Chapter 221: Greedy Royal Family, Sinful Heavenly Gold

Chapter 221: Greedy Royal Family, Sinful Heavenly Gold

In the Grand Line Kingdom of Pisenya, Lu Kai and the Iron Army soldiers were walking on the streets of the royal city. Looking at the devastated royal city, Lu Kai's eyes were grim.

The Kingdom of Pisenya is a member of the World Government. In order to obtain the protection of the World Government and the Navy, the Kingdom of Pisenya has to hand over a large amount of "Heavenly Gold" to the Celestial Dragons every year.

All member states of the World Government need to pay two payments every year. The first payment is to the World Government.

Because if the World Government wants to operate and maintain such a large navy, it will require a lot of money, and it is only natural for the member countries of the World Government to pay this money.

Moreover, this money is considered normal taxation and the amount is not large. Even the poorest countries can afford it if they try hard. Even if a country encounters a crisis and cannot pay the money for the time being, it can negotiate with the world government to postpone the payment.

But in addition to the normal taxes paid to the World Government, they also need to hand over a large amount of money to the Celestial Dragons, and this money is 'Heavenly Gold'.

The amount of this money is much more than the taxes paid to the World Government, and this money is specifically provided for the Celestial Dragons to enjoy, and must be paid on time every year.

Because the amount of "gold from heaven" is huge, many economically underdeveloped countries have continuously increased taxes on the people in order to raise this money, making people's lives increasingly difficult.

So why do many countries want to join the world government even though they know they have to pay a huge amount of "sky gold"? There are three main reasons:

First, not every country has the same geographical location. Some countries are located in turbulent regions, where pirates are rampant, or there are other crises. This makes some countries unable to protect their own territory and the safety of their people.

Once you become a member of the World Government and pay "Heavenly Gold", you can be protected by the Navy and the World Government when you encounter a crisis.

Second, once a country becomes a member of the World Government, its king and royal family will have legitimacy.

As long as the king and members of the royal family do not do anything that violates the interests of the world government or that the government cannot tolerate.

Then anyone who attempts to overthrow the royal rule of these countries will be labeled a rebel and suppressed by the navy.

It would be fine if non-World Government member countries were not protected by the World Government and the Navy, but the Celestial Dragons would plunder and massacre these countries according to their own needs and even moods.

Because these non-World Government member countries are defined by the World Government as garbage that have no use to the world.

As long as a country is unable to protect itself, such plundering will easily occur, and such plundering will often be justified by the world government as reasonable and legal reasons.

Third, once a country has been a member of the World Government and then withdraws from the membership, the country will be targeted by the World Government.

If such a country has any disturbance or any handle in the hands of the world government, it will lead to domestic turmoil at best, or be directly destroyed by the world government at worst.

However, it does not necessarily mean that all member states of the World Government will become miserable because of "Gold from the Sky". This has a lot to do with a country's resources, management, development, etc.

For example, in Lukai’s hometown Itakissia, from the current situation, the handing over of “gold from heaven” has not caused any negative impact on the lives of the people of Itakissia, because Itakissia is well developed and very prosperous.

For example, Alabasta, where Luffy and his friends visited later, had always been a peaceful and prosperous country before Crocodile planned to seize the country. Although it was a bit difficult for Alabasta to hand over the Heavenly Gold, it was not so sustainable.

The Kingdom of Piasen was once a wealthy country and did not need to worry about the "gold from the sky". Even after paying the "gold from the sky", the country still had a lot of normal fiscal revenue, and the people lived a good life.

But everything has changed since the current king Ranbir ascended the throne.

Ranbir was an extremely arrogant and extravagant person, and his extravagance was even not inferior to that of the Celestial Dragons. As a result, the kingdom's treasury was soon empty and unable to pay the "Heavenly Gold".

However, the "Gold from Heaven" had to be paid, so the Kingdom of Pisenya transferred the task of paying the "Gold from Heaven" from the state to the people.

Therefore, in addition to paying normal taxes every year, the people of the Kingdom of Piasen also have to pay a high "heavenly tax" per person.

After tasting the sweetness, Lambiel not only did not restrain himself, but became even more extravagant. When he could not afford to pay the "gold from heaven", he continued to exploit the people.

This move soon made life unbearable for the people, and many people rebelled, but were ruthlessly suppressed by the army.

Ordinary people have no choice but to sell off their belongings and everything they have, but how many years can this last?

Finally, the people could no longer bear the oppression and organized a riot, forming an army to fight against the brutal King Ranbir.

Three days ago, the rebels had reached the capital of the Kingdom of Piasen and had fought several battles with the king's army in the capital, with both sides winning and losing.

At this moment, both the King's Army and the rebels chose to temporarily cease fire due to heavy casualties. The two sides used the square in the middle of the royal city as the boundary, dividing the north and the south, to rest and prepare.

The order that Luke received this time was to rescue important members of the royal family, including Ranbir, at all costs.

However, Lu Kai did not rush to the palace immediately, but brought his subordinates to the square in the middle.

This is not the first time Lu Kai has experienced such a scene.

Including the war launched by the three brothers and sisters against the Kingdom of Lafia, which was once known as the Pearl of the West Sea, this was the fifth country that Lu Kai had seen in recent years where the people could not survive because of the greed and selfishness of the royal family, and had to rebel and cause unrest.

"Everyone rest where you are!" Lu Kai ordered coldly.

Then he took Fu Ya and Xiao Long and started walking around the streets, wanting to learn more about the truth about this country.

The three of them also held a large bag in their hands, which was filled with a variety of food to be distributed to those who needed it most.

This idea was proposed by Xiaolong because she couldn't bear to see others suffer from hunger and cold.

The first time he followed Lu Kai to quell a national unrest, Xiaolong took the initiative to take a lot of food from the warship and distributed it to the civilians. Later, every time he saw people starving or freezing, Xiaolong would do the same.

In fact, from Luke and Fuya's perspective, they prefer to solve the problem from a fundamental level, such as ending the war immediately and introducing a new king.

Allowing the new king to open the granaries, release grain and formulate policies will not only ensure the survival of the people and help them recuperate, but also establish the new king's prestige in a short period of time and stabilize the situation.

Because the number of victims was so large, even if they took out all the food and fed all the victims a full meal, what about the next meal?

If the next meal is not provided, it will easily incite civil unrest, and those who were originally grateful to them may even become hostile to them.

So what Luke did in the previous countries was the same as what he did in the Kingdom of Rafia.

First, choose a trustworthy person in the local area, help this person to quell the unrest at lightning speed, then plunder the resources of the princes and nobles, and use their abundant resources to stabilize the situation first.

Then let the newly elected ruler tell everyone that the resources of the princes and nobles can only be used for three months, and after three months no one will have anything to eat.

Then we can take this opportunity to promulgate some policies for recuperation and recovery. Combining the two, we can completely solve the problem.

It is easy for people in disasters to pin their hopes on others. If you help them once but fail to help them a second time, the victims’ hopes will be dashed.

Once a person's hopes are dashed, the consequences can be dire.

It’s just that Xiaolong can’t understand things that are too profound, and Lu Kai and Fu Ya don’t want to hurt Xiaolong’s kindness, so they can only accompany her.

But their disaster relief is selective. Only those who are starving to death and those who need help the most can get food, and they will never give more than that.

Lu Kai and his companions would also keep an eye on everyone who received food, making them finish all the food in public and not allowing anyone to hide it.

Because hiding food in such an environment would most likely cost these people their lives.