Will the kemonomimi encounter Alien Ranch Story?

But even fields are fields! How long has it been since the Great Yan Dynasty distributed land based on military merit? This is the first time ever that land has been distributed based on military merit!

If military merits are rewarded with land, then the morale of the Great Yan army can be basically guaranteed, and the same goes for loyalty.

"The people of Dayan are just different. When we first started learning to farm, we were completely overwhelmed, but they were quick."

These men took off their clothes, changed into shorts and jackets, and skillfully sowed the seeds in no time.

Although they say you can just toss the seeds anywhere, these Great Yan people still habitually place the seeds very evenly and neatly, with straight lines and reasonable spacing, almost like the seeders used in Kazdel.

People who are used to meticulous farming won't change their habits overnight if you tell them they can just throw things in the field.

"It's best if they don't have too high hopes for the yield. The yield per acre won't exceed 300 kilograms, and after deducting the bran, it'll be around 280 kilograms..."

The farms on their own side suffered a total crop failure, and the harvest in Dayan was also likely to be poor, as Dayan's normal wheat yield is around 400 kilograms.

"How long until the hydroponic tanks and other equipment are delivered? It's not good for us to just sit here doing nothing." It always feels strange to see others working in the fields under the scorching sun.

"That depends on when the Great Yan people pay. Even if it's an installment plan, they still need to pay the down payment first!" At the same time, in the Great Yan court, "I emptied the imperial treasury to buy so little. Those Kazdel people are simply going too far!"

The entire treasury and national coffers of the Great Yan Dynasty were emptied, and they only bought this little bit of stuff. I heard they're even in debt. Why don't those Sarkaz just rob them?

"Ahem, Your Majesty, you can't look at it that way. If these superior machines are truly useful, and the capital region returns to prosperity, the benefits will far surpass any amount of wealth. The morale of the army and the people, Your Majesty..."

The emperor's anger subsided slightly. The attendant was right; the capital region had been devastated by the attacks from Hai Si and the poisonous fire.

If these devices and technologies can truly rejuvenate these abandoned lands, then a little bit of wealth is really nothing.

Let alone emptying the imperial treasury, even demolishing the palace wouldn't be unacceptable to him. After all, the money is a one-time investment, but the land's output is enough to feed dozens of generations.

Moreover, if the Great Yan learns some of the secrets behind it, then it will be even more of a gain. This means that the land polluted by the evil spirits in the north and the saline-alkali land along the coast can be turned into fertile fields for the Great Yan. That would be a great thing that would be remembered for generations and would benefit future generations endlessly—a mere drop of gold and silver is nothing more than this.

After thinking it through, the emperor's mindset became much calmer. "So, are those Sarkaz things really useful?"

"Your Majesty, I heard that the imperial estates and military farms have already started planting. Since the other party is so certain of their claims, what harm is there in waiting for a month or two? Once the seedlings sprout, we will know whether it is true or not."

"That makes sense. Then I'll wait and see. If it doesn't work, well..."

Meanwhile, on the other side, someone asked, "Huh? You guys did business with the imperial court? They paid so readily?"

Governor Shi simply couldn't believe that the imperial court could be so lenient; when had it ever not dragged on for months first?

"They only gave me a small amount, and said the rest would have to be paid off over thirty years. After much persuasion, they finally agreed to pay it off in five years. The first down payment hasn't arrived yet; they said it will be in two months."

"That makes sense." It seems the court hasn't changed its leadership yet; yes, this isn't a fake move by the Great Yan court.

"I heard there's been a big uproar in the court these past few days, saying you took bribes. How much did you quote? Don't try to rip me off, I'm not as rich and powerful as the emperor..."

"Offering exorbitant prices? We're barely making any profit!" Kal'tsit promptly started complaining about being broke and silently added an extra multiplier to Governor Stone's purchase order—simply put, price increase without quantity increase!

"Huh?" After hearing the offer of less than one hundred million, Governor Shi's head was visibly filled with question marks, and then his expression changed drastically. "My goodness, that's even more outrageous than me!"

"Huh?" Is this price outrageous? Or have prices in Terra really plummeted this much? Kal'tsit wondered if she had lost control of Terra's economic and price information.

"No, I'm not talking about you guys. They're taking way too many kickbacks. No way, Old Shi, I'm going back to get a piece of the pie too!"

"Kickbacks, huh...that's true..." Kal'tsit knew that he had received at least three times the kickback.

"My goodness! The imperial court collected no less than 300 billion taels of silver in taxes over two years, plus the entire imperial treasury, and it's only worth less than 100 million! Good heavens! I was so narrow-minded. I thought I was just too greedy, but I never expected this!"

Old Shi silently increased the protection fee tenfold in his mind. You guys dare to take kickbacks of over three thousand times the normal rate, and I'm only increasing the protection fee tenfold—that's pretty generous, isn't it?

Chapter Seventy-Seven: The Silver Knight

Chapter 77

Is a 3,000-fold rebate an exaggeration? Not at all. You know, some daring students will pay 50 and then claim 100. And there's only one layer in between, from the parents to the teachers, and they dare to claim double the amount just by passing through one person's hands.

If we go through a few more levels, and everyone is at the level of a slightly bolder middle school student, it only takes 10 levels to increase the price by 2^10, which is over 1000 times. [4000 times in just 12 levels, the exponential growth, isn't that amazing?]

Of course, in reality, because there is a minimum price to pay, the further you go, the less you can subcontract food.

In the context of such large-scale imports and purchases, a 3,000-fold rebate only indicates that the client has too much money and behaves rather unscrupulously; it's far from being considered unethical.

The real shady kickbacks are at the level of the US CIA and the Pentagon, averaging $2 million to arm a Syrian opposition fighter.

Even setting aside the fact that their equipment mainly consists of light weapons, even by the standards of the most elite American soldiers, the arms dealers would only quote $5 to $7 per person.

This one layer alone involves kickbacks of 2000 to 4000 times, not to mention that the $5 price itself is highly inflated.

Furthermore, these Saint Seiya warriors wouldn't be equipped with gear according to the standards of elite American soldiers. Therefore, the actual cost and expenses could be incurred through kickbacks of 5000 to 8000 times or more.

Most importantly, in the actual execution, most of these Saint Seiya warriors mysteriously evaporated on the first day, and in the end, only the five main characters arrived at the battlefield alive...

This is at the level of the modern US government, which shows that the bureaucrats of the Great Yan Dynasty really have a great sense of the big picture and are taking things easy this time.

Of course, it could also be related to the fact that the Great Yan court simply couldn't come up with more money, and that Kazdel's "minimum delivery price" simply wouldn't be lowered.

This is why the Star Alliance used AI to eliminate 99% of the middle layer, releasing such an exaggerated amount of social wealth and productivity.

So that's why American accountants always mysteriously die when they're auditing military spending—

Although the overall price difference exceeds 3000 times, a single level of bureaucracy might only take 30% to 50% of the money, which is quite a leisurely amount. But Lao Shi's tenfold protection fee is a real cut to a small group of people, which is quite painful.

However, this situation did not trigger the impeachment frenzy that would have occurred, because Old Stone said that if they impeached him, he would send Kazdel's true offer to the court.

Threatening someone else in this way is pointless, because there are plenty of ways to make your messenger disappear halfway.

But if Lao Shi threatens to send the bid with battleships, that would be difficult to handle. We can't just start a civil war over a little money, can we?

Even if we wanted to start a civil war, where would the soldiers and money come from? The expenses of fighting a war are far greater than this amount of money.

Furthermore, if the case is brought to the imperial court, the emperor and court officials will certainly punish several people; the specific level of punishment depends on how far they can get their information. After all, each level of official can at most have evidence of how much corruption has been committed by officials two levels below them.

In their eyes, they were just like the middle school students in front of them—they felt that they had eaten at most twice the amount.

If every floor is like this, the final price difference from the actual price will be an astronomical figure.

Moreover, it's not easy to deal with a military man like Lao Shi who openly adopts the attitude of "I am a barbarian" using official methods.

In short, once this fig leaf is truly torn off, things will get really interesting, and everyone's livelihood will be ruined. Right now, it's just a small group of people bearing the burden of ten times the protection fees.

For the Emperor of Great Yan, even if he realized something was wrong, he wouldn't be able to find anything, because the archives he had were only half a percent different from those of the Ministry of Revenue in terms of price and quantity.

The difference between the records held by the Ministry of Revenue and those held by the Grand Tutor and the First Prince, who were actually in charge of the negotiations, was only about 10%. According to the usual practice of the Great Yan Dynasty, this margin of error was basically an unspoken rule, and no one would investigate it.

However, by the time it reaches the actual person handling it, the variety, quality, and quantity of the products are likely to differ significantly, as are the actual amount and timing of payments. Moreover, this price difference is only a portion of the profit.

Don't forget, the imperial court makes a one-time payment, while this side makes installment payments. This money can be used for lending and investment, which will generate additional income. If it is delayed for a month, the interest will be calculated in hundreds of millions.

Because of the overdue payment from the other side, Kazdel was naturally not in a hurry to ship the goods. As a result, the actual purchase volume was less than 100 million, and the more than 300 billion funds that Da Yan had desperately raised had been completely wiped out.

However, no matter what, even if the emperor had a list of a dozen or so high-yield crops, the military households that actually farmed the land only received wheat and soybeans. Moreover, the quantity and quality of the seeds were two or three grades lower than those on the purchase order. Nevertheless, the goods still arrived.

Compared to the Ming Dynasty's practice of spending money on military support that disappeared before even reaching the barracks, ultimately only providing empty appeasement, these military households did receive a reward in the end.

Moreover, it was the reward they needed most, which somewhat salvaged morale and loyalty among the troops.

For a month or so from sowing to sprouting, the emperor sent people to check the field every day. Only when the seedlings emerged and were growing well did he breathe a sigh of relief, thinking, "It seems that this money was well spent."

If seedlings can sprout from the wasteland, then the economic recovery of the capital region is promising, and I will have a greater grasp on controlling the morale of the army.

Kazdel: "Those stingy guys from Da Yan are here to buy things again? Maybe we should just stop doing business with them?"

Kal'tsit complained that these guys were stingy with money, always trying to save money when buying things. Not only did they pay in installments, but they also delayed payments and even changed the contents of the order in the middle of the process, which was giving Kazdel a real headache.

I've never seen such a difficult and hard-to-handle customer. Why don't you learn from Kazimierz and buy things on a whim, paying in full at once, and even handling the shipping yourself (to prevent Kazdel and Ursus from colluding to cheat you)?

“This time they’re different.” The doctor considered for a moment. “This time they bought a lot, and paid in full at once…”

"Huh?" Has Da Yan changed his nature?

"It's just a purchase by the common people." After all, if wasteland can be cultivated, it means that the hidden farmland of wealthy families can be further expanded. The area of ​​land marked as "uncultivable" in official documents, which is not only exempt from tax but can also be used to offset taxes, will become output. This profit is enough for them to spend money to purchase.

And this money might just be a portion deducted from the normal 300 billion+ purchase orders of the Great Yan Dynasty.

This time, however, they didn't just make purchases to meet the requirements; instead, they bought the most expensive and effective equipment and seeds possible.

"So, are the common people of Great Yan really that rich? Their purchasing power is even higher than that of the entire country."

"Who knows..." The doctor remained noncommittal. In any case, he didn't have high expectations for Da Yan, as long as they didn't cause trouble at crucial moments.

As for this time, the export goods of the Great Yan were much easier to negotiate than those of the government, after all, there were so many restrictions on the export of goods to offset debts before.

Kazdel wants the lion's share of their smuggling profits. If the government uses it to pay off debts, it means everyone who makes a living from this business will go bankrupt.

To pay off its debts, it's no surprise that Da Yan's Longgang steel plant will face a major expansion and inspection. Then, stealing inventory and smuggling will become much less easy. They can use the official counterfeit price to obtain cheap raw materials, so who would buy your high-priced smuggled goods?

Smuggling goods has no advantage in price wars—unless you don't bribe the officials above and below you, in which case your smuggling channels and sources of goods will be shut down.

Moreover, the risks increase, the gray expenses of tribute will only double or triple, and the price of smuggling will skyrocket—and they have no power to force Kazdel to use their goods.

If Lao Shi is considered a "barbarian," then Kazdel is a true barbarian; they are capable of blocking the western and southern borders of the Great Yan, not to mention crossing the border.

However, there is absolutely no problem in ensuring that any of your smuggling ships will be destroyed as soon as they cross the border.

Therefore, these people will definitely do everything in their power to prevent these things from being exported normally to offset debts or taxes, but when it comes to buying and selling goods to offset prices themselves, they have no taboos. Except for truly sensitive materials, they can buy any other type of goods at will.

With the availability of Da Yan's alloys, steel, metal ores, chemical raw materials, light and heavy machinery, and even the core laser crystal of the Divine Light Cannon, the price negotiations became much easier, and the two sides reached a consensus in almost no time.

And the seeds and equipment that they bought themselves can be used by the Da Yan people to scam money again.

For example, during the imperial inspection, this part would be mixed into the normal official procurement, and then transported back to their own territory after the inspection.

So even if the emperor himself came to check, every storage area and planting area seemed to be in full. There might be a slight error, but as mentioned before, a difference of one or two percent was a normal and common occurrence in the Great Yan Dynasty, and there was nothing to be surprised about.

As trade between Kazdel and Da Yan gradually increased, and Lungmen's economy also began to improve slightly due to large-scale trade, a decisive battle broke out between Kazimierz and Ursus, with Ursus's army almost reaching the outskirts of Kazimierz's capital.

The twelve heavy shore-based cannons of Kazdel made it take the Ursus land fleet much longer to break through than usual. To be more precise, it took them several years to finally build the road and bypass this barrier that had caused Ursus so much trouble.

Furthermore, they cut off the rear of the Kazimir heavy forces from both flanks. Now, more than half of Kazimir's army is trapped on that defensive line, and its fall is only a matter of time. Once the defensive line falls, those twelve heavy cannons will become weapons in Ursus's hands.

It should be said that Kazdel's refusal to sell its Originium railgun technology and physical products to the Ursus Empire is already an incredibly friendly attitude that the Kazimir people could not have imagined.

If they do that, Kazimir's time to hold out will probably be reduced by half.

If Ulyanov's main guns were replaced with those super-heavy Originium railguns, then Kazimir's fleet would be nothing more than a pile of scrap metal ready to be sent to the junkyard.

In this era of war, let alone Kazimierz, even Victoria discovered a new land-based warship that was already outdated before it even left the dock—

During the Laika War, the performance of the Abaddon-class ships surprised all military observers, meaning that all current land-based ships need to be redesigned for horizontal and track protection, as well as for anti-aircraft fire distribution.

Furthermore, it is necessary to develop newer air defense weapons, rather than the kind of anti-aircraft ballistae that can be used to counter large drones in the past. We need a high-pressure artillery or a miniaturized beam cannon that can reach the stratosphere. Some military experts have even suggested that we could create a dedicated anti-aircraft drone and vehicle.

When the enemy was at the gates, the Lin Guang family could not remain aloof. They could refuse to participate in the war of aggression and the conflict between Casimir and Colombia, but they could not stand by and watch their homeland and country be trampled by the enemy.

“The age of knights has long passed, but the spirit of knights still exists.” Marna carefully helped Nearl put on his protective gear. “On the battlefield today, knights are no longer of much use, but on other battlefields, they are still a banner.”