Yes, Madam Prime Minister

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“In a sense, he’s one of your kind,” Isabelle said sarcastically.

Ronan was also a jerk who treated politics as a hobby.

Ashley was very dissatisfied. "Is the Seris court sick? Isn't the area in Jiangnan where taxes are really not being collected right now? Why don't we get rid of him before he takes office? We can't, but you and Ms. Dinia can do it with ease."

Ronan waved his hand and explained, “The rules can’t be broken. My dear Ashley, it’s completely different to take someone down and then use their head to frame someone else, versus killing someone who might be an obstacle for you, just for your own convenience.”

"Can you handle him?" Isabel asked. "The Seris court sent him here, clearly to ensure that customs duties are paid to the court."

"So far, is there anyone I can't handle?" Ronan asked rhetorically, smiling confidently. "He's worked in poor places and rich places, which shows he's a flexible and adaptable person."

While flexible methods don't necessarily mean flexible moral principles, it does mean that the other party is someone you can have a good talk with.

“According to the intelligence, none of them can be considered a person,” Ashley said, adding the information she hadn’t mentioned before.

Meanwhile, in southern Hunan, in a low-rise, ancient-style pavilion that flew south at a low altitude, sat an extremely strange man on a bed. The man's torso was exaggeratedly broad, as if two people had each taken two-thirds and merged together. But that was nothing compared to what was truly bizarre. Within this broad and strange torso, a slightly more normal-sized torso had also fused together. In the middle of the torso was a head, and on either side of the main torso were two more heads. In total, the upper body had four arms, and the lower body had four legs.

It's definitely not one person.

Chapter 917 Three heads and four hands, the stockings are alright, let's not talk about state affairs for now.

The man with three heads, four arms, and four legs was named Lu Zhong. He was born as a deformed conjoined twin.

If his mother hadn't also been an extraordinary being, and because her pregnancy was abnormal, they had specifically sought out a female extraordinary being skilled in this area of ​​medicine, his mother would definitely have died in childbirth.

As soon as he was born, his father immediately had the old nanny secretly take him away, then drown him and bury him, so as not to bring shame to the family and invite criticism by giving birth to a monster.

Knowing she couldn't dissuade her husband, Lu Ming's mother asked a female superhuman friend to secretly take her son away.

Under normal circumstances, Lu Ming wouldn't live much longer.

It's normal for them to die within a few days.

The so-called medical experts are actually skilled at treating other superhumans. She had no way to keep the deformed conjoined twins alive, so she could only find a wet nurse and a maid to take care of the child, hoping he could live one day at a time.

However, something with an extremely low probability happened.

Lu Ming awakened "Destiny" and became a superhuman at the rank of rank 1. Although his magic power and physical attributes were much weaker than those of a normal rank 1, and he would occasionally lose control and release magic, he survived by virtue of his superhuman abilities and the medical skills of his mother's best friend.

His birth mother's best friend didn't have time to take care of him, nor was she willing to take care of such a freak. So she gave him a large sum of money and had his former wet nurse, maid, and a nun who had left the monastic life raise him while he was still an infant.

The reason for finding three people is not because Lu Ming is a triplet, but because we don't want a single mortal to raise him and then use the debt of raising him to make Lu Ming profit from it in the future. With three people raising him together, there are checks and balances between them, and the family affection is divided into three parts, so such a thing will not happen.

As Lu Ming grew up, they not only didn't separate, but they became more and more integrated, eventually becoming what they are now.

However, he still didn't become one person; he remained three people, with three heads, three independent but not entirely independent consciousnesses, while his demonic body was unified. Lu Ming was the name they all shared.

However, he is also different. His magic power is three times that of ordinary people of the same level. His three consciousnesses can also cooperate in cultivation. In addition, he has four hands, four feet and two torsos. Although his spells are similar to those of normal people, his body can undergo more mutations.

Gifted with exceptional talent, he became a lay disciple of a Buddhist temple at the age of eight. There was no other way; in Seris, the only place that could provide excellent, unconventional cultivation methods was the Buddhist temple.

In the blink of an eye, Lu Ming was already eighty-three years old. His parents and the woman who saved his life were all dead, and his three foster mothers, who were ordinary people, had passed away many years ago.

At this moment, a day had passed since Luo Nan and Lu Jianling parted ways, and Lu Ming arrived in northern Guangdong.

In the low-rise building where they were flying at low speed and low altitude, three Lu Mings were enjoying the services of three women. He had three of them. The three women were not particularly beautiful, just young and somewhat cute. Their figures were so-so, not flat, but their skin was okay, a bit fair. These three women were certainly not daughters of poor families, nor daughters of wealthy families, but daughters of ordinary families in the city. They were all ordinary people.

He likes this style. It doesn't have to be pretty, just passable among passersby. It doesn't have to be well-educated, nor does it have to be crude or cunning.

Almost every time Lu Ming took office in a new place, he would find three women like these, not just to satisfy his own sexual desires. He would also teach these three women Chinese language and arithmetic, as well as social skills that cannot be learned from books. He wouldn't let them stay with him for too long, at most a year. When they parted, he would give them a sum of money, introduce them to decent jobs, and even help them find husbands so that they could live a good life like ordinary people.

Uh, ah, hiss, whoosh, with a low and long gasp, the three Lu Mings simultaneously ejaculated, shooting their semen into the mouths of the three kneeling young girls.

The three girls swallowed the thick semen, then took out handkerchiefs to wipe the liquid that had spilled onto their lips. They then crawled over again, bent down, and began to clean themselves.

Lu Ming also lifted the three girls' long skirts with his hands, revealing their buttocks covered by stockings. "These stockings brought by this foreigner are quite good; even mortals can wear them." Those stockings made of demonic silk are unwearable for mortals, as they would drain their life force. But magical plant silk won't do that. The protective layer of plant-based extraordinary stockings is inherently weaker in terms of beautifying legs and skin, and for mortals, it's almost nonexistent; they're just for looks.

"Hmm?" Lu Ming's three heads and three faces simultaneously showed strange expressions.

This made the three women nervous as well.

"Don't be nervous, especially you, Cai'ai."

"It's just that the guests arrived early."

“No need to step back. I’ve already said, you are not my servants, but my students. He’s here, so just watch from the sidelines and broaden your horizons.”

Upon hearing this, the three girls nodded in agreement. Xiao Ai, who had been the most nervous, was the first to ask, "What kind of guest is it?"

“A foreigner, a very powerful foreigner,” replied Lu Boming, the head on the far left.

The three members of the group are all named Lu Ming, but when speaking to outsiders, they are distinguished as elder, younger, and uncle.

"Foreigners?" Wenzhu, who looked the most gentle and innocent, showed a hint of fear. All three of them were from Hubei and had seen foreigners before.

Lu Shuming, on the far right, joked, "What's there to be afraid of? Even the scariest person isn't as scary as the three of us."

“You’re not scary at all,” Nan Ge said with a smile, her appearance somewhat charming. In fact, when they first met, she was also frightened by the strange Lu Ming. When he came to find her, she was so scared that she wanted to die. She had only heard that superhumans called ordinary girls with some beauty like them “ephemeral flowers,” meaning they were just for a quick look and a bit of fun before they were gone.

But soon, her opinion changed. This three-in-one body with its unusually terrifying physique was actually a very, very good person.

At this moment, the attic stopped.

The guards, servants, and subordinates who were riding alongside him also stopped, and the leader quickly came over to inquire about Lu Ming's whereabouts.

Lu Ming told them not to worry, it was just a guest.

Where are you, guest?

Half a minute later, they saw a man and a woman. The man was tall with black hair and black eyes, and his features were very defined. Although he was a foreigner, he still seemed quite handsome. His smile was very friendly. The woman had white hair and red eyes, and her face was so beautiful that she didn't look human. She looked like a female demon, and her figure was even more so.

Ronan and Dinia were invited into the attic. When the three girls saw Ronan and Dinia, their impressions were exactly the same as those of the people outside: one was a handsome young man who seemed quite approachable, and the other was a female demon of the highest order, the kind that would greatly diminish a man's yang energy if he looked at her twice.

Ronan and Dinia were stunned. Even though they had heard about it beforehand, seeing it in person still shocked them, astonished that such a peculiar person existed in the world.

Before Ronan could even offer his greetings, Lu Zhongming, the man in the middle, spoke first, asking, "Could we set aside state affairs for now?"

"can."

Chapter 918 A Parable of Life: Bargaining for Money, When in doubt, confiscation of property.

“This is so boring, let’s take a nap,” said Lu Boming on the left. After he finished speaking, he and Lu Shuming closed their eyes together.

This time, Ronan was once again amazed. This Lord Lu was both a unified entity of three people, and also three people who could be separated into their own separate entities.

"Mr. Luo, what do you think is the purpose of life?" Lu Zhongming asked a particularly broad and vague question right off the bat, which surprised Luo Nan a little, because in the intelligence reports, he was a pragmatic person.

"It's hard for me to give an answer to this question. I can only say that, for me personally, life is probably about having fun," Ronan replied. He is a person between existentialism and nihilism. If nihilism is not absolute, then it is absolutely not nihilistic. So he can also be called an existentialist, or more accurately, an absurdist.

Lu Zhongming did not offer an opinion, but instead looked at Dinia and asked, "Madam, what about you?"

“Ideal.” Dinia gave only one word, short and resolute.

Lu Zhongming smiled, “Let me tell you a little story that you foreigners love to tell. There was a traveler who woke up in the wilderness. He looked around and saw that the wilderness was boundless. He took out a piece of paper from his pocket, which read, ‘Go to the Promised Land.’ The road had no end. There were no ancient people before him and no one after him, but the traveler felt that with each step he was getting closer to the Promised Land. Each step brought him joy. The traveler continued walking without looking back. That is you, Mrs. Di. You are a person of faith and a great person of our time.”

“There was a traveler who woke up in the wilderness. He looked around and saw that the wilderness was boundless. He took out a piece of paper from his pocket. It read, ‘Go to the Promised Land.’ The road had no end. Not long ago, there were ancient people, but no one has come after. Sometimes he ran, sometimes he rolled, sometimes he piled sand into a castle and then kicked it away. Sometimes he didn’t know why, but he always enjoyed it. This is you, Mr. Luo. Actually, you are very ordinary, even decadent. It’s just that you are too capable. Even if you just pile up some sand, it is enough to stand proudly in the era.”

“There was a traveler who awoke in the wilderness. He looked around and saw that the wilderness was boundless. He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. It read, ‘Go to the Promised Land.’ The road had no end. Not long ago, there were ancient people, but no one has come after. He began to feel each pulse, to feel the difference between this second and the last. He had forgotten the piece of paper. His life and time existed in the footprints behind him that had been smoothed over by the wind and sand. This is me, or we could say, all we can do are some insignificant things.”

The three girls standing nearby seemed to understand, because the fable was really simple, but they also seemed not to understand, because the moral it contained was somewhat profound.

Well, it's hard to explain, but it sounds impressive.

Ronan understood, of course, and so did Dinya. Although she graduated from an orphanage, Ronan had been teaching her by example for many years.

Dinia frowned slightly. "You seem to have investigated us very thoroughly."

Without knowing their story, one cannot recount such a tale based solely on the brief answers given by the two individuals.

“For people at our level, taking a long trip is not difficult,” Lu Zhongming replied.

Ronan smiled mockingly, "So, your insignificant footprints are all about collecting taxes for the imperial court?"

"It's just something I'm doing for the country and the people," Lu Zhongming responded.

"Oh?" Ronan feigned curiosity.

"The leaders of most countries are extraordinary individuals. In this country, the so-called extraordinary individuals are mostly a mixture of pedantic scholars and hooligans. All they can do is recite the words of the classics and then use hooligan methods. They can only be described as hopeless. But, they are the only ones who can be like this, because the regime itself originates from violence, and they are violence. We must win them over."

“Tax collection is only effective if there is a source of tax revenue. Otherwise, it’s just driving people to their deaths and squeezing money from the dead,” Lu Zhongming said. “Do I need to do this kind of thing? Shameless pedants and scoundrels are very good at it.”

"Let's get straight to the point. Tariffs. I'm taking two million from this year's tariffs. As for the rest, we'll see." Ronan cut to the chase, not going to beat around the bush any longer.

At this moment, the other two Lu Mings opened their eyes and said, "Ten million taels, to be given to the imperial court, not less."

“I know what you want to do, but if you want to achieve what you want, the current court is even more in need of money.”

"Sir, you've established state-owned enterprises, labor unions, and farmers' associations in your hometown. You wouldn't want to see those people from Jiangnan succeed, would you?"

Ronan's lips curled up. How to put it? It was a match made in heaven, a meeting of equals.

"Without these two million, the navy will be unstable. If the navy is unstable, the war with Annam will be very troublesome. If the war goes badly, the court will have to pay many times the price, and it may not even be able to make up for it. Sir, you don't want the country's foreign policy capabilities to be greatly reduced, do you?"

Ronan also used the phrase "Sir, you don't want..."

"I only need ten million." Lu Ming's tone was calm, but his eyes were resolute.

Ronan took a deep breath. "Now the whole of Guangdong is spending money. With the war starting, we also have to support Guangxi. Where am I supposed to find two million to make up for it? I've already left eight million for the imperial court. That's the limit."

"That's not my concern," Lu Ming said clearly and simply.

Ronan sneered, "Ha, I'm just a foreigner. At worst, I'll quit. If I quit, I'll see who in your court can handle things here."

“It’s precisely because you’ve come all this way that you won’t refuse.” Lu Ming was still the same as always, completely confident that he had Ronan under his thumb.

Ronan reluctantly conceded, "How about we consider it a loan from Guangdong?"

"Ha, Mr. Luo, you're joking. If you borrow two million today and five million tomorrow, by then the government might have changed, and you probably won't have to pay it back." The three Lu Mings pointed out Luo Nan's plan one after another. What kind of borrowing was this? It was practically robbery.

Ronan smiled. It seemed that Lord Lu was indeed quite capable. Since that was the case, he would not play word games. "To put it bluntly, if the two million were intercepted, it would be a profit for the court, a very profit."

“You’ve made a profit here, but if other places follow suit, that’s another story,” Lu Ming added.

“Other places are much worse than me,” Ronan retorted.

"That's not my responsibility," Lu Ming said, unmoved by reason.

Ronan sighed. "Fine, name your terms."

Lu Ming crossed his four arms in front of his chest. "Two million? Just confiscate a few rich houses and we'll have it."

Ronan was slightly taken aback at first, then smiled, "You shouldn't say things that are detrimental to unity, Lord Lu."

“It’s not like I’m the one who copied it, so what’s it to me? If you don’t want to, you can raise funds and issue bonds,” Lu Ming added.

Ronan shook his head. "Forget about fundraising. If fundraising were useful, would the imperial court really need to squeeze money out of Guangdong? Bonds are out of the question. They can only issue bonds if they win and make a profit. This is a defensive war, so even if we win, we won't make any money."

"If we win, we'll arrest those who colluded with the enemy and betrayed the country, and then we'll make money, right?" Lu Ming retorted.

Ronan thought the man in front of him was truly obsessed. "Isn't this still confiscating property?"

Chapter 919 The house raiding has gone mad! Join us and you'll get rich! What a win-win situation!

It's not really a case of being obsessed; it's just that Lu Ming is used to doing things this way. Whenever he goes to a place, he always confiscates houses, but he does it very carefully. First, he never confiscates everything; he only deals with some of the wealthy households. Second, he doesn't completely rob the rich to help the poor, and not all the poor people benefit from his actions.

Such raids would result in some wealthy households becoming even richer than before the raid, while some poor households would receive relief.

People have a tendency to take chances, and the rich are no exception, nor are the poor. So, even though people all over the country knew that this "censor" would confiscate their property as soon as he arrived, they did not unite to oppose him.

During this process of house raids involving the entire population, Lu Ming was able to make extensive contact with local officials, businessmen, and citizens, gaining a deeper understanding of the local economic situation beyond just a theoretical one. This allowed him to proceed more smoothly with the subsequent work of identifying tax sources and stabilizing tax revenue.

It's only relative, after all, he can't challenge the bottom line of the extraordinary class.

"Mr. Luo, just tell me if you're going to do it or not." Lu Ming still had a slight edge over Luo Nan in terms of momentum.

“I’ve spearheaded the formation of a committee, and it’s something like this…” Ronan didn’t respond at all, but instead started talking about the committee he had spearheaded. After introducing it, he immediately said, “Well then, Lord Lu, if you’re willing to join the committee, I’ll sell everything I own to make up for the tax revenue owed to the court.”

"You've got quite the scheme. Since you couldn't overthrow the existing civil and military official system in Guangdong, you simply started afresh, bringing in some people from the imperial court and some from outside the government. You're using the war to extend the committee's reach into every aspect of Guangdong. This committee's decision-making model is what you call democracy, right? Ha, if there are ten votes in total, it doesn't matter if they take eight. You already have enough power to suppress the others with your two votes. Banks and engineering projects are one vote, and high-yield crops and emerging agriculture are the second vote. Am I right?"

Lu Ming saw through Ronan's scheme almost immediately.

Ronan's two votes were indeed just those two votes.

His close relationship with the Ironworks Alliance? His brotherhood with a group of officials? All of that is just a facade. The industrial and commercial sector centered around the Ironworks, and the bureaucratic system focused on the three big bosses, are still controlled by them, not Ronan.

Only when you formulate and operate the underlying logic and rules of a certain field can you be considered to have truly mastered that field. Controlling the people, things, and events in that field is not enough to truly establish a voice.

All I can say is that Lu Ming truly deserves to be called a pragmatic official; his competence far surpasses that of some of the corrupt officials in Guangdong.

However, Ronan remained nonchalant, saying, "Your judgment is correct, but in your words, I only have one question: will you join this committee or not?"

So what if his plans are seen through? Even if everyone else sees through them, does it matter? No. Just like everyone knows that Lord Lu is coming and someone's home will be raided, the establishment of the committee is destined to cause some to fall, some to rise to higher positions, some to rise to prominence, and some to remain at the bottom.

Those at the top always feel they are the ones who will rise to a higher level, not the ones who will fall. Those at the bottom always feel they will be the ones who rise, not the majority who remain at the bottom.

People always like to think they are special, and this is the basis of any kind of open scheme.

At this point, both men had presented their core demands.