Mythical Three Kingdoms

This is also an important reason why Liu Bei and Chen Xi can see Fei Yi here now: with the aristocratic families moving north, many of them have tossed their children to relatively reliable teachers in Ye City as students. If you think a bit deeper, this is actually a kind of compromise.

After all, Liu Bei’s power is great, to the point that Liu Bei himself looks down on this ”hostage-style” approach, but when the major aristocratic families expressed their willingness to accept Liu Bei’s control, whether Liu Bei cared or not, they all made sure to do their own part properly.

”Fei Wenwei, huh, he’s here too?” Chen Xi asked with a puzzled look.

”He’s Chief Shang’s disciple. His teacher is here; how could he not be here?” Huang Chengyan said casually. ”Speaking of which, among these people there are actually some more suited to be generals, but for now these people still need to spend some time studying book knowledge.”

”If they want to be generals, you can let them have time to train in the camps. Just guard the gate well, and don’t let any weird people in,” Liu Bei said with a smile. Wanting to be a commander—good thing. If in their youth they set their sights on becoming commanders and actually work for it, they’re in fact quite promising.

”Then I must thank Lord Xuande.” Huang Chengyan stroked his goatee and smiled. Liu Bei’s words were really giving him considerable face.

To be honest, Huang Chengyan was very clear: as he saw it, though his students here couldn’t produce those figures who suppress an entire era, producing one or two people of Nine Ministers Rank was no problem. So only because Liu Bei said this did he dare to take it.

Otherwise, if he couldn’t produce anyone able to hold up the stage and instead just took up resources, then even if Liu Bei didn’t mind, Huang Chengyan himself wouldn’t be able to live with the loss of face.

Speaking of Fei Yi, Huang Chengyan actually found it a bit regrettable. If those years hadn’t been wasted, and Lord Pang De had taught him straight from Mengxue all the way to now, then by this point Fei Yi’s Spiritual Talent would probably already be within reach.

But back then in the chaos of war, Fei Yi’s uncle was afraid something might happen, so he took Fei Yi to Yizhou, and that place, though it had men of intellect, did not have any teachers who could truly be put on display.

As a result, those years in Yizhou essentially wasted Fei Yi’s best time for study, so that now, although Fei Yi can still be called outstanding, compared to the level he might have reached—becoming an instrument of the state—there’s already a clear gap. Now they can only hope he’ll make up for the lost years with diligence.

”Lord Xuande, what do you think of that Ma Youchang?” Chen Xi dragged the topic back to Ma Su again. Liu Bei couldn’t help but be a bit curious—what about this Ma Su was worth observing?

”I haven’t had much contact with him. I came here together with you; how could I know what this Ma Youchang is like?” Liu Bei explained rather helplessly, then carefully observed Ma Su a couple of times, as if trying to memorize this fellow who had sparked Chen Xi’s interest.

Nowadays Liu Bei’s memory is just average when it comes to other things, but his memory for faces has basically broken through the heavens. He sized Ma Su up from head to toe, then withdrew his gaze, estimating that for the rest of his life Liu Bei would remember that there was this person.

”He doesn’t seem like much. What exactly is Zichuan valuing in him?” Liu Bei asked, a bit curious.

In these years Liu Bei had already seen all sorts of ”magical youths.” Starting with Chen Xi, who was defying the heavens from the very beginning and has kept right on defying them—back when he first met him, he was also just a youth.

Then came Fa Zheng: at first a slight provocation would send him straight into a manic state, but as he grew older, he gradually reined in his temperament, and by now has covered up his disadvantage in disposition, becoming a youth growing stronger by the day.

And later Zhuge Liang, gentle and refined in character, overflowing with talent, endowed with Extraordinary Talent—even Liu Bei couldn’t help but look sideways at him.

Add in Lul Xun, Lu Yu—Liu Bei’s camp is absolutely not lacking in magical youths. Liu Bei basically feels that geniuses are something he’s long been used to; in this regard he’s a veteran of a hundred battles.

”How to put it... I feel he’s a very capable sort of person. I’ve decided to step in and train him a bit,” Chen Xi said, his eyes rolling as he spoke with great interest.

What kind of person Ma Su was actually wasn’t that important to Chen Xi. It’s just that he happened to see Ma Su this time, and that stirred his interest.

After all, although this guy lost Jieting and got executed, before that he did have a pretty flashy set of achievements: pacifying Southern Yizhou and crushing Yong Kai and the others—Ma Su’s stratagem directly hammered the other side to death in one go.

Even the Records of the Three Kingdoms doesn’t black Ma Su on this point, which means that that campaign of sweeping away the Southern Barbarians’ incursion was a solid achievement of Ma Su’s.

Thus, in Chen Xi’s view, this guy might be one of those ”mouth-cannon” types, with extremely poor hands-on ability. But as a mouth-cannon type, if his mouth-cannon skills are strong enough that even Zhuge Liang feels his capability is quite fierce, Chen Xi thinks this fellow is a bit interesting and worth training.

”Enough, get lost. Unless it’s a youth with a temperament as excellent as Kongming’s, any other genius youth that falls into your hands won’t last long before being ruined. You’ve had Boyan for so long—has what you’ve taught him been more than what others have taught him?” Liu Bei said irritably.

Liu Bei had discovered this situation very early on: Chen Xi taking disciples is basically just screwing his disciples over. Although he does have pangs of conscience and will occasionally put in some Dali to teach them in a burst, given how lazy Chen Xi is, the number of times his conscience gets pricked is just... yeah.

Most of the time he just gives the other party a book and lets them teach themselves—and the books Chen Xi gives are all filled with mutually conflicting content and ideas.

The fact they haven’t been ruined by this can only be attributed to the students having Extraordinary Talent. But generally speaking, any disciple who survives this kind of chaotic treatment without being wasted—Liu Bei himself has to admit their adaptability and breadth of thinking, and feel grateful that under him there are many people who step in to lend a hand when they can’t bear to watch anymore.