Chapter 3042: The Influence of the Illuminati

————Still about an hour left~~

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"I don't know if you've realized it, but the core of everything Ailan wants to develop lies in expanding the Mage population. Originally, as a region of Siluwende, Ailan would not have encountered the problems it faces today—not that they didn't exist, but they were handled by Siluwende as a whole. But after independence, it has had to face them alone."

To put it bluntly, in the past, Ailan had Siluwende to back everything up. Now that it is independent, Yierlan and the Alliance can manage some things to a certain extent, but in the final analysis, it must be independent and self-reliant.

It is clearly not feasible to be unable to even self-supply the people's food rations as it is now.

Fortunately, the current Ailan has already realized the significant importance of the Mage population and intends to popularize Magic domestically to strengthen the number of Mages; this is already far ahead of other countries.

Like Evereska, whom Ailan is learning from, while they have done well in agriculture, in terms of popularizing Magic, they have only opened a small gap to this day, allowing some academies to have independent qualifications for recruiting Apprentices.

It has not reached the level of universal popularization that Xia Duo considers truly qualified.

However, if Ailan wants to catch up quickly, perhaps it can be more radical. After all, in their current situation, if they are not more radical, I fear they can only be carved up bit by bit until they are completely digested.

The Alliance does indeed recognize Ailan's independent status, but the premise of everything is that Ailan exists. If the people of Ailan voluntarily abandon the Ailan state, then even the Alliance would not force their heads to make them maintain Ailan's existence, would it?

The current Ailan shows signs of being unable to sustain itself; with even food needing to be imported in large quantities, what is there to talk about for the future?

No matter what drawbacks popularizing Magic may have, at least it can provide a struggle, which is better than a slow death.

Regarding Xia Duo pinning the key to Ailan changing its current situation on popularizing Magic, Tuomeidisi had no objections. As he himself said, the Ailan Seven Elders had already made a similar judgment.

It is just that regarding the process of popularizing Magic and how to operate it afterward, the Ailan side does not have much ready-made experience to draw upon.

"Then, according to Consultant Xia Duo, what should Ailan do next?"

"You are not a qualified diplomat." Xia Duo suddenly changed the subject, stared at Tuomeidisi for a while, and then said, "However, I still appreciate that you can be so direct."

"What kind of diplomat am I? In the past, I was just a very ordinary carving teacher in the Ailan region. I never even imagined that one day I would become the Plenipotentiary Representative to the Alliance for a country forced into independence."

At this moment, Tuomeidisi had completely lost the demeanor of a diplomat, acting like a very indignant ordinary person. He told Xia Duo:

"Although I don't know much about diplomatic rules, there is one point I am certain of that I do not share with any other diplomat, and that is my love for my homeland, my love for the people of my homeland. Ailan's independence was not what we wanted, but since we are independent, we have an obligation to develop her well!"

"What if someone wants to lead Ailan into the Abyss?" Xia Duo asked again.

"Then the three million people of Ailan will surely resist to the end!" Tuomeidisi said with a resonant voice.

Although the Ailan region did not perform well in the previous war between Siluwende and Yierlan, and even saw quite a few collaborators, that was in the past.

Having gone through the previous war, division, independence, and the various encounters after independence, the people of Ailan have thoroughly recognized the evil nature of Yierlan.

Ailan can never merge with Yierlan without any barriers. If the current Yierlan still wants to occupy the Ailan region, then the awakened people of Ailan will surely use their actions to tell Yierlan what the determination of the Sun Child is like.

It is just that Tuomeidisi did not understand the true meaning of Xia Duo's words. Yierlan cannot lead Ailan into the Abyss; the only ones who can lead Ailan into the Abyss are Ailan itself, or rather, the lurking Illuminati.

Xia Duo did not delve further into this issue. He knew very well that Tuomeidisi was not a member of the Illuminati, and in fact, the vast majority of Ailan's top brass were not members of the Illuminati either.

After Yierlan occupied Ailan, even if the purpose was to invade Siluwende territory, the ostensible excuse could not be truly cast aside; they would certainly investigate Demon Descendants.

Once the Illuminati's Time-Involving Ritual was exposed, Yierlan might have some scruples within its own country and face various obstacles, but in Ailan, it would not; the intensity of the investigation into the Illuminati would inevitably be unprecedented.

In a sense, Ailan is even "cleaner" than Yierlan!

But the absence of the Illuminati, or having fewer Illuminati members, does not mean it has not been influenced by the Illuminati. As the key to all the Illuminati's actions, Ailan would certainly not give up its operations there.

Regarding the recent proposal from the Ailan side to levy personal income tax on the Mage population, Xia Duo does not believe there is no Illuminati influence in this. One must know that in the Northland countries, including Netheril, there is no such thing as "personal income tax."

Taxes in various countries are mainly divided into two categories: one is derived from land, such as food tax, homestead tax, and road tax.

The other is derived from commodity transactions, such as transaction tax, transit tax, business tax, and so on.

In the past, the Northland did not even have the concept of personal income tax, which is why Charles used the phrase "Ailan is preparing to levy the Computing Power Pool Subsidy obtained by Mages" when reporting to Xia Duo.

Yet when Tuomeidisi explained it, he said it was a type of tax, and it wasn't even directly targeting the Computing Power Pool Subsidy; it was just that this sum of money was too prominent, which is why it attracted Xia Duo's attention.

If the Ailan side hadn't set their sights on the Computing Power Pool Subsidy, even if they wanted to collect personal income tax, Xia Duo wouldn't have received the news immediately.

However, a new tax, and a new tax involving the Mage population at that, could not have been born out of thin air. The Northland of the past simply had no concept of this.

Personal income is personal income; neither the lord nor the state has the right to tax it, because the ruling foundation of both the lord and the state is largely built upon land.

The process of an individual obtaining income has already settled the tax entanglements with the lord and the state, and the income itself should be very pure and clean. (Only that which involves one's own labor is income; if it is accidental gain, it belongs directly to the lord.)

That is to say, there is no need to pay so-called personal income tax.

The personal income tax in Xia Duo's understanding should be a type of tax reasonably and legally created by modern states based on a social contract.

This contract ensures both the survival of the state (tax collection) and guarantees the various rights of the citizens, or more bluntly, it is the citizens using taxes to support a state system that guarantees their various rights.

Clearly, the current Northland countries are far from reaching the scope of the modern states Xia Duo understands.

A most typical problem—who manages these collected taxes? Most modern states have completed centralization reforms, with power belonging to the government.

Yet in the current Northland, the centralization reforms of various countries have only just begun, so how was such an advanced product born?