Chapter 539 Mutual Benefit

There is one person who takes the lead and successfully obtains benefits. This kind of leader effect is very useful.

Things like positions and proof of innocence cannot be seen at the scene, but 5,000 bright gold coins have blinded many people's eyes.

So there were reports one after another at the scene.

And each one was more urgent than the other, because many people's information was actually the same.

For example, most of the specific information of underground members is known to those who are more flamboyant on weekdays.

Intelligence and information are only one-time value.

Before others know it, intelligence can be worth a thousand gold.

But after others have known it, this information becomes worthless.

The same is true for information about the dungeon, like the experience of the young mercenary before, after all, it is only a minority.

Most of the maps obtained by others are from major cities, and they are already rotten in the streets. Otherwise, with the purchasing power of these mercenaries, they will never spend a lot of money to buy a map that they don't need.

But then again, dungeons have been associated with treasures and adventures since ancient times.

When Xu Lai explored the dungeon for the first time, he got great benefits one after another.

Not only did he obtain an elf general, but he also upgraded Giselle to level 9, becoming a title ranger, and he also had the ability to train phantom archers.

Yesterday, Su Ya just gave him the good news. After a week of crazy training, the first batch of sharpshooters brought up from the underground have all been upgraded to phantom archers.

Although the phantom archer is only a level 6 long-range combat unit, in terms of combat effectiveness, the archer master and explosive archer, who are also level 6, are not even worthy of carrying shoes for the phantom archer.

Xu Lai really did not exaggerate at all. The exaggerated range of the phantom archer alone and the feature of no half-arrow penalty are enough to kill any archer in seconds.

Of course, there are also disadvantages. The phantom archer is a configuration of one bow and three quivers. While ensuring the long-range output capability, it also further weakens the melee capability.

Although due to the existence of the characteristics, the phantom archer can use bows and arrows to counterattack even if he is approached, but the complex action of drawing the bow and shooting arrows will be greatly affected after being approached.

Therefore, the phantom archers must also have sufficient protection.

The tree spirits of the elves are a perfect match for the phantom shooters.

They are huge, and after carrying the phantom shooters, they can not only protect the phantom shooters, but also provide the phantom shooters with high-altitude vision, obtaining a longer range and undisturbed vision.

Moreover, the cost of upgrading the phantom shooters is actually quite high.

In addition to the normal upgrade costs, Su Ya also reported that each phantom shooter needs to consume one unit of crystal energy.

In addition, in the advanced training ground, Su Ya also paid more than 800 gold coins for the training fee for each phantom shooter.

In this way, plus the cost of their advancement, the cost of training a level 6 phantom shooter is almost equivalent to training a level 7 paladin.

The good news is that crystals are a rare resource required by phantom shooters, and only one unit is needed for both level 5 sharpshooters and level 4 longbowmen.

Training longbowmen is nothing more than spending a little more time and gold coins, and no need to spend more rare resources.

Xu Lai can reap such benefits on his first underground adventure.

There will be no shortage of other organized forces going underground, especially the mercenary groups.

This kind of forces that have been attacking the underground city for a long time are Xu Lai's real trading partners.

However, the information provided by others is not useless. At least it enriches Xu Lai's maps and intelligence.

Moreover, ordinary people are not the focus of his punishment.

Therefore, even if others submit the same information, as long as there is new content, Xu Lai will at least give a certificate of innocence.

This thing is just a piece of paper. While the walls of Conaston Castle are still there, Xu Lai only needs to block a few gates to control all the mercenaries in the city.

After 3 days, in addition to blocking the entrances and exits, he will also conduct a thorough investigation of all mercenaries and underground forces in the city.

He is not Aini. He cannot tolerate the existence of forces that are not under his control in his city.

He also cannot tolerate thieves and robbers everywhere in his city.

The rich and noble areas where Aini and his friends live are heavily patrolled and well defended.

There will be no thieves and robbers who will come to this place to commit crimes.

But through the bartender of the tavern, Xu Lai knew very well that there were serious problems with public security in this city ranked first on the grassland.

The establishment of a public security station alone could only curb the further deterioration of the situation. If the rotten roots were not removed, the people's hearts and economy of Conaston Castle would never break through the ceiling.

Xu Lai did not wait until dark in the mercenary guild. Anyway, no matter where he was, all friendly forces within the radiation range could enjoy his attribute bonus.

And with his current level of 40, there was no unit in the entire Conaston that he could not radiate.

He left the mercenary guild after receiving a large stack of mercenary information from the president Mohan in front of many mercenaries.

Mohan did not provide a list directly, but he gave Xu Lai the information of 23 mercenary groups.

Among them, there are not only 7 mercenary groups registered in Conaston, but also 16 registered in other cities of the empire, but with branches in Conaston, and some are even just mercenary groups that escort caravans passing by.

The closer the relationship between these mercenary groups and Conaston, the more information they have.

Detailed to the number of people in the entire mercenary group, the number of combatants, the number of reserve personnel, and even the personnel who have left and the relevant home addresses, team stationing addresses, etc.

The entire document records every person in these mercenary groups in detail.

Including their personal rank, actual combat record, the number of tasks completed in the past, task ratings, etc.

With such a document, anyone can roughly evaluate the combat effectiveness of this person.

Not to mention that the information was obtained by Xu Lai and his army, even if a small team with much weaker strength than these mercenary groups obtained it, they could defeat them one by one with this information.

Therefore, the Mercenary Guild should regard this information as more important than anything else.

Because they know that once this information is leaked, no matter what the reason is, they will never be able to gain the trust of the mercenaries again.

At the beginning of the establishment of the Mercenary Guild, the founder once swore to protect the secrets of the mercenaries with his life.

But unfortunately, when Mohan had to face more than 3,000 Mercenary Guild staff and even more family members, he could only make such a choice.

Since Xu Lai's butcher knife has been lit, he will not stop until he achieves his goal.

And the reason why Xu Lai waited in this bloody place was to take these away in public and completely destroy the reputation of the Mercenary Guild.

Just when Xu Lai asked Jilong, Jimmy and others to look through these materials, he personally compared the dungeon map and merged the relevant information.

What happened in the Mercenary Guild gradually spread.

Some mercenaries were unwilling to stay in this place, and some killers were guilty and wanted to leave secretly.

However, all the gates of the entire city have been sealed and locked, and the only way to leave the city is the teleportation array, which is also closed.

In order to prevent accidents and card-breaking, Xu Lai even let out the two capable generals, Elvy and Roland.

Roland left the Holy Light Knights in the castle, and he led the Paladins to several teams, stationed at the major city gates.

Elvy left the Archangels and Angels behind and obeyed Xu Lai's call.

She led the stronger Seraphim to fly over Conaston.

The martial law in Conaston not only made the mercenaries panic, but also made the supervisors and consuls of the major caravans panic.

Fortunately, the gate guards told them that the gates were not closed forever and would still be open during the day.

However, it would be less convenient to enter and exit, and everyone would need to be checked.

Normal caravan members, after verifying their identities, would not be hindered from entering and exiting.

However, if the caravan hired mercenaries without proof of innocence, they would have to give up these mercenaries or stay in the city with them.

But at the same time, Xu Lai also made certain compensation.

In addition to the exemption of the city entry tax that had been issued before, Xu Lai also allowed these merchants to pay taxes only on the goods they bought and sold.

According to the rules of the empire, commercial taxes have always been paid according to the amount of goods sold by merchants.

Therefore, the more cities they have been through, the more expensive the prices of these goods will be, otherwise the merchants will not be able to make a profit at all.

Moreover, this will also put more pressure on merchants. Some new goods that have not been tested by the market, they dare not easily sell to unfamiliar cities.

I don’t know how many merchants used to sell goods from the south to the north, or from the north to the south.

As a result, due to the different customs in the two places, sales were bleak and they went bankrupt overnight.

Xu Lai’s compensation plan is equivalent to only collecting taxes on mobile goods. While greatly reducing the pressure on merchants, it also really gives merchants great concessions.

Of course, as a compensation for income, Xu Lai originally wanted to reduce some commercial taxes to attract more merchants.

Fortunately, this administrative order has not been announced yet, so it is simply cancelled now.

After all, you have to eat one bite at a time and walk one step at a time. If you are too good to these merchants, I am afraid it will be counterproductive.

Knowing that you can leave the city during the day, there are real benefits in the account.

For a time, the merchants who were greatly affected not only had no complaints, but also took the initiative to provide information about the underground city after hearing that Xu Lai needed it.

Xu Lai could not meet every merchant who came to his door individually, but after accepting the gifts from the merchants, he agreed on a unified time and met with these merchants together.

Merchants who traveled all over the country were more knowledgeable.

And they were not like those mercenaries who worked hard. Mercenaries were reluctant to spend their money on some messy things.

But merchants were different. They made money by information.

Therefore, any merchant with a little brain would subconsciously collect all kinds of information.

The information they submitted to Xu Lai was richer and more detailed.

Therefore, Xu Lai specially held a dinner in this brand new castle to thank these merchants who provided information.

And, unlike the stingy Aini, Xu Lai was relatively generous to these merchants and paid attention to reciprocity.

Others provided him with information, and he provided channels for others.

The map is relatively rich in content, and Xu Lai provided them with channels for buying and selling weapons, equipment, treasures, and various high-value resources such as food, salt, and iron.

It includes not only Conaston, but also cities such as Martell City and Qingfeng City.

Basically, relying on the sales of these materials, these businessmen can at least make a living no matter how far they get.

And even for those merchants whose maps had been duplicated or who had no valuable information, Xu Lai also gave them the qualifications to buy war horses, crystals and other rare resources in Qingfeng City.

Of course, there will still be a limit on the quantity, otherwise just a few businessmen can wrap it up for him.

Most of the supplies and channels are in Qingfeng City.

Now, these businessmen had to go to Qingfeng City.

But it doesn't matter, as long as they can make money, they don't mind traveling a little further.

The mood of the merchants was soothed. On the second day after Xu Lai bloodbathed the mercenary guild, Conaston's economy was not affected. On the third day, dozens of shops reopened one after another.

The remaining chamber of commerce information for those that were not open, especially large shops, was basically sent to Xu Lai's desk by Mo Han.

After being suppressed by Xu Lai, the revenge from the mercenary guild that Jilong and others expected not only did not come, but Mohan became even more flattering than before.

Perhaps because he had already made an exception, there was no hesitation in leaking all kinds of information this time.

The board that Xu Lai raised high finally only fell gently.

After Mohan relied on the mercenary guild's channels to provide Xu Lai with extremely detailed dungeon information, Xu Lai allowed Mohan to handle the mercenary guild's affairs on his own.

Of course, although Mohan was allowed to handle it on his own, it still had to be shown to Xu Lai and the general public in Conaston.

Otherwise, ordinary people who don't understand anything would really think that Xu Lai was bullied by the mercenary guild.

Only when the members of the mercenary guild were punished in public could Xu Lai let his influence penetrate deep into ordinary people.

This is no longer killing a chicken to scare a monkey, but killing a monkey to scare a chicken.

When the chickens saw it, Xu Lai even killed the more dangerous, smarter, and more precious monkeys. How could ordinary chickens like them dare to disobey.

In the past three days, the saddest thing may have been the major mercenary groups, especially the seven locally registered mercenary groups.

Because these mercenary groups failed to obtain Xu Lai's understanding in time, nearly one-third of their members quit the group in just these two days.

The closer the deadline is, the more people quit the group.

At the major city gates, Xu Lai not only did not relax his guard, Jimmy was also taking all the prisoners as quickly as possible, recruiting soldiers to reorganize, and prepare for the next battle.

All signs indicate that Xu Lai is not joking, he is really going to take action against the major mercenary groups and underground forces.

The mercenaries of the mercenary group are also waiting for the final decision of their respective bosses.

After 12 o'clock tonight, if our mercenary group is still on the blacklist, then at dawn tomorrow, the mercenary guild will probably receive countless applications to withdraw from the group. (End of chapter)