Chapter 516
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Chapter 516: Historical Progress
Xia Du
Lin Jiang was summoned to Xia Du in the thirteenth year of Xia’s calendar. By the end of the fourteenth year of Xia’s calendar when he returned to Xia Du, it took one and a half years, actually. The battle ended in one day, and the rest was just traveling.
This made Lin Jiang feel bored. He decided to train more skilled people, so he could send them in the future to conquer with a large army.
After returning to Xia Du, Lin Jiang spent three days seriously thinking and decided not to establish a mature bureaucratic system. He would let it develop according to the current trend.
In Lin Jiang’s heart, he hoped for this world to evolve quickly into the age of technology. How fun the technology age would be! He could write some daring stories online to trick readers and have equipment anytime, anywhere. Even when it was freezing cold, he could pick nice clothes to wear.
However, rationally speaking, this approach would not work. By doing this, the world would become a patchwork monster, a deformed world.
Looking at the historical process, from ancient times of slavery to the feudal era, it was determined by the productivity and social contradictions. The historical trend would drive the development of history.
Simply put, the slave era suited the current productivity and society. When it no longer suited, the people of that era would choose for themselves. Transitioning from a feudal society to a modern society would be the same.
If one were to disturb the social progress artificially, there would be backlash. Reality has already proven this. Walking the journey that took others hundreds of years in just forty years might seem like bypassing the pitfalls of the past centuries. But in reality, when the economy stagnates or declines, the expected issues will arise, the pitfalls will be stumbled upon, and even more serious problems may emerge.
Because Lin Jiang realized this, he decided to let things go their way, to experience all the pitfalls, and learn from it. Even though people often can’t learn a lesson from history.
"For a hundred years, limit it to a hundred years. After a hundred years, fake your death and pass the throne to someone else."
Then, Lin Jiang had another idea: he would only stay in Xia Kingdom for a hundred years, and then find a way to leave, passing the throne to someone else. What happens after that won’t be his concern.
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In the eighteenth year of Xia calendar, Lin Jiang appointed some officials, but not in a systematic way. He appointed based on feedback, whatever was needed.
In the twentieth year of Xia calendar, the twelve Innate Martial Artists who were sent out initially came back, but only six returned. The fate of the remaining six was unknown.
Lin Jiang started to organize their travel records, preparing to write the Classic of Mountains and Rivers. This was something Lin Jiang personally experienced and worked on.
"In the tenth year of Xia calendar, in spring, under His Majesty’s command, I traveled to various places. I left through the north gate of Xia capital and after passing two months, I encountered a deep pool……"
"In the eleventh year of Xia calendar, in May, I don’t know how far this place is from the Xia capital. I only remember walking for over a year……"
"In the thirteenth year of Xia calendar, a certain encounter in a country…"
Lin Jiang looked with great interest at the notes brought back by the six people, they had truly experienced many hardships in these ten years, and many exciting stories had happened. If it could be made into a TV series, it could be over a hundred episodes.
They didn’t have enough paper and pen to write down their stories, so Lin Jiang specially sent people to find them. The six people recounted their stories, which were recorded as material.
"Did you really see an immortal?"
"Reporting to Your Majesty, I’m not sure if it was an immortal, but the people of that tribe all say so. They claim their leader has lived for hundreds of years and can fly through the heavens and the earth, can subdue demons and evil spirits."
Lin Jiang found one of them very interesting in the immortal mentioned in his notes.
According to his records, this was a tribe he encountered in his fifth year of traveling. It was very prosperous, even more so than Xia Kingdom ten years ago. The people there always spread rumors that their leader was an immortal, possessing various powerful supernatural abilities.
Lin Jiang contemplated carefully and thought, isn’t this similar to himself? Living for hundreds of years might include the age from cultivating immortal techniques, and the ability to fly through the heavens and the earth could be advanced lightness skills. It was understandable that these primitive people mistook gliding for flying through the heavens and the earth.
Lin Jiang couldn’t deny it, and then asked about other strange things, such as some strange beasts. Elephants hadn’t been seen near Xia Kingdom yet, but in the places they had traveled people had seen them, and the sight of those huge bodies had frightened them.
There were some strange things being talked about, and Lin Jiang didn’t rule them out. This land used to be a place where unusual things happened, so it was normal. Back then, people who practiced cultivation didn’t care much. They would try to destroy anything strange with a sword. If it couldn’t be destroyed, they would explore it further. If it could be destroyed, then it wasn’t worth exploring for them.
Lin Jiang treated the six people well, and soon after, he promoted them to barons, giving them big plots of land, many servants, and they became popular nobles in the Xia Kingdom.
The first edition of the "Classic of Mountains and Rivers" came out in the twenty-first year of the Xia calendar. Lin Jiang had dozens of copies made and distributed them to many tribes. As for the engravings on the bronze cauldrons, it was still in progress and would take some time.
By the thirtieth year of the Xia calendar, the territory of the Xia Kingdom had expanded to its limits. The farthest tribes were over ten thousand miles away from the capital, and it took several years to travel there due to the dangerous journey. All the nobles stopped expanding and began developing the lands within their control.
Lin Jiang didn’t force them as he knew it depended on productivity. The distance was too far to deploy troops effectively, so strengthening internal development was important.
That year, Lin Jiang sent out several teams to conduct a census in different tribes. The data came out the next year, revealing that the population of the Xia Kingdom had exceeded five hundred thousand, which was three to four times larger than a decade ago.
However, Lin Jiang was not satisfied with this number. He quickly introduced a new policy where the six Innate Martial Artists who had previously explored with him would lead teams to further regions to capture more people by any means necessary. They were rewarded based on the number of people they brought back.
The six people were already nobles in the Xia Kingdom with their own land and guards. Upon receiving the order, they quickly began planning their operation.
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In the 35th year of the Xia calendar, Lin Jiang started repairing the roads of Xia Kingdom and asked all tribes to do the same. They needed to have roads passable by carts between them, using land and titles as rewards. Xia Kingdom began a big construction project.
In the 38th year of the Xia calendar, after 28 years, Xia Palace was completed in grandeur. Lin Jiang held a large celebration, with representatives from all tribes attending.
"The inheritance of the Huaxia Language should not be based on blood ties, but on culture – words, pictures, music. These are what can be passed down. Even though Xia Palace is strong, it can be burnt down in a fire and can’t resist the erosion of time, but culture can.
In a thousand years, as long as people still speak the Xia language, sing Xia songs, write Xia characters, and follow the values of Xia Palace, it proves that the Huaxia Language is still alive."
After the celebration at Xia Palace, Lin Jiang suddenly realized the importance of culture and consciously started supporting its development.
Besides promoting literacy, Lin Jiang supported the development of painting and music, had instruments made, created songs, and held performances within Xia Kingdom to spread the word.
He even sent people out of Xia Kingdom to spread culture to faraway places, with wandering poets even becoming an official role in Xia Kingdom.
Of course, Lin Jiang also had many bronze tripods made and carved numerous stone steles and cliff inscriptions, all important carriers of culture.
In the 45th year of the Xia calendar, the population of Xia Kingdom finally reached a million. The official roads within the Xia calendar, after over a decade of construction, started forming a network, not many in number but at least providing clear pathways to tribes.
For this reason, Lin Jiang divided the territory of Xia Kingdom into six large blocks, each being guarded by a governor who was also granted the title of duke. The governors had great power within their territories, laying the foundation for a system of feudalism.
Fifty years into the Xia calendar, Lin Jiang once again erected three huge stone steles at the entrance of Xia Palace. These steles were inscribed with highly advanced martial arts techniques from six different disciplines, available for free for the people of Xia Palace to learn.
With this strategy in place, the number of martial artists in Xia Kingdom began to increase dramatically. Young talents emerged one after another, and the number of Innate Martial Artists even reached three digits. Lin Jiang was amazed by their talents and wondered how they had become so skillful.
The growing number of martial arts experts presented Lin Jiang with an opportunity to expand once again. He supported talented young warriors from the impoverished classes to leave Xia Kingdom and venture outwards, following his path of rising to power. They would conquer small tribes, grow stronger step by step, spread the values of Xia Kingdom, and ease the escalating social conflicts within the kingdom.
This policy received enthusiastic support because those who could practice martial arts were either wealthy commoners or nobles, both of whom had many heirs vying for inheritance. As the first batch of nobles aged or passed away, this policy provided them with an excellent way out of the conflicts arising from inheritance disputes.
Seventy years into the Xia calendar, a visitor arrived from the north, and after thirty thousand years, Lin Jiang once again encountered a cultivator who had lost all their magical powers.
