Chapter 1359: Seawater

Chiyou had been hoarding those grass roots, not taking them to trade first, but waiting for news from Fritillaria; if Fritillaria could find the sea and bring back those sea grasses, then the trade with Huaxia could proceed smoothly.

They had already stopped their aggression against the Suiren; after all, if they were to trade in the future, they would be dealing with each other every day, and the benefits that could be gained from trade, especially those things from Huaxia, were far more valuable than some wasteland that could not be developed—this was a calculation Chiyou could understand perfectly well.

Those people of the Suiren had also received the order from the Tribal Chief; although they did not understand it, they had to follow it, but they were also shocked that the Jiuli had suddenly stopped their aggression, not even seeing anyone come to hunt, not taking even the smallest advantage.

For them, this was also a good thing, at least they could have some stability; as the most peripheral tribe of the Suiren, they received all kinds of news very slowly, and only now did they know they were to join Huaxia, and they had no choice.

They knew almost nothing about Huaxia—no, it should be said that their understanding remained from many years ago, back when the Suiren were defeated by Huaxia, a fact the entire tribe was very clear about.

Now, regarding their sudden inclusion into Huaxia, those of them who did not know the truth only thought that they had been defeated by Huaxia, and that there was no longer a Suiren, only Huaxia.

If there were no changes to their management and no contact, it would be equivalent to abandoning them, forgetting them; at that point, they could say they were Huaxia, or they could say they were Suiren, or any tribe they pleased.

But they were still willing to see themselves as Suiren; after all, the name Suiren sounded very impressive, providing both face and substance; if the family of Baoxi, the lineage of Baoxi, were completely gone, then they, the peripheral tribes, would become the orthodox successors of the Suiren, as they all sacrificed to the same ancestor.

But this was merely their fantasy; management from above had never stopped, and the frequency had even increased, saying it was because of their special location, which was quite important, and that it was necessary to frequently manage and communicate, especially with the Jiuli; the trade between Huaxia and the Jiuli had to rely on this peripheral tribe.

Furthermore, the tribe had done something unprecedented: they no longer collected supplies from them, but instead sent supplies to them; although by the time it reached their hands, it was only some salt, this situation and this gesture were of great significance, and salt was also very precious.

Ever since Huaxia began helping to build Suiren City, in addition to grain and technology, they also began sending large amounts of salt to the Suiren; the Suiren naturally had their own ways of finding salt, but the yield was low, the purity was insufficient, and while the poor taste was one thing, it was mainly harmful to the body.

Huaxia had almost more salt than they could use, so they brought a great deal of refined salt to the Suiren, which caused the value of salt in the Suiren to plummet; those yellow and red coarse Salt Blocks that everyone had once cared about so much were almost like trash in the face of the snow-white, pure fine salt without any other impurities.

Because the amount of salt sent was truly too much, Baoxi naturally would not hoard it all for himself, and he also knew that Huaxia would send salt frequently, so hoarding more was useless, as there would eventually be more than they could use.

Therefore, after keeping enough salt for himself, the rest was distributed; although the Leaders would certainly keep a little more for themselves layer by layer, they ensured that a little bit could at least reach the bowls of the tribespeople in the end.

Baoxi would not interfere in this matter, because he still needed these loyal Leaders; if there were benefits, they should take them first, as this was necessary—this was the rule, and salt was no exception.

It was a pity that with just a simple move, Huaxia could make their salt completely worthless; the final result was that when those Leaders discovered that salt was no longer a precious item, they directly distributed the salt they had previously intercepted to their subordinates, which was why a peripheral tribe could still receive it after the salt had passed through so many tribes and so many Leaders.

With salt, everything was easy to handle; although they still went by the name of Suiren, they were full of expectations for Huaxia.

Fritillaria returned to the Jiuli, bringing the things he had collected; once the abundant produce was brought out, there was no need to explain anything—the sea was right there, it was not dangerous at all, and food was plentiful.

As for why the seawater was sometimes visible and sometimes not, although Fritillaria could not explain the principle, he had already discovered the pattern.

Sometimes there was water in the morning and afternoon, and at noon the water would recede; sometimes it was the opposite; the position and speed of the receding water were also different, but Fritillaria insisted that the seawater of the ocean was like the Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter—it was normal and would change.

Chiyou was more curious about the sea grass: "Do you think that thing is edible? Have you eaten it?"

"Tribal Chief, we have all eaten it; the taste is very good, it feels just like the taste of mutton; in any case, it is very fragrant, and such a large piece, after being dried, becomes just a tiny bit."

Chiyou decided to see for himself: "Use this water grass and meat to stew a pot of soup for me to taste and see how it really tastes."

And the final result also surprised Chiyou; he did not expect the taste of this water grass to be actually quite good; it seemed that Huaxia wanting this water grass as a vegetable had its reasons, as the taste was indeed quite good.

Now both teams had arrived; Fritillaria, who went to find the sea, returned with various fish and water grass, and Jiaosheng, who went hunting, returned with grass roots.

They had killed many bears, but they had also lost some people; hunting was not such an easy task, nor was it that safe, after all, they were bears.

The Jin Hu that Huaxia wanted was only caught after they fought for their lives; if it weren't for the fact that food had become scarce in Winter, the Jin Hu would not have attacked a team with so many people, but unfortunately, they were targeted, and in the end, Jiaosheng and his men lost several people just to kill this one.

The parts they used to discard were now all kept; all of this was for the sake of trading with Huaxia.

Although it was a tribe that no one had heard of or seen before, now everyone trusted them and was looking forward to the first trade.