280: Chapter 154, Hot Potato = Opportunity_1 280: Chapter 154, Hot Potato = Opportunity_1 Dardiel City, the scent of war has already pervaded every corner of the city.
Unnoticeably, the prices of goods in the city have quietly begun to rise, especially for the essential daily necessities.
The Prefecture Government has issued multiple statements to stabilize prices, but in the face of rising fear and hysteria, the market has lost its rationality.
Fuelled further by greedy merchants, the prices soared even faster.
The most affected are the Northern army soldiers who have followed Viscount West southward.
Being away from home for such a long time, homesickness strikes hard.
Now with the looming war and families remaining on the Northern Front Line, these emotions intensify even more.
To soothe the soldiers’ morale, Viscount West has made many efforts.
The majority of the soldiers residing here all have established families—anxiety for their homeland runs deep in their hearts.
This includes Viscount West himself, who has spent increasingly longer time looking back to the North.
Clearly, the memory of his homeland is etched deeply in his heart.
…
“Young Master, are you just going to give up the taxing rights?” Steward Faren asked in panic.
For a prefectural governor, the taxing rights are undoubtedly the most important power, equal to financial power.
Losing financial power will definitely undermine their voice in prefectural affairs.
“There’s no time!
War is imminent, and everything has to give way to war.
Layton County’s strongest hold is the Mountain Domain.
I used to be able to exploit game rules to compete with them, but now it’s too late.
Without the cooperation of native nobles, we may struggle to gather enough strategic supplies on time.
Such matters concerning the safety of the front line can’t be delayed.
What’s more, Layton County has suffered from wars and swarms of locusts, and its economy has barely recovered.
Many territories have only managed to achieve a balance between income and expenditure.
They simply lack the resources for proper supplies, let alone find it easy to meet the demands handed down from above.
We can’t simply drive people to death, right?
This hot potato might as well be tossed to Viscount Hudson.
The Koslow Clan is widely connected, which was previously his greatest advantage, but now it has become his biggest disadvantage.
Presumably, the task of collecting taxes will fall on him, and not only will he gain nothing, he might even have to finance a lot of supplies for others.
At usual times, doing a favor is okay.
But in times of war, any little accident could turn these into bad debts,” Viscount West said with a cold smirk.
Yet the frustration in his eyes betrayed his true feelings.
Risk and return have always been proportional.
Complaining about high risks is nothing but self-consolation when powerless.
…
Mountain Domain
Viscount Hudson, the winner of this power struggle, showed no joy that a victor should have—he was just playing dead.
Apart from the required one thousand soldiers that were gathered in the shortest time, both tasks of collecting war taxes and supplies have met impediment.
Every day, a relentless stream of people came to lament their poverty.
For the nobles he wasn’t familiar with, forced execution is possible, but for relatives and old friends with whom he had a good bond, Hudson found it hard to take a tough stand.
He had strove hard for this cause with the Governor’s Mansion, and Earl Piers wasn’t being deliberately difficult with him.
The duty assigned to the nobles of Layton and Wharton Counties was only 80 percent of what other regions had to undertake.
Though the care given wasn’t sufficient, consideration was still there.
Nothing in the world is perfect.
The kingdom’s tasks were divided by province.
Some counties had less resources to offer and so other provinces had to give more— the total amount had to meet the target.
…
Seeing the constantly moaning crowd in the grand hall, Hudson rebuked exasperatedly, “Enough!
Today I invited you here to discuss solutions, not to listen to your complaints.
Fighting against the Orcs invasion, every noble of my Alpha Kingdom has a responsibility.
Our job in gathering supplies in the rear is because there are people fighting for us on the frontline.
If you feel it is unfair, you can choose to join the war.
As long as you take your troops to the frontline, you don’t need to worry about finances!
The amount of supplies needed to be collected in Layton County, you all know very well.
Whether my allocation is fair and reasonable, you all should understand.
Don’t even think about escaping the tasks assigned to you by crying.
The assignment is an absolute order and the quota must be met.
If you fail to fulfill your noble duties, your territory will be seized and your noble status forfeited.
By then, there won’t be any remedy for regret!”
The child who cries gets milk?
That only holds true at home.
In the outside world, no one is obliged to accommodate them.
If problems could be solved with uproars, then everyone would be causing a scene, and what happens to the frontline?
According to past conventions, all the nobles in various provinces were responsible for contributing money and effort.
The exception being the nobles of the North, who only needed to fight on the front line.
Everything was fair.
This mobilization mode was due to the private armies of nobles from all provinces participating in battles and adopting rotation combat patterns.
After fighting for a while, they would get to rest, replaced by others.
As for the nobles of the North, the ‘duty to guard the land’, they didn’t get such a treatment.
Once the war broke out, they had to constantly fight on the frontline till the end of the war.
In defence of their lands, the nobles of the North have exhausted every resource to expand and prepare for war.
All resources from their territories have been invested into the army, so there was no need for anyone from the kingdom to urge them.
“Respected Viscount Hudson, it’s not that we don’t want to fulfill our noble duties.
But now our territories’ expenditures exceed income, we really cannot afford this expense.”