Lois’s final words almost made Gu Hang realize the problem he was about to encounter.
It was indeed somewhat troublesome.
But in fact, even though Gu Hang had already made an early judgment on Galaraldo’s intentions, he found that he had still underestimated the War Apostle’s appetite in the end.
…
Early the next morning, Ms. Lois, the Chief Tax Inspector, was going to check the Imperial Tax that Rage Owl Star was about to pay—the Legion with the code 43.25.09.03.
The proper procedure was actually like this:
The Tianma Star Sector submitted a request to establish a new Star Realm Army Corps, citing the growing threat of Imperial traitors and Green Skin Orcs on Rage Owl Star. It also listed the presence of Green Skin Orc scouts on Rage Owl Star and enumerated the naval battle against Green-Skinned Warships within the Rage Owl Star System.
The application was approved. From that moment, Corps 43.25.09.03, also known as the Rage Bear Legion, came into existence.
Of course, this Legion had no soldiers, no officers, no equipment. The Eastern War Zone of the Star Army issued a requisition to the Dragonhawk Star Domain; establishing the Rage Bear Legion’s various expenses would be borne by the Star Army, and the money spent by the Star Army would be paid from the Imperial Taxes collected from the Dragonhawk Star Domain.
Isn’t that convenient? The Imperial Tax needed to establish the Rage Bear Legion just happened to equal 25% of the Imperial Tax quota of Rage Owl Star—the remaining 75% had already been paid by the Star Sector Government on behalf of Rage Owl Star.
So according to the joint directive “Guidance on the Proximity Principle Regarding Imperial Tax Allocation” issued by the Empire’s Administrative Department and the Department of Taxation, Rage Owl Star would provide soldiers, equipment, and officers for the Rage Bear Legion on the spot.
This whole operation was entirely legal and in compliance with all regulations, leaving nothing to be criticized.
However, just because the procedure was flawless didn’t mean that things were over.
The rules for Imperial Tax were very strict, and as an Imperial tax officer, it was necessary to inspect the army and assess whether the entire Rage Bear Legion was worth the 2.5 million Tax Currency.
The assessment was very simple: each person was worth 5 Tax Currency; a soldier with full individual gear and qualified training was worth 10 Tax Currency. These military personnel, thus, had their price. Add to that the total cost of all the equipment, and that was the price for the whole Rage Bear Legion.
While seemingly reasonable and a matter of simple arithmetic, in practice, there were far too many aspects that could be manipulated.
The difference between the price of a soldier and an ordinary civilian was double; who had the final say on whether a soldier truly qualified as a ‘Star Realm Army’?
This is where a representative of the Star Army, along with the tax officer and a representative from the Military Affairs Department, was needed to evaluate whether the soldiers’ training met the standards.
Strict adherence to the rules was, of course, to be expected, but…
Why is it said that the Empire is corrupt? Since there were people in charge of evaluations and judgments, naturally, there were opportunities for foul play.
Could the soldiers possibly not meet the qualifications? The standards of the Star Army were very high, and many worlds’ local ‘Planetary Defense Forces’ simply didn’t meet the level of the Star Army, with only a minority of elite troops from the Defense Forces qualifying.
But using the Planetary Defense Force to offset the requirements for the Star Army was still considered acceptable. In some places, when providing personnel reinforcements for the Star Army, they would simply dress civilians in military attire and give them basic training and weapons.
Although against the rules, what happened in practice could vary.
It depended on how the Planetary Governor conducted his affairs.
Even in some places, this had become a semi-open secret.
It was already fortunate if enough soldiers were provided without siphoning off ghost payrolls.
Whether in some ancient feudal society, a modern society, or a cosmic empire that spanned the Star Sea like the Empire, as long as it involved humans, in human societies, such problems were nothing new.
Similarly, for weapons and equipment, from something as small as a rifle, synthetic steel armor, to something as big as a Lion Tank, the Imperial Military Department had standard pricing.
There was no room for nonsense here.
However, was the equipment new? Old? Defective? What was the qualification rate? Was the production process compliant? Was the ammunition plentiful?
The answers to these questions would affect the price of the weapons and equipment.
Generally speaking, the joint tax-collection teams from the Military Affairs Department, the Department of Taxation, and the Star Army representatives did not enforce strict scrutiny in these areas.
The reason was simple: with Imperial Taxes amounting to tens or hundreds of millions, there were too many people and too many items to check each one individually. Sample checks thus became an inevitable method. Moreover, some discrepancies weren’t necessarily due to malice on the part of the Planetary Governors or issues with their competence, but were objective realities making it impossible for everything to be perfect.
An appearance of compliance was sufficient.
This was not just a special case with the establishment of the Star Army on Rage Owl Star but also applied to regular tax collection.
For human resources, a person had to be a healthy adult; but did vision problems count as healthy? Dental issues? Stuttering? Chronic illness?
For material tax collection, the age of the grains, weaponry, equipment…
The logic was the same. Experience new stories on My Virtual Library Empire
If the rules were strictly adhered to, how many Planetary Governors would Lois have to execute after a round of tax collection?
Turning a blind eye was necessary, and it couldn’t even be considered corruption, but a necessary compromise with reality. If a Planetary Governor prepared a little extra on top of the original tax quota for redundancy; and the tax officers did not scrutinize to the death, it was sufficient for everyone to get by.