Chapter 572: Invitation and Killing

Lorist looked at the crowded Royal Avenue and asked Duke Kenmeth a little strangely: "Didn't you say that His Majesty the King wants to levy 30% of the Chamber of Commerce's resident tax?

Duke Kenmax laughed: "You think wrong, Locke, the resident tax does not refer to these merchant houses, but to those chambers of commerce that set the headquarters of the chamber of commerce in the imperial capital. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoHis Majesty the King collects a tax of thirty per cent on the gross annual sales of these chambers, which compels them to move their premises to the city of Vandenas.

As for the commercial houses and shops opened on this royal avenue, there is a territorial nobleman behind them, and their taxes are only 10% consumption tax, and there is no other tax. After all, His Majesty the King can't directly reach out and take money from the pockets of the nobles of his subordinate territories, isn't it, and being willing to pay 10% consumption tax is already a sign of respect for our Majesty the King.

What's more, His Majesty often makes us merchants pay a sum of money to show our loyalty to the royal family of Christen. If it weren't for the fact that the Royal Avenue was the most lively and commercial street in the imperial capital, it would be indeed profitable to open a commercial store here, so everyone could barely endure His Majesty's incessant exploitation, just throw a few bones to the wild dogs, break the fortune and eliminate the disaster, and just have a few mouthfuls of broth to drink. ”

Lorist shook his head, I have to say that His Royal Highness has a deep prejudice against merchants, just like a traditional territorial nobleman, the impression of merchants in his mind is probably that he is very rich, and he always thinks that merchants do business in their own sphere of influence to make money, just like taking money from their own pockets. So he always wants to scavenge some money from the merchant to make up for his losses.

As a result, the merchant was dissatisfied with and despised the Second Highness, believing him to be a greedy king and a vampire who crouched on the merchant. It was hard for Lorist to imagine how the thirty percent resident tax was come up with by His Second Highness, which almost drove out all the chambers of commerce that had set up a residence in the imperial capital from the imperial capital, and even the original ten percent annual resident tax was gone.

Stupid enough to be considered brainless, Lorist once again confirmed that the business knowledge of the Second Highness was still at the most basic stage when he watched the merchants do business, cash and spot transactions, and then he went up to collect taxes. This level is really scum, no wonder they will come up with the so-called resident tax, because of the small loss of big. Therefore, the more money is needed, the more money is at hand, and it is a normal behavior for the Second Highness.

The carriage finally stopped in front of a shop with four gilded deed characters engraved on the lintel. With the preference and temperament of Duke Kenmasse, these five connected shops are naturally very ornate and luxurious. However, this snow salt trading house is a large grocery store, and most of the main goods are snow salt, glassware, snowflake paper, etc., produced in the Norton family's territory, and of course, some trendy and sexy women's clothing that Duke Kenmas himself has hired to process.

Lorlist, Duke Kenmeth, and Tiger Rose got out of the carriage and entered the shop. While Duke Kenmeth and the stewards of the firm were chattering, Lorist looked at the entire Snow Salt Merchant House, and had to praise Duke Kenmeth for his business talent in running such a messy grocer into a business that could earn more than one million Kingford every year.

Duke Kenmath quickly finished chatting with the steward of the firm, and then led Lorist and Tiger Rose to the back of the shop. Behind the shop is a large courtyard with two entrances, Duke Kenmeth said that this is the material warehouse of the trading house and the dormitory when the guards of the trading house are on duty at night, and the guards of the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce in the imperial capital trading house are eighteen swordsmen of the silver fighting rank, which is enough to protect the material warehouse in the courtyard and the safety of the trading house at night.

"Safe at night?" said Tiger Ross, wondering why Duke Kenmeth was emphasizing this.

"Yes," Duke Kenmax nodded, saying that at the end of last year, three comptoirs on Windsor were looted by a gang of thieves in the middle of the night to store the goods in the comptoir's shop, as well as the material warehouse in the backyard, and the case has not yet been solved.

The only fortunate thing was that the thieves did not kill anyone, they ransacked the merchant house after knocking the guards unconscious, and swaggered to carry away all the valuables stored in the warehouse. His Royal Highness had already dismissed two patrol officers in charge of order and law and order in the imperial capital for these three cases, and the day of the third official in charge of these three cases seemed to be not far off, as he had not yet been able to find any clues about the thieves.

When Duke Kenmeth learned the news, he immediately sent these additional silver guards to the imperial capital, which made the Snow Salt Trading Company safe and sound.

"It's stupid, it's clear that those thieves have left the imperial capital after they succeeded, how can they still be caught in the city......" Tiger Rose commented.

Duke Kenmax nodded, "I think it should be so." The three stolen comptoirs were not large, and their defenses were lax at night. Perhaps they didn't expect that there would be thieves in the imperial capital, which has always had good law and order, to beat their minds, so they fell into bad luck. ”

"What is the scope of those three comptoirs?" Lorist asked.

"The Le Mans trading house deals in gems and jade. The Pistachio Firm deals in gold and silver utensils, and the White Rose Firm deals in high-end crystal ornaments......" Duke Kenmeth had a flash of inspiration: "I understand, those thieves are obviously seeking money, so they hit the idea of those three merchants." Those three firms deal in expensive and easy-to-cash property......"

Duke Kenmeth was still walking behind, turning the path next to the warehouse, and in front of it was a large courtyard with a small side door open. When I entered the small door, I found that this was a very luxuriously decorated mansion.

"This is where I stay every time I go to the imperial capital, and the main entrance there leads to the avenue of the aristocratic quarter. However, I usually don't come from the Snow Salt Trading Company, so this time I will take you to recognize the way. Duke Kenmax said to Tiger Rose, "Why don't we have a welcome ball here in the evening to celebrate your promotion to the Great Sword Master?" and I will find you some good dance partners, and you can stay here at night......

Tiger Rose grinned happily: "Okay, you have the final say." ”

Lorist is very unhappy, as a Zhenguo Sword Saint, every move must be in line with his identity. Obviously, he can't come to such a ball held by Duke Kenmax in the evening, especially since it is not convenient for him to drag his family and his family.

"You can bring Tiger Rose here to recognize the two of you, why do you have to come with you too?" Lorist complained that Duke Kenmeth was wasting his leisure time reading.

"Don't forget that your Norton family still has a ten-percent dividend in the Snow Salt Chamber of Commerce. As one of the proprietors, you can't even know where your trading house is in the imperial capital, right?" replied Duke Kenmeth.

Well, this is very reasonable, and Lorist was speechless for a moment.

Then the Duke of Kenmath began to instruct his subordinates to prepare for the evening ball, and at the same time introduced and selected the ladies and ladies who came to the ball. The two discussed energetically, but Lorist was bored. So I said hello and went back to the shop of the Snow Salt Trading Company in front.

The flow of people in the store is also good, bustling, and from time to time people come in and people go out. However, Lorist found that there were still many people who watched it, and there were very few people who actually bought the goods. After looking at it for a while, Lorist left the store and stood on the steps in front of the store looking at the crowds and street scenes on the lively Royal Boulevard.

Knowing that this was the case, he shouldn't have agreed to come to Kenmaz, which made Lorist feel a little remorseful, and was thinking about whether to call the carriage to send him back first.

What's going on over there, something seems to have happened, and the crowd is gathered around, as if there is something to see. Lorist was in the mood and walked towards the crowd not far away.

"Dear and beautiful ladies and contemptible hosts have very cordially invited you to his evening ball, and please accept this note and these gifts. The Earl will be pleased to welcome the ladies with great pleasure......"

This is probably some kind of aristocratic trick to hunt for beauty, it seems to be similar to the temperament of Duke Kenmeth, and he also uses holding a ball or something to hook up with women. But Lorist looked into the crowd and was furious. With both hands parted, the crowd in front of them rushed to both sides like waves, revealing a path in the middle.

Standing in the middle of the crowd turned out to be Princess Celivia and Lorist's four concubines, as well as four guards with large and small gift bags on their bodies. Well, they also have packages on their hands. The four guards were standing in front of Princess Celivia with angry expressions, their eyes blazing at a middle-aged man in front of him who looked like a polite steward, and the two servants behind him who were holding gift bags.

This seems to be the middle-aged steward's invitation to Princess Celivia to give them some kind of ball, but Princess Cilivia and they ignored it, and they wanted to leave but were stopped by the crowd of onlookers. And the middle-aged steward took this opportunity to respectfully raise the invitation sticker above his head and offer it with both hands, looking like he couldn't afford me if you didn't accept me, so he was deadlocked.

Lorist walked in along the gap between the onlookers, took the invitation sticker in the middle-aged steward's hand and tore it to pieces without looking at it, and then waved his hand at the four guards who were about to salute and said, "Okay, what kind of salute do you have so many hanging on your body." ”

"Locke, why are you here. Princess Celivia and the four maids came alive at once, and began to chatter about what good things they had bought.

Headache, these five losers. Lorist asked, "What about the children?"

"Playing in the sand and pool in front of me, my godmother and Pat looked at them and it was fine. Princess Celivia said, "By the way, Locke, I just bought you a new deerskin cloak, very soft, and very beautiful, why don't you try it on in that shop again......

"You, how dare you tear up my master's invitation, you, are you insulting our Earl?" A hoarse voice sounded beside him, and the middle-aged steward who had been respectfully presenting the invitation was flushed with a flushed face and a burning anger in his eyes.

"Fuck off!" Lorist whispered, "Disappear from my eyes as soon as I have a little patience, or I won't mind destroying your whole family of shitty Earls!"

"Bold!" What Lorist didn't expect was that the middle-aged steward accused himself with a louder voice: "You dare to say such a rebellious thing in public, do you want to rebel and rebel! Do you know who the earl of our family is? Kill our earl's whole family, you don't dare to give you the guts, so many people have heard what you said, you wait to enter the prison cell and be confiscated from the territory and deprived of the title!"

Uh-oh...... Lorist really didn't expect that this middle-aged steward with an honest face would be a sharp-toothed man, and he grabbed his own words and came to the scene to play, saying that he was a rebellious and rebellious, and kept saying that he was going to be arrested in a prison cell, confiscated the territory, and deprived of his title, which is really not ordinary arrogance......

"Hehe, I really don't understand who your lord's earl is, and killing his whole family is just to rebel and rebel?"

"Of course, the master of my family is Lord Count Wickus, and it is well known that his father is our Majesty the King, and you said that killing his whole family was not to rebel and rebel, so what is that?" the middle-aged steward boasted triumphantly, he really wanted to see the remorse on Lorlist's face, and the next thing should be to beg him for mercy to let him go for what he said because of his negligence this time......

"Hehe, I thought it was who, just an illegitimate child, do you think your Lord Earl represents the royal family of Krisson, I don't know how thick the sky is, spare you again, get out!" Lorist waved his hand lightly, as if chasing a fly.

"What's the matter with you, how can you be entangled by such a person?" Lorist asked Princess Celivia.

"Your Highness, we don't know, just now we were all the way into the shop to pick up something, and this man suddenly came out and said that his Lord Count was going to invite us to a ball. We ignore him, he's been pestering us for a long time......" Fenna Gary whispered to Lorlist.

"You, how dare you be so rude! and dare to slander the royal family of Christen, it's a heinous crime......" The middle-aged steward was still accusing Lorliste of life and death.

"Your Highness, we're here, what's wrong?" Pat led a dozen guards into the crowd on a rampage, and one of their guards had just run with Princess Celivia to report the news.

"Nothing, cut this guy for me. Lorist pointed to the middle-aged steward. Being a sword master is not good at all, Lorist felt that if he wanted to kill the middle-aged steward, it was simply a kind of promotion to him, and he actually bothered a swordsman to do it himself, and the middle-aged steward really had eight lifetimes of luck! Fortunately, Pat and they came.

"Yes, Your Highness. Pat drew his sword and walked towards the middle-aged steward with a sinister smile on his face......

"You, do you still dare to commit murder in public......" The middle-aged steward suddenly found that he seemed to have kicked the iron plate, and turned around to slip away, but unfortunately, the crowd of onlookers was densely crowded, and he had no way to escape.

Pat strode forward, grabbed the middle-aged steward's chest with his left hand, and with a twist of his wrist, he got used to the middle-aged steward to the ground, and then raised the long sword in his right hand.

This is going to be real, and the middle-aged steward who is used to the ground trembles: "Spare ...... life"

"Stop, who dares to commit murder in the imperial capital!" there was a loud cheer from outside the crowd, as if a patrol force had rushed over, but they were blocked from the perimeter of the crowd of onlookers.

Pat had never heard of it, and of course he ignored the patrolmen even before him, and he ignored the shouts of others if Lorist didn't shout to stop. With a flash of the sword, the head and body of the middle-aged steward on the ground separated, and the dirty blood spurting from his neck stained a large area of the street......

The uproar and exclamations sounded, and the crowd of onlookers retreated straight back like a low tide, none of them could have imagined that they would really kill, and they would all flee backwards in fear by the beheading scene, and finally turned the patrol police on the periphery of the crowd into the front.

The patrol officer at the head was a bearded man, and when he saw the corpses on the ground, he was furious and said: "Catch them, there is no mercy for those who resist!"

More than a dozen patrol officers blew the bamboo whistles in their mouths, brandished long swords and various weapons and pounced on Lorist and the others......

......