The disappearance of the cook provoked the nerves of the Dawn Legion who had infiltrated the imperial capital, and they did not shake off the Imperial Privy Council agents who were watching in the dark after they dispersed and transferred.

Prince Fabio has never come up with a decisive plan on how to deal with these guys, because he finds that even if he knows that these people are Heinsys's men, he can't sweep them away.

The number of these men is a bit excessive, and if you want to deal with them, then you have to gather a large number of people. But Prince Fabio couldn't use his own manpower, which would expose him to the ranks of the imperial capital. And using official power, it is difficult to ensure that there is no Prince Heinsis in these people, maybe the people here have not gathered, and the people over there have already run away.

It was a tricky matter, and Prince Fabio had left the problem to His Majesty the Emperor, who was not quite sure how to deal with it. At this time, everyone is accumulating strength, and no one is ready, and a rash attack may not allow Prince Heinsis to launch, in case Prince Heinsis targets the royal family, then Prince Fabio will be able to reap the benefits. The entanglement of the three forces, you have me, I have you, has formed a stalemate, and no one dares to act rashly.

Therefore, His Majesty the Emperor also didn't know, and didn't care about these things for the time being, just stared at this group of people like Prince Fabio.

Beneath the calm is an undercurrent surging, and while the three parties are accumulating strength, the war between them has also entered the countdown. There may still be some days of real battles, but the war in officialdom has already begun.

A small nobleman named Douglas Kennan traveled 3,000 kilometers into the imperial capital, coughing up blood and fainting in the middle of the Imperial Avenue. After a brief treatment, Douglas came to his senses and immediately asked to see His Majesty the Emperor, and he had come to complain.

The finances of the empire basically come from the taxes of various regions of the empire, and the royal family canonizes the land to the nobles as territorial fiefs, but this does not mean that the central government has given up the right to tax these territorial fiefs, according to the imperial constitution and the code of nobility, the imperial family and the central government have the power to collect and set the names and figures of taxes and fees, some of which are fixed, such as production tax, commercial tax, agricultural tax, Traffic taxes, etc., some of which are added temporarily and are constantly changing, such as poll tax, carriage tax, etc.

In addition, the nobility also had the power to set the names and figures of various taxes for their fiefdoms, which was the power granted to the nobility by the constitution and one of the main ways for the nobility to obtain wealth. Generally speaking, the nobles would follow the rule of trying not to burden the people in the fiefdom too much, because once the taxes were too heavy, the common people would start to emigrate to the territory of other nobles.

So how did the luxurious life of the aristocracy support?

There is only one answer, and that is to withhold imperial taxes that should have been paid to the national treasury.

It had become a common practice that about 20 percent of the annual tax revenue was withheld by the aristocracy, and that involved a little-known but powerful department of the Empire, the Imperial Tax Administration.

Taxes are collected by the tax officer, who is directly accountable to the Central Tax Office and is vertically managed from top to bottom. If the aristocracy wanted to intercept taxes, they had to establish a good relationship with the regional tax collectors in order to facilitate their hands. And part of the tax revenue that was withheld was fed back to the nobles, and part of the profit was distributed to the tax collectors who handled it. The ratio will be adjusted according to the power and ability of the nobles, and generally speaking, the big lord can get about 5% to 10%, which is a large amount.

Taking Greenland Province as an example, Greenland Province can collect about seven or eight million gold coins in taxes every year, of which about 1.3 million to 1.5 million gold coins will be withheld and disappear from the books. About 600,000 to 700,000 gold coins of this 1.3 million to 1.5 million gold coins will be directly handed over to the Grand Duke of Greenland, 300,000 gold coins will be distributed to other nobles, 200,000 to gold coins will be given to regional tax officials, and the rest of the gold coins will be divided among tax officials of all classes, including the bigwigs in the Central Taxation Bureau, who will also account for a part.

What was really in the hands of the empire was only about six million gold coins.

It's an unspoken rule, and the royal family has always known that such behavior exists below, but there is no way to do it. This is also the drawback brought about by the sub-feudal system, and there is no way to eliminate this drawback under the premise that the national system has not changed. Over time, the royal family pinched its nose and recognized it, but at the same time, the royal family also clung to this red line, and once the tax revenue intercepted by the region exceeded this red line, the royal family would be furious.

For so many years, everyone has been abiding by this rule, how to divide it, who to distribute, has formed a law other than the law, and no one dares to mess around.

But this time Douglas came to the imperial capital to complain, because this red line was stepped on.

The province of Trande, where he was located, had collected a total of 9.7 million gold coins last year, which should have been handed over to the empire about 7.6 million gold coins according to the rules, but in fact only a little more than 5 million gold coins were handed over, of which more than 2 million gold coins disappeared. Because of the shortcomings of the management and system, the empire did not know that more than two million gold coins were missing, until Douglas appeared.

Douglas was also an accident and learned the news from the eldest son of the Grand Duke of Trande, who did not make a statement. The Duke is not something that ordinary people can afford to mess with, and the District Tax Collector also has a background in the sky, and Douglas is just a small Viscount, and he can't afford to turn his face with the District Tax Officer with the Grand Duke for money that does not belong to him in the first place. But sometimes it's not like you can do whatever you want, and the eldest son of the Grand Duke of Trander later realized that he had drunk and lost his words, and told the Archduke of Trande about it, and the Grand Duke of Trande simply did nothing and wanted to evaporate Douglas from the world.

This is related to Douglas's net worth, he has to fight for his own life, the only way is to expose this matter, and everyone will die together.

Under the protection of private soldiers, he experienced several interceptions, and finally Douglas entered the imperial capital with an injury, revealing this shocking case.

The royal family immediately protected Douglas and sent a team to investigate and collect evidence in the Trande, while the tax collector in charge of the Trande province in charge of the Imperial Tax Office was arrested and imprisoned. The royal family's reaction was not unexpected, after all, it was related to the lifeline on which the royal family and the empire depended, and no one could touch it, and those who touched it died. Regardless of whether the investigation team that went to investigate and collect evidence gained or not, the Imperial Tax Office was out of luck. A large number of people were contained, and the ledgers were sealed.

And this incident also caused a series of reactions.

First of all, there is the tax problem of the provinces.

The royal family required the Grand Dukes and the District Tax Collectors to give a written account of the tax situation over the years.

Everyone is a piece of shit, how to explain it?

Even Prince Fabio and Prince Heinsis are involved, and although they are noble princes, let's not forget that they are also one of the largest lords of the empire. And the tax officials in charge of taxation in their fiefdoms are basically their own henchmen.

Prince Fabio blushed and sat on the chair made of pure gold, "The royal family has made a move. ”

Alfred nodded with a serious expression and said, "I didn't expect the royal sword to go sideways and actually tear a hole from here." That His Majesty doesn't seem to be without brains, and he will really look for opportunities. ”

In the hall, the leaders of the Fabio aristocratic group were all seated together, and Rossi was among them.

He rubbed Francisco's arm with his elbow and asked in a low voice, "What's going on?"

Francisco also lost his usual hippie smile, and explained to Rossi with a calm face, "Archduke Trande is a hardcore royalist, it is impossible to be greedy for so many gold coins, and even if he does do it, the money will be handed over to the royal family in the end." The stronger the Trander, the stronger the royal family, and they are one. He turned his head and glanced at Rosie, "The royal family intends to reduce our strength through this method, I really didn't expect that bastard to use this way!"

Rosie immediately understood, the royal family's move was particularly ruthless, and it seemed to be a stupid move to cut his own people, but after the faint move, there was a killing move. Once the tax issues in the province of Trande are investigated, the next step is to penalize and close the matter. The royal family will definitely not do anything to the Grand Duke of Trande, but in order to silence the people of the world and at the same time serve the purpose of cracking down on other aristocratic groups, the Grand Duke of Trande may make up for the taxes that have been hidden and intercepted over the years.

He made up for it, and the royal family investigated the tax problems of other aristocratic groups, so should other aristocratic groups also follow suit to make up for the taxes that have been intercepted over the years?

This is not a small number of hundreds of thousands of millions of gold coins, but often tens of millions of astronomical figures. And this money has long been used by the major nobles to expand their strength and luxurious life, and everyone will never be able to take it out.

If it can't be made up, the royal family will have a reason and excuse to do something to other nobles, but this is a good reason, no one can find fault, and it can also get the support of the common people.

But if it is made up, it means that the two major aristocratic groups will be cut off a piece of meat by the royal family.

The royal family pinched the opponent's eggs at once, and changed from passive to active, attacking and retreating.

The so-called unspoken rules are things that cannot be put on the table, and once the royal family is serious, these unspoken rules will be invalidated immediately, and at the same time, they can also arouse the hatred of the common people against the aristocracy. In this battle for imperial power, the biggest advantage of the royal family is to occupy the righteousness, and now, they plan to use the righteousness to make a fuss.