Chapter 264 War Tax

Kevin took the tax money that his family had to pay and reluctantly went out. After a few steps, he walked to the tax payment point in the center of the village.

There was already a large group of people gathered there. On the temporary high platform, a person was shouting something.

"Fellow villagers, this time, in addition to the head tax as usual, we have to pay one more tax?"

The crowd exploded with a bang.

"Why do we have to pay one more tax?"

"It's too much. We don't have much money in our hands."

"This is forcing us to a dead end!"

The villagers were indignant and expressed their dissatisfaction one after another.

"That's it! That's it! Listen to my explanation!"

The people who came to collect taxes shouted loudly, and finally made the villagers quiet down.

"Aren't we fighting a usurper? Once the war starts, gold coins will flow out like water. Soldiers on the front line need food and water, their weapons need to be polished, and their armor needs to be repaired, all of which require money!"

"So, the newly added tax is called [War Tax]! Once the war is over, it will stop being levied. But during the war, we still have to pay it! Everyone's life is not easy, and Master Baden knows it, so he compassionately reduced the war tax to 20 copper coins per person."

"20 copper coins! Are you going to eat people?"

Kevin shouted in the crowd, "We won't pay it!"

"Yes, my family can't afford so much money! We won't pay it either!"

"No, no! We'll starve to death if we pay!"

Under his leadership, more and more people said they would not pay taxes.

"How could you...how could you do this? This was personally ordered by Master Baden to be levied."

When the villagers heard Master Baden's name, their momentum suddenly dropped.

Lord Baden is a famous landowner in this area. Many people regard him as a tax officer appointed by the lord, representing the lord's authority. However, Kevin knows that Lord Baden is just a [rural tax farmer].

Kevin climbed onto the platform: "It is useless for Lord Baden to give an order personally. Only the lord can decide whether to add new taxes. I ask you, do you have a decree issued by the lord's mansion to prove it?"

"Lord's mansion decree?"

Several servants of the Baden family were stunned by the question. Obviously, they didn't have such a thing in their hands.

Seeing that the other party was stumped, Kevin snorted and shouted to the villagers below the stage: "Fellow villagers, if they can't produce the decree of the lord's mansion, then Baden is privately setting miscellaneous taxes. We can report him to the lord."

"Wow!" The crowd below the stage was in turmoil.

"Ridiculous! Nonsense! Nonsense!"

Several servants of the Baden family were anxious and immediately fought back.

"Master Baden's words represent the will of the Lord! He is the representative of the Lord's Mansion here!"

Kevin asked: "Did the Lord agree to his increase in taxes?"

"Since it was Master Baden who said it, the Lord must have agreed!"

"We must see the decree!"

"You can't read a single word, even if you are given a decree, you can't understand it."

"Unfortunately, I can only read a few words, please take it out!"

"You... don't resist paying taxes!"

The villagers saw that the servants of the Baden family were hesitant and didn't take out the decree Kevin said, and they became more and more excited.

"Vampire! Vampire!"

"Get out of our village!"

I don't know who took the lead, and some garbage was thrown at the servants.

"You bunch of unruly people, wait for me!"

The servants of the Baden family looked at Kevin, the troublemaker, with hatred, and fled in a hurry amid the garbage farewell of the villagers, and even the head tax was not collected.

...

In a mansion, the landlord Baden was chatting with a few country gentry friends, laughing from time to time.

His housekeeper rushed in in a hurry, crying and saying, "Master, it's bad!"

The chubby Baden pulled his face, "It's too outrageous to be so flustered! What's going on? Did the sky fall?"

"I encountered some problems when collecting taxes..."

As soon as Baden raised his hand, the housekeeper shut up immediately.

"You guys talk here first, I'll be back soon. You! Come with me."

Baden stood up, apologized to the guests, and led the servants to another room.

"Tell me! What's going on?"

No mistakes in one sentence, one post, one content, one book, one bar, one 6, one 9, one book, one bar, take a look!

"The newly added [war tax], the salt farmers said they would only pay it after seeing the decree issued by the lord's mansion."

"Isn't that simple? Can't we just find someone with a lot of knowledge to make a random one?"

"That's not possible, sir. There seems to be someone knowledgeable in that village. If someone finds out that the lord's decree was forged by us, then..."

The butler pointed to his neck in fear, making a beheading gesture.

"Humph! You came up with this idea, but now you are so scared!"

"Uh... I didn't expect that the illiterate salt farmers would ask about this."

"What about the head tax? How much was collected?"

"Uh... The salt farmers were quite excited at the time, and they were a little scared and ran back."

"Waste! Trash! Get these people out of here right now. I don't want to see them again."

Baden was furious and vented his anger.

Finally he ordered:

"Send another team to that village immediately, bring more sticks, and teach those who dare not pay taxes a lesson. Humph, I don't believe these untouchables will not obey!"

"Yes, sir!"

The butler turned and left.

Since the new lord took the throne and started to carry out the [agricultural reform], Baden has accumulated a lot of resentment.

Because in addition to the arable land registered in the lord's mansion, his family also privately occupied a lot of public land.

Public land is land directly owned by the lord. Ordinary people can chop firewood and occasionally graze in it, but large-scale crop planting is definitely not allowed, unless you buy the right to operate from the lord, and then you have to register in the lord's mansion, and once registered, you have to pay taxes to the lord's mansion according to the area or output. In addition to paying taxes to the lord's mansion, you have to pay one-tenth of the output to the church.

However, if you plant on public land secretly without letting the lord know, then you don't have to pay any taxes, and the harvested grain belongs to you 100%.

It's not just the Baden family. Many gentry landlords do this, and they have been doing this for generations, and the lords of all generations have turned a blind eye.

Unexpectedly, last year, a Minister of Agriculture, Hansel, came and advocated for [cultivated land integration] everywhere. The first thing he did was to check the amount of cultivated land in various places.

Hansel personally visited various places with people, and large tracts of occupied public land were exposed. After consulting the current lord, this phenomenon was taken.

For those who admit to occupying cultivated land, as long as they pay a fine of three times the price of the land, then the land is yours, and you just need to pay taxes in the future.

For those who can't pay three times the fine, they will be fined one time and the cultivated land will be taken back.

There are also occupied cultivated lands that no one claims, so they will be taken back directly.

During this process, the landowner Baden's family suffered heavy losses in their real estate and was forced to pay a large fine.

The extremely painful Master Baden thought all day about how to make up for his losses. His steward gave him an idea - using his status as a tax farmer and the recent war between the two lords in the Northwest Bay as an excuse to levy a [war tax].