Three Kingdoms: I am not Liu Bian

Chapter 152 Cao Song: Money? No way! Life? I'll give you my life...

Yong'an Palace
An urgent official document from Qingzhou startled Liu Bian, who was processing memorials, and he quickly ordered Gao Wang to take it from Ruan Yu's hands.

However, upon opening the memorial, Liu Bian was somewhat speechless.

"Your humble servant, the Prefect of Qingzhou and Commander-in-Chief of the Vanquishing Bandits, holding the authority of the Imperial Guard, bows and pays his respects!"
Your Highness once promised me the ambition of being a "General Who Conquers the West." Now, the Qiang and Hu tribes are causing trouble in the western borderlands. Why has Your Highness left me in the imperial court? I volunteer to lead the western expedition. Even if I am just a captain or a soldier, I am willing to be the vanguard. I only wish to wield weapons and armor to help the court quell the rebellion. Even if I die nine times, I will not turn back.

"I humbly beseech Your Highness to grant me your long-cherished promise, and allow me to fulfill my long-held aspirations. Even if I were to die on the battlefield, I would die with a smile on my face!"

So Cao Cao came here to ask for battle, insisting on going to the northwest to participate in quelling the Liangzhou rebellion, and was even willing to serve as an ordinary soldier.

The situation in Qingzhou had barely stabilized under Cao Cao's control, and now he was still suppressing bandits in various counties. How could he possibly change his leadership so soon?

However, when Ruan Yu submitted another memorial that came along with this one requesting permission to fight, Liu Bian couldn't help but laugh and curse Cao Cao for being treacherous.

In another memorial, Cao Cao recounted his actions as governor of Qingzhou and reported to the crown prince on the recent suppression of bandits and the restoration of people's livelihoods in Qingzhou.

But after reading the whole passage, Cao Cao's words conveyed only one meaning—he wanted money!
“That’s not right. If Cao Mengde wants money, shouldn’t he go to his father? The national treasury of the Han Dynasty is in the hands of Ju Gao Gong. Why would he come to me to complain?” Liu Bian leaned against the armchair and looked at Ruan Yu. “Take this memorial to the Grand Minister of Agriculture and let him give his reply as appropriate.”

Ruan Yu was taken aback, a strange look on his face. After a moment's hesitation, he said, "The Grand Minister of Agriculture has already reviewed it."

"Huh?" Liu Bian looked at the bamboo slip in his hand, but saw no reply. He frowned slightly and said, "But this memorial has no reply from the Grand Minister of Agriculture. Why is that?"

Ruan Yu kept a straight face, seemingly forcibly suppressing a laugh, and slowly said, "The Grand Minister of Agriculture threw the bamboo slips out and ordered me to write the reply on his behalf... 'Get out.'"

"Grand Minister Cao said, 'Money? No way! But if you want my life... ask Cao Mengde if he dares to take it!'"

Upon hearing this, Liu Bian couldn't help but smile. These days, the court was so busy with the suppression of the rebellions in Liang and Bing provinces that even Liu Tao, the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, had fallen ill. How much better off could Cao Song, who was in charge of the purse strings, be?

When I saw Cao Song yesterday, I noticed that he, who used to be so fat that he needed help to walk, had become noticeably thinner and looked rather haggard. He hadn't even gone home for the past few days and had been staying at the Ministry of Agriculture's office.

People who are obsessed with working overtime are naturally full of anger, and when Cao Cao's own son comes to ask for money, Cao Song naturally vents all his anger on him.

Good heavens! The national treasury only has 6.25 billion coins. It is estimated that the annual logistical support for the 60,000 good men's army in Liangzhou, including losses along the way, will require no less than 7 million shi of grain.

The price of grain negotiated between the Grand Minister of Agriculture and grain merchants from various regions was 100 coins per shi (a unit of dry measure), which means that the Liangzhou army needed at least 700 million coins to quell the rebellion.

The five million shi of grain needed in Bingzhou would cost at least five hundred million coins a year.

The army will set off in a few days. The estimated annual military expenditure for the two pacification armies alone is already as high as 1.2 billion coins. What if the campaign is not completed in a year?
Do you want money as a reward for winning?
Do An Ding, Liangzhou, and Bingzhou need money?
Cao Song saw that the national treasury had finally become a little full, but most of the money was already planned for expenditure. Yet he still wanted a grant of 300 million coins to repair canals and reclaim wasteland.
But Cao Song refused, while Liu Bian found it difficult to refuse Cao Cao.

Alas, what can he do when he has indeed promised Cao Cao that he will be given the opportunity to go to the Northwest?

Moreover, when the battle was at its most intense, Liu Bian was unable to send additional troops to aid Cao Cao, but he did give him the authority to recruit 4,000 soldiers.

With unrest imminent in Qingzhou, Cao Cao naturally couldn't go to the six commanderies and three rivers to recruit good men. So Cao Cao went to his cousin Cao Hong in Qiao County and ordered Cao Hong to gather a thousand sons of the Cao and Xiahou clans to come and join him.

Then Cao Cao wrote to his family in Luoyang, asking his third brother Cao Yu, who had practiced martial arts since childhood, Bian Bing, the younger brother of his concubine Bian Shi, and Ding Chong and Ding Fei, the two sons of his father-in-law Ding Gong, to go to Yanzhou to meet him. With the help of his younger brother, brother-in-law, and cousin, and with Xun Chen serving as the Chief Clerk and Zhu Ling serving as the Chief Military Officer, the rough framework of Cao Cao's Qingzhou Governor's Office was established.

After arriving in Puyang, the capital of Yanzhou, Cao Cao obtained permission from Yuan Pang, the governor of Yanzhou at the time, and then went to Dunqiu County in Dongjun to recruit soldiers.

Back when Cao Cao was serving as the Northern Commandant of Luoyang, he offended too many people. He was promoted in name only but demoted in reality and transferred to be the Magistrate of Dunqiu. However, he was quite prestigious and popular in Dunqiu, and countless people responded to his call. Cao Cao selected a thousand young and strong men from among them.

Among them was a short but brave and fierce hero who caught his attention. His name was Yue Jin. More than 300 of the thousand men were brought by Yue Jin. So Cao Cao appointed Yue Jin as a colonel to command a troop of soldiers (a thousand men).

Later, Cao Cao passed through Juye County in Shanyang State and appointed Li Zheng, the head of the powerful Li family in Juye, as a colonel. His son Li Qian, his nephew Li Dian, and 600 other members of the Li family joined the army. He then went to Dongpingyang to find his friend Bao Xin, who was retired at home. With Bao Xin's help, he recruited Yu Jin, a strongman from Juping County in Taishan Commandery, and a total of 1,400 soldiers before entering Linzi.

With 4,000 soldiers recruited, plus the troops from various counties and prefectures in Qingzhou, pacifying Zhang Rao was a piece of cake. After the Yellow Turban Rebellion was quelled, Cao Cao ordered Colonels Bao Xin, Yue Jin, Yu Jin, and Li Qian to lead their troops to cooperate with various counties in suppressing bandits and Yellow Turban remnants. The situation was now much better.

According to Cao Cao's memorial, in another three months, the bandits in Qingzhou and the remnants of the Yellow Turbans could be largely wiped out.

The counties and prefectures of Qingzhou gradually returned to stability, and the people resumed their farming. Cao Cao even personally went to Beihai Kingdom to survey the terrain and supervised Qin Zhou, the governor of Beihai, to rebuild the long-abandoned Juding Canal. The canal was completed two days ago, drawing water from the Juding Marsh to irrigate more than 10,000 hectares of farmland.

However, the memorial also mentioned at the end that there were many refugees in Qingzhou, and he wanted to build more irrigation canals to irrigate the farmland, and also wanted to recruit refugees to reclaim wasteland and settle down in the fields. He hoped that the Crown Prince could allocate some money to Qingzhou.

Although it was just a normal report on his duties, it was sent along with the report requesting to join the battle.

Clearly, Cao Cao did not actually want to go to the northwest. After all, he had worked hard in Qingzhou for nearly half a year, and his previous efforts were about to bear fruit. Who would choose to leave his post at this time and hand over all his achievements?

This is clearly an attempt to use the excuse that he did not send Cao Cao to the northwest to quell the rebellion, hoping that he, the crown prince, will approve his application for funding!
However, Liu Bian still felt that many of Cao Cao's policies in Qingzhou could be extended to other provinces.

For example, Cao Cao recruited refugees to provide labor relief, building irrigation canals and reclaiming wasteland. He only provided food and tools, but granted the refugees unclaimed farmland and newly reclaimed and irrigated land in the province. This not only increased the population and solved the refugee problem, but also further accelerated the recovery of people's livelihood in Qingzhou.

Therefore, Liu Bian ultimately paid out of his own pocket to have Tian Feng transfer 300 million coins from the Crown Prince's treasury to Cao Cao.

Afterwards, Liu Bian and his officials from the Crown Prince's residence handled official business until dusk. At dinner time, Liu Bian invited all the retainers of the Crown Prince's residence to a banquet to see them off before they went on their expedition.

At the banquet, everyone got completely drunk. Lu Zhi and Dong Zhuo even danced together in the hall when they were having a good time. Even the usually serious Huangfu Song laughed heartily, which was a rare sight for him.

Liu Bian, who has never been a heavy drinker, did not get drunk. At the same time, he faced several rebellions, and the burden on his shoulders was too heavy. The two capitals and thirteen prefectures of the Han Dynasty were all on his shoulders. He could no longer drink to his heart's content as he used to.

After returning to his bedchamber, a slightly tipsy Liu Bian ordered someone to prepare hot water for him to take a bath.

As the crown prince, his bathing place was not a tub, but a special bathing hall with a pool made of blue bricks.

The hot water, which had been prepared long ago, was heated in the adjacent kitchen and then flowed into the bath through bamboo pipes.

Amidst the rising steam, a woman dressed only in a pink gauze dress gracefully approached Liu Bian, knelt on the ground, lowered her head, and somewhat awkwardly began to undress him.

(End of this chapter)