Nils even shook the priest's hand and said, "Dear priest, your character is admirable!" The sacrifices made for everyone are there for everyone to see! Once these heretics have been defeated, I will ask Batavia for you to tithe! ”

Tithes are religious taxes levied by Christian churches in Europe on their inhabitants. In the 6th century C.E., the church began to impose such a tax on Christians, taking advantage of the biblical claim that one-tenth of the agricultural and pastoral products "belonged to God."

In 779 A.D., King Charlemagne of the Franks stipulated that tithing was the duty of every resident of the Frankish kingdom.

In the middle of the 10th century, Western European countries followed suit. According to the nature of the product, the levy is divided into large tithes (grain), small tithes (vegetables, fruits), blood tithes (livestock), etc. The amount of taxes often exceeds one-tenth of the taxpayer's income, and the burden falls mainly on the peasants.

Later during the Reformation and the German Peasants' War, the abolition of tithes was one of the basic demands of the peasantry. Most countries in Western Europe did not abolish it until the 18th and 19th centuries. The British levied it until 1936.

And at this time, where can the priest take care of tithes! He couldn't wait to get out of this place that was about to be unlucky. In his opinion, the few of them who decided to resist were simply stupid! Because he really saw large-caliber artillery in Liu Pei's camp!

Although the priest did not know the technology of artillery, he saw that the artillery in the camp was definitely not an ordinary artillery! That kind of cannon caliber is scary! It must have been used to slowly smash open the castle! The priest would not do anything at all except to deceive the common people with a Bible. So he definitely won't put himself in danger! When in danger, he runs faster than anyone else! Otherwise, he wouldn't have said hello to Liu Pei just now.

Charles and the others, who don't know why, are still very moved by the noble behavior of the priest! He also took the initiative to send the priest to the gate of the city, and asked the priest to persuade him to withdraw as soon as possible when negotiating with the Red Eyed Dragon King, and not to go against the East India Company!

The priest agreed absentmindedly, turned around and left as fast as he could. And his expression made everyone think that the priest was really thinking about the negotiation. So they watched him go before closing the gates.

When the priest was brought to Liu Pei, Liu Pei was looking at the topographical map that the staff officers had just drawn up. Hearing the guard's briefing, he didn't raise his head and said, "How is it, priest?" Will they surrender? ”

The priest bent over, bowed his head, and whispered, "I'm sorry, Your Excellency the Dragon King, they won't surrender!" They thought that Batavia would definitely send a fleet to reinforce them. ”

Liu Pei continued to sketch on the drawings with a pen, and said very casually: "It's okay, I expected it." If they don't get hurt by their fists, they don't know whose fists are hard! ”

After Liu Pei said this, he directly ordered the guards and said, "Throw this priest into the slave camp!" He's useless! ”

When the priest heard that he was going to be sent to a slave camp, he was frightened! He knew all too well what they did with the slaves they had captured! He didn't want to suffer that kind of torture, so he immediately threw himself at Liu Pei, wanting to hug Liu Pei's thigh and beg! But he was too fat and his movements were not sensitive enough, and the guards were also wary of him, so as soon as he moved, he was firmly restrained by the guards behind him!

However, both sides still hurried and cried out: "Your Excellency the Dragon King, don't kill me!" I am a priest and represent the will of God. I ......"

But before he could finish speaking, he was choked by the angry guard. The guards knew that Liu Pei was making a battle plan, where would he let him disturb Liu Pei! Just as they wanted to drag the priest out, Liu Pei suddenly raised his head and said, "Wait a minute! ”

It must be said that it was the priest himself who saved himself. If he had been a little less timid and slower to speak just now, I'm afraid he would really be stuffed into a slave camp! His voice reminded Liu Pei of something.

That is, in the present time, God is the only one in the Western world! Religious personnel are even more respected. Liu Pei would have no problem if he tortured or even killed a nobleman. The people at the bottom will be happy! Because another guy who collected heavy taxes from them died!

It doesn't matter if you torture and execute a civilian. People always have to die anyway. We can also laugh at the way he hangs on a rope! But killing a priest is different! If Liu Pei executes a priest, it will be tantamount to offending the entire church and the Western world, and the impact will be very great!

Although Liu Pei is not afraid of this kind of thing, it is better to have less trouble after all. Thinking of this, Liu Pei said: "Forget it, you don't need to send him to the slave camp, just place him in the rear camp, just let him do some chores every day, don't abuse him." ”

When the priest heard Liu Pei say this, he nodded desperately, trying to thank Liu Pei. But he was dragged out of the room by the guards. Liu Pei ignored the priest who was dragged out, and lowered his head again and began to sketch on the map. It was just a small episode for him. He was now more concerned with how to capture the city of Geranza as quickly as possible.

Although Liu Pei has been running his own business overseas, he has not forgotten to collect intelligence from within the Ming Dynasty. Now the interior of the Ming Dynasty is like the original history. Although there has not yet been a large-scale uprising, it will be in the coming period. Liu Pei remembered that Wang Er of Shaanxi was about to start an incident, and it should be in the next few days.

Now the entire officialdom has lost the monitoring of Jinyiwei, internal corruption is rampant, things are procrastinating, and there is less and less official appearance. pondered all day long about exploiting the small people and annexing the fields. Collusion and oppression of merchants. So the life of ordinary people is getting harder and more miserable! I have to sell my sons and daughters!

And not to mention the military aspect! The generals are a little better, no one has a way to get money, and they can suck blood on the soldiers even if they are not good, so there is a relatively good income, and the soldiers at the bottom are getting poorer and poorer. There were even soldiers' wives who had to sell prostitution to support their families.

And this kind of thing is not uncommon, but no one thinks of changing! The upper echelons of the entire Ming Empire are in a state of decay, while the lower echelons are accumulating anger. So Liu Pei didn't want to spend half a year besieging the city of Gelansha and forcing them to surrender. In that case, it will take too long, and anything will happen.

Then there is only one way to attack in front of Liu Pei. But Liu Pei didn't want to sacrifice too many people. The only way to do this was to use heavy artillery, little by little, to chisel through the hard shell of the castle. But how to place the artillery is a difficult problem at this time.

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