CH 198

Lin Wen certainly didn't disappear. In fact, he forgot about the blow from that day not long after.

After all, there are more important things to deal with now.

Old Xie has come to him crying about the financial crisis more than ten times.

If there is anyone in Changshan County who doesn't want to see it fall into crisis, Old Xie would definitely be at the top of the list.

He has taken this career as his lifelong goal, and the feeling of having independent control over the finances has deeply intoxicated him, making it impossible for him to extricate himself.

He just wants to quickly bring Old Lei back and let him experience the great achievements achieved under his leadership in the financial department. He has been holding back a lot of words to boast to Old Lei.

This is a complete victory he achieved after more than ten years of struggle with Old Lei. How can there be no defeated party to add to his glory?

Therefore, when the financial crisis first appeared, Old Xie was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.

And when the income continued to decrease and the expenses continued to increase, Old Xie became very anxious.

He tried to cut expenses and save consumption everywhere, but it was all in vain.

He went to Lin Wen many times, requesting a large amount of taxation and setting up checkpoints on all major paths in Changshan County to collect tolls.

But he was rejected by Lin Wen.

Lin Wen had dealt with tax issues before, and he repeatedly used the skill "Ask the Heavens" to exempt all taxes that could generate bad karma or reduce good karma.

Especially agricultural taxes, land taxes, and field taxes.

Changshan County is a typical agricultural area, and the tax department, following the empire's usual tradition, is a powerful department that allows the use of firearms. No matter how remote the mountainous areas are, they can go door-to-door to collect taxes.

Therefore, agricultural taxes used to account for more than 70% of Changshan County's tax revenue.

But now it has been completely abolished by Lin Wen.

Another major tax, personal income tax, was directly raised to ten times the average salary in Changshan County by Lin Wen.

There are not many people in Changshan County who have this income, and those who used to have it have basically gone to heaven happily.

The only taxes still being collected in Changshan County are business tax and value-added tax, and after Old Xie's efforts, customs duties and road taxes have been added.

But the problem is that most of the project materials in Changshan County are purchased by the government. When customs duties are collected, the prices increase, which is equivalent to collecting money from oneself.

As for road taxes, Lin Wen did not agree to increase them because "No Colorful Phoenix in Body" had already reported it to the authorities, proving that this policy is unjust and will not only generate bad karma but also likely reduce Changshan County's daily good karma.

He directly ordered that checkpoints and fees should not be set up randomly in Changshan County, and only one checkpoint at the entrance and exit of the county should collect money.

As for the ferry fees on the Tianjiang River, it is a bit difficult to collect them without a lock gate.

Moreover, there are very few ships passing through the Tianjiang River from Changshan County, and most of them are currently transporting goods purchased by Changshan County.

So it has been temporarily shelved.

In short, after Lin Wen's inexplicable actions, Changshan County's tax revenue has actually decreased significantly.

Although there wasn't much to begin with, Old Xie, looking at the decreasing amount of money, has already fallen into despair. One day, he stormed into Lin Wen's office with a pig-killing knife.

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The crows were indifferent, but the security guards of the county government were frightened and rushed in.

But they saw Old Xie holding the knife to his own neck, crying and complaining to Lin Wen about how dangerous the finances are now, how they are on the edge of a cliff, and how he can't continue anymore.

Lin Wen also felt that it was indeed quite critical. With the current expenses, the finances can only be sustained for 15-20 days.

Once the funds are cut off, the materials will be cut off, and only the inventory can be consumed. Once the inventory is depleted, all projects will have to be halted.

If the next month's wages cannot be paid, the credit of the entire Changshan County will be bankrupt in an instant, and all the achievements of the construction will be destroyed.

Therefore, he decided to use his backup plan—to seek out wealthy people in other places and promote good social values to them.

In simple terms, it is to rob the rich and help the poor.

There is a big gap between the east and west of the empire, and the further east, the more developed and wealthy it is, and the better the social order.

So when Lin Wen wants to rob the rich and help the poor, he naturally chooses the eastern regions.

After scanning the map, Lin Wen settled on Longzhou.

Of course, this kind of action still needs to be somewhat discreet, so Lin Wen wore a mask and found a long-distance car in town to set off.

The process was quite difficult. Changshan County is a region that requires millions of funds, and there are very few wealthy people with such large cash flows.

When people talk about billionaires, they are referring to all their assets, including real estate, cars, stocks, companies, and so on.

Lin Wen couldn't liquidate these things or bring them back.

During his five days in Longzhou, Lin Wen caused a lot of commotion in the city, but he only managed to get a few tens of millions in cash, less than one billion in transfers. However, the bank card used for the transfers was quickly frozen, along with about tens of millions worth of valuable items.

All these things packed together were several times larger than Lin Wen himself.And now, the monthly expenditure of Changshan County is about 33 million, which is not enough for two days.

But just for this little money, Lin Wen alarmed the Imperial Guards, the State Guards, the Special Forces, and even the army.

Tanks drove directly onto the streets, and helicopters whizzed through the city's airspace.

The entire city was sealed off, with soldiers and tanks on the streets and reporters running fast, frantically searching for clues and information about the mysterious criminal "Tian Dao".

Indeed, "Tian Dao" has become the most popular entertainment news in the eastern part of the empire, with its popularity soaring and surpassing many other important news, quickly becoming the second most attention-grabbing news after the ongoing war.

The reporters here would receive generous rewards for any piece of information, even if it was false or fabricated, as long as it had value.

The reason for this title is that Lin Wen felt that an ordinary mask could not show his status, so he personally wrote two big characters, "Tian Dao," on the front of the mask.

Then he wore the "Tian Dao" mask and searched the streets for billionaires, using the "Immortal's Guidance" function if he couldn't find them.

For example, questions like "Where is the richest person near me?" that have no specific direction and low consumption.

Then Lin Wen would directly visit them, and at a glance, if more than half of them were black, he would directly rob them of their cash and transfer their savings.

Fixed assets were more troublesome, with too many transfer procedures, and this was not Changshan County where they could be easily transported and realized, so he gave up.

For those who were all black, after squeezing them dry, he would punch them to death, leaving behind a headless corpse lying in their luxurious villas, clubs, or streets, too lazy to collect the bodies.

And then, Longzhou exploded.

"Billionaires Robbed Empty, Robbers Actually Did This!"

"Headless Corpse Appears on the Street, Why Did the Billionaire Suffer Such a Brutal Murder? Is It the Loss of Morality or the Distortion of Humanity? Please Enter the Legal Program of the Empire's Twelfth Radio Station."

"Shocking! Terrorists Appear in Longzhou, Millions of Guards Helpless!"

Various news with sensational headlines gained tremendous popularity, and newspaper ratings and TV viewership skyrocketed.

When a reporter filmed a person wearing a white mask outside Longzhou Baihe City, who directly punched at least 100 members of the Supervision Guard, this news completely exploded.

The most sensational shot was when the last person fell, the mysterious person covered in a cloak and covered in blood turned his head.

Although the reporter was trembling like crazy, his professional instinct made him quickly zoom in on the shot, giving the mysterious person a close-up of his face.

On the pure white mask were written two big characters.

"Tian Dao."

The mysterious person just glanced at him and turned and walked away, leaving only a background for the reporter.

And so, this mysterious criminal was given the title of "Tian Dao," and various media outlets used their imagination to analyze his background, experiences, youth, family, love stories, and so on from his series of actions.

Because "Tian Dao" never targeted civilians and rarely attacked reporters, only attacking wealthy and notorious billionaires.

Therefore, the impression of him among reporters and the public changed from a "super terrifying terrorist with extraordinary skills" to a "vengeful avenger and fighter who had a tragic background, was abandoned by his girlfriend, had his company bankrupt, and suffered amnesia in a car accident" or "a resistor and fighter when justice cannot be upheld."

And then, "Tian Dao" became popular.

Longzhou Governor Gu Zhengyi was severely reprimanded by the highest Elder Council for this, and the Elder Council demanded that he capture "Tian Dao" at all costs and punish him publicly to uphold the dignity of the empire, and if necessary, kill him.

Gu Zhengyi was furious. He hated this disaster that came out of nowhere. Not only did it interrupt his wonderful vacation, but it also caused him huge losses.

He immediately mobilized all his forces to encircle and suppress him, but that disaster seemed to have disappeared suddenly and could no longer be seen.

Gu Zhengyi was worried and didn't know how to explain it to the highest Elder Council.

Coincidentally, the First Princess, who was visiting as a guest, bid him farewell.

The First Princess asked, "Governor Gu, why the long face?"

Gu Zhengyi explained the situation.

The First Princess smiled slightly, "It's simple, find a scapegoat and claim that you have caught him."

Gu Zhengyi asked, "But what if he reappears?"

The First Princess smiled, "After the mask, who knows what's real or fake?"

"When the fake becomes real, the real becomes fake."

Gu Zhengyi suddenly realized and immediately followed her advice.

Sure enough, the situation calmed down. Although some people questioned it, they couldn't produce solid evidence to refute it, and the highest Elder Council also praised Gu Zhengyi's decisive actions.

Moreover, although Longzhou's economy suffered heavy losses, estimated to be in the billions, many places where "Tian Dao" had fought became tourist attractions afterwards.The execution platform for the public execution of the "Heavenly Dao" had become a tourist holy land. The ticket revenue alone was overwhelming, not to mention the economic benefits brought by tourism.

Truly worthy of being called the most virtuous in the empire, Her Highness Li Linyue.

Gu Zhengyi thought to himself.

Perhaps he could get a little closer.

Meanwhile, Lin Wen inexplicably received a few points of good karma.

Benefiting all beings, good karma +5.

Spiritual guidance, good karma +2.

Better than nothing, Lin Wen didn't mind. This trip to Longzhou could be said to be a loss.

In five days, he had only managed to gather less than two days' worth of resources from Changshan County. Not to mention the wasted energy, time, and spirit, he didn't have much good karma, but he had a pile of bad karma.

Indiscriminate killing, bad karma +11.

Harming all beings, bad karma +51.

【Bad Karma: 328】

Lin Wen was utterly annoyed. It usually took ten days for his natural state of Dao to recover to its peak. Before that, the reduction of bad karma actually couldn't reach 1 point per day.

Having too much bad karma greatly affected him and would impact the implementation of his final plan.

In short, this operation proved that this method was very inefficient. The main reason was that the fixed assets of the rich couldn't be liquidated. He could only rob a bit of floating wealth, and the actual income was very low.

The only lucky thing was that he got a piece of news from the last wealthy man.

He was a gold merchant who had invested in a new gold mine.

The gold mine had just completed its first major mining operation and was about to call a shareholders' meeting to distribute the mined gold.

Upon hearing this, Lin Wen became interested.

Isn't this perfect?

I can't move houses, cars, or company buildings, but I can surely move gold, right?

I'm not asking for much, with my strength of 300 tons, I'll be satisfied if I can move 150 tons.