Hides, deer antlers, jade...
Harimu and the others, whose families had herded for generations, did not attach much importance to these things from the mountains. But to someone like Tursun, who was already part of the official system, often visited the County Seat, and knew market prices, they were all valuable goods that could be exchanged for money!
As the Pastoral Team leader, the things he collected from pastoralists throughout the year, or received from them as gifts to make getting things done easier, were certainly far more plentiful than what Li Long had obtained!
Most pastoralists did not understand or pay much attention to these things. They generally used them as gifts or kept them for their own use.
It would be another ten years or so before pastoralists living closer to the outer mountains commonly started selling the things they found. Right now, they did not yet have that idea.
Originally, Tursun had paid little attention to this small tribe. After all, it had only a dozen or so households, while the Pastoral Team he managed had several hundred. This handful amounted to little. What had caught his attention was mainly the tractor pulling a harvester to cut hay. That was something that could attract the leadership's attention.
He had not expected his questions to uncover something else. Tursun could not help raising his voice.
"Don't you know those things can be sold for money? You just handed them over to that Han Chinese man for nothing?"
He saw nothing wrong with what he had said, and neither did Adili. In their view, handing valuable things that you could clearly keep for yourself over to someone else was foolish, wasn't it?
But to Jade Mountain River and Harimu, those words sounded different.
The other pastoralists' gazes also turned