When he first received the financial expenditure, Pompianus, who had been working as a financial official for more than ten years, almost gave up his job. Commodus was a fool, and Severus was a prodigal.
However, out of love for his motherland, Pompianus took the job. After all, he had been a financial officer for more than ten years. He knew best how important this position was. He could barely control himself while sitting in this position.
Due to some vicious expenditures, if he steps down, the savings of the Five Sage Emperors, which originally took thirteen years to be spent, may be spent in less than ten years.
Therefore, although Pompianus wanted to strangle Severus to death, he had to cooperate with Severus and continue to go on.
"That is to say, because of my ever-increasing number of soldiers, even if you work hard to maintain the national economy every year, you still need to use the national treasury savings?" Severus also had a big problem, but on the one hand, he could not reduce the salary of the soldiers, and on the other hand, he could not reduce the salary of the soldiers.
It is impossible to reduce the number of troops.
The former is because Severus has served as a soldier and understands the importance of salary. The latter is related to the strength of the country. The Five Wise Emperors are so awesome that Trajan almost exploded and did not win the battle with Great Britain, but Severus did.
, isn’t it just because we have more troops and stronger strength?
"Yes, and based on what I see now, as well as the enthusiasm of Roman citizens for military service, I think this number will continue to expand day by day, so the country's financial expenditure on military must be reduced!" Pompianus pressed
He frowned and resisted the urge to turn around and leave. He didn't want to take the blame at all, but out of love for his country, he had to persevere.
"No, as a witness, you can clearly feel how outstanding the Five Wise Emperors are. They have never been able to set foot in Great Britain throughout their lives. Caesar is the founder of the Roman Empire and a stronger consul than the Five Wise Emperors, but
He is also unable to defeat the three barbarians." Severus looked at Pompianus and said with great solemnity.
Speaking of which, in the past few years since Severus ascended the throne, he has chased the North, wiped out domestic rebellions, and defeated the enemies around Rome. Now he has completely defeated the three barbarians who have been fighting with the Romans for hundreds of years, and has completely destroyed the territory of the Roman Empire.
Advancing to Great Britain, the radiation range even reached the Baltic Sea. This feat was enough to eclipse the Five Wise Emperors.
Later, after Severus defeated the greatest enemy of the Roman Empire, Severus' achievements shocked the Romans themselves. What the predecessors had never been able to accomplish was accomplished by Severus in one fell swoop. He was like a great emperor!
"..." Pompianus' face turned dark at this moment. To be honest, if Severus hadn't been so awesome and had indeed accomplished some terrible feats since the Roman Empire in the past few years, he would have wanted to turn around and leave right now.
.
"However, if this continues, the country will collapse due to fiscal deficit in at most thirteen years, and all your current efforts will be in vain." Pompianus calmed down for a while, and then spoke softly.
Pompianus, who experienced the end of the Five Wise Emperors, admitted that Severus was indeed an excellent emperor, and even more terrible than the Five Wise Emperors in terms of development. If it is possible for Rome to end the endless wars of peace, then
Severus was most likely the emperor who did this.
"Then don't let him collapse!" Severus said resolutely.
Pompianus just wants to slam the table in front of Severus in the face at this moment. You only need to say a word, but the entire country's financial problem needs to be solved by me. Can you understand the pain in my heart? Rome
If the empire collapses due to financial problems, I will be nailed to the pillar of shame and ridiculed for thousands of years. Do you understand my psychology?
"I was a little impatient." Severus probably saw the financial officer's face and apologized after a while.
"Forget it, it would be great if an apology can solve the problem." Pompianus said with a headache, then silently opened the notebook made of papyrus, turned to the page of his financial calculations, opened it, and showed it to Seth
Viru.
Severus was a military emperor, and he was almost completely confused about government affairs, so I couldn't understand what it meant after reading it for a while.
"This is the plan I made. It can increase fiscal revenue by about fifteen points. Thanks to you, although you have made a mess of Rome's finances, it is difficult for other emperors to expand territory and stabilize the situation around Rome.
I can't compare to you." Pompianus explained resentfully.
Although I don't like Severus's haphazard financial model, for the sake of the Roman Empire, I still help clean up the mess for the sake of the motherland.
"This is my plan, does Christianity know?" Pompianus sighed and explained, not for power or the emperor, but for this country.
"Oh, I know, I think we have wiped them out several times, but why are they resurrecting again? Aren't the people in the Judea Province experts in dealing with this?" Severus said that they have experience in this.
"Oh, during the reign of the one whose name was erased, weren't we in turmoil? Christianity seized the opportunity to spread the word quickly at the bottom, and many barbarians were influenced by them. Previously, we were limited by the domestic situation and did not manage it. I think we can start now.
Pompianus said calmly, "Capture those hundreds of thousands of people and let them atone for their sins. They are guilty anyway."
"We can use some bloody management methods in the newly attached place. Since they are guilty, let them come to this place to atone for their sins." Pompianus said inhumanely.
"Won't they join forces to cause trouble?" Severus said with a frown.
"Move people from the provinces of Judea and Egypt as well. Since they all like religion, I think heretics are more interesting to them than pagans." Pompianus curled his lips and said, "We can
Tell them that if they produce more, we can help them establish the Holy See in other places."
"This seems to make sense." Severus lowered his head and thought for a long time. Combined with the facts he saw, for example, the Romans only casually attacked Christianity, while the Jewish provinces regarded it as a great cause. Inexplicably, they felt what the other party was saying.
Makes sense.
"But it's too much for us to help them establish the Holy See." Although Severus felt that Pompianus' plan was reasonable, this kind of promise was a bit bad.
"It's okay, I didn't say where to establish the Holy See for them." Pompianus said without a bottom line, "Besides, we are both the writers of the rules and the regulators of the rules. We have decided who wins and who loses."
After all, if you give them a little hope, they can work harder."
"This is a very good method. In this case, we can indeed obtain a large amount of output." Severus nodded and said.
"The second one is what we are doing now, which is plundering, but it is not plundering small tribes, but plundering powerful countries, such as Parthia." Pompianus said with a sneer.
"You don't need to ask me to do this." Severus waved his hand and said. After finishing this wave, he looked back and realized that if Ganassis hadn't finished it yet, he would lead his troops there and kill An Xi in one wave.
"No, I mean looting, not simple conquest. I mean looting the entire country of Parthia, including their nobles and their civilians. Since we don't need that place, why not loot it?"
Clean!" Pompianus said with a sneer, fully intending not to eat again after finishing this meal.
"This..." Severus was a little embarrassed. This was a bit embarrassing, but considering his own financial situation, it was better to be embarrassed than the collapse of the country.
"There's no problem. If Gansis doesn't do it cleanly, I'll do it again. I'll do it again, from the royal family to the seven nobles, to all kinds of minor nobles." Severus adjusted his mentality and said there was no problem.
In fact, the most pitfall of the war between Rome and Parthia is here. When the Romans captured Parthian nobles, they allowed Parthia to redeem their people. If the Romans captured the seven nobles, they would even have the ability to completely destroy the opponent.
The other party is also allowed to redeem the person in accordance with regulations.
What Pompianus means is that we don’t need to abide by these. Anyway, depending on your posture, Emperor, this wave of Parthia will definitely destroy the country, so why bother with the rules? The rules are for others to see, and there are others beside us.
?
No more. We are the only ones left now. Stop pretending. Just loot everything from top to bottom in Anxi. No matter the nobles or civilians, if you catch them, they will all be slaves. All valuable things in the country will be packed up and taken away.
Come on, I estimate that after looting Parthia, the finances of our Roman Empire will be stable for at least twenty years.
There is a buffer time of twenty years. By then, whether it is disarmament or universal retirement, raising the status of soldiers while improving the qualities required of soldiers will naturally reduce the number of troops, or imply that the country's finances are poor and require concessions from soldiers.
, or it could be stated that the situation around the Roman Empire was excellent and it did not require too many troops to maintain the country's situation.
In short, there is a buffer of twenty years, and there are many ways to solve the problem!
After listening to Severus' deep expression, he realized that it was true that he was still too old to be hot. It seemed that if he really played this way, Rome would be able to safely step down this time.
"In short, in my opinion, these are the only ways to solve the problem. Religious sinners open up wasteland for farming, and Celtic slaves forge standard weapons. In short, what we have to do now is to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. Before solving the problem of rest, we must not continue
Expand your troops!" Pompianus warned again and again, this was the only solution he could think of to solve the problem.
After all, in addition to the Legion of Eagles, Rome also had barbarians and auxiliaries. Although the salary of the barbarians and auxiliaries was not high, they could not support their large numbers, and some high-quality barbarians, such as Teutonic ax throwers,
The salary he gets is almost the same as the dual-talented elite corps like the Fifth Skylark!
After all, he is an elite with dual talents, so even a barbarian cannot treat him too badly!