When Ji Han and his men traveled to the Three Kingdoms crew

Chapter 23: Luoyang Pickles
The clouds retreated, the sun shone brightly, and a warm breeze blew away the haze.

The Han soldiers drew up their weapons, and thousands of Yellow Turbans gathered together. They squatted on the ground with their heads in their arms, their sallow faces filled with anxiety.

Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei counted the soldiers they brought from Youzhou. None of them were killed in the battle, but a few were slightly injured, either in their arms or legs.

Only one unlucky guy was seriously injured and fell to the ground, unable to even stand up. Liu Bei hurried to the seriously injured soldier and checked him repeatedly. Fortunately, he was not in danger of life and just temporarily lost his combat ability.

Liu Bei breathed a sigh of relief, dealt with the situation simply, called two soldiers, took out the tools he had prepared in advance - a simple stretcher made of cloth and sticks, and ordered them to carry the seriously injured soldier away and let him rest.

After doing all this, Liu Bei wiped the sweat from his forehead and heard a call from afar.

"Liu Junhou!"

Liu Bei took a closer look and saw a big man wearing armor on horseback.

The big man reined in his horse and stopped in front of Liu Bei, then jumped off the horse with a big smile on his face.

"Captain Zhou."

Liu Bei clasped his fists. This Captain Zhou was his immediate superior and was said to be a descendant of the son of Zhou Bo, Marquis of Jiang.

"Liu Junhou is worthy of being Lu Zhonglang's disciple. This battle really opened my eyes. I actually saw with my own eyes that he killed a general and seized a flag in the midst of thousands of troops. The so-called ten thousand enemies are probably just like this!" Captain Zhou said with emotion: "No wonder Lu Zhonglang praised you as the tiger of Youzhou. I admire you!"

Liu Bei was stunned. "Youzhou Tiger?"

Captain Zhou patted his head and said, "Look at my memory. Our troops are not far from Lu Zhonglang's station, so the battle report was transmitted faster than usual. Lu Zhonglang was very happy to receive the battle report. He pointed at the battle report and said to his subordinates, 'Xuan De' is really the tiger of Youzhou!"

"So that's it, the Tiger of Youzhou"

Liu Bei looked a little dazed. If his memory was correct, the father of Sun Quan's young son, who would later rule Jiangdong, was nicknamed the Jiangdong Tiger. His nickname, the Youzhou Tiger, also sounded good?

"Liu Junhou," Captain Zhou asked, "What are you going to do with these Yellow Turban captives?"

"? Captain Zhou, you are my superior. Shouldn't I seek your opinion on how to deal with the Yellow Turbans?"

Liu Bei was a little surprised by Captain Zhou's reaction, but then he thought about it and realized that Captain Zhou was already highly regarded by Lu Zhi and had been very kind to him from the beginning. Perhaps Lu Zhi had specifically instructed him to do so.

Captain Zhou laughed, "Marquis Liu, no, I am a few years older than you, and I am not in the camp anyway, so I will be bold and shamelessly address you as Xuande. I wonder if Marquis Liu would do me the honor?"

Liu Bei was no fool. He could hear the goodwill from Captain Zhou and immediately said to him sincerely, "It's my honor, brother!"

"Okay, okay, Xuande, please listen to me in detail."

Captain Zhou repeated the whole story to Liu Bei.

Liu Bei nodded and thought: So Master Lu has already arrived in Guangzong County and is busy dealing with Zhang Jue, and has left the affairs of the Yellow Turbans to me and Captain Zhou. Then, according to the direction in the book, the eunuch Zuo Feng should be on his way. Well, there is no rush for now.

"Brother, please wait here. I'll be right back."

Captain Zhou had no idea what Liu Bei was up to, but he nodded anyway.

Sometimes people are so amazing. Once you approve of someone, no matter what he does, you will find him pleasing to the eye.

Captain Zhou was in this state at the moment, looking at Liu Bei's departing back with eyes full of wonder. He was probably thinking, look at my dear brother, he walks with such vigor, he is indeed worthy of being called the Tiger of Youzhou!

Not long after, Liu Bei took out a porcelain jar and handed it to Captain Zhou.

Captain Zhou stood there in a daze, looking at the pottery jar in disbelief, then looking at Liu Bei.

"Xuan De, is this the famous 'Zhu Huan Ju' in Luoyang???"

"That's right." Liu Bei always felt something was strange when he heard the phrase '执桓菹'. He had made up a story at random, but he had not expected that it would cause such a stir in Luoyang. The nobles who had suffered from the political oppression of the eunuchs seemed to have placed some kind of emotion in '菹' and gave it the name of "执桓".

The pickles sold by Liu Bei were aimed at the nobles and powerful, and they were treated as expensive commodities. Even if the price was 1,000 coins, the nobles and officials did not think it was too expensive and bought them immediately. There was even no demand at the price, and it was difficult to get a can even if you raised the price.

For a time, pickles were expensive in Luoyang.

It is not difficult to understand Captain Zhou's excitement. When the pickles were sold in Luoyang, the five schools of the Northern Army had already set out for Jizhou.

Knowing the name of "Zhu Huan Zu", Captain Zhou can be said to be well-informed.

After Captain Zhou got the pickles, he no longer wanted to care about the Yellow Turbans' affairs, and handed over all power to Liu Bei.

After receiving this group of Yellow Turban Army, Liu Bei immediately counted the number of people. There were still two thousand people alive, including the elderly, women and children.

Putting aside gender, age and height, the common impression they gave to Liu Bei was that they were hungry. It was not an exaggeration to say that their chests were pressed against their backs, but a fact that was eye-catching.

The nobles and powerful families felt that a thousand dollars were nothing because of a story and a little taste.

What about the starving people of the Yellow Turbans?
The hungry eat grass roots and tree bark.
How ironic.

Liu Bei felt bad.

After a simple screening, Liu Bei figured out the status of the Yellow Turbans. Some of them were villagers who were held hostage, some were followers of the Yellow Turbans, and some were minor officials within the Yellow Turbans.

Small officials with equal power were gathered together, and the believers and villagers were divided into two groups, and then they were mixed up to ensure that no one knew each other.

Liu Bei stood in front of the Yellow Turbans and said loudly: "Everyone, I am Liu Bei. I promised you that I would not kill you if you surrender. I will keep my word. Not only will I not kill you, I will also hire you."

"Hire, hire? May I ask, General, how do you hire?" A man from the Yellow Turbans asked bravely.

"It's very simple. After the war, the county was damaged. I will pay you with food. Of course, the war is not over yet. I will send you the food after it is over, but I will definitely give you enough food for daily meals. You help us repair houses, roads, city walls, etc."

The Yellow Turbans looked at each other in bewilderment, they had never seen anything like this before. Such physical work was usually part of corvee labor, and it was already good enough to be provided with meals. Now they had to give them food?

Seeing that no one believed him, Liu Bei pointed to a stone nearby and said, "If anyone among you can move the stone to the wall, I will reward him with an egg."

The crowd suddenly became agitated, most of them were in disbelief and doubt. Chickens, they are chickens, at least they are meat. They can't even afford corn, let alone chickens?
Finally, a woman couldn't help herself and stood up and said, "I'll do it!"

The stone was so light that even a hungry person could pick it up with one hand. The woman completed Liu Bei's task easily.

Liu Bei kept his promise. He ordered someone to bring a chicken egg that had been rinsed with cold water and whose shell was not hot to the woman.

Liu Bei felt relieved when he saw the Yellow Turbans react.

This was a last resort. Their understanding of the Yellow Turbans was not as good as that of the 500 warriors from Youzhou, who they brought with them.

And this is only the first step.
From this day on,

The Yellow Turbans discovered something magical: every time they finished their work, Liu Bei would help them get a big bowl of rice. In his spare time, Liu Bei would come to chat with them and even treat their illnesses.
Someone couldn't help but say, "General Liu, I don't think you look like a general."

Liu Bei jokingly asked back: "Then what do I look like?"

The man was silent for a while, "You are a good person."

"Good man." Liu Bei lowered his head and murmured, "No, I haven't done anything good at all, how can I be considered a good man?"

(End of this chapter)