C13 No way give up

Imperial calendar: Winter, 2nd November, 104.

Yongan Province - Yongan City - Yongfeng Ridge

There was an endless stream of adventurers in the area, no different from a year ago. The only difference was that the roadside and rooftops were covered with thick layers of snow.

The people walking past the shops were all wrapped in thick fur coats. As they walked, clouds of white smoke drifted behind them ?

This year, the residents and merchants of the territory did not feel any changes.

The only thing that changed was the Lord's Manor located in the center of the territory. A year ago, there were prefectural soldiers riding their horses out of the city in the middle of the night.

Every day, there would be soldiers going in and out of the palace. No one knew what they were doing, but it was rare to see them in the past year of Lord.

However, this wasn't anything important to them. It was just an additional speculation when they chatted with each other after the meal.

At this time in the Lord's Manor, the grizzled hair Zhao Tian was holding onto a report, his expression serious, his eyes revealing a layer of worry and exhaustion.

Compared to a year ago, Zhao Tian looked to have aged more than ten years. More than half of his hair had already turned white, and lines of wrinkles appeared between his brows.

"Lord... Right now, we have already spent all of our wealth, the mansion only has less than 500 gold coins left, the Spirit Stone have long since been used up, adding on the fact that it's the new year in less than a month, the following personnel expenditure is not small either ? Furthermore ? "Judging by the date, the empire's tax collector should be arriving soon ?"

Because Yongfeng Ridge had been constantly buying spirit grass s for the past year, the expenses were huge!

It was better in the beginning, as they were always able to purchase a few cold-attribute spirit grass at a low price.

But as time passed, all of the cold attribute spirit grass in the nearby town or even the city level territory had been bought out ?

Some merchants saw this business opportunity and began to mobilize the cold attribute spirit grass from far away and send it to the Yongfeng Ridge.

However, the price was much higher than before. Zhao Tian was anxious because of his son's illness, and because of the low price cold attribute spirit grass, it was already gone from the market. He could only helplessly buy these expensive spirit grass.

Although Zhao Tian felt pained by this, buying some would still be better than not being able to.

This resulted in the average price of a cold attribute spirit grass being as high as 600 gold coins! It's equivalent to more than a year's income in the Territory...

From the start till now, other than the one that Wu Cai brought over, the Zhao Family had used up 59 spirit grass s. The total price was about 35400 gold coins, which was equivalent to the Zhao Family's territorial income for the past 88 years!

And after Zhao Tian's grandfather and father's consumption, the Zhao Family still had less than sixty years of territorial income.

The Zhao Tian who had no other choice could only sell the land, shops and other businesses that the Zhao Family had operated for many years, finally gathering the funds to persevere until now.

However, right now, it was the time when Zhao Tian was at his most desperate, and the cash in his hands had already been completely used up two weeks ago.

What he could sell was already sold, he only had the right to own this Lord's Manor and his territory.

However, he could not sell this even if he wanted to. The Empire would not allow him to do so. Doing so would only bring about a faster destruction.

Even Zhao Tian, who was at the end of his rope, did not collect any additional tax on the territory to get more funds. Even when his subordinate or good friend wanted to borrow money from him, he refused.

Because he knew that Zhao Fengnian's illness could not be cured in a short amount of time, in this year, Wu Cai searched everywhere for various ancient scrolls and secret manuals, and he did not find any way to wake Zhao Fengnian up.

This was a bottomless hole, he believed that as long as he opened his mouth, all of his friends would definitely help him!

It was also because of this that he could not accept this!

He did not want to implicate his friends who were by his side. His vast territory's savings of a hundred years was only enough for Zhao Fengnian to spend more than a year.

How could these friends and subordinates have enough money to consume so much!?

Thus, the desperate Zhao Tian decided to pay the tax back to the empire ?

The total tax collected by the Yongfeng Ridge was about 1600 gold coins a year, and the tax collected by the Empire was about 1000 gold coins.

After collecting taxes every autumn, at the end of every year, tax officials directly under the empire would come to collect them.

Actually, the Empire required tax officials to be stationed in the territory to supervise the territory's finances, but how could these people be willing to live in a remote and small place?

Therefore, they thought of a method, which was to directly estimate the taxes based on the population of the territory. Whether it was adults, children, or old people, they would all be calculated according to one gold coin.

The population of the territory was basically fixed. At the end of the year, they only needed to come to the territory to check their household register, then they could take the gold coins and leave.

Although there were some people who lied at times, the number of newborns in the territory was limited. They calculated according to the number of people they took, no matter how much one counted, they did not lose out!

Regardless of the year's harvest, the Empire will not care about you. As long as you pay the taxes, the Empire will recognize your title and the authority to manage your territory.

However, the Empire would still allow one failure to pay taxes on an occasional occasion, only once in ten years.

In other words, within ten years, the amount of tax not paid for one year would not accumulate, but the next year would have to be paid together with the fifty percent increase in the amount of tax owed.

If they did not hand it over, the Empire would strip them of their title, take back their territories, and face the calamity of imprisonment.

Therefore, for the sake of their rights and interests, many lords would try to remake taxes, causing many of the citizens to starve and freeze to death. However, they did not care, because this might result in the empire collecting a few less taxes next year.

Zhao Tian didn't have a way out, and after using it for the next two years, he definitely wouldn't be able to make up for it.

If not, then his son would have died immediately! He quickly made up his mind. If his son died, what more land would he need? Who cares about the punishments of the Empire? Nothing was important anymore!

After using the empire's tax revenue, Zhao Tian and Zhao Fengnian endured for another two weeks. But after two weeks, the last portion of cold attribute spirit grass was just used up. But it was gone!

"Sigh ?" The expenses of the people in the territory had been paid out ahead of time. It was almost New Year's, and the remaining gold was given to them ? Brother Liu, you should go back and properly celebrate New Year with Old Master Liu in advance ? "

Zhao Tian sighed, his straight and upright body seemed to bend down with his sigh, standing up and patting Liu Fu's shoulder, he said indifferently.

Liu Fu was originally reporting to Zhao Tian with a lowered head, but after hearing Zhao Tian's words, he suddenly raised his head. You... "You ?"

Liu Fu's voice was choked with emotions, but he could not finish his sentence, following that, he opened his mouth, as though he thought of something, and continued:

"You... I can't give up! We still have hope, we still have a way! Our family has also accumulated quite a bit of money over the years. Furthermore, our family's property has also been purchased for so many years ? "And ?"

But without waiting for Liu Fu to continue, Zhao Tian waved his hand and interrupted Liu Fu: "Enough! I know... I know, 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 Yongfeng Ridge, then don't talk about it anymore! "I've already made my decision. Right now, I just want to calm down and not disturb me again!"

After Zhao Tian finished speaking, without waiting for Liu Fu to continue speaking, he walked out of the room and walked towards the Zhao Family Ancestral Hall in the backyard, which was where the ancestors of the Zhao Family were worshipped.

As for Liu Fu who was still in the room, he collapsed onto the ground and started to howl loudly like a child ?