Chapter 1508: Luxury Goods for the Xuanyuan Tribe

This time, Baifeng went to Huaxia, and he also brought along many new Huaxia products, preparing to trade well with the Xuanyuan Tribe to exchange for high prices—things that they could not imitate, but which could greatly attract their attention.

Among them, various colored fabrics were the main goods. Because the quantity of Alum was relatively sufficient, Huaxia had now produced a great deal of colored fabric. Besides supplying a portion to the Nobles, Baifeng had specifically requested dozens of bolts of various colored fabrics to keep.

On this trip to the Xuanyuan Tribe, he intended to use these fabrics to earn back all the consumption costs of mining Alum in Huaxia; he did not believe that Xuanyuan would not be tempted by such beautiful fabrics.

On one piece of fabric that was crimson-red verging on purple, there was the totem of the Xuanyuan Tribe—a bear that had been curved and simplified, almost unrecognizable as a bear, but it was indeed the current totem of the Xuanyuan Tribe.

This was done by using the Ministry of Works to make very thin printing plates, hollowing them out, placing them on the fabric, filling in the other areas with material, and then applying dye to the cloth. Although the process was much more troublesome than direct immersion dyeing, it could create the desired patterns, and the price would more than double, so that bit of effort was very worth spending.

For this cloth printed with the Xuanyuan Tribe's totem, Baifeng intended to sell it for at least five times the price of other colored fabrics. He did not believe that Xuanyuan could refuse, and even if he could refuse, the people of his tribe would likely be unable to resist this temptation.

It was certain that Xuanyuan would ponder and study it after obtaining the fabric, but as long as they could not discover Alum, they would likely be unable to imitate it; Baifeng was not worried at all.

Another thing was the Compass. As an extremely important item of this era that played a decisive role, Baifeng naturally had to take it out for trade, but he could only trade one. It would depend on whether Xuanyuan intended to keep it as a treasure to be worshipped or to use it in actual combat.

Huaxia did not have any Fengbo or Yushi to create clouds and mist to block Xuanyuan's attacks, or to attack Xuanyuan in such a way, so he was not afraid of him obtaining the Compass. After all, the Compass was just a tool, and furthermore, they had their genius inventors; if pushed to the limit, they could even build a purely mechanical South-Pointing Chariot, so whether they had a Compass or not did not really matter.

For the Xuanyuan Tribe, the Compass was a treasure they extremely desired but which had an extremely high price—a pure luxury item. Baifeng could once again rely on this thing to make a huge profit.

Relying on the Compass, could he earn back a Boat of Tea Leaves? Perhaps it could be done.

The Xuanyuan Tribe now already had tea gardens, planted entirely for the sake of Huaxia. The suitable climate and Nature allowed them to grow good Tea Trees, and they could also grow a large number of Tea Trees.

The export trade of Tea Leaves was now of great importance to the Xuanyuan Tribe, and Huaxia also needed to maintain the Xuanyuan Tribe as a source of Tea Leaves; otherwise, Huaxia would have no Tea Leaves to drink. At present, the Xuanyuan Tribe still completely lacked the technology to process tea, so their tribe currently had no one drinking tea at all.

Every year, Huaxia would give Xuanyuan some good, stir-fried Tea Leaves, gradually cultivating a tea addiction in this main figure, Xuanyuan, making him like drinking tea and fall in love with it. In the future, he would naturally support his tribe's tea industry; the more Tea Trees the Xuanyuan Tribe planted, the more advantageous it would be for Huaxia.

The price level did not matter; Huaxia was not lacking in grain, and there were too many other things that could be traded. As long as the Xuanyuan Tribe was willing to trade Tea Leaves to Huaxia, then Huaxia only needed to process them before reselling them to their own tribesmen to obtain greater profits. The Huaxia government would lose nothing at all, and it would also promote the circulation of grain in Huaxia—it was a good thing.

The matter of the Suiren clan planting Tea Trees was extremely difficult; there were very few places where Tea Trees could be planted. Huaxia was already developing the places that had Tea Trees, clearing away all the surrounding trees and planting Tea Trees in their place. After a few years, they could harvest them, but the area was still not large enough and could not possibly support Huaxia's consumption volume. Moreover, the quality of the Suiren clan's Tea Leaves was not as good as the Xuanyuan Tribe's Tea Leaves.

Such a tiny leaf was becoming increasingly important to Huaxia. Baifeng even sent people to the south, near the Qinling, to look for suitable places for planting, and it would be even better if they could find wild Tea Trees.

But it was a great pity that the Qinling—let alone crossing it or going deep inside—was extremely dangerous even in its surroundings. The climate was volatile, and the number of wild beasts was extremely high, ridiculously so; bears, tigers, and leopards were exceptionally dangerous. Huaxia truly had no need to invest too much population or lose too many Soldiers in the Qinling for the sake of a single Tea Tree.

Baifeng was very clear about the danger of the Qinling. With Huaxia's current capabilities, it was completely impossible to clear away the dangers of the Qinling, nor could they be cleared away. The ecological role of the Qinling was too important; it was a Geography barrier and also an ecological barrier, so some overly radical and dangerous ideas could not be entertained.

For now, Huaxia's Tea Leaves still had to rely on the Xuanyuan Tribe. Future tea trade would require maintaining a good relationship. The Suiren clan's Tea Leaves could only solve a small part of the shortage, and the quality was not good either.