Chapter 168 Political Reform on the Free Trade Coast
"Three ships of gold? How much is that? Can you give me some?" Tormund's eyes lit up.
"Hahaha, as long as you perform well on the battlefield, I will make the decision. In addition to the rewards you deserve, I will give you an extra box of gold."
Both the gold and the Unsullied were transported from Meereen.
At this time in Meereen, Mando Gru was watching with distress as the golden dragons in the warehouse were moved away one by one.
Just a few months ago, Atlantis decided to build a huge military base on the west side of Meereen, so it mobilized 11 million gold dragons from Meereen.
This was the last wave of golden dragon transportation, and at this time the Free Coast Military Base had been basically completed.
Sorge came to Mando and said with a smile: "Thank you Prime Minister Mando for your cooperation."
"No, since it is the order of His Majesty the Sea King, we must actively cooperate, otherwise the Sea God will punish us."
Mantuo had a smile on her face, but she felt unhappy in her heart.
Now no one in the Free Coast believes in the Sons of the Harpy anymore; they all believe in Poseidon instead.
Because the sea god can really show his power.
When the Temple of Poseidon was first established in Meereen, Yunkai, and Astapor, there were few believers.
Until one day, a devout believer of Poseidon begged Poseidon to restore his blind child's sight.
Then the statue of Poseidon suddenly emitted some milky white light that fell on the children of the believers, and the children miraculously restored the light.
Later, with the propaganda of some people, Poseidon quickly replaced the Sons of the Harpy and became the new belief of the Free Trade Coast.
You know, although Jack has always emphasized that Poseidon is the god of the sea, in the minds of the public, although Poseidon has divine power, he is essentially just a deep-sea monster.
But things were different after Poseidon gained the power of faith. At first, he performed miracles through the power of faith gathered by tens of thousands of people, and then attracted millions of believers.
With more power of faith, he performed more miracles, and finally achieved a virtuous circle, becoming the omnipotent sea god in the hearts of the people.
The most important thing is that Poseidon doesn't know who he follows, and he is very narrow-minded.
As he becomes more familiar with the power of faith, Poseidon can now even learn others' evaluation of him through his believers' five senses.
If someone speaks rudely and is caught by Poseidon, he will use the power of faith to control the believers around him, and then pass a bit of his own power to the believers through the thread of faith to teach the rude person a lesson.
But unfortunately, Poseidon could not pass his power to Jack through the thread of faith because there was no faith relationship between the two at all.
Moreover, Poseidon, who now had millions of believers, learned some of the secrets of this world from the Galaxy of Faith, which was considered to have revealed a corner of the veil of the world.
The original magic power level of this world was above average, and could accommodate two true gods with divinity.
But later, a struggle broke out between the two gods over a competition for faith, which eventually led to a decline in the level of magic in the world.
The only true god with divinity left is the Lord of Light, who is seriously injured.
For this reason, the Lord of Light guided the Children of the Forest to create the Night King, and then directed the "reincarnation" of the Lord of Light to destroy the Night King, ruthlessly reaping the power of faith of all living beings in the world.
It's just that the King of Light suddenly disappeared, and his godhood of light also disappeared.
The other false gods without divinity also disappeared, leaving only extraordinary creatures such as the Night King and the Green Prophet who were considered demigods.
The long nights and long summers around the world were caused by the war between gods, but this was not a big deal.
As long as it is a true God with divinity, even a true God who has just condensed his divinity can restore the world to normal throughout the year.
As for why the Lord of Light did not restore the world's four seasons, it was probably because he was seriously injured, and wanted to harvest the power of faith of all the people in Westeros, so he did not repair the "aftereffects" left by his battle with another true god.
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Two weeks after Sorge transferred the last million gold dragons.
The Free Trade Coast is once again experiencing change.
Atlantis stipulated that from now on, the taxes of the three cities would be divided into two.
Sixty percent was handed over to the imperial treasury, and forty percent was used for development and payment of salaries to officials at all levels.
And the collection of taxes is the responsibility of tax officials appointed by Atlantis.
At the same time, Mando Gru was appointed as the Lord of Meereen, Renate as the Lord of Yunkai, and Rhodes as the Lord of Astapor.
Among the three city lords, except Mantuo, the other two were airdropped from Atlantis.
The city lord is responsible for managing all affairs within the city, but does not have the power to appoint and dismiss personnel or make major decisions. The power to appoint and dismiss personnel and make major decisions are the responsibility of the Poseidon Bishop sent by Atlantis.
The bishops of Poseidon are divided into five levels: gray, white, green, red, and blue. The cardinal is responsible for personnel appointments and decision-making at the city level.
A bishop must not only have a firm faith, but also a knowledgeable brain. Therefore, to obtain the status of a bishop, one must pass an exam, and the written exam is the most basic.
The most difficult thing is to pass the interview at the Temple of Poseidon. Only when the statue of Poseidon glows white can you pass the interview. Otherwise, it means your faith is not strong enough.
Now, the central officials of the court in the Palace of Neptune also need to pass this kind of assessment and at least have the identity of a gray cardinal, otherwise they cannot hold important official positions.
In simple terms, after graduating from the University of Atlantis, those with outstanding grades can take part in the written tests and interviews of the Temple of Poseidon, while those with average grades can enter the society and become highly educated talents.
Then, the three legions of black dragons, white dragons, and green dragons, as well as the Unsullied led by Grey Worm, totaling 33,000 people, were all incorporated into the Free Coast Military Base.
Among them, 18,000 people from the Three Dragon Legions formed the Black Dragon Fleet, the White Dragon Fleet and the Green Dragon Fleet respectively, and the shipyard built by Atlantis provided warships and logistical maintenance work.
Since the Unsullied cannot be replicated, they became an independent legion.
When these Unsullied grow old or die in battle, the independent Unsullied organization will remain forever in the history books.
This reform further weakened the power of the nobles.
Originally, these nobles did not have to pay taxes, but as the Free Trade Coast gradually became an outpost of Atlantis, more and more nobles joined the maritime trade.
So in this reform, Jack added the requirement for the nobles to pay taxes. However, Jack's overall tax rate was not high, the land rent tax was 10%, and the business tax was 20%, so they were still acceptable to it.
However, there is basically no land rent tax in the three cities of Meereen. Except for cash crops such as olive trees, almost all food relies on the transportation from the Laza Plain, resulting in the rapid development of the Laza Plain relying on the grain planting industry.
The food from the Raza Plain is not only the main source of food for the three cities of Meereen, Yunkai, and Astapor, but will also be the main source of food for the Free Coast military base in the future.
Therefore, after discussing with Kaido and Grey Worm, Sorge decided to increase the number of Unsullied stationed in the Raza Plain to 7,000.
The last three thousand Unsullied are stationed in Castle Kaiser, which has now become a complete military fortress.
In addition, many Laza people and civilians who had migrated there gathered near the Kaiser Pass.
They built a small town called Kaiser near the Kaiser Pass to provide a resting place for passing merchants.
For this purpose, Mantuo appointed his son Ivan as the mayor of Kaiser Town, and brought 200,000 gold dragons to expand the dock of Kaiser Town.
Nowadays, the nobles of the Free Trade Coast have basically divided their families into three parts: one part goes into business, one part joins the bureaucratic system, and the last part joins the military.
From then on, the Free Trade Coast fell completely into the control of Atlantis.
The bishop, who also had the power to make important decisions, began to use the remaining 40% of taxes to vigorously build civil facilities and expand roads between cities.
The three cities, which had originally slowed down in development, began to develop rapidly again, and several primary schools, middle schools and universities sprang up.
It's just that primary and secondary schools currently only teach reading, literacy and arithmetic. Martial arts for physical fitness have been added in secondary schools, and it was not until university that techniques such as blacksmithing were added.
However, the blacksmithing in the school is not called blacksmithing, but advanced forging technology. In addition, there are also the Sculpture Technology College, the Medical Research College, etc.
In the Imperial Academy and Imperial Research Institute built on the Sun Island just east of Neptune Island, a large number of craftsmen and scholars are studying the mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology knowledge left by Jack.
As for geography, to be honest, Jack's knowledge of geography may not be as good as that of local bachelors in the world.
When they have completed their research, they will compile it into a book and then send it to middle schools for others to learn.
Previously, Jack was worried that early ideological enlightenment would cause unrest in the empire, so even though Atlantis was extremely rich, he did not vigorously develop the education system.
But since Jack learned that Poseidon could enter the River of Faith, he put the development of the education system on the agenda.
Now that the foundation of the education system has been laid, all that remains is the gradual development of academics.
(End of this chapter)