My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 119 People's hearts return to Guangling, just like water flows down
September 3rd, Guangling City.

Guangling Prefecture's residence was bustling with people early in the morning, and the door was full of visitors. The front yard was full of temporary awnings, and servants were running around to provide water and food so that the guests waiting in the yard would not be embarrassed.

Guests from all walks of life and in all kinds of clothing came in an endless stream, all waiting to be summoned by Liu Bei in person.

Liu Bei did not mind working so hard. Ever since the war between Yuan and Cao broke out and a large number of people from Lianghuai flocked to Guangling, he had been meeting guests from morning to night for many days in a row.

Liu Bei insisted on meeting in person anyone who had served as an official under Yuan Shu, or any scholar who had some fame or knowledge in the local area, as long as they came to Guangling to surrender, to confirm their talents.

Winning people's hearts, identifying talents, and recruiting talents are what Liu Bei is best at.

He only has one county under his control now, and not much else to do. He left the daily civil affairs to Zhuge Liang, Chen Qun and others to take care of, but of course he had to do the personnel recruitment himself.

After negotiations, if Liu Bei found that the other party was not very capable, he would at least give them some resettlement fees, ask the servants to prepare a good meal with wine and food, at least a whole fresh sea bass and mandarin fish, and leave information about where to live. If they did not have a place to live, the government would also help arrange a place for them.

If he met a talented person, he would naturally give him more generous treatment, and it goes without saying that Liu Bei would personally accompany the guest for a meal and give him a house and land.

In the past half month, he had indeed discovered several knowledgeable people from Huainan County. They were all very young scholars, some of whom were not even adults yet. They were just low-level clerks, and were discovered by Liu Bei's keen eyes.

This gave Liu Bei a sense of accomplishment. He worked tirelessly every day and became more motivated the more he worked.

The morning passed in a blink of an eye, and it was almost time for lunch. Liu Bei still vaguely remembered that Zhuge Liang had sent someone to tell him last night that he would invite him to the riverside to inspect the new type of drift net that could be towed by a fishing boat after the Guangling tide receded this afternoon.

Liu Bei did not want to waste time, so he ordered the kitchen to prepare more delicious food, and then told his attendants:
"Please keep the capable officials on today's list for a while, and go and invite Mr. Kong Ming to have dinner with you. Also, invite Cang Ci and Xu Yi, who were recruited a few days ago. Some of the new recruits are from their hometown, so it would be good for them to get to know each other."

The attendant immediately took the order and left. About a quarter of an hour later, Zhuge Liang was found. He was just adjusting a new fishing net and hadn't eaten yet, so it wasn't a big deal.

Liu Bei immediately stood up, pulled Zhuge Liang to sit next to him, and before starting to eat, he introduced Zhuge Liang to a few people who were about his age.

Some of these guests were even younger than Zhuge Liang, estimated to be only about fifteen years old, which was considered early. Zhuge Liang looked at the other person and thought he was too young to be reliable, but Liu Bei was relieved and whispered to him:
"Although I don't have any other skills, I can still tell whether a person is talented and trustworthy. Great talents can be put to great use, while small talents can be put to small use. These scholars all have their own strengths, and if they are used well, they can be a great help."

As Liu Bei spoke, he stood up and led Zhuge Liang around, drinking with everyone and introducing each person to Zhuge Liang.

"This is Cang Ci Cang Xiaoren, formerly a clerk in the household department of Huainan County, who knows a lot about encouraging agriculture and cultivating land. He resigned five days ago to surrender because he was angry at Yuan Shu's tyrannical taxation, exhaustion of resources, and excessive plunder.

Kong Ming, in the future, you can let him assist Chen Changwen in managing the reclamation and garrisoning of the newly added refugees around Sheyang Lake. After all, the number of refugees is increasing, and Changwen is gradually unable to handle it alone. In the future, let Changwen be in charge of water conservancy and irrigation, and Xiaoren will help him manage the reclamation and polder fields. "

Cangci was the oldest guest today, but he was only in his twenties, probably no more than 25. Seeing that Liu Bei respected Zhuge Liang so much, he immediately offered a toast, and Zhuge Liang nodded in return.

Then Liu Bei introduced a few more people, and they all talked happily: "These two are Jiang Ji and Hu Zhi. Although they have not yet reached the age of adulthood and have not yet been given a name, they have some basic knowledge of mathematics. They are accountants in Xiacai and Hefei respectively. I have examined them and found them to be quite fair and careful.

But when it comes to mathematics, who in the world can compare to these two virtuous brothers? Let them learn by doing and help you, maybe they can grow better. "

Jiang Ji, Hu Zhi and others will certainly have writing skills in the future, but they don’t have any yet. They are too young, and are young tax statisticians who have just entered the industry.

(Note: Jili is responsible for population and tax accounting/statistics)
To be honest, even if Zhuge Jin, a time traveler who knew the answers to history, were to come to Guangling County in person to preside over personnel work, he might not be able to think of or discover these people.

After all, who would pay attention to the early experiences of these talents? Zhuge Jin doesn’t have a database in his head, so it’s impossible for him to know everything.

But Liu Bei himself happened to be in charge of this work. Coupled with Liu Bei's ability to identify people, his affinity and observation skills, as well as his extreme diligence in seeking talents, he was able to find many talented people who came from humble backgrounds or started out as minor officials.

Liu Bei introduced Cang Ci, Jiang Ji and Hu Zhi to everyone one by one, and said with a smile that they were all from the same hometown and they should get along well in the future, as it was like meeting old friends in a foreign land.

Zhuge Liang noticed that there were one or two newly recruited talents who did not seem to be "from Huainan", so he asked Liu Bei in a low voice.

Liu Bei also hurriedly introduced him, fearing that he might have neglected the other party. He said that this person was from Xuzhou, named Xu Yi, and was actually half a fellow villager of the Zhuge brothers. He was from Dongguan, Langya, and had also fled to Yangzhou to avoid the war in Xuzhou two years ago.

But recently he was recruited by Sun Ce, and he didn't want to work for such a cruel man, so he fled across the river and wanted to return to his hometown. As a result, he ran into Liu Bei who was personally interviewing and recruiting talents in Guangling. Although Liu Bei's original intention was to target the scholars who had recently flowed in from Yuan Shu, he also included these local people who returned to their hometown.

In fact, when Liu Bei first communicated with Xu Yi, he did not see any particular specific ability of this person. However, he just figured out his resume and confirmed that he was not lying and had refused Sun Ce's recruitment and fled back to his hometown, so he decisively decided to use him.

Liu Bei's idea was also very simple: Sun Ce was willing to recruit this person, so he must have some outstanding qualities. The other party refused, which showed that he was still a man of integrity. In this case, he should keep him as a talent reserve and slowly observe and discover his strengths. After all, he could afford this salary.

When Zhuge Liang heard that Xu Yi was half his fellow villager, he became a little interested and chatted with him for a while.

They were all young people, and three of them had been unsuccessful in Yuan Shu's territory. Liu Bei was a man who had been promoted from humble beginnings, so naturally he did not have the bad habits of those famous people from prestigious families, and they all spoke more directly.

From this perspective, Liu Bei's policy of recruiting people based on their talents is not much different from Cao Cao's. Liu Bei also has many people from all walks of life.

However, Cao Cao held a high position in the imperial court, and had countless people to choose from for him. Even if Cao Cao did not use famous scholars, humble scholars selected based on their talents would be enough for him.

Liu Bei had no choice but to use whatever he had, no matter whether they were from noble families or common people, there were only so many of them.

……

Liu Bei had a meal with these newly recruited talents, said many words of concern and encouragement, and then sent them off to their respective assignments and to familiarize themselves with their new jobs.

Especially Jiang Ji and Hu Zhi, the two of whom were clerks, were directly handed over to Zhuge Liang for arrangements. He could keep them by his side as a bookkeeper or assistant, or send one of them to Wuhu to serve his brother.

Anyway, Jiang Ji and Hu Zhi were younger than Zhuge Liang, and their original status was very low, so they would not feel looked down upon, but would think that it was the lord who valued them and let them practice their skills with the master of mathematics. Some young people of this age were still serving as book boys for the children of dignitaries.

After arranging everything, Liu Bei followed Zhuge Liang out of the city and went to the dock by the Yangtze River to inspect the effect of the new fishing net Zhuge Liang had made. Jiang Ji and Hu Zhi also followed him, each riding a docile pony.

The few of them soon arrived at the dock. Zhuge Liang took Liu Bei onto a larger new fishing boat, and then ordered several fishing boats nearby to set sail for the center of the river.

While sitting on the boat waiting for the sail to start, Zhuge Liang took out a real fishing net and showed it to Liu Bei.

Liu Bei took a look and found that this thing was similar in principle and shape to the original barbed wire net made of bamboo strips, but the material had been changed to hemp fiber bundles.

After all, if you want to cast a net to catch fish in rivers, it is definitely not possible to use hard materials that cannot be deformed. You have to change back to soft materials.

However, after becoming soft, there are some small problems with the installation of the barbs, and bamboo thorns can no longer be used because they are not durable and it is troublesome to repair them after they break. Therefore, Zhuge Liang currently uses iron wire which is easy to bend and tangle.

When Liu Bei saw the iron wire, he was also greatly shocked, because there was no such thin and soft iron wire in the Han Dynasty. At most, there were iron nails, and they had to be made one by one.

Liu Bei was immediately shocked: "This fishing net actually uses such expensive barbs? Can't they use bamboo barbs? Although this amount of iron is not very heavy and not very valuable, it must cost a lot to make it so thin? And to make so many barbs? Isn't it as wasteful as a shipwright making nails?"

Seeing Liu Bei's startled expression, Zhuge Liang could not help but feel proud: "Don't worry, this is not forged one by one. After the soft wrought iron is beaten, it is directly clamped with a piece of iron plate with rows of holes of gradually decreasing size, and then it is pulled towards the other end by clamping one end of the iron.

The small holes on the steel plate will make the wire thinner and thinner, and then it will be pulled through a smaller circle of holes. After pulling it several times, this very long thin wire will be made, and it will be cut into small pieces when it is used, so the labor cost is not high. "

There is no doubt that this hole-pulling technology for making wire was not invented by Zhuge Liang himself. Such extraordinary technology was not available in that era.

So this technique was inspired by Zhuge Liang from his elder brother when he was learning and exchanging ideas with his elder brother a few months ago.

As for why Zhuge Jin knew this technology, it was obviously because he played a lot of "Age of Empires 4" games in his previous life. In "Age of Empires 4", there is a special battle documentary that introduces how chain mail in the Castle Age was made.

The first step is to use a drawing plate with many holes to draw the wrought iron into wire, and then roll it into small wire rings, which are buckled together to form chain mail.

According to research, the earliest chain mail technology in the world was not available until the 5th or 6th century AD. Chain mail was not widely used in early Eastern civilization, so there was certainly no chain mail in the Han Dynasty.

Even after the early chain mail appeared, people at that time did not immediately develop the technology of making wire from brushed plates. It took at least another one or two hundred years of evolution. In the middle and early Tang Dynasty, the earliest brushed chain mail appeared in the world. Zhuge Jin never expected that when his second brother was chatting with him, he asked about the cheap way to make wire, and in the end it was to make the iron spikes on the thorn net. If Zhuge Jin knew about it, he would probably sigh that the pearl was wasted.

After listening to Zhuge Liang's explanation, Liu Bei also shook his head and said, "It's still too wasteful. If we want to promote it to the people in the future, we should let them raise bamboo strips themselves."

Zhuge Liang: "That's not a bad idea. This time we are just doing an experiment. If we set our sights high, we will get the middle. If we set our sights medium, we will get the lower. It's always good to set our sights high at the beginning."

After Zhuge Liang explained clearly all the raw material innovations of the new drift net, the boat quickly sailed to the middle of the river. Zhuge Liang asked the fishermen to start casting the nets directly, and then he explained the principles to Liu Bei.

Liu Bei watched very seriously. It turned out that Zhuge Liang's operation this time actually required the use of two fishing boats, with each boat holding one end of the net's rope, and then throwing it into the river, rowing against the current, and using the river water to flush the net open.

The new gillnet still has a counterweight at the bottom to ensure that the bottom rope is dragged as far into the water as possible, while there is still a buoy on the top to ensure that the area of the net mouth facing the water is larger.

Because two boats were used, there could be some distance between the boats, several meters or even more than ten meters. The cross-sectional area of the fishing net that could catch fish against the current of the river increased by at least an order of magnitude. Before this, fishermen in the Han Dynasty could only use a single boat to cast the net, and they couldn't even tow the net, let alone use two boats to sweep the net across like Zhuge Liang did.

Liu Bei was amazed at what he saw. Although he didn't know what the harvest would be, the domineering posture alone made him feel relieved: the harvest would definitely be great!

After dragging for a while, he was a little worried that the boat would capsize. Because after the two boats were pulled apart, the weight of the fishing net was concentrated on the inner side of each boat. Several times when the waves became slightly bigger, the boat began to sway sideways, and Liu Bei felt a little uneasy.

Although there were warships following nearby, even if the boat capsized, there were guards who were good at swimming to rescue them, and Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang themselves could swim.

Fortunately, Zhuge Liang answered his confusion in time: "General, don't worry. Although these are fishing boats, I also used bilge keels to reduce rolling. In addition, these small boats are all upturned, and the general has a thickest piece of wood running through the center axis, which is the main keel.

I have been in charge of building ships and naval forces for the past two months, so I wanted to try out the 'keel boat' that my elder brother had discussed with me. However, I have not had enough time to experiment with large ships or warships, so I will first practice with a small fishing boat. Although this boat is long and narrow, it is more resistant to wind and waves than the old boat. Once I have explored a few more ship types, I can build a keel boat for seagoing ships. "

Large ships after the Tang and Song dynasties generally had keels, so there was a leap in navigation technology. This is a little trick that is almost known to time travelers. Zhuge Jin certainly knows it, and when the conditions are right, he will find a way to drive it.

Now that Zhuge Liang is in charge of naval construction and warship building, Zhuge Jin must of course share these valuable insights with his younger brother in advance to avoid detours.

Liu Bei didn't know the twists and turns here, so he was naturally more surprised after reading it:

"Kong Ming's ideas are sometimes hard to understand. Whether it's the keel boat or the ability to pull out iron wire without spending any money, these ingenious techniques seem to be used to build military equipment. But Kong Ming always finds a use for civilians first, and then makes back his money while conducting trials, and even alleviates the hunger of the people..."

While Liu Bei was deep in thought, the fishing net was getting heavier and heavier. Zhuge Liang estimated that the boat's tilt had slightly increased - it felt like when he was borrowing arrows from a straw boat, and one side of the boat was weighed down by the arrows and tilted downward.

Then Zhuge Liang decisively gave the order to collect the nets, and a group of fishermen took great pains and finally managed to pull the nets up.

If Liu Bei had not been shocked once before by the fixed bottom-sinking drifting razor net, he would have been so shocked this time that his mouth would be unable to close.

"So many? And there are also golden sea fish like this? And river knives this long?"

Liu Bei took a quick look and found that the net had at least several dan of fish! It was estimated to be close to ten dan.

And this is just the harvest from one trip of the two boats working together. Even if you include the time it takes to reach the center of the river and the return voyage, it is only more than three hours. And obviously they will not just pull one net and then return each time they go out, they will definitely return with a full load.

All I can say is that in an era when no one knows how to catch fish in the deep layers of rivers and seas, the ecological resources are simply too abundant.

The Han people originally cast nets to catch shallow-water fish at a depth of two or three meters below the water surface. For fish above five meters above the water surface, they could only rely on fishing, as this was a native resource that had never been cultivated by humans.

Zhuge Jin's original fixed gillnet was mainly used to catch deep-sea migratory fish. But for pure marine or pure freshwater fish, as long as they were not migratory, there was nothing he could do.

This time's improvements have made up for all these shortcomings.

The several-foot-long Yangtze River knife fish, which sold for thousands of yuan in later generations, is now as common as the hairtail fish in later generations. The golden yellow croaker can also be seen here because it is not far from the Yangtze River estuary.

There were also one or two huge golden pomfret among them, but unfortunately they were very rare. Golden pomfret is a very flat fish and is obviously a deep-water fish. Zhuge Liang's net was not deep enough, and only a few that were unlucky enough to swim to relatively shallow water were caught.

As for deep-water fish like cutlassfish, although they are not valuable in later generations, Zhuge Liang cannot catch them now, also because the depth is not enough.

However, even if we only count the existing new varieties, it was already a surprise to Liu Bei.

Moreover, Liu Bei didn't care about the variety at all. He cared more about the huge output of the drift net.

With four fishermen per boat and eight people on two boats, the trawl operation can yield at least 10 dan of fish even if only two or three large ones are hauled a day. However, the initial investment in making nets, boats and supporting equipment is relatively large.

But eight people in a day can produce enough food to feed hundreds of people for a day.

If more refugees from Yuan Shu's rule flock to Guangling next year, Liu Bei is quite confident that he can take in the new population by reclaiming wasteland to expand the Sheyangze paddy field, managing saline-alkali land and catching large-scale marine fish, so as to avoid large-scale starvation.

Anyway, the military and civilians under Yuan Shu's rule have already begun to experience a "surge in clams dependence" this year. If they continue to levy heavy taxes without managing production, the clams dependence of the people who stay in the area will only increase next year. Eating fish with coarse grains, bran with cheap leafy vegetables in Guangling is definitely much better than eating shellfish.

Thinking of his pride, Liu Bei could not help but think of Chen Deng, who had been hiding in Lü Bu's place for a hard time.

He really wanted to treat Chen Deng to a meal of four-foot-long September swordfish and fresh golden yellow croaker.

"It's a pity that Yuanlong is not here. Yuanlong loves fish sashimi. Unfortunately, I remember Tzuyu reminded him once last year that river fish have worms and should not be eaten as fish sashimi. Even if you have to eat it, you should eat sea fish sashimi. Now with this new net, you only need to drag it into the sea and it will be full of deep-water fish. Isn't it wonderful?"

Liu Bei slapped his thigh and sighed, wanting to show off in front of Chen Deng immediately.

However, when he thought of Chen Deng, he remembered that he had something important to discuss with Kong Ming today, which was about Chen Deng and the matter of sending envoys to the court in Xudu.

"Kong Ming, I suddenly remembered something that I had no time to talk about just now. Yuanlong wrote to me again yesterday, saying that Cao Cao and Lu Bu have not yet started negotiations on the issue of appointing officials in exchange for withdrawing troops. It seems that Cao Cao is hesitant and afraid of losing face for the court.

In fact, in my opinion, Cao Cao would not care if it could make Lu Bu withdraw his troops, even if it meant losing face. What Cao Cao was afraid of was losing more than gaining. Even if it meant losing face, Lu Bu could not give him a definite answer.

In this regard, Yuan Long suggested that he wanted to go to Cao Cao again as an envoy in the near future to ask for an official position for Lu Bu, and at the same time induce Lu Bu to fulfill his promise, and after getting the official position, turn against Yuan Shu.

But he was worried that Cao Cao no longer trusted him, and I was also worried whether Yuanlong would be in danger if he went to Xu Du again, so I wondered whether we should also send an envoy to Xu Du to mediate, just to act as a peacemaker between Cao Cao and Lu Bu?
Firstly, if we send someone, Cao Cao will not bear a grudge against us. Secondly, this will also help us to gain more benefits and official positions. After all, Lü Bu has a bad relationship with all the princes in the world. They all hate his fickleness. Only we are kind to Lü Bu. Lü Bu stole three counties from me, and I still repay evil with kindness! We can use this kindness to help Cao Cao open this mouth."

After hearing this, Zhuge Liang said without comment: "Sending an envoy to Xudu is certainly possible, but I think it should be supplemented with other strategies. Besides, my brother and I will definitely not go to Xudu again. Just send someone else."

Liu Bei: "Oh? Do you have any better ideas?"

Zhuge Liang: "I do have some ideas, but it may take a few days. Maybe I can invite my brother to come and discuss it together."

Liu Bei certainly had no objection to this. He was eager for Zhuge Jin to come and meet him again. Since Zhuge Jin left in December last year, he had pacified Yuzhang and occupied half of Danyang, making his uncle's territory prosperous, but Liu Bei had not seen him for ten months.

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PS: Because of the temporary adjustment of the plot, I wrote it very slowly, so some parts may not be smooth, and it is even later, please forgive me. The transition chapters are relatively long and complicated.

But don't worry, the Zhuge brothers will not go to Xudu, and Zhuge Jin will not go to Yecheng. Zhuge Liang's reputation is not big yet, and his official position is still low. I will let him be promoted to a suitable position first, and then he will travel around and write briefly.

After reading everyone’s feedback this morning, I think people are still willing to watch diplomatic dramas, but I think the protagonist has a high status and is easy to be targeted, so let’s change someone else.

At that time, the protagonist guarding the house will be written as the main line, and the second brother's two-line operation will be briefly written.

(End of this chapter)