Sirio decided to hold a banquet for all the lords on the entire Spiked Island to welcome Lord Victor. Although the Spiked Island has been in the midst of separatism and melee, Sirio still maintained a certain degree of appeal.
On the day of the banquet, Mingxuan, the great lord of the Dongsang people, arrived at Silio's castle early.
Mingxuan brought dozens of followers, but according to Syrio's rules, he could only attend the banquet alone, and all the followers were blocked from the castle. Mingxuan, who is in his thirties, has a typical oriental appearance.
, with pale skin, black hair and black eyes, expressed greetings to Reggie in a weird tone.
"Wise sir, I wish you good health."
It took a lot of effort for Reggie to understand what he said. Mingxuan's lingua franca was very bad, and this was the only greeting he could speak.
Mingxuan cannot fully express himself in common language. He can only speak a few words and one or two simple sentences.
This surprised Reggie. On Tuo Island, the Dongsang people all speak the common language. Although there are rumors that the Dongsang people originally had their own language, it was lost a hundred years ago. Unexpectedly, the Dongsang people here
People still retain their language.
From another perspective, Reggie could also see how conservative these Dongsang people were. They had lived with the Golden Eagle people for nearly a hundred years, but they still had not learned each other's language.
Fortunately, Silio prepared an interpreter for Lord Dongsang, otherwise Reggie would not be able to communicate normally with Lord Dongsang. The two sides stared at each other awkwardly and sat awkwardly for a long time. Silio was the first to speak: "The banquet
It's at night, if you have anything to do, please tell him first, there's no need to wait for those pirates."
Reggie wanted to say hello to the lord first, so he used the unique tone of Dongsang people and said in common language: "You have come a long way and it has been a hard journey."
The translator spoke to Mingxuan in the ancient Dongsang language: "This is your new master, and I will discuss with you the matter of adding a gift."
Jia Fu? Why do you say Jia Fu? I just said hello to the other party.
Reji was surprised. He understood the ancient Dongsang language. Although the tone of the translation was even weirder, Reji actually understood what he said. The ancient Dongsang language turned out to be Reji's mother tongue, even though it was half-literate.
The sentence made Reggie sound a little difficult.
Mingxuan said: "The people in my land are already overwhelmed, why does the new king want to increase the tax?"
This time there was no doubt that Mingxuan’s Dongsang language was more pure and completely the same as Reji’s mother tongue.
The translator gave Mingxuan a blank look and sneered: "This is the new king's idea, how can you allow you to make unreasonable opinions?"
Mingxuan was silent for a long time and then said to the translator: "I wonder how many gifts the new king wants to add?"
The translator said to Reggie in common language: "The Dongsang people are willing to be loyal to you."
This bastard translator is cheating on both ends.
Reggie remained calm and said with a smile: "Very good."
The translator said to Mingxuan in Dongsang language: "The new king has an order to double the tax!"
"Doubled?" Mingxuan took a breath and said, "If this is really the case, the people of our land will have no way to survive!"
The translator lowered his face and said, "How dare you disobey me?"
Mingxuan gritted his teeth, knelt in front of Lei Ji and said, "Please, my king, sympathize with our suffering and increase our gifts as appropriate."
The translator smiled and said to Reggie: "The Dongsang people expressed their willingness to swear allegiance to you."
In his previous life, Reggie had seen many international meetings on TV. Both sides would always prepare two translators. He used to think this was unnecessary, but now he understands that an translator can easily
Confusing right and wrong.
Reggie only said a few greetings, but this damn translator told Mingxuan that the tax burden would be increased, and that it would be doubled. It was obvious that this translator, Silio, was sent to muddy the waters on purpose, and that the tax burden would be doubled.
Give it to Reggie, and his interests will not be affected in any way.
What a cunning method this is, taking advantage of the weakness of the language barrier between the two parties to arbitrarily distort and tamper with the meanings of both parties. All of Mingxuan's followers were blocked from the door. Apart from trusting the translator in front of him, he had no way to communicate with Reggie. Likewise.
The reason is that if Dongsang was not Reggie's mother tongue, Reggie would not be able to communicate with Mingxuan. The two of them could only complete a ridiculous meeting under Xilio's manipulation.
It seems that Syrio is far more vicious than Reggie imagined, and Reggie can even hear his inner laughter.
Laugh, I will make you laugh enough!
Reggie looked at the translator, then winked at Modesa, who pulled out a short knife and put it on the translator's neck, signaling him to stop talking.
The translator turned pale with fright. Silio looked at Reggie in shock and asked, "Sir, what are you going to do?"
Reggie took a deep breath and carefully prepared his words. It was difficult for him to speak pure classical Chinese, but at least he couldn't speak in vernacular that would make people too embarrassed.
He stood up, helped up Mingxuan who was kneeling on the ground, and said in his native language: "There is no need to be polite when you step down. I have no intention of adding any gifts. Don't listen to the nonsense of this young man."
After saying this, Mingxuan was stunned, Xilio was dumbfounded, and the translator was in despair.
Who could have imagined that Reggie could speak Dongsang so fluently.
Reggie turned to look at Sirio and asked, "Can you give me a reasonable explanation?"
"Explain, explain, what does this mean?" Sirio wiped the sweat from his face, "Well, I, our translator, may be a little nervous, he, he may have said something wrong..."
A little nervous? What a disgusting excuse. Thinking of the damn face of the translator, Reggie felt itchy with hatred. Although he was only following orders, in Reggie's eyes, he was already a dead person.
"Do you think he should be killed?"
Syrio did not dare to answer.
Reggie turned and asked the translator again: "Do you think you should die?"
The translator wanted to defend himself, but Reggie didn't give him a chance. After a look, Modesa cut the translator's throat with a knife. Without moaning or struggling, the translator died immediately on the spot.
"Do you have anything else to say?" Reggie looked at Silio with a ferocious expression.
Sirio's fat face was covered with sweat. He still didn't dare to say anything, but was kicked hard by Reggie.
"Call someone to come over and collect the body! Let the irrelevant people get out of here!"
The other people were kicked out, and only five people, Reggie, Modesa, Nipoli, Silio and Mingxuan, were left in the room.
This time it was Syrio's turn to feel uncomfortable. He couldn't understand the Dongsang language, which was equivalent to having his ears blocked by Reggie, who became the only one who could communicate smoothly with everyone.
"Mingxuan-Jun," Reggie looked at Mingxuan and said, "Is it appropriate to call me this?"
"Your Majesty, please forgive me," Mingxuan stood up and responded with standard Eastern etiquette, "Your Majesty, please call me by my name."
"Uh, okay, you're welcome. Let's call you Mr. Mingxuan," Reggie said in a formal manner, and it was very hard for him to say, "Um... how much was your tax before?"
Reji came up with a bunch of vernacular words, which made Mingxuan extremely uncomfortable, but this did not affect the communication between the two parties.
"Back to my king, my land does not produce gold or silver, nor does it produce coins. Our people all pay taxes with grain, and the land tax is seven out of ten every year."
The tax rate is 7 out of 10, which means that a farmer has to pay 70% of his annual income in taxes, which shows how difficult the life of the Dongsang people is.
"Mr. Mingxuan, since I have become the lord of this place, I will not let you be exploited and oppressed by others in the future. From today on, the land tax will be changed to two out of ten."
According to the laws of Suixue, 30% of the tax must be collected on territories outside Suixue City, but for farmers, Reggie believes that certain discounts should be given.
But this put Mingxuan in a dilemma: "I am deeply grateful for my king's kindness, but the tax of ten and two is not enough to pay tribute to the old master, and there is no way to pay tribute to my king."
Reggie thought for a while before he understood what the other party meant. Twenty percent of the tax was not enough for Syrio's offering, and Reggie's offering was even more out of the question.
Reggie wanted to change the other party's way of expression, so he spoke more plainly. He first pointed at Sirio: "You don't have to pay any tribute to this damn fat man anymore. You only need to pay 20% of the grain to me."
, I will give you some additional gold coins as a reward for you and other officials, can you understand what I mean?"
There was no obstacle to Mingxuan's understanding of such plain language. He stared at Reggie for a long time, and two lines of tears flowed down the corners of his eyes.
He knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Lei Ji: "My king is so kind to me, my family will never forget it, and we are willing to risk our lives to follow you from generation to generation!"
Silio, who was sitting aside, couldn't understand what they were saying at all. When he saw Mingxuan kneeling in front of him, he quickly followed Reggie's example and stepped forward to help him: "You don't have to be so polite."
Reggie kicked Xilio over and stepped forward to help Mingxuan up: "Cherish your knees and don't kneel to anyone easily in the future."