plumnovel Chapter 38 Celebrity Effect
Chapter 38 Celebrity Effect
Look in the direction of the sound.
All that could be seen was Huchuquan, a Xiongnu man with a topknot and braided hair, wearing a leather robe with the left side overlapping the right, who was shouting loudly with a face full of anger.
"How are you all?"
"How many soldiers have you recruited?"
His appearance frightened the other minor officials in the room, who remained silent, and some even shook their heads with a hint of fear in their eyes.
"...Not...not many..."
"Only a dozen or so qualified ones."
"Me...me too..."
"I am a bit better than Brother Gongsun, by a full twenty."
"..."
Look at how angry Hu Chuquan looks.
Lu Ping was secretly pleased, for he immediately saw the problem.
nonsense.
We Wuyuan people are known for our fierce martial spirit. Whenever there is a battle, we bravely participate, eager to kill some foreign tribes and make a name for ourselves.
But you, Huchuquan, are just a foreign race, aren't you? And aren't you the ones who are being killed?!
You're a Xiongnu, and although you speak fluent Chinese, who would dare to enlist under your command? The Xiongnu coming to recruit Han people is like a mouse asking a cat for a bodyguard.
I don't know what Shen Pei and Shen Zhengnan were thinking. Why did they have to include Hu Chuquan in the recruitment as well?
Thinking this way.
Lu Ping felt even happier.
While Huchuquan roared, Yu Guang was not idle.
Then Lü Ping came in.
Hu Chuquan was slightly taken aback, then quickly composed himself, suppressing his anger and lowering his roaring voice considerably, only managing a forced chuckle.
As the son of the Southern Xiongnu Chanyu, he relied on his status and strength. He could be arrogant and complain and vent his anger at these petty officials, but he was not stupid.
He hasn't forgotten.
Some time ago, when I competed with the eldest son of this martial arts master, he almost completely crushed me. I figured that the father couldn't be too bad.
What if I anger this newly recruited martial arts officer and he beats me up?
Seeing that Lü Ping had finally returned, the extremely reckless Xiongnu man, Huchuquan, finally shut up and stopped making a fuss. The group of minor officials seemed to have found a reliance and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Lü Ping entered, accompanied by several clerks who worked with him, and slowly approached the desk.
He placed the scrolls he had been carrying under his arm on the table.
Hu Chuquan hesitated for a moment, then forced a smile and spoke.
"I didn't see Brother Lü arrive."
"I wonder if Brother Lü's recruitment of soldiers is going smoothly?"
"I...I remember Brother Zhengnan saying before that the recruitment of soldiers must be completed as soon as possible."
"I just asked a group of my colleagues, and in the past three days, the number of qualified soldiers we have recruited is only about seventy or eighty."
Seeing that Hu Chuquan, when facing him, instantly changed from addressing him as "Nai Gong" to "I," his attitude changed extremely quickly.
Lu Ping couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and take another look at Hu Chuquan.
"This person isn't stupid after all."
Just as Lü Ping was about to unfold the bamboo scroll in his hand and share his experience in recruiting soldiers...
Suddenly, another person entered from outside.
He too carried a bamboo scroll under his arm and entered with several minor officials. However, unlike the other officials and soldiers in the room, he was not wearing an official robe and had no official seal at his waist.
He was dressed only as a scholar, with a sword at his waist. He was extremely tall, with a dignified and imposing appearance, exuding authority without anger.
He came to Lü Ping's side.
He placed the bamboo scroll on the table, rubbed his temples, and sighed deeply.
"Recruiting soldiers is indeed not easy."
"I don't know why, but even though the villagers in the city seemed extremely enthusiastic about recruiting soldiers, asking all sorts of questions, as soon as I mentioned that they were being recruited here, they waved their hands repeatedly and left in a hurry."
"No wonder, Shen Zhengnan entrusted so many of us with the task of recruiting soldiers alone."
After listening to the young scholar's words...
The group of minor officials standing in the room all nodded in agreement, their faces filled with empathy.
"that is!"
"Enthusiasm is one thing, but the moment you mention recruiting them into the army, they always find an excuse to run away in a panic!"
"Uncle Lü! It's not that we haven't tried hard enough, it's just that we really don't know where the problem lies!"
He heard the young scholar beside him say that recruiting soldiers was not easy, and the group of minor officials echoing his sentiments.
Lü Ping was taken aback.
He finally realized something was wrong.
It's one thing for Huchuquan to say he couldn't recruit soldiers, since he was a Xiongnu. It's another thing for the group of minor officials to say they couldn't recruit soldiers, probably because they were afraid of Huchuquan and didn't want to say more.
How...
Even this disciple of the great Confucian scholar Yue Yin, a young scholar specially invited by Wang Yun and Wang Fangbo, said it was difficult to recruit soldiers?!
It even resonated with many people?
He glanced at the bamboo scroll in Qian Zhao's hand and tentatively asked a question.
"Zijing, how many soldiers have you recruited?"
Qian Zhao placed a scroll of bamboo slips on the table and slowly unfurled it.
The bamboo rolls were spread out.
The inside was revealed to be filled with names.
"A little more than them, but around fifty."
"I just finished listening to their remarks and roughly estimated that it has been three days, and the total number of us is only about 130 or 140."
"At this rate, it will probably take another ten days to reach the five hundred required by Fang Bo."
Qian Zhao, Qian Zi Jing, Anping Guanjin Ren.
He studied under the great Confucian scholar Yue Yin. Originally, he followed his master, traveling around and reading classics. When Wang Yun first arrived in Jiuyuan, his camp lacked talent, so he sent a letter to Yue Yin, pleading earnestly, and finally managed to recruit him.
Therefore, Qian Zhao never entered officialdom; he merely assisted Wang Yun and did various tasks.
This was all information that Lü Ping learned when he first met Qian Zhao, amidst his shock.
After all, his knowledge of the Three Kingdoms was limited.
Logically speaking, shouldn't Qian Zhao be a wandering swordsman in the land of You and Ji, sharing a heroic bond with the young Liu Bei and becoming sworn brothers? How did he end up as a disciple of the great Confucian scholar Yue Yin?
How could he have been summoned by Wang Yun with just a letter? To work together?
"Brother Lü?"
How many soldiers did you recruit?
As Lü Ping pondered, the Qianzhao Qianzi Scripture spoke again. It looked at the several scrolls of bamboo slips in front of Lü Ping that seemed to be filled with writing and faintly showed traces of ink, and asked curiously.
Faced with the young scholar's question.
Hu Chuquan and the other minor officials all turned their heads, looking curiously at Lü Ping.
Lü Ping came to his senses.
Faced with the gazes of the crowd, he hesitated for a moment, and without needing anyone else to do it, he personally and slowly unrolled the bamboo slips in front of him, one by one.
Volume One, filled with pitch black ink!
Volume Two, filled with pitch black!
...
Volume Four, only one column remains, and it's almost full!
These minor officials are all used to clerical work, so how could they not know how many characters can be written on a single bamboo scroll? Even if they didn't know, after these few days of recruiting soldiers, even the most foolish person should know!
One volume contains fifty characters.
Four scrolls of bamboo slips make up nearly two hundred!
After glancing at the bamboo scroll and making a rough calculation, the group of minor officials were filled with astonishment. Without anyone needing to remind them, they all looked up in shock at Lü Ping, who seemed to have some suspicions and looked embarrassed.
"It has to be Uncle Lü again!"
"In the same three days, Lü Bo recruited far more soldiers than we did in total!"
"That's great! We've got three hundred in total now. It should only take another two or three days for us to recruit enough soldiers!"
"....."
Among these minor officials, there were also some clever ones.
Just like this "Initiation and Child-Tracing Manual," he noticed the awkward expression on Lü Ping's face, paused for a moment, and then, as if he had thought of something, he blurted out in astonishment.
"Brother Lü!"
"Could it be...could it be...that after those villagers asked us, they all ran off to join your army?"
This statement came out.
All the minor officials turned their heads to look, their expressions growing increasingly surprised.
Under the gaze of the crowd.
Lu Ping, who didn't understand why but felt that this was highly likely, smiled bitterly.
He opened his mouth as if to speak, but then stopped himself.