My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 222: The Talents of Jingzhou Are in My Hands
According to the plan, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang discovered and attracted talents from Jingzhou in Jiangxia County and spread Liu Bei's reputation for benevolence and respect for the wise and humble.

While focusing on exploring and mining Daye Iron Mine, strengthening iron smelting and armaments, and improving some forging techniques.

More than a month passed in a flash, and soon it was the twelfth month of the fourth year of Jian'an. All work was progressing smoothly and everything was in good order.

Before officially starting to attract talents from Jingzhou, Liu Bei thought that this work would be difficult to advance.

After all, what they want to attract are talents from the territory occupied by Liu Biao. And they can't go to Liu Biao's territory to openly promote good governance, and they will definitely be blocked by Liu Biao.

But after actually taking action, Liu Bei soon discovered that things were not that complicated. The two sides were separated only by the Yangtze River and the Han River, and the border was hundreds of miles long.

Sending a small fishing boat from anywhere to cross the Yangtze River or the Han River would allow them to penetrate deep into the area controlled by Liu Biao.

In the past, Liu Biao was able to block the infiltration of the borders of Jing and Yang mainly because Huang Zu set up checkpoints at the Yangtze River pass of E County and Zhu County. This place has the remnants of the Dabie Mountains in Zhu County to the north and the Muhu Mountains east of E County to the south.

During the reign of Huang Zu, water forts were set up on both sides of the Yangtze River, and the Yangtze River navigation was cut off. In history, when Gan Ning wanted to go to Yangzhou, he was stuck at this pass for several years. In the end, it was Su Fei who helped him to open a back door and persuaded Huang Zu to appoint Gan Ning as the county magistrate of Zhu, which meant that Gan Ning himself became the manager of the northern part of the river defense line, and only then did he succeed in embezzling and running away.

Therefore, in this life, after Huang Zu was destroyed and the E County and Zhu County passes were breached by Liu Bei's army, it was easy for Liu Bei to infiltrate Liu Biao's core hinterland, as Liu Biao's Jianghan defense line was as leaky as a sieve.

The two sides had not yet officially torn their relations apart. Even if Liu Biao had noticed something, he did not dare to stop it directly, for fear of causing trouble and leading to a war between the two sides. He could only turn a blind eye and secretly guard against it.

After all, Liu Biao now only relies on Cai Mao, Zhang Yun, Wen Pin and the Kuai brothers for military strength. He cannot even make absolute autonomy in the personnel arrangements of the four counties in southern Jing, so how can he have the courage to go to war with Liu Bei?

Although both sides are the rulers of a state, the difference in control between the ruler of a state who conquered the state by force and the ruler of a state who entered the state alone is still too great.

From this perspective, Liu Biao was far inferior to Yuan Shao in terms of power. Yuan Shao at least rode into the state alone, but he quickly took advantage of the conflict with Gongsun Zan to completely control the military, political, human and financial power of the entire state.

Liu Biao was powerless to stop it, but he vaguely felt that in Xiangyang, Jiangling and other places, more and more people spoke well of Liu Bei in the past one or two months.

There were also many exiled northern scholars who had come to Nanjun for several years but had not been able to find a job. They suddenly became quiet, and no news was heard from them.

During the whole process, even Liu Biao and Zhuge Liang felt a little unbelievable and it was a bit too smooth, but maybe this was Liu Bei's specialty.

As long as Liu Bei was given a chance to promote himself, he would always be able to spontaneously recruit a steady stream of talents to join him.

As the initial battle of recruiting talents was a success and the time was ripe, Liu Bei decided to take drastic measures.

So he discussed it with Zhuge Liang and decided that before Pang Tong returned to Yuzhang to take up his post, he should let Pang Tong help him take the water route into Xiangyang to do something big.

Considering that Pang Tong's identity might be a bit sensitive, even if he "went home to visit relatives", he would easily be noticed by Liu Biao. So Zhuge Liang's father-in-law Huang Chengyan had to go with him, and Pang Tong could just keep a low profile and temporarily serve as Huang Chengyan's follower.

Huang Chengyan and Liu Biao were brothers-in-law. Even though his son-in-law had become the prefect of Jiangxia for Liu Bei, it was absolutely impossible for Liu Biao to make things difficult for Huang Chengyan when he returned to Xiangyang.

Huang Chengyan also knew this, so he did not refuse after being idle in Yangzhou for two years. He took the opportunity to go back to his hometown in Jingzhou, visit old friends, and provide cover for Pang Tong.

Liu Bei immediately sent a new keel speedboat to Huang Chengyan and Pang Tong, along with elite guards and sailors, and a lot of money and property as gifts to win them over.

The ship was a common civilian ship, without any defensive facilities such as battlements, so as not to provoke Liu Biao's navy when sailing on the Han River. However, it also hid a lot of excellent bows and crossbows, which were enough for self-defense. Moreover, the new ship built by the Zhuge family had an absolute advantage in speed, so if it was intercepted by pirates, it could completely escape by speed.

……

On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, after just two days of sailing, Huang Chengyan and Pang Tong returned to Deng County west of Xiangyang County.

The Huang and Pang families had lived in this area for many years and owned many manors. Pang Tong's uncle, Pang Degong, still lives in seclusion on Lumen Mountain east of Deng County with his farmhands.

Sima Hui, who was as famous as Pang Degong, also had a manor nearby. However, after Huang Chengyan and Huang Yueying moved away, the Huang family's manor was almost completely handed over to the Huang family's side branches and farmhands to manage. Huang Chengyan was too lazy to come back to collect rent in the past two years, so he just reduced the burden on the farmhands.

As soon as the ship docked at the pier on the south bank of the Han River outside Deng County, it was immediately noticed by merchants and farmhands from the surrounding big families.

The new ship built with the Zhuge family's shipbuilding technology is more slender than the traditional ship without a keel. Basically, the length-to-width ratio of the traditional ship can be stretched from 3:4 to 5:6, which is a very obvious difference.

To ensure that the sail has the same or even larger windward area, the same tonnage hull has to be elongated and narrowed, and the mast has to be equipped with a horizontal flying girders to support the sail. The width of these flying girders can sometimes be wider than the hull. In traditional Chinese sailing ships, because China has always used hard sailing ships instead of Western-style canvas soft sails, there is no need for horizontal flying girders. This new structure and exaggerated sail width are naturally very eye-catching.

The merchants and travelers in Jingzhou had never seen such a ship before, and they stared at it when they saw it.

After a while, the guards on the boat went ashore first, set up the plank, and escorted Huang Chengyan and Pang Tong ashore.

Because the Huang family's farmhands were not notified in advance to come and greet him, and the Huang family farm had its own carriages and horses, Huang Chengyan did not bring any on board this time. He planned to go back home first with the help of a wooden stick, get a carriage and horses, and then visit old friends everywhere.

As a result, because the boat they were on was too conspicuous, the news leaked out before they had even gone half a mile, and they were surrounded by onlookers.

"It's Mr. Pang's nephew who's back! Mr. Huang and Mr. Pang are back!"

In this era, there were very few merchants who traveled around doing business without any background, so most of the local merchants were relatives from the side branches of the Huang, Cai and Pang families. They selected children from the same clan who were not good at studying but knew some arithmetic to do business.

Everyone's first reaction was to expose Pang Tong's identity, because his appearance was too conspicuous and unforgettable. Then they noticed Huang Chengyan.

The noises continued to rise and fall, and soon reached the Huang and Sima manors. However, the Pang manor was a little further away, on Lumen Mountain, so it could not be heard for a while.

Before Huang Chengyan had walked two or three miles, guests from Huangjiazhuang came to greet him in their carriages.

Huang Chengyan was quite friendly to the people. He ordered his servants to use the ox-and-donkey carts to load the wealth and goods. He picked three donkeys himself, and he and Pang Tong rode one donkey each to go back and settle down. Meng Jian, who was doing odd jobs with Pang Tong, was also given a donkey.

"Be careful! Handle it with care! What's in it is celadon produced in Yuzhang County. If you drop it hard, it will break!" After Huang Chengyan got on the donkey, he noticed that the servant who was helping to move the money and goods was too heavy-handed, so he immediately stopped him.

He did not bring any vulgar things like gold, silver, and jewelry with him this time, because he knew that old friends like Pang Degong and Sima Hui were all noble and elegant people, and the young talents who followed them to study were not greedy for money.

Therefore, he only brought some elegant things prepared by Zhuge Liang to give to relatives, friends and guests. There were Jingdezhen celadon from Poyang County, and the newly-made Lushan cloud produced in Chaisang, plus a batch of folding fans, crane cloaks and other clothing items produced by Zhuge's family. The materials were not expensive, but they were exquisite and elegant.

In addition, Han Confucianism was inseparable from civil and military affairs, and many students also needed to wear swords. At the beginning of the year, the Zhuge brothers invented the method of pouring steel, and most of the poured steel was used to produce steel armor. Later, with the victory over Huang Zu, there was not so much demand for iron armor, and the famous craftsman Pu Yuan also had time to figure out new uses for poured steel.

Pu Sheng and Pu Yuan, uncle and nephew, were originally weapons forgers and had been doing this business for many years. When they had some free time, their first reaction was to use cast steel to forge swords and weapons. Later, Zhuge Jin also inspected and gave them advice once or twice.

Historically, Pu Yuan was famous for his exquisite mastery of quenching technology, but without the intervention of theory, it would take him more than ten years to reach that level when his craftsmanship reached perfection.

Now with the guidance of Zhuge Jin, who knew the physical and chemical principles behind the quenching process, Pu Yuan avoided many detours when doing quenching experiments and also gained a vague understanding of some other process principles of metal surface hardening treatment.

So when Huang Chengyan came to Jingzhou this time, he also brought a batch of precious gifts, which were dozens of precious swords and sabers that could be given as gifts. They were definitely good things that people with lofty ideals wanted.

The farmhands of Huang's family took the gifts from the ship, divided them into seven or eight ox carts and donkey carts, and barely loaded them all, then returned to Huang's village, dragging their heavy wheel tracks.

Huang Chengyan, Pang Tong and Meng Jian had just taken a break and had a simple lunch at the farm. Not long after, they heard that an old friend had come to visit.

As the younger generation, Pang Tong and Meng Jian hurried out to greet them. Just as they arrived at the gate of the village, they saw an old man with white hair and a youthful face, holding a rhubarb stick, coming with a few young people.

Pang Tong and Meng Jian quickly performed the etiquette as disciples. It turned out that the old man with the rhubarb stick was Sima Hui.

"I heard that you have made great achievements in the two years since you left. That's cause for celebration. But in these turbulent times, you can't just pursue fame, fortune and fame. A gentleman should do what he should do and not do what he shouldn't do." Sima Hui acted like a senior and said a few words.

Pang Tong was still as unruly as he was when he was young: "How dare I forget what you said, sir? We have followed the General of Chariots and Cavalry for more than two years, and we have always been upright and honest. We dare not forget our roots. We have helped the country to maintain stability, and we are not ashamed of the people."

Sima Hui nodded and said, "All is fair in war, and I won't criticize some tricks. I heard that you have really made the people feel safe in Yuzhang, and you deserve this comment.

Let's get to know each other. These people are also the junior brothers of Kong Ming and Gong Wei. They came to Xiangyang to study in the three years since Kong Ming left. This is Xiang Lang from this county, Shan Fu and Shi Tao from Yingchuan, Yin Mo and Li Ren from Zitong. "

Upon hearing this, Pang Tong and Meng Jian immediately bowed to the few people, and the five people also hurriedly returned the greeting, thus becoming acquaintances.

(End of this chapter)