Monthly Development Report II

That month, the Finance Department did two things.

The first was clearing the accounts. The mess the previous city lord had left behind was even worse than Sheng Minglan had expected.

There was no money in the treasury, no grain in the warehouses, and the account books were full of false entries. Sheng Minglan spent ten days reorganizing the accounts from the past three years and uncovered massive deficits and embezzlement.

"The previous city lord served for three years and scraped at least three thousand Gold Soul Coins out of Dragon Ascending Town. He split the money into three portions: one was given to officials above him, one went into his own pocket, and the last vanished without a trace." Sheng Minglan's voice carried a hint of gritted teeth.

Xiao Yun's expression did not change at all. "And the second?"

The second was income and expenditure. That month, the Finance Department's income mainly came from three sources—tax revenue, trading-firm investment, and allocations from the Lord's Mansion. Taxes made up the bulk, but this month was the first month of the new tax system's implementation, and many merchants were still watching from the sidelines, so not much tax had been collected.

The trading-firm investment was Sheng Minglan's idea. In the name of the Lord's Mansion, she sent investment invitations to several of Dragon Ascending Town's larger trading firms, inviting them to invest in the Lord's Mansion's construction projects and receive dividends according to their shares once the projects were completed.

The trading firms hesitated for a long time, but in the end, they still decided to invest, contributing a total of five hundred Gold Soul Coins. The allocation from the Lord's Mansion was what Xiao Yun had left behind before his departure, a total of one thousand Gold Soul Coins that