Chapter 99: It's Hard to Be a Town Mayor
Beluga went offline at noon and came back online after four o'clock in the afternoon when the event ended.
He logged off in Westerham and was still in Westerham when he came back.
The street scene of the small town in the early morning had no appeal to Ouyang. He did not even leave the online point and went directly back to the Exile Town.
Coming out of the teleportation point at the Cross Street in Exile Town, Ou Yan casually opened his personal panel and looked at his character values.
"ID: European sturgeon"
"Race: Undead"
"Gender: Male"
"Level: 2"
"Potential value: 124"
Ouyang turned off the panel silently...
Although he plays the game like a stand-alone player and lives in seclusion like a hermit among gamers, Beluga sturgeon certainly has a heart that wants to be the best.
At this stage of the game, his potential is enough to beat all the kids. After all, most of the players are still at the 70~80 potential level.
But... in terms of potential ranking, the European sturgeon can't even make it into the top three...
Ji Tang, the number one player in the game, has a potential value of 168. He is so outstanding that no one can envy him.
That would be fine, after all, Ji Tang is a former special forces soldier who couldn't even say the unit number of his service - although Ji Tang himself has never admitted it, it doesn't stop players from labeling him a soldier king.
The most annoying thing is that the second and third place in the potential ranking cannot be considered pure players.
The two old uncles in the Chamber of Commerce cafeteria, Uncle Geng with the ID Lao Geng has a potential value of 141, and the uncle with the ID Master Liu has a potential value of 130.
Players go to the Chamber of Commerce cafeteria to complete quests, exchange materials and equipment, and they feel extremely sad and angry whenever they see their statistics... They are also unwilling to accept that these two old uncles' statistics are soaring that players can't catch up even if they try their best, but they are too embarrassed to criticize the shady uncle party at the elders who are obviously not here to play the game.
Uncle Geng and Uncle Liu hang around the canteen every day when they go online. They have to cook for all the NPCs in the town and exchange materials and equipment for them, the players. They want the players to sacrifice their gaming experience in exchange for equipment, but they may not be willing to do so.
Anyway, these two uncles don't compete with players for monsters or quests, so they can just cheat on the numbers...
Ouyang has no desire to compete with these two cafeteria masters. He always seems to be in a peaceful state of mind when he sees them.
As soon as Ouyou entered the canteen of the Chamber of Commerce carrying half a bag of grasshoppers, Master Liu greeted him warmly: "Here you are, little brother. What are you bringing this time?"
Ou Yan looked around, walked to the cupboard, took out a plastic basin, poured out the grasshoppers in the bag, and showed it to Master Liu.
"How can you catch this? Did you catch it in Westham?" Master Liu was surprised and picked up a grasshopper with two finger bones. "Wow, it's quite big!"
Lao Geng, who was busy steaming buns (also frozen), came out from behind the half-open kitchen counter, wiped his hands on his waist cloth, picked up a grasshopper and looked at it: "Not bad, Lao Liu, this will taste good if you coat it with salt and fry it in oil."
Master Liu didn't respond immediately, but used an identification technique first, just like a tool man - their NPC panel also has a player skill panel - to confirm that the grasshopper was identified as a white word, and then he readily accepted it: "Okay, it can be used, I'll weigh it. Little brother, are you still exchanging it for reputation this time?"
Ouyang nodded.
There are currently two ways to gain reputation with the Undead Chamber of Commerce. One is to complete tasks in the Chamber of Commerce cafeteria, and the other is to hand in materials.
Ouyang has trained the butcher's life skills. Almost all the "products" produced are collected in the canteen. He doesn't need to wait for tasks and can get them faster than ordinary players...
Master Liu accepted most of the basin of grasshoppers and skillfully opened the tool panel: "Hey, little brother, your reputation has reached friendly this time. It's good. You are the first."
Ouyang had been keeping the panel open. As new reputation came in, his reputation bar reached full bar and friendly level. Options to exchange for designated materials, potions, equipment, and props popped up, and an option to hire NPCs was added. He was immediately excited.
You should know that it is not easy to gain reputation with the Undead Chamber of Commerce. The tasks issued every day are very limited. If you don’t arrive in time, you will miss it.
Hand in the materials in exchange. The Chamber of Commerce canteen doesn't accept all materials like other NPC reputations do - they only accept usable ingredients.
"What? Someone is friendly?"
Two round skulls of players immediately popped out from behind the semi-open kitchen cabinets: "Who's so fast - ah, Big Boss Beluga!"
"You still beat me to it." Teacher Yuchi, who has been in charge of the cafeteria for a long time, said regretfully, "I said I would be the first to become friendly after completing today's cafeteria routine."
"You're almost there, Yuchi, you're only 200 points away." Master Liu said with a smile, "Miss Xiao Liu is even further away, she still needs more than a thousand points."
Sister Liu Meng scratched her head embarrassedly: "Oh, I was on an expedition mission recently, so I was delayed ."
Ouyang nodded to the two female players in a friendly manner... They were all people who were working hard to gain reputation in the Guild of Commerce. They would run into each other several times a day. Even if they were not very close, they were at least familiar with each other.
At this time, another tool player appeared from the side door of the semi-open kitchen: "Someone come and help fetch water, the water tank is empty."
"I'll do it, I'll do it." Sister Liu Meng immediately ran over lively.
The new canteen tool of the Chamber of Commerce, whose ID is Qiye Zhenzhen and whose real name is Zhao Zhenzhen, is a big sister with a royal sister voice. When she saw Ou Yan standing outside the counter, she called out to him, "Do you want to do the task? If you do, come over here."
Without saying a word, Beluga went straight into the kitchen.
He came here at this time to deliver the grasshopper, actually he wanted to see if he could get a job in the cafeteria...
Zhao Zhenzhen came online during the second expedition mission. At that time, all the players were focused on the expedition mission, and did not notice that the "uncle party" who were playing shady games had gained a new general. Otherwise, the player forum would probably be flooded with criticism for a while - Zhao Zhenzhen also obviously "cheated" in her potential value as soon as she entered the game, with an initial potential of 122 points.
Around 7:30 in-game time, the NPCs who stayed in the town came over one after another to eat.
The players' tasks only included meal preparation; they did not have to do tasks like washing dishes and cleaning. Teacher Yuchi, who had children, greeted Sister Liu Meng and hurried off the line to cook.
Sister Liu Meng was not idle either. She packed up and prepared to teleport to Westram to take on the cooking task there.
"Boss Ou Yan, do you want to go with us?" Sister Liu Meng greeted him politely before they parted.
Ouyang shook his head to refuse, turned around and went to the butcher's workshop... He still didn't want to play with others, it was too troublesome.
After all the players left, the three working men in the Chamber of Commerce cafeteria gathered together and whispered to each other.
"Xiao Zhao, there are several situations at the research institute. Shouldn't we arrange an assistant for you?" Lao Geng said in a low voice.
"I'm afraid it won't work." Zhao Zhenzhen said, "Director Lu tried his best to squeeze out this helmet for me. There are not enough helmets in the institute right now. The patients waiting for clinical stimulation are all waiting in line."
"It's indeed troublesome..." Old Geng pondered for a moment, and said, "How about this, I see that this little girl Liu Meng spends a lot of time online, she's simple-minded, and likes to cook, you see, why don't you develop her."
Master Liu shook his head and said, "That's not appropriate, Brother Geng. Young people these days are so smart. If they come into contact with her too much, they might find something wrong. You can't just go find this girl in real life and ask her to sign a confidentiality agreement, right?"
"What's wrong with that? College graduates have to find jobs anyway. Why not just recruit them?" Old Geng waved his claws and said in a very generous manner.
Zhao Zhenzhen didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Uncle Geng, our department has regulations on this..."
"What rules and regulations are there? We didn't have so many rules back then." Lao Geng said dissatisfiedly.
"Hey, Brother Geng, times have changed," Master Liu quickly tried to smooth things over. "Young people today are different from those in the past. They are much more flexible. Besides players, we can also consider locals. That's a town with many locals, so it's not impossible for us to develop it a bit—"
"How can we develop local people if we can't even understand each other's speech?" Lao Geng frowned.
Master Liu chuckled and winked at Zhao Zhenzhen: "Even though Brother Geng doesn't understand, you definitely do, right, Xiao Zhao?"
Zhao Zhenzhen was once again at a loss for words...
The players had no temper towards the old couple, and she had no temper either, especially towards Mr. Liu. This uncle was really smarter than a monkey - players could hire NPCs, and Ji Tang, the mayor, certainly had a way to communicate with the NPCs; but their purpose of contacting the NPCs was completely different from that of the players, and they needed to keep it confidential.
Old Geng frowned and looked at Zhao Zhenzhen, then looked at Old Liu who was laughing, and realized that Zhao Zhenzhen had already found a solution to the problem. Old Liu also guessed it, but the two of them were pretending to be ignorant and not informing him.
Old Geng didn't want to cause trouble for Zhao Zhenzhen, so he just pointed at Old Liu and said, "Okay, Old Liu, you're so good. You didn't tell me anything and just let me worry about it here!"
Master Liu just shook his head and smiled.
It was 6pm on Earth, 11am on the other world.
Zhao Zhenzhen, riding a tricycle fully loaded with goods, appeared at the teleportation point in the middle of the Westram Town Hall.
The teleportation array is actually a summoning array. In addition to summoning players, it can also summon the supplies carried by players. As long as the objects are not larger than the magic array with a diameter of two and a half meters, they can be teleported along with the players, saving the trouble of setting up a magic array freezer in Westram.
Zhao Zhenzhen had been to Westham before and rode a tricycle out of Westham's town hall. After a while, she found the main street in the town with ease and stopped in front of a small two-story half-wood and half-brick and stone building in an ancient style.
This medieval-style building was originally a bar. Now the store sign, colored lights, private rooms and small compartments inside, bar counters, etc. have all been removed, and a sign for the Chamber of Commerce Canteen Westham Branch has been hung on it...
When Ji Tang, who was waiting in front of the cafeteria branch, stopped the tricycle, he smiled and walked forward and extended his hand: “Sister Zhao, long time no see.”
"Long time no see." Zhao Zhenzhen held Ji Tang's hand, then pulled him over with his hand and hugged him tightly.
Both of them have a military temperament, but Zhao Zhenzhen is obviously not an ordinary soldier. She gives people a more restrained feeling.
Ji Tang handed the new key to Zhao Zhenzhen and led her in to introduce the people: "These two are here to help in the cafeteria. This is Lika, and this is Brooke."
Lika and Brook both had azalea badges on their chests, so there was no communication barrier and they bowed to Zhao Zhenzhen stiffly.
Zhao Zhenzhen smiled and nodded to the young Brooke. When she looked at Lika, her eyes sparkled: "Hello, my last name is Zhao. You can call me Sister Zhao like Ji Tang did."
The young Brooke was a little bit overwhelmed. Although the undead lady in front of him had a brisk voice and an approachable attitude, she gave him an unfathomable feeling... He swallowed and said with some fear: "Okay, Ms. Zhao."
"Just call me Sister Zhao." Zhao Zhenzhen had never seen such a pretty boy in real life, so she grabbed the boy's head.
"Sister Zhao." Lika said obediently.
"Hey." Zhao Zhenzhen nodded happily and pinched the orc girl's cheek. "Look at how thin she is. Her face is not even as big as a palm. Do you eat well?"
"Eat, eat well at every meal." Lika said more obediently.
The orcs were also very intelligent. Lika instinctively felt that the evil spirit of the undead lady in front of her was bottomless, even scarier than Hal who always had a fierce look on his face...
Westham was in a state of disrepair and Ji Tang had a lot of things waiting to be done. Zhao Zhenzhen didn't come to Westham just to manage the canteen. He left the preparations for opening the store to the two young coolies, and Zhao Zhenzhen, the person in charge of the canteen branch... was taken to the town hall by Ji Tang.
In the mayor's office, Ji Tang held out a thick stack of paper documents and said, "The files left by the previous mayor show that the last population survey was conducted more than 20 years ago. Many people in the files have passed away, and the newly added population is not in the files. Now the townspeople are quite resistant to us. Many families are unwilling to accept the census. When the clerk knocks on the door, they either pretend not to be at home or are unwilling to truthfully disclose the population of their family... There is still a lot of work to do with the masses."
Zhao Zhenzhen flipped through it and said, "There's no head tax in this place?"
"No." Ji Tang said, "The population tax in the towns of the Rhine Kingdom is collected on a household basis, with the income of the oldest male head of the family as the basis for taxation. I think this tax policy is tilted towards the top. I flipped through the Innadeli newspaper that the former mayor subscribed to. Those aristocratic families are very powerful. A family can easily have hundreds or thousands of people. Except for the oldest male head of the family, the personal income of others does not have to be taxed. There is a lot of room for manipulation here."
Zhao Zhenzhen chuckled, not too surprised...
The experts at the research institute are working hard to decipher the text of this world. Ji Tang, who can only read without obstacles in the "game", has recorded a lot of videos of himself reading newspapers for the experts to use as reference. Zhao Zhenzhen has also seen some of these videos.
In Zhao Zhenzhen's view, this world that seems to have a certain level of technological content and a systematic civilization is actually a deformed pyramid society that is semi-feudal and semi-capitalist. Under the king are the nobles of all sizes who rule over their fiefdoms. These nobles not only divide the land and the people, but also control the economic lifeline. They have the roots of feudal power and the branches of capital plunder, so it would be strange if they did not abuse their power crazily.
"The weak trunk leads to the strong branches. No wonder Lord Yang dared to take away a piece of land so boldly." Zhao Zhenzhen threw away these useless files and asked, "Do you, as the mayor, have the authority to collect taxes?"
"No." Ji Tang shook his head. "But there is no need to worry about this. Lord Yang has delegated power to Charlie Rex and will not interfere with Rex's governance of Westram. Rex has communicated with me that the tax policy of the Rhine Kingdom will not be implemented here. There will be no population tax on town residents , and the family tax will also be abolished. We have the opportunity to encourage the masses to separate their families through policies."
After Ji Tang got the mayor's name, the expert group began to discuss the basic route of how to make Westram a gateway for Chinese people to see the other world and even influence the other world...
The mass line must be followed, this is the consensus of the Chinese people.
The first step of the mass line for the urban population is to separate large families - this policy was given the highest priority after Ji Tang's attempt to recruit more workers failed.
The Rhine people are accustomed to living in large families as a countermeasure to taxation. In their native environment, this is indeed the best solution to deal with survival risks - there is strength in numbers, and this principle applies in every world.
But if a small society is composed entirely of large families with three generations, dozens or even hundreds of people, then this small society will tend to be more conservative, xenophobic, and anti-innovative.
When recruiting sanitation workers and garbage station workers, as the red-light district had been cancelled, some townspeople who made a living by selling snacks and providing shoe-shining, car-washing and laundry services in the red-light district were eager to find a job. Even if they did not trust that the new town hall could survive until payday, they were willing to sign up for the sake of two meals a day.
When Ji Tang found Rex with the suggestions given by the expert group, discussed a solution to the employment rate of the townspeople, and posted a notice to recruit young and strong workers... no one came.
The security team that replaced the militia can also transform back into the previous militia when a new lord comes and keep their job. After all, no matter who takes over Westham, they will need local young and strong people to ensure the most basic law enforcement work.
For ordinary workers, their future is uncertain... Even if there are young people with nothing to do at home who want to try it, their families will discourage them.
"Let's first consider gaining the trust of the townspeople." Zhao Zhenzhen said, "What advice does the expert group give you in this regard?"
"Recruit temporary workers who will be paid on a daily basis." Ji Tang said, "The renovation of the town's main road still requires a large number of manpower, and it is unrealistic to rely entirely on players. Take this as a breakthrough point, recruit temporary workers from the townspeople, and pay them on a daily basis. Implement this for about half a month, and when the townspeople are used to coming to the town's main road to work and get paid, then start recruiting contract workers."
"Then let's do this first." Zhao Zhenzhen nodded, "There are still a large number of rural populations outside, what about the rural areas?"
"We can't do rural construction right now, but we can try to get in touch with the villages first." Ji Tang said, "The expert group's suggestion is that while the autumn harvest is here, it is better to take out the grain unified purchase policy to solve the problem of farmers' difficulty in paying taxes."
The Rhine Kingdom adopted a unified household taxation policy for the non-agricultural population - no matter how the common people tried to avoid taxes by forming large families, they could not avoid the nobles with a larger population - and for the agricultural population, a tithe tax was adopted.
Don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean that farmers only need to hand over 10% of their crops...but they need to pay 10% of their income to the king, the church, and the local lords at the same time.
It cannot be a tax in kind, it must be paid.
Farmers need to sell at least 50% of their crops to grain merchants sent by local lords during the autumn harvest. Only then will the money from the sales be enough to pay the agricultural tax. If the harvest is good and the grain price is low, even 50% of the crops will not be enough to fill this hole...
During the reign of Baron Marcus, farmers in all of Westham had to sell their grain to the stewards sent by Baron Marcus to collect the grain. By simply lowering the grain price, they could easily earn a large sum of gold coins - otherwise, why would the nobles in this world be so persistent in pursuing fiefdoms! Who wouldn't like to make a lot of money every autumn harvest?
Rex replaced Baron Marcus. The "share" of the "local lords" could be cancelled, but the portion paid to the king and the church could not be reduced. After all, Westham had not yet raised the flag of rebellion... At this critical juncture when farmers have to work hard every year, in order to solve the most troublesome problems for local farmers, it is necessary to quickly win the hearts of the rural population.
After hearing this, Zhao Zhenzhen was silent for a moment... and said faintly: "This step... is a bit difficult."
Ji Tang also nodded solemnly.
The idea is a good one, but the problem is that the mayor Ji Tang has no money - the mayor has the right to control the land sale income and taxes, and neither of them is available for the time being!
Rex, the Lord of Westram, fully supported Ji Tang, but he only had a few tens of thousands of copper coins on hand, not a single extra word.
There are more than a dozen villages and thousands of farmers around Westham. Rex wants to come up with a one-time fund to buy the crops produced by these farmers, but the few copper coins he has are not enough!
When the players liberated Westram, most of the bonuses were taken away by Lord Yang - it is extremely difficult to get money out of this guy's pocket!
"Let Rex go and persuade Lord Yang?" Zhao Zhenzhen said.
"I tried, but Rex...didn't dare to take this up." Ji Tang said in an even heavier tone.
It is true that Rex is a good man, but being a good man does not mean being stupid - it would be impossible to purchase the output of all the farmers in the territory of Westram without several thousand gold coins, and he does not think that he has such a big face in front of Yang!
"Okay... then we have to find a solution." Zhao Zhenzhen touched his own skull with a headache.
"In this world, it should be August now." Ji Tang said, "The local lord needs to send the tax money to Innadri before October, so there is still time."
"Then let's do what the copper coins in Rex's hand can do." Zhao Zhenzhen nodded.
Next, the two national teams began to calculate the manpower needed to renovate the town's main road, how much daily wages would be appropriate for temporary workers,
When Zhao Zhenzhen was thinking about how to use the money in Rex's hands more effectively, she suddenly heard a "ding" sound in her ear.
This lady had hardly played any games before entering "Another World". After a moment of hesitation, she remembered that there was a prompt on the "Tool Man" panel, so she quickly summoned the panel.
Then Zhao Zhenzhen's eyes became a little straight...
"Sister Zhao?" Ji Tang asked curiously.
"...I received a notification, um, from the system." Zhao Zhenzhen said expressionlessly, "The branches of the Undead Chamber of Commerce that are sent outside of Tarantan are non-profit-making units. They are responsible for their own profits and losses during the operation period."
Ji Tang: “…”
"What I mean is that the cafeteria branch here needs to pay for the ingredients from Exile Town... and you will be in charge of the profit part?" Ji Tang said with a twitch of his mouth.
Zhao Zhenzhen nodded.
There was a moment of silence between the two...
Classifying Westham's cafeteria branch as a profit-making unit means that Lord Yang tacitly acknowledges that Zhao Zhenzhen, the "tool man", has the right to control the profits of the cafeteria branch.
This is certainly not a sudden act of kindness on the part of Lord Yang to increase the freedom of the tool man.
This lord who could monitor all players with unscientific magic means was clearly hinting to the two people who were "plotting" in the town hall: You want to win the hearts of the people with money, I have no objection. Find a way to earn the funds yourself, don't even think about taking a single gold coin from me.
