Warhammer: Beginning with Planetary Governors

Chapter 554: Savior: Now that things have turned out this way, the Emperor needs to reflect on himself!
The price of the mansion revealed by the Savior is at least twenty times that of Holy Terra, which is almost equivalent to the price of several ordinary planets in the Empire.

It's simply a sky-high price among sky-high prices.

"Are you saying that the value of a mansion here is almost equal to that of the planet Chogoris?"

The poor Khan was a little stunned.

Of course, he was talking about the economic value of chogoria, not the special significance and political status contained therein.

If the White Scars Primarch did not exist, Chogoris, a planet with a tribal civilization and no rare resources, would not be worth mentioning among the planets of the Empire.

There is not much point in developing it. It is just an ordinary agricultural and pastoral planet with a poor environment.

"This vacant land will create amazing wealth..."

Guilliman looked at the construction site and the plastering engineering Titan in front of him with some anticipation.

He could roughly predict that if the large mansions here could be sold successfully, it would create unprecedented resource wealth.

"According to the city construction department's estimates, if this high-end residential area is successfully developed, the value it will create will be roughly equivalent to 1000 civilized worlds with first-class tax revenue in the empire."

Ron listed a piece of data on the virtual projection in mid-air and gave a specific explanation to the two Primarchs:

"From these data, it can be seen that the related infrastructure construction and real estate economy will definitely bring new vitality to the empire's economy and bring endless wealth to the construction of Dawn City."

"The Emperor..."

Guilliman's eyes widened when he heard this.

If what Brother Ron said is true, then the terrifying value created by this piece of open space can buy the entire Ultramar 500 World.

What's more, this is just the development of one area, and there is still more land available for development in the Internet.

The two Primarchs were amazed by this, and vaguely realized the gap between themselves and the Savior.

The White Scar Primarch, in particular, suddenly felt his own poverty.

"Brother, are these mansions too expensive?"

There was a hint of doubt in Guilliman's eyes as he looked at the Savior.

He was somewhat skeptical whether the high-ranking beings of the empire were willing to pay such a high price to obtain a mansion.

After all, what they had to pay for it was several valuable planetary territories, and what they got was just the right to use a mansion.

This condition is even more stringent than in Holy Terra.

Nowadays, many high-ranking figures in the empire have acquired mansions or residences in Holy Terra. They are permanent ownership and can be inherited from generation to generation.

It is worth paying a high price.

But the so-called high-end residential area of ​​Dawn City only sells the right to use the mansion.

The Savior does not intend to sell any of the Webway land, which is his personal or the public property of the empire, and any land is only paid for the right to use.

Not only that, he also collects high taxes every year, such as land use tax and residence tax.

This was really too harsh, even he himself found it difficult to accept.

"Old Ji, I know what you mean."

Ron nodded and explained: "The webway lands are all permanent assets of the empire, and this is a red line that must not be crossed at any time.

Otherwise, as time goes on, the land of the Webway will become more and more of a private domain, just like Holy Terra.

This has led to serious annexation of Webway lands, and the land available to the Empire has become increasingly crowded."

This was also one of the reasons why Holy Terra was so chaotic before the Great Purge. Various forces and families were about to turn Holy Terra into their own private property.

Not only were positions of power hereditary, but large amounts of private land were also annexed and enclosed, on which numerous fortresses and positions were built, making them like small kingdoms.

This problem is difficult to solve.

As the savior, he was able to politically purge the corresponding rebels and confiscate their land and wealth, but it was difficult for him to take action against those who were loyal to the empire.

Other people's families and forces are guarding the territories of the empire, resisting aliens and heretics, or opening up new territories. Now that the savior has come to power, he comes up and says he wants to rob your family.

That's so embarrassing, it's like stabbing your own aorta.

There is no guarantee that someone will sever his territory and establish his own regime or surrender to the chaos in a fit of rage, causing more chaos and making him lose the support of the people.

So we can only take it step by step.

This is also the reason why Ron considered moving the capital, directly moving all departments of the empire together with Holy Terra to the Webway.

As for the lands of Holy Terra, leave them to them to play with.

Anyway, all the relevant departments have moved out, so all we have to do is guard the palace, and we can also establish a more rigorous defense system.

For these reasons, Ron was unwilling to sell or divide up any of the Webway land, so as to avoid leaving too many troubles.

The Webway would forever belong to him, the savior, and the Empire of Man.

Of course, the Human Empire is nominally his, but it all depends on whether he has the ability to rule at a deeper level.

"You may think this house is expensive, but in my opinion it is still cheap."

Ron patted the Ultimate Primarch on the shoulder and said, "Old Ji, you've been used to a hard life, so you may not be able to accept such a price.

But those guys in the Empire are very wealthy, richer than you think!"

This is equivalent to pointing at Guilliman's nose and saying: You poor guy, you can't imagine the world of the rich.

Perhaps this savior is the only one in the galaxy who can say that the Pearl of the Empire, the Lord of Ultramar and the Ultimate Primarch, is a pauper.

Guilliman took a deep breath, but did not deny the fact.

He is really poor!

Ultramar is indeed one of the wealthier regions in the Empire, but it wants to use the income from these resources to support the Indomitable Crusade and the stability of the Empire.

It is still far from enough.

So he always wanted to split every penny into two halves to spend, how could he ever be rich? !

But compared to him, the Lord of Ultramar, many high-ranking beings in the empire own vast lands but do not have to bear too many responsibilities.

Naturally, you can accumulate huge amounts of wealth.

But for one reason or another, these riches are often excluded from the statistics of relevant departments of the empire.

Unknown to the unknown.

"According to the latest statistics from the audit department, many high-ranking people in the empire possess staggering wealth. It is truly astonishing."

Ron projected a new data, which listed the possible wealth statistics of various classes in the empire.

"How can this be?!"

Guilliman and the Khan looked at the data in shock.

They had never imagined that the empires contained such wealth, or that the existence of those empires would be so rich.

“I was also surprised when I first saw this data.”

Ron raised his eyebrows: "But this is what the Mechanical Goddess extracted from the vast amount of data and the latest research and analysis, so the error won't be too big.

This is what I mean by the fact that the empire does not have money and resources, but these things do not belong to the central government. "

He could understand Guilliman and the Khan's surprise.

Not to mention Khan, this guy just returned from the corners of the webway and knows nothing.

Since waking up, Guilliman has been under tremendous pressure and has been working non-stop to save the empire from decline.

He soon embarked on the Indomitable Crusade to delve into the dark side of the empire, where would he have the opportunity to learn about these things?

What's more, the empire has no records of these data and no way to compile statistics, or the internal affairs department has ignored or concealed them to a certain extent.

It is even more impossible to reveal it to the original body on his own initiative.

The empire's territory was too vast, transportation was inconvenient, information was blocked, and all kinds of data records were extremely chaotic.

If Ron did not have the assistance of the mechanical goddess Xiao Ling, it would be difficult for him to understand the specific situation and true appearance of the empire.

Nowadays, through the documents and data reports summarized by relevant departments.

He was able to have a clear bird's-eye view of the entire empire, understand every aspect of this huge human organization, and thus have a deeper understanding of it.

Ron now has a concrete assessment of the situation in the empire.

Calling the Human Empire an empire is an exaggeration. In reality, it is far inferior to a unified feudal dynasty.

It is more like a mixture of the feudal system of his hometown Zhou Dynasty and the ancient Greek city-state system. Under the guidance of religious beliefs, various people worship an "emperor" similar to the King of Zhou.

Then they had to fulfill obligations such as paying tribute on time, accompanying the emperor on military campaigns, and performing ritual sacrifices.

In fact, it was still okay at this stage, as the emperor could command all territories in his name and had supreme power.

The empire can still be organized.

However, the Emperor was fed up and retired to the palace to tinker with the broken webway, which not only led to fighting among the various Primarchs, but also eventually gave birth to the so-called Elders Council.

His imagination was beautiful, but in reality it was just a mixture of the feudal system and the city-state system, with a fucked-up parliamentary system added on top.

The Elders are the body that rules the Empire in the Emperor's name, and are themselves composed of tens of thousands of Imperial notables, nobles, lords, and other officials.

Then twelve or more supreme lords are elected to preside over affairs and represent the interests of all parties.

That means there are at least a dozen forces at the center of the empire that check and balance each other, but there is no specific core power of rule.

What's more troublesome is that the nature of the parliamentary system requires wrangling among all parties. The Imperial Parliament has no head, which makes the wrangling even more serious.

This led to the Senate, which was located in the ancient Roman Colosseum, being itself a "Colosseum".

Whoever is stronger can suppress other forces and gain the power of the empire.

For thousands of years, the Supreme Lords have been fighting each other, and the battles are so fierce that they require physical destruction of each other.

As one side finishes its performance, another side takes its place, and each fight clears out most of the positions, resulting in countless bloody killings on Holy Terra.

In this situation, how can the empire be managed well when even the central government of the empire is unstable and conflicts of interest are entangled? !
Even the tithe tax that maintained the empire's operation was full of loopholes, not to mention the control of the empire's vast territory.

"The cruelty of the empire's tithe is that it confiscated what it should have collected, but collected too much of what it shouldn't have collected."

Ron said.

The empire's tax reform was already halfway through, and more and more data were being disclosed, allowing him to see the truth about the tithe tax.

That's picking on the weak.

Not every planet within the empire is subject to taxation.

Such as special tax exemptions.

Worlds at this level have value and are exempt from tithes for various reasons.

Such as the Forge Worlds of the Mechanicus and the home worlds of the Space Marines, they serve the Imperium in their own way.

There is another situation, that is, if the world is a dead world or cannot produce anything valuable to the empire, it will also be exempted from tax.

Therein lies the room for manipulation.

If a lord has connections with imperial tax officials or departments or comes from the same family, he will most likely be able to make the planet under his jurisdiction specially tax-free through manipulation.

Given the Empire's rotten administrative system, it would be difficult to pick him out from the vast amount of data, unless he was unlucky enough to be spotted by an inquisitor who was bored.

But in most cases, the court has no jurisdiction over taxes.

Another operation is to transfer the valuable population and output value of other local planets to the special tax-free planet if there is a tax-free planet in the area.

It can also achieve the effect of tax evasion.

With the empire's administrative efficiency, the daylily has gone cold and no one can find out what happened.

No energy to deal with it.

What's even more tragic is that in addition to the Mechanicus, there are many more classes within the Empire that legally evade taxes. They are the ancient families or high-level merchants who once fought with the Emperor.

They had worked hard and made great contributions, so they were granted special permission by the emperor to be exempted from paying taxes. They also had his bloody fingerprints, and their family power was enormous.

Who dares to collect taxes from them? The emperor’s words are no longer effective, right?

What's more, many members of these families are in the Senate, which is itself part of the empire.

How is it possible to collect your own taxes?
Now, after thousands of years of accumulation, those families and forces have already secretly hoarded massive amounts of wealth.

"Classics are forever..."

As Roan explained to Guilliman and Khan, he thought of something and sighed slightly.

He discovered a familiar operation in the latest investigation records.

That is the contribution.

Some governors who cannot afford the tithe will grit their teeth and entrust their planets to ancient families that are eligible for tax exemption, thereby achieving the effect of tax reduction and tax avoidance.

These phenomena led to serious planetary land annexation, resulting in the empire being able to collect less and less tithes, and the situation was deteriorating.

This also explains why a regime like the Human Empire, which has more than a million civilized planets, is so poor?

War and blocked air routes are only one aspect. Another issue is that the taxes that should be collected are not collected. In order to make up for the shortfall, they can only exploit the lower-level planets more.

This creates more suffering and rebellion, making the situation even more difficult.

"The Empire occupies a vast expanse of the galaxy. It is possible that it could fall into poverty, but it is somewhat unlikely that it would fall into poverty."

Ron muttered.

These words left Guilliman and Khan confused for a while.

Now the Savior has understood.

The Human Empire can be described as the late Ming Dynasty in 40K. The central finances have collapsed, and there are rebellions by various heretics and aliens. Even the military expenditures cannot be paid.

If he could not reverse the situation, he would probably have to do what Emperor Chongzhen did, and had to borrow money from his ministers to pay the army, but he could only borrow a few hundred thousand yuan.

Then he waited for the rebels to enter the capital, shot all the princes and nobles, and took out 70 million taels.

Unfortunately, he was not Chongzhen, but a dictatorial savior. The knife in his hand was still very sharp, so it was impossible for him to end up like this.

The Savior's description of the Empire caused the two Primarchs, Guilliman and Khan, to fall silent.

They knew that the Empire was bad, but they didn't know it would be this bad. They even doubted how this broken car had survived until now.

Under normal circumstances, the empire should have perished long ago, right?
"Alas, my father..."

After listening to his closest brother's words, the Khan suddenly felt that the emperor had made many mistakes in the past, otherwise the empire would not have fallen to its current state.

In the mind of the White Scar Primarch, the glorious image of the Emperor dimmed even further.

"If only my father had been more restrained at the beginning."

Guilliman frowned.

He felt a headache when he thought of the power that the emperor had promised and distributed, and the huge force formed by that power.

Ron was just as excited as the other two:

"Alas, the Emperor had no choice at the time. Time was too tight. He needed those forces to fight against the Mechanicus and support the Great Crusade.

We can't ask him to reflect on his mistakes, can we?"

He was full of confidence and put his arms around the necks of his two brothers: "Now the Mechanicus is under my control. Let them go east. They dare not go west. The remaining guys are not a big problem.

No matter what, the Empire will become great again in the hands of us brothers and develop unprecedented prosperity. Then we will fight through the warp and fight outside the galaxy!"

This savior is full of vigor and a little overconfident, giving a feeling that the emperor is a rookie and he should go first because he is the best.

"Hahahaha, wouldn't that be more glorious than the Great Expedition? I'll be your vanguard then!"

The Khan was already imagining himself conquering the galaxy beyond his own, and he laughed out loud.

Inside the throne room, a certain tall golden figure who heard the conversation between the three brothers fell into deep melancholy and silence.

He thought about it, loosened his clenched fists, and revealed a relieved smile.

For this emperor, if the saviors can be stronger than himself, that is what he hopes to see.

He should be happy.

Of course, the emperor also remembered what those three guys said and planned to check their strength next time they met.

at the same time.

After the savior and others finished bragging, they returned to serious matters.

"In short, the high-ranking people in the empire are rich and can afford such an expensive mansion."

Ron gave the answer to Guilliman's previous doubts.

He pointed to the empty land in front of him and said, “Now it depends on how we sell the expensive mansion to these guys and take the money out of their pockets.

This is just one of the ways to harvest them.”

The empire is now in turmoil, and it is difficult to make those high-level beings spit out things by using overly reckless and coercive means.

That would also make it easy to force them to rebel or throw chaos.

I don't have that much energy to eliminate traitors and put out fires everywhere. Besides, the galaxy is so vast that the other party can empty the treasure house and run away on the ship at any time.

Will you chase them with your own head when the time comes?
So Ron chose to reap the harvest in a more civilized and gentle way, slowly achieving the effect of weakening the power of the feudal lords through political and economic means.

He looked at Guilliman and the Khan:
“I have sent invitations to all high-ranking beings in the empire.

Once they gather in the webway, I will naturally have the means to make them hand over all their resources.

And thus accept new political and tax reforms.”

(End of this chapter)