322: Chapter 322 Resounding Throughout the World

Time flew by, and it was already afternoon.

With the help of 500 Puppet officials, the civil and military officials brought by Chen Hu finally took control of the imperial palace and the entire royal capital.

Of course, this was also because the officials of the Great Xia Kingdom were quite cooperative.

After all, Chen Hu had never shown mercy when killing those in the Liangang Realm.

If they were to cause trouble over this matter, wouldn't they just be courting death?

From yesterday until now, the imperial edict issued by Xia Changchi—while perhaps not known to every single person in the country—had at least reached the majority of the population regarding his surrender of the Great Xia Kingdom to the Great Qian Kingdom.

Chen Hu knew it was time for him to get to work.

Thus, he activated his Amplification Technique and shouted loudly, "I am Chen Hu, Emperor of the Great Qian. From today onwards, the Great Zhou Kingdom is officially integrated into my Great Qian, and you are all citizens of the Great Qian. I hereby announce the exemption of all taxes for civilians and farmers for the next three years."

Following this, Chen Hu shouted the message once more.

Then, he took a step and appeared ten thousand miles away, where he continued to broadcast his message three more times.

After shouting this message several times within the Great Zhou Kingdom, his voice reached even the most remote corners of the nation.

The Great Zhou Kingdom had only been established for a little over a hundred years and was in its prime.

The lives of the civilians and farmers were significantly better than those of the farmers and civilians in the original Great Yong Kingdom.

Therefore, after Xia Changchi's edict spread yesterday, many of the lower-class farmers and civilians felt uneasy, worrying whether the new emperor would increase their taxes.

But now, upon hearing Chen Hu's voice, their worries were set aside.

Especially after hearing Chen Hu's policy of a three-year tax exemption, they were plunged into ecstasy.

After finishing his broadcast, Chen Hu subconsciously pulled up his System interface.

He was somewhat stunned when he saw the rapidly jumping number of his subordinates.

It seemed to be rising a bit too quickly.

At midnight last night, the number of his subordinates was 1.087 billion.

By the time he started shouting, it had barely grown to 1.125 billion, an increase of a mere thirty million or so.

But after he finished shouting, the number of subordinates surged by over 300 million, reaching 1.476 billion.

Suddenly, a thought struck Chen Hu, and he guessed some of the reasons.

His method of projecting his voice across ten thousand miles was truly miraculous.

Most of these civilians likely felt awe at his power, thereby leading them to submit.

As expected, in the following half-hour, the number of his subordinates continued to skyrocket.

Half an hour later, it had actually broken through the 2 billion mark, reaching 2.053 billion.

In other words, nearly 1 billion citizens of the Great Xia Kingdom had come to support him.

"Awesome!" Chen Hu pumped his fist.

He flashed back to the Great Qian Kingdom and proceeded to shout his message several times within its borders.

Sure enough, with his broadcast, the number of his subordinates entered another period of rapid growth.

Of course, it couldn't compare to the explosive growth in the Great Xia Kingdom.

After all, the total population of the Great Yong Kingdom combined was only about 1.4 or 1.5 billion.

He had already gained over 1 billion followers previously, so even with growth, it could only increase by a maximum of 1 billion.

Furthermore, the tax exemption policy he implemented was only aimed at civilians and farmers; citizens of other classes might not necessarily support him because of this.

In the blink of an eye, another half hour passed.

The number of Chen Hu's subordinates had exceeded 2.5 billion, reaching 2.596 billion.

Great Zhou Kingdom.

The frontier city of Dragon Pass.

Over 300,000 civilians lived within Dragon Pass, but the stationed army numbered over 500,000.

This was because Dragon Pass had been expanded to guard against the Great Xia Kingdom.

The Great Xia Kingdom's Emperor Xia Wuji was an extremely ambitious person with a persistent obsession with expanding his territory.

Consequently, he had frequently caused trouble for the Great Zhou Kingdom over the years, causing the Great Zhou Kingdom to suffer significant losses and even lose over a dozen cities.

In the end, the Great Zhou Kingdom spent a vast fortune to expand Dragon Pass and stationed 400,000 troops there to guard against an invasion by the Great Xia Kingdom.

The Amplification Technique Chen Hu employed covered a radius of ten thousand miles.

Moreover, his voice did not just propagate within the Great Xia Kingdom; many places in the Great Zhou Kingdom and Great Qin also heard him.

Dragon Pass fell within the range of Chen Hu's voice.

Therefore, the hot topic in Dragon Pass today became the discussion regarding Chen Hu's three-year tax exemption policy.

"In my opinion, this Great Qian Emperor is merely trying to buy people's hearts, though his gesture is indeed grand. A three-year tax exemption—think of how much silver and grain that must cost!"

"Heh, have you ever heard of a government that doesn't collect taxes?" another person commented. "Maybe he's just playing a word game, exempting the old taxes while introducing new ones!"

"That's possible!" another person chimed in. "Let me tell you something from my own experience. The imperial court once ordered the exemption of a certain tax in our area, and the villagers were overjoyed. But a few days later, the local government introduced a new tax policy. So, you see, these officials and emperors cannot be trusted!"

At this moment, an old man's voice rang out: "I, on the other hand, think it might be true!"

"Why?" the others asked, all talking at once.

The old man said, "I heard that this Great Qian Emperor is a Hunyuan Martial Saint. He was originally a rebel leader, then took the Great Yong Kingdom without shedding blood, and later annexed the Great Zhou Kingdom without drawing a blade. Think about it—how could such a martial expert break his word? So, I say, the civilians and farmers of the Great Qian Kingdom are going to live well for the next three years!"

"Goodness me, so he's a Hunyuan Martial Saint! Since the Martial Saint himself said there will be a tax exemption, then there must be one!"

The people present immediately changed their tune.

Because this was a supernatural world, based on the worship of the strong, everyone was more willing to believe the words of a powerful expert.

Meanwhile, the garrison commander of Dragon Pass transmitted the content of Chen Hu's broadcast to the capital via spirit pigeon.

Because Dragon Pass was a critical military stronghold, the Ministry of War had equipped them with spirit pigeons for messaging.

These spirit pigeons possessed the Bloodline of exotic beasts and had been cultivated by the Great Zhou royal family with great effort.

They flew extremely fast, capable of covering eight thousand miles in an hour.

After receiving the message from the Dragon Pass garrison commander, the Empress immediately summoned a group of important ministers to discuss the matter.

After recounting the contents of the spirit pigeon message, she asked in a deep voice, "What do you all think, my ministers?"

"Your Majesty, with a three-year tax exemption, how will he maintain the court's expenses? That Chen Hu may have enjoyed the pleasure of exempting taxes, but he will have plenty to worry about later!"

"Indeed, that Chen Hu is nothing but a rebel. What does he know about the philosophy of governing a country? I believe he must have suddenly become emperor and gotten carried away, issuing imperial edicts recklessly!"

Following this, these high-ranking officials took turns disparaging Chen Hu.

However, a few ministers felt worried, raising the question of whether Chen Hu would treat the Great Zhou Kingdom the same way he treated the Great Xia Kingdom, using his cultivation base to force the Great Zhou Kingdom to submit.

Upon hearing this, a look of worry appeared on the Empress's face.

She then said in a deep voice, "We must guard against this. In that case, I want each of you to send a Liangang Realm expert to the palace. Once Chen Hu arrives, we will join forces to take him down. If we capture Chen Hu, we might even be able to annex the Great Qian!"