Chapter 201

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

The West Continent boasts a far more lush natural environment than Earth, with abundant sunlight and high temperatures nourishing rich vegetation, which in turn breeds all manner of massive and robust animals.

To live well on this continent, whether a noble lord in the city or a tribal savage found everywhere in the remote countryside, one must know a thing or two about archery; no one going out can guarantee they won't be pounced on by a saber-toothed beast attempting a roadside picnic. Even more dangerous than that, tribal savages likewise attack cities and villages, trying to live a bit of a civilized life. When they leave full and satisfied, only charred human bones eaten down remain on the ruins.

Yun Village has been established near Ma La for over a hundred years, rising and falling during that time, finally enduring, with a firm foothold and growing stronger. Especially in the last 20 years, most born are sturdy boys, with very few dying young. Being able to equip an entire team of transport beasts relies entirely on their own formidable martial strength.

However, as the boys marry one after another and reach the age to take a second wife, the bride-price issue has each family worried. Yun Village makes its living from animal husbandry, possessing the most beast skins yet worthless, and the work of transporting river sand and timber can only barely keep them fed.

Fortunately, in recent days, some cheap merchants often come to the village; besides making shoes and clothes with fine craftsmanship, he also brought many practical things, such as flammable matches, salty spices and sweet spices. With these things, Yun San finally married his third wife, Yun Si also married his second, but Yun Wu, who fancied the prettiest girl in the neighboring village, still cannot come up with the bride price.

So these days, Yun Wu hunts almost every day, having killed three aurochs alone, extracting the sinews to air-dry for making bowstrings next year. He also gave the meat and leather to friends in neighboring Mu Village, buying many wood cores from him, all aged one or two years, which can be used for bow backs next year.

Yun Wu reckoned that at most within two years, he could make ten bows; selling them all to the merchant would surely gather enough bride-price goods. Within the range of Ma La, every household has leather and meat, but as for light, durable clothing and spices, those are rare; ordinary girls' families seeing these things usually only need a little to be willing to give away their daughter, presumably marrying into the family won't be a loss, at least they won't have to eat tasteless things anymore.

On the main road into the village, they saw Yun Ba and Yun Jiu and other unmarried lads sweating profusely as they built the stockade gate, piling logs as thick as a bear's waist up to two people high, then binding them with hemp rope, and piling earth on both sides until it covered the top.

"Grandpa, what is this for?"

"Yun Wu is back, killed another aurochs? Impressive!" Village Chief Da Yun, looking up at Yun Jiu on the stockade gate, chuckled twice and said: "Yun Ba and Yun Jiu don't know how to make bows and armor, and they're at the age to seek wives. I thought, why not give them money to each take a wife, and they can work on building the stockade gate."

"Does the village need to build a stockade gate? Other villages have over a hundred households."

"If that Chen Merchant comes again, let alone a village, we could even build a town." Village Chief was naturally confident. He had been to Ma La to see the world and fought in Yachen, knowing the prices of those spices; being able to exchange bows and armor made by themselves for these things could be said to be a great bargain.

And there's that paper, which can fetch a high price in Ma La. Unfortunately, the trade routes are now cut off, and going to Neicheng is too dangerous.

Yun Wu nodded half-understanding, then continued carrying the aurochs back; extracting sinews is also a technical job, and only a few people in the village know how.

Yun Ba looked at him enviously, shrugged, tossed a log to the ground, and said: "Grandpa, when can I learn to make bows and arrows?"

"Weren't you unwilling to learn before?"

"I had a knife before."

"Learning now would take two to three years, right?"

Yun Ba walked with his head down, stomping hard. He also wanted to marry a pretty girl home, but he couldn't wait two to three years.

Yun Yi was sitting under the big purple-leaf tree in the village center tanning leather, making the surroundings stink, yet smacking his lips as he said: "I think you'd better learn to make armor from me; one suit of armor can be exchanged for four pairs of shoes."

"Bows and arrows are faster to make."

"Fool, Grandpa makes them fast because he has materials stored from previous years; do you have any? Yun Wu can marry at the earliest next year; can you wait that long?"

Yun Ba immediately hesitated.

He was actually the village's best hunter; when merchants came before, he also had the most harvest. Originally, saving up for another year or two would be enough to marry a wife, but unexpectedly this Chen Merchant was unusually easy to talk to, yet only wanted bows and armor, not leather and meat; as a result, Yun San and Yun Si have both saved enough for two wives, while he earned even less.

"Do I really have to learn to make armor? Then I'd have to sit in the village all day, and also go scrape saltpeter in the latrine pit; too disgusting."

"Yun Ba, what are you thinking?" Yun Wu carried out an aurochs, placed it on the stone table before Village Chief's door, and smiled: "Want some meat to take back and eat? I've already taken out the sinews."

The extra meat from hunting in the village is all placed before Village Chief's door for each family to take freely. Due to lack of spices, hot weather will make food rot into stinking water within two days. One aurochs weighs at least 5000 jin, enough for the village to eat well for many days.

Yun Ba happily cut off the tail and most of the aurochs's buttocks; the meat there is the fattest, then asked: "You don't want the skin?"

"Aurochs hide is too thick; can't make armor or clothes from it."

"Is that so..." Yun Wu thought, picking up his knife, and said: "Then I'll take it away."

"Alright, making another shield?"

"I'll make a few more; Chen Merchant might want them." Yun Ba said, stripping off the entire aurochs hide, to go find Yun Yi for tanning, and said: "I'll help you fix that leaky house with stone."

Yun Yi was overjoyed and simply gave him two tanned aurochs hides, saying: "Yun Wu hasn't hunted little recently, but you, you're too lazy."

Yun Ba thanked him in a low voice, carried the hides home, and began making shields. This is the simplest leatherworking method; every child in Yun Village knows it, and he learned it in his youth, using it with great skill. Because after learning how to make shields, he received a metal short knife left by his father, very sharp, able to cut open a saber-toothed beast's hide, so he only made shields for hunting, and his harvest was far more than the young men of neighboring villages. Since then he focused only on training strength, seeking only to pierce animal hides. He almost never learned to make armor, bows, and arrows again.

Now, every time he goes out he carries a shield, replacing it only when it breaks. Although there are two spare shields in the house, they seem a bit rough. That generous Chen Merchant likes fine things; the better the bow and armor, the higher the price; now everyone knows how to sharpen edges and adjust strings. In the past, only when tax collectors came would there be such requirements.

Yun Ba didn't sleep all night, made shields for a day and a night, completed two, then carried his own along with them to the village center.

By this time, Village Chief, Yun Yi, Yun Wu, and others had already carried out newly made bows, arrows, and armor.

Everyone set up stalls there, seriously waiting for Chen Merchant. He comes once every five to ten days; last time he specially set a time, saying he would come today, asking the village to prepare.

Village Chief likes fixed times, although like others he finds it hard to keep time, but they indeed like people who keep time.

The light began to darken, and just as everyone was impatient, Yun Shi shouted from the newly built stockade gate: "He's here, he's here. He's walking so slowly."

Chen Yi, carrying five cubic meters of goods, naturally couldn't walk fast. He was carrying specially made goods.

"Hello." Old Village Chief first handed over a konjac.

"Thank you." Chen Yi handed over a pair of leather shoes; both tacitly laughed.

The two walked side by side to the village center, sitting under the cool tree; Chen Yi took out goods one by one from his Super Backpack. If not for having built his Big Store at the Subway Station, he wouldn't dare carry goods the size of four people in a place with people coming and going.

"This time, I brought new things; see if you like them." He said, taking out a pair of improved Liberation Shoes. Similar to ordinary rubber shoes made in China, these high-top European goods are comfortable to wear and have good ground grip, but to improve the rubber shoes' tendency to break easily, the Liberation Shoes named ospop improved the raw materials, making them more durable, while the price simultaneously rose to 70 US dollars, 50 times that of Liberation Shoes.

Chen Yi doesn't care about this small investment; he still hopes to create an image of cheap and sturdy. In his conception, this Yun Village should constantly attract new immigrants—to achieve this, first the people of Yun Village must become rich, and commodity flow with the outside world must be produced.

Precisely for this reason, he would patiently, each time carrying a huge Super Pack to do peddling. Seeing the newly built stockade gate, he had already smelled the scent of success.

"How much?" Village Chief stammered in Chinese. Chen Yi had repeated this sentence countless times, so most villagers remembered it.

Actually they are all smart, just with too little stored knowledge.

Chen Yi silently thought, smiling: "Five pairs, one bow and arrow."

This is cheaper than leather shoes, and surely more comfortable to wear than leather shoes.

He had long noticed that villagers buy leather shoes to wear at home, partly for comfort, partly for appearance and showing off.

But when working, Yun Village people are all barefoot. Chen Yi felt he had the necessity to improve their consumption habits.

Village Chief probably didn't quite trust cotton cloth and rubber soles; he pinched for half a day, saying: "Like clothing."

"Yes, materials are like clothing." Chen Yi took out a set of Camouflage Training Uniform from the pack, saying: "Clothing with special function. Also five sets for one bow."

He had sixty students, and needed a great quantity of bows and arrows and armor. Additionally, cultivating habits was equally important.

The villagers all looked to Yun Village; the price and the decision whether to buy were his to make.

After considering for another thirty seconds, the Village Chief finally nodded and said, "I believe in you."

Everyone cheered.

They only cared how much they could exchange for one bow; as long as they could get one, it didn't matter if they spent more time producing them.

Chen Yi laughed heartily and took out another iron pot, saying, "Do you want this?"

The men, women, old, and young of Yun Village were instantly intoxicated.

It was actually a metal pot!

... (Unfinished, if you want to know what happens next, please log in to www. qidian. com, more chapters, support author, support genuine reading!)