Chapter 900: Joint Development

"Good, Baifeng, this is what you said. If you can do what you are saying now, then we can split the spoils of war equally. Our Xuanyuan Tribe will provide more Soldiers, and your Huaxia will provide more grain and Weapons."

Xuanyuan was already very satisfied with such terms; after all, Huaxia was exactly compensating for everything he needed.

Since Xuanyuan had already agreed, Baifeng would not add any more chips, but instead said: "Xuanyuan, my thought is that if we can thoroughly conquer the Shennong Clan in one go, that would be best; it is better not to just conquer half."

"These current terms can be considered my minimum guarantee, because we still don't know what the Shennong Clan is really like. If we need to exert more effort in the future, as long as we can succeed, I am willing to add more."

Xuanyuan also did not expect Baifeng to be so resolute, because even he did not have great confidence in thoroughly defeating the Shennong Clan. As long as they could conquer half, this war would already be extremely successful. After all, the Shennong Clan was the largest tribe; conquering half would allow him to replace the Shennong Clan and become the largest one himself.

"Good, I have no problem with this either. Next is the distribution: territory, population, and supplies. Forget about supplies; after such a long war, the Shennong Clan probably won't have much left. Grain, furs, or anything else—there shouldn't be much."

"The most important things are the territory and the population. What are your thoughts on this?"

Baifeng was also very clear that he could not control such distant territory, and it did not fit his plan. Regarding Xuanyuan's question, he said without hesitation: "I don't want the territory. No matter how large the territory is, for me, there is no way to control it."

"Therefore, I need the population and the resources."

"Resources?" These two words left Xuanyuan bewildered, as he did not understand what these two words meant. Weren't grain and furs also considered resources? But as the saying went, what would be left after the fighting was over?

Baifeng raised his hand and counted on his fingers: "Wine, mineral deposits, trees—these are all resources. I can give you all the territory we occupy, but I need to take away some of the resources on it, because you couldn't possibly give me all the population, and I don't have the capacity to take on that many people."

Hearing this, Xuanyuan was not very pleased: "The most valuable things in a piece of land are just these resources you speak of. If you remove these resources, what use is the territory, other than for walking and living on it? Even the game inside would be your property."

"Xuanyuan, my standard for measuring whether a place has value and how much value it has is resources. After we conquer the Shennong Clan, we can calculate how many resources are on it."

"However, I cannot manage it all, so either you cannot touch them, or you can exchange them for territory closer to me."

"Of course, there is another way, which is for us to jointly develop them."

"Hmm? What is 'jointly develop'? Tell me about it in detail." Xuanyuan could always hear many strange things from Baifeng's mouth, but they indeed aroused his desire to know and learn.

Baifeng explained to him: "For example, on the Shennong Clan's land, there is a copper mine. When we divide it, that place is assigned to me, but I have no way to develop it, yet it would be very easy for you to develop."

"If it just sits idle like that, wouldn't it be a waste, right? So I provide the mine, you provide the people. The mine is mine, but you can mine and smelt it. We split the final results equally. Wouldn't that work?"

"The others are the same: forests, fruit trees—all the harvests, we just split them equally. It is equivalent to you providing the people to extract our resources; we get a portion, and you do too."

After listening carefully to Baifeng's words, Xuanyuan could not help but laugh: "Hahahaha, Baifeng, you can always come up with some new methods, but I have to say, this idea of yours is truly clever and indeed has great feasibility."

"Starting from hiring Laborers, you have been doing things like this. I am impressed by you. This method of yours is very good; I agree."

"However, I still think it is best to carry out these few methods together, because the Shennong Clan is simply too large. We cannot let conflicts arise because of the final distribution problem."

"We are friends, but after all, we represent the interests of hundreds of thousands of people in two tribes. We cannot give an inch."

"Haha, that goes without saying. But we haven't even won yet, and we are already negotiating how to carve up the Shennong Clan. Is that being a bit too confident and arrogant?"

"Let's talk more about current matters first. I think you are still very worried about the Suiren Clan, right?"

As soon as Baifeng mentioned the Suiren Clan, Xuanyuan became serious: "Yes, I am also very worried about the Suiren Clan. But after you agreed to join the war, I am not that worried anymore. Even if Baoxi is warlike, their tribal strength has declined too severely now. At such a close distance, even if he could send ten or twenty thousand people to attack us, they could only strike once and leave."

"In a war of ten or twenty days, if he has more people, he might be able to hold on, but as long as the time is long, they have no way to persist at all."

"I am also clear about his previous fighting style: using the largest number of people in the fastest time to attack a tribe, so that he could achieve the greatest effect with the least pressure on himself."

"And he could only attack small tribes. Didn't he use the same method to attack your Huaxia and end up collapsing himself?"

"Now, as long as he doesn't unite with other large tribes, neither of us needs to fear him."

Xuanyuan did not say which large tribe, but there were only the three of them here. The meaning in Xuanyuan's words could not have been clearer. Baifeng understood, but could not say it explicitly: "Yes, now the Suiren Clan should be the one most afraid. His pressure is probably greater than anyone's. As long as our two tribes act in unison against the outside, the Suiren Clan will not be a problem."

"Haha, good, good. Our two tribes must unite closely and make our tribes strong together."

"Then for this year's trade, let's follow what I promised to Chou. How about it? My sincerity is quite sufficient; you won't have any more objections, right?"

Baifeng actually did raise one objection: "The number of hired Laborers must be large enough this year. I need at least six thousand male Laborers, but for women, there cannot be too many this year. To tell you the truth, Huaxia is starting to feel the pressure now; it's not like grain is endless."