I did it all for the Han Dynasty!

Chapter 364 Urgent Needs in a Certain Aspect

Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi were puzzled, wondering where Liu Miao was taking them, but they obediently changed their clothes and followed Liu Miao out of the palace.

"This, this is a brothel?"

The two men gradually became dazed.

"What? You two don't come here often?"

"It's not that I don't come often, it's that I've never come at all!"

"Then what's the point of your lives?"

"..."

Both of them thought Liu Miao was just teasing them, so they started to sulk, believing that Liu Miao was only using the pretext of discussing important matters to lead them to the brothel...

"Tsk! You two are still young, you don't know how good brothels are!"

Liu Miao loudly inquired of Zhou Tai, who was driving the carriage ahead—

"Youping! Tell them! What's in the brothel?"

"There is a woman!"

"anything else?"

"There are men who look at women!"

"Haha! That's right!"

Liu Miao laughed and said, "The most important thing is that we have people!"

"You two lock yourselves in your rooms all day, thinking you know everything just by flipping through official documents and asking your subordinates?"

"Let me tell you! You're still too green!"

"To be a good official, one must first learn to frequent brothels!"

Before they could finish speaking, the carriage had arrived at the women's quarters.

It was already evening, a time when people were coming and going, bustling and noisy.

Liu Miao led Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi to the best spot on the second floor.

Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi were clearly visiting such a place for the first time, and were somewhat uneasy.

In comparison, Liu Miao and Zhou Tai were undoubtedly much more skilled!

"Waiter! Bring me a few good dishes! A few good wines! And a few pretty girls! Put it on Chen Wu's tab!"

"okay!"

Before long, the restaurant served the food, and several maids dressed in silk came up and nestled around them.

Sima Yi: Since we're here, let's make the best of it.

But Zhuge Liang was clearly somewhat resistant, so Liu Miao simply replaced him with someone else.

"Your Majesty...My Lord, this is not a matter of replacing someone!"

Liu Miao shook his head and pointed to the maid next to Zhuge Liang: "She's different!"

Zhuge Liang looked the maid up and down but couldn't see anything different about her.

"She's really different! She understands the Spring and Autumn Annals and has even read Guanzi! Don't believe me? Ask her!"

A flush immediately appeared on Zhuge Liang's fair face, clearly thinking that Liu Miao was playing a trick on him again.

"The former kings enabled farmers, scholars, merchants, and artisans to engage in various activities, so that the profits throughout the year were not excessive among them. Therefore, the people could obtain equal benefits by working together..."

Unexpectedly, the woman actually recited a passage from the Guanzi!
You really know how to do that?
Zhuge Liang's attention was immediately drawn to the other party.

"What if the people cannot be treated equally?"

"The former kings were good at eliminating harm and promoting benefits for the people, so the people of the world flocked to them. What is meant by promoting benefits is to benefit agriculture; what is meant by eliminating harm is to prohibit harm to agriculture..."

Even Sima Yi looked at Zhuge Liang with a speechless expression.

You actually started chatting?

Shouldn't we touch her little hand at this time?

You are such a virtuous person, what are we supposed to do?
Just as everyone was starting to criticize Zhuge Liang in their hearts, a commotion suddenly broke out on the stairs.

"What do you mean my seat was taken?!"

"Young Master Yuan, we have distinguished guests!"

"A distinguished guest? How expensive? Let me see! Can he be more expensive than me?"

Yuan Yao stormed up to the second floor, but as soon as he saw the face of the person sitting by the window, he tried to slip away.

"Get over here!"

"Alas, Your Majesty..."

"Call him brother-in-law outside!"

Liu Miao glared at Yuan Yao: "A regular customer?"

Yuan Yao gave a shy smile: "I don't come often, I don't come often, not as often as my brother-in-law."

"Ok?"

"No, no, it's just that he comes more often than my brother-in-law! It's not that..."

Yuan Yao was almost in tears!
Liu Miao squinted, then suddenly relaxed and smiled.

"It is indeed expensive! You are the son of the General of the Rear, a direct descendant of the Yuan clan of Runan! If this were in the north, even Yuan Shao would have to make you a king, wouldn't he? It seems I have indeed mistreated you..."

Yuan Yao turned pale with fright, his legs trembled, and his features almost melted together: "Brother-in-law, brother-in-law, I was so wrong, so wrong..."

"Is this how you usually chase people away?"

"We're in a rush, but we usually cover the expenses for the other person this time. After all, a man can't lose face, right?"

"This looks more like a human being!"

Liu Miao asked Yuan Yao to sit down, but quickly realized something was wrong.

"You seem to be quite wealthy! How much money did the General leave you back then? How come you haven't spent it all after so long? Want me to lend you some?"

Yuan Yao's face turned pale again: "Not much, really not much! It's all thanks to the Empress's pity and the money she gave me."

"Oh?"

Liu Miao scrutinized Yuan Yao for a long time with an expression that seemed to say, "Do you think I believe you?", while Yuan Yao never dared to meet Liu Miao's gaze.

"Alright, General Hou has been good to me, so I'll leave you some. But take it easy, kid, don't spend it all at once!"

Yuan Yao was overjoyed, exclaiming, "Thank you, brother-in-law! Thank you, brother-in-law!"

Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi both looked at Yuan Yao, Yuan Shu's son, with curiosity.

In a sense, Yuan Yao was not only the direct descendant of the Yuan clan of Runan, but also the crown prince of the Zhong family. If he were placed in the north, he would indeed be at least a prince!

In terms of prestige alone, there are probably very few people in this world who can surpass Yuan Yao!
What puzzled the two even more was—

"Your Majesty brought us here just to meet Young Master Yuan, didn't you?"

"No! He was just an accident, we don't need to worry about him!"

Liu Miao picked up a piece of fish with his chopsticks, put it in his mouth, and then frowned. "Too salty."

“This brothel always uses the freshest ingredients, but this fish is extremely salty, it’s obviously pickled, something must have happened at sea these past few days.”

Sima Yi summoned the shopkeeper and asked him. Sure enough, the shopkeeper said that strong winds had recently risen at sea, and they dared not go out to catch fish. Therefore, all the shops in Jinling City were now using pickled old fish.

"besides--"

Liu Miao instructed Zhuge Liang to listen to the idle chatter of the guests at the next table.

"I'm leaving this matter to you!"

"This...isn't that inappropriate?"

“I heard that your wife likes coral, and I just sent her a pot of blood coral weighing a thousand pounds a few days ago! Your daughter likes pearls, so I also sent her several hundred pearls, so she can choose for herself.”

"I see! Haha! No problem! No problem!!"

"..."

That corrupt official! He actually embezzled funds!
Liu Miao gritted his teeth.

damn thing!
A thousand-pound blood coral! I don't even have one! You've already coveted it?

"Youping! Remember what that person looks like, find out who he is, and then lead people to ransack his house!"

"Here!"

"Remember to send the blood coral over!"

"Here!"

"And wives, concubines, and daughters..."

"Here!"

"..."

Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi gaped, utterly astonished by what they had seen and heard.

Liu Miao, on the other hand, ate the side dishes on the side as if nothing had happened.

"Understand?"

"Women's quarters! What a wonderful place!"

Both of them were filled with shock.

Could it be that... Liu Miao's visit to the brothel wasn't simply for amusement?
Liu Miao nudged Yuan Yao, who was standing silently beside him, twice.

What are you looking at here for?

"Today, there are a hundred kinds of performances, and I have come to watch them."

"I guess so!"

Liu Miao nodded: "Of all the performances, which one do you like the most?"

Yuan Yao originally intended to say that the case was upside down.

What man wouldn't love to watch a young girl dance, swaying her lithe and graceful waist?
However, you get tired of seeing that stuff after a while, so Yuan Yao suggested a second option.

"In the past, we watched elephants, but now we watch actors."

Like elephants, they are valued for their rarity, but once you see them all the time, they become just so-so.

So now Yuan Yao's interest has officially shifted from elephants to actors.

Liu Miao then asked Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi, "Do you know what a 'paiyou' is?"

"Of course I know."

Although neither Zhuge Liang nor Sima Yi had ever visited the Women's Quarter, they were both very knowledgeable in theory.

"Paiyou is a type of entertainer who tells jokes and sings. Xu Shuzhong's 'Shuowen Jiezi' defines it as 'play'."

"That's right, it's a play."

The maidservant beside Liu Miao quickly stuffed a piece of fish into Liu Miao's mouth, as if to say, "Stop touching it, hurry up and eat a bite first."

Liu Miao remained unmoved, clearly wanting both.

"But do Kongming and Zhongda know why, among so many things for the common people, actors have become so popular?"

Based on what had just happened, both Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi believed that Liu Miao's release was not without reason, and that there must have been a deeper meaning behind it.

Zhuge Liang: "Because the people are busy with other projects, but actors can perform all sorts of things, so the people like to watch them?"

Sima Yi: "Is it because this skill doesn't require arduous practice that entertainers have started practicing acting?"

Liu Miao laughed and said, "You're all right, but you haven't hit the nail on the head."

"Nowadays, the people of Nanjing are not all rich, but at least most of them have no problem making ends meet."

"In this way, if one is not concerned about making a living, one will naturally become idle, and once a person becomes idle, he will want to do something else."

"Watching various performances and visiting brothels are things they want to do."

"But as Kongming said, one will eventually get tired of these things."

Liu Miao then looked at Sima Yi.

Fortunately, there are quite a few literate people among the general population nowadays.

"These people are capable of creating stories."

“The stories created are not only thrilling and exciting, but also do not require entertainers to spend half their lives training, so the cost is lower, and naturally people are more willing to create and practice acting.”

"Therefore, the popularity of haiku is not only because musicians have begun to innovate, but also because more people in the general population are now literate, so there are people who listen to haiku. And once there are people who listen, there will naturally be people who will do it."

Just then, music started playing downstairs.

The actor's performance begins.

The musician recited two passages.

One section is about Emperor Gaozu's uprising after slaying the white snake.

Another part is about Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King of Western Chu, being ambushed from all sides and committing suicide at the Wujiang River.

Sure enough, no matter how much time passed, Gaozu and Xiang Yu would always be inexplicably linked together.

Judging from Liu Miao's opinion, neither of these two performances by actors was very good.

Even so, the performance was still popular with the local people, many of whom were so engrossed in it that they kept asking the musicians questions.

"What happened to Xiang Yu? What happened? Tell me!"

In response, the person in the music could only offer an awkward but polite smile.

If you keep talking like this, you could get your head chopped off!

At this moment, Liu Miao suddenly stood up, startling everyone around him!
"Where is Your Majesty going?"

"They said it wouldn't work!"

Liu Miao let out two howls as a way of warming up his voice.

"Listen carefully as I tell you a story that will make everyone willingly go to sea!"

(End of this chapter)