Chapter 620: The Vision of the Feudal System

After a moment of contemplation, everyone revealed expressions of disbelief; they had never thought of this matter, but only now did they realize that what they had been doing was not so good, and would instead bring about great hidden dangers, especially given how weak the Royal Family was while their own families were becoming increasingly massive.

Baifeng asked everyone to calm down: "Huaxia, in the future, will continue to develop westward as I have planned, constantly expanding, and the cities built will become more and more numerous; naturally, there will be more land that needs to be developed."

"The purpose of me granting you land is to let your massive families live in the cities where your granted land is located, and even manage those cities. Of course, if you are unwilling to go, that is no problem. You only need to make a choice between being satisfied with the current status quo and whether you can support such a massive family, or letting your descendants go to a new city to continue developing and strive for a better life than the present."

"You must know, the land I grant is not like the private fields of today. Whenever I grant it, it is always contiguous mountain forests and land capable of supporting tens of thousands of people, not the kind where I give a family a few acres, understand?"

Everyone was still somewhat bewildered; this sudden news was quite a shock to them, and for a moment they could not distinguish whether it was good or bad.

Baifeng continued to add: "There is another important reason why I am doing this: in the future, Huaxia will become larger and larger. Because the distances will be too great and communication too slow, there will certainly be problems in management. Therefore, I need people I can trust enough to help me manage those places and guard those territories. Now, do you understand?"

Only then did everyone look up, their eyes bright and clear. Xiong was the first to step forward and kneel on one knee: "King, I, Xiong, and my descendants are all willing to guard Huaxia."

Seeing this, the others hurriedly stepped forward to kneel and take an oath, expressing their loyalty. Although the people from the Ministry of Rites had not been granted anything, seeing that the other officials had all knelt, it would not be good for them not to kneel, so they could only kneel together.

Seeing this, Baifeng smiled with emotion and called the group of people to rise.

By doing this, Baifeng was adopting the Feudal System. In the current environment, Baifeng looked across history and saw that only the Feudal System was more suitable for the present. Only by enfeoffment could the creativity and development capabilities of these great families be mobilized to develop the most primitive of lands for Huaxia, while at the same time diverting the conflict that was about to emerge in Huaxia City between the great families and the commoner class.

Now, the increasingly massive great families would naturally gradually encroach upon the interests of ordinary people; after all, Huaxia City was only so big. Furthermore, to be honest, Baifeng was not at ease leaving so many massive families in Huaxia City, at most leaving the direct lineage here. Otherwise, could Baifeng's descendants continue to stay here safely and comfortably? Who could guarantee that the descendants of these people would all be as loyal as they were?

After a mix of intimidation and rewards, the emotions of those being granted were stabilized. Even if Baifeng arranged for their descendants to go to those desolate places in the future, they should understand that it was for their own families to strive, because the land developed would be their own.

Of course, the Feudal System would also produce great drawbacks in its middle and late stages. History had already provided the answer on how to restrict it, and Baifeng would explain all the rules clearly when the actual enfeoffment took place.

As for what problems would arise later, Baifeng did not know, but as long as what needed to be done was done well, there would be no major problems. The thing that needed to be done was to alleviate the main social contradictions.

The current main contradiction, as Baifeng summarized it himself, was the contradiction between the human need for rapid expansion and reproduction, and the backward methods of production, productive forces, and the primitive Nature.

As long as the productive forces could be improved, allowing most people to have food to eat and not be frozen or starved to death, then the rule of Baifeng's family would be stable, and this contradiction would last for at least several hundred years.

Several hundred years later, it would be the contradiction between classes: the contradiction between the Noble class, who did not labor but occupied the vast majority of the means of production and labor results, and the commoner class, who labored hard but still went hungry and had no land of their own.

However, Baifeng had long since made contingency plans. Fixed, private land and a relatively broad class advancement mechanism were all sufficient to allow the rule of Baifeng's family to continue more durably.

Even for behaviors like Nobles encroaching on the land of commoners or concealing taxes, there were response policies. Baifeng thought that it would be at least a thousand years before the major contradictions appeared.

After saying what needed to be said, Baifeng dismissed these people and kept the people from the Ministry of Rites behind separately. Firstly, Wu was in very poor health and was about to truly retire, handing the Ministry of Rites over to these people. Secondly, Wu was the target of the enfeoffment this time, and it was impossible to let him preside over his own ceremony; that would be too contrary to ritual.

Thus, Baifeng handed the details and process of the ceremony he had designed to Zhigui, asking him to look it over from the beginning, then conduct rehearsals, and prepare everything needed during this period. Once everything was ready, the enfeoffment ceremony would begin as soon as possible.

And after the enfeoffment ceremony, Baifeng thought about holding Yulong's wedding as well; after all, it had already been delayed for a year. Yu's wedding had already taken place, and Xiong was about to become a grandfather. Although he himself was not in a hurry, Yulong seemed quite anxious.