Why did the lord rebel

Chapter 204 Chapter [-]
With extreme apprehension, Faulkner ushered Mr. Xiahou, Lawrence, and the small leaders of the Pioneering Army who came with the team into the town hall of Huafang Town.

As soon as Xia Houyan walked into the room, he didn't even look at it, and sat directly on the main seat, crossing his legs;

As for the other Shuangfengling boys who followed the lord into the door, they also swaggered around and found seats in this meeting hall.

Only Faulkner, the original owner of this town hall, stood beside the lord lord with a slightly bowed body;
If you give Ya a microphone, he will definitely be able to incarnate Eason Chan in another world, and sing a sentence full of grief and indignation:
"That year 48, the town hall, standing like a minion..."

Sitting comfortably on the seat, the senior official Xiahou first admired the multi-cultural decoration style of this meeting hall in a serious manner, and then, as if he had just seen Faulkner standing by the side, Surprised said:
"Faulkner, sit down!"

Mayor Faulkner rolled his eyes a few times in embarrassment, and then he carefully pulled out a chair and sat down, with only half of his buttocks occupied.

"My lord... Elliott..." he pleaded with eyes, "I beg you..."

As a result, Xia Houyan directly interrupted him:

"Mr. Faulkner, I understand that you made a fortune in Huafang Town...you are doing good business and living a good life, and you are protected by bandits from Cold Blade Village and guards from Left Bank Town... You don't need a friend like me, you don't need a lord, but you say to me now, 'Please'...but you have no respect for me at all, you don't regard me as a friend..."

"Holy Spirit..." Faulkner shouted, "Eliot...Master Igor, you must have misunderstood, I respect you and the Igor family very much, I even asked you to conscript in Huafang Town It's gone, isn't it?"

Xia Houyan looked at Faulkner with compassionate eyes that could make Guanyin Bodhisattva cry, shook his head and said:
"Faulkner, Faulkner, what did I do to make you disrespect me so much? It is true that you conscripted me, but didn't the mayors of several other towns do the same? Interestingly, I After taking away a large number of great guys from the town, where are the mayors of those towns now? Is it in the crematorium in Hanren Village? Is it at the bottom of the Lion Heart River? It’s not you Faulkner now, Became the chairman of the Left Bank Alliance?"

Faulkner was stunned for a moment, and was about to refute, but Xia Houyan waved his hand in a disinterested manner:

"You don't need to make any excuses, you let me conscript, and I will help you create chaos on the left bank, I tend to think that this is a kind of mutual help-and what is the aquamarine crystal I gave you? "

"Actually, I can return them to you..." Faulkner said tremblingly.

It has to be said that the mind of this bandit official is still very clear:

The few crystals that Lord Shuangfengling gave him at the beginning must not be as expensive as the hundreds of bandit slaves who demanded a lot of money...

"What?!" Xia Houyan shouted in "shock", "You still refuse to accept my gift now?! Mayor Faulkner, what do you mean?!"

Faulkner couldn't hold back anymore.

Shuangfengling's way of doing things is like giving you 50 yuan first, and then asking you to forcefully ask for your real estate certificate on the grounds of "I helped you"—and when you propose to return the original 50 yuan , they will claim that you don't give them face...

Never seen such an efficient and simple pretext for war in history!

Such a noble territory, such a handsome and handsome young nobleman, why is he acting like a fucking hooligan? !

What kind of education is this? !

Mayor Faulkner, who was full of anger, finally put away his good old face, gritted his teeth and said:
"Master Elliott Igor, to tell you the truth, our Huafang Town can't afford these sons of bitch slaves of yours... You are the lord of Frost Maple Ridge, and I am the chairman of the Union of Towns on the Left Bank , friendship and cooperation on the wasteland have a future, you'd better not push us too hard..."

"Interesting." Xia Houyan sneered, "When our Shuangfengling was facing the bandit coalition attack, who was raising the purchase price of the military supplies? Who was letting the profiteer card supply the neck and taking the lives of our leaders? Are you kidding me? Mayor Faulkner, who was forcing whom?!"

Faulkner swallowed as if his neck was stuck.

To be honest, he raised the purchase price of military supplies back then because he thought that the winner of this battle had not yet been determined, and at the same time, the town on the left bank suffered a serious population loss under the money offensive of Shuangfengling, so he wanted to take the opportunity to get back a fortune—— —Isn’t it normal for commodity prices to increase as demand grows;
Who the hell would have thought that the lord of Shuangfengling would be so vengeful? !
Faulkner almost regretted it all:

In order to establish a friendly relationship with Shuangfengling, he bet on this young lord. In fact, he did not lose money, but because of a small trade dispute, he offended the lord and fell short...

In the final analysis, it is still the small peasant thinking of bandit origin that is at work...

But in face, Faulkner still solemnly declared:
"My lord, the prices of goods sold in our towns on the left bank are all set by the vendors themselves. As the chairman of the alliance, I have no right to interfere... Let's not destroy the hard-won friendship because of the tricks of some profiteers... ..."

"Coincidentally!" Xia Houyan slapped his palm in surprise, "Actually, I came here to sell you slaves this time, not because of my own ideas, but because of a group of public opinion representatives and joint petitions from the people of Shuangfengling! Mayor Faulkner, I am a democrat who serves the people, and I will always act in accordance with the wishes of the people—I believe you will not disappoint the ardent hopes of our people in Frost Maple Ridge, right?"

Faulkner nearly had a heart attack.

"At the same time, our public opinion representatives in Shuangfengling actually proposed another motion..." Xia Houyan smiled.

"Oh? Your 'representative of public opinion', what's your opinion?" Mayor Faulkner deliberately bit the word "representative of public opinion" very hard, viciously.

Xia Houyan snapped his fingers at Tom Lawrence.

Lawrence took two steps forward, took out a piece of parchment from his waist, and read aloud:
"Emperor's Decree in 730, Imperial Calendar: Anyone who successfully establishes a territory in the Land of Cracking Souls and rules the wasteland will naturally obtain all human beings south of the Lion Heart River, west of the Dust Mountain Range, east of the Raging Wave Mountain Range, and north of the border of the Empire's Demon Race. Jurisdiction of citizens..."

"Here, Mayor Faulkner..." Xia Houyan said with a smile, "According to the laws of the empire, the residents of your left bank towns are the legal subjects of our Igor family! The public opinion representative of Shuangfengling expresses to me Enthusiastic petition asking me to levy additional taxes on the towns on the left bank to demonstrate the authority of the empire..."

Faulkner was dumbfounded.

In the world, what is more difficult to deal with than a hooligan?
——That is a hooligan who understands the law!

Look at Shuangfengling's meaning, buying and selling a group of slaves by force is even a trivial matter, and collecting legal taxes from the towns on the left bank is the wolfish ambition of this young bastard lord!
God is sorry, the trading season in the wasteland is coming soon, and the towns on the left bank can make a fortune at this time of year;

If the tax was paid to Frost Maple Ridge at this time, the amount would be so huge that Mayor Faulkner, who had a considerable fortune, would feel suffocated.

"Lord, you are going too far..." Faulkner gritted his teeth.

Xia Houyan shrugged:

"Our public opinion representatives in Shuangfengling have such a sense of justice and the spirit of law! Mayor Faulkner, my Igor pioneer army is in trouble. As for the fate of stubbornly resisting taxes as a leader Well—I believe you have read the history books of the Empire, too?"

Faulkner snapped:

"Mr. Eliot Eagle, are you going to war?"

"Fart." Xia Houyan sneered, "Mayor Faulkner, war refers to between countries, and no matter how bad it is, it is between territories--the cities and towns on the left bank are all my legal territory and scope of governance. It’s not about war, it’s about maintaining stability!”

All of a sudden, Faulkner's old face seemed to be surging with waves of the Lion's Heart River.

……

In the end, the old fox Faulkner had no choice but to hold his nose and agree to the request of the "representative of public opinion" in Shuangfengling.

In addition to accepting all the hundreds of slaves brought by Igor's pioneering army with a ridiculously high price, Faulkner also paid a symbolic tax to the lord with a smirk——

——The number is not much, but Xiahou officials are already very satisfied.

Everything is difficult at the beginning, and Faulkner's willingness to pay taxes means that the town on the left bank has recognized the ruling and taxation rights of the Igor family as the master of the wasteland. It all depends on the conscience of a certain lord.

In fact, Xiahou officials are quite transparent in their hearts: if one day Faulkner is disobedient, he will be beaten to death with a crowbar and turned into a zombie;

Although there is a limit to high-level necromancy spells, it is not a waste to use a resurrection spell on the head of a wasteland town, not to mention that the Faulkner and Igor families are not related, and the lord will have nothing to do. psychological burden.

Like the official Xiahou who solved the slave problem and made a fortune, Mayor Faulkner, who was sitting in the town hall, only felt disgusted as if he had eaten a fly.

It's not that Faulkner doesn't want to resist, but poking a knife and a real gun at the pioneer soldiers in Huafang Town is enough to dispel all his unreasonable thoughts:
Even Frost Maple Ridge, which can be easily defeated by the Bandit Allied Forces, is obviously no longer the thing in the past. Faulkner doesn't think that with a Cold Blade Village and a group of town guards, he can fight against the rapidly rising Yi Ge The Er family challenged them face to face:
You know, it has only been a few days since the reorganization of the Left Bank Towns Alliance, and the chairman Faulkner is still in the early stage of his subordinates being alienated and desperately in need of a stable rule. Don't they all have their necks wiped by peace-loving subordinates while sleeping:
The lord who came to Huafang Town with the power of victory really picked an excellent time to "negotiate".

However, Faulkner, who suffered from being dumb, did not continue to be depressed to the end.

Seeing the defeat of bandits in Shuangfeng Ridge, the historical wheels of clearing the wasteland are rolling away, and the establishment of the Igor family's rule in this unowned land is an irreversible general trend;
——It can only be said that His Majesty's imperial decree, coupled with a terrifyingly fast-growing force and an extremely fierce iron-handed lord, is enough to end the long-lasting semi-independence of this no-man's land Status up:

The status quo of the land of cracked souls was originally arranged by the empire out of strategic considerations. Neither the bandits of the wilderness nor the residents of the towns actually had the right to self-determination in the true sense;

And if there is another incident in the land of cracking souls, I am afraid that we can only count on the demons on the other side of the defense line of the arcane spire to make any moves.

Therefore, Faulkner, who quickly accepted the reality, also clearly realized that the existence of Frost Maple Ridge means that the Left Bank Alliance has an extra tax to be paid, but it also means that the peace and stability of the wasteland are guaranteed, and the trade environment will only increase. better;
When the two are balanced, only the Supreme Holy Spirit knows whether the town on the left bank is making a profit or losing money.

However, the lord's resolute means of suppressing bandits, coupled with the rumors that Luna Village, which received financial support from Shuangfengling, was massacring in the southwestern end of the wasteland, made Faulkner understand that the prospect of the bandit bandit career is cracking. The land of souls has become increasingly bleak, and the old mayor of the fox also began to secretly reorganize his own soldiers and horses of Hanren Village into town guards.

With the sudden defeat of the bandit coalition forces, for a while, an undercurrent surged in the land of cracking souls;

Even the most ignorant and dull people in the wilderness can faintly feel that changes unseen in a century are coming to this southern land.

And the wilderness of the Land of Cracking Souls, amidst all kinds of apprehension, anxiety, and expectations, ushered in the peak trade season of 94 years in the imperial calendar.

……

Baron Alexios was riding on the back of the nightmare beast, and couldn't help looking back.

Against the dazzling sunlight, the towering arcane spire has been left far behind by them, becoming a dim silhouette in the field of vision. Only the glow of magic energy shining like stardust on the top of the tower seems to be stronger than that. The scorching sun is even brighter.

Baron Alexios couldn't help but rubbed his eyes:

Tears were constantly oozing from his purple pupils—on weekdays he was too used to the dark clouds and demonic realms, and once he came to the land of the empire, he would inevitably be allergic to the sun.

"Master Alexios, are you alright?" a subordinate asked with concern.

"It's nothing, but the sun is too dazzling." Baron Alexios smiled apologetically, "Have you finished counting the goods?"

"The count is over, and the number is not missing." The subordinate nodded seriously, "Fortunately, you are in charge this time, so we didn't get stolen by human bastard soldiers when we passed the customs..."

"But there is a human soldier who put his hand into my clothes!" A demon girl shouted angrily.

Baron Alexios sighed softly:

"Through the arcane spire defense line, it is inevitable to encounter such bad things... If it is not for the huge profits, which moon god's beloved son would suffer such grievances for no reason?"

"My lord, you just started doing business, and you still don't know anything." One of his subordinates sneered, "In the past two years, since the man named Paulus became the commander of the Southern Army, the situation has been much better; in the early years, we When the demon caravan cleared the customs, it happened from time to time that the imperial soldiers hid the superiors and killed the stolen goods!"

"That's only a small number of cases..." The demon girl thought of something, and suddenly shuddered, "The bandits in the Soul Breaking Land are really scary..."

"Hmph, it's not to deal with these human bandits, so why would we hire guards at a huge price?" The caravan members pointed angrily at the armored demon mercenaries following the team's flanks.

"However, I heard that the empire seems to have appointed a new lord in the Land of Cracking Soul..." the demon girl said thoughtfully, "It is said that the new lord seems to be vigorously attacking the bandits in the wasteland. better."

"Bah!" the caravan members spat, "The new lord? Aren't they all hateful human bastards? They're just like dogs!"

Baron Alexios listened to the conversation of his subordinates, squinted his eyes and looked to the north, lost in thought.

(End of this chapter)