Starting from the Planetary Governor

Chapter 1328: Chapter 755: The Empire Still Owes Me Money_2

By analogy,

when stability reaches 2.1 trillion in the future, it will be the same.

Transporting such a huge amount of material at once, even for the Central Empire, makes it difficult to immediately allocate that many ships.

It can only be done batch by batch, with a new batch of ships being dispatched either every month or even every week.

Of course, there are costs to this, and the Empire still needs to bear the transportation costs from Lingze Star to the Central Empire.

However, these costs are completely controllable.

Unlike in a typical Cosmos Domain, where one has to haggle with local governments, including both Star Domain and Space Domain levels, about how much remains and how much is taken. Although this is quota-based, a small oversight might lead to situations where your 40% is 100 billion while my 30% is 150 billion. Local governments have every incentive to use false reporting, withholding, or rational calculations of losses… a series of tactics to pull and tug with the Imperial Taxation Department.

All require negotiation, compromise, threats, and, if necessary, the use of martial force.

All are costs.

Not to mention there are many trivial matters, like who bears the cost of tax transportation between Star Domains; who bears the cost of escorting in between; and who holds responsibility for things like food spoilage and mishandling during transport…

With the Alliance, none of these need to be considered.

Quota, set points.

Tax officials come to tally the amounts, and once the counting is done, the fleet comes to transport the goods, straightforward and clear.

However, there are also issues; the infrastructure of Lingze Star has little problem handling the taxes for these two years.

But in the future, in the third and fourth phases, the tax amount that the Alliance will need to pay will surge to over a trillion.

At that extent, Lingze Star’s infrastructure will start to struggle.

In Guo Chenyu’s plan, a new Starport named ’Tax Port’ is being constructed on Lingze Star. Simultaneously, a massive tax storage Space City on the surface is also under construction. The Space Storage City, ground storage city, and Tax Port will be interconnected by cargo space elevators for direct rapid transport of goods. There will also be less expensive fixed ship orbits for larger-scale goods transport.

Once completed, Lingze Star’s cargo throughput will be three times what it is now, fully shouldering the future tax cargo throughput for the Alliance.

It will even have surplus capacity to offer for the Empire Commerce Guild’s trade fleets for bulk trades with the Alliance here.

It is worth mentioning that this ’Tax Port System’ carries a very steep overall cost. Divided into four phases, it will take a total of eight years to complete, with a portion becoming operational at the end of each phase. The total cost is projected to reach 70 billion tax coins, equivalent to the cost of a battleship.

This money, however, doesn’t come from the Alliance.

When the Alliance’s officials discussed the many execution details of the “Alliance Plan” with officials from the Department of Taxation in Holy Terra, this matter was mentioned.

After intensive discussions, the Alliance officials bargained for one benefit: the construction funds for the Tax Port on Lingze Star would be provided by the Imperial Taxation Department.

The Department of Taxation was naturally not going to allocate funds directly, nor were they willing to spend money to directly hire construction teams to do the work on Lingze Star.

That’s not a problem; the Alliance can do it as long as they pay; if unwilling to pay, then it can be deducted from the taxes.

The Taxation Department agreed.

After all, this too is a necessary investment and construction for the smooth conduct of tax operations.

Moreover, even though they are spending the money, calculating it as deductions reduces the pressure a lot.

And speaking of deductions, the Alliance’s tax deduction expenditures are not limited to the construction of the Tax Port.

billion is not a small amount, but it really is not crucial.

The crucial point is the war expenses during the Iron Armor War and the Insect Swarm War.

Doesn’t the Central Empire need to reimburse those?

This was a promise given during the formation of the Western Front Army, and it is also an imperial political tradition.

Within the Empire, local rulers have the responsibility to ensure peace and safeguard their territories. Planetary Governors should ensure their worlds are stable, and the Star Sector and Cosmos Domain governments also have the responsibility to ensure the security of their respective jurisdictions.

This is also the fundamental reason the Empire leaves a portion of the Imperial Tax for Star Domain and Cosmos Domain governments.

Without money, how is one supposed to build and fight?

However, this portion of responsibilities mainly remains limited to defending the homeland.

For example, the safety within a planet is addressed by the Planetary Governor; if the Planetary Governor fails to resolve the issue, then they are relieved and shot if necessary, and then the Star Sector seeks intervention from the Star Domain Government to mobilize troops from other planets for support, or the Star Domain Government directly intervenes. Naturally, the troops coming from other planets to support cannot fight for free; the Star Domain Government needs to foot the bill.

Problems inside the Star Domain are solved by the 30% Imperial Tax the Star Domain Government receives; if that doesn’t suffice, they seek help from the Cosmic Domain Chair, and the ’Alliance Leader’ will either intervene personally or convene troops from other Star Domains to resolve the issue. This portion of funds will then be provided by the Cosmos Domain Government, which also retains 30% of the Imperial Tax.

By analogy, when the Cosmos Domain Government itself cannot resolve the issue, or when the Empire advocates for an imperial-level war in a particular direction, then Holy Terra will mobilize core troops from the Sun Zhou Domain or summon troops from other Cosmos Domains to participate in the war. Naturally, the central government will fund these expenses.

The Iron Armor War was undoubtedly a trans-cosmos domain war, requiring significant troop mobilization from other regions, and the Spiderweb Domain itself was completely incapable of resolving the issue internally.

The Alliance’s responsiveness to the Empire’s call was a loyalty behavior beyond reproach. The Iron Armor War was entirely outside the Alliance’s obligation scope, and naturally, it should be funded by the Central Empire.

Of course, due to the emergency of the situation, even if the Central Empire had funds, it was challenging to distribute resources to all the places needing deployment in a short time.

Moreover, the Central Empire often does not have that much money.

This also results in the supporting troops often needing to prepare their own provisions.

The Northern Line Army and Southern Line Army in the Iron Armor War were in this situation. Thıs text ıs hosted at N0v3l.Fiɾe.net

Other regional troops participating in the war had some political demands on one hand, and on the other hand, the combat expenses were to be reimbursed by the central government.

If they couldn’t be paid afterward, then tax coins would be provided to offset taxes.

This is the usual practice.

And the Alliance’s expenditure on war was no small amount.

The cost of forming armies need not be borne by the Central Empire, but all the shells consumed, the warriors sacrificed, destroyed ground forces equipment, naval ships, fuel consumption… all these need to be accounted for, right?

The wear and tear on equipment, the rewards for victory, the distribution of war allowances… all needs to be accounted for, right?

Moreover, when the war broke out, and the Southern Line Army was still fighting in the Menghe Star Domain, Holy Terra clearly promised the Alliance to quickly move north and act as cannon fodder to attract the Iron Armor’s attention.

Clearly stipulated, political precedents, war-time promises… adding all these together made it impossible for Holy Terra to renege.

This money should logically be expended by the Military Affairs Department.

But the Military Affairs Department obviously does not have that much money.

Conservative estimates put the Iron Armor War’s demand for over a million trillion tax coin-worth in resources from the Empire. Among these, the establishment of the Western Front Army twice was almost entirely funded directly by Holy Terra, accounting for fifty trillion by itself.

The Empire didn’t pay for the North Line and South Line, but calculated down, another fifty trillion was involved.

On the side of the Alliance, by calculations, the total amount comes to sixteen trillion in expenditures.

This is after being slashed over and over by the Military Affairs Department. The victory rewards were cut significantly, and unlike the North Line, the Southern Line Alliance’s forces didn’t lose many men or ships, nor much ground forces, requiring substantial compensation and condolence payments.

Even with these calculated figures, the Central Empire finds it hard to accept.

Sixteen trillion, what does that mean?

The Alliance’s total tax revenue, increasing from 300 billion to 2.1 trillion, over ten years, totals only 12.7 trillion!

The implication is, after signing the “Alliance Plan” and bestowing you with Gu Hang High Lord, will my Holy Terra still end up giving you 3.3 trillion?