The exchange meeting was still proceeding as normal, but unlike before, the main player was no longer the camps of Tongling and Zhu He, but the Great Xia Camp alone.
Especially when Xia Chuan announced that the exchange rate of iron ore and coal stone of Great Xia would be one to fifteen, apart from the groups of Zhu He and Meng Yuan, almost all of the people from the other nine medium-sized camps erupted in enthusiastic cheers.
Previously, Xia Chuan had said that Great Xia would give all camps at Five Ape Mountain a chance to merge with them, treating it as a blessing from Great Xia.
In fact, everyone wasn’t entirely convinced by this statement.
After all, they had never been to the Great Xia Camp and didn’t know the actual situation. Although from Yuwen Dao’s group’s attire of over a hundred and the iron ore weapons Xia Chuan brought, it could be inferred that the Great Xia Camp was indeed powerful.
But merging their people into another camp couldn’t just be about whether they were strong or not.
No matter how strong Great Xia was, what if they were not good to their camp’s people?
Even more extreme, what if Great Xia’s style was similar to the Three Tigers Camp?
But now it was different: iron ore and weapons were real tangible benefits.
The one to fifteen exchange rate was a full forty percent cheaper than the prices set by the camps of Tongling and Zhu He, saving them loads of coal stone, conserving extensive resources, and allowing them to get more pounds of iron ore in exchange...
To them, these immediate tangible benefits were the real blessing.
"Sir, this is the specialty fruit from our camp, Cheng Guo, sweet and with a peculiar aroma. The previous exchange rate with coal was three to one, so with iron, it should be forty-five to one. We have 45,000 pounds here, wanting to exchange for 1,000 pounds of iron."
"Sir, this is the typhoid medicine produced in our camp, useful for women and children who are weak with symptoms of headache and fever. Previously, the exchange rate with coal was one to one, we’ve brought 1,200 pounds, wanting to exchange it all for iron."
When it came to the part of exchanging resources, Qiu Peng naturally took the lead.
He was the Director of the Camp Supply Department, in charge of all the camp’s resources. The items brought this time were also his responsibility, and it was up to him to preside over the exchange of resources with the eleven camps.
Xia Chuan did not intervene, he merely watched quietly from the side.
After watching for some time, he roughly understood.
Coal should be a common pricing item for the camps here at Five Ape Mountain.
Almost any resource was priced using coal as a reference.
Xia Chuan’s eyes slightly lit up, showing some appreciation for the command of the people present.
Sure enough, coal was indeed suitable as a pricing item.
Firstly, it’s a necessity that provides far more heat than wood for warmth, and it also greatly improves the environment, unlike wood combustion which produces a lot of smoke and has low burning efficiency;
Secondly, it can be used for smelting, medicine preparation, softening land, and even modifying living environments, it has a wide range of uses that every household can make use of.
Lastly, its mining threshold is high just like iron, with limited output, requiring each household to deploy Earth-digging Realm manpower to produce, and coincidentally, most of the eleven camps possess this capability and have coal mines.
Of course, it’s not that other items are not feasible; comparatively, iron and Cold Beast Meat, these two essentials, are actually more suitable.
The problem is that these two items are considered scarce at Five Ape Mountain.
"Sir, in this trade, we really made a killing. More than forty thousand pounds of iron ore exchanged for over five hundred thousand coal stone, not to mention we got so many new oddities—Cheng Guo, Frozen Pearl, Green Water Bull, Xiang Han Fruit, typhoid medicine, also medicinal White Zhi Umbrella, Jade Bone Grass, Cold Tong Powder...
Cheng Feng just told me that once we take these things back and use the Medicine Decoction Pot to identify them, maybe a lot of new medicinal formulas could come out of it!"
The resource exchange was not yet complete, and Qiu Peng, with unabated excitement, handed over the remaining matters to his subordinates, went to Xia Chuan with some new items to report.
Xia Chuan took the few new oddities passed by Qiu Peng, his eyes slightly brightening.
For Great Xia, such a transaction was indeed a good deal.
With so little iron ore, they could exchange for so many things. Even without knowing the difficulty of collecting these resources, at the very least, in terms of quantity, Great Xia profited a lot.
Even if it were all used to exchange for coal, they still profited significantly.
"Sir, if you ask me, there’s no need to recruit these people into the camp, just leave them here like the camps of Zhu He and Tongling, periodically releasing a certain amount of iron ore. In essence, they are actually still collecting resources for our Great Xia. What do you think?"
Upon hearing Qiu Peng’s words, Xia Chuan’s brow immediately furrowed, and he asked back:
"Do you think I brought all of you so far to Five Ape Mountain just to earn these things?"
Qiu Peng was initially stunned, then plunged into thought.
Seeing that he couldn’t figure it out for a long time, Xia Chuan shook his head, played with the new oddities in his hand twice, and directly said:
"The value of these things, whether high or low, can only be determined after it’s been identified when we return, but no matter what, they will surely be useful to us. Since they are useful, then we have to find a way to get them.
Do you think we need to adopt the same method as those two camps to obtain these things?"
The question was quite blunt.
Even if Qiu Peng was a fool, he came to realize.
"The chief sent us here for expansion. What Great Xia wants isn’t just these things, but the entire... Five Ape Mountain!"
Xia Chuan’s demeanor was domineering, having been in a high position for a long time, not only making his vision much more extensive than that of people like Qiu Peng but also giving him a deeper understanding of the relationships between camps.