Chapter 93: Dual Identity

Popular recommendation: Lu Li has become the Cult Leader of the Ming Cult.

By this time, the Ming Cult had been established and operating for many years, and it could function very well without Lu Li needing to intervene much in its affairs.

But as he had become the new Cult Leader, he had to cultivate his own loyal faction.

Haozhou City, the main headquarters of the Ming Cult.

Lu Li sat in the main seat, with the three Dharma Kings, including the Eagle King, and the four Elders, including Elder Hou, below him.

"Now that Cult Leader Shi has abdicated, I am the Ming Venerable.

I shall uphold the will of the Bright Fire and drive out the Tatars.

During this time, there are many affairs within the cult, and I require everyone to work together in unity."

"Yes!

Ming Venerable."

"We are willing to follow the Ming Venerable to the death."

After speaking, Lu Li raised his wine cup, and the others hurriedly followed suit, draining them in one gulp.

"However, Elder Hou and Elder Niu are advanced in years, and I fear they are no longer able to complete the high-intensity preparations for war.

For the sake of reviving the fire of light, let their branches be taken over by the Eagle King and the other two Dharma Kings."

Upon hearing this, Elder Hou and Elder Niu turned pale.

They were indeed old, but the Eagle King's age was not much different from theirs!

Elder Hou forced a smile and said, "Ming Venerable, actually we..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Elder Niu pulled on him directly.

Only to see Elder Niu raise his wine cup and say, "The Ming Venerable is right; old Niu here is indeed old, and recently my eyesight has become increasingly unclear.

Please hand over the affairs in my hands to the Eagle King to toil over; old Niu only asks to take a few disciples and head to the Southern Dynasty to spend my remaining years in retirement, and I hope the Ming Venerable will grant this."

Lu Li said indifferently, "Granted."

Afterwards, Lu Li turned his head to look at Elder Hou: "Elder Hou, do you have any questions?"

"No, none..."

Those who understand the times are outstanding.

Although Elder Hou was also just a martial man, he was, after all, a person who had crawled his way out of life and death, and his mind was still sharp.

He had already realized that Lu Li was giving them a chance to survive.

After all, Elder Hou and Elder Niu were lackeys of Cult Leader Shi, and now Cult Leader Shi had abdicated and died at the hands of Lu Li.

It was impossible for the two of them to be as glorious as they were in the past.

That Lu Li was allowing them to retire was likely because he had just been elected Cult Leader and wanted to maintain a benevolent image, so as not to make others panic.

If it were two months later, once Lu Li's power had stabilized, I fear it would be difficult for the two of them to even survive.

The power of Cult Leader Shi's lackeys was completely removed by Lu Li.

After three rounds of wine, everyone dispersed.

Lu Li did not become the Cult Leader of the Ming Cult just to play around.

His goal was to lead the Ming Cult's forces to resist the Yuan Court Tatars and hold Xiangyang.

Therefore, the most important thing at the moment was to train troops.

Lu Li was not skilled in training troops, but fortunately, the Eagle King within the Ming Cult was quite well-versed in the way of training troops, so Lu Li entrusted this matter to the Eagle King.

But as the training began, another problem became increasingly thorny—money.

The men training were undergoing arduous daily drills, and to obtain elite soldiers, their food and supplies absolutely had to keep up.

Besides this, there were the daily costs of treating injuries and illnesses from training, as well as equipment and other expenses.

Even a large sect like the Ming Cult could not support such massive expenditures.

Without being a powerful and wealthy family, one simply could not afford to raise an army.

"Ming Venerable, this is the expenditure and profit for this month..."

The Eagle King brought an old man along to hand the account book to Lu Li.

Their expressions were somewhat bitter, as there was already a deficit in the profit for this month.

And the majority of the expenses were spent on the training of the soldiers.

"Ming Venerable, the consumption caused by training troops is so huge; if it were one or two months, we could hold on, but if it goes on for a long time..."

The Eagle King's face showed hesitation as he asked, "Should we reduce the scale of the soldiers?"

Lu Li's brows furrowed slightly, then he waved his hand and said, "We cannot reduce them any further; this is only a force of a few thousand people, and if we reduce them any more, the combat effectiveness will be diminished."

The number of cultists the Ming Cult could train now was only a few thousand, which was already very weak compared to the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the great war between Yuan and Song.

Lu Li tapped his fingers lightly on the table and thought to himself: 'I still have to find a way to get more money.

No wonder uprisings in ancient times all required the support of powerful families; training troops is truly too expensive.'

Speaking of the powerful families in Haozhou, Lu Li's other identity, Lu Manor Master, actually counted as one.

The current Lu Zhuang had over ten qing of fertile land, which was not a small amount.

Converted into more familiar units, that was nearly two thousand mu of land.

The grain and wealth accumulated over these three years were absolutely astonishing.

But Lu Li made a rough calculation, and relying solely on the wealth of Lu Zhuang, it seemed it could only last for a few years.

It seems more capital is needed.

To think that he, a peerless master of a generation, would actually be worried about money!

How sad and lamentable!

"Eagle King, do you have any good methods to obtain more money?"

Lu Li spoke up.

"A way to get money? Hehe, that's simple, though it's not exactly a good look..."

Eagle King scratched the back of his hand and said with some embarrassment: "As long as we pay a visit to a few of the big households in Haozhou City, we can rake in quite a lot of money.

Bright Venerable, you are training troops to expel the Tartars, so it is only right that those big households provide some support, hehe..."

Killing the big households, huh!

Truly a simple and unadorned way to make money.

Seeing that Lu Li remained noncommittal, Eagle King continued: "Bright Venerable, in our Haozhou City, there are three families that are the wealthiest.

They are the long-established merchant families, the Su Family and the Wang Family, as well as the newly emerged Lu Zhuang from the last two years.

These three are famously wealthy, but your subordinate suggests we start with the Su Family and the Wang Family."

"Lu Zhuang? Is it the Lu Zhuang in the south of the city?"

"Exactly."

Eagle King replied.

Hearing Eagle King's answer, Lu Li's interest was piqued.

Because that Lu Zhuang in the south of the city was his own manor.

He never expected that his own manor would be targeted by the Ming Cult he led, becoming one of the options for a "visit."

It was just that Lu Zhuang was ranked after the Wang Family and the Su Family.

So, this would be me robbing myself? "Why choose the Wang Family and the Su Family first, instead of Lu Zhuang?"

Lu Li asked.

Eagle King said in a low voice: "Bright Venerable, the Wang Family and the Su Family have decades of foundation; they not only control vast amounts of land but also manage the two most prosperous commercial streets in the city respectively.

As for Lu Zhuang, it has only just risen in the last three years, and its main development is in farming, so in terms of financial strength, it still cannot compare to those two families.

Moreover, Lu Zhuang has a very high reputation among the farmers, and many people within our Ming Cult are tenant farmers of Lu Zhuang who speak highly of it.

If we were to truly plunder Lu Zhuang, I fear many in the cult would have misgivings."

"In fact, your subordinate has also heard that the tax rules set by the Owner of Lu Zhuang are extremely good for the tenant farmers.

The reputation of Lu Manor Master for benevolence has already spread, and even among the Wang Family and the Su Family, there are many tenant farmers who want to join Lu Zhuang to farm."

"Your subordinate admires and respects this Owner quite a bit, only regretting that I have had no chance to meet him.

If we were to go to Lu Zhuang, it would be very detrimental to the reputation of our Ming Cult."

After hearing Eagle King finish, Lu Li did not expect his Lu Zhuang to have such a reputation among the people, and he could not help but feel secretly pleased.

Furthermore, this feeling of hearing others praise oneself was truly comfortable.

The most interesting part was that Eagle King did not know the Bright Venerable before him was actually the Lu Manor Master, and instead was vigorously praising the Lu Manor Master in front of the Bright Venerable.

If Lu Li were to take off his mask right now, Eagle King would probably be so embarrassed he'd be digging his toes into the ground.

However, the admiration and respect in Eagle King's words were not wrong; he already admired and respected him.

As for Eagle King's suggestion, Lu Li felt it was quite sensible.

But a method like "paying a visit" was clearly still too crude.

In Lu Li's view, just "paying a visit" could not solve the fundamental problem.

If one is going to pay a visit, one must do it thoroughly.

But exactly how to do it, Lu Li was not yet sure.

He remembered that among Lu Manor Master's subordinates, there was one person who was very skilled at these methods; perhaps he could go back and ask him.

It seems this dual identity of his actually has some uses.