Starting from the Planetary Governor

Chapter 294, Murderous Intent Arises

Galaraldo also personally participated in the inspection.

The entire Rage Bear Legion looked quite imposing, but no matter what, Galaraldo did not believe that Rage Owl Star could cultivate such an army in a short period of time.

He insisted on lifting the veil of this army to see if there was anything flawed hidden beneath its splendid exterior.

However, when the Rage Bear Legion began to carry out collective tactical drills according to the standards, the more Galaraldo watched, the more something seemed off.

This wasn't just about military bearing and appearance.

Though these tactical drills weren't actual combat, a significant portion of an army's combat effectiveness came from its discipline and organizational skills.

And what was demonstrated in just two short hours represented discipline and organization that was indeed not bad and indeed reached the level expected of the Star Realm Army.

At this moment, Galaraldo had already dismissed many of his illusions.

Galaraldo was somewhat surprised.

But it was still too soon to draw conclusions now.

Even if the discipline and organizational standards were met, there was another key element: individual soldier quality.

That was the hardest part.

Could you also excel at this?

Galaraldo glanced at the edge of his vision, where Mr. Gu, with his confident appearance, gave Galaraldo some assurance.

It seemed that it wouldn't be difficult to trouble Gu Hang on this matter.

Indeed, that was the case.

During the individual soldier quality and equipment testing phases, the representatives from the Star Realm Army and the officials from the Military Affairs Department, after their inspections, came back and slightly shook their heads to the War Apostle.

They had inspected the soldiers of various arms with the strictest criteria and without any leniency, as instructed by the War Apostle. It was so thorough that even the logistics battalion, the engineering battalion, and the communications company were pulled out for inspection.

These checks included physical fitness aspects such as strength, load-bearing, and running; verbal orders and responses, random knowledge checks, and tactical thinking questions in the military sphere; as well as assessments of shooting skills and specialty capabilities within each branch of the military...

But... under the considerably high ratio of their random checks, the very worst soldiers in terms of individual soldier qualities also met the minimum criteria required by the Star Realm Army, and many even surpassed them.

The Military Affairs Department officials and the Star Realm Army representative were shocked themselves, even suspecting at one point whether the inspectors they had sent out had been bribed—and heavily bribed at that—to produce such unbelievable results.

Even a fully compliant Star Realm Army Corps could not possibly have such a high pass rate. After all, the Star Realm Army was a massive group. Some soldiers with outstanding combat achievements might forget certain regulations, and some soldiers who performed exceptionally in specific positions, such as those with excellent driving skills, might lag slightly in physical fitness.

In fact, the Star Realm Army's standard inspections did not require everyone to pass. It would indeed be too much to ask for; it only needed a certain pass rate to be acceptable.

But even if they used impossibly high standards, they found no issues.

Both representatives were embarrassed but had no choice but to believe the results were true.

Because the parts they themselves inspected turned out the same.

They didn't dare to call white black; the metrics were right there in plain sight. Fudging the numbers was not just bending the unwritten rules, it was outright violation of the rules in broad daylight, which would change the nature of the offense. They were not directly subordinated to Galaraldo; instead, they were closer to Nell Lavis and didn't wish to create difficulties for Galaraldo's sake—besides, the War Apostle had only asked them to strictly enforce the Empire's regulations, and they had done so. Without finding anything wrong, what could they do?

This certainly wasn't our fault.

When they reported back to the warlord, they were quite composed.

They had been prepared to fall back on Tax Commissioner Lavis and the Empire's regulations in case the warlord was dissatisfied. To their surprise, Galaraldo simply nodded to show he understood and had no other reaction.

That was certainly for the best, so they proceeded with the normal process.

The calculated value of the equipment and personnel totaled 2,819,900. Experience new tales on My Virtual Library Empire

That was over 300,000 more than the 2.5 million tax currency Rage Owl Star was supposed to pay.

Without a second word, Lavis issued the extra thirty-odd thousand directly to Gu Hang, in accordance with the Empire's regulations.

That was over thirty thousand pieces of special paper. Each bore intricate patterns, a portrait of the Divine Emperor on the front, and an overhead view of the Human Ancestral Star on the back. Each was worth one tax currency. Their special anti-forgery symbols resulted from the endorsement of three powers within the Empire—the paper layers produced by the Mechanical Cult Guild contained special electromagnetic signals; when soaked in the Holy Water of the State Religion, they showed a unique blessed reaction; and the patterns engraved by the Psychic Cultivator's Association through the Spirit Network contained spiritual energy response.

This meant the tax currency was almost impossible to counterfeit.

Furthermore, the distribution of Imperial Tax currency was extremely strict. While various Star Sectors dealt with billions of tax currency, in reality, most of the time, tax currency was used merely as a measure of the value of goods and even human resources. Genuine tax currency was rarely circulated.

The reason was simple: to get the circulating tax currency, one must pay extra taxes beyond the Empire's set tax standards. This part, no matter how much is overpaid, is issued as tax currency, which can be used for future tax deductions. All circulating tax currency, in the strictest sense, was backed 1:1 by the actual goods tax, circulated only after an excess payment.