In the Cold Wind City, the Winter Hall of the City Lord's Mansion. This is the temple of the frost goddess Oluel.
The Long-Legs family was driven out of the city by the city's dignitaries a few months ago, and its huge mansion and temple were occupied by the Arad family.
The porch and pillars support the huge space of the temple. The floor is made of ice, which is translucent and slippery. Even in summer, snowflakes will fall from time to time in the temple, and statues and murals can be seen everywhere inside the temple as the winter invades the earth.
Many statues are completely frozen living creatures, including trees, flowers, plants, various animals, and people. They are lifelike and full of gestures, but they are already dead.
Oluel is fickle, vain, cold, and merciless. She likes to use illusions of gentleness and comfort to torture believers to madness, and finally freeze them to death.
In order to please the master of the biting cold, the works of art created by believers are full of cold air, as if everything in the world has meaning only in the harsh winter.
Zhou Qingfeng stood in front of a mural called "Embracing Frost" and looked up to admire the female believer who took off all her clothes, ran barefoot and endured the test of the biting cold wind.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Oluer is so perverted, he actually came up with such a way to test his faith. The style of this female believer is quite exaggerated. It seems that all the gods like to play this way."
The voice was not deliberately lowered, at least it was heard by Todd and Old Berg who were following him nearby. The two of them quickly ran away as if they were electrocuted. When they looked back at Zhou Qingfeng, nothing happened.
The dwarf witch doctor scratched his bald head and asked Todd in a low voice: "This kid openly blasphemed in the temple of the Frost Maiden. How come he wasn't struck by lightning?"
Todd shook his head naively, "I don't know. Probably because he believes in 'Grandpa Mao'."
Old Borg was even more confused.
The orc shrugged, "Victor said that you can get rich if you believe in 'Ye Mao', which is probably true.
When I first met him, this kid was so poor that he couldn't even afford a copper plate. But look at how rich he is now. 'Grandpa Mao' must be a powerful man."
Oh..., Old Borg seemed to understand. But he still shook his head, "I still have to stay away from this kid in the future, lest he be struck by lightning and implicate me."
The three idiots stayed there muttering blindly, while hundreds of people were crowded in the temple hall making noisy noises.
Old Arad stood on the big stage in the center, holding a riding boot he got from nowhere, banging the table heavily, and shouted repeatedly: "Quiet, quiet, all of you, please be quiet!"
No one paid attention to Old Arad among the hundreds of people, and those who should have argued continued to argue. The place was like a vegetable market. The city's powerful people gathered here every day to waste time and saliva, and nothing could be done.
This is the Cold Wind City that drove away the Long-Leggs Family. The powerful people headed by Old Arad thought that they could gain greater profits, but in the end they found that managing a city was far more complicated than imagined.
Although a large amount of real estate left by the Long Legs family has been acquired, the real estate cannot be eaten or drunk. Without effective management, it is just a pile of dead things.
On the contrary, Zhou Qingfeng deceived the Long-Legs family and the powerful people in the city, desperately purchased materials and people, and went all out to build the territory.
After about half a year of last winter, "Fuqiangling" cultivated more than 5,000 acres of land. After the arrival of spring, planting and farming began in the territory.
The poor people in the Northland were forced to learn how to be farmers.
The tree spirit Eileen learned scientific farming methods from the real world, and also obtained many improved seeds.
The first crop of fast-growing vegetables has been harvested and put on the market. The earliest sown soybeans are also growing well and will be ready for oil extraction in two months. Winter wheat can be planted in June.
On the other hand, the powerful people in the city did nothing all winter, sitting back and watching the slaves on their farms starve to death and freeze to death. To them, this was something that happened every year and was not unusual at all.
Even because of the departure of the Long Legs family and the accommodation of the 'Rich and Strong Leader', most of the poor people who died last winter were reduced, and even the cemetery did not need to be expanded.
By the way, because Faerun's calendar is too confusing, Zhou Qingfeng simply used the time when he arrived in the other world as the first year, and asked Sophia, the book charm, to compile a new chronology.
It is now mid-April of the 1st year of the New Calendar.
Without the Long-Legs family, Cold Wind City has become a completely chaotic city, with each lord acting autonomously.
It sounds like this life is independent of each other, and no one is in the way of anyone. But without the real ruler, the conflicts among the powerful quickly became extremely acute.
Each family is not a good person and has been in internal strife several times. More people have died and property has been lost than those who tried to drive away the Long Legs family.
Old Arad finally realized that the situation was deteriorating, and a governing body must be created to manage the city and deal with conflicts. So...
The Coldwind City Council appeared.
It is also divided into the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
Old Arad was elected as the Speaker by everyone. Every day he knocked on the stage in the Winter Hall with a small hammer and shouted "Quiet". Today, his hammer disappeared, and he found a riding boot to replace it.
But even if he shouted at the top of his lungs, no one in the parliament would listen to him.
City management requires taxation, but no one in the council is willing to contribute. Everyone unanimously decided to collect taxes from the common people in the city. As a result, not only was the money collected not much, but it was completely corrupted before it even entered the treasury.
Tax collection is a trivial matter, but the distribution of power is even more troublesome. Everyone wants to be a member of the parliament, and they work hard to form cliques. The result is that meetings are held every day to discuss issues, but no resolutions are reached.
Even if there is a resolution, it is not implemented. Everyone wants to take advantage. Nothing can satisfy everyone.
Zhou Qingfeng had long expected that these powerful people would mess things up. During the parliamentary election, he didn't come at all.
When other powerful people tried their best to grab a seat in the House of Commons, old Arad directly gave him the position of deputy speaker.
"Monsignor Hugo, you must attend Parliament."
"I just want to do business. The Harmony Chamber of Commerce is willing to serve everyone. Congress, forget it."
"No, no, you have to come."
"I'm not good at politics either."
"Stop talking nonsense, you are a bad person and you are better at this than anyone else."
Old Arad personally went to the "Fu Qiang Leader" three times, and he persuaded Zhou Qingfeng to come out of the mountain.
Now only he can unite all the families in Cold Wind City closely, after all, everyone has to do business with the 'Harmonious Chamber of Commerce'.
Zhou Qingfeng came to Winter Hall today and learned that there are eight deputy speakers. This position is not valuable at all. And he, the deputy speaker, is responsible for the most troublesome work.
"Sir Hugo, your business talents are recognized by everyone. So you should be responsible for collecting taxes." The first task that Old Arad gave to Zhou Qingfeng was so difficult.
After all, I can't do anything without money, and no one even pays for the tea for the meeting.
In the past, more than a hundred dignitaries could receive their annual salary from the Long-Legs family. But now, be it the wizarding guild or the nobles, they can only make their own money to support themselves.
Because people don’t know how expensive firewood and rice are, some people began to regret that they should not have driven away the original ‘boss’.
Regarding tax collection, others think it is a hot potato and no one is willing to take it on. After all, it is too troublesome to collect money and it is easy to offend people.
So Zhou Qingfeng reluctantly took the financial power of Hanfeng City into his hands - this power was forced upon him.
After Vice-President Zhou came to power, he directly announced that the head tax would be exempted and that commercial taxes would be charged based on the price of goods, with a basic tax rate of 10%.
All this tax is collected by the Harmony Chamber of Commerce, and anyone who does business with the Chamber of Commerce must pay the tax.
As expected, this resolution was a direct blow to the parliament.
Zhou Qingfeng took Todd and Old Berg to appreciate the paintings in the Winter Hall. The councilors in the hall were discussing whether the tax rate was appropriate.
As a result, everyone discussed and discussed, but found that the 'Harmonious Chamber of Commerce' had penetrated into all business activities in Hanfeng City.
Financial constraints have been formed. No one is willing to withdraw from a convenient and cheap trading system, because the losses will be greater.
So the upper and lower council members initiated bills one after another, demanding tax exemptions for the nobles. Zhou Qingfeng directly refused - the officials and the gentry will pay for the food together, and no one can escape.
However, the poor in the city can get relief, since they have no money anyway.
When they found out that they had to pay taxes on every transaction, the legislators were heartbroken.
That day, more than half of the members collectively called for the removal of Victor Hugo from the position of deputy speaker - the removal was so successful that Zhou Qingfeng walked away.
But after three more days of quarreling, old Arad, who was full of troubles, went to the "Fu Qiang Ling" to ask Zhou Qingfeng - Mr. Hugo, it seems that you can only do the tax collection.