Urban Sims

In fact, the old prince had always looked down upon that Jernom, and in his heart he despised this greedy and lustful guy.

However, for the benefit of the Lucis family, once Genome really ascends the throne, the old prince will still agree to the marriage between the two families.

So after hearing that Genome died, the happiest person was Elsa. She no longer had to marry an old man who made her feel sick.

And when Zhou Ming appeared in front of her and the family found a marriage partner for her, Elsa still felt a little resistant in her heart, but it was much better than before... The young lady in front of her was two years younger than her. , in terms of appearance, Elsa is quite pleasing to the eye.

But she didn't expect that the boy in front of her was young but had a very powerful mouth. His sweet words coaxed her heart to beat wildly, and her mentality changed from being slightly resistant to the marriage arranged by her family to acquiesced in obedience.

What about Zhou Ming?

What's on his mind?

In fact, he didn't want to agree to any marriage, and he didn't want to get entangled with any woman anymore. He originally planned to exchange some benefits for the support of the Lucis family.

However, the old fox was indeed an old fox, and he ate Zhou Ming to death immediately, making him immediately understand that his previous plans were not as seamless as he thought.

Facing the "marriage" rope that the old fox took the initiative to pull over, he could only stretch his head over it.

Of course, this does not mean that Zhou Ming has just accepted his fate.

He is still young and still has a few years of struggle. Perhaps, he can avoid the fate of being trapped.

In this way, after winning the support of the Lucis family.

Above the court, the weight of Zhou Ming's words has finally increased a lot. On some major issues, he can also express his opinions, put forward his own opinions, and even give some eye-catching suggestions to the ministers. Compliments.

So what’s next?

What are Zhou Ming's plans?

He first investigated and understood what kind of challenges and problems the empire in his hands faced.

After some thorough research, Zhou Ming concluded three major issues:

First, the finances are tight and the treasury is empty. It has been unable to make ends meet for thirty consecutive years. The remaining funds in the treasury are only enough to maintain the normal operation of the empire for three years. After three years, there will definitely be a large deficit that is difficult to make up, and it will fall into the trap of demolishing the east to make up for the west. distressing situation.

Second, the annexation of private land has intensified, and the class differentiation between aristocrats and civilians has intensified. The poor are getting poorer, the rich are getting richer, the number of homesteaders and free people has been greatly reduced, and the solidification of classes has made this huge empire, which was established for nearly 300 years, appear... There was a feeling of twilight.

Three, the nobles are extravagant and extravagant, but there are a lot of beggars at the bottom. Every winter, countless people freeze to death and starve. In some places, there are even signs of rebellion against the nobles, which makes people feel This imperial pill.

However, after system analysis, it is speculated that this empire has at least 500 more years of national destiny and cannot be destroyed in a short time.

"Why do you say that, system?" Zhou Ming asked.

"One, this empire is on a complete floating island, there is no hidden danger of external invasion, and it is in a unified state. It can mobilize a large amount of resources to suppress the rebellion, and because there are a large number of feudal lords in the empire, they are very active in suppressing the rebellion. So it is difficult for the rebellion to succeed.”

"Feudal lord? System, I have to thank you for reminding me of this. With these feudal lords around, I am even more worried about being the emperor." Zhou Ming said angrily.

"In addition, the high-end forces in this empire are basically in the hands of the aristocracy. With these high-end forces to suppress them, the lower-level resistance forces will basically not be able to make any waves." The system said.

"High-end power?"

Zhou Ming shook his head: "That's true. In the high-energy plane, the resistance of the people at the bottom is indeed like an ant in front of an elephant, being taken away like grass."

But this also means that Zhou Ming does not need to solve the above problems, can he sit back and relax?

of course not.

Ignoring wasn't his style.

Among the three problems, he must find a way to solve at least one of them.

Zhou Ming's focus is mainly on solving the problem of "financial stress".

On this issue, he held several court meetings to discuss solutions.

"To increase taxes, we can only increase taxes on farmers. Increase the tax on one acre of land from 10% to 11%. This will increase the national treasury by 5 million gold shields every year, which will basically make up for the shortfall."

"Yes, just a little tax increase will be enough. It won't add much burden to farmers."

"The 10% tax is indeed not high. I heard that in many noble territories, farmers have to hand over half of their harvest. In comparison, the additional tax in the royal territory is really nothing?"

In the palace, most of the nobles tend to add a little tax to the farmers in the royal area.

It should be explained here that the so-called royal area refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the emperor. Prefectures and counties are established and officials are dispatched to manage it. It is a bit like the ancient Z country society.

In the Orunian Empire, the Royal District accounts for about one-third of the area, with a population of 1.5 billion, accounting for half of the total population, among which there are a large number of yeoman farmers and free people.

The other two-thirds belong to the territories entrusted to various noble lords, which are called "lord areas".

Now seeing that Zhou Ming was planning to solve the problem of financial constraints, the nobles who spoke first advocated that the key to solving the problem should be to increase taxes on the farmers in the "king's territory".

This, of course, aroused dissatisfaction and opposition from the "royalists".

"Why increase taxes on the farmers in the royal area instead of asking the lords to increase the tribute to the royal family?"

"Yes, why should you put all the pressure on our farmers? Don't you lords need to bear some of it?"

"You know that the royal district only occupies one-third of the empire's land, but it supports half of the empire's population. The nobles have twice as much land, and they still have to increase taxes on our farmers?"

"No, we don't agree."

During the court meeting, the royalists and the aristocrats quarreled fiercely, and even almost started fighting.

On the issue of money, no one is willing to cut flesh and blood, and no one can give in.

While Zhou Ming's head was getting bigger, he also immediately understood that the main internal conflict within the empire was the conflict between the "royal faction" and the "aristocratic faction".

Moreover, when it comes to issues of interests, neither faction is easy to provoke, nor is it easy to compromise, and it is difficult for both parties to reach a consensus.

Then what should be done?

How to solve the problem of financial constraints?

It is impossible for Zhou Ming to agree to increase taxes on farmers. He said it would be an increase of 1%, but when it comes to the lower-level subordinates, they may increase taxes by 3%, 5% or even higher, which will directly cost the lives of farmers.

What about business tax? Would you like to collect some taxes from the merchants?

Zhou Ming also had this idea, but quickly gave it up. As the so-called integration of government and business means, the businessmen are backed by nobles. If they dare to reach out to businessmen, they are just causing trouble for the nobles. It would be strange if the nobles do not stir up trouble.

Therefore, if the source of income cannot be achieved, then choose to reduce expenditure, spend less money, and adopt inaction.

How to govern by doing nothing?

One, reduce the number of celebrations.

Zhou Ming knew that as the most virtuous capital of the empire, in order to celebrate various festivals, the imperial capital held more than ten large-scale celebrations every year. Each celebration cost four to five million golden pagoda shields. The expenditure is nearly 5 million.

Thinking that the expense was so huge, Zhou Ming cut it in half and required frugality to handle the rest of the celebrations. In this way, he could save about 2 million gold pagoda shields a year.

Two, reduce the number of servants in the palace.

Since there were more than 10,000 maids, servants, eunuchs, housekeepers and concubines in the palace, there was only one person to serve Zhou Ming. This was too extravagant. Zhou Ming also cut half of them and dismissed more than 5,000 people. Although it cost a lot of money, The severance package is quite large, but the palace's annual savings are around 2 million gold pagoda shields.

Three, for disarmament.

A large number of reductions were made to the army belonging to the royal family.

Reducing the Royal Legion with a total of 3 million people to 1.5 million people... This encountered huge resistance and consumed a lot of energy from Zhou Ming. However, after doing the ideological work of all military generals and overcoming numerous resistances, the disarmament work was completed. , successfully implemented.

Of course, although the number of people has been cut in half, Zhou Ming has not reduced the annual military expenditure of 10 million Golden Tower Shields at all. He even promised to increase it in the future and turn the 1.5 million elite soldiers left after the elimination into equipment. Elites who are better, more mobile, and have higher combat effectiveness...the overall combat effectiveness remains basically the same.

And after the reduction, the number of people has been reduced by half, which means that the logistical support has been reduced by half, the food and material consumption has been reduced by half, and the annual maintenance cost savings is still more than 1 million gold pagoda shields.

Even after seeing that after the reduction of the Royal Legion, the burden on the treasury was significantly reduced, and the combat effectiveness soared, the old prince Fred Lucis actually had the idea of ​​​​disarmament, but due to various difficulties, it was difficult to overcome , and finally ended in failure.

In this way, after three "halvings", the financial stress problem has been greatly alleviated, and the gap between making ends meet has been successfully plugged. Zhou Ming breathed a sigh of relief.