Munitions Empire

Chapter 459 Such a huge pit in 446

Roger continued to ask with curiosity, "With the sharp decrease in population, how do they explain to the higher-ups?"

"According to the books, there hasn't been any sharp decrease in population! That's because the tax revenue hasn't changed at all!" Tang Mo spread his hands, quite proud of his bold move.

Hearing what Tang Mo said, Roger was even more astonished, "We helped them make up the tax shortfall? How much money would that take?"

"Not much, just over a million Gold Coins. Compared to bribing, this is just small change," Tang Mo said, even finding himself a bit fond of Zheng Country's tax system, full of loopholes, utterly inefficient, and very unreasonable, antiquated at its core.

Under this corrupt system, Zheng Country's tax revenue was extremely low, as lower officials had long kept the tax records at a very low level.

The tax evasion by the localities was directly subsidized by Great Tang Group in the form of project funds. Those pitiful taxes were mere pocket change for the entire interest chain and not worth mentioning at all.

This artificially formed, closed-loop massive system tore Zheng Country's rule apart and benefited everyone involved.

The criminals were not exiled but put to reform through labor locally, which amounted to a reduction in their sentences, and everyone was happy.

The commoners were shipped to Dongwan Island, where they had good food and drink and stable jobs to settle down in. Many also received land, naturally feeling grateful.

Zheng Country massively embarked on infrastructure development, creating more jobs and highlighting the local officials' "governing abilities", thereby allowing them to face inspections from above with more dignity.

Although they lost tax revenue from per capita taxes, the local officials' pockets bulged even more with the share from the infrastructure project funds given by Great Tang Group.

The tax revenue reported to the royal treasury rose steadily. With a semblance of prosperity and peace throughout the country, His Majesty the King was overjoyed, and so everyone was happy.

"Those officials really have the gall to ask for that..." In the end, Roger could only lament.

Nangong Hong, who was beside them, laughed and added, "Greed is a virtue! If they didn't ask, how could we have set up such a grand plan in advance?"

"Hahaha!" Everyone laughed along. After the laughter, they began discussing the establishment of an anti-corruption department and the issue of eliminating such phenomena.

Once the anti-corruption department was agreed upon, and Yulin was temporarily placed in charge, Roger continued, "Now, all we have left to do is wait. We wait for the construction of their roads to be completed, for chaos to start there, and then we can take their place."

On the other side, Galsa, who was temporarily managing education, spoke up, "The people from Zheng Country shipped to Dongwan Island are already undergoing education and training. They will become junior technical workers and later contribute to paving roads and construction."

Though he was young, he was a representative of the academic community, one of the "three prodigies" on par with Yulin. Temporarily filling in as the head of an education department was well within his capabilities.

"Their influence is also declining. In the past, they would use small favors to sway public opinion, but now, very few people are willing to follow their arrangements. In fact, after we executed some troublemakers as examples, the rest are more than willing to cooperate with us," he concluded before turning to Yulin.

Yulin continued the topic, "According to Dino's report, the local population has recovered to around 300,000, of which about 50,000 are immigrants from Zheng Country, and some are our support personnel. Of course, slaves don't count, these goblins are not planned to be replenished in our scheme...Also, we haven't included the military numbers."

"Although the progress is very gratifying, money is indeed being spent like water," Tang Mo nodded, affirming all the work being done.

"We began importing metals and grain from around the world. The spending is tremendous because this further raised the trade prices of these goods," he continued, "Simply put, we spent almost all of our income from the war against Shenguo without saving a penny."

"Even so, we had to dig into our pocket to cover some shortfalls." After saying this, he laughed at himself and spread his hands, "By this account, Dongwan Island is now more expensive than many kingdoms."

"It is indeed valuable! And it should be! In the near future, it will become another production base to support our next move!" After saying this, he did not wait for others to speak but continued.

Looking at the dockyard designs freshly brought back from Dongwan Island spread on the table, he addressed those present, "Imagine, more and larger dockyards there, building more ships, our production capacity will further increase, and soon we will offset the expenditures from maritime transport."

Having said what he wanted, Tang Mo leaned back in his chair and looked at his trusted aides, "Sounds good, doesn't it?"

"Let's hope everything goes smoothly," Roger said with a smile, and the others nodded in agreement.

"How's the delivery of airships going? We're selling ships too slowly, it's getting complaints about our production speed, and we can't have more problems with the airships," Tang Mo looked to Luff.

Luff immediately reported on the delivery of the airships, "All the Kirov Airships that have flown to Dongwan Island have been sold. Shenguo bought ten, and the remaining twenty will be ready to fly to Eternal Winter Port to deliver to the Dwarves once they're prepared."

Since airships were a secret weapon, always managed by the military, Tang Mo could only ask Luff about the delivery of airships.

Well-acquainted with his duties, Luff spoke without hesitation, continuing, "The airships stationed in Brunas will be delivered to Suthers, while those on Dragon Island were sold directly to Dorne and Nanla..."

"Then, as per your instructions, we've passed the relevant technology to Shireck. Sofia is very interested in airship technology," he said and then saw everyone present showing a faintly amused smile.

Well, after everyone became aware of the existence of airplanes, who would still care about airships? Handing this over to Shireck... that's a rather "big pit."

I wonder how long it will take for Shireck to fill this pit before stepping into the next big one?

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Today is a break, will continue with updates tomorrow depending on the situation.