Han officials

Chapter 71: Thinking about Recruiting Every Day

As the news of Wei Zhe's ennoblement spread, the prefect's mansion was filled with guests the next day.

"Lord, all the families in the county have sent gifts, and someone from Qingzhou has also requested an audience."

Yuan Jun was reporting with a flushed face, and Wei Zhe was not as excited as him.

"Qingzhou?"

"Yes, it's Qingzhou!" Yuan Jun explained with a smile, "When the powerful men of Donglai heard that the Lord was delighted, many of them volunteered."

Because according to the system of this dynasty, the retainers of the marquises also have ranks.

For example, household steward, household clerk, concubine's son, servant, messenger, gatekeeper, etc.

The rank of a household steward is generally three hundred stones, and the rest are mostly minor officials of two hundred stones or one hundred stones.

However, the powerful people from Qingzhou who came to him were naturally not looking for such a minor position as an official.

The reason they volunteered was because they were optimistic about Wei Zhe's future.

After all, anyone with eyes can see that Wei Zhe has a bright future.

Even if he doesn't become one of the Three Dukes in the future, he will probably at least be one of the Nine Ministers.

By then, as retainers, they would naturally be able to benefit from it to some extent, and perhaps they would be able to transform from powerful people into nobles.

Everyone knows that it is easy to be an official under the Three Dukes.

Haven’t you seen that most of the disciples and former officials of the Yuan family of Runan became prefects with a salary of two thousand stones?
……

After briefly explaining the purpose of these people's visit, Yuan Jun said with a smile:
"Now everyone in Qingzhou says: 'Guan has mastered all the virtues of the Qi people!' Everyone who hears this agrees deeply."

Hearing him say this, Wei Zhe was really stunned.

"What's the meaning of this statement?"

"Hahaha~ Your Excellency, have you forgotten that Lü Buwei's ancestors and Guan Zhong were both from Qi?"

Hearing this, Wei Zhe suddenly burst into laughter.

Every era has its own memes, and this can be considered a kind of dry humor unique to the people of the Han Dynasty.

After all, the State of Qi originated from Jiang Ziya, and Jiang Shang was of the Jiang clan and the Lu family.

Guan Zhong united the nine states and brought peace to the world, enabling Duke Huan of Qi to dominate.

But Lu Buwei's achievements were not bad either. With just one sentence "rare goods are valuable", he created an emperor who will be remembered forever.

Behind the Qingzhou people's ridicule, there is actually a deep envy of the Guan family.

Of course, jokes aside, after chatting for a while, Wei Zhe suddenly realized that this was indeed a good opportunity to recruit talents.

Due to the unique geographical environment, a special geopolitical relationship has been formed between Liaodong and Qingzhou.

Compared with the Youzhou counties west of Liaoze, Liaodong has more exchanges with the Qingzhou counties.

Moreover, Wei Zhe's wife's family was the Guan family of Beihai.

Various factors combined have led to the fact that, except for Liaodong, Wei Zhe's popularity and influence in the Qingzhou counties are much higher than that in the western counties of Youzhou.

After realizing this, Wei Zhe naturally would not let go of this advantage.

It is difficult to recruit outstanding talents from other states and counties, and Qingzhou cannot be missed. It would be good to recruit a few more people.

However, after reading those visiting cards, Wei Zhe looked disappointed.

The quality...seems not very good!
"Is there anyone else?"

Seeing that Wei Zhe seemed dissatisfied, Yuan Jun was also in a dilemma for a moment. After all, he was from Lelang and was not very familiar with Qingzhou.

However, Yuan Jun understood the hidden meaning of Wei Zhe's words.

Obviously, our prince is planning to recruit some talented people from Qingzhou.

Thinking of this, Yuan Jun immediately suggested, "Sir, why not summon Gongsun Yangming to ask him? He's from Donglai and Jiaodong, and his ancestors were officials of the rank of 2,000 stone official. He must be familiar with the people in this state!"

Hearing him say this, Wei Zhe thought so too and immediately sent someone to invite him.

Wei Zhe also wrote a letter to Taishi Ci, asking him if he had any local talents to recommend.

It’s true, after a few rounds of discussions, Wei Zhe actually found several suitable candidates.

……

"So be it!" The next day, in the backyard of the prefect's mansion.

After deciding on the candidates, Wei Zhe simply said, "I will issue a letter of engagement in my name, inviting Guo Zini as the household steward, Shi Yi as the doorman, and Sun Shao as the groom."

Speaking of which, the three people chosen by Wei Zhe basically all came from humble backgrounds.

For example, Shi Yi was from Yingling, Beihai, but was just an average-class family.

Now this person is just a minor official in Yingling County and has not yet been appreciated by any noble.

However, if Wei Zhe remembered correctly, when this person later served in the county government, he was ridiculed by Beihai Prime Minister Kong Rong, who said that the word "shi" should be replaced by "min" instead of "min".

Unexpectedly, Shi Yi actually changed his surname and called himself Yi after hearing this.

However, Shi Yi still failed to make a name for himself under Kong Rong. Later, he attached himself to Liu Yao, following him to Jiangdong to avoid the chaos. By chance, he entered the service of the Eastern Wu, where he had the opportunity to rise to prominence. He served as Cavalry Commandant, Loyal and Righteous Colonel, Lieutenant General, Lieutenant General, Palace Attendant, Law Enforcement Officer, and Minister of the Secretariat, and was granted the title of Marquis of Duxiang. He died at the age of 81.

It can be said that this is another low-level talent that has not yet been discovered.

The same is true for Sun Shao, whose experience is even very similar to Shi Yi's.

A fellow Beihai native, Sun Shao was still a village scholar, but several years later, he would enter the county government. He later served as a Gongcao to Kong Rong, the Beihai Prime Minister, but after fleeing to Jiangdong with Liu Yao, he assisted Sun Quan. He served as the prefect of Lujiang and the chief secretary to the General of Chariots and Cavalry. After Sun Quan proclaimed himself King of Wu, Sun Shao became Wu's first prime minister.

It can be said that if it were not for this chaotic time, Sun Shao, who came from a humble background, would probably not have had such an opportunity.

Among the three, Shu Guoyuan is the only one who is doing the best now.

Although the Guo family of Gai County, Le'an County claimed to be descended from the Guo family of the Shangqing of Qi State, there was no prominent person before Guo Yuan.

But Guo Yuan was born intelligent. He studied under the great Confucian scholar Zheng Xuan when he was young, and is now well-known in Qingzhou.

Later, during the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao recruited Guo Yuan to serve as a subordinate of the Minister of Works, placing him in charge of military farming. Guo Yuan utilized his talents to perfect the military farming system, and within just five years, the granaries of the Wei Kingdom were fully stocked.

Therefore, when Cao Cao conquered Guanzhong, he specially left Guo Yuan to serve as a logistics officer and appointed him as the Chief Clerk of the Palace, overseeing all affairs in the palace. Later, he appointed him as the Grand Coachman, one of the Nine Ministers.

But as I said, it is not easy to become an official, and Guo Yuan is still a commoner now.

Therefore, Wei Zhe's expedition to Pi Guoyuan this time was actually just a try, and it would not be a big deal if it didn't work out.

……

The next day, Gaomi, Beihai.

Deep in the village, under a dense old locust tree, a group of Confucian scholars were sitting around.

An old man with white hair and chicken skin and a white beard sat under a tree and gave a lecture. His voice was neither hurried nor slow, and very peaceful.

"I am glad to have a virtuous woman, thinking of her as a gentleman's enemy, and not to be tempted by her beauty. I think of her day and night, and lament the way of husband and wife in the world. If I cannot have her, my love will not be diminished."

After explaining the sentence in "The Analects of Confucius" commenting on "The Book of Songs" "joyful but not lewd, sad but not sorrowful", the old man gently tapped the ruler and stopped talking.

When the Confucian scholars around heard this, they immediately knew that today's lecture had come to an end, so they all stood up and expressed their gratitude.

After the ceremony, the Confucian scholars did not dare to make a noise and left in an orderly manner.

This person is Zheng Xuan, the top master of Confucian classics and the leader of Confucianism in China.

In fact, after the Party Ban was lifted, the next year, the foreign relative General He Jin, in order to win over the hearts of the people, first recruited Zheng Xuan to serve as an official in the court. The officials of the prefectures and counties forced Zheng Xuan to go, and Zheng Xuan had no choice but to go to the court to meet He Jin.

In order to show his respect for the wise and humble, He Jin treated Zheng Xuan with great courtesy and treated him with a table and a stick.

However, Zheng Xuan was forced to go to the capital, and after a perfunctory visit, he stayed there for only one night before fleeing without waiting for He Jin to grant him an official position. From then on, he lived in seclusion in his hometown, gathering students to teach, devoting himself to the study of classics, and writing books.

Due to his many years of academic research, his reputation has spread throughout the world, and many people come from far and wide to become his disciple.

The scene of today's lecture is relatively small, but in the past, the number of people attending his lectures often exceeded a thousand.

People in Qingzhou all said that Zheng Xuan's "house was full of books and he had tens of thousands of students."

After seeing Guo Yuan standing there with an embarrassed look on his face, Zheng Xuan smiled warmly and waved to him.

"Zini, what's the confusion?"

After all, Guoyuan was different from other students attending the class. He was a disciple of Zheng Xuan.

So Zheng Xuan was still very concerned about this disciple.

Seeing this, Guo Yuan immediately told his teacher all his troubles...
-
I'm still writing the next chapter, so read it tomorrow morning.

Talents in Qingzhou at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty were so scattered, they were all over the world, and it was really hard to find them. Alas, I searched for a long time but didn't find a suitable candidate.

It’s all Kong Rong’s fault! O(∩_∩)O Haha~
(End of this chapter)