Chapter 291: The Direction of War

Baifeng told Xiong not to be agitated yet: "War will certainly come, but not that quickly. Furthermore, my idea is that we should change the direction of our development. As far as I know, our neighbor, the Suiren Clan, is constantly expanding, but they are heading south."

In order to give everyone a clearer understanding of this world and the distribution of the tribes, Baifeng took a small blackboard and chalk and began to draw a map based on his memory.

The blackboard was just a wooden board coated with several layers of ink; Baifeng had made it to teach the students how to write characters. Later, he discovered that this thing was also very useful in the office, so he made several more. Every department had one, and they would write down what they needed to do each day. Those who couldn't write or didn't know the characters would draw symbols on it that they could understand.

The chalk was just processed Gypsum, which was a very easy thing to obtain.

Relying on his memory, Baifeng drew a map. Although it wasn't very accurate, it was of no great consequence, as it was just a rough shape. Moreover, some plains might not have formed yet, and some beaches might not exist; the current coastline definitely bore no resemblance to that of later generations.

Furthermore, Baifeng drew a bit more of the northwest, because the land was vast, and this was also Baifeng's main direction for future development.

In the thousands of years to come, everyone would think of going to the Central Plains or the east, almost as if they had forgotten the northwest and southwest.

Historically, the southeast was called a land of miasma before the large-scale southward migration, considered unsuitable for human survival. The southwest was the same, though the southwest wasn't exactly forgotten; the Nanyue Kingdom was later ruled by minorities for a long time. For the rulers of the Central Plains dynasties, the cost of attacking and governing the southwest was too high, and the output was low, so it was unnecessary.

The northwest, however, had always been a malignant tumor endangering the rule of the Central Plains dynasties, and what Baifeng thought of was to head west.

In ancient and prehistoric history, no very powerful large tribes appeared in the northwest. According to current archaeological excavations and historical inferences, even if humans lived there now, they wouldn't be a major force. For the Baifeng Tribe, it was precisely the direction they could attack.

On the map, Baifeng first drew the Baifeng Tribe—a "Bai" character—almost in the center of the map. Then, in a position slightly to the east and north, he drew a ball of fire to represent the Suiren Clan. Because Baifeng didn't know exactly how much territory the Suiren Clan had conquered, he drew it as large as possible, several times the size of the Baifeng Tribe's territory.

Further east was the Xuanyuan Tribe. The vast land between the Xuanyuan Tribe and the Suiren Clan, as well as below them, belonged to the Shennong Clan and the Lieshan Clan. According to the news Baifeng had received, the current territory of the Lieshan Clan was already constantly shrinking, having been pushed back a lot by Xuanyuan. Places that should have been the Lieshan Clan's territory had already been swallowed by the Suiren Clan and Xuanyuan, and now the Suiren Clan and Xuanyuan were already bordering each other.

The Shennong Clan, this incomparably massive tribe—Baifeng only knew its name but had never seen its people. Up to now, he had not had any contact with people from the Shennong Clan. For one thing, people from the Baifeng Tribe rarely left their territory; for another, the Shennong Clan was extremely wealthy and didn't need to go to gatherings to trade with other tribes, being fully capable of self-sufficiency.

North of the Xuanyuan Clan was the current Dayeze, which would also become a fertile plain in the future. This was the territory of Chiyou, or the Jiuli.

Chiyou wouldn't be able to hold this territory for many more years. Once Xuanyuan annexed the Shennong Clan and the Lieshan Clan, he would go to war with the Jiuli.

At that time, Chiyou would unite with the Sanmiao Tribe of the Huai River basin and the Yi people of Yunmeng Marsh to resist the Xuanyuan Tribe. Finally, they would be defeated at Zhilu, and Chiyou would die in battle while fleeing to the west. The survivors would head southwest all the way and eventually settle down.

For the thousands of years after that, the southwest would be occupied by the Lizhu, the Miao, and other tribes. Was Chiyou truly defeated? Not necessarily; at least he fared much better than other tribes that completely vanished.

Baifeng didn't know what tribes were in the southwest now; he only knew of the Xiling, which was now considered to have disappeared, with the remainder having merged into the Xuanyuan Tribe.

What tribes were further to the northwest? A blank space.

After Baifeng finished drawing, the people below were silent. They were shocked by Baifeng's ability. For so many years, Baifeng hadn't been to many far-off places, yet not only could he draw what this land looked like, but he could even mark the territories of these tribes; it was truly incredible.

After a brief silence, Yu spoke up and asked a question, but what he asked had nothing to do with what Baifeng wanted to say.

"Tribal Chief, is the land we are on like this? What is the edge of the land like? Is it like the Heaven, or is it like a cliff?"

Of course, Baifeng wouldn't explain that the Earth was round; that was something only his children would know. He wouldn't talk about the flat-earth theory either, as that would lead to a string of messy questions. In any case, the truth of this world had no impact on them at all.

However, since someone had asked, Baifeng couldn't say nothing, with so many eyes watching from below.

"This land is certainly more than just this much, but this is only the limit of what I know. Don't ask me how I know; I have said that I am the son of the Heaven god."

"To the north and west of the land I drew, there is land even more vast than this, larger than what I have drawn—a boundless land. And these edges, outside them is not Heaven, nor is it a cliff, but the sea—boundless, a sea several times larger than the continent I spoke of."

"You will still have a chance to see the sea. By riding a Large Ship and following the Dahe all the way down, you will be able to see the sea. Basically, all rivers eventually flow into the sea. You can also imagine how large the sea must be if it can hold so much water flowing into it without being filled; you cannot see the end, you cannot see the edge."

Baifeng wouldn't talk about endorheic or exorheic rivers, much less the great cycle of sea and land. Baifeng would only weave a lie for them, to the extent they could understand, that was enough for them to believe for thousands of years.

Geng, who usually didn't like to talk, asked a question: "Tribal Chief, since the world is as big as you say, it seems like one person couldn't even divide up tens of thousands of acres of this land, so why is there still war? Wouldn't it be better to divide it up equally? Then there would be no need for war, no need for injuries or deaths."

Baifeng didn't completely negate him: "What you say is indeed reasonable, but you are thinking too idealistically, too perfectly. This is also impossible to achieve, because as long as there are people, there are desires and greed. If you have one wife, you want two; if you have one room, you want a building."

"Ordinary people have these small desires, and Wang Ye has his own great desires. Once I have such a large territory, I want a larger one; I want a territory that is more fertile, I want a territory with more abundant prey and produce, a territory with a better climate. Once I have ten thousand Subjects, I want twenty thousand."

"Therefore, it is human desire that forces us to expand and forces us to go to war. Even if it were divided equally, we would still go to war because your land is more fertile than mine."