With thirty thousand captives, they could promise them a battalion's worth of five hundred positions. And at three gold coins per captive, the total for thirty thousand came to ninety thousand gold coins, or nine million silver coins.
Even a fool could work out the numbers. Tang Li and the others were shrewd—how could they fail to see the value of the deal?
Tang Li quietly mulled it over for a while, then said sincerely, "My lord, even if we have to risk our lives, we'll bring back those thirty thousand captives! But as for the delivery point and the payment..."
"You don't need to worry about any of that. I'll make all the arrangements. Why would you worry about the payment? Would the mighty Titan Academy really renege on a debt? The Academy needs a huge number of Surface Human captives. Thirty or fifty thousand would barely make a dent. If it cheated you out of this little bit, how would it expect to do business in the future?"
Tang Li wasn't worried about Titan Academy reneging. He'd actually been trying to sound out whether the money would come directly from the Academy, or whether the School Lang Department would take a cut first.
Taking a cut would be fair enough. What Tang Li urgently wanted to know was how much they'd skim. This was a big deal, after all, and he wanted to know how the spoils would be divided ahead of time.
The commander saw Tang Li hesitate, seeming to see right through his little scheme. He said flatly, "Relax. This deal won't go through the School Lang Department. I'm handling it through my personal connections. You don't need to worry about the Department taking a big cut."
Tang Li hurriedly put on a smile. "I wouldn't