Slightly east of the southern part of the Gold Coin Federation, there is a place called "Dalland".
This place belongs to the Dar family, which, like most of the nobles in the Gold Coin Federation, is a businessman. About five or six generations ago, an ancestor relied on a little wisdom and soft skills in war - it is impossible to verify what it was exactly, but it seems that it was indispensable for fraud, violence and conspiracy - to obtain the first pot of gold. Then he started doing some businesses such as buying and selling, smuggling, and lending.
The ancestor of the Dal family was very good at business and had a good vision. He could always stab his former master at the right time. After stabbing two masters in the back, he finally rose to prominence and became a qualified man. A noble who owns a land.
Initially, this ancestor was just a knight with a real feudal territory, and there was a viscount as his lord. But for some reason, the viscount and his family were ambushed by bandits during a trip, and the whole family was unfortunately killed. Knight Dar was furious when he learned about this. He not only mobilized all the troops in his territory, but also spent a lot of wealth and hired a large number of adventurers to form a large army to trace the cause of the death of the lord.
With the investigation, a huge conspiracy slowly surfaced - it turned out that the only baron under Feng Jun colluded with another knight to murder Feng Jun.
The angry Knight Dar and several other knights immediately united and launched an attack on the two conspirators. After a bloody battle, the rebels were eliminated and one of the several knights died.
As a great hero in tracking down crimes and eradicating rebellions, Knight Dar has received praise and support from everyone, especially the friendship from the big shots in the royal capital. Soon, he became a baron, and together with several other knights who only belonged to the royal capital, they jointly managed the territory.
In the years that followed, the area was relatively peaceful. Although there had been a dispute over the inheritance of a certain knight family, and the final heir looked slightly similar to someone from the Dahl family, these were obviously slanders.
Today's Dalling is a quiet and remote place.
It is a bit far from the "Southeast Avenue" along the seaside, and neither adventurers nor caravans will pass by here. Baron Dahl of all generations has no interest in attacking the Everglades to expand territory. Adventurers and mercenaries do not receive support, so naturally they will not use this place as their logistics base to set out to develop or invade. Great swamp.
On the contrary, there are some smugglers here, doing gray business between the Gold Coin Federation and the Everglades. However, this kind of business is shady and cannot be done on a large scale.
So all in all, as Baron Dar was proud of, Dar was peaceful and calm, full of a leisurely atmosphere that made him comfortable.
Whenever he drank tea on the terrace on the top floor of the castle and looked at the territory at his feet, his heart was filled with a sense of peace and comfort, and he often exclaimed: "Ah, ah! How beautiful life is!"
But in recent days, Baron Dahl's mood has not been so happy, and even the afternoon tea he used to like has become less delicious.
Because there are a few more unpopular characters in Dal City, and they have even done some unpopular things.
That came from a group of priests called the "Church of the Mask of the Void". They had about ten people, three priests, one priest, and the remaining six were paladins.
Damn it, they are all characters with formal professional levels, not one of them is a soft-footed shrimp!
After this group of priests came to Dal City, they first bought a relatively remote house. Because the house was old and dilapidated, almost no money was spent on it.
In fact, the house and the surrounding area have become a place where beggars and thieves gather because they have been inhabited by poor people for a long time. They are really harboring filth. Unless you need to find someone to do something that is inconvenient to say, or you need to find a few objects hanging on the gallows outside the city gate, the reputable people in Dal City will never go near it.
A group of dignified clergymen, the leader of which was even at the intermediate level, how could they go to such a place? And you’re still buying a house and settling there
Could it be that this is a strange hobby of the god they believe in
Remembering that the god they believed in seemed to be a big jellyfish, Baron Dahl felt that maybe this guess was right.
This incident became a little joke among the upper class society in Dal City, and everyone often brought it up during gatherings. Some people even laughed out loud, saying that these days they just live by the jokes made by this group of people.
But the priests obviously didn't come here to show off their jokes. After they settled down, the first thing they did was to spend money and hire poor people to work for them, renovate their houses and build altars.
To be honest, the money they spent was not much. It was probably enough for the Baron to hold a party. The party was not very big, let alone luxurious. But for the poor, this money is already a lot, at least enough to buy food to prevent them from starving to death.
In addition to wages, the clergy of the Church of the Mask of the Void also said that the poor people's clothes were too ragged and violated the teachings of their jellyfish majesty, so they gave them some thick and clean clothes.
Those clothes didn't fit very well, and they were old. It was obvious that they were donated by middle-aged people somewhere when they were doing charity. But they were at least neatly patched and warm enough to wear.
Moreover, the priests also have a pathological pursuit of cleanliness. Two paladins patrol the slums every day, urging them to do a good job of cleaning. There is also a priest who arrests poor people every day just like arresting prisoners to take a bath and change clothes. Baron Dar heard from a patrolling knight under his command that one time he passed by that area and happened to see a group of poor people taking a bath. The smell was so stinky. The smell made him sick!
After such a period of time, the slums gradually improved. The poor people were neatly dressed, their houses and streets were tidy, and because they almost had enough to eat, even their faces had a bit of blood.
So Baron Dahl sent out tax collectors.
Anyone who lives in Dal City must pay taxes no matter what he does for a living.
Of course, the poor also have to pay taxes. In the past, they had no money, and the tax collectors were too lazy to come. After all, there was nothing good to go to in that stinky place. Besides, could the meat of the poor be cut off to offset the taxes? Of course, if they have a little girl, they can get a tax deduction, but the little girl has probably been bought or kidnapped long ago, and it is usually not the tax collector's turn to collect taxes. They mostly follow the traffickers who buy people. of.
Now that these poor people have some money, the tax collector will ask them to make up for the taxes owed on this money.
Yes, it counts interest.
Ordinarily, this is a matter of course, but those clergymen came forward and said that according to the laws of the Gold Coin Federation, these taxes cannot be calculated as interest if no evidence can be produced at the time.
The Gold Coin Federation, which is founded on commerce, values "evidence" most.
Can't calculate interest? ! That’s only a few dollars!
The two sides have been arguing over this matter, and there has been no conclusion yet.
And this is what makes Baron Dahl unhappy.
He is not short of money, but if the money that should belong to him is missing even one copper coin, he will be very unhappy!