CHAPTER 1502: CHAPTER 1049: TRUE GOLD FOR GREAT HORSES! THE SIMPLE CHIEFTAIN ZUWARO...

"Ah? Blessed by Buddha! Chieftain of Rokube, you want all three horses? You’re trading this Bronze Amulet with me for them?... That won’t do, at most I can give you two horses, I might not even take anything from you, but I’ll keep the largest one... Wait! This feel, this weight?!..."

The snow reached up to their knees, the cold wind froze the rivers and sea. Two groups of people held Stone Spears, Bronze Axes, and Iron Blades from different eras, dressed in various styles of Leather Armor, Copper Armor, and Ironwood Armor, as if they had crossed a millennium of history, meeting at the camp on the Far North Coast. At this moment, they confronted each other with tension, and waited for the outcome of their leaders’ negotiations.

Faced with Zuwaro’s request to trade horses, Ship Commissioner Murakami Kitamichi had a stern expression and shook his head resolutely. The Jurchen Stallion was to be handed over to Family Head Lord Nobuhiro, how could he explain if it was demanded by this mysterious group of Rokube?... As he was about to return the golden "Bronze Amulet" to Zuwaro, he suddenly froze!

"No! No! This feel, this weight?... Such a small piece, yet it weighs one jin?... How can bronze be this heavy?! Could this piece be..."

Murakami Kitamichi raised his head and saw Zuwaro smiling innocently, with a seemingly "simple" expression. He lowered his head again, glanced at the front of the amulet with the strange etchings of the sun and bird, and the back of the amulet with familiar yet very abstract tribal symbols. Blinking his eyes at the crooked, seemingly randomly carved marks, an incredulous idea surfaced in his mind, making him shiver all over!

"No... Witnessed by Buddha! Could it be? How could it..."

Murakami Kitamichi tremulously raised the golden amulet, hesitated slightly, glanced at the "simple" chieftain of Rokube, and bit into the amulet with his teeth. Then he lowered his head, looked at the new clear teeth marks on the amulet’s surface he had just bitten, his pupils contracted sharply, his eyes widened dramatically, and even his voice stammered a bit!

"Merciful Buddha!... Watanabe-kun... You... you help me... look... is this... gold? Pure gold?!..."

"Hmm?"

The Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi pursed his lips, steadily took the amulet. He first checked the teeth marks Murakami Kitamichi had bitten, then looked at the amulet with gold tinged with red, and his eyes immediately flashed with surprise and doubt. Subsequently, he reached into his bosom, fumbled for a while, and finally took out a small piece of flint, and sharply scraped the amulet across the surface of the flint.

This testing stone was a finely polished piece of flint, hard and smooth. He had brought it specifically to the Northern Land on the advice of the great merchant Mori no Kiyoshi, but it was only now being put to use.

"Hachiman Mahasattva bless! Seven Green, Eight Yellow, Nine Purple, Ten Red... this scratch is a purplish-red gold color? Is it nine-tenths gold? This is red gold of ninety percent purity!"

Seeing the color of the scratch, the Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi’s fingers trembled slightly, almost losing his grip on the gold coin. He hurriedly clasped the gold coin, weighed the just over one jin weight, his face subtly changing, his eyes somewhat moved.

A single jin of red gold, with a purity better than the sixty to seventy percent sand gold, in the merchant houses of the Capital City, it could be used as 80 strings of copper coins! Based on the Kansai rice price of 0.7 strings per stone, this palm-sized golden talisman was equal to 114 stones of rice!

Of course, being born of the mainline of the Martial Family, just one jin of gold wouldn’t astound Watanabe Masumi. But as he looked across at the necks of those Bronze Armored Warriors, all hung with such golden amulets...

"Buddha! Murakami-kun! Look, all these Warriors of Rokube have a gold talisman on their necks!!"

"What?! This... this... can’t be! Absolutely impossible!... How can there be so many?... Really could it be? Are all those really... gold talismans?..."

The cold wind blew, but Murakami Kitamichi didn’t feel cold at all, even somewhat feverish. He gazed at the golden light emanating from the Rokube, his pupils contracting and dilating, his heart pounding "thump, thump." In the span of a few breaths, countless complex emotions flashed through his eyes! From disbelief to self-doubting suspicion, to heartfelt eagerness, and finally to greedy desire gleaming in his eyes...

A few steps away, Exploration Captain Zuwaro squinted his eyes, observing the changing expressions of the two leaders of the large ship, as if watching the most captivating sacrificial performance! In the face of golden amulets, the performance and expressions of these two were completely different from tribal leaders, just as prophesized by Your Majesty!... His heart at ease, his smile widened, with profound thoughts, he once again spoke "simply."

"Witnessed by Chief Divine! Leaders of the large ship, I want to exchange for your horses, all of them, three grand horses!... What? Isn’t this piece of gold coin enough?... Stonefirm, give me your amulet too!"

Warrior Captain Stonefirm stepped forward, walked to Zuwaro’s side. Zuwaro whispered two sentences, Stonefirm’s expression changed slightly, and he gently nodded. He then also removed his golden amulet from his neck and handed it to Watanabe Masumi beside him.

"...Bodhisattva! This one, too, is ninety percent pure red gold!..."

Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi, after scraping with the flint twice more, couldn’t help but let out a groan from his throat. He bit his lip and handed the second amulet to Murakami Kitamichi. The latter’s hand trembled, and he visibly swallowed hard.

"Two jin of red gold... 160 strings..."

"Haha! Blessed by the Chief Divine! What? Chieftain of the large ship, are two pieces not enough?... Hmm... You mean, two gold coins for one horse?..."

Zuwaro blinked and showed a simple smile. He first pointed to the two jin of gold coins in Murakami Kitamichi’s hand, then gestured to the Yakut snow horse beside him as if to propose a trade. Murakami Kitamichi was stunned for a moment and then nodded vigorously after a moment’s thought.

"Blessed by Buddha! The Bodhisattva shows miracles!... This is a good deal, worth doing!..."

In this late Muromachi shogunate period, the value of currency was quite complex, with different gold, silver, and copper exchange ratios depending on the region. However, generally speaking, one tael of gold = 50 momme of silver = 4000 cash (4 kan) copper coins. Even the price of a native horse in the Capital City, where horse prices were highest, was only 2-7 taels of gold, while in the gold-scarce but horse-abundant Ezo land, the price was halved. According to early Tokugawa shogunate records, even the best southern horse officially purchased by the shogunate was priced at eight taels of ’Keicho koban’ gold after multiple markups, and even then it was called ’high-priced eight ryō’.

As for this snow horse, taller than native horses, if sold by the Kaozaki Family to the great merchant Mori no Kiyoshi, at most, 7-8 taels of gold would be the limit. Yet the foolish-looking Rokube chieftain in front of him was willing to exchange 32 taels of gold for it, which naturally was a deal worth making! Not to mention, the original idea was to present this horse as a bribery gift to this overbearing chieftain of the Rokube with his troupe of tribal warriors...

"Good! Witnessed by the Chief Divine! Then let’s complete the exchange, gold for horse!..."

Exploration Captain Zuwaro smiled and nodded, instructing the Kingdom’s warriors nearby to lead away the first snow horse, taking it far behind the samurai line. Then, he took out two more gold coins, pointing at the second snow horse.

Murakami Kitamichi pursed his lips, shaking his head full of thoughts of gold. He tried hard to resist his inner greed, keeping to a samurai’s rationality. But after rational consideration, he could not refuse Zuwaro’s request, nodding once more.

"Sukeichiro, bring over the second snow horse!"

The horse breeder Sukeichiro looked bewildered as he led over the second horse. Once he caught sight of the four gold coins in Murakami Kitamichi’s hand, his eyes changed instantly, and he gulped.

"Maitreya Buddha, Murakami magistrate, is this... is this real gold?..."

"Hm, bless the Kaozaki Family by Buddha! Sukeichiro, don’t speak... I am dealing with this foolish chieftain, you give him the horse!"

"Hm? He is... a specialized horse breeder?... Do these horses need specific, skilled horse breeders to take care of them? Indeed! The Mountain Part also has specialized reindeer and dog trainers... Mukun has told me that horses are especially hard to raise, and easily die..."

Zuwaro’s eyes flashed, his mind racing with thoughts, with some original ideas growing firmer and dominating. He smiled calmly, scrutinizing Sukeichiro and memorizing him secretly. After the Kingdom’s warriors had moved the second horse, he casually, as if unburdened by the abundance of copper coins, produced two more gold coins flashing with golden light!

"The Chief Divine witnesses! Chieftain of the large ship, friend!... This pair is for you! The third large horse, let me have it too!"

This time, ship magistrate Murakami Kitamichi gritted his teeth and did not agree. He stared at the gold coins in Zuwaro’s hand, licked his lips, struggled to maintain rationality, and shook his head vigorously.

"No way! Friend chieftain of Rokube... This one cannot be traded, it’s the mount for our family head... This really can’t be traded... Besides, the price for a Jurchen stallion exceeds two gold coins!"

"Hm? Not trading? Not enough? Not big enough?... Oh! You mean, the gold coins are not enough, that the biggest horse requires more?... Haha! Don’t worry! We have more than enough gold coins in hand!..."

Exploration Captain Zuwaro blinked and displayed a simple smile again. He didn’t fully understand Murakami Kitamichi’s words but got a rough idea of the meaning. Then, with a kindly hearty wave of his hand, he turned to Stonefirm and said.

"Praise the Chief Divine! Stonefirm, go to the Kingdom’s warriors and take each of their golden amulets from around their necks, one by one, and bring them to me!..."

Then, without changing his smile or showing any particular expression, Zuwaro’s voice just lowered slightly, calmly instructing.

"The Chief Divine witnesses! Remind each warrior to ready themselves... when I’ve swapped for all three horses and brought them over unscathed..."

"Yes! Rest assured, Captain!..."