I Became a Genius Commander at the Academy Chapter 23

EP.23

People are beings who forget the past, but they are also animals that learn based on past experiences.

In other words, if you have experienced good results in the past, you can build on that and develop.

If you have been abused by someone or experienced a painful failure in the past, it means that you have unconsciously learned a passive attitude and a helpless fear of not being able to do anything.

And the reason why I am thinking like this is because

people who had been severely harassed by the previous lord grabbed me as I entered the meeting room and started begging for help.

“My lord, please lower the taxes. Please save me. No, more than anything, I want you to abolish the damned right to vote and the death tax.”

“In other territories, landowners and village chiefs like us harass the people, but we have never done that!”

“Even if you ask me to offer up my daughter as a concubine, I will do so willingly! Please lower the tax by 20%. There is nothing to eat. Last winter, 10 people in our village starved to death because they had nothing to eat.”

While listening to their stories, I looked at the clothing and facial skin conditions of the nobles in the territory they were talking about.

Clothes that are not rags, but are made of very rough and crude fabric. Glabrous and rough skin that proves that one has not eaten properly for a long time.

The bones and eyes of a face that has lost fat due to not eating proper nutritious food stand out.

It is said that local nobles purposely wear rough clothes in front of their lords in order to earn a little more money…

but if they have enough food to live on, they will show up in that much pain and try to do something to eat. He wouldn’t have disguised himself in front of me.

So I sighed and said.

“It’s serious. It’s very serious. I heard that the previous lord, Kokon, collected huge taxes, impoverishing the lives of the people of the territory. “I can’t believe that even you, who occupy a certain position in the local area, are in this situation.”

As I spoke words of sympathy, the eyes of the village chief and landowners began to get moist.

Some people were looking at me with anticipation and curiosity, apparently hoping that I would lower their taxes.

Even though the village chief and landowners did not ask for it, they tried to normalize taxes anyway.

“Let me settle this first before I express my thoughts in earnest. As for taxes, the 90% tax imposed on you by Lord Kocon will be reduced to 60% according to imperial law. Regarding the grain harvested this year, 30% of the grain that was extorted by the previous lord will be returned to each village from Bruno Castle. “Also, the right to vote in opposition and the death tax will be completely abolished as of this moment.”

As soon as I finished speaking, the landowners and village chiefs who were sitting in their respective seats all jumped up, shouted hurray, and even hugged each other.

“Long live my lord!”

“Now we live. “Thank you, Deus.”

“Taxes have become too light! Now I only have to pay 60%! “Is this a dream or is it real?”

In Korea, there would have been an uproar over the government deducting as much as 60% of income from taxes, but here we live in a world where we hear three cheers for choice.

It’s been 15 years since I was reincarnated in the Reich Empire, but this place felt like another world within the Reich Empire.

“Not only that, we will use the taxes collected this year for construction and work that will benefit you as much as possible.”

I currently have 11,000 gold that I received from the Emperor and Crown Prince, so if I use this, if I provide 3 years of welfare under the condition that no benefits including welfare are provided, I will not have to pay taxes for about 2 years.

However, no matter how difficult the situation in this territory is, what if they do something like ‘not receiving taxes for 1-2 years’?

The nobles around you will see the ridiculous behavior of the newly appointed lord of the neighboring territory and demand a tax cut, and they will impeach you, saying that this is disrupting the order of the empire.

There is a very high possibility that the crown prince, who is my only supporter, will just neglect me rather than protect me if I receive such criticism.

Moreover, it feels good to be exempt from taxes once, but once humans enjoy the benefits of ‘no taxation’, they cannot go back to their previous lives of paying taxes.

“But my lord, what kind of work is helpful to us?”

“It is reclaiming empty land within the territory, building a reservoir, building roads, and reorganizing the village.”

The village chief who asked me that question crossed the line a bit.

“What good does that do us? Anyway, as serfs, we have an obligation to participate in whatever the lord wants, free of charge.”

It’s not wrong.

So, the former lord, like a tax-eating pig, collected 90% in taxes from the serfs and then collected a death tax to deplete the serfs’ property.

A huge marriage tax could have been levied on couples who got married by exercising their right to vote first.

It was too terrible a story to share with the landowners and village chiefs, so they did not tell it, but there are records that many couples had to spend the bride’s first night with the lord because they did not have money to pay the wedding tax.

To that extent, the lord exercised absolute control in this village.

So, since it was not difficult to understand what he said, I continued to explain gently instead of using violence to show my dignity.

“Instead, the families of those who participate in this kind of work in their spare time will be given a cow and food to last them through the winter and spring. Of course, since I am in the position of providing food, I will not provide benefits such as ‘the right to farm the land and 10 years of tax exemption’ to those who pioneer according to imperial law, but… aren’t we urgently in need of food for tomorrow?”

In this way, like a kind of New Deal policy, even serfs who have no way to make a living will be able to provide food, clothing, and shelter.

In addition, since this is a relatively unbusy time for farming, such as winter or early spring, what would happen if more than 3,000 people and cattle were deployed to clear farmland?

There is no doubt that it will be possible to cultivate a very large area of field.

When I said that, they nodded their heads loudly and said that they liked the benefits I was providing.

“If you do as you say, my lord, we have nothing more to ask for.”

“Now the serfs will no longer starve to death in the winter…”

“Thank you, my lord. thank you.”

I can understand their feelings of joy, but I never thought there would come a day in my lifetime when I would see people who were at the same level in the provinces being thankful that the things that only serfs would worry about were resolved… Deep

inside, I thought it was absurd to see them like that because of their ancestral lord. It almost makes me sigh, but I can’t react like that in front of people who are so happy that I feel like I’m actually going to cry.

Instead, I clapped my hands twice to brighten the mood and spoke.

“In the territory, unmarried girls without fiancés and people like the second son and third son in each village will be provided with food to sustain their livelihood if they work on work such as road construction six days a week. And after working for two years, I will support men and women of the appropriate age to get married.”

In Korea, where marriage through love is the norm, such a policy would be criticized as a violation of human rights.

In this era, even for serfs, it is more common to marry as arranged by the family than to fall in love and get married.

So, if I were to make a proposal like this, it would be accepted as a good policy to increase the marriage rate by marrying old bachelors and old maids.

He said it as if he were hammering a nail into it.

“I will use the money I brought to pay for the cows that will be lent to the serf families in each village and the minimum amount of grain needed for the serfs to live right now. In addition, we will provide a minimum salary to those who carry out heavy and responsible work.”

It may have cost quite a bit of money, but the large sums of money the emperor and crown prince gave me were probably given to me to be used here.

So it’s better to think of this as an investment for the future.

“Also, I will use my authority as a temporary battalion commander to determine the crimes of the non-commissioned officers and soldiers who took the lead in exploiting the people and determine punishment. “Please understand that the officers have already been taken to a military court and are out of my hands.”

When I said that and mentioned the end to the forces that had been exploiting the people, the village chief and landowners once again expressed their sincere gratitude to me.

“thank you. Thank you, my lord…”

“Can we really live like human beings now? “I will be loyal.”

I said that as if it were obvious.

“I just enforced it according to the law. Also, when the officers are handed over to the military court, their crimes will be investigated in detail, so it will be difficult for them to avoid the death penalty. So don’t look back on your past anymore and live a new life under me.”

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