The advantages and drawbacks of this system were obvious at a glance, but Beijia had no better alternative. Its territory was simply too vast, so vast that governing it neatly was nearly impossible.0

Yuan was not small. In fact, among all the known states, excluding the sea states and the lake states, it ranked sixth in land area.0

Despite that, Beijia was six times larger than Yuan. It was unquestionably the largest state in the world today.0

He Lingchuan had once examined the sand-table model of Beijia’s territory, and the sight had been truly magnificent. To the north, it connected to the open ocean; to the east, it reached all the way to the Earth Sea.0

Put another way, if He Lingchuan were to ride a bo beast from the easternmost edge of Beijia straight west, traveling about two hundred kilometers a day and never deviating from a straight line, it would still take him over thirty days to reach the westernmost border of the monster state.[1]1

And that was assuming he ignored the countless mountain ranges, deserts, swamps, lakes, and towering peaks in between. In reality, the journey would take several times longer.0

Beijia had always been a strange existence, praised and criticized in equal measure. Countless people looked down on its institutions and customs, because every other state that tried...0