Chapter 337: Requesting Trade

Baifeng had been thinking about how to catch horses for some time, but horses were different from cattle after all. They had only been able to raise so many cattle back then because of good luck; otherwise, how could they have possessed so many?

The little calf from back then was now a very old ox, no longer as robust or glossy-furred as it once was. It no longer had the ability to be the king of the herd, having stepped down a few years ago. After serving as Baifeng's mount for two years, it had completely returned to Nature to enjoy a peaceful life.

Living freely on the territory, no one dared to harm it, as everyone knew it was a hero of the nation.

The first batch of wild beasts that Baifeng had domesticated had all become impossibly old. Changwei had already died of old age, and Laifu did not have many years left to live either; now, it could not even eat hard food and could only drink soups and liquids, so it likely did not have many days remaining.

Baifeng was not overly saddened; animals, after all, were subject to birth, aging, illness, and death. Their descendants were living well now, and the most outstanding among those descendants had always been raised by Baifeng's family. The cattle were white and the dogs were silver; not only were they stronger than ordinary cattle and dogs, but their special fur colors also distinguished the Royal Family from the commoners.

Baifeng had not intended for the Royal Family to exclusively raise these colors; it was merely a coincidence that cattle and dogs of these colors were slightly stronger. As for horses, he only needed to have living ones to raise.

Horses were hard to catch, ran fast, and had fiery tempers. Unless they could catch foals and raise them from a young age, they truly felt they lacked the ability to tame adult horses.

Baifeng pondered this problem every day. Just as he had gained some ideas, the Old City sent someone to notify Baifeng that an envoy from the Xuanyuan Tribe had arrived, wishing to discuss trade. If they followed the usual procedures, the Ministry of Revenue could have made the decision themselves this year, but the request put forward by the Xuanyuan Tribe this year exceeded their authority, so they had to seek Baifeng's opinion.

Baifeng felt this was a major matter, so he immediately had someone drive him back to the Old City.

The arriving envoy said his name was Changxian and that he represented their Tribal Chief, Xuanyuan, to discuss the trade.

After both sides were seated, Baifeng first corrected him once again: they were not the Baifeng Tribe, but the Huaxia Nation. Baifeng felt a bit depressed; it had been several years since the nation was founded, and the name had been released externally. Both the Suiren Clan and the Xuanyuan Clan knew what was going on, yet they still stubbornly called them the Baifeng Tribe and did not recognize the name Huaxia.

However, Baifeng would not accommodate them for the sake of it. Now, regarding the issue of trade, he held the initiative. If he did not trade, a year or two would have no impact, because the products they needed were too few—nothing more than Tea Leaves, a few types of medicinal herbs, and Crocodile Skin. Yet, the amount of grain that went out from their Huaxia every year could support an unknown number of people in their tribe.

After several corrections, Changxian finally changed his tune to call it Huaxia. Baifeng was even a bit angry; if he continued to play dumb, he would have to show him the door.

Changxian said to Baifeng: "We captured a very large number of crocodiles this year, so we have a lot of skins. We hope that Huaxia can bring more grain when trading this year. Our Tribal Chief also requests Tribal Chief Baifeng, could you please not roast the wheat for exchange anymore? It does you no good, right? Just use raw wheat; you can also do less work."

"We also need to trade for more of your Huaxia paper and ink this year, and we also need some Ironware farming tools. This is the demand of our Xuanyuan Tribe; I wonder what Huaxia needs?"

Hearing this, it seemed there was nothing the Ministry of Revenue could not handle, but upon closer thought, it was the issue of the wheat. The subtext of the Xuanyuan Tribe was that they wanted grain seeds, not just simple grain.

If it were the Baifeng of the past, he might have softened and agreed, but now he would not. The Xuanyuan Tribe had a large population and a vast territory, and their planting conditions were much better than Huaxia's. If Baifeng gave the grain seeds so easily, he feared that within a few years, the Xuanyuan Tribe's agriculture would catch up to Huaxia's—at least one type would. Therefore, Baifeng dared not give them to the Xuanyuan Tribe; he did not possess genetic technology to make the seeds only grow for one year and prevent them from being saved.

If he had that technology, he certainly would have released them long ago; that way, the lifeline of Huaxia's grain would be held in his hands. Unfortunately, they were far from having that ability now.

As for the rest, there was no problem; Baifeng could fully provide them, even the Ironware farming tools were fine. Anyway, the Xuanyuan Tribe did not have iron-smelting technology and could only recast their Ironware. However, the current Xuanyuan Tribe seemed to have expanded their Bronze ware smelting scale; every time he saw people from the Xuanyuan Tribe, they had more and more Bronze ware on them.

From a small Bronze Dagger in the past to the current long Bronze broadsword, and even some ornaments, or the bronze hooks and belts on their armor, it at least showed that the Xuanyuan Tribe had been continuously expanding their smelting scale. Perhaps they had already assembled a ten-thousand-man army, each equipped with metal weapon.

After all, the scale of the Xuanyuan Tribe was much larger than Huaxia's, and their copper-smelting technology was ancestral.

Baifeng thought for a moment. The things they needed now were nothing more than Crocodile Skin and medicinal herbs, but this year, one more thing had to be added: a type of tree discovered by Changle. Its tree fibers could produce the best quality paper they currently had, but the stock within their borders was not large.

He had previously asked the people of the Xuanyuan Clan and the Suiren Clan; both had it within their borders, and in large quantities. Last year, they had already conducted trade in this regard with the Suiren Clan, but it was not enough. Huaxia's demand was too great; relying solely on the Suiren Clan's supply was not enough, and they needed the Xuanyuan Tribe to provide it as well.

Seeing that his tribe had one more useful, valuable item, Changxian's joy was genuinely expressed on his face. When he returned to report, this would count as a merit.

Regarding the Xuanyuan Tribe, Baifeng also felt one thing was quite interesting: as long as they felt something was useful, they would immediately imitate it. For example, their documents and official seals—the Xuanyuan Tribe and Huaxia both had writing, but the original Xuanyuan Tribe's characters could only be carved on stone, while Huaxia's could be written on a thin sheet of paper.

Xuanyuan had studied it for a long time but could not figure out how the paper was made. It was fortunate that Baifeng had the foresight to give the Xuanyuan Tribe the best, most delicate paper of Huaxia, exactly the same as the paper they used for official business. If he had given them the lowest quality paper used for wiping one's backside, perhaps Xuanyuan would have been able to deduce the method of making paper based on the fibers on the paper.

They had only traded for one set of brushes in Huaxia and never asked for them again; he guessed they had already figured it out themselves. They had not yet figured out the method for ink, but given Xuanyuan's brain, he would eventually figure it out; perhaps one day he would suddenly have an epiphany.

The formal trade between the two sides involved exchanging official documents; after all, if one had characters, one had to use them. This was how they distinguished themselves from other tribes. "Without writing, one is a savage"—this sentence was proposed by Xuanyuan, but because the characters of the two sides were different, they even specifically stayed for a period of time to learn from each other.

In the Xuanyuan Tribe, only Xuanyuan and Cangjie could recognize most of the Huaxia characters. Baifeng and Yu could recognize a portion of Cangjie's characters. Of course, Changle and Yulong now recognized many as well.