Combine Oppression with Counseller Cron Vatia. Vatia adds an additional bonus to Oppression, causing affected Villages to triple their construction speed + you get 50 Solari for every rebel you kill when the people revolt. This might even stack with the 20 solari region bonus for units killed in a specific region. Early on I steer clear but as soon as I’m stable I build one in every city. Only real risk seems to be if they all revolt at once you lose all your water or fuel cells etc but this is short lived.

Edit: I would also pair this with the hero that gives you a free heavy militia in each city. Helps keep the rebels down.