From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 679: A Day in the Life of the Imperial Finance Minister (Part )
January 592, 1 New Calendar, Saint-Saunière, the capital of the Star Dragon Empire, the Imperial Finance Ministry.

当电子时钟上显示的数字从‘3:59:59’跳到‘4:00:00’的瞬间，一只皮肤略带褶皱，指节也有些不自然肿大的手掌按在了电子时钟的顶上，同时也打断了在下一刻就要响起的闹铃。

At this point, most people in the empire are still sleeping on the New Year holiday, or reuniting with their families. Yes, even slaves can get a holiday of one and a half to two days in the first two days of the New Year.

But for the owner of the hand that pressed the alarm clock, it was just the beginning of a new workday.

Jacques Kohl, the 58-year-old Imperial Chancellor of the Exchequer, sat up like a robot from the bed in the inner compartment of the Chancellor's office. For him, who is awakened directly by his biological clock, getting up early and pressing the alarm in advance has become the first thing he does when he wakes up every day in the past few decades.

Jacques Cole, leaning against the head of the bed, waited for a few seconds, and then he heard a slight sound of motor and mechanical transmission coming from the head of the bed behind him. Then a group of medical robotic arms stretched out from the hidden slot at the back and came near his left arm. After a simple fixation, a small can of golden liquid was injected into his body.

Soon, Jacques Cole felt his brain becoming increasingly refreshed from being sticky, and his whole body quickly recovered its energy, as if it were a sponge that had absorbed water.

Injecting this mixture of base nutrients and stimulants, specially formulated by the royal team of pharmacists, is the second thing Jacques Cole does after waking up every day.

Since taking the position of Chancellor of the Empire's Finances twenty-three years ago, the then young and strong Jacques Kohl soon discovered that his health was getting worse day by day. This decline in physical function was not caused by his dissolute life after taking a high position, but the irreversible damage to his body caused by working more than fifteen hours a day.

Everyone only saw the glamorous side of the Imperial Chancellor of Finance.

Yes, the Star Dragon Empire's Minister of Finance, as the head of the Empire's officials in charge of economic and financial affairs, is an important figure who helps His Majesty the Emperor manage his "money bag". He has always been considered the head of the four internal affairs ministers, second only to the Imperial Prime Minister in status.

When the previous imperial chancellor was overthrown by the regent and the new chancellor's foundation was still unstable, Jacques Cole became the pinnacle of the entire imperial officials almost overnight.

As I just said, after all, he is in charge of the 'purse'.

Therefore, not only did the old Emperor Frederico value him very much, but other departments, including the military, were trying every means to establish good relations with him, because everything related to financial appropriations would eventually flow to him, and even national financial expenditures required his personal approval.

For this reason, like Marshal Trafalgar of the Federation, relying on the connections, prestige, and power accumulated over the years, Jacques Cole successfully carried the 102 colonial galaxies and 47 resource galaxies of the Star Dragon Empire on his shoulders.

It seems that you have grasped extremely crucial power and it seems that you are in great glory, right?

But in fact, Jacques Kohl regretted his decision on the first day of taking office.

He regretted that in his prime years, why didn't he continue to be the eldest son of the Cole family and go shopping and walk his birds?

He regretted why he was lost in the recognition of his abilities by His Majesty and other ministers, and then took over this mess without hesitation?
After seeing those shocking data and the five-digit pending items, he wanted to drag the former Chancellor of the Exchequer out of the grave where he had just been buried, and then point to the various huge holes in the report and ask him where the hell the money went?
And why was his name at the top of the list of candidates for Chancellor of the Exchequer?

But it is obvious that the former chancellor of the exchequer, who worked diligently for the empire for 90 years and finally collapsed in office, can no longer answer this question.

After briefly browsing the massive amount of information in the Ministry of Finance on his first day in office, Jacques Kohl chose a plot for himself in the family cemetery on his second day in office because he was afraid that he would die of exhaustion in the office like his predecessor.

Jacques Cole put on the coat casually hung on the hanger beside the bed, went to the bathroom and washed himself simply and mechanically, keeping his facial appearance minimally clean and tidy, and then walked out of the cubicle.

The office curtains slowly opened as he walked in, and the hidden light strips in the room turned on to fill in the light after detecting that the amount of light entering was insufficient.

At this point, the employees of the Imperial Ministry of Finance had not yet started work, and Jacques Kohl had given his secretary three days off so that this poor man, who had not been home for a year, could reunite with his family.

By the way, I will attend the New Year's aristocratic cocktail party to see if I can meet a suitable aristocratic lady. If I don't meet one within these three days, I will have to wait until next year.
On weekdays, Jacques Cole did not have enough time in Saint-Saunière to let his secretary go out on a "blind date".

"Waukin, compile a briefing up to the time I wake up."

Jacques Cole spoke in a somewhat hoarse voice, and a young, beautiful and slender woman with gorgeous long, bright golden hair and eyes like two melting golden balls was immediately projected in front of his huge office.

This is his AI assistant, which usually helps him organize various documents, information, and data collected by the departments below. When the secretary is not present, like now, this AI assistant named "Wojin" by him will temporarily take on some of the secretary's work, such as organizing briefings.

If Isabel was present at this moment, she might have noticed that the face of this female virtual image was somewhat similar to that of her mother, the Chancellor of the Exchequer's sister.

This is why Jacques Cole does not usually allow the image of his AI assistant to be projected.

While waiting for Woking to finish the briefing, Jacques Cole skillfully took out an energy bar from the drawer of the corner cabinet, stirred it in the warm milk that had just been poured out, and after it melted slightly, he drank the whole cup of paste.

This is the breakfast of the Imperial Chancellor of the Exchequer. It is efficient, convenient and fast, but it doesn’t taste that good.

However, Jacques Kohl did not care about these things. During the 23 years that he was in charge of the empire's finances, there was an endless stream of people trying to curry favor with him, and he also needed to balance the forces of all parties from a financial perspective. Otherwise, with the slightly reckless style of the newly appointed imperial chancellor, the political balance within the empire would have been lost long ago.

All these things inevitably require him to squeeze out precious rest time to attend various dinners and cocktail parties, so he has tasted all kinds of delicacies from land and sea, and exotic delicacies. After more than 20 years, anyone would be tired of eating them.
"Sir, we are now starting the morning briefing. The Ministry of Finance currently has a backlog of matters to deal with. 3"

"Skip it and talk about the rest."

Before 'Woking' could bring up the daunting figure, Jacques Cole interrupted her in time. He didn't want to be ruined at the beginning of the day by the endless matters that the Ministry of Finance would never finish.

"Okay, sir. Duke Artesia and the Minister of the Navy have submitted a new fleet construction plan together. They have also sent in their twelfth application, hoping to immediately start upgrading the severely damaged 'Quiet Fortress'." "The fleet construction plan has been rejected. Tell them that if they want a new fleet, they should quickly streamline the old warships in their fleet. Don't extend the life of these warships in order to maintain the size of the fleet. If they could streamline the fleet earlier, they could have saved the maintenance costs and started planning a new fleet earlier."

The first piece of news he heard in the morning was that the Duke of the Empire and the Minister of the Navy came to "ask for silver". Jacques Cole pinched his brows helplessly.

Of course he knew that the Imperial Navy had suffered heavy losses in the previous battle with the Federation and that it did need to replenish the lost fleet, but the problem was that the fleet would not appear out of thin air and there were places throughout the empire where money needed to be spent, so according to normal practice, he should have moved the money from the budget of other projects.

But the problem is that the empire now has no budget left for other projects.

Therefore, Jacques Cole could only reject the request first, and he believed that the Duke of Artesia and the Minister of the Navy would understand the meaning behind this "rejection", and then patiently wait for a few weeks to make the same request again, and then pray that there would be a few less important projects to free up the budget for the construction of the fleet.
"As for the upgrade of 'Tranquility Fortress', reply to them that after the sixth artificial ladder fortress is completed, 'Tranquility Fortress' can use the freed-up construction team. Now you have to wait until this moment. I will never agree to add another ladder fortress construction team!"

'Woking' did not raise any objections to Jacques Cole's words, but faithfully recorded them all, and then generated a formal document based on Jacques Cole's suggestions.

And every time Jacques Cole made a decision, 'Woking' would quickly inform him of the next important matter to ensure that the whole process would not waste too much time.

"Sir, the tax department hopes to increase this year's 'entropy tax' by 0.5% to compensate for the energy loss caused by transportation across the country in the past two years."

"Reject." Jacques Cole said without thinking, "Tell them not to make such stupid suggestions again. 0.5%? They sit in the office all day and have no idea that under the current conditions, this 0.5% tax rate increase will cause many nobles to go bankrupt and many companies to stop operating. Do they want to cause industrial collapse in the empire?"

Jacques Cole was qualified to say these words to the "Imperial civil servants" of the Taxation Department, because when he was a student at the Star Dragon Empire National University, pursuing a double postdoctoral degree in economics and sociology, he spent a lot of time visiting various star systems within the empire with his mentor.

He had been to wealthy galaxies, attended aristocratic banquets in the cities of those planets, and had also disguised himself and traveled to the barren border galaxies, going deep into the slums of those backward planets and living and eating with the poor. So compared to these "imperial civil servants" who had never left the capital galaxy in their lives, he obviously understood the underlying operating logic of this huge empire better.

Even if it's just a small part.

"Sir, the next report is from the Taxation Department. The Cassandra Galaxy still hasn't paid the taxes owed from the previous year. The galaxy's lord, Count Monet, has turned a blind eye to the Taxation Department's repeated urgings. The Director of the Taxation Department has requested armed taxation."

"Cassandra Galaxy."

The general situation of this galaxy immediately flashed through Jacques Cole's mind. In fact, after his brain was transformed, Jacques Cole had already memorized all the colonies and resource galaxies within the empire's territory, and even the situations of the planets within the galaxy.

This galaxy with overdue taxes does not have abundant resources of all kinds, and the progress of planetary development is relatively slow. In addition, the governance capabilities of Count Monet and the family behind him can only be described as very average, so taxation in this galaxy has always been a difficult problem.

After the Federation invaded the Empire, the Cassandra galaxy happened to be engulfed in war and became the front line, which made the already poor galaxy even worse.

It's a bit miserable, but it doesn't mean they can default on their taxes.

In Jacques Kohl's view, taxation is the economic foundation of this huge empire, and it is something that absolutely cannot be lost. If even this foundation has problems, then he will not even have the opportunity to rob Peter to pay Paul.

Since the wealth corresponding to these taxes can be generated under the governance of the Monet family, they should have reserved the tax payment in advance instead of crying poor to the Ministry of Finance at this time.

Although Jacques Cole knew that his next decision would inevitably cause the Monet family to intensify their exploitation of the civilians under their rule in order to pay off taxes, countless families in the Cassandra galaxy would be broken and countless lower-class civilians would not be able to survive the next few extreme quarters.

But compared to the few percent gap that could be filled by paying the full amount of tax, these foreseeable tragedies would simply be ignored by Jacques Kohl.

"As the Minister of Finance, I agree to the taxation department's application to levy taxes on the armed forces of the Cassandra Galaxy and authorize the taxation department's armed forces to dispatch. Oh, and send a copy of the relevant information to the Minister of the Navy. I will give higher priority to the construction of the new fleet and the upgrade of the 'Tranquility Fortress' depending on the help he can provide."

"Yes, my lord."

The entire morning and the morning were spent in this process as Woking continued to use data and images to narrate relatively important briefings, and Jacques Cole made decisions from time to time, approving or rejecting some projects.

As the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jacques Kohl naturally did not need to handle all matters in detail. The pile of affairs that had been reduced from five digits to four digits through his twenty-three years of hard work were naturally the responsibility of all employees in the Ministry of Finance.

He just needed to give instructions on some of the national projects and ensure at a macro level that the economic situation of the entire empire could continue to stumble along like a carriage that was about to fall apart.

A famous finance minister in the history of the empire once said: "In this light-year-scale empire, the finance minister is essentially a "wizard against the second law of thermodynamics" - he must use financial tools to fight against the entropy increase that is destined to lead the universe into chaos. Every fluctuation of the twelve decimal places may directly affect the survival of billions of life forms in a galaxy. "

After Jacques Kohl became Chancellor of the Exchequer, he also took this sentence as his golden rule.

It was also based on this principle that he was able to squeeze out Imperial Golden Dragons from every possible gap.

During these 23 years, he not only prevented the old Emperor Frederick from shouting "My money!!!", but also increased the empire's military expenditure, expanded the fleet, and built five artificial celestial fortresses.
Although he had only repaired a small part of the huge mess of the empire, every time at this time, Jacques Kohl would be glad that he was nominated as Chancellor of the Exchequer instead of Minister of the Interior.

After all, the Imperial Ministry of the Interior has much more to take care of than their Ministry of Finance, so their backlog of matters is five times that of the Ministry of Finance, and it is said that the Interior Minister has not been home for three years.

Whenever he thought of this, Jacques Kohl could not help but admire the other party, "Loyalty, my Ministry of Finance needs such talents~".

(End of this chapter)