Green Monster Epic

When several reports appeared on his desk, stating that the heads of various departments had not been presiding over their work for several days, and the middle and lower-level leaders did not know what to do, Trick knew that he had indeed achieved his goal in this contest and completed the test given to him by Chieftain Alan.

Just as former town chief and teacher Stone was very familiar with Trick, how could Trick, as a student, not have a sufficient understanding of his teacher, Stone!

Trick knew very well Stone's wisdom and shrewdness, as well as his prestige among the tribesmen, especially among the older generation of high-level figures, who almost all looked to him for guidance. In addition, considering Stone's loyalty to the tribe, Trick believed that Stone would definitely be able to persuade the other high-level figures and obtain the result he wanted.

Soon, Trick promoted a group of young and energetic goblins with talent from among the middle-level goblins of various departments, replacing the positions of the several supervisors who were absent for no reason, but he did not impose any punishment on the former supervisors.

The older generation of goblins ultimately had their own dignity. It was impossible for them to personally resign to Trick after making concessions. In addition, with the inevitable resentment in their hearts, they thought of disgusting Trick when resigning, so this farcical resignation occurred.

Trick was prepared for this and felt nothing. Instead, after these elders voluntarily resigned, he sent another great gift, releasing Linus, who had been imprisoned for several days.

Of course, given the problems he had committed, his position was definitely not secure, and most of the family property was also required to make up for the losses. It could be said that everything had returned to before liberation.

Speaking of which, Linus was also unlucky. In order to avoid unnecessary opposition and tension among the upper echelons of the tribe, Trick could only use the means of auditing accounts to accomplish the mission given to him by Alan.

Among the many high-level elders, Linus's means of accumulating wealth were good, but the effect of confidentiality was not. Several of his children were afraid that others would not know that their family was rich, and they used wealth to win over a group of young goblins to swagger through the town all day long, or wore luxurious silks and jewelry. Trick was most confident in finding major problems with Linus.

Moreover, Linus's own status was high enough. If he really wanted to kill the chicken to warn the monkey, he was indeed a suitable target.

Having achieved his goal, Trick did not want to make the relationship with the tribal elders too rigid. Therefore, by releasing Linus, he expressed his goodwill, letting Stone, Duncan, and the other elders understand that he had written off the past problems.

In any case, these high-level elders had contributed most of their lives to the tribe. From any point of view, Trick still did not want to see their lives being too miserable.

However, Trick showed no mercy to the network of power that they had built up over the years. Immediately after finalizing the candidates for the succeeding high-level positions, a new round of cleansing began.

Countless goblins who were guilty of corruption and dereliction of duty were punished and demoted. Among them, the heavyweight figure was the dwarf goblin Ian, who had a fluke mentality and did not resign with Duncan and the others. The trade caravan he managed was exposed for a huge corruption case and was publicly announced by Trick throughout the town.

Subsequently, Ian was directly sentenced to hanging and executed in front of all the goblin tribesmen in the Green Lake Town's hilltop square.

Along with him, more than a dozen goblins who had committed various serious crimes were also executed. More than a dozen corpses were hung in the square for several days, alerting the tribesmen in the town.

In the days that followed, Trick's authority in the hearts of the Greenwild tribe members became more and more important, and the various orders and arrangements he issued received positive responses. The fresh blood that was promoted to the middle and high levels also brought a new look to the tribe, and the efficiency increased greatly.

At this time, Alan, who was far away in the eastern Nasir Fortress, did not know about these things. He was busy having a conversation with the jackalman Maggot Eye and the troll Ariel, the two tribal leaders.

"...Chief Alan, now that you are here, you must give us an accurate answer!!"

The jackalman Maggot Eye showed a tough stance, blowing his beard and staring at Alan, questioning Alan with exaggerated movements.

"You can't keep dragging on like this, treating hundreds of thousands of warriors from our two tribes like idiots!!"

"Chief Maggot Eye, the reason I came here is to have a good talk with the two of you, isn't it?"

Alan sat steadily in the main seat, facing the siege of two legendary figures on the left and right, without showing any nervousness.

"Moreover, the northern half of Nasir Fortress has been handed over to you. The handover of the remaining southern district is only a matter of time for the three of us."

"The reason for postponing the handover time is mainly because there is still an important issue between the three of us that needs to be reached!"

"There are still problems?"

The troll chieftain Ariel, who had been closing his eyes to rest, slowly opened his eyes, and his seemingly turbid gaze turned to Alan.

"Aren't you two going to lay everything out and carefully discuss the issue of fortress revenue? After all, the revenue between our two fortresses is interconnected. If one fortress acts recklessly, the other fortress will inevitably be affected!!"

"You two don't want the revenue to decline after you take control of Nasir Fortress, do you!!"

Alan directly pointed out the biggest obstacle between them, which was why he had been dragging on the completion of the contract, waiting until he had freed his hands before confronting Ariel and the others.

"Here is a ledger of the revenue of the two fortresses in the Catoer Canyon over the years, which I had someone compile. I hope you two can read it carefully."

Alan reached into the dimensional bag behind him, and several ledgers, stacked as thick as his palm, appeared in his hand.

He casually threw half of the ledgers to Ariel and the other two. Ariel and Maggot Eye caught them firmly and began to read them on the spot.

"The revenue of the two fortresses is divided into several large blocks. The largest proportion is the taxes on passing caravans, which is roughly stable at 400,000 gold coins per year. Then there is the head tax for passers-by. It seems that the income is not eye-catching, but in fact, the number of people passing by each year is in the millions, so at least 150,000 gold coins can be harvested each year."

"Next is the rent tax for various shops and stores in the city..."

Ariel and the others listened to Alan's general explanation of the source of the fortress's income while looking at the detailed ledger.

"...Adding up these various incomes, the total revenue that the two fortresses can obtain each year is about 1 million gold coins!!"

The total income given by Alan at the end made Ariel and Maggot Eye reveal surprised and greedy expressions in their eyes.

The combined annual income from the territories once held by the Snow Elves and Raven's Claw tribes would not exceed 200,000 gold coins. This shows just how wealthy the Ajina tribe was before!

“Now that we've sorted out the income, we need to calculate the expenses.”

Allen didn't linger and moved straight to the next topic.

“From the revenue of the two fortresses, 20% is the Oak Temple's fixed share. Also, the Thorns Ring team formed by Chief Byleir should be maintained, which means another 10% of the revenue needs to be allocated as funding for the Thorns Ring.”

“So, at best, the three of us can only split 70% of the revenue from these two fortresses.”

“In the past, your Snow Elf tribe also had a 5% share of the fortress revenue. But now that the city is in your hands, should that 5% be removed?”

Allen paused and turned his gaze to Arier, asking.

“...That won't do!!”

Arier hesitated for a moment, then firmly refused.

“Why not? The two fortresses have changed owners. How can we still follow the old rules?!!”

Maggot Eye was unhappy. Every 1% share they were discussing meant tens of thousands of gold coins in revenue!

“In my opinion, we don't need to maintain that Thorns Ring thing. Every time we ask them to send troops north during meetings, they always find excuses. They're useless!!”

“No! I object!”

“No!”

Allen and Arier interrupted almost simultaneously, refuting Maggot Eye's shortsightedness.

Although the Thorns Ring seemed useless now, its members had played a significant role in several battles against the Drow. For the three tribes on the front lines of the Northern Territory, the Thorns Ring was their means of self-preservation.

Moreover, the alliance of the Northern Territory tribes would give them more influence in the Mansa Council and gain the attention of other tribes.

“...You! Sigh, I was just saying!”

Having reached his current position, Maggot Eye wasn't truly shortsighted. He was just blinded by the huge profits for a moment, leading to his previous nonsense.

“But, Arier, I don't recognize your tribe's 5% share!!”

“Maggot Eye, are you losing your mind? My tribe has had that 5% share for over a dozen generations. Now you say you don't recognize it?”

Arier retorted sarcastically, equally unwilling to compromise.

“So what…”

“You…”

Allen frowned slightly, seeing the two leaders starting to argue over benefits. This wasn't a good sign.

“Alright, alright, you two!!”

Allen spoke up in time to interrupt, otherwise, the two tribal leaders who had previously been united might have started fighting.

“Don't argue over benefits that haven't been received yet. Let's discuss the collection methods for taxes and headcounts. That's the main reason I invited you two here, okay?”

Maggot Eye and Arier both turned their gazes to Allen, then almost simultaneously lowered their heads and continued flipping through the ledgers in their hands, temporarily stopping the dispute.

“According to the terms signed in our three-tribe agreement, my Green Field tribe controls the Moore Fortress to the south, while you two leaders control the fortress we're currently in.”

“These are easy to handle in terms of city defense and settling the tribesmen, but it's difficult to operate regarding commercial taxes, head taxes, and so on!”

“You two must have thought about it too. The two fortresses are located at opposite ends of the canyon. Previously, when they were both under the jurisdiction of the Ajina tribe, they only needed to collect taxes once to pass through the canyon and fortresses. But now that the two fortresses are under the jurisdiction of our three families, how should taxes be collected reasonably?”

“It's impossible for each fortress to collect taxes once. This would cause a lot of trouble, and frankly, if any party suddenly raised taxes, it would be a heavy blow to the other!”

“So I hope you two leaders can work with me this time to come up with a suitable solution.”

Allen finally finished expressing his concerns and threw the question to the other two present, listening to their thoughts.

Having heard Allen's words clearly, Maggot Eye and Arier stopped flipping through the books, then raised their heads again and began to ponder Allen's question.

In fact, as leaders, they couldn't have not thought about this issue, but even now, they didn't have a suitable solution. Just as Allen was worried, the relationship between the three parties was complicated, and no one could completely trust the other. If one party violated the promises and agreements, the other party would inevitably not sit idly by, which might eventually trigger a chain reaction.

Although the Kotor Canyon is an extremely important pass in the Mansa Corridor, it's not necessary to pass through here to reach the other side of the mountains.

For large and medium-sized caravans, they often didn't want to take detours because of the excessive amount of supplies, wasting extra time and increasing risks. But if the taxes through the canyon were too high, these caravans might rather take detours and give up passing through the canyon; or simply give up north-south trade and stop traveling back and forth.

“In my opinion, since the Oak Temple is taking 20% of the profits, they should also make necessary contributions!”

Maggot Eye proposed his solution.

“Why not have the Oak Temple send a team to supervise the tax collection work of our two fortresses? Wouldn't that solve it!!”

Maggot Eye's method wasn't without merit, but in Allen's view, it wasn't realistic, because the highest-ranking members sent by the Oak Temple were only at the peak of the High Order. How could they suppress the three parties' private embezzlement?

Moreover, instinctively, Allen didn't want the Oak Temple to get too involved in his own tribe's affairs.

“Why don't you tell us your thoughts?”

Arier, who was still very calm, suddenly kicked the ball back.

Since Allen had invited both of them, he must have had a suitable solution. It was better to listen to his content first and see if it was appropriate.

“…”

Allen stared deeply at Arier, then thought for a while and simply didn't beat around the bush, starting to talk about his own ideas.

“I think, why don't we have each of our three families contribute a portion of manpower to form a joint tax collection organization, uniformly complete the tax collection, and then distribute it uniformly.”