Douluo: Peerless Black Tortoise Moon God

Chapter 304 Yan Shaozhe: Shrek Academy is large enough to accommodate those righteous people who have suffered persecution.
"The little beast who killed Xiao Tao and Mei'er two years ago suddenly appeared and, under the instruction of the Soul Master of the Hall of Worship, raised his butcher's knife against the Sun Moon Royal Family, ransacking their homes and wiping out their families, leaving a trail of heads rolling."

When Xu Tianxi was mentioned, a dark haze rose in the depths of Yan Shaozhe's eyes, and he said coldly, "This little beast who has no filial piety or brotherly love really has the heart to kill so many royal relatives, dumping their bodies in mass graves, leaving them to become wandering ghosts with no trace of their remains!"

Yan Shaozhe's description was correct. Because he had killed too many people, Xu Tianxi could not even give them proper burials or erect tombstones. He fully utilized the abilities of a fire-attribute soul master and cremated them on the spot.

Even Miss Ye, who possessed the sacred fire, could not escape the tragic fate of a working-class person. She was sent by a heartless boss to be a tool, and with a wisp of sacred fire, her body was reduced to ashes.

After being burned to ash, to prevent environmental impact, Xu Sanshi's water-based fire brigade was called in to disperse and wash the ash to prevent air pollution.

"Afterwards, that little beast confiscated all the property of those princes and nobles. For every living prince who owned property, he forcibly levied more than 90% of the taxes, and cut the tributes by 90%; it was simply outrageous and heinous!"

As he spoke, Yan Shaozhe felt a pang of sorrow for the royal families of the Sun Moon Empire. To make matters worse, they encountered such a ruthless and heartless person. Those who died watched their property being confiscated before they died, and those who were alive suffered even more than if they were dead.

Making princes who have never paid land tax or commercial tax pay such heavy taxes is no different from taking their lives.
Upon hearing this, Elder Zhuang, who succeeded Lin Huiqun in managing the external business of Jubaoge and Shrek Academy, also expressed his feelings:

"Yes, that little beast is really too ruthless and vicious. I heard that this person's tax rate is at least 90%. The more wealth a member of the royal family has, the higher the tax rate they pay. The highest person's tax rate is as high as 99.5%."

"This means that after a year of hard work, he earned 100 million gold soul coins, but only 500,000 gold soul coins ended up in his pocket. In the history of the continent, there has never been such a shocking thing. This person simply does not understand the way of economics at all and only knows how to seize by force!"

"If you don't give him money, he'll just lead a group to ransack the house and wipe out the whole family. Tsk tsk, the royal family of the Sun Moon Empire really doesn't live a human life. They're practically treated like pigs and sheep to be slaughtered."

Shrek City is the economic center of the three great empires. It has convenient transportation, good security, and the prestigious Shrek brand. Even so, they did not dare to raise commercial taxes to the sky. The annual tax revenue was only a few hundred million gold soul coins.

This little beast has plundered so many royal families and robbed so many people. How many billions of gold soul coins must he have made? Even Elder Zhuang dared not imagine.

Once Elder Zhuang spoke, he immediately opened the floodgates of conversation. Both the old and new elders of the Sea God Pavilion spoke up, and their words even showed some sympathy for the Sun and Moon Royal Family.

"That's right, that's right. Although we have a long-standing feud with the Sun Moon Empire, we might as well put aside our positions at this time. These royal families have truly suffered an undeserved disaster..."

"Hmph, I saw through this little beast's hypocrisy when he saved people in Xingluo City two years ago, and now I see he was right! He can even poison his own clansmen, which shows how cold-hearted he is!"

"Such a cold-hearted and bloodthirsty person will surely be punished by heaven; the Sea God will never protect him..."

"The Sun Moon Empire is nothing but a foreign invader, how can they be qualified to compare with us..."

Almost every elder wore a mocking, indifferent smile. Their inherent stance made them extremely hateful of Xu Tianxi's "retrogressive" actions, or perhaps... fearful.

The Sea God Pavilion members, whose thinking is still quite backward, naturally do not know that Xu Tianxi's method is not his original idea, but rather a reference to the policies of Commander Luo during the peak of a certain democratic beacon in his previous life.

The main focus is on surgically removing the top layer of skin and then focusing on patching up the middle and lower layers, which is a significant improvement.

Although jumping directly from a period of slavery and feudalism to the peak of capitalism is a bit of a leap, this is, after all, a fantasy world, and Xu Tianxi believes it's feasible and will be very effective; the initial capital accumulation has been completed.

The nobles who were exposed had no objections; did Xu Tianxi not hear it?

Xu Tianxi's plan was to spend three years purging the corrupt elements of the Sun Moon Empire, from the royal family to powerful nobles with fiefdoms, and then to large landowners, wealthy merchants, and minor nobles—all of them were targets, progressing step by step, leaving no one behind.

Those sentenced to death need not even be considered; just be careful in your next life. Those whose crimes do not warrant death can pay money to save their lives if they want to live, and those who do not want to live will all be sent to the execution ground. Sweep away the entire court and eliminate all criminals.

In this extraordinary world where power belongs to oneself, do you think I'm afraid of your counterattacks or your writings that ruin my reputation? Have you ever heard of the Dark Ages next door? Rather than you turning against me later, I'd rather chop you all down first.

Before, I was just a lowly Soul Master, and I could only turn a blind eye to you guys who leech off the masses and act recklessly. Now that I can kill a Super Douluo, if I don't take action against you, then all those years of cultivation have been for nothing.
After spending some time at Mingde Hall, Xu Tianxi realized that funding was a huge limitation to the advancement of soul tool technology, and that money was essential to developing productivity.

Due to the rapid development of soul tools, the Sun Moon Empire is generally much stronger than the three great empires in terms of infrastructure. However, it is not entirely superior. It also needs money to build infrastructure such as national transportation routes, water conservancy facilities, national information base stations, and soul tool shopping malls.

The fact that various civilian soul guide devices have not entered every household shows that people don't have money and still need money to invest in creating a better environment and boosting vitality.

So many places need money, and Xu Tianxi also likes money. He'll make money off whoever has it. So let these old things from the old era go their separate ways. He told Xiao Hongchen that it's no exaggeration to say that their blood will build an even stronger empire.

Taxes can be reduced or exempted for large-scale infrastructure projects later, but now they're collecting taxes like crazy; compared to the ordinary people who are harmed by them and burdened with debts that can't be repaid even after several lifetimes, what is this little bit of suffering? He's just letting these people experience what they like to do.

Of course, many people are hypocritical. The elders of the Sea God Pavilion can tolerate nobles who share their interests sucking the blood of the common people of Douluo Continent for ten thousand years, twenty thousand years, or even forever, but they absolutely cannot tolerate anyone doing the same thing to them.

What angered them even more was what Yan Shaozhe said next: there was also a traitor in their original Three Kingdoms!
Emperor Xu Jiawei of Xingluo, who had been stirring up trouble internally for a year, has instead followed the bad example of the opposing Sun Moon Empire. He dispatched the Imperial Guard to raid hundreds of noble families in Xingluo City. As the emperor of a nation, he led the powerful figures of the Hall of Worship to slaughter the dead, leaving Xingluo City littered with corpses! Afterwards, he implemented a tax rate of 80% or higher within the country, which was 10% less than that of the Sun Moon Empire.

Although Xu Jiawei publicly pronounced the numerous crimes of those nobles after the murders, and the core nobles of the empire, such as the White Tiger Duke's Mansion, were not affected, the Shrek members still found it unacceptable.

What's most infuriating is that Xu Jiawei actually announced in public that 30% of the money obtained from confiscating his property would be used for military expenses, 20% for repairing Xingluo City and appeasing the people, and only 50% would go to the national treasury.

This led to the most powerful military within the Star Luo Empire collectively agreeing with Xu Jiawei's actions. Representatives from all the major legions were sent out, almost fighting tooth and nail over the military expenses, with each shouting "loyalty" louder than the last.

Meanwhile, some ambitious military leaders simply "received imperial orders to suppress the traitors," allowing their troops to wipe out wealthy noble families in the vicinity. Many old nobles in the Star Luo Empire were tormented to the point of near death.

A family with generations of nobles? Sorry, go talk to the soul skills of powerful soul masters and the battle formations of armies. Right now, whoever doesn't take action won't have military funds, and their brothers need to eat meat to exchange for equipment.

For some unknown reason, the Heavenly Soul Empire also followed suit, and even invited those bastards from the Body Sect to help. As a result, the Heavenly Soul Empire's nobles, who had the strongest Soul Masters among the three empires, were powerless against the royal sword and were forced to increase taxes by 90%.

The Body Sect's style of doing things was even more brutal than Xu Tianxi's. Many times, they would skip the procedures of arresting people, collecting evidence, and killing them at the execution ground. They would lead their troops to charge into battle without bowing their heads, and blood would stain the area inside and outside Tiandou City for thousands of miles.

At the same time, the Heavenly Soul Empire cunningly announced that families with Title Douluo would not be subject to additional taxes, and families with Soul Douluo or Soul Saint could apply for tax reductions. The Noble Alliance became fragile and those who could not escape had no choice but to obediently hand over their family property.

As for the nobles who could escape... those who were adjacent to the Douling Empire naturally went to Douling, while the vast majority of nobles were fleeing towards Shrek City. Many nobles in the Star Luo Empire were also secretly making arrangements, hoping to move their entire families to Shrek City.

During this period, the elders of the Sea God Pavilion received hundreds of letters expressing their grievances and reminiscing about the past, almost causing the roof to collapse.

These elders all came from noble families. After becoming Shrek people, their ties with their families became much weaker, but they still had some distant relatives, including Elder Song.

"In short... that's the situation. It's with a heavy heart that I tell you all that the royal families of both empires have gone mad. They've forgotten all past favors, become callous and ruthless, and wantonly eliminate dissidents. They've all forgotten that their ancestors ascended the throne with the support of these old nobles..."

Tears welled in Yan Shaozhe's eyes as he deeply resented these people for willingly following the Sun Moon Empire to ruin things. Shouldn't nobles be passed down through generations? How could you do such a thing?
Old Song's face was somber, and he said in a sorrowful voice, "Shao Zhe is right. These past few days, the letters from those virtuous and righteous people have almost broken my heart."

“The children in both the inner and outer colleges have also received letters from their families. During this period, I have seen many children petitioning us to move their families here and receive the college’s protection.”

Xianlin hesitated, then reminded her, "But Mom, the royal families of both empires have also informed us not to interfere. How should we respond?"

Elder Zhuang said with compassion, "We can't let the children's hearts grow cold! Although Shrek Academy is not as good as it used to be, it is still the number one academy on the continent! It's one thing if we can't organize an inspection team to protect the continent, but can't we even protect the children's families?"

"You must understand, these children will all be Shrek Academy members in the future. If Shrek Academy can't even protect its own Shrek members, then what kind of Shrek Academy is it?"

"Shrek City is large enough to accommodate thousands of new families! If that's not enough, we can expand it. Let's work together to build our new home where we can live and work in peace and contentment!"

Money has never been a problem for Shrek. With so many nobles, they have more than enough to build a new Shrek City!

Yan Shaozhe nodded emphatically in agreement, saying, "Not only that, we should also accept more of those righteous people who have suffered persecution and been displaced. Shrek Academy can accommodate them!"

"I see signs of impending doom for both of these great empires. We, the Shrek Academy, must preserve the flame of revolution for the Douluo Continent!"

"Shao Zhe is right!"

"That's how it should be!"

"I agree!"

……

In the Poseidon Pavilion vote, Yan Shaozhe's suggestion was unanimously approved.

Who wouldn't like a free blood pack? Shrek Academy certainly wouldn't charge such a high tax, but since we're all building a new home together, it's definitely okay to make selfless contributions to it, right?
But just then, in a corner of the Sea God Pavilion, Bei Bei, who had been listening intently the whole time, suddenly spoke up:

"Elders, if the Sun Moon Empire continues in this manner after launching a war, forcibly extending it to the entire continent, how should we respond?"

"This..." The expressions of the excited elders suddenly froze on their faces.

Yes, what should be done after war breaks out? Will the Sun Moon Empire accept conditional surrender?
(End of this chapter)