Ye Li thought about it secretly and realized that the primary purpose of his need for funds now was to build the camp and pay the monthly salaries of nearly a thousand people under his command.
The monthly salaries of these subordinates vary, and are graded according to their strength. With a rough estimate, Ye Li knows that he needs to spend about three thousand high-quality spirit stones on monthly salaries.
Of course, the bulk of these three thousand high-quality spirit stones were mainly given to spiritual warriors above the gestational stage. For spiritual warriors below the gestational stage, a month's salary was not much.
Even for spiritual warriors below the Lingdan stage, the monthly salary is calculated based on mid-grade spirit stones, so generally speaking, three thousand high-grade spirit stones should be enough.
The construction of the camp, the purchase of materials and items, one month's food, and the cost of medicine will require about 10,000 high-quality spirit stones.
Now Ding Si has sent a secret letter to Li Rushan, asking him to mobilize 3,000 elite soldiers and weaponsmiths. Once these people arrive, he will need to spend at least another 50,000 high-quality spirit stones. More than one-tenth of the 500,000 yuan in funds has been gone in a blink of an eye.
Only then did Ye Li understand how much it cost every year for a country to maintain hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers.
If he couldn't find a way to earn enough spirit stones, then the army of 10,000 people he had built would have to rely on Li Rushan's funding to support it.
Li Rushan’s funds could not be unlimited. He might not be able to support such an army just relying on his industry.
Moreover, Ye Li also wanted this legion to forge soul gathering cannons and snowman puppets. The expenditure at that time would definitely be a huge number beyond his imagination.
"Give me 100,000 high-quality spirit stones first. I don't think it will take too long to spend this money."
Ye Li said to Du Li.
Although Du Li was somewhat curious about how Ye Li would use these 100,000 top-grade spirit stones, he did not ask any further questions. He just nodded and ordered someone to withdraw the money for Ye Li.
Soon, someone came up to Ye Li with a box.
The box was only the size of a human head and didn't look like it could hold many spirit stones. However, when Ye Li opened the box, he discovered that the box was actually a space prop.
The structure inside the box is similar to that of a Qiankun bag, allowing it to hold a full 100,000 high-quality spirit stones.
Putting the box in his arms, Ye Li said to Jin Baohao: "If I build a city in Dongfang County in the future, you will probably come over to set up a store, right?" Du Li nodded and said: "We should set up a branch there, after all, even a new city is still a city.
Although Dongfang County, as a marginal county, has little appeal to the people of the Tang State, it is very attractive to other migrants on the border.
If we can open the Jinbao here, there will definitely be many merchants doing border business coming here to cooperate with us, so the benefits are still quite large. "
Ye Li nodded and said, "As long as you come over, it will be much easier to do many things in the future with you here."
After getting the spirit stone, Ye Li's mission to Gaoshan City was completed. He did not delay any further and left the Jinbao and rushed back to Dongfang County.
At this time, the camp was still under construction, and Li Rushan had not yet responded to the matter of sending troops, so after Ye Li handed part of the funds to Ding Si for disposal, he returned to the manor to practice.
He had just started practicing for a short while when a servant came knocking on the door.
"What's up?"
Ye Li asked.
"Master, three mayors are here to see you. Do you want to meet them?"
The servant outside the door passed on the message.
Ye Li was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect that Wang Yue and his group would come. It was obvious that this must be related to taxes, so he nodded and said, "Tell them to wait for me in the reception room. I'll be there soon."
After giving the order, Ye Li completely came out of his practice state, then left the house and walked towards the reception room.
Soon, he arrived at the reception room where three mayors were already waiting.
Seeing Ye Li coming in, the three of them instantly showed extremely flattering smiles on their faces and said, "Greetings, Lord!"
"Why are you three free to come here today? Are you planning to pay my taxes?"
Ye Li asked with a smile.
Upon hearing this, the three of them smiled even brighter and said, “Lord, we are indeed here to pay you taxes.
You are right. After all, you are the owner of this land. It would be tactless of us to go against you.
Now we have figured it out. The taxes themselves are yours, and you still have to hand over part of them to the court. If we don't pay the taxes, you will not be able to give an explanation to the court.
We are all your people, we cannot make things difficult for you."
Wang Yue’s words sounded very nice. If Ye Li had not had many conflicts with them in the beginning and knew their true colors, he might have believed them.
However, Ye Li would not take the other party's words seriously now. He knew that even if the other party chose to pay the tax, it could only be because he was powerless.
They knew they couldn't defeat Ye Li, so they could only choose to compromise.
Because after the compromise, they can still maintain their status in each town and continue their business.
If they continue to fight Ye Li head-on and force Ye Li to take them down by force, then by then, not to mention the property under their names, it will be a problem whether they can even protect themselves.
However, as the saying goes, don't hit a smiling person. Since the three people were singing praises to Ye Li, Ye Li would definitely not say anything bad to them.
“It’s great that the three mayors understood.
Although I am a lord and own the entire land, I still need your assistance and help.
You are the people who are most familiar with this place. If you can be the mayor with peace of mind, you will get as much benefit as you do now after Dongfang County develops."
Ye Li said with a smile.
Upon hearing this, Wang Yue and the other two hurriedly said with a smile: "That's... That's right, the Lord is so wise and powerful, it is definitely not a problem for him to govern Dongfang County well.
With you leading the way, Dongfang County will develop ten times faster, and in the near future, it will surely become a prosperous county."
After the two sides exchanged some polite words, Wang Yue and the other two handed over three boxes and three notebooks.
I took the box and looked at it. It was naturally a space prop, used to hold spirit stones.
The three books record the income and expenditure of the three towns this year, which are used to calculate the ransom.
After putting the account book and the box aside, Ye Li chatted with the three of them for a while, and then the three of them said goodbye and left the manor.
Ye Li also called Ding Si in and asked him to count the number of spirit stones according to the account book to see if the amount of tax was correct.