Chapter 485: The City-State Era Comes

Bai Xue's relationship with Fan Li still falls on her father Bai Gui.

Bai Gui, a disciple of Guiguzi, is known as the "Ancestor of Shang". Fan Li, on the other hand, is known as the "Sage of Shang".

Although the two are not in the same age, they are both representatives of various merchants. After appearing in the wilderness, they naturally have a connection with each other.

In the previous contention conference, no businessman attended the conference. Just because doing business was a cheap industry in ancient times and was not tolerated by the mainstream. Even if you participate in the meeting, you will be humiliating yourself.

Of course, Bai Gui and Fan Li are different.

The two are not only businessmen, but also politicians and military strategists. Fan Li, in particular, turned to business after helping King Goujian of Yue to destroy the state of Wu.

Bai Xue also learned by chance from her father's conversation that Fan Li was with Xi Shi. This fairy couple is living in seclusion somewhere in the south of the Yangtze River.

The exact location is unknown to Bai Xue.

That's why Ouyang Shuo ordered the Black Snake Guards to do their best to track down Fan Li's whereabouts.

***********

Shanhai City, Wei Mansion.

Wei Yang was still immersed in the joy of reuniting with the beautiful woman, his face was radiant, and the wrinkles on his forehead disappeared.

It was rumored outside that Shang Jun was ruthless, but in real life, Wei Yang was a humble gentleman who didn't care about trifles. If not, he wouldn't let a strange woman like Bai Xue fall in love with her so much.

"Little sister, come here this time, let's stay here. Although Shanhai City is not as good as Xianyang now, in time, it will be easy to surpass Xianyang. Bai's trading company is also in Shanhai City, and there are unlimited business opportunities."

Although it is said that Xianyang in history was built by Wei Yang. But at this moment, Wei Yang's mind had long since lost contact with Qin, and he was focused on Shanhai City's internal affairs.

Granting the Ministry of Internal Affairs the right to adjudicate cases, compiling the territorial code, and expanding the team of yamen servants are all events worthy of special mention. How can Wei Yang fail to do his best when the monarch and marquis are so kind.

Not only Wei Yang, Han Feizi and other Legalist giants are also full of enthusiasm.

In Bai Xue's eyes, there is also infinite tenderness.

"Since we're here, we will naturally be by my husband's side." Bai Xue smiled, "It's just one thing. If the Bai's Trading Company wants to gain a foothold in Shanhai City, you need your husband to deal with it."

Wei Yang was overjoyed when he heard the words, and immediately patted his chest and said, "No problem."

In fact, Shanhai City does not have too many restrictions on the entry of chambers of commerce. Its open business environment, for Bai's trading company, I am afraid that it will be like a fish in water.

How could it be easy for Bai Xue to take over the burden of Bai's Trading Company from his father.

Perhaps, from today onwards, there will be three direct line chambers of lordship. Cui's Chamber of Commerce, Song's Chamber of Commerce, and Bai's Chamber of Commerce constituted three carriages, neck and neck.

***********

No one can tell what kind of profound impact Bai Xue's arrival will have on Shanhai City. Just outside of Shanhai City, the pattern of the entire China region is also undergoing profound changes.

On September 25, half a month after the [SAARC] surrendered, it finally made a big move.

Facing the huge threat of Shanhai City, a transformation has taken place inside [South Alliance]. This change will not only affect the layout of Lingnan Province, but will also have a profound impact on the entire China region.

On this day, [Southern League] officially announced to the public that it was renamed [Lingnan City-State Community of Destiny Alliance], or [Lingnan City-State] for short. As a result, the city-state system was announced and officially took root in China.

Compared with the current alliance of lords, the city-state system is too different.

First, there are specific deliberative bodies.

With the unanimous consent of all members, [Lingnan City-State] established a joint meeting of lords. All major decisions of the city-state are handed over to the joint meeting of lords for collective decision-making.

The joint meeting establishes the post of rotating chairman, which is rotated every six months. The rotating chairman is responsible for presiding over the joint meeting and is also a symbol of the city-state's foreign exchanges.

The first rotating chairman is Ruan Ping.

The lords of all the territories are members of the joint meeting and have the right to speak and vote. For each issue, as long as the number of votes in favor reaches or exceeds 60%, the issue is considered passed.

That is, compared to the complete independence of the members of the alliance. Members of city-states are semi-independent and semi-cooperative in internal affairs. The internal affairs of the territory are completely independent, and the joint meeting does not cooperate with it, nor can it interfere. For external decisions, the power is transferred to the joint meeting of lords.

If we say that from today onwards, the entire Lingnan Province's three counties and more than 60 territories are a whole, that is, [Lingnan City-State].

Second, economic integration.

Compared with the limited and piecemeal cooperation of the alliance, the economic cooperation of [Lingnan City-State] needs to go further. The first one is that the lords will jointly invest in the establishment of Lingnan Bank.

The future Lingnan Bank will be the engine and engine of the economic take-off of [Lingnan City-State]. Every member of the city-state can apply for a loan from the Lingnan Bank for the construction of the territory.

Of course, all this comes at a price.

The city-state stipulates that in order to ensure the capital reserves of Lingnan Bank, the banks in various territories must unconditionally integrate into Lingnan Bank and become its branches. In this way, the savings funds of millions of ordinary people in the entire three Lingnan counties, more than 60 territories, will flow into the Lingnan bank.

The Lingnan Bank suddenly emerged and became the second largest bank established by players under the Universal Bank.

In addition to the bank, more frequent and free trade will also be carried out among the members of the city-state. Trade between territories is subject to a zero-tariff policy.

In addition, merchants, craftsmen and others in various territories can move freely.

In this way, the economy of the city-state will be greatly activated.

City-state economic integration is no longer a fantasy.

Ouyang Shuo has a better understanding of this. Because, at the end of the coming year, the third update of the system will have a profound impact on the way of trade between territories.

[Lingnan City-State], unintentionally, took a step ahead.

Third, military integration.

In addition to the independent garrison forces of the territories, [Lingnan City-State] also plans to form a permanent allied army. The size of the allied forces was initially set at 100,000. In the future, the possibility of further military expansion cannot be ruled out.

The military expenditures of the Allied Forces are shared by all members. The formed allies will be equipped with the best weapons and equipment and undergo the most rigorous training.

According to Ruan Ping, the allied army is an ace force, an elite division.

Similarly, the Allies will also have an Allied Commander.

The specific commander-in-chief was kept secret by [Lingnan City-State] and was not announced to the public.

Although the commander-in-chief of the Allied Forces was not announced, Ruan Binh announced the location of the Allied Forces in a high-profile manner. The 100,000 allied troops were stationed at the junction of Jiaozhou County and Zhaoqing County, responsible for the security of the city-state.

It is self-evident who is guarding against and who is warning.

These three items alone are enough to prove that [Lingnan city-state] has launched extremely close cooperation in politics, economy and military. This cooperation, and the cooperation between the alliance, are completely two concepts.

In addition to the three major cooperations, there are other cooperations between the members of the city-state, and there are hundreds of them. It's just that [Lingnan City-State] has just been established, and the content of cooperation has not yet been implemented.

In addition to the above advantages, there is another major advantage of forming a city-state, which is to fundamentally eliminate the existence of "traitors". The Battle of Zhaoqing and the temporary betrayal of Wulong County had an impact on the war.

Drawing lessons from this battle, [Lingnan City-State] took strict precautions against this at the beginning of its establishment. Including that members are no longer allowed to form alliances, and the transmission authority of various territories needs to be monitored by the joint meeting of lords, etc.

As long as any territory disagrees, it will be regarded as an enemy of the city-state.

With this alone, Ruan Ping eliminated the unstable factors in the three Lingnan counties.

The future [Lingnan City-State] will be a community of destiny with a common will. No matter who it is, it can no longer defeat the city-state from the inside.

With all of these, there is no doubt that the renamed [Lingnan City-State], occupying the land of the three counties, will surely become a force that cannot be ignored in China in one fell swoop.

The road to the east of Shanhai City will also be full of difficulties in the future.

Fortunately, Ouyang Shuo planted a nail in the gate of life in Jiaozhou County. With the establishment of [Lingnan City-State], the strategic position of Zhenhai City became more and more important.

Ouyang Shuo was already thinking about whether to increase troops again against Zhenhai City.

The establishment of [Lingnan City-State] has had a huge impact on the major forces in China.

Any lord with a little brain knows the background and original intention of the establishment of [Lingnan City-State]. Although, other local alliances have not encountered such a threat as Shanhai City.

But who can guarantee that this kind of threat will not appear in the days to come? At the very least, Dichen and the others are definitely a huge threat.

Looking around from the giants, the future regional alliances will surely carry out closer cooperation. Forming a city-state is undoubtedly a very good choice.

In this way, they can truly compete with the giants. For example, the [Colorful Cloud League] located in the southern province of Shonan already has this intention.

After Shanhai City occupied Zhaoqing County, they could attack [Lingnan City-State] to the east; if they continued to the north, they could directly attack Shonan Province.

Therefore, [Caiyun League] has the internal motivation to form a city-state system.

As for when it will be established, and whether it can be established successfully, it depends on how much influence Caiyun Zhinan, the leader of the [Caiyun League], can exert in the alliance.

After all, the city-state system has advantages and disadvantages.

First of all, as long as you join the city-state, the lord can no longer do whatever he wants. Every word and deed is bound by the city-state, and has lost its independent diplomatic authority.

In addition to regional alliances, even alliances such as [Shanhai League] and [Yanhuang League] will also be impacted by the city-state system.

Although the alliances cannot cooperate like the city-state system, closer cooperation than now is imminent. Otherwise, it will be abandoned by the mainstream.

The city-state era is quietly coming!