Chapter 290: Under the Vast Heaven

When Baifeng passed by, he first glanced at his bear paws. Chinv and Sui had been watching them attentively. Although the matter was now resolved, Baifeng did not arrange for anyone else to replace the two of them, so he just let them continue watching.

Baifeng opened the pot and took a look; a fishy smell assailed his nostrils. There was no help for it; they currently had no ginger, garlic, or anything else to remove the fishy odor, and they had not traded for any from other tribes yet. Ginger was native to this land, but he estimated that many people had never thought of using it as food because the taste was truly not like food.

He estimated that the first-generation Shennong knew what this was, but the precious legacy he left to his descendants was the plants and Grass Seed he had selected that were suitable for consumption, not these things that could not satisfy hunger.

If only Shennong knew how to write, how good that would be.

Now the Baifeng Tribe had begun to fully promote education. The literacy rate of children had greatly increased, and they could all write simple characters. Children as smart as Yulong already knew more characters than most people of his generation.

Baifeng thought that when he grew old, after reaching a certain age, he would hand over power to Yulong and settle down to write books, leaving everything he knew behind as the greatest wealth for future generations. With the things in his mind, as long as his generation did not fail, his kingdom could at least continue for another thousand years.

As for what it would be like after a thousand years, it did not matter to him. At that time, although they would be his descendants, there would be no family affection to speak of. As long as the entire country could always remain the hegemon and the number one in the world, it did not matter who was the king, as long as he was recorded in history as the most formidable and powerful founding ancestor.

And this matter of the kingdom was what Baifeng was about to discuss with the Administration Department and his various departments; he had decided to officially establish a country.

Baifeng entered the office, sat in his main seat, and then had everyone pull their chairs over and sit down in order of their rank.

The highest leaders of departments like the Witch, Bear, and Farming departments sat in the first row. Yu and Medical were also in the first row. Although the two of them did not directly lead any one department, Yu was Baifeng's assistant, holding no title but possessing great power. Medical was the person in charge of the Medical Department, which had no formal name; because their department only had a few people, Baifeng did not bother to establish a new organization and managed it directly, including education, which was also under his direct control.

When everyone was seated and quiet, Baifeng tapped the table with his finger to signal everyone to focus their attention, then scanned the crowd and spoke slowly: "I have decided to officially establish a country and change the Baifeng Tribe into a country. Do you have any thoughts or opinions?"

The crowd looked blank. What was a "country"? They had only experienced the changes from wandering savages to tribes, and then to tribal alliances. Currently, the largest thing on this land was a tribe. What was a country?

Yu was studious and asked whenever he did not understand something, so he spoke first: "Tribal Chief, what does this 'country' mean, and will there be any difference from how we are now?"

Baifeng actually found it hard to explain. The current Baifeng Tribe was actually no different from a country, including administrative management and all other aspects. "Country" was just a change of name, and it was also to pave the way for him to proclaim himself king.

While Baifeng was thinking about how to explain it, a sentence popped into his head: "Under the vast Heaven, all is the King's land; to the borders of the land, all are the King's subjects!"

Once these words were spoken, the few people who were more learned just felt that this sentence was very profound. They did not understand what it meant, but it should be very imposing. As for the majority of people, they felt that the Tribal Chief's words were the same as not saying anything; they could not understand them at all.

Baifeng explained slowly: "It means that the Baifeng Tribe will no longer be such a loose tribe, but a close-knit, united country. In the future, the management of all aspects will be stricter, all connections will be closer, and all things and matters will have boundaries."

"And the meaning of 'Under the vast Heaven, all is the King's land' is that under this sky, as long as it is a place you can see, it belongs to the greatest leader of this country—the King. 'To the borders of the land, all are the King's subjects' means that as long as people live on this land, they are all the King's subjects."

Then Baifeng sat up straight and said majestically: "I, Baifeng, am the King of this country. You, as leaders and managers, are the subjects, and those you manage are the commoners. Your status is that of my subjects. Do you understand?"

When Bear heard the word "King," he had already roughly guessed what Baifeng was going to do. He was the person who most hoped for Baifeng to proclaim himself king. He had been eating this big pie from Baifeng for many years. He had once thought about pushing Baifeng directly onto the throne, but Baifeng was unwilling. Now he finally heard Baifeng say with his own mouth that he was going to proclaim himself king.

So he did not care if the people behind him would be pinched by the chair he pushed away, and he knelt down directly and shouted loudly: "Congratulations to my King!"

Those in the first row were all sharp people; they bowed down without thinking. The people behind also hurriedly learned to bow, but the room was too small and the chairs were too big and numerous. They did not have space to bow like the first row, so they could only kneel virtually, bending their legs with their knees suspended in the air to offer congratulations.

Baifeng raised his hand to let everyone get up: "No need to rush. Everything is not settled yet. After the country is established, you will have to bow even if you don't want to. Now sit down first, ask if you have any questions, and speak if you have any opinions."

Bear was still the most anxious: "Tribal Chief, you said that under this sky, as long as the land can be seen, it is your territory. We certainly acknowledge this, but other tribes probably won't agree, right?"

Baifeng nodded: "Of course, it doesn't mean that because I proclaim myself king, all tribes must hand over their land to me. That is impossible. But this is what a king must do. The ultimate goal of a king—if they don't give it, then fight. Beat them until they submit, then naturally their territory will be my territory, and their tribesmen will be my subjects. Territories are all fought for, not spoken into existence. If it were that simple, wouldn't everyone say they were a king? Then how would the land under Heaven be divided?"

"Then, do you mean we are going to go to war with other tribes now?"

Bear was a warmonger and naturally hoped for war to come to expand the territory for the tribe.

However, what Baifeng was thinking was to rectify the interior first. It would probably take about half a year to rectify the troops and the government affairs, so that everything would run thoroughly and smoothly to the point where he did not need to solve everything himself.

Only then would it be a matter of expanding the territory.