Chapter 170 (1/2)

Before the transaction between the gaoshu tribe and the Xiaohe tribe officially started, four inland river armed transport ships went out first.

This time, however, we did not go to the river tribe, but to the more distant fortress of okron.

After more than 20 days of labor in gaoshu tribe, the captured fransies finally decided to send them back.

Although the French are not very good, they can make trouble for the British when they put these guys back. The most important thing is that major Armand has agreed to use the food stored in Fort okron as a ransom to redeem himself and his French brothers.

The king of France is now Louis XV, the great grandson of Louis XIV, the once famous ”Sun King”, the fourth king of Bourbon Dynasty. Although he miraculously kept the Bourbon Dynasty, the French Empire at this time is already at the end of the day.

Especially with the defeat of the seven-year war, everyone can see that the once invincible Bourbon Dynasty is coming to an end now, let alone the stone bear whose soul comes from the future, who knows more about the history of Europe in this period.

So at first major Armand prepared to use the currency of the French Empire as a ransom for self redemption, and the stone bear would not hesitate to refuse.

I'm kidding. Now the currency of France has been devalued severely. As the Bourbon Dynasty is becoming more and more decadent, the currency of France will be further devalued. At this time, if you use the currency of France as a ransom, don't you give yourself eye drops?

The French are not short of salt, but the gaoshu tribe has its own salt farm, and the salt made by the gaoshu tribe is much better than the salt made by the French. Only a fool would exchange salt.

As for muskets and other hot weapons, Shi Xiong knows that even if he wants them, I'm afraid major Armand's superiors will not agree.

Therefore, the stone bear finally made a firm decision to use grain as ransom.

No matter now or in the future, food has always been one of the most important materials.

”Food is the most important thing for the people” and ”there is no stability without agriculture” have proved the importance of food. Almost every year, the chairman's order No. 1 issued by the later Chinese president was related to agriculture.

In later generations, whether developed or developing countries, or underdeveloped countries, food has always been the foundation of a country. Even in the more developed countries, their people can not afford not to eat food.

Even those aliens in science fiction movies of later generations have to eat! As long as you eat, you can't do without food!

Maybe the food of aliens is different from that of our earth people, but you can't deny that those aliens can't do without food!

Therefore, food is the most basic and important material no matter in which era, country or region, or even in different solar systems.

In the new world of North America in this era, food is a hard currency comparable to gold.

The silver Egyptians minted by the French may not be able to be used in England, and the British pounds may also not be able to circulate in the French territory. However, it is undeniable that grains such as wheat, barley and corn are accessible in any country, which is even more powerful than gold.

Now the gaoshu tribe doesn't have enough food, and the Xiaohe tribe also wants food, so the stone bear decided to use food as ransom.

For major Armand and captain Constantine, it is also most appropriate to use food for self redemption,

Even though the Egyptians of the French Empire depreciated in Europe, they were still valuable in their countries. Moreover, they were all poor soldiers, and military salaries were paid in this currency. But even so, they don't have much silver on hand to redeem themselves.

But it's different to use food or other goods as ransom. Major Armand is at least the supreme commander of a military fortress. Even though there are only more than 500 Frenchmen living and living in the military fortress of okron, there are still a lot of goods and materials to and from this fortress every day. After all, this fortress is the largest military fortress on the Ohio River and close to the Mississippi River, There are still considerable supplies going in and out of the fortress every day.

As the highest military officer of a river transport fleet, Captain Constantine distributes a lot of materials every month through his hands. He is familiar with the military fortresses along the Mississippi River or on the Ohio River, and he also has a lot of ”stocks” in those military fortresses.

Therefore, both major Armand and captain Constantine readily agreed to the big man's request for food as ransom.

At first, the stone bear lion opened his mouth. A captive needed 1000 French pounds of food for self redemption. In this period, the French pounds were a little more than the British British pounds, which was almost 1:1.1, that is, 1 French pound was almost equivalent to 1.1 British pounds. This weight was not much different from that of China.

In other words, a French prisoner needs 1000 Jin of grain in exchange for a total of 47 prisoners, which means about 47000 Jin of grain, or about 23 tons of grain.

This number frightened major Armand.

Even if he was in charge of an important military fortress, where there were about 200 soldiers and 300 French people living, he didn't have so much food on hand.

The grain of this era is not like that of later generations. A town with 500 people can gather dozens of tons of grain. Nowadays, dozens of tons of grain are not for fun.

Just like okron fortress, although the location of that fortress is very important and there are many people living in it, the fortress can collect less than 30000 Jin of grain at most, which also contains more than 200 soldiers' rations for half a year, that is, about 18000 Jin of grain.

As for captain Constantine, although he also has stocks in various military fortresses, it will take a lot of time to gather these stocks together. Therefore, major Armand and they must gather so much grain from Fort okron at one time if they want to redeem themselves.

But it's clear that even with major Armand's ability, he couldn't have come up with so much food.

Finally, at the entreaties of major Armand and captain Constantine, the stone bear finally determined a quantity of 500 Jin.

That is, a prisoner needs to exchange 500 Jin of grain.

Forty seven prisoners, that's 23500 Jin of grain!