Chapter 9 Planning for the Future

  "Deng, from now on you all don't have to eat bran anymore, just eat the grain here. In short, as long as I, Chen, am around, no one will be made to eat bran again! I'll make sure everyone gets to eat white mantou!" Chen said loudly. He spoke these words with complete sincerity.

  The scene suddenly fell silent, and then Deng Gong knelt down with a thud, followed by the other villagers.

  "Our lord has treated us so generously, how dare we not risk our lives to repay him!" Deng Gong said, kneeling on the ground with tears streaming down his face.

  "Master!", all the villagers also shouted together. This shout of "master" was extremely firm, it can be seen that these villagers have now completely pledged their allegiance to Chen Chu.

  Chen Chu nodded in satisfaction, and suddenly a surge of heroic spirit rose up in his chest.

  Later, Chen Chu continued to wander around the village, chatting with the villagers. Chen Chu used to be a pharmaceutical salesperson and had long since honed his eloquence. He was particularly skilled at building close relationships. Unbeknownst to him, he had already become extremely close to the villagers, who would often follow him around, addressing him as "Master Uncle" or "Master Brother".

  Chen Chu stayed in the village until nearly noon before leaving.

  On the road to Hualianping County, Chen Chu couldn't help but think: Although this era has no electricity, no computers, and none of the modern entertainment facilities, the common people of this era are truly too simple and honest, making him feel a sense of home. For this feeling of home, he must make sure they live comfortably and safely. With the Yellow Turban Rebellion approaching in about a year, he must think of ways to accumulate enough power. The first step is to recruit refugees and train a private army, while also thinking of ways to gain a certain social status.

  Chen Chu suddenly thought of Wei Du, the owner of the pawnshop, with whom he had a good relationship.

  As soon as he entered the city, Chen Chu rushed to the back hall of the pawnshop without even having lunch. Since Chen Chu and Wei Du had been chatting together frequently during this period, the pawnshop's servants did not stop Chen Chu, who basically went straight in.

  When Chen Chu entered the back hall, Wei Du happened to be there. Seeing Chen Chu's anxious and flustered appearance, Wei Du asked in surprise: "Chen Xian Di, why are you so urgent?"

  Chen Chu realized his mistake, smiled apologetically, and then bowed to Wei Du: "Brother Wei, I really do have an urgent matter that I need your help with." After a few days of getting along, Chen Chu was very clear about Wei Du's character, so he came straight to the point.

  "Oh? What's up, young brother? Just say it!" Wei Du said with a big smile.

  Then Chen Chu told Wei Du about what he had asked for one by one.

  Chen Chu asked Wei Du for two things: Firstly, to send people to various places to recruit refugees, with the condition that these refugees must be young and strong; Secondly, to ask Wei Du to help purchase grain, for which Chen Chu would pay one thousand gold.

  These two things would be extremely difficult for Chen Chu to do, but Wei Du just smiled slightly and said: "These two things are easy to handle, I can send someone to take care of them immediately. However, due to the great disaster last year, the price of grain has increased by almost double."

  Chen Chuyu listened and his heart skipped a beat. He asked nervously, "How much grain can this thousand taels of gold buy?"

  "Wei Du immediately calculated and muttered to himself: "Now the grain is thirty coins per catty, one thousand gold equals one hundred million coins, probably can buy three million five hundred thousand catties of grain."

  Chen Chu heard this and immediately began to calculate: an average adult male consumes about 2 jin of grain per day, and there are still 4 months until the summer wheat harvest, which is 120 days. So on average, an adult male would consume about 240 jin of grain during this period. He planned to recruit 5,000 refugees, so before the summer harvest, they would need approximately 12 million jin of grain.

  Chen Chu was stunned, never expecting that the grain he could buy with 1,000 taels of gold would be less than a third of what he needed. Although Chen Chu had 3,500 taels of gold on hand, there were many places where he needed to spend money, such as buying an official position as a county magistrate from the imperial court, all of which required large sums of money. But the grain problem was related to the number of refugees he could recruit, and the number of refugees he could recruit was directly related to his own strength during the Yellow Turban Rebellion.

  Chen Chu lowered his head and pondered for a long time, finally gritting his teeth to spend 2,000 gold coins to buy grain. This way, he could buy back about 7 million catties of grain, barely enough to support the lives of 5,000 people for four months.

  "Are you really going to do this?" Wei Du asked.

  Chen Chu nodded firmly.

  "Alright then. Both of these things are easy to handle and can be done within a month at most." Weidu said with a relaxed expression.

  Immediately, Wei Du summoned two guards and ordered them to take care of these two matters.

  "Brother Xian, it seems you are a man with great ambitions!", Wei Du said, his eyes fixed intently on Chen Chu.

  Chen Chu smiled foolishly and didn't respond.

  "Right, big brother, I have one more thing," Chu said, remembering something else.

  Weidu smiled and nodded, "Younger brother, just say whatever you want, as long as this old man can do it, I will definitely help with all my might."

  Chen Chu somewhat embarrassingly said: "Older brother, I've heard that the current emperor is openly selling official positions. Is this true?"

  "Wei nodded, 'Indeed, this matter of selling official positions has been going on for many years.' He then asked with a hint of realization, 'Younger brother asks this, could it be that you also want to buy an official position?'"

  Chen Chu nodded slightly uncomfortably. In his past life, he had hated nothing more than the buying and selling of official positions, yet he never thought that he would also fall into such a situation one day.

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