From Chief to Ball

"Well, let's go now. By the way, I also brought some herbs, which can kill the lice after being ignited. These people are gathered together, and their bodies are dirty and easy to be bitten by lice. Lock them up and smoke them for a while. Xun, I also brought some lime and sprinkled it where I live, there are so many people that the plague is easy, in summer..."

Chen Jian seemed to be very thoughtful for E Yue's sake, and said many ways to manage slaves that E Yue didn't know about. E Yue kept it firmly in his heart, thanked him for winning streak, and entered the hall with Chen Jian on the left and right.

Chapter 62 Currency

The banquet was held in the back-shaped hall of E City. Xia City does not yet have the technology to build huge houses, so the hall of Xia City is much more stingy than here.

The meal prepared in advance from Yuqian'er's wine shop tastes good. Yuqian'er knows Chen Jian's taste, so it is very comfortable to eat. The light corn wine is very sweet, and it is not too cloudy after being filtered by thatch.

During the feast, E-strider suddenly proposed to his father that he hoped to go to Xiacheng's school, and asked his father to give Chen Jian the right to educate himself for a period of one year.

E Yue was a little surprised. He was already very satisfied with E Strider's performance as a hostage this time, and he was even more surprised when he said these words at this time.

It is true that there are indeed many things worth learning in Xiacheng. There are always people to learn the techniques of wells, dai fields, planting, and chariots in Xiacheng. He also knows that these things are the most beneficial to Echeng.

E City is not a system of father-to-son succession in the clear sense, and E Yue's succession to the position of leader is also agreed by everyone, because he showed the strength to take on this important task when he was young.

Of course, he hoped that his son would also be recognized by the tribe. Perhaps after four or five generations, the bloodline has become a symbol of ability in the eyes of the tribe.

If the son can really learn enough from Xiacheng, he can be entrusted with important tasks after returning to Echeng, and some rights will be separated from the hands of the rest of the relatives.

Also blood relatives, sons are always more important than brothers.

E Yue glanced at Number Nine, in addition to the respect between husband and wife, but also because there are many people from Number Nine tribe in E City, as a priest of E City, even if he is the leader, he has to ask for their opinions.

Although Shujiu felt a little bit reluctant, he could tell the difference between the serious and the serious, and agreed, saying that he would let his son stay in the city for a few more days before going to Xiacheng, and offered a toast to Chen Jian, hoping that his son could learn more in Xiacheng s things.

Now that Xia City has just finished a battle, it needs two or three years to recuperate, and the two cities can still enjoy a period of mutual trust and peace.

On the second day after the banquet, Chen Jian took the elm money and the first batch of grain back to Xia City, and the rest of the tribe would transport the grain back in batches using the snowy transportation conditions.

Half a month later, it was already the middle of the twelfth lunar month in the previous life, the food had been shipped back, and Chen Jian had fulfilled the original agreement on the battlefield.

According to the agreement at the beginning, half of the food exchanged by the slaves was distributed as the spoils of this battle, and distributed to all the soldiers who participated in the war. The rest was distributed to a small amount in the city, and the rest was used as public property.

The soldiers rejoiced because the food belonged to them and not to the clan. They had the right to dispose of the food and could exchange it for what they wanted.

A total of more than 40 soldiers participated in the battle, and 400 slaves exchanged more than [-] catties of grain, and after half of it, each person could share more than [-] catties.

But before distributing the grain, Chen Jian went to the copper smelting workshop and asked the tribe to make some small copper coins, the size of half a palm, which looked like bones or hoes.

For the time being, these newly emerging currencies do not have the philosophical concept of round sky and earth, but only the concept of labor. Because food is cultivated with plows, the food-based currency looks like a hoe, somewhat similar to the cloth currency of the previous life.

Coins are not naturally round. It takes a process from the beginning of seashells as an exchange, to copper as an equivalent until the currency has the value given by people.

In the previous life, the state of Chu conquered Wuyue and was close to the sea. As a natural currency, shells were used excessively. Therefore, the coins minted are somewhat like shells, and are called ant nose coins.

The countries in the Central Plains relied on farming earlier, and most of the money they minted looked like farm tools, used to replace cloth as a medium, and looked a bit like a shovel for digging dung. It is impossible to count on a prince who has never seen the sea in his life Use the shape of a seashell to make currency.

The currency planned by Chen Jian is deformed. It is not an ordinary equivalent, but a counting item of grain, more like a grain-based token.

When distributing the spoils, all the clansmen who participated in the Battle of Yangguan were given a small copper shovel half the length of a hand. The workmanship was very rough, and they were not even the same size.

After these people received the coins, they looked at Chen Jian one after another. Chen Jian said, "Each copper coin can be exchanged for three hundred catties of grain. Our trophies are all counted, and there is no mistake. But three or four hundred catties of grain will be given to you. Where can you put it? Put it in Fangshi, I have to remember Yuqian for you every day, it’s too tiring, so I made this one, it can be exchanged for food just like the original pottery ring.”

A clansman weighed copper coins in his hand, wondering: "How can such a light copper be exchanged for so much food? When we traded with Echeng, although copper was exchanged for a lot, it can't be exchanged for so much?"

Someone laughed and said, "It's the same as the Tao Huan back then. The Tao Huan didn't think it would be possible to change so many pots, but didn't Jixia change it for us?"

"Why can such a small amount of copper be exchanged for three hundred catties of grain? I know that Jixia means what he says, but I just don't understand what's going on. If it's just what he says, can he exchange it with bark? Then I put this copper coin in the stove and burned it to turn it into copper juice, why can’t I exchange so much food? Where did the less food go?”

With the foreshadowing a year ago, people in Xia City easily accepted this kind of token, but they couldn't understand the principle, and Chen Jian didn't explain it, and the temporary conditions were unlikely to produce counterfeit currency.

A large amount of grain is piled up in Fangshi, and those who need to receive grain can use this copper coin to go to Fangshi to exchange, or to buy.

Some people went to Fangshi to try it immediately after receiving the copper coins, and the rest of the people gathered around the outside of Fangshi curiously, or were joking with Yu Qianer, whom they had not seen for a long time.

Yuqian smiled and took the copper coins in the hands of the clansmen, and said, "My brother said, at least ten catties must be paid each time, too little for me to be busy."

"Then take ten catties, I want to change some wine to drink. But after losing three hundred catties, ten catties still have 290 catties, so what should I do?"

Yuqian'er weighed out ten catties of grain, took out copper coins from the counter, and took out a few newly-fired taupe from the counter. There were only two denominations, one big and one small.

The small one is ten catties of grain, and the big one is one hundred catties of grain. Corn is used as the unit of measurement for grain, and only corn is exchanged for wheat.

The two big Tao Bei and the nine small Tao Bei were handed over to the tribe and said: "This is 290 catties of grain, you can take it with you at any time. If you want to exchange things in the market in the future, you don't need to bring grain, but bring these Tao Bei Bay will do."

Carefully pierced the hole on the Taobei with hemp rope, and then said: "These Taobei are all marked. If anyone in our city wants to burn them by himself, he will be exiled if he is caught. You But keep an eye on it."

The tribe turned to Tao Bei, shook it, pointed to a new small bronze mirror on the shelf and asked, "How do I change that? I want to change it for the woman I like."

"Two hundred catties of grain, that is, two big shellfish."

"so much?"

"It will cost [-] catties of grain in Echeng. My brother said that it is good to use taobei. One is that I don't have to weigh them every day. The other is that these taobei are easy to take. You can put a pile of grain in it. It's also easy to be eaten by mice. We don't have many cats in Xiacheng."

The clansmen felt sorry for the food and taobei that they had exchanged for on the battlefield, and thought for a while and said, "Then I'd better trade it for something else. Is there any food that can be exchanged for ten catties?"

The people watching the excitement all laughed. Yu Qianer took out a bunch of gadgets. After looking at them for a while, the person felt that there was nothing worth buying, and sighed: "Some things are good, but now I live with my clansmen. Also, it doesn’t have a separate room like civet cats... Last time I went to the civet cat’s house, tsk tsk, he made it so beautiful, the bluegrass cleaned the inside very clean, there is not much smell of stinky feet, and the room is still hanging With dried herbs..."

"Yeah, we also want to have our own house."

"Let those slaves build some. There are more and more people in the city, and I'm afraid they will live outside the city in the future."

Chen Jian happened to come over. He thought that exchanging tokens for food would cause disturbances in the clan, but now it seems that the clansmen have easily accepted this new thing with abstract meaning. It has some effect, but it is more supported by the Xiacheng government and his reputation as the leader.

Nowadays, most people in Xia City still live with the clan as the center. Chen Jian is trying his best to plan for their clan, but the technology of family farming is not yet mature, so they can only rely on large-scale slave farming, and the food and drink are all distributed among the clan. , the tribal leader also has great power.

When the clansmen saw Chen Jian coming, they all shouted: "Ji Xia, next spring, when you are free after planting grain, you might as well build more houses. It is inconvenient for ten people to live in a house now."

"That is, if you agree, we can build it together in groups of several people. But you have to book a place for us. Don't worry, we won't delay the farm work. We will build it during the ten-day break, and seven or eight people will work together. Or you can use taubei and let the raccoon cats and other bricklayers help."

Someone said this, and it stirred up other people's minds. Some people thought that this food belongs to themselves, but the leaders of the clan will definitely leave part of it. There are women, children and old people in the tribe, and this food belongs to me. Why give it to them?

There are not many people who have this idea, but as early as after the war, several people have gathered together to discuss it. No matter what they think, it is much better to go out and live alone. The food they cultivate the land every year can’t be eaten by themselves. .

Seeing someone making a move, they pushed out one person and said, "Ji Xia, we thought about it, we got together, planted the land together, and built a house together. Anyway, there are officials in charge of us, and there are also councils that decide the city. It doesn't matter if we are in the tribe or not."

These few people are light and strong, they think very simple, they work quickly by themselves, and don't need to take care of the elderly and children, so if they work alone, it is better to work in groups of several people.

"Ji Xia, look at E City, they are all in one family. If you want me to say that we should also separate. It's not about one person, but seven or eight people together..."

The leader next to him immediately scolded: "How can that be done? You left, what about the elders and children of the tribe? What about the women? If you young and strong are all gone, let us a group of women and children grow the land of the tribe? It didn't happen before. When farming can only rely on tribal unity to hunt and gather, why don't you separate?"

Those people lowered their heads, and the leader was about to continue to attack. Chen Jian waved his hands and said, "Don't be angry, there are quite a few people here today, so we can discuss it. How many people do you want to go out with?"

Chen Jian glanced at the person who spoke first, who nodded and said: "Yes, we discussed it a few days ago. There are nine people in total, all of whom want to have their own houses, and besides, we also have a lot of food. We also cultivate the tribal land, so you can share some with us."