Chapter 292 Infrastructure Project Started
During the two months that Leon was in Dexia, he basically seized all the property in central Dexia.
In fact, Central Desha is the richest place in the entire Principality of Desha.
The nobles of Toba had been destituted by Emir Xerxes;
The horses of the nomadic tribes at the foot of Mount Ghazi were also divided up by Leon and Agasson;
Ashcoman is the largest commercial port in Desha. Although this place has not been robbed, merchants have been doing business in this area and have also made considerable profits. It is estimated that the Desha people’s cash has been almost exhausted.
In the past two months, the merchants have handed over nearly 200,000 dinars to Leon, or what is called "military merchant tax" - in fact, protection money.
From the protection fees paid by the merchants, we can roughly calculate the profits these merchants earned while accompanying the army in Desha.
The total profit they made in Desha should be more than one million dinars, because the protection fee was 20%.
When doing business in enemy territory, merchants will generally behave themselves by paying protection fees. After all, if they offend Li Ang, they may not be able to come back...
A total of nearly five thousand merchants followed the army, which means that the average profit per person was about two hundred dinars.
Of course, it is not clear how many merchants there are in total. After all, there are merchants of all sizes, including big merchants with hundreds of people and also mom-and-pop shops with only two or three people.
But in any case, the profit per capita was about 200 dinars in two months, which would surely satisfy the merchants. After all, the merchants only needed to pay each employee two to three dinars...
In fact, all the "legitimate gains" that Leon obtained in this war have been distributed.
Nearly 500,000 dinars were obtained from the treasury in Toba City. These were legitimate spoils of war, and most of them had been distributed as rewards.
The 200,000 dinars handed over by the merchants in the past two months were also distributed by Leon to his soldiers and the lords who responded to his military action.
Li Ang was really generous with his money, as he spent over 600,000 yuan at one go.
These legitimate gains are actually a kind of interest connection deliberately created by Li Ang.
Simply put, the goal is to create a sense of "you can make money by following Lord Li Ang to fight", and all the profits are obtained through legitimate means - no robbery, no harm to civilians, but more money can be made than robbery.
When Leon distributed these benefits, he always did so according to the number of elite troops dispatched by each lord, and he did not distribute them directly to the soldiers, but gave the money to the knights.
On average, each knight would receive about 1,400 dinars - this was far beyond the expectations of those small lords.
I went on a tour with Marshal Leon to Dexia, and I didn't suffer any losses. The journey was smooth and I made a net profit of more than a thousand dinars in two months. Where can I find such a business? I couldn't make so much money even if I followed Duke Brunus.
No wonder the people in Changhe Town always say that "war is wealth". If you want to fight, you still have to follow Lord Li Ang...
In fact, Eric always felt that the lord was too generous. He thought that even if it was for the purpose of winning people's hearts, there was no need to spend so much money. It would be a waste of money.
It was normal for Eric to have such thoughts. After all, he was not used to being a rich man. Leon's reward to him was a bag of jewelry worth more than 10,000 dinars. This guy's hands were shaking when he took the bag.
You know, two years ago, he was still working in the promising industry of mercenary, earning a high salary of ten dinars per month - it was indeed a high salary. The average annual income of young and middle-aged civilians in the continent of Pendor was only about twenty dinars.
When Eric was a mercenary, he could earn in two months what an average person would earn in a year, which really made him a high-income earner... After all, this was a job that required you to put your head on the line.
But unlike Eric, a guy who has never seen the world, Leon has his own logic.
——Money is meant to be used. It won’t help you make money if you keep it in your hand.
Let every knight who follows him to fight earn money. This will not only make these knights identify with Leon and form a willingness to follow him, but also make them develop a new input-output mindset...
After all, Leon distributed the money according to the number of elite soldiers. This was a simple logic that the knights could easily understand - one could not be stingy when following Lord Leon into war. The more elite soldiers one dispatched, the more dinars one could get.
Therefore, most of the knights in the army sent their trusted followers to follow the merchants to Changhe Town - they had been protecting the merchants along the way and had become somewhat familiar to them, so the merchants in Changhe Town would of course give them some discounts.
They went there to purchase a large amount of equipment, especially armor.
Because soldiers wearing armor can be counted as elite soldiers by Leon. The more armor they have, the more dinars they can get in the next war.
After all, the next war is clearly around the corner - the Bacchus Empire has already declared war on the Sarleon Kingdom.
And where is Changhe Town?
This is where arms dealers gather.
When he was still a poor pioneer lord, Li Ang purchased military supplies in Changhe Town.
The Sarleon Kingdom has been in a lot of trouble in the past two years, and few pioneer lord certificates have been issued. The business of arms dealers is not very good. In fact, there are only a few big customers such as Amy, Godric and Liofric to support the business.
Leon himself didn't buy much - the Noldor elves and Mettenheimers in his army all brought their own equipment, and the war horses were all looted. It was only at the beginning of last year that he purchased a few hundred sets of equipment to arm the non-commissioned officers.
After much difficulty, a new 'Silver Hand' was formed, but the new equipment was handed over to the Noldor to make, and the merchants in Changhe Town basically made no money from Leon.
After all, after Li Ang took over Changhe Town, the situation in the eastern region has gradually stabilized, the demand has decreased, and the sales of military supplies are naturally not as good as before - arms are easier to sell when the world is more chaotic.
But now, the arms market in Changhe Town has been revitalized again.
And the trading was quite brisk - the spot stocks in the hands of the merchants were sold out within a week, and the orders were already scheduled for two months later.
Many knights even paid high prices for expedited orders in order to get the equipment in advance.
As a result, all the workshops and blacksmith shops in Changhe Town began to work overtime, and it seemed that there were no idle people in the whole Changhe Town all of a sudden - they were all called to work.
In other words, most of the money that Li Ang gave to the knights returned to the merchants in Changhe Town...
If there is no demand, create it. As the lord of Changhe Town, Li Ang naturally wants to benefit the people.
Merchants naturally have to pay taxes when doing business. At the same time, if they make more money, they will deposit it in the bank...
So the money naturally returned to Li Ang.
So the money had to be spent—the dinars would find their way back anyway.
The merchants had just made a fortune in Dexia and had sufficient capital. They were now overwhelmed with orders, so they were naturally generous when purchasing raw materials.
This made the business of the villages and towns around Changhe Town become prosperous, especially the leather and steel plates used in armor, as well as grease and felt - all of which are specialties of the villages in the eastern region.
At the moment, not only are merchants spending a lot of money to purchase raw materials, but Li Ang himself is also spending a lot of money.
In order to spend money smoothly, he called Amy again...
Sometimes spending money is harder than making it.
After all, most of the things Leon wants to buy are not easy to buy.
This time, the Lord's purchasing goal is to purchase food and cloth from the entire continent.
In addition, a large amount of building materials and craftsmen need to be purchased.
Needless to say, food and cloth are still Leon's monopoly plan. Of course, his monopoly target is no longer just the eastern region, but the entire Fierce Lion Kingdom... and even the entire continent.
As for the building materials and craftsmen, this is of course for large-scale construction.
The lord is planning to build a lot of things.
The reconstruction of Shieldwind Fortress has not been completed yet, Karenlu Fortress needs to be renovated, Maixiangling needs to be expanded, Trubrun needs to be repaired, and Changhe Town also needs to be renovated...
In addition, Salem also needs to be populated with immigrants - this is a subordinate village of Karen Deer Castle, located next to the Sava River. The land is quite fertile, but it was uninhabited because of the war.
If Salem is properly organized, at least tens of thousands of acres of good farmland can be obtained.
There are also roads connecting the territory, as well as the road from White Hart Castle to the Noldor Forest, all of which need to be renovated and widened.
In fact, it is a comprehensive transformation of the territory, all of which are infrastructure projects.
Infrastructure is of course very expensive, but as the richest local tycoon in the entire Pande continent, Leon’s first consideration now is how to spend all the money in his hands.
After all, you can't eat gold and silver if you keep them in your hands.
But why do we need infrastructure construction?
Because other ways of spending money are no longer suitable for Leon's current territory - what Leon wants is population, people who are willing to move to the territory and live there permanently.
He now has neither shortage of troops nor food, and he also has status and fame. The only thing he lacks is population.
The area of Leon 's territory is already quite large. With the effect of this expedition to Desha, the entire eastern region should be willing to obey Leon's command, but the population directly under Leon's management is only about 50,000 - and this is because a lot of immigrants were brought in from the Bacchus Empire.
The rebels led by the gladiators are in Karen Deer Castle, and the former villagers of Fidne are rebuilding the Shieldwind Fortress.
Even if White Deer Castle is included, the total population is just over 60,000. This population is really too small.
But at this scale now, it is no longer possible to ask businessmen to spend money to buy immigrants - it is just a drop in the bucket and will not have much effect.
Li Ang could only build his territory into a safe, livable, prosperous and developed place, so that people from other lords' territories would move to his own territory.
So we can only engage in infrastructure construction.
In fact, for the rulers, the infrastructure of the territory is equivalent to comprehensive development.
Because no matter which era people are from, they all have one basic purpose of migration - to make money.
That is, job opportunities.
Expanding castles, building houses, improving roads, and improving public security, these infrastructure projects will consume a lot of money and create countless jobs.
People will come from far and wide to follow these jobs. Perhaps... these workers can be called "Long River Drifters"?
These migrant workers will find that due to the shortage of people, there are more job opportunities and higher wages here, so they will stay here with their families to work and gradually become a part of this place.
Infrastructure construction will certainly consume a lot of money, but no matter how much it costs, it is actually cost-effective.
Because actually all of this money is spent within the territory - either in the hands of migrant workers or in the hands of local material suppliers and contractors.
Then the money will still be used within the territory - people's consumption of food, clothing, housing and transportation will be completed here, and most of it will eventually flow back into the bank.
No matter what they consume, merchants have to pay taxes...
And once the money enters the bank, it actually means that it goes into Li Ang's pocket again - he can continue to invest it.
Moreover, as the territory is built better and better, there will be more job opportunities, the population will grow, the territory will become more prosperous, and more and more money will flow into the bank - this is actually a positive cycle.
From the perspective of the rulers, as long as the money does not flow abroad, it is actually inexhaustible.
In order to ensure that the money does not flow abroad, it is necessary to make the territory better than any other country - so we need to develop infrastructure.
Li Ang no longer has to worry about the operation of the bank. When the reserve funds are sufficient to a certain level, it is difficult for the bank to go bankrupt.
After all, he had started issuing large-denomination credit coins of ten and one hundred dinars a few months ago. These were enchanted silver coins produced by the Noldor. They had been used in large-scale transactions between the Noldor Forest and merchants, and many big businessmen were already familiar with them.
The magic silver coin with a face value of ten dinars was called the "Silver Deer" because the mithril rune embedded in it by the Noldor was in the shape of a fawn. The deer was the favorite image of the Noldor and the symbol of the elves.
In fact, the only function of this rune is to emit a little blue light. According to Wendilfu, this should be the magic of illumination. But the Noldor, who have no magic power, can only make the ebony emit the light of fireflies. It can't be used for lighting, but it looks quite high-end when used coins.
The magic coin with a face value of one hundred dinars is made of a gold-copper alloy and is called the 'Golden Griffin' - the rune looks like a griffin, which is Leon's emblem.
However, this Griffin Rune will emit purple light, which looks a little more dazzling... but it is still an unsuccessful Illumination Rune.
In fact, the lord originally planned to let the Noldor try to use his portrait and engrave his portrait on gold coins. This may be the wish of every ruler.
However, it was later discovered that the enchantment could not be pressed using a template and had to be hand-carved, so the griffin emblem was used instead - otherwise the output efficiency would be too low.
The Noldor all have obsessive-compulsive disorder. They don’t mind if the deer can be a little abstract, but they will not stop until the human head is carved to be lifelike.
To be honest, apart from the labor cost, the cost of these two credit coins themselves is quite low, as their net weight is less than ten grams.
The cost of the silver deer was only about three dirhams, and the cost of the golden griffin was only three dinars. Even after adding all the losses, the cost was only one thirtieth of their face value.
These two high-value currencies have now begun to be used. Merchants like these glowing magic coins much more than other jewels. They even started a series of comparisons - that is, showing off their wealth.
Therefore, Li Ang can now use the money in the bank with confidence, as long as he ensures that 20% of the reserve funds are not used - this is a very conservative approach. To be honest, only 10% of the reserve funds are enough.
So Leon threw himself into infrastructure construction, and Amy started large-scale purchases again.
However, this purchase was not so smooth.
Food, cloth and the like were not a big deal , as Amy already had plenty of experience with them.
Building materials and the like are also easy to deal with. There is plenty of wood in the Changhe Forest. Islamdir is even trying to do the wood business now.
There is plenty of stone in the Dengier Mountains, and as long as you pay, there will naturally be people willing to get it.
The main trouble comes from craftsmen and some people with ulterior motives.
