Chapter 286: Holy Land Edict
Horn hired these extraordinary knights not because he had too much money to spend, but because there was a real need for them.

The main need was to combat banditry and deter the Ibe Knights to the south.

From the bloody battle of Jeanne d'Arc to the Battle of Pavia, a series of battles completely defeated the main supernatural forces of the entire Kush territory.

The remaining extraordinary knights did not dare to confront head-on and could only defend the earthen villages in the countryside or fight guerrilla warfare in the wild.

Horn needs a force that is more mobile and can fight head-on with the Power Knights.

He was originally planning to go to the mountains to find cheap and high-quality mountain infantry, but he didn't expect the Norsemen to come to his door.

This group of bandit knights was not large in number, but they came and went like the wind, attacking villages at will, and the Holy Gun Cavalry were too busy to handle them.

Besides, they also have to provide warmth to each of the knight families who are resisting stubbornly.

Most new regimes are bound to be haunted by the ghosts of the previous dynasties in their early stages.

So it may seem precarious to the outside world, but Horn knows that most of the time it just serves to scare people.

No matter what happens outside, in this spring plowing season, whether we go south or west, we must first organize production and take good care of Jeanne d'Arc, the rear base.

So after entering Jeanne d'Arc and announcing the convening of a meeting of believers seven days later, the first thing Horn had to do was to settle the accounts.

All the accountants in Joan of Arc were gathered together to start compiling and reconciling the tax books.

A lot of the children's troops also participated in the event, and Horn's mathematics education over the past six months finally produced certain results.

It is definitely impossible for them to do the accounting independently, but they are more than capable of helping the old masters. It is a good opportunity for them to learn through practice.

This major reconciliation has not been completed to this day. When Horn was sitting in the study on the second floor of the City Hall, he could still hear the sound of flipping books and fiddling with slide rules downstairs.

Shaking his head, Horn sat down at the desk and pulled out a tax report submitted by Madeleine this morning from the shelf next to him.

This tax report is a report on the results of this accounting.

But you don't know this until you calculate it. You'll be shocked when you calculate it.

According to the church's tax books, the total tax paid by Longsander County to the Kingdom of Leia is around 8500 to 9000 gold pounds each year.

According to estimates compiled from the account books of various knights and the Duke of Kush himself, the Lord of Kush alone collected 2.5 gold pounds from citizens, farmers, craftsmen and even refugees every year.

After deducting the 5000 gold pounds in land tax paid to the kingdom, three-quarters of the remaining taxes went to the church and monasteries, and one-quarter remained in the accounts of knights and nobles.

As for the part that flowed into the church, basically half of it went to the Holy See City. According to the account books of the Kush Territory in 1443, a total of 7816 gold pounds flowed into the Holy See City.

As for Darnay himself, after deducting the difference made by the middle lords, his income from land tax and poll tax in 1443 was only a pitiful 979 gold pounds, less than half of his commercial tax income.

This situation has continued since Dane's father ascended the throne.

Over the past few decades, the knights were slightly better off. After all, they still had to deal with some conflicts with the Black Snake Bay and the Norns in the south, and war definitely costs money.

It is true that you can only enter the monastery but not leave. Horn was curious at first, but money cannot be used to eat, so what is the point of saving so much?
It was not until the account books of the monastery and the Holy See Bank were delivered to him that Horn realized that it was the Vatican that was really good at making money.

To put it simply, it relied on the knights' violent suppression and the priests' preaching of piety to force local civilians to pay taxes far exceeding reasonable levels.

These taxes were divided into many parts, but after all, the bulk of the money ended up in the hands of the church.

After the money entered the monastery in the name of donations, purchase of indulgences, funerals and other sacraments, the monastery began to use it to invest in underground industries such as gambling houses, technical academies, and arenas.

Whenever a craftsman or laborer builds a good business through his own efforts, rogues will lure them into the underground industry.

Once all your money is cheated away, you will only be left with usury. What should you do if you cannot repay the loan sharks?
He mortgaged his property to the monastery, and was then forced to work for free by the monks as debtors.

The dwarf Halkin is a living example. If Horn had not killed the creditor, he and Brock would have become debt slaves of the monastery.

To be honest, Horn said that only a few large monasteries relied on this method, while small monasteries just operated normally and made loans.

Even though they were only engaged in normal lending and business activities, relying on tax exemption privileges and franchises, they indirectly caused the bankruptcy of farmers and small shop owners.

In this nearly zero-sum game situation, if someone benefits, someone else must suffer.

According to the church's account books, eighty years ago, there were more than 400 knight families in Kush Territory. Now, the number of knight families in Kush Territory is only over 300, a sharp decrease of 25%, and the number of armed peasants has decreased by nearly 50%.

Among the more than one hundred knights who were reduced, more than half were Kush knights, and a large amount of armed farmers' land fell into the hands of the church.

The power belonging to Dane was being eroded bit by bit. The land tax and head tax were reduced every year, and the assets were constantly being eroded by the monastery.

Horn suddenly realized.

No wonder the old guy Dane wanted to run, it turns out he saw through it and realized that staying would just be a slow death.

No wonder the citizens support Duke Dane, while the craftsmen and laborers support Horn. It turns out that the citizens rely on the Duke's protection, while the craftsmen and laborers are enslaved by the church.

No wonder the peasants were so fanatical when they learned that Horn had expelled the company and the church.

No wonder they were able to steal so much money from the monastery.

Sitting at the desk, looking at the list submitted yesterday, Horn still felt dizzy.

Yesterday morning, one of the three largest monasteries in Kush Territory was breached by the Black Hat Army.

They searched the house for a whole day.

A full 4 gold pounds were seized from it, as well as a large amount of gold, silver, jewelry, high-end furniture and clothing whose value was difficult to calculate.

You can't make as much money by robbing twenty knights' manors as by robbing one monastery.

Whose house can you raid to make more money than a banker?

4 gold pounds, if it were a non-wartime situation, would be equivalent to Horn's military financial expenditure for one year.

This includes the Salvation Army's salaries, food, clothing, housing, pensions, training, weapons and equipment, etc.

The liquidation lasted seven days, and a total of more than 5 gold pounds were seized, % of which came from the monastery.

Horne discounted the remaining two large monasteries and just charged them a total of 5 gold pounds.

All in all, Horn had a huge sum of more than 10 gold pounds.

This money was more than enough to cover war expenses, but Horn was aware that these were one-time incomes and were rootless.

If one wants to defeat the church and the empire, he must have a large rear base to continuously provide him with manpower and material resources.

After all, this money could only be start-up capital. After all, he could not continue to forcibly collect 2.5 gold pounds from farmers every year like the church did.

After the flood, Longsand County had no soil to tax.

Horn even had to put in a lot of money to help local farmers get through the spring famine.

The reason why the Ibe Knights of Jinhe Township watched the fall of Jeanne d'Arc Castle without doing anything was because they lived on agricultural output.

Their military activities were seasonal, just like their agriculture, whereas the Imperial Company or Royal Knights, who relied on annuities, had no such worries at all.

However, Horn estimated that they would not be able to wait long. After the busy farming season in March and April was over, even if they did not attack Horn, Horn would attack them.

"Forget it." Horn put down the quill in his hand and yawned. He turned around and asked Armand, "Have all the representatives arrived?"

"We are all here and staying in the hotel."

"Tomorrow is the People's Assembly. Have you drafted the edict?"

"It's ready, just waiting to be copied." Standing up, Armand took a stack of white paper from the drawer and put it in Horn's hand.

Unfolding the white paper, Horn could clearly see that the title of this edict was written in square Alvin characters:

The Holy Land Edict

(End of this chapter)