Chapter 96: Redemption Price
Liu Qi returned to his team, and the troops that followed him also divided into camps in an orderly manner, crossed the Tan River downstream of the dam, and rested on the opposite bank.

There is an orchard not far away on the other side of the river, where citrus and peaches are planted.

The peaches seemed to be a late-ripening variety. Liu Qi's army might have been familiar with the owner of the orchard, and directly sent hundreds of people to pick edible fruits.

Liu Qi was not going to do anything else with the army and allowed Yi Ji to arrange the army in this way.

When Yi Ji saw the silver seal of the prefect that Liu Qi showed him, he immediately said, "This matter should not be delayed. Please temporarily take charge of Nanjun and issue a notice to pacify the people."

Liu Qi looked at Wang Can, wanting the talented Wang Can to write the article. Wang Can said immediately: "I am the official in charge of the Zhennan government, and I cannot go beyond that. Since you are in charge of the county, you should recruit officials and appoint talented people."

When Cai Mao was the prefect of Nanjun, all the people in the prefecture were scholars from Nanjun.

Liu Qi was no exception. He could use the original scholar-officials appointed by Cai Mao, and he could also appoint his own subordinates.

Liu Qi looked around and found a close follower from Nanjun. He immediately entrusted him to serve as the chief clerk and draft a notice to reassure the people.

Once this notice is issued, it means that Cai Mao is officially convicted.

He did not dare to use the people left behind by Cai Mao in the short term, and had to recruit them again.

This was the most important thing for him after he took over the county. He needed to implement his policies through the new county officials and rely on their administrative abilities, prestige and connections.

Without the support of local scholars, you can't even set up a proper county or prefecture government, let alone govern.

Recruiting scholars to set up a new county was a very urgent matter. As soon as Liu Biao gave the official document, Liu Qi would start to proceed.

The number of famous people, celebrities, and outstanding people in each county of Nanjun is basically known. You can just draw up a list and send someone to invite them. If they don't come, you can either send a heavyweight envoy to invite them or change the target of the invitation.

Liu Biao refused this matter, but the basic procedures still had to be followed.

Wang Can did not linger. Seeing that Liu Qi was about to issue a notice to reassure the people, he immediately said goodbye and went to Xiangyang City to report the matter and also to recount the inside story of the "suppression of the rebellion".

As soon as Wang Can left, Liu Qi went to the side and found Zhuge Liang: "Kong Ming, the Black Lord wants to invite Kong Ming to discuss matters."

Zhuge Liang had this feeling and was not surprised. He smiled and said, "That's right. Liang also has some questions to ask Captain Hei."

Liu Qi was even less determined, so he asked Zhuge Liang: "According to Kong Ming, is it possible for the Cai family to preserve their lineage?"

Zhuge Liang waved his feather fan and thought for a moment, "The Cai family has made special contributions in welcoming Liu Zhennan to the throne, which is unmatched by ordinary people. Although the Cai family has been greedy and violent in recent years, and has occupied a lot of land, many people hate them. However, Liu Zhennan ruled the state with leniency, so I couldn't bear to punish him severely. Today, Cai Degui surrendered, and I guess that Kuai Yidu and his brothers will definitely plead for mercy."

Waving his feather fan, Zhuge Liang saw Liu Qi nod slowly in agreement with his conclusion, and continued, "Jiangdong is training its soldiers and horses, and they may invade our borders at any time. If we punish the Cai family severely, what will the Kuai and Huang families think? Don't worry, my lord, this matter will soon be settled and will not be repeated."

"I hope it will be like what Kong Ming said."

Liu Qi was also relieved and was about to wave to the coachman to come and take Zhuge Liang there, but Zhuge Liang raised his hand to dissuade him. After saying goodbye to Liu Qi, Zhuge Liang led his blue-clothed servant towards the black bear.

At this time, Black Bear also got off the chariot to greet Li Feng.

Li Feng had completed various difficult operations and came to report to Black Bear with half a basket of peaches.

In fact, there were still many wounded soldiers who needed bandaging, but in Li Feng's eyes, these people neither needed him to bandage them nor were they worth using precious peaches on.

As a person who has practiced Taoism for a long time, Li Feng instinctively believes that the number of "immortal peaches" is very precious. If the number of such resources is large, the number of people who can become immortals will inevitably increase.

At the same time, he didn't think that soldiers with simple injuries were qualified to enjoy such treasures.

Li Feng squatted at the water outlet of the bamboo tube of the dam and washed his hands and arms. He had already washed them once when he left the wounded treatment base, but his hands were still covered in blood.

Now that my dry hands were soaked in the clean river water again, the bloody smell became stronger again.

Without needing Black Bear's reminder, the experienced Li Feng used water to wash his face.

While treating the wounded, he only had time to wash his hands twice and had no time to wash his face.

The blood splattered on his face by various wounded soldiers had already dried up. Now, after soaking it with his hands, a layer of blood mud melted away in his hands.

After washing it repeatedly several times, Li Feng took off the red scarf and put on a green scarf.

After drying his hands, he picked up the half-basket of peaches and handed it back to Black Bear: "Master Qu, there are still twenty-three left."

The black bear stretched out his right hand and made a virtual pulling gesture from a distance of four or five feet, pulling back. The blood peaches in the basket turned into cards and instantly disappeared from Li Feng's eyes.

Li Feng took back the empty basket and complained, "The Qingzhou soldiers killed too many people. I'm afraid it will damage the reputation of the commander."

Although his workload was reduced, Li Feng wanted to work harder.

"I promised them that I would send them out of Wankou after the battle."

Seeing Li Feng's surprise, Black Bear said with a smile: "They are not irreplaceable to me. Just as you think, this sword is too sharp. It is really difficult to throw it away casually. But I have seen the tragic situation of Pengcheng and Xiapi. I would rather bury them on the battlefield in the future than use them as my pawns." Li Feng just sighed, and noticed Zhuge Liang approaching the river from the corner of his eye, so he said to Black Bear: "I, an outsider, have also heard about the events in Xuzhou."

Seeing that Black Bear was willing to listen, Li Feng said, "In the past, Cao Cao forced the surrender of millions of Yellow Turbans in Qingxu. During his two expeditions to Xuzhou, he mostly used the surrendered Yellow Turbans as the vanguard. It was just that Cao Cao was short of military supplies and had no way to reward his officers and soldiers; and the Yellow Turbans in Qingxu resented Tao Qian for expelling them earlier, so they fought with hatred."

"Sir, what you mean is that Cao Cao did not deliberately indulge in the two blood debts in Xuzhou, but because of the shortage of military funds, he had no choice but to let the soldiers raise money and rewards themselves?"

"Yes, I have heard many opinions, most of which are of this kind. It was not Cao Cao's intention, but the lack of military resources made it difficult to control the soldiers. If we had tried to stop them, there would have been a risk of mutiny."

Li Feng turned his head and looked at the Qingzhou soldiers resting on the shore with a complicated expression: "I am afraid that it will be difficult to control them in the future, causing these Qingzhou soldiers to kill people for their own selfish reasons and ruin their great cause."

Cao Cao was a rebellious prince who suffered too much in this regard, so he came up with the system of alternating labor service and promoted it unwaveringly.

"I understand, sir, don't worry, I will never be greedy for such a small benefit."

If the Qingzhou soldiers were really allowed to enter Guanzhong in an organized manner and win a few more battles, the frightened people of Guanzhong might flee in all directions again.

Black Bear made a promise: "I heard that Liu Yuzhou and Yuan Shu fought fiercely in Xuyi in the past. Because the soldiers of Xia Pi and Danyang rebelled, they welcomed Lü Wenhou into the city. Liu Yuzhou ran out of food and retreated. The soldiers in the camp ate each other and did not harm the people at all. He is truly a role model for our generation."

Seeing this, Li Feng smiled with relief: "We followed the commander because we wanted to create a peaceful and happy pure land. It is natural for the two armies to have casualties. We cultivators follow the will of heaven, and what we hate is indiscriminate killing."

"Please be at ease, sir. I am not a person who seeks quick success and instant benefits. If we can stabilize the Guanzhong area within five years after entering the Guanzhong area, we will be able to cope with the great changes in the world situation."

After saying this, Black Bear turned around to look at Zhuge Liang who was about twenty steps away, nodded to Li Feng, then said goodbye and returned to the south bank of Tan River.

He looked at Zhuge Liang carefully and asked, "Mr. Kongming, why are you getting involved in such mundane affairs instead of resting in Longzhong?"

Zhuge Liang saluted with a feather fan in his hand, his face devoid of smile: "The defeated soldiers are disturbing the hills where I live, and the people are fleeing. How can I rest peacefully?"

The black bear approached and stretched out his arms to signal Zhuge Liang to sit down and talk to the side.

There was a simple Hu bed and low stool here. The two of them sat down, and Black Bear said, "I know the origins of Mr. Kong Ming and the Huang and Cai families. I have no grudge against the Cai family. Now, I am just helping my friend to save his family business and earn more money for myself to venture into Guanlong."

Zhuge Liang looked relieved. He pointed with his feather fan at the sixty or so Cai clan members who were being held in custody not far away and asked, "What about them?"

"I was originally going to ask someone to find the Cai family. Now that I've met you, I hope you can help me communicate with the Cai family. Now that Cai Mao is dead, there's no point in killing the Cai family. From top to bottom, I'm willing to buy them out."

Black Bear also looked at those people and said, "I won't make it difficult for Cai. For ordinary soldiers, one person will be exchanged for another person and receive 20 dan of rice. For squad leaders, five people will be exchanged for 100 dan of rice. For sergeants, ten people will be exchanged for 200 dan of rice. For generals of 100 men, one hundred men will be exchanged for 2,000 dan of rice."

"Both male and female slaves are welcome. For children, their ages are added up, and those over 20 years old are counted as one person. If there is not enough food, cloth can be used as a substitute, and every two dan of food can be converted into one piece of cloth."

After hearing this, Zhuge Liang quickly calculated in his mind. Based on the approximate losses he saw, Cai Mao had lost nearly a thousand men, which meant that there were still four thousand people who needed to be redeemed.

If the Cai family wants to protect their assets and money as much as possible, they cannot just redeem their clansmen, but also their warriors.

If there is not enough food, cloth can be used to exchange it for supplies, but population cannot be exchanged for materials.

A complete team of ten would have to exchange for twenty-three, or twenty-seven slaves.

A team of one hundred men would have to exchange for nearly five hundred people; a battalion of more than seven hundred people would have to pay nearly five thousand men to redeem themselves.

The military officers were the most ruthless in this exchange plan. The price they asked for was too high, and the Cai family had to pay it.

If the Cai family took away all the slaves from the manors, what would they use to support their warriors?
The total population of men, women, young and old is about 30,000. Based on Zhuge Liang's understanding of the Cai family, he can still get the money if he grits his teeth.

After all, it is difficult to train an armed force of 4,000 people out of a population of 30,000.

Seeing Zhuge Liang repeatedly calculating, Black Bear added: "If the Cai family wants to save manpower, they can use craftsmen to replace them. For each craftsman, I will convert five or ten people according to their skills."

Zhuge Liang understood and said immediately: "I don't have much contact with the Cai family, so I can only convey this matter on behalf of Captain Hei."

"Then I'll trouble you to write a letter for these people and explain my conditions clearly. I don't want to take too many people to Guanzhong. If the Cai family can't make a decision, I think others will pay to let me take these 4,000 prisoners."

Black Bear smiled and said, if he really took these 4,000 people away, the Cai family in Xiangyang would be finished.

Manors in various places were divided up in the blink of an eye.

By then, the manor, servants, and tenants could not be protected, and even the women and children in Caizhou would lose their livelihood security.

Only by protecting these four thousand people can the Cai family keep its property.

When Zhuge Liang stood up, he asked, "Shu brocade, colorful silk, etc., can be exchanged for more grain and silk? And what about money and utensils?"

"If it's not converted, it's useless to me. I want to ensure that the men and women under my command can wear brand new winter clothes in October this year, and everyone can have summer clothes in April next year."

(End of this chapter)