In fact, the old prince has always looked down on Najnom, and in his heart he despises this greedy and lustful fellow.

However, for the benefit of the Lucis family, once Genom really ascended the throne, the two families would marry, and the old prince would still agree.

So after hearing that Jenom hung up, the happiest person was Elsa, and she didn't have to marry an old man who disgusted her.

And when Zhou Ming appeared in front of her and the family found her a marriage partner, Elsa still resisted a little in her heart, but it was much better than before...... The little Zhengtai in front of her, who is two years younger than her, looks very pleasing to the eye.

Unexpectedly, the kid in front of her was young, but his mouth was very powerful, and a sweet word made her heart beat wildly, so that the marriage arranged by the family, her mentality changed from a slight resistance to a tacit obedience.

And what about Zhou Ming?

What was in his mind?

In fact, he didn't want to agree to any marriage, and he didn't want to get entangled with any woman anymore, he originally planned to exchange some benefits in exchange for the support of the Lucis family.

It's just that the old fox deserves to be an old fox, and he ate Zhou Ming to death at once, making him immediately understand that his previous plans were not as seamless as he thought.

Faced with the "marriage" rope that the old fox took the initiative to put on, he could only stick his head over.

Of course, this does not mean that Zhou Ming just accepted his fate.

He is still young, and he still has a few years to struggle, and perhaps, he can avoid the fate of being trapped.

In this way, after enlisting the support of the Lucis family.

Above the court, Zhou Ming's weight in speaking has finally increased a lot, and on some major issues, he can also express his opinions, put forward his own opinions, and even give some eye-catching suggestions, which are praised by the ministers.

So what's next?

Zhou Ming: What are his plans?

He first investigated and understood what kind of challenges and problems the empire in his hands faced.

After some investigation, Zhou Ming summed up three major problems:

First, the finances are tight, the treasury is empty, and it has been unable to make ends meet for thirty consecutive years, and now the remaining funds in the treasury are only enough to maintain the normal operation of the empire for three years, and after three years, there will inevitably be a large amount of deficits that are difficult to make up, and it will fall into the embarrassing situation of demolishing the east and making up for the west.

Second, the intensification of civil land annexation, the intensification of the differentiation between the aristocracy and the commoners, the poorer and the richer, the large-scale reduction of the number of yeoman farmers and freemen, and the solidification of classes, made this huge empire, which had been established for nearly 300 years, show a twilight.

Three, the aristocratic extravagance prevails, extravagance and waste, but there are a large number of begging people at the bottom, every winter, there are countless people who freeze to death and starve to death, and in some places, there are even signs of rebellion against the aristocracy and rising up, which makes people feel that this imperial pill.

However, after analyzing the system, it is speculated that this empire has at least 500 years of national fortune and will not die in a short time.

"Why do you say that, system?" Zhou Ming asked.

"One, this empire is on a complete floating island, there is no hidden danger of foreign invasion, and it is a unified state, which can mobilize a lot of resources to suppress the rebellion, and because there are a large number of feudal lords in the empire, they are very active in suppressing the rebellion, so the rebellion is difficult to succeed. ”

"Feudal lords, I have to thank you for reminding me of this, with these feudal lords here, I, the emperor, should be even more worried. "Zhou Ming didn't have a good airway.

"In addition, the high-end forces in this empire are basically in the hands of the aristocracy, and with these high-end forces to suppress them, those low-level resistance forces basically can't make any waves. The system said.

"High-end power?"

Zhou Ming shook his head: "This is also true, in the high-energy plane, the resistance of the people at the bottom is indeed an ant in front of an elephant, taken away like a leek. ”

But this also means that Zhou Ming doesn't need to solve the above problems, can he sit back and relax?

Of course not.

Choosing to ignore is not his style.

Of the three problems, he had to figure out at least one of them.

Zhou Ming's focus was naturally mainly on solving the problem of "financial constraints."

On this issue, he held several special court meetings to discuss solutions.

"To raise taxes, we can only raise taxes on peasants, and increase the tax on one mu of land from 10 percent to 11 percent, so that the national treasury can increase by 5 million gold talders every year, basically making up for the shortfall. ”

"Yes, just add a little tax, and the peasants will not add much burden. ”

"The 10% tax is really not high, I heard that in the territory of many nobles, the farmer has to hand over half of the harvest, compared to the royal district, it is really nothing?"

In the palace, most of the nobles tended to add a little tax to the farmers in the royal district.

It should be explained here that the so-called royal territory refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the emperor, which has established prefectures and counties, and dispatched officials to manage it, a bit like the ancient Z society.

In the Orunian Empire, the royal neighborhood was about one-third of the area, with a population of 1.5 billion, accounting for about half of the total population, including a large number of yeoman farmers and freemen.

The other two-thirds belonged to the territories that were divided among the noble lords, called the "lords' districts".

Now seeing that Zhou Ming planned to solve the problem of financial constraints, the nobles who spoke first advocated that the key to solving the problem should be to raise taxes on the peasants in the "royal district".

This, of course, aroused the dissatisfaction and opposition of the "royalists."

"Why is it that the peasants in the royal district are taxed again, instead of the lords increasing their tribute to the royal family?"

"Yes, why should all the pressure be transferred to our farmers?

"You know, the royal district only accounts for one-third of the empire, but it feeds half of the empire's population, and the nobles have twice as much land, and they have to raise taxes on our peasants?"

"No, we don't agree. ”

Above the court discussion, the royalist faction and the aristocratic faction quarreled fiercely, and even almost moved their hands.

On the issue of money, no one is willing to cut flesh and bleed, and that faction cannot back down half a step.

While Zhou Ming's head was bigger, he also understood that the main internal contradiction in the empire was the contradiction between the "royalist faction" and the "aristocratic faction".

And on the issue of interests, it is difficult for either faction to provoke, it is difficult for that faction to compromise, and it is difficult for the two sides to reach a consensus.

So what to do?

How to solve the problem of financial constraints?

It is impossible for Zhou Ming to agree to the tax increase for the peasants, saying that it will be increased by 1%, but when it comes to the low-level officials, I am afraid that it will be increased by 3%, 5% or even higher, which will directly ask the peasants for their lives.

What about raising the merchant tax? Is it okay to collect some tax from the merchants?

This idea was also generated by Zhou Ming, but it was quickly dispelled, the so-called integration of officials and businessmen, the background of the businessmen are all aristocrats, dare to reach out to the businessmen, isn't it just to find trouble with the nobles, and the nobles are not to blame if they don't stir up trouble.

Therefore, if open source fails, then choose to throttle, spend less money, and adopt inaction.

How to do nothing?

One, reduce the number of celebrations.

Zhou Ming knew that as the capital of the empire, in order to celebrate various festivals, the imperial capital held more than ten large-scale celebrations every year, and each celebration cost four or five hundred thousand golden pagoda shields, and nearly 5 million a year.

Thinking of such a huge expense, Zhou Ming directly cut it in half, and the rest of the celebration activities were required to be handled frugally, so that about 2 million gold tower shield expenses could be saved a year.

two, reducing the number of servants in the palace.

Because the number of maids, miscellaneous servants, eunuchs, housekeepers and concubines in the palace exceeds 10,000, but there is only one object of service, Zhou Ming, which is too extravagant and wasteful, Zhou Ming is also directly cut in half, and more than 5,000 people are dismissed, although it costs a lot of severance pay, but the annual savings of the palace are also about 2 million gold tower shields.

Three, disarmament.

Massive reductions in the armies belonging to the royal order.

The total number of royal legions of 3 million will be reduced to 1.5 million...... This encountered tremendous resistance and consumed a lot of energy from Zhou Ming, but after doing the ideological work of all the generals of the military and overcoming many obstacles, the disarmament work was carried out smoothly.

Of course, although the number of people has been cut by half, Zhou Ming has not reduced the annual military expenditure of 10 million gold tadong in a word, and even promised to increase it in the future, and build the 1.5 million elite soldiers left after the reduction into elite soldiers with better equipment, stronger mobility, and higher combat effectiveness...... The overall combat effectiveness has remained basically unchanged.

However, after the elimination, the number of people has been reduced by half, which means that the logistics support has been reduced by half, the consumption of food and materials has been reduced by half, and the annual maintenance cost saved is still more than 1 million gold taps.

Even after seeing that the royal legion, after being reduced, the burden on the treasury was significantly reduced, and the combat effectiveness soared, the old prince Fred Lucis actually moved the mind of disarmament, but due to various difficulties, it was difficult to overcome, and finally ended in failure.

In this way, after three "halves", the financial tension was greatly alleviated, and the gap beyond making ends meet was successfully plugged, and Zhou Ming breathed a sigh of relief.