Xiao Changge's Inner Thoughts: His View of Douluo Three Kingdoms and the Sun Moon Empire

"I..."

At that moment, Xiao Changge did not know what to say. He could not exactly tell them about his past, could he?

Would anyone believe him?

And even if he told them, would anyone care? Although many people on Douluo Continent were good people, most were also selfish. No one would care about the past of someone who had been crippled like him.

The restaurant owner might have been a good person, but would he believe it if Xiao Changge told him? The restaurant owner was from Douluo Three Kingdoms. Would someone who worshiped Sea God Tang San and had received the brainwashing-style education of Douluo Three Kingdoms believe that Shrek was this kind of place?

Moreover, his view of the Sun Moon Empire was the same as that of many people in Douluo Three Kingdoms.

Whether in the early or later stages, most citizens of Douluo Three Kingdoms did not particularly like the Sun Moon Empire.

This needed to be explained slowly.

In The Unrivaled Tang Clan, the views of the common people in the Heaven Dou Empire, Star Luo Empire, and Dou Ling toward the Sun Moon Empire were not a monolithic "universal hatred of invaders." Instead, as the war progressed, they divided into several layers, becoming more complex the longer the occupation lasted. Overall, it could be summarized as follows: in the early stages, they feared them as "foreign enemies with demonic devices"; in the middle stages, they hated them as "fierce soldiers who seized their land"; in the later stages, some people in occupied territories even regretted their "withdrawal."

At the start of the war: fear and hostility, "foreign tigers and wolves who practiced unorthodox ways."

The common people of the three nations had long lived under a feudal order ruled by Soul Masters and nobles, and they already harbored the prejudice that Soul Tools were "external objects" and "unorthodox."

When the Sun Moon forces came crushing forward with fixed-installation Soul Tool cannon shells and Soul Engineer legions, the civilians' first reaction was fear—not fear of ordinary soldiers, but fear of the cannons in the sky that "could blast city walls flat."

Furthermore, Xu Tianran had elevated the Holy Spirit Cult into the state religion. Rumors of evil Soul Masters devouring souls and refining banners were magnified among the populace. Naturally, the people of the three nations equated the Sun Moon Empire with a demonic nation that raised evil Soul Masters. Along the Star Luo border, there were even cases of civilians throwing stones and cursing at their formations, sending them off with eggs.

At this stage, the logic of the common people was very simple: whoever invaded, stole their grain, burned their villages, and followed evil Soul Masters was their enemy. National or state identity was not as strong; what mattered most was protecting their homeland and their lives.

During the implementation of the occupation: conflicting feelings emerged, "their devices are useful, but their rulers are evil."

When Ju Zi was in charge of military affairs, she used a policy of "conciliatory occupation" rather than outright slaughter and plunder in newly occupied territories:

No indiscriminate killing, no allowing soldiers to loot. Instead, some civilian Soul Tools were distributed downward—Soul Tool heaters for the winter, lighting, simple medical equipment, and cleaning and cooking devices were brought into villages and towns;

Corvée labor and taxes were lightened, old noble tax collectors were suppressed, and children could attend school;

The common people immediately discovered that after Sun Moon nobles replaced the local nobles, they could actually afford to eat.

Thus, a very realistic divide appeared:

Tenant farmers, mining households, and suburban poor who had suffered the harshest oppression under the old nobility secretly sighed, "Changing masters is better than not changing them." Their attitude toward Sun Moon military and government personnel shifted from fear to dependence. Some even wept and begged them to stay when the army withdrew. "How are we supposed to live when you leave and the old tax collectors return?"

Villages and towns with clan ties or Soul Master relatives, as well as survivors whose homes had been directly destroyed by artillery fire, always regarded them as invaders. That hatred would not disappear just because they were given a heater.

Civilian Soul Tools required charging and maintenance. Most commoners could not afford high-end goods. The ones that truly benefited the public were mostly in market towns and military garrisons, while remote mountain villages received limited benefits. Thus, the "technological dividends" were experienced differently across social classes.

During the late war and before its conclusion: pragmatism overwhelmed slogans.

By the time the Heaven Dou Empire had fallen, Dou Ling had been crushed through, and Star Luo stood alone, the common people of the three nations had basically returned to two lines of survival when judging the Sun Moon Empire:

"It is a foreign enemy, but it gives us more of a way to live than the lords of our own country"—this was the genuine mindset of a considerable number of farmers in occupied territories, and it was both the greatest success and greatest irony of Ju Zi's strategy: using civilian Soul Tools and low taxes to plant the "legitimacy of invasion" into pots, bowls, and daily life.

"It is entangled with the Holy Spirit Cult. In the end, it is no good"—as long as cases of evil Soul Masters committing atrocities spread, the goodwill among the people would fade. Especially near Shrek and along the Star Luo front, the people were still willing to deliver food and guide the local armies.

The original work did not portray "the people of the three nations unanimously supporting the Sun Moon Empire," nor did it romanticize them as "all refusing to yield even in death." The common people did not care whether Mingdu's political system was advanced. They only cared about what percentage of their harvest was taken in taxes that year, whether they could afford to burn grass for warmth in winter, and whether evil Soul Masters would come to their village entrance. In these three respects, the Sun Moon Empire had briefly surpassed the old nobility in some occupied territories, but the burden of the Holy Spirit Cult and the label of "foreigners seizing the nation" could never be washed away.

Therefore, in the eyes of most people in Douluo Three Kingdoms, the Sun Moon Empire was ultimately no good thing. Although the cooperation between the Holy Spirit Cult and the Sun Moon Empire had not yet been made public, many citizens of Douluo Three Kingdoms still deeply disliked the Sun Moon Empire.

But Xiao Changge did not care. It was not his country anyway, or rather, he did not care which country he belonged to. Though he had been born on Douluo Continent in this life, he had been abandoned at birth. He had struggled to survive, only wanting to live a better life. Yet what happened? When he awakened his martial soul, Shrek had crippled him.

Moreover, the kind Soul Engineer from the Sun Moon Empire had also been killed by Shrek. That person had helped awaken his martial soul so that he could go to the Sun Moon Empire, yet Shrek had chosen, for its own benefit, to kill an ordinary Soul Engineer from the Sun Moon Empire. That person had not even killed anyone. He had merely been a Soul Engineer, and not even a high-level one.

Yet Shrek had killed him just like that. How was Xiao Changge supposed to view Douluo Three Kingdoms? How was he supposed to view Shrek?

In Xiao Changge's eyes, Douluo Three Kingdoms was rotten. Even if the Sun Moon Empire would cooperate with evil Soul Masters, they were not cooperating now.

Besides, Douluo Three Kingdoms, Shrek, and the evil Soul Masters were all no better than one another. None of them were good things. And since he had a grudge against Shrek, he would rather join the Sun Moon Empire and avenge this blood debt.

He would avenge the Soul Engineer who had helped him.

Although he did not know that Soul Engineer's name, he knew that the man had come from the Sun Moon Empire and had helped him, only to be killed by Shrek because of him. So he would avenge that Soul Engineer.

This was not a matter of distinguishing good people from bad people. It was the bottom line of being human. If even the benefactor who had helped him was killed by his enemies, and he chose not to seek revenge, then what difference was there between him and a beast?

And that Soul Engineer from the Sun Moon Empire had not been a bad person. He had done nothing evil, yet he had been killed.

So, in Xiao Changge's eyes, Douluo Three Kingdoms was disgusting and laughable as well.

That was why he would rather join the Sun Moon Empire than help Douluo Three Kingdoms and Shrek.

"I have my reasons. I hope you can understand."

"You have your reasons, so of course I can understand. But I hope you will not do anything that makes you regret it. That is my only request. We are friends, and I do not want to see you fall into the abyss."