On the afternoon when the Leisi team defeated the Xiu Lei team, the young Fernando XIII held a royal meeting in his study. At this meeting, he denounced all the unfairness in the empire and determined to completely
Change this situation.
For this reason, the young Fernando XIII made a large-scale adjustment to the existing officials of the empire. He eliminated many officials who usually had nothing to do and blamed each other when things happened, and arranged a large number of young people he secretly cultivated to replace them.
The scope and magnitude of this official replacement are very large. It can be said to be the only one in the empire in the past two hundred years. However, although this action has a great impact, with the full support of the empire's highest military officer, the head of the Royal Knights Orlando,
, no one dared to have any objections to the appointment of Fernando XIII.
What's more, even the Imperial Finance Minister Luke and the Imperial Government Minister Chad, whose subordinates were greatly changed, didn't say anything. Even some dissatisfied people just vented their complaints behind their backs.
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On the night when the young Fernando XIII made such a huge personnel change, Luke and Victor sat face to face in the study of the Imperial Finance Minister Luke. Their topic was exactly what Fernando XIII had to say this afternoon.
move.
Luke, whose face was full of vicissitudes of life, took a sip of the best Bordeaux, and the wine went into his throat. The expression on his face slowly softened. Luke closed his eyes, as if he was savoring the taste of the best Bordeaux. Suddenly, Luke opened his mouth.
Open your eyes and say to Victor: "What do you think?"
Victor picked up the water glass in front of him and took a sip of water. As a magician, he had to keep a clear mind at all times. Victor thought about it and said: "Actually, if you think about it carefully, it's almost time for His Majesty the Emperor to take action.
, don’t forget that in the past ten years since his coronation, you and Chad have basically been in control of the government. In many cases, he is just a symbol of the country. This is for Crewe, who is ambitious and wants to make a career.
It’s not a good thing for Fernando.”
When Luke heard that his old friend actually called Fernando XIII by his first name, he shook his head and said: "Victor, over the years, I have always regarded you as my good friend and think tank, and you have indeed served me well."
It took a lot of effort." At this point, Luke's tone changed and he continued: "I don't
I am unhappy because my power has been weakened. After all, the emperor of this empire is Fernando, not Leidia. But I think His Majesty is too impatient. His large-scale blood exchange will not only cause problems in the operation of the empire, but also
It can easily lead to suspicion among lords everywhere."
At this point, Luke's voice suddenly became louder: "It would be fine if the people he appointed have rich experience, but look at it, they only studied at the Royal Academy for a few months, and they actually arranged
They work as tax collectors. This is really funny. These little guys have never even touched a few gold coins, but they are brazenly trying to collect taxes from those old foxes?"
Luke took out a piece of information from the desk, turned to the third page, and said to Victor: "The empire's tax revenue for the whole year last year was a total of 69 million gold coins, not counting fractions. Among them, the tax revenue of one city in the imperial capital
It’s 9 million, Emperor
The Sunrise City actually controlled by the country is 8 million, and Seawind City is 18 million. Apart from these, the independent commercial capital Yignas City has the most, 22 million. The total gold coins handed over by the lords of various places is about 12 million."
"Twelve million! After all, there are so many lords in the empire, and their territories account for more than 90% of the entire territory of the empire, and their total tax revenue is actually less than the entire city of God! Why?"
Victor picked up the wine bottle in front of him and filled Luke's glass with the best Bordeaux. Luke picked up the glass and drank it all in one gulp. Victor said: "Speak slowly, old friend, I'm listening.
"
Luke drank the wine and stabilized his mood. He lowered his tone and said to Victor: "When Bird Fernando established the Holy Alliance Empire, mankind was facing internal and external troubles. In order to stabilize the rule of the empire as soon as possible, Fernando
I enacted two laws. The first is: Each lord must pay an amount to the empire every year.
In addition to taxation, each city lord can decide everything about his own territory, but the amount of taxation levied by each lord cannot exceed the amount of taxation paid to the empire. The second article is: each lord can have an army and collect taxes on his own.
Bear military expenses, but you must not have cavalry. Once verified, you will be punished with treason immediately!"
"As long as these two laws are strictly followed, the lords of various places will not be able to have cavalry units that can compete with the Royal Knights. After all, cavalry requires several years of training to become an army, and the procurement, transportation, training, etc. of war horses are all out of the question.
If something is hidden, once it is exposed, it will receive a fatal blow from the empire. This risk
It's too big; if you want to fight against the Knights, you can only use a large number of infantry and rely on the advantage of numbers, but the lords everywhere cannot collect taxes in large quantities, because the more you collect, the more you pay to the empire.
Excessive taxation will only collapse the economy within your own territory. Without gold coins, how can you talk about building a large army?"
"Therefore, in the past two hundred years, people have only seen the Royal Knights being extremely sharp, sweeping across the entire continent, and countless rebellions have been put down. Not to mention the distant ones, but as close as this rebellion of Senat, the Holy Knights can
The rapid annihilation is certainly due to their superior strength, but this is also the reason why Senat does not have cavalry troops. On the plains, there has been no successful battle with infantry against cavalry for thousands of years."
"No matter how strict the laws are, loopholes will be found by those who are interested. After so many years, the lords in various places have gradually come up with countermeasures. Aren't they not allowed to have cavalry? Then I will form a heavy infantry, Senat's one
Hoplites, wearing heavy armor, holding long spears and thick shields, are the best way for infantry to fight against cavalry. The cost is not much less than setting up cavalry. If it weren't for Orlando's superb command, the Royal Knights might not have been able to win.
So easy.”
"Where do the gold coins for forming this kind of legion come from? Of course it comes from taxes. Although there are laws in the empire, those cunning lords will try every means to pervert you. For example, some lords monopolize all kinds of daily necessities in the territory. If they want to
You can sell as much as you want. No matter how much you sell, how can you collect taxes? He just collects a symbolic amount. Over the course of a year, he can make millions. If you really collect taxes, it may only be a dozen or so.
A pitiful gold coin."
"The tax officials I go to various places to collect taxes every year may be greedy and corrupt behind the scenes, but they can collect more gold coins than others, so I turn a blind eye. Now Your Majesty
Removing them all from their posts and replacing them with his henchmen
, but can these little white rabbits who have never seen the world really be able to deal with those old foxes? Seeing that taxes should be levied again this year, if the finances of these lords cannot be effectively restricted, what will the Royal Knights face next time?