Battle Royale of the Sinners

Lu Zhi laughed in satisfaction while Zhang Jiao had a complicated expression. Having a high ranking official as Tong's mentor was a good news because Tong could have a bright future by studying under Lu Zhi's guidance, or Lu Zhi could write a letter of recommendation to give Tong a position in the Imperial Court. However, Zhang Jiao was still skeptical about the Han Imperial Court because he still prejudiced against the officials.

Hua Shi swept her glances at Lu Zhi and Tong. Then she yawned and continued dozing off on her working table. She did not care about any historical figure or Tong's politic scheme.

Lu Zhi helped Tong up and continued chatting.

"I almost forgot my initial question. How do you plan to rejuvenate the city?"

Tong smiled and waved his hand. A couple of soap bars and a barrel of beer was taken out from Tong's space inventory.

"W-What!? Did you just …?"

Lu Zhi was flabbergasted. From his perspective, Tong had just created several objects out of thin air. He thought that the nickname "Immortal" was just something Tong created to intimidate his opponents. But it seemed that Lu Zhi had misunderstood. Tong might really be either a sage or an immortal.

"Master, I'm planning to create a business firm that runs by the government. For starter, I'm planning to put these products to …"

Tong narrated his business plans to Lu Zhi while Zhang Jiao also paid attention to the details.

The peasants in this era had limited types of jobs. Eighty percent of them were farmers. The other ten were professional soldiers. Five percent were merchants. And the rest were specialists, such as carpenters, bow makers, blacksmiths, physicians, Taoist priests, scholars, and officials.

As a result, the majority of people were poor and rarely use coins or gold to trade for food. They offered labors or barter-traded with their neighbors to makes end meet instead.

Because of the scarceness of jobs, and for the sake of the preparation of the future drought season and epidemic outbreak next year, Tong wanted to improve their quality of life first by giving them more variety of jobs and income.

First, he wanted the government to promote the commercial businesses by pushing the government firm as a foundation. Then he would hire more staffs and probably hire laborers, commoners, and scholars into the firm.

He would make the soap and the beer as their local specialty to promote the merchants' activities in the nearby areas. Once merchants were attracted to the local products and visited Julu City, they would bring other goods into the city to trade, which would bring prosperity and various products to the people. At the same time, it would create even more jobs and enabled the cash flows into the hands of more commoners, thus, increasing the potential tax income for the city government in the future. Furthermore, commoners with money could at least have to money to buy food from either merchants or the city government to survive next year.

The income from the government firm would also be transferred into the city treasury, thus boosting the city cash flows. Then they would be able to invest in other industries to improve the quality of life for the citizens.

Lu Zhi listened to Tong's drafted plan and nodded. The idea was confusing and too new to him. The more he listened, the more he wondered if he was the master or he was the apprentice.

From his experience in Luo Yang and Han Court management, they only focus on taxes from the grain harvest and household taxes that they would get annually. But they never dibbed their hands into the macroeconomic or businesses of the lower class societies.

The wealthy nobles that Lu Zhi knew also had merchant firms and business background. But they never utilized the economic system to benefit the city this way as they narrowed their vision into their marketing and profits, but not the big picture of the masses.

"The project is too vague and grand. Will you have enough personals for it?" Lu Zhi questioned.

Tong scratched his head in embarrassment. Lu Zhi was right. Tong did not have enough talented personals to handle his business ideal.

Seeing Tong's reaction, Lu Zhi sighed. This youngster was still naïve but he had interesting ideas.

"I know a couple good people that can help you. Want me to recommend them to you?"

"Really? Yes, please!"

"I have three outstanding apprentices. I found them when I traveled in You Province. One of them has already become the Lord of Bei Ping of You Province, so I can't recommend him to you. The second of them probably still continue studying somewhere in Xu Chang. He is quite talented and diligent. I'll write a letter to him for sure. But the other one is kind of unique. He is a useless bum at the moment, but I think he will show his potential in the future."

Tong coughed and almost choked blood as his blood vessels within his throat almost ruptured from shock. He knew exactly who Lu Zhi was referring to.

"The lord of Bei Ping is Gongsun Zan. The second talent is called Gao You. And the last one is Liu Bei. I'm going to send my letter to Gao You and Liu Bei to make them come working for you."

Lu Zhi described the details of his apprenticed which confirmed Tong's conjecture, after which Tong choked again.

It was well known that Liu Bei was ambitious and stubborn. When he was young, he always bragged that he was the descendant of Liu Bang, the first Han Dynasty Emperor. He always announced that he would become someone big in the future. And at the end of his life, he actually achieved his dream at the costs of millions of lives along the path to the throne.

Tong did not want someone this ambitious among his subordinates. But after he thought about it, he could use this chance to take down the troublemaker before he rose to power.

"Then I will have to trouble master." Tong bowed to Lu Zhi.

…

…

For the rest of the day, Zhang Jiao and Hua Shi resumed their official duty to sort out documents and cleaned up the mess that Guo Dian and his corrupted officials had caused.

Meanwhile, Tong and Lu Zhi continued to chat and exchanged opinions with their insight. Lu Zhi was impressed by this youngster that he seemed to have a wide vision and unearthly ideas.

Lu Zhi also taught Tong of the techniques to judge people and to utilize the subordinates as a governor. Several organization structures were laid down for Tong, which he took notes on everything. Then, the structure of a spy organization caught his eyes.

Seeing that Tong interested in the espionage and surveillance topics, Lu Zhi was satisfied. He would prepare a few more scrolls about spies and intelligence agencies and taught Tong in the other day.

Then, the topic of the conversation changed into the politic struggle within the capital. Lu Zhi continued to narrate what had happened in the past years.

"His Highness the prince Liu Bian and Liu Xie are dead!? Liu Ping is the crown prince!?"

"Not exactly, his highness Liu Xie was still alive. Her Majesty the empress switched her son with the son of her servant in advance. The one that died was the body double. The real prince had been sent to Chang An with her highness's secret agents. But his highness Liu Bian's cause of death was mysterious. It was as if he died from old age. His body withers, his hair became white and all of his fluid in the body dried up."

The movements within the capital were shocking. The existence of another prince was impossible if he was a native. Tong concluded that he was definitely a reincarnation of an otherworlder. But the name "Ping" was something that Tong was traumatized with. He could only pray that this person was not the "Ping" that was once his nemesis.

Then, Tong recalled about the threatening messages when he entered this world. If Tong were to hold power to change fate or alter the reincarnation process, then what would he do to his enemy.

Tong had a hunch that the prince Liu Ping was likely to be his nemesis "Ping" from his previous life. If he could retain his name from his previous life, then it would also be possible for Ping to do the same. Tong decided that he had to be extra careful about this prince.

However, if Liu Ping was really in control of the Han Court, his family could be in danger.

Lu Zhi continued his story. He told Tong about Liu Ping's real mother, the Empress Song, and Ping's outburst struggle in the court when he denied the emperor's execution edict and so on.

Liu Ping was currently nicknamed as "The Monster Prince" as he had superhuman power, speed beyond human's comprehension, and his records for murdering many officials, soldiers, and executioners with his bare hands during his fight against the death edict from his father.

Then last year, Liu Ping suddenly sided with the eunuch faction and went head to head against his father, the emperor.

The emperor himself was scared of Liu Ping, so he did not retaliate against him. But the Empress He and her relative, He Jin, had politic clashes with Liu Ping in many occasions. Both sides used underhanded tactics to either assassinate or frame the other faction supporters. As a result, hundreds of innocent officials were sacrificed in this struggle. Many high-rank ministers quit their jobs in fear of being implicated in the conflict.

Lu Zhi himself also had to evacuate outside of the capital temporarily to escape this chaos, or he might also be a target by the prince and the eunuch alliance.

Then he received a letter from Guo Dian which he suddenly asked for a reinforcement against a group of bandits. Lu Zhi already knew how corrupted this city governor and his subordinates were, so he ignored it.

Afterward, he heard about Guo Dian's death, so he paid Julu City a visit to see the victor of the battle, then he met Tong and his family.

The entire story was shocking to Tong. He could not find the right word to response to Lu Zhi.