Chapter 201 “Acting”
These days, Philip, the most promising student of Mr. Blue Ocean has earned a great deal of trust from him. In Du Wei’s view, Philip is not only young; he is also steady in his actions. More importantly, he is well aware of the situation in the Northwest and would never look down at himself for his young age.
If Philip wasn’t really so young and inexperienced, Du Wei really would have appointed him the governor of the Desa Province by now.
Even so, Du Wei didn’t care either way and handed Philip all the authority he would have gotten if he really was t.i.tled. Whether it is the new city constructing project or the financial management, Philip pretty much covers the entire picture.
Phillip is after all the student of the famed Mr. Blue Ocean. Once he received word of Du Wei’s summoning, he didn’t just dismiss the guy; instead, he questioned the person that relayed the message and found out it was someone from the Northwestern Army.
Knowing this information, Philip sneered.
Autumn just ended and the Northwestern Army is coming for money already? Fortunately, this scenario is well within Du Wei and Philip’s expectation, thus a plan was agreed upon long before the occasion. Once everything was in order, Philip finally headed off to see Du Wei.
Because Philip’s work place is in the Governor’s Manor, it didn’t take long for him to arrive at Du Wei’s study room. Opening the door, the first thing he saw after walking in is Du Wei having an idle conversation with Totoro. Not forgetting his manners, Philip quickly made a salute to Du Wei so that the Duke can make the introduction.
Regarding this newly arrived youngster, Totoro was also very polite without any intentions of making light of Philip. After all, in the months since Du Wei’s arrival, the Northwestern Army was always carefully observing their movements. This young man named Philip may only be Du Wei’s aide on the surface, but in truth, they know this little guy was the one giving out all the orders till now. If anything, this Philip is already half a governor without actually being one.
“Phillip, the reason for General Totoro visit today is to collect the autumn funding. Hmm, this quarter’s revenue should have already been reported, right?” Du Wei smile was exceptionally kind.
“Yes your honor.” Philip immediately opened up one of the booklets he brought along and pa.s.sed forward the ledger: “My lord, this is the fall revenue for the Desa Province.”
Du Wei pretended like he was actually looking over the booklet he hot from Philip’s hand. Then with a look of disbelief, he said: “This…. Philip, the number must be wrong, right?”
Philip looked all serious: “My Lord, the number there is correct.”
Coughing a few times like he was embarra.s.sed, Du Wei slowly pushed the ledger to the table in front of Totoro: “General Totoro, this is the autumn tax revenue of the Desa Province. Totaling 71,000 gold coins, 46,000 of which are from agriculture. According to the usual practices, 40% of this should be.”
Totoro’s face changed a shade: “How much?!”
“18,400 gold.” Philip repeated again with a deadpan face. Du Wei was forcing down his laugh so he was only smiling as he sighed: “Isn’t this figure a little too low? For the empire, the Northwestern Army is toiling away at the border so their merit is undeniable. Fine then, I’ll privately add in some more and make it an even number of 20,000 gold coins!”
Though Du Wei managed to pack in a generous appearance, but the nose of the one standing beside him was already crooked.
The thin air of hesitation from before is nowhere to be seen as Totoro questioned in a low voice: “Your lords.h.i.+p, did I hear it wrong? You’re certain of this number?”
“Yes of course.” Philip is the first to reply, “The Governor office just finished checking the revenue we collected.”
Though Totoro’s face was beet red, he still had the sense of suppressing his anger. Instead of continuing the question on Philip, this fat man turned to face Du Wei: “Duke! The Desa Province may be barren, but the population is still in the millions! To say the tax revenue is only 70,000, don’t you think it’s a bit ridiculous?”
Pausing for a second, his eyes showed a trace of anger: “This year’s spring and summer quarter is already more than 200,000 gold coins in tax revenue. Now that we are in the autumn quarter where the harvest is the highest, it should be more than 300,000 according to previous year’s calculation! For a whole province to only have 70,000 gold coins in tax revenue, don’t you think this joke is going a little too far?”
“General Totoro!” Philip’s suddenly got cold and serious: “Please watch your tongue! The one before you is a Duke of the empire!!”
Philip harshly said: “Presuming you know this, but we are building a new city. To build a city, the expenses are huge. Other than paying the craftsman for their work, there are also plenty of overhead costs! Also, in order to get the citizen to migrate to the new city, we took measures to exempt these individuals from taxes for a whole year; all of this was announced long before the city’s completion. Desa Province’s income isn’t high to begin with. Now that there is all these spending’s and tax cuts, it’s not strange to see such low numbers.”
Totoro’s original intention today is to test Du Wei’s att.i.tude. After coming to the Northwest, this little duke never had any dealings with the Northwestern Army, so he really thought Du Wei would cooperate from his earlier words, yet it seems they are only toying with him…..
Thinking of this, Totoro can’t help but be infuriated. He is a general of the Northwestern Army and the one in charge of the logistic department. Even that old fox Bohan needs to be polite and watchful in front of him, so how can he swallow such humiliation?
Duke? So what if he’s a Duke? What is there to be afraid of when we’re the Northwestern Army?
“Your Dukes.h.i.+p!” Totoro stood up: “I’m afraid your subordinate here isn’t very clear on the interim decree. According to the Empire’s decree, the Northwestern Army has the right to intercept the agricultural tax revenue for military purposes! What’s more, the military has first priority and the local government cannot use the fund until the military takes their share! And now, your aide is telling me he already spend all the revenue on the new city before we can even take our share? Is this what you mean?!”
Looking at this angry fat a.s.s, Du Wei slowly answered: “General Totoro, please sit down, your anger won’t help in remedying the situation. Let us discuss this to find a solution, what do you think?”
Totoro made a loud “humph” in reply.
Du Wei smiled as he faced Philip: “Philip, although the account calculations are correct, but we can’t drag out the military funding! The income for this season is only numbers on a paper. Now then, tell me the income for this quarter before the expenses are added in.”
Philip then pretended to be reluctant in his words: “If you follow the normal count, the earning should be about 250,000 Gold coins, less than the previous years. Your excellency did after all exempt a lot of people from paying their taxes for the migration project.”
Only by hearing this did Totoro’s anger subside a little. Though 250,000 is still a little low, but it’s still way more than before! 40% of 250,000 is 100,000 gold coins.
“That’s easy then.” Du Wei immediately made a forthright expression: “According to the 250,000 income, 40% should be 100,000. Take this sum from the treasury.”
Philip sighed, looking like he was ashamed in his whispering voice: “But my lord, the treasury doesn’t have that much money.”
“What!!!”
This single shout carried with it boundless anger disbelief!
The problem is with this is that the one releasing this anger is not Totoro, it was DU Wei!
Jumping off his chair, the young duke mercilessly stared at Philip without restraint: “What did you say/!!”
His excessive action caused even the cup in front of him to fall to the ground. With an angry look, he questioned: “Sir Philip! Please explain to me at once why my Desa Province can’t even take out 100,000 gold coins from the treasury? Desa may be a barren land, but after so many years of saving, there should be more than enough to cover this sum!”
Du Wei blaming initiative actually caused Totoro to jump a little inside.
“Give me an explanation!” Du Wei’s anger looked like he was about to swallow someone: “Philip! Is this really my land? Is this really my Desa Province?! Or did you use your authority to embezzle the funds inside the coffer??? If you can’t explain this, I will immediately arrest you on charges of corruption!”
Phillips immediately showed a face of injustice as he argued back: “My Lord, I never embezzle a single copper!”
Then this Philip spoke like he was full of grievance: “Sir, you never cared about the finances the moment you stepped into the Northwest. You want to build a city, I tried to dissuade you, but you refused to listen. As such, I can only try my best to maintain everything for you, but I also have my difficulties!”
At this point, he seemed to be determined: “Do you remember when I first came in here I gave you a report?”
Du Wei seemed stunned for a moment, then impatiently replied: “I’m not interested in these things, its fine with you looking after them.”
Philip smiled bitterly: “My Lord, you are a magician, so of course you aren’t interested in this stuff. However, I have already explained everything in the report I gave you. It’s just that you didn’t look it over.”
Du Wei then acted like he just recalled something. With a frown, he asked: “The report, what happened?”
“My lord” Philip sighed: “When we took over the Desa Province, the coffer only retained 190,000 gold coins! After so many years, the revenue is only that much!”
“That’s impossible!!”
Once again, Totoro lost the chance to speak again because Du Wei jumped the gun again. With a shameful face, he stared at Philip: “A whole province and you are telling me the reserve only has that much??!”
“But this is all true my Lord. My report has all the details.” Philip face looked bitter: “You put all your energy into the great divine of magic research, so you ignored all this. Although I have repeatedly told you this, but you never noticed.”
Then, Phillips seemed cautious and hesitant in his words; “This number would of course make others question it. For a whole province, how can there be so little wealth in the reserve. But….”
“But what.” Du Wei quickly asked.
Coughing once, Philip bit his teeth: “But, prior to your arrival, the Desa Province was always under Governor Bohan.”
This sentence is already very obvious!
Even for Totoro, he had to secretly accept this argument after listening to this explanation.
It seems before Bohan surrendered the place to this Duke, he had sc.r.a.ped every inch of valuable from the land. This interpretation is very reasonable.
Like this, Du Wei and Philip both stared at each other, one with a face of anger and another with a face of injustice. After a long while of this standoff, Du Wei gritted his teeth as he spoke: What a good governor Bohan! Humph! No wonder his att.i.tude was so weird towards me while I was at Mulan City. That crazy b.a.s.t.a.r.d left me an empty sh.e.l.l!”
Philip frowned with annoyance: “Your focus was always spent on your divine magic researches. I’ve told you several times already, but you never listened.”