In the first year of the Jian’an era, in winter, Teng Zijing was banished to Baling Prefecture… no, wait, Jia Xu was holding Nanyang Prefecture. By the following year, the administration was efficient, the people lived in harmony, and a hundred broken things were being rebuilt. At this rate, the prosperity of the Han Dynasty could be expected any day now.
Jia Xu had not yet gotten used to a life without studying, and his mind began to wander, reciting “Classical Chinese Solitaire.”
Standing on the ridge of a field and watching the people at work, he started thinking about how to optimize the rice crops again.
By the Northern Song Dynasty, Vietnam had the higher-yielding Champa Rice, but he didn’t know if the rice yields there were any good right now. Getting there would be difficult, too. The biggest obstacle in his path was Cao Cao. Once past Cao Cao, there were two ways to go. One was to go directly through the Wu and Yue regions where Sun Ce was located, but their relationship was sensitive, and their borders were heavily fortified. The other was to bypass the borders and take a water route directly from Ba and Shu to Sun Ce’s territory… Once he reached Sun Ce, things would be much smoother. From the state of Wu all the way to Jiaozhi Commandery, he could start looking for traces of Champa Rice.
Alternatively… he could transform into Mendel and start researching hybrid rice and hybrid wheat, breeding a patch of high-yield, high-quality seeds himself.
Shouldn’t this be a job for someone other than me, Jia Xu? It would be better to let Cao Cao do it; after all, there isn’t much of a difference between Mendel and Cao Mengde.
“Achoo!”
Jia Xu sneezed.
“Sneezing just from thinking about Cao Cao? Does he know? Is he cursing me?” Jia Xu muttered to himself.
Despite “framing” Cao Cao, the temperature in Henan in early October already carried a hint of winter. It was quite cold, and Jia Xu pulled his long robe tighter.
Actually, he wanted to change his clothes. These ancient garments really didn’t suit his taste at all. They looked nice, but they weren’t as warm as his modern shell jacket, not to mention…
In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, there were no modern undergarments!
Jia Xu felt the wind whistling up his crotch!
His body felt as if ants were crawling on it, and he worried even more that real ants might crawl through his ancient undergarments, the “Ku” (which were mostly open-crotch or crotchless), to attack his fragile parts. He had confirmed many times that this body was indeed his own, though he didn’t know why he had arrived with Jia Xu’s clothes and Jia Xu’s memories.
“Moo!” A cow’s lowing interrupted Jia Xu’s wandering thoughts as two burly men led two oxen over, one on each side.
“Whose house is it today?” someone shouted. In the vast fields before Jia Xu’s eyes, person after person popped up like bamboo shoots after rain, shouting, “Me, me, me! My house today!” They scrambled to line up in front of the two oxen.
As the line formed, people walked back from the front of the queue, stopping before each person to draw something on their hands before moving to the next. The entire process was orderly, as if it had been rehearsed a thousand times.
“Why is the Military Advisor watching them farm again?” As Jia Xu was observing, a voice suddenly came from beside him—a familiar, rough voice that exploded in his ear like thunder.
Without even looking, Jia Xu knew who it was. “Why is the General in Rang City today? Did Lord Liu not keep you for a few more days?”
“Wenhe, stop teasing me. To Liu Biao, I am at most a useful blade. He only feels uneasy when I’m not in Rang City. How could he let me stay?”
The speaker was Jia Xu’s current superior, Zhang Xiu.
Zhang Xiu was a martial general. In the chaotic times of the Three Kingdoms, those who could fight could always find a way out—like Lu Bu, or Guan Yu.
Unfortunately, Zhang Xiu didn’t possess the fierce courage of Lu Bu or Guan Yu, nor did he have their luck. Working under Liu Biao, he barely managed to hunker down here in Jing Province.
Liu Biao truly didn’t treat him like a brother. Saying he treated him like a blade was even a bit of an overstatement. After all, if someone had a good blade, they would maintain it with care. Liu Biao didn’t do that; he treated Zhang Xiu like a mule, sending him out to battle every single day.
“What is it this time? Who are you being sent to reinforce?” Jia Xu knew without thinking that Zhang Xiu must have been ordered out again.
“Liu Bei. Lu Bu took advantage of Liu Bei’s battle with Yuan Shu to launch a sneak attack on Xiapi and seize Xu Province. Liu Bei asked Liu Biao for help, so Liu Biao is sending me over.” Zhang Xiu looked helpless.
“Isn’t that already over? What’s the point of you going?” Jia Xu remembered that intelligence regarding Lu Bu’s betrayal of Liu Bei had been on his desk as early as June when the fighting started. It shouldn’t be that Liu Biao didn’t know.
“It is over, but Liu Bei is short on supplies. I’m being sent to deliver grain. They say he is a member of the Han imperial clan, and now that Cao Cao has welcomed the Emperor, these members of the Liu family should look out for one another.” When Zhang Xiu said “the Liu family,” his tone was incredibly sarcastic.
Indeed, an affair of the Liu family was being foisted upon him, a man named Zhang.
“Why doesn’t Liu Biao deliver it himself?” Jia Xu was also speechless.
“In another month, the rivers will freeze. If you take the water route, even if everything goes smoothly, a round trip will take thirty to forty days. Not to mention, since Cao Cao began ‘holding the Emperor to command the lords,’ he has been eyeing Jing Province greedily. He is bound to unify the North; there’s no telling when he’ll make a move against us. Going out now makes you a sitting duck.
Furthermore, taking the water route to Xu Province means you will inevitably clash with those water bandits under Sun Ce. Going there is just giving them an excuse to beat you up.”
Cao Cao and Sun Ce—Jia Xu wouldn’t even dream of crossing their territories for his own “Champa Rice,” but now Liu Biao wanted them to walk through this mountain of blades and sea of fire for the sake of Liu Bei.
“Then should I go by land?” Zhang Xiu hadn’t thought much of it when he agreed. Over the past few months, with the help of his good brother Jia Xu, his troops had been revitalized, and their strength far exceeded what it had been when his uncle was alive.
The clearing missions Liu Biao had assigned him outside Nanyang Commandery over these past few months had gone more smoothly each time. Thus, he was feeling quite confident now, feeling that he wasn’t going to war, but just borrowing a path to deliver grain; perhaps nothing would happen.
“The water route offers no survival against Sun Ce, who excels at naval warfare, but do you think the land route offers much of a chance against Cao Cao? Don’t forget he has Dian Wei under him. Everyone who has seen Dian Wei says he is like a modern-day Fan Kuai.” It wasn’t that Jia Xu wanted to dampen his spirits, but he knew their own level…
In a few years, Cao Cao should be taking down Lu Bu, and then he would turn around and take them down…
Wait, there was something else. Jia Xu felt an itch in his brain, but before he could figure it out, Zhang Xiu started questioning him.
“Uh, hey, good brother, that batch of new recruits you’ve been training—they’re ready, right? I want to take more of them with me. Just in case we really end up fighting them, you know?”
Zhang Xiu looked at Jia Xu as if their positions were reversed and Jia Xu was the boss.
“Leave some for me. I have a feeling things won’t stay peaceful. Are there not enough people using the autumn harvest as an excuse to wage war everywhere right now?”
Jia Xu refused, but seeing Zhang Xiu looking as dejected as a bear who failed to get any honey, he still gave him half the men.
“Avoid fighting if you can. Remember to display Liu Biao’s banner when you’re out. If you encounter Cao Cao, don’t fight—run as soon as possible. Cao Cao has been eyeing our Jing Province for more than just once or twice.”
Holding the token Jia Xu gave him—a wooden plaque engraved with the word “New”—Zhang Xiu went to the recruit camp to collect his men.
Jia Xu was right. If you have no troops at home during the autumn harvest, you might have a granary, but if others have the fists, they’ll just take your granary away.
After Zhang Xiu left, Jia Xu stayed for a while longer. Once he was certain there would be no incidents of fighting over oxen, he went back to handle official business.
As he walked, Jia Xu pondered: Why had he been searching for Zhuge Liang in Nanyang Commandery for at least six months without finding him?
Liu Biao was the same. Zhuge Liang’s uncle, Zhuge Xuan, was under him. Jia Xu had gone to negotiate personally, but as soon as he mentioned Zhuge Liang twice, Zhuge Xuan acted as if he knew Jia Xu was coveting the “Crouching Dragon” and wouldn’t say another word to him.
Jia Xu could only search on his own. However, though he had used his memories to narrow down the location of the “Zhuge Cottage in Nanyang” to Deng County in Nanyang and the area west of Xiangyang City known as Longzhong, the men he sent simply could not find this “prodigy” of the Zhuge family.
Could it be that only Liu Bei could find him?
Is this a special perk given only to the protagonist in novels?
If I find some people to play Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, can I go and perform the “Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage”…
Jia Xu was anxious—anxious about the strength of the Zhang Xiu and Liu Biao camp he was in. His memory of the Three Kingdoms was intermittent; he couldn’t quite remember exactly when Cao Cao would attack Zhang Xiu, but he knew it would happen, and it was right before Cao Cao completely defeated Yuan Shao!
Simply put, Jia Xu remembered the confrontation between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao because Jia Xu had served as Cao Cao’s strategist and offered him counsel.
The order in which Cao Cao fought the two Yuan brothers was after he had “held the Emperor to command the lords.” Yuan Shu, being muddle-headed, declared himself Emperor, giving Cao Cao a legitimate reason to attack him. Currently, Yuan Shu was barely hanging on, and it looked like he would be completely finished by this year or next. Then it would be Yuan Shao’s turn.
In between, there must be the episode where Cao Cao attacks Zhang Xiu, and Jia Xu leads Zhang Xiu to surrender and join Cao Cao’s camp.
War inevitably means death. Jia Xu didn’t want to die, nor did he want his green recruits to die. These men were trained by him using modern military training methods from before his transmigration. They lived and worked together; as their leader, he had stood with them in military posture, practiced Military Physical Boxing, and gone on weighted marches. It had taken him a long time and a lot of effort to turn them from people who looked like they were on a “spring outing” into a force that followed orders and moved forward with courage. But they lacked actual combat experience and might not be a match for Cao Cao.
He needed Zhuge Liang. He needed Zhuge Liang to command this campaign against Cao Cao for him, and he needed Zhuge Liang to teach him what a proper strategist should know and do.
The “Sword of Damocles”—the thought that “I don’t know when Cao Cao will come to beat me up”—hung over Jia Xu’s head. Since he couldn’t find the legendary top-tier strategist Zhuge Liang, he was already thinking of forging a fake team for the “Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage” to obtain the “True Scripture” that was Zhuge Liang.
Thinking about finding Zhuge Liang and finding Champa Rice, Jia Xu returned to his residence with a thousand thoughts running through his mind.
His house was quite large. After all, relying on his hometown connections and his somewhat glorious resume—including “serving under Dong Zhuo” and “taking Luoyang by wit”—he was the second-in-command under Zhang Xiu. Zhang Xiu wouldn’t mistreat him.
As soon as he entered the house, he got busy. Before transmigrating, Jia Xu’s family was middle-class, and he was a freshman in college. After transmigrating, he suddenly had a house, a stable job, a carriage for travel, and even nowhere to spend his money. This residence of his served both as a home and an office. Zhang Xiu was generous; he hadn’t asked for a cent and still paid him his salary and bonuses.
“Sir, a letter for you.”
Before Jia Xu could recover from his busy official duties, a maid handed him a letter.
The letter was not a modern kraft envelope but a bamboo slip inside an exquisite wooden box. Jia Xu felt that if this box were buried for two thousand years and then dug up, it would be worth a thousand pieces of gold.
Of course, when he opened the box and saw the contents of the letter now, his joy was worth more than a thousand pieces of gold!
The letter was from Zhuge Xuan, saying that his days were numbered and he wanted to entrust his nephews to Jia Xu. If Jia Xu was unwilling, he could protect them temporarily until other members of the Zhuge family came to take over.
Zhuge Xuan’s nephew! Wasn’t that Zhuge Liang!
Zhuge Xuan, you died at the perfect time! No, wait—just in time. No, that’s not it—a worthy death, hmm…
Jia Xu was about to receive Zhuge Liang. His heart was filled with wild joy, and his phrasing became even more chaotic. In his extreme delight, he suddenly remembered something.
Zhuge Xuan died in approximately the first month of the second year of Jian’an, after seeking refuge with Liu Biao with his nephews.
In the first month of the second year of Jian’an, Cao Cao launched his southern campaign to attack Wancheng, where Zhang Xiu was located!
Damn, there’s only a little over two months left!
Jia Xu’s heart went cold, and his expression turned into a mix of joy and sorrow.