Max was talking to the herald about paying taxes when Dylan suddenly pushed the door open and walked in.

When Dylan came in, Max and the herald were taken aback, but Max's face quickly returned to normal.

Dylan kept frowning and said to the herald, "You go out first." ”

The herald habitually looked at Max, and when Max nodded, he walked out the door.

After the herald left, Max asked suspiciously, "Young Master, do you have something to do with me?"

Dylan frowned and said, "I heard what you just said. ”

In Max's astonished eyes, Dylan continued: "Why is there such a big gap in taxes in recent years? I remember that in the past, the taxes in our North Wind City were very low, and they generally did not have much impact on the lives of ordinary people!"

Seeing that Dylan already knew, Max no longer hid it, sighed heavily, and said: "In recent years, the Imperial Army has recruited a large number of new soldiers, as well as many alchemists and foundries, etc., and the Empire has set a very high price! I can understand that. ”

Maddie's tone was full of helplessness, after all, the soldiers of the Imperial Legion rushed to the front, resisting the powerful demons inside the Monster Mountain. Heroes risk their lives against demons, and they need better pay, and that's right.

Moreover, war is the most exhausting measure of national strength, and without the support of the entire empire, how can the war last for a long time?

Now, it seems that resisting the demons is a war with no end in sight, unless someone can reseal the gates of Hell!

"Understand?" Dylan's face was not very good-looking, "Do you know what kind of life those nobles in the imperial capital live? they know how to eat, drink and be merry every day, but they still have wealth that they can't use up for several lifetimes, but they are still not satisfied!"

"They use the goblins to find ore veins, and then mine them endlessly, completely ignoring the lives of the workers and goblins! Why should they? Just because their ancestors have made so-called contributions to the empire? The glory of the three generations of the family is enough to recognize the merits of their ancestors, right?"

"In fact, they can always suck the essence and blood of the empire for generations, and they don't have to make any contributions at all! Do you think this kind of world is fair? This time the empire went to the Monster Mountains, and countless heroes died on the battlefield before they were rewarded, so what about their children? Do they deserve to lose their parents and parents?"

"The empire levies additional taxes, this is understandable, after all, in times of war, the whole country uses the power of the whole country to ensure that the materials of this war have no worries! Did those nobles contribute? Even if there were nobles who paid taxes, how much would it be? Compared with their wealth, the taxes they took out were almost worthless, right?"

"Aren't the soldiers who are fighting in the core area of the Demon Beast Mountains protecting the nobles? Once the Hell Demon breaks through the barrier and invades the Garneman Empire, those pathetic nobles can only die obediently! Shouldn't they, moths, take out more supplies? What is the reason for squeezing more taxes from our remote and remote towns?"

"Those damned imperial laws, every one of them was set up by those hateful nobles, as long as it affects their interests, they will all veto, and the regulations that are beneficial to them are all approved with both hands, what kind of behavior are they? selfish, inhumane, simply a bloodsire attached to the empire!"

Listening to Dylan say this very excitedly, Max was stunned, he didn't expect that Dylan, who had always had a gentle personality in his impression, would now be extremely irritable!

Seeing that Dylan was about to continue, Max hurriedly grabbed him and said anxiously: "Young master, it's okay, your voice is quieter." Don't be heard, that's not good. ”

Dylan didn't care, and said, "It's best to hear it, I didn't plan to avoid it." Also, let me ask you, why don't you tell my father about these things, he is also the city lord of North Wind City, and he should always know that this involves every civilian, why do you keep hiding it?"

With a helpless and bitter face, Max said, "Your father has trusted me so much that he has entrusted me with the responsibility of collecting taxes. I don't want to disappoint him, so I naturally hope that I can do it well. But things backfire, and things often don't go the way you want them to go. Now you can see that the big tax gap is almost impossible to fill. Your father has worked hard enough over the years, and I don't want to worry him more. ”

"But don't worry, Dylan, I'll figure out how to pay taxes. ”

Dylan's face softened slightly: "If I'm not mistaken, the Imperial Tax Collector who collected the tax will come to collect the tax in seven days, how much more tax do you have left to make up?"

Max said weakly: "There are still 10,000 catties of wheat and 3,000 catties of wool left. ”

"What!" Dylan's eyes widened, he had no idea that the gap would be so big!

And for the crime of tax arrears, Dylan is also very clear, it will be severely punished by the empire!

Not only will the person in charge of tax collection in the city be sentenced, but in serious cases, the lord of the city may be dismissed or even imprisoned.

Although Dylan has a gold card of the Imperial Gold Bank, which contains a large number of gold coins, there are only a few cities near the North Wind City, which are all remote towns, and there is no gold bank at all, so what is the use of having these gold coins?

Besides, now that the Empire is leviing taxes on a large scale, who has so much grain to sell to Dylan?

"How are you going to fill such a big gap?" asked Dylan, looking at Max in disbelief.

Max smiled bitterly: "What else can I do? I can only put all my own grain in for the time being! Although the quantity is far from enough, it is better than doing nothing, right?"

Dylan pondered, and after a while, he asked a strange question: "Uncle Max, is our North Wind City far away from the Northern Guard, and how long does it take to go back and forth at the speed of an ordinary caravan?"

Although he didn't understand why Dylan suddenly asked such a question, Max replied truthfully: "If everything goes well, it will take about three days to go back and forth." ”

"Three days?" Dylan bowed his head and muttered, "At my current casting speed, I can forge up to five sets of ordinary armor in a day, and with the joint efforts of the foundries of the major blacksmiths in North Wind City, it shouldn't be a problem to create two hundred sets of armor in one day." ”

Max on the side looked at it at a loss, wondering if Dylan had thought of a good countermeasure.

"Okay, you don't have to worry about the tax gap for now, just leave it to me, give me five days, and I'll try to fill the gap for you!" Dylan looked confident.