Free Web NovelChapter 1124: Chapter 1061: Legal Affairs Movement
Following the Silverware Guild’s guide, Tobias twisted and turned, following one safe path after another.
Even so, he was coerced into paying twice and almost had his carriage seized. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
When they arrived near the inner city, the master and apprentice finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was close." Wiping the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, Tobias’s apprentice couldn’t help but say, "Old Deng, look at you, if I hadn’t made a quick escape decision, we’d be finished."
"Alright, alright, you’re amazing. I’ll treat you to a drink tonight, okay?"
The carriage arrived at the long queue waiting to enter the city. They were relatively early, but the queue at the gate was already a long line.
"Holy Father above! How long will this take?" the apprentice complained immediately.
Tobias stood up, gazing into the distance.
The city walls not far away were vaguely visible in the morning mist, with the outline of the watchtowers obscured and shadows moving around.
A faint smell of perfume wafted over from the noble district in the distance, clashing with the nearby tannery’s stench, creating an indescribably strange scent.
A long queue stretched from in front of them into the distance, waiting for the inner city gate to open.
"It’ll probably take two hours; we came early, so it’s fast."
"This is fast?" The apprentice rolled his eyes, "When we go to Xia Lvcheng, unless there are rations hijacked, when have we ever had to wait two hours after arriving early?"
"Only Changge City has such a national condition." Tobias raised his hand, pretending to hit.
The apprentice quickly covered the back of his head, looked around, and couldn’t help but frown: "How can it be both prosperous and decaying?"
This was a question Tobias couldn’t answer either: "You don’t like it here? This is the capital of the Leia people." ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
"Feels... not as good as Xia Lvcheng." The apprentice shrugged, "We paid taxes seven times just coming from the city gate to here.
If you hadn’t fooled them into thinking it was silver and not mithril, who knows how much we would’ve lost.
I’m really curious, with this situation, how do people coming here for business make a profit?"
Tobias knew the answer to this, but just as he was about to speak, he immediately fell silent.
A gilded carriage turned the corner, the wheels splashing mud onto passersby.
The coachman lashed the whip and shouted, but the passersby merely scurried aside timidly.
The crest on the carriage glittered in the misty sunlight, the gilded bull insignia of the Regent Duke Omes family.
As the sound of the wheels faded, Tobias finally lifted his head, watching the carriage disappear through the city gate.
"Do you understand now?"
"Understood." the apprentice said gloomily.
The noble merchants don’t pay taxes, they force merchants to transport, and then pass the costs onto other merchants.
In the empire, such things are commonplace, but the amount of this heavy tax is unusual.
Exchanging economic benefits for political support, then using political support to gain military control and legitimacy.
In the civilian world, it manifests as Leia’s biggest merchants often being house servants and stewards of the nobility.
Watching the distant carriage, the apprentice pondered for a long time: "If this continues, I think it’s over."
"Didn’t I tell you not to say that?"
"You’re saying it yourself, just not directly." the apprentice said, pouting, "We should move to the Holy Alliance, where the streets are paved with gold, and here the streets are paved with crap."
"Move to the Holy Alliance, be careful or the Cheka will sew your mouth shut with needles."
Despite saying that, Tobias knew this might be his last visit to Changge City.
Even though he truly missed his hometown, the visible future for Leia was turmoil.
As for the Holy Alliance, judging by their tacit agreement to divide Leia’s interests, there should be at least seventy or eighty years of peace between them.
After all, Leia is vast, everyone taking a bite means it’ll take a long time to consume.
In contrast to the general hatred from the Falan Kingdom towards the Leia people, Tobias favored the Holy Alliance more.
But immigrating to the Holy Alliance also requires start-up capital, and preferably connections with the Saint Father’s Association.
Otherwise, why would he come to sell this batch of mithril cutlery?
"Hey, the gate’s open, I’ll go pull the horse, can’t let anyone cut in line!"
......
"How much did the Rivertown Court in Wutree Town sell for?"
"It was packaged and sold for around 1200 gold pounds, bought by Baron Doyle and his wife."
With gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose, Duke Omes lifted his eyelids: "Sold it cheap, leaving the army short of funds."
Puzilio widened his eyes: "This is considered cheap?"
"Of course, Baron Doyle’s daughter married a renowned local timber merchant.
A fifty-year-old man, and his family has quite a bit of money, all of which he swallowed up after the church collapsed, which originally belonged to the local bishop."
"Ah—" Puzilio slapped his forehead, "That was indeed cheap, dammit, they dare to mock me, I’ll call them back."
"Forget it, don’t ruin your reputation, seeing someone take advantage makes others hopeful."
Bending his head, Duke Omes wrote a few words on the document and handed it to Puzilio.
"I’ve established a few more official positions, you can sell them again."
The practice of selling official positions was actually part of a reform plan left by King Jiji.
Among the reform plans left by Ginijis, Duke Omes found that the easiest and most beneficial for Leia’s current environment was selling official positions.
This was a trick the Falan played for hundreds of years, once rejected by the Leia people for undermining noble traditions.
However, now no one talks about it anymore.
The official-selling system of the Falan, after centuries of development, reached a "multi-usage" sustainable state.
The first usage was the basic establishment of the "extra income bureau," where the wealthy or nobles could buy official positions.
The second usage was the familiar inheritance tax, where an official’s son needed to pay to inherit his father’s office.
Of course, the King of Falan thoughtfully provided installment payment options for officials.
The third usage was when the king had a sudden change of heart, saying selling positions was bad, and then canceled a batch of irrelevant positions.
At this point, the benefited officials would quickly pay some money to beg the king not to cancel them.
The fourth usage was after the king raised officials’ salaries, he demanded they compensate the price difference for buying positions, forcing judges to borrow money from the public for the king.
Why didn’t the king borrow himself? Because his credit was too poor, he always violently stripped assets from creditors.
The fifth usage was setting up duplicate positions, forcing officials with current positions to buy the new duplicate ones.
The sixth usage was removing tax collectors or the most corrupt officials to appease public anger.
The seventh usage...
Such multi-usage methods could even list dozens or hundreds of items.
They are advanced experiences from friendly nations, which had to be learned.
"By the way, the funds from these newly sold positions can serve as supplementary funds for suppressing the Five City Alliance, you allocate them yourself."
"Am I going to suppress the Five City Alliance?"
"Previously you stood shoulder to shoulder with famous generals like Horn Gallar and Jeanne D’Arc, are you afraid of these unruly people?"
Duke Omes seemed absent-minded, continuing to review documents.
Puzilio scratched his head: "I mean, that kind of experience is precious, and I already have it, repeating it isn’t meaningful, is it?
Besides, it’s such a battle, fighting a group of mobs, there’s really no need."
"Do you want to recommend someone?"
Duke Omes immediately saw through his son’s intention, and Puzilio chuckled: "It’s Kennard and Billet from the Maborra family."
"Fine, then you’ll lead the team, it’s just right for us to give the new generation of nobles in Thorn Garden some training."
He rubbed his temples, his voice carrying impatience, unwilling to dwell on this matter any longer.
A motley crew, amidst Leia’s current large and small rebellions and invisible resistance, it doesn’t even rank.
The only noteworthy aspect is the wealthy commoners and their courage to fly the banner of the Holy Sect.
Though, as the saying goes, a gun beats the one who sticks out, but this "bird" is a bit too weak.
Even if they wanted to take it seriously, they couldn’t.
Puzilio lowered his head quickly: "When should we deploy?"
"They’ve already driven out three bishops and seized the church’s armory and granary." Duke Omes stroked his coarse black beard, "The nobles of Dawn Island are untrustworthy, you need to personally lead the siege, the sooner you depart, the better."
"Okay."
"But don’t be careless." Omes knocked on the map, his fingertip pointing at Dawn Island, "Don’t fight too hard, cut off their supplies and let them hold out a few more days, just capture it before the year-end."
"What do you mean, father?"
"If you fight too fast and they surrender, do you kill them or not?" Omes’s lips curled into a calculating smile, "If you kill them, they say I’m brutal. Not killing them doesn’t cover the military expenses.
Let them resist for a while, let the world see their determined resistance.
When supplies are exhausted, breach the gates, then if soldiers behave excessively, it can be understood.
If we can’t beat the Thousand River Valley, surely we can handle the Five City Alliance, can’t we?"
