Chapter 159

"Big bear, do you think your tribe can smelt iron?" At dinner, Lei Ying finally couldn't help asking this question.

Stone bear nodded, "yes, leader Lei Ying, my tribe can indeed smelt iron. You can see the knife, the bow and the arrows in my hand. They are all made by the people of our tribe. "

"Is that true?" Lei Ying rubbed his hands excitedly.

"It's true, and the ironware smelted in our tribe can't be called ironware any more. You've seen my knife, too. Is it much better than yours? "

Although Lei Ying was not willing to admit it, he simply nodded, "yes, your knife is much stronger than mine. The knife in my hand can only be used as an appearance. If it's used for hunting, I have to come back to sharpen it if I can't chop a few. This knife is so brittle that sometimes you can break the edge when you chop bones. "

"Ha ha, your knife is made of pig iron. It's hard, but it's not tough enough. It will break when it comes to hard things. But if the knife is made of steel, it will be different, just like the knife in my hand, which has not only hardness but also toughness. Generally speaking, as long as my knife doesn't cut hard at the stone, it's OK to cut other things, even wood. "

"So good?"

"Well, that's it." Stone bear very proud nod to say.

I'm kidding. In this era, let alone the new world, even in Europe, steel is rare. Don't you see the brown Beth rifles that Ferguson and they have, the barrel of which is made of iron?

Before the appearance of blast furnace, steel was in great shortage all over the world.

Lei Ying put down the meat in his hand and asked in a low voice, "big bear, can you trade some steel from your tribe for us?"

Stone bear also put down the bone in his hand, looked at Lei Ying and said after a little hesitation: "leader Lei Ying, before answering your question, I want to ask you a question. I hope you can answer me truthfully."

Lei Ying nodded.

"Leader Lei Ying, in fact, after I came to your tribe, I always had a question in my heart that I wanted to ask you." The stone bear thought it over for a while, and then said, "you should admit that the location of Xiaohe tribe is very hidden, and it's in the deep mountains. It's a long distance from both the chekasa and the Cherokee."

Lei Ying nodded happily and said, "we must be like this. We are a secluded tribe and do not participate in the tribe's foreign war, so we must stay away and hide."

"Well, I understand that. But there are not many war horses even in your chekasa royal court, right? Those vassichus didn't have such a good heart to offer us war horses. But I see a lot of horses in your tribe, and there seems to be a lot of iron in your tribe, so I'm very curious about how you trade these things. "

After a pause, the stone bear added: "in fact, it's just my curiosity. If you are not willing to answer, it doesn't matter."

Hearing this, Lei Ying laughed boldly, "big bear, there's nothing to hide. The vasichus who trade with our Xiaohe tribe are all franceans. Because not far from our tribe, there is a lot of things that the French need, so every year the French will send a special trading team to trade

"Frenchmen?" The stone bear nodded thoughtfully.

In this era, even though France has just lost to Britain in the seven-year war, and France has secretly united with the Spanish to fight against the increasingly powerful British, in the new continent of North America, the French have the same strength as the British.

If we only talk about territory, French Louisiana, which still belonged to France as early as the year before last, is much larger than the thirteen colonies established by the British on the east coast of the new world.

The whole French Louisiana occupies almost one third of the territory of the whole North American continent.

Now, although the French were defeated in the just concluded seven-year war and ceded the huge French Louisiana to Britain, Britain did not have the ability to take over such a large territory.

Not to mention the numerous French people who have lived in this territory for a long time.

Although most of the French people lived in Canada, there were still a large number of French people living in military fortresses and fortresses along the Mississippi River.

Originally, the chekasa people had a good relationship with the Frances. Some time ago, the leader of the letiqi tribe, the sentry snake, colluded with chretian Armand of okron fortress and formed a coalition to destroy the gaoshu tribe. But unexpectedly, stealing chickens was not successful. More than 300 coalition forces were destroyed in the fire ox formation. Even the sentry snake died and major Armand was captured, Four inland river armed transport ships, which can be called artifact in this era, were also obtained by the gaoshu tribe.

The river tribe originally belonged to the chekasa people, so it's not surprising that they made friends with the franceans.

"Leader Lei Ying, can I venture to ask you what is rich in Xiaohe tribe? How could it be so important for the French? " Stone bear is really curious about this. At this time, the French were very powerful in the new world of North America, and they occupied the rich Mississippi River and the five lakes area. They wanted the special products of the new world more easily than the British, and they contacted far more North American Indian tribes than the British.

But even so, the Frenchmen still attach so much importance to the trade with Xiaohe tribe, which is enough to show that this kind of thing rich in Xiaohe tribe is urgently needed by the Frenchmen.

"It's nothing. When our Xiaohe tribe moved here more than 50 years ago, we found a cave in the East Mountain, which produced some white stones. At first, these stones were useless, but one day the tribe's trading team went to the west to exchange salt with the French. As a result, when the French saw the stone, they kept asking where it came from. "

"Fortunately, the people who led the trading team at that time were more intelligent. Seeing that the French attached great importance to this kind of stone, they said that it was found in the mountains in the tribe. There were many of the same stones, but they were not easy to mine. As a result, the French came with them. Of course, they didn't enter the tribe, they traded with us on the North River. Over the years, every two months the franceans have come by boat, and we have traded a lot of horses, food and salt with these stones. Over the years, this tradition of trading has been maintained

"White stone? From the cave? " The stone bear moved in his heart.

When the stone bear saw the white stone that Lei Ying said, he immediately recognized what this so-called "stone" was.

This is a natural nitrate ore!

Although the stone bear can't tell whether this kind of natural nitrate ore is Indian nitrate ore dominated by potassium nitrate or Chilean nitrate ore dominated by sodium nitrate, there is no doubt that this kind of stone is a natural nitrate ore with high purity.

No wonder the French are willing to trade so many times a year, even if it's more than 300 miles straight from the Mississippi River.

This is natural nitrate ore, which is the main raw material for making gunpowder!

For the French military, the status and significance of this thing is no worse than salt!

Stone bear did not expect to find a natural saltpeter mine here. This is a great surprise.

"Leader Lei Ying, I don't know how many white stones your tribe can mine every year?" Asked the stone bear.

"It's hard to say, but I can assure you, there are definitely a lot of them. Every two months when we trade with the French, our tribe has to send at least more than 100 people to transport the extracted white stone to the North Bend, and then trade with the French. "

It's quite a lot. Even if one person carries 60 Jin, more than 100 people will have 6000 Jin.

Stone bear immediately said: "leader leiying, if our gaoshu tribe can exchange steel and salt with you for this kind of white stone, would you like to trade with us?"

"The steel you are talking about is the iron used to make your knife?" Lei Ying is quite moving.

"Yes, it's this kind of steel, but our output of this kind of steel is not high, but I can guarantee that the French will never be able to produce this kind of steel. As for table salt, how about this grade of table salt? "

As he said this, the stone bear took out the bag of salt and poured out a small pile of salt. As a result, all the leaders of Xiaohe tribe, including Lei Ying, looked straight.

For a long time, Lei Ying trembled and asked, "big bear, is this thing you take out really salt?"

Stone bear did not answer, but slightly, that finger dipped in, and then put into his mouth, "leader Lei Ying, you taste, see if it is salt."

Lei Ying did the same action as the stone bear. As a result, he immediately entered a petrified state.

The leaders of several nearby Xiaohe tribes also quickly stretched out their fingers, even Baiyun. As a result, when they tasted the salt, they were petrified.

For a long time, Lei Ying sighed and said, "the sun god is on the table. This kind of salt doesn't have any miscellaneous flavor. This is the gift of the sun god."

The old priest beside Lei Ying also shook his head in disbelief. "Chief, this kind of salt is too rare. It's 100 times stronger than the salt traded from vasichus!"

France is a big salt producing country in Europe in this era, but where is the salt made by them delicious? In this era, the real refined salt can only appear on the dining table of those aristocrats, and the salt that ordinary people eat is still the crude salt with bitter taste.

After tasting the refined salt, Baiyun's eyes to the stone bear are even more wrong.

Lei Ying asked, "how much salt do you have in your tribe, big bear?"

"Ha ha, you can have as much as you want, and I promise it's the same grade of refined salt as this kind of salt."

One side of the old priest began to murmur, and the stone bear didn't listen to what he murmured. It was estimated that he was praying to the gods.

And other tribal leaders also have eyes shining, as if the stone bear has become a peerless gem at this moment.

"How about we trade white stones for salt in your tribe?" Lei Ying is quite vigorous and resolute in his work, and directly put forward the business to be traded.

"No problem. We can discuss how to exchange it carefully. In addition to such salt, we can also trade steel with you in exchange for that kind of white stone. "

"Do you have much food?" Lei Ying continued.

"We don't have much food in winter this year, but we will have a lot of food in summer. What, are you going to trade with us for food? "

"That's the idea. As you can see, although the valley where our Xiaohe tribe is located is very hidden, there are not many farmlands for farming. We don't have enough food to eat. "

Shi Xiong nodded, thought a little, and said, "we'll talk about the grain problem later. Now you want to Trade grain with us, and we can't get so much grain. But there's no problem with salt and steel. "

"Well, then we'll trade you salt and steel with white stones!" Lei Ying made a decision.

Now the stone bear is completely relieved.

If you want the tribe to grow, thermal weapons are essential. With thermal weapons, we have to make gunpowder. The necessary raw materials for gunpowder are saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal.

It's easy to say that charcoal can be burned as much as you like; As for sulfur, stone bears have heard of it from Hongyun. It seems that a tribe separated from gaoshu tribe was rich in sulfur.

Now the only thing we lack is saltpeter.

There is still a large amount of nitrate on earth, but unfortunately there is no such mineral around the gaoshu tribe.

The stone bear knows that there are some high-quality nitrates in Chile. After all, in previous generations, Chile's nitrates were famous all over the world. But you want the stone bear to go to Chile to mine nitrates now? It would be easier for him to unify the North American continent!

At this time, the famous saltpeter mines of previous generations have not yet been seen. Even the saltpeter needed by Europeans to make gunpowder is made from saltpeter fields.

No wonder the French can't wait to trade with Xiaohe tribe as soon as they see nitre. Although the output of nitrate is not low, where is the natural nitrate mine? Let alone serve nitida, it is a disgusting thing, who is willing to play with nitida.

The gaoshu tribe is short of gunpowder now. Although the gunpowder seized from the French some time ago can make the gaoshu tribe produce a lot of gunpowder, what should we do when the gunpowder is used up?

Now we have found a saltpeter mine in Xiaohe tribe, which is only 200 miles away from gaoshu tribe. This is great news!