Old Bernard rang the silver bell on the bedside, and after a while, the butler Gerry and two maids walked in. While the maid dressed the old Bernard, Gerry handed a copy of the town’s financial statement for the quarter to the mayor. It can be seen from the report that the income of Yoqi Town increased again last quarter. The income that can exceed nearly 70% has to be turned over, which is undoubtedly a heavy burden for the town.

And the remaining 30%, except for the town’s own financial budget, there is not much left.

Therefore, the town of Jozi is prosperous on the surface, but in fact, the life of the residents in the town is not much better than those in the wilderness. The early property they own is just a house that they don’t know when they will be taken back to the Pope’s Hall at any time.

Sauron has a saying that everything I see is my owner. It means that the places he can see are his property, as for other people, from officials and nobles to merchants and residents. All they lived in was temporarily "lent" to them by Sauron.

The taxes in the Pope’s Hall are so heavy that it is too heavy to breathe. This is the case for civilians, even for mayors like Old Bernard.

Only the handful of people in the Pope's Hall can really enjoy it.

Passing the report to the butler, Old Bernard sighed lightly. Gerry whispered: "Mayor, I just received a notice from the Pope's Chamber to adjust the tax rate yesterday..."

"Has the tax rate dropped?"

Gerry smiled bitterly: "Why? The notice stated that starting from next year, the original tax rate will have to be increased by another 5 percentage points."

"Five percent!" Old Bernard shouted excitedly: "If this continues, everyone will not be happy. In this case, it is better to let the pirates fight over. When those **** noble lords drank wine and ate barbecue, Our people are starving and freezing!"

The butler quickly persuaded: "Mr. Bernard, don't say it. It's not a good thing to spread this out."

"What are you afraid of? It's a big deal. Anyway, if this goes on, maybe we won't be able to live next winter." Old Bernard's tone became lower and finally turned into a light sigh.

Exorbitant taxation is annoying, but what can they do if they are attached to the Pope's Hall? As long as the Pope's Hall is still there, they have to survive in the narrow and breathtaking crevices of survival.

"Let's go, have breakfast together, and then see how Bluebridge and Mason are doing." Old Bernard patted the butler on the shoulder and waved to let the maid go down first.

When Gerry accompanied the mayor to the living room, he smiled and said, "Not everything is bad, at least the two guys, Levi and Senner, should have had fun in these two days."

"why?"

"Last night, the hotel for both of them was booked, and the bill was more than a hundred gold coins overnight. When I saw them in the morning, the two guys were still laughing from ear to ear." Gerry shook his head, with great envy.

Both Levy and Senna have a hotel in each town, but since the beginning of winter. Not to mention them, the tourists in the town have become very scarce, and from the situation in the past half month, the tourists have almost disappeared. So suddenly there are tourists who need to book the venue, and they still booked two hotels, which means that there are a lot of people, at least nearly a hundred people. Old Bernard couldn't help but wonder how there are so many tourists at this time.

"After breakfast, let's go and see."

Hearing what the mayor said, Gerry chuckled softly: "The mayor is going to charge them a small tax?"

"Then their mother-in-law has to make noise in the mayor's office every day." Old Bernard smiled.

At the same time, Ling opened the curtains, causing the two daughters, Leah and Cinderella on the bed, to frown and roll over to sleep again. Ling walked out wearing a thin coat. In the hotel restaurant, Su and Haiwei were eating breakfast. It is breakfast, which is just a few slices of unscorched bread and boiling hot water, but for this hotel, it is already considered good food.

After Zero Decision attacked the City of Rock, gathered the trident and the capable officers under him, a total of about a hundred people left Cage, and after nearly a week, they reached the city of Jockey last night. Zero directly rented two adjacent hotels as a place for everyone to stay, and it was only about 70 kilometers from here to the Rock City. If you march at full speed, you can get there in less than an hour, so now, zero is not in a hurry.

Seeing him coming down, Hai Wei moved a chair and greeted him: "Head, come over for breakfast."

Zero is also welcome, squeezing to their table. At this time, the wolf king Kaiton and Berion also came. Except for the maple who was assigned to the city of Rome to protect the Pope, his core combat power was basically all the same.

Biting off a piece of bread, Su said, "Boss, is it a bit too conspicuous for us to swagger in like this? As long as we are not blind, we all know that we are not a so-called caravan."

With zero smile, he did book two hotels in the name of the caravan last night. But in fact, there is a caravan like theirs wrapped in a hooded cloak, and all of them are murderous.

"As long as they have money to make money, they won't bother. I talked with the hotel owner for a while, and the man named Senner vomited a lot of bitterness at me. Sure enough, as rumored, the Pope’s hall is on the territory. The tax rate has been adjusted to a very high level, and it has been tightly pressed to the basic life line of the common people. And listening to Senner's tone, it seems that the taxation is only rising but not falling, and all of them are angry." Ling took a sip of water and said:" Under such circumstances, suddenly there are dozens of gold coins in the account, and if we do not cause any trouble, I don’t think he will be boring. After all, we live in this hotel, in case there is anything to do. He can't get rid of the boss either."

Haiwei was very lively. After putting a piece of bread into her mouth and swallowing, she said, "Boss, let's talk about interesting things. Ye Liu didn't sleep last night and went for a walk in the city of Rock, and brought it back. The details of the opponent's city defense. You said how we are going to do it. If it is an assassination, I won't go, just let Ye Liu go."

As she said, her face suddenly changed, and she poured a glass of water in front of the night Liu into a sigh of relief. It seemed that she had swallowed just now.

"Assassination? I don't think it's necessary." Petty's finger touched the water and drew a rectangular shape on the table to represent the city of Rock, and said in the direction of the city gate: "Olan will bring a news by the way. , It’s said that Sauron has transferred all the remaining commanders of the Knights of the Seal back to Rome in order to study how to deal with us. So now there is only one regular army in the city of rock, and it lacks a high-ranking army. We don’t need it at all. What assassination was used."

He drew an arrow pointing to the gate in the direction of the city gate: "With our strength, we can push it horizontally. Their gate is not known as the wall of sighs. I think the name is very appropriate. Only this time, it is. Ask Sauron to sigh for it."

After speaking, he smiled faintly. There is no high fighting spirit, only strong self-confidence.

A short man suddenly ran over. He was Senner, the owner of the hotel. Senner ran to Zero and whispered in his ear: "It's not good, the mayor Bernard came over and said he wanted to see you."

Senner opened a hotel, no one had ever seen it. People like Linghe brought him and knew that it was not a caravan, but Ling said that they only stayed one night, so Senna and Levi had the courage to accept them. Unexpectedly, they hadn't left yet, but the mayor came.

Old Bernard is a good talker, but that doesn't mean he is blind. Even Senna can see that zero is not simple, and how can old Bernard fail to see it. The mayor is usually a kind person, and he has nothing to say to the residents of the town. But after all, he has a different position, Senna can pretend not to know, and that may not be the case for Old Bernard. And once this matter is broken, in case they are of unknown origin, both of their hotels will be implicated.

Zero said unhurriedly: "Please prepare a quiet room for me, and I will personally entertain the mayor."

Senna suddenly cast a solemn look at him.

Ling smiled and said: "Don't worry, I won't do anything to him. If I wanted to, you wouldn't be able to live today."

Senner glanced at those people Su and the others, finally nodded, and went down to make arrangements.

"You eat, I will meet this guest. Then, let's set off." Ling stood up and left.

After a while, in the room arranged by Senner, Zero saw Old Bernard and Gerry the butler. In addition to them, there were a few soldiers. The soldiers stood behind the mayor, looking at Zero maliciously.

With a zero smile, he stretched out his hand and said: "Dear Mayor Bernard, I would like to see you for the first time."

Old Bernard chuckled, and shook hands with Zero: "Okay, I heard that you are businessmen. But I'm very puzzled. The road is not open this season. I don't know what kind of business you are doing?"

"The business we do is very special, so please forgive me for the inconvenience. If Mr. Mayor wants to know, please put aside. I can only tell Mr. Bernard."

Butler Gerry couldn't help but said: "There is something that you can't say in front of everyone, unless... you are doing an unseen business."

"Oh?" Ling said lightly: "This gentleman's guess is really interesting."

Old Bernard said at this time: "Gerry, you go out with the others first. I want to have a good talk with this gentleman."

Gerry's face changed, and he wanted to say something but was stopped by the mayor, so he had to greet the soldiers to leave the room. At this time, Old Bernard said: "Now, what are you going to say?"

But when the two shook hands just now, the petty tail finger wrote a word in the palm of Old Bernard, it was a killer word. He also released a faint jet of energy from his fingertips, but like a sharp knife, he slightly cut a little bit of old Bernard's flesh, letting the mayor know that he was not an ordinary person. In this era, anyone who is not a fool knows that the capable are powerful, and the soldiers brought by Old Bernard are not the opponents of the capable at all.

What's more, if Zero is a capable person, then how could the other people living in the hotel be ordinary people. This is undoubtedly the most obvious threat signal to Old Bernard, so the mayor cooperated with his words to remove the others.

After standing a little further away, he said, "As you can see, I am a businessman. But there is another level of identity..."

For some reason, old Bernard suddenly felt his heartbeat speed up. He almost told Zero to stop talking, but in the end curiosity prevailed. He said: "Please speak."

"My name is Zero..."

Old Bernard's pupils suddenly narrowed. He seemed to have heard this name somewhere.

"Cage City and even Canon Fortress are now my territory. I am... the leader of the Poseidon regiment. This is my other identity." Petty said in a flat tone, as if to say something trivial.

But his few words kept echoing in old Bernard's ears like thunder.

zero……

The leader of the Poseidon Group...

Old Bernard only felt that the world was spinning, and the world seemed to have only two colors left in black and white. Zero's figure was suddenly far and near, which made him feel a little sick and uncomfortable. The mayor gasped violently, and it was only a moment later that he smiled bitterly: "I knew the answer was this, I didn't want to know it. Hey..."

"It's okay, you'll know sooner or later anyway," said Ling.

Old Bernard gritted his teeth and said, "Then you are here this time for Rock City? Is your army out of town?"

"No, in fact there are only two hotels and these people."

Old Bernard showed a complicated expression, and finally shook his head and said, "You must be crazy. People who dare to attack Baicheng because of this? Well, now you tell me these secrets, are you ready to kill people? I just ask you. Leave the others alone, after all, they don't know the truth."

Zero looked at him with interest and said: "The mayor is indeed a responsible person. Senna has been emphasizing this to me last night. But this time you guessed wrong, I didn't plan to kill you. I just wanted to I want you to agree to a request."

"What request?"

"After I took down the city of rock, you helped me convince Bluebridge and Mason to accept my management. To be honest, I don't want to make senseless killings, but if someone opposes it, I don't mind giving back. "Zero said: "But I don't think you will refuse, because my welfare is much better than Sauron."

"I heard that Sauron requires you to pay 70% of the tax every quarter. I'm just the opposite of him, only 30%. What do you think?"

"It's tempting, but how do you guarantee?"

"Cage City." Zero smiled: "If you don't believe me, you can send someone to see. I don't need you to pay too much tax, what I need is your loyalty. Besides, Sauron is not a worthy follower. Isn’t it a human? The mayor should know that Sauron was listed as a man sent by God in the parables published by His Royal Highness Paul recently in Rome.”

"Could it be that such a person can become your faith?"

Old Bernard was speechless for a moment, he knew that his petty tactics were mind-attack tactics. Rome in the Western Continent is a theocracy, and Pope Paul recently won the name of the Son of God. He spoke out Sauron's crimes in the name of God. It is obvious that Sauron has been divided into the opposite of God. Such a ruler is naturally not a good follower. But the problem is that Sauron is still the real power leader of the city of Rome. Even if Bernard is unwilling to follow him, he can't show it excessively.

Otherwise, what is waiting for him is the twisting platform.

"It's okay, you don't need to answer me now." Ling Pai patted him on the shoulder and said, "In about an hour, we will leave the town and head to the Rock City. If you don't get news of the broken city tomorrow, naturally you don't have to Pay attention. It’s just that if I break into Baicheng, I hope the mayor can help me a little bit."

"You have said so, can I still refuse?" Old Bernard shook his head and smiled bitterly.

The conditions for zero out were already very generous, and he did not let Old Bernard agree immediately, but gave him a chance to wait and see. If it fails, nothing is discussed. But if it succeeds, give old Bernard ten courage and dare not hold him back.

Think of a character who can lay down the City of Rock with only a hundred people. Apart from cooperating with him obediently, he has no other choice at all.

After Zero left, Old Bernard was about to stand up, but sat back on the chair with his legs soft. Only then did he realize that he was in a cold sweat and his calf was constantly trembling. He shook his head and laughed: "I am really old."

As Ling said, after an hour, his people had disappeared in the town. Standing on a bell tower in the town, watching the hundred people from Ling to the city of Rock not far away along the highway, Old Bernard was in a mixed mood. Now even he couldn't say for sure, which side he hoped to win.

It was almost noon, and the guard Harlem was standing in the third tower of the Rock City. After routinely using a telescope to survey the surrounding environment of the city, he used the walkie-talkie to report the words "Everything is normal" to the control center.

In fact, since the beginning of winter, the army of the Rock City has received the order of martial law to prevent pirates from the south from attacking at any time. But most soldiers, including people like Haring, think this is simply impossible. As long as a little common sense knows that marching in winter, radiation snow alone will kill army soldiers.

And this period of time has been calm ~lightnovelpub.net~ which has confirmed everyone's ideas. Not only the soldiers think so, but even the interim commander Mega. It's just that the soldiers can't hide in their own warm mansion like a commander and enjoy the food and wine, and they still have to wear radiation-proof suits on the wall of Baicheng on this cold morning.

This is not a pleasant job. The white city wall is sixty meters high, which is the height of a tall building. Imagine standing on the roof of a 60-meter-high building. The howling cold wind is enough to freeze the soul. Harlem is not bad. His position is mainly in the guard tower. After all, he is an observer and not a fireman. This makes him thankful that he has always had a good relationship with the captain, otherwise he has to be on duty in the cold wind like everyone else. .

He yawned and looked from the guard tower, the blood-stained road was silvery white, and the radiant snow on both sides of the road decorated the world into silvery white. If you look at it for a long time, it may even affect your eyesight. But at this moment, Harlem glanced at the road below inadvertently, seeming to see something moving.

At first he thought it was a small animal, and lazily took the binoculars and looked at it, only to see that it was a group of travelers. There were about a hundred people, all of them wearing wind cloaks and covering their heads and faces.

It's just that Harlem is surprised, how come there will be caravans this season?