Chapter 272 Punishment
Chapter 272 Punishment
Landlord Baden was brought to the lobby of the lord’s mansion.
This was a middle-aged man with a rich physique, his round face was dotted with two small green-bean eyes, and although he tried to put on an appearance of being in great distress, he still occasionally showed a few hints of greedy eyes.
When this man entered the lobby, he performed the courtesy of a commoner meeting with a lord in a formal manner.
“Honorable and great Count Gleiman, Baden, a loyal subject under your rule, has come at your call.”
On the main seat of the hall sat the young lord, who surprisingly did not say anything after hearing his words, and just looked at him with a straight, expressionless face.
Baden’s heart tightened, feeling a hint of bad luck: bad, it can’t be that the matter of [war tax] was known by the lord.
The hall is quiet, can only hear the ticking of the floor clock, Paul did not speak, Baden can only stand there, immensely embarrassed to wait.
“You are Baden?”
The lord finally spoke, but Baden almost collapsed to the floor with a weak leg, for a man of his physique and long time pampered, standing for a long time was an exhausting task.
“Yes, honorable Count Gleeman, I am Baden.”
“Where have you been for the last while? Have you been back home since the riots subsided?”
“Thank you for your concern, Lord Earl, I was hiding in a secluded field farmhouse earlier. I have returned home …… ah, my home is really miserable ah, everything was robbed, several honest and loyal servants also died.”
As soon as he spoke of the riot, Baden’s face grew more and more miserable, and he chattered on and on, accusing the salts of their atrocities.
Paul did not stop and let Baden go on.
“…… It’s all the fault of those damned poor people, Earl Gleiman, you must uphold the Lord’s justice and rigor, and hang these lawless beasts. They are a bunch of living beasts!”
Seeing that the lord did not react at all, the voice of Baden who was accusing became smaller and smaller.
“Cough …… Honorable Earl Gleiman, please be sure to return justice to us good people and peace to this land of Arda.”
Baden ended with these words, and the hall finally returned to its earlier silence.
Only then did Paul ask, “Then what is the matter with the so-called [war tax] that you first told us about?”
“War tax? What war tax? Never heard of it.”
“Oh? Didn’t you impose a war tax on the salt people?”
Baden showed a look of injustice and said “Lord Earl, you mustn’t listen to those mobs, they can make up any lie in order to mitigate their own crimes and gain your sympathy. For this group of poor people, what shame, what honor and disgrace, all do not exist.”
Paul sneered, “But Baden, it’s not just the salts who have said you once levied a war tax. Bring up the men!”
As soon as the words left his mouth, the guards entered the hall with several men.
Baden almost fainted after looking at them, wasn’t this the thugs he sent out to collect the taxes? Why aren’t they dead yet? Shouldn’t they have been slaughtered by that mob long ago?
These fighters all hung their heads low, everyone’s face was bruised and swollen, it looked like they hadn’t suffered much at the hands of the salt people.
Paul had a hint of a smile on his face and asked, “Baden, do you recognize them?”
Baden panicked and replied, “No …… do not recognize! Lord Earl, I don’t recognize this group of people.”
Paul turned his gaze to the beaters, “Baden said he doesn’t know you guys, so do you guys know him?”
One of the men standing at the front said, “Lord Earl, he is our former master Baden.”
Baden panicked and defended, “Nonsense! My lord, you must not believe them!”
Paul glared with a stern gaze, “Enough, speak when I tell you to!” It scared this landowner to the point where his fat body trembled.
He then inquired about the thugs, “Then tell me if Baden has sent you to collect war taxes other than the poll tax?”
The man from earlier took a look at Baden and answered honestly, “Yes, a group of men had already been sent before us to collect the poll tax and war tax, but they were bombarded back before Master Baden sent us forward, and told us to give the salt people a little bit of color.”
Paul looked coldly at Baden, “What else do you have to say?”
Baden’s cold sweat beaded, his body twitching, but his mouth is still defending: “They …… they …… they have been bought by the mob, they are already a gang.”
“So you did lie to me just now? These people are indeed your previous men?”
“I …… I …… Lord Lord understand!”
Paul laughed, “I have some more men here for you to meet, bring them up!” The guards led another group of people in, all dressed as ordinary villagers.
Paul asked, “Baden may have collected [war taxes] from you?”
As soon as the lord spoke, the group of villagers were instantly agitated.
“Lord Gleeman, you are right, he did force us to pay war taxes.”
“When your father and your grandfather were in power, we never heard of any war tax.”
“We didn’t have much income to begin with, and with Baden messing with us so much, life is even harder.”
The villagers were complaining, they already knew that Baden was lying to them, and it could be said that their grievances were overwhelming.
Looking at the gray-faced Baden, Paul slowly picked up his glass of water and took a sip.
“Baden, these are all the residents of several villages in that area you are responsible for, rather they are all good people who have not participated in the riots, now what else do you have to say?”
Baden’s lips trembled, “I …… I ……”
His eyes suddenly widened, and a brilliant light came out of both eyes, “Lord Graiman! I blame that Hansel Abbott under your command for my haunting and lust for profit!”
“Oh? Why are you suddenly bringing him into this?”
Baden complained as if he had gone out of his way, “That damned Jingyao man, what the hell kind of land transfer is he engaging in, a large portion of my family’s good land has been replaced by him with bad land. With the backing of the lord’s house, he took the chicken feather as an arrow, but he screwed us honest and diligent landowners and squires.”
“You guys? Other than you, are other people also dissatisfied with him?”
“Yes, Lord Gladman.” Baden said sharply, “Many people are dissatisfied with him, and we call him the [Skinning Baron] behind his back, so please, you must do justice, remove and punish this incompetent agricultural supervisor, and calm everyone’s grievances.”
In the process of land replacement, good land for bad land this kind of thing is unavoidable, in the quality and area of the two factors of entanglement, anyone can not pinpoint just right, and Baden such a large landowner on this matter benefit far more than loss, now his family’s arable land into a large area, more conducive to the launch of large-scale planting and water conservancy operations, he just harvester to buy a number of units. But most people care about what they lose and take for granted what they gain.
And Baden’s resentment toward Hansel actually centered on another matter: in the course of an inventory of the fields, a large tract of public land that his family had appropriated came to light. This cost Baden a great deal of money and large tracts of real estate that he felt should have been his. But this matter Baden also knew that he had violated the law in the first place, this time to talk about it is not ungrateful? So merely point the finger at the land swap.
Paul’s face, however, flashed a trace of imperceptible celebration, and continued to ask: “What does this have to do with your private war tax?”
Baden “aggrieved” said: “It is because I lost too much in the land exchange, so I came up with this stupid trick, thinking that I can more or less make up for some of it.”
“Ah …… not right not right! I didn’t come up with this stupid trick, it’s all my butler’s fault, he’s the one who came up with the bad idea!”
Baden suddenly remembered something and hastily changed his mouth.
“Your butler? Where is he?”
“He took refuge with me in a farmhouse in the fields, never returned after going out once to spy, I’m afraid he’s been killed by the mob ……”
Paul pondered, “A steward? Disappeared? Kind of interesting!”
He recalled the interrogation intelligence given to him by Cecil, when the Salt Folk surrounded the Baden family’s mansion, it was the butler who had first made a mocking remark and then had his subordinates attacked with a stone thrower, which had intensified the conflict.
“Alright, Baden, I don’t have time to talk nonsense with you! In any case, levying a private war tax behind the back of the lord’s mansion has violated the law, and this riot is also because of you.”
Paul stood up and looked about to give his final decision.
Baden flung himself to his knees, “Lord Lord, the Greiman family has always been known for its benevolence!”
Paul ignored his pleas and continued, “You should have been given an extremely harsh punishment, but given that your family has served the lord for generations, I declare-“
“Firstly, you are stripped of your status as a tax wrapper, and the areas that were previously taxed by you will henceforth be collected personally by a tax collector appointed by the Council of State!”
“Secondly, forfeit half of your family’s property to make up for the losses caused by the riots – excluding your own family’s losses, of course!”
As soon as Paul’s words fell, Baden at the bottom of the stairs rolled his white eyes and paralyzed on the ground with a thud.
The guards rushed forward to check, only to see his eyes squinted into a slit, in the slit can only see the whites of his eyes, foaming at the mouth, the harlequin couldn’t stop dripping out, already unconscious.
It looked like these two punishments had hit him too hard.
(End of chapter)