Apocalyptic Dragonborn Lord

Chapter 17 Towards the Goal

Stannis got up from the bed with his bird's nest of hair, which was always full of lice since the time travel.

He sat sleepily on the edge of the bed, not wanting to move.

Although he slept until noon, he was not ashamed of his decadence at all. Looking at the gray and lifeless scene outside the stone window, Stannis's mind was blank, and the river farther away—they said this The water in the Kombe River flows calmly day after day. It has been flowing like this for thousands of years and will continue to do so for thousands of years.

On the east bank of the river, the nameless black forest is projected onto the earth like an endless shadow in the sky, so gray that the edge cannot be seen at a glance.

He finally knew why the church in the Middle Ages explicitly prohibited suicide. Looking at this scene like the end of the world, as a time traveler, he couldn't find any reason to live.

I have no money, no rights, and even the promised dragon talent has been deprived. The god of fate is playing with me, right?
It's fine if you don't have a golden finger, but if you give a slightly normal opening condition, can you die!
I don't care about my own attribute pits, but my subordinates are also out of tune with each other, so forget about deleting files and returning to the furnace!

"Your Excellency, dinner is ready!" The senior scholar's old voice sounded from outside the door, like a grandfather yelling to his restless grandson to eat.

Stannis didn't even move. He would die from eating this kind of food.

"Wow, it's so fragrant, Cook, you've developed!" This time it was Robert's voice.

The chef's resonant voice sounded, "Where, these are the ingredients sent by Miss Anne. I just showed my real skills to cook them well."

Korodov's signature barking mouth also sounded out of nowhere when he was eating, "Oh, it's delicious~~Since your lord refuses to come down, let me have his share too!"

What, the delicious food sent by Annie?

Stannis didn't even have time to put on his clothes, so he rushed down directly: "How can you repair it, you bastards, save some for me!"

After drinking and eating, like all well-fed idlers, Stannis began to think about life.

He decided that he couldn't wait to die like this. As an aspiring time traveler, he couldn't just rely on other people's charity to survive.

What's more, he has already set his goal to become a duke, so that he can meet that witch named Anya.

Although I already have a beautiful enough fiancée, I never have too many harems.

Thinking of this, Stannis locked himself in his study again, and after a whole day of calculations, he finally made out the financial statements of the territory for the past year, which listed all the expenditures and income here in detail, but these are weird His income and expenditure made him feel like a fog.

For example, he was surprised to find that there were as many as 19 kinds of taxes he had paid to the empire. He didn't expect that his entire poor place, old and young, would be targeted by tax officials and squeezed out. In addition to land tax and poll tax, indulgences, war tax, and special additional tax are also indispensable, and what is even more outrageous is the blood money of animals.

What made Stannis even more puzzled was that, as a member of the exploiting class, he shouldn't be happy to exploit those serfs like landlords and tyrants, but now he has become the object of exploitation instead! ! ?

It is necessary to bear the obligation to send troops, but also to pay these exorbitant taxes. Is this fundamentally different from the "management system" mentioned in the textbook? Sure enough, the fantasy world cannot be viewed with common sense.

In short, these expenditure items are chaotic, self-conflicting, and a large part of them are repetitive subjects. As an accountant, he instinctively feels that there is a lot of water that can be squeezed out.

As for income, it is very simple. There are only a few items in total, which are the output that the farmers are forced to cultivate on their own land, the "freedom fee" paid to themselves, the use fee for renting out the rough horses, the marriage of the subordinate farmers and the inheritance of the land. Honor money and a little poor business tax.

But what made him gratified was that his territory was full of self-cultivating farmers, and there were no slaves, but it was true, everyone was so poor, who would enslave whom!

"Old man!" Stannis yelled, stretching and tossing the quill on the table. This was the new title he had given himself as the Head of the University.

The bachelor who had been waiting at the door for a long time opened the door and came in immediately, "Your Excellency?"

"Looking at you remembering these messy things, I really want to let a dog bite your ass, but since I'm so poor that I can't even afford a dog, then forget it. Now I have good news for you, I finally sorted out my treatment In and out for the whole year of last year."

Unexpectedly, the master he served would suddenly deal with numbers, and Maester Romon was overjoyed. He took the parchment that Stannis handed him, and couldn't wait to read it.

But soon, he was dazzled by the numbers derived from these complicated formulas, and had to use the most common calculation tool of this era—that is, wrench fingers to clarify his thinking.

Unexpectedly, as a guy with the title of bachelor, which can only be enjoyed by senior intellectuals, his mathematical ability is so low, making Stannis have to wonder whether people in this era can count from one to one hundred in full.

"Don't forget, these figures are accurate." Stannis was still quite conceited about his financial ability.

Anyway, I couldn't understand it, and Bachelor Romon simply believed him, but what's the use of these things?After all, no matter how you calculate it, the money is only so small, and it will never become more.

"With all due respect, sir, I really don't see the use of doing such a thing?"

It really is the dark age of ignorance, you don’t even know the power of knowledge... Stannis shook his head, he poked his finger on the table, “If you don’t even know where the money came from, then you deserve it Such a poor jingle."

"Your Excellency, do you mean that you have a way to get us out of this predicament?" Bachelor Romon asked a little suspiciously, "But our army can't beat anyone!"

Even a well-informed man like him believed that the only way to get rich was to rob.

Stannis almost broke his finger poking at the table, "Everyone is a civilized person, don't fight and kill all day long, okay! In fact, it is not difficult for us to get rid of the financial difficulties now, as long as we increase revenue and reduce expenditure."

"Increasing income and reducing expenditure?" Bachelor Romon, who had no financial knowledge, was of course confused.

It was finally possible to teach people, Stannis breathed a sigh of relief.

"Increasing income, of course, means increasing income, and cutting expenditure means reducing expenses."

Bachelor Romond nodded half-understood, but he quickly realized that he was just explaining the literal meaning of the word to him, "Although I said so, what should I do specifically, Your Excellency?"

(End of this chapter)