Chapter 2006: Chapter 1466: White Mountain Black Water, Ironware Traded for People

"Brave as a tiger, head like Da’an Dahan’s Maha Chief! Are you really going to exchange the captives of this village? Using iron-made good stuff to trade?"

"Ha ha! Witnessed by the ancestor, of course!..."

"What’s the price?"

"Hmm..."

On the ship, Maha Agudah turned around and exchanged a few words with Zuwaro, his face clearly showing surprise. Such a transaction price seemed too generous for the Northern Land, didn’t it? After arguing for a moment, he looked painfully toward the shore and shouted.

"Good price, miss it and it’ll be gone! A warrior who can fight for an iron pot! An ordinary warrior for an iron axe! A surplus man who cannot fight for an iron spear! An extra woman or child for three iron arrows, or half an iron spear!"

"...! What!"

Upon hearing these terms, the three Wuzhe Chiefs exchanged glances, their faces full of disbelief. Such a price, either the other side had eaten too many mountain mushrooms, or they themselves had! In any case, one party’s brain was definitely out of sorts! 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Since its founding, the Ming Dynasty had imposed strict embargoes on ironware for Mongolia and Liaodong, forbidding Han Land ironware from flowing into various tribes in the Northern Border, leaving the vast Northern Land in a severe shortage of ironware. In the few limited tribute trades, facing the Mongolian tribes’ strong demand for ironware, the Ming Dynasty had offered outrageous prices.

In the official tribute merchandise pricing, an iron pot could exchange for a fine horse, or two strings of treasure banknotes calculated by the low price of a fine horse. An iron axe would exchange for a cow or four or five sheep. As for iron spears and iron arrows, their prices were similarly at least eight times more expensive, with limited quantities, take it or leave it!

Such limited quantities and touching prices in official ironware trades partly stemmed from the Empire’s strong wariness against Northern tribes. For the tribes that came to tribute, the Ming Dynasty preferred to reward more valuable fabrics and alcohol rather than ironware. On the other hand, there were layers of handling and kickbacks during the tribute trade process. Moreover, the border armies and officials also needed to leave space for profitable private trades.

Given such a lucrative situation, the smuggling activities of Jin merchants in later times naturally also existed widely during this era, albeit on a much smaller scale. Smuggling salt and iron to the Northern Border, if caught, would naturally result in severe punishment, with heads rolling! Of course, like sea trade, behind Northern smuggling were many big figures of the border, fulfilling the survival needs of the border residents. No matter how many were killed, there would always be fearless people emerging, the root cause couldn’t be completely prohibited...

"Captive warriors and warriors being exchanged for rare iron pots and iron axes?!... Da’an Dahan’s Maha Chief, do you keep your word?! No backtracking!"

"Ha! I, Maha Agudah, never backtrack on my words! This iron axe is my gift to you, let’s be friends!"

After speaking, Maha Agudah took an iron axe from Zuwaro’s hand. He took a deep breath, swung his arm fiercely, and once again demonstrated his divine power, hurling the axe toward the shore, throwing it over dozens of steps!

"Roar! Take that!"

"Ah! Such great force, truly great force! What a great Da’an Dahan’s Maha Chief!... Alas! This iron axe is better than those few old axes previously captured!... Exchange! We agreed, let’s exchange now! Men, go bring over those newly captured captives!"...

Wuzhe Agudah, holding the iron axe, personally checked the sharp blade and the thick axe back, his face showing surprise. Very quickly, the three Forest Wuzhe Tribe Chiefs, almost without any hesitation and without any bargaining, unanimously agreed. Ancestor witnessed! Such a heavenly chance to exchange captives for ironware, if missed, would never come again!

It’s known that presently, within the vast Outer Northeast and Mongolian grasslands, ironware is very scarce! An iron pot and a few iron axes are treasures passed down in small tribes. As for iron armor, only the Shushu Jurchen Tribe who served Ming like dogs could possess them!

The so-called "Thirteen Sets of Iron Armor After Uprising," though incomparable to the Ming Army, in this era, in the views of various Jurchen tribes, was not shabby at all!

Of course, the Northeast surely lacks iron ore. However, the supply sources of ironware were completely controlled by the Ming Army, with specialized military supervisors inspecting. Furthermore, the central Ming authority deliberately reduced the scale of iron smelting in Liaodong. Large-scale iron processing sites were presently found only in Liaodong Town. In regions like Anshan, there was the "Ten Miles Iron Mountain" hosting the "Six Guard Iron Mines," although their scale was far less than during the Yuan Dynasty, "not even a tenth."...

So around the Liaodong Border Wall, indeed there existed some fragmented iron ores. Nonetheless, the Ming Dynasty’s national policy had enforced strict prohibition on salt and iron shipment to the Northern Land for nearly a century. The Ming explicitly prohibited the mining of these iron ores, not only abandoning numerous iron sites established during the Yuan Dynasty but also exerting strict supervision over surrounding Shushu Jurchen Tribes to prevent mining! Venturing further north, in the Heilongjiang River Basin inhabited by Wild Man Tribes, the population and technology were insufficient, lacking the capability to search for and smelt iron ore...

"Nu’er Ha! Daimin! You two go over there personally, tell the tribes not to raid hastily! Quickly bring those still alive captives here!... It’s rare to meet a Great Chief of the Andahan, exchange as much ironware as you can!... Hurry! Go quickly! Quickly get the ironware, don’t let him back out!..."

"Got it! I’ll go now!..."

"Right! Let’s go... No matter how much we exchange, everyone shares equally!..."

"Clop clop clop!"

The clopping of hoofbeats hurried away, thirty or forty Wild Man Cavalry turned their horses around, their riding skills as proficient as the Mongolians, though they wouldn’t ride and shoot like Mongolians. The strength of the Wild Man Jurchen lies mainly in charge cavalry and foot archery...

"The chieftain said! Don’t loot yet! Bring all the captives who are alive and can move! All of them! Men and women, old and young, bring them all!..."

The Harman Tribe’s village only has an outer barricade, no inner fort or inner village. As hundreds of Wild Man Warriors poured in, the shouting and killing in the village quickly subsided. Afterwards, there was messy looting, distribution of spoils, and capturing of captives.

The tribespeople of the Harman Tribe didn’t wail or cry, they just accepted their fate with an indifferent expression, being dealt with by the victors, be it life or death. Tribes in the North are all like this, death is exceedingly common, leaving no place for grief, everything is just for survival.

"What! The old ones are already gone? Damn it! Who told you to act so quickly!... Bring the injured ones too! What? The immovable ones are all gone?... Truly a bunch of idiots, a bunch of foolish roe deer!..."

Here is the cold and vast White Mountain Black Water, following the harshest natural laws. There’s never any warm-hearted mercy or any respect for the old and love for the young in the merging of Wild Man Tribes. They’re just as cold and ruthless as the wind and snow here. Just in this quarter hour, captives too old to work or injured captives unable to move, all have turned into cold corpses, not even clothes are left.

"Hurry! Drive them all out! Stop rummaging! Those few shabby hides, where do they matter compared to ironware!..."

After another quarter hour of commotion, under the drive of the Wild Man Warriors, one or two hundred men, women, and children were driven out from the village. Many had their clothes taken, thus staggering, tainted with blood, half naked running toward the riverbank. And dozens of cavalry drove them from behind, like driving a herd of deer during a hunt, pushing them toward the river.

At this moment, whether it was the "herd of deer" being driven or the "Hunters" driving them, there was no loud shouting, just silence like the distant forest. This apathy towards life, this habitual cruelty, is exactly the tradition of the Northern Land for thousands of years, even among the same clan!

Neither the Mongolians, Jurchen, nor Qinghai-Tibet have the so-called "Confucian morality" of the Han Land. Because of the harsh natural environment and tribal conflicts, there is absolutely no condition for this wealthy, stable culture and ideology to survive and continue!

Inside and outside the Ming Dynasty border wall, there are completely two worlds, from soul to life traditions, they are incompatible. And once the Northern tribes break through the border wall, bringing their habitual cruelty into the prosperous Han Land, it would be an unimaginable apocalypse and disaster for the South...

"Ah! My tribespeople! My village!..."

On the longship, the Chief of the Harman Tribe, Ali, heart-wrenching with pain, watched his generational village being breached, his tribe’s population either killed or enslaved. He watched over a hundred remaining tribespeople, being driven half naked toward the riverbank by the Wild Man Cavalry. Occasionally someone fell down, but quickly got up again, running toward either unknown death or hope.

Soon, two separated groups of Wild Man Cavalry reunited again. By the river, the sun was already inclined west, nearing the time to set. And the three chieftains of the Wuzhe Tribe personally counted the captives once more, then shouted toward the docked longship and the "foolish" Maha Agudah.

"Maha Chief of the Andahan! All these newly captured captives have been brought over! Among them there are five warriors worth an iron pot, twenty warriors worth an Iron Axe! Also twenty surplus worth an Iron Spear, a hundred worth of women and children worth Iron Arrow!..."

"Ancestor! So many useless captives, especially those women and children...you want them all? Do you have that much ironware?..."

"Haha! Yes, I want all of them! One hand over captives, the other hand over ironware!... One hundred twenty women and children and surplus, no need to look, I’ll give you fifty Iron Spears, one hundred twenty Iron Arrows. Bring the warriors and fighters over, let me have two trusted aides take a good look at them... see if they are truly warriors worth the price of an Iron Axe and an iron pot!"

"Okay! Everyone, bring the bows! Let them demonstrate their archery for you!..."