Because Lina and Ivan were already Werther's capable men, and the town's experience required their help, Werther informed them of the business plan he had just thought of.
Lina and Ivan stood in the hall and listened carefully to Werther's plans and expressed their agreement.
"But you have to do so many things, and there simply isn't enough money left in the castle." Linna said.
"Don't worry about this. My money for running Dawn Town must come from the taxes collected over the years. These taxes are kept by the financial officer. No matter how much money I need, I just need to ask the financial officer for it. I will let Huai now
I will inform the quaestor Colin to come to the castle to find me."
Werther looked confident. He felt that there must be enough gold coins in the treasurer's place.
"But Your Highness, I'm afraid this Colin has the same virtue as Wright, so he may not be willing to hand over the money to you." Ivan frowned, looking a little worried.
"He is unwilling to hand over the money to me? How could such a thing happen?" Witte wondered, "I am the lord. Logically speaking, I should arrange the taxes collected. He is just an escrow."
"But Colin was once with Wright, so he may not be an upright person."
"Don't worry, Colin has surrendered to me now. I am the lord of Daybreak Town. How could he disobey me?" Witte said with an optimistic smile.
After a while, Colin was called to the castle, and Werther started talking to Colin in the hall.
Colin glanced at the coffee in front of him and frowned slightly, looking a little disgusted with the coffee. However, he only maintained this expression for half a second, and soon put on a smile again to face Werther.
This expression, which only lasts for half a second, may not be noticed by others, but Werther, who has practiced magic, can clearly capture it.
Werther thought to himself, the coffee in the castle is not as good as the one in the palace, but it is pretty good among the nobility. Colin's expression shows that he thinks the coffee in my castle is low-grade and cannot be appreciated by him. Haha, this just shows that the coffee in the castle is not good enough for him.
Lin's salary is not low, which indirectly shows that he also has a lot of remaining taxes.
Perhaps there would not only be enough money to run the town, but also to replenish the castle's treasury.
After telling Colin his plan, Witte asked: "Colin, the town's current tax revenue should be enough to support me in completing these business plans, right?"
Colin sat on the chair, leaned forward slightly, and said, "I understand what His Highness means, but how much money does Your Highness need now to complete these plans?"
Werther closed his eyes and thought for a while, then raised his head, looked at Colin seriously, and said, "I want at least a hundred gold coins."
"What, Your Highness wants a hundred!" Colin opened his eyes wide after hearing this and waved his hands repeatedly, "No, Your Highness, the remaining taxes in Daybreak Town are far from reaching this amount."
After hearing this, Witte straightened his body nervously, frowned, put his left hand into a fist on the table, and asked: "How is it possible that you can't even get out a hundred gold coins! How much money do you have left?"
"Well..." Colin lowered his head, gently scratched his cheek with his index finger, rolled his eyes, and said, "There are only two copper coins left."
"What, that's all that's left?" Werther stood up from the chair in surprise. Fortunately, he had his left hand holding the table, otherwise he might have fallen down.
"Yes, Your Highness, we only have such a small amount of money in stock all year round. We have not collected taxes from our people for twelve years. Let alone money, we have not collected food from our people."
After collecting it, you can see that the granaries are empty."
"Why...why haven't you collected taxes from your people for twelve years?"
Colin rolled his eyes again and said: "Your Highness, you don't know something. Dawn Town had no lord in the past twelve years, so the king also neglected to collect taxes from Dawn Town.
You know the way we collect taxes in Notland. The lords of each fiefdom first collect taxes from their subjects, and then hand over a small amount of the money to the court, and most of the remaining money belongs to the lord. All the money of the lord comes from the lord.
The distribution is left to the financial officer.
The lord's position has been vacant in the past twelve years, resulting in Dawn Town not collecting taxes from its people for twelve years."
Witte frowned even more tightly: "But, your and Judge McGee's salaries also come from the taxes of Daybreak Town. If it's like you said, where did you get your salary over the years? Your whole family includes...
How can we survive with so many servants?"
"McGee and I have not received a salary for twelve years. We rely on the food grown in our own fields to satisfy our hunger."
"Is this really the case?" Werther's eyes were full of suspicion, staring closely at Colin in front of him.
"Your Highness, you also know that my family has many servants, and the food grown in my fields has to be distributed to the servants. As a result, I haven't eaten meat for several years. My life is even worse than that of ordinary people!" Colin said
He was filled with runny noses and tears, feeling extremely wronged and said, "Because of this, my newborn son is almost two years old and he is still as big as when he was born."
Werther was extremely shocked when he heard this, and stared at Colin with his eyes wide open.
Colin can lie, but he is still not smart enough. No, it is not that he is not smart enough, but he is extremely stupid. His performance can be seen at a glance that he is pretending. He is crying and staining his eyelids with saliva. It is him.
A fool? Or does he think that I, the lord, am a fool?
How could his youngest child be so starved by him? And if he couldn't afford meat himself, why did he still have so many servants? If he couldn't afford meat, how could he be so red-faced?
What does he look like? If he has no money, why does he despise the coffee in the castle, and why does he ride in a newly renovated carriage? That carriage is better than my carriage.
Werther looked at Colin's hypocritical and funny face, slammed the table, and his face suddenly became very ugly. Fortunately, Wile and Ivan were holding his shoulders, otherwise he would really get angry with Colin.
.
Ivan whispered in Witte's ear: "Your Highness, although Colin does not have a title, he is also from a noble family. It is best not to quarrel until necessary."
"I know what's appropriate, but I just can't get angry."
Damn it! Didn’t Colin surrender to me before? Why is he still hiding the town’s money?
Werther thought to himself, it seems that Colin's previous appearance of surrender was just superficial. Colin is just a stranger, and now there are forces on both sides of me and Mrs. Agnes. If he is given a chance, he will definitely be completely
Submitted to the power of Duke Dark.
At this time, Colin raised his head and saw the angry look on Werther's face. He trembled with fright and quickly stood up and said: "Your Highness, I really don't have any money here. You can find other ways and resign."
After Colin left the castle in a panic, Werther finally understood that the financial officer was no longer on his side at all. He should have been bribed by his opponent, and the person who bribed him was most likely Agnes.
lady.
Witte said angrily: "Colin obviously has a lot of money, but he dares to blatantly disobey my order. I guess it is most likely the forces on Duke Dark's side who have bewitched him."
Ivan was leaning against the wall with his hands on his chest, his face full of hatred: "I'm not sure if he was bribed by Duke Duke's influence, but I know that Colin, the financial officer, has a lot of money.
"
Werther looked at Ivan and asked, "You grew up in Daybreak Town. Can you tell me about the tax situation in detail?"
"Your Highness, Colin just said that in the past twelve years, the king did not collect taxes from Daybreak Town, so the nobles like them had no money to take it." Ivan's eyes were filled with anger, "He was only half right. The king is indeed
There has been no tax collection from Daybreak Town for twelve years. However, nobles like them are still collecting taxes from the people."
"What?" Werther was very shocked. "The king didn't ask for it, but they themselves imposed it! It was just a collection, and they didn't inform the king! The behavior of these nobles was so bad."
"More than that, Your Highness." Ivan gritted his teeth and said almost angrily, "The taxes levied by these nobles are twice that of Notland, and the money and food collected are divided equally among the nobles.
My family was poor back then, and many of my relatives couldn't bear the heavy taxes, and some died of illness or starvation. Fortunately, I had my teacher to take care of me, so I was able to grow up safely."
Werther frowned and looked at Ivan sadly: "Why have you never told me this before?"
"I didn't want to cause trouble to His Highness before, but now that Colin's fox tail has been exposed, I took advantage of the opportunity to inform His Highness of these past events."
"It's hard for you, Ivan." Werther sighed and gently held his forehead.
Lina worriedly touched Werther's forehead with her cold jade hand, and said softly: "You are so angry that you are getting hot. I will pour you some tea, and you can quench your thirst."
"Well, I want to drink iced coffee."
"I'll make you some coffee right now."
Seeing Lina being so kind to him, Werther felt a little better.
At this time, Wile asked him doubtfully: "But, Your Highness, there is one thing I still don't understand. That is, Colin has obviously surrendered to you, why would he betray you now?"
Werther said: "I was confused about this just now, but now I understand. Although Wright is locked up, Mrs. Agnes is still there, and Mrs. Agnes will definitely win over Colin, the financial officer.
And Colin also understands that he can only stay clean for the rest of his life by following me; if he follows Mrs. Agnes to deal with me, a lot of money will enter his pocket, and he may even be appreciated by Duke Duke."
"So that's it." Wile suddenly realized, "It just so happens that Colin's loyalty has been tested. If he waits for him to cause big trouble in the future, it will be too late to regret it."
"Yes, I was stupid at the beginning. I naively thought that I could really get Colin to pay for it. As a result, I was tricked by Colin once and lost such a big face." Witte clenched his fists and said angrily.
said.
"Then Your Highness, we have no money now, how can we continue to run Daybreak Town?"
"The people of Dawn Town are already very poor now. I can no longer collect taxes from them, and Colin certainly can't ask for anything. I can only find another way." Witte said, "Also, I also want to
Always pay attention to the actions of people like Colin."