Yes! Death and taxes are the only things that are unavoidable, and alcohol is heavily taxed. This was a rule set by the founding emperor of the empire, Hesse I. Because the empire was just founded, years of war had just ended, the country was in ruins, and there was not enough food, so the emperor thought about banning alcohol, but later, at the suggestion of his ministers, he changed to levying heavy taxes, and this law has been used to this day. The Saxons' way of evading taxes was quite simple. They smuggled and sold their own wine under the name of "grape juice". With David as their cover, they evaded a large amount of taxes. David told Dick all about the Saxon family's smuggling methods, the time and place of meeting with the smuggling caravan. If Dick asked his men to investigate these key intelligence, they would definitely find out the truth, but it would take at least several months. Now that David has revealed the information, it saves them a lot of time and they can directly enter the action stage. After explaining everything he knew, David asked a little nervously. "I have said everything I need to say. What are you going to do with me?" "David Porter will die." "You said you would let me live." "Yes, but David Porter is going to die." "..." Dick smiled after he finished speaking, while David smiled bitterly and sat back in his seat, agreeing with a dejected look on his face.
"alright." After having lunch with the dejected David, Dick stood up and left the restaurant. When he pushed open the castle gate, the parade ground was already full of private soldiers ready to go. At this time, Rita brought a horse and helped the short Dick onto the horse. Dick held the reins skillfully, and the black and white gun idiots had already consciously gathered around him. Dick looked at the 200 soldiers who were neatly dressed and silent, and was quite satisfied with the quality of this core force, so he spoke loudly while riding on his horse. "Brothers, there is an urgent task. This Governor has received reliable information that someone in Laguge is so audacious that he dared to engage in smuggling and tax evasion. What kind of behavior is this? Among this tax, some belongs to our emperor, some belongs to me, your Governor, and some belongs to hundreds of your brothers. That is your salary! This damn thing stole the gold coins that belong to all of us. Tell me now, can you let that bastard off easily?" "No!!!" The soldiers, whose emotions were aroused, burst out with unprecedented anger and morale. Dick nodded in satisfaction, then pulled out his spear and wand and shouted at the assembled soldiers. "Gun in hand, follow me! Let's go get what belongs to us!" 014. Confiscate the house! Confiscate the house! At this time, in the Saxon manor, the family was in a gloomy mood. The eldest son Hansen was wrapped like a mummy, lying on the bed, breathing in more than out, relying entirely on healing potions as he waited anxiously for the arrival of the priest. Laguge is a bitterly cold place with a small population, with less than 50,000 people living in the tens of thousands of square kilometers of forest and snow. Therefore, there are temples and resident monks in the area, but no priests. If one wanted to ask a priest for help, one had to send someone across the mountain pass to a place more than 200 miles away to ask for help. Fortunately, the Saxon family was rich. In order to save his eldest son's life, old Jonah asked the butler to invite the priest and directly gave him three times the "tribute money", just hoping that the priest would hurry up and come faster. Compared to the eldest brother who had all his limbs disabled, the second and third brothers were in slightly better condition, with just bruises on their faces and noses. Jonah's face was as dark as if it was about to rain. It was true that he was worried about his eldest son's life, but he was more afraid that after this tournament, the Saxon family's "prestige" in the local area, or to put it more bluntly, "bad reputation", would be completely destroyed. No one will be afraid of them anymore, and what will happen to a group of hooligans who are not feared by anyone...
Jonah no longer dared to think further. What to do? The new governor is not a fool who is easy to fool, but a tiger who will bite anyone he chooses. After replacing David, he is the agent of the Duke's will in the fiefdom. At least in terms of power, he is not much different from the lord. He has a group of capable people and hundreds of well-trained private soldiers under him. In order to establish his authority in the local area, he must kill the chicken to scare the monkey. And the Saxon family, who are notorious for their evil deeds in the local area, is undoubtedly the most suitable monkey! Jonah hesitated for a long time, but suddenly he gritted his teeth and decided to take drastic measures. When the priest came and cured Hansen, his family would immediately abandon the territory and move away. According to imperial law, if a knight is truly not good at managing his land, he is allowed to give up his fiefdom, as long as he continues to respond to the call to participate in the war when it comes. The Saxon family has been running the local business for three generations. After decades of development, their business has grown to a considerable scale. If they want to run away, they will have to sell the manor at a low price, which will surely result in a huge loss of money. However, being able to save their lives is better than anything else. Unfortunately, Jonah didn't know at this time that David, who left Lagog yesterday, was caught before dark, and had betrayed their Saxon family in order to save his life this morning. It was too late for him to run away now! Jonah was feeling melancholy when he suddenly heard a commotion outside. A servant came running in in a panic and told Jonah a bolt from the blue. "Master, it's bad. The governor has brought hundreds of people to attack us. They have directly pushed down our fence and rushed in in a huge crowd!" "What!? How dare they…" As a well-known local gangster group, the Saxons previously had not only a vigilante group, but also a 30-man domestic guard and hundreds of serfs on the manor, all of which were armed combat forces that could be used at critical moments. It is worth mentioning that Park Deyong, who has not yet relied on flattery to achieve his goals, once volunteered to train the Saxon family's troops with the "Earth-style modern military training model." But old Jonah only regarded Park Deyong as a house slave. He was not at all confident in letting an Earthling train his men. Instead, he was very interested in the bullying tactics that Park Deyong learned from the "Great Cold Army". He only let him discipline the serfs, but did not let him interfere in the training of servants and the vigilante group. So when the private army led by Dick himself rushed into the Saxon manor, his dozens of servants were helpless and they laid down their weapons and surrendered. Old Jonah rushed out of the room and asked Dick on the horse what he meant. After all, their Saxon family is a group of knights who have been canonized. Even if they are the lowest level of nobles, they are still nobles. They have not violated any imperial law and should not be bullied so casually! But Dick just sneered, raised the whip and pointed it at his face. "Not breaking the law? You dare to swear an oath to the 'God of the Holy Star', haven't you broken the law?" "You... I admit that I have conflicts with some local nobles, but private fights are not a taboo in the empire!" "Tsk! You're still making excuses even at this time. You won't cry until you see the coffin!" "Since the Governor is determined to frame me, I have nothing to say." Jonah acted as if he would rather die than surrender, because in his opinion, Dick's raid on Saxon's house was a "stupid move" and he could not have any substantial evidence. But at this moment, a group of soldiers suddenly came over with a few boxes that looked very familiar to Jonah. Jonah's heart tightened immediately, because he was the one who kept the "real account book" in that box, and he, as the head of the family, should be the only one who knew about it, not even his eldest son. Then another group of soldiers rushed into his vineyard with shovels and started digging under several rows of grape racks. Only then did Jonah realize that something was wrong. "you……" "I came here well prepared, specifically to bully you, old man."
Old Jonah would never have dreamed that the person who betrayed him was actually his most beloved eldest son Hansen, the "eldest son" whom he had trained as his heir. It was he who peeped and discovered the place where his father hid the account books, and colluded with the former Governor David in private. The reason why he wanted the father to leave and the son to smile was mainly because he couldn't wait! You should know that there is only one knighthood in the Saxon family, and it is still in the hands of old Jonah. The old man is proud of it and enjoys all the vanity brought to him by the identity of "Master Knight", but he does not notice that his son is also longing for it. In addition to the title of knight, Hansen also has feelings for his father's concubine Park Ae-jeong. In short, this guy colluded with David to deal with Jonah without telling his own father. After learning about these inside stories, Dick couldn't help but think that even if he was not there, these people would still fight to the death in the end because of their overly bloody relationships. The entire process of confiscating the property went very smoothly. Dick obtained Jonah's account book and had solid evidence of the Saxon family's tax evasion over the years. He also dug up a large number of human skeletons in the vineyard, which were the victims killed by the Saxon family over the years. Their identities have yet to be confirmed. In addition, some of the hundreds of slaves of the Saxon family took the initiative to stand up and identify Jonah, saying that they were not slaves at all, but "kidnaps" bought by the Saxon family from bandits. They were forced to admit the forged identity and signed the indenture. Among them, there was a young man who claimed to be of noble status, the second son of a viscount in the east of the empire. He was kidnapped by bandits while traveling and sold to the Saxon family as a slave. He has been here for five years. During this period, he took the opportunity to escape and complained to the former governor David, but David sent him back to the Saxon family and beat him up. Lastly, and most importantly, is where the Saxon family hides their money. In addition to the basement of the mansion, there is also a place in the back hill of the manor that is jokingly called the "Happy Cave" by the servants. The basement of the mansion contains the Saxon family's own money, more than a dozen large boxes, estimated to contain tens of thousands of gold coins, and many valuable goodies. And the so-called "happy hole" is even more amazing. There were a large number of kidnapped people, both men and women, some of whom were "hostages" and whose identities were obvious from the clothes they wore. There was also a large amount of stolen goods, which should have been obtained by the Saxon family in a deal with the bandits, and they had not yet had time to sell them. The Happy Cave can be said to be the biggest surprise. David mentioned this place, but he didn't know its exact location, let alone what was hidden inside. So when Dick learned that he had rescued two noble daughters and a count without knowing it, he was about to drink some water when he spit it all out on Jonah's face. "Fuck! You're so brave!" "..." Old Jonah said nothing, but his face looked as pale as death. After thinking about it, Dick decided to meet the kidnapped nobles in person. The two "noble daughters" reminded him of his third sister, and the earl also had some facial defects. In short, they didn't look very good, but because they were hostages that could be exchanged for ransom, they didn't suffer much abuse, just scared. When Dick came over, the two rich girls were hugging his soldiers tightly. Both soldiers were good-looking and tall, but their expressions were painful, as if they were being hugged by a giant toad monster but couldn't kill it with one knife. Dick's arrival undoubtedly helped them out of the predicament. When the two rich girls saw Dick, who was handsome and elegantly dressed and looked like a nobleman, they immediately cried and rushed towards him seeking "comfort". Fortunately, Dick reacted quickly and immediately gave instructions to John who was following him. "Knight John, go and comfort these two ladies." "what!?" Before John could react, Dick had already gone for a walk on his horse. It only took one or two glances at the "Happy Cave". There were many cells inside, and many of them were disgusting scenes. Dick now had enough evidence to kill him and make a lot of people's heads roll.
"Capture all the Saxon family members. Temporarily detain the serfs and the kidnapped ones and verify their identities. I have to go back and write a report for the Duke!" Dick said this not because he wanted to be lazy, but because he needed to file the lawsuit first and get the imperial edict from the Duke to deprive Saxon of his knighthood as soon as possible. This is the troublesome part about killing nobles. Even if it is the lowest-ranking knight, his title must be stripped away first. Fortunately, Dick had prepared a draft in advance. After adding some content, he used magic communication to send it to Duke Best who was far away in the imperial capital. The report detailed a series of problems Dick discovered here after taking office, including the theft and smuggling of cold iron. After careful investigation, he successfully obtained decisive evidence, which led to the former governor David committing suicide out of fear of punishment. He then sent troops to search the Saxon knight's house and found enough evidence to hang him more than ten times. In his report, Dick did not deny that he had some "capable people" under him, but he did not elaborate on the situation of these people. The report was sent out at noon, and a reply was received from the Duke in the evening. Agreed to deprive the Saxons of their knighthood and urged Dick to deal with them according to the law. When Dick saw this, he understood it. Kill it! When he learned that his knighthood was stripped from him, Old Jonah broke down and roared in prison. "No way! My Saxon family has served the Duke of Best for three generations! My father and I have shed blood on the battlefield! Let me see the Duke, let me see the Duke!" "I was just about to take you to see the Duke, but the old Duke who is dead." Because his title was stripped and he no longer had a noble status, Jonah was no longer even qualified to use the guillotine. The Empire's approach to capital punishment was similar to that of the West on Earth. It did not care much about leaving the body intact, so the nobles used the guillotine. The guillotine would kill the person with just a click of the blade, without the person feeling any pain. Hanging would take a while longer. The day after Dick received the Duke's approval, he held a public trial and brought out the entire Saxon family and criticized them one by one. The locals are also warm and simple. They are reluctant to throw away rotten vegetable leaves and only throw away stones. After each sentence was passed, one was hanged on the gallows, and the whole family was neatly arranged. About one-third of the servants were also hanged, and the rest were sentenced to twenty years of hard labor and sent to the coolie camp in the mines. It is worth mentioning that Dick originally wanted to let go of the two youngest sons of the Saxon family. The two children were eleven and thirteen years old, and they didn’t look very old. I was shocked when I checked, these two kids are not easy to deal with. The two brothers were influenced by their three older brothers and usually did nothing. Just because they thought it was fun, they set fire to someone's thatched house at night and blocked the door, killing all 11 members of a civilian family. Afterwards, Jonah paid David some money to help him get rid of the crime, saying that "the children were still young and were just playing around." Dick looked up this old story and thought that there really were "born bad guys", so he hung up both of them. As for David, Dick promised him a salary, found a death row prisoner with a similar build to David, covered his head with a hood and put him on the guillotine, then burned the body with a click. The public trial held during the day was applauded by the local people. Everyone had long been fed up with the bullying and Pampo of the Saxon family, so they all felt extremely happy to see the family being hanged, and they all praised the new governor's impartiality. Although the local gentry didn't like the Saxons, they felt a bit sad when they saw them being hanged. In addition, after the public trial, Dick sent invitations to almost all the local gentry, inviting them to have breakfast together the next morning, which made everyone feel uneasy, but they didn't have the courage to refuse. That night, in the dense forest outside the castle, Dick personally brought a few of his confidants to see off the dead David. The carriage was the same one he had made that day, and the ceremony was not moved. Dick also had someone bring him a small box of gold coins. But when David looked at the box, he couldn't help but curl his lips.
He recognized this box as the gold coin box where he kept his small treasury, and it was the smallest one. As for the other treasures, he knew without asking that they must have gone into Dick's pocket. But fortunately, this man kept his promise and let him go after saying he would give him a chance to live.