Wait, please don't call me Emperor Zhaolie

Chapter 106 Seeing Old Friends Again
Liu Bei had deployed the soldiers in place, and the only thing left was to see if anyone would take desperate measures.

After being away from home for so many years, I suddenly felt a little strange when I returned home.

Seeing Madam Yin Jun looking at me with the same gentle eyes as before, I felt as if everything was the same as before.

Since he took the legitimate daughters of Yan, Rong and Yi as concubines, he did not take any more concubines. Including Guan, Liu Bei already had one wife and four concubines.

In addition to Yin, Guan also became pregnant a few months ago.

The three women behind him were also pretty, but Liu Bei always felt they were far inferior to his wife.

Perhaps it was because Yin Jun had been with him for almost eight years, and she had gradually grown from a young girl into a graceful and decent woman.

Her long hair was tied up into a bun, revealing her fair and delicate neck. Sometimes she tilted her head to reveal a very beautiful profile, with a high nose bridge and rosy lips.

Liu Bei inadvertently looked up and saw it while picking up his pen, and was slightly stunned.

After that day, he and his wife Yin often slept until noon, and it was useless even if their eldest son Liu Yong came to make a fuss.

After being beaten, he ran away while covering his buttocks under the supervision of a servant.

"You still praise him for being clever, but he has no sense at all." Liu Bei thought to himself.

Yin Jun covered her mouth and chuckled. In her opinion, her eldest son deserved to be beaten for being tactless.

After washing, she gently helped her husband put on his robe and tied the gold and jade around his waist. Liu Bei looked down at his beautiful wife and could not help but hug her in his arms and kissed her forehead and eyes several times.

After a while of lingering, Yin used her hands to push Liu Bei away and took a few steps back, frowning and saying helplessly: "Okay, okay, my husband, don't be like Zhang Chang who coveted the pleasures of the boudoir and left his name in history."

Liu Bei was unhappy and said, "What does the husband and wife's affairs have to do with outsiders? Even if Zhang Chang draws eyebrows for his wife every day, Emperor Xiaoxuan will still use him as a great official, right?"

He didn't adopt widows like Cao Cao, but the love between husband and wife was so deep that anyone who dared to spread rumors about him would be held accountable later.

When he sat down in the study, Liu He came to report: eleven powerful families in Donglai rebelled, four in Beihai and six in Qi County.

Liu Bei picked up the document and said with a smile: "Since he has shown up, don't let him go. Send orders to Xianhe and Wenju that anyone who dares to rebel should be executed along with his entire family. Tell Guan Hai that I don't want to see any forts in Donglai and Beihai by the end of this year."

The clerk next to him quickly picked up his pen and wrote three volumes of official documents. After finishing, he handed them to the envoy for his review.

Liu Bei took it and looked at it for a while. After confirming that it was correct, he stamped it one by one and sent it out.

The rebellion in the three counties did not have much impact on him. Pingyuan, Jinan and Le'an were his real foundation.

As long as these counties are not in chaos, we can calmly dispatch troops to quell the rebellion.

The various ethnic groups joined together to create momentum to threaten him, but it was futile.

Liu Bei had long intended to wipe them out, and the more people who showed up, the better. At worst, he could transfer thousands more soldiers stationed in Pingyuan and Jinan.

As for whether the troops of the nobles would be better at fighting than the soldiers of the military, Liu Bei could only say that the patriarchs of the nobles were overthinking it. As long as those troops who had received simple training could fight with the auxiliary soldiers who had seen blood in a field battle and defeat the enemy in a short period of time, it was already worthy of the corn that the nobles ate.

After finishing his business, Liu Bei ordered someone to bring him military horses, and prepared to first visit the residences of the soldiers who had survived the battlefield, and then patrol various parts of the military camp.

He ordered the cook to prepare pickled meat and wine for him, and took out cloth from the storehouse and had his personal guards put it in the bag on the horse's back.

"Crack! Crack!"

Liu Bei rode his horse in a flying carriage, and his personal guards rode in a row to chase after him.

Led by a military officer, they rode for several miles across many muddy roads, through the sparse woods on both sides of the dirt road, and visited every household.

Finally, he stopped his horse in front of a house surrounded by a low earthen wall, and Liu Bei personally went forward and knocked on the wooden door. "Who? Come, come." The voice was a little stuttering, and he limped out of the house. The woman who was digging mud behind the house heard the noise and couldn't help but look in.

"Squeak..." The friction sound of the door opening was a bit harsh, but Liu Bei didn't care.

"Envoy, Envoy, please come in quickly." Han Leng opened the door and saw Liu Bei standing at the door of his house. He was shocked and suddenly remembered that the door was not the place to receive Envoy Liu. He quickly wiped the dust off his hands on his clothes, bent down and greeted him.

Liu Bei supported him with both hands and said with a smile: "I told you not to bow when you see me, how come you forgot it in the blink of an eye?"

Looking down at his legs, he frowned and asked, "It's cold and gloomy, are your legs hurting again?"

Han Leng grinned and said, "It's alright, sir. I'm just a common man and I can bear a little pain."

Liu Bei supported him with his hand and said, "Come on, let's go inside first and talk."

After entering the house, Liu Bei found that the light was dim, the dirt floor was damp, and the air was filled with a pungent smell of mold.

"Envoy, please go out and talk. I'm afraid this place will humiliate your status." Han Leng said hurriedly.

Liu Bei waved his hand to stop frowning, looked around, and asked in a deep voice: "Didn't the Pingyuan Military Office pay the relief money to our comrades?"

"No, no." Han Leng waved his hands quickly, then sighed and explained, "Sir, it's not that the military office has private deductions. I spent all the money on my mother's funeral last year."

Liu Bei also sighed after hearing this. Han Leng's mother was seriously ill and vomiting blood. She had been treated for several years but ultimately she was not cured.

Han Leng was selected as a sergeant in the Vanguard Battalion because of his strong physique. Unfortunately, his patella was shattered by a spear during a fight. After the healing process, he was unable to move and had to retire from the military.

The two men chatted and reminisced about the past when the woman from behind the house also came to pay her respects. Han Leng quickly asked her to bring out the wine and drinks from her home, warm them up and bring them to entertain the envoy. The woman seemed to have just woken up from a dream and hurried to get the wine.

Liu Bei forced Han Ling to sit opposite him and asked, "How are you going to deal with your hundred acres of land now?"

Han Leng answered honestly: "I asked the nearby villagers to help me farm the fields. A quarter of the grain produced during the harvest was enough to feed my family."

Liu Bei was speechless after hearing this, and pointed at him and said, "You!"

The average harvest per mu is about three hu, and the food for men is less than three hu per month. There are only two people left in the family, and they need five hu per month. After deducting taxes, they can barely make ends meet. They are too honest and can be deceived.

I tried to persuade them to increase the harvest, but found that it didn't work.

Han Leng said that the villagers had taken care of his mother, and he was doing this to repay their kindness.

Liu Bei had no choice but to give up.

They chatted for a while, basically he was asking questions and the other party was answering.

Taishi Ci came over and whispered, "Sir, the sky is changing and it may rain soon."

Liu Bei realized that he had to leave, so he raised the wine in the bowl to toast Han Leng and ordered his guards to take the meat, wine and cloth from the bag and put them on the small table.

He took off his cloak in the darkness, wrapped the gold and jade around his waist inside it, and then said goodbye and left.

Han Leng had stayed in the dark room for too long and was too nervous. He walked dozens of steps with his cane and did not notice that something was missing from the envoy.

When he came back, he heard his wife say in surprise, "There is gold!"

When they lit the lamps, they discovered that Liu Shijun had not only left behind a cloak to keep warm, but also hidden gold and jade artifacts.

Han Leng clutched the gold and jade in his hand and limped out of the door. Liu Bei had already ridden away on his horse, leaving only deep horse hoof prints in the mud in front of the door.

(End of this chapter)