Guanjiazhuang is a dock fort located on the north bank of the Yellow River, located at the junction of Yangping and Wei counties, and is one of the only routes between the east and west, and many merchant ships passing through the Yellow River will dock here.

The owner of the village has some family wealth, but he and his ancestors have never been out of office, and the biggest wish in this life is to be an official among the children and grandchildren, and the official, the bigger the better.

Under normal circumstances, this kind of thing can only be thought about in a dream. From the local heroes to the officials, they must make a lot of money and start from the grassroots level step by step.

It is easy to find a position in the county government alone, and when the first emperor was in power, there was a clear price, and 10,000 yuan was enough. But going up is troublesome.

From the county order of 1,600 stones, to the county magistrate, Gong Cao Shi, county lieutenant, county Cheng, master book, Ting Peng, chief secretary room, Shaofu, Xiamen Xia, door thief Cao, door under Cao, door under the door Peng Shi, Lu Shi, county Zuo, and finally to the county history below the rank of Baishi, the county-level government agencies of the Han Dynasty can also be regarded as responding to that sentence: although the sparrow is small, there is a common saying.

If you go up to the next level, even if you only need the standard of 10,000 yuan for each level, it will be more than 100,000 yuan if you put it together! For an average farmer, this is quite an unbearable amount. What's more, the first emperor who made money was not stupid, and he set a standard of doubling and increasing for officials of different ranks.

At the beginning, Situ Cui Lie spent a full five million dollars in order to be promoted, Rao is so, when Emperor Ling read out the will, he said to the ten permanent servants with regret: "The original decision was a bit hasty, in fact, Situ is an official, and he can sell it for 10 million." ”

Cao Cao's father Cao Song also bought officials with a lot of money, so in the circle of celebrities, Cao Cao's status as a family member was questioned, because his ancestors were eunuchs, and his father was an official. There are not many family bones.

Of course, disdain is disdain, but this does not affect their interaction with the Cao family. At the end of Emperor Ling's dynasty, how many promoted officials did not pay for it? It's just a lot. Everyone's disdain for Cui Lie and Cao Song is like an allusion to fifty steps and a hundred steps of laughter, such a thing as superiority, as long as you dig hard, you will always find something.

Guan Ding is not as wealthy as the Cui family of Qinghe and Chen Liucao, and he has no connections. There is no economic support, and if you want to be an official or a big official, it is only an illusion after all. However, the Spirit Emperor collapsed. Now it is a troubled time, and in the troubled times, the rules of the peaceful years are not so easy to use.

Guan Ding, an old official fan, is keenly aware that the opportunities brought to him and the Guan family by the troubled times are definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

In fact, as early as the Zhongping period, he strictly supervised his son. Let the eldest son, who has been weak since childhood, study, and have higher expectations for Guan Ping, the second son of the young precocious wisdom, and do not delay in studying and practicing martial arts, trying to train a general with both martial arts.

Until now. The eldest son, Guan Ning, is over 20 years old, and he has not shown anything outstanding in all aspects, and Lao Guan Ding has no choice but to hand over the family's business to him. To his surprise, the mediocre eldest son showed great talent in business. Keep your family's business in order.

Especially after Qingzhou began to monopolize sea salt, taking advantage of the geographical advantage, Guan Ning, who contacted Qingzhou despite Yuan Shao's ban, was like a fish in water, and in just one year, his family's business expanded several times.

The exponential increase in wealth made Lao Guan Ding happy, what he coveted was not money, but the opportunities that money could bring.

You must know that the youngest son Guan Ping is very much in line with his expectations.

Although this son is still fifteen years old now, he is still a few years away from the crown ceremony, but he has a talent, not to mention superb martial arts, and he has also learned a lot of military books and war strategies. What is even more commendable is that this young man does not have the impetuous spirit of an ordinary teenager at all, and his calm personality makes every teacher admire and call him a general.

has a son like this, the family's wealth is swelling rapidly, and the old official fan Guan Ding believes that his dream is in front of him.

Taking advantage of the turbulent situation in Hebei, he spilled a lot of money, recruited troops, stored arms, and recruited a private army with considerable scale and combat power.

In addition, he also rejected Guan Ping's last teacher, Han Qiong's proposal to let his young son join the Jizhou Army. It's not that he saw through the outcome of the final defeat of the Jizhou army, he just hated the step-by-step process.

Han Qiong's recommendation, at most, made his son a small soldier among the Euphorbia. Yuan Gong rarely goes into battle in person, and even if he does, he will not take the lead and be his personal guard, how can he have the opportunity to go to the battlefield to make meritorious contributions? If you really get a chance, it will be worse, it just means that Yuan Jun has reached the point where he is in danger.

Expecting his son to turn the tide and destroy the enemy?

Guan Ding is just an official fan, not a fan of fantasy novels, he doesn't have such a dream. When the army collapses, the strength of the individual is very small, and the person who can save his life is already blessed by God, and the one who has the ability to turn the tide must be possessed by the gods.

Therefore, although he also thinks that the situation in Jizhou is better, he still does not plan to let his young son go to work, because this is not conducive to rapid promotion.

The eldest son, Guan Ning, was very disdainful of his calculations, and said many times that if he wanted to join the army, he should also go to Qingzhou and fight under the champion Hou. However, Lao Guan Ning always felt that Qingzhou could not win this war, and there were too many generals in the Qingzhou army, and there was no way for his son to rise.

After all, he still wanted to find a shortcut.

Guan Ning couldn't resist his father, thinking that his younger brother was still young, and he was not in a hurry to do so.

However, people are not as good as heaven, just when the news of the Great War in the Plains came, Guan Ning was overjoyed, and rushed to the Plains with all the caravans to find new business opportunities, and Guanjiazhuang also welcomed the long-awaited guests of Guan Ding.

"Mr. Xuande Gong and Mr. Ziyuan, please take a seat!" Guan Ding smiled so hard that he couldn't close his mouth, and in his slightly squinted eyes, the flickering essence was so bright that it was almost not under Guan Yu.

He was glad that the Lord he had always dreamed of had finally arrived.

Just like the shareholders of later generations, some people like to chase up, and some people like to kill down, in Guan Ding's eyes, Liu Bei is the best potential stock he can think of and can meet.

Liu Bei has a reputation, and the identity of a clansman, he has moved to Hebei and the Central Plains over the years, and he has also accumulated some contacts.

Of course, this kind of investment is very risky, but Guan Ding, who has been in business for half his life, also has his own opinions. Seeking wealth and danger, how can you change your social status step by step without taking some risks?

Down-and-out, there's a down-and-out benefit!

Isn't the love of sending charcoal in the snow much stronger than the icing on the cake? This bit of wealth and resources of one's own family, whether it is placed in Jizhou before the war or Qingzhou after the war, is a small meaning. But for Liu Bei, hundreds of elite private soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of money and food are enough for him to have the strength to make a comeback.

As long as Liu Bei becomes a hero, Ping'er will be a meritorious general at the pioneering level, although his status is not as good as Guan Yu, but he should not be under the five generals in Qingzhou!

This. It's a shortcut to the sky! In this regard, Guan Ding is full of expectations.

"Ning Weng Fang is the main family, and he can't prepare guests, how can there be a reason for a dove to occupy a magpie's nest? It is still Mr. Ning Weng and Mr. Ziyuan who are in the lead, and they are ready to accompany the second brother under the prime minister, so that they can feel at ease. "Liu Bei has more or less tasted the meaning of Guan Dingwei.

His identity is relatively special, nominally subordinate to the side of the Qing and Youyou coalition forces. It was the victor, but because of the secret contest between him and Wang Yu, he had actually torn his face.

Fortunately, it was a dark war and was not exposed. Therefore, it is not easy for Qingzhou to want him with great fanfare, and even if the Jizhou side does not take care of himself, he will not regard him as the main enemy or an important role. Therefore, Liu Bei walked on the border of Hebei. There won't be any trouble from the official.

Still, he didn't receive such hospitality everywhere he went. Such a rich supply of food and drink, even when he had half of the county land that day, he had never enjoyed it.

The so-called courtesy to others must be sought.

Beat the defeat and fled in Luoyan Valley, intending to cross the river from the area controlled by Yuan Shao to the south, avoiding Wang Yu's pursuit, and happened to meet Guanding before crossing the river, and lived in Guanjiazhuang so far, it has been more than half a month. Liu Bei observed his words and looks, and he had already seen Guan Ding's thoughts.

Liu Bei welcomed the emergence of speculators like Guan Ding, and if he wanted to turn over, he had to rely on this kind of person. In the troubled times, there has never been a shortage of speculators, just like Wei Hong, who funded Cao Cao's army.

For this kind of person, Liu Bei can make a generous promise to ensure the status and future of the other party in his own forces in the future. Among the heroes, no one knows better than him how difficult it is to start from scratch.

Wang Yu went from obscurity to fame, and it seems that he has grown up very quickly, but it must be seen that at the beginning of his army, he was not poor and white, but had five hundred elites accumulated by Lao Wang Kuang, as well as thousands of soldiers from Hanoi. Cao Cao and Sun Jian don't need to say that among the heroes in the world, only Liu Bei really started from scratch.

The bitterness of it, who really knows who has experienced it, it is difficult to describe it in one word.

Liu Bei secretly observed the Zhuang Ding of Guanjiazhuang, and was very satisfied to see that these Zhuang Ding were strong and full of spirit, and with a little training, they could be comparable to the Baiwei guards he had trained.

With these more than 300 people as the backbone, as long as some more people are drawn to bluff, the army of thousands of people will be formed.

Although the dust has settled in Hebei, but the world is big, there are chaotic wars everywhere, with such an army, coupled with the courage of the two righteous brothers, are you afraid that you can't fight a new world?

Of course, that's not enough.

The third brother is still in the Qingzhou army, but Liu Bei is confident that as long as his news reaches the ears of the other party, the third brother will come to vote at the same time, as long as Wang Yu does not hurt the killer, he will definitely not be able to stop it.

The shortcomings he realized were not Zhang Fei's problem, but another, more important one.

Through the secret competition with Wang Yu, Liu Bei discovered his own shortcomings, in the battle array, he was actually not much worse than Qingzhou; Strategically, the gap should not be so big that it can't be so big. The reason why we were completely defeated, let alone fighting back, and even the specific reasons for the defeat were summed up after the fact, and the key lies in the overall backwardness of intelligence and the overall situation.

It is difficult to make up for this kind of defect, and it cannot be solved by one or two wealthy and powerful speculators.

Fortunately, after the fiasco, the heavens seemed to pity themselves and provided opportunities for themselves one after another. first met Guan Ding when he was wandering, and then rescued Xu Yu when he arrived to observe the battlefield...... The hope of regrouping and the hope of remedying the defects appeared at the same time!

Who dares to say that they are not destined for it?

At this moment, Liu Bei's eyes were bright.