chihuaco scratched his head after looking at the shiny gold nuggets, and asked aloud.

"My friend, how do you change this kind of gold and stone for a spear? This time I'm going to sea, and Fuyu doesn't have many weapons on board..."

Hearing this, Chief Karan nodded. In his opinion, since the tribe in the lake is looking for the Holy Land, they will naturally send out the most elite fighters with the best weapons... The deer head chief's eyes flashed, first he stretched out a hand, and then stretched out Come with one hand.

"Well...a big basket of gold and stones like this, I want to exchange...fifteen...no, twenty bronze spears!"

"Ah, my friend, twenty bronze spears? For a basket of gold nuggets?!"

"Hmm! The weight of twenty copper spears is about the same as a basket of gold and stones? It's fair to replace them with the same weight..."

"This, fair?!"

Chivako opened his mouth in shock and was speechless for a while. A two-meter-five-meter-long spear weighs about four to five catties, and the bronze spearhead weighs about four or five ounces. The twenty copper spears together weighed less than one hundred catties, and there was not even ten catties of copper. And the large basket of gold nuggets in front of him weighed at least one hundred fifty or sixty catties. Looking at the color, even if the gold content is lower than that of the alliance, it is worth at least one hundred catties of gold sand... So, ten catties of copper is exchanged for one hundred catties of gold sand? !

"Uh...friend, I know, this request is a bit excessive..."

Seeing the shocked expression of the leader opposite, Chief Lutou felt a little guilty.

The spears of the tribe in the lake are not only sharp, but also very strong. They are obviously made of high-quality pine or fir. Whether it is felled or processed, these woods are very expensive. And using such a useless stone to exchange so many good weapons in the opponent's hands seems not to be worthy of a friend...

Thinking of this, he hesitated, took a step back, and stretched out his hands again.

"Otherwise, eighteen, no, fifteen is fine! After all, although there are many gold and stones in the mountains, some of them are not good-looking. They have to be burned with flint. And to get flint, we have to go far to dig ..."

"Huh? Fifteen bronze spears?"

Still in shock, Chivaco didn't know how to respond. Pu Apu next to him couldn't bear it, stepped forward two steps excitedly, and pulled Old Man Qi's arm hard.

"Change! Give it to him! Fifteen spears in a basket, and there are sixty spare spears on board, give them all to him!"

You know, in the Kingdom of the Lake, a catty of gold sand can be exchanged for more than a catty of copper. After this and that, the difference of more than ten to twenty times is all the income of the expedition fleet!

Being pulled by Puap, Chivako finally recovered from the shock. He pursed his lips, thought for a moment, and shook his head in objection.

"No, Old Pu, sixty spears are the fleet's spare weapons, and we can't exchange all of them. At most, we can only exchange ten...twenty spears. As for cocoa, cotton cloth, and precious stones, if the other party accepts them, they can exchange more some."

Afterwards, he restrained the greed in his heart, looked at Chief Lutou who had been paying attention, and said sincerely.

"Friend, good friend! In our place, priests and nobles like these golden stones very much! It's just that the fleet doesn't have many weapons, so we can only exchange 20 pieces... For this basket of gold stones, we will give you 20 long pieces. Spears, ten cloaks, and a jewel!"

Hearing this, Puap let out a low cry of dissatisfaction.

"Old man Qi! What are you doing!..."

"Old Pu, shut up! I'm the captain!"

"ah?!"

This time, it was Chief Karan's turn to show surprise. After he understood Chivaco's meaning, he looked at him deeply for a while. Then, he spoke again, and the smile on his face was obviously much more sincere.

"Friends, good friends! Thank you for your honesty! It doesn't matter. There are a lot of gold and stones around the tribe. It doesn't take much effort to pick them up. Anyway, they can't be eaten or worn. When you leave, I can give you five baskets of unburned ones Raw ore...the remaining baskets of stones are not gold stones, do you still want to see them?"

"Good friend, ok, ok! Thank you too!"

Chivaco nodded. Bringing the gold ore back to the alliance, he can completely smelt it by himself... Afterwards, he thought of the firestone mentioned repeatedly by the other party, and he responded affirmatively.

"look!"

Chief Karan didn't talk nonsense, and dumped the second basket of stones on the ground. In an instant, a bright silver light appeared in front of everyone, but it was a basket of silver stones.

Seeing this basket of refined silver, everyone's expressions remained unchanged.

The Kingdom of the Lake already produces silver, and the price of silver in the Kingdom has never been high. In the world of Central America, gold and copper symbolize the light of the sun and have high religious value. Silver, on the other hand, symbolizes the moon. It is not used much in temples, and its value is relatively limited. It is often used to make silverware and silver ornaments.

"This is the silver stone exchanged with the wandering wasteland tribes from the eastern wasteland. There are also in the eastern mountains, but there are far less gold stones."

Seeing the expressions of several people, Chief Karan knew that the southern tribes might not lack silverstones. Rare things are more expensive. In fact, in the tribe of the Mayo people, the value of silverstone is much higher than that of goldstone.

"The price of this basket of silver stones is higher than that of gold stones... Do you want it, my friend?"

"Thanks, friend."

Chivaco shook his head. Chief Karan didn't say anything more. Then, with a kick, he kicked over the third basket of stones, and a red-orange light appeared in front of everyone's eyes.

"Ah? This, this is!..."

Chivaco's eyes widened and he stared at it for a moment. Then, he looked back at Puap, the well-informed gray soil warrior's eyes flickered, and he nodded affirmatively.

"It's blister copper...and it seems to be very pure."

"Well..."

"My friend, this is the red stone from the mountains in the north. It is smelted with flint and can be used as a container. There are many in the mountains, but it is very laborious to dig. The Opata people in the far north will collect refined red stones and make them into All kinds of utensils, and then sold to other tribes...do you want it?"

Chief Karan blinked his eyes expectantly.

In the mountains and valleys of the far north, the Opata formed a powerful alliance consisting of three large tribes and several smaller tribes attached to them. There are more redstones there, and some can even be used to make utensils without smelting. The Opata people use these redstones to make containers, bells, and trinkets. And the desert tribes in the north even use these red stones to make all kinds of hatchets, knives and spears. However, although there are many such red stones, they are still too soft to make weapons after smelting, far inferior to the spears of the tribe in the lake.

"Uh... this kind of redstone, we need it!"

After a while, Chivako looked complicated and nodded heavily. He knew that the kingdom's bronze weapons were made with copper as a raw material and kept secret.

"Then... how to change?"

"It's half as expensive as gold and stone, and there are thirty spears in a basket. Friends, red stones are hard to dig, and they need to be burned with flint. It's more troublesome for the tribe..."

Chief Karan lowered his head slightly, hiding the expression on his face. Not far to the north of the tribe, there is a redstone mine. It is not troublesome to burn it with flint, but it is more expensive to mine. In fact, the veins of this kind of red stone are the same as gold stone, and they are found in all parts of the north, and the purity is still very high. And the further north you go, the more and purer the raw ore of red stone will be. Legend has it that in the land of the Sri people and the desert people, a large pile of open-air red stone ore piled up into a hill, shining with golden and green light. There is even a natural red stone mountain, and the whole mountain is a high-purity reddish-yellow!

Redstone is copper. What everyone doesn't know is that the entire coastal Sonora region is located in the violent collision zone between the Pacific plate and the American plate. There are rich mineral deposits everywhere, containing more than half of Mexico's copper ore!

The Cananea copper mine (Cananea) in the northern part of the Sonora region, near the US-Mexico border, is the second largest copper mine in the world, and it is an open-pit mine! Its subsequent reserves are estimated at 4.52 billion tons, with an annual output of 510,000 tons, enough to supply 2%-3% of global copper demand.

"A basket of thirty spears...more than one hundred catties of thick copper, for ten catties of spearheads..."

Chivaco pursed his lips. Although he didn't know what scissors were, he still felt some pangs of conscience. He thought for a while, and then spoke with the simplicity and sincerity unique to farmers.

"Good friend, we don't have so many spears... But we have a lot of expensive gems, which can be exchanged with you! Of course, there are also practical cocoa and cloth."

"Gems for redstone? Well... that's fine too!"

Chief Karan thought about it, and hesitantly agreed. The tribe's demand for gems is actually not great. But gems can be traded with tribes in the north in exchange for cloth, grain, and refined redstone. Especially the Opata people, they especially admire turquoise and are willing to exchange a lot of red stones. It's just that the distance of the transaction is too far, and several tribes have to be transferred in the middle, which requires a lot of discounts.

"Then take a basket of red stones and exchange them for ten emeralds!"

"good!"

Chivako thought about it, and with the value of gems and copper in the kingdom, the deal was fairly fair, and he didn't cheat his new friends. He calculated the difference and added some more.

"I'll give you another bag of cocoa and three cloaks!"

"Okay, good friend!"

Chief Karan nodded again and again, the head of the deer shook, very satisfied. The two had a discussion and reached a fair deal: the Yorem tribe exchanged one basket of crude gold, one basket of crude copper, and five baskets of gold ore~lightnovelpub.net~for twenty spears, Thirteen cloaks, a sack of cocoa, and eleven emeralds.

After reaching the agreement of the transaction, both parties are very satisfied. Chivako and Puap faced each other, smiling from ear to ear.

The deer head chief laughed heartily, feeling extremely proud. Using these useless and common stones to exchange weapons and items that are useful to the tribe is really a good deal! It's just that I feel a little sorry for these kind friends who came from afar...

He shook his head, thought for a while, and waved his hand generously.

"My friend! The Yorem tribe and the lake tribe speak a similar language, so they must be brothers who are far away from each other and have a common ancestor! And as brothers..."

With a loud voice, Chief Karan pointed to the last basket of black stones. The black stone shone with dark light, unpretentious under the firelight, but contained the power of burning.

"This basket of firestones that symbolizes the ancestors, I give it to you!"

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