Lin Ke just narrowed his eyes slightly when he heard this.
Then, he carefully read the information recorded by Remheb.
"Also, this is what I wrote down last night, regarding Lord Matruh's request for assistance."
"He applied for food aid from us five times and reported flood disasters twice."
“We provided him with food aid three times and sold him food at very low prices on two other occasions.”
"As for the flood disaster, you provided approximately 1,500 deben gold coins for assistance."
"Your Majesty, after hearing the news from Remheb and after careful verification last night, I discovered that the amounts don't match at all."
"The food we provided is enough to support the food needs of three cities like Matruh."
"The money and materials you provided are enough for at least five cities like Matruh to rebuild after the disaster."
"In other words, the lord of Matruh obtained an excessive amount of food and gold."
"Therefore, I have reasonable grounds to suspect that the Lord of Matruh has used our aid to enrich himself."
"Otherwise, it all makes no sense."
Lin Ke listened to Kamul's words and continued to look through Remheb's documents.
You know, Holy Egypt now has a complex system of scribes, which can record the income and expenditure of all materials related to Holy Egypt.
Inconsistencies could be discovered by comparing the records of different clerks, such as the tax clerk and the warehouse clerk.
Of course, Lin Ke is the most powerful person in Holy Egypt. Things like this are matters of cumulative audit, which means that only Kamul or someone who conducts a review can discover these problems.
Therefore, Lin Ke was not aware of this matter. All he had to do was to approve the document to see if it was feasible or possible.
But now, obviously, the mayor of Holy Egypt has taken advantage of this loophole and is secretly planning to enrich himself.
But at the same time, Lin Ke had already realized this.
It is not only because of the era in which Holy Egypt lived, but also because of the delay in information transmission and the difficulty and tediousness of the review work.
Therefore, these problems were not discovered by Kamul until now and reported to Lin Ke.
"Ever since the Hebrew Empire returned our territory, the territory of Holy Egypt has expanded significantly."
"Once the territory expands, management loopholes will easily appear, leading to similar problems."
"I guess all the provinces far away from the capital are probably facing similar problems."
"Have you checked for similar information on other Holy Egyptian border cities?"
Kamul nodded: "Yes, Your Majesty the Holy Pharaoh."
"I checked many cities last night. Although there are some similar problems, at least they are not excessive."
"After all, border cities face greater pressure and more complicated situations."
"But Matruh is completely different."
Having said this, Kamul turned his head and waved to the servants who were waiting not far away.
Then, another soldier took the document brought by the attendant, took it and gently placed it on Lin Ke's desk.
Lin Ke flipped through the documents and compared the amounts.
Sure enough, the taxes and supplies handed over by the city of Matruh were decreasing.
Obviously, this is due to the lack of government policies and low construction efficiency.
Seeing this, Lin Ke opened the civilization panel again.
In his civilization panel, the loyalty of the border cities of Holy Egypt is relatively low.
In a city like Cairo, the capital of Holy Egypt, the loyalty can reach 99, while in a city like Matruh, the loyalty is only 75.
Of course, for a city that has just returned to Holy Egypt not long ago, this amount is not really low. You know, the risk of rebellion at this number is not high.
However, Matrouh is the city with the lowest loyalty among all the cities in Holy Egypt. This also explains Matrouh's current problems.
"Look, Your Majesty, the money Matruh is paying is getting less and less every month."
"After he successfully obtained aid twice, the number of times he asked for food and money increased significantly within a short period of time."
"If Remheb hadn't gone to verify this time, I'm afraid it would have taken me even longer to learn this news."
When Kamul said this, his face turned into a look of great guilt. Obviously, he had now blamed himself for all the assistance to Matruh.
"So, Your Majesty, the Holy Pharaoh, I, this old minister, have come to you today to apologize for my crime."
"This old minister has failed in his duty and caused Holy Egypt to lose a lot of food and money. Please punish me, Your Majesty the Holy Pharaoh!"
"I am willing to use my salary to fill this gap!"
At this time, Kamul knelt on the ground.
At this time, Lin Ke just gently held his hand and helped him up.
He knew very well that Kamul only accounted for a small part of the problems that were now emerging in Holy Egypt.
To be precise, this is a limitation of the classical era and a limitation of policy.
Because Lin Ke currently has some [Policy Slots], and considering that Holy Egypt was previously facing powerful enemies and a sluggish economy, he can only give priority to using those [Policies] that can strengthen the military and economy.
Not only that, in this era, Lin Ke also lacks an effective supervision and audit mechanism, because there is no [policy card] that can solve this problem.
Simply put, if Lin Ke wants to effectively solve this problem, he can only frequently send special officials to Matruh to investigate and punish.
However, for a city located on the border, this move is only a temporary solution and does not address the root cause.
Firstly, Matruh is close to the Mediterranean Sea, and there are signs of Viking longships appearing near Matruh.
At this juncture, Lin Ke could not severely punish the city lord there, because this would cause damage to the interests of many forces including the city lord.
Secondly, it is very likely to lead to a decline in loyalty, and once the loyalty is lower than 75, Matru is likely to have a rebellion problem.
That would put Matrouh in a situation of internal and external troubles, so Lin Ke must try his best to avoid such a situation.
If one wants to solve this problem fundamentally, he has to wait until the Middle Ages, when Lin Ke will quickly develop a new system and complete the policy reforms of Holy Egypt.
Afterwards, Lin Ke will have more military and policy slots.
Then, by unlocking some new civics and acquiring key policy cards, he'll be able to use the power of the civilization panel to completely eradicate the problem.
"This is not your responsibility, Kamul."
"But we can't rush into the issue of Matruh now."
"You can leave first. I have my own way to deal with Matruh's problem."
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