"Lord Hodge. In the council chamber, Rhodes saw Hodge, who had just walked in through the door, bowed slightly.

"Your Excellency Rhodes. Hodge returned the salute and looked around the chamber, but did not see Harlow, thinking that he must have followed his advice and kept his original condition unchanged.

He was satisfied, although he could ask Harlow to return to the helm of the Patrol Guard, and Layton, who was temporarily in charge of his affairs, obviously would not object, and he would have such a powerful helper as the Guard, but if he did, Harlow's abrupt change would be quite suspicious, and even be implicated in his relationship with Hodge.

At this moment, what Hodge needs most is to hide, and anything that is in the limelight is not good for him.

Harlow didn't come, as he expected, but he didn't even see Pollitt, and he couldn't help but wonder, "Hasn't Lord Pollit come yet?"

Rhodes' expression was unnatural: "The adults have arrived, it's just-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the small room next to the council chamber came the screams of women with extreme joy and excitement, the thick gasps of men, and the sound of waves crashing against a reef.

Hodge finally understood why Rhodes had that expression.

The fierce voices in the small room died down, the door opened from the inside, and Pollitt walked out, flushed and sweaty.

"Ahem. Rhodes coughed lightly and reminded, "Lord Pollit, Lord Hodge has arrived. ”

"Alright, old friend, I'm not blind, so that I can't even recognize the big living man standing in front of me. Pollit walked to the front of the table and fanned the wind with his hand, "Hell, why is it so hot, is there too much chai?" ”

It's a little cold in the council room, but if you have too much chai, it's obvious that you're "active" too excited.

After a while, Rhodes knew that he couldn't follow Pollitt's words any longer, and quickly changed the subject: "Now we can start the meeting." ”

Hodge clenched his fingers together and pressed his chin to say calmly, "I don't know what happened, can you tell me about it?"

"Yes. Rhodes nodded and opened the book in his hand, "The latest period of time is the day of the mining tax collection this quarter, but it is in the process of implementation...... Not so smooth. ”

"There are two chambers of commerce that refuse to pay this quarter's mining tax, citing the murder of businessmen some time ago. They felt that the town had failed to provide them with the security they had promised, and that they were not entitled to impose a large additional mining tax after collecting the lease money. ”

"Ha, a bunch of stingy fellows, it turns out that they are taking advantage of this matter. "After all, Pollit is the real ruler of Blackstone, and even if it doesn't seem to be good, it won't be impossible to see what the merchants of the Chamber of Commerce are doing.

Anyway, whenever something goes wrong in the management of the town, these foxes will always take the opportunity to ask for something in return, and this time will be no exception.

"Did they offer any conditions?"

"I don't say it explicitly, my lord. However, this time their attitude is particularly tough, and I am afraid that it is not something that can be dealt with by the usual reduction and exemption of the one-part mineral tax in the past. Rhodes said.

"Rhodes, as my treasurer, you should be the one who knows best what to do. Tell me, what's your suggestion?"

Rhodes closed the open book, looked down and thought for a while, and then said, "I think that the tax reduction should satisfy them." ”

"Sansei!" Pollitt couldn't help but stand up and slam the table, "Do you know what that means?"

There is a huge lucrative interest in the ore business, otherwise Blackstone's location would not have attracted so many chambers of commerce to reside here in order to exploit the rich ore veins here.

With its rich network of contacts, the Chamber of Commerce only needs to pay a few hundred to thousands of gold coins to lease the mining rights of a vein, but once it officially starts mining ore, the profit per quarter is more than tens of thousands of gold coins, and this can almost be regarded as a net profit.

Of course, this did not come without a price, and the town would collect seventy percent of the total income from the ore business as a mining tax, which would eventually be sent to the Marquis Raymond's coffers through the hands of Pollit.

Seventy percent is only the amount set by the Marquis of Raymond, but in the actual execution process, eighty percent is collected, and the extra ten percent naturally becomes Pollitt's private collection for his extravagant pleasures.

An occasional reduction of 10% on the basis of 80% is barely acceptable, but 30% - this number is enough to make Pollit angry, this part of the mining tax is all reduced from his own part!

"My lord, you have to know that this is only a 30% reduction for the two chambers of commerce, and the proportion of mining tax contributed by these two chambers of commerce is not large, even if it is a 30% reduction, we can still get a considerable amount of income. ”

Pollit sat down with a calm face, thought for a while and said, "But Sancheng, it's still too much." ”

Rhodes glanced at Pollitt's expression, knowing that the mayor's heart had been shaken, and he had left room when he said the figure of thirty percent, so that he could cope with the current situation.

"Twenty and a half. "Let them cut their mining tax by two and a half for this quarter, and I'm sure I'll convince them to accept it." ”

Pollitt finally felt better, and said, "Okay, then—"

"Your Excellency. A voice suddenly interjected, and Pollitt followed the voice to see Hodge looking towards him.

"Since it's a meeting, I guess I can make a suggestion as well, right?"

"Of course. Pollitt reacted, this was not the only time he was discussing with Rhodes, Hodge was also sitting in the council room, "But Hodge, you have just taken office after all, and you may not be very familiar with these things between us and the Chamber of Commerce." ”

Rhodes watched the scene and had the same thought in his heart.

Could it be that a newly appointed intelligence director is more familiar with how to deal with similar matters than he, the chief financial officer who has dealt with the chambers of commerce for many years?

Maybe he just wanted to show himself and follow his own train of thought to second, so that his presence would not be so thin.

The treasurer smiled at the corner of his mouth.

But Hodge's next words directly froze his smile.

"I think. Hodge paused for a moment, and then said, "There is no need to tolerate the two chambers of commerce that take the opportunity to provoke, it is still us who show weakness and suffer at this time, although as Lord Rhodes said, the tax reduction and exemption of only the two chambers of commerce will not affect the overall situation, but this is only a temporary situation, once we show weakness, other chambers of commerce will follow suit, and eventually the mining tax of the entire Blackstone Town will be continuously squeezed on the original basis, I think this is not the result you want to see." ”

"So I think. He looked into Rhodes' surprised eyes and smiled, "Even if it's a reduction of one percent, you don't need to give it." ”

"We don't make any concessions. ”