Capítulo 945: Chapter 943: Saint Louis City
Two days later, near dusk.
Richard arrived in the suburbs of a big city by carriage.
From a distance, he could clearly see the silhouette of the big city ahead. Under the golden-yellow sunlight in the west, the tall city walls shimred as if brushed with a layer of gold dust, which was this ti’s destination — Saint Louis City.
As he saw Saint Louis City, related information obtained from the Truth Society and the black-faced elder Oscar quickly flashed through Richard’s mind.
Saint Louis City is located on the edge of the “Luo Wen Plain” in the Southern Free Federation, close to the Soma Empire in the north, with convenient transportation. It is both a military outpost and a trade city.
The power ruling this city is the Pompo Family with a history of over two hundred years.
The Pompo Family began to rise more than two hundred years ago when a Second-level Wizard appeared, gradually gaining a foothold in Saint Louis City and dominating most of the transactions between the Soma Alliance and the Southern Free Federation.
Thus, the Pompo Family gained unimaginable profits, their strength continued to grow, and today they have beco the undisputed overlords of Saint Louis City – bar none, other forces must depend on them to survive.
According to the intelligence, the Pompo Family currently has the top individual power, Allen Pamp. He is the brother of the eighth-generation family head of the Pompo Family; the current head is the tenth generation, making him a grandson generation relative.
It is said that Allen Pamp beca a Third-level Wizard when he was very young fifty years ago. After consecutively defeating and killing nurous challengers, he was recognized as the strongest in Saint Louis City and its surrounding areas, effectively deterring anyone from challenging the Pompo Family.
However, starting twenty years ago, Allen Pamp stopped showing up, and the news was that he was preparing to reach the Level 4 Wizard realm. Whether he succeeded or not remains unknown. Nevertheless, everyone remains sufficiently in awe of the Pompo Family and dares not offend them.
This is because, besides Allen Pamp, the Pompo Family also has two other Third-level Wizards, nearly ten Second-level Wizards in service, more than twenty First-level Wizards loyal to them, and dozens of Wizard Apprentices contracted and employed.
Additionally, the Pompo Family has more than two hundred Magic Knights, including one hundred seventy Three-pattern Magic Knights, forty Five-Pattern Elite Magic Knights, and five Seven-Pattern Great Magic Knights.
Furthermore, the Pompo Family maintains a guard army reaching as high as three thousand people.
The reason why the Pompo Family is so “aggressively ard” is, on the one hand, as a military outpost, unlike Jialan City and Great Delan Town deep in the border, they need to constantly guard against the invasion from the Soma Alliance – even though the Soma Alliance has been focused on dealing with internal chaos in recent decades and has no intention of external expansion, they still must maintain necessary vigilance.
On the other hand, only in this way can they maintain the Pompo Family’s dominance in trade between the Soma Alliance and the Southern Free Federation, preventing envious challengers from overthrowing them…
Thinking of these details, Richard sat in the carriage and arrived at a place more than three hundred ters outside the city gate of Saint Louis City, which was already crowded with people preparing to enter the city – so were from other places in the Southern Free Federation, while others were from the northern Soma Alliance.
Richard looked around a few tis and confird that entering the city by carriage wouldn’t offer any advantage, so he sent the carriage back, deciding to walk to the city gate alone.
After walking for more than a hundred ters, he saw a long queue, following the crowd forward.
At this ti, Richard noticed that the people entering the city were automatically divided into two lines, with the line to the left being people like him, and the other to the right being people carrying various goods.
People carrying goods, whether they were carrying them on their backs or loaded in carriages, had to be inspected by the Pompo Family soldiers at the city gate and pay taxes before being allowed to enter.
Apparently, this was an important source of inco for the Pompo Family and a way to ensure their dominant position in trade.
For example, trade goods like cloth, pottery, and handicrafts that the Pompo Family did not engage in had relatively low entry taxes, encouraging more transactions. anwhile, trade goods like grain, woodwork, and ironware that the Pompo Family engaged in had relatively high entry taxes, discouraging such transactions to prevent affecting the Pompo Family’s profits.
Additionally, so goods like weapons and equipnt were directly listed as contraband. Upon discovery, it wasn’t a matter of paying taxes but being confiscated and the persons transporting them being penalized.
This was because those goods belonged to the Pompo Family’s entirely monopolized core business, completely disallowing others from ddling. On the other hand, it was also a safety asure to reduce the number of uncontrolled and unregulated weapons, preventing their use against the Pompo Family.
This has a bit of a customs feel… Richard blinked and stepped forward because his line didn’t require much inspection, and before long he reached a place fifty ters from the city gate.
The queue on his right was much slower; he saw a four-wheeled carriage stopped twenty ters from the city gate, being checked by guard soldiers who opened the carriage to inspect the goods.
There were five people on the four-wheeled carriage, all of whom were driven off at this mont.
One of them, looking like the person in charge, around forty years old, of short stature, wearing gray clothes. Seeing the soldier carefully opening box after box for inspection, he said with a bitter face: “Guard sir, these are all normal goods, nothing worth seeing. I have prepared the tax; it’s right here. Can you let pass? I am in a rush to unload them in the city before dark; otherwise, I will have to pay a penalty for breaching the contract.”
The inspecting soldier was a tall and thin man, wearing a red-painted light armor. He glanced at the man in charge with a cold face and said, “Do you think you are the only one in a hurry? I’ve seen plenty who were more rushed, yet everyone who arrives at Saint Louis City has to obediently accept inspection, understand! You say you must enter before dark, so why didn’t you start earlier instead of bantering with now. Hmph, what if sothing happens, will you take responsibility?”
The man in charge, reprimanded, looked downcast and managed to squeeze out a smile for the tall and thin soldier: “How could I dare take responsibility? Since you want to inspect, please, I won’t say more.”
“That’s more like it.” The tall and thin soldier glared at the man in charge and bent down to go deeper into the carriage, opening more boxes for inspection.
A full minute later, the tall and thin soldier finished his inspection, jumping off the carriage and making final confirmation with the man in charge: “Your carriage is filled with cloth for sale in the city and a small amount of cotton, right?”
“Right, right.” The man in charge nodded repeatedly.
“Then you need to pay a total of five silver coins and thirty copper coins in tax, as per regulations, right?”
“I understand.” The man in charge imdiately handed a money bag to the soldier, “It’s all prepared, sir, please take a look.”
“By the way,” the man in charge stepped forward, whispering to the soldier, “sir, inside there is also a small pouch with so loose coins, just a small token from , please accept it.”
The soldier raised his eyebrows hearing this and weighed the money bag, finding it indeed heavier than expected. He quietly put it away without saying more and waved to his fellow soldiers blocking the way ahead: “Let him pass!”
“Swoosh!”
The guard soldiers at the city gate quickly removed the wooden barricade, allowing the carriage to pass through.
The man in gray clothes grinned at the tall and thin soldier, nodding, and gestured for his n to drive forward.
Among his n, two were obviously dressed as coachn, one with brown eyes and the other with gray eyes. They jumped onto the carriage and swung their white whips, striking the two horses pulling the carriage left and right, instantly leaving blood marks.
The horses neighed in pain and surged forward. With a creak, the carriage left deep ruts on the ground as it moved towards the city gate.
The man in gray clothes waved goodbye to the tall and thin soldier, and with two other crew mbers dressed in blue clothes, jumped onto the carriage and went inside the compartnt.
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