From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars

After dealing with more urgent matters in the morning, Jacques Cole would have a quick meal at 12 noon local time in the imperial capital.

This simple meal is usually prepared by his secretary, but today his secretary is on vacation, so he has to do it himself.

But for Jacques Cole, the process of making lunch by himself was simply an enjoyment for him, because in just ten minutes, he could temporarily forget about the financial affairs of this huge empire, relax his mind and focus on the bread, eggs and vegetables in front of him.

The finance minister did not dare to eat too much at noon, as it would make him feel undesirably sleepy in the afternoon, and he had to save his stomach for the New Year's dinner that he had been invited to by a noble in the imperial capital in the evening - if he remembered correctly, the dinner and cocktail party had been scheduled for three months later.

However, for Jacques Cole, such dinners and cocktail parties were not a moment of relaxation and leisure, but rather a boring "night shift" that required him to be more alert.

Because at these dinners, he needs to communicate with representatives sent by various forces while drinking, and then try to reach some agreements in order to maintain the delicate balance between the major forces.

Jacques Kohl had long been tired of this job, which was actually just cleaning up the mess for the reckless imperial chancellor, but he was unwilling to see the results of his work over the past 23 years being destroyed bit by bit.

Moreover, during his time as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jacques Kohl's mentality had already changed. He hoped to change this somewhat corrupt empire through his own abilities, even if it was just to make it run a little longer.

He actually wanted to find an opportunity to impeach the current imperial chancellor, but he didn't dare to do so.

The reason for not 'daring' is not because of the fear of retaliation from the other party after the impeachment fails.

On the contrary, Jacques Kohl was very confident that he could impeach him, not only because he had a lot of negative information in his hands, including the other party's dereliction of duty, but also because the emperor valued him as the manager of the "money bag".

But once the current chancellor of the empire was impeached, Jacques Kohl knew that there was a high probability that the position would fall to himself, the finance minister with "outstanding political achievements", and by that time he would be ready not to go home.

After all, no matter how many problems the current chancellor of the empire has, they are also problems with his work ability. The fact that he has never returned home since taking over the position of chancellor made Jacques Kerr believe that there is absolutely no problem with his work attitude.

Thinking of this, the Imperial Finance Minister couldn't help but recall the moments in recent years when he was the most "relaxed and free" and not bound by work.

That was when he went to negotiate with His Majesty, along with the Royal Guards and Royal Silencers who had been given protection by His Majesty, after receiving a secret report that his own sister and her husband were being held under house arrest by the latter's brother.

It was exciting and thrilling. It was also the time when he was furthest away from work in all these years.

It was during this experience that he learned of Amber's existence.

Due to the delicate relationship between the other party and his niece, Jacques Cole would occasionally think of Amber and his Atlas Group before going to sleep after the incident, and then quickly read some related intelligence in the last few minutes before he felt sleepy.

"By the way, 'Wojin', I remember that Her Royal Highness the Princess recently invited the actual controller of the Atlas Group to come to the imperial capital?" After stuffing the last half of the bread into his mouth, Jacques Cole asked in a somewhat vague voice.

"Yes, sir. Her Highness Agnes welcomed Mr. Amber, Ms. Isabel and others from the Atlas Group at the royal airport yesterday afternoon, and held a dinner afterwards."

"Hmm? Is little Isa here too?"

Jacques Cole was shocked when he heard the news, but then he calmed down because he knew he didn't have time to meet his niece.

While having dinner, Jacques Cole had already looked over his recent work schedule. Every morning he had to deal with important matters without fail, in the afternoon he had to review a large amount of documents and attend various meetings, and in the evening he had to go to a cocktail party and deal with the nobles of the imperial capital.

"Forget it. See you next time, 'Wojin'. Prepare the documents that need to be approved this afternoon. I will continue working in 10 minutes."

As he spoke, Jacques Cole opened a can of medicine and drank half of it in one gulp.

Green apple flavor, very sweet.

This thing is also a characteristic spiritual potion of the Royal Pharmacist Team. Its only function is to temporarily dispel fatigue and make people feel refreshed.

Ten minutes later, Jacques Cole returned to his desk. A huge virtual screen appeared in front of him. A large number of documents and data reports almost covered the entire screen.

And the imperial finance minister just acted like an emotionless machine, approving each matter at an extremely fast speed.

In the next quarter, 13 colonized planets that have initially completed transformation will apply for funding to build ecological domes. Approved.

From the 1st of next month, the proportion of expenditure on "gravity subsidies" in the fiscal budget will be officially increased to extend the survival time of people working in abnormal gravity or zero-gravity environments for a long time.

Andromeda's comprehensive energy extraction fell by another 12%, and the local nobles' industrial tax exemption application was rejected

The application for a 25% increase in the cost of repairing and maintaining the Grand Palace. Your Majesty, why is it increased again? There are really not many Imperial Gold Dragons in the treasury. Sigh. Approved to increase by 5%

Under Jacques Cole's review, each matter was either approved or rejected. Each matter might mean that the lives of a large number of imperial civilians or even nobles would be affected. Some people might live a slightly better life, but at the same time, there would be another group of people who would not be able to survive the next month.

But the life and death of these citizens of the empire will not have any impact on the finance minister. When the territory ruled by an empire is large enough, these things are just a string of numbers on the report in front of him.

As long as he could continue to maintain the current balance of the empire, he didn't mind adding a few more zeros to the end of the number.

Jacques Cole's modified brain thinks much faster than the 'original' version, and after entering a specific 'working state', it will directly block any emotions generated by the brain to prevent these emotions from affecting his decision-making. Otherwise, he would not be able to handle so many matters calmly and quickly.

As the work continued, a tingling pain began to appear in Jacques Cole's brain. He knew that his brain was once again approaching its limit after running at high speed for a long time.

The last time my brain experienced this problem was yesterday afternoon.

A nameless anger caused by the never-ending official business also surged into Jacques Cole's heart. Of course, the same scene happened yesterday afternoon, or every day before.

Indeed, after becoming the Imperial Chancellor of Finance and gradually expanding his influence, his family experienced an unprecedented revival and rose to heights never reached before.

Every day, countless people wait outside the family fortress for an interview, trying to get in touch with the Imperial Chancellor of Finance by first establishing connections with the Cole family.

His family was indeed getting better, but he was almost burned out for his family and the empire. He had thought that after ascending to this position, he would gain rights that were envied by countless nobles in the empire.

Now it seems that the "power" is indeed there, and it is very great.

But he seemed to have never really felt the "benefit" himself. Or rather, the greatest "benefit" he had ever gained was the support of the top team of royal pharmacists behind him, which allowed him to obtain medical care comparable to that of His Majesty.

However, this guarantee is only to allow him, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to stay in this position longer.

Jacques Cole quickly reviewed the document in front of him, then relaxed for a moment and lay back on the chair, rubbing his face with his hands while muttering:

"Calm down, Jacques Cole, you are an imperial noble, and calmness is one of the virtues of nobility."

At the same time, 'Woking' also controlled the service terminal in the office and delivered some refreshing drinks and snacks to the desks - these snacks and drinks had also been reviewed by the royal pharmacist team, and some supplements were added to the drinks.

"My Lord, do you need to change your mind and take care of some 'personal matters'?"

Woking made timely suggestions, which became a scene that happened almost every day, giving Jacques Cole something else before he was stimulated to the red temperature by the busy official duties.

After hearing Woking's suggestion, the finance minister raised his head and glanced at a small progress bar in the lower left corner of the virtual screen, which represented the progress of the official business to be handled today.

"86% Well, the progress today is good, so let's change our minds~"

Jacques Cole snapped his fingers, and the virtual screen projected above the desk immediately switched to a new interface.

The overall structure of this interface is not much different from the previous one, except that the content has changed from the financial affairs of the Star Dragon Empire to some "private matters" related to Jacques Cole and his family.

"Let me see. The Motari family and the Feizalei family hope to obtain the positions of the governor and chief executive of the Linaxi Tower system. They need me to help them."

The first item of "private matters" is the "buying and selling of official positions" that came from Jacques Cole's own family. The two families have obviously persuaded their own relatives, so the family brought up this "demand".

Although there are many nobles in the empire, not all of them can own fiefdoms. Even for those nobles who own fiefdoms, most of them only have a continent on the planet, and the best ones have an entire planet.

Only those with a title above earl could obtain a fiefdom based on galaxies.

In addition, most fiefs were obtained through military merit, so for some families that were not from military aristocrats, or those minor nobles, they could only aim for positions such as galaxy governor, planetary governor, or chief executive.

Although making money in such a position is definitely not as great as the benefits of directly obtaining a fiefdom, a lean camel is bigger than a horse anyway, and having something is better than having nothing.

This was not the first time that Jacques Cole had done such a thing.

Indeed, the Minister of Finance certainly has no personnel power, and he cannot appoint any position, because the appointment and removal of local governors and chief executives within the Star Dragon Empire are in the hands of the Ministry of Civil Service.

However, Jacques Kohl was a man of great social skills. During his years as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he basically had good relations with all the senior officials of the empire, and all major affairs and administrative departments would give him some "face".

The Ministry of Civil Service and the current Minister of Civil Service are the most familiar ones among many relationships, so Jacques Cole will occasionally help to smooth the relationship in this regard. In most cases, it is the governor-general, the chief executive, and other lucrative jobs like this time.

But the prerequisite is that you can pay enough price - Jacques Cole has a scale in his heart, and he knows exactly what the prices of different positions are.

As for whether the other party has the ability to hold this position, Jacques Kerr is not concerned about it. The official inspection project will naturally be monitored by the Ministry of Civil Service Affairs.

And in most cases, these families who have spent a lot of money will also try their best to ensure that their performance evaluations do not go wrong. After all, they do not spend so much money to be dismissed by the Ministry of Civil Service Affairs.

What's more, they bought this position to make money by squeezing the people's blood and sweat, but the money will not pop out of thin air. You must first let the local area develop to a certain extent before you can achieve sustainable development.

Jacques Cole had only one request for these newly appointed governors and chief executives, which was to pay a little more attention to the areas under their jurisdiction, not just focus on making money, but also to promote development, pay the taxes that should be paid each year, and ensure that the resources and population indicators that should be paid are met.

Yes, they did get to the top through Jacques Kohl's connections, but that doesn't mean the chancellor will pay any attention to them. Don't be optimistic. The relationship between the two parties is at best a completed transaction.

If these high-ranking officials dare to default on tax payments, sorry, the armed forces of the tax commissioner will come to your door soon and teach you step by step how to pay your taxes in full.

"Wauking, fetch the financial data of these two families."

"Yes, sir."

Soon, the relevant financial data of the Motari family and the Feisalei family appeared on the screen, and Jacques Cole looked at the data and began to calculate quickly.

"Well, if the recent financial situation of these two families does not change too much, they can indeed help fill a hole in the empire."

As Jacques Cole muttered to himself, he looked at another set of data that he had just opened. It showed the remaining gap after the construction of the Empire's sixth celestial fortress had exceeded its construction schedule and was seriously overspent on budget.

Jacques Cole has already made up most of the shortfall through various means, and he has not been able to find the funds to fill the last bit of the shortfall. At this time, the two major families just happened to "come to his doorstep".

The finance minister had always been puzzled as to why the construction cost of the Ladder Fortress suddenly began to overspend in the final stages. However, in each application sent by the Ladder Fortress Construction Department, all construction and upgrade project costs and their backgrounds were clearly listed, leaving no room for fault.

To be on the safe side, Jacques Cole even went to see the Minister of the Navy in person and informed him of the situation, hoping that the Navy could send someone to check whether there were any problems with the construction process of the Ladder Fortress.

However, the results of three consecutive investigations were all that "all construction works were proceeding as planned, without any abnormalities".

Under such circumstances, Jacques Kohl naturally had no way of rejecting these overspending applications. He couldn't just stop the construction of the celestial fortress after it was completed because the Ministry of Finance was unwilling to continue allocating funds, right?

After confirming that the calculations were correct and asking 'Woking' to help check them again, Jacques Cole also drew up the price that the Mortari family and the Fesalli family would have to pay for what they were seeking.

This is a number that would give any small or medium-sized family a headache. It takes great courage to use it to "buy an official position".

"Okay, send it to them. Ask them to confirm within 48 hours after receiving the message. No more waiting~"

"Yes, sir."

Waukeen nodded, and continued:

"Sir, there is a temporary matter that I just received that needs your confirmation."

"What is it?"

"Mr. Amber of the Atlas Group, I hope to meet you."

"Oh? Interesting. When does he want to meet?"

Jacques Cole smiled, then picked up the drink on the table and took a sip. He didn't expect Amber to come to him at this time.

"Now, Lord Amber is waiting in the reception room of the Ministry of Finance."

"puff"