Chapter Thirty-Seven: Clash of Minds

  These days, the entire Lion King territory is undergoing tense pre-war preparations. Everyone seems to be a wound-up machine, working non-stop, contributing their own strength to defend the Lion King territory.

  At the last time when Karu's army came to attack, the situation was not like this. At that time, no one thought that the Lion King's territory could be defended, and every subject had already made up their mind to change masters. For them, changing a master didn't make much difference. However, nobody expected that Xiao Yu would actually summon beastman soldiers and elf soldiers, defeating Karu's army.

  After that battle, Xiao Yu implemented a series of policies, allowing the vassals in his territory to receive unprecedented benefits. In any place, it was absolutely impossible to find better territorial policies than this.

  Now, everyone is attached to this social policy that is extremely beneficial to the people and wants it to continue. To keep this policy going, it must be ensured that Xiao Yu is the lord of this place and that the Lion King's territory is not occupied by Karu.

  Now, Xiao Yu has successfully tied all the civilians to his own ship.

  Now the most relaxed one is Xiao Yu, after setting up the task, every day is just a person wandering around, checking the city defense, inspecting the progress of the base soldiers, teasing a few of those Bolan tribe's dancing girls, sneaking a peek at several sisters' laborious sweat-drenched bodies, isn't it delightful?

  Those slaves kidnapped from Carus have basically divided into two batches. The first batch is some past merchants or local civilians who were robbed by Carus, occasionally with some traveling nobles. The second batch is a group of people who have been slaves for a long time and have no home to return to.

  For the first type, Xiao Yu directly gave them dismissal fees and let them return home on their own. The second type stayed behind and prepared to give them civilian status.

  The current social system in the world is basically in the late stage of a slave society, with the embryonic form of a feudal society being established. It's similar to the Spring and Autumn period in ancient China, where although slaves still existed, the vast majority had already transformed into commoners, with only a few minority ethnic groups still unable to shake off their status as slaves. The entire society is currently undergoing a transitional phase.

  For example, the Black Iron Tribe is a race thought to be forever slaves.

  This time, Xiao Yu obtained male slaves from Karus, more than half of whom were black iron tribe people. These black iron tribe slaves were all tall and sturdy, some even comparable to beastmen. They were all kidnapped from the distant southern Kulum region.

  The Black Iron Tribe people still belong to a very primitive tribal race, with backward ideas and civilization, but they have strong physiques, are hardworking and can endure hardships, so they became the best race for doing hard labor as slaves.

  Every year, a large number of adventurers venture into Karum to plunder these slaves and make them do the most exhausting work without giving them enough food. Many black iron tribe slaves barely live past 25 years old before they die.

  Xiao Yu originally wanted to give them the status of commoners, but he faced difficulties from two sides. Firstly, these black iron tribe people had no thoughts of their own and had been enslaved for so long that they thought they were born to be slaves. Given freedom, they didn't know how to survive. Secondly, the old steward Xiao Hong strongly opposed giving these black iron tribe people commoner rights. The old steward was loyal to the Xiao family with all his heart, but his thoughts were very conservative and he couldn't accept many of Xiao Yu's new ideas. Previously, due to Xiao Yu's tax policies and the high treatment given to commoners, there had been several conflicts between them. If not for considering that their current territory was too weak, Xiao Hong would have absolutely disagreed with Xiao Yu's large-scale tax exemption policy and the high treatment given to fallen soldiers. In this world, only nobles who died in battle had the qualification to leave behind a name that would be remembered forever.

  The last batch of old, weak women and children kidnapped from Tong Guan, although they had the mark of thieves, many were former civilians, not slaves. So Xiao Yu gave them civilian rights. The old steward was somewhat dissatisfied in his heart, but he didn't say anything.

  Those women of the Bolan tribe, Xiao Yu had already promised to give them civilian rights, but the old steward strongly resisted, saying that the women of the Bolan tribe were all dancers, how could they become civilians of the Lion King's territory, this would make the Lion King's territory a laughing stock.

  Xiao Yu gave several orders, but the old steward Xiao Hong thought that Xiao Yu had a problem with his brain and directly assigned these Bolan tribe women to several young ladies as maidservants. They were no longer treated as slaves, but they were not completely given their freedom either, making them become real commoners.

  Xiao Yu looked at the several Polan women who were well-fed and clothed, without any dissatisfaction, but instead very happy, so he didn't bother to intervene. His sisters-in-law weren't stingy people either, and they wouldn't treat these Polan women badly.

  This time, these people were handed over to the old steward. Xiao Hong divided up the civilians and merchants who had been kidnapped by the bandits, and also agreed with Xiao Yu's approach, giving them their freedom and letting them return home on their own.

  In this world, if a noble rescues some commoners from bandits, they have the right to claim personal rights over these people and can view them as slaves. If their families want to take them away, they need to pay a certain amount of money or goods for redemption.

  But as a noble aristocrat, rescuing some civilians kidnapped by bandits and then releasing them for free is also considered a noble virtue.

  So, the old steward agreed to let these civilians and merchants go free of charge in order to enhance Xiao Yu's reputation.

  And those black iron tribe slaves, as well as some comfort women who had already fallen into slavery, the old steward refused to give them civilian status, even threatening to die.

  The old steward has been loyal for so many years, and seeing the old steward is about to take his own life, Xiao Yu can only give in. The old steward's actions are still maintaining the dignity and status of a noble lord, actually also considering Xiao Yu, it's just that their thinking differs too much.

  Xiao Yu's thoughts from that era are too different from this one.

  Finally, Xiao Yu could only let the old steward provide warmth and food to these black iron tribe slaves, so they wouldn't go hungry or cold. As for those comfort women-like female slaves, Xiao Yu strictly forbade anyone from committing sexual assault against them again, only allowing them to do some simple labor within the territory, providing them with sufficient necessities like food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. If anyone disobeyed, they would be severely punished without exception.

  Actually, such comfort women or female slaves are common in any noble family, and they are often treated as private pets to show off to others, even shared with others.

  There was once a time when owning an Elf-maiden slave was a symbol of status and nobility.

  Xiao Yu first saw these female slaves being enslaved in the mountain stronghold of Karus, and was filled with righteous indignation. Because he was a man of that era, he found it difficult to accept such wanton humiliation and trampling of women. In fact, in this world, such things were not considered a big deal, but rather a normal phenomenon.

  Xiao Yu could only sigh in the end, feeling a sense of sadness for their fate. His power as one person was limited and he couldn't completely change this situation.

  If slavery were completely abolished and society entered a relatively better feudal society, it would probably be an extremely difficult task.

  Don't forget the great shock and bloodshed caused by the changes in the system during that period of history. This change in thinking cannot be achieved by one person's power alone.

  Unless... unless he really unifies the world and becomes the king of this era, then slowly changes things through some institutions.

  Although Xiao Hong and other conservatives strongly opposed it, Xiao Yu still used the excuse of implementing policies that required equality among all living beings as a condition for the spiritual gods and beast gods, gradually leading this world into a feudal society according to the ideas of the previous world.

  If they were suddenly allowed into relatively democratic capitalism or socialism, it would be impossible for them to accept it themselves.

  Xiao Yu was thinking of using Shang Yang's methods in the future, but now it seems that there is considerable resistance.

  No wonder Shang Yang was torn apart by chariots back then, now Xiao Yu is truly experiencing that kind of difficulty. However, the set of things about Shang Yang's reform will also be implemented by Xiao Yu sooner or later.

  As a man of that era, he knew all too well that relying solely on the soldiers of the demon beasts to dominate the world was absolutely impossible. To truly become the king of this era, one must fundamentally make all the people submit to oneself, and let the people of this world be willing to fight for you, in order to rise up like the Qin Dynasty back then.

  This era is roughly the same as when the Qin Dynasty first rose to power, Shang Yang's policies can be said to be just right, such a good thing if not used, Xiao Yu would be an idiot. The huge changes in Qin after Shang Yang's reform are visible to the blind. Qin was able to unify the six states, with Shang Yang's reforms playing eighty percent of the role, relatively speaking, Qin Shi Huang's great talent and vision only accounted for twenty percent.

  As long as Xiao Yu has laid a certain foundation here, and then gradually implements Shang Yang's measures, it is really possible to become the king of this world, just like Qin Shi Huang unified the world.

  However, this also needs to be done step by step and cannot be accomplished overnight. Otherwise, even if one is the leader, they will still face enormous difficulties.

  The slaves of the Black Iron Tribe have eaten their fill at Xiao Yu's place, worn warm clothes, and are now working with all their might to transport stones to the top of the city wall.

  They have big heads and their appetite is also surprisingly large. Since becoming slaves, they have never had enough to eat. Or rather, they have never had enough to eat since birth, because the productivity of their previous tribe was extremely low, and eating a full meal was not an easy thing.

  Xiao Yu's place had enough food and clothes for them, making them feel like they were already in heaven.

  Carrying stones to the city head is Xiao Yu's order. With the powerful catapult, ammunition must be sufficient.

  A few days ago, Xiao Yu tested the power of the Beast Clan's catapult, which can launch a stone weighing up to 500 catties at once, with a range of over 300 meters.

  If it were a 200-kilogram boulder, the range could reach 600-700 meters.

  This is just on flat ground, if it were on a high city wall, a 500-jin stone could be shot out for 700-800 meters. With such distance and firepower, Xiao Yu was extremely satisfied, so he naturally had to do a good job of preparing ammunition.

  Looking at the scorching flames rising to the sky, Xiao Yu narrowed her eyes and murmured: "Karu, come on, use your troops' blood to fulfill my glory."

  ………

  The third update is here. Tomorrow, I have something to attend to and there might only be two updates. Xiaosa will try her best for three updates. Hope everyone can vote more tomorrow to help Xiaosa rush up the new book chart. Xiaosa doesn't have a good recommendation spot, so the position on the new book chart is crucial. The big battle starts tomorrow, haha, let's see how we can beat Karu until he's defeated and humiliated.

  Also recommended is a friend's book, "My Wife is a Pastor", those who are interested can go take a look.