On August 32, Dawn's Flying Fish arrived at Hilovas Island. The voyage from Niujiao Bay to Hilovas Island took a total of 17 days. This was because it was the first time I ran this sea route, and I didn’t know much about the sea conditions. To be on the safe side, I folded the sails and sailed slowly every night. Old Jack said that if the sailors were familiar with this road, it would only take ten days at most to travel from Oxhorn Bay to Hilovas Island at the speed of Dawn's Flying Fish.
Hilovas Island is the only large island off the coast of the Kingdom of Antinac. It is about 300 miles away from the coast of the Kingdom, and it takes a day for a ship to go back and forth. If calculated by the area of the island, Hilovas Island can be divided into one Earldom and three Viscounty Territories. Unfortunately, Hilovas Island is an extinct volcanic island. Two-thirds of the island's area is volcanic mountains and forests. Sandy beaches, not much arable land.
According to the information that Lorist handed over when he accepted the canonization of His Highness the Second Highness, the original inhabitants of Hilovas Island were less than 5,000, and there were three villages and a small town called White Bird Town. Due to the inconvenient sea transportation away from the kingdom, the nobles of the former Krissen Empire and the current Antinac Kingdom regarded Hilovas Island as a remote place, and there were even cases where the nobles refused to accept the canonization of the Hilovas Island territory. event.
After the civil war in the empire, the third prince who established the Kingdom of Antinac was very worried that the Second Highness with outstanding military achievements would threaten the position of Crown Prince who was good at administrative affairs. He did not want the Kingdom of Antinac to experience another three At the same time, he miscalculated the whole situation, thinking that there will be no major wars in the future, and the major kingdoms and duchies split from the empire will be in a state of peace for a long time. Everyone All need time to recuperate and heal the wounds of war.
Based on this judgment, the third prince chose the prudent eldest prince to succeed him in the future, deprived the military power of the second highness who threatened the position of the crown prince, and disbanded the three legions on the grounds that they were unable to maintain Support the White Lion Legion of His Highness the Second Prince, and send the neutral Storm Legion to the Principality of Meilein to assist the Grand Duke Melain in resisting the invasion of the Iberian Kingdom army led by the Second Prince.
In the end, the third prince canonized the entire Hilovas Island as the princely domain, as the hereditary territory of the Second Highness, and asked the Second Highness to go to Hilovas Island, and he was not allowed to leave without his call, which was almost equivalent to exile. In the view of the third prince, with him personally guiding His Royal Highness how to handle the affairs of the kingdom, and without the threat of the Second Highness, his eldest son should be able to inherit the throne smoothly in the future and ensure the political stability of the Antinac Kingdom.
But what the third prince didn't expect was that he would be assassinated and attacked wave after wave by the assassins sent by the eldest prince and the second prince. superior. And his so-called prudent Grand Highness is extremely weak in character, and the nobles of the Antinac Kingdom, who have seen through the false and true, jointly rode on the head, unscrupulously suppressing the Antinak royal family, carve up the territory directly under the royal family, and the kingdom's The situation is deteriorating and volatile.
The Second Highness, who lost his military power, could only stay on Hilovas Island and worry about it, but he was helpless in the face of the situation in the kingdom and the plight of the royal family. At this moment, His Royal Highness received news that a large convoy had entered the territory of the kingdom, and this convoy also had a powerful armed force to escort the convoy. At present, this convoy is already confronting the aristocratic coalition forces of the kingdom in Qingyeyuan.
The second prince left Hilovas Island overnight by boat, hoping to rush to the battlefield to mediate between the opposing sides of the convoy and the nobles, and seek some benefits for himself. But what he didn't expect was that when he was still on the road, there was news of the Battle of Qingyeyuan. The convoy armed with half the number of people beat the noble coalition army to pieces, and even took part in the noble coalition forces passing by with the intention of robbing the convoy. All the lords were hanged, and the territory was razed to the ground...
The most important news is that the flag of this convoy is the Norton family's angry bear flag. It is said that it is the convoy of the Northland angry bear family, intending to go north and return to the family territory. As for the female knight next to His Royal Highness, his lover is Norton Chrisia, who comes from the Norton family. So the second prince entered the convoy camp at night, and using his lover's family affection and the standard equipment left by the disbanded White Lions, he succeeded in persuading Fatty Shi, Bodfinger and others who led the convoy back north, and reached an agreement to help him. The high-ranking agreement, and the use of a powerful convoy to cleanse the nobles of the entire Andinak Kingdom, turned over in one fell swoop.
After mastering the ruling power of the Antinak Kingdom, the Second Highness recalled the Storm Legion, reorganized the Royal Guards, and used the large number of refugees in the Antinac to trap the northbound convoy, sending the refugees this package. It was left to the northbound convoy, but he himself made every effort to stabilize the situation in the kingdom and resume agricultural production.
At that time, the northbound convoy was blocked by strong enemies, and then faced with a food crisis, it was trapped at the border and could not move, and the situation was critical. If Lost hadn't rushed to the northbound convoy, I'm afraid the convoy would have separated and collapsed in a while, and there was no way to go except to fill a bloody road with a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
After Lorist rushed to the convoy to preside over the overall situation, he saw through the scheme of the Second Highness using the convoy. In order to win Lorist, the Second Highness canonized Lorist as an earl, promoted the seat of the Norton family, and gave his hereditary territory the Greek Lovas Island was granted to Lorist as seal and compensation.
Immediately afterwards, Lorist led a convoy of armed forces to smuggle across Bailu Lake, attacked the Bread Hill Barracks at night, besieged the fortress of Lichtana, opened up the northbound road, and swept through the Principality of Madras. The northbound convoy took back the Northland. And the Second Highness also cooperated tacitly with Lorist to force the Iron Guards of the Liechtana Fortress Castle to occupy the Yungeshandra Province of the Principality of Madras.
After Lorist led the family convoy to the north, His Royal Highness built the Shandao Fortress as a defensive barrier to defend Yungeshandra Province, and used the largest commercial city of the Principality of Madras, Vanades City, to arouse Madras. The internal strife between the Grand Duke's Seamount Legion and the Iberian Kingdom's support army led by the second prince caused the two sides to fight and successfully avoided the danger of being attacked on both sides.
Then the Second Palace concentrated its forces to fight against the 70,000 army of the Redlis Kingdom led by the big prince who invaded massively. First, he ordered the Storm Legion to resist steadily, causing the loss of more than half of the 70,000 army of the big prince with heavy casualties. Liu Shuichuan ambushed the remaining 30,000 elite troops of the eldest prince, trapped them to death and wiped out the 30,000 troops, forcing the eldest prince to disguise himself as a refugee and escape.
In the battle of Liushuichuan, the offense and defense were changed, and the Second Highness led an army to counterattack into the Kingdom of Ridleys, forcing the eldest prince to sign an alliance under the city, ceding the two provinces to the Kingdom of Antinac. After returning to the army, the Grand Duke of Madras, who was defeated by the second prince, sent someone to sue for peace, and ceded Yungeshandra Province to the Kingdom of Antinak, making the Kingdom of Antinak become the former kingdom of Christen after the split. The kingdom with the largest territory has greatly increased its strength, and the Second Highness has also become famous because of this, and is hailed as the new generation of military god.
Now that five years have passed, Lorist has finally stabilized the Northland and greatly developed and developed the family territory. This is the first time he has come to this new territory sealed to him, Hilovas Island.
The pier of Hilovas Island is located on the shore of its only town, Bainiao Town. A somewhat curved wooden trestle bridge penetrates nearly 100 meters into the sea. Next to it is a white sandy beach with clear blue water.
What surprised Lorist was that there were seven or eight seagoing ships moored on both sides of the wooden trestle bridge, some of which were richly decorated, and the flags flying on the boats were clearly painted with the emblems of noble families. It seemed that Hilovas Island was not It is not as remote and rarely visited as it is said in the legend.
There was no pilot boat, and the towns by the sea were silent about the arrival of Dawn's Flying Fish, not even the people who ran out from the pier to watch the excitement.
Chen Xi's Flying Fish had put away the white sails on the three masts, and slowly approached the wooden trestle with only the front and rear vertical sails. When it was almost far away, several sailors jumped onto the wooden trestle, and then caught the thrown cables. , Pull Chenxi's Flying Fish over and tie it to the wooden pier beside the wooden trestle bridge.
Lorist ordered: "Wilson, leave half of the sailors to watch the ship, Dolles, you let the five steel crossbow shooters stay on the ship for defense. I feel that this White Bird Town is a bit strange, why is there no one at the dock. The rest follow me into town to see what's going on."
Soon Lorist knew that it wasn't that there were no people in Bainiao Town, but that everyone was concentrated in the central square of the town. Two or three thousand people crowded the small square tightly, and from time to time, bursts of noise came out. uproar and protests.
Patting the shoulder of a man dressed as a sailor in his forties or fifties, Lorist asked, "Friend, can you tell me what happened here?"
The man didn't look back, and cursed with some resentment: "What else can happen, that bitch Viscount Aslan came over to collect taxes again..."
"Collecting taxes?" Lorist was stunned. Isn't this Shilovas Island a new territory of the Norton family? How could someone come here to collect taxes
"Be clear! Who is here to collect taxes? For whom is he collecting taxes?" When it comes to tax collection and money, Fatty Shi is already furious. This is the territory of the Norton family, and the family has had no one for five years. Came here to take care of it, only to find out that someone is collecting taxes here. This is not just an offense to the Norton family, it is almost a slap in the face of the Norton family! He grabbed the man dressed as a sailor in front and pulled him directly to the front.
The man just wanted to yell, but when he turned around and saw a dozen family guards wearing standard armor around Lorist, he immediately fell silent. The man who has seen a lot of the world immediately understood that these people were not provoked by himself. , hastily bowed his head to beg for forgiveness, as long as he knows, he must tell the truth and never hide anything.
"It's like this. Today, Viscount Aslan brought a small group of soldiers to collect taxes. Our mayor, Papa Hugo, rejected his unreasonable tax increase request. Hang them up in the square and beat them with fifty lashes. The garrison of White Bird Town has already been mobilized, but this time Viscount Aslan brought a gold-ranked knight over. Although the garrison has a large number of people, none of them can stand up to it. Now the two sides are at a stalemate. We all came here after hearing the news, hoping to rescue Papa Hugo..." The man quickly explained the reason why so many people gathered in the square.
"Isn't this Shilovas Island the territory of the Norton family? Why does the Viscount named Aslan collect taxes?" Schwader asked.
The man didn't despise Shi Huade because he was young, and explained: "This Viscount Aslan came to collect taxes under the entrustment of His Royal Highness the Regent of our kingdom."
"Entrustment?" Fatty Shi asked angrily: "This is already the territory of the Norton family, why does the Second Highness send someone over to collect taxes?"
"Well, I don't know about this, but I heard that Viscount Aslan only charged 10% tithes when he first came here five years ago, and then he charged 20% when he came over the next year. , Said that the Second Highness raised the tax rate, and also collected a poll tax. In the third year, the tax was 30%, and said that the Second Highness wanted to expand the army and raised another 10%. In addition to the poll tax, there is also a wine tax. Taxes and so on. I collected 50% of the tax from the year before and last year, as well as property tax, transportation tax, forest tax, and fishing boat tax. It is said that these are the restoration taxes, collected for the unification and revival of the Krissen Empire... "The man recalled.
"My day!" Fatty Shi was about to burst out of anger. Is there anyone who collects taxes like this? If you collect taxes like this, you still have to seal a bullshit territory!
"Then why did he come to collect taxes today? Why did the mayor refuse?" Lorist asked.
"Well, I don't know much about this. But I heard the rumors just now, it seems that the Norton family, who have never seen anyone or been to the territory of Hilovas Island, still has a family territory in the Northland. Because of the distance It's too far away, so the taxes from that family territory have not been handed over to the Second Highness. Viscount Aslan decided to make up for the taxes that the Norton family had not paid over the years from here. It is not enough to hand over the property saved, and each family owes a huge debt. I heard from them that each person has to hand in more than three gold credits to pay off, so everyone gathered here first to save the mayor, and secondly It's a protest..." the sailor man murmured.
"Hehe, hehe..." Lorist was already annoyed, it's great, he can even think of such a tax collection item, it's really knowledgeable. For a territory separated by enemy countries thousands of miles away and not connected to the kingdom like the Northland, not only could the kingdom not collect taxes, but it would generally provide subsidies in recognition of loyalty and integrity.
Lorist was very angry. He didn't know whether it was the second Highness's order or the Viscount Aslan's own initiative. Originally, I didn't come to take care of the new territory, so the Second Highness didn't need to send someone to collect tithes. You can first record it on the account and wait for the lord to arrive in the new territory before liquidating the tax owed. This is the practice among the nobles. Lorist could believe that the Second Highness didn't know, then Viscount Aslan would suffer.
"Blow our horns and show our flags, we want everyone on Shirowas Island to know that the Norton family is coming and their lord is coming!" Lorist turned and told the guards behind him .
"Yes, my lord!"
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