Chapter 293, Imperial Tax
"This should be a rich and beautiful world, but unfortunately, there is war..."
Galador looked somewhat emotional.
But in Laois's eyes, it looked a bit fake.
This apostle of war has personally witnessed hundreds of wars and seen planets destroyed by war.
Will he be touched by this?
Touch the hammer!
Sure enough, even Galador himself stopped pretending afterwards. He wasn't pretending to be anything in the first place. He just sighed, "If this Angry Owl Star was still in its heyday, I'm sure I could get more than 2 billion tax coins in donations from it."
At this point, he was really melancholy: "Now, I can only make two million."
Lao Yisi was listening nearby, but he didn't respond, looking as if it had nothing to do with him.
It really has nothing to do with her.
She was the tax collector, and Angry Owl Star just had to pay the tax. As for other things, such as the "donation" to the empire's cause and the solar expedition...what did it have to do with her?
In fact, she was even a little annoyed by it.
Four months ago, Gallardo came to the Dragonhawk Star Region. After visiting the head of the star region, he came to her tax fleet and began to follow her to travel around the entire Dragonhawk Star Region.
As soon as she collected taxes, Gallardo went to the local dignitaries to "raise funds".
The people he looked for included administrative officials such as sector heads and planetary governors, as well as factions such as the Imperial Chamber of Commerce, the State Church, and the Mechanicus. When he was starving and had no choice but to eat, he would even look for the local dignitaries on each planet.
Generally speaking, he could always get a certain amount of money on each planet. Sometimes the amount was half or even one-tenth of the imperial tax, and sometimes it was even more than the imperial tax, depending on the situation on that planet.
And Gallardo's methods are not just as simple as lobbying.
What he wants is real money, hundreds of millions or even billions of tax coins. Although the Sun Lord and the Apostle of War have great reputation, they cannot earn this much money just by selling their looks and talking.
It's essentially about power, and... trickery.
He had obtained official authorization from the empire, and he could directly collect imperial taxes from the cosmic government and the star domain government to support the solar expedition.
Directly calling for the imperial tax, this power is not small. You know, under the Eastern Universe, to which the Dragon Eagle Star Region belongs, there are 9 star regions; under the Dragon Eagle Star Region, there are 37 star regions. As a star region, the average annual imperial tax amount for Tianma is about 12 billion tax coins.
One tax coin is equivalent to the total output of an adult in a standard Terran year under Imperial standards.
From this perspective, one can imagine how huge the human and material resources that Gallardo can mobilize are.
However, this power is limited and not supreme. It is true that he represents the will of the Sun Lord, but the power of the head of the universe is also very high. They even have the power of one person one vote and can elect an indefinite number of representatives to the 13-member Supreme Council of the Empire. They are the concentrated representatives of the local power of the empire. They have the right to veto the demands of the war apostles, and when the needs of both parties conflict, they will argue with each other, and if they can't handle it, it may even rise to the Supreme Council of the Empire.
Even though there is the biggest Sun Lord backing them up, how embarrassing would it be if everything was blamed on the Sun Lord?
Herein lies the room for political bargaining and compromise.
Gallardo is not stupid. He has power but he will not abuse it.
For example, in the Eastern Universe, the result of the negotiations was that only 15% of the imperial tax would be used to support the Solar Expedition.
But this amount is not enough, what should we do?
Go to the star regions and planets below to raise funds.
And these methods are not necessarily very "civilized".
The cosmic and interstellar governments turned a blind eye to this, and even provided some help to prevent Gallardo from having to think about the imperial tax again. The imperial tax was borne by the cosmic and interstellar governments. The more Gallardo took away, the less he would have for himself. However, the money he got from various star regions and planets was lost by their own planets, which was relatively acceptable to the cosmic and interstellar governments.
And Gallardo will rely on this support to do some not-so-glorious things.
For example, if the planetary governor on a certain planet refused his fundraising and refused to give him extra income, he might support the governor's opponents, or even rebels, to replace him; he would make promises to some dignitaries in the imperial world, mobilize his relationship with the Adeptus Mechanicus, and give them priority in life extension surgery; he would obtain some interstellar trade licenses from the Imperial Chamber of Commerce and sell them to planetary merchants who were not originally eligible but wanted to participate in trade; he would threaten some star zone heads who were not lifelong, telling them to pay money if they wanted to be re-elected...
There are many ways.
If it were just some tricks, some intrigues, and some political deals, that would be fine. But the key is that many of his practices will leave serious sequelae.
The worst kind of thing is that it will cause unrest in the local area. Some planets were not very peaceful to begin with, or were relatively peaceful, but he provoked them and caused unrest in the local area. He took the so-called "donation" and walked away. Generally speaking, there would not be any big problems with the imperial tax for the period.
But what then?
The planet is still there, still under the management of the star regions, star regions, and universe regions above. Leaving behind a mess, the follow-up matters will either be cleaned up by the governments at all levels, or if they can't manage it, the next imperial tax will be affected.
During the past few months that Gallardo has been active in the Dragon Eagle Star Region, he has already done a lot of things.
You make money if you want, but leave a mess after making it. Naturally, there will be great dissatisfaction within the Dragon Eagle Star Region government.
Among them, Neil Laois himself was the worst.
After all, Gallardo was following her tax fleet. She saw everything the war apostle did in the Dragon Eagle Starfield. She often had to clean up Gallardo's mess and was even dragged into it, so of course she was not happy.
It's just that due to his identity as a war apostle, he dare not reveal it.
But today, she couldn't help but want to say a few words:
"Your Excellency the Apostle... I have some knowledge of the situation on the Wrathful Owl Planet. It was destroyed in the flames of war, and after its reconstruction, the population has always been small, the situation is very chaotic and dangerous, and the imperial taxes to be paid are always at the minimum level. Even so, this planet has not paid its taxes in full for eight consecutive years, and I have executed four governors."
"Their biennial imperial tax is only 10 million tax coins. This time, their star district government gave them a subsidy of 7.5 million to give them time to recuperate. Now, there is a new governor there. According to the news we got from Feiyi Star, the new governor named Gu Hang is doing a good job. The entire planet is recovering. They should be able to pay taxes on their own in the next period."
At this point, Laois couldn't help but give a few words of advice:
"There's nothing on this planet, so why bother trying to get them to do anything? You'll only get a few million tax coins if you squeeze them dry. Let them develop on their own..."
Gallardo turned around and faced Laois, looking her up and down as if he had just met her for the first time.
The War Apostle's gaze made Laois feel a little uncomfortable.
Gallardo suddenly laughed: "I didn't expect that a tax collector who is so decisive and ruthless that he can execute a planetary governor without blinking an eye would actually have a kind heart!"
There was a hint of sarcasm in his words.
Laois remained silent and did not reply.
Gallardo continued, "What you said makes sense, but... so what? A planet that has been destroyed once, its development is simply not worth mentioning compared to the great cause of the Solar Expedition. Why after arriving in the Pegasus Star Region, I did not immediately go to the richest Wing Star, the most populous Koroja 3, or the Fache Star System with three worlds on one star, but chose the remote and poor place of Wrathful Owl as my first stop?"
"Because, I know that Gu Hang is the patriarch of a family in the Imperial Chamber of Commerce. What I can get out of him is not just the money on the Angry Owl Star; the Gu family behind him is quite rich."
"Besides the money, it's also a good place to make a breakthrough in the Pegasus Star Region. I also know that he has done something on the Black Arrow Star in this star region. I also know that he wants to use the establishment of a star army to offset taxes while being responsible for the defense of the Wrathful Star's homeland... You see, this guy has a lot of ideas. The more ideas he has, the more evidence he can use to hold him accountable."
"According to my past experience, if you want to have a good harvest in a star region, you have to set an example first. Whether it is positive, using incentives to establish a guy who benefits and attract others to be willing to raise funds; or negative, subverting a place and using fear to make others think about the consequences and have to comply... In short, this precedent must be set."
"Isn't this Gu Hang good? It's a poor, dilapidated, remote planet, but the governor represents a wealthy imperial chamber of commerce, and has some leverage over him... If I don't make this my first stop, I'd be letting my keen sense of smell down."
Facing Gallardo's long speech, Laois also remained silent.
Of course, she still disagreed with the actions of this war apostle.
But so what?
As he said, this is just an insignificant little planet. There is almost no conflict with the interests of the star region and the interests of the tax collectors. Lao Yisi opened his mouth to persuade him, which was a rare moment of conscience.
There was no way she would come into conflict with the war apostle over this matter.
In the end, she could only sigh, thinking that the boy named Gu Hang was somewhat unlucky.
It's best to be sensible, pay a little blood, and send this war apostle away. If you really don't obey, then according to his many methods, you often not only have to pay the blood you paid, but also have a lot of extra troubles.
…
Gu Hang organized a grand welcome for the arrival of the tax collector and the war apostle.
Of course, this so-called "grand" only applies to the Angry Owl Star.
Angry Owl Star is very "poor", and under the alliance system, especially under the leadership of Governor Gu Hang, they have never paid attention to things like pomp and circumstance. Everything is pragmatic, and all unnecessary ceremonies are simplified if possible.
When welcoming the war apostle and the star field tax chief, they had done their best to create some pomp and circumstance. They knew that this might still be quite shabby for the two well-informed people, and at best it just made them feel the enthusiasm of the Angry Owl Star. But being able to do this was enough, as long as people didn't feel ignored, that would be enough.
Originally, Gu Hang had no intention of offending these two people.
One is a war apostle who is well-known in the political arena of the entire empire, and the other is the chief tax officer who is in charge of taxation in the star field and has the power to execute planetary governors.
These are people you cannot afford to offend.
Moreover, Gu Hang also smelled a special "smell".
It was unusual for these two people to come in person.
According to general experience, the schedule and schedule of bigwigs at the level of the Chief of Taxation are very tight. After arriving at a stable star zone, they usually move directly to the capital of the star zone and take charge of the center. Sometimes they will personally go to some large tax planets to supervise the situation. For some remote places where the imperial tax amount is not high, it is enough to have a fleet to collect it.
If you can't collect them, just issue an execution order and let the agents from the Ministry of Justice do the work.
Gu Hang originally thought that he would only face a squadron.
But he could never have imagined that the Director General of Taxation would come in person and bring a war apostle with him.
Gu Hang felt something was wrong.
He secretly became alert, and during the dinner, he personally received the two and had some conversation with them.
At one point, he had the idea of trying to use his psychic ability of mind tampering to find out what these two were thinking.
However, when he just had this thought, he suddenly felt a palpitation.
This was his spirituality, warning him.
He came to his senses immediately.
At the level of these two, mental protection is not compromised. It is extremely difficult to succeed quietly without being noticed or leaving any traces afterwards.
The Director General of Taxation might have some special treasure on him; and from the apostle of war, Gu Hang felt a strong sacred light.
He immediately gave up the idea and tried to test the waters with words.
Tax officer Neil Laois was always serious and spoke little, so Gu Hang didn't get any results from his attempts to find out.
In contrast, the War Apostle, who had a higher status, was very friendly and always smiling. During the conversation, he praised Gu Hang's work on the Angry Owl Star.
In just a few words, Gu Hang was surprised to find that this person knew his deeds in the past two years, if not everything, but at least he knew the general idea.
After being praised, he not only did not become elated, but became more alert.
Such an important identity, knowing so much about this little governor of a remote planet...
What do you want to do?
During the banquet, Gu Hang kept thinking about this question.
After the meeting, when they were about to leave, Tax Officer Laois avoided Gallardo and whispered in his ear in a very meaningful way:
"The War Apostle's request must be met. It will be good for you and your family."
(End of this chapter)
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