You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 33 Salary
Moore nodded vigorously, constantly wiping his sweat with a handkerchief, having anticipated this situation.

I thought Roman would be furious when he saw these messy ledgers.

Roman turned to Seth and said, "Seth, from now on you will be in charge of the finances of Sig Town."

Sais sighed: "Sir, this is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. I'm afraid we'll go bankrupt this winter."

Seth did some calculations for Roman.

The guards are the armed force of Sige Town. They do not receive a salary, but they do receive a subsidy in kind: 50 jin of wheat and 140 jin of miscellaneous grains per year. Compared to the tax exemption rate of other farmers, this is only half that of other farmers.

This makes being a guard a pretty good job; you can't get one without connections and certain qualifications.

The person in charge was even more outrageous.

They receive a basic salary of 5 silver coins per year, plus 120 catties of wheat, 50 catties of miscellaneous grains, and 30 catties of meat, all tax-free.

Only these stewards could afford to support slaves.

The reason for calculating the tax exemption rate is that the guards and stewards also own land.

The area ranges from a few hundred mu to several hundred mu.

Roman wasn't aware of the details, but since he had already taken back all the land and labor, he didn't need to care about these trivial matters.

In other words, the annual fiscal expenditure of Sige Town includes several thousand kilograms of wheat, with other grains and meats to be paid separately.

The total salary is as high as 8 gold coins.

The problem now is that the town of Sig will not be able to pay this year's wages during the winter.

The reason is simple: before Roman arrived, the town of Sig was financially healthy.

However, Roman then made sweeping changes to the town of Sig, completely overhauling the original production model.

Seth was strongly opposed to this.

The grain in Sigge Town could normally be sold outside, but this year, it would be a victory if no one starved to death.

It remains to be seen how much the 2,000 acres of land Roman marked out this morning will yield in the summer.

The main product of Sige Town is grain, and low yields mean no income.

In the foreseeable future, he successfully plunged the once well-fed town of Sig into a severe famine.

After all, the farmers' food reserves could only sustain them until summer; in autumn, they could still eat wild vegetables and pick berries.

But people will definitely starve to death in winter.

Even more problematic was the expenditure of those 8 gold coins.

More than 1,700 catties of wheat are worth 1 gold coin.

In other words, 8 gold coins are equivalent to more than 14,000 catties of wheat.

If the grain cannot be sold, then the town of Sig will not be able to afford these financial expenditures—Seth didn't even include the salaries of Green, Aaron, and himself, otherwise the expenditure would be three or even two times higher.

The cost of hiring artisans in Sig is also not a small amount, such as Lax and Vickers.

After Sais's calculation, Roman immediately felt relieved.

"Oh, so that's all there is to it."

Seth's attitude was very serious, and he bowed slightly, saying, "I hope you will consider this carefully!"

His subtext was: Stop messing around and get the farmers to plant. It's okay to delay spring planting for a couple of days, but if this continues, then there's really no hope for this year.

"Don't worry," Roman waved his hand.

But Seth gave him a heads-up.

His first thought upon hearing about bankruptcy was to plunder the wealthy – that is, to extort money from Moore.

But then he felt it was unnecessary; this fat pig was kept in the backyard, and all the meat was his.

Roman was quite satisfied with Moore's agreeable attitude, so he didn't intend to replace him as the agricultural officer. Roman turned to Moore and asked, "Why is the officer's salary and benefits so high?"

The town of Sige has 16 stewards, each with different responsibilities: some are in charge of the secretary, some are in charge of the cattle, some are in charge of animal husbandry, some are in charge of farm implements, and so on.

Their primary responsibility was to assist the agricultural officer, Mohr, in land production.

It's impossible for someone to be paid without working; there's no need for Sige Town to do that. It's highly likely that someone might use their position to line their own pockets, but they wouldn't go too far.

Mo's face, which he had just wiped clean, started sweating again.

He stammered and couldn't get the words out.

Roman noticed something amiss and squinted: "Your relatives? Your siblings?"

The rain fell like rain in Morhan.

Roman wasn't worried that Moore would sideline him; his orders were carried out very well in Sgar.

If they really have ulterior motives.

Roman wouldn't mind letting the town of Sigir rediscover the power of the War Knights.

He firmly believed that killing enough people would solve all of humanity's problems.

Roman laughed and said, "I understand the general situation. Let's cut the salaries and benefits of all the managers and change it to 1 silver coin, 100 catties of wheat, and 300 catties of miscellaneous grains per year, without meat. The tax exemption will remain completely in effect for the time being..."

"You have no objection?"

Moor thought to himself, "I have no objection, since it didn't affect me, but my uncles, brothers, and sisters will probably be furious."

He stammered, "Mr. Roman, you mean..."

Roman raised his chin and snorted, "If anyone has any objections, they can come and find me."

"As you command, Lord Roman!"

Having said that, Mohr understood Roman's attitude.

It's impossible to discuss this with the lord; we can only obey.

The Bass family was merely an insignificant vine clinging to the great tree of the Cracked Armor family. Because that great tree was so lush and its shadow so deep, this vine secretly absorbed a considerable amount of nutrients in the dark corners unknown to anyone, eventually sprouting its own branches.

Mohr wiped the sweat from his brow. He used to be at most a local tyrant. In this land far from the emperor's reach, the Black Iron King's influence was almost nonexistent. Now, the lord who controlled the armed forces was the strongest, and his power was like that of a real emperor.

Resistance is definitely impossible.

Even without the Bass family, Roman remained a noble lord.

The Bass family had no lords; they were commoners.

They are very clear about who their rights come from.

Now everyone could only scramble to curry favor with this lord.

Although their benefits have been reduced, those members of the collateral branches are still able to maintain a fairly high quality of life thanks to their past savings. It's just that they can't go back to the days when they often ate meat, which is something that can't be helped.

Roman pondered for a moment, then asked, "What happened to the guards who died yesterday?"

莫尔恭敬道：“按照您的命令，战死者的家属给了5枚银币、40斤肉、80斤小麦。重伤者的家属给了2枚银币、15斤肉、40斤小麦。就算受轻伤的人，也分到了10斤到50斤小麦——您仁慈和慷慨的名声传遍了整个斯格镇。”

Those silver coins were paid for by Roman, and personally delivered to him by Aaron and Green, the two knights who had fought in the war.

The compensation was so generous that even the seriously wounded guards were somewhat envious of the dead.

“Summon all the guards who can move…” Roman looked up and pondered for a moment.

He originally planned to significantly improve their military skills, but the problem was that he couldn't find the time.

Although they are called guards, they can also be considered police officers in normal times, as they are responsible for maintaining order and supervising others' work.

It's fine in the short term, but if there's no oversight in the long term, the efficiency of these idiots will definitely drop significantly.

(End of this chapter)