Chapter 264 War Taxes

Chapter 264 – War Tax

Kevin took the tax that his family had to pay and left the door in a million pieces, not taking a few steps to the tax payment point in the center of the village.

There was already a large group of people gathered there, and on a temporary raised platform, a man was yelling something at the top of his voice.

“Folks, what about this time, in addition to the head tax that will be levied according to the usual practice, we’ll 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 to begin with.”

“This is pushing us to the brink of extinction!”

The villagers were furious and expressed their dissatisfaction.

“It’s like this! It’s like this! You guys listen to my explanation!”

The person who came to collect the tax shouted loudly, finally silencing the villagers.

“Aren’t we in the middle of a war with the usurper? Once this war starts, the gold coins will flow out like water, the soldiers on the front line need to eat and drink, their weapons need to be polished, their armor needs to be repaired, all of these need money!”

“That’s why the newly increased tax is called [War Tax]! Once the war is over, it will stop being collected. But during the war, we still have to pay! It’s not easy for everyone to live, Master Baden understands that, so he compassionately lowered the war tax to 20 copper coins per person.”

“Twenty copper coins! Are you trying to eat people?”

Kevin shouted from the crowd, “We’re not paying it!”

“Yeah, my family can’t even come up with that much money! We’re not paying either!”

“Don’t pay it, don’t pay it! You’ll starve to death if you pay!”

Led by him, more and more people said they would not pay the tax.

“How can you …… you do this? This is a levy ordered by Master Baden himself.”

The moment they heard Master Baden’s name, the villagers’ aura instantly lowered a notch.

Master Baden, was a famous large landowner in this area, and many people treated him as a tax collector appointed here by the lord, representing the lord’s authority, but Kevin knew that this Master Baden was merely a [Village Tax Packer].

Kevin mounted the high platform, “It’s useless for Master Baden to personally order this, only the lord can decide whether to add a new tax, let me ask you, do you have proof of the decree issued by the lord’s house?”

“Decree of the lord’s house?”

A few servants of the Baden family were instantly confused by the question, obviously not having such a thing on hand.

Seeing that the other party was stumped by the question, Kevin grunted and shouted to the villagers on the stage, “Folks, if they can’t produce a decree from the lord’s house, then Baden is setting up a private miscellaneous tax, and we can denounce him to the lord.”

“Ooh!” The crowd under the stage stirred.

“Ridiculous! Nonsense! A load of nonsense!”

A few servants of the Baden family became anxious and immediately counterattacked.

“Master Baden’s words represent the will of Lord Lord! He is the representative of the Lords’ House here!”

Kevin questioned, “Has Lord Lord agreed to his tax increase?”

“Since it was Master Baden’s words, it must have been the Lord Laird’s consent!”

“We must see the decree!”

“You can’t read a single word, so even if you were given the decree, you wouldn’t be able to read it.”

“Unfortunately, I know some words, so please bring them out!”

“You …… you don’t resist the tax and not pay it!”

The villagers were getting more and more agitated when they saw that the Baden family’s servant squeaked and just wouldn’t come up with the decree that Kevin was talking about.

“Vampire! Vampire!”

“Get out of our village!”

I don’t know who led the way, but some trash was thrown at the servants. “You unruly people, wait for me!”

The servants of the Baden family gave a hateful glance at Kevin, the prick, and fled in haste amidst the villagers’ garbage cheer, not even collecting the poll tax.

……

In a large mansion, the landlord Baden was chatting with a few of his squire friends, letting out a burst of laughter from time to time.

His butler scurried in hastily, crying, “My lord, it’s no good!”

The round-featured Baden pulled his face away, “It is unseemly to be in a panic! What’s the matter, is the sky falling?”

“There’s a problem with the tax collection ……”

Baden raised his hand and the butler immediately shut up.

“All of you talk here first, I’ll be right back. You! Come with me.”

Baden rose, apologized to his guests, and led his servant to another room.

“Say! What’s going on?”

“That new [war tax] that was added, the salts say they won’t pay it until they see the decree issued by the lord’s house.”

“How easy is that? Just find someone with a lot of ink and get a random one to fool around with, won’t that do?”

“But you can’t, milord, there seems to be someone in that village who knows what he’s doing. In case people see that the lord’s decree is forged by us, then it will be ……”

The steward somewhat fearfully gestured towards his neck and made a beheading motion.

“Hmph! You were the one who brought up this idea, and now you’re scared like this!”

“Uh …… I didn’t think at the time that those illiterate salt people would ask about this.”

“What about the poll tax? How much has been collected?”

“Uh …… at that time the salt people were more agitated, they were a little afraid and ran back.”

“Rubbish! Garbage! Immediately tell these people to get the hell out of here, I never want to see them again.”

Baden fumed in anger.

Finally he commanded:
“Immediately send another team of men to that village, with more sticks, and teach those who dare to carry the tax and not pay a good lesson. Hmph, I don’t believe these pariahs won’t listen!”

“Yes, Master!”

The butler turned around and left.

Ever since the new lord succeeded the throne and started to engage in some kind of [Agricultural Reform], Baden had accumulated a bellyful of grievances.

Because in addition to his family having arable land that was registered in the lord’s house, they had also privately appropriated quite a bit of public land.

Public land, is the land belonging to the lord directly owned by the ordinary people can be inside the firewood, occasional grazing and so on, but large-scale planting of crops is certainly not allowed, unless you buy the right to operate from the hands of the lord, and in this way will have to be registered within the lord’s house, and once registered in accordance with the area or the output of hey lord’s house tax, in addition to the tax to the lord’s house, but also have to give the output of one-tenth of the church. And once registered, one had to pay taxes to the lordship by area or output, and in addition to paying taxes to the lordship, one tenth of the output had to be given to the church.

However, if the planting was done secretly on the public land, without letting the lord’s office know, then there was no need to pay any tax, and 100 percent of the harvested food belonged to oneself.

Baden is not the only one, many squires and landowners have been doing this for generations, and successive lords have also turned a blind eye.

I did not expect last year came a minister of agriculture Hansel, around advocating what to engage in [arable land consolidation], the first thing to do is to inventory the number of arable land around.

Hansel and his men personally traveled all over the place, and large tracts of encroached public land were exposed. After consulting the current lord, the knife was opened to this phenomenon.

For those who admitted to encroaching on arable land, as long as you pay a fine of three times the price of the land, then the land is yours, and just pay your taxes obediently in the future.

For those who could not pay three times the fine, the fine was doubled and the land was taken back.

There are also cases where the land is not claimed, so the land is taken back directly.

In the process, the landowner Baden’s family lost a lot of real estate and was forced to pay a large fine.

Fleshache incomparable Baden lord all day thinking how to make up for their losses, his steward gave him an idea – use his identity as a tax wrapper, using the recent war between the two factions of lords of the northwestern gulf as a pretext to introduce [war tax].

(End of chapter)