Chapter 231 Taxation
There was clearly something calling Gao Jian, but Gao Jian looked around and didn't see any human figure, so he had to continue walking inside.

Only then did Gao Jian see clearly what was written on the "silk cloth".

On the left is written: "The Five are the great teachings of the world. The emperor eats the food of the three elders and five shifts at the Imperial College. He strips bare-chested and cuts the animals, holds the sauce and offers the food, holds the cup and offers the wine, and wears the crown and holds the wine. This is to teach the princes to be filial. In this way, the state will be well connected and rites and music will be communicated."

On the right is written: "Take education as the most important task, establish the Imperial College to educate the country, set up the Itching School to educate the people, gradually cultivate the people with benevolence, polish the people with friendship, and restrain the people with courtesy. Therefore, the punishment is very light and the people do not violate the law. This is because education is carried out and the customs are beautiful."

The meaning of these two sentences is very simple.

It explains the importance of Taixue and the significance of its existence.

Of course, in Gao Jian's opinion, these two sentences are correct, but... they are a little biased.

From the perspective of the Divine Dynasty, these two sentences are meaningless. The emperor attaches great importance to the Imperial Academy, and will even "bare his clothes to cut the animals, hold the sauce to offer the food, hold the cup to drink, wear the crown to serve the wine, so as to teach the princes to be filial to their parents." This means that he will use very serious and important etiquette to face the students of the Imperial Academy, because the Imperial Academy can "teach the princes to be filial to their parents". As long as the princes are taught well, then naturally "the national road will be reached in all directions."

Establish an Imperial Academy to teach the country, to educate the people with friendship, and to regulate the people with etiquette. As long as what the Imperial Academy teaches can be spread to all directions, the etiquette and system of the Divine Dynasty will always exist, and the entire Divine Dynasty will be able to remain stable.

That's absolutely true. The stability and consolidation of the Divine Dynasty depends to a large extent on whether the court can firmly control the bureaucracy and the aristocratic families who serve as "princes".

Whether the bureaucratic agencies at all levels and the heads of the aristocratic families in various places can implement the court's policies in a timely manner in the areas under their jurisdiction, so as to maintain and stabilize the unity of the entire Divine Dynasty, is the key to whether the Divine Dynasty can continue to operate.

To this end, cultivating and training a large number of talents who support, or are forced to support, the concept of a unified country and are loyal to the emperor in order to enrich the bureaucracy at all levels has become the key to maintaining and consolidating the centralized system.

This required the emperor to establish an imperial academy to attract the descendants of local aristocratic families, the younger generations recommended by the official group, and some particularly talented common people. He could use the imperial academy's powerful resources and high status to attract them and then educate them.

We do not ask for their complete loyalty to the Divine Dynasty, but as long as they can feel the power of the Divine Dynasty and know their own strengths and weaknesses, it will be enough to maintain the stable rule of the Divine Dynasty.

"This makes a lot of sense." Shushu looked at what was written on it and nodded.

"Things that don't make sense should definitely not be written down. But these things, for the Divine Dynasty... forget it, there's nothing to criticize. Let's go in and take a look at the situation first." Gao Jian shook his head.

This is nothing more than a covenant planned by one ultimate privileged class to another ultimate privileged class.

After arriving in the Divine Capital, Gao Jian has almost completely understood the ecology of the Divine Dynasty.

In the past, he thought that the Zuo family, that Helunsabao, and other cannibalistic behaviors would definitely bring retribution, but now it seems...

The Divine Dynasty should be completely tolerant of such behavior.

There is no reason not to let it go. In front of the ultimate privileged class, even Gao Jian can't say anything to refute.

He just looked uncomfortable.

I can't feel comfortable.

Gao Jian walked in front, Dansha followed behind, looking around cautiously, while Shu Jian also grabbed Gao Jian's hair, leaned on all fours, and had a stiff posture.

What real dragon, what seven-level monster, in a place like this, you have to hold your breath.

Only then did Gao Jian see that the guardian beast painted on the wall inside opened its eyes.

It looks like an ox, has one horn, green hair, and four legs like a bear. When it sees people fighting, it will hit them and criticize them. When it hears people talking, it will laugh at them. It is called Xiezhi.

They were two Xiezhi, one on each door. This strange beast understood human language and human nature, could distinguish right from wrong, good from evil, loyalty from treachery, and when it found a treacherous or lying person, it would knock him down with its horns.

The guardian beasts at the gate of the Imperial College are two Xiezhi, but... it seems that they are not real Xiezhi, but painted on.

But the painting was so lifelike that the two xiezhi on the door seemed to come alive. They jumped on the door, turned around, and stared at Gao Jian. There was almost no flaw. Gao Jian almost thought that the door was a screen and a video of xiezhi was playing on the screen.

The Xiezhi on the left looked at Gao Jian and spoke in human language: "I am a student named Gao Jian, from Cangzhou, with two followers... By the way, I have to say that you can only bring two followers at most, no more, and followers cannot come and go as they please. Remember to handle the formalities for them."

The ones who just called out should be these two.

"Hey, he hasn't said he's a follower yet! Don't let people speculate about his identity. What if he's an elder?" another Xiezhi immediately retorted.

"Are you out of your mind? If you were an elder, would you let Gao Jian walk in front?! If you're a moron, don't speak!"

"You're talking nonsense! What's wrong with letting the students lead the way and walk in front?"

"This student himself is here for the first time, what a guide!"

The two Xiezhi started quarreling, but because they were at two different doors and could not communicate with each other, they could only exchange words. Otherwise, Gao Jianzhen suspected that they would fight.

Watching the two of them arguing, Gao Jian began to sweat a little. No...then how should I get in?
However, at this moment, someone was seen walking out from behind the door and kicking it.

The two Xiezhi immediately shut up.

Gao Jian knew that person.

It is the vast ocean.

He seemed to have come specifically to meet Gao Jian.

As he walked out of the gate, the two Xiezhi looked at him and then continued to quarrel.

"You fart!"

"You fart!"

Canghai looked at Gao Jian and said nonchalantly, "What? Are you scared by these two? This is a picture of a teacher from the Imperial Academy who drew it on the door when he was drunk. It's not from the Imperial Academy, it's just two wild dogs. When he drew it, they got their brains crooked. They can only quarrel and can't do anything else. It's just an image, not a real Xiezhi. Just ignore it."

"But, Gao Jian, you really found it by yourself? You have something." Canghai walked over and patted Gao Jian on the shoulder.

There was still a certain degree of surprise in his eyes, because this was indeed an extremely exaggerated thing. Ninety-five percent of the students in the Imperial College would get lost on the first day of reporting.

The road to the capital is indeed not easy to walk...

"Senior Cang." Gao Jian stepped forward and said, "I'm here. By the way, the real dragon you mentioned before is her, Dansha."

"What's your last name?" Canghai looked at Dansha.

Dansha shrank back behind Gao Jian, but still took the initiative to report his last name: "Shun... My last name is Shun."

"Oh, the dragon of the Shun family, no wonder you came to the capital of the gods. Don't worry, there is more than one real dragon in the capital of the gods. There is also a real dragon of the Ao family who is also studying in the Imperial Academy. You can think of him as an exchange in the capital of the gods. He also brought some followers with him, but you probably don't know them."

Ao family?

Dansha was stunned. Ao was the Dragon King's surname.

There is a real dragon prince studying in the Imperial College? How come she has never heard of it?

Gao Jian turned his head to look at the stunned Dansha, squeezed Dansha's hand subtly, and said, "Dansha had been in seclusion before. Did the Ao family's prince just arrive these days?"

Canghai said, "He came here seven or eight years ago, and he's leaving soon. I don't know exactly when he graduated from the Imperial College, but it's probably been around ten years."

"By the way, don't just stand there at the door. Come in first. It's vacation time, so there aren't many classes, but you can come and familiarize yourself with the various locations." Canghai led everyone in. "By the way, although those two painted beasts pretending to be Xiezhi are unreliable, the Imperial Academy can only bring in two followers. You two need to register, otherwise you'll die if you just come in."

"Okay, then where do we register?" Gao Jian asked.

"I'll take you there right now. After all, this is my business." Canghai said with a smile.

He would run over to pick someone up because it was a mission.

The group began to walk through the Imperial College.

To be honest, this place... is much simpler than I imagined.

There are not so many suspended objects, although there are necessary automated facilities, such as pools, temperature control and the like. There is no change in temperature throughout the four seasons, the temperature is always pleasant, and life is very convenient.

But other than that, there's nothing special.

If gods are all "bizarre", then this place can only be described as "ordinary". Even the house itself is just an ordinary wooden house, the type that can be built with a wave of the hand.

"There should be no time limit for reporting, right? It just takes time to officially start school?" Gao Jian asked.

As Canghai walked, he introduced Gao Jian: "There are no restrictions. There is nothing special about studying in the Imperial Academy. You can go to the library to choose a method. If you don't know how to choose, ask the master or teacher. Once you have chosen a method, you can practice it yourself. The cave and the materials needed for training are all provided. If you don't understand something, ask the master or teacher."

"Apart from the required practical classes, you will be assigned some tasks, but the rest of the time you are free to do whatever you want. It's very relaxed, so there's no need to feel any pressure."

"All self-study? Except for practical classes? Then what are these practical classes for?" Gao Jian was a little surprised.

Choose your own method, choose your own teacher, and then practice on your own. If you don't understand, ask...

If that's all, then the only purpose of the Imperial College is the Sutra Repository, right? Is this the only reason everyone comes here for?
"It's not that simple. Practical classes require you to do things." Canghai shook his head.

"Coolie?" Gao Jian was puzzled.

"It's not hard labor. I just want you to... show your loyalty to the Divine Dynasty. These are simple things. As long as your position is consistent with that of the Divine Dynasty, it won't be difficult. There won't be any problem with our position either."

Gao Jian nodded slightly.

A token of allegiance, right?

This is quite understandable.

It can even be said that this is the real purpose of establishing the Imperial College.

Through repeated missions, repeated pledges of allegiance, and the almost endless supply of resources from the Imperial Academy, intimidation, and inducement, all are combined in order to shape the loyalty of these Imperial Academy students to the Divine Dynasty.

"So, Senior Cang, what kind of letters of surrender have you encountered before?"

"Me before? I used to collect taxes, suppress rebellions, and be on overseas missions, but what I did the most was collecting taxes. But basically, they were all collected in the form of treasure money. Don't worry, it won't be too frequent. This kind of mission only happens about once every six months. It won't be too difficult. There will definitely be sufficient supplies and support on the way, so nothing will go wrong." Canghai said.

"I know." Gao Jian nodded.

Of course nothing will happen.

After all, they don't really want to test the strength of the students, and there is no need to test it. The students have already proved themselves during the admissions examination. Therefore, all the students have to do are some very simple tasks, which are not difficult. However, these tasks can fully express the attitudes of the students and let them learn how to express their attitudes and loyalty.

"Although the difficulty is not very high, there should be some moral dilemmas, right, senior?" Gao Jian asked suddenly.

Yes, when it comes to this, the first thing that comes to Gao Jian’s mind is the moral dilemma.

A simple thing, but one that requires you to make some moral choices.

And in this choice, you must think about the problem from the perspective of the Divine Dynasty and do your best for the Divine Dynasty to ensure that you can continue to be loyal after obtaining the resources of the Imperial Academy in the future.

"Yeah, but actually there's no problem. They're all simple questions. You'll know what to do at a glance." Canghai seemed indifferent.

"For example? Can you tell me?" Gao Jian asked.

He really wanted to know

"For example, what I have done the most is collecting taxes. Collecting taxes is quite troublesome in many places. There will be people who resist the taxes, although they are not very strong." Canghai answered casually.

"Resist taxes? How can we resist? Doesn't the Divine Dynasty levy taxes on spiritual materials? Those spiritual materials are the seeds and seedlings distributed by the Divine Dynasty at the beginning. They shouldn't be impossible to collect, right?" Gao Jian was a little confused.

According to the existing system of the Divine Dynasty, taxation is mainly collected from spiritual materials. There is no need to resist, right?
"The collection of spiritual materials is a tax imposed on farmers, hunters and the like in the areas directly under the Divine Dynasty, while there are some places that directly collect treasure money. Generally, taxes are levied on some areas, or autonomous areas, and pioneering territories. Especially in autonomous areas, many places are like this. For example, the surrendered monsters, Hu people, or some human villages in more remote areas, as well as some immortal gates, all pay money instead of spiritual materials." Canghai replied.

Gao Jian nodded slightly, and he understood what was said.

For most mortals, taxes are based on a fixed annual share of spiritual materials, which is also the source of so many basic consumables in the Divine Dynasty.

For some places with certain autonomy, for convenience, it is easiest to directly collect treasure money.

"Will they resist taxes?" Gao Jian asked curiously.

"In many places, taxes are a bit heavy. After all, the Divine Dynasty doesn't like too much local autonomy. However, many of these are problems left over from the past and are difficult to solve in a short period of time. We'll just take it slowly."

“And what we do is this slow process.”

After hearing this, Gao Jian nodded.

Okay.

I can tell.

There is definitely a huge 'moral dilemma' here.

This is also part of loyalty.

(End of this chapter)