Since everyone came to the meeting one after another, Li Xuanying began to complain to Guo Kang in a low voice.
This guy was so eloquent that he even gave Guo Kang the feeling of going to school when he was a child, secretly chatting with his classmates behind the teacher's back.
"I have always found these people not very trustworthy." He glanced at the representatives of the Ross vassal country opposite and said in a low voice: "But to be honest, if Greek officials were allowed to manage it, it would probably be even worse - they would definitely They will levy excessive amounts of money, line their own pockets, force all the local civilians and nobles to rebel, and then escape back in ruins, leaving us to clean up the mess."
"Then don't worry about it." Guo Kang pointed out: "Sooner or later, people's hearts will belong to us."
Although what he said was a bit unpleasant, Guo Kang felt that it made sense unexpectedly.
The Greeks' level of scraping is truly amazing. It is said that when the Arabs invaded the peninsula, they were not greatly hindered because Eastern Rome and Sasanian Persia were so exploitative. Even if the religious taxes of the pagans are included, the ratio collected by the Arabs is lower than that of the two of them. Therefore, many people would rather join the Arabs than follow the empire.
Even without a long-term war, the taxes of Eastern Rome could still be collected to the point where the population of wealthy areas like Thrace could not grow. This method of exploitation was later perfectly inherited by Osman. In modern times, when the world's population was growing rapidly, the Ottomans brought the population of Egypt and Asia Minor back to the level of three generations in ancient times. All I can say is that the people here are a bit awesome...
Of course, different civilizations and regions seem to have different taxation habits. For example, Arab taxes are too high in the East. Even if they were exempted from additional taxes, the Central Asians still could not accept the taxes from the Arab Empire. They held anti-tax riots every three days, hoping that the Tang Dynasty would take charge and drive away the Arabs.
It is also because of this that the Tang Dynasty and its affiliated forces were very popular in the local area most of the time - because they wanted less. Each time, the Tang Dynasty was able to obtain more intelligence and more adequate supplies, so that the Arab army repeatedly suffered losses because it was not as familiar with the roads, terrain, and water sources as the other party in its theoretically controlled areas.
The military operation went smoothly until Gao Xianzhi went back on his word and massacred the city, scaring away his local followers.
Therefore, everyone in the Khan's court actually understands that the best way to gain the support of local people is to charge less money. This is much more effective than religion, political system, etc. The support of local people is actually part of the strategic advantage. This advantage can directly affect the performance of the military's combat effectiveness, and thus affect the outcome of the war.
Of course, there are many factors that determine the outcome of a war, and this is just one of them. But unless the gap in combat effectiveness in other aspects is large to a certain extent, this factor still has to be taken into consideration - at least, with this level of combat effectiveness gap between the regular army of the Tang Dynasty and the black-clad army, this factor cannot be ignored.
"Aren't your father and the Poles fighting now?" Li Xuanying asked.
"Not yet." Guo Kang said, "But we are not afraid of them. We are fully prepared this time."
The system of the Purple Horde Khanate comes more from the Liao Kingdom, or in other words, from the Tang Dynasty. East Asia is a tax depression. The Guo family's farmland on the north shore of the Black Sea has a tax rate of one-fifteenth, but the actual tax burden shared by farmers is about one-third. However, this tax is already very low locally.
Next door, Poland, implements a system based mainly on land rent. To put it simply, it is similar to the well-field system. The difference from Western Zhou Dynasty is that they are calculated based on working hours rather than working area. Peasants had to work on the lord's private fields three to four days a week. During the busy farming season, because the lord requested to cultivate his private land more intensively, the working hours had to be increased, and some people even extended it to six days.
This is just one of them. Since most people were serfs, they did not even own the tools. Therefore, cattle, horses, plows and other livestock equipment had to be rented from the lord, and then a rent was extorted. If you want to process the grown grain, you have to rent the lord's mill, which is also one of the lord's main financial resources. I don’t know how much miscellaneous taxes like this would add up to, it basically depends on the mood of the lord.
Therefore, Polish serfs in the border areas often fled and came here to seek asylum.
In Eastern Europe, due to the level of exploitation, it was very common for serfs to escape, and they would even form their own village communities and even political powers. These people call themselves "freemen" and are called "Cossacks" in the local language.
With the existence of the Purple Horde Khanate, serfs fled more frequently, and many of them were incorporated by Guo and others. The Polish nobles were so indignant that the Parliament of the Republic finally issued a letter of credence in a hurry and protested to the majority, thinking that everyone was fighting a war, and your approach was too unkind. As a noble, he went to please the serfs and poach other nobles. Do you still follow the rules and have dignity?
Everyone in the Guo family didn't know how to answer him. Finally, Lama Wang came forward and told the envoy that we were Nestorian heretics and did not abide by the rules of the Catholic aristocracy, so the matter was dealt with.
"I'm afraid we can't wait." Li Xuanying continued from the side: "In fact, not only the Poles, but also many serfs and even soldiers from the Russian countries have escaped to join us. As time goes by, it is estimated that there will be a second Civil War. I’m mentally prepared anyway.”
"Don't be afraid. Anyway, the Muscovites will report it to us in time." Guo Kang joked: "A few days ago, the representative of Novgorod came to complain to the Great Khan. When the Great Khan was not there, he complained to the Tao Huan. Said Moscow claimed If we didn’t collect enough taxes, we just robbed their caravans.”
"Moscow didn't admit it either, saying it was either robbery or legal tax collection. Anyway, the difference between the two was not very obvious, so they didn't come to an argument. I think we will have to fight again this time."
"Moscow has always disliked them." Li Xuanying nodded and said: "Tver has been in trouble for the past few years. Otherwise, I would probably have to beat him up in a group."
