That's how it should be - otherwise what's the point of having a fief? Why should I help you manage this land?
This is why it is said to be unsuitable for taxation.
After all, this "Western dominion" system is not naturally suitable for taxation.
Even on the real Earth, the Kingdom of France suffered greatly from the Hundred Years' War and only tried to implement taxation when its finances could no longer sustain it.
Even so, it was still under the banner of "special tax". It was not until later when everyone got used to it that its true face was revealed, and the "special tax" was directly normalized and turned into a real tax.
Compared with Will, Ron's point of view was much more in-depth, but Hitzfeld was still not satisfied.
"You missed a little bit." She glanced at Heltim who was pretending to listen carefully.
"That's the Delita Canal."
"The labor that Delitta has requisitioned during this period to repair the river."
Chapter 74: Shocking Thoughts (Two in One)
Note: I saw that some readers were troubled by the names, so I mentioned them here. Will Lawrence was the naughty student in Hitzfeld's first public class. Ron Baresch was the one we met at the Baimu tree in this unit.
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Compared to Will, who has no interest in literary history, it must be admitted that Long's entry point is profound enough.
As a modern person who has long been accustomed to taxation and has seen all countries in the world use this system, Hitzfeld certainly does not think there is anything wrong with this system. Because in an increasingly open and civilized society, taxation is the country's largest source of income.
There is another reason. Most countries, even those that are rotten to the core, do not allow politicians to engage in business. History has proven that it is dangerous for rulers to switch their thinking between politicians and businessmen. Even the lighthouses on the other side of the Atlantic do not dare to do so openly. At best, they collude secretly and wait for the former to retire and then work in the latter company to enjoy retirement.
As a result, apart from the so-called "political donations" in the West, which are completely shameless transactions, it is difficult to find any way for the government to make money. Taxation is even the only source of income for many countries.
But the world context is different, and this thing needs to be viewed dialectically. Hitzfeld previously thought of medieval England and France as examples, and they also spent a lot of time and energy to gradually promote taxation throughout the country.
Because the aristocratic system and taxation are inherently in conflict.
When the previous system was in effect, the king rewarded the nobles with fiefs and peasants, and the output of the land had nothing to do with the king. The noble lords' obligation was to lead all the young and strong laborers in the territory to defend the king in the event of an emergency, mostly war, which was already a "life-long friendship".
It is unlikely that any nobles would be willing to accept a normalized taxation system, because that would mean that their power as lords would be divided and taken back. In their view, I have worked hard for you, but you still want to restrict me like this, which would create a huge rift between the rulers and the lords.
Here we have to mention the system of Sara... Hitzfeld was sure that he remembered it well: First, Sara's nobles, except for direct descendants of the royal family, were unlikely to enjoy fiefdoms. Second, the title was not hereditary, and even downgrading was not allowed.
Demotion inheritance is also an old tradition of the aristocratic system. For example, if the grandfather is a marquis, the title will be passed on to the father after his death. The father gets the title but it is demoted to earl. When it comes to the son, it will be demoted again. If he does not make any achievements to be promoted, he will sooner or later be demoted to a commoner.
This is a method of appeasement. After all, a country has a limited territory. If people are rewarded for their great achievements, there won't be enough land to go around. If there is no time limit, the country will collapse soon.
The logic is very simple - all the land was granted to the lord, and the king is poorer than the lord. The lord has soldiers, money and land, so is he satisfied with just being a lord?
All rulers wanted to take back the territories and privileges of the nobles, but they didn't have any title to them, so they came up with the idea of downgrading inheritance. Although it couldn't solve the hidden dangers of the noble lords from the root, it at least greatly prolonged the time of collapse.
But Sarah has no such hidden danger.
How many fiefs does Sara have now? If I remember correctly, there are three.
One is in the north of Trierred, and its lord is Naris. Since Naris has been killed, this territory can be said to exist in name only and is still under the control of the royal family.
A piece in Wayne - it sounds like a fantasy to take the royal capital as a fiefdom. In fact, this is not a real fiefdom. It is a title given to Tenize. People just call him Prince of Wayne. He hardly enjoys any lord privileges in Wayne.
The last piece is the real territory, but it is not in Sarah's homeland, but in a continent that has not yet been brought under Sarah's control, Elsa...that is, the territory granted to Xia Yibing and Hitzfeld.
Thinking about this, Hitzfeld even found it a little funny.
Because she remembered the conflict that broke out between Xia and Nian Lun when she just came back. She was completely immersed in the learning process with Ms. Yusilian at that time, and did not think about it carefully. It turned out that this was also the reason why Ms. Nian Lun was unhappy with Xia.
Yes - this is one of the main reasons. Sarah abolished the feudal system. She did not care about the defects of the feudal system. She just wanted to levy taxes, and no noble dared to resist.
Compared with many Western countries in our impression, it is actually more like Rome during the imperial period and has many Roman characteristics in politics.
And the reward given by Erwin to them was tantamount to setting a bad precedent. Perhaps Nianlun was afraid that Erwin would not be able to stop and would start with the enfeoffment of lords from other surnames, leading to the destruction of the country in the future.
It’s hard for her.
But after all...that land is far out to sea and isn't even considered Sara territory.
The fact that Annual Rings was able to finally endure this matter of principle may also be related to this point.
"Delita... the canal?"
While Hitzfeld was daydreaming, the other three people in the office chewed over this special term, with different expressions on their faces.
"Yes." Hitzfeld nodded, collected his thoughts, and said in a deep voice: "For a country to have an outbreak like that... it requires many conditions. There are many factors that led to the demise of Delita."
"First, it is a small country with a small land area. It only takes three days to ride from south to north on horseback. Compared with big countries, there is almost no buffer space."
"After taking power, the second generation Grand Duke Delita started reforms without considering the national conditions. He probably thought that both Talignan and Sara collected taxes. He was blinded by the huge wealth, but he did not expect that these two countries had basically or even completely resolved the contradiction between the royal power and the lords, and Delita did not have such conditions."
"Lon thought of this." She looked at the thin black-haired boy, "That's right."
The corners of Lang's mouth curled up slightly, but behind him, Heldim on the sofa narrowed his eyes.
"But these are just the fuse. You missed the decisive spark, which is that Grand Duke Delita wants to further repair the canal on the original basis."
"I think I've learned something about this." Will stared, "But - repairing the canal is the right thing to do, right?"
He roughly understood what Hitzfeld meant: because this river was not easy to repair, a large number of young and strong people were needed. These people were basically the main labor force in the nobles' territories. They were not only relied on for fighting, but also for farming.
If you take all the people away and they don’t farm, what will I eat in the winter?
But Will had studied this period of history... He clearly remembered what Professor Cindy said:
“The Delita Canal must be overhauled.”
"Delita's geographical location is very special. To the north is the desert, and the soil composition is very different from any plain in the interior of Sara. The loose soil often collapses due to the erosion of the river, which causes great damage to the farmland that relies on river irrigation and can only be cultivated on both sides of the river bank."
"At the same time, this river is the main source of income for Delita. Repairing the river bank and controlling water can not only prevent floods and increase land income, but also increase safety and make passing merchant ships willing to pay more fees."
Finally, Professor Cindy emphasized that if the development continues in this way, it would be possible to build dams on this river in the future, learning from the model of Tarignan and using the water flow from the canal to generate electricity.
No matter how you look at it, this is a win-win situation - if you let the river burst its banks, it will affect the harvest and you will starve. Since you're going to starve anyway, of course it's better to start repairing early so you can feel at ease, not to mention that there will be so many benefits later on?
“Conflict of positions.”
Ron whispered.
"You subconsciously put yourself in the shoes of Grand Duke Delita, but you ignored whether the other lords were willing."
Will was also smart. After being reminded by him, he finally understood that the reason why this matter turned out to be the worst result was that the lords of Delita no longer trusted the Grand Duke after experiencing the forced promotion of tax coins.
Who knows if you pulled people over to repair the riverbank... What if this is just an excuse? You actually want to drain my strength so you can attack me?
It can only be said that once the seeds of suspicion are planted, they are difficult to remove. Delita's reforms greatly intensified the conflict between the Grand Duke and the lords, causing the lords to completely not trust the upper class. Once the conscription order was issued, the whole country exploded and rebellions broke out in various places.
"Delita itself has no ability to resist the evil spirits of the gray fog. Their mechanical stone carvings are all imported from Sara."
Hitzfeld put the parchment down.
“So if things get a little messy, it’s going to be hard to clean up.”
The atmosphere was heavy, and Will and Ron stopped talking.
They could imagine what a tragedy it was... The war was raging in a small country, and the lords led outdated cavalry and used muskets and artillery to attack the city. There would always be unexpected situations, and the Xieyang Stone Carving was damaged by the artillery fire.
Then the nightmare will spread wildly in this land, war, death, plague... all of these will intensify the power of the nightmare. By the time everyone realizes it, it is too late. Delita is finally reduced to dust under the impact of civil strife and corrupt monsters.
As far as I can remember, this great evil disaster caused by human calamity also affected Sarah. Some of the hatched monsters attacked the Xixinna Parish in Sarah, and the locals had to fight back in a panic.
"The principal probably won't be here today."
Hitzfeld glanced at the clock. "You might consider coming back tomorrow."
It was too late, and she didn't think Priscilla would come back.
After all, the other party is an elderly person. Controlling two bodies every day is unbearable even if he lights incense as candles. If he wants to live long, he has to go to bed early and get up early.
Will naturally didn't care, and Ron didn't hesitate. He said goodbye to her politely and then turned to look at Heltim.
"Thank you for your care, Count."
Heltim immediately stood up and gave a rather brilliant but very formulaic smile.
"I have always been very interested in your legendary deeds. I wonder if I have the honor to invite you to tomorrow night..."
"No."
Hitzfeld interrupted him directly.
"I am very busy."
"Get out and don't get in the way."
Heltim's face changed drastically.
But he... he himself couldn't remember how long it had been since he took the initiative to ask a woman out?
Those people always invited him, and he had to pick the best ones. He thought that he could say a few words and get some information because of his appearance, but he never expected to be humiliated like this!
After all, he was young and didn't have much cunning. His face looked so ugly that he just left.
Lang En glanced at him, nodded, and followed him out.
They all left, leaving Hitzfeld alone at her desk, and she began to stare at the pile of parchment.
"Scared?"
There was a "bang" of a cloud of white mist, and a blood crystal crow came out and landed on the table and asked her.
Oh, now it can't be called a blood crystal crow. Its body is covered with feathers, and the light in its eyes flows slowly, just like a real bird, jumping around.
"Just the chancellor's child."
Hitzfeld laughed dumbly, "I don't take him seriously."
She was serious, she really felt that Heldim Baresch was not up to the task.
At the beginning, she spoke to him nicely to give face to Lang En. Since he was shameless and didn't know the rules and still wanted to date her, there was no need to indulge him anymore.
She was not afraid even if this matter spread out. Even if her father Lu Lun-Barry reported it to the White Shadow Palace and asked her to confront him in front of all the ministers, Heltim would not be in the right in this matter.
A person without an official position or status invites a count to dinner. This kind of behavior has no hierarchy and will normally be ostracized and banned by this circle.
"Then what are you thinking about?"
The little crow tilted its head.
"I can sense that you are confused."
She and Hitzfeld were very close to each other, and she could slightly feel the restless will in the girl's spirit.
"I think that listening to elders more often is sometimes beneficial."
Seeing her cute look with her head tilted, Hitzfeld couldn't help but reach out and rub the top of the little crow's head.
"I originally just wanted to familiarize myself with this identity in advance... I didn't expect to gain something unexpected."
"An unexpected gain?"
Ms. Yusilian dodged her hand. "What is that?"
“The case of Delita speaks to a lot of things.”
The girl picked up the parchment again and flipped the pages back and forth, making a rustling sound.
“The breakdown of order often stems from an imbalance of trust.”
"The example you told me before is wrong. This is not a problem that can be suppressed by 'mastering the extraordinary'."
"What the hell are you talking about?" The little crow glared, "Can't this be suppressed? You have those mechanical suns and the army of tree people, how can this be overturned?"
She couldn't imagine how incompetent that Alvin would be if this could be overturned.
If Ha Wen came, she would probably be depressed. She would definitely say that these are not her offspring, her offspring are not so stupid, etc.
"That's because the scale is not large enough." Hitzfeld shook his head. "When the scale reaches a certain level and becomes like the French Revolution, I don't think that supernatural power can be monopolized by one party."
It sounds a bit exaggerated, but Delita has real examples.
Yes - supernatural powers are not limited to those who have manifested spirits. You know, even the evil creatures that are hatched are also a kind of supernatural power, right?
She pulled out a new parchment scroll and pen and ink from the smoke of her thoughts, and wrote words such as "corruption" and "degeneration" on it.
"You should have heard my analysis just now."
Hitzfeld said, "You think if it was on that scale, that the lower classes were instigated by people with ulterior motives to resort to violent means of resistance, and this disorder would certainly affect local defense, and even affect the stone carvings guarded by the local parish."
"By then, even if only one out of a hundred people is corrupted, there will be ten thousand corpse-stinking monsters in a city of a million people, and they will cause great damage."
"It's meaningless!" The little crow flapped its wings in disdain.
