"The bounty and the pension are a little small, right?" Chen Yue frowned slightly, he remembered that the capture of a Manchu Tartar court gave a reward of fifty taels, and the four Manchu Tartar heads killed last time received a reward of two hundred taels of silver after handing them over, and now only twenty taels were given to the meritorious soldiers, which is indeed a little less. There are also soldiers who died in battle, and they were only given 20 taels of silver, which is a human life!

"Alas, Lord Inspector, you don't know that firewood and rice are expensive. Twenty taels of silver is already a lot, and in this Xishan Town, how many people can't save more than twenty taels of silver after working for half a lifetime!

Besides, now that we have very little money left in our treasury, what will you give even if you want to give more? Shan Minglei shook his head and sighed.

"What? There's no money in the vault! How did it go so fast? Chen Yue couldn't help but be surprised, since Shan Minglei came, he handed over all the general affairs to him to be responsible, but he didn't expect that it would only take long for the silver to run out, he brought a thousand taels of silver, and seized more than four thousand taels of silver from Zhao Li's silver treasury, how could it be spent?

Looking at Chen Yue's suspicious eyes, Shan Minglei didn't say much, took out an account book and handed it to Chen Yue.

"When the subordinates took over, there were still 4,800 taels of silver in the treasury, and the expenses of the past month were all in the account books, and the subordinates were not greedy for ink!"

Chen Yue looked at the accounts and saw that the accounts were clearly recorded in a timeless small block on it.

"On November 2, you asked Li Xiong and Chen Yan to go and buy saltpeter and paid five hundred taels of silver.

On November 4, the women of the town were hired to help make military uniforms, and the wages and materials cost nearly 100 taels of silver.

It costs 20 taels to purchase meat and vegetables every day, and it is nearly 1,000 taels for more than a month. At the end of the month, the soldiers' salaries were paid four hundred and sixty taels of silver, including the soldiers and the officers.

......”

Chen Yue looked at the accounts carefully, the account records were exactly the same as what Shan Minglei said, just over a month, he had spent nearly three thousand taels of silver, and now the balance on the account was only more than two thousand five hundred taels. According to the reward for war exploits formulated by Shan Minglei, killing forty-eight Mantars requires a reward of nine hundred and sixty taels of silver, which is a gain, and those who participated in the war but did not have to be rewarded have to give a little, plus those who died in the battle and were injured, the total reward is not nearly two thousand taels of silver, and the balance on the account is just enough. If you follow your own reward of fifty taels, you can't afford to pay it at all......

Raising soldiers is so expensive! There are only more than 200 soldiers, and if you raise tens of thousands, the annual cost of silver will be hundreds of thousands of taels! This is really not something that ordinary people can afford. It seems that if you want to accumulate strength quickly, you must first expand your financial resources, and you must earn money as soon as possible, otherwise you will not be able to pay even a few months' salary with the remaining bit of silver.

"My lord, you have spent too much money, and you can't support it for a few more months, so you have to open up sources and reduce expenditure." Seeing that Chen Yue frowned, Shan Minglei stepped forward and admonished.

"How to open up sources and reduce expenditures?" Chen Yue frowned and asked.

"Open source is naturally to open up the source of wealth, with your position, it is natural to set up a road card to collect the money of the merchants, but now the Tartar is raging, the merchants are slim, and the money is too slow for this method. However, because the world is too chaotic, there are countless bandit nests in the mountains to the west, and with our strength, we can naturally easily exterminate them. Seize the silver and two materials of the bandits' nest to feed the army, and recruit the bandits to expand the army, as long as it takes a few months, your strength will increase several times and dozens of times. Once you have tens of millions of troops, you can send troops to attack the Manchurian Reconquest, so the court will inevitably recognize your status, and give you the official position of deputy general and chief soldier. ”

Shan Minglei talked eloquently, and once again put forward his proposition to Chen Yue, that is, to send troops to suppress bandits!

"What Mr. said about suppressing bandits' nests and seizing the bandits' nests to raise money and raise the army, this is open source. What about throttling? Chen Yue knows a little about Shan Minglei's thoughts, and he has repeatedly told himself that it is not only for his own career, but also for his own selfishness. Because Shan Minglei was robbed by bandits a few years ago, he ended up in the remote place of Xishan Town, so he should hate the bandits very much.

"Throttling, naturally is to reduce unnecessary expenses, my lord, you spend too much, like asking the carpenter in the town to help remake chariots, it can be in the name of service, your inspection, on behalf of the government, now Fangshan County has been captured by the Mantars, you have the right to let everyone serve, why bother to pay silver?

Also, when you were digging the ditch between Sicheng and Xishan Town a few days ago, you also took care of the food and paid for it, this is for the great cause of resisting the Qing Dynasty In order to defend Xishan Town, the people in the town should naturally contribute money and efforts, how can you take all the responsibility on yourself. In this case, not only do you not need to spend a penny of silver, but you should ask the rich people in the town to donate silver taels in the name of resisting the Manchu Tartars, and make a lot of money! ”

Shan Minglei's lips and tongue rolled, telling Chen Yue one method after another to make money. There are some things he has wanted to say to Chen Yue for a long time, Chen Yue is now an official of the imperial court, so he naturally wants to show the essence of an official, isn't the official word just eating the court and eating the people below, how can he be so kind to the people, this is not the temperament that a careerist should show!

Shan Minglei's words were deafening, which opened Chen Yue's eyes, as if a door was opening in front of him. Yes, the officials of his own court have an army of 200, why don't they use their authority to make money to raise the army, what are you worried about!

"Thank you, sir, for your advice!" Chen Yue shook it to the ground and solemnly thanked Shan Minglei.

"However, Mr.'s methods can't be used in Xishan Town now, I'm afraid it will make the soldiers centrifuge." Most of the soldiers under his command now are from Xishan Town, and they were too good to them some time ago, if it suddenly becomes worse, I am afraid that there are really many soldiers who are centrifuged, and then the gains outweigh the losses.

"Well, what the adults are worried about is that this is the case in Xishan, and if you change to other places, you can't be kind." Shan Minglei nodded and said, "What about the bandits?" ”

"I'm not busy with the bandits, let's stay for a few days, anyway, the bandits in the mountains will stay there and won't run." Chen Yue shook his head and said.

"If you don't suppress the bandits, how can you raise silver taels? How to raise an army? Shan Minglei suddenly became anxious.

"Most of the bandits are people who can't survive and gather to be bandits, how much silver can they have? Now there is a huge sum of silver waiting for us to get it, and there is a great merit waiting for us to get it! Chen Yue smiled.

"What do you mean?" Shan Minglei was stunned for a moment, and suddenly realized, "You mean the Mantar in Fangshan County?" ”

"Exactly!" Chen Yue smiled and nodded.

"Your lord, you are so daring!" Shan Minglei couldn't help but admire.