"I can't believe that someone can be so heartless. It's so heartless!" Kabala, the head priest of Dal City of Masked Void Church, pounded the table angrily, and the anger in his eyes almost burned the cup of grass tea in front of him dry. "These poor people finally lived a decent life for a few days, but he actually sent the tax collector immediately... When there was a natural disaster and needed relief, why didn't he act so quickly?"
"Just look at the camp aura on him. How can a guy from the evil camp do disaster relief?" The older priest said with a smile, "Although the camp aura is not very reliable, most of the time it is not reliable. It's so wrong. So we shouldn't have expected anything from him in the first place."
"But I never thought that even if he didn't help, he would actually cause trouble!"
"Many lords are like this." A young paladin said, "That's why His Majesty taught us to use our own hands to promote the progress of the world."
The chief priest of Kabbalah pondered for a long time and nodded seriously: "You are right, it is places like this that especially need us. Look at those poor people, what will they do if we don't come to help them? "
"But the question now is, how to get rid of those tax collectors?" asked another pastor. "I think it won't be long before they dig out the past tax collection documents. By then we will have no excuses. ”
Kabala smiled coldly, with a sarcastic look in his eyes: "What's the use of digging out past taxation documents? They must first be able to prove that the poor people lived in the city at that time and did not pay taxes. "
"Huh?" The pastor was stunned and asked, "Don't they always live in the city? And... they don't have any money to pay taxes."
"My fellow believer! There is no basis for such things to be said, there must be evidence!" Kabala laughed, "Without evidence, who knows whether it is true or false!"
"Isn't there a 'detection of lies'?" asked a paladin.
"Brother, I can tell at a glance that you are not from the Gold Coin Federation!" Before Kabala could answer, another paladin laughed, "We in the Gold Coin Federation have never believed in any 'detection lies'. Here are There’s a famous rule—as long as there’s no evidence, it didn’t happen.”
"There is no way. What businessman doesn't do some sneaky things? How many businessmen in the world are doing business seriously? Cheating and abduction are the common sense of businessmen, as long as no one can catch the evidence." The paladin said, " This situation is of course not good, but we can now take advantage of this tradition."
"One of the arts of struggle is to grasp the situation at all times, take advantage of all available conditions, and turn disadvantages into advantages," said the older pastor.
As he said this, everyone laughed.
"In short, as long as the lord can't provide evidence that these poor people lived here and didn't pay taxes, then they don't owe taxes." After Kabala finished laughing, he said sarcastically, "Actually, in this case, Tax collection is inherently illegal. The reason why tax collectors dare to bully the poor is because they have lords behind them. And what lords rely on is nothing more than force, but I want to see if they have the courage to use force with us! "
Baron Dahl really didn't dare to use force.
Although the people in Masked Void Church are actually not particularly strong. The most powerful one is just a mid-level priest, but Baron Dar is also not very powerful.
He currently has three knights and two quasi-knights under his command, one of whom is an intermediate level, and the other five are only at the elementary level. In addition, he has two capable generals under him, both of whom are promoted from adventurers and both are at the mid-level level.
On paper, he seems to have a huge advantage. But as we all know, the Church of Masked Void does not only consist of those ten people. Behind it is a huge church with many legendary strong men.
Want to use force? Even if he can beat these ten people, what's the use
What's more, even if he only faced those ten priests, he had no absolute chance of winning.
His men are numerous and powerful, but why should they fight for him? But those priests are different. For the gods they believe in and for the protection of doctrines, they absolutely don't care about death.
The Dahl family has an important family motto, which is "Don't trust others, let alone place your hopes on others." Baron Dar would not do something stupid like expecting others to fight for him. Most of the lords who made that mistake would be finished.
So after listening to the tax collector's report, although he was furious, he did not have an attack. He just looked sullenly and asked the tax collectors to search the information from previous years to see if they could find any favorable evidence.
But he knew that he probably wouldn't be able to find it.
Nobles generally did not keep things like tax collection records because they might become evidence against them at some point. A shrewd man like Baron Dahl would certainly not make such a mistake.
Moreover, even if you find tax collection records from previous years, what’s the use
How could Baron Dahl, an old and cunning man, not think of tricks that priests like Kabala and others could think of
"Alas! I didn't expect that group of priests would use this method. It was really a mistake!" He sighed deeply, shook his head, suppressed the depression in his heart, but pretended to be calm. Looks light.
He had to pretend like this, otherwise one of the servants in the castle might spread the news, and then spread it to the ears of other nearby lords, which would lead to other things.
Although unsure of what might happen, Baron Dahl's request was that nothing unnecessary happen.
For this reason, even a slight loss of tax revenue is acceptable.
But this does not mean that he gives up!
A few days later, a new order was issued.
The lord is planning to take advantage of this winter, when wild beasts and monsters are short of food, to conduct a raid on the mountains and other places outside the city. All adults without legitimate occupations in the city must be recruited to join the anti-Japanese army.
Of course, it is impossible to pay a salary for this recruitment, but you can get one meal per day during the expedition.
As for those who refuse to accept the conscription, they must either pay a "levy fee" or leave Dal City - what can be taken away is limited to personal belongings.
This order is not unexpected. It is also very common to kill monsters and beasts in winter.
But unexpectedly, the city defense officer came to the ghetto with a few soldiers and read the order aloud.
After reading the order, he looked at the poor people coldly, laughed sinisterly a few times, and walked straight away.
There is no doubt that these poor people all have “no legitimate occupation”.