Chapter 747

Old Bernard rang the silver bell at the head of the bed. A moment later, the housekeeper Gree and two chambermaids came in. As the maid dressed old Bernard, Gerry handed the mayor a copy of the town's quarterly financial statement. It can be seen from the statement that the income of Yueqi town increased again last quarter. Chengdu has to turn in more than 70% of its income, which is undoubtedly a heavy burden for the town.

The remaining 30% is not much except for the town's own budget.

Therefore, Yueqi town is prosperous on the surface, but in fact, the residents of the town live no better than those wild refugees. Their early property is just a house that they don't know when it will be taken back by the papal hall at any time.

Sauron has a saying that everything I see is my owner. It means that all the places he can see are his property. As for others, from officials and nobles to vendors and residents. What they lived in was only temporarily "lent" to them by Thrawn.

The taxes in the papal hall are heavy and breathless. Civilians are like this, even mayors like old Bernard.

The only people who can really enjoy it are those who are high in the Pope's hall.

Old Bernard sighed as he handed the report to the housekeeper. Gerry whispered: "mayor, I just received the notice of the papal hall to readjust the tax rate yesterday..."

"Has the tax rate decreased?"

Gerry said with a wry smile: "no, the notice states that the original tax rate will have to be increased by another 5 percentage points from the next year."

"Five percentage points!" old Bernard shouted excitedly, "if this goes on, everyone will not be happy. In this case, it's better to let the pirates fight. When those damn noble lords drink good wine and eat barbecue, our people are starving and suffering from cold!"

The housekeeper hurriedly advised, "Mr. Bernard, stop talking. It's not a good thing to spread it."

"What are you afraid of? It's a big deal. Anyway, if we go on like this, maybe we won't live next winter." old Bernard's tone dropped gradually, and finally turned into a sigh.

High taxes are annoying, but what can they do according to the Pope's hall? As long as the papal hall is still there, they have to survive in the breathtaking narrow gap of survival.

"Let's go, have breakfast together, and then see how Lanbridge and Mason are doing." old Bernard patted the Housekeeper on the shoulder and waved the maid down first.

When Gerry accompanied the mayor to the living room, he smiled and said, "not everything is bad. At least Livy and Senna should be very happy these two days."

"Why?"

"Last night, their hotels were all wrapped up, and their income exceeded nearly 100 gold coins in one night alone. When I saw them in the morning, they couldn't close their mouths." Gerry shook his head with envy.

Both levy and Senna have a hotel in the town, but since the beginning of winter. Not to mention them, the tourists in the town have become very rare, and judging from the situation in the past half a month, the tourists have almost disappeared. So suddenly there are passengers who need to charter, and they still charter two hotels, which shows that there are a lot of people, at least nearly 100 people. Old Bernard couldn't help wondering how there were so many tourists at this time.

"After breakfast, let's go and have a look."

Hearing what the mayor said, Gerry smiled and said, "the mayor is going to charge them a little tax?"

"Then their mother-in-law must quarrel in the mayor's office every day." old Bernard smiled.

At the same time, zero opened the curtains, frowned and turned over to sleep. Zero came out in a thin coat. In the hotel restaurant, Su and Haiwei were having breakfast. It's breakfast, that is, a few pieces of bread without scorching and boiling hot water, but it's a good food for this hotel.

After zero decided to attack the rock city, after gathering Trident and capable generals, about 100 people left cage and arrived in York City last night after nearly a week. Zero directly contracted two adjacent hotels as the foothold of everyone. It's only about 70 kilometers from here to rock city. If you travel at full speed, the military can arrive in less than an hour, so now, zero is not in a hurry.

Seeing him coming down, Haiwei moved a chair and said to him, "head, come and have breakfast."

You're welcome. Squeeze into their table. At this time, the wolf king Keaton and belline also came. Except for maple who was transferred to Rome to protect the Pope, his core combat power was basically all together.

Biting off a piece of bread, Su said, "boss, are we too conspicuous when we swagger in like this? As long as we are not blind, we all know we won't be a so-called caravan."

Zero smile, he did contract two hotels in the name of a caravan last night. But in fact, there was a caravan like them, wrapped in hooded cloaks, and all of them were murderous.

"As long as they make money, they won't bother. Last night, I talked with the hotel owner for a while, and the man named Senna spit a lot of bitter water on me. Sure enough, as rumored, the papal hall has adjusted the tax rate on the territory very high, which has been tightly pressed on the basic living line of the common people. Moreover, according to Senna's tone, it seems that the tax rate only increases but not decreases, and they are all angry "Zero drank a mouthful of clear water and said," in such a situation, if we suddenly received dozens of more gold coins and we didn't cause any trouble, I don't think he would ask for trouble. After all, if we live in this hotel, he can't get away with anything as a boss. "

Haiwei was lively. She put a piece of bread in her mouth and swallowed it. She said, "boss, let's talk about something interesting. Yelu didn't sleep last night and went for a walk in the rock city of others. She also brought back the details of each other's urban defense. What do you say we should do? If it's an assassination, I won't go. Let Yelu go."

When she said this, her face suddenly changed. She caught Liu and poured a glass of water in front of her. Then she breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that she had swallowed it just now.

"Assassination? I don't think it's necessary." the pocket finger dipped in water drew a rectangle on the table, representing the rock city, and said a little in the direction of the city gate: "Olan came with a message. It is said that Solon has transferred all the remaining heads of the holy seal order back to Rome in order to study how to deal with us. Therefore, there is only a conventional army in the rock city, and there is no need for us to use any assassination."

He drew an arrow pointing to the gate in the direction of the gate: "with our strength, we can push it flat. Their gate is not known as the wall of sigh, but I think the name is very appropriate. But this time, we want Sauron to sigh for it."

With that, he smiled faintly. There was no high sense of war, but strong self-confidence.

A short man suddenly ran over. He was senna, the owner of the hotel. Senna ran to zero and whispered in his ear, "no, mayor Bernard came and said he wanted to see you."

Senna opened a hotel. I haven't seen any kind of people. The people brought by zero and he knew it wasn't a caravan, but zero said they only stayed for one night, so senna and levy dared to accept them. Unexpectedly, the mayor came before they left.

Old Bernard is a good talker, but that doesn't mean he's blind. Even Senna can see zero. They're not simple, and old Bernard can't see it. The mayor is usually a kind person, and he really has nothing to say to the residents of the town. But after all, he has different positions. Senna can pretend he doesn't know, and old Bernard may not be so. Once this is broken, what are they in case of zero For people with unknown origins, both of their hotels will be implicated.

Zero said calmly, "please prepare a quiet room for me. I'll entertain the mayor in person."

Senna immediately gave him a dignified look.

"Don't worry, I won't do anything to him. If I wanted to, you wouldn't live today."

Senna looked at them again, finally nodded and went down to arrange.

"You eat, I'll meet the guest. Then, let's go." zero stood up and left.

A moment later, in the room arranged by senna, zero met old Bernard and the housekeeper Gerry. In addition to them, there were several soldiers. The soldiers stood behind the mayor and looked at zero maliciously.

Zero smiled, stretched out his hand and said, "Dear mayor Bernard, please take care of me for the first time."

Old Bernard smiled, shook hands with zero and said, "well, I heard you're businessmen. But I'm very confused. Now the road is impassable this season. I don't know what business you do?"

"Our business is very special, so please forgive me for my inconvenience here. If the mayor wants to know, please step back. I can only tell Mr. Bernard."

The housekeeper Gerry couldn't help saying, "there's something you can't say in front of everyone, unless... You're doing business that can't see the light."

"Oh?" said zero lightly, "this gentleman's guess is really interesting."

Old Bernard said, "Gerry, go out with the others first. I want to talk to this gentleman."

Gerry's face changed, but the mayor stopped him from saying anything. He had to ask the soldiers to leave the room. Then old Bernard said, "now you can say something."

But when they shook hands just now, the pocket tail finger wrote a word in Lao Bona's palm, which was a kill word. He also released a light energy jet from his fingertips, but slightly cut a bit of Lao Bona's flesh like a sharp knife, so that the mayor knew that he was not an ordinary person. In this era, as long as not fools know that those with ability are powerful, just Lao Bona's belt The soldiers here are not opponents of the capable at all.

Besides, if zero is a capable person, how can other people living in the hotel be ordinary people? This is undoubtedly the most obvious threat signal for old Bernard, so the mayor sent others away with his words.

After standing a little farther away, he spread his hand and said, "as you can see, I'm a businessman. But there's another layer of identity..."

Somehow, old Bernard suddenly felt his heart beat faster. He almost wanted to stop talking, but finally curiosity prevailed. He said, "please."

"My name is zero..."

Old Bernard's pupils narrowed suddenly. He seemed to have heard the name somewhere.

"Cage city and even cannon fortress are my territory now. I'm the leader of... Poseidon group. This is my other identity." pocket said in a flat tone, as if talking about a trivial matter.

But his words echoed in old Bernard's ears like thunder.

Zero

The leader of Poseidon group

Old Bernard only felt a whirl of heaven and earth. It seemed that there were only black and white in the world. The figure of zero was far and near, which made him feel some nausea and discomfort. The mayor gasped violently until a moment later, he said with a bitter smile: "if I knew the answer was like this, I wouldn't want to know. Hey..."

"It's nothing. Anyway, you'll know sooner or later," zero said.

Old Bernard gritted his teeth and said, "so you are here for the rock city? Is your army outside the town?"

"No, in fact, there are only two hotels. These people."

Old Bernard showed a complicated expression and finally shook his head and said, "you must be crazy. Do people dare to attack Baicheng with this? Well, now you tell me these secrets. Are you ready to kill people? I just ask you to let others go. After all, they don't know the truth."

Zero looked at him with interest and said, "the mayor is really a responsible person. Senna always stressed this to me last night. But you guessed wrong this time. I'm not going to kill you. I just want you to agree to a request."

"What request?"

"After I laid down the rock city, you helped me persuade rambridge and Masson to accept my management. To be honest, I don't want to kill unnecessarily, but if there is any objection, I don't mind giving color." zero said, "but I don't think you will refuse, because my welfare is much better than Solon."

"It's said that Sauron requires you to pay 70% of the tax every quarter. I'm just the opposite. As long as 30%, what do you think?"

"It's tempting, but how do you promise?"

"Cage city." zero said with a smile, "if you don't believe it, you can send someone to see it. I don't need you to pay too much tax. What I need is your loyalty. Besides, Sauron is not a person worth following, isn't he? The mayor should know that Sauron is listed as a figure sent by God in the divine metaphor published by his highness Paul in Rome recently."

"Can such a person become your faith?"

Old Bernard was speechless for a moment. He knew that his pocket money was heart attack tactics. Rome in the western continent is a theocratic country, and Pope Paul recently won the name of the son. He spoke of Sauron's crimes in the name of God. It is obvious that Sauron has been divided into the opposite of God. Such a ruler is naturally not a good follower. But the problem is that Sauron is still the real leader of Rome. Even old Bernard is not willing to follow him, but he can't show it too much.

Otherwise, waiting for him is the winch.

"It doesn't matter. You don't have to answer me now." zero patted him on the shoulder and said, "in another hour or so, we will leave the town and go to the rock city. If you don't get the news of the broken city tomorrow, you don't have to pay attention. Just if I break the White City, I hope the mayor can help me a little."

"You have said so, can I refuse?" old Bernard shook his head and smiled bitterly.

The terms of zero offer have been very generous. He didn't let old Bernard promise immediately, but gave him a wait-and-see opportunity. Zero. If you fail, nothing will happen. But if you succeed, give old Bernard ten courage and don't dare to hold him back.

Think about the character who can beat the rock city with only a hundred people. He has no choice but to cooperate with him.

After zero left, old Bernard wanted to stand up, but his legs softened and sat back in the chair. At this time, he found that he was in a cold sweat and his legs and stomach were shaking. He shook his head and laughed: "I'm really old."

As zero said, an hour later, his people had disappeared into the town. Standing on a clock tower in the town, watching the hundreds of people go along the road to the rock city not far away, old Bernard was in a mixed mood. Now even he can't say which side he wants to win.

It was nearly noon, guard Harlem stood in the No. 3 sentry tower of the rock city, routinely looked at the surrounding environment under the city with a telescope, and reported the words "everything is normal" to the control center with a walkie talkie.

In fact, since the beginning of winter, the army of rock city has received the order of martial law to prevent pirates in the south from attacking at any time. But most soldiers, including people like Harlem, think it's impossible. As long as they have some common sense, they know that marching in winter, radiation snow alone will kill military soldiers.

And this period of time has been calm, which has confirmed everyone's idea. Not only the soldiers think so, but also the interim commander MAIGA. But the soldiers can't hide in their warm residence and enjoy delicious food and wine like the commander. They still have to wear anti radiation clothes on duty on the wall of Baicheng on this cold morning.

This is not a pleasant job. The wall of Baicheng is as high as 60 meters, which is almost the height of a tall building. Imagine standing on the roof of a 60 meter high building. The howling cold wind is enough to freeze people's soul. Harlem is good. His post is mainly in the sentry tower. After all, he is an observer rather than a fireman, which makes him glad that he has a good relationship with the captain all the time, otherwise he will have to guard in the cold wind like others.

He yawned. Looking from the sentry tower, the blood stained road was silvery white, and the radiant snow on both sides of the road decorated the world with silvery white. If you stare for a long time, it will even affect people's eyesight. But at this time, Harlem inadvertently looked down the road and seemed to see something moving.

At first he thought it was a small animal. Lazily he looked through the telescope, but he saw that it was a group of travelers. There are about a hundred people, all wearing windproof cloaks and covering their heads and faces.

But Harlem wondered why caravans would come this season?