After the siege of Guanzicheng was lifted, Li Su thought that he would soon be transferred back to Jixian County to be rewarded for meritorious deeds and commended by the imperial court.

But the reality seems to be a little flawed.

Li Su himself was very active, the day after Liu Bei led the troops to arrive, he handed over the work to Liu Bei, and then personally took Zhang Ju and Su Li's heads back to Jixian County to return to Liu Yu.

After three days of fast horses and running in disgrace, he arrived quietly on the evening of the second day of the lunar month.

Liu Yu also met with him overnight, personally inspected the head, and praised Li Su's contributions:

"Boya is really a genius, and he can really convince Qiu Liju to send Zhang Ju's head! God bless the man! I thought that it would be almost enough to convince Chuli to remain neutral, or break away from the rebels. Boya does things, I just rest assured. ”

Li Su confessed sincerely and honestly: "Thanks to the high prestige and benevolence of the envoy among the Hu people. The northerners are afraid of Zhao and ridicule, and they are really afraid of the millions of male teachers of King Chu Xuan. In this way, it is no more than a fox and a fake tiger. ”

Although Liu Yu's immunity to sycophants is already relatively high, he still feels comfortable when he hears Li Su personally call himself a "fox and fake tiger".

If such subordinates are not promoted, who else is easy to promote!

However, as soon as he thought of the issue of promotion, Liu Yu quickly calmed down, he was silent for a few seconds, giving Li Su some time to react, and then poured cold water just right:

This is a huge achievement, but because of this, don't publicize it to the outside world for the time being, and the news of Zhang Ju's award, as long as you try your best to spread the praise in Youbeiping, Liaoxi, and Liaodong. So far, I am the only state pastor canonized by the imperial court, and the position of power is no less than three dukes. In May, His Majesty was promoted to me from the position of great patriarch, which has already made the whole world jealous.

If two people are suddenly relocated within a year, it is inevitable that they will not be rewarded for their merits, and it is not conducive to the unity of the imperial court. Now it is the lunar month, drag it out for another twenty days, and by the end of the lunar month, I will report the credit for this period to the court in detail, and when Your Majesty receives it, it should be the first month of next year.

You and Xuande have actually risen too fast, and it's not good to be tabooed if your edge is too exposed. Therefore, you first go back to the right Beiping army, help Liu Bei and Gongsun Zan clear the remnants, and surrender the scattered Hu people, and be sure to clear all the remnants of the fleeing enemies in the two counties of Right Beiping and Liaoxi within this month, and recruit them to be attached, and the seal to the imperial court will also look better at that time. ”

Li Su hurriedly said: "My subordinates understand that this is to make you cherish us, and Brother Xuande must also understand." ”

He immediately understood Liu Yu's concerns: in a year, the successive promotions were too fast, too eye-catching, and it was not a month.

After the New Year, when the emperor waits for the new year and new atmosphere, he is in a good mood, there is no historical baggage, and the credit of the same laughter may be a little more normal.

Think about this year, starting from February, Liu Bei went from a county lieutenant of 300 stones, to a county magistrate, to a county magistrate, to a county magistrate, and then to a county magistrate and a lieutenant in the big county where the state is located...... It's too fast.

Li Su himself is not slow, in eleven months, from a white body to a thousand stones.

In the final analysis, it is still money that opens the way, and it is double the money given than the normal situation, and every time the credit can be raised or not, it is piled up through the secret extra money, and it is piled up until it rises.

But there must also be a limit to piling up money, too fast and too eye-catching, it is inevitable that it is easy to be jealous.

The ancients had a lot of poverty and exquisiteness, and a considerable part of the things could not be done twice a year - for example, the most famous allusion in this regard at the end of the Han Dynasty is that "two amnesties are not allowed in a year".

Promotion is the same as pardon, and it is necessary to pay attention to a sense of rhythm.

Liu Yu saw that Li Su was quite good, and he was willing to hold it for another month, and he was also quite pleased, so he didn't hesitate to give a sweet date after a little pressure, and let the wind go a little bit:

"Even so, I'm not afraid of any more rumors. Since Zhang Chun and Zhang Ju made a rebellion, the main county-level officials who died in Youzhou should also be known in your hearts. In April, Captain Gongqi of Wuhuan was martyred, and no vacancies have been appointed. In July, Liu Zheng, who was too guarded by Youbeiping, and who were too guarded by Yangzhong in Liaodong, were also martyred.

These positions are now vacant, and after recovering the lost territory, of course, they must be promoted from among the meritorious generals. And Gongsun Zan was originally the long history of Liaodong, although he was besieged for nearly half a year, and he also had the crime of driving the people out of the city, but after all, he had restrained the main force of the enemy army for so long, and he was also quite meritorious in the final counterattack, and it was inevitable to be promoted from Changshi to Taishou.

In this way, the post of Liaodong Changshi left by him after his promotion will also be vacant. You go and tell Xuande whether he will be a long history or a Taishou in the future, it depends on his performance after that-in addition, since Qiu Liju has sent Zhang Ju and Su Li's two heads, I secretly promised him that the bounty will also be honored.

The money and grain seized by Xuande last time were only 100 million yuan distributed to the state, and it was not enough for me to make up for Qiu Liju's arrears, and I asked Xuande to help tens of millions more, this money is not what I want, Boya, you also know me, I don't need to spend money on my personal frugal life. If Xuande takes this money and directly asks someone else to buy an official, I'm afraid he can buy two or three Taishou, but I still hope that his reputation is important. ”

The cost of meritorious service as a taishou is at least two or three times higher than buying it directly without face and skin.

"The subordinates understand, the subordinates will convey it to Brother Xuande, and the credit for us is given by the envoy, and Brother Xuande will definitely understand."

"Then you go first, go to Liaoxi to do things well, and clean up carefully."

Li Su rested in Jixian County for a night, and the next day he went back to the front line to find Liu Bei to help clear the place and recruit rebels. By the way, I will report the situation, Liu Bei really did not be stingy, Liu Yu gave whatever he wanted.

There is no way, who made Liu Bei's filial piety at the beginning was raised by Han Zhuo, the Taishou of Zhuo County, and Han Zhuo was raised for the sake of the face of his old boss Liu Yu's handwritten letter.

It can be said that Liu Bei has been promoted to the present day since he was inspected again, and every step of the official has been given by Liu Yu, how can the old leader ask for money without being righteous and squandering money?

Since he is mentally prepared to be promoted at the beginning of the fifth year of Zhongping, Liu Bei also very much wants to make a final sprint in the month of Layue, make the performance data look better, and make the scale of recruiting and surrendering rebels larger, and recover Liaodong after the beginning of spring next year, and have a greater grasp of confidence.

After Zhang Ju's defeat, there were at least more than 20,000 prisoners left by Zhang Ju's camp, and Liu Bei and Gongsun Zhan divided more than 10,000 each. These people cannot all be recruited into the army, and they must be properly reformed and reorganized, and they must also eliminate the combat effectiveness of the chaotic life.

However, after this incident, Liu Bei also had to personally care about the issue of money - since he intercepted Zhang Ju's harvest of plundering Bohai County in July, Liu Bei has not worried about money for half a year.

Because the money was too abundant at that time, more than 200 million yuan of money and grain were seized and withheld, and later 5,000 or 6,000 head of cattle, donkeys, mules, and pack horses were sold and handed over to Mizhu for disposal, and more than 200 million yuan was earned.

Follow-up meritorious service, promotion, battle damage, and military salaries have all been removed, and so far, there are still 400 million yuan of money lying on the accounts - fighting a war is also very expensive, and the annual military salary expenditure of 10,000 troops is at least 100 million, so the expenses and pensions of private soldiers in the past six months or so have gone to Liu Bei's 70 million or 80 million.

This time, after the New Year's pass, at least a few Taishou level officials must be prepared, and Liu Yu will be helped to pay part of the final payment to Qiu Liju, and it would be good to have 300 million left.

Youzhou is poor, and Liu Bei may not have a chance to be crazy in the future. Therefore, the 300 million yuan has to be spent sparingly to ensure the proportion of the expenditure on recruiting and raising soldiers. For example, if you are too greedy to expand the army by more than 10,000 people at once, and the total scale will reach 178,000, then the annual military salary, military rations, and wear and tear expenses will be close to 200 million, and you may be exhausted by the military salaries of your own private soldiers for more than a year.

Liu Bei didn't hang up, and he didn't know when Emperor Ling would die, so he had to be leisurely in expanding the army. After thinking about it, Liu Bei felt that expanding the army from the captives by another five or six thousand to ensure that the total size of his armed forces was 10,000 people, which was the limit.

In this case, coupled with the usual daily business from the Mi family and other long-term income, the current money is definitely enough to raise a soldier for three years.

If Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty can live for three years, it will simply be the third-longest-lived emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty in the world after Emperor Guangwu and Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty, and his longevity will break through the 35-year-old mark, which can be called a medical miracle.

……

Liu Bei and Li Su quietly worked hard in western Liaoxi to clear the place, and it was not until the end of the year that they almost got things done.

However, in the rear, because Li Su disappeared for a long time and did not celebrate him with great fanfare, some friends who were more familiar with him but not very familiar with him inevitably muttered in their hearts - mainly those friends in the academic and business circles.

Because people who don't know each other at all don't know what task he has received, they don't have a chance to worry about him.

In Wuji County, Zhongshan, in the country villa of Zhen's Mansion, Cai Yong and Cai Yan's father and daughter have been living in an awkward way recently-when Li Su invited them to come, they were in the name of fellow practitioners "The Blessing of the Palace", and now the book has been repaired for more than a month, and Li Su has also been away for more than a month, and I don't know the news.

Although the Zhen family gives Cai Yong a great face in the world, Cai Yong can live as long as he wants, he usually can't invite him, and he eats and drinks every day, but Cai Yong himself will feel embarrassed.

It's useless.

Therefore, the Cai family's father and daughter and the Zhen family, if they have the opportunity to chat, they will definitely not be able to avoid Li Su's topic, and they also vaguely know that Li Su is responsible for going to Hu Ren to do diplomatic things, after all, the original purpose of writing the book was to do things to Zhang Ju, and there is no reason to use it when there is no result.

Finally, one day in the middle of the lunar month, when Zhen Jiang and others of the Zhen family were playing with Cai Yan again, the speaker unintentionally complained: "Sister Cai, you said that the work of protecting the captain of Wuhuan and supporting the long history of the festival is just to go to the camp of the Hu people to talk and laugh and fight on the basis of reason?" If so, there has been no wind for so long, and it won't be more than lucky, right? The Hu people don't know etiquette, and they don't know if there is a rule that 'the two countries will not fight each other'. ”

"What do you say! Senior brother has a super talent, and I have already seen it in the month or two when I wrote books with him! Cai Yan was taken aback and hurriedly stopped this irresponsible and unlucky remark.

However, Zhen Jiang's words also reminded her, and she couldn't help but find her father after returning to the house.

"Dad, our book has also been written, under the fence of the Zhen family for a long time, the food is from someone else's, and it is not in line with the etiquette. It's better to go to Jixian County to bid farewell to the senior brother, and then go back to Chenliu's hometown. ”

Cai Yong didn't know why his daughter suddenly thought of this: "But Boya hasn't heard from him recently." ”

Cai Yan: "There is no news, we can inquire by ourselves, "The Blessing of the Palace" has been sold so much, and the Zhen family has also given my father so many pens, we shouldn't use other people's money anymore." The work of going to a foreign land is already difficult and dangerous, and now it is freezing cold, how can the senior brother be a scribe with no martial arts, how can he be out all the time?

During the period of Emperor He, Ban Chao made the Western Regions and protect Zhuhu for a long time, more than 70 years old, and could not help the suffering of wind and sand, Ban Zhao played for his brother to ask for his life, and the emperor ordered Wu Ji Captain Ren Shang to take over as the protector of the Western Regions and return to the dynasty for Ban Chao. If Liu Youzhou has always put his senior brother in danger, I should also speak up for reason, such as Ban Zhaoqing's name in history. ”

Of course, Cai Yong knew the allusions that his daughter said, because over the years, he had been sorting out materials and wanted to learn from Ban Gu Ban Zhao to continue to write Han history, but the Han Dynasty was still fine after all, so he could only collect materials and not write a book.

Cai Yan also tied up a lot of his father, so he knows too much about the history of this dynasty, and it is easy to worship Ban Zhao after reading too much, and he wants to become a famous woman in history like Ban Zhao.

"That's it, then let's go to Jixian County, say goodbye to Boya and go back to Chenliu." Cai Yong had no reason to refute, so he pushed the boat down the river.