"Great Chieftain Maha, fierce as a tiger, with a head like a moose! Are you truly going to trade for the captives in this stockade? Trade good things forged from iron for them?"
"Haaha! With the ancestors as witness, of course!..."
"What price?"
"Mm..."
On the ship, Maha Aguda turned around and exchanged a few more words with Zuwaro, his face plainly showing surprise. This trade price, for the northern lands, was far too generous, wasn't it? After arguing for a moment, he looked toward the shore with a pained expression and roared.
"A good price—miss it and it's gone! One warrior who can fight for one Iron Pot! One ordinary fighter for one Iron Axe! One surplus male who can't fight for one Iron Spear! One extra woman or child for three Iron Arrows, or half an Iron Spear!..."
"...! What!"
Hearing this, the three Wuzhe chieftains looked at one another, their faces full of disbelief. With a price like this, either the other side had eaten too many mountain mushrooms, or they themselves had eaten too many mountain mushrooms! In any case, one of them definitely had something wrong with his head!
Ever since the founding of the dynasty, Great Ming had imposed a strict embargo on Ironware against Mongol and Liaodong. It strictly forbade iron goods from the Han lands from flowing into the northern tribes, leaving the vast northern frontier, stretching ten thousand li, in a state of severe iron shortage. And in the few limited rounds of tribute trade, faced with the strong demand for Ironware from the various Mongol tribes, Great Ming had also named utterly outrageous prices.
In the official pricing of tribute goods, one Iron Pot could be exchanged for one fine horse, or two strings of treasure notes calculated at the