The Three Kingdoms: The Oath of the Peach Garden, the Rise of the Han Dynasty

As they approached Jinyang City, Bi Lan saw a group of people standing at the city gate from afar.

The one in the lead was dressed in a coarse cloth outfit, with his trousers rolled up to his knees, his feet covered in mud, and he was holding a hoe.

If it weren't for the imposing generals Guan Yu and Zhang Fei accompanying him, and the introduction by Li Chang who arrived on the scene...

Bi Lan would never believe that this person was Liu Bei, the dignified governor of Bingzhou!

"Attendant Bi has come from afar; he must have had a long and arduous journey."

Liu Bei put down his hoe, wiped his hands on his clothes, and greeted him with a smile:

"I just checked on the autumn harvest outside the city and didn't have time to change my clothes. I hope you won't mind."

Bi Lan quickly got out of the carriage, cupped his hands and said, "Prefect Liu, you are too kind. It is I who have troubled you."

Looking at the calluses on Liu Bei's hands, his sun-tanned face, and the sincere smile in his eyes, he suddenly felt a warmth in his heart.

He had seen far too many officials.

Which of those high-ranking officials in Luoyang didn't live a life of luxury, surrounded by servants? Which of them would personally go to the fields to farm?

They wouldn't even consider it dirty if their feet got a little muddy, let alone going to the fields.

But Liu Bei, a dignified governor, actually worked in the fields himself and came to greet him, a eunuch, while wearing coarse clothes.

For the first time, Bi Lan felt a pang of guilt.

He originally planned that once he arrived in Bingzhou, he would extort a sum of money from Liu Bei, at least several hundred thousand coins, to make up for the hardships he had endured along the way.

But now, he has changed his mind.

Forget it.

Let's charge a little less.

Collecting three or four hundred thousand yuan is enough, just a token gesture.

After entering the city, Liu Bei hosted a banquet for Bi Lan.

The banquet was simple, with no delicacies, just local home-style dishes from Bingzhou, and a few jars of homemade sorghum liquor.

But Bi Lan ate with more relish than at any banquet in Luoyang.

After finishing the meal, Li Chang said with a smile, "Attendant Bi, you must be tired from your journey. I have prepared accommodations for you. Please come with me."

Bi Lan nodded and followed Li Chang outside.

He originally thought that the accommodation prepared for him was just an ordinary post station.

But when Li Chang led him to a luxurious mansion with carved beams and painted rafters, with flying eaves and brackets, Bi Lan was completely stunned.

This mansion is ten times more magnificent than his residence in Luoyang! It is many times better than Liu Bei's simple governor's mansion.

"Prefect Li, isn't this going too far?" Bi Lan said somewhat embarrassedly.

"It's no trouble at all," Li Chang explained with a smile.

"This mansion originally belonged to a prominent family in Taiyuan. At the beginning of the year, the Xiongnu rebelled, and there was a small accident. Unfortunately, it could not be saved."

Outside the county seat, the remaining branches of the family were too frightened to accept the mansion and voluntarily sold it to the government at a bargain price.

"I thought that since the Attendant-in-Ordinary was sent by His Majesty and was of a high status, I couldn't neglect him. So I tidied up this place and made it available for him to stay in."

"Moreover," Li Chang said sincerely,

"In Bingzhou, if the Imperial Attendants are not provided with comfortable accommodations, it would be a dereliction of duty on our part. Only by ensuring their comfort can we better oversee Bingzhou for His Majesty, wouldn't we?"

Looking into Li Changzhen's sincere eyes, Bi Lan felt another surge of emotion!

Not only did they not mistreat him, they also gave him the best mansion to live in!

Looking back, I realize I shouldn't have even considered taking advantage of the situation.

Forget it.

Let's charge a little less.

Three hundred thousand coins, I suppose!

That's the lowest it can be!

Li Chang led Bi Lan on a tour of the mansion's storerooms.

Pushing open the warehouse door, Bi Lan's eyes widened instantly.

The room was filled with gold, silver, jade, pearls, and agate, piled up like a small mountain. Moonlight shone through the window, so bright it was hard to open one's eyes.

"These were all rescued from the Southern Xiongnu; nobody wanted them anymore, so we just picked them up."

Li Chang casually said, "If you like anything, please take it. Consider it a small token of our appreciation from Bingzhou."

Bi Lan swallowed.

Rescue? Found? This is clearly a valuable item from a prominent family?!

But now, whoever speaks, it must be something they found, something they snatched back from the Xiongnu!

In the past, he would have pounced on her long ago.

But now, he simply shook his head and politely declined, saying, "No need. I am here on His Majesty's orders to supervise; how can I accept your gifts?"

Li Chang repeatedly presented gifts, even bringing them up to the emperor, before Bi Lan reluctantly accepted them.

Then, Li Chang took out a stack of papers from his pocket and handed them to Bi Lan:

"Since you don't like these things and are only looking after them for His Majesty, then you should be interested in these items."

Bi Lan took the paper with a puzzled look and unfolded it.

The next second, his breathing stopped instantly!

The drawings on the paper were simple sketches.

There were improved versions of the waterwheel, more labor-saving seed drills, a curved plow, a dragon-bone waterwheel, and all sorts of irrigation tools and agricultural machinery that he had never seen before!

Although the lines were rough and the markings were simple, Bi Lan could tell at a glance how much manpower could be saved and how much more grain could be produced once these things were made!

My soulmate!!!

He hadn't even thought about many of these things!

His eyes shone like stars as he stared intently at the flawed, incomplete improvement plan.

The waterwheel depicted in the picture has a more rational structure and is more suitable for agricultural work than the one he improved years ago. It can be operated by one person and can lift water to a higher place.

He seemed to see it all: if a car had overturned like that by the dry riverbed in his hometown when he was a child, his mother wouldn't have starved to death, and his uncle and brother wouldn't have been beaten to death for trying to get water!

He wouldn't be sold into the palace and become a male-female eunuch.

A tear fell onto the paper without warning.

The ink smudged.

Bi Lan quickly wiped her eyes with her sleeve, but the more she wiped, the more tears she shed.

So many years have passed.

He served as a eunuch for so many years, amassed so much wealth, and witnessed so much of the wickedness of human nature.

He thought his heart had long since hardened, that it was already dead.

But now, looking at these sketches, the softest part of his heart was still pierced with pain.

It turns out that there really are people in this world who are willing to put in the effort to do these things.

It turns out that there really are people in this world who care about the common people.

Li Chang stood to the side, watching him quietly.

My inner thoughts: Wow, there's more to this than I expected! This person still has a conscience!

After a long while, Bi Lan finally raised her head, her eyes red, and asked in a hoarse voice:

"How...how did you come up with all this stuff?"

"It wasn't my idea." Li Chang shook his head.

"It was discovered little by little by countless ordinary people through centuries of labor. It's just that no one was willing to record it or put in the effort to improve it."

As for me, I only added a tiny bit of my own idea. Whether the consultation was reasonable and whether it could be implemented depends on the craftsmen we found earlier.

"Attendant Bi," Li Chang said, looking into his eyes.

"You are the person in the world who knows these things better than anyone else. These blueprints can only truly be used when they are in your hands."

"I hope you can stay in Bingzhou and work with us to build these things."

"So that all the people of the world may have enough to eat, and no one may suffer the loss of their homes and lives due to droughts or floods."

"Furthermore, we want millions of people around the world, now and in the future, to remember the machines we invented and to use them!"

Bi Lan looked at Li Chang, then at the blueprints in her hand.

So, this eunuch can actually be remembered for all time!

At that moment, he remembered his mother who starved to death, his brother who was beaten to death, the pain of the day he was castrated, and the days in Luoyang when he did whatever it took to get money.

The blueprints in his hands suddenly felt incredibly heavy.

"it is good."

After a long silence, Bi Lan finally nodded, her voice choked with emotion yet filled with unwavering determination.

"I'll stay."

"I will make these things for you... no, I will make them for all the people of the world!"

That night, Bi Lan didn't sleep a wink.

He sat in his study, by candlelight, looking at the sketches one by one, constantly writing and drawing, revising the details.

The sky outside the window gradually brightened.

Bi Lan put down her pen, looked at the rising sun outside the window, and let out a long sigh of relief.

He touched his face and smiled.

For the first time in so many years, he felt like he was living like a human being, and for the first time, he felt useful.

For the first time, I felt truly respected because of my talent and noble character!

Outside the mansion, Li Chang and Jia Xu slept soundly through the night. The next day, they stood side by side and heard that the lights in Bi Lan's study had been on all night.

Jia Xu laughed and said, "Mingdao's skill in deceiving people is becoming more and more refined! You can even find the weaknesses in the hearts of palace servants, so that they work day and night to be the beasts of burden you described."

Li Chang returned Zhou Yu's smile: "Then what is Mr. Wenhe's weakness? Why not become a beast of burden?"

Jia Xu returned Sun Ce's smile: "Hasn't the Dao already been found? I heard you are truly a member of the Daoist sect. Could it be that you can communicate with the mysterious Dao, knowing two thousand years into the past and two thousand years into the future?"