Never in his wildest dreams had Pan Long imagined that He Ping'an had become a lord in the Western Regions!
He knew He Ping'an was capable, and that after years of making his way through the Western Regions, he must have gained something. Pan Long had assumed it would be wealth or connections. An official position had never crossed his mind.
He Ping'an was only lord of a small village, and by his own account the title was "mostly symbolic." Still, even if Singing Sands Village had only thirty to fifty households, it was his domain. Unlike in Great Xia, where a lord could only draw the local taxes as his stipend, every power in Singing Sands Village belonged to He Ping'an alone.
If he wished, he could appoint a village chief, set the local tax rate, make the local laws, and enforce them as he pleased.
Such power had existed in the Nine Provinces' past. It was known as "carving out land to enfeoff a lord."
According to legend, rulers in ancient times divided their subjects into two groups: "warriors" and "commoners." The latter needed no explanation. The former were enfeoffed lords and the legitimate sons eligible to inherit their titles.
In that era, commoners could trace their ancestry only through a surname. Only warriors could possess a clan name symbolizing the glory of their lineage. Vast as the Nine Provinces were, and numerous as their people were, nine out of ten had surnames but no clan names. These people later came to be known as the common folk.
That changed under the Sky Hero Dynasty. It established a system of officials, appointing them to govern localities instead of enfeoffed lords. Officials were not enfeoffed lords, so naturally they had no clan names. Yet their standing was hardly low.