Chapter 19 Territory Profits

Yu Zecheng's territory includes not only the territory in the city, but also three villages and towns outside the city, namely Majiazhai, Lijiagan and Zhaojiatun. Lijiagan and Zhaojiatun are both large family villages. In addition to the village itself, there are actually some scattered households living in small villages in the mountains, but they are all considered to be people in this village.

These mountain people make a living by hunting, farming and collecting herbs in the mountains. The strong labor force of the two villages exceeds 1,000, and the population is 2,000. They live a decent life. The clan leader collects protection fees in advance every month, and each village pays 50 taels of silver a month.

Majiazhai is a small town, which controls more than a dozen small natural villages. There is no big family power in the village. The mayor is elected by the gentry. The population reaches 5,000. There is a specialty mulberry forest that can produce silk and satin. It is relatively wealthy. There are more than 20 small businesses in the village. The Wild Wolf Gang used to send three people to guard this place, and they could collect 100 taels of silver every month.

The protection fees for these three villages and towns are fixed and will not change significantly. Yu Zecheng first sent three disciples to Majiazhai to station there, while radiating and controlling Lijiagang and Zhaojiatun. There is no problem with this. He randomly selected three people and sent them out.

It seems that Yu Zecheng chose randomly, but in fact he arranged them properly without making a sound. One of them is Cui Yunhao, an old brother in the original gang, one is Lao Gada, a disciple of the Wild Wolf Gang, and the other is Li Sanguang, a street thug and Ma Tianyu's younger brother. These three people were arranged together to support each other, so they would not form an alliance, and there was no fear of any tricks between them, which was easy to control.

Then there was the collection of protection fees for the city. There was a free market in the city, which was mainly used for passing merchants to auction precious goods found in the Ten Thousand Mountains. This market collected commission income according to the amount of the transaction. Sometimes there was no transaction for a year, but sometimes as long as there was a transaction, hundreds of taels of silver could be earned.

In addition to the market, there were thirteen hotels, thirty-four shops, seven inns, two rice shops, and one coffin shop. During the reign of the Wild Wolf Gang, each restaurant paid different protection fees every month according to the size of the hotel. Among them, three small hotels paid eight taels of silver per month, four medium-sized hotels paid fifteen taels of silver, and six large hotels paid twenty-five taels of silver. The largest Yanzhilou in the city was also counted as a large hotel and also paid twenty-five taels of silver.

There were thirty-four shops, each of which paid sixteen taels of silver per month. There were seven hotels, each of which paid twenty-six taels of silver, and the rice shop paid thirty taels of silver per month. The coffin shop paid one tael of silver per coffin according to the number of coffins purchased by the dead in the city. In this way, the monthly income was at least one thousand two hundred and fifty taels of silver. If there were more deaths or more free market transactions, the amount of silver would increase.

Of course, not all of this money belonged to them. Seven hundred taels of silver had to be handed over to the helm, and the helm would hand over four hundred taels of silver to the government, and one hundred taels of silver would be returned as the standard silver for the disciples. The rest belonged to Yu Zecheng.

There are more than 550 taels of silver left every month. After calculating this result, Gao Feng and Yu Zecheng were all stunned. This money is too much. The bosses in Linhai City definitely don't have such a high income. This place is really rich.

Yu Zecheng can't take all this money. The base needs to pay rent, and the extra disciples need to be paid with regular silver. The disciples need to change four sets of clothes in spring, summer, autumn and winter, and the weapons and equipment need to be purchased from the rudder. There are also welfare benefits for various holidays, pensions for disciples who died in battle and disabled, gifts when related units have something to do, and daily food, drink, defecation and urination expenses. All in all, Yu Zecheng can get 300 taels of silver a month.

300 taels of silver, Yu Zecheng used to work as a chef, but only 2 taels of regular silver, one month is equivalent to 150 months of working as a chef. This deacon is really a good business with a lot of money. In fact, Yu Zecheng couldn't get so much money in other places. The leaders of other branches were powerful, and each leader had to pay at least 100 taels of silver to the leader for 300 taels of silver. However, the Shanzhu branch was used to being bullied by the Wild Wolf Gang. The leader Shi Tianyun was extremely weak and didn't think about the income from his subordinates. No one gave him money. None of the leaders, including Tan Erlang and Yu Zecheng, would remind him.

Now there are still thirteen days before the collection of protection fees at the beginning of the month. After the accounts were settled, Yu Zecheng immediately announced that the master would increase the monthly salary of twelve taels of silver to fifteen taels of silver, and the red, white and blue flowers would increase by nine taels of silver, both of which would be twelve taels of silver. However, after the red flower Chen Quezi left, this position has been vacant. The monthly salary of each disciple under his command will be increased by one tael of silver, to four taels of silver.

At the same time, it was announced that the family members of the disciples could eat at the base, which provided breakfast, lunch and dinner. If they didn't eat, they could fight back. Most of these Wild Wolf Gang disciples who came to surrender had families with them. Because of the burden of their families and the pressure of life, they had to take this path of surrender. The old men in the gang also have families, so this relieved a lot of burdens from their families, and everyone was very happy.

For Yu Zecheng, it was nothing. He had a chef here, and the food was produced in Lijiagan and Zhaojiatun. There were plenty of prey in the mountains, and the meat of these prey was much cheaper than the pork sold in Linhai City. There was a vegetable garden in the backyard, and it only cost some money for oil and seasoning. In this way, he won people's hearts without spending much money, and he was happy.

Yu Zecheng made a good plan. After announcing the welfare policy for disciples, he also announced the training plan. He started training these disciples, and asked Lin Yehong, Du Youzi, and Fu Gang to be coaches, and command the disciples to practice martial arts for at least three hours every day. Everyone made a living by the blade, and if they were not good at hand skills, they would be killed.

During the training, one person stood out. He was one of the three disciples who were hired despite their insufficient combat power. His name was Huang Xiadong. Although his martial arts skills were average, he was good at arranging troops and deducing battle formations. His ancestor was once a disciple of the formation master Guiguzi.

Yu Zecheng appointed him as a training instructor and asked him to teach everyone the art of battle formations. Lin Yehong, Fu Gang and others had been through the battlefield for a long time and knew the importance of battle formations. They all studied hard. Even if others were dissatisfied, they dared not say anything and only trained with all their heart.

When many disciples heard that each person would receive a monthly salary of four taels of silver and other benefits, everyone was very happy. They didn't care much about the training. The original disciples of the Wild Wolf Gang and the old people in the church were all good at fighting. No one was afraid of training. Only Ma Tianyu's gang of younger brothers, the original gangsters, were very troubled by this.

In the past, the leader of the Wild Wolf Gang, Mo Tianchen, was mean. Instead of increasing the monthly allowance of the disciples, the leaders would deduct some of the monthly allowance to pay tribute to the leader Mo Tianchen. The disciples below complained. So when the leader of the Wild Wolf Gang, Mo Tianlang, got into trouble and the main sect was breached, a large number of disciples here were instigated to rebel. They all worked together to kill the leader Mo Tianchen. Rather than treason and surrender to the enemy, it was better to say that they killed to vent their anger.

Although Yu Zecheng's training here is a bit harder now, the money is enough and his family eats for free, which is much better than before. Everyone is very satisfied.