Wutong Prefecture is the most remote prefecture city in Baoping State, closest to the northwest wilderness.
And Black Mountain City is the most western part of Wutong Prefecture.
Beyond it is a vast wilderness, inhabited by nurous demons, beasts, and the like.
It is unknown how many monsters have mingled among them or are mixed into the city.
Further north, one must travel far to reach the so-called ’northwest bitter cold’ territory of the Demon-Suppressing Great Wall, a barrier against the invasion of Baoping State by three Dao Lineages of demons.
This shows that it is a mountain city built in reliance on the mountain.
...
The day is nearing dusk, the sky is dim, with light rain falling.
A carriage arriving from afar stops at the door of ’Black Mountain City’.
Low earthen walls, pieced together haphazardly, managed to be constructed.
At the entrance, a queue of people cos and goes, inspected one by one by constables in old constable uniforms with sharp eyes.
Most of these people carry iron bows and hunting tools, and almost everyone has so wild ga.
These ga animals were mostly hunted in the deep mountains outside Black Mountain City, near the northwest wilderness.
In truth, in such perilous tis, whatever is hunted should be deed as one’s fortune, used to supplent household needs, eat at and practice martial arts.
Yet, there are rules for everything.
In Black Mountain City’s jurisdiction, according to the rules set by the ’forr Guardian’,
All ga hunted in the mountains must be handed over to the Governnt Office for public ownership, then valued, with ’taxes’ deducted, before being exchanged for silver coins given to the hunters.
Yes,
Any ’property’ in the mountains must be taxed by the Governnt Office.
It sounds quite unbelievable,
But why does Xie Qiaoxuan say that holding office, besides the salary, allows for substantial cultivation resources?
Because it’s about exploiting local resources!
If your wrist is strong enough, then you set the rules of the whole city.
The city near the mountain exploits the hunters;
The city near the water exploits the fishern;
A Martial Artist of Great Innate requires various resources for every move, daily maintaining their blood and energy, flesh, and mountain herbs, all amounting to a considerable sum.
Hence, most Town Guardians, not just of this Black Mountain, but across Wutong Prefecture and even Baoping State,
Will levy ’city taxes’ from the bottom, accumulating small amounts for their daily cultivation expenses.
It’s rely a matter of greed or not.
The power of Martial Dao returns to the self, leading to a high concentration of resources.
It indirectly makes it extrely difficult for ordinary people to rise.
Unless born with mutations, born with talent, having qualifications above spirit grade, to soar into the sky, otherwise to aspire to enter the elite class is nothing short of dreaming.
Black Mountain City gate.
"Lord, how has the tax on ga animals risen again?"
"Previously it was converted to thirty percent of silver coins, now it’s fifty percent, this... we work ourselves to death every day, in the end, only manage two or three animals, barely enough to get by, if it’s levied any more, we won’t be able to survive."
Beside a constable, a board stands upright, as hunters entering the city turn in ga animals, they see that the levy amount has increased once more, their faces instantly full of despair.
"These are rules set by those Lords in the Inner City, we as constables have no way out."
"At least you hunters can go into the mountains to scavenge, and pay a levy on entry, ensuring you won’t starve."
"Look at other trades in the city, which one hasn’t increased? They don’t have your skills for crawling through forests year-round!"
"Hurry up, don’t dawdle, either set up a nest in the deep woods and survive on your own, or enter the city and pay the taxes set by the Lord Guardian, choose one!"
The constable with a knife at his waist said impatiently, while collecting all the hunters’ ga in one go, calculating the value of copper coins in a bag, and taking half before handing it to each person.
So slightly bulkier coin bags would be skimd off a bit more, and the unlucky hunters could only pretend not to see even if they did.
There’s no choice,
Outside Black Mountain City, in the northwest wilderness, demons reside,
All depends on the adults from the Governnt Office and Martial Arts Hall in the city, whatever thod they’ve used, causing them only to appear after dusk and at night.
Otherwise, these hunters wouldn’t even have the chance to ascend the mountains during the day to hunt beasts and occasionally shoot a couple of demons, they’d have starved long ago.
This money must be paid!
Zheng led the guard at the gate of Black Mountain, usually called Zheng head during shifts, his family has been working here in Black Mountain City for generations, deeply rooted.
At this ti, he was yawning with boredom.
Until the wheels rolled, grinding on muddy ground, revealing a few luxurious carriages about to enter Black Mountain City...
Finally waking him up completely.
At that mont, so of the subordinates lacked vision, poised to intercept:
"Entering the city must first pay the ’city entry tax’..."
Before finishing the sentence,
Zheng head directly kicked him over with a ’bang’, angrily scolding:
"Blind fool, open your eyes wide, take a good look, do those nobles need our trifling city entry tax!"
In this world, if you want to survive, you have to learn to judge people!
The rchant team’s carriages, the sect’s carriages, the aristocratic family’s carriages, are completely different.
Look at these coming people, four luxurious carriages, eight strong and fat horses, every fit servant looks like a constable, they’ve all practiced so Foundation Establishnt Martial Arts.
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