Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 294

Chapter 293, Imperial Tax

“This world should have been rich and beautiful, but it’s a pity that it’s been destroyed by war…”

Galador’s expression was somewhat emotional.

But in Lao Yisi’s eyes, this looked a bit fake.

This war apostle has witnessed hundreds of wars and planets destroyed by war.

Would he be touched by this?

Touched!

Sure enough, even Galador himself did not continue to pretend afterwards – he was not pretending to be anything, he was just sighing: “If this Angry Owl Star was still in its heyday, I am sure I can get more than 2 billion tax coins from it.”

At this point, he was really melancholy: “Now, I can only get 2 million.”

Lao Yisi listened at the side, but did not respond, as if it had nothing to do with her.

It really has nothing to do with her.

She is a tax officer, and Angry Owl Star just needs to pay the tax. Other things, such as “donations” to the empire’s cause and the solar expedition… What does it have to do with her?

In fact, she was even a little annoyed by it.

Four months ago, Gallardo came to the Dragon Eagle Star Region. After visiting the head of the star region, he came to her tax fleet and began to follow her around the entire Dragon Eagle Star Region.

As soon as she collected taxes, Gallardo went to the local dignitaries for “donations”.

The people he looked for included administrative officials such as the heads of the star regions and the planetary governors, as well as factions such as the Imperial Chamber of Commerce, the State Church, and the Mechanicus. When he was starving, he would even look for local dignitaries on various planets.

Generally speaking, he could always get a sum of money on various planets. This amount was sometimes half or even one-tenth of the imperial tax, and sometimes even exceeded the imperial tax, depending on the situation of the planet.

And Gallardo’s methods were not just as simple as lobbying.

He wanted real money, hundreds of millions or even billions of tax coins. The Sun Lords and War Apostles had great reputations, but they could not buy this money just by selling their faces and talking.

In essence, it was still power and… tricks.

He has been authorized by the Empire to levy imperial taxes directly in the Cosmic Domain Government and the Star Domain Government to support the Solar Expedition.

Directly calling for imperial taxes is a huge power. You know, there are 9 star domains under the Eastern Cosmic Domain to which the Dragon Eagle Star Domain belongs; there are 37 star regions under the Dragon Eagle Star Domain. As a star region, the average annual imperial tax amount for “Pegasus” is about 12 billion tax coins.

One tax coin is equivalent to the total output value of an adult in a standard Terra year under the Empire standard.

From this perspective, you can imagine how huge the human and material resources that Gallardo can call on 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 Cosmic Domain Head is also very high. They even have the power of one person, one vote, and can elect an indefinite number of representatives to enter the Empire’s Supreme 13-member Council, which is the concentrated representative 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 sides 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.

Although there is the biggest Sun Lord to support them, how ugly is it to blame the Sun Lord for everything?

There is room for political transactions and compromises here.

Gallardo is not stupid, he has power but he will not abuse it.

For example, in the Eastern Space Domain, the result of the negotiation is that only 15% of the imperial tax will be supported to the solar expedition.

But this amount is not enough, so what to do?

Go to the star regions and planets below to raise funds.

And these methods are not necessarily very “civilized”.

The Space Domain Government and the Star Domain Government turn a blind eye to this, and even provide help to some extent to prevent Gallardo from thinking about the imperial tax again. The imperial tax belongs to the Space Domain and the Star Domain Government. The more Gallardo takes away, the less he will use. But the money he got from various star regions and planets was lost by their own planets, which was relatively acceptable to the cosmic and star region governments.

And Gallardo would do some not-so-glorious things with this support.

For example, on a certain planet, if the planetary governor refused his fundraising and did not give extra income, he might support the governor’s opponents, or even rebels, to replace his position; he would promise some dignitaries in the imperial world to use his relationship in the Mechanicus to give them priority in life extension surgery; he would get 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 region heads who were not lifelong, and if they wanted to be re-elected, they had to pay money…

There were many means.

If it were just some means, some conspiracies, and some political deals, that would be fine. But the key is that many of his practices would leave serious sequelae.

The worst type of them is that they would leave unrest in the local area. Some planets were not very peaceful to begin with, or were originally peaceful, but they were provoked by him and there was chaos in the local area. He got the so-called “donation” and left without a care. Generally speaking, there would not be any big problem with the imperial tax for the period.

But what about after that?

The planet is still there, still under the management of the star regions, star fields, and universes at all levels. Leaving behind a mess, the subsequent matters will either be cleaned up by the governments at all levels. If they can’t manage it, the next imperial tax will be affected. In

the past few months of activities in the Dragon Eagle Star Region, Gallardo has caused a lot of trouble.

You make money, but after making money, you leave a mess. Naturally, there will be great dissatisfaction within the Dragon Eagle Star Region government.

Among them, Neil Laois herself is the worst.

After all, Gallardo is acting with her tax fleet. She saw what this war apostle did in the Dragon Eagle Star Region. She often had to clean up Gallardo’s ass, and even got dragged into the water. Of course, she would not be happy.

It’s just that due to her identity as a war apostle, she dared not show it.

But today, she couldn’t help but want to say a few words:

“Your Excellency the Apostle… I have some understanding of the situation on the Angry Owl Star. It was destroyed in the war, and after the 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 lowest level. Even so, this planet has not paid its taxes in full for eight consecutive years, and I have executed four governors.”

“Their imperial tax for each two years is only 10 million tax coins. This time, their star district government gave them a supplement of 7.5 million to give them time to recuperate. Now, there is a new governor there, and according to the news from Feiyi Star, the new governor named Gu Hang is doing a good job, and the entire planet is recovering. They should be able to pay taxes on their own in the next period.”

At this point, Lao Yisi couldn’t help but give a few words of advice:

“There’s nothing on this planet, so why bother trying to get them? It’s only a few million tax coins if you squeeze them out, 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 was so decisive and ruthless that he could execute a planetary governor without blinking an eye could actually have a kind heart!”

His words were slightly sarcastic.

Laois remained silent and did not say anything back.

Gallardo continued, “What you said makes sense, but… so what? The development of a planet that has been destroyed once is simply not worth mentioning compared to the great cause of the Solar Expedition. Why after arriving in the Pegasus Star Region, I didn’t go to the richest Feiyi Star, the most populous Koroja III, or the Fache Star System with three worlds on one star, but chose the remote and poor place of Angry Owl Star as the first stop?”

“Because, I know that Gu Hang is the patriarch of an Imperial Chamber of Commerce family. What I can get from him is not just how much money there is on Angry Owl Star; the Gu family behind him is quite rich.”

“In addition to money, it is also a good place to make a breakthrough in the Pegasus Star Region. I also know that he has done some things on the Black Arrow Star in this star region. I also know that he wants to establish a star army, which can be used to offset taxes while being responsible for the defense of the Angry Owl Star… You see, this guy is very thoughtful. The more ideas he has, the more handles he can hold on him.”

“According to my past experience, if you want to live a good life 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 donate; or negative, subverting a place, 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? The governor of a poor, broken and remote planet represents a wealthy imperial chamber of commerce, and there are some easy handles… If I don’t make this the first stop, it would be a shame for my keen sense of smell.”

Facing Gallardo’s long speech, Lao Yisi was silent.

Of course, she still didn’t agree with the behavior 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 collector. Lao Yisi opened her mouth to persuade a few words, which was a rare outbreak of conscience.

She couldn’t conflict with this war apostle because of this matter.

Finally, she could only sigh, thinking that the boy named Gu Hang was unlucky.

It would be better to be sensible and pay a little money to send this war apostle away. If he really refuses to obey, then according to his many methods, he will not only have to pay the money he paid, but also have a lot of extra troubles.

…

Gu Hang organized a grand welcome for the arrival of the tax officer and the war apostle.

Of course, this so-called “grand” is only said on the Angry Owl Star.

The Angry Owl Star is very “poor”, and under the system of the alliance, especially under the leadership of the governor Gu Hang, it has never been about pomp and circumstance. Everything is close to pragmatism, and all kinds of unnecessary ceremonies are simplified as much as possible.

When welcoming the war apostle and the star field tax chief, they have tried their best to create some pomp and circumstance. They know that this may still be quite shabby for the two well-informed people, and at best it just makes them feel the enthusiasm of the Angry Owl Star. But being able to do this is enough, as long as people don’t feel ignored.

Originally, Gu Hang had no intention of offending these two people.

One is a war apostle who is well-known on the political stage 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 the planetary governor.

They are both people who cannot be offended.

Moreover, Gu Hang also smelled a special “smell”.

It is unusual for these two people to come in person.

According to general experience, big figures at the level of the chief tax officer have very tight schedules. They often move directly into the capital of the star region and sit in the center after arriving in a stable star region. Sometimes they will go to some large tax planets in person to supervise the situation. And for some remote places where the imperial tax quota is not high, it is enough to have a squadron to collect it.

If it cannot be collected, an execution order will be issued, and the agents of the Ministry of Justice will do the work.

Gu Hang thought that what he had to face was just a squadron.

But he could never have imagined that the chief tax officer came in person and brought a war apostle with him.

Gu Hang felt something was wrong.

He secretly raised his vigilance, and during the dinner, he personally received the two and had a conversation with them.

He once had the idea of trying to use his spiritual power of mind tampering to find out what these two people were thinking.

However, when he just had this idea, he suddenly felt a palpitation.

This was his spirituality, warning him.

He immediately woke up.

At the level of these two people, mental protection will not be left behind. It is extremely difficult to succeed quietly without being noticed and leaving no traces afterwards.

The chief tax officer may have some special treasures; and the war apostle made Gu Hang feel a strong sacred light.

He immediately gave up the idea and just used words to test.

Tax officer Neil Laois was always serious and spoke little, so Gu Hang didn’t get any results from his test.

In contrast, the war apostle, who had a higher status, was very friendly and always had a smile on his face. During the conversation, he praised Gu Hang’s work on the Angry Owl Star.

In a few words, Gu Hang was surprised to find that this person knew his deeds in the past two years, if not everything, at least he knew the general idea.

After being praised, he was not only not flattered, but more alert.

With such an important identity, he knew so much about the small governor of this remote planet…

What do you want to do?

During the banquet, Gu Hang kept thinking about this question.

After the banquet ended, when they were leaving, Tax Officer Laois avoided Gallardo and said in his ear in a very meaningful way:

“The requirements of the war apostle must be met. It will be good for you and your family.”

(End of this chapter)