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Chapter 245: The Good Governance of the Qi People

Paul Billiga roamed the ruined town with a musket in his hand, and the pungent smell of gunsmoke still lingered in the air. Broken houses and scattered rubble are testament to the fierce fighting that took place.

The cattle gasped and hissed as they were driven to safety by the soldiers. The town's market area was in shambles, with stalls overturned and vegetables and goods scattered all over the place. Many houses were on fire, and puffs of black smoke rose into the sky.

In the distance, shouts and sporadic muskets could be heard in the wilderness, signaling that the battle was not yet over. The townspeople hid in terror, huddled in corners or cellars, silently making crosses and praying to God.

On the streets, in front of the houses, in the flat dam, there were many corpses lying down, there were powerful rebels, innocent townspeople who were being coerced, and many teenagers and half-year-olds. The once incomparably fresh life, under the merciless artillery fire and bullets, has turned into a cold and hideous corpse.

On the street ahead, groups of Qi soldiers in navy blue uniforms were hurrying through, holding muskets with bayonets, serious expressions, and alert figures, kicking open one house after another, and ordering all the residents inside to come out and assemble, waiting for disposal.

Some of the wounded were carried on improvised stretchers, moaning in pain, blood oozing from their wounds and soaking the dirt on the ground.

The town's bell tower was destroyed by artillery but still stands stubbornly, and the sound of the bell is particularly clear in the silence after the war, as if to remind people that time passes, and even in the shadow of war, life will go on.

Although the battle has passed, there is still an atmosphere of tension and unease in the town, and everyone is waiting for the next news, whether victory or defeat, will profoundly affect the future of this town.

"Paul......" his companion Marco Belinelli called softly.

As for the various canned products sold in the European market, why are the prices so high?

In the territory of Qi country, the factory implements large-scale production, assembly line mode, standardized organization, mature tinplate sealing tank technology, and the machine roars to start, and the cans will flow out of the workshop in a steady stream as soon as you hear about it.

"Huh?" Paul Biliga turned his head to look at him.

Such a huge number and variety of supplies made Paul Biliga and other conscripted armed volunteers secretly smack their tongues. For a while, it was unclear whether the army of Qi was going to fight with so many precious materials, or whether it was going to play the role of a merchant and make a deal with the rebels.

This is the basic daily supply of the armies of European countries.

Will it bankrupt the finances of the Qi State?

However, it's no wonder they think so.

These are fucking ordinary soldiers, they are simply "noble soldiers" and "young master soldiers"!

This time, the army set out from Luoning City and advanced all the way to the north, accompanied by hundreds of heavy troops and vehicles, stretching for several kilometers, but almost forty percent of these supplies were various consumer goods for the soldiers to enjoy, beer, honey, cocoa, coffee, tea, sugar, bedding, medicine, spare shoes and hats, and even paper to wipe the buttocks.

Because, this is the gap in national strength, well, to be precise, a huge gap between agricultural countries and industrial countries.

In other words, shouldn't all the armies of Qi be so luxurious and material?

That's a lot of money!

In Europe, all kinds of canned food made in Qi have always been a rare "luxury", and only those nobles and wealthy merchants with certain financial resources can afford to consume it. Even, during the ball banquets held by many nobles, these delicious and delicious canned foods will be used as cold dishes for distinguished guests to enjoy.

Such canned food cannot be produced in a backward agricultural country, and even if it is barely produced, the cost is extremely high, and it is simply impossible to supply the army so universally.

"Are you hungry?" Marco Belinelli snorted and licked his mouth around the corner.

In the eyes of the Qi people, those extravagant things, such as all kinds of canned food, are not difficult to produce in the context of large-scale industrialization.

Dry and cold salted meat, blackened bread, inferior wine, rudimentary equipment, tattered military uniforms, and normal camping meals must be supplemented with a large number of wild vegetables.

If you want nutrition, it's impossible, that is, barely filling your stomach.

Paul Billiga followed the gaze of his companions, where a dozen Qi soldiers had gathered, crouching in a leeward corner, lighting a bonfire, and setting up a marching pot, the hot soup in which was bubbling. A burst of fragrance kept wafting over, making the volunteers who had experienced half a day of fighting suddenly feel hungry.

It's unbelievable that ordinary soldiers of the Qi Kingdom can enjoy such extravagant supplies, it's really ...... Aristocratic style!

The people of Qi are so rich, and the army is equipped with such abundant supplies, so what kind of war are they fighting with the rebels. Directly in front of the battle, put these things out, and most of them can lure those bitter rebels to surrender.

But I never expected that in the army of Qi State, canned fish, canned beef, and canned fruit were the basic material rations. In addition to all kinds of canned food, the soldiers of Qi will also receive a fixed amount of coffee, tea, sugar, cigarettes, and all kinds of wine.

You know, no other country in Europe has such an abundance of supplies for its soldiers.

"Canned beef!" Paul Billiga subconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

Compared with the two, the armed volunteers who came with the army felt very "amazing", the people of Qi seemed to be really rich, and the "trench" was incomprehensible and unimaginable.

What's so strange about this, such a rare thing, if you don't sell it at a high price, you are embarrassed to call it a Qi national product.

Canned food is just one of the most iconic commodities. Other military equipment such as clothing, tools, medicines, weapons, etc., each of which costs so low that you can't imagine. And that's not even counting the logistics costs of loading, unloading, and transporting these things, which are incomparable between agricultural and industrial countries.

Therefore, we will find that many agricultural countries originally did not have too much effort to raise an army of four or five hundred thousand cold weapons, but when they wanted to get a new army of 80,000, it would be a lot of effort, and it would easily bankrupt the fragile finances.

Why?

Gain, in an agrarian country, the cost of every piece of equipment for a new army is high!

The vain attempt of the agrarian countries to form and train their armies on the model of the industrial countries is a great challenge to their own national strength.

However, if we do not build a new-style army and do not equip ourselves with the new-style weapons of the same era, we will not be able to. If you are backward, you will be beaten, and if there is too much generation difference between the army model and the armed equipment of others, you will be beaten.

You see, with the continuous update and iteration of European weapons and tactics, the Ottoman Empire, which was once in an advantageous position on the battlefield, has long been gone, and has been repeatedly defeated by the battle-tested European coalition forces.

If it weren't for the constant encouragement and blood transfusion of Qi State, and the fact that it also sent many professional military instructors to participate in the transformation and training of the new army of the Ottoman Empire, and even directly participated in the planning of some major battles, perhaps it would have been driven out of the Balkans all the way under the repeated strong blows of the European coalition forces.

A new-style army built up by an agricultural country with the strength of the whole country is actually a "pseudo-new army", or a "lame" new army.

This is because there has been no fundamental change in your mode of social organization and production, and you are still in the same way as the traditional feudal army, which will inevitably affect the maximum effectiveness of the new army.

You see, the more than 1,800 rebels stationed in Pazin Town are not bad at holding muskets, most of them are standard weapons in the Holy Roman Empire army, and their training is also so-so, they should have been trained by the army for several months, and there are five or six artillery pieces in the town, and they are still fortified.

But the whole battle process was a big surprise, under the continuous bombardment of more than ten artillery pieces of the Qi army, the rebels immediately lost their desire to fight, and they were bombed everywhere in the town. With hundreds of armed volunteers and Qi servant soldiers "courageously" attacking from several directions under the supervision of Qi soldiers, the rebels' defensive line was quickly broken through.

When more than 200 Berber cavalrymen, wielding sabers, rounded the town and tried to outflank the rebels, the situation on the battlefield was immediately reversed, and the rebels finally did not hold back, but gave up resistance and began to flee from the rear of the town.

The blazing trumpet was sounded, Rulin's bayonets continued to surge forward, the artillery fire began to extend to the rear, and the whole battle followed the usual pursuit mode again.

The logistical management of the rebel army is too bad, the organizational model is too loose, the officers are even more backward in tactical thinking, and the tactics are also full of flaws; under the crushing of the Qi army like a precision war instrument, they can only be defeated again and again, like a lost dog, constantly being driven away, constantly retreating, and their morale is almost none.

Since the departure of the army from Pula--oh no, the Qi people have renamed it Luoning-, they have swept and advanced along the way, and have experienced more than ten large and small battles with the rebels, basically without encountering strong resistance, and it can even be said that it is an armed march.

The Qi Indian servant army, which had been defeated a few months ago, regained its strong desire to fight under the supervision of the Qi army, and became extremely ferocious, and each battle, under the cover of artillery, defeated one rebel army after another.

Although the terrain of the Istrian peninsula is mostly highland and mountainous, there are dense forests and rocky hills, which greatly limit the use of cavalry. But more than 200 Berber cavalrymen rode their tall horses, carefully controlling their speeds, and dealt the heaviest blow when the rebels retreated, killing the enemy with a river of blood.

Paul Biliga had not fought before, had only a little experience hunting in the mountains, and did not know what real war was like.

The artillery fired incessantly, emitting a deafening roar, and the flowering shells burst out with huge fire, destroying the enemy along with the surrounding buildings, and the powerful solid bullets pierced through all obstacles in front of them, and the dense shotguns were like the scythe of death, harvesting life in pieces.

The neat platoon of guns fired continuously, like waves after waves, constantly impacting the enemy's formation.

Leng Sen's bayonet stabbed mercilessly into the soft abdomen of the enemy, and then sent out a soaring arrow of blood, followed by a terrible cry of pain.

The bright red yellow dragon banner danced forward with the surging procession, and finally planted itself on the tallest building in the town.

Enthusiastic cheers, beastly roars, murmurs of pain, and countless cries and cowardly begs for mercy.

The ruins, the smoke of gunpowder, the corpses of various shapes, the trembling captives, the terrified inhabitants, and the victors who flaunted their might make up a chaotic picture of war.

Perhaps, the same is true of wars in other parts of Europe.

Paul Biliga sighed, holding a tin lunch box in both hands, which was full of food, and a strong smell of beef constantly stimulated the empty stomach.

After all, they were conscripted armed volunteers, and the treatment they enjoyed was naturally not comparable to that of the soldiers of the Qi State, but the officers who led the troops did not treat them too harshly. A few canned beef and fish were poured into the marching cauldron, mixed with "collected" vegetables, and stewed in a delicious smorgasbord, so that the volunteers who had been fighting for a long time still ate with relish.

What puzzled Paul Biliga was that after occupying the town, the Qi officers did not condone the soldiers to loot, and even forbade the slaughter of the town's residents at will.

Through captivity, they only screened and arrested the officials, clergy and nobles of the "rebellious" towns, and then confiscated and sealed the "enemy property", and did not commit any offense to the common people, behaving extremely civilized and gentlemanly.

Moreover, the Qi people also announced to the residents of the "liberated" towns that all expropriated land and "ownerless" land would be re-registered and distributed, and all taxes and fees paid by the residents before would also be abolished, leaving only the agricultural tax at a rate of 15 percent.

The local residents did not seem to be as happy as they should have at the news, but gathered around the town square, as if frightened by the morning's fighting, and had not yet woken up.

Of course, it is also possible that the townspeople were suspicious of the words of the Qi people, thinking that they were out of the need to kill the rebels, and told them a beautiful lie.

You must know that in Europe during this period, the peasants of many countries had to be exploited by the church, the lord and the king, and they had always lived like cattle and horses.

The first is the tithing of the church. This tax, which had been established by law since Charlemagne's time, was formally recognized in secular law by the European countries in the 8th century: all "those who derive the fruits of the land" were to pay a tenth of the harvest in kind to the church, which was used to sustain the clergy, build churches, and provide relief to the poor.

At this time, due to the introduction of new crops and the reclamation of new land, there were many disputes and conflicts between the church and the peasants over whether and how much to pay for the fruits of the newly added land, which was also one of the important reasons why the peasants in Europe complained and criticized the church tithes.

In addition to the tithes of the Church, the peasants were also subject to a wide range of taxes from the feudal lords, including annuities, taxes on the sale of land, taxes on mesis and forced labor, in addition to heavy rents for the peasants who rented the land of the lords.

In addition, the peasants were responsible for the maintenance of the castles, fortresses, and hunting grounds of the feudal lords, paid tribute when the lords got married, and had to pay a large tax on the sale of land to the lords when transferring and selling land.

The last and heaviest burden on the peasants was the taxes of the royal family.

The monarchs of the European countries and the grand dukes of the states had the power to tax income, property, and the circulation of goods, including poll taxes, salt taxes, wine taxes, etc. Later, with the increasing frequency of wars and the extravagance of kings, a new poll tax and twenty taxes (one-twentieth of the land tax) were added. Three-quarters of these taxes come from agriculture, rural areas and farmers.

In addition, during the war, the peasants had to provide the army with winter camps and military supplies. For example, from the end of Louis XIV onwards, French peasants were also responsible for the construction of roads and other public works, as well as forced labor.

As in the ancient Orient, there is also a widespread phenomenon in European countries that "the rich are exempt from tax and the poor pay taxes", which makes the increase in taxes inevitably fall on the most unaffordable peasants.

Under the oppression of the "three mountains", the life of the European peasants is actually no better than that of the peasants on the eastern Chinese continent, and at the end of the year, there is basically not much leftover, and if there is a famine or abnormal climate, it is not uncommon for ordinary peasants to go bankrupt.

When the townspeople heard that the Qi people had announced the abolition of all the messy taxes levied by the church, the lords, and the royal family, they were more than shocked, but more deeply suspicious.

If you don't pay taxes, how can you Qi people maintain your rule?

Don't be funny, how can a tax that has lasted for thousands of years on the European continent be abolished so easily?!

(End of chapter)