hotmtlnovel Chapter 399 Pushing the envelope
Chapter 399 Pushing the envelope
Before everyone had time to savor the joy of surviving the disaster, suddenly, an extremely discordant and harsh sound rang out.
Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw a burly Jinyiwei with a fleshy face, holding a long sword at his waist with one hand, staring at them with unfriendly eyes.
"Pay taxes?!" Someone in the crowd was the first to shout this sentence, his tone full of astonishment and anger.
Then, another person shouted loudly: "We have never engaged in business or farming, and we are not citizens of Liang State. How can we pay taxes?!"
In Liang, the taxation system was not complicated. In addition to the common commercial tax and land tax, there was also a tax called the mouth tax.
The so-called "mouth tax", as the name suggests, is a tax levied according to the number of people in each household. To put it simply, it is a poll tax.
Since Liang State had always had sufficient military resources, there was no need to recruit soldiers by conscripting civilians to perform labor service, so naturally there was no such thing as labor service.
However, facing the questioning and protests of the crowd, the Jinyiwei remained unmoved.
The corners of his mouth rose slightly, revealing a sly smile, as if he had already expected someone to make such a quibble.
There was a crisp "pop" sound, and he snapped his fingers lightly.
At this moment, footsteps were heard in the originally quiet surroundings, and countless densely packed figures appeared in an instant.
When everyone looked closely, they saw that all of these people were wearing bright and eye-catching brocade clothes, and they also had extremely sharp swords on their waists.
It goes without saying that they are the dreaded Jinyiwei!
In today's world, the Daliang Kingdom has already occupied a full two-thirds of the vast territory of Qiyang Continent, and its sphere of influence is extremely vast.
However, there are still two places that have not been taken into the bag - that is, the countries and their affiliated sects governed by the holy land of refining and the holy land of Buddhism.
It has to be said that among the many people gathered here at this moment, most of them are active in the territory of Liang State.
Although they were in the land of Liang State, these people neither engaged in business nor engaged in agricultural work, nor did they choose to join the army or government of Liang State.
They are like being outside the social order, in a special state that is difficult to be selected and controlled.
Even more cleverly, this group of people successfully avoided all possible ways and means of paying taxes.
As the saying goes, "All under heaven belongs to the king", but this sentence does not seem to include the surging rivers, vast lakes and boundless oceans.
Because of this, this group of mavericks simply called themselves "jianghu people" and when introducing themselves to each other, they always claimed that they were passers-by from all over the world.
In fact, anyone with a discerning eye can see that among them, apart from bandits, there are also some unidentified illegal residents.
On weekdays, they occupy the hilltops in the lawless area and lead a lawless life.
Their livelihoods are nothing more than burning, killing, looting, and charging high protection fees to passing caravans to make a living.
But there are also many real independent cultivators who basically do not do anything illegal. They rely on bartering and go into the Warcraft territory to hunt some Warcraft and bring them back in exchange for money and resources.
But in the world of monks, killing and robbing in private is very normal, so no one present is really clean.
"This secret realm is located within the borders of our Daliang State! You have obtained treasures here... shouldn't you pay some taxes to Daliang?!"
As soon as these words were spoken, before anyone present could open their mouths to refute, the Jinyiwei guards around them instantly rushed forward like arrows.
These Jinyiwei moved swiftly and in unison; their steps and movements seemed to have been honed through thousands of trials and tribulations, leaving no room for flaws.
In an instant, a strong sense of oppression came over them, making many people present terrified.
Faced with this scene, many of them became timid and hurriedly took out pieces of crystal clear spirit stones from their storage rings tremblingly and placed them on the ground obediently.
However, even under such pressure, there are still some people who are strong-willed and do not back down.
They suppressed the rage burning in their hearts and argued through gnashing teeth, "You Jinyiwei have already plundered most of the rare treasures in the secret realm. You are so greedy and yet you are still not satisfied. Are you actually trying to take away the treasures we have gone through life and death to obtain?!"
"Are you all a bunch of bandits in Liang State?!"
"Well said!" The leading Jinyiwei opened his eyes wide and shouted loudly, his voice like a bell.
Then, the leading Jinyiwei suddenly became blurred, as if he had merged with the surrounding air, and a mysterious aura emanated from him.
Just when everyone was terrified, a cold light suddenly flashed.
Looking at the casual cultivator who had asked the question just now, his head and body were now separated. The head rolled out and rolled on the ground for several circles before slowly stopping.
The headless corpse fell straight back, raising a cloud of dust.
All this happened in a flash, leaving people no time to react.
When the dust settled, people discovered that the leading Jinyiwei had appeared beside the corpse of the wandering cultivator at some point, and took out a storage ring from his severed finger with extremely skillful movements.
The corners of his mouth rose slightly, revealing a sly smirk, and then he took the storage ring into his arms without any hesitation.
"So what if I'm a bandit?" The leading Jinyiwei looked around with disdain, his eyes full of provocation.
"We are all ragtag people, why are you pretending to be a noble in fancy clothes?"
After saying that, he shook his wrist lightly and swung the long sword in his hand violently. The remaining blood on the blade was instantly thrown far away, splashing on the ground, forming a shocking pool of blood.
"From now on, whenever a secret realm appears within the borders of Liang State, anyone who wants to go in and search for treasures will have to pay taxes to me!"
"Okay! We'll do it!" Seeing the 'lesson learned' from the previous incident where the corpse was not yet completely cold, everyone was frightened. Someone shouted, and then all the casual cultivators began to take out spirit stones.
Many people who do not have enough spirit stones will also pay some materials to offset the tax.
But at this moment, the leading Jinyiwei became even more arrogant and said arrogantly, "Now I have changed my mind, you have to pay half of the tax!"