C206
C206
"Sigh!" Hua Ruge sighed again, and said bitterly: "Have you ever heard of a city that does not collect taxes?"
The Little Marten shook her head and replied honestly, "I don't understand."
"The operation of the city depends on taxes. Soldiers have to be raised, officials have to be raised, and everywhere in this mess is to be spent. If I don't collect taxes, I don't have any money left." Hua Ruge patiently explained as he expressed the depression in his heart.
"Then what should we do?" The Little Marten was obviously more concerned about the results.
"There's still some money on the books in the city, and there's been a lot of looting these past few days. It shouldn't be a problem to survive for a year, but if I don't earn money this year, then I'll have to take the next year's money."
Hua Ruge's heart started to ache even before he paid the money.
The money she had was enough to support a city for many years, but to a moneygrubber, it was like paying for his life.
The Little Marten, on the other hand, did not have any concept of this, but cared very much about her emotions.
He pointed to his belt and said, "This can be given to you."
After being together with him for so long, Hua Ruge knew that it was a storage belt.
She didn't know what was in it, but it must have been all his fortune.
The gaze he used to look at Hua Ruge was clear; he purely wanted to make Hua Ruge happy, and it was only in front of her that he would stop his wildness, and act like a child who depended on her.
Hua Ruge laughed, "Silly child, what about giving it to me?"
"I have you." Little Marten's words were incomparably natural.
Hua Ruge blinked and thought for a long time, yet he did not know what to say.
"Don't be unhappy."
"Why?"
"?"
This question stumped the Little Marten. He didn't say anything as he accompanied Hua Ruge who was lying on the city wall.
Hua Ruge laughed and patted his head, feeling much better.
In the following days, the soldiers were completely subdued by Hua Ruge, because they were also from the city. Now that there were no taxes in the city, to their families, their lives would be much better.
Only the current Lord would receive such treatment, so they decided to guard Hua Ruge well and let his Ancient Dragon City continue to improve.
Hua Ruge counted the people in the Ancient Dragon City. There were only a total of more than 10,000 people, and since their battle prowess was not high enough for them to not fight for many years, it was still a long way for her to go before they could become strong.
Deputy Mayor still had a few slave traders and mercenaries under his command, so Hua Ruge's method of handling them was simple.
The slavers had all been killed because these people could not be left alive to gain the friendship of the Others.
As for the mercenaries following Deputy Mayor, it would just be a mess. Hua Ruge promised them that when they accepted missions in the future, the taxes would be reduced by 10% again.
The so called alliance was simply using benefits as a link to bring people together. Hua Ruge understood the reasoning very well, breaking it down and reorganizing it in one go, and also received the love and respect of the people.
This simple and crude tactic could be summed up in one sentence, and that was: being rich and willful!
She didn't mind sacrificing some of her people first. Once the city grew stronger, she would have everything.
During this period of time, she still had a lot of things to prepare.
She brought back all the pagans that the slavers and the officials of the city had raised in the mansion. There were more than a hundred in total, and half of them were Elves and Wingman.
Hua Ruge treated them to food and drinks for the next few days, doing her best to put on a friendly front, and only when the other pagans slightly relaxed their vigilance did she appear.
The first was to express extreme heartache at their encounter, then to apologize for coming late, and finally to emphasize one's friendly attitude, sincere communication, and the urgent need to communicate with each other.
The Others expressed their gratitude and expressed on the spot that they would propose to come and develop here as long as they returned to the tribe.
So Hua Ruge sent people to escort them back, and waited for news.
These pagans were afraid of being captured by the humans. They didn't believe in their friendship, so they slowly infiltrated.
As for the barbarians, Hua Ruge gave them a large piece of land to build their houses on. At the same time, he arranged for mercenaries to transport food from nearby cities to help them survive the winter.
When the barbarian chief, Bei Qi saw that his people were all happily building houses, he was so moved that he almost cried. This tribe that he was leading was finally getting better, and he firmly believed that it would get better.
After hearing that the Ancient Dragon City did not require a tax, and that there were more commoners who decided to return to farm, and more people who planned to open shops, everything was progressing in the direction that Hua Ruge had expected.
Now that the internal conflict had almost been resolved, Hua Ruge was once again considering external problems.
In the past few days, she had asked around, and it was said that there were more than ten thousand mounted bandits, and they were all mounted soldiers.
If there was a direct confrontation, the barbarians would be at a disadvantage if they ran into a fast horse, and she was in no hurry to play her trump card.
What she was worried about was that the Ancient Dragon City did not affect the outer city walls at all. It was a flat land, and in a blink of an eye, the horses were already there.
Fortunately, there was enough money to make a ten thousand year old ship go down in large quantities. Soon, all the materials were prepared and the soldiers began to build walls.
The city was gradually being built, and every single person in the city was burning this extremely cold winter day. Only Hua Ruge slept soundly at home every day.
Because it was just past the new year, winter was almost over. As a result, in these few days, he had released his final bit of strength. These days were exceptionally cold.
Hua Ruge had always feared the cold. He only wanted to sleep at home and eat melon seeds during his free time.
Officials thought she was ill and came to visit, so she pushed it off with her official duties and went back to sleep.
In her opinion, going out in such a winter was a sufferings.
However, the good news didn't last long. After only seven or eight days, the maid knocked on her door. She sleepily wore a red robe and a red cloak to the front hall.
0
Lei Tao had been waiting there for a long time, and upon meeting him he said: "It's not good, Lord, the mounted gangsters are coming to attack."
"From which direction?" Hua Ruge sat in the seat of honor and asked lazily.
"West!"
"Is the western wall ready?"
"This is the only side that hasn't built a wall yet. The mounted gangsters probably received the news in advance and came prepared." Lei Tao said respectfully.
Hua Ruge yawned: "When do you expect to reach the city walls?"
"Their horses are fast. They should be here in a moment." Lei Tao asked anxiously.
"I'll go take a look." Hua Ruge stood up, he walked to the door and turned to the servant girl: "Give me the pastries on the table, I'll eat them in a while."
"?"
Lei Tao was dumbstruck once again. He started to suspect that his master might have some sort of problem with his understanding.
How could he be in the mood to eat when the soldiers were on the field and there weren't any walls?