He can’t bear the bla for forcing the Alliance to rebel; it would cost lives;
If he can’t negotiate the tax increase, he might not die, but his future would be uncertain.
However, what finally gave him a sense of relief was that Xu Fuzhen wasn’t purely making him a scapegoat.
Pri Minister Xu understood the difficulty of the matter, and didn’t make it difficult for him. If the negotiations failed, it’s just a failure, not an achievent, people might be a bit disappointed, but ultimately he wouldn’t be held responsible.
Of course, the premise is not to anger the Alliance.
What Yang Shiwei knows, Holy Terra certainly knows too.
Reports from various paths have certainly been seen by the lords on Holy Terra.
Although indeed there are opinions advocating for a tough stance against the Alliance, at least the person holding such opinion wouldn’t be Xu Fuzhen.
The reason is very simple.
Those hardliners, always sarcastic, it’s about who made the decision back then, turning the Alliance into an unmanageable entity?
The primary target was Galaraldo, known to be tightly aligned with Governor Gu Hang, everyone knew this.
The secondary target was Xu Fuzhen, greedy for that little money back then, nurturing an unsolvable monster, she had to take responsibility.
Could Xu Fuzhen admit to it?
Absolutely not.
No matter what she truly thought in her heart, on a political standpoint, at this stage, it’s impossible to move. Even as Minister of Taxation, one of the High Lords, she couldn’t bear such responsibility.
On Holy Terra, together with Galaraldo, she fervently promoted the Alliance’s loyalty, insisting the current state of the Alliance was not a risk.
And tax increase, was her idea.
Raising the Alliance’s tax rate, allowing the Central Empire to gain more revenue, was clearly a way to demonstrate the Alliance’s loyalty. Through this, it could powerfully counter those hardliners in the political scene of the Central Empire.
Yang Shiwei agreed deeply.
He planned to honestly discuss with the Alliance, whether more taxes could be acquired; even symbolic gains would be fine.
But, upon knowing who represented the Alliance this ti, he developed a new idea.
"Gu Jing? Is that the eldest son of Gu Hang?"
"How old is he this year? Twenty-three?"
"Still a child... Could we perhaps intimidate him?"
Thoughts swirled in Yang Shiwei’s mind.
Daring to offend the Alliance wasn’t feasible, but bullying a child was plausible.
To him, Gu Jing indeed was just a child.
Only twenty-three, whereas in the Empire’s noble circles, living for two or three hundred years was quite normal.
Those old foxes, either born into noble families or climbing up through struggles from the bottom, with vast experiences, deceiving them was exceedingly difficult.
But twenty-three, with limited experiences, was different.
With the ideas set, after quickly reviewing Gu Jing’s resu, Yang Shiwei solidified his strategy.
Gu Jing’s life resu over twenty-three years was very simple. Before eighteen, he stayed close to Gu Hang, accompanied by his parents while receiving elite education individually; at eighteen, he left his parents to go to the education center of Dragonhawk Star Domain – the highest institution of Flying Wing Star – for university studies.
After a typical four-year university tenure, he entered the Alliance Governnt for work, first in so local governnt, staying for half a year; then transferred to the Alliance Ministry of Finance, approximately for another half a year up to now.
Then, he was handed a significant task: coming to Lingze Star, handling this term’s Imperial Tax reconciliations.
Yang Shiwei chuckled.
Wasn’t this a typical inexperienced young noble coming to stack his resu?
He completely understood this arrangent.
The process of Imperial Tax reconciliation for the Alliance was important too; presiding over such work would obviously enhance his resu; yet the reconciliation of Imperial Tax actually happens biennially, given the Alliance’s unique circumstances and the sheer volu of goods, they co batch by batch, get checked batch by batch, go through the transaction center batch by batch, then undergo taxation reconciliation, not strictly adhering to temporal cycles. The goods are transported upon readiness; as long as the officials from the Imperial Taxation Departnt and the Alliance Imperial Tax Working Group co-sign, confirming a batch of goods is leaving, that’s acceptable.
Every two years, they verify if the overall tax amount ets the standards.
The interceding process, practiced for fifteen years, was very mature, mistakes were minimal. The primary work was all done by specific workers, completing the tasks thoroughly. The so-called ’responsible for reconciliation’ essentially ant leading an audit team briefly, verifying, and signing.
Generally, issues don’t arise.
If issues did, they would have surfaced earlier.
Moreover, it wasn’t the biennial major audit but an annual audit, hence its importance wasn’t exceedingly high.
If not obviously stacking resus, then what is it?
Perfect, he’s the one to bully!
...
"The Alliance is now at the peril of its existence!"
Yang Shiwei expressed with fervent emotion, sincere attitude, and deep concern.
In front of him, the young man slightly furrowed his brows: "What do you an?"
As Yang Shiwei spoke, his gaze had already quickly scanned Gu Jing from top to bottom.
White shirt, white pants, a blue robe with golden embroidered edges, his physique sowhat slender. Black hair, black eyes, and quite fair skin, presenting a handso and elegant deanor.
If he were a girl, one might easily be attracted.
But unfortunately, the more youthful this noble seed, the more it matched Yang Shiwei’s expectations.
He continued: "Tax evasion and fraud within the Alliance have truly been severe over the years. I’ve been diating in between, but it’s becoming increasingly untenable."
Gu Jing leaned forward, clearly looking surprised: "How can that be? Our Alliance’s taxation has always been crystal clear..."
Yang Shiwei forcefully interrupted Gu Jing, saying: "I’m the special senior deacon of the Imperial Taxation Departnt, who knows the tax situation better than ?"
Gu Jing seed stymied.
Yang Shiwei continued: "Imperial taxation has always adhered to a collection rate of eleven percent; when has the Alliance ever paid in full? The annual output of the Alliance far exceeds this figure!"
"But the ’Alliance Plan’ specifies a clear tax amount..."
"I was involved in the signing of the ’Alliance Plan’; the tax amount isn’t a fixed number. The Alliance used fraudulent tactics, deceiving Holy Terra. Now, many on Terra have amassed solid evidence. A massive storm is about to break out, once it erupts, your father might fall from a hero of the Empire, to a rebel!"
"Deacon Yang, what you’re saying is too vast, I can’t wrap my head around it."
Yang Shiwei made a discontented look as if hating iron for not becoming steel: "I’m also puzzled why such a major issue sent you over, your experience is too shallow."
After saying this, Yang Shiwei saw the young man’s eyebrows slightly furrow.
The young one couldn’t withstand provocations.
He shifted his tone, saying: "Take a look at these."
He spread out a stack of docunts before Gu Jing: "This is a morandum, a detailed investigation of the Alliance’s output and due taxations."
A thick pile of docunts, Gu Jing flipped through them, clearly unable to digest.
Unable to digest, that was expected.
These docunts weren’t ant to be read. With over two thousand pages of content, filled with details, graphs, biased conclusions... without a team to scrutinize for two or three months, they couldn’t be thoroughly inspected.
Even after inspection, it would have no real significance unless compared with a vast number of original docunts through on-the-ground investigations.
In terms of data production, the Departnt of Taxation was professional.
Witnessing Gu Jing’s annoyed expression, Yang Shiwei secretly chuckled in his heart.
He deliberately waited for a mont, observing Gu Jing’s struggling face, and let out a heavy sigh: "Unable to comprehend it, take it back for your team to thoroughly review it... and check this docunt as well."
He pulled out another segnt, simpler this ti, only 11 pages, clear and concise.
This part Gu Jing could understand.
"This is a morandum. I’ve been collaborating with the Alliance for many years; Pri Minister Xu Fuzhen and Pri Minister Galaraldo have maintained quite a good friendship with Governor Gu Hang too. We won’t let the Alliance suffer much. We can void the original investigative record, everything can be reported to the Central Empire according to the morandum above. You just need to sign it and represent your father with your identity."
"Ah, it shouldn’t have been you signing this; but what could be done? The matter is too urgent."
"The room for maneuver is narrowing fast, the ti window is only for this mont. Within an hour, I must report back to Holy Terra. If there isn’t your signature on the morandum, I’ll be left with no choice but to report according to the original data."
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