A red sun rose slowly on the horizon, coating the Phoenix Tower with crystal light spots that had just gone through a night rain.

More than ten bullock carts have been parked under the stone sentry tower at the east gate of the platform;

Mayor Joel is taking the clerks from the business group to count the goods on the motorcade.

At this time, the peak trade season is almost over, and Shuangmangling, which has made a lot of money from collecting tolls, only sent the last caravan on the northward road at noon yesterday;

Therefore, the motorcade parked at the gate of Phoenix Terrace at this time did not belong to some unfortunate merchants who were being slaughtered, but to members of the Shuangmangling family's own disciples.

——Everything is over, Xia Houyan is finally ready to return to the imperial capital with his motorcade to make a pilgrimage to His Majesty the Emperor.

At this time, the members of the business team are counting what the lord is planning to donate to the imperial finance department in exchange for official recognition and the territorial tax of a serious title.

For a long time, many senior members of the Igor family have been mentally prepared to be brutally 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 tax system several times, like a criminal with ulterior motives who studies the criminal law before taking action.

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

First of all, the empire currently levies territorial taxes based on the actual population in the territory - generally speaking, this means that the lords of Shuangmangling Ridge not only need to pay taxes to the folks living on Tongque Terrace on Phoenix Terrace, but also on the left bank

The residents of the town are actually within the scope of the tax base. Even the bandits and robbers in the wilderness, who are not even close to the Igor family, have to spend a lot of money on the lord.

But questions soon arose: How did the empire know exactly how many people lived in each major territory and how much tax it should levy?

After some careful research, the senior officials of Shuangmangling found that the answer to this question was frighteningly simple:

Count it!

The Taxation Department under the Imperial Finance Minister sends envoys to the major noble territories every year to determine the local population through visual inspection, estimation and limited statistics, and then informs the local lords of the amount of tax that needs to be paid.

However, as we all know, this broken place, the Land of Souls, has not had a serious lord for hundreds of years...

If you ask the Imperial Taxation Department whether they have sent envoys here before, then maybe they have indeed sent one;

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

As for the year that the Igor family has taken root in Phoenix Terrace, they have not even seen the Taxation Department personnel. It is not known whether the empire forgot to send the envoys and the envoys ran away, or they were simply succumbed to the mud of the wasteland specialty.

The alpha wolf was wounded to death.

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

——And in Shuangfengling, where Lord Yama is the master, this statement is obviously the most ridiculous thing in the world.

The senior family members put it all together and turned around, and it turned out that Shuang Maple Ridge, who was responsible for "opening up the territory", had to count the population of the Soul-Splitting Land and report it to the Empire Central Committee...

In other words, as many people as they report, the empire will collect taxes according to the number of people with utmost honesty...

This outrageous situation is tantamount to letting the company accountant who owes huge gambling debts obtain the check book and financial seal, letting the death row inmate who is trying to stage a green mile guard the prison guard's arsenal, and letting the Japanese and Koreans who covet Olympic medals

Pushed to the referee's seat!

Originally, Shuang Maple Ridge had honestly estimated the taxable population of the Soul-Splitting Land. However, after learning about this situation, Mayor Joel simply made a big stroke and calculated the population and taxable population of the Soul-Splitting Land.

Well, it was a direct cut in the middle!

The lord severely criticized Mayor Joel's bad work style, and then with a stroke of his pen, he directly cut the tax amount in half, reducing the tax amount to a quarter of the actual value...

This kind of blatant fraud has not caused concern among senior officials.

Miss Caterina’s speech is the most representative:

"Elliot, you kept your taxes so low by lying about your population. What if the Imperial Taxation Department notices something is wrong?"

Xia Houyan hugged his sister and looked indifferent:

"It doesn't matter! If the central government of the empire feels that the amount is wrong, it can personally send people to the Soul Splitting Land to check! My dear sister, believe me, our Shuangmaple Ridge will definitely entertain the imperial envoys who come to check the heads!"

Just looking at what those unlucky caravans have experienced in the rest area these days, Katarina knows what the Frost Maple Ridge-style "entertainment" is all about;

What shocked this noble lady the most all year was that the wasteland caravans who were being ripped off in the rest area did not realize that their younger brother Elliot was the mastermind behind everything - thanks to the rest area staff

With his excellent acting skills, the caravans often thought that the evildoers who deceived them were bandits or Rock Creek City bullies, and Shuang Maple Ridge, who was "committed to maintaining order in the wasteland", was working hard to impose a dictatorial iron fist on these bad guys...

…

Since they have applied for a card in the rest area and have "deep experience" in the dangers of the wilderness, this group of caravans will basically come to the rest area to stay and spend money next year and enjoy the protection of Shuangmaple Ridge...

From this, Catalina was quite convinced that even if the empire did send census officials to the Soul-Splitting Land, after being slapped, she would most likely think that it was Archduke Houston of Rock Creek City who did it.

However, the matter of "fraud on the population of the wasteland" is completely a secret known to everyone at the top of Shuangmangling Ridge. Even the newly promoted family cadres are kept in the dark;

When facing Left Bank Town Chairman Faulkner, Bob Brooke, who collects taxes on behalf of Frost Maple Ridge, had a different look:

"Hey, Chairman Faulkner, you are living a very comfortable life... I admire your leisurely and peaceful attitude towards life. You don't have to pay taxes, and you don't have to collect soldiers. You just bask in the sun in Huafang Town every day. It's so comfortable.

He can make us, Commander Eldridge, envious to death... By the way, you don’t know Commander Eldridge, right? He is a tough guy sent to Frost Maple Ridge by Archduke Rosario a few days ago. His dark weapon is

Sword, ho! I can chop out your old intestines! Alas, our lords and I just envy you. Unlike us, we have to pay taxes to the empire. Guess what? We still have to pay these few

The people in the town pay taxes! Stop talking, our Lord Igor is just not as smart as you. He works hard from morning to night, and has nothing else to do except train troops and prepare for a war..."

The specifics of Faulkner's response at that time have long been lost;

There are only rumors that this old Jianghu, who has turned from a village owner to a mayor, was listening to Bob Brooke's sinister soliloquy. His old face turned pale with fright, cold sweat was pouring down, and his legs were trembling like an epileptic patient.

.

The final result was that Faulkner handed over a large sum of tax money to Frost Maple Ridge based on the real number of people in the towns on the left bank - excluding the part given to the empire, the Igor family even had a balance!

The second tax loophole found by Shuangmangling is even more terrifying, enough to give any financial worker a heart attack:

In order to make it easier for the major territories to pay taxes, the empire, which did not have Zhang Juzheng and Yi Yibufa, actually always allowed the lords to use physical goods from the territory's special products to pay the central government in lieu of part of the taxes;

This rule is also very simple to implement. Just convert the goods handed over by the nobles into gold coins according to the market price. Although there may be some minor discrepancies, it is still better than the imperial nobles carrying piles of agricultural products all over the world to find coins.

Exchange is easy.

But the problem lies in this "market price".

For example, the sea salt from Eagle's Breathing Fort, the mountain sheep skin from Beiwang County, the silver-finned finless porpoise from Sanshui Bay... We are all familiar with the fair prices of these traditional local specialties. It is said that they are worth twenty silver coins, but they must not be priced at twenty.

A silver coin is so converted;

But the problem is, who the hell knows what specialties there are in this piece of shit like the Land of Souls!!!

Unfortunately, this wasteland at the southernmost tip of the empire has not been included in the trading market in the central plains of the empire for a long time. For a long period of history, most of the people here traded their lives for stolen goods and gambled their youth on the future.

"Special Deal"!

As a result, the imperial tax department actually had no idea what the special products of the Soul-Splitting Land were and how much they were worth.

The next steps will be answered by the top management of Shuangmangling:

Pay it yourself!

Whether it is a cactus randomly picked from the wasteland, a vulture egg taken from a bird's nest, or frost maple wood with excellent performance, or Stardew Valley herbs that are like living fossils, how much they are worth depends on the Lord's mouth——

——What? The Empire doesn’t believe it?

Then please send an envoy to personally investigate the market conditions in the wasteland!

Finally, the Lord prepared to take the bullock cart to the imperial capital. The gold and silver coins were still there. What was even more spectacular were the piles of frosted maple trees, large jars of cactus juice moonshine, and weird bacon jerky with unknown raw materials.

, and various "wilderness specialties" procured from bandit camps for free.

At first glance, it doesn’t look like I’m going to pay taxes, but like I’m going to a trade fair.

If Master Laurie hadn't stopped him, Xia Houyan almost gave the captured bandit slaves to the empire as "special products": he could write novels and they were worth a lot of money!

——It must be said that it is too difficult for a large empire to maintain control over remote areas: if the location of Shuangmaple Ridge is changed to the foot of the emperor in the imperial capital of Gyeonggi, how will Xiahou officials die if they want to do this?

Don't even know.

Not far away from the oxen-carrying convoy, the people who are going to follow the lord to Luo this time, ah no, the team of people heading to Beijing are also ready to go.

Perhaps he was awakened by a great war many years later after sleeping for many years. Suddenly the light of the spire began to flicker. Since the anti-rape operation, Commander Paulus, who had been sitting on the wall at the southernmost point of the empire for many years, finally began to think about what to do.

Have some fun teasing the lazy Confederate soldiers:

In just half a month, Paulus sent several squads of soldiers to Frost Maple Ridge to assist in the defense like a big promotion, so that the entire territory is now in a mixed state between the southern regular army and Igor's private army.

.

——If Paulus had not become a trustworthy "self-corps", the senior officials in Xiahou would have been afraid that this bald man wanted to make some big news by continuing to support the friendly forces.

However, Paulus's generous donation did allow the Igor family to worry about the garrison issues in the territory, completely freeing up manpower to bring the elite armed forces they had saved over the past few 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 arriving in the southern wasteland also joined the delegation to Beijing to petition.

:

Even Igor's pioneering army, which had just been formed and had been trained for a short period of time, was selected by Lawrence as a group of smart and capable young men to join the team heading north.

——This is not only because Igor and his party are escorting a large amount of tax goods on their way this time, and reliable security measures are needed for safety along the way, but also because the lord wants to be in time for the annual "St. Augustus" in the empire.

"Festival", bring your own soldiers and horses to join in the fun.

"St. Augustus Day", this 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 mankind were still in a state of poverty with no food to eat. At this time, the "Saint" Augustus, who believed in the Supreme Holy God, suddenly appeared and sacrificed his body to serve mankind.
To be continued...