Chapter 193 Special Operation 1
The reason why Richard formulated the low tax policy was to promote the development of productivity and to hide wealth from the people.
Only when people live a prosperous life and have savings can they have consumption power and a market.
Whether a territory develops well or not depends on whether there is a market.
Otherwise, the brown sugar, liquor, and steel products produced will not be sold.
How to make profits without a consumer market?
Although the products in Harland's territory have a certain monopoly, many of them are unique products, such as hemostatic ointment, brown sugar, etc.
But the market is under the control of outsiders. Once they block you, they can immediately expel you.
The Dawn Plane is not an earth where free trade prevails. Local protectionism here is extremely serious. As long as they can produce goods themselves, the goods from outside will be of high quality and low price. The lords will use violent means to prohibit the outflow of gold coins.
Market control in the hands of outsiders is very dangerous for a territory.
Only by cultivating the market can we gain a firm foothold and promote industrial progress.
Nowadays, the main income of Harland Territory is actually from the sale of various commodities, and it does not rely heavily on taxation.
Richard believed that releasing water to raise fish and cultivate markets would be of great benefit to the economic development of the territory, so he formulated a lighter tax policy.
Richard had economic knowledge from his previous life and knew that there were many ways to collect taxes. Directly increasing taxes is the stupidest way, and it can easily arouse resentment among the people.
The best way is to enrich tax sources and add new types of taxes, such as tariffs, property taxes, business taxes, etc.
If there were 100,000 households in the Harland territory, the property tax alone would collect tens of thousands of gold coins every year, enough to expand the territory by a thousand people.
In addition, the territory can also specialize in supplies, such as salt, steel, and brown sugar, to earn profits from the territory's citizens.
When money is scarce, a 10% price increase on supplies such as salt and brown sugar can also greatly increase fiscal revenue.
We discussed the tax policy with Rogge and added new taxes this year. Richard decided to redeploy manpower to deal with competition in the liquor market.
Richard from Black River Fort and Flame Fort will send additional manpower to attack Viscount Cisse's people selling liquor.
Since Viscount Cisse dared to send people to steal his wine-making process, Richard would certainly not make it easy for him.
Although Richard could not launch a war and punish the Viscount of Cisse.
However, it is still feasible to send people on a small scale to attack important figures and targets in the Viscount of Cisse.
If Richard did not launch an act of revenge, he might be looked down upon by the nearby hereditary nobles. There will also be more and more commercial spies of all kinds, and the pressure on the intelligence agencies will become heavier and heavier.
More and more people will touch the interests of the Haaland family.
In order to ensure the safety of the operation, Richard and Sophia personally took charge. Although they will not personally participate in the attack, they will hide behind the attackers to ensure the success of the operation.
In this attack on the Viscount of Cisse, Richard carefully selected sixty people.
These sixty people basically come from the first, second, and Warcraft Cavalry squadrons. The number of professionals exceeds twenty, and the rest are advanced warrior students.
The soldiers participating in the operation all carried enchanted armor, including ten pieces of brute armor, ten pieces of light armor, thirty pieces of snake scale armor, and ten pieces of magic beast leather armor.
The light armor is the latest enchanted armor developed by Richard. The manufacturing idea of this armor is the same as that of the brute force armor.
You can release a light spirit magic by consuming the warrior's fighting energy. However, the cost of manufacturing light armor is 20% higher than that of brute armor.
In the army in Harland's territory, the number of brute armors has increased to thirty, and the number of light armors has also increased to ten.
The combination of brute armor and light armor has further improved the combat effectiveness of the First Squadron.
Although there are only sixty people, the raiding team is the elite of Haaland's territory.
There were mainly two officers leading the team, namely Lost and Jennings. Because according to Richard's observation, these two people are the most loyal to him.
Lost believed in the spirit of chivalry, and once he swore allegiance to Richard, he would basically never change his master. Because of his special experience, Zhan Nings' loyalty to Richard also comes from the heart.
Sending someone to attack a noble lord is a serious crime. Once someone catches the evidence and reports it to the noble council, Richard will also be in big trouble.
Therefore, for this operation, we must select the people who are most loyal to the territory.
In order to prevent the mission from failing, Richard and Sophia also wore star necklaces to ensure that the mission would be successful.
Sixty people disguised themselves as mercenaries. Through Soros' old connections, they received a mission to escort the caravan and infiltrated the Viscount of Cisse.
Richard and Sophie disguised themselves as a traveling aristocratic couple, followed by several guards, and followed the caravan.
The weapons, equipment, and alchemical bombs used for the operation are all hidden in the bottle of starlight on Richard's body.
The Viscounty of Cisse is very close to the Flame Castle. Walking about six kilometers west from the Citadel of Flame, you will enter the territory of the Viscount of Cisse.
The Cisse family has been promoted to Viscount for more than thirty years. The previous generation of Viscount Cisse was a powerful eighth-level golden knight.
It's just that this old Viscount, who lived 116 years old, died of illness seven or eight years ago.
The current Viscount Cisse is his grandson Boy Cisse, who is sixty years old and a sixth-level knight.
Boy was not originally the first heir of the Cisse family, but because he was the strongest, he won the support of most members of the Cisse family. Instead, he forced several of his uncles and brothers to give up their inheritance rights and become the second viscount.
The inheritance of titles among nobles is often bloody.
Although the succession order is important, one's own strength and influence are far more important than the succession order.
For example, if William must hand over the territory to Ron for inheritance when he is old, other members of the Harland family and officers in the territory will not agree.
If it is not handled properly, it will be a bloody conflict. Ron's whole family will be killed, and the elderly William will die unexpectedly, which is a very high probability.
When a person dies, he naturally loses the right to inheritance. In many cases, the inheritance of nobles is determined by internal intrigues and killings.
A shrewd and capable noble will handle this matter well while he is still alive, forcing the son who is higher in the order of succession to give up his inheritance rights, and designating the most capable child as the first heir.
Nobles who are old, frail, and dim in their later years often do not handle the succession well, and bloody conflicts will inevitably break out when they inherit the title.
The northern Xinjiang region is better, because due to the strong pressure of the orcs, internal fighting does not break out in many cases. For the nobles in the south, every succession of titles is almost always accompanied by the flash of swords, intrigues, and bloody killings.
Even for the Grant royal family, every succession to the throne is often accompanied by conspiracy and war.
Fortunately, Duke Brenner had been in charge for many years. He had enough prestige to suppress conflicts and no serious internal strife broke out.
After arriving at Flame Castle, Richard did not look for his old comrades from the Eighth Battalion.
Seven years have passed, and Richard's old partner Diarra has become a fourth-level warrior and serves as the deputy captain of the Eighth Battalion.
Richard's old subordinate Dida also became a third-level professional and served as the captain of the first squadron of the 8th Battalion.
Ron still serves in the 8th Battalion, and his professional level has been upgraded to the second level, serving as the captain of the 7th Squadron.
Although he often communicated with some old friends through letters over the years, the relationship was maintained very well. But this operation was an attack on the Viscount of Cisse, which was legally dishonorable. Of course, Richard would not expose his whereabouts in the Flame Castle. Leave a handle.
The Cisse family has been in Gascoigne Province for hundreds of years and has offended many people due to various conflicts.
Even if he is attacked, as long as he is not caught, it will probably be difficult to find out for a while. Even if the investigation is clear and there is a suspect, it is still useless without evidence.
(End of chapter)