After all, when Shi Quan and the others had first arrived, the other side had still been searching for food along the lakeshore. That showed how badly they lacked food. In that case, why not fish right there by the lake and tell them that the Han Tribe had a way to obtain meat from the water? Surely that would attract some people.
Even if they were unwilling to join directly, if they wanted to learn fishing techniques from the Han Tribe, they would still have to trade people for them.
Once he had the idea, he acted on it. But first, he had to finish what Ye Ying had instructed him to do.
First, he counted the people. A total of fifty-six had come over in this trade. Only six of them were little boys; the other fifty were women. Of those, only two were adult women over fifteen. Girls over ten made up half the group, numbering a little over twenty, while the rest were little girls.
After counting everyone, Shi Quan arranged the work below. The women and children who had just been traded to the Han Tribe kept nervously glancing back and forth between Shi Quan and that Large Iron Pot.
They stared at Shi Quan because they had seen him leading the trade. They assumed he was the chieftain of this tribe—or some other important person—and that the fate of all of them depended on his mood.
As for the iron pot, they looked at it simply because they were hungry and wanted something to eat. These women and children were already the weaker members of their Primitive Tribe and normally received little food, let alone during this winter when food was in short supply.
"Someone, bring over some Water Buckets from the ship. Then