Chapter 40

Chapter 674: Jin Yilu Meets a Difficult Problem! (3)

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The nightmares of the past flashed through his mind silently.

Jin Yilu had given him a bag of money and told him to go out and play, which led to him suffering greatly.

Beaten to the point of death, beaten until he fainted, and beaten again when he woke up...

It was a past he never wanted to think about again. But now that Jin Yilu was giving him money and telling him to go out and play again, he couldn't help but be terrified.

Muyeon shook his head frantically.

Jin Yilu, with a smile, asked in a gentle tone,

"Are you unhappy even though I've put a lot of money in it?"

"Uh uh uh uh!"

"Absolutely unhappy?"

"Uh uh uh uh!"

"Is it wrong to oppress someone who can't speak?"

"Uh uh uh uh!"

Jin Yilu's ability to understand Muyeon was nothing short of miraculous. However, Muyeon didn't forget that he needed to stay alert. He didn't want to go through that experience again.

No matter how deep his loyalty to Jin Yilu was, he didn't want to be dragged away and beaten again.

"You're the only person I trust in Yiyang, and I never thought you would treat me so coldly."

Jin Yilu looked extremely disappointed.

But Muyeon had no intention of changing his mind. Anyone who had such an experience would likely not think about loyalty or anything else.

Jin Yilu sighed deeply.

"Alright, alright. I won't ask you to do that. Go on out."

Muyeon, seemingly feeling guilty, bowed deeply, more so than usual.

Jin Yilu, with a face full of disappointment, waved his hand vigorously. After Muyeon left the room, Jin Yilu sat down, resting his chin on his hand, lost in thought.

'Using Muyeon was the easiest and safest method, but it seems that's not going to work. Still, there's no one as trustworthy as Muyeon.'

Jin Yilu had planned to use Muyeon to devise a scheme, as he had done before. But with Muyeon so strongly resisting, he had no choice but to think of another way.

* * *

The problem Jin Yilu faced was not just that he might not be able to use Muyeon.

'Ledgers... ledgers...'

Jin Yilu was confident in his ability to talk his way through things, but he lacked talent in other areas.

He could ride a horse, but his martial arts were laughable. He could read a bit, but he was weak in arithmetic.

For someone like him, creating ledgers was a completely unknown territory. He had never even attempted it, let alone thought about it.

The fake ledgers provided by the Yingbao Merchant Group were there, but he had never opened them.

'Let's see, let's see, where are the ledgers?'

Jin Yilu rummaged through the books to find the ledgers. He needed to see real ledgers created by merchants to make new fake ones.

He found the ledgers, but his expression was far from good.

'I can't do this.'

Just looking at the first page, Jin Yilu gave up on making fake ledgers.

'There's no time to ask someone else to make them.'

There was a market in the city, and people from the Yingbao Merchant Group were there. But they were just ordinary merchants and couldn't create ledgers for the army.

Considering the time it would take for the Yingbao Merchant Group to make fake ledgers, he had to give up on that method.

'I'll make an order form instead. Even if I can't read ledgers, there's no fixed format for order forms, so I can write them as I please.'

Jin Yilu prepared paper, ink, and a brush and started writing.

* * *

He managed to write some decent lines, but the problem was the quantity of each item.

He had worked for the army for a short period, but at that time, Lü Bu's army was so small that he couldn't estimate how much of each item was needed.

'This needs to look plausible to be a real order form... What should I do?'

Jin Yilu's thoughts deepened.

He put down the brush and paced back and forth in the room, staying up all night.

'With my intelligence, it's impossible, impossible. If I can't do it, I need to borrow someone else's intelligence. Delegate tasks to those who are good at them...'

Jin Yilu thought of Lü Bu and considered other options.

'Who is knowledgeable about military affairs? A military clerk? Or a military advisor? Right, a military advisor is higher than a military clerk. Since that teacher isn't here, I need to borrow the intelligence of a military advisor from Guandong.'

"Mu Yen, are you outside?"

When Jin Yilu called, Mu Yen quickly opened the door and rushed into the room. It seemed he had been guarding the door all night, feeling guilty for refusing Jin Yilu's request.

"Mu Yen, do you remember Mr. Gongren? The military advisor."

Mu Yen shook his head.

"Then you must know Mr. Yu, right? You've seen him a few times. When we went outside the city and assassins appeared, you were trembling with a broom in your hand..."

Only then did Mu Yen nod repeatedly.

"That tall scholar who always accompanied Mr. Yu, remember?"

Mu Yen nodded again.

"Yes, yes. That's Mr. Dong, the military advisor. Go and greet him."

Mu Yen tilted his head. What was the point of going to greet someone when he couldn't speak?

"Uh uh uh uh!"

"If you have something to say or want to visit, it's better to write a letter, right?"

Mu Yen bowed deeply to Jin Yilu, who kept guessing his thoughts correctly.

"Mu Yen, you might see me as a divine being, but in a normal situation, it's natural for someone to say such things. Of course, you can't speak, but you're the most normal person in Yiyang."

Jin Yilu gestured with his chin and continued.

"If you understand, go and see Mr. Dong. He will come to see me when he sees you."

A little while later.

Mu Yen went to find Dong Xiao as Jin Yilu instructed. Since he couldn't speak, he couldn't explain his purpose to Dong Xiao's servants.

Instead, Mu Yen chose to loiter in front of Dong Xiao's residence, waiting for him to come out.

After waiting for about half an hour, Mu Yen finally met Dong Xiao. Mu Yen blocked Dong Xiao's path and almost got hit by the guards' swords.

But Mu Yen had been through many difficult and dangerous situations with Jin Yilu. This was just a minor inconvenience he could handle with a smile.

"Aren't you Mr. Jin's servant? Your name is Mu Yen, right?"

When Dong Xiao spoke, Mu Yen nodded vigorously. The guard who had his sword at Mu Yen's neck shouted.

"How dare you... A lowly servant like you...!"

Dong Xiao calmed the guard.

"It's fine, step back."

As the guards moved back, Mu Yen bowed to Dong Xiao and left. Seeing this, Dong Xiao tilted his head in confusion but then seemed to realize something and followed Mu Yen.

* * *

Jin Yilu's room.

Jin Yilu was having a conversation with Dong Xiao, who had followed Mu Yen.

"I have been negligent, sir."

"It's I who should apologize for not visiting you, Mr. Dong. You're a busy man, after all."

"I feel ashamed. So, what brings you here today?"

"Actually..."

Instead of telling Dong Xiao about his conversation with Yuan Xi, Jin Yilu asked for help to supply materials to the Guandong army.

"Wouldn't it be better to speak to Lady Yu?"

"Ultimately, I will negotiate with Lady Yu, but I need to know the scale of the materials the Guandong army needs, don't I?"

The Guandong army could maintain such a large force thanks to the support of the Hejian Wang's household.

The Yuan family was wealthy, but Yuan Shao was a fool, so he couldn't fully utilize the family's resources.

The Hejian Wang's household provided significant wealth and grain, and this support continued. Therefore, Lady Yu had absolute authority over logistics.

"We need to equip 50,000 soldiers. We also need to replace the armor of existing soldiers. We need thousands of iron weapons, and when combined with light cavalry, it will be around 10,000."

Jin Yilu, who had a rough estimate, pretended to be surprised.

"Is it that many?"

"Hehe! It's not surprising that you're shocked after dealing with Lü Bu's army and learning about the Guandong army's strength. People from Ji and You provinces, as well as from all over the country, are joining the Guandong army."

"Many people from Yan province are also joining the army to fill their empty stomachs. It seems the Guandong army's strength of 300,000 is not an exaggeration."

"Still, it's fortunate that General Sun Wu's elite forces are on our side."

Sun Wu's forces were the cream of the crop, the best in terms of experience and tactics among the various factions in the Guandong army.

The only drawback was that their numbers were