Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 775

Chapter 770, a memorandum

first stated the Alliance’s dire situation and the grave future, then set a very short deadline, forcing a quick decision…

Yang Shiwei’s tactics were smooth, but in reality, they weren’t particularly clever.

It was simply a matter of creating pressure, hoping for a misjudgment within a short window of time.

But it should be enough to deal with a young person.

Furthermore, Yang Shiwei’s words left himself open.

He didn’t force the child to sign.

He simply laid out the difficulties and problems, even emphasizing, “You shouldn’t have come,” “You’re not suitable to sign,” only to subtly add, “But if you don’t sign, there will be serious problems.”

His desired effect was for Gu Jing to rush him to sign, which would have been perfect.

Of course, he wasn’t naive enough to believe his entire charade was flawless. Nor did he believe that simply coaxing a child into signing something was enough to convince the Alliance to honor their agreement.

The only person who could truly make a signature binding was Gu Hang; at the very least, it had to be a high-ranking official in the alliance who had explicit written authorization from Gu Hang.

Gu Jing didn’t hold a high enough position within the alliance to warrant such a statement, nor did he have his father’s explicit authorization, so his signature wouldn’t count.

This wasn’t a feudal power structure. Even if everyone considered Gu Jing Gu Hang’s heir, without a formal appointment and legal basis, it wouldn’t count.

Regardless, Gu Jing held a special status, and this time, he was specifically assigned to handle the transaction, thus holding a position of authority.

While neither of these criteria were convincing, what he wanted Gu Jing to sign wasn’t actually a document authorizing the payment of taxes.

He made it clear that it was a “memorandum.”

To alleviate some of the pressure on Gu Jing to sign, he provided additional clarification when he saw the young man frowning.

“This isn’t a formal agreement or stipulation. Signing it doesn’t mean it’s enforceable. You don’t have that authority yet. This is a memorandum, an informal document, a substitute for an explanation of the Alliance’s investigation. As the special tax officer of the Imperial Taxation Department, that’s me; and the Alliance’s head of Imperial tax, this year you, as the two of us, currently the highest-ranking officials responsible for tax handover on Lingze Star, we jointly sign and acknowledge the current situation.”

“At most, you take one copy back, and I take one back, to provide additional information on the current situation.”

“If the original document is submitted, the Alliance’s annual tax revenue will be set at over 5 trillion. According to our memorandum, the recommended tax is only 2.5 trillion.”

“Damn it, why am I telling you all this… Can you make the decision? If not, time is running out. If we wait any longer, it’ll be too late!”

Yang Shiwei continued to increase the pressure on Gu Jing.

His words weren’t actually wrong. It was just a memorandum, without direct stipulation, not a formal agreement.

But it wasn’t simply a record, as he said.

The document was signed by Gu Jing, a man with a unique status and indeed the Alliance’s current tax director for Lingze Star. Even though it wasn’t a formal agreement, this memorandum would become the Empire’s most powerful weapon during the formal negotiations.

Its sharpness lay not in the proposed 2.5 trillion yuan tax, but in its determination that the Alliance would pay an annual tax of 10% of its gross output, normalizing the Alliance and negating the fixed taxation provisions of the Alliance Plan.

If Gu Jing actually signed it, the Alliance would be in a difficult position.

That would mean the Alliance had partially conceded to some extent to the memorandum’s contents. Any attempt to overturn it later would likely be costly—perhaps even impossible. The Imperial Central Government would constantly use the memorandum as a pretext.

At that point, Yang Shiwei’s mission would be accomplished successfully.

Renegotiation of the Alliance’s tax policies would not be a one-off. The subsequent negotiations would likely be protracted.

He had received the task from Xu Fuzhen, but he was clear about his role: a probing, a tactical outpost.

With such a major event, the real contenders would be the “bigwigs”—Prime Minister Xu Fuzhen, Prime Minister Gallardo, Prime Minister Luo Fei, Chairman Gu Hang, and even Prime Minister Qi Bodu. What was a Senior Deacon like him? Even if he were promoted to the coveted Vice Minister, he would be considered a top official in the eyes of others. Now, if he could use some of his “ingenuity” to secure a document that would be highly advantageous to the Imperial Central Committee in subsequent negotiations, it would already be a great achievement.

After returning, no one could say he had done a poor job.

Now, all that was left was for Gu Jing to sign the document.

Judging by the young man’s frown, it shouldn’t be a big deal, right?

Or, should he come up with another explanation and push him a little harder?

Yang Shiwei was about to speak when he saw Gu Jing’s brows relax. He picked up a pen from beside the document and twirled it between his fingers with expert skill.

“You…”

Yang Shiwei opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Gu Jing.

“I’ve read all the documents.”

“You’ve only read eleven pages?” Yang Shiwei snorted, but a sense of foreboding washed over him.

“No, all of them.” Gu Jing slapped his palm on the pile of over a thousand pages of documents.

Yang Shiwei thought Gu Jing was joking, bluffing.

How long had it been? Less than an hour! Over

a thousand pages of documents, filled with all kinds of data and confusing descriptions. Even with an entire analysis team, plus the help of the Servo Skull, it would take ages to read through them, let alone analyze and purify the information.

Gu Jing finished reading them?

Impossible.

“I know you think it’s impossible, but it doesn’t matter. Let’s talk about this.”

“Falsifying the investigation, fabricating data, adulterating the report… Deacon Yang, you’re really quite bold.”

“Oh, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Yang Shiwei remained unconvinced.

Gu Jing casually flipped a page and pointed to a chart on it, saying, “The statistics on the growth of the textile industry in the Fox Moon Star Region – Snow Fox Star on page 257 are ridiculous. Putting aside whether this data was falsified when it was collected, it does not match the output value data of the textile industry on page 456 of the Huisuan Alliance. A similar situation occurs in the statistics of the Jiangmeiyu Star Region. The data on pages 441, 486, and 822 are clearly conflicting…”

“And…”

Gu Jing repeatedly pointed out numerous points within the document, each one true and comprehensive, finding flaws on nearly every dozen or twenty pages. It didn’t seem like he’d just gotten lucky and come across that section, then pointed out the issues he’d encountered.

In fact, many of the issues Gu Jing mentioned were unknown to Yang Shiwei himself.

There was no way he could have memorized over a thousand pages!

At this point, no matter how much Yang Shiwei thought it was impossible, he had to admit that Gu Jing acted like he had thoroughly read the document and analyzed it in detail.

Yang Shiwei even recalled the way Gu Jing had been furrowing his brow.

Wasn’t that anxiety or uneasiness?

He was clearly thinking!

But the efficiency of his thinking was incredibly high!

It was a level far beyond the reach of a normal human.

But considering that this young man’s father was the renowned Gu Hang, the empire’s top psychic, it seemed reasonable that Gu Jing, as his son, would inherit some psychic talent.

Psychics are so amazing that it’s no surprise they possess any number of abilities.

But in short, this Gu Jing wasn’t as useless as he’d imagined.

He was a playboy, sure, and young, and perhaps he hadn’t experienced much, lacking in experience… However, there were such things as “geniuses” in this world.

Yang Shiwei had completely lost interest in continuing the conversation.

“Enough! I’ve had enough of your ridiculous accusations. You’re speaking nonsense without knowing anything about the data in the report. You’re completely incoherent!” Yang Shiwei didn’t want to continue the conversation or stay any longer, but he certainly wouldn’t admit anything.

He continued to speak to Gu Jing, “I’m disappointed in you! You didn’t come here to solve the problem at all. Talking to you is a waste of time.”

His words raged, but his hands didn’t stop moving. He quickly sorted through the documents on the desk, stacking them together, ready to grab them and leave.

Gu Jing pressed one hand on the documents.

“This is evidence of fraud by the audit team you led. You can’t just take it away.”

Yang Shiwei grasped Gu Jing’s wrist with his other arm, exhaling—his arm had been completely modified, a masterpiece crafted by a master, capable of instantaneous force comparable to that of a Space Marine.

He moved Gu Jing’s hand away and pulled out the thick stack of documents, numbering over a thousand pages. Then, with a sudden force, he pushed the young man back several steps. With a cold snort, he turned and prepared to leave.

But the next moment, a powerful, invisible force suddenly surged from Gu Jing’s body, crashing down upon Yang Shiwei like a shockwave.

Yang Shiwei was knocked to the ground by the gust of air, unable to hold onto the documents.

Instead, the documents, which should have scattered across the ground, were lifted by an invisible force and slowly flew toward Gu Jing.

Yang Shiwei tried to rise from the ground and continue his quest for the documents, but he felt as if his body were bound, pinned to the ground, unable to move.

He could only stare at Gu Jing with furious eyes and growl, “Do you know the crime of attacking an official of the Imperial Central Committee? You’re committing treason!”

“Treason?” Gu Jing had already reached him. “Since you mention it, let’s discuss this. I have a document here too. Does it look familiar?”

As Gu Jing spoke, a sheaf of papers flew out from the briefcase behind his chair, hovering in front of Yang Shiwei, and he flipped through the pages one by one.

At first, Yang Shiwei maintained a look of anger, but when he was forced to read the contents, his expression quickly shifted to panic.

“This… you… can’t be… how did you know this?”

“The senior deacon of the Imperial Central Taxation Department has been engaging in long-term illegal dealings with the State Church, the Central Chamber of Commerce, local chambers of commerce, local governments… a total of 11 organizations, helping them purchase bulk goods at low prices from already paid Imperial taxes. To fill the gaps in Imperial tax revenue, they passed off inferior goods as high-quality goods, even inflating figures and falsifying accounts to smooth over the process. Over the past 15 years, this has caused the Empire to lose a total of 800 billion tax coins.”

“This is fake! It’s fabricated! You forged the account books! Your attempt to frame me will never succeed!”

“Oh? We framed you?” Gu Jing’s expression remained unchanged. “That’s a pity. Next, I will release this document and propose that the Alliance Legal Department and the Imperial Central Legal Department jointly form an investigation team to determine if there are indeed any problems with this document.”

Yang Shiwei’s face darkened.

Gu Jing noticed and smiled. “Look, you don’t seem to be willing to disclose it. I agree. The data, accounts, and transactions in this document are all very detailed. The information stands up to scrutiny and there are no contradictions. The source of every piece of data is clear, and even each source has at least two traceable references and responsible persons. My document is much more extensive than yours.”

Yang Shiwei’s face was ashen.

There was no room for rebuttal.

Because it was all true, he had indeed done it.

Of course, he couldn’t have made 800 billion yuan in these 15 years. That much money was earned by many companies. Some were people he couldn’t refuse; others he turned a blind eye to and profited from.

It’s perfectly normal. If your alliance can profit from the interest rate differentials set by the imperial tax, why can’t I?

Of course I can!

This money wasn’t just mine! 800 billion yuan! Even with the biggest appetite and the biggest courage, Yang Shiwei wouldn’t dare take in so much.

What he earned himself, let alone 800 billion, is far from even 80 million.

However, this matter cannot be brought to the table.

If he brings it up, does he dare to give out the people he can’t refuse one by one?

If he says it, he’s finished!

Even Xu Fuzhen can’t save him-in fact, Prime Minister Xu Fuzhen may be the one who wants him dead the most!

His eyes turned into a pleading look, his lips whispered, there are some words he wanted to say, but he couldn’t say them.

Gu Jing understood.

He shook his head gently and said, “It’s okay not to make it public, but I also have a memorandum here, you come and sign it.”

Another document flew in front of Yang Shiwei.

He looked at it, his eyes became horrified.

“No… No, if I sign it, my future will be over…”

“Indeed, but you will always choose a way to end it.” Gu Jing was indifferent and ruthless.

(End of this chapter)