Old Bernard rang the silver bell beside the bed, and after a while, Gerry, the butler, and two maids came in. While the maid was changing old Bernard's clothes, Gerry handed the mayor a copy of the town's financial statements for the quarter. It can be seen from the report that the income of Yochi Township increased again last quarter. Nearly 70% of the available income has to be handed over, which is undoubtedly a heavy burden for the small town.
And the remaining 30%, apart from the financial budget of the town itself, there is not much left.
Therefore, Jozi Town is prosperous on the surface, but in fact, the life of the residents in the town is not much better than those of the wilderness refugees. The big property they owned was just a house that would be taken back by the Pope at any time.
Sauron has a saying that what I see is my owner. It means that all the places he can see are his property, as for other people, from officials and nobles to merchants and residents. What they lived in and used were all temporarily "loaned" to them by Sauron.
The taxation of the Pope's hall is heavy, and it is breathless. This is true for civilians, even for mayors like Old Bernard.
The only ones who can really enjoy it are the group of high-ranking people in the pope's hall.
After handing the report to the butler, Bernard Sr. sighed softly. Gerry said in a low voice: "Mayor, yesterday I just received a notice to readjust the tax rate from the Pope's Hall..."
"Did tax rates go down?"
Gerry smiled wryly: "No, the notice stated that starting from next year, the original tax rate will have to be increased by another 5 percentage points."
"5 percent!" Old Bernard shouted excitedly, "If this goes on, everyone will not be happy. In this case, it is better to let the pirates come over. When those damned nobles are drinking fine wine and eating barbecue, Our people are starving and freezing!"
The housekeeper hurriedly persuaded, "Mr. Bernard, don't talk about it. It's not a good thing if it gets out."
"What are you afraid of? We're going to die. Anyway, if this continues, maybe we won't be able to survive next winter." Old Bernard's tone gradually lowered, and finally turned into a sigh.
Excessive taxation is annoying, but what can they do if they are attached to the Pope's hall? As long as the pope's hall is still there, they have to survive in the narrow and breathless living gap.
"Let's go, have breakfast together, and then see how Lambridge and Mason are doing." Old Bernard patted the butler on the shoulder and waved his hand to let the maid go down first.
When Gerry accompanied the mayor to the living room, he said with a smile: "Not everything is bad, at least the two guys, Levi and Senna, should have had a good time these two days."
"Why?"
"Last night, the hotels of the two of them were booked by someone, and the income in one night alone exceeded nearly a hundred gold coins. When I saw the two guys in the morning, they were still smiling from ear to ear." Gerry shook his head and said with great envy.
Both Levi and Senna have opened a hotel in the town, but since the beginning of winter. Not to mention them, the number of tourists in the town has become very scarce, and judging from the situation in the past half month, the number of tourists has almost disappeared. So suddenly there were passengers who needed to book the venue, and they still booked two hotels, which meant that there were a lot of people, at least nearly a hundred people. Old Bernard couldn't help being suspicious, how could there be so many passengers at this time.
"After breakfast, let's go take a look."
Hearing what the mayor said, Gerry chuckled and said, "The mayor plans to charge them a small tax?"
"Then their wives will have to quarrel in the mayor's office every day." Old Bernard smiled.
At the same time, Zero opened the curtains, making the two girls, Leah and Cinderella, frowned, and turned over to sleep again. Ling walked out wearing a thin coat. In the restaurant of the hotel, Su and Haiwei were having breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, it’s just a few slices of unburnt bread and boiling hot water, but for this hotel, it’s pretty good food.
After Zero decided to attack the Rock City, after gathering the Trident and his capable generals, a total of about a hundred people left Cage, and arrived in Jochi City last night after nearly a week. Zero directly booked two adjacent hotels as the rest of the group, and it was only about 70 kilometers from here to the Rock City. It can be reached in less than an hour if marching at full speed, so now, Zero is not in a hurry.
Seeing him coming down, Hai Wei moved a chair and greeted him: "Head, come quickly and have breakfast."
Zero is not polite, squeezed to their table. At this time, the wolf king Kaiton and Berrien also came. Except for Feng, who was transferred to Rome to protect the pope, basically all the core combat forces under his command were present.
Bite off a piece of bread, Su said: "Boss, isn't it a little too conspicuous for us to walk in like this? As long as you are not blind, you know that we are not a so-called caravan."
Zero smiled, he did book two hotels in the name of a caravan last night. But in fact, there is no caravan wrapped in hooded cloaks like them, and all of them are murderous.
"As long as they make money, they won't bother. I chatted with the hotel owner last night, and the man named Senna vomited a lot of bitterness to me. Sure enough, as the rumors said, the Pope's hall is very concerned about the territory. The tax rate has been adjusted extremely high, and it has been tightly pressed to the basic living line of the common people. And from Senna's tone, it seems that the tax rate only goes up but not down, and they are all full of resentment." Zero took a sip of clear water and said: " Under such circumstances, if there are dozens of gold coins in the account suddenly, and we don't cause any trouble, I don't think he will ask for trouble. After all, we live in this hotel, in case there is anything to do The boss can't get away with it."
Haiwei was already lively, she stuffed a piece of bread into her mouth and swallowed it, and said: "Boss, let's talk about something interesting. Yeliu didn't go to bed last night and went for a walk in the Rock City, and brought it back The details of the opponent's city defense. You say what we want to do, if it's an assassination, I won't go, just let Yeliu go."
As she spoke, her expression suddenly changed, she grabbed the glass of water in front of Yeliu and poured it down, and then she breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed that she was swallowing just now.
"Assassination? I don't think it's necessary." Ling dipped his finger in water and drew a rectangle on the table to represent the Rock City, and then pointed in the direction of the city gate: "When Oran comes, he will bring a message. , it is said that in order to study how to deal with us, Sauron has transferred all the remaining heads of the Holy Seal Knights back to Rome. So now there is only one regular army in the Rock City, and it lacks high-ranking officers. We don't need it What assassination to use."
He drew an arrow pointing to the gate in the direction of the city gate: "With our strength, we can push it flat. Their city gate is not called the Wall of Sighs, but I think this name is very appropriate. But this time, it is Let Sauron sigh for it."
After speaking, he smiled lightly. There is no high fighting spirit, but only strong self-confidence.
A short man ran over suddenly, he was Senna, the owner of the hotel. Senna ran to Zero and whispered in his ear: "It's not good, the mayor Berner came over and said he wanted to see you."
Senna opened a hotel, what kind of people I have never seen. People like Zero and the people he brought knew that it was not a caravan, but Zero said that they only stayed for one night, so Senna and Levi had the courage to accept them. Unexpectedly, before they left, the mayor came.
Old Bernard was a good talker, but that didn't mean he was blind. Even Senna could see that Zero and the others were not simple, so how could the old Bernard not see it. The mayor is usually a kind person, and he really has nothing to say to the residents of the town. But he has a different stand after all, Senna can pretend not to know, but the old Bernard may not be like this. And once this matter is exposed, if Zero and the others are unknown people, both of their hotels will be implicated.
Zero said unhurriedly: "Please prepare a quiet room for me, and I will personally entertain the mayor."
Senna immediately cast a dignified look at him.
Ling smiled and said, "Don't worry, I won't do anything to him. If I wanted to, you wouldn't be alive today."
Senna glanced at Su and the others again, finally nodded and went down to make arrangements.
"Eat, I'll meet this guest. Then, let's go." Zero stood up and left.
A while later, in the room arranged by Senna, Zero saw old Bernard and the housekeeper Gerry. Besides them, there were several soldiers standing behind the mayor, looking at Zero maliciously.
Zero smiled, stretched out his hand and said, "Dear Mayor Berna, it's the first time we meet, please take care of me."
Old Bernard chuckled, shook hands with Zero and said, "It's easy to say, I heard that you are businessmen. But I am very puzzled. The roads are impassable in this season. I don't know what kind of business you are doing?"
"The business we do is very special, so please forgive me for being blunt here. If Mr. Mayor wants to know, please stay away. I can only sue Mr. Bernard."
The butler, Gerry, couldn't help but said: "There is something that you can't say in front of everyone, unless... you are doing a shady business."
"Oh?" Zero said lightly: "This gentleman's guess is really interesting."
Old Bernard said at this time: "Gerry, you and the others go out first, I want to have a good talk with this gentleman."
Gerry's face changed, and he wanted to say something but was stopped by the mayor, so he had to call the soldiers to leave the room. Only then did Old Bernard say: "If you have anything to say now, you can say it."
But when the two shook hands just now, Zero wrote a word in old Bernard's palm with his little finger, that was the word kill. He also released a faint jet of energy from his fingertips, but like a sharp knife, he slightly cut a little bit of old Bernard's flesh, letting the mayor know that he is not an ordinary person. In this era, anyone who is not a fool knows that capable people are powerful existences, and the few soldiers brought by Old Bernard are no match for capable people at all.
What's more, if Zero is a capable person, then how can the other people living in the hotel be ordinary people. This was undoubtedly the most obvious signal of threat to Old Bernard, so the mayor cooperated with his words and sent the others away.
After standing a little further away, I spread my hands and said, "As you can see, I am a businessman. But there is another layer of identity..."
For some reason, Old Bernard suddenly felt his heart beating faster, and he almost told Zero to continue, but in the end curiosity prevailed. He said, "Please speak."
"My name is Zero..."
Old Bernard's pupils suddenly narrowed. He seemed to have heard this name before.
"Cage City and even Kanon Fortress are now my territory. I am... the leader of the Sea God Group. This is my other identity." Zero said in a flat tone, as if talking about an insignificant matter.
But these few words of his kept echoing in old Bernard's ears like thunder.
zero…
The leader of the Sea God Group...
Old Bernard felt his world spinning for a while, as if there were only two colors left in the world, black and white. Zero's figure was far and near, which made him feel a little sick and uncomfortable. The mayor was panting violently, and it wasn't until a moment later that he smiled wryly: "If I knew the answer was like this, I wouldn't want to know. Hey..."
"It's nothing, anyway, you will know sooner or later." Zero said.
Old Bernard gritted his teeth and said, "Then you are here this time for the Rock City? Is your army just outside the town?"
"No, in fact there are only two hotels and these people."
Old Bernard showed a complicated expression, and finally shook his head and said, "You must be crazy. How dare you attack Baicheng based on this? Well, now that you tell me these secrets, are you ready to kill people? I just beg you Spare others, after all, they don't know the truth."
Zero looked at him with interest and said: "The mayor is indeed a responsible person, which Sena kept emphasizing to me last night. But this time you guessed wrong, I didn't intend to kill you. I just wanted to I want you to agree to a request."
"What request?"
"After I conquered Rock City, you helped me persuade Lambridge and Mason to accept my management. To be honest, I don't want to do unnecessary killings, but if someone objects, I don't mind reciprocating. "Zero said again: "But I don't think you will refuse, because my benefits are much better than Sauron's."
"I heard that Sauron requires you to pay 70% of the tax every quarter. I am just the opposite of him, only 30%. What do you think?"
"It's tempting, but how do you guarantee it?"
"Cage City." Zero smiled and said, "If you don't believe me, you can send someone to have a look. I don't need you to pay too much tax, what I need is your loyalty. Besides, Sauron is not a man worth following. Isn’t he human? The mayor should know that Sauron was listed as a person sent by God in the oracle announced by His Royal Highness Paul recently in the city of Rome.”
"Could it be that such a person can become your belief?"
The old Bernard was speechless for a while, he knew that what was used was a psychological attack. Rome in the Western Continent is a country of theocracy, and Pope Paul has recently won the name of the Holy Son. He revealed Sauron's crimes in the name of God. Obviously, Sauron has been divided into the opposite of God. Such a ruler is naturally not a good follower. But the problem is that Sauron is still the real leader of the city of Rome. Even the old Bernard is unwilling to follow him, but he can't show it too much.
Otherwise, what awaits him is the twist table.
"It's okay, you don't need to answer me now." Zero patted him on the shoulder and said, "In about an hour, we will leave the town and go to Rock City. If you don't get news of the broken city tomorrow, of course you don't have to." Just ignore it. It’s just that if I break through Baicheng, I hope the mayor can do me a little favor.”
"You've said that, can I still refuse?" Old Bernard shook his head and smiled wryly.
The condition of the zero offer was already very generous, and he didn't let the old Bernard agree immediately, but gave him a chance to wait and see. Zero If it fails, nothing will be discussed. But if it succeeds, even if old Bernard had ten guts, he wouldn't dare to hold him back.
Think about the character who can conquer Rock City with only a hundred people, there is no other choice but to cooperate obediently with him.
After Zero left, Old Bernard wanted to stand up, but his legs gave way and he sat back on the chair. Only then did he realize that he was covered in cold sweat and his calves were constantly shaking. He shook his head and laughed, "I'm really old."
As Ling said, after an hour, his people had disappeared in the town. Standing on a clock tower in the town, watching the hundred people go along the road to the Rock City not far away, Old Berner was in a complicated mood. Now even he is not sure which side he wants to win.
It was almost noon, and guard Harlem stood in the No. 3 sentry tower of Rock City. After routinely observing the surrounding environment with binoculars, he reported "everything is normal" to the control center through the walkie-talkie.
In fact, since the beginning of winter, the army of Rock City has received an order of martial law to prevent pirates from the south from attacking at any time. But most soldiers, including people like Harlem, thought this was impossible. Anyone with a little common sense knew that when marching in winter, the radiation snow alone would kill the soldiers of the army.
And this period of time has been calm, and it has confirmed everyone's thoughts. Not only the soldiers think so, even the interim commander Mega thinks so. It's just that soldiers can't hide in their warm mansions and enjoy delicious food and wine like commanders. They still have to wear radiation protection suits on duty on the walls of Baicheng on this cold morning.
This is not a pleasant job. The city wall of Baicheng is 60 meters high, which is almost the height of a tall building. Just imagine standing on the roof of a 60-meter-high building, the howling cold wind is enough to freeze your soul. Harlem is not bad, his post is mainly in the sentry tower, after all, he is an observer rather than a fireman, which makes him fortunate that he has always had a good relationship with the captain, otherwise he would have to be on duty in the cold wind like everyone else .
He yawned, looking out from the sentry tower, the Bloody Road was silvery white, and the radiation snow on both sides of the road decorated the world in silvery white. If you stare at it for a long time, it will even affect people's vision. But at this moment, Harlem inadvertently glanced at the road below, and seemed to see something moving.
At first he thought it was a small animal, lazily took the binoculars and looked at it, but saw that it was a group of travelers. There were about a hundred people, all wearing windproof cloaks, covering their heads and faces so that they couldn't see clearly.
It's just that Harlem wondered, how could there be caravans coming this season