Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 21 Pay the bill
"It's fun to build a big building, but it's hard to pay for it~~~"

In the warehouse duty room, Lin Dao was scratching his head as he looked at the various bills.

The Qihuo Army of Guangzong County won a great victory over the Later Zhao army.

This is certainly a good thing. It eliminates the major threat to Lin Dao's continued business and can be said to have opened up a trade route.

But this victory was essentially achieved by Lin Dao using supplies.

After the victory, it's his turn to pay.

In order to ensure victory, Lin Dao purchased a lot of supplies.

Food, meat, cooking oil, armor, ice picks, medicine, cloth, etc.

The prices of these materials are not high, but the purchase quantity is large~~~
Let’s not talk about anything else, just talk about food.

Before going to battle, each of the soldiers of the Qihuo Army received 240 kilograms of food from him.

Based on the wholesale price of a little over two yuan per catty, that's five hundred yuan per person.

Five hundred yuan may not seem like a lot, but there are more than ten thousand beggar soldiers going to fight.

This means that millions of dollars have been spent before the fight even starts.

More expensive things are yet to come.

In order to inspire the will to fight and achieve the ultimate victory in the war.

Lin Dao promised to give 1,200 kilograms of food to anyone who captured the head of a Jiehu.

That’s two thousand five hundred yuan!

Before returning to the modern world, a rough estimate shows that the mountains of Jiehu heads seized after the war amounted to more than 10,000.

Another expense of several million.

This is just the food expenditure, not including other things.

All in all, it would cost tens of millions to pay off the final payment.

War is indeed a waste of money.

Of course, burning money is better than using it as compensation.

"This battle was fought."

Looking at the numbers displayed on the calculator on his phone, Lin Dao wanted to laugh, "This sponsor has bankrupted me."

If it weren’t for Lin Dao’s provocation.

The Qihuo Army will guard the fort carefully, and the Jiehu will continue to besiege the city.

The final outcome for both sides was either that the Jiehu retreated, or that after the terms were agreed upon, the Qihuo army surrendered again and nominally came under the jurisdiction of Shi Hu.

It was Lin Dao himself who took the initiative to jump out and provoke this war with an extremely high reward.

Correspondingly, he should naturally pay for the war expenses.

'I'm not a scumbag, I don't like Lei~~~'

The cell phone rang and Su Tongtong hung up.

"Finally, I'm done with work~"

"Have you missed me these days~"

"I heard there's a good movie coming out~"

"I want something cold to drink~"

The entire content of Su Tongtong's phone call was just one word.

About~~~
This is normal, after all, women are more attractive than men.

Once the valve is opened, the water flow will only increase and can never be closed.

"Don't worry if you have too much debt, there will always be a way out."

Lin Dao got up, packed up, and went out for a date.

This trip will take the entire night.

The next morning, Lin Dao returned to the warehouse yawning.

Several hundred million were spent in one night. It was just a few thousand yuan.

Eat, drink, have fun, stay in a hotel, and buy some small gifts or something.

It's really tiring and expensive.

Men always complain when they become sages.

But it doesn’t matter. Men usually can’t be sages for long and will soon move on to look forward to the next time.

After a busy morning and finishing his work, Lin Dao set off for Yonghe Time and Space.

The place where he appeared was not the courtyard inside the fortress.

But it was in Li Nong’s main account.

"Feng Dun must be furious to the point of spitting fire."

Lin Dao used a large amount of supplies to encourage Feng Dun's troops to leave the city and fight without permission.

This is undoubtedly a power grab.

If it were someone else, they would have started fighting long ago.

Although Feng Dun did not take action because of fear.

But Lin Dao is not stupid either. He definitely cannot live in the dock anymore.

"This business can't be done anymore."

Lin Dao picked up the Buddhist scriptures on the table and said, "Only Feng Dun's clan and his followers and confidants are left in the fort."

“If you can’t do business, you can’t make money.”

"If I can't make money, I can't pay the balance."

"If I can't pay the balance, I'm going bankrupt."

This is what worries him most.

As relations between the two sides deteriorate, they have not yet publicly fallen out.

But it is impossible to make money by doing business like before.

Without income, Lin Dao's financial situation deteriorated rapidly.

"Master~~~" Sun Rong called from outside.

Coming out of the back tent, Lin Dao asked, "What's going on?"

"Lord, the generals from various forts have been waiting for a long time."

The Qihuo Army was a group composed of exiled aristocratic families, officials, military households, refugees, etc.

The aristocratic families and some officials, with their clans as the core, gathered and recruited military households and refugees, forming groups of varying sizes.

The dock is the gathering place for these groups.

The owner of a large fortress can be called a fort commander or a wall defender.

The owner of a small fort calls himself a general.

The beggar army in Shangbai, Guangzong County, is composed of dozens of such groups.

Among them, Feng Dun was the strongest and was elected as the Begging General by everyone.

It means something similar to the leader of the martial arts world.

Lin Dao, who hadn't been here for two days, took a seat at the main seat and asked, "What do they want from me?"

"Generals, we have learned that the Lord has placed a bounty on the head of the Jiehu."

Sun Rong lowered her head and whispered softly, "When the Jiehu camps were scattered, many forts sent troops to pursue them and made some gains."

"They want to use these gains to exchange for the reward offered by Langzhu." Lin Dao suddenly understood.

The news of Li Nong's main camp's defeat was quickly spread to the other Hou Zhao army camps.

The Jiehu people in various camps knew very well that their food was stored in the main camp.

The main camp was breached at this time, which meant that the food supply was completely cut off.

With almost no hesitation, the Jiehu camps in various places fled.

The Qihuo Army Fort they were besieging could naturally see what was happening outside the city.

Most of the forts chose to send troops to pursue and achieved considerable success.

After they sent people to contact each other and exchanged information, they learned that Master Lin had offered a huge reward.

The head of a first-level Jiehu is worth as much as ten stones of grain!
The generals from all over the country gathered together before dawn, their eyes red with anger.

They also want a piece of the pie.

"Ha~~~"

Lin Dao's eyes lit up and he couldn't suppress the smile.

"This is really like someone bringing you a pillow when you're sleepy."

"Please, quickly invite all the generals in."

"I want to talk business with them."

A moment ago, Lin Dao was still worried about his lack of shipping channels.

The next moment, the shipping channels came to us on their own initiative.

Without you, Feng the butcher, we won’t eat hairy pigs anymore?
There are plenty of people who can replace you!

The sun is shining brightly in the sky, bringing endless warmth.

The earth is full of vitality and flowing with the warmth of spring.

Li Nong, who was on horseback, felt the wind and snow howling in his heart, and it was as cold as ice.

"How can I explain this to the king?"

"When we set out on the expedition, we had 30,000 troops, tens of thousands of auxiliary soldiers, and countless civilians and refugees."

He looked around and saw that when the cavalrymen who were guarding him returned, there were only less than a hundred cavalrymen left.

Li Nong looked miserable, "The whole clan is in danger~~~"

Shi Hu was cruel and bloodthirsty, and would often kill entire families.

Although Li Nong was an important official whom he trusted, the loss was so great and the defeat was so tragic.

There was no guarantee that Shi Hu would take out his anger on his entire clan.

Living in the land of Later Zhao, death is not scary, but the way of death is scary.

Shi Hu liked to torture people to death, and the lightest way to die was beheading.

If a person is cut in half at the waist, he will not die immediately. He will drag half of his body and crawl on the ground wailing with difficulty. The scene is so miserable that it is enough to stop a child from crying at night.

This is just the lightest way to die.

As for the women in the family, their fate was even more tragic than that.

"Report~~~"

Li Nong, who was in a gloomy mood, was awakened by the scout army report.

"What's going on? Could it be that the beggars are chasing us again?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the cavalrymen around them immediately showed expressions of fear.

Running hundreds of miles in two days was due to the fear of death.

Qin Lang led more than a hundred riders and chased them madly all the way, which had already scared them out of their wits.

The Flying Cavalry also organized a counterattack.

But the cavalry under Qin Lang's command were like crazy, fighting madly and recklessly, killing the flying cavalry who had no fighting spirit in the first place, and making them lose their armor and weapons and look miserable.

The cavalry of the Qihuo Army cut off the heads of the flying cavalrymen and hung them on the necks of their horses.

With red eyes, he chased after people like a demon.

There's no other way. The reward for each Jiehu is too high. It's almost enough to feed a whole family for a year.
In this chaotic world where people die of starvation every day, a head can be exchanged for a year's food rations for the entire family.

Anyone who encounters such a blessing from heaven would fight for it.

After two days of pursuit, Li Nong was already scared like a frightened bird.

"Sikong, it's Xiucheng Hou who has arrived with reinforcements!"

As soon as these words were spoken, Li Nong and the other cavalrymen around him immediately became more energetic and spirited.

Xiucheng Hou, Shi Min.

His father was Shi Hu's adopted son Shi Zhan, who was granted the title of Marquis of Xihua for his outstanding military achievements.

Shi Zhan was born in the Qihuo Army of Chenliu.

After the defeat of Chenliu Qihuo's army, he was captured by the Later Zhao.

Before being captured, Shi Zhan's real name was Ran Zhan.

After Shi Zhan died, Shi Min inherited his title.

Because Shi Hu was brave and sharp since childhood, he liked his godson Shi Min very much.

His title was changed from Marquis of Xihua to Marquis of Xiucheng, and he was also appointed as a guerrilla general.

Seven years ago, Shi Hu sent a large army to attack the Xianbei Murong clan.

All the armies were defeated, but Shi Min repelled Murong Ke's army and became famous.

Five years ago, Shi Min, Li Nong and others sent troops to attack the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

None of the troops achieved much, except Shi Min, who defeated the Jin army and killed its main general, making him even more famous.

Upon learning that such a victorious general was leading his troops to support them, Li Nong and others immediately felt safe.

"Sikong."

Shi Min looked at the disheveled Li Nong in front of him and was greatly surprised. "Why is it so?"

"Oh~~~"

Li Nong shook his head repeatedly, "I am so ashamed that I have no words to say."

"You should tie yourself up and plead guilty before the Heavenly King."

Shi Min, a burly man, frowned.

Li Nong led an army of tens of thousands to the battle, but when he returned, he was left with less than a hundred cavalrymen.

Are the beggar soldiers in Guangzong County so brave and fierce?

He was originally a reinforcement.

But at this time the main team had been defeated, and his reinforcements had no target to assist.

The only option was to turn around and retreat back to Yecheng to see what the Heavenly King would do.

On the hills in the distance.

Qin Lang had several Jiehu heads hanging on the neck of his warhorse.

Watching the Later Zhao troops gradually leaving from afar.

After a moment, he pulled the reins and turned the horse around.

"go back!"

(End of this chapter)