Chapter 96

[bookid=3280030, bookname=《The Immortal Three Kingdoms》]

With such a guarantee, Chen Xi was so delighted that he almost burst into laughter. He only made plans, and the actual operations were all carried out by his subordinates. The most capable of them was the county magistrate Lu Su, who could help with anything. He had already planned until next autumn, hahaha, it was time for a long vacation.

"Seeing your happy faces, I guess you've finished all the administrative work. Come, I have some freshly cooked mutton tofu to warm you up," Liu Bei said with a smile, not minding Guo Jia's previous behavior and brushing it off.

"Lord Xuande, you're mistaken. It's not just finished, but the work for the whole year is done," Lu Su stood up and said cheerfully, though his voice was clearly trembling.

Liu Bei was directly frightened. He turned to look at Liu Ye and Lu Su, and found that they were all staring solemnly at Chen Xi, meaning that the man standing in the middle had really finished the work for the whole year.

"Cough, cough, why are you all looking at me like that?" Chen Xi coughed twice and, seeing no response from the crowd, said in a domineering tone, "Come on, let's go eat. The freshly cooked mutton tofu is delicious and refreshing. I'll go first."

Tofu had existed since the Western Han Dynasty, but the quality was poor. The kind Chen Xi was eating now was improved. With so many people in China, as long as you were willing to invest, someone would always improve or innovate to meet your needs, as long as it wasn't too unrealistic. As long as you were willing to invest and had the right people, you could get it done!

As for Chen Xi, he was too lazy to find craftsmen to help him. His needs were varied, and it wasn't easy to find the right craftsmen. So he learned to be smart. As the county magistrate, he only needed to issue orders. Posting a notice would naturally get someone to handle it. Once it was done, he would reward them according to the results.

At first, Lu Su tried to stop such embarrassing things from happening, but later, Chen Xi ignored him and issued notices under the slogan of establishing the credibility of the government. Who dared to stop him?

After that, Chen Xi started issuing notices every now and then. At first, people were skeptical about such obviously pleasure-seeking notices, but once someone completed a task and got paid, they had no choice but to believe.

As Chen Xi said, he had successfully established the credibility of the government. Now, the people of Mount Tai would believe whatever was written on the government's notices, no matter how absurd. It was a solid way to gain the trust of the people!

Seeing this effect, Lu Su didn't know what expression to use to look at Chen Xi. His eyes were always filled with helplessness and oddity, as if he wanted to open Chen Xi's brain and see what was inside.

Why hadn't anyone thought of such a simple method before? When Lu Su asked Chen Xi, he replied that someone had already done it. Shang Yang had done it long ago, but history recorded it as "great rewards bring forth brave men," not "gaining the trust of the people." However, in reality, this was indeed about gaining the trust of the people, and he had just done the same thing.

Chen Xi had developed a habit of issuing notices, but fortunately, all notices had to pass through his hands before being issued. Unstamped notices were not trusted.

The recent content of Chen Xi's notices was to send people to Youzhou to collect ginseng. In this era, ginseng was as cheap as cabbage, not even as valuable as radishes, which were still rare at the time, and ginseng was considered a wild vegetable.

Therefore, Chen Xi, under the guise of helping the people of Mount Tai earn extra income, encouraged them to find and dig up ginseng. He would accept any that weighed over a pound. Chen Xi felt a bit embarrassed, but he still enjoyed it. Wild ginseng, in this era, you had to find and cultivate it yourself...

However, the amount collected was quite large, and even the people felt a bit guilty towards Chen Xi, delivering bags and bags of ginseng to him. Clearly, even if you treated it as a vegetable, you couldn't finish it all, but Chen Xi still accepted everything.

Whether he could use it now or not, he would let it be. In the future, he would have Hua Tuo study it. Although the Divine Farmer's Classic of Materia Medica said it was a medicine, few people knew how to use it. Still, this was a good deed for the people. To avoid over-exploitation, Chen Xi had stopped accepting it. Many people in Mount Tai were frustrated during their idle time, as it was all money!

Cabbage leaves cooked with tofu and mutton sounded quite appealing. At least Lu Su was already walking forward quickly, ready to warm up. As for Chen Xi, he would probably just drink some soup. He wanted to eat beef, but saying it would be embarrassing. It wasn't that he couldn't afford it, but it wasn't necessary. He would wait until Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang brought back cattle and sheep from the north.

Speaking of Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang, although they had been almost ruined, Liu Bei did not abandon them. Instead, he comforted them and criticized the Zhen family heavily.

Then Liu Bei said that losing money was nothing; they wouldn't do business in Ji Province anymore. They still had salt, which they could sell in the north. They would make the Zhen family pay back their losses with interest. As for wives, concubines, and servants, the Zhen family had left them some face, but with the saying "when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter," few people followed them.

The originally anxious Zhang and Su were deeply moved by Liu Bei's generosity, pouring out all their grievances and swearing to never betray him. They hoped Liu Bei would accept them as his retainers and serve him for the rest of their lives.

After some thought, Liu Bei declined. These two were the earliest sponsors of their group, and the current situation was partly his fault. Helping them was his duty, and accepting them as retainers was not impossible, but it would be inappropriate. So he gave them enough funds to start over and an equal amount of high-quality salt, and ordered them to do what they were best at—trading cattle, sheep, and horses in the north.

Naturally, Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang were extremely grateful and led a new caravan north. Their strength lay in their connections in the north. Although they had failed before, this time, with money and a desire for revenge, they worked hard and soon gathered a batch of cattle and horses. They were probably still circling in Bing Province, heading towards Mount Tai. Bringing so many cattle and horses back was truly not easy, indeed, every profession has its expertise.

When Liu Bei pushed open the door to his living room, he found it in a mess. Guan Yu was gnawing on a lamb leg, Zhang Fei was drinking with Taishi Ci, and Zhao Yun was cutting the lamb into strips and sharing it with Jian Yong, dipping it in sauce. The pot of lamb was almost finished, with only a few cabbage leaves left. A cold wind blew, and Lu Su felt even colder. Where was his warming mutton soup?

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