Chapter 92: Consolidating Power

In addition to the dedicated hemp field, the Baifeng Tribe also intercropped hemp in other fields; they all grew exceptionally well, almost all exceeding two meters in height.

Seeds had also been scattered casually beneath the city walls, and their tenacity shocked Baifeng; each one grew quite well, and although not as good as those in the fields, they were still slightly stronger than the wild ones.

Hemp is dioecious; the male plants grew taller and thicker but did not bear seeds. Seeing that the time had nearly come and the stalks had basically turned yellow, he showed no mercy and cut them all down one by one.

The female plants bore seeds, so he waited a few more days, cutting them later than the male plants just to let the seeds dry thoroughly. After the male plants were cut, he first removed all the leaves and then threw them directly into lime water to ret the hemp.

For the female plants, he waited until the hemp seeds were threshed off before retting them. Processing hemp is quite troublesome, but these tasks were handed over to the women of the Weaving Team; they were the experts in this regard, while Baifeng appeared somewhat of a layman. All he could do was provide them with whatever help he could and satisfy their reasonable requests.

Regarding the Glass from the Pottery Team, although Baifeng did not ask them to make any specific shape again, he still wanted them to continue their research into Glass, even if the color remained mixed and it was not transparent enough, it did not matter, as long as it could transmit light.

Baifeng only hoped they could make a Glass Window, just a square piece of Glass; this should not be that difficult. Baifeng's windows were already prepared, but they were still installed with wood; once the Glass panels were made, they could be installed to improve the lighting in the rooms.

However, the Pottery Team's progress was always very slow, and every time the kiln was opened, there was no difference, so Baifeng's expectations grew lower and lower. Later, he simply forgot about this matter and turned his attention to mica sheets.

They were equally transparent but more brittle, and they were easy to obtain and found everywhere; a whole piece of mica sheet could be peeled off with a gentle snap of the hand, so using it as a substitute for Glass was not out of the question.

Although White Crystal was more transparent and harder, and its yield was also high, it was quite laborious to make it into a flat surface, and being too transparent was not good either; Baifeng would have no privacy to speak of. Although he did not plan to have children for the time being, he still wanted to enjoy their life as a couple.

Over at the Suiren Clan, Baoxi had just finished dealing with several elders, making them unify their story: they determined that Changhe had assassinated his brother Qi, and then he had killed Changhe to avenge his brother.

This way, he would face much less resistance when taking over the entire tribe; at least the Soldiers managed by his brother would not offer too much resistance, and those from the He Tribe should be even less likely to have any rebellious sentiments.

Baoxi led a few people out of Qi's cave; the two beauties were already lying in a pool of blood. Of course, the killer was Changhe, and the weapon used was that Bronze Dagger; in any case, it was not he, Baoxi, who killed them.

Summoning his own Soldiers, Baoxi had them follow the elders to gather all the tribespeople and some more important individuals to announce that he would be taking charge of the Suiren Clan.

Soon, tens of thousands of people gathered in a mighty throng at the foot of the hillside, lining up according to their status and the subordinate tribe they belonged to, waiting for the lords to announce the major event.

Baoxi's good-for-nothing brothers all arrived at the very front; the two younger brothers who were still ignorant of the world did not come at all, because there was no place for them to interject in such matters, let alone the fact that they could not even speak.

One of the good-for-nothing brothers, Jun, had a body hollowed out by women; not to mention hunting or combat prowess, just one look at him revealed how weak he was, making it impossible for anyone to take him seriously.

Yet, even as a good-for-nothing like that, he felt that Baoxi, standing at the highest point, was an eyesore and felt that he should not be standing there. If it were Qi, he could barely accept it, so he loudly scolded Baoxi, telling him to get down.

Although the other brothers did not speak, one could tell from their eyes that no one was convinced; they did not admit their own incompetence, but they felt that Baoxi was simply not worthy of standing there. Even as stupid as they were, they knew that the position and the clothes were things only a Tribal Chief could stand in and wear.

However, they lacked the courage to drive Baoxi away and only hoped that their strongest brother, Qi, would come out to drive away the eyesore, Baoxi. But to their disappointment, after shouting for a long time, Qi did not appear.

Baoxi waved his hand and said with feigned grief, "Brothers of my Suiren Clan and fellow tribespeople, our Tribal Chief, the previous generation of the Suiren Clan, who was also my father, has died."

"And my brother Qi, who should have inherited our father's position, was just now assassinated by the Tribal Chief of the He Tribe, Changhe."

Everyone gasped upon hearing this news; their tribe had just lost their Tribal Chief, and while they originally had a powerful son of the Tribal Chief to take over, now nothing was left.

Baoxi continued, "After Qi died, he rushed straight to the beauties without the slightest hesitation, which shows the low character of Changhe, who had no intention of contributing to the tribe at all."

"And after he was done, he killed those two beauties directly, which further shows his shamelessness and bloodthirstiness. In order to prevent the Suiren Clan from being destroyed, and also to avenge my brother, I killed Changhe."

"Now, I feel that I am the only one here who can serve as the Tribal Chief of the Suiren Clan; I wonder if anyone has any objections?"

How could the ordinary tribespeople have any objections? They all lowered their heads in silence, waiting for the leadership to reach a conclusion; no matter who became the Tribal Chief, it would not change their lives in the slightest.

Hearing that Qi was dead, Jun's courage suddenly grew; he said things like, "What qualifications does a little thing like you have to be Tribal Chief?" and as he spoke, he walked up and swung his fist at Baoxi.

Baoxi was not afraid of this weak, useless brother; with a slight sway, he dodged it, and then the Knife in his hand was plunged into Jun's body. Jun let out a wail, and then blood flowed out incessantly.

Before long, he fell to the ground, twitched a few times, and stopped responding.

The other brothers who had originally wanted to vie for the position saw this situation and no longer had any such thoughts; they all lowered their heads and pretended not to see, hoping Baoxi did not see them.

Seeing that everyone was quite obedient, Baoxi had the elites among the Soldiers he commanded gather above to continue using force to intimidate everyone.

"Since that is the case, it seems everyone accepts me as the Tribal Chief of the Suiren Clan. However, rest assured, I do not like killing; I only hope to build our tribe better and develop it further."

Next, Baoxi directly stripped his brothers of their military power; they no longer had their own Soldiers and became nothing more than the Tribal Chief's own brothers, possessing only some empty privileges.

In the future, no territories would be divided for them to govern their own tribes; instead, they would just continue to stay in the Lu Tribe like this.

This solved the problem of the Suiren Clan becoming weaker the more it was divided at the source. However, if he wanted the Suiren Clan to regain its former glory, or even become stronger than before, he would have to bring the previously divided subordinate tribes back under the management of the Suiren Clan.