Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 705

Chapter 703: Alliance Plan

cultivates relationships with Chapters, Inquisitions, and local factions, is a diplomatic effort to prepare for a rainy day.

However, the most important diplomatic activity, or rather, the one most in need of it, is none other than Holy Terra.

All other diplomatic activities are also efforts to secure a more favorable political environment within Holy Terra.

Naturally, efforts within the Imperial Center and Holy Terra itself cannot be neglected.

Gu Hang has begun preparing a detailed development plan.

This plan not only showcases the Alliance’s existing resources and development potential, but also represents a commitment to the future.

It includes the current economic and tax situation within the Alliance and the five star regions, as well as future prospects for these areas.

It addresses a range of topics, including military and political security.

With the assistance of the Governor’s Office, this voluminous and detailed plan report is already being prepared.

Ultimately, the most crucial aspect is taxation.

The Alliance promises that within ten years, the five star regions will be able to consistently pay 1.3 trillion tax coins annually.

This is calculated based on a population of ten trillion. Normally, Level 1 Development pays 1 trillion per year. However, there are some highly developed planets, and the Alliance has promised in its report to develop worlds less severely damaged by the war to a higher level, allowing them to pay more taxes.

Although this will happen ten years from now, the Alliance will not refrain from paying taxes for ten years.

On the contrary, the tax burden will remain high. According to calculations, starting next year, the Alliance will resume biennial Imperial Tax payments. The first year’s tax burden will be approximately 370 billion.

This includes the entire tax burden from the Dragon Eagle and Menghe sectors, as well as the immediate tax burden from worlds in the newly occupied Pride Claw, Alfonzo, and Nepeta sectors that were less affected by the war and therefore do not require recolonization.

As for worlds severely damaged and unable to collect taxes in the first place, the Empire usually allows them some time to develop.

For these worlds unable to pay taxes, the Alliance has provided detailed explanations for each, including a timeline for future tax payment.

The Alliance believes this proposal will be highly attractive to the Imperial Center.

Taxation is paramount for the Empire.

The Empire’s armies, wars, and various institutions all rely on Imperial taxes. Without Imperial taxes, there would be no Empire.

Generally speaking, according to Imperial political convention, 30% of a planet’s tax revenue goes to the Star Region Government and 20% to the Universe Government, leaving only 50% at the disposal of the Imperial Center.

This is theoretically speaking.

Given the Empire’s vast territory, most taxes are paid in kind. Transportation losses, fleet fuel, time, the cost of building a tax fleet, the risk of looting during transportation… all factor into the tax cost.

Star Region Government tax costs are lower, given their proximity; Universe Government tax costs are higher, with 30% to 40% of tax revenue collected commonplace. At the Imperial Center, costs of 50% to 60% are commonplace. The

Empire has exhausted all possible means to address this issue. For example, central warehouses could be built in various locations to facilitate local collection, storage, and retrieval. Alternatively, tax coins could be used to directly mobilize resources from various planets, star regions, and cosmic domains to support the central government. Using tax coins to offset taxes would reduce the inevitable loss of physical goods in transit.

However, these methods ultimately offer only mitigation measures, not a permanent solution, to the high level of losses.

However, the alliance’s development agreement promised to locate a planet in the Jingjie star region, the closest star region to the central government, as a dedicated transit and transfer point, where the agreed-upon tax amount would be settled in a single lump sum.

What did this mean?

The central government would directly save on the money it would have to pay to the star region and cosmic domain governments!

This alone would increase the central government’s theoretical revenue by 50%.

Furthermore, a single transfer eliminates the need for individual payments and expedited collection, saving enormous tax costs. At that point, the Imperial Center would only need to demand payment from the Alliance every two years, with payments collected uniformly at a single location. The Imperial tax fleet could then make a single trip to the Nepeta Sector to take care of everything.

Tax costs could be reduced from nearly 60% to less than 20%!

This represents another significant increase!

A direct calculation will make things clearer.

The total tax revenue from the five major sectors was approximately 1.7 trillion tax coins before the war. The Empire previously collected approximately 850 billion tax coins annually, but the actual amount that could be transferred to the Imperial Center for allocation and use would be reduced to 340 billion.

These are theoretical figures. In reality, due to the existence of the Alfonzo Cult, a superstructure exempt from taxation by the Mechanicum, and Iron Armor, a regional power that frequently intercepts tax revenue and then demands payment from the Empire, the Imperial Center would be far from collecting even the 340 billion, even after accounting for transportation losses.

According to the Central Tax Department, collecting 100 billion per year would be a good sum.

In the future, assuming the Alliance obediently retreats to the Dragonhawk Sector and abandons all other areas, and the Empire reestablishes its administrative structure based on the cosmic domain, galactic domain, and sectoral system in these areas, the theoretical tax revenue the Empire can collect will drop directly from 340 billion to 200 billion, potentially only 80 billion in tax revenue

. This is the impact of the war.

From the outbreak of the Battle of Ironclad to the end of the Second Battle of Readuches, 15 years of continuous war devastated the Spiderweb Sector. The three sectors of Nepeta, Alfonzo, and Proud Claw were relatively less affected, but their populations still plummeted.

The theoretical 1.7 trillion tax coins are certainly gone; even a trillion would be a good loss.

With a lower population base, the Empire’s tax revenue will naturally decrease.

Furthermore, although Ironclad was eliminated and the Alfonzo Cult dismantled, there is no one to intercept and collect taxes.

However, the Aramita Cult emerged, and they recently reached an agreement with Mars and will continue to exist. That means Aramita will inherit a portion of Alfonzo’s estate and be exempt from taxes. While not as much as before, the output of a single Forge World is nearly equal to that of a hundred ordinary worlds. Not to mention, their influence will expand in the future, which will inevitably affect tax revenues.

Furthermore, with so many worlds in ruins, can the Empire really collect that much money even with the tithe?

Impossible.

Those shattered worlds, if left alone, will inevitably fall short.

There are two possible outcomes:

Failure to pay taxes will result in treason, but paying taxes will lead to starvation, so I’d rather not pay. Since I’m going to die anyway, I might as well rebel.

Could the Empire punish all these hundreds, even thousands, of disaster-stricken worlds? Would it have to spend money to send in a massive army? And after the punishment, would it leave the land in an even worse state, and still not be able to pay?

Second, tax exemption. Or even more than tax exemption? There would still have to be money

to pay for aid and reconstruction, which is the job of the Ministry of the Interior, and they would definitely prefer this approach. Tax exemption means no money, and

aid and reconstruction would have to be paid back in an astronomical amount. Whichever option is chosen, the Empire will definitely not be able to collect a single cent, and will even have to continue to provide

financial support to these places. They can only collect 200 billion a year, but they’re afraid they’ll have to pay another 200 billion—whether it’s for suppressing the rebellion or supporting construction.

Now, according to the Alliance’s plan, the whole province is gone.

In the first year, the Alliance would provide 370 billion, and after deducting tax costs, the Imperial Central Government would receive around 300 billion. That’s a fantastic deal .

Compare that to the less than 100 billion it received annually back then. Compared to bringing these worlds back under Imperial jurisdiction, where they wouldn’t even collect a penny and would even have to pay out the pocket , the

math makes it even better. And that

‘s not even mentioning the Alliance’s promise of 1.3 trillion annually over the next ten years! The revenue alone

would be over a trillion.

Generally speaking, this revenue is equivalent to the tax revenue provided to the Imperial Central Government by two or three entire universes!

And what would the Empire pay?

It would hand over a theoretically already broken mess, a future burden, to the Alliance.

No matter how you look at it, it’s a fantastic deal!

Money, tangible money, is the main attraction of the “Joint Development and Taxation Plan for the Five Star Regions and the Alliance over the Next Ten Years” currently being drafted by the Alliance.

Of course, this proposal doesn’t address another issue: the massive military expenditures being poured north by the Alliance in the Ironclad War.

Lost ships, lost soldiers, lost weapons and equipment, spent fuel, spent ammunition…

But one thing stands, this money has nothing to do with the future of the Alliance or the five star regions.

The Imperial Central Government ordered me to fight, so it was supposed to pay this money.

This matter has nothing to do with the Alliance Plan, so there’s no need to include it in the document.

Besides the money, Gu Hang also intended to give the Empire the benefit of the doubt.

Politically, Gu Hang expressed his willingness to accept some political guidance from the Empire. He planned to establish a position within the Alliance, similar to the Imperial Attorney General, jointly elected by the Alliance and the Empire. This position would represent the interests of the Empire while also safeguarding the Alliance’s autonomy. This way, Holy Terra would feel the Alliance’s respect and integration into the Imperial political system.

This Alliance Attorney General would oversee not only political matters but also military development.

To allay Holy Terra’s concerns about the Alliance’s military might, the Alliance also proposed limiting its military power. Gu Hang would establish a military oversight mechanism within the Alliance, directly led by the Imperial Attorney General stationed in the Alliance. Other Space Marine Chapters and some trusted Imperial officials could also be involved as observers.

This mechanism would oversee the Alliance’s military size, weaponry upgrades, and other aspects. Agreements would be drawn up on everything from troop numbers and naval size to the number and management of Space Marine Chapters within the Alliance’s five star regions. This would ensure that the Alliance’s military strength would not be overextended and that all military operations would remain defensive in nature.

Gu Hang, however, understood that these measures wouldn’t completely allay Holy Terra’s concerns. The core conflict remained: his independence was too strong. “Military development restrictions” and “tax plans”—to put it bluntly, the Empire had no power to restrain him when he didn’t want to comply. Except for

war.

But to be honest, Gu Hang had no desire to break this agreement in the short term.

As long as the Empire complied,

he hoped that this proactive approach would demonstrate the Empire’s sincerity and the positive impact of the Alliance’s development on the Empire’s overall interests. This was a difficult gamble, each step fraught with risk, but Gu Hang had no choice but to fight for the Alliance’s future.

…

September, 10245 Terran Calendar.

The cleanup work across the Spider Web region is nearing completion.

Not all problems have been resolved; far from it.

However, the largest, most challenging, and most concentrated issues were resolved while the combined forces of the Western, Northern, and Southern Legions were still active.

Meanwhile, the fleet dispatched to leave the Rhaeadoches system via conventional space travel has also reported victory.

They discovered the Zerg support fleet from Tentacles, disabled by the Queen’s death, and destroyed it. The cost was as expected, relatively low.

They are already on their way back and are expected to arrive in Rhaeadoches in December of this year.

That will also be the date the coalition will disband.

The Imperial Center has already issued an explanation.

Holy Terra received the battle reports submitted by the Allied Command at the beginning of the year. With authorization from the Supreme Council, the Military Affairs Department, with unprecedented efficiency for the Empire, compiled and approved these reports within six months.

Holy Terra had originally planned to hold a victory parade, but ultimately, after weeks of discussion, the idea fell through. It

was just too damn expensive.

Fighting the Ironclad War cost too much.

Every army, whether it was the Second Western Legion, formed directly by the Imperial Center, or the older Western and Northern Legions, was essentially funded by the Imperial Center. Whether it

was the support orchestrated from various local governments or resources sent directly from the Imperial Center, the total bill was astronomical.

The Ministry of Military Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Ministry of Taxation were all fretting over this.

Add to that the expense of sending the army six months or a year to Holy Terra, and then there was the massive expense of a victory parade, complete with rewards for meritorious service… While it was a drop in the bucket compared to the war’s costs, any savings were appreciated in these trying times.

Still, the Empire had a ton of money to spend.

The biggest news stories of the past few years have been the Ironclad Rebellion and the Princess Campaign. That’s right.

But going back a few years, the turmoil in the Solaria space caused by the death of the Sun Lord has not been completely quelled yet. Various forces, loyalists, rebels, and ambitious people alike, are all making trouble. Chaos cults and alien forces are also mixed in, it is a huge black hole. The entire southern border of the empire is not very stable.

A large-scale rebellion has occurred in the western border of the empire, and a powerful orc army has appeared in the northern border to cause unrest…

The entire empire is already in a turbulent and turbulent year.

But then again, when has the empire not been in a turbulent period?

The sustainability pill is sometimes not a joke.

Against this background, the “Alliance Plan” that Gu Hang and the think tanks of the Governor’s Office and the high-level offices of the Alliance Government finally completed and sent to Holy Terra.

A single stone stirs up a thousand waves.

(End of this chapter)