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Seeing his friend’s confident response, Lu Yuan’s heart finally believed this fact.

And after believing, he felt a burst of joy.

“If there are seven million silver taels for the summer tax in the first half of the year, by the time winter comes, the winter tax should have eight million silver taels. The combined amount would mean that Great Chu would collect fifteen million silver taels in taxes this year.” Lu Yuan calculated these figures.

Great Chu inherited the Pre-Yue tax system, which collected taxes twice a year – the Summer Tax in July and the Winter Tax in November.

In the meantime, due to various types of additional taxes and the increasing number of merchants and travelers toward the end of the year, the customs and commercial taxes collected in the second half of the year also increased as compared to the first half.

Consequently, by the end of the year, the Winter Tax usually collects more than the Summer Tax by about ten to twenty percent.

Therefore, with seven million silver taels in this year’s Summer Tax, and taking into account the increase of one and a half times that amount, at least eight million silver taels for the Winter Tax could be collected in the second half of the year.

Together, they amount to fifteen million silver taels, which is no small sum.

At the very least, with the Great Chu’s current army of 240,000 soldiers, the total military expenditure of sixteen million silver taels can almost be covered by this year’s tax revenue, only falling short by one million silver taels.

However, Nanhai Country and Su Country still provide five million silver taels of assistance every year.

This difference of one million silver taels can also be covered.

Even more than just covered.

Considering this, Lu Yuan asked, “Sun Qing, I recall that our country’s various expenses should be around three million taels, right?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Sun Siwen nodded, then said, “Now in our country, the court, prefectures, and counties employ 3,071 officials in total. The annual expenditure for these officials’ salaries requires more than 578,000 silver taels, and 136,000 stones of rice.

In addition, the daily administrative costs, official residence maintenance, and other expenditures of various prefectures amount to 630,000 silver taels.

Furthermore, the costs of road repairs, city wall maintenance, water conservancy construction, and city cleaning projects amount to over 1,250,000 silver taels every year.

Besides, over the years, the accumulated casualties from wars have left more than 50,000 disabled and deceased soldiers.

Although compensation fees were provided at the time, due to Your Majesty’s kindness, a monthly pension is still given to them. This amounts to 120,000 silver taels per year.

Moreover, the court allocates funds every year for the support of students and provides for the widows, orphans, and other needy people in the provinces. These two expenditures combined amount to over 80,000 silver taels.

Additionally, daily administrative costs, various field works, patrolling the regions, and sending envoys to other countries amount to more than 230,000 silver taels each year.

Moreover, the court needs to provide the royal family with 300,000 silver taels annually to cover their daily expenses.

All these expenses combined amount to about 3,200,000 silver taels.”

At this point, Sun Siwen paused, then added, “However, this is only the expenditure under normal circumstances. In case of unforeseen events, such as floods or droughts, and insufficient crops, the court needs to provide relief assistance.

An additional 500,000 silver taels must also be set aside every year for emergencies.”

The maintenance of a dynasty is not cheap.

With only three provinces and seventeen prefectures, Great Chu has an annual normal expenditure of 3,700,000 silver taels, excluding military expenses.

And this is based on the premise of a relatively honest and frugal administration and a thrifty king.

If it were to revert to the Pre-Yue system, where local officials were exceedingly greedy, and the extravagance and waste of court officials and the imperial family were prevalent, this expenditure would need to be at least doubled.

It wouldn’t be surprising for an egg to cost ten silver taels in that case.

Perhaps in the Pre-Yue era or even in today’s Ning Country court, such a phenomenon already existed.

After all, that was an aristocratic conglomerate that had been established for thousands of years. It would only be normal for such a deeply rooted and rigid class system to produce such peculiarities.

However, this would only occur in a long-standing dynasty.

For now, at least, Great Chu doesn’t need to worry about such a situation.

Or rather, before Lu Yuan dies, he doesn’t need to worry that anyone would dare to deceive him with an egg costing ten silver taels.

And as for outliving him?

Looking around, Lu Yuan felt that it was unlikely that anyone in the Nine Provinces or the entire world could live longer than him.

So, there’s a high probability that this kind of corruption, or rather, the corruption within the royal family, will not occur.

If someone is foolish enough to dare to steal his money,

Then the God Martial Emperor wouldn’t mind showing them the true might of his imperial authority, and how untouchable it is.

An immortal emperor, as long as he doesn’t become degenerate, can be a good thing for his subjects in this regard.

As for self-discipline, Lu Yuan felt that as long as he had goals to strive for and as long as there were external threats remaining, there was no need to worry about his fall from grace.

Yes.

The logic is complete and perfect.

With this moderately smug thought in mind, Lu Yuan continued to calculate the costs: “In this case, the court’s annual military expenditure would be around16,000,000 silver taels, while the daily expenses of the court officials would amount to 3,700,000 silver taels.”