Chapter 337 Trading
In fact, the place where Li Yin landed was in what is now the southeastern part of Mexico.

This is the legendary Mayan civilization. Although it was in the Neolithic Age, it had achieved extremely high achievements in astronomy, mathematics, agriculture, and art.

The Mayan civilization is listed as one of the three major civilizations in the Americas, along with the Inca civilization and the Aztec civilization.

Contrary to popular stereotypes, the Mayan civilization was never a highly unified country, but rather a loose network of city-states or tribes.

After learning that Li Yin and others were coming to trade, the priest of the tribe was very happy and ordered people to prepare food to entertain these guests from afar.

Although we didn't speak the same language, after some gestures, I could understand about three or four tenths of the meaning.

This is enough……

Li Yin noticed that in this tribe, there were nearly four times more women than men, not including most of the men, both old and young.

What he didn't know was that Maya was now in the midst of a civil war, and with the increase in political marriages, the royal brothers other than the eldest son were being marginalized.

Some princes left their homes to find new cities, while others stayed to fight for the right of succession.

This "internal strife" has evolved from fighting for sacrifices to fighting for jewelry, luxury goods, royal power, beauties, etc. The war is endless, lives are lost, trade is interrupted, cities are destroyed and villages are destroyed.

Years of war have led to an extreme imbalance in the ratio of men to women.

Li Yin sat in the tribe with his men. He had an exclusive status, so he sat next to the priest and communicated with the old man by gestures.

Anyway, he felt that he had met the old man too late. After all, the old man might know that he liked to eat meat, so he made a big pot of barbecue. He didn't know what kind of meat it was, but it tasted... a bit earthy and a bit woody. It must be some kind of carnivore.

There was also something that looked like a chicken leg, but it was very big, many times bigger than a normal chicken leg. Li Yin took a bite and it was fishy and woody, not tasty at all.

He asked someone to bring the fine Tang Dynasty wine brought on the ship, as well as some canned food that had not yet expired.

The deliciousness of luncheon meat quickly conquered the tribal priest. The old man had learned Li Yin's gestures and kept giving him thumbs up.

Li Yin was happy, and the Tang soldiers were also happy.

Because they had just sat down and taken a few bites of their meal when a group of women dressed...very fucking revealingly came up.

As the saying goes, after three years of military service, a sow becomes as beautiful as Diao Chan. At first, she can still control herself from a distance, but when you get closer... she can't control herself at all, right?
This situation is understandable. After all, suddenly there are so many strong young men in the tribe, and the widowed women are all dazed.

The brave ones had already stuffed the people into the arms of the soldiers.

Of course Li Yin noticed the pulling and threading, but he didn't want to care at all.

Why bother with something that is consensual between us?
It's not like there's burning, killing or looting, and everyone is happy with each other, isn't that good?
Besides, everyone has been drifting on the sea for so long and has been very depressed. Now that you have a reasonable channel to vent, why don’t you let them vent?
"That..." Li Yin cleared his throat and instructed Liu Zude, "I will not be in charge of what is happening here, but there is one thing. No matter what you do, you must split into two groups. Do you understand? Half of the people must be ready to fight at any time!"

"Understood!" Liu Zude responded immediately.

Just when some people were doing this, Liu Zude suddenly walked among them.

"Everyone stop for a moment—"

"Old Liu, what's the matter?" someone asked impatiently.

"The king has ordered." Liu Zude cleared his throat.

After all, Li Yan still had some power. Some of the people who followed him were guards from the Prince of Shu's Palace who had followed him for nearly ten or twenty years, and the rest were all trained by him personally, so his words still worked.

After hearing this, although everyone was reluctant, they were still ready to listen to what Liu Zude had to say.

"The king means that although we have established trade relations with this Mayan village, people's hearts are still hidden, so you should be more careful." Liu Zude looked around and said, "So the king's order is that half of our 600 people must remain alert at all times so that they can be deployed to the battle at any time - rotate once a day, and as for the brothers who rotate to rest..."

Having said this, Liu Zude deliberately lengthened his voice.

"Hey, Lao Liu, just tell me quickly!" everyone said.

"The king said that you have been drifting on the sea for so long and the pressure is really too great. Now that you have this opportunity, just relax and have fun. Just don't kill anyone." Liu Zude said with a wink.

Everyone fell silent for a while, and then cheered.

"Long live the king! Long live the king!"

In this era, "Long live the emperor" was not a congratulatory phrase used exclusively by the emperor.

During the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was very normal to name people Wang Wansui or Shi Wansui.

If you want them to restrain themselves, then in this era, no army can do that.

But Li Yan had already persuaded them with both emotion and reason, considering the brothers' safety as the starting point, and did not prohibit everyone from having fun outside the agreed scope, so no one objected and immediately agreed to Li Yan's request.

Everyone winked at each other and divided into teams, planning who would go first and who would go last.

The rules are also very simple. According to Li Yin's suggestion, it is rock-paper-scissors. Two people are in a group, and whoever loses will go to the team for the next day.

This was selected based on merit, so no one has any objections.

Everyone has the quality of being willing to accept defeat.

Even though I sighed and complained about my bad luck after losing, I didn't try to cheat or blame the world.

After all, it’s just one day and you can have fun tomorrow.

After making the suggestion, Li Yin no longer paid attention to this side, but pulled Liu Zude to continue communicating with the priest.

After staying in the tribe for several days, Li Yin and Liu Zude had a rough idea of ​​how to communicate with the priests.

Liu Zude is indeed a language genius. He was able to quickly chat with the priest on simple topics.

The priest asked someone to bring out some cocoa fruits and a few pieces of obsidian and handed them to Li Yin.

He gestured and spoke, and Liu Zude understood what he meant. He said to Li Yin: "Your Majesty, the priest wants to use these two things to exchange our goods."

"This thing..." Li Yin looked at it suspiciously. Cocoa beans looked brightly colored and similar to poisonous mushrooms. He always felt that this was not a good thing.

As if seeing Li Yin's suspicion, the priest gestured again.

"The priest said that this is their favorite thing. If Your Majesty doesn't believe it, he will demonstrate it to you."

"Is this food?" Li Yin asked again.

After listening to Liu Zude's translation, the priest did not answer, but asked someone to bring tools and some dried cocoa beans, crushed them in a stone mortar, added water and some chili peppers, stirred them evenly, put them in a bowl, and handed them to Li Yin.

Li Yin held the bowl doubtfully, and just as he was about to taste it, he was stopped by Liu Zude.

"Your Majesty, how about letting me try it first?" Liu Zude asked.

"No need." Li Yan picked up the bowl and took a sip. "How is it, Your Majesty?" Liu Zude saw that Li Yan looked strange, so he asked with concern.

"Well, it doesn't have any special features except that it's a bit bitter and spicy." Li Yin nodded, "It feels weird, I'll take another sip."

"How can something so bitter taste good?" Liu Zude asked suspiciously.

"You don't understand. This thing has a bitter and fragrant taste. It's very strange." Li Yan took another sip and seemed to feel that he had fallen in love with the taste: "Ask the old man, what is this?"

Liu Zude translated again. The old priest thought for a moment and replied, "cacau." He pointed to the cocoa beans and said, "cacau."

"Kaokao?" Li Yin thought for a moment, then shook his head and said in denial, "It doesn't sound good. Damn it, what's Kaokao? Well... just call her Keke."

"Your Majesty is truly a man of great talent!" Liu Zude gave a thumbs up: "No wonder His Royal Highness the Crown Prince often praises you, saying that the King of Shu is a man of great talent..."

When Li Yin and his companions went out to sea, it was still the 23rd year of Zhenguan. Li Chengqian had not yet ascended the throne, and Li Xiang had not yet become the crown prince.

So in their memory, Li Xiang is still the crown prince.

"Really?" Li Yin raised his eyebrows: "Why do I feel that it is not a good thing?"

This great talent...it just sounds weird.

Would my brother really describe me like this? Li Yin scratched his head.

"Who said that?" Liu Zude flattered again: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and you have a deep relationship as uncle and nephew..."

"Bullshit!" Li Yin kicked Liu Zude on the butt.

Liu Zude was worried. Could it be that the king had come so far away and started to have rebellious thoughts?
This is bad. How can I persuade him?

However, what he didn't expect was that Li Yin scolded him: "I'll kill you, you evil creature! My brother and I have a deep brotherly love, but you, please don't ruin our friendship!"

Liu Zude: ...

Well, I shouldn't have worried about that.

Come to think of it, there aren't many princes as abstract as the king... who are so honest and upright.

Finally, Li Yin put down the bowl in his hand.

"You know what, this thing tastes pretty good. It would taste even better without the chili pepper." Li Yin smacked his lips and said, "In fact, I think you can add some sugar. This kind of fragrance is really memorable. I feel a little more energetic now. Could it have a refreshing effect?"

"Then this is a good stuff..." Liu Zude's body shook.

It is well known that theobromine and trace amounts of caffeine in cocoa can produce a stimulating effect.

"This stuff is good." Li Yin pointed at the cocoa beans and the bowl of cocoa drink: "I like it very much."

As he said this, he gave a thumbs up.

The priest was very happy. He asked someone to bring out a pile of cocoa beans. He pointed at the porcelain in front of Li Yin, then pointed at the coffee beans, and said a few words to Liu Zude.

"The priest means that he wants to exchange these cocoa beans for your bowl." Liu Zude curled his lips.

"What's there to exchange? I like him, so I'll give him the whole set!" Li Yin waved his hand generously.

Liu Zude and the priest translated this sentence in this way, and in return they received the high priest's worship.

"Thank you, generous stranger."

However, the priest thought that Li Xiang wanted to give him the bowl. After Liu Zude took out a complete set of tableware, the high priest's eyes became moist.

In this way, Li Yin gained the friendship of the village.

Of course, Li Yin did not forget the main purpose of this trip. He described to the high priest the crops he wanted to obtain, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, corn and other crops.

The priest touched his head and asked someone to bring corn and potatoes.

Li Yin recognized the two things almost at a glance.

"This thing is not valuable." Liu Zude translated for Li Yin: "The priest means that these are just ordinary food, which does not cost much. Only the cocoa and obsidian are valuable items."

"Obsidian is useless, it just looks good." Li Yin waved his hand: "It's hard enough, but we don't need it to make armor and weapons, right? Not to mention whether it can be melted, we haven't used this stone since the Shang Dynasty, right?"

Both his words and his words were filled with pride in advanced scientific and technological civilization.

After staying here for ten days, Li Yin proposed to leave temporarily.

He told the high priest that there were still some people on the coast. When they learned that they had come from across the ocean, the entire tribe was stunned.

They politely declined the priest's invitation to come live in the village with them, after all, someone was needed to guard the seashore.

Li Yin told the priest that they were only going back to get some goods, and they would come back to continue the trade, and exchange them for some wonderful fruit called cocoa.

As for crops like corn and potatoes, you don't need to buy too much, just enough for seeds.

There are a total of sixteen ships, and each ship will take some with it when it returns.

It took a long time to come here, but it was much faster to go back.

Li Yin and his men returned to the camp in one day and informed the soldiers who stayed behind that they had successfully found an inhabited settlement.

Liu Zude also specifically told them that he had found some fun to entertain himself.

After hearing the news, the morale of the remaining soldiers was greatly boosted, and they worked more efficiently.

After more than ten days of hard work, the seaside has begun to take shape as a fortress should.

After all, they were from the Tang Dynasty. The scale of this wooden fortress was much more majestic than that Mayan settlement.

Li Yin stayed in the fortress for two days and named it "Shuwang City".

Then he took some goods and a group of people and embarked on a trading journey again.

However, as soon as he walked to the vicinity of the Mayan village, Li Yin noticed something was wrong.

Why are there still sounds of shouting and killing?
Could it be that the village was attacked?

Li Yin did not dare to be negligent. After all, this was the village he had found with great difficulty. He had just opened up the situation and established friendship. What if he was destroyed by someone?
Thinking of this, Li Yin asked some people to move slowly with the baggage, while he took 500 elite men to support the Mayan village.

(End of this chapter)