"Director Daley, please send this monster to Sawyer Church."
Xia Keli walked to the center: "I will hold a ceremony to publicly purify these evil things."
"Yes, Your Excellency." Director Daley came over quickly and ordered someone to cover it with linen and carry it away. He completed his role.
"Director Sieyes, I request to speak." Xia Keli said to Sieyes again.
Xia Keli currently has a great reputation. When the bishop fell ill, he had actually presided over the work of the entire province's dioceses. As far as Sean knew, he was vigorously trying to appease his allies in the clergy and attack his competitors. Currently,
The results are gratifying.
He will soon put on a red robe and become the leader of the Catholic Church in Genoa, thus becoming a truly important figure in the Catholic Church.
Of course, Sieyes would not refuse such a person, because any representative has the right to speak on stage, but they receive different levels of attention because of their different statuses.
After receiving permission, Xia Keli stepped onto the stage.
"Lords and gentlemen, devout Catholics of God." Xia Keli cleared his throat, "Last week, on behalf of His Excellency the Bishop, I went to the northern parishes of the province to deliver the gospel of God, and I witnessed with my own eyes the Catholics near the Otter Mountains.
People are in panic, and many terrible news, true or false, are coming. Farmers cannot farm with peace of mind, merchants dare not cross the Otter Mountains, and our land mail route to the north has been cut off. Fortunately, we are on the seaside and can communicate with the north by sea.
connect."
"But I heard that the sea is not peaceful, and Viscount Connery can attest to this. When I saw a monster like a werewolf with my own eyes today, I was not surprised. Everyone, the evil force has resurrected, and they are spying on the side.
It's eroding our civilization."
"If we don't stay vigilant and do something in advance, we will regret it when the disaster strikes. Otherwise, the mobs and werewolves controlled by the rebellious party will cross the Otter Mountains, trample on our homes, and destroy
Our church, killing our parishioners."
"As for President Mounier's accusation, I partially agree. Yes, our church has a lot of wealth, but it does not belong to our personal wealth. We, God's apostles, give up our right to reproduce and serve God throughout our lives.
All nations are but custodians under the witness of God.”
"In order to cope with the severe situation in the future, our church is willing to set an example and donate a sum of funds to recruit a civil defense team."
Xia Keli's statement suddenly changed the situation in the venue. Although Mounier's accusation made the representatives ashamed and angry, it did not have the energy to make them happily spend money.
Sean sat in his seat, thoughtful. The priest of Sawyer Church seemed to have been on the side of the Governor for a long time. His statement made the success of the Governor's plan clear.
"May I ask, Your Majesty the Governor, what kind of civil defense corps do you want to establish? Don't we have a patrol corps?"
As the host, Sieyes interrupted at the right time and partially responded to the delegates' questions.
Byrne stood up and said: "The existing patrol group is only suitable for maintaining public security in the province. Many of their members are passed down from generation to generation, from father to son, and from son to grandson. This kind of patrol group is only suitable for catching thieves and robberies."
guilty."
"The development of the situation requires us to take immediate action to form a civil defense regiment that at least appears to be well-equipped and strong..."
"Your Excellency Governor, please tell us directly how much money you need?" Someone interrupted Byrne rudely.
Byrne glared at the man out of the corner of his eye and signaled Alexis Tocqueville, the assistant and finance director, to step forward and explain.
Tocqueville was very young. He had never seen such a scene. He cautiously spread out the budget documents he had prepared long ago and said:
"According to calculations, based on the size of a civil defense regiment of 1,000 people, a rifle per person requires 40,000 gold louis, plus ammunition, quilts, military uniforms, boots, and each person needs an additional 20 gold louis for equipment, plus
At least 50 horses for officers, scouts and messengers to ride, 80 vehicles and mules, and livestock feed, so a total of 80,000 gold louis are needed.
Of course, this is just a one-time investment. We have not considered equipping artillery, only light infantry. However, the usual rations and training funds, equipment damage, and military pay are the bulk of it. It is needed for a year..."
A nobleman immediately asked: "Is this civil defense regiment going to become a standing army? Do you have the approval of His Majesty, the Cabinet, and the Military Command?"
Byrne replied: "Of course it has been approved, otherwise it is a rebellion. As far as I know, the northern provinces, especially the Longjiang River Basin, will set up local standing armies or civil defense groups, and in the south, our neighbor Jiavia Province has already
At the forefront. Of course, I hereby solemnly promise that if the situation stabilizes and order is restored in the Longjiang Basin, this civil defense group will be disbanded immediately. We will first limit it to three years."
Byrne added: "I am going to invite Viscount Brandon to be the leader of this civil defense group. Viscount Brandon joined the army in his early years and has rich experience. Moreover, the Viscount has great prestige, so he will definitely manage this civil group well. In addition,
I also invited Viscount Connery to serve as a military adviser. Viscount Connery is a hero of the empire and has experienced the test of war not long ago."
People's attention suddenly focused on Brandon and Sean. Sean didn't care, since his new title was just for show, while Brandon, the old Viscount, had a red face.
This is a traditional nobility that believes that nobility should be the defenders of the country by nature, and because of this they are born with privileges.
Worship authority and order hierarchy, despise cowardice and compromise.
He is obsessed with the style of the knight era and insists on practicing riding, swordsmanship and archery every day. His biggest hobby is the collection of various ancient armors in his family's castle. The number of these armors can form a heavy cavalry company, and every day
Everything is maintained to look shiny and shiny.
Such nobles have become a rare breed.
It is true that most of the senior officers in the army are from noble backgrounds. Even if they do not have noble titles, they are still the second sons, youngest sons, and cousins of their families. The origin of noble titles comes from fighting, and the older they are, the more respected they are.
But no one advocates returning to the system of the old knightly era like Viscount Brandon:
At the king's command, the nobles led their knights, vassals and subjects to form an army and go to war under a flag with the family emblem in order to obtain rewards and glory.
In normal times, a noble is a lord who collects taxes, manages public security, and arbitrates disputes between subjects. His vassals do not need to be loyal to the king and only obey the orders of the lord, because the vassal vassal is not my vassal.
However, times have changed. Viscount Brandon is realizing his "dream" without knowing the Governor's understanding of human nature.
"Maintaining a standing civil defense regiment of about 1,000 people requires about 500,000 gold louis for three years. Considering that it may actually come in handy, in that case, additional funds will have to be added. The enemy will be lenient, so this article
The first levy of the 'security tax' will require a total of 700,000 gold louis." The finance director finally gave a conclusion.
This amount is not too big for a quasi-army, but it is not small either. The representatives talked a lot, and the atmosphere was not so tense, especially when Priest Shakri proposed that the church would donate 500,000 of it, as well as an additional donation.
This was especially true after 200,000 gold louis were given to the governor's palace to take care of the refugees.
Governor Byrne and Mayor Stanley exchanged glances and were convinced that the previous operations and exchange of interests were not in vain.
This is probably the reason why the Governor is the Governor and the reason why the Mayor is the Mayor. Mayor Stanley thought to himself.
The church as a whole agreed and donated generously, which determined the basic direction of the meeting.
Among the three viscounts, two have become officers of the militia and are unlikely to object. Only Viscount Lincoln remains. As for Percy Robinson, the family has kept a low profile since the earl died of illness and will not object.
Coupled with Principal Mounier's impassioned speech, many people were attracted to Byrne's plan.
"I agree!" Viscount Lincoln stood up. He did not go to the podium. "But in addition, in addition to what I should pay in the subsequent discussion of the specific allocation plan, I also made an additional contribution to the city of Poitou.
The government will donate 100 tons of food to help the poor, which will be completed under the supervision of the church."
Xia Keli smiled and clapped, and under his leadership, the priests all clapped together, while others followed the trend reluctantly and also clapped.
Viscount Lincoln stood up again and greeted the delegates frequently. Percy sat on Sean's right side and whispered in his ear that this was just for fame.
"Thank you Viscount Lincoln for your generosity and kindness, and salute you!" Stanley stood up neatly and bowed solemnly.
"Okay, the church has donated 500,000, so there is only 200,000 left. Let's take a vote. If everyone agrees to spend this 'security tax', please show your hands and vote!" Sieyes said.
In unison, everyone raised their hands, even if they really didn't want to pay, the situation was set and they couldn't be allowed to object.
"Passed!" Sieyes slammed the table with a wooden hammer wrapped in cowhide.
"The following topic is the objects to be levied by the 'security tax' and the tax standards. I would like to ask Mr. William Doyle, Assistant to the Governor and Commissioner of Taxation, to explain."
Director Doyle was also well prepared. He only had to follow the key points listed in his explanatory document and temporarily change the specific figures.
"Specifically, we levy this tax on wealthy people whose annual income reaches 3,000 louis in accordance with the tax roll revised in 1829. For the sake of fairness, it is levied at 5% of the annual income."
The picture shows that this is actually the 1/20 tax, which has been rebranded into the so-called safety tax.
Byrne and Stanley took advantage of the tense situation to make the tax a reality, approved by a show of hands by taxpayers themselves.
No one has even realized this yet, because as I said just now, it is a one-time collection for the needs of the Civil Defense Corps for three years. Once the situation stabilizes, the Civil Defense Corps will be disbanded immediately.
As for whether it will become a common practice in the future, that is a matter of the future, and the thoughtful Governor does not dare to do it in one step.
Sean suddenly thought of the story of boiling a frog in warm water.
Looking back at history, the king should live on the income from the territory directly under his own control. The taxes in the territory of the kingdom's vassals are only the income of the vassals themselves and have nothing to do with the king.
Later, the king began to collect taxes. The oldest one was the military service tax, which was only temporarily levied to meet the needs of the war. It stopped collecting after the war. Later, these taxes became permanent with the formation of centralization.
Every tax levied by the empire was created from scratch and then became a permanent tax.
Apparently, the big shots in the cabinet were fighting against privileges to save the finances, and there were signs of victory in the southern province of Genoa.