Ursus? A Small-Tier Nation!

"I will tell Sister Shu about your prostitution and your performing arts."

Xi slightly curled the corners of her lips, perfectly seizing the other party's weakness.

Apart from a few brothers and sisters with whom they barely communicated, almost everyone knew about Shu.

So this wave of people actively delivered goods to his door. Of all the things they could say, they dared to say they were selling themselves and their skills to Master Huang.

Millet: Looks like it wants to be planted in the soil.

"Just kidding, don't take it so seriously."

Nian gave an awkward laugh, then immediately put on a gossipy expression.

"Judging from your expression, you didn't just come to me today to give me a gift, did you?"

As a loving family, Xi Ke Tai knows exactly what her older sister is like.

Unsolicited kindness is either a sign of malice or theft.

"My sister understands me best."

Originally, Nian wanted to ask Yu to share her burden, but considering that they were both her bread and butter, she had no choice but to give up.

We'll keep the good stuff in the family, so it's definitely you!

My dear sister!

"Let me tell you, Brother Huang's feelings for us are not pure."

"You mean he likes all of us brothers and sisters? Well, that's quite a unique taste."

Xi rolled her eyes; she knew Nian wouldn't utter any sophisticated words.

Aren't we all of us?

He likes all women Sui Beast can still call himself a lecher.

So you're saying you even like my older brother and younger brother?

"I meant that Brother Huang likes our sister!"

"So which sister does he actually like? Can you just tell me everything at once? If you keep keeping me in suspense like this, believe me, I'll kick you out!"

Xi instantly turned red. Can't you just say everything at once?

With so many older sisters, they can't possibly like you, can they?

"I said Brother Huang might like our third sister."

Nian, looking utterly dejected, pulled out the precious necklace that Huang Cao had handed him from his pocket, his face full of bitterness.

"You can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want," Xi kindly reminded him.

"Absolutely true. Would I possibly cheat you on something like this?"

"Then why did you tell me about this? Weren't you just trying to drag me into this?"

But unexpectedly, Xi's expression remained unchanged, still as calm as still water.

This greatly disappointed Nian.

"I'm so sad. I was thinking of asking you to share the blame with me."

"We just need to keep our mouths shut. What do their affairs have to do with us? We won't fight over this anyway. Or are you also interested in Mr. Huang?"

"How could I dare! I only consider Brother Huang as my close friend."

Nian waved her hand hastily. Although she liked Brother Huang's way of doing things, she only regarded him as a close friend.

Evening: A smiling face, a close friend.

Of course, she probably only dared to say this in her heart, because judging from Nian's appearance, she really wanted to drag herself into this mess.

Because by then, the only person being criticized won't be just Nian.

"Okay, I understand. So, is there anything else? But it's impolite not to reciprocate. If you have the chance, please give this painting to Mr. Huang."

Xi took a landscape painting that she had recently finished from the easel in the room.

"Oh my, it's rare to see you give away your paintings."

She didn't understand art, after all, she was a science student, but this painting looked very valuable.

"By the way, if you have any time, could you help me sell these paintings? They're all incomplete anyway."

Xi took a large pile of paintings that were casually placed on the shelf, and they were covered with dust.

"Sigh, when did you start caring about money?"

"They're just some unnecessary defective products. They take up space here and are annoying to look at. Besides, didn't you always resell my paintings to that stinky embroidery girl?"

Xi didn't give the other person a reason to refuse and simply stuffed the painting into their arms.

"By the way, didn't Mr. Huang also open some kind of Utopia Bank in Yan Country? It sounds like a money deposit bank. I'll deposit all the money from the sale into it."

"Aren't you going to share any with me? I'll be heartbroken."

Considering that making movies in the future would cost a lot of money, Nian felt that he really needed to start a business.

We can't let Brother Huang's great script go to waste. If I can't create my own script, can't I at least copy it?

"Thirty percent, that's the most I can do. And I'll also let bygones be bygones regarding your past dealing in my counterfeit paintings."

Xi has never been particularly interested in things like money, or rather, long ago even the mediocre embroiderer wasn't interested in gold and silver.

But it's not just the world that's changing; there are also people living in the mortal world.

Chapter 307 Ursus? A Small Nation!

Returning to the perspective of Utopia, the deal with the Black Serpent is currently only verbal.

Therefore, the grain transported by Huang Cao was all packaged and distributed to Ursus in bags.

Each bag weighs about 100 pounds, which, strictly speaking, also makes it easier for the black snakes to be counted.

But it was clear to everyone that the bags of grain being sent to Ursus were marked with the symbol of Utopia.

This completely ruined Black Serpent's plan to win people's hearts.

If the bags of food have no markings, Black Serpent, as the distributor of the food, can certainly take the opportunity to win over a large number of people.

If this happened to an ordinary person, it would definitely threaten the imperial power, but the emperor knew exactly what kind of person the Black Serpent was.

As one of the embodiments of national consciousness, it is impossible for it to replace the emperor on the throne.

So ultimately, this wave of actions will serve as a stabilizer for the Ursus monarchy, no matter what.

However, once the symbol of utopia is on it, things will be different. Other nobles certainly won't stand idly by and watch the Black Serpent dominate.

In their minds, it doesn't matter what kind of country or civilization you are. You, this snake, have stolen the hearts of the people in their own territory. Who will serve us in the future?

The Emperor of Ursus may not target the Black Serpent, but that doesn't mean other nobles won't.

While the Black Serpent and the Emperor stood together, the nobles might not necessarily be.

Therefore, food sacks bearing the Utopia symbol could become leverage for them to launch an impeachment.

Meanwhile, with the nobles' propaganda, the credit for alleviating the domestic famine would surely fall on Utopia.

Nobles certainly cannot obtain this title, but it is absolutely forbidden for anyone else to obtain it either.

So let's bring in Utopia.

Anyway, Utopia doesn't have any offices in Ursus, so these lowly people who only know how to eat food might not be able to find them.

The black snake, who received the food two weeks later, gave an awkward smile.

"This guy simply won't give up the slightest advantage."

Looking at the grain being transported by the convoy, Black Serpent considered the extent of the famine spreading within Ursus.

"Forget it, it's better to distribute the grain first. At least it will make it easier for His Majesty to count the population."

To ensure that this batch of grain was used effectively, Black Serpent and Emperor of Ursus decided to take this opportunity to begin coordinating the nation's population.

They eventually decided that each group of three people would receive one bag of grain, but this would certainly require the assistance of other nobles.

So the Black Serpent and the Emperor set up a trap.

Because Ursus's tax system is based on population, the more people a territory has, the more taxes it pays.

To prevent people from underreporting or overreporting the population, the Emperor of Ursus implemented a new policy.

Only nobles who paid taxes according to their population size were eligible for food aid, and the amount of tax paid increased exponentially with the number of people.

If they underreport, their territory will not have enough food to survive the coming winter, and they may go bankrupt on the spot.

Nobles are creatures who cannot escape a life of exploitation.

Once the population of their territory dies in large numbers, these vampires will soon be displaced.

However, if the taxes paid are overstated, the cost of the grain will far exceed the purchase cost. Although grain cannot be bought domestically at present, this money is the lifeblood of the nobles.

Therefore, the greedy nobles had to make choices again. Although chaos was still inevitable, at least the lower classes could get something to eat.

Black Serpent loves the country of Ursus, though it doesn't love people, but without people, the country would be completely destroyed.

The snake certainly knew that making the people of Ursus prosperous would also increase the country's strength, but it just didn't know how to do it.

Therefore, they can only act according to the methods they are most familiar with.

At the same time, the Black Serpent also fulfilled its promise by dividing its territory in two and preserving its inhabitants.

However, the abandoned people were naturally no longer under the Black Serpent's control, so the food would not be distributed to them, and they would all have to rely on Master Huang's relief efforts.

Perhaps knowing all along that the Black Serpent would act so ruthlessly, Huang Cao also arrived in Ursus along with the relief supplies.

Huang Cao personally directed a large group of people to begin modernizing the land.

But several days passed, and all the efforts other than distributing food had little effect.

"My esteemed new lord, thank you for your kindness."

The Ursus man, abandoned by the Black Serpent, knelt before Master Huang, frantically kissing his boots.

Huang Cao did not push these people away, not because he wanted to accept such flattery.

However, he realized that these emaciated Ursus people were in a very unstable mental state and had placed all their hopes on him, the newly appointed lord.

Even if we were to announce so-called freedom to them now and remove their shackles, their minds would not change in any way.

Because the bread hasn't reached them yet, ordinary people can't think about the future when they're hungry.

Therefore, in order to avoid upsetting these poor people, Huang Cao decided to continue the serf system for about two months on this land that once belonged to the Black Snake.

Lin waited until these people recovered their health before Huang Cao came to promote the utopian social system.

"Disperse and return to your own land. Free food will be placed at your doorsteps in a few hours, and it's tax-free."

The hungry serf moved quickly away on his own two legs and soon returned to his dilapidated hut.

"Sigh, such a large piece of land, yet there's not even a place to live."

The Black Serpent's territory is vast, but it has only one lord's mansion.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of prior investigation, the lord's mansion is currently on the Black Serpent's side.

"Let's stay in tents for the first few days. We need to build good relationships with the people here before we can do anything else."

Because the deal with Black Snake happened so quickly, Huang Cao arrived with a large group of interns.

Fortunately, Utopia's selection process is incredibly rigorous, so these interns are exceptionally hardworking.

Although I had no prior experience with Ursus's culture and systems, the management methods are often interchangeable.

After being brought here, the novice officers from Utopia began gathering information about Ursus almost immediately.

They demonstrated a very positive initiative, and immediately began the population census work upon arrival.

They also recorded the poverty situation of each household in their own notebooks, preparing to lay a solid foundation for subsequent poverty alleviation work.

Because Master Huang arrived in Ursus almost simultaneously with the relief grain.

So, just a few days later, the officials of Utopia compiled a list of all the inhabitants of the territory and distributed all the food.

In contrast, Emperor of Ursus and Black Serpent are still busy arguing with their nobles.

The food distribution hasn't even started yet, which is truly an example of extremely low administrative efficiency.