Thousand-Faced Dragon

Chapter 401 The Dawn of a New Era
"Isn't this a bit too arrogant?"

Even Rean was a little bewildered looking at the massive military camp before him.

Familiar place, completely different scenery. After Dimon's gang took over part of the neighborhood, some industries became very unsuited to the environment. Some "friendly former gang members" gave up their territory. The once lively and bustling Flower Street, Wine Alley, and Slave Factory were directly demolished and rebuilt.

Many of the factory areas are much simpler than before, but the number of workers coming and going is several times greater.

This is a newly built industrial zone. Part of it has become a fish processing plant, and another part is a textile factory and its supporting industries. Although the pollution problem is serious, it is clear that no one cares now, and most of the waste liquid is directly discharged into the sea.

Given the low level of industrialization in the area, at least in my lifetime, I don't need to worry about problems with the entire ocean cycle; the only concern is whether sea monsters, sea creatures, or even sea gods will come knocking.

In fact, this place should form a new industrial park. Although it mainly focuses on low-end light industry, primary gold refining and processing, human resource service leasing, and fish processing, it does provide a considerable number of jobs.

For many people, although they earn less, they earn with peace of mind.

After all, most people are still just rational and normal ordinary people. If they had a choice, they wouldn't think of risking their lives for money. Who doesn't want to live with dignity? Nobody wants to be walking down the street and suddenly be subjected to someone's "out-of-the-box" thinking.

"Taxes, is there a problem?" Rean asked casually, but it was what he was most worried about.

Taxes in that era were extremely heavy. Many industries that could have made a living became unsustainable after paying taxes. Lords and tax officials in feudal times didn't care whether the market, industries, or business owners could survive; all they cared about was collecting taxes.

As for the reasons for taxes, it's relatively normal for them to range from poll tax to business tax. There are also targeted taxes for special industries, as well as troublesome taxes such as forced labor and military service, just like the single tax, window tax (paid when you open a window), television tax, coward tax, beard tax, and oil/salt/sugar tax that existed on a certain planet.

When lords and kings want to collect money, they can come up with a thousand reasons. The reality of a weak kingdom makes its taxes very heavy, and where the taxes go is another matter entirely.

Most of the industries in Rean's area are high-employment, low-profit industries. If taxes were levied based on labor, headcount, and food consumption, the industry would go bankrupt the very next day. Many industries in the past never even sprouted because they were suppressed by this invisible hand.

In other places and eras, this market-suppressing force might exist for the sake of industrial development, but in this era and this kingdom, it's likely just that some king or nobleman is short of money.
"Princess Dania has granted a three-year tax exemption." Dimon's face, now bearing another scar, looked somewhat frightening when he smiled, but he was indeed in a good mood.

They originally planned to evade taxes, but ended up saving money. Paying taxes completely is impossible; otherwise, they would go bankrupt.

"It seems we really have to thank her."

This seemingly casual command relieved Rean and the others.

Strictly adhering to the kingdom's tax laws would bankrupt even the highest nobles, so enforcement is often selective. Some industries can only be run by nobles because tax officials won't target them for taxes.

A complete tax law would require specialized tax scholars to study, making it virtually impossible to implement due to the prohibitively high costs involved. For various industries, it has always been an optional implementation. To put it bluntly, it's arbitrarily determined by the needs of lords and monarchs. When they want to collect additional taxes, they simply flip through the existing tax laws; if they can't find a suitable one, they create a new tax on the spot.

It's practically impossible to enforce the law 100%; taxes vary from region to region, and whether or not taxes are collected, evaded, or resisted depends on one's strength.

The kingdom is in a terrible state. The royal family is weak, but instead of reducing taxes, the lords, military leaders, and nobles can easily act recklessly. Most of the tax revenue does not go to the royal family. If it does go into the local accounts as military expenses, then those lords are considered to have a conscience.

This "arbitrary tax" and "unreasonable heavy tax" affect everyone's life in every aspect.

Rean had actually experienced this before.

"She also reduced the 'book tax' and 'printing tax.' We bought a lot of small notebooks on weaving techniques, as well as medical ones, and we're even planning to build a small hospital."

For some reason, the nobles and royalty of this world do not like ordinary people to acquire too much knowledge and technology, so raising the price of knowledge is an unspoken consensus.

Professionals, especially mages, are another matter, but for ordinary people who are illiterate and ignorant of history, it might not be a bad thing for the administrators. In the past, copying and selling books was a serious crime, but although this crime has not been abolished, the royal family's attitude seems to have shifted from opposition to encouragement.

"She wasn't blamed?"

Rean could imagine how furious those powerful nobles who monopolized certain industries would be.

Many light industrial and handicraft products of this era do not have high technological content and can be easily imitated by small workshops. Similar examples include highly profitable industries such as condiments, soaps, and glass. As long as the technology is leaked, the market price is guaranteed to plummet.

Some small crafts are passed down in small families. When the kingdom and the royal family tacitly encourage the spread of knowledge and technology, many nobles who used to make money from low-end industries by exploiting information gaps may lose their lifestyle of making money effortlessly. This will not happen in the short term, but if this policy is implemented, those small workshops will spring up like mushrooms after rain, impacting those low-tech "noble industries".

"I don't know about that, since it's a matter for nobles. But now, whatever Dania wants to do, I'm afraid no one can stop her."

The city and kingdom might be gone in two years. If you block the royal family's path now, the royal family will really kill you.

Rean stroked his chin, somewhat puzzled as to why Dania had done this. Even if it should improve the nation's strength, it would also offend many people. Reforms that yield no immediate benefits are meaningless for the kingdom at its current state.

"By the way, recently a lot of pamphlets on extraordinary knowledge have appeared on the black market."

Now it dawned on Rean; this was perhaps the key point.

Her goal is probably to produce a large number of superhumans in the shortest possible time, so that even if they can't go to the high-risk front lines, they can still generate a lot of reserve and logistical personnel.

However, cultivating extraordinary individuals takes a long time. Even if knowledge emerges among the common people and underground ruins produce a large amount of material, it would still take one or two years to cultivate a highly skilled professional who can improve the battlefield situation.

"Yes, it's possible. Regular combat classes can't do it, but some can be learned very quickly."

Upon hearing this, Rean was taken aback, but then suddenly realized.

The most unorthodox are the Demon Pact Masters; as long as they are willing to give up their (souls), acquiring power is incredibly easy.

In addition, there are also priests who can be trained quickly, and warlocks, once their bloodline is activated, grow in a rather random and unpredictable way. There are several other similar extraordinary professions.

Are there any dangerous professions among them?

"a lot of."

Those unorthodox methods, such as overdrawing potential or sacrificing life to gain power, are also very common, and many noble families use this method to train assassins.

For example, Talia's "poisonous assassins".
"This is a bit of a trap." Rean felt a little reluctant; he didn't think those people could resist the temptation.

Dimon shook his head. For someone like him who had been driven to the brink of despair, it was a completely different perspective and viewpoint.

"This is great news. For most brave people, they don't need to think about the long term. If they can gain power and use it to obtain magical materials to complete their bloodline evolution, they can make up for the life and lifespan they lost and may live longer than before."

Rean opened his mouth as if to speak, but ultimately shook his head.

Don't judge someone's life-risking choice if you haven't experienced their suffering.
"This might be a good thing for me. Only warlocks can execute the Dragon Pact, so I might be able to easily find a group of new warlocks who can do it. Or, why not use this opportunity to establish a warlock army or even a warlock family? The Knights need the support of spellcasters."

(End of this chapter)