Long Live the Lord

Imperial calendar: November 2, 104 winter.

Yongan Province Yongan City yongfengling

there are a lot of business adventurers in the area, which is no different from a year ago, except that the roadsides and roofs are covered with thick snow at this time.

People walking in and out of the street shops are all wrapped up in thick fur coats. When they walk and breathe, the white air floats far behind them

The residents and merchants of the territory did not feel any change this year.

The only change is the Lord's mansion in the center of the territory. Since a year ago, when soldiers rode out of the city at night.

There are soldiers coming in and out every day. I don't know what they are doing. The Lord has rarely seen them in the past year.

However, this is not an important thing for them, it is just a topic of speculation when chatting with people after lunch.

At the moment, in the meeting hall of the Lord's house, Zhao Tian, with gray hair, held a statement in his hand. His face was dignified, and his eyes showed a layer of melancholy and fatigue.

Compared with a year ago, Zhao Tian looks more than ten years old, more than half of his hair is gray, and there are wrinkles between his eyebrows and his slightly dim face.

"Lord Now all the active assets in our hands have been sold out. There are only less than 500 gold coins left in the mansion, and the spirit stone has been used up for a long time. In addition, the new year will be celebrated in less than a month, and the personnel expenses below are also large And The tax official of the Empire should be here soon. "

Yongfengling this year because of the continuous purchase of lingcao, the cost is huge!

At first, it was better. I could always buy some cold spirit grass at a low price.

But as time goes by, the cold nature spirit grass of nearby town level and even city level territory has been bought out

Some businessmen saw the business opportunities, and then mobilized the cold nature of lingcao from further places to yongfengling.

However, the price is much higher. Zhao Tian is worried about his son's illness, and the low price of cold nature lingcao is no longer available in the market. He can only buy these high price lingcao.

Although Zhao Tian suffers from this, some of them are better than others.

This led to the cold nature of lingcao average down to 600 gold coins per plant! Equivalent to more than a year's income of the territory

From the beginning to the present, the Zhao family has consumed 59 lingcao plants, with a total price of about 35400 gold coins, which is equivalent to the territory income of the Zhao family in 88 years!

After Zhao Tian's grandfather and father's consumption, the Zhao family still has less than 60 years of territory income.

Zhao Tian had no choice but to sell all the farmland, shops, and other industries invested by the Zhao family for many years. Finally, he collected the funds and finally insisted on it until now.

But now it is Zhao Tian's most desperate time, the cash in his hand has been completely consumed two weeks ago.

What can be sold has also been sold. He now has the ownership of the Lord's house and territory.

However, he could not sell it even if he wanted to. The Empire would not allow him to do so. If he did, it would only lead to a faster death.

Even Zhao Tian, who was at the end of his tether, did not raise taxes on his territory to obtain funds. Even when his subordinates and friends asked to lend him money, he refused.

Because he knew that Zhao Fengnian's illness could not be cured in a short period of time. During this year, Wu searched for all kinds of ancient books and secret books, but also failed to find a way to revive Zhao Fengnian.

This is a bottomless hole. He believes that as long as he opens his mouth, those subordinates will definitely do their best to help him!

It is also because of this, so he can not accept!

He didn't want to implicate his friends around him. The hundred year savings of his vast territory were only enough for Zhao Fengnian to spend more than a year.

The financial resources of those friends and subordinates are not enough to consume so much!

So the desperate Zhao Tian paid attention to the imperial tax

The total tax revenue of Yongfeng in a year is about 1600 gold coins, while the taxes of the territory collected by the Empire are about 1000 gold coins.

After the autumn harvest, tax collectors directly under the Empire will come to collect taxes regularly at the end of each year.

In fact, the Empire requires tax officials to stay in the territory to supervise the territory's finance. But where are these people willing to live in a small, remote place?

So they came up with a way to estimate the territory tax directly according to the population of the territory. A person, whether he is an adult, a child or an old man, is calculated according to a gold coin.

The population of the territory is basically fixed. At the end of the year, they just need to check their household registration, collect the gold coins, and then walk away.

Although there are some false reports sometimes, the number of new born people in the territory is limited in one year. Their calculation is based on the number of people. They are not at a loss!

No matter what the harvest is, the Empire will not care about you. As long as you pay taxes, the Empire will recognize your title and recognize the management of your territory.

But the Empire would still allow one occasional non payment of taxes, only once in a decade.In other words, it is not allowed to pay taxes in one year within ten years. However, it is necessary to pay 50% of the tax increase in arrears in the next year.

If not, the Empire would be deprived of its title, take back its territory, and face imprisonment.

Therefore, many lords levied taxes again for their own rights and interests, which led to many mountain people even starved to death. However, they didn't care. Maybe the Empire could collect less taxes next year.

Zhao Tian has no way out. He can't make up for it the next year.

If you don't use it, your son will die soon! He quickly made a choice. If his son died, what territory would he want? What imperial punishment? It doesn't matter!

Zhao Tian and Zhao Fengnian insisted on using the imperial tax revenue for two weeks. However, after two weeks, the last cold nature lingcao was just used up. However, Zhao Tian's money But not again!

"Ah The expenses of the people under the territory will be paid ahead of time, and then the remaining gold coins will be distributed to them Brother Liu, you can go back ahead of time and spend the Spring Festival with him... "

Zhao Tian sighed, and his upright body seemed to stoop down with this sigh. He got up and patted Liu Fu on the shoulder, and said faintly.

Liu Fu originally lowered his head to report to Zhao Tian, but when he heard Zhao Tian's words, he suddenly raised his head with a sad look in his eyes, and his eyes were full of tears: "Lord You You... "

Liu Fu's voice choked, but he could not say the following words. Then he opened his mouth, as if thinking of something, and then said:

"you Never give up! We still have hope, we still have a way! Our family has also accumulated a lot of money these years, as well as so many years of our family property And

But before Liu Fu went on, Zhao Tian waved his hand and interrupted Liu Fu: "OK! I know I know that your Liu family has served our Zhao family for three generations! Our Zhao family owes you too much I'm really tired now... "

"If you still regard me as the Lord of yongfengling, don't say anything more! I've made a decision, and now I want to be quiet and don't disturb me again! "

After Zhao Tian finished, without waiting for Liu Fu to continue to speak, he walked out of the room and went to the ancestral hall of the Zhao family in the backyard, where the ancestors of the Zhao family were worshipped.

Liu Fu, who was still in the room, collapsed on the ground and howled as loud as a child