Mythical Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1085: Chapter 1041: I am born to be useful

Given the vastness of the world, Liu Bei had begun to develop some different ideas. Unifying the Central Plains to restore the Han Dynasty was no longer his ultimate goal. Conquering the world and experiencing the fertile land that Chen Xi spoke of was more important.

After all, until now, Liu Bei had never considered claiming the title of Emperor or ascending the throne; he truly held the thought of restoring the Han Dynasty at heart.

Originally, he might have been worried that when the world was unified, the Emperor would be wary of him as a powerful minister, and at that time, stepping back from his position would inflict significant harm on his people.

Chen Xi’s words revealed another path to Liu Bei: after restoring the Han Dynasty, returning power to the ruler, and then leading his loyal followers to explore the fertile lands beyond the Central Plains!

Liu Bei assessed his own achievements. If every place were developed to the level of Mount Tai of Qing Xu, the Han Dynasty would far surpass its peak prosperity, and by then, ascending the throne with the support of the people would be incredibly easy.

However, Liu Bei had already extinguished the thought of becoming an emperor long ago. The Han Dynasty had given him everything, so, until the Han Dynasty abandoned him, he would never betray it. Thus, it was inevitable that his accomplishments would overshadow the ruler.

To be precise, even if he did nothing, the world would only know of Liu Bei and not the Han Emperor. In such a situation, choosing to lead his loyal followers to cultivate the fertile land outside the Central Plains, Liu Xie would certainly bestow him with any title available.

Liu Bei was now acknowledged as an imperial kinsman by the Minister of Ceremonies, beyond the control of the law. At that time, he was likely to become a prince, and with military campaigns and the False Token of Authority, coupled with the intention of sending Liu Bei away, even the Nine Treasures might be granted, allowing Liu Bei to enjoy power equivalent to that of the emperor outside the Han Dynasty.

Therefore, for Liu Bei, he was ready to allocate territory to his people after he left the Central Plains, directly awarding ranks and titles. Since it was outside the Han Court and he wasn’t crowning a king, he could do as he pleased. Liu Bei was certainly not stingy with rewards.

It was said that Liu Bei was indeed the most generous in giving rewards, but doing things beyond his financial capacity was something only Liu Bei could do. Rewarding money and gold to the point of creating financial problems under his governance was truly exasperating.

Although Liu Bei didn’t know how large the world was, based on Chen Xi’s tone, he guessed that the world would not be small. With that in mind, what debt couldn’t he repay? At worst, he could follow the example of Emperor Gaozu and let Chen Xi take whichever piece of land he pointed to on the map. Liu Bei truly wanted to see what was so special about land that yielded three harvests a year!

Of course, these were all Liu Bei’s thoughts. As for how things would actually turn out in the future, sometimes, it doesn’t always go as planned!

”Gradually, about a hundred billion coins would probably be needed,” Chen Xi estimated, noting that he would certainly overissue due to his sense of integrity. According to a certain economic theory, in the current economic environment, overissuing money by ten percent might even benefit economic prosperity...

”Then just proceed with your construction plans. But, as you said, consider it a low-interest loan to the country,” Liu Bei dismissed the matter with a wave of his hand.

Anyway, Liu Bei didn’t plan on becoming an emperor. When he overshadowed the ruler, it would still be his own merit, and there was no situation where he would murder Chen Xi or Guan Yu after the fact. On the contrary, keeping these people safe was of great importance to him, who didn’t intend to be an emperor, so he let them be.

”I’d better spend this money. If you do it, you certainly won’t be thrifty,” having Liu Bei make the decision, Lub Su immediately swept away his previous worries, wrapping himself in a blanket and cheerfully squeezing in front of Chen Xi to collect the money.

”The money hasn’t arrived yet; I’m just looking for the next place to spend it, lest the money arrives and we have nowhere to spend it,” Chen Xi pushed Lub Su away, sensing that Lub Su was becoming quite money-grubbing.

Frankly, anyone sitting in the position of logistics manager, given the need for extensive construction, would have to meticulously account for every coin, and it’s only natural to show such eagerness with a large influx of funds.

”Is there really going to be nowhere to spend the money?” Fa Zheng sneered, ”If not, give it to me; I could easily spend it all on your behalf.”

”Spending needs to be of a certain level and class. Clearly, your spending is not yet up to the mark,” Guo Jia patted Fa Zheng on the shoulder and then turned to Lub Su. ”Since a fund will be injected next spring, the funds left over from this year can be allocated to other uses.”

”How about using it to quickly build a provincial route to the Youzhou border through public works initiatives? Liaodong has already acted in advance of the Xianbei and Wuhuan’s southern incursion, and it’s already a foregone conclusion for Youzhou’s people to withdraw to our side,” Liu Ye’s first reaction was to build roads. As the scope of the war expanded and regions under his governance interconnected through road construction, Liu Bei’s officials had a high enthusiasm for building roads.

”Nonsense! Gong Youu is on the Yellow River, overturning the previous bridge-building plan and reconstructing for the third time on-site. Without him here, binding us together to rush construction wouldn’t be as fast. You research how to build a provincial route over the Five Section Ravine,” Fa Zheng rolled his eyes, directly denying Liu Ye’s suggestion.

In reality, Liu Ye’s strategy wasn’t incorrect; that provincial route must be constructed. The problem is that the infrastructure corps, consisting of tens of thousands of people, are scattered across the vast land of Jizhou, building roads, bridges, water dams, and large villages everywhere.

While building a provincial route is quite important, other tasks are not trivial. After being commandeered by Sunx Qian, there were only a few hundred people left for road construction, and even if the masses helped through public works, it wasn’t something that could be resolved just by saying so in several mountainous areas.

Currently, Sunx Qian was undoubtedly the best at construction; originally a debater, under Chen Xi’s influence, he had already become an excellent engineer.

As someone who could create models based on intuition without learning the trigonometry, and more than that, upgrade from visual models to scaled models, it was even scarier when he managed to not only use the same materials and structure but also derive magnified data!

One could argue that Sunx Qian shouldn’t have studied governance; engineering and architecture were his true talents. This near-proposition was only completed as a theory at the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the way, he also had an intuitive talent in framework structures, not needing measurement, just relying on instinct to deduce the optimal stress structure. When Chen Xi saw Sunx Qian achieve this level, he was nearly blinded - truly, talents will never go unused!

”Bringing Gong Youu back, constructing a provincial route directly to the Youzhou and Jizhou border is very significant!” Liu Ye didn’t mind Fa Zheng’s words; accurately speaking, few people paid particular attention to Fa Zheng’s words.

”I’m afraid not. Strategically and situationally, the significance of building a bridge on the Yellow River surpasses this grain transport provincial route,” Lub Su shook his head and said. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to vote for it at Qidian (qidian.com) with recommendation votes and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please read on m.qidian.com.)