Chapter 333: Establishing the Dao Court, I Am the Lingbao Dao Lord

Over the next few days, since the Earth Deity of the Luzon Island volcanoes had all surrendered to Xu Jia, and he was the strongest among the various tribal deities on the island.

Therefore, the barbarian wild gods of the various tribes, those who were obedient were directly incorporated, those who opposed were basically refined in an instant, and those who were watching from the sidelines, seeing that things were not right, naturally helped whoever was winning.

The original nobles and kings of Luzon Island were all exiled to an island dedicated to growing spices.

Xu Jia did not even need to take action himself; within three or four days, thirty or forty "village wars," large and small, had broken out, capturing cities and seizing strongholds—it was quite satisfying, and basically like splitting bamboo.

Chen Gongming, who was leading the troops in battle, felt it was dull; it was simply beating up primitive people—beating up primitive people in the physical sense. The so-called kings of the primitive tribes led no more than a hundred warriors, and although they were basically "hostages" from various tribes or the descendants of officials, they were all loose and undisciplined.

As for the power of the Dharma Realm, the gods and demons worshipped by those shamans had all taken the lead in surrendering. If they continued to resist stubbornly, how could they borrow power? If they could not borrow the power of the gods, it was equivalent to losing the mandate of heaven, losing their sanctity, and losing the right to perform sacrifices.

This differed somewhat from Xu Jia's expectation of civilizing and minimizing warfare. After all, as long as one fought, it was an unjust army—an army of unrighteousness. Luzon had not attacked him, nor had it rebelled; he had simply punched people twice for the sake of farming.

This would inevitably produce "men of ambition" who harbored hatred.

It was just that Xu Jia did not have these men of ambition killed, but he would not let them remain in their homeland either, so he had large ships take them to other islands and even gave them guides and tools for land reclamation.

Once they reached other islands, they would toil and endure humiliation, farming for a few years, secretly recruiting soldiers and buying horses, and once they had cultivated the land, it would be much easier to go back and occupy it.

There were too many islands here; small islands were also meat, and one could not only look at the large islands. Those islands were quite good for growing spices, cotton, bananas, and taro.

Because it went too smoothly, by the seventh day, Chen Gongming came to ask Xu Jia for instructions on how to establish an administration and whether to declare the founding of a Dao Kingdom.

Xu Jia thought about it and felt that whether established early or late, it had to be established. The state structure was related to the recognition of the common people; not establishing a state meant colonization, and the indigenous people would have no sense of identity, which would surely lead to disputes between the barbarians and the Han in the future. Once a state was established, whether immigrants or indigenous people, they would obtain a relatively equal status. Although there would still be a distinction between barbarians and Han, they would be included within the nation, which was conducive to promoting ethnic integration. One could even simply call the indigenous people the Luzon tribe, or take one character and call them the Song people.

Xu Jia nodded: "Then establish the state. However, Luzon is a small country. According to the feudal states of the Zhou Dynasty—Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and Baron—it can at most be considered a Viscount state. Even with an honorary title added, the Emperor can only be called an Earl."

"Take the state name as Song. Do not establish a king, only a Dao Court, to govern the territory of one prefecture. Externally, declare it the Luzon Prefecture. Within the prefecture, establish the Heaven Official, who has the power of personnel appointment and removal—temporarily myself. Establish the Earth Official, who manages geography and geomancy, measures land, and counts the population."

"Establish the Spring Official, who manages agriculture and the encouragement of farming according to the solar terms."

"Establish the Summer Official, who manages water conservancy and the construction of the Ministry of Works."

"Establish the Autumn Official, who manages punishment, legislation, and the rewarding of good and punishing of evil."

"Establish the Winter Official, who manages sacrifices and education."

"Establish the Dragon Official, who manages ships, trade, ports, and customs."

"Establish the Phoenix Official, who manages the unification of writing, language, and weights and measures."

"Establish the Qilin Official, who manages mountain and water resources, minerals, and metals."

"Establish the Water Official, who manages the inspection of the people's conditions."

"Establish the Fire Official, who manages the supervision of all officials."

"For the remaining areas, bring the map. Divide them according to geography and establish counties and towns as the two levels of local chief officials. Establish eight counties, with the chief official being the Great Libationer of the Dao Court. Establish thirty-eight towns, with the chief official being a Libationer, managing farming, sacrifices, and education in those places. For the rest, one may discretionarily establish subordinate officials, assistant officials, or assess and select personnel officials."

"The chief officials of all places must be Han people who have been granted the Daoist Citizen Register." "For the subordinate officials and personnel officials of all places, the people of Luzon must not be less than fifty percent. If no one passes the assessment, then first order the various tribes to elect virtuous and prestigious people to serve, then assess their performance for three months; those who are qualified remain, and those who are not are dismissed."

Xu Jia drew the line: "Although I establish a state, I do not call myself the state ruler, but only the Dao Lord of the Dao Court, or the Lingbao Sect Leader, the teacher of all officials, the teacher of all people."

"Since the Dao Lord has established the state structure, why not directly appoint personnel and share the position of Heaven Official?" That Zhu Yan looked at Xu Jia with fiery eyes.

Xu Jia nodded, but said: "The chief officials of our Dao Kingdom must be those with great virtue, and they must make vows and oaths, willing to use this as their cultivation; it is both an official position and a divine position, managing the wishes of all people. Therefore, it is not for me to appoint directly. You may all start from being assistant officials, and discuss all matters before deciding, until someone has enough merit to convince the public; then they may temporarily act as a chief official for one year. If there are no problems after one year, they will be confirmed."

"The position of Heaven Official will be temporarily held by this poor Daoist for now; if there is a candidate in the future, I can step down."

Xu Jia only wanted to be the Dao Lord of the Dao Court and the Lingbao Sect Leader; his own ambition did not lie in being an official, and as long as his own disciples held the positions, there would be no major problems.

After speaking, Xu Jia took out the Heavenly Emperor Relic Jade: "Establish the Dao Court altar, choose a day to sacrifice to the Imperial Heaven, Earthly Soil, and the Three Pure Ones. Use this treasure as the Town State Treasure. Additionally, find gold and jade to carve the State Seal to assist in the royal orders of the state. Then select the attire for the hundred officials, corresponding to their official seals, striving to establish the Dao Court state structure within the month."

"As for the capital, choose this place; it is close to a natural port and has a river passing through it, so there is no need to consider the dangers of mountains and rivers."

"In addition, we must plan and build a city. These matters must be completed within one year. The city does not need to build city walls; just build the official residences and government offices, and naturally, there will be citizens who spontaneously build the city."

While Xu Jia was establishing the Dao Court and forming the Dao Kingdom here, over in the land of Dongying, the Wanshou Emperor of the Longevity Sect and the last emperor of the previous Great Heng Dynasty felt it.

Seeing that the sky produced three-colored auspicious clouds, he knew the situation.

Five-colored auspicious clouds signify a True Dragon Son of Heaven.

Three-colored auspicious clouds signify a feudal lord or prime minister.

A single auspicious cloud signifies a virtuous person or sage.

Apart from the auspicious clouds, there were also the phantom images of the Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, Azure Dragon, and White Tiger.

It turned out that the Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter Officials had resonance with them; it was Heaven-Man Resonance.

The Spring Official corresponded to the Azure Dragon Constellation, the Summer Official to the Vermilion Bird Constellation, the Autumn Official to the White Tiger Constellation, and the Winter Official to the Black Tortoise Constellation.

He sneered: "This brat is actually learning from me by establishing a Longevity Dao Kingdom overseas, and he is also establishing some bullshit Dao Kingdom. He does not know that I have a strange treasure that can travel through worlds, descend with my soul, roam the Taixu, and obtain many resources; that is why I have thousands of cultivators. Relying solely on the energy and resources of an island nation, how could it be supported? Even supporting me alone is stretched to the limit."

Although he sneered and felt that Xu Jia would be burdened by the island nation, he did not intend to stand by and watch. Instead, he gathered a group of demons, ghosts, and monsters from the Longevity Dao Kingdom, totaling three or four thousand. Each one had a cultivation level of Human Immortal or above, and there were even a few Earth Immortals. Some were overseas monsters, some were half-beast sea people born from the mating of humans with seals, dolphins, and walruses, and some were indigenous evil gods and indigenous shamans who had switched to his demonic arts.

He then pointed out several Bao Ships. These ships were made of Sea Demon Bone Ship and Ghost Wood Yin Wood Ship, refined through evil methods, and sealed with heavenly demons and yin demons. They were veritable Sea Demon Ships, similar to ghost ships, with their own rules for killing. They were nameless and eerie, and from time to time, people would be killed to sacrifice to the ships to please the demons, but they could also withstand storms and even the attacks of some old-style cannons.

This old demon knew that Xu Jia had a type of firearm, so he ordered people to capture young girls who had just had their blood moon period, sacrificed them to the demon ships, and sprinkled the blood on them, giving them the "ability to misfire."

They headed straight for Luzon Island.

This was the tribulation of founding the state.

(End of chapter)