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

Li Chang continued:

"Second, reorganize the soldiers and rebuild their faith! We must let the soldiers know who they are fighting for! Now that we have achieved a great victory over the Xianbei, our morale is at its peak. Coupled with the fact that the entire army has become literate, we can reorganize the soldiers!"

At this point, I casually added the political commissar thing to the mix!

All the military officers' eyes lit up, as did Xiahou Lan and Qian Zhao among the civil officials!

Li Chang exchanged a glance with them. "This requires your cooperation. You are the ones who understand the soldiers best."

The generals nodded in agreement.

"Third, win over the hearts and minds of the people, adopt abandoned infants and toddlers, and send minor officials to the countryside to spread propaganda. Make those prisoners of war mine, clear land, and build cities!"

Of course, we should also slip in Liu Bei's own agenda: now that the people are able to eat their fill, they should know who made them eat their fill!

That's just something that's hard to say outright.

"Fourth, further expand the border trade and the tea-horse grain trade. Su Shuang and Zhang Shiping, we have captured too many horses now, and we cannot afford to feed them all for the time being. You must store enough grain for at least three years within a year!"

"promise!"

Although Su Shuang and Zhang Shiping did not understand why, they resolutely did as instructed.

"Fifth, we can try to open our academy."

"Um?"

Upon hearing this, everyone perked up!

Xun Chen, who had been vaguely guessing the purpose of Li Chang's previous plans, has now completely forgotten about them!

Le Yin also started to tidy up his clothes. He had worked hard for a month without running away, all because he had heard about this!

Of all those present, who was more suitable than him?

Upon seeing this, Xun Chen immediately raised the problems he had discovered over the past few months: "Yanmen is too small, has a small population, and is too remote. Even with our lord here, making people believe Yanmen is safe, why would scholars from all over the land come here?"

Le Yin nodded and frankly said, "If it weren't for my disciple Zijing, I wouldn't have come to Yanmen. I imagine it would be the same for others. If it were Taiyuan Prefecture, I might have considered it."

Unfortunately, they are currently only the governors of Bingzhou and the prefects of Yanmen, not yet the governors of Bingzhou.

Li Chang nodded:

"Therefore, we need to educate the people, and even the barbarians, in advance at Yanmen! If you can transform the barbarians into Chinese, do you think the entire Han Dynasty will look up to you? Will they respect you as the Xunzi and Lezi of our time?"

Even... hundreds of years from now, if great Confucian scholars want to educate the barbarians, will they take Xunzi and Yuezi of your time as their teachers?

Upon hearing this, Xun Chen and Yue Yin both gasped in shock.

The two looked at each other and saw undisguised excitement in each other's eyes.

Civilize the barbarians! Transform the barbarians with Chinese culture!

The barbarians submitted, and the Chinese civilization spread far and wide!

If they could truly accomplish this in Bingzhou, not only would they be renowned in their time, but even centuries later, they would surely leave a significant mark on history and be revered as masters by later Confucian scholars!

Xun Chen smoothed his messy beard, suppressing his overwhelming joy, and said with a serious expression:

"Mingdao, you are mistaken. We teach and nurture people precisely to spread the teachings of the sages and enlighten all people, not for mere fame!"

Yue Yin nodded, completely serious:

"That's right. As long as we can teach the Hu people etiquette and make them assimilate into the Han Chinese culture, we are willing to endure any hardship or fatigue."

Mingdao, you're so superficial!

They spoke with great righteousness, but their eyes were frighteningly bright, and even the dark circles under their eyes from staying up all month had faded considerably!

Li Chang: "..."

Speechless!

Alright, alright, you've already put on this act? Have you even thought of your own epitaphs in your minds?

He remained outwardly calm: "I deeply admire the noble character of both gentlemen. However, there is still a major problem... we don't have enough manpower!"

"That's easy!" Yue Yin immediately patted his chest. "I have a few good friends too!"

"Not enough." Li Chang shook his head. "The four prefectures have hundreds of villages. Even if we sent all of us, we still couldn't teach them all."

He paused, then stated the plan he had already devised:

"Previously, the entire army was made literate, and over a thousand soldiers had already learned to recognize five hundred characters. There were also many wounded veterans who, although they could no longer go to the battlefield, were literate, understood principles, and were loyal and reliable."

All these people were assigned to various villages, with two to three people assigned to each village to serve as village head, primary school teacher, and propaganda officer.

They were responsible not only for teaching people to read, but also for conveying government orders, mediating disputes, and organizing civil defense.

Anyone willing to go will be allocated thirty mu of land, exempted from taxes for one year, and their salary will be distributed uniformly by the prefectural government.

After he finished speaking, the entire room fell silent.

The brush in Xun Chen's hand fell onto the table with a "thud".

He suddenly looked up at Li Chang, his eyes filled with shock.

He finally understood!

Li Chang did not lack teachers.

He's using the guise of running a school to plant his own people directly in the most grassroots villages!

Historically, power in rural areas has always been in the hands of local clans and powerful families.

The imperial decrees could only reach the county seat at most, and never actually reach the villages.

The so-called imperial power does not extend to the countryside!

Li Chang's move was tantamount to directly uprooting the aristocratic families and clans!

They appointed literate veterans and ordinary people as village leaders, using elementary education to control the thoughts of the next generation.

In less than ten years, the entire Bingzhou region will be completely under the control of Liu Bei's army!

In the corner, Jia Xu held a teacup. This tea was truly something else! The turbulent emotions in his eyes could no longer be concealed.

He originally thought that Li Chang's literacy order was only to improve the quality of the army.

Unexpectedly, his goal was so far away!

From breaking the monopoly on knowledge to penetrating grassroots power, and then to assimilating the barbarians by adopting a Chinese approach.

Step by step, each link is interconnected, leaving no room for error.

This is hardly the demeanor one would expect from a prefect.

This is clearly laying the foundation for a new dynasty that will last for eternity!

Such a person will either lead everyone to their demise or to eternal glory!

Jia Xu looked at Li Chang, who had a calm expression, and sighed inwardly.

Following such a person, one might truly see a different world.

It's just... a bit exhausting.

He glanced at Yue Yin, who was already planning how to expand his student recruitment, and then at Qian Zhao, who looked utterly hopeless.

How can we let Li Chang know that Jia Xu can also be a great Confucian scholar with a strong sense of righteousness?

……

Once the plan was finalized, the entire Yanmen area immediately sprang into action.

With sufficient guards, Su Shuang drove over two thousand captured Xianbei warhorses south to Jizhou or Sili for trade.

Before the world descended into chaos and grain prices skyrocketed, two thousand warhorses were exchanged for a full three hundred thousand bushels of grain, as well as countless ironware, cloth, tea, and salt.

In order to complete these procedures, he even bribed Emperor Ling of Han with a considerable sum of money!

Sometimes Liu Bei had difficulty recruiting people, partly due to his reputation, which was largely thanks to Li Chang.

When Su Shuang returned, she also brought back several hundred destitute refugees and a dozen or so impoverished scholars.

Zhang Shiping was stationed at the border trade market, trading cattle, sheep, wool, and leather with the Southern Xiongnu and Qiang-Hu tribes.

Tea, silk, and ironware from Yanmen were in high demand on the grasslands.

In just one month, the tax revenue from the trade exceeded the total tax revenue of Yanmen County for the entire previous year.

For the first time, the county government's granaries and treasuries were overflowing.

Zhang Fei led several thousand prisoners to reclaim wasteland, mine, and build fortresses in the three counties and north of Yanmen.

He carried a whip and patrolled the construction site every day. Anyone who dared to slack off would be given a lash.

The prisoners were so well-trained by him that they were willing to work themselves to the bone!

Even so, prisoners would occasionally escape, and a few would die unexpectedly from time to time.

Even with Zhang Fei mastering a set of skills, it still wasn't enough.

Building fortresses, mining, clearing land, digging irrigation canals—manpower was needed everywhere.

That day, Zhang Fei stormed into the main hall of the prefect's mansion with a dark face:

"Fourth brother! We don't have enough people! We don't have enough men!"

And these barbarian prisoners are too weak; they'd die after just a couple of lashes!