Why did the lord rebel

Chapter 219 It's still foggy in the distance
A round of red sun was slowly rising on the horizon, casting crystal bright spots on the Phoenix Terrace that had just passed through a night of rain.

Under the stone sentry tower at the east gate of the platform, more than a dozen ox carts have been parked.

The brown-skinned camel ox in charge of pulling the cart is leisurely chewing the forage in its mouth.

In stark contrast to the idleness of the beasts, Mayor Joel is leading the business team's clerks to meticulously count the goods on the convoy.

At this time, the peak trade season is almost over, and Frost Maple Ridge, which has earned a lot of money from the tolls, sent the last caravan on the road northward at noon yesterday;

Therefore, the convoy parked at the gate of Phoenix Terrace at this time did not belong to some unfortunate businessmen who were slaughtered, but the soldiers of Shuangfengling's own children.

——After everything has happened, Xia Houyan is finally ready to return to the imperial capital with his convoy and make a "pilgrimage" to His Majesty the Emperor.

At this time, the members of the business team are counting the land tax that the lord is going to donate to the financial department of the empire in exchange for official recognition and a proper title.

For a long time, all the high-level members of the Igor family have been mentally prepared to be slaughtered by the central government of the empire and exchange taxes for titles;
However, in the past two days, when everyone was preparing taxes, a certain lord studied the empire's taxation system several times, like a criminal preparing criminals with ulterior motives who is familiar with the criminal law before taking action.

Soon, he discovered several loopholes in the system that could be manipulated.

First of all, the empire currently collects territorial taxes based on the actual population of the territory—generally speaking, this means that the lord of Shuangfengling not only needs to pay taxes to the elders and folks living on the Tongque Terrace of Phoenix Terrace, but also the people on the left bank. The residents of the town are actually within the scope of the tax base. Even the bandits and bandits on the wasteland who have nothing to do with the Igor family have to spend a lot of money on the lord.

But soon a question arose: How did the empire know the exact number of people in the various territories and how much tax to collect?

After some careful research, the senior leaders of Frost Maple Ridge discovered that the answer to this question is frighteningly simple:
Count it!

The Tax Department under the Minister of Finance of the Empire sends envoys to the major aristocratic territories every year to determine the local population through visual inspection, estimation and limited statistical records, and then inform the local lord of the amount of tax that needs to be paid.

However, as we all know, there has been no serious lord for hundreds of years in this broken place...

If you ask whether the Imperial Taxation Department has sent envoys here before, then perhaps it has indeed been sent;

However, considering the long-term situation of various tribes fighting and bandits rampant here, Xia Houyan felt very sad for the fate of those tax collectors in ancient times...

As for the years that the Igor family has taken root in Phoenix Terrace, anyway, they haven’t even seen the staff of the tax department, and they don’t know whether the empire forgot to send, the envoys ran away, or they were simply killed by the wasteland specialty mud. The primal wolf was mortally wounded.

As the old saying goes, only death and taxes cannot escape——

——As for Shuangfengling, where Lord Yan Wang is the master, this statement is obviously a big joke in the world.

The high-ranking members of the family gathered together and turned around. As a result, Shuangfengling, who was responsible for "expanding the frontier and expanding the land", needed to count the population of the Soul Breaking Land and report it to the central government of the empire...

That is to say, as many people as they report, the empire will collect taxes according to the number of people...

This outrageous situation is tantamount to allowing company accountants who owe huge gambling debts to get their checkbooks and financial seals, allowing death row prisoners who are trying to perform the Green Mile miracle to guard the prison guards' arsenal, and letting Japanese Koreans who covet Olympic medals Pushed to the referee's seat!
Originally, Frost Maple Ridge had already honestly estimated the taxable population of the Land of Cracked Souls, but after learning of this situation, Mayor Joel simply made a big stroke to calculate the population and taxable population of the Lands of Cracked Souls. The amount came directly to a cut in the middle!
The lord severely criticized Mayor Joel's bad work style, and then he swiped his pen again, and made another half-and-half split, reducing the tax amount to a quarter of the actual value...

This kind of blatant fraud has not failed to cause concern among high-level officials.

Miss Katerina's speech is the most representative:
"Eliott, you lowered the tax so low by lying about the population. What if the Imperial Taxation Department finds out that something is wrong?"

Xia Houyan put his arms around his sister and looked indifferent:
"It doesn't matter! If the central government of the empire thinks that the amount is wrong, you can send someone to the land of cracking soul to check it! Good sister, you believe me, our Shuangfengling will definitely entertain the imperial envoy who comes to check the head!"

Just by looking at what happened to those unlucky caravans in the rest area these days, Katerina knew what happened to the Frost Maple Ridge-style "reception";
What shocked this noble lady most throughout the year was that the wilderness caravans who were being ripped off in the rest area did not even realize that their younger brother Elliott was behind everything—thanks to the rest area staff Because of his excellent acting skills, caravans often think that the villains who deceived them are bandits or bullies in Rock Creek City, and Shuangfengling, who is "committed to maintaining the order in the wasteland", is trying to exert a dictatorial iron fist on these villains... …

Due to the cards in the rest area and the "deep experience" of the dangers of the wasteland, this group of caravans will basically come to the rest area for accommodation and consumption next year, and to enjoy the protection of Shuangfengling...

From this, Katerina is quite convinced that even if the empire really sent census officials to the land of the broken soul, after being beaten with a sap, she would definitely think that it was the Duke of Houston of Rock Creek who did it.

However, the matter of "cheating on the population of the wasteland" is completely a secret that the senior officials of Shuangfengling know, and even the newly promoted small family cadres are kept in the dark;
When facing Left Bank Town Chairman Faulkner, Bob Brook, who collects taxes on behalf of Frost Maple Ridge, has another face:

"Yo yo, Chairman Faulkner, life is very comfortable... I admire your leisurely and peaceful attitude towards life, you don't have to pay taxes, you don't need to collect soldiers, you can bask in the sun in Huafang Town every day, and feel comfortable. You can envy our Grand Commander Eldridge to death...By the way, you don’t know Commander Eldridge yet, right? He is a strong man sent to Frost Maple Ridge by Grand Duke Rosario a few days ago. Sword, ho! It can chop out your old intestines! Well, my lord and I just envy you. Unlike us, we have to pay taxes to the empire. Guess what? We have to pay these The common people in the town pay taxes! Never mind, our Master Igor is not as smart as you, and we are busy from morning to night every day, and we have nothing else to do except training soldiers and preparing for a battle..."

Exactly how Faulkner responded at that time has long been lost;

There are only rumors that this old Jianghu, who has changed from a village owner to a mayor, listened to Bob Brook's eccentric murmurs to himself, his old face turned pale with fright, cold sweat poured down, and his two battles looked like epileptics. .

The final result was that Faulkner handed over a large amount of tax money to Frost Maple Ridge according to the real number of people in the town on the left bank—excluding the part handed over to the empire, the Igor family even had a balance!

And the second tax loophole found by Shuangfengling is even more terrifying, enough to cause myocardial infarction for any financial worker:
In order to facilitate the payment of taxes by the major territories, the empire without Zhang Juzheng and Yiyi Whip has always allowed the lords to pay the central government with physical goods of the special products of the territory instead of part of the tax;
The implementation of this rule is also very simple, just convert the goods turned in by the nobles into gold coins at the market price - although it may be a little discrepant and tricky, it is better than imperial nobles holding piles of agricultural products all over the world looking for coins Easy to exchange.

But the problem lies in this "market price".

For example, the sea salt from Eagle’s Rest Castle, the alpine sheep skin from Beiwang County, the silver finless porpoise from Sanshuiwan...these traditional local specialties are familiar with the fair price, and they are said to be worth 21 silver coins, and they must not be priced at [-]. Silver coins are then converted;
But the problem is, who the hell knows what specialties there are in this piece of shit like the Land of Soul Breaking! ! !

God is sorry, the wasteland at the southernmost tip of the empire has not been included in the trading market of the central plains of the empire for a long time. For a long period of history, the majority of people here are trading their lives for stolen goods and betting their youth on tomorrow "Special Deal"!
As a result, the imperial taxation department actually didn't know what special products were in the land of cracked souls, and how much they were worth.

For the next steps, the senior officials of Shuangfengling will rush to answer:

Report it yourself!

Whether it is a cactus that was picked from the wasteland, a vulture egg that was taken from a bird's nest, or a frost maple wood with excellent performance, or a living fossil-like Stardew Valley herb, how much it is worth depends on the lord's mouth——

--what?The empire doesn't believe it?
Then please send an envoy to investigate the market conditions in the wilderness yourself!

In the end, the lord was going to take the ox cart to the imperial capital, and the gold coins and silver coins were next. What was more spectacular were the piles of frosted maple wood, large pots of cactus juice moonshine, and weird dried bacon with unknown raw materials. , and all kinds of "wilderness specialties" from bandit camps for free.

At first glance, it doesn't look like it's going to pay taxes, it looks like it's going to a trade fair.

If Master Laurie hadn't stopped him, Xia Houyan would almost have given the captive bandit slaves to the empire as a "special product": he can write novels, and they are worth a lot of money!
——It has to be said that it is too difficult for a big empire to maintain control over remote areas: if the location of Shuangfengling is changed to the foot of the emperor's capital, Gyeonggi, the officials of Xiahou will die if they want to do this I don't know.

Not far from the ox-carrying convoy, this time they are going to follow the lord to go to Luo, ah no, the team of people going to Beijing is also ready to go.

Perhaps he was awakened by a great battle many years later, and suddenly the spiers of light began to flicker: Since the anti-rape operation, Commander Paulus, who had been sitting on the wall at the southernmost tip of the empire for many years, finally began to think about finding Let's have some fun and give the Confederate slackers a good time:
In this short period of half a month, Paulus sent several squads of soldiers to Frost Maple Ridge like a big promotion to assist in the defense, and let Frost Maple Ridge help with training, so that now the entire territory is under the control of the Southern Regular Army and Igor's private army is in a mixed state.

——If Paulus hadn't become a trustworthy "his own corpse", Xiahou officials would be afraid that this dead bald head would support the friendly army all the time to make some big news.

However, Paulus' generosity did allow the Igor family to rest assured of the garrison of the territory, completely free up manpower, and take the elite armed forces they had saved these days to the capital for a walk.

In addition to Alice, Clement, and Chris Mann, the old team brought out from the infected area, Eldridge and other warriors who joined after coming to the southern wilderness also joined the petition delegation to Beijing :
Even the Igor Pioneering Army, which had just been formed for training, was selected by Lawrence for a group of smart and capable young men to join the team going north.

——This is not only because Igor and his party are going to escort a large amount of tax goods on the road, and reliable security measures are required for safety along the way, but also because the lord wants to catch up with the empire's annual "St. Festival", and took their own soldiers and horses to join in the fun.

"St. Augustus Festival", an annual festival celebration, has a more Chinese-style name in Xia Houyan's understanding:

autumn hunting.

It is said that in ancient times, the ancestors of human beings were still in the state of poor households who did not eat their last meal. At this time, Augustus, the "Holy One" who believed in the Supreme Holy God, suddenly appeared and sacrificed his body to serve mankind. The ancestors brought rushing herds of beasts, so that they relied on hunting to accumulate enough food to establish the first settlements.

Although the so-called "St. Augustus" is no different from a humanoid red flower in the eyes of the lord, it has become an imperial person to organize hunting near the imperial capital every autumn to commemorate the saint who sacrificed his life for the ancient ancestors. customs and habits.

During the week-long festive celebration, the imperial metropolis held sumptuous aristocratic receptions, gaudy social events, and carnival activities in which ordinary people could participate—of course, there were also hunts by the elites of the major armies.

The more important aristocratic territories of the empire also often send delegations to participate in competitions during the "St. Augustus Festival" to compete for the "Augustus Laurel" that symbolizes the supreme honor-this kind of battle requires words and not martial arts. The peaceful competition of fighting has also become a civilized method for the nobles who cannot open movies at will to express hostility and hatred and attack opponents at the lowest cost.

At the same time, just like all indiscriminate promotional activities, the imperial family will also prepare generous prizes, and when His Majesty the Emperor crowns the winner of the "Augustus Laurel", he will also present it to the champion of the competition.

In fact, Xia Houyan is not interested in this kind of festival celebrations whose form is greater than the content. In his mind, even if there is no such false name as "Augustus Laurel", Shuangfengling with the protection of the Lord of the Underworld and the protection of the materialist theory, It is also one of the most awesome territories in the empire;

However, a word from Master Laurie two days ago made him suddenly interested:
"It is said that the prize awarded to the winner of the 'Augustus Laurel' this time is a relic left by Master Simon Adrian..."

(End of this chapter)