Chapter 233 Recruitment Order (1)
In Runan, the Runaway Liu also got a recruitment order. His eyes were glittering. He has already guessed Liu Mang’s intention. Liu Bei was also currently in need of talent. Although he has a lot of generals, the only ones with talent were Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Chen Dao and the Mi brothers (TN: Mi Zhu and Mi Fang). Another thing is that they have a lot of military generals for their thousands of soldiers but they do not have enough court officials. They have Jian Yong and Sun Gan as advisors but the two of them were not trained to be advisors.
Jian Yong was one of Liu Bei’s advisor during the Three Kingdoms era. He was acquainted with Liu Bei when he was young and followed him. He was someone who played with Liu Bei when he was younger, have terrible martial arts and was an advisor that gives bad advice. In a way, he is like Yang Hong who was good in diplomatic strategies but is not far sighted.
On the other hand, Sun Gan joined Liu Bei as an advisor in Xuzhou. Although this person was quite knowledgeable, his knowledge is also quite limited. As a result, he can only be considered as a second-rate advisor. He was like a secretary that can help his lord to figure out the attentions of the opponent. However, in an actual event, he is completely useless.
That is why Liu Bei could only run around for so many years and serve as hatchet man including by Tao Qian. Lu Bu had the help of Chen Gong. In Guangling, Chen Deng and Chen Gui wanted to use Liu Bei as a shield. Unfortunately, Chen Gui has died and Liu Bei needed to escape from Xuzhou. In the end, he looked at the recruitment order with eyes red with envy.
In the original history, Runaway Liu ran until he met Xu Shu. It was only then could it be said that he has obtained his first real advisor. Even then, Xu Shu was tricked and defected to Cao Cao. So, Runaway Liu kept running until he met Zhuge Liang. It was only then was he able to settle down and establish the Shu Kingdom.
Liu Bei held the recruitment order tightly and his two semi-advisors were silent. He did not ask them anything because he himself knew the extent of their abilities. He would also like to issue a recruitment order like Liu Mang but he was afraid.
Liu Mang has the title of the Prince of Shu. He also had the support of his father-in-law Lu Bu and would be able to survive any possible problems in one piece. The worst that could happen would be Liu Mang getting scolded by Lu Bu. On the other hand, Liu Bei is a wanderer. He had to practically beg for the Royal title. If he were to give out such an order, everything would be finished. He already has insufficient talent. If he were to offend the nobles as well, he no longer needs to speak about his great undertaking.
“Report! Report for Milord! A black faced man outside the government office wishes to see you!” Liu Bei received the report from a soldier while his mind was still distracted.
“A black faced man?” Liu Bei was feeling upset so he did not want to bother about a black-faced man. “Drive him off! I am not meeting him!”
“But Milord. This guy said he has a stratagem to make the Han prosper and specifically came to help solve your problems.” The messenger said more as he was already bribed by the black-faced man.
“Stratagem to proper the Han? Such an arrogant way of speaking?” The one who spoke in disdain was Jian Yong that has followed Liu Bei for some time. He himself could not find a way to prosper the Han and relieve Liu Bei’s worries. Now a stranger from who knows where claimed to be able to do such big things.
“Milord! Just drive this arrogant person off!” Sun Gan was also of the same opinion. If the stranger was talented, his and Jian Yong’s position would be jeopardized. If the stranger had no talent, then it would not be a problem to chase him away.
“Wait! Mi Zhu believes that Milord should meet this person!” Mi Zhu was a businessman. From one of the wealthiest families in Xuzhou, he has travelled all over the place and has seen many different kinds of people. A person who could speak such bold words was a madman. However, that does not change the fact that a madman can also be a talented person.
“Ah?” Liu Bei wrinkled his brow.
“Milord, let us meet this person. If he is a talented person, he can use him for our army. If he isn’t we can punish him for being arrogant!” Mi Zhu spoke about the two possible outcomes.
“Good. Let this person come in!” Liu Bei nodded his head. There are no losses for meeting someone.
Immediately, the black-faced man was brought in. This person walked in the hall looking proud and only bowed to Liu Bei before introducing himself. “Jingzhou’s Pang Tong Pang Shi Yuan greets the Left General.”
A month’s time has passed! In the last month, Hefei was once again full of popularity. As if it has just returned to a time of peace and prosperity. The ones that come and go frequently are people wearing scholarly outfits. They looked famished but they looked at the Prefect with bright eyes. There were even some people wearing all kinds of armor.
Among them was Cao Cao’s, Sun Ce’s and Liu Biao’s Army’s troops! These people came on their own. Some with faces that was satisfied to kill others had a naïve face. However, most of them had a hopeful expression.
“Haha, these are all my talented people!” Liu Mang was wearing ordinary clothes ad blending in with the others. These people all came from Jingzhou, Yangzhou and some even came from Youzhou. Liu Mang knows this because some of them had the same accent with Lu Bu, Zhang Liao, and a few others. It would seem that these people saw the recruitment order and came from all over.
“Uncle Hong. Are the inns prepared? What about the provisions and other important things?” Liu Mang spoke to Yang Hong. Most of the people who saw the recruitment order are poor people. If you made them stay in the city, they would only starve to death! On top of that, Hefei has always been desolate. That is why Liu Mang took out the army provisions that Lu Bu allowed him to bring as relief.
“They did a good job! There are also few places in the city with soldiers distributing rations!” Yang Hong also saw that in this lively city of Hefei, there were scribes that seemed smart and strong looking warriors. He did not expect Liu Mang’s recruitment order to give have such a response.
Tomorrow is the day that Liu Mang would hire the soldiers. However, he first needs to identify which one of them were talents. There are many contests to take part in. Some generals were weak in their martial arts but were savvy in commanding troops. Gan Ning’s navy also need some of those people as there were more soldiers now. Before this, Su Fei was around to help Gan Ning but now, Su Fei is no longer around. Gan Ning cannot command 12,000 soldiers on his own.
Scribes debate about human policies, strategies and the historical trend.
While two of the scribes debated with each other, a crowd gathered and a shout followed.
“What happened here?” Liu Mang frowned. The argument in front got louder and louder. When he approached, he found a person wearing Liu Biao’s Army’s armor arguing with a warrior in white robes.
Liu Mang was unable to identify who was the person wearing the white robed armor. It was not the standard armor of several warlords. Where did this armor come from? Cao Cao’s armors are blue. On the other hand, Liu Bei and Liu Biao’s soldiers wore green armor.
The Lu Bu’s Army’s armors are black and Yuan Shao’s Army’s armor is yellow. Meanwhile, this person wore white armor.
White armor and white cloak were extremely rare. Most things on the battlefield were dark because there were a lot of dust and dirt. White armors would easily be contaminated and turn black. That is why most armors are dark. On top of that, white represents surrender just like the white flag. That is why few people used it. In the end, Liu Mang thought of one army!
