Chapter 66: Jia Xiu Returns to His Heart

  Liu Zei then threw out another heavy bomb.

  "In the midst of chaos, the eunuch group and the imperial relatives' group that had dominated politics for hundreds of years would all be annihilated. The historical stage that followed would inevitably see the emergence of heroes and the rise of powerful leaders. Who would ultimately prevail was still unknown!"

  Jia Xun was even more shocked, with his eyes wide open and his mouth agape. Liu Ze's brief words outlined the course of history for decades to come. Whether it was true or false, only time would tell, but the overbearing aura revealed in his words was definitely not something an ordinary person could attain.

  "I suppose Liu Zhuangui also has the ambition to contend for the Central Plains and dominate the world?"

  Liu Ze did not express his approval or disapproval, and said: "The future world will not only be the world of a powerful overlord, but also the world of famous ministers and brave generals. With Mr. Wenhe's talent, if he can meet a wise lord, compared to Zhou's Lü Shang and Han's Zhang Liang, there is more than enough, no need to follow others like now."

  Jia Xiang's face turned slightly red, and he said: "Lü Ziyu, Zhang Zifang, how can I compare to them? Liu Zhanggu is being too serious." Although his words were humble, they didn't represent his true feelings. A thousand-mile horse may appear, but a Bole who recognizes its value does not often appear. Could it be that Liu Ze really thinks he's a rare talent? Thinking back to the trick Liu Ze had played on him earlier, Jia Xiang felt that Liu Ze was indeed his Bole, although he detested Liu Ze's methods. He said calmly: "I'm just familiar with a few barbarian languages, my learning is shallow and I'm afraid I'll disappoint Liu Zhanggu."

  Liu Ze couldn't help but understand that he still had a grudge against himself, and the matter of being deceived was still on his mind. He took out a piece of brocade from his bosom, which was exactly the contract, and handed it to Jia Yu's hand, saying: "Mr. Wenhe, this contract is returned to you, sir. For the offense earlier, please forgive me."

  Jia Rui was like in a dream, hesitated for a moment and said: "Really?"

  "I mean every word, sir. You are now a free man. Whether you stay or leave is entirely up to you."

  Under this sudden change, Jia Yu still couldn't adapt for a while. What was originally an impossible thing suddenly turned around in an instant. Was it his conscience or did he have other plans? Jia Yu was still unsure and hesitantly said: "Thank you, Liu Zhanggui, I'll take my leave now... we'll meet again someday."

  Liu Ze smiled and bid farewell with a bow: "Well, Mr. Wenhe, have a smooth journey." With that, he turned around and left.

  Jia Xun's heart was like an overturned five-spice bottle, with sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty flavors all surging up at once. He thought to himself that he had always been confident in his own abilities, with both literary and military talents, but in this chaotic world, no one appreciated him. People often say that by the age of thirty, one should have established oneself, but Jia Xun, who was already past that age, had accomplished nothing and could only work as an interpreter for merchants on the border to make a living. Speaking of appreciation, Liu Ze in front of him was the first person to truly value himself, although his methods were somewhat unacceptable, it indirectly proved that Liu Ze highly valued Jia Xun, otherwise he wouldn't have gone to such great lengths to keep him.

  After a year of getting along, Jia Xu had a brand new understanding of Liu Ze. Last year at Yangguan, he was just a petty merchant, but it was this small merchant who traversed the vast land of Western Regions, annihilating strong enemies with ease and laughter. His bravery, his strategy, everywhere showed the majestic demeanor of a hegemon. His grasp and prediction of the overall situation in the world were also unmatched. It can be said that this person is absolutely boundless, even if he cannot contend for the throne, at least becoming a powerful lord is without any doubt. Is this not the kind of master he has been searching for? If he lets go of this opportunity today, perhaps he will only end up dying in the desolate desert. A scholar would die for one who understands him, and based on this point alone, Liu Ze is enough to make him dedicate his life to serving him. Jia Xu looked at Liu Ze's departing back and finally shouted out:

  "Wait, Mr. Liu——"

  Actually, Liu Ze was also gambling. If Jia Yu had made up his mind to leave him, he would have been helpless. After all, he was the one who set the trap first and caused Jia Yu's resentment. Since leaving Yumen Pass, Liu Ze had felt Jia Yu's silent protest. If they continued to be at odds, it would only lead to Jia Yu's hatred. Even if Jia Yu never left him, if he didn't work hard, Liu Ze wouldn't have a way out either. He could only let Jia Yu truly devote himself in order to make him do things wholeheartedly for him. Liu Ze had no choice but to take a risk and try his luck, first by moving Jia Yu with words, and then returning the contract.

  However, Liu Ze believes that under the current circumstances, Jia Xian's possibility of surrendering to himself is extremely high. After all, Jia Xian is not a recluse who views himself as superior and detached from the world, nor is he a loyal and filial person who views death as a return home. His cleverness is more about being wise and self-preserving. When most of the powerful rulers were still lurking in the wild, through the Western Regions War, he had already shown his strong side, Jia Xian could not have failed to see his own ambition and ability, and through this tactic of luring him with a false sense of security, he would pull him onto his own chariot.

  Liu Ze turned around, and Jia Xian had already walked quickly to his front, bowing deeply and saying: "The master is above, please accept Jia Xian's one bow. Jia Xian wishes to exhaust his lifelong abilities to assist the master in achieving the king's enterprise!"

  "This one voice, Master, indicates that Jia Yu has truly submitted. Liu Ze was overjoyed and grasped his hands, saying: 'Wen He, please don't be too polite.' The two men looked at each other and smiled, cherishing each other."

  "On the way down the mountain, Jia Yu suddenly asked: 'Master, our contract has been invalidated, but what about the 100 taels of gold every year...'"

  Liu Ze smiled, this Jia Wei was indeed a straightforward person. If it were someone else, he would feel embarrassed to bring up the topic, but thinking about how the other party had a wife and children waiting for food at home, although talking about money was a bit vulgar, Liu Ze liked dealing with such a direct person.

  He paused for a moment and said with a serious tone: "Wenhe, you know that we are currently in the initial stage of our career, so our funds will be slightly tight..."

  Jia saw a hint of disappointment on his face, and then continued: "Alright, let's pay the salary according to the governor's salary standard. What do you think, Wen?"

  The governor's salary is 2,000 dan per year, which is equivalent to more than 300,000 yuan. It's not that the three or four hundred taels of gold are not impressive, but rather that Liu Ze suddenly gave him a treatment of 2,000 dan, showing how much he values himself. To know that when he was first appointed as a langguan official, his salary was only around 200-300 dan. Jia Yu hastily said: "This... is too much..."

  Liu Ze smiled and said, "With Wenhe's talent, it wouldn't be excessive to take a salary of 3,000 dan of grain. Now that we're just starting out, I can only be a bit stingy for the time being. Once our business is successful in the future, I'll definitely make it up to him."

  Jia Yu felt deeply moved and impressed, thinking that his lord was so generous and magnanimous. It seemed that he had not chosen the wrong path after all. He said, "Thank you, my lord, I'm ashamed to have received such a reward."

  Liu Ze was in a great mood, watching the sun set in the west, and said: "Let's go, they must be getting anxious."

  After passing Street Pavilion, they entered the land of Sanqin in Ma Pingchuan. To avoid the covetousness of the current powerful officials, especially Zhang Rang and Zuo Feng, those eunuchs, Liu Ze only chose more secluded small roads, and traveled at dawn and rested at night. As for the bandits who often cut off the path on the small road, Liu Ze directly ignored them. They bypassed Chang'an, passed through Tongguan, crossed the Yellow River at Fenglingdu, turned north, and rushed straight to Quyang Fenghuang Valley.

  Go to Luoyang? Liu Ze didn't even think about it, once in Luoyang, this batch of Han Blood Horses would definitely cause a level 9 earthquake-like sensation. Not only the ten eunuchs who were used to cleverly taking and seizing, but also the greedy Emperor Ling of Han might want to get involved and take a share. These powerful officials couldn't afford to provoke Liu Ze at this time. Since they can't be provoked, Liu Ze chose to place the Han Blood Horses in a secluded place called Feng Huang Valley.

  They arrived at Phoenix Valley safely and quickly. Pan Fengwu, the commander of Anguo, led his troops back to the team, and Liu Ze introduced Jia Xian to Guan Hai and others. Jia Xian saw that Phoenix Valley had strong soldiers and horses, various workshops were in order, and the Pan Wu cavalry that left a deep impression on him before was only a small part of the Phoenix Valley army. It seems that Liu Ze has already started preparing for the battle for hegemony, and his understanding of Liu Ze has naturally risen to another level.

  Guan Hai made a detailed report to Liu Ze on the training and production of the troops in Fenghuang Valley. Although Pan Fengwu and An Guo took some people away from Fenghuang Valley, Liu Ze's training outline was very detailed, and Guan Hai just needed to follow it step by step. After a year of training, he clearly felt the improvement in the strength of each branch of troops.

  But Liu Ze still saw the gap between the troops who stayed in the valley and the three hundred people he took away. After a year of baptism in battle, the remaining two hundred or so people had improved in both personal ability and team collaboration, especially Pan Feng and Wu Ankang, who quickly grew up and had already entered the ranks of martial generals. From this point on, Liu Ze also saw how big the gap was between training and actual combat, and how to calculate the actual combat capability of the entire team became the primary problem facing Liu Ze.

  Each workshop is producing in an orderly manner, the ironwork shop has been mass-producing weapons and armor on a large scale, but the quality has not yet surpassed that of the capital city and other major cities' ironwork shops. This is because Phoenix Valley does not have top-notch craftsmen, and secondly, ironwork shops everywhere are also using coal as fuel on a large scale, so the technical gap with Phoenix Valley is not far.

  For this point, Liu Ze didn't say anything. He understood that to create better weapons and armor, they needed to smelt steel, especially alloys like manganese steel and tungsten steel. Smelting steel required coke with a higher calorific value than coal, as well as raw materials like manganese, tungsten, and rare earth elements, which were almost impossible to obtain under current conditions.

  But Liu Ze still had some plans, although he couldn't refine good steel now, the raw materials should be prepared first. Even if he could build a large furnace to smelt iron and steel in the future, it would be difficult to find mines on someone else's territory when the world was in chaos and warlords were vying for power. It seemed that Liu Ze had to use these two years to get his hands on those rare metals and mineral deposits.

  Those who were arranged to farm and raise livestock in the back mountain had a bumper harvest at the end of last year, not only self-sufficient but also supplied to the training camp. Especially during the winter slack season, the breeding volume of cattle, sheep, pigs, and chickens was expanded, now the entire Phoenix Valley has achieved self-sufficiency in meat, eggs, poultry, milk and other non-staple foods except for grain, no longer need to purchase from outside, this point made Liu Ze feel relieved.