Vientiane Throne of Civilization

Chapter 2075 Slow Down

The northeastern coastal area is close to the heartland of their Great Zhou, so it is essential to focus on its development and strengthen its defenses.

The coastline near the female warriors' territory, with mountains on one side and desert on the other, is a natural terrain that would be a real challenge for any landers.

Even so, they can't just leave it there and ignore it; the basic defenses still need to be implemented.

Under this premise, compared to the northeastern coast where major developments are planned, the coastal area on the female warrior tribe's territory is actually more troublesome to develop.

The land route involves crossing mountains and valleys, and railways cannot be built across the area. As for the waterway, there are currently no ships available, so it cannot be opened.

Therefore, if that small area wanted to be developed, manpower and resources could only be transported there by goblin airships.

This will inevitably increase transportation costs significantly.

Not to mention that personnel also need to be stationed there, which is also a significant investment.

The unlocking of these two new areas immediately strained the finances of their Great Zhou Dynasty.

The savings accumulated in previous years can last for a while, but a lack of foresight will inevitably lead to immediate troubles.

Whether you're running a country or setting up a small stall on the roadside, the key is to make a profit while maintaining a balance between income and expenditure in order to operate sustainably.

Before this, the Great Zhou Dynasty had undoubtedly already accomplished this.

But now, the situation has changed.

With the launch of new projects, Da Zhou began to deplete his 'savings,' investing the wealth he had accumulated over the years.

What does this mean? It means that the balance of income and expenditure has been broken at this moment.

If this situation cannot be changed, the money in their Great Zhou treasury will only decrease with each passing day.

But to be honest, this is a really difficult matter.

With the internal situation stabilizing at present, the country's annual fiscal revenue is also stabilizing, and it is difficult for it to experience significant growth or decline.

Faced with this situation, if you want to increase fiscal revenue, the simplest and most direct way is to raise taxes, but Zhou Xu obviously has no intention of doing so.

Taxes are directly linked to people's lives. If ordinary people are not doing well, it will create hidden dangers for the country.

In Zhou Xu's view, this was a last resort, a desperate measure taken when all other options were exhausted.

Of course, he could also choose to issue government bonds, but he would need to have the money to repay them.

If he can't repay the national debt after it's issued, the problem will suddenly become much bigger.

The reason why the Great Zhou is experiencing financial difficulties is not because they are poor, but because they have been spending money too recklessly.

Zhou Xu's mentality is that as long as he has money, he wants to develop something.

There's nothing he can do; their Great Zhou territory is too vast, and many places haven't even been developed yet. How could he not be anxious?

If we were to compare it to a machine, this machine would be running at full speed the entire time.

It should be understood that even a powerful dynasty would need at least a generation, or even more, to accumulate strength before it could make any significant moves.

Looking at their Great Zhou, in just over a hundred years, Zhou Xu has developed Great Zhou from the Stone Age to its current state, and he has even fought many wars along the way.

This efficiency is exceptionally high; to say it's incredibly fast would be an understatement.

But in reality, the normal development of a civilization cannot be that fast. Zhou Xu had experienced the baptism of modern society, so in his subconscious, he had a reference point, which was the modern nation-state.

He carried the burden of the Great Zhou Dynasty, burning through money like crazy, and launched a sprint toward this goal at top speed.

The Great Zhou Dynasty has been developing for over a hundred years, and it has also been burning through money for over a hundred years, maintaining a sprint-like pace throughout, never slowing down in any real sense.

Now, looking back, he realizes that he can no longer keep pushing forward.

This country's efficiency has reached its limit, and if it continues to operate like this, problems will arise.

The development of a civilization is a marathon, not a 100-meter sprint.

The reality before him demanded that he slow down.

In fact, this is normal; the previous efficiency was abnormal!
It was because the Great Zhou Dynasty had maintained high efficiency since its founding that the people of the Great Zhou Dynasty had the illusion that that was the normal efficiency.

Having served as Finance Minister for so many years, Song Jinyu may have some misunderstandings about the issue of efficiency, but he is very clear about how to solve this problem.

"Your Majesty, it is difficult to significantly increase fiscal revenue now, but it is actually simple to avoid the situation of the country potentially facing a deficit in the next few years."

"We just need to reduce financial investment, decrease the efficiency of construction and development projects, and lengthen the project cycle."

“If a project is originally fully funded and manpowered and can be completed in one year, then it is not unreasonable to change it to halve the funding and manpower and complete it in two years.”

"If that doesn't work, we can extend it for three or four years! By doing this, the financial problems can always be alleviated."

"Similarly, assuming that our Great Zhou's annual fiscal revenue is fifty million silver coins, then our annual investment will be capped at forty-five million silver coins for development and construction, and the remaining five million silver coins will be saved. After a few years, the national treasury will naturally be full."

The greatest truths are the simplest; many things are actually quite simple when you put them into words.

With things having come to this point, Zhou Xu had no choice but to agree.

"Then slow down other projects and prioritize the establishment of a patrol fleet in the northeastern sea area."

Song Jinyu had obviously wanted to do this for a long time. Now that he had received Zhou Xu's order, he had no more scruples and started wildly hacking away at the "cutting financial expenditures" sword.

From Causeway Bay to Tsim Sha Tsui, the various project teams that received the notice were in despair.

Many project managers came over with nooses, ready to demand an explanation from Song Jinyu.

However, they were not Song Jinyu after all; they were not so extreme in their actions, nor were they so skilled at hanging themselves. When they arrived at the destination, they heard that the project deadline had been extended.

The project, which was originally required to be completed in one year, has now been extended to two years?
After a quick mental calculation, I realized, "Hmm! There's still time!"

One by one, their emotions naturally calmed down.

This part belongs to the engineering project team, which is relatively easy to deal with. Generally, as long as there is enough time and the project can be completed smoothly, they don't care.

For them, before retirement, working on a project for one year or two years is essentially the same, so there's no real difference.

The most challenging cases are those research project teams, especially the large projects, which burn through money very quickly.

Sometimes, if funding is not in place, simply giving time is useless; without research funding, a project simply cannot proceed.

In response to this situation, Song Jinyu will allocate an additional sum of money after verification.

Even though this amount of funding is less than the original amount, at least we received the funding, which can be considered as appeasing both sides.

(End of this chapter)