Chapter 1650: Casting the Tripod at Taihang

Taihangshan; hearing this familiar name, Baifeng could not help but be stunned. He did not know if this Taihang was the same mountain he was familiar with, but according to Chiyou, this mountain was currently the boundary between the three kingdoms of the Suiren Clan, the Jiuli, and the Xuanyuan Tribe, and since the Suiren Clan had now joined Huaxia, it was naturally the boundary with Huaxia as well.

Such a mountain dividing three tribes, being sufficiently tall and majestic, was also very suitable for holding a covenant there; in the future, Taihang would be designated as the mountain shared by the three tribes, and by it, the boundaries of the three parties' territories would be thoroughly determined.

Baifeng and Xuanyuan had no objections, and since it was a place chosen by Chiyou himself, he was also more at ease; thus, this covenant of the three tribes was settled, and starting from the Jiuli, they traveled together to Taihangshan.

On the way, Xuanyuan also told Baifeng and Chiyou that he had determined his state name, because as Xuanyuan followed Baifeng's line of thinking, the current tribal system was indeed difficult to satisfy the development needs of the Xuanyuan Tribe, and a state system was more reasonable.

However, after his state name was spoken, it truly gave Baifeng a shock, because the state name Xuanyuan established was called "Central Kingdom"; however, he took this state name to mean the kingdom at the center, because he had seen the rough map of the world given by Baifeng and discovered that on this known land, their Xuanyuan Tribe was at the center, Huaxia was in the northwest, and the Jiuli occupied the east and northeast, so the place where he was located was indeed the real center, and taking "Central Kingdom" was not inappropriate.

Chiyou, however, did not yet know to be envious of the state system, because his understanding of these things was not deep enough, and he believed that their current system was sufficient to continue developing, so he did not learn the methods of Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe.

And Xuanyuan also styled himself Emperor, named Huangdi, because the land was yellow and he valued agriculture, so he took Huangdi as his title; he simply did not want everything to be the same as Baifeng, so he did not style himself King.

And Shennong, exactly as in historical development, was enfeoffed by him as Yandi, having status and wealth but no power, using the title of Yandi to help him control the entire Shennong Clan, exactly the same as what Baifeng did to Baoxi, only that Baifeng had used Xuanyuan's method in advance.

Although Chiyou had no intention of establishing a state, in order to have a unified form of address, he still called himself the Jiuli State and styled himself the Chief, while all other models would not change.

Afterward, they spent a long time arriving at the rugged and towering Taihang; standing on Taihangshan, one could see the great plains controlled by Xuanyuan, and looking toward where Huaxia was, there were dense forests.

The three of them, at the highest peak of Taihangshan, slaughtered pigs, cattle, and sheep, using them as the greatest and most magnificent sacrifices to offer to the gods of Heaven.

Furthermore, while they were at the Jiuli, they cast a large Sacrificial Tripod, using materials from Huaxia, the Xuanyuan Tribe, and the Jiuli; for this, Huaxia threw many Knives and Swords into the melting furnace, and Xuanyuan did the same, though the main part of the Sacrificial Tripod's materials were provided by the Jiuli, and in the future, Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe would have to provide compensation to the Jiuli.

The purpose of doing this was for the "three-legged tripod" state that Baifeng spoke of; they cast a three-legged Sacrificial Tripod and set it on Taihangshan as a witness to the friendship of the three parties, and also as a Ritual Vessel for sacrifices.

Baifeng and Xuanyuan used Knives to carve the contents of the covenant onto the Sacrificial Tripod, but because the Jiuli did not yet have writing, they could only carve the totem of the Jiuli onto it.

Along the way, the Sacrificial Tripod was carried by over two hundred Slaves in turns, and quite a few people died along the way, and during the sacrifice, those Slaves also became sacrifices; Baifeng would not speak of any method of replacing humans with objects at such a time—at this moment, the more grand and the more rigorous, the better.

As for the covenant, because the covenant of the three parties was carved on the Sacrificial Tripod, there was no need to keep a paper version, but three copies were still written, the three of them signed them, cut their fingers, pressed their fingerprints, and finally burned them in the Sacrificial Tripod to reach Heaven.

This sacrifice lasted for several days; the process was quite cumbersome and quite rigorous, and after the sacrifice ended, the alliance relationship of the three parties was thoroughly achieved, and in the next few decades, the three parties would no longer attack each other.

And in order to better develop, according to what Baifeng said, two places were marked out on the territory of the Suiren Clan and the territory of the Xuanyuan Tribe, where they would migrate populations and open up passages in the future, allowing the three parties to have a place to trade products with each other, and the distance would be roughly the same for all three parties.

Because the trading location was on the territory of Huaxia and Xuanyuan, they actually gained a slight advantage, so the matter of opening roads and infrastructure was naturally borne by them respectively; the Jiuli, as the beneficiaries, did not need to do much, only needing to open the road from their Jiuli to the other two parties.

And the three parties formally decided to begin intermarriage; the Jiuli and Huaxia were already considered to have intermarried, as the children of Ayuduo and Changle were already grown, but in view of the fact that Baifeng had too few children, Xuanyuan and Chiyou each sent women to marry Changle and Yulong, and the two sides also intermarried with each other.

Baifeng was reluctant to take his only daughter and use her as a political bargaining chip; fortunately, the two of them did not care, and besides, they could not divide one daughter.

Afterward, they continued to discuss other details of trade; Baifeng directly supplemented the method of salt production for Chiyou, which could allow them to produce large quantities of high-quality and pure sea salt; the Xuanyuan Tribe did have rock salt, but the quality was poor, so this method was also given to the Xuanyuan Tribe, and the Xuanyuan Tribe could produce lake salt and well salt.

Of course, the price was not small; such important information could not be given for free, and they paid different prices: the Jiuli paid by having to provide salt to the Suiren Clan region at a low price every year in the future, while the Xuanyuan Tribe had to make concessions in other trades.

As for the method of farming, Baifeng and Xuanyuan were both very tacit; they did not mention it at all, for after all, this was the thing that could best improve national power, and it was impossible to say that just because they were allies, they had to talk about it.

At the same time, the Jiuli opened up copper and Iron trade; Huaxia and the Xuanyuan Tribe could both conduct copper and Iron trade, and Huaxia also opened up Iron trade with the Xuanyuan Tribe, but because of production capacity issues, the annual amount was still very small, but at least it allowed Xuanyuan to see some good things.

Finally, it was about the matter of territory; the three parties reached a consensus to jointly send people to investigate and divide, striving to take five years to thoroughly divide their respective boundaries, ensuring that there would be no more disputes in the future, and as for expanding in other areas that were not adjacent, that was their own ability.