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Chapter 1423 The King's Trouble

"This is the list of officers of the Royal Infantry and Royal Artillery drafted according to your Majesty the King's wishes. This time, the establishment of the Royal Army has 5000st, 10nd, and 2000rd Infantry, Royal Artillery, and Royal Cavalry, with a total of [-] soldiers. People, with [-] field cannons and [-] horses. In addition, a logistics force needs to be established... To maintain such a standing army, it is very difficult to rely on the overwhelmed finances of the royal family, so the "protection tax" in various places needs to be effectively collected , to pay for the salaries of the officers and soldiers, and the food and fodder for the horses..."

The Earl of Stratford, Charles' favorite, submitted a list of officers to Charles I.

The list of officers in the Royal Army is almost all British nobles. Many of them have experience in serving in the Netherlands, and there are also nobles who were attracted by Charles I.

The position of Royal Army officer is also very attractive to some nobles. It is the usual method of Charles I to win a group of nobles to his side through the position.

The Earl of Stratford was also one of the leaders of the opposition a long time ago. Because of Charles I's wooing, he became Charles' favorite, so he was hated by the opposition.

"How is the payment of the national protection tax in each county this season?" Charlie also knew that the loot plundered by the Royal Fleet in the Mediterranean could only solve the urgent need, and one day it would be spent to maintain the Royal Army's military pay.

A country's standing army needs the power of the whole country to support it. It is tantamount to a dream to raise a standing army and a standing navy just by relying on a small amount of royal land.

Moreover, the size of the standing army that Charles I wanted to build was not limited to such a small number. According to his vision, the Royal Army should have at least tens of thousands of people, and the Royal Fleet should also have a size of 2 people.

"Except for a few counties that paid the National Protection Tax on time, other counties either had serious tax resistance incidents or procrastinated. Since the National Protection Tax was first collected, less than one-tenth of it has been collected." The Earl of Stratford was embarrassed Said.

Charles I's complexion became not very good-looking.

The news that he wants to establish the Royal Army has spread, and the ambassadors of various countries in the city of London know him. The king of Britain will lead Britain to another golden age!If there is not enough tax revenue to support the formation of the Royal Army, the majesty he has managed to accumulate will be completely reduced to a joke!
"The royal army must be established. If I have an army loyal to me, I can force those gentry and nobles to pay taxes. Unfortunately, I haven't..." Charles I couldn't help but envy the Ottoman emperor's unambiguous words. If there is no army, you can do nothing hard.

This is also the underlying reason why many squires and nobles are afraid that Charles I can levy taxes without going through parliament.If Charles I had raised a private army, no country gentry or aristocrat would dare to oppose the "tyrant" Charles in the future.

"Your Majesty, maybe you can consider reorganizing the parliament and make a compromise with them first. When the army is established, you can use force to dissolve the parliament again. At that time, they will not dare to pay taxes obediently." Stratford The Count has a sinister idea.

"No, those people in the parliament will definitely follow the trend and make more rude demands. Remember the dissolution of the parliament ten years ago? I was also at war with Spain and was forced to compromise with the parliament due to financial constraints and signed the The "Petition of Rights" they brought up, and now they object to anything I do, they will use this document as an excuse, saying that the king cannot collect debts or tax the people without the consent of Parliament, which makes me feel like a thorn in the back. This The second thing is to re-establish the parliament, who knows what harsh demands those Pym guys will make!" Charles I felt a headache when he thought of the guys who opposed him in the parliament, and he absolutely didn't want to see them.

Parliament has been disbanded for ten years, but the tradition of parliament has a history of hundreds of years in England. Ten years is so short that everyone thinks that parliament has not died.

"When you were the governor of Ireland, you were always able to collect the taxes I wanted locally. Why is the tax collection not so effective after returning to England?"

Charles I struggled in his heart, but still did not want to restore the parliament, but asked the Earl of Stratford, who had served as the Governor of Ireland, for countermeasures.

The Earl of Stratford was asked by Charles I, but it was a bit difficult to say: "Ireland is mostly aboriginal, I just need to use force to make them submit, and they will have to hand over the taxes you want, Your Majesty, but I have also been forced to pay for it." The local aborigines are called tyrants. Naturally, after returning to England, they cannot use the methods they used in Ireland, otherwise they will be attacked by the subjects of England."

Charles I heard that the Earl of Stratford used iron and blood to collect taxes in Ireland, and thought of England, where tax resistance incidents are frequent: "If I use the booty from the Mediterranean to appease the infantry regiment that was first formed, let them go to the tax-resistant counties Suppression and taxation, do you think it is feasible?"

The Earl of Stratford heard Charlie's naive thoughts, and quickly said: "No, I dare to do this in Ireland because I know that the Irish uprising and the English army can suppress the rebellion. If we the English uprising, then Your Majesty, are you going to use the English to quell the English uprising?"

Charlie was silent for a while: "It seems that I didn't think well. How can I break this deadlock?"

Both the Earl of Stratford and Charles I fell into a brief silence.

How to get the counties to pay taxes willingly without the consent of the parliament is a difficult problem.

The peasants in all counties acted on the face of the gentry and nobles, and the gentry and nobles formed the main body of the parliament. In the final analysis, the problem returned to the contradiction between the king and the parliament.

"Maybe I have a way to kill two birds with one stone." The Earl of Stratford was called a tyrant by the Irish, but he still had a lot of means and brains, and he came up with a countermeasure in a short time.

"What kills two birds with one stone?" Charles I asked hastily.

"If the internal problems cannot be resolved, we will transfer the internal conflicts to the outside. The Scottish Presbyterian Church has established an oath army and has an attempt to resist your majesty's rule. I have evidence of the correspondence between the Scottish Presbyterian Church and the French ambassador. Build an army in the name of crusade against the Scottish Presbyterian Church, and attack Scotland on a large scale. After your victory, your majesty's prestige will increase, and you can justifiably organize the army attacking Scotland into a standing army. In this way, you can solve the problem of establishing a standing army and incorporating Scotland into England at the same time. Both things can be accomplished smoothly." Earl Stratford encouraged.

(End of this chapter)