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Chapter 1130: Chapter 1034: Onlooker
At this time, the empire of Daqian, having been elevated to a dynasty, already occupied lands spanning across two state domains, with a territory exceeding ten million square kilometers.
Most importantly, the Daqian Dynasty was still launching offensives on all fronts, expanding its frontiers!
Moreover, the empire constantly relocated ordinary people, moving families that originally lived within the internal boundaries of the lineage to newly incorporated lands.
At the same time, over the past several decades, the Daqian Dynasty has cultivated a large number of scholars, who have been dispatched to the frontier areas to become minor government officials, thereby strengthening the empire’s control.
After receiving the Jade Slip from Li Zhirui, this ambitious monarch did not act recklessly but advanced cautiously until he had firmly seized control, especially the power of the military, before he started to implement reforms.
Among these, a large number of orphans were taken in by the orphanages established by the empire; according to their aptitudes, they would either join the army, pursue scholarly learning, or master a skill. After completing their education, they were all put to use by the monarch.
Besides, taxation, land, imperial examinations, and so on, were all reformed one by one.
In the process, those factions whose interests suffered naturally were not content and wanted to overthrow the monarch’s rule, but they were quelled before any uprising could occur, like a stone thrown into the sea stirring a faint ripple before quickly returning to calm.
It was precisely because of decades of accumulation that the Daqian Dynasty’s fervent territorial expansion did not lead to many problems this time.
But this was already at its limit!
Therefore, after completing this expansion of three thousand kilometers, the burgeoning Daqian Dynasty quickly cooled down under the control of this new emperor.
All the ministers were busy digesting the huge gains swallowed up hard, and so were the common people. A vast amount of land awaited their cultivation, and not a single person had grievances.
Because the emperor directly promulgated through the Human Dao magic network that every household would be granted a quota to cultivate twenty mu of wasteland, with no taxes for the first three years, only half for the third to fifth years, and a return to the normal tax rate after five years.
Once this imperial decree was issued, within the empire, whether it was original citizens or newly incorporated ones, all praised the emperor’s benevolence.
For a time, with the will of the people, the empire’s luck flourished even more!
Moreover, since the cultivation quota was based on household registration, over the following period, families with three or four generations living together began to split, just to meet the requirements of this imperial decree.
Of course, some insightful people saw the deeper meaning behind the imperial decree.
You should know that a large part of the taxation was based on household registration; those large families in the past did not divide to avoid paying more taxes.
Furthermore, local officials would use the excuse of insufficient wasteland to separate these families, which also reduced the family’s influence on the towns and made it easier for the empire to rule.
This simple imperial decree not only solved two major problems but also made the people grateful to the emperor; such means made those ministers increasingly fearful.
However, just as the Daqian Dynasty was flourishing and striving to assimilate, some cultivators came knocking!
Most of them were there to watch the fun, wanting to know if this mortal dynasty was as powerful as the rumors claimed, while some came to avenge their friends and relatives.
Li Zhirui was among them, but his purpose was different from the others; he primarily wanted to personally verify if the Human Dao Dynasty was as described in the Jade Slip.
As for those few cultivators who sensed the threat the Human Dao Dynasty posed to the Immortal Tao, they were few and far between.
Nowadays, the empire occupied vast territories and mortals, with the former including Spirit Mountains rich in spiritual energy, as several Immortal Tao forces had been eradicated; the latter being the foundation of cultivators!
Tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of mortals, nobody knew how many children with Spiritual Roots would be born each year. These children would not possibly be taken away by Immortal Tao forces, but would instead be kept within the empire, injecting new vitality into its development.
"Hand over the murderer!"
A loud roar startled Li Zhirui from his contemplation.
Several Lianxu Cultivators stepped forward, shouting angrily: "Just hand over those murderers, and we will retreat immediately, never bothering your empire again."
"Hmph! Such nonsense! Those cultivators deserved to die; now they are reduced to skeletons, do you still want them?" Standing in the very front of the mortal army was a man who was nine feet tall with a tiger’s back and a bear’s waist, the marshal of this army!
"You have some nerve! How dare you kill cultivators!"
Wang Heihu did not bother with them anymore and roared to his army behind him: "Form up!"
Rustle—
In an instant, thousands of soldiers took their positions, not only orderly but also swift; in just a few breaths, they formed a battle formation.
Wang Heihu stood at the forefront, and a flag bearer beside him unfurled a banner with a black character for "king" emblazoned on the front and a lifelike image of a huge black tiger on the back.
Roar!
Above the heads of the soldiers, a large amount of black Evil Qi converged to form a gigantic Fierce Giant Tiger dozens of feet high, roaring into the sky.
The cultivators who were slightly closer were all dizzied by the roar, their ears ringing.
"Kill!"
Wang Heihu gave a thunderous shout, and the entire army moved in tandem with him, launching a ferocious attack on the cultivators at the forefront.
Crack!
Many cultivators didn’t take the mortal’s strike seriously and foolishly didn’t even bother to use their protective defenses.
