Chapter 702: Chapter 396: The Visit from the Mechanical God Cult
The Federation’s approach to handling Flying Wing Star was, to some extent, actually similar to that of the Fatchess Tri-Star.
Smooth currency reform, nationalization reform of key industries, welfare policies covering state-owned enterprises and government personnel, and eventually extending the hierarchy to all citizens and industries transformed the completely unprotected private enterprises into Federation-system characteristic private entrepreneurship…
Although Flying Wing Star seemed much more developed than Fatchess Tri-Star, when the Federation actually took over both areas, they found the gap was not as big as imagined.
The development level of Fatchess Tri-Star was 2, barely lifted to 3, and it was already struggling;
Flying Wing Star, carrying a development level of 5, lived just as comfortably.
The biggest difference between the two places lay in that shipyard. This was a profit of about 2.5 billion a year that Fatchess couldn’t compensate;
…
Add to that the money reduced for the Star Sector Government and various academies, especially the Naval Academy, the money made was enough to wipe out the Imperial Tax, even leaving a surplus.
Apart from these aspects, only in terms of natural environmental conditions was Flying Wing Star somewhat better than Fatchess Tri-Star; overall productivity and the level of social civilization were not much different.
In this situation, the Federation could completely strip away the shipyard, administration, and education, these three big chunks, and the remaining parts could simply adopt the policy of Fatchess Tri-Star with a few minor adjustments.
As for the shipyard, the situation was relatively straightforward, just ensuring that the shipyard and all kinds of supporting factories continuously operated, maintained capacity, and that the workers’ treatment was guaranteed under a hierarchical system, and then there wouldn’t be much problem with the takeover.
Indeed, this was the case.
The difficulty of taking over the shipyard was not even as great as the subsequent process reforms.
For some old craftsmen in the shipyard, Flying Wing Star had been manufacturing all sizes of starships for hundreds of years. You bunch of so-called technical experts, coming from Rage Owl Star and the so-called Federation, are just country bumpkins, coming to teach us how to build ships?
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Isn’t that a joke!
However, under the push of power, the initial changes that came out were still barely passed—of course, this was also because some more enlightened ‘old craftsmen’ did indeed find some value in these improvements, and decided to give them a try.
Then, this trial proved to be more eloquent than argumentation.
Higher quality, lower cost, higher production efficiency… these things were all tangible, undeniable and immediately visible.
The mechanics from Rage Owl Star Shipyard were immediately embraced.
At the same time, there was also a subtle inquiry.
Within Tianma Star Sector, the Sect of Mechanics didn’t have much power; their Foundry World wasn’t here, and they hadn’t established churches and clear institutions of the Mechanical Sect in Tianma Star Sector.
However, within the whole Empire, the influence of the Sect of Mechanics was omnipresent, even penetrating daily life.
Common titles like entry-level commissioners and technical commissioners were widespread in many factories and even within the army. Some of them graduated from various Technical Academies with their certificates; others passed examinations later on. They might not have a strong religious background, but whether it was those Technical Academies or some technical associations that granted their credentials, that qualification was applied for from a Foundry World.
Official Technical Academy curricula include Theology of the Mechanical God content; technical association exams also include theological knowledge evaluations and theology discourse, becoming increasingly difficult at higher levels.
And what is a Foundry World? A world completely controlled by the Sect of Mechanics earns the name Foundry World. Foundry Worlds don’t even pay Imperial Tax, the official statement being that Foundry Worlds, like the home worlds of Interstellar Warriors, serve the Empire in another way, so they don’t need to pay Imperial Tax.
This assertion is also correct; the Foundry Worlds are the ones creating most of the weapons, construction work, and naval ships for the Imperial Army; within the Star Realm Army, there are countless technical commissioners and Mechanical Priests from the Mechanical Sect who manage military equipment and even engage in combat directly; the Protection Army and the Titan Legion belonging to the Mechanical Sect are simply an undeniable main force of the Empire.
But to dig deeper, understanding it simply as the Sect of Mechanics not paying taxes because of their responsibilities would be somewhat shallow.
Some say—and it’s just a saying—that the Empire’s emblem, the Double-headed Eagle, one head represents Holy Terra, the other head represents Mars Foundry World.
Whether this is true or not, it at least highlights a very important point: they don’t pay taxes not because of their contributions, but because of their special status; they contribute to the Empire not out of any obligation, but rather because the Mechanical Church could practically be considered one of the Empire’s most important original shareholders.
Only someone like Gu Hang, who redeveloped from a Death World like Rage Owl Star without much influence from the Sect of Mechanics—however, even in such a case, his most trusted technical expert, Ms. Wu Jiarong, was from the Sect of Mechanics; both Rage Owl Star and the newly established Technical Academy on Heijian Star issued ‘bootleg’ technical certificates that outside didn’t recognize.
And moreover, this was not a sustainable situation. In fact, Ms. Wu Jiarong already had plans, preparing to make a trip to the nearest Foundry World—Jindi Star—to get this matter resolved.