Chapter 731: Hiring the Suiren Tribe (1)

Huaxia dispatched an envoy to the Suiren Tribe. The person who went this time was still Zhigui, who had previously negotiated with the Suiren Tribe. Although he was from the Ministry of Rites and not the Ministry of Revenue, and logically he should not have been the lead for such trade matters, he was already quite familiar with the Suiren Tribe, so he remained the lead this time, with the Ministry of Revenue only sending some auxiliary personnel to follow.

When Zhigui and his party went to the territory of the Suiren Tribe, they only felt that the difference from before was not very great, until they arrived at their tribal settlement, where they finally felt a great difference from before.

Previously, it had been an extremely chaotic and disorderly state of barbarism, but they did not expect to see a large number of round, low-lying small houses this time, with walls piled up from earth and covered with wood and grass on top to shelter from the wind and rain.

The current Suiren Tribe actually had a hint of the appearance of a city, but in the concepts of Zhigui and his party, this current state could only be called a densely populated village, or at most a town, because they had no city walls.

The trade between the Suiren Tribe and Huaxia had not been interrupted, but such a large-scale envoy visit for communication was indeed rare, so Baoxi also received the Huaxia party very happily.

Zhigui and Baoxi were quite familiar with each other, and Baoxi still remembered Zhigui; when the two met, they were not overly distant.

Huangpin had now become an extremely important figure in the Suiren Tribe, especially after he promoted the mud houses, which completely changed the living conditions of the Suiren Tribe, and even their way of life. Relying on this point alone, Huangpin went from a minor leader who was temporarily given a task to the person with the highest status in the Suiren Tribe under Baoxi.

The previous Wangzuo could not reach such a level, and because Huangpin climbed up from the bottom, he would not participate in issues like sacrificial rites. In terms of war or other aspects, unlike Wangzuo who would offer many opinions, he was just a person who only did practical work, so he naturally received more attention from Baoxi.

Because their houses were all relatively low and small, even the one Baoxi lived in was the same, just a bit larger than those of ordinary people and with thicker walls, but overall there was no great difference, so it was difficult to entertain these guests in his room.

Thus, they used wooden blocks as stools and tree stumps as tables in the open space, conducting their conversation in such a simple manner. Fortunately, the weather was not cold at this time, nor was it that hot, and a giant tree left in the tribe could still provide them with some shade.

Zhigui knew what kind of personality Baoxi had, so he did not intend to speak in a roundabout way from the beginning, but stated that he had come to trade as soon as he arrived.

Baoxi would certainly not let go of this opportunity to earn food, not to mention that besides population, Huaxia often traded things that were indifferent to their Suiren Tribe, so Baoxi was naturally very willing. The only bad thing was that the food that could be exchanged back was not enough to change the current situation of their Suiren Tribe.

Baoxi only had his tribesmen bring some seasonal fruits for the guests; he did not have tea leaves here, as he could not drink them, and he had completely quit wine, mainly because he was unwilling to spend so much food to buy wine, feeling it was a bit of a loss. He felt it was a bit absurd to give water, as there was no place where this thing did not exist, and he also knew that the people of Huaxia had a bad habit, which was that they must boil the water and let it cool before drinking it, or drink hot water directly; he did not understand what was so good about drinking hot water.

Baoxi was also unwilling to waste time going in circles with Zhigui and his party, so after sitting down, he asked straightforwardly: "Zhigui, what are you here to trade this time? Aren't the tea leaves still being delivered? There are only so many other things we can find; I wonder what you...?"

Zhigui sat upright, and the officials of the Ministry of Revenue had already placed paper and pens on the uneven table, ready to perform calculations at any time.

"It is like this: we have come this time to discuss a relatively long-term and large-scale trade, which is that we want to hire some people from your Suiren Tribe to go to our Huaxia to work."

"Hire?" Baoxi did not quite understand what "hire" meant, as it was a term he had never heard before, but he was still quite sensitive about population. Currently, the population of the Suiren Tribe was relatively small, and everyone had to work diligently so that they could find enough food to maintain the operation of the entire tribe.

Although there were still slaves, the number was not as large as before. He felt that if a tribe had no slaves, it meant that this tribe was almost at the point of being completely destitute. A truly large tribe had to have enough slaves to show the wealth of a tribe.

Zhigui knew that Baoxi did not understand, as they themselves did not understand this thing at the beginning. Baifeng explained it to them, and they explained it to others, and to Xuanyuan, so Zhigui had no choice but to explain it to Baoxi slowly, in detail and patiently, to ensure that Baoxi truly understood what it meant to hire.

Baoxi initially thought they were here to buy their slaves or population, but he did not expect that it was just to invite their people to work, and then provide food and housing, and send them back when there was no work to do. Looking at it this way, it was indeed very cost-effective.

Their tribe had many people, but the value each person could create was not much. For most people, earning enough for their own rations every day was already quite good, not to mention that there were many small children to support. Excluding the necessary daily consumption, there was very little left to save.

If they followed this approach of Huaxia, he felt that the entire Suiren Tribe could go, but this was certainly impossible; after all, if this happened, how would it be any different from the destruction of the Suiren Tribe?

So he asked Zhigui: "How many people do you need? Twenty thousand, thirty thousand?"

Zhigui was greatly shocked and waved his hands repeatedly: "Hey, we don't need that many, and we only need those who are physically strong and capable of doing work. We don't need those who are too thin and weak; if they go, they will only consume food without being able to do much work. Our idea is to first hire three to five thousand people to see how the situation is, and then decide whether to expand the trade volume in the future."

Baoxi suddenly felt a little disappointed; only a few thousand people? That was indeed a bit small, so he asked: "You Huaxia shouldn't be short of such people, right? You have so many slaves alone, so why do you still need to come to me to hire people?"

Zhigui did not hide anything: "Our Huaxia is very short of people, short of labor, and we are short of people for many tasks. In fact, we have already cooperated with the Xuanyuan Tribe and hired several thousand of their people, but the Xuanyuan Tribe is also short of manpower and cannot let us hire too many. Our own slaves are now doing work similar to that of our Tribal Chief."