Only a few days later, Kuxian rode to Shengle City.
The Tuoba Tribe's institutions were now rather peculiar.
The Xianbei had never had such a thing as local officials. The tribes gathered together, and each tribe's chieftain handled his own affairs without interfering with the others, while Liwei served merely as their nominal overlord.
Tuoba Liwei was rather like the Son of Heaven of Zhou in those early days: the tribal chieftains had both rights and obligations toward him.
The official hierarchy worked the same way. Liwei's officials could not give orders to those chieftains, and the chieftains had officials of their own under them. Neither side interfered with the other.
But Tuoba Liwei greatly disliked this form of alliance.
Although it allowed the Xianbei to swiftly form a powerful alliance, that alliance could also unravel very easily.
Easy to come together, easy to part!
If a powerful neighbor appeared and threatened them, or an outstanding figure such as Tuoba Liwei emerged, they would swiftly unite and form an alliance, rapidly growing into a formidable force on the grasslands.
The problem was that once this Great Ruler who could unite them died, or a major change occurred beyond their borders, they would swiftly collapse and scatter.
There was simply no such thing as hereditary succession in perpetuity.
Liwei yearned especially for the institutions of the Central Plains. The power to decide all great affairs under heaven as Cao Mao did, and to pass that power down through the generations-that was what he wanted.
Yet among the Xianbei, it seemed only Liwei and his sons thought this way. The other ministers and even the tribal chieftains all opposed it.
After gaining supreme power, Liwei carried out a series of internal reforms to achieve this aim.
He began exchanging letters with Zhong