Since everyone came to the meeting one after another, Li Xuanying began to whisper to Guo Kang constantly.

This guy is too talkative, and even gave Guo Kang a feeling of going to school when he was a child, secretly chatting with his classmates behind his back.

"I've always felt that these people weren't very credible." He glanced at the representatives of the Rus' vassal states opposite, and said in a low voice: "But to be honest, if the Greek scribes were to be in charge, it would probably be even worse—they would definitely expropriate and enrich themselves, force all the local commoners and nobles to rebel, and then flee back in a bloody manner, so that we can clean up the mess." ”

"Then leave it alone." Guo Kang pointed out: "Sooner or later, people's hearts will be ours. ”

Although his words were a little ugly, Guo Kang felt surprisingly reasonable.

The level of scraping of the ground by the Greeks is truly breathtaking. It is said that when the Arabs fought out of the peninsula, the reason why they were not hindered much was because the Eastern Romans and Sassanid Persia, the two sleeping dragons and phoenixes, exploited too much. Even with the pagan religious tax, the Arabs collected a lower percentage than them. Therefore, many people would rather take refuge with the Arabs than follow the empire.

Even without a long war, Eastern Rome would have been able to collect taxes from wealthy regions like Thrace, to the point where the population could not grow. This method of exploitation was later perfectly inherited by the Ottomans. In modern times, when the world's population was growing rapidly, the Ottomans simply tossed the population of Egypt and Asia Minor back to the level of the three dynasties of antiquity. It can only be said that the people in this place are a bit powerful......

Of course, different civilizations and different regions seem to have different tax habits. For example, the taxes of the Arabs, in the East, are again too high. Even if the additional taxes were exempted, the Central Asians still could not accept the taxes of the Arab Empire, and staged anti-tax riots in three days, hoping that the Tang Dynasty would manage and blow the Arabs away.

It is also because of this that the Tang Dynasty and its affiliated powers, for the most part, were very popular in the local area - because they wanted less. Each time, the Tang Dynasty was able to obtain more information and more adequate supplies, so that the Arab armies in their theoretically own control areas could repeatedly suffer because they were not as familiar with roads, terrain, and water sources as the other side.

Until Gao Xianzhi went back on his word and slaughtered the city, scaring away the local followers, the military operation had been smooth.

Therefore, the Khan court actually understood very well that the best way to gain the support of the locals was to charge less money. It's much more useful than religion or polity. And the support of the locals is actually part of the strategic advantage. This kind of superiority can directly affect the combat effectiveness of the armed forces, and then affect the outcome of the war.

Of course, there are many factors that determine the victory or defeat of a war, and this is only one of them. But unless the gap in combat effectiveness in other aspects is large to a certain extent, this factor still has to be taken into account - at least, under the difference in combat effectiveness between the regular army of the Tang Dynasty and the black-clothed Dashi, this factor cannot be ignored.

"Isn't there a fight between your father and the Poles now?" Li Xuanying asked.

"Not yet." Guo Kang said: "But I'm not afraid of them. This time we were well prepared. ”

The system of the Purple Horde came more from the Liao State, or rather, from the Tang Dynasty. East Asia, on the other hand, can be called a tax depression. The tax revenue of the tuntian run by the Guo family on the northern shore of the Black Sea is one-fifteenth, and the actual share of the tax is about one-third of the farmers' heads. However, this tax is already very low in the local area.

In Poland, next door, a system of rent based on servitude was practiced. In layman's terms, it is similar to the Ida system. The difference with the Western Zhou is that they are calculated by working hours rather than working area. The peasants had to work in the lord's private fields for 3 to 4 days a week. During the busy farming period, because the lord demanded to intensify the cultivation of his private land, the labor time had to be increased, and some people could even increase it to six days.

And that's just one of them. Since the vast majority of the people were serfs, even the ownership of the tools did not belong to them. Therefore, cattle, horses, plows and other livestock utensils had to be rented from the lord, and then they were extorted for a rent. If the grain grown wanted to be processed, it had to rent the lord's mill, which was also one of the lord's main sources of income. I don't know how much more miscellaneous taxes like this kind of taxes add up, it basically depends on the mood of the lord.

As a result, Polish serfs in the border areas often fled and sought refuge here.

In Eastern Europe, due to the degree of exploitation by everyone, it was very common for serfs to flee, and even formed their own village communities and even political regimes. These people called themselves "free men", or "Cossacks" in the local language.

With the existence of the Purple Horde, serfs fled more frequently, and many people were absorbed by Guo and others. The Polish aristocracy was indignant, and the Assembly of the Republic finally sent a special letter of state, protesting to the capital, thinking that everyone should fight a war, and your approach is too unkind. As a nobleman, he actually went to curry favor with serfs and dig up the corners of other nobles, in the end, he still talked about the rules and dignity?

The Guo family didn't know how to answer him. In the end, the king came forward and told the messenger that we were Nestorian heretics and did not abide by the rules of the Catholic aristocracy, so we dealt with the matter.

"I'm afraid we can't wait." Li Xuanying continued beside him: "In fact, not only the Poles, but also many serfs and even soldiers in the Rus' countries fled to join us. After a long time, it is estimated that the Second Civil War will have to be fought. I'm mentally prepared anyway. ”

"Don't be afraid. Anyway, the Muscovites will report it to us in time. Guo Kang quipped: "A few days ago, the representatives of Novgorod complained to the Great Khan, and when the Great Khan was not there, he sued Tuhuan." Saying that Moscow claimed that it did not collect enough taxes, it directly robbed their caravans. ”

"Moscow also didn't admit it, saying that it was not robbery, or it was a legal tax. Anyway, the difference between the two is not very obvious, so they didn't fight for a reason. I think this time we have to fight again. ”

"Moscow has always been unpopular with them." Li Xuanying nodded and said, "Tver can't do it all these years. Otherwise, it is estimated that he will have to beat him up in groups. ”