Chapter 985 The Decline of the Blood Tribe 20
Some people on the side were queuing up to pay money, carrying baskets and various things.
There are various kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes. If you want to enter a city, you may have to pay city tax and poll tax. You need to pay taxes when doing business. If you go to a wedding, you pay a festive tax. If you go to a funeral, you pay a funeral tax. It's neither a funeral nor a wedding, it's just family and friends visiting for dinner, and you still have to pay taxes. There is a tax called transaction tax and door-to-door tax.
There are only unimaginable taxes and there are no missing taxes.
Part of all the money went into the pockets of the lords, and part went to the king's treasury. During this period, there were layers of exploitation, and the people were miserable. Otherwise, the residents of the ancient town of Transylvania would still refuse to leave even though they knew there were vampires. If you stay, you can at least sometimes have some meat to eat; if you leave and go to other places, you may have to eat blackened wheat, worm-infested oats, or even wild vegetables from the fields for two meals a day.
Of course, there are people who don’t have to pay taxes, and that’s the nobility!
At this time, Xi Ning should not look like a noble at all. She was riding on a cargo horse. The mud on her skirt was half an inch thick. It had dried and fell off from time to time.
Xining puffed out his chest, raised his neck, and looked proud...
This is necessary. There was once a nobleman who was really robbed by robbers. He was so robbed that his clothes were stripped off. He picked up a rag on the road and wrapped himself in it, and arrived at the city gate. As a result, the knights guarding the city refused to let him in. They had to pay taxes or prove that he was a noble.
As a result, he kicked over a dying old man who was begging next to him: "This is proof!"
The kick was hard and poisonous, but the old man was extremely pitiful.
After the knight looked at it, he actually believed it. This is nobility!
Xining felt like a big white goose with its head held high, bluffing: "I am a young lady from Baron Williams's family. I encountered a robber on the road and came to the city to report the crime."
The knight holding the horse was only 1.5 meters tall, with scars on his face and rotten teeth.
It’s so ugly! But everyone was malnourished at that time, as can be seen from the armor handed down from that time. Many modern people can't fit it in because it is too small.
In comparison, Dracula is really handsome. This self-proclaimed noble lady is also well-raised, white and tender, not as skinny as commoners and serfs.
The knight still questioned him. After all, it was not the nobles who had to pay taxes, taxes were money: "Where was it robbed?"
Xining reported the location: "At the exit of Transi Valley, if we send someone to look, there should be several corpses of robbers there."
Hearing the location, the knight became even more suspicious: "Then why don't you report the crime to the nearest place instead of reporting the crime here?"
Xining pretended to be annoyed. First of all, he said with overwhelming momentum: "Nonsense, if you didn't get lost, of course you wouldn't have come here. Get out of here, or if you see the commander here, I will sue you!"
Well, he also has a noble temperament. Just as the knight let go, the next one asked: "Then who is behind you? It's not the nobles who need to pay taxes."
You can't say Count Dracula, it will definitely explode. Dracula's name is not much worse than Versace.
Xining held his head high: "Of course it's my cousin, the Viscount of Estonia." Let's start with the nonsense. Anyway, there are so many viscounts and barons including dukes, marquises, uncles, sons, and barons. They are found in every territory. There are even one without even five hundred. Thousands, who can remember so many of those who don’t even know the words? Judging from the appearance, they were indeed different from ordinary people, so the knight let them go and told them where to report the crime if they wanted to.
When passing the city gate, I saw two people. One was in shackles, with his neck and hands fixed on the wooden shackles. If you are put in shackles, it is usually not a serious crime, but a warning to others.
The other one was even more miserable. He was locked in a human-shaped iron cage and hung in the air unable to move. He should be dead already, his face has turned a deathly gray color, he must have been dead for a day or two. The crows put their beaks into the iron cage and took two bites.
After Xining took one look, he turned his head and stopped looking. Neither pity nor anger can change the world. Then she would start by saving her own life first, and she also wanted to save Dracula's life. Anyway, she felt that Dracula, a veteran vampire, was better than Anna the Vase, and Versace, who seemed righteous but was actually cunning.
This town is larger than the old town of Transylvania, but not by much. The city where the palace is now located has a population of only ten to twenty thousand. The Black Death that occurred more than ten years ago took away almost half of the population, causing the entire land mass to become increasingly deserted. It was probably better than it is now in the Stone Age.
Walking on the stinking streets littered with feces and urine, there are shabby houses barely built of stones on both sides. Everywhere are ordinary people wearing rags, skinny and bones, like zombies.
This place is probably only a little better than the legendary hell. According to the current teaching of the church, people are born sinful and come to suffer, so they deserve to suffer these hardships to hone their will. If you are obedient and give more money to the church, you can go to heaven after you die. If you disobey and continue to do evil while alive, you will go to hell.
This is just like a rehearsal before going to hell, but I will get used to it when I actually go to hell.
It was so stinky that Xining covered her nose with her hands, but the stench kept getting into her nose.
Rich people and nobles passed by, holding handkerchiefs or flowers to cover their noses.
The handkerchief is understandable, but are the flowers useful? The scent of flowers is mixed with the smell of feces and urine. Isn’t it smelly?
The night fragrance here cannot be used as fertilizer. If you use this thing to water the ground, people will get sick if they eat the things that grow in the ground, and what they eat is... vomit! This world is like this, ignorant and ignorant. There may be only one monk in a town who can read. Moreover, some monks cannot read all the words. They hold a Latin scripture and talk nonsense, expounding the teachings in great detail and bluffing people as much as they want.
It's better to be at home. The old town doesn't smell bad because it's surrounded by forests, but the Williams Manor digs a hole, fills it up when it's full, and then digs another hole.
Dracula was quite fast and took her directly to the rich man's house, which looked like a nice house.
When the servant at the door asked who it was, Dracula only glanced at it, and he stood there dumbfounded, motionless. Dracula carried this person like a chicken and drove her straight into the inner room.
It looked like the old man dressed as the master was chasing the cook and flirting with her. The cook, who was rosy and plump after eating, was running and hiding while laughing.
Well, this old man's hair and beard are all white, and he is chasing the cook who looks to be in her twenties. It’s really good to get stronger with age!
The old man looked at the caretaker who was being carried in a daze, and then looked at them in surprise: "Who are you?"
(End of chapter)