For Rhodes, this half year has been spent in torment.

Pollitt is a fool who is so short-sighted that he only cares about one or two skyrocketing profits, and never thinks about stable revenues.

To make matters worse, there is also a Hodge by his side, and now Hodge seems to have replaced Rhodes as Pollitt's number one henchman. It's no wonder that the bastard always satisfies Pollitt as much as he likes, telling him whatever he wants, and arranging for him whatever he wants.

Maybe in Pollitt's eyes, Hodge is already with the angels, right?

But Rhodes doesn't think so, this man is undoubtedly a devil, and he will drag the whole of Blackstone into hell!

As the treasurer, he was already tired of dealing with the relationship with the Chamber of Commerce, and with the constraints of Pollitt, even with his rich experience and financial ability, he could not calm the resentment of the miners.

At the beginning, it was only one or two small and medium-sized chambers of commerce that were more resistant, and there was a small vacancy in the amount of mining tax in the last quarter, although it was a little troublesome, but after his butler Crane proposed a whimsical strategy, he coped with the past without danger.

Even now when he thinks about the strategy used to fill the void, Rhodes applauds the genius idea.

Crane's proposal was to start looking at the town, where there were only two places where the townspeople and criminals could spend the most money, one was the pub and the brothels, and until then Blackstone had taxed almost negligible of these two places, and the gap in the mining tax could be filled immediately if the tax on both places was slightly increased.

As for the anger of civilians and criminals?

That's nothing.

But now it's different.

The Taura Chamber of Commerce refused to pay the mining tax, which is a third of the total mining tax!

Such a big vacancy, even if everyone in Blackstone Town is sold, it can't be filled.

Damn, my mind is so busy with the things of the Chamber of Commerce these days that I don't have time to convince Pollitt.

And this directly led to the high and rude tax amount, which caused the long-accumulated anger of the Taura Chamber of Commerce to explode, burning vigorously, and even burning the entire Blackstone Town to the ground.

There is no way to communicate with the Chamber of Commerce anymore.

In the current situation, we can only try to convince Pollitt that the strategy of the past few months has been completely wrong.

In order to achieve this goal, we must first reveal the true face of Hodge, the culprit of all this, to Pollitt.

He'd already sent someone to investigate Hodge, and even if he wasn't slow, as long as he wasn't stupid enough to be as stupid as Pollitt, he could see that Hodge's behavior was unusual, compared to the anger he had when he heard the witch trapped in the block.

How could such a strange transformation not have the slightest problem.

This time he was using a secret power that he had been running for a long time, and even Pollit had no way of knowing, and he was not stupid enough to call in the so-called "little rats" of the intelligence services and use Hodge's men to investigate Hodge? That was something that only a fool could do with his brain thrown into the river.

The wooden door was pushed open, and he was already in a bad mood when he saw the letter from the Taura Chamber of Commerce, and at this time someone happened to bump into him, of course, he unceremoniously spilled his anger, slapped the table and shouted: "Which bastard let you in, get out of here!"

The person who pushed the door in was obviously stunned, and said resignedly: "My lord, you ordered that once I find out about Lord Hodge, I will report it to you immediately." ”

"Hodge's news, show me it. Rhodes turned his anger into joy, looking at the information he had found, although it was not exhaustive, but it was still obvious from the clues that Hodge's strange behavior was surmising.

Even if it didn't convince Pollit right away, it would at least make him suspicious of Hodge to a certain extent.

As long as you do this, and then hand in the right advice at the right time, it will be enough to save the current situation.

"Crane. He summoned his butler, "Go find Master Pollit in the little building of the council chamber, and ask him to come here, for I have something important to tell him." ”

If you go directly to the council room, you will most likely meet Hodge following Pollitt, and the evidence collected is not detailed enough, and if Hodge interjects and interrupts, there is really no chance to turn the tables in the end.

Rhodes waited in his room for a while.

The wooden door was pushed open again, and Crane stood in the doorway.

Rhodes hurriedly walked over and said, "Guy with no memory, you should turn sideways and let Master Pollit come in first."

But when he reached the door, he didn't see Pollit.

Rather, it was Leyton, the vice-captain of the patrol guards, and four guards in full armor.

"You have been charged guilty by order of Lord Pollit, please come with us immediately to the council chamber, Lord Rhodes. ”

Layton beckoned, and the two guards stepped forward at once, each holding Rhodes in one hand.

Rhodes turned incredulously to look at Crane, the confidant he had served for many years.

He saw helplessness, sadness, and ...... in Crane's eyes The most fiery ambitions.

If you had the chance, no one would want to be a housekeeper for the rest of their lives, would they?

......

What happens when a person who is greedy for money as his life meets another wise person who is greedy for money and collects money in a very secret way, and this part of the money is essentially owned by the first person?

Hodge has been thinking about this all these days.

Until today, when seeing Pollitt's attitude towards Rhodes, the question has an answer.

Pollitt believes that he has been seriously betrayed, and this betrayal comes from his old friend for many years.

It all started with the small piece of paper that Crane had left behind when he met with the chamber of commerce's housekeepers.

It took a great deal of effort for Herbert to get his hands on a manuscript of Rhodes' account book, which contained a record of Blackstone's quarterly income, and a detailed list of the calculations.

As a seasoned thief, it was not easy for Herbert to recognize words, and he felt a headache when he looked at the dense numbers, so he handed the account book directly to Hodge, and Hodge compared the calculation on the account book and the calculation on the small note, and saw some eyebrows.

As he expected, the method of calculating the mining tax revenue in Blackstone Town was not so complicated at all, it was just a passing note in the account books, but it was so complicated on a small note.

Why? The key is the tax rate.

Judging from the name of the account books, there is no problem with the mining tax revenue in each quarter, but the key point is that the total revenue used in the calculation formula in the account books does not match the actual revenue of the miners.

Be smaller.

The total amount of the first equation on the slip of paper is the real number, and the other items that are combined with this equation are used to determine the total amount recorded in the account book.

Judging from the results, Pollitt believes that he has collected all the mining taxes, and he is not bad.

In fact, the chambers of commerce pay a lot less than the real amount of the mining tax.

This would have been a happy affair, and both sides thought they had taken advantage, but even so, the actual tax on the miners was much larger than the number of books.

This part of the difference naturally ended up in Rhodes's pocket.

No one is a saint, how can he not be careful after handling a large amount of wealth all the year round? And the method he uses is so secretive that ordinary people can't even notice it.

In the end, in Pollitt's angry rebuke, Rhodes did not even have a chance to explain, and was escorted into the dungeon of the outpost by the patrol guards with a pale face.

Pollit still left a face, after all, he was an old man who had followed him for many years, and it was not surprising that he was directly in the form of a beheading if he was replaced by another person.

Rhodes was imprisoned, and the position of treasurer was naturally vacant, and even Pollitt knew that at such a critical moment, this position must not be vacant.

As Rhodes' long-standing deputy, Crane is inexperienced, and in a hurry, Pollit can only appoint him to the position of temporary treasurer.

"Can you solve the merchants' problems this time?" he asked.

Crane bowed his head slightly, looked at Hodge quietly, winked at him, and nodded.

He took a deep breath and said affirmatively, "I will not disappoint the expectations of my lord." ”