That day Albert came running to Duke De la Pole's study.
"Duke…" he panted hard, "The people are rebelling. They are on strike. They refused to pay the tax."
"What did you say?!" Duke De la Pole slammed the table.
Albert gulped. "Duke… I've already passed the news to all the territories and told them to increase the tax.
"But their leaders disapproved. They said that this year they couldn't grow enough crops. So…"
"So, they can't pay more taxes?! Rubbish!" Duke De la Pole's face turned red in anger.
Albert said, "The current tax was already too much for them. The field expert said that the main reason the crops were hard to harvest this year was that they didn't have enough seeds to buy after paying taxes."
"Not enough seeds?" Duke De la Pole sneered. "There was enough when my men went to collect taxes last season."
"Duke, the people in the lands have to eat," Albert reminded him.
