"Dali Xiong, you said your tribe can smelt iron?" During the meal, Lei Ying finally couldn't help it, and asked this question.

Shi Xiong nodded, "Yes, Chief Thunder Eagle, my tribe can indeed smelt iron. You have seen the knife in my hand, the bow and those arrows. Those are all members of our tribe. I also practiced it."

　　 "Is this true?" Lei Ying rubbed his hands excitedly.

　　 "This is indeed true, and the ironware smelted in our tribe can no longer be called ironware. You have seen my knife, is it much stronger than yours?"

Although Lei Ying was reluctant to admit it in his heart, he still nodded very simply, "Yes, your knife is indeed much stronger than mine. The knife in my hand can only be used to make it. Just behave. If you use it for hunting, you have to come back and sharpen the knife after a few knives. This knife is too fragile, and sometimes the cutting of bones can make the edge break."

"Hehe, your knife is made of pig iron. The hardness is there, but it is not tough enough. It will break when it encounters hard things. But if the knife is made of steel, it will be different, just like my hand. The knife inside has not only hardness but also toughness. Generally speaking, as long as my knife doesn’t cut **** the stone, it’s okay to cut other things, even wood.”

"so good?"

　　 "Well, it's so good." Shi Xiong nodded proudly.

　　 Just kidding, in this era, let alone the New World, even in Europe, steel is rare. Didn't you see the brown beth rifle that Ferguson and the others were holding, the barrel is still made of iron?

　　 Before the advent of blast furnaces, steel was in short supply all over the world.

　　Lei Ying put down the meat in his hand, and asked in a low voice, "Strong Bear, can you trade us some steel from your tribe?"

　　 Shi Xiong also put down the bone in his hand, looked at Lei Ying, and said after a moment of hesitation: "Leader Lei Ying, before answering your question, I want to ask you a question first. I hope you can answer me truthfully."

　　Lei Ying nodded.

"Leader Lei Ying, in fact, since I came to your tribe, I have always had a question in my heart to ask you." Shixiong pondered for a moment before he said, "You should admit that the location of the Xiaohe tribe is very hidden, and the body In the deep mountains, there is a long distance between the Chekasha and the Cherokee."

　　 Lei Ying nodded happily and said: "It must be this way. We are a secluded tribe and do not participate in tribal foreign wars, so we must hide farther and hide."

"Well, I understand this. But there are not many war horses even in the royal court of your Chekasha tribe, right? Those Vasichus don't have such a good heart to actively give us war horses. But I saw your tribe There are a lot of war horses here, and there seems to be a lot of iron in your tribe, so I’m very curious about how you traded these things."

　　 After a pause, Shi Xiong added: "In fact, this is just curiosity in my heart. If the leader is unwilling to answer, it doesn't matter."

Hearing this, Lei Ying laughed straightforwardly, "Great Bear, there is nothing to hide. The Vasicchus who traded with our Xiaohe tribe are all French. Because in a place not far from our tribe, there is a lot of money. This is something that the French need very much, so every year the French will send a special trading team to trade."

　　 "French?" Shi Xiong nodded thoughtfully.

In this era, even if France just lost to Britain in the Seven Years’ War, and France secretly united with the Spaniards to fight against the increasingly powerful British, but on the New World in North America, the French have the same possessions as the British. strength.

　　 If it is a site alone, the French Louisiana, which belongs to France as early as the year before, is many times larger than the 13 colonies established by the British on the east coast of the New World.

　　 The entire French Louisiana occupies almost one-third of the entire North American continent.

　　 Now, although the French were defeated in the just-concluded Seven Years' War and ceded the huge French Louisiana to the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom at this time simply did not have the ability to take over such a large territory.

　　 Not to mention the many French people who have lived on this site for a long time.

　　 Although most of the French people lived in the later Canadian regions at this time, there are still a large number of French people living on the shores of the Mississippi River, relying on military fortresses and fortresses of all sizes.

Originally, the Chekashas had a good relationship with the French. Some time ago, the leader of the Retich tribe, the Whistle Snake, even hooked up with Chretien Armand in the Okron Fortress and formed a coalition to destroy Gao. The tree tribe, in the end, I didn’t expect to steal chickens instead of being grassed. More than 300 coalition forces were all destroyed in the fire bull formation. Even the whistle snake was dead. Major Armand was captured. Four boats were called artifacts in this era. The inland armed transport ship was also taken by the Gaoshu tribe.

　　 The Xiaohe tribe originally belonged to the Chekasha tribe, so it is not surprising that they have good relations with the French.

"Leader Thunder Eagle, can I take the liberty to ask, what is the richness of your Xiaohe tribe? Why do the French people take it so seriously?" Stone Xiong is really curious about this. You must know that the French at this time are in the New World of North America. The influence is very strong, and the French occupy the fertile Mississippi River and the Great Lakes region. They want the specialties of the New World more easily than the British. The French contact with the North American Indian tribes far more than the British.

　　 But even so, the French still value the deal with the Xiaohe Tribe so much, which is enough to show that the things that the Xiaohe Tribe are rich in are what the French urgently need.

"It's nothing. When our Xiaohe tribe moved here more than 50 years ago, we found a cave in the big mountain to the east. Some white stones were produced in the cave. At first these stones were useless, but one day later. The trading team in the tribe went to the west to exchange salt with the French, but when the French saw this kind of stone, they kept asking where the stone came from."

"Fortunately, the tribe who led the trading team was smarter. As soon as the Lanxi people valued this kind of stone, they said it was a stone found in the mountain in the tribe. There are many similar stones, but they are not easy to mine. As a result, France People followed. Of course, they did not enter the tribe, but traded with us on the big river in the north. For these years, the French would sail once every two months, and we used these stones and They traded a lot of horses, grain and salt. The tradition of this trade has been maintained in this way over the years."

　　 "The white stone? Is it still produced in the cave?" Shi Xiong's heart moved.

　　 When Shi Xiong saw the white stone Lei Ying said, he immediately recognized what this so-called "stone" was.

　　 This turned out to be natural nitrate ore!

Although Shixiong can’t distinguish whether this kind of natural nitrate ore is Indian nitrate ore mainly made of potassium nitrate or Chilean nitrate ore mainly made of sodium nitrate, there is no doubt that this kind of stone is natural with high purity. Nitrate ore.

　　 No wonder those French people are willing to come here so many times a year to trade, even if the distance from the Mississippi River is more than 300 miles in a straight line, those French people are still willing to trade so far.

　　 This is natural nitrate ore, the main raw material that can be used to make gunpowder!

　　 For the French side, the status and significance of this thing is no worse than that of table salt!

　　 Shixiong did not expect to find a natural saltpeter mine here. This is definitely a great surprise.

　　 "Leader Thunder Eagle, I don't know how many white stones your tribe can mine each year?" Shixiong asked.

"It's not easy to say, but I can assure you that there are definitely a lot of them. Every two months when dealing with the French, our tribe will have to mobilize at least a hundred people to transport the mined white stone to the north. The big bend, and then deal with the French."

　　 This number is indeed quite large, even if one person transports 60 catties, more than one hundred people will be enough to reach 6,000 catties.

　　 Shixiong said decisively: "Leader Thunder Eagle, if our Gaoshu tribe can exchange steel and salt for this white stone with you, would you like to trade with us?"

　　 "The steel you are talking about is the iron used to make your knife?" Lei Ying looked quite moved.

"That's right, it's this kind of steel, but our production of this kind of steel is not high, but I can guarantee that the French will never produce this kind of steel. As for table salt, what do you think of this grade of table salt? "

　　 While talking, Shi Xiong took out the cloth bag containing the salt and poured out a small pile of salt from it. As a result, all the senior officials of the Xiaohe tribe, including Thunder Eagle, looked straight.

　　 After a long time, Lei Ying asked tremblingly: "Dali Xiong, this thing you took out is really salt?"

　　 Ishikuma did not answer, but slightly, dipped his finger and put it in his mouth, "Lei Ying Chief, you taste it to see if it is salt."

　　 Lei Ying did the same action as the stone bear, and as a result, he immediately entered a petrified state.

　　 A few senior officials of the Xiaohe tribe also hurriedly extended their fingers, even Baiyun, and when they tasted the taste of salt, all of them were petrified.

　　 After a long time, Lei Ying sighed and said: "The sun **** is on top, this kind of salt has no odor at all. This is simply a gift from the sun god."

　　 The elderly priest beside Lei Ying also shook his head in disbelief, "Boss, this kind of salt is too rare, it's a hundred times stronger than the salt traded from Vasichus!"

　　 France is a major salt producer in Europe in this era, but where is the salt they make as delicious as the salt made by stone bears? In this era, real refined salt can only appear on the tables of those nobles, and the salt eaten by ordinary people is still the kind of coarse salt with a bitter and astringent taste.

　　 After Baiyun tasted this refined salt, it was even more wrong to look at Shixiong.

　　 Lei Ying asked eagerly: "Dali Xiong, how much salt does your tribe have?"

　　 "Hehe, you can have as much as you want, and I promise that they are all refined table salt of the same grade as this kind of table salt."

The old priest beside 　　 began to mumble, Shi Xiong couldn't listen to what he mumbled, probably praying to various gods again.

　　 and the other tribe leaders also had their eyes shining, as if the stone bear had become a peerless gem at this moment.

　　 "How about we exchange white stones for the salt of your tribe?" Lei Ying started things very resolutely and straightforwardly proposed the transaction.

　　 "No problem, we can discuss how to exchange it. In addition to this kind of salt, we can also trade steel with you for the white stone."

　　 "Do you have a lot of food then?" Lei Ying continued to ask.

　　 "There is not much food this winter, but in summer, our food will become a lot. Why, do you plan to trade food with us?"

　　 "I have this idea. You have also seen that although the valley where our Xiaohe tribe is located is very hidden, there is not much farmland for farming, and we don't have enough food."

Shi Xiong nodded, and after a little thought, he said: "I'll talk about the food issue when the time comes. Now you want to trade food with us, and we can't get so much food. But salt and steel are fine. "

　　 "Well, then we will use white stone to trade such salt and steel with you!" Lei Ying made a final decision.

　　 Shi Xiong is completely relieved now.

　　Heat weapons are indispensable if you want the tribe to grow up ~lightnovelpub.net~. With thermal weapons, gunpowder must be made. The saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal used to make gunpowder are essential raw materials.

　　 Charcoal is easy to say. It costs as much as you want to burn it. As for sulfur, Stone Bear has also heard from Hongyun a tribe that seems to be separated from the Gaoshu tribe that year, and it is rich in sulfur.

　　 The only thing lacking now is saltpeter.

　　 The amount of saltpetre stored on the earth is still very large, but it is a pity that there is no such mineral around the Gaoshu tribe.

　　Ishikuma knows that there is high-quality saltpeter in Chile. After all, in previous lives, Chilean saltpeter in Chile was famous all over the world. But you let Stone Bear go to Chile to mine saltpeter now? It's not as easy as letting him unify the North American continent!

　　 At this time, the famous saltpetre mines in the previous life are still gone. Even the saltpetre needed by the Europeans to make gunpowder is obtained through the saltpetre.

　　 No wonder the French, as soon as they saw the saltpeter, immediately couldn't wait to make a deal with the Xiaohe tribe. Although the nitrate production in the nitrate field is not low, where do natural saltpeter mines come from? Not to mention serving the nitrate is a disgusting thing, who is willing to play with the nitrate?

　　 Gaoshu tribe is now short of saltpeter to make gunpowder. Although the firearms seized from the French some time ago can make Gaoshu tribe a lot of gunpowder, what should I do if the firearms are used up?

　　 Now the saltpeter mine has been discovered in the Xiaohe tribe, which is only two hundred miles away from the Gaoshu tribe. This is great news!