Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!

Chapter 2169 - 1568: Smuggling of Salt and Iron and Fierce Struggles! Mongolian Trade, Danger and Opportunity

The Northern Asia Grassland follows natural laws akin to those governing herds, with just half a day’s raid and skirmish determining the sudden disappearance of a mid-sized tribe. Yet, "killing" is never the sole purpose of a nomadic tribe, or not entirely. Ensuring their people "survive," competing for as much herding and grazing land, and enabling the tribe to endure and grow stronger, remains the unchanging pursuit of every grassland tribe."Tenggeri’s heavens bless us! Leave a group here, slowly drive the herd south, gather them all if possible! Don’t dismantle this Forest Tribe’s camp, leave it here. Next spring, we drive the sheep back and graze this far pasture first!"

"Correct! Don’t touch the manure in the camp, sheep or cattle! This way, next year they’ll be ready as fuel for migrating here. As for these bodies, dig pits nearby and bury them, some distance from the water source! Don’t bury them too far, nor too deep, wolves are sure to come digging. Assign a few Divine Archers to shoot more wolves. This way, when grazing next year, the herd will be somewhat safer... wolves are the worst animals!"

"While you all remain here, carefully select the sheep! Kill hundreds of the old and weak ewes, the rams that don’t produce milk, salt and air-dry the meat. It’s hard to maintain such a large flock, for sure, a batch needs slaughtering for winter storage before the snow falls. Be alert, you may feast on the meat! Make sure the new captured pastoral slaves work well, allow them to drink meat soup! As for the warhorses, we’ll take them all, leaving only those you ride..."

As the Lord Chief of the River-side Tribe, Ao Hala skillfully takes over the new tribe camp, managing all post-war matters. He left behind forty archery cavalry from his faction to oversee the remaining hundred tribespeople from the Forest Tribe, gradually tending to the significant flocks of sheep and cattle.

The River-side Tribe merged with the Forest Tribe, assimilating their tribespeople, pastures, and herds, yet it all requires time to digest. The tribe must soothe the newly subdued strong men, integrate them into fortifying the main force, making them trustable assets. They also need to contact the surrounding small tribes, announce the change in the River-side Tribe, and reaffirm the division of tribal pastures. Ao Hala seems intent on making this place their spring-summer camp and the Huli Ping Village, two hundred miles away, their autumn-winter camp. Meaning, they aim to occupy these two hundred miles of pasture, migrating the herds back and forth to graze.

"Chief Divine bless us! Ao Hala brother, once everything’s arranged, let’s quickly move on!"

"Alright! Brother Aguda, let’s hit the road!"

After three days of rest, they hurriedly returned south with captives and horses. Ao Hala led sixty archery cavalry, Maha Aguda still commanded ninety armored cavalry. The party now had three hundred horses, almost three per person. As for the newly surrendered hundred fifty tribespeople of the Forest Tribe, they weren’t yet qualified to ride, marching on foot and exhausting their spirit.

Shooter Tai Gu’en silently followed the group, tending to the horses for Maha Agudah like a wolf watched by a fierce tiger. Among the surrounding hundred fifty tribespeople, fifty could ride and shoot, and a hundred were women and half-grown children, not a single elder or weak person. He wasn’t aware of the tribespeople’s fate and could only hope in the Mongolians’ Tenggeri’s heavens or the Jurchens’ Sahalien Ula River God. Presently, this "Jurchen Tribe’s" armored cavalry, though primitive in living, weren’t overly cruel or bloodthirsty, and their iron armor was terribly frightening!

"Haha! Longevity Heaven above, we’re finally back! Brother Aguda, call everyone and let’s celebrate together once more!"

"Alright! I’ll call Ancestor High Priest too... after tonight’s celebration, we need to return quickly! The sooner the better, it’s already mid-September. Ao Hala brother, the food you promised me?..."

"Ancestor witnessed! Don’t worry, supplies for three to four hundred people for half a year, half dairy and half meat! But for the salt to preserve the meat?..."

"We’ll provide the salt! Keep the extra salt you have and two iron pots for yourselves! Perhaps, in two years, we’ll come again, and procure some horses and pastoral slaves!..."

"That’s good! Great! It really is... like stars shining brightly in the night! Bule, quickly arrange the personnel, prepare a grand bonfire feast! Tell everyone, tonight we slaughter sheep and feast, celebrating with the nobles of the Great Tribe!..."

"Alright, truly a blessing from the heavens!"

Ao Hala beamed with smiles, as did Bule. This battle prematurely ended many lives; Maha Aguda’s departure with a large batch of captives meant the River-side Tribe would have a much easier winter this year. Food and fuel would be greatly abundant, eliminating the need to follow the usual custom of driving the elderly and pastoral slaves to fend for themselves outside the camp in winter.

"Chief Divine! Aguda, you actually brought back three hundred horses? A full three hundred?!..."

Seeing the victorious returning group, Zuwaro’s face was filled with joy. Especially those Mongolian pack horses and warhorses, their number was simply beyond his initial expectations!

Previously, when buying horses from the Japanese, it was ten or a dozen at a time, with few numbers and small stature, and they only accept gold. But here at the Mongolian tribe, acquiring horses in two to three hundred at a time is considered a "cost-free business"! Well, "cost-free" doesn’t mean killing and robbery, but the few pieces of ironware given to the River-side Tribe were exchanged from the Japanese, almost without spending a single gold coin, and the thousand pounds of salt was purely an addition! The cheap "salt iron" produced by the Japanese, as long as it can be transported over a thousand miles to the Mongolian grasslands, can be exchanged for "horses, cattle, sheep, and furs", flipping profits by dozens, even hundreds of times!

"Chief Divine bears witness! Once a trade route along the Heilongjiang River Basin can be opened, the astounding profits it can bring, the population, cattle, sheep, and livestock it can acquire, will be a river of flowing wealth, far surpassing the trade with the southern Japanese land!..."

Zuwaro calculated the accounts, exclaiming sincerely. Of course, it’s undeniable that trading "salt iron" in these tribal battles, where strength reigns supreme, requires sufficient force to prevent the other side from robbing easily! Moreover, once it scales up, it might catch the attention of the southern Duoyan Three Guards Tribe, or even the Frontier Army of the Great Ming Liaodong State, possibly leading to dangerous encounters or even battles in the end!

In this trade where danger and opportunity coexist, compared to those colossal tribes, the kingdom’s main force is indeed insignificant. The distant main force coming cannot be wasted in this vast forest sea and grassland! That means the kingdom must rely on local tribal allies as agents for trade and communication.

In this crisis-ridden trade and battle, the Maha tribe of Shengshu Jurchen, with the food, armor, and faith brought by the kingdom, is continually absorbing local tribes and warriors, rapidly growing! And the armored Maha Agudah, this Tiger Chieftain converted to the Chief Divine, seems born for such a fated battle...

"Ancestor! Of these three hundred horses, roughly two hundred sixty are ours. But the return journey is long, and who knows how many might be lost along the way, losing twenty or thirty would be possible... The warriors you brought aren’t great at caring for horses, these horses still need to rely on the one hundred fifty prisoners of war brought back, raised by the Forest Tribe who always raised horses. They are tribespeople of Half Jurchen Half Mongolian, basically all can speak Jurchen language! Like the one leading my horse was their previous chieftain, Tai Gu’en. Yes! ’Tai Gu’en’ means ’Forest People’!"

"Chief Divine! Aguda, are these one hundred fifty prisoners all ours? You want to consume them whole?"

"Yes! Consume them whole, and I’ll split half with you! Once I go back and knock them into submission, truly subdue Tai Gu’en, I’ll have him like Wu Xiong, lead his own tribespeople and horses to fight for me! I’ll be his Master, he’ll be my ’Niu Lu Arrow Cluster’! Fortunately, he’s also good at archery, much better than Wu Xiong..."

"Niu Lu Arrow Cluster?..."

"Yes, it’s a custom in our tribes, a cooperative hunting warrior team is a ’Niu Lu Arrow Cluster’, like the Mongolians’ Hundred Households. Wu Xiong is an existing ’Arrow Cluster’, Tai Gu’en is the second. As for Wushu and Qimai, they’re skilled at fighting, charging, lead small hunting and battling teams well! After they fight a few more battles, after the tribespeople numbers increase, I’ll have them each lead an ’Arrow Cluster’ too! So when fighting, it’s easier to command according to each team’s ’Arrow Cluster’..."

"So, Aguda, you’re planning to build four Arrow Clusters, four what Niu Lu?"

"No! Five clusters. Plus my own, to lead the strongest Arrow Cluster. With my current level, I can probably command three hundred people? But more than that, they have to take their own teams to make the most of it... Haha! It’s still early, after all, Maha tribe only has a few hundred people now, gathering around two hundred warriors is the limit. Future matters, we’ll see as it goes! After all, I’m merely watching them, seeing which ones can be trained to become head wolves under me..."

At this moment, Zuwaro stood on Huli Ping Village’s walls, watching the returning triumphant Jurchen Cavalry flood into the village with prisoner horses. He saw the bruised warrior Wushu on horseback, saw the proud vanguard Qimai looking around, saw the hulking general Wu Xiong gnawing on a lamb leg, and saw the silent prisoner Tai Gu’en tending to horses.

Afterward, Zuwaro turned his head, looking at his brother-in-law Maha Aguda, whose eyes are like copper bells, his face more and more composed, increasingly serious like seeing a "Chief Divine’s Fierce Tiger" personally raised by himself. Under the kingdom’s support, this brother-in-law has gone through a lot, becoming more and more like a true Great Chief. With his speed of growth, how far will he train and grow in this constant running, battling, and trading? That he did not know, nor saw that far into the future...