Although the city of Bayona is not large (in the eyes of Shire, it is not large compared to the third and fourth tier cities of the Great Celestial Empire), but it is still divided into two parts, the port area and the upper city, of which the upper city has high walls, special cleaners and security personnel, providing a good and safe living environment for the whole town, and the wealthy merchants, aristocrats and middle class who live in Bayonna choose to settle their homes in the upper city.

The environment of the port area is much worse, the phenomenon of indiscriminate construction is very serious, and the composition of personnel is even more chaotic, honest and hard-working coolies, treacherous and fierce sailors, cunning and shrewd small businessmen, plus some outsiders who do not know what their identities have, together create a bustling gray world.

In the port area of Bayona City, there is a main street paved with heavy bluestone, after many years of development, the street is lined with buildings and shops, which is the most prosperous place in the port area of Bayona.

A kilometre or two down this street leads to the high city gate, which is flanked by a small square with rows of gallows and bulletin boards.

Most of the gallows were empty, and only a few scattered gallows hung a few tattered corpses of unknown years and months, which played a shocking role.

Unlike the empty gallows, the long wooden bulletin boards on the left and right sides of the gate are covered with all kinds of papers, portraits of wanted criminals from all over the mainland, bounties from famous pirates, and it can be said that as long as you have enough criminal reputation, you can find your portrait here.

This is also the management attitude of the vast majority of port cities on the mainland, if pirates and criminals are messing around in the chaotic port area, the city managers can turn a blind eye, after all, these two types of people are the masters of today and tomorrow, and they spend money very generously, which can bring benefits to the local government.

But in a core city like Uptown, a messy city is not allowed in, and the sheriff's department and the church in the core city will see these criminals as walking human bounties. While some of the most powerful transcendents can ignore these threats, the vast majority of criminals will not joke with their lives and freedom.

Among the two rows of bulletin boards tens of meters long, the most conspicuous section is the special bulletin board for the administration of Bayona, where important announcements of the kingdom are posted, as well as the latest regulations of the city's management.

The rain finally stopped, and the merchants and coolies who had been delaying their business for a day began to take to the streets in search of today's opportunity, one to fill their stomachs, the other to make a fortune.

Most of these businessmen came from other places, and every day they stayed in Bayona, they had to pay an extra share of the sales, and they had to take an extra risk, and all kinds of uncertain reasons forced them to find an opportunity to finish the business as soon as possible, and the money fell into their own pockets to be the most reassuring.

Several carriages, accompanied by several cavalrymen, drove out of the upper city and stopped directly next to the government bulletin board, and two proud, well-dressed men stepped out of the carriages, which immediately attracted the attention of many people.

None of the people who came to Bayonne to ask for money knew the carriage of the government office, and who did not know the bows and swords of the Chevalier family? In particular, the merchants who did business in the port district knew almost all of them the brown-haired middle-aged man of the two, Lord Baron Promi, the magistrate of Bayonne.

"Brother, who is that man with Baron Promi?"

"Then you don't know it, that's the financial butler of Lord Earl, it is estimated that there is something important to announce today, let's hurry up and see if there is a chance to make a ......."

Baron Promi looked at the more and more people around him, and his heart was a little bottomless, last night Baron Basel found him with a warrant from Lord Count and a copy of the "Three-Year Development Plan for the Port of Bayonne", and the two argued until the middle of the night, many places he still can't understand, difficult to understand.

But Basel, who had always been rigid and strict, had lost his mind, and demanded that he must cooperate with him in the implementation of this plan, and if he did not carry it out, he could go to the Count himself and ask for his fate.

Promi is not a fool, Basel must have been personally taught by the Earl, and it seems that he is still not as trusted by the Earl's brothers and sisters as Basel, the financial steward.

If he shows a skeptical attitude at this time, who knows if the bad-tempered Earl will take the opportunity to get mad and change himself as a political official, and he hasn't had enough oil and water in the port area!

"Brush, brush!"

Several government department staff members quickly pasted several large-character announcements on the government bulletin board, and a well-spoken civilian began to read them out loud.

The vast majority of small businessmen can't read many words, and the content of today's announcement is too amazing, in order not to misunderstand the content of the announcement, Promi has made a lot of meticulous preparations.

"In order to thank you for your support to the Earldom of Bayonne over the years, Your Excellency has promulgated a three-year tax policy, which will increase the port tax, exit tax, commercial tax and transaction tax of the port of Bayonne from today...... All halved ......."

"After three years, the tax amount will be adjusted again according to the level of support you have for the territory.......

"Ahem, cough, cough, from today, the ...... in the territory The initial (night) tax was changed to a fixed amount, and the subjects decided the amount of the tax according to the beauty and preciousness of their wives, with a minimum of one livr and a maximum of ...... Unlimited!"

“.........”

It took several minutes for the civilian staff to read out a few large-print announcements, and then there was a deathly silence.

Promi looked at Basel and saw that Basel was also looking at him, so he had no choice but to walk up, calmly look at the crowd and say.

"I am the administrative officer of Bayona City, I can guarantee the authenticity of this announcement, now everyone has any questions about this announcement, you can ask on the spot, we will try our best to answer. ”

Promi's credibility is still good, there was a commotion in the crowd of onlookers, and many acquaintances began to question and communicate with each other in a whisper.

Eventually, a young man with shabby clothes but clean clothes timidly asked, "My lord, is it really okay to pay the first (night) tax...... A Liver?"

“.......”

Promi finally waited for a question to come out, but he didn't expect it to be asked, and he said a little angrily: "The lowest one livre, if you think your wife is only worth one livre." If you think your wife is worth ten livres, pay ten livres, and if your wife is unique and precious, pay the taxes as much as you can!"

It's no wonder that Promi is not very happy, he is also a baron, and he also has a small fief, and there will occasionally be a few girls of good quality in the fiefdom, and in the past, the lord has the final say on the amount of the tax at the beginning of the "night", as long as he wants, he can basically get what he wants.

Fortunately, now one Livrel sent the lord away, which made the rest of his life lose too much joy in life.

"I'm from Loran Village, my fiancée...... It's ugly, I have a livre...... Twelve copper coins. ”

The young man mustered up his courage, took out a large handful of small silver and copper coins from his pocket, counted them carefully, and handed them to Promi.

“.......”

Are you really shameless, dare to say that your wife is ugly?

Promi didn't pick up the young man's coin for a long time, but Basel came from behind, reached out and took the young man's change, and asked as kindly as possible: "Tell me your name, and your fiancée's name." ”

"My name is Bashari and my fiancée's name is Molly......"

The young man was already nervous and began to tremble, he had made this decision on the spur of the moment, did he feel too naïve at this time?

Will there be retaliation afterwards?

Basel flipped through the notebook he was carrying, carefully wrote down the details of Loran Village, Bashari, and Molly, closed the notebook and said, "Okay, you have already paid taxes to the Earl, and you can marry the bride home today." ”

“......”