Chapter 50: Scheming Against Jia Gui

  "For everything, if you plan ahead of time, you can succeed; if you don't plan ahead of time, you will fail. If you haven't tried it yourself, how can you lightly give up?"

  Mr. Jia coughed twice and said, "Liu Zhanggui is a young hero who dares to think and act, I admire him, but first of all, I declare that I will only serve as an interpreter, and I will not respond to any other matters. As for whether or not the汗血宝马 can be found, it's up to heaven's will, I don't make any guarantees."

  Liu Ze held his brush, smiling: "This is only natural. If we can't find the horse with sweat and blood, it's because our good fortune hasn't arrived yet, and it has nothing to do with you, sir." He dipped his brush in ink, ready to write a receipt, when he suddenly realized that he still didn't know Mr. Jia's name.

  "I haven't had the pleasure of learning your esteemed name."

  "My surname is Jia and my given name is a single character, Yu." Mr. Jia said with a smile.

  Liu Zexin's head was greatly shocked, and he almost threw away his brush, blurting out: "So it's Mr. Jia Wenhe!"

  Jia Yu was taken aback and asked: "How did Mr. Liu know Jia's style name?"

  Liu Ze felt a bit out of sorts and took a moment to calm his excited heart.

  "Wenhe Mr. is a person from Wuwei, when passing through Wuwei on the next day, he heard many rumors about Mr., the most vivid one being that Mr. was captured by the Di people and pretended to be the grandson of Taishi Duan Ying, which scared the Di people so much that they didn't dare to harm him and sent him back, this is a testament to Mr.'s quick wit and cleverness, it has already been passed down as a great story in Hexi."

  Jia Yu's face turned slightly red as he said, "The situation was compelling, and I had no choice but to falsely acknowledge an official relative. I am ashamed, ashamed."

  Jia Xu, courtesy name Wenhe, was a master of ingenious strategies and had no shortage of plans. He was evaluated by some as the "number one poisonous scholar of the Three Kingdoms". After Dong Zhuo's death, Li Jue and Guo Si were so frightened that they prepared to flee for their lives. It was Jia Xu who advised them to counterattack Longdan, which led to the later events of Wang Yun being killed, Li and Guo turning against each other, and the chaos that ensued due to Jia Xu's words. Later, as an advisor to Zhang Yang, he came up with plans to defeat Cao Cao twice, but at a critical moment in the Battle of Guandu, he decisively advised Zhang Yang to surrender to Cao Cao. The victories over Yuan Shao at Guandu and Ma Chao at Tong Pass were both due to Jia Xu's strategies. He also had the wisdom to recognize people, and was certain that Cao Pi would succeed Cao Cao, so he gave him his full support. After Cao Pi usurped the Han throne, Jia Xu was rewarded for his contributions with the title of Taifu and Marquis of Weidu, and died at the age of 77, posthumously honored as Duke Su. Jia Xu was able to navigate the tumultuous times and adapt to changing circumstances, but the people he assisted in the first half of his life did not have a good ending. However, he was able to preserve himself and die a peaceful death, which is truly a testament to his great wisdom. Calling him the number one intelligent person of the Three Kingdoms is not an exaggeration at all. In terms of strategy alone, only a handful of people like Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi were on par with him.

  Liu Ze unexpectedly ran into Jia Xian here, it was really "beyond expectation". It seemed that at this time, Jia Xian had just resigned from his official position and returned to his hometown, and had not yet joined the Guan-Li group. This was a great opportunity, and if he didn't recruit him under his own banner, it would be a pity. Liu Ze knew that if he missed this chance, there wouldn't be another one. However, although Jia Xian was down on his luck, as a former xiucai (a scholar who had passed the imperial examination), he considered himself a famous scholar and still had an air of arrogance in him. He couldn't easily submit to a mere merchant like Liu Ze. Liu Ze had been around for over a decade and knew that it was difficult to recruit scholars, let alone famous ones. Even if they were currently employed by merchants, they looked down on them. Ordinary methods such as tempting with wealth or treating with courtesy would not work, and if used forcefully, would only have the opposite effect. Liu Ze's mind was racing quickly, thinking about how he could outsmart this number one clever person in the world.

  Liu Ze pretended to be deep in thought and said: "I just don't know how many days this trip will take. If it's delayed for too long, won't we miss Mr. Wenhe?"

  "One trip takes a year or two, or three to five years, and there is no limit to the number of days. This journey is just like that, if Liu Zhanggui didn't return for three to five years, I would have to sacrifice my life to accompany you, but only if Liu Zhanggui prepares good wine and dishes, without wine and dishes it's not possible."

  Jia Yu burst out laughing. In his opinion, businessmen should make a profit with time, time is money, efficiency is life, let alone three to five years, even if it's only three to five months, businessmen can't hold on, when Liu Ze goes to Congling and makes a round trip, he won't be able to find the sweat-blood horse, he will definitely lose heart and give up early, at that time, this hundred taels of gold will still be easily earned back.

  Liu Ze pretended to hesitate and said: "Even so, I'm still uneasy. How about this? Let's set a time limit of one year. I'll pay you 100 taels of gold first, and if it doesn't work out within a year, I'll add another 100 taels of gold. Even if it's less than a year, we'll count it as a whole year. What do you think, sir?"

  It seems that Jia Yu also urgently needed this money, and hastily agreed: "Good, good, good, just follow what Liu Zhuang said."

  Liu Ze smiled slightly, picked up his pen to write but put it down again, saying: "Since it's a contract, once signed, one must abide by it. Mr. Wen He, have you thought this through? If you act rashly in the vast desert, you won't be able to regret it."

  Jia Xian smiled and said, "Liu Zhuanggui is indeed a shrewd businessman. Don't worry, I, Jia, am a man of my word, and I wouldn't go back on it. What I'm afraid of is that Liu Zhuanggui might regret his decision."

  "It is clearly written in this contract that once both parties have signed, they cannot go back on their word. If one party violates the agreement, they will have to pay compensation a million times over. Is that acceptable?"

  Jia Xun secretly smiled to himself, it seemed that although Liu Ze was young, he had a strong mercantile air about him, being cautious everywhere and afraid of losing out, if his family wasn't on the verge of not being able to open their pot, he wouldn't have bothered dealing with these merchants.

  "What Mr. Liu said is very good, as long as Mr. Liu doesn't break his promise, that's all that matters."

  Liu Ze's face showed a faint, imperceptible smile. Without hesitation, he picked up his brush and wrote: Liu Ze sincerely hires Jia Yu as an interpreter. The start date is the day of departure from Yangguan, and the end date is the day of return to Yangguan, with no time limit. The remuneration paid by Liu Ze to Jia Yu is 100 taels of gold. If it exceeds one year, an additional 100 taels of gold will be added. The region to be traveled will be decided by Liu Ze, and Jia Yu must do his best to complete the mission. Once this contract is signed, both parties must abide by it and cannot go back on their word. If anyone breaches the contract, they will have to pay compensation a million times over.

  Liu Ze signed and stamped his name on the two silk fabrics, which he then handed over to Jia Yu. Jia Yu carefully examined each item, finding that the agreement was written in a very standard format, with content completely consistent with what they had just discussed, except for the part about compensating ten thousand times, which seemed somewhat childish, and there were no other issues, so he also signed and stamped his name.

  Liu Ze stuffed the contract that belonged to him into his bosom, and handed over one hundred taels of gold to Jia Yu with a flourish. In his heart, he was triumphant: "Jia Yu, no matter how clever you are for the rest of your life, I'm afraid you won't be able to figure out the subtleties of this contract even in your dreams. Probably for the rest of your life, you won't be able to escape this contract."

  Jia Yu silently accepted the gold, but his heart was unusually gloomy. He thought that he had also been an official in the imperial court due to his xiaolian background, but had accidentally offended a powerful noble and lost his position. Now, he was reduced to being driven by merchants, truly a case of "when one is poor, their aspirations are short, and when a horse is thin, its hair grows long." Meanwhile, Liu Ze had already settled the wine bill with the shopkeeper, including the money Jia Yu owed previously. Seeing his generosity, Jia Yu felt a bit better in his heart. He instructed the shopkeeper to give 100 taels of gold to his wife and then turned to leave with Liu Ze.

  The next day, Liu Ze led the merchant team out of Yangguan in a grand manner. The caravan had added a translator named Jia Xiang and several native guides, as well as dozens of camels. In the desert, it was impossible to proceed without camels, so Liu Ze followed Jia Xiang's advice and specially purchased dozens of camels to load supplies. Jia Xiang also suggested that Liu Ze leave all the large carts at Yangguan and retrieve them when they returned, as the carts would get stuck in the sand pits in the desert and be unable to move. To this, Liu Ze just smiled and remained silent, still taking the large carts on the road.

  After leaving the pass and traveling several dozen li, Liu Ze gave the order to open up the hidden compartment in the large carriage and take out the concealed weapons and armor.

  These three hundred sets of armor are all high-quality chainmail, specially issued to the Imperial Guard. Last winter, a logistics officer in charge of the Imperial Guard's Feathered Forest Army wanted to buy a set of Qinghua porcelain as a gift for his superior, but a set of Qinghua porcelain was extremely expensive, and it was not something that these low-ranking officials could afford. The logistics officer approached Jian Yun with the idea of exchanging armor for a set of Qinghua porcelain. Jian Yun did not dare to make a decision on his own, so he reported it to Liu Ze. Liu Ze was overjoyed and, after some haggling, exchanged four sets of Qinghua porcelain for three hundred brand-new suits of armor, which were originally intended to be sent to Fenghuang Valley but ended up being used this time.

  They immediately distributed the armor, one piece per person. As for the weapons, Pan Feng and Wu Ankang brought them all from Phoenix Valley. Each cavalryman was equipped with a longbow with an effective range of 350 to 450 steps, a composite bow with a range of 250 to 350 steps, two quivers of arrows with 50 arrows each, a long spear, and two horse knives. The horse knife was the willow leaf knife designed by Liu Ze last year, which is now mass-produced and equipped for troops.