Chapter 7 On the Way to Take Office

  Liu Xin originally had no direct concept of copper coins and only carried a small amount of money on him, never thinking about how heavy six million coins would be. Liu Chong deliberately made things difficult for him, giving Liu Xin all the cash, while handing over more than half of it to Zhang Rang in gold, silver, and silk. Six million coins are six million copper plates, which must weigh tens or even twenty tons. Seeing this money, Liu Xin became worried.

  Liu Zhong didn't care what Liu Xin thought, and took him to see Zhang Rang. Zhang Rang ordered someone to count the money and goods, and then reported five counties for Liu Xin to choose from. It turned out that at that time, selling official positions had developed to the point where even normal promotions required paying for them, with prices equivalent to 25 years of an official's salary, while local officials' prices were doubled. Some who couldn't afford it gave up their posts, so many governor positions were vacant. The five counties Zhang Rang reported were: Wudu, Jiyin, Shanyang, Cangwu, and Kuaiji. Liu Xin had never heard of any of these places.

  "Lord Zhang, can you please arrange a different place for me?" Liu Xin looked at Zhang Rang with pleading eyes.

  "Where do you want to go?" Zhang Rang looked at Liu Xin and made a quiet gesture.

  Liu Xin knew this was about money, anyway Liu Chong gave himself so much money, it's not convenient to bring on the road, so he took advantage of this old eunuch and said: "Your subordinate wants to go to Changshan County, Hebei."

  "Changshan County is in Jizhou, but the position of Taishou is not vacant. However, Hejian seems to have no Taishou yet, and it's not far from Changshan... " Zhang Rang said halfway, then hesitated."

  Liu Xin hastily said: "I have some more gifts for you, sir. I was preparing them for your old age. Please arrange for someone trustworthy to go with me to fetch them."

  "Alright, you go to Hejian, when you arrive, do a good job and don't tarnish the family's reputation. When you have time, go to Beijing to take a look around for me. Doggie, you go with Lord Liu to take care of things efficiently, I'm still waiting to return to Beijing." Zhang Rang said, then closed his eyes. Liu Xin thought to himself, it seems like he'll have to continue to curry favor in the future. The one called Doggie was that little eunuch they met on the first day, probably someone Zhang Rang trusted.

  In the west wing of the Hou Mansion, sixty large wooden chests were neatly arranged. Zhang Dog's throat tightened as he swallowed: "Are all these for Master Zhang?"

  Liu Xin was taken aback, almost falling over, and said "All of this for nothing, I've been busy for days!" Liu Xin steeled herself: "Young Master Zhang, these funds will be divided among you, me, and Lord Zhang, one share each. What do you think?"

  "Then thank you, Lord Liu. In the future, I will make sure to get closer to you." Zhang Dogzi was not polite at all.

  "How can I take this money away?" Liu Xin was still a bit worried.

  "Lord Liu, rest assured, I'll take care of this matter. First, I'll have someone send a copy to the courier station and have it returned to Beijing with Lord Zhang. Then, I'll tell Lord Zhang to assign a few soldiers from his escort to accompany me in escorting you to your new post. Once we arrive at Hejian, I'll bring another copy back to Beijing. What do you think of this arrangement, Lord Liu?"

  "That's all thanks to Master Liu Xin here." Liu Xin suddenly looked at Zhang Dogzi with new eyes, this move was brilliant, even Zhang Rang was deceived.

  Back at the inn, Zhang Rang readily agreed and left with a document, taking the 30 million taels of silver for buying official positions and the twenty boxes that Liu Xin had presented as tribute. Zhang Gou'er led a team of soldiers to load forty boxes onto large carts. Liu Xin went to settle the bill at the guest house, hired a horse-drawn carriage for Ma Yun to ride in, and the group set off from Ju Chao, heading towards Hejian along the main road.

  Liu Xin looked at the excited Zhang Gou'er, then at the team of soldiers following them as guards, and felt a bit unreal. It was so easy to become the governor? He looked again at the forty chests, the ten million they had agreed on just a few days ago had already been reduced to two million without even being handed over, and he felt a slight sense of loss. Ma Yun sat in the carriage but secretly rejoiced, now that Liu Xin was an official, he would naturally not go back to being a thief, and she could finally relax. If only he hadn't become a thief in the first place, she wouldn't have ended up in the Eastern Han dynasty for no reason.

  Now that the eunuch Liu Xin is in power, and this little eunuch Zhang Gou'er is Zhang Rang's nephew, he will probably have some requests for Zhang Rang in the future. So, he deliberately made friends with Zhang Gou'er. Although Zhang Gou'er and Liu Xin had only known each other for a short time, after receiving two million yuan, they felt very close to Liu Xin, treating him as a confidant, and telling him all about the rules of officialdom and interesting stories from the capital on their journey together. Even the secret news of Empress He poisoning Wang Meiren was told to Liu Xin by Zhang Gou'er.

  The original He Empress was called He Lian, the daughter of a butcher from Nanyang named He Zhen. According to the "system of selecting women" and the customs of the Eastern Han dynasty, the daughter of a lowly butcher had no qualifications to enter the palace, but He Zhen bribed the eunuchs in charge of selecting women, and with He Lian's exceptional beauty, she was able to be selected. He Lian was born different from others, standing at seven feet one inch tall, with radiant skin and a slender figure, equivalent to about 1.72 meters today, which would have been considered supermodel material even in Liu Xiu's time. Liu Heng had always been fond of women, and upon seeing this beauty, how could he not be taken by her? After several romantic encounters, she became pregnant and gave birth to a boy named Liu Bian, who is now seven years old. Two years ago, another beautiful woman from Zhao named Wang Shi, the granddaughter of the former Five Officials' Langzhong Wang Bao, was also selected to enter the palace, with a beauty similar to He Lian's, but with exceptional talent, able to read and write, and skilled in conversation. Liu Heng couldn't let her go either, and ordered her to attend to his needs, and after several romantic encounters, she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son named Liu Xie last year. He Empress saw Wang Shi gaining favor and was extremely jealous. Taking advantage of Wang Shi's weakened state after childbirth, which required medication and recovery, He Empress secretly plotted and ordered her trusted eunuchs to poison Wang Shi's medicine, and although Wang Shi was clever, she couldn't defend against the poisoning, and eventually died! Liu Heng quickly discovered the culprit and was furious, deciding to depose He Empress. However, after many eunuchs begged for mercy, he didn't dare punish her. Although He Lian kept her title as empress due to the eunuchs' pleas, it's clear that she had lost Liu Heng's heart forever through his lingering thoughts of Wang Shi. Liu Xiu saw from this story that the power of the eunuchs was almost unstoppable and was secretly shocked.

  As for the soldiers, Liu Xin allowed them to eat fish and meat every meal on the way, except that they were not allowed to drink alcohol. He treated them with courtesy in daily life, without any airs. Everyone felt that this young official was already a prefect of a region, yet he didn't look down on them as inferior people. They all respected him from the bottom of their hearts.

  In addition, Liu Xin also made a major discovery. It turned out that the captain was actually Xu Huang! Originally from Hedong, Xu Huang was a minor official in his hometown and later became a captain in the capital army after being transferred. This time, he was assigned to escort Zhang Yan to Ju Nei and now has been pulled out to protect Liu Xin on his way to Hejian for his new appointment. At this time, Xu Huang was only in his early twenties, still without wielding his large axe, just wearing a waist knife like other soldiers, except that he looked stronger than others, but nothing special could be seen. Not to mention Liu Xin, even Ma Yun knew Xu Huang, who was one of the five elite generals under Cao Cao's command. Liu Xin had an idea in mind, thinking that Hebei would definitely become Cao Cao's territory in the future, so he deliberately got closer to Xu Huang.

  From Ju Chao to He Jian, the road is not visible, except for Ma Yun sitting in a rented horse-drawn carriage, everyone else is walking, and there are more than ten large carts, so the speed can't be faster. Along the way, Liu Xin and Ma Yun were anxious, how much they missed the past, let alone taking a plane, even taking a train would only take one day to arrive.

  More than ten days later, the group arrived at a mountain forest. Xu Huang pointed to the top of the mountain and said: "Sir, after passing this mountain, we will reach the border of Chenliu. There is a county town not far ahead."

  Liu Xin looked up at the sky, it was July, and the early autumn sun was still scorching. After walking such a long way, everyone was already drenched in sweat. So he said to the crowd: "You see, there's a forest over there. It's noon now, and since we're not far from the county town, why don't we take a rest here? We can continue on our journey when the sun starts to set."

  Zhang Doger had long been unable to move, but he persisted because of the 2 million. Now that he heard Liu Xin's proposal, he naturally raised both hands in agreement and hurriedly said: "Liu Daren's words are extremely correct, we can rest for a while before continuing on our way, it won't delay anything."

  The leaders all agreed, and the soldiers wouldn't object. They pulled their carts and ran into the woods, each finding a cool spot to lie down. Everyone brought dry rations, and not far away was a mountain stream with clear water that could be seen to the bottom. On such a hot day, they would rather gnaw on dry rations than hurry to the city to eat a big meal.

  Ma Yun got off the car and saw Liu Xin sweating profusely, so she said with concern: "Husband, take a rest, I'll go get some water to help you cool down."

  Liu Xin looked around and saw that the soldiers were all lying on the ground, exhausted. Although the mountain stream was not far away, no one was willing to go get water. So he said: "Wife, let's go together, and see if we can catch some wild game to improve our food." After finishing speaking, he looked at Xu Huan and Zhang Gou'er, who were also lying on the ground, and quietly whispered in Ma Yun's ear: "This journey has been difficult, it's a rare opportunity for us to be together, let's go experience a world of two people."

  Ma Yun's face turned red and she said, "You've been walking for so long and you're not tired at all. Your mind is still thinking about these things." Although she said this with her mouth, her feet unconsciously followed Liu Xin towards the mountain stream.

  Two people have been together for a month now, and Liu Xin has told Ma Yun all about his past. Only then did Ma Yun realize that the cases Liu Xin had solved were far more than just the few she knew about, and many of those involved hadn't even reported them to the police. Moreover, Liu Xin had provided a lot of materials to the anti-corruption department, resulting in over ten officials being brought down, including her father's police chief, who was found guilty of serious corruption and had multiple mistresses outside of work. Not only that, but this chief also had long-term improper relationships with many female colleagues within the police station. Liu Xin even joked to Ma Yun that if he hadn't taken him down, she would have been in danger of falling into his clutches due to her beauty. As for the stolen money Liu Xin had obtained, he didn't squander it himself but instead set up several foundations, using most of the funds to support poor families and dropouts. As Ma Yun got to know Liu Xin better, her love for him grew stronger, and her past feelings of disappointment due to his thieving ways had long since dissipated. Her heart was now firmly tied to Liu Xin's.

  Two people walked to the edge of the mountain stream, Liu Xin took out a flying knife and quietly observed the surroundings to see if there was an opportunity to find one or two wild animals. Ma Yun wet his handkerchief and gently wiped his face, both people were enjoying this moment. Suddenly, from behind them came a loud neighing sound of a horse, when Liu Xin turned around, he saw that the horse carriage driver didn't know what reason, was desperately neighing, four hooves dancing wildly, as if wanting to break free from the reins.

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