Chapter 670: Chapter 381, Reverse His Mother’s!_3
As for Korolya, having a development level maintained at grade 1 is reasonable, but in terms of population, the Star Sector Government has almost completely recognized the statistics from the Alliance.
Currently, the officially registered population of Korolya has dropped to 36.4 billion. The fall of an entire Nest Capital in Fino City, along with the population losses brought about by years of war, plagues, and Cult activities, is tremendous, conservatively estimated at a loss of two billion people.
The other two billion loss was during the period when the Fatches Family controlled Korolya, due to a large scale of human trafficking and resource exchange, leading to the decrease of the population.
From this perspective, during the few years the Fatches Family was in power, they managed to sell off a population worth a hundred billion Tax Currency.
With a hundred billion thrown in, Korolya should have improved, right?
But it didn’t.
…
Firstly, the Fatches didn’t sell off as much as a hundred billion; there were plenty of people profiting from the disaster at that time, even Gu Hang was among them, who didn’t pay 5 Tax Currency per person when trafficking humans, at most it was 1 Tax Currency, or even lower.
Moreover, the Fatches Family had done a lot of underhanded dealings, whether in the sale of the population or investment in Korolya, the accounts had problems.
And this had become the evidence of the Fatches Family’s crimes over the past year.
A year ago, the Star Sector Government made huge concessions to Gu Hang on the issue of designated taxes and the ownership of Korolya I, in exchange for Gu Hang’s help.
Gu Hang provided evidence from Blackbird Heavy Industries that core members of the Fatches Family were involved with the Smart Mechanisms rebellion, and there was evidence that the Fatches Family was aware of this;
Gu Hang tallied the accounts from the years Korolya was under control of the Fatches, and obtained the recognition of the Star Sector Government, which believed that the Fatches Family obtained huge illegal benefits during their reign over Korolya III, were seriously corrupt, and directly caused the severe deterioration of the Korolya issue, eventually leading to the near-extinction crisis of Korolya. If it wasn’t so, there would be no need for the Alliance to take over and enforce a six-year militarized zone.
According to statistical data, the Fatches Family caused the Empire to lose more than a hundred billion Tax Currency on Korolya — don’t worry about how they calculated it, the Star Sector Government has determined it so, and it was confirmed by the Korolya Planetary Government.
No matter how the Fatches Family ”defended” themselves, this report was already submitted.
Gu Hang played his part in this, having made a special call to Lois; at the same time, as someone parachuted into the Tianma Star Sector, a former official of the Star Domain Government, and even a member of a significant political faction within the Star Domain, the ‘Parliamentary Faction’, Martin Nelli also mobilized his connections.
This report of a loss of a hundred billion was thus recognized and the Star Domain Government issued a punishment decree to the Fatches Family, fining them a hundred billion Tax Currency, to be paid within ten years.
There were some smaller acts as well, such as the Star Sector Government being particularly harsh on Fatches in tax assessments. Originally, all three planets had a development level of 2, but now they were all assessed as having a development level of 3.
The Fatches’ three planets, with a total population of ten billion, originally had an annual tax amount of two billion, which has now increased to three billion; they need to pay a hundred billion in fines over ten years. This means, in ten years, Fatches will have to pay out a hundred and thirty billion Tax Currency to the Empire.
This was practically a death sentence.
According to estimates, all the population on the Fatchess Tri-Star, without eating or drinking, could save up two hundred billion in ten years.
But how could they possibly not eat or drink?
This was definitely a heavy blow; it was to push the Fatches Family to their demise — that was the intention of the Star Sector Government.
Even so, staging a rebellion was the most unreasonable course of action.
Firstly, they still had room for political maneuvers. There are ways to not pay, and stubbornly staging a rebellion was the most absurd. They could have delayed the payment, mobilized their political power, continued to plead with higher authorities, and issue threats.
The Star Domain and Space Domain Governments are very likely to not want to get involved, nor are they that greedy; they might consider reducing the fine. If they really pushed you into rebellion, dealing with three rebelling planets would be quite a hassle.
The sustainability of the Empire is indeed at risk, not just something Gu Hang made up, but to some extent, it is a fact. Rebellions erupt one after another, threats from Aliens, threats from cults, issues inherent to the Empire itself… The Empire, despite its size and strength, faces too many problems. If the Fatches really rebelled, then forget the fine, tax revenue would be uncollectable, and how much would it cost to quell the rebellion?
It would be better to placate them, reduce the fine, and make something out of it.
Secondly, for Fatches, even if the fine isn’t reduced by a single cent, a hundred and thirty billion in ten years, although painful, even perhaps fundamentally damaging, is not something they completely can’t come up with.
Tightening their belts, they have controlled the Fatchess Tri-Star for so many years, they couldn’t possibly have no savings; in the next few years, if they loot more aggressively, they really could come up with the sum of over a hundred billion.
Yet, they chose the most extreme method: “To hell with it, I’m rebelling!”
But Gu Hang could understand the reason behind it.
They didn’t really plan to become independent; rather, they seemed more inclined to stimulate negotiations through fighting, waiting for a chance to be coaxed back into the fold.
Additionally, the Alliance’s diplomatic and intelligence efforts over the past year also played a quite crucial role.
The Star Sector Government and the Star Domain Government may not want the Fatches to really rebel, but…
Gu Hang thought.
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This chapter is 5k long.
I was planning to say it owed 1k, but adding a thousand words doesn’t seem right… Forget it, still owe 13k!