Magic Industry Empire - 534. Chapter 534 Being a King Is Not Happy

Eric stared at the file in his hand, frowning.

After a long while, he sighed, put down the file, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose with his hands to relax a little.

Having been reviewing the documents for a whole afternoon, he didn’t have any rest time except for going to the toilet, so he naturally felt very tired.

Erik couldn’t help laughing wryly after taking a look at the documents that were still stacked high on the table.

Before ascending to the throne, he had always imagined that if he really became the king of this kingdom, it would be a satisfying and pleasant thing.

But when he really ascended to the throne, he was only happy for the first few days. After that, for nearly half a year, he was always entangled by annoying work, and he couldn’t have any spare time at all.

Too busy and stressful life made him involuntarily often miss when he was a prince before.

At that time, he didn’t need to think about so many messy national affairs, he could eat whatever he wanted, sleep when he wanted to, and play whatever he wanted.

However, after becoming a king, because he was too busy, he not only couldn’t sleep well, but even had to squeeze out time every day to eat, and he was not free at all.

As for playing? He was reviewing official documents even when he was dreaming!

When he saw his father’s busyness in reviewing official documents before, he didn’t care much, but when he came to do it himself, he fully understood that being a king is really not a comfortable thing.

In fact, he knew very well that the reason why he always felt tired was entirely because he was not satisfied.

Why do you want to be a king? Of course it is because the king has your greatest power in this kingdom.

But after he became a king, he found that he had no control over the kingdom at all.

No matter what he said or the order he gave, no one would care. So what’s the point of this king?

“Tuk-tuk-”

The door was knocked suddenly, and before Eric could speak, he was pushed aside, and an unusually familiar figure walked in.

Seeing this middle-aged man, who has always taken an unusually steady step, and every step seemed to be accurately measured with a ruler, slowly walked in front of him, Eric barely squeezed out a smile.

“Duke Stark, is there something?”

Earl Stark bends down slightly, which is regarded as a salute to Eric.

“Your Majesty, I’m here to disturb you now for the military budget meeting that will be held in three days.”

Count Stark’s tone was calm, without a trace, and then he heard Eric’s ears, but his heart suddenly jumped.

After a long silence, Eric asked, “Duke Stark, do you have any comments on this?”

“Yes.” Duke Stark nodded. “I heard that your Majesty intends to increase the budget of the military department this year, especially the budget of the Zhenbei Army, right?”

Eric frowned, thinking that he had only revealed his tone for a while, and the Duke Stark found the door, he really didn’t give himself any space.

However, he was just thinking about it in his heart, and on the surface he still kept smiling and said: “Well, I have this plan. According to intelligence, the Sark Kingdom seems to be about to move again. In order to prevent the Sark Kingdom from invading, the military headquarters should be appropriately increased. The budget for the country is also necessary. And if no surprises, the kingdom’s fiscal revenue this year is pretty good, and it shouldn’t be a problem to increase the budget.”

Count Stark pondered for a moment, and then asked, “Your Majesty, have you thought about a very important question?”

“what is the problem?”

“At the beginning of next year, your loan from many nobles in the kingdom will expire. If you don’t pay the debt by that time, I am afraid you will lose many important supporters.”

“Arrears?” Eric frowned deeply.

This so-called arrears is actually the various inputs of the nobles in the kingdom who supported him before he ascended to the throne.

It’s just that the guys before called this a donation, and after he took the throne, they immediately counted these donations as a debt, and demanded that Eric repay the debt.

The ten chambers of commerce designated by the Magic Industry Administration are actually these guys standing behind them.

Eric had always looked at the New Flying Merchants Association as unpleasant. In this name, he not only rectified the New Flying Merchants Association, but also used this as an exchange for the arrears. For him, it was really killing two birds with one stone.

And letting those technologies not only be in the hands of the New Flying Chamber of Commerce, it is also very beneficial to the entire kingdom.

Therefore, Eric has been conniving all kinds of small actions by the Magic Industry Administration against the New Flying Merchants Association. The main purpose is actually to steal the income that originally belonged to the New Flying Merchants Association.

It’s just that the time is still short after all, and the influence of the ten chambers of commerce on the market is still far less than that of the new flying chamber of commerce, so it won’t generate much benefit from it for a while, the nobles said The arrears is still a headache for Eric.

“But if funds are allocated from the kingdom to repay the arrears, all aspects of the kingdom will be very nervous next year.” Eric said helplessly.

In the six months since ascending to the throne, Eric found that he was more like a businessman than a king.

Because every day, almost all the time, he worries about money, even for a small number of gold coins that he never cared about before.

Only when he truly became a king did he understand how embarrassing the current kingdom of Lampari was.

Although the overall fiscal revenue of the Lampari Kingdom has been in continuous and substantial growth over the past two years, according to statistical estimates, the fiscal revenue for the whole year of this year will probably not exceed 3 million gold coins.

If you put the money in one city, it’s pretty impressive, but if you put it all over the country, it would be extremely pitiful.

Not to mention anything else, it’s just military expenses.

Based on the financial statistics of Eric’s previous command of the northern army in the town and the kingdom of Sark, the average daily cost is between 50,000 and 70,000 gold coins.

The war with the Kingdom of Sark lasted for less than a month, and more than one million gold coins have been spent.

And these battles are still not very fierce. If a full-scale war is really launched, the military expenditure will probably be more than doubled.

Of course, at that time, in order to create momentum for Eric, the nobles in the kingdom who supported him invested a lot in the Zhenbei Army, which was much higher than the military expenditure of the Zhenbei Army before.

But even according to the previous military expenditure standards of the Zhenbei Army, at least one year of non-war time must guarantee military expenditure of more than 100,000 gold coins.

In addition to the other armies in the kingdom, the military budget of 300,000 gold coins per year was simply stretched.

Eric went to the battlefield in person and witnessed the fierceness of the soldiers of the Sark Kingdom. He naturally understood that the strength of the Zhenbei Army must be improved to ensure the safety of the Lampari Kingdom.

But the problem is… money.

The Kingdom’s annual fiscal revenue is calculated at 3 million gold coins, aside from the basic administrative expenses of 1 million gold coins, plus various preferential subsidies for the nobles, it will cost close to 1 million gold coins.

If there are 1 million gold coins left, a part of it must be used to build the kingdom’s infrastructure.

For example, a few days ago, the Department of Agriculture proposed to carry out rectifications similar to those done in Bangta City on several farms in the kingdom. The initial cost is estimated to be 200,000 gold coins.

If you count the other messy things, there are no more gold coins left.

It is not easy to squeeze out the military expenditure that Eric thinks is the lowest 500,000 gold coins.

“Your Majesty, I understand your worries.” Seeing the embarrassed look on Eric’s face, Duke Stark smiled: “It is of course necessary to give priority to ensuring the military strength of the kingdom. But you actually don’t need to deliberately increase military expenditures. Isn’t it to budget to increase military power?”

Eric was stunned: “How can the strength of the army be improved without increasing military expenditure? I have been in the Zhenbei Army. I understand very well that if there is no money, the soldiers can’t even eat enough, so how can it be possible? What combat power?”

“That’s right. But your Majesty, have you ever thought that the kingdom’s military expenditures are limited and difficult to increase. Then, instead of using limited military expenditures to support a large number of troops, these troops will actually not be able to get combat power at all? It is better to reduce the number of troops and take the route of better troops to ensure that it is easier to improve combat effectiveness.” Duke Stark said.

“Streamline the army?” Eric frowned. “Duke Stark, the total number of troops currently in our kingdom is less than 50,000. Such a number is already very difficult to defend the entire kingdom. If it is reduced, wouldn’t the kingdom be full of loopholes? If you can prevent the Kingdom of Sark, what about other aspects?”

“It’s very simple.” Duke Stark was obviously prepared early, and continued with a smile: “The kingdom army is only responsible for the main defense objectives. As for the secondary defense tasks, nobles like me naturally have the obligation to assist in defense. .”

Eric was startled: “What do you mean?”

“Take the Northwestern Province where the Zhenbei Army is mainly stationed as an example. At present, in order to prevent the invasion of the Kingdom of Sark, the Zhenbei Army not only stationed the northern border of the entire kingdom, but also deployed heavy troops in the northwestern province. In my opinion, there is nothing at all. Necessary. The Northwestern Province currently has a total of seven aristocratic private territories, so these seven aristocratic families all have the responsibility of defending the territories, and they can completely share the defense tasks with them.”

Eric shook his head: “How do you do that. This is the responsibility of the kingdom’s army. The nobles’ private guards are only responsible for defending their own private territories. How can they be involved in the defense of the kingdom’s territory.”

“Your Majesty, when you led the Zhenbei Army to counterattack the Kingdom of Sark, you also received the help of many private guards sent by the nobles. Now why don’t you allow them to do their part?” See Eric Still hesitating, Duke Stark added. “The most important thing is that all the expenses of these nobles’ private guards are settled by the nobles themselves, and the kingdom’s finances are not borne. Wouldn’t this save a lot of military expenses?”

Eric frowned, lost in thought.

After a long while, he unconsciously patted the table with his right hand, and said softly: “This…seems to be a way…”