Conquering alien worlds starts from the game

Earth time on November [-]th, the second round of internal testing has been open for half a month.

The foreign world has also come to September, and it is time for farmers to pay agricultural taxes.

Master Parker Chapman Otis, who was forced to "stay overnight" at Westham Town Hall, had a nightmare all night.

In the nightmare, there was a man with black snake hair flying all over the sky, who looked like a resurrected devil, standing on the mountain of corpses and the sea of ​​blood, and the mighty sound of curses shook the blood-colored sky.

That was the terrible curse that accompanied Master Parker throughout his youth, and it was deeply engraved in the depths of Master Parker's heart just like the images in that newspaper scrapbook...

"When I'm not around, you can do evil."

"When no one knows, you can do evil."

"But please keep in mind that anyone who commits evil will be punished."

"At the time of reckoning, all the sufferings of the victims will be returned tenfold!"

"The pain of bone shattering, the torture of peeling off every inch of skin and flesh, will accompany your wailing, and send a belated funeral to the victims!"

"—The liquidation will be late, but it will never be absent!!"

Master Parker was sweating profusely. He seemed to be in the palace where his grandfather stayed, which was filthy with blood and minced meat; that terrible lunatic seemed to be standing among the corpses less than 20 meters away from him. growled at him.

It's getting louder, louder, and...closer.

"Good night." The devil in the nightmare stretched out his bloody paws, held his hand, and said with a grinning grin, "You seem to know me?"

"what--!!"

Master Parker suddenly opened his eyes.

Strange ceiling, strange room.

If it weren't for the familiar servant standing beside him, and the housekeeper also opened the door with concern, Master Parker might have called a few more times...

Master Parker let the servant help him to sit up, asked the housekeeper to wipe the cold sweat off his forehead, and said weakly, "Why is it so noisy outside?"

"It's the villagers who are paying the grain tax." The housekeeper said reluctantly, "The yard is full of people, so it's bound to be noisy."

"Pay the food tax?" Master Parker couldn't move his mind, and he suddenly came back to his senses after a moment of stupefaction, "Are we still in Westham?!"

"Yes, master." The butler quickly reached out to support Parker's shoulder, "Calm down, it's daytime..."

Master Parker shook off the butler's hand, jumped off the bed, ran barefoot to the balcony, and opened the curtains.

As a big client who spends a lot of money, Master Parker will naturally get the best room to rest after he faints... This room is the middle section of the third floor of the town hall building and has the largest balcony. Standing on the balcony, you can overlook the entire town. City Hall courtyard and street view outside.

The streets and courtyards outside were crowded with local villagers who used wooden trailers, wooden trolleys, and flat donkey carts to pull grain.

There are many people, vehicles, horses, and goods, and the buzzing noise makes people's brains hurt, but it doesn't look chaotic.

A wide wooden isolation strip was placed on the street outside, and the villagers who paid the grain tax lined up and moved forward in an orderly manner in the area isolated by the wooden panels; The villagers in the courtyard are divided into three groups with their vehicles and horses, and they are weighed at the three tax payment points set up separately.

Master Parker didn't like this kind of noisy scene very much, but seeing so many alive and kicking people in his sight... he was still relieved and felt a sense of peace of mind.

He's really had enough of dangling skeletons and demons running out of his nightmares.

Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced to the bottom of the balcony, and Master Parker raised his breath just as he was relieved.

The open space directly below the balcony and in front of the town hall building... is full of undead.

The grain weighed from the three tax payment points is being moved by these undead to the warehouses on the left and right sides of the building.

Realizing that there is still such a "belt of the dead" between himself and a large group of lively living people, the strong sense of suffocation once again made Master Parker dizzy...

"What's the difference between Westham's day and night?" Master Parker murmured in despair.

At the northernmost corner of Martin Street, Colonel Walton and his powerful scouts were squatting on the side of the road, watching the dense flow of people from the town's main road to the front of the town hall compound from afar.

Every year during the autumn harvest, farmers from all over the country need to pay grain taxes to the local towns. Captain Walton is no stranger to similar scenes.

But... this is indeed the first time Captain Walton has seen such a scene where the farmers waiting to pay their grain are full of anticipation, and the farmers who have completed paying their taxes are all joyful.

The knights who get the title all have territories and people. Even the knights of ordinary noble families can get one or two small villages as territories, and dozens to dozens of peasant households as leaders. Of course, Walton, the leader, also has a fief—his fief is in the middle-east of the Kenyan Empire, a small town with a population of nearly [-].

Of course, there is a difference between a knight and a decent noble. If there is no qualified heir among the descendants, or if the title is taken away, the fief will be taken back; so knights usually don't spend too much time on managing the fief. Just make sure to get their [-]% of the food tax every year.

Walton was away all year round and rarely went to his fief. Every time he went to get his share of "dividends", none of the grain-paying farmers he saw was as relaxed as he saw now—not only They talked and laughed with each other, and the farmers in the long queue seemed very anxious, as if they were afraid that they would not have their turn to pay taxes if it was too late.

Walton has never heard of such things as actively paying taxes, especially the most ignorant farmers who never understand the difficulties of tax officials; they say that taxes must be paid before November, but no matter where the territory is, these farmers They always have to wait until the last few days before agreeing to cooperate.

This makes it very difficult for Walton to understand... Rex can affect the townspeople in the town, but could it also affect the villagers who don't live in the town?

When such doubts arose in his heart, another voice was quietly sprouting in his heart.

In just one and a half days since he entered the city, the Westem he saw with his own eyes... was different from the Westem he had imagined.

He thought Westham was languid, confused, and lifeless.

But the Westam he saw was full of vigor and vitality.

Walking out of the stronghold, none of the townspeople and villagers he saw lived in fear as he imagined.

Walton has been a church night watchman for many years and has seen countless fools bewitched by cultists. Of course, he knows very well what those people who go astray are like—unlike ordinary people imagine, fools bewitched by cults are actually not They will not show bitterness and hatred. On the contrary, they will look more positive, confident, and optimistic than ordinary people, and at the same time, they will be more irritable, irritable, and prone to hyperactivity. They are walking a tightrope between madness and calmness. weird state.

But Westham's people are not like that.

The people here are ordinary no matter how you look at it. The housewives are arguing over who littered the garbage, the street vendors and customers are haggling over how many potatoes they can buy for a copper coin, and the dirty wild children stare wide-eyed and search for the trash. There was an empty rum bottle casually placed in the corner, and the young girl strode past with her head held high, proudly showing off her newly made dress...

It's not much different from the Innatrix...no, the Kenyan in Walton's memory.

But in the end there are differences.

It's just that Walton couldn't tell.

He saw a whole family of villagers come out of the town hall compound with red faces, and then ran happily to the middle of the town.

Walton stood up, walked a few steps away from the corner of Martin Street, and watched the family disappear around the corner.

Almost all the villagers who came out of the town hall went in the direction of the main road in the town.

After hesitating for a while, Walton asked his subordinates to continue to stare at this place, pulled down the brim of his peaked cap, and walked along the side of the road to the main road in the town.

After walking a few steps, Walton discovered the secret of the villagers gathering on this street——

On this street, the partially rebuilt street-facing buildings have begun to open for business.

Near the intersection in the direction of the town hall, there is a two-storey building with the entire first floor open. Dozens of baskets filled with hay and eggs are placed. A woman wearing the uniform of the town hall clerk stepped on a stool. Standing at the door of the store, he waved his arms and shouted: "Eggs on sale! Four for one copper coin! Choose whatever you want!"

Hearing the asking price, Walton thought it was something wrong with his ears—when did eggs become so cheap? !

Obviously, Walton's ears are fine. This egg shop, where even the salesperson is a part-time town hall clerk, sells so cheaply...

Nearly a hundred people besieged the store and frantically snapped up their purchases. A few peasant women with big waists even tried to occupy a certain basket and not allow others to pick eggs.

Some people were dissatisfied with the incredibly cheap eggs, and Walton saw a housewife complaining to the clerk who was selling them: "Ms. Jenny, why are these eggs so small? They are smaller than those sold by Ms. Mia and Ms. Shirley on Martin Street yesterday." It's a little smaller."

"Don't be too greedy. Yesterday's eggs cost three copper coins, but now they cost four copper coins. The price is so much cheaper!" Before Ms. Jenny could say anything, someone helped explain.

"That's right, because these eggs are relatively small, so the price was reduced." Ms. Jenny, who was sweating profusely, smiled heartily, "It's still very cost-effective to give an extra egg, and the taste is the same. It is also suitable for frying and eating.”

"But it's still too small. I've never seen such a small egg. When I was in the country, the hens laid eggs that were much bigger than this." The complaining housewife said without stopping at all. , I can't help but put the carefully selected larger eggs into my basket.

"Give way, make way, don't break it!"

A sturdy peasant woman picked out two large baskets of eggs, and squeezed out of the store with a happy face. Because of her rough actions, there were complaints everywhere she passed.

"How do these country people do it today, so rich? Usually when buying their potatoes, it takes a long time to worry about buying them as big as a finger." A housewife whose skirt was stepped on was annoyed.

"You don't know? They have money today. Look at the villagers queuing up on the street outside, they all come to the town to sell food." An enthusiastic townsman explained.

"Selling grain? Isn't it paying agricultural tax?" The housewife asked Walton who was standing at the door.

"Because Mr. Rex canceled the local tax, together with the population tax in our town." The enthusiastic townsman knew a lot, showing off, "Our aunt works in the logistics department, listen to her It is said that Mr. Rex buys grain at the most expensive price this year, unhulled wheat costs four copper coins per catty, soybeans cost six, and even corn can be sold for one copper coin per catty.”

As soon as this "inside information" that had been made public was uttered, the townspeople in the egg shop were shocked.

The villagers who sold grain proudly puffed up their chests, and used the action of buying eggs to show what they thought was "rich and powerful"...

Westham is close to the Sorensen Mountains, the terrain is relatively high, coupled with the fact that the water conservancy project is infinitely close to zero, the agriculture is quite backward, and it is completely impossible to grow rice that requires a lot of water. The staple food is wheat and soybeans (this thing is indeed counted into grains), mainly corn.

Lacking water conservancy support and no fertilizer available, the yield of crops must be quite impressive... Rex and Ji Tang personally went to the countryside to investigate the results, the local wheat yield is only about [-] catties per mu, and soybeans are between [-] and [-] Among them, the easiest corn to feed is only seven or eight hundred catties per mu.

The food in this world is far from surplus, and the price of food is not cheap. It stands to reason that as long as the farmers’ families are not lazy and hardworking in farming, they should live on the same level as the residents of small towns (in fact, the handicraft industries in most small towns are not well developed. where to go); but the fact is... Even the farmer’s family that produces food cannot guarantee that there is wheat to eat all year round, and often has to rely on corn and potatoes to fool their stomachs.

The reason is the fluctuation of food prices during the autumn harvest.

In other words, the conscience of the lords in various places-peasants, or self-help organizations composed of civilians, have no ability or funds to stockpile grain and intervene in the fluctuation of grain prices.

Whether the farmer’s family can have enough to eat in the coming year depends on whether the local lord is willing to let go and not suppress the price of food too hard during the autumn harvest tax period—who said that the agricultural tax cannot be paid in kind, but must be paid?

Walton, who stood at the door and listened for a while, moved his feet and left slowly.

The voice that had just sprouted in his heart, which he himself was not willing to admit, sounded again.

Charlie Rex... is it possible that he is an extremely benevolent and rare good lord?

Walton denied this ridiculous thing from the bottom of his heart. He was an illegitimate son of a nobleman who was willing to follow even a black mage and was brought up by the Nightmare Butcher!

This kind of despicable guy from the root, with such a good opportunity, how could he not wantonly collect money, but show some kindness!