Mythical Three Kingdoms

Indeed, Chen Xi was also helpless. When he proposed establishing the commerce chamber against everyone’s will for the first time, some began to oppose him, but in the end, the facts harshly slapped those people back into place. And now, not much time has passed, and as Liu Bei’s strength expanded once more, some started to covertly make their moves again.

The saying that life never stops and factional struggles never cease, Chen Xi finally began to grasp what it meant. There were always some fools who thought Chen Xi was nothing but a lucky one, arrogant because of favoritism, and it was time again for internal consolidation. For some reason, every time their strength increased, there had to be a clapping down!

Yang Dao watched the people in his circle nodding without expression in agreement with the other party’s proposal, feeling extremely helpless within. He had no interest whatsoever in this group of former Families of Qingzhou, as well as the officials transferred from Xuzhou Aristocratic Family. In his view, these people were all problematic!

Yang Dao was very satisfied with his current position as the Minor Treasurer Historian of Mount Tai who also served as the Boxian County Magistrate. Although he was the Prefect of Shangdang back in the day, it was incomparable to his current situation!

The wealth of Mount Tai was much greater than that of Shangdang, with a large amount of books available for him to read, and more leisure time. Life was much better than in the poor region of Shangdang, and no one came to oppress Yang Dao. Life was going splendidly, so why would he confront Liu Bei’s capable ministers and clerks, making life unbearable?

Of course, Yang Dao wasn’t a fool. He was very clear as to why these former Families of Qingzhou were not satisfied with Liu Bei—after all, Liu Bei gave away the entirety of Qingzhou to the Yellow Turbans, and the surplus lands were nationalized for military colonies. These former aristocrats returned with nothing, naturally in a bad mood.

As for Xuzhou, it was harassed by Li Youu, and Liu Bei turned a deaf ear. Then he moved all the officials from the Xuzhou aristocracy right under his nose and dispatched the direct lineage to Xuzhou, significantly weakening the power of the Xuzhou aristocratic family.

To the aristocracy, this was a grievous offense. However, despite the size of the grudge, there were always some aristocratic families with broader perspectives and more open minds. After all, Liu Bei and Chen Xi weren’t intent on wiping out the aristocracy; their actions at most limited the aristocracy, still leaving many possibilities for survival.

But there will always be some self-righteous individuals in this world, and right now, Yang Dao was surrounded by them. Of course, as for those unreliable plans that aimed to undermine Chen Xi and Li Youu, with the goal of sidelining Liu Bei, Yang Dao had no interest at all. Who would mess up these good days with such death-seeking behavior?

”Brother Yangg, you seem a bit tired. Could it be…” the head of the Li Family from the former Families of Qingzhou asked Yang Dao with a beaming smile.

”Not really, just finding it uninteresting,” Yang Dao replied with a voice loud enough to draw everyone’s attention.

”May I ask what insights Mingtong brother has?” The former head of the Wen Family of Qingzhou, Wen Ying, sitting at the head of the table, looked at Yang Dao and said.

Speaking of Wen Ying, this man was a staunch opponent of Liu Bei. He had fled Qingzhou since the Yellow Turbans’ great upheaval and didn’t dare to return. Once Liu Bei had Qingzhou well-organized, Wen Ying came back with his land and house deeds, demanding that Chen Xi return his family’s hundreds of acres of good farmland, and to compensate him for his family’s years of losses.

The first time Wen Ying went, Chen Xi was present, kindly stating that he could provide other compensations but should not hold out hope for those distributed lands, and guaranteed it wouldn’t be a disadvantage. But Wen Ying felt Chen Xi’s compensation was too little. As the renowned Wen Family of the Qingzhou aristocracy, naturally, they were not satisfied with the same compensation as others.

Chen Xi decisively ignored the matter, and when Wen Ying was rejected, he incited a disturbance for the second time. However, this time Chen Xi was absent, so the matter was handed over to Li Youu to deal with.

The process was naturally straightforward and simple, and the outcome goes without saying: all the troublemakers were imprisoned. Later, when Li Youu reviewed the case, given that he single-handedly handled legislation, judiciary, and arbitration, it would have been surprising if the other side had won. Naturally, this group of people all fell into misfortune.

Li Youu, in doing his business, was certainly thorough. He soon got to the bottom of those who dared to cause trouble, digging out their background until everything was crystal clear. Tell me, which aristocratic family doesn’t have some skeletons in their closet? Both the Xun Family and the Chen Family had some shameful stains hidden away, let alone those in other places. Naturally, these people couldn’t even turn their situation around, and they went straight into the ’ironclad case’ phase. If a public trial were to take place, all these people could have been sent straight to the ’Western Heaven’.

However, unfortunately for them, a new law had already been born at that time: unless it was a major crime like rebellion, the most severe sentence to be given was life imprisonment doing hard labor. As a result, this group of people narrowly escaped their demise, and Li Youu had no interest in fussing with these insignificant shrimps. After throwing the matter over the wall, Wen Ying quickly escaped.

In a nutshell, under Wen Ying’s instigation, a group soon gathered—those who were dissatisfied with Liu Bei over issues of interest distribution. Then, with the vigorous efforts of this group in rallying others, they continued to grow stronger.

By now, it had formed into a group of aristocratic families and individuals from places like Qingzhou, Mount Tai, and Xuzhou, all of them dissatisfied with Liu Bei’s policies.

This group, with its large numbers and widespread influence, appeared to be very powerful, but that was merely the self-perception of the organization’s members. To someone as composed as Yang Dao, it was nothing but a joke!

As a power that lacked military authority, upper-class individuals, and substantial wealth, opposing Liu Bei was inherently ludicrous. If they won, Yang Dao felt Liu Xie might as well unite the realm.

Disregarding all these trivial matters, Yang Dao simply found it incredibly boring. Why would they invite him, a winner in life, to this gathering of losers?

Not to say that he had reached the pinnacle of life, but Yang Dao had experienced various shocking events throughout his life. For instance, after his wife’s death, he went to Luoyang to attend the Grand Assembly and ended up exchanging glances with a 12-year-old girl and eloping with her.

By the time her father discovered them, Yang Dao had already taken everything he could, leaving Cai Yong, his future father-in-law, fuming with anger. In the end, without saying a word, Cai Yong paid a dowry and gave five carts of books, handing over Cai Zhenji to Yang Dao.

If one were to follow the cultural world’s viewpoint, the Yang Family was seen as a small household not likely to last many generations. In contrast, the Cai Family was the nobility of the cultural realm. Yet, Cai Yong’s five carts of books suddenly endowed the Yang Family with cultural depth.

Well, all that aside, a few years later, when he returned to his family home in Mount Tai, he encountered his aunt by marriage. Compared to Yang Dao’s unreliable wife, his aunt held high educational standards. Already his son had far surpassed other children of his age, which was of supreme importance to an aristocratic family—his family was on the rise!

With such favorable momentum, now he was wasting time chatting with a crowd of losers. Yang Dao had only one feeling: boredom. He would have been better off spending that time managing Boxian. He was quite satisfied with Liu Bei and had only attended this gathering under duress.

(To be continued. If you like this work, please visit to cast your recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)