Super Cultivation System of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 123: Joy of Interest
However, what they never expected was that just when they introduced themselves to the Zhang family's housekeeper, Zhang Ding happened to come back from outside. When he heard about their situation, he took the initiative to come up and ask about them. After knowing the purpose of their visit, he was extremely enthusiastic and pulled them into the house.

It turned out that Zhang Ding had traveled to You, Ji, Bing and Qing states in the purchase and sale of horses, so he could be considered knowledgeable. He had also heard of the reputation of the Anmin Army in Langtiao County and had long admired them.

With such a foundation, the two sides had a very pleasant conversation and felt that they had met each other too late.

At this time, Cheng Liang brought up his kinship with Zhang Ding. After both sides calculated, Cheng Liang had to call Zhang Ding his cousin. With this relationship, the two sides chatted more happily.

Zhang Ding immediately asked someone to call Su Shuang over.

Su Shuang was just like Zhang Ding. When he was young, he had no choice but to become a businessman in order to make a living. However, he remained loyal and righteous. He had heard many rumors about Liu He and had long wanted to make friends with him. He was very happy to see Guan Yu and Cheng Liang at this time.

The two men set up a banquet, drank and chatted with Guan Yu and Cheng Liang, and asked them to tell more stories about the Anmin Army.

Guan Yu and Cheng Liang were so happy that they did not hold back and told each other about their experiences in suppressing bandits over the years. Finally, they talked about coming to buy war horses.

Unexpectedly, Zhang and Su immediately made a decision and ordered the horse slaves to select 200 top-quality war horses, saying that they were given to Liu He as a gift, and stated that as long as Liu He continued to protect the country and the people, they would be willing to provide war horses for Liu He.

Guan Yu and Cheng Liang didn't dare to accept it and kept declining.

However, they didn't expect that the two men were not satisfied yet. Not only did they give war horses to them, they also immediately expressed their willingness to marry their daughters to the two men. Zhang Ding's daughter was betrothed to Guan Yu, and Su Shuang's daughter was betrothed to Cheng Liang.

Hearing this, Liu He couldn't help but burst into laughter, making Guan and Cheng, who were sitting below, look embarrassed.

"Hahaha! You two brothers are really capable. You went out to buy horses, but you didn't spend any money. Instead, you bought the horses and got married. This is a business that makes a lot of money without any investment. It's a hundred times smarter than all the merchants in our Han Dynasty, hahaha!"

Guan Yu coughed dryly a few times and said, "Brother, please don't embarrass me and my third brother. This matter is of great importance, and we two really dare not make the decision, so we came back to ask for your advice."

Liu He certainly knew his brother's temper.

It turns out that in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, when Guan Yu left Cao Cao to find Liu Bei, he needed the personal approval of his two sisters-in-law to recruit Zhou Cang as his horse-leading younger brother. Now that he encountered such a big event, it was within Liu He's expectation that he would not dare to make decisions on his own.

Although Liu He was somewhat puzzled by the actions of the two merchants Zhang and Su, after careful consideration, it was not difficult to guess their motives.

Of course, first of all, these two people are indeed loyal and righteous, otherwise they would not have spent a lot of money to support Liu Bei in the original historical line.

But in addition to this, there is another reason that Liu He believes is also very important, and that is the status of businessmen in this era.

Among the four classes of people, scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans, merchants ranked the lowest. As Cheng Liang said before, even if his family fell into poverty, Cheng Liang's parents were unwilling to have any contact with such distant cousins, because it was somewhat embarrassing to have such relatives in business, even though the combined wealth of these two people could be called "rich enough to rival a state."

Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty, disliked businessmen and issued many decrees to crack down on them. Dong Zhongshu, during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, after abolishing all schools of thought and respecting Confucianism alone, completely defined the social status of "scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans" in theory.

During the Three Kingdoms period, many famous businessmen funded the princes in order to gain the capital to break away from their family's merchant status and become respected "aristocratic families".

For example, Wei Hong, who funded Cao Cao, Mi Zhu, who gave his entire family and wealth to Liu Bei in Xuzhou, and Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang, who originally funded Liu Bei's uprising. Now Liu He, although the capital in his hands is not much, is definitely a potential stock in all aspects. He is a relative of the Han Dynasty, and he has territory, soldiers, subordinates, ability, and prestige.

Zhang and Su were able to support Liu Bei when they swore brotherhood in Peach Garden, so it is completely understandable that they behaved like this towards Liu He, not to mention that there was a ready-made relationship with Cheng Liang that he could rely on.

At present, Zhang Jue has not started the rebellion yet, and those aristocratic families are not in urgent need of large amounts of money and food to recruit soldiers and horses, so they will not pay any attention to these merchants, and will not even have much respect for them. However, Liu He was able to send his closest brother to visit them, and this made the two of them see the difference of Liu He.

And it is this difference that allows them to see the hope they want, the hope of changing their family's identity and status!
After figuring this out, Liu He no longer had anything to worry about.

"Let's not talk about other things. I would like to ask you two brothers, just regarding this marriage, what do Yunchang and Gongyi think? If you don't like it, I will help you reject it. If you think it's okay, then let's settle it. It just so happens that Yu'er just gave birth to a nephew for you. If you two get married, plus there are war horses delivered to your door, we brothers will have four happy things coming together!"

When Liu He asked this, the two nine-foot-tall men suddenly became a little embarrassed.

As soon as Liu He saw their expressions, he knew what to do.

"Well, it seems that you two are unwilling to do so. I will find a reason to refuse now."

Liu He stood up and prepared to walk out. When the two men saw him, they quickly ran over to stop him.

"Well... Big Brother, I'm afraid it's not good to just push this matter aside. My cousin and Mr. Su are very sincere, we can't just not give them any face, well... Second Brother, don't you think so?"

Cheng Liang poked Guan Yu with his elbow.

Guan Yu still pretended to be serious, stroking his nearly two-foot-long beautiful beard, and looking straight ahead.

"This matter is entirely up to eldest brother. Third brother and I...have no objection."

"Hey, second brother, you..." Cheng Liang suddenly became anxious.

"Hahaha!" Liu He looked at the two of them and couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Alright, alright, how could I not know what you two guys are thinking? Come on, stop pretending, it's settled, I'll take care of it, and you guys just wait to be the bridegroom!"

The two were teased by Liu He, and their faces were full of shame. As for whether their faces turned red, it was unknown. Guan Yu's face was red, and Cheng Liang's face was dark, so even if they were red, it would not be visible.

Zhang Shiping and Su Shuang attached great importance to this matter. In addition, Liu He was an official and they were civilians, so the two of them personally followed Guan Yu and Cheng Liang to Langdiao County and stayed in the posthouse temporarily.

The two men couldn't figure out what Guan Yu and Cheng Liang meant, and they had never seen the "big brother" they said could make the decision, so they paced back and forth in the inn, looking a little anxious.

At this moment, a servant in the inn suddenly came to report that County Magistrate Liu had arrived. The two were shocked and hurried out to greet him.

(End of this chapter)