"Trash, bastard!"
As soon as he returned to his mansion, Gongsunhe fell into a rage of incompetence.
He grabbed the pen, ink, paper and inkstone on the case and threw it randomly!
Seeing him being so furious, all the servants in the mansion shrank back, for fear of offending him.
Including soldiers, horses, daily food, drink, and supplies, as well as hoarded supplies, Gongsunhe's investment in the Black Mountain Bandits was at least two hundred thousand taels of silver!
However, Yu Yan's defeat made all Gongsun He's hard work go to waste!
How can this not make Gongsunhe furious!
He couldn't understand that Ji Lie's three hundred refugees had only been trained for more than a month.
With the same strength, how did Yu Yan's Black Mountain Bandits lose, even risking his own life?
"Dad, we can't just let Ji Lie go!"
Gongsun Qing was so angry that he gritted his teeth.
He originally thought he could avenge the humiliation he suffered in the past two days, but he didn't expect that he would be slapped in the face instead, and his family would also suffer heavy losses!
"Tell me, how should I deal with him?"
Gongsunhe said angrily.
With the destruction of the Black Mountain bandits, the power of the Gongsun family was greatly weakened, but Ji Lie controlled an elite army.
The situation between the two sides suddenly turned around!
"Then we have to stand by and watch Ji Lie replace our Gongsun family?"
Gongsun Qing was quite reluctant to say so.
"Qing'er doesn't need to be excited. Even without the Black Mountain bandits, it won't be that easy for Ji Lie to control Youdi."
Gongsunhe snorted coldly.
After all, he is the Prime Minister of Youdi, and the city's government servants, police officers, and local warriors all need to obey his orders.
Unless Ji Lie wants to openly rebel, he still has the final say in Youzhou City!
But without the Black Mountain bandits, it would be extremely inconvenient for Gongsun He to do something secretly!
"From today on, we can temporarily endure it and wait until the new palace keeper arrives!"
Gongsunhe ordered.
He made up his mind to join forces with Wangfu Sheren to suppress Ji Lie when he arrived.
At that time, unless Ji Lie dares to rebel openly, he will just wait to be imprisoned!
"Dad, having said that, we can't just do nothing."
"Huh? Do you have any ideas?"
Gongsun He raised his eyebrows and looked at Gongsun Qing.
"My father must also know the previous financial situation of the palace."
"Where did Ji Lie get the money to buy land and estates and recruit refugees?"
Hearing this, Gongsunhe fell into thinking.
As Gongsun Qing said, he still knew the situation in the palace very well.
In order to embezzle money, Li Zhuo sold everything that could be sold in the palace.
Not to mention purchasing land and mansions and recruiting refugees, it is not easy to maintain the expenses of the palace!
"You mean...someone is secretly funding Ji Lie?"
"good!"
Gongsun Qing nodded affirmatively and snorted coldly,
"The manor outside the city used to be owned by Zhao's Trading Company, but now it is occupied by Ji Lie."
"In my opinion, maybe that stinky bitch Zhao Meiniang is secretly supporting Ji Lie and going against our Gongsun family!"
Gongsun Qing has always been a playboy, but he didn't expect that he could think so far today.
This surprised Gongsun He.
"What Qing'er said makes sense!"
Gongsun He glanced at Gongsun Qing approvingly and said with a smile,
"In this case, I will leave this matter to you to investigate. If Zhao Meiniang is really behind the scenes, we will attack Zhao's Trading Company first!"
"Children take orders!"
Gongsun Qing accepted the order happily.
…
In Ji Lie's courtyard.
After Xiu'er and Laifu's inventory, a total of tens of thousands of taels worth of materials were seized from the Black Mountain bandit's lair.
Coupled with the armor and war horses ripped from the dead Black Mountain bandits, a rough estimate shows that the profit from the battle with the Black Mountain bandits has exceeded 50,000 taels of silver.
This is a lot of money!
It's really quick to make money by robbing houses, no wonder Yu Yan wants to become a bandit!
It's just a pity that there is only one bandit like the Black Mountain Bandit near Youdi.
If we kill a few more, why bother about money?
Ji Lie sighed in his heart.
At this moment, Zhang Changde walked in with several palace guards.
"Meet the prince!"
He first saluted Yang Ling and then reported.
"After last night's battle, we killed a total of 227 Black Mountain bandits and captured more than 40."
"More than a dozen guards were killed in the battle, and more than thirty others were injured."
When Ji Lie heard this, he couldn't help but shook his head.
"The casualties are still quite high."
When Ji Lie said this, Zhang Changde was speechless.
He originally thought that Ji Lie would be delighted after hearing this.
After all, with 300 new soldiers fighting against 300 vicious bandits, having such a casualty ratio can be regarded as a brilliant victory.
If it were placed on the Daxia army, it would be enough to claim credit from the emperor!
But he didn't think he thought the casualties were too high. This was too Versailles!
In fact, we can’t blame Ji Lie for being demanding.
These elite soldiers were strictly trained by him. Logically speaking, the casualties should be smaller against the undisciplined Black Mountain bandits!
It seems that in order to reduce casualties, in addition to more rigorous training and allowing the soldiers to experience the baptism of war, they must also be equipped with armor.
Thinking of this, Ji Lie said in a deep voice,
"Commander Zhang, from today on, you will continue to recruit refugees and strive to expand the number of guards to a thousand."
"Besides that, you should also think of ways to buy some armor, and strive to have one armor for each person!"
"this……"
Zhang Changde looked embarrassed.
"Recruiting refugees is easy, but purchasing armor is a bit troublesome."
Although the productivity of the world was low, as long as it was not the high-end armor worn by Zhang Changde and other royal guards, the price of ordinary armor was not particularly high.
For example, the ordinary standard armor of the Daxia army, if made in batches, would only cost an average of twenty or thirty taels of silver per set.
But the trouble lies in purchasing the armor.
You must know that making and hiding armor privately is a very serious crime.
Who among ordinary people would take the risk of confusing the nine tribes and secretly build and sell armor?
This is also the reason why Yu Yan only has about a dozen armors despite being backed by the Gongsun family.
Asking Zhang Changde to give the guards one person and one armor was really embarrassing for him.
Ji Lie slapped his head and forgot about this.
It seems that in addition to recruiting refugees, he will also recruit some craftsmen who are proficient in craftsmanship to prepare for the large-scale production of armor in the future.
"No matter what the price, buy as much as you can."
"Commander Zhang, just try your best. I won't blame you."
Ji Lie smiled.
"Subordinates take orders!"
Commander Zhang breathed a sigh of relief.
At this moment, another palace guard walked in,
"Meet the prince! Meet the commander!"
"We have gathered everyone in the village according to the prince's instructions."
