Chapter 231: Displaying Produce

Under the warm hospitality of Xuanyuan, Baifeng sat at the negotiation table. He could clearly feel that Xuanyuan and Baoxi were different; Xuanyuan, in every respect, was like a proper trading partner, while Baoxi was like a high-and-mighty master. If Baifeng hadn't been in such great need of the Suiren Clan's Slaves, he wouldn't have been very willing to deal with him at all.

The two first exchanged some pleasantries. Baifeng did not know how such pleasantries existed in this era; could it be that the cumbersome and useless pleasantries of later generations originated from this time?

After chatting for a while, the two began to discuss the trade. Because the people of the Baifeng tribe were transporting supplies to the shore, and the people of the Xuanyuan Clan were picking leaves from the Tea Tree, Baifeng found it somewhat amusing, yet he felt this was what a trading partner should look like. He truly did not want the Tea Tree anymore, because he couldn't keep it alive, and trading for it back would just be a waste of supplies.

Baifeng brought out a specialty of their tribe that everyone highly approved of: Salted Fish packed with thick salt. The advantage of this item was that it was both meat and a source of salt.

The Xuanyuan Clan was not short on fish; after all, they were right next to the Dahe, and there were many lakes and water areas in their territory, resulting in a high output of fish, so they had no fear of running out of fish to eat.

But they were very short on salt. Even though they were a very large tribe, they still lacked salt as one would expect. There were no salt lakes or salt mines in their territory, though there were some underground water systems with extremely high salt content.

The process of sun-drying salt was very easy to discover and improve, especially for Xuanyuan. Originally, their method of drying salt was to draw water from salt wells using a Bamboo Tube, pour it onto a patch of stone, and finally, once the water evaporated, salt would remain. This method seemed difficult and slow, but everyone could at least taste the saltiness to some degree.

Later, Xuanyuan improved this salt-making method by first creating saturated brine and then sun-drying or boiling it. The salt yield was much higher than simple sun-drying, as the stone beach for drying salt was only so large.

However, even though the salt yield had increased, the number of salt wells was too small and the number of their tribespeople was too high, so salt was still insufficient. As for the Salted Fish from the Baifeng tribe, one only needed to rinse it to obtain enough salt to last for several days. Xuanyuan did not know if the Baifeng tribe had an inexhaustible mountain of salt, or if they were just willing to provide so much salt out of consideration for the human race.

Baifeng, on the other hand, thought that they could sell salt and they could sell fish, but Salted Fish could solve the problem of fish preservation while also increasing the value of the salt—why not do it?

Xuanyuan had long expected that Baifeng would bring this out, but he was not disappointed; this was indeed something they needed. Then, seeing Baifeng bring out Glassware, Xuanyuan's expression became slightly unpleasant, though he did not show it too obviously.

He knew that the things this so-called "Heavenly God" used were likely fake, because whenever Baifeng spoke of things related to the Heavenly God, there would eventually be an explanation that had nothing to do with the Heavenly God. There was no explanation for this kind of cup yet, but Xuanyuan estimated that this thing wouldn't be very precious.

Furthermore, this thing was useless except for being good-looking; it was expensive and fragile, not as practical as a Pottery Bowl. Therefore, Xuanyuan excluded this item from his trading scope from the start. If there were Wine, it would be a different story; that was a truly good thing.

Subsequently, Baifeng brought out their Ironware, and Xuanyuan immediately began to look forward to it. He saw the people of the Baifeng tribe take out some Weapons that were slightly longer than the Bronze Sword they used. Judging by the style and the attitude of the Baifeng tribe members, Xuanyuan estimated that these were the items they were trading.

Xuanyuan suppressed the excitement in his heart. What he feared most was that the Baifeng tribe would not be willing to trade. As long as the Baifeng tribe was willing to exchange Iron Weapon, it wouldn't matter even if the price paid was a bit high.

Although they were not as good as the Weapons the Baifeng tribe was currently using, they were already quite excellent. In terms of length and finish, they had already surpassed those traded to the Suiren Clan.

Seeing the Baifeng tribe reveal their goods, Xuanyuan also began to display the items they were using for trade. First was the tea; their tribespeople brought over the still-living Tea Tree and began picking leaves right in front of Baifeng.

Although Baifeng had other thoughts—wanting the people of the Xuanyuan Clan to separate the buds from the leaves of the Tea Leaves, as the buds were the truly good stuff—he said nothing. After all, even if someone gave him the finest pre-Qingming Longjing, he was the type of person who couldn't taste the difference anyway.

Subsequently, Xuanyuan displayed the Grass Seed of the Xuanyuan Clan that he had brought. It didn't matter that he displayed it; once he took out a handful, Baifeng's eyes lit up. This was soybean! The yield of this thing was high, and it could also be used to extract oil. Their tribe had always eaten animal fat and had never eaten vegetable oil.

It wasn't about which was healthy or which had nutrients; it was simply that they were too short on oil. In this era, animals didn't have much fat on them, so where would one go to extract oil? Therefore, even if there was oil, few people could eat it.

Baifeng estimated that Xuanyuan did not yet know the importance of soybeans: high yield, ability to extract oil, the oil dregs could be used as feed, and they could also be used to make tofu. Even if one wanted to boil them directly to eat, there was no problem.

Besides soybeans, there was also the clearly different Wild Rice. Baifeng estimated it was the Rice brought by Leizu, because it looked very different from what they planted. This thing also had to be traded back; whether the Rice could mutate depended on these rich varieties.

As for Silk, it was directly ignored by Baifeng, just as Xuanyuan ignored their Glassware. Both were nice to look at but useless—of course, not entirely useless, but the cost-performance ratio was too low.

Besides this, Xuanyuan also brought many Slaves. Baifeng was somewhat hesitant about this. Although the quality of this batch of Slaves from the Xuanyuan Clan was decent, whether the Baifeng tribe could afford to support them was still a matter worth considering.

After displaying the items brought by both sides, the trade began. First was the main issue of Tea Leaves. The exchange of Tea Leaves for Salted Fish was no problem for either side. One piece of Salted Fish for an equal weight of fresh Tea Leaves; Baifeng felt he wasn't losing out, and the people of the Xuanyuan Clan felt they had profited.

However, they did not manage to trade for much Salted Fish. It wasn't that they didn't want to, but there were no more Tea Leaves to trade, while Baifeng had obtained a small Boat full of Tea Leaves.

The weight was confirmed using the Balance Scale that Baifeng had brought. Once the principle of this thing was explained to Xuanyuan, he understood it immediately. He also knew that this thing was indeed very fair, so he used it in the trading process without any objections, thinking that he would also make a Balance Scale after returning; it was indeed very useful.

Salted Fish and Tea Leaves were weighed and traded bit by bit. When all the Tea Leaves were traded, the Salted Fish were also handed over. The people of the Baifeng tribe sent the fresh Tea Leaves packed in sacks back to the Large Ship. Baifeng's tools for stir-frying tea were already prepared; after the trade ended, Baifeng would have to stir-fry tea with everyone.