Chapter 817: Gold Used for Deception

As for what goods were to be traded this time, Xiong had long since made it clear to them. Originally, Xiong had intended to look through the tribes one by one, but having already promised the few tribes that had come over with him yesterday that he would prioritize their goods, Xiong had no choice but to bypass the stalls of the tribes closest to him and head straight for the target stalls.

Seeing Xiong approach, the Tribal Chief was extremely happy. In order to wait for Xiong, he had been keeping watch since early morning and hadn't even gone out to select the goods he wanted, fearing he might miss out on Huaxia, this major patron.

According to this tribe, their tribe was located even further west than this place, and their territory was also quite fertile, though the mountains were a bit high, and it was relatively cold all four seasons of the year.

What shocked Xiong somewhat was that he said their tribe was called the Xi Xiang Tribe, which, when traced back, were descendants of Fuxi and had some connection to Fuxi. It was just that they were a branch of a branch; after they went to survive in even more distant places, the tribe found it hard to grow strong. As for the Huaxu Clan where Fuxi originally resided, it was unclear what it was like now; all that was known was that Fuxi seemed to have kept heading east in the end.

For small, peripheral tribes like them, it was hard to obtain any detailed news, but because of this layer of connection, Xiong's favorable impression of them increased significantly. At the very least, they were not purely savage tribes; they could be associated with civilized tribes.

Looking at their goods again, there were many kinds of furs, but things like Boar Skin were hard and thick, which Huaxia had absolutely no need for. If it were in the past, they could have been used to make armor, but Huaxia had already carried out the domestication and breeding of wild boars, so they were not short on pig skin, and the pig bristles were stiff, so they couldn't be considered good hides at all.

Wolf skin was not bad, and there were many fox skins as well, with few wounds, so they could be considered top-tier hides. Besides these, there were some other special deer skins and sheep skins; Huaxia only picked the best.

Out of a large pile of hides, Huaxia only picked out twenty-something, the majority of which were the relatively small fox skins.

This result made the Tribal Chief Xiang feel inevitably somewhat disappointed. He had thought Huaxia's demand would be very large, but he hadn't expected Huaxia to have such high requirements for quality.

Xiong did not haggle and asked directly, "Are two bowls of salt like this enough?"

The Soldier beside him took out a bowl made from a gourd and gestured toward Xiang. When Xiang saw this bowl, it was large and deep enough; if it were at other tribes, giving half a bowl like this would already be a very high price, and the quality of the salt was far inferior to Huaxia's.

Xiang nodded repeatedly, "Enough, enough, this price is enough." In an instant, the frustration brought on by Huaxia selecting so few items was swept away. He hurriedly had people bring out their animal skin bag for holding salt, then opened the mouth of the bag wide, waiting for the Huaxia Soldier to pour the salt inside.

The Soldier did not hesitate; he placed the large salt bag on the ground, then used that bowl to scoop into it, filling it with a full bowl of salt. He shook it with his hand until the level of the salt was basically flush with the rim of the bowl, and only then did he pour it for Xiang.

With these two bowls of salt poured in, Huaxia's salt bag did not look noticeably flatter, while Xiang's salt bag was visibly bulging.

Xiang carefully tied the bag shut with a leather strip, then asked, "Leader, would you like to see if there is anything else you need?"

By this time, Xiong had already been rummaging through the stall for a while, and the tribal chiefs of the few tribes who were still waiting for Xiong to come look at their goods had already come over to watch. Huaxia's selection was strict, but they were generous in their offers, which removed their worries. They also had quite a few high-quality hides like these in their own tribes.

Xiong looked through them for a while. Although the goods at the Xi Xiang Tribe's stall were messy and numerous, there really weren't many good things; only a few pieces of gold piqued his interest.

"Do you have a lot of this gold?" Xiong picked up a piece and weighed it; it was very heavy in the hand, and a few pieces were already as big as his finger.

Xiang hadn't expected Xiong to be interested in this stuff, but upon reflection, it wasn't impossible. Although this stuff couldn't be used to make Weapons or tools, it could still be used to make some Ritual Vessels for sacrifices. It was just that it was too soft to make anything too large; a slight bump could ruin it. Wealthy tribes tried their best to use bronze to make them.

Xiang hurriedly explained, "There is a lot of this on the riverbanks where we are; in some places, it even gathers like sand. But it's just too soft and useless. Do you call this gold? We call it soft gold."

"In the past, only the Wulenge Tribe would want it. Other tribes here have more or less picked up large pieces, but everyone thinks it's useless, so they don't want it. We only brought these few pieces, just to see which tribe that hasn't seen this stuff would..."

"Uh, just to see which tribe might take a fancy to this." Xiang almost let it slip. If he said this was used to trick distant tribes who hadn't seen soft gold and thought it was normal gold, this deal would likely fall through. Although this was something their tribes often did and everyone knew it, there was almost no chance of success.

Xiong was not angry; after all, who could say for sure who was ignorant of the goods?

Xiong took out his Dajian and forcefully cut down into a piece of gold. A very deep knife mark appeared quite easily. This was to tell Xiang that Huaxia was not short on good metal and that Huaxia was also a connoisseur; gold was useless to them, but it was useful to Huaxia.

As for exactly what use, Xiong didn't know either; he only knew that gold could be used to make all kinds of beautiful things, or to make some sort of ornate utensils. Baifeng said Huaxia needed a large amount of gold, even if it just meant throwing it into the storehouse.

Baifeng's word was absolute; as long as there was gold, he wanted it. So Xiong said very straightforwardly, "I want these two pieces of gold. You can bring more next year. If there are no large pieces, picking up small pieces is fine too. As long as our Huaxia can carry it back, I will take it all."

"For these two pieces, I'll give you one Salted Fish, how about that?"

An unexpected joy, this was absolutely an unexpected joy. How could Xiang not agree? Moreover, he had also secured a good item for next year. With a tribe as powerful as Huaxia, as long as they didn't encounter a terrible Spell like the Jiangshui Tribe next year, they would definitely be able to come to the gathering.

Thus, Xiang nodded without hesitation. The Huaxia Soldier immediately gave him a Salted Fish, and Xiong turned around and handed the two pieces of gold to the Soldier, telling him to hold onto them. The watching tribes beat their chests and stamped their feet; their tribal territories had them too! Almost anywhere there were rivers flowing down from high mountains, in places with relatively rapid currents, one could find gold in the calmer parts of the water.

Especially in that stretch of land, there existed huge gold mines. The water flow carried gold particles, washing them down year after year, until they reached a place where the current was slow, and only then would the heavy gold sand settle.