Chapter Thirty-Six I Was Blackmailed

  "Right in the open plain outside, in summer, he was surrounded by you, try to capture him alive!"

  "Haha! Catching a sword in the wild, what a great question from Grandfather!" The poor Taoist laughed and said.

  "Are you kidding me? Add some difficulty and you're afraid of losing?" Grandpa also said with a smile.

  "You'd better be afraid! First, I need to prepare some things, can I?"

  "Go ahead! Anything goes, just don't give it to others!"

  "I want the net!"

  "What's that thing of yours, Net Fish?" Grandpa asked

  "Right! It needs to be specially made, bigger than usual, able to cover several dozen square meters. The material should be made from the tendons of magical beasts. At least that way, Father won't be able to cut through it easily. Two or three layers would be enough. First, have people surround and attack him, restricting his movement. When he's almost caught, use the net to ensnare him, including our own men. Have the soldiers disregard their own safety and bind Father tightly. Just give me a few seconds, and I'll add ten more layers to the net. See if he can still escape then?"

  "Is this okay?!" Grandpa asked Dad

  "Do I still need to ask?! Unless a fire mage burns it, I won't be able to escape from these tens of webs!" Father said with a bitter smile.

  "Ah! Not bad! You're quite clever!" Grandpa said: "So it's okay for you to always scheme against others?"

  "Heh heh, my magical powers have become quite weak due to the seal, but in this country, if you don't have strong powers, you'll be eliminated. So I've been thinking of some pretty sinister moves to deal with enemies when I'm free. Looks like it's working out pretty well!"

  "Alright! Good kid, go for it! Grandpa supports you, whatever you want I agree to, I'll tell your mom to fully cooperate with you. And I have high hopes for your performance on the battlefield!" Grandpa said: "Our family has finally produced a general who fights with his brain! Haha"

  "Mom is also taking care of you! But mom thinks your ability to make money is even more powerful than fighting, so if you lack something, you should buy it yourself!"

  "Dizzy, I'm so young, you've cut off my source of income?" The poor monk is depressed.

  "That's no good!" said Grandpa

  "Hmph! Don't be fooled by him, this kid has even more money than me. This time I bet 5 million and still had to rely on the store's funds, but he just took out 5 million without batting an eye! Don't think that behind my back, I don't know!" Mom angrily said: "What's even more despicable is that he also cried poor to me! And the profit from selling that 'Golden Mountain' sword was only given to me in such a small amount!"

  "Ah! How much did he give you?" Grandpa asked

  "500W!" Mother said

  "Ah! Is this still not enough?" Father jumped up: "How did he get so much money?"

  "Oh!" Mother thought to herself, it's bad, she accidentally spilled Xiao Wu's secret. She had no choice but to say: "It was me who gave it!"

  "Hello!" Father said angrily: "I asked you for military expenses, you hesitated and gave me 3 million. But you gave your son 5 million at once. In your eyes, am I not as good as him?"

  "As a matter of fact, I gave him 1,400 yuan in total!" Mom thought to herself: "Son! I owe you an apology, but look, your father is angry now, so mom has no choice but to confess!"

  "What? 1400W?" This time Grandpa also got anxious: "You spoil him but there should be a limit!"

  Father's face turned green with rage, and he said to Mother: "I want an explanation from you!"

  "It's like this, I'm doing business with my son!" The mother hastily explained: "Father, you know the accounts, I couldn't possibly embezzle so much money for him!"

  "Not bad! In fact, in these few years, not only has he not lost money, but his income has increased greatly!" Grandpa said: "Then what about his money?"

  "The nine-headed snake was discovered by him, and that batch of high-grade magic weapons too. I promised to split it with him, so he took me there. I thought he was joking, so I agreed, you know this matter?"

  "I had no idea it was worth that much. I remembered at the time, there were only a few hundred million in total, and he just took over 10 million. How could it be 1.4 billion?"

  "At that time, when I told you, most of them were not sold, so I sent them for processing, so the money was not much. Later, after processing, they were sold more, and there were about 1000W. Also, he collected a lot of good things from my mother, plus his own imitation magic swords that were also sold, adding up to 1400W."

  "Hmm! Why didn't you tell me earlier?" "Don't I have enough arguments with the Ishihara family over military expenses?"

  "Son doesn't allow it!" Mom said: "Besides, how can you have the nerve to ask your son for money for military expenses?"

  "You stinker! I'm out of military funds because you offended the Ishihara family who's in charge of finances, deal with it yourself!"

  I turned to my mother for help, but she remained silent with her head down. I then turned to my grandfather, who was staring at his tea cup. Next, I looked at my father, who glared at me with a fierce expression, as if he would start a fight at any moment. I didn't want to be a burden on the people, and besides, my father's military expenses were 500,000 yuan, and our family had already taken 300,000 yuan. Taking 200,000 yuan wouldn't be too much, and this time the gamble paid off without any loss! So I said generously: "Father is in trouble, how can his son stand by and do nothing? Tell me, how much do you need? I'll take it all!"

  "Good! You're really my son!" My father happily patted my head and said: "Not many, you just..."

  "Let's just get a 600W one!" He hadn't even finished speaking when his mom took over!

  The poor Tao saw the surprised look on his father's face, which turned into excitement under his mother's strong twist, and said: "Right, it's 600,000!"

  "What?! You have the nerve to ask me to pay for all the military expenses? And you even added 1 million as a kickback?" The poor monk was unhappy, "No! That's too much!"

  "Hmph! Who are you trying to cheat? Last time we split the 'Golden Mountain', you said you only had 500,000, but after giving it to me, you took out another 100,000 to bet on your duel with Shiina's Second Wolf. The odds were 1:8, and in one go, you got 800,000! Today, you've bet another 500,000, with odds of 1:2, meaning if you win, you'll get 1,000,000! Just these two bets alone, you must have at least 1,300,000 gold coins on hand. Am I wrong? And this doesn't even count your own personal stash!"

  "How did you know how much I bet?" The poor Taoist was depressed, he had clearly done it secretly!

  "Hehe! The Ishihara family is a transparent wall for me!" Mom said with a smile.

  "Ah! I get it, you have a mole in his house!" The poor monk regretted it too late, "This stupid Ishihara family, such an important business secret can also be leaked to the enemy, really close to death! Can kill me!"

  "Haha! You little stinker, what else can you say!" The father exclaimed happily: "You're still far from being a match for your mom!"

  "Haha, you also have times when you're at a loss for words?" Grandpa said with a hint of schadenfreude.

  "Haha! Hand it over honestly, I only want half of it!" Mom said with a smile.

  "Isn't it just half a year?" Poor Dao asked

  "That's right, so I left you 600,000. If you can't make it next year, this 600,000 will be confiscated too!" Mom said fiercely.

  "Haha! Son, I believe in you, just go find two idiots to duel and that's it!" The father said excitedly: "Haha, I'm going to expand my heavy cavalry by another 10,000 men! Now I have 30,000 heavy cavalry, who dares not obey me?"

  "Just 300,000?" The poor Taoist deliberately struck back: "Not enough to form a division!"

  "You don't know the first thing! " his father shouted. "The equipment for a single heavy cavalryman costs 100 gold coins! And just to maintain it, you need another 20 gold coins every year. That's not even counting the cost of warhorses and their upkeep. The four field armies now only have 200,000 heavy cavalrymen, and the Imperial Guard has only 500,000. Do you know what that means? You want to form a corps? A single corps requires 1 million men! Just the armor alone would cost 10 million gold coins. And it's not even certain we can buy that many!"

  "Oh? Why?" The poor Taoist asked curiously

  "Heavy cavalry armor is too difficult to manufacture, a craftsman needs 1 year to make one set, our country's Ministry of Works can only provide 8,000 sets per year, after several legions are allocated, there are just enough to replace the damaged ones, and the total amount cannot be increased!"

  "Where did you go to buy it?"

  "Thanks to your mother's relationship, and the dwarves' supplies, they are the continent's common armory!" As he said this, Father looked at Mother with deep feeling, "Without your mother, I wouldn't know how to manage the Qing Long Army Corps well!"

  I just found out that Mom has been in charge of logistics for the entire Qinglong Army Corps' 500,000 people all along! What an awesome mom!