He originally intended to surrender to Wei, so why did he end up restoring Han?

As mentioned before, Liu Bei became the governor of Xu Province and immediately pledged allegiance to Yuan Shao. Now, while the diplomatic envoy Jian Yong is still in Qing Province, Liu Bei has signed a treaty with Yuan Tan.

The agreement stipulated that the two sides should maintain friendly relations and refrain from attacking each other. In other words, this was a "Qingxu Non-Aggression Pact".

Zang Ba was also puzzled when he heard the news. These two places didn't even border each other, so why would they sign a non-aggression pact?

However, seeing that neither side seemed to be causing him any trouble, Zang Ba could only keep his doubts to himself. After all, now that a trade route had been established between the two sides, Zang Ba could also profit from it.

Unseen by Zang Ba, however, thin, supple paper and snow-white salt were slowly absorbing the grain reserves of Langya County. The grain reserves held by both aristocratic families and ordinary households were decreasing at an alarming rate.

Seeing the grain continuously entering the warehouse, Liu Bei finally felt relieved. The grain needed for the Guangling military farms was increasing, and Xuzhou was already experiencing a large grain shortage. If they didn't provide some more grain, the financial chain would break.

The prominent families in Xuzhou were also in an uproar: My God! Finally, we're seeing a return on our investment!

Starting with Tao Qian, many powerful families in Xuzhou were financially supporting the army. However, the wealth of many of these families was declining year by year. After all, no matter how much you exploit the tenant farmers, the harvest from the fields is limited. War is different; a single defeat can wipe out all the money you've invested.

Tao Qian's military record was somewhat unsatisfactory, which led many powerful families to desperately support him, while Tao Qian himself was desperately supporting Cao Cao. This continued until Liu Bei, who was already struggling to maintain his position. Otherwise, when Yuan Shu attacked, the powerful families could have easily provided Liu Bei with ten thousand private soldiers.

In comparison, their current excitement is understandable.

When Lu Wan was initially recruiting investors, the major families only made token investments as a formality. However, once the revenue sharing actually began, each family sent representatives to Lu Wan to cultivate a relationship, hoping she would encourage them to invest more resources.

Yes, Lu Wan accepts anything useful besides money.

The Chen family of Xiapi used their personal connections. After learning of this, Chen Gui wrote to his friend under Yuan Shao, asking him to help Liu Bei attract customers and expand the market. Chen Gui assured Liu Bei that as long as the goods could be transported to Ji Province, there would be no shortage of buyers.

The Mi family of Donghai uses its own transportation routes and caravans. After so many years of trading, the Mi family has developed a transportation network that offers the best value for money, enabling them to transport large quantities of goods safely and quickly.

The Zhang family of Pengcheng had been severely weakened by Cao Cao's previous population purge, so they decided to go all the way and sent their last two hundred private soldiers to serve as guards for merchants.

Other powerful families were not to be outdone, and they all emptied their pockets to invest. In no time, Liu Bei's treasury was filled with money and all kinds of supplies.

Not only that, even some well-informed aristocratic families in distant Yuzhou and Yanzhou invested in it. After all, although they were outwardly sworn enemies, when it came to making money, who cared about such things?

However, before Liu Bei could even savor the feeling of being a wealthy man in the treasury, budget requests from various departments were already in his hands.

The number of refugees in northern Guangling County is no joke; it has now swelled to over 400,000. The ongoing unrest in Huainan has driven almost all of Huainan's inhabitants to flee for their lives. Consequently, the security pressure in northern Guangling is increasing exponentially. Soldiers must patrol diligently every day to prevent any illegal activities. Naturally, these guards who work overtime need to receive extra subsidies to maintain order and stability.

As for the Yuan army soldiers who were captured earlier, they have been reorganized. Some of them were mixed up and added to the original Xuzhou army, while the rest were handed over to other cities in Xuzhou to absorb. Now, Huaiyin City has 13,000 troops stationed there, Xuyi has 5,000 troops stationed there, and Gaoyou and Sheyang each have 4,000 troops stationed there. The defensive pressure has been reduced, but the expenditure has increased.

Incidentally, Liang Gang, whom they had previously captured, has also switched sides and begun to oversee the daily training of the garrison troops. As for Ji Ling, to be honest, nobody cares. The previous battle was so disastrous that Guan Yu looked down on Ji Ling and naturally didn't bother trying to recruit him. Yuan Shu's side was in chaos, so no one came to ransom him. Ji Ling just sat there in prison, waiting for someone to get him out.

On the other hand, Chen Deng had also put the curved-shaft plow into production, and now was the time to expand production. There were also expenses for resettling displaced people, purchasing seeds, buying timber, and so on. Chen Deng was now so frugal that he wanted to stretch every copper coin in two. Knowing that Liu Bei's merchant ships were about to depart, Chen Deng had already begun drafting a budget application.

Furthermore, the influx of migrants led to a shortage of land, prompting Chen Deng to urgently establish several construction teams to build salt fields and hire workers in Haixi County, based on Lu Wan's blueprints. This was partly to generate revenue and partly to alleviate the current surplus of labor.

At Sun Qian's urging, Guo Yuan also came to Xuzhou. However, unlike Chen Jiao, he did not go to work in the prefectural government. Instead, he went directly to Guangling to help Chen Deng appease the refugees. Guo Yuan was indeed a capable person. He could get started immediately after taking on the job, and the data he compiled was flawless. Chen Deng couldn't help but marvel at where his lord had found such a talented person.

As for the funding, half of the government treasury was directly allocated to the land reclamation project team in Guangling. Liu Bei made his decision in his mind and then continued to look at the next few applications.

Chen Qun also submitted a proposal, hoping that Liu Bei could allocate more funds to recruit more people into the governor's office, as the manpower shortage was starting again. The reason was that Lu Wan had invented a new printing technique, and every time Lu Wan came up with something new, the Xuzhou government had to set up a special department to take full responsibility for it, which over time led to the current manpower shortage.

Along with this came problems such as unclear responsibilities and redundant departments. Chen Qun, with the help of his assistant Chen Jiao, began to find solutions, but this was destined to be a long process. Chen Jiao was also quite surprised: "Assigning me such a big task right away? You think too highly of me! Coming to Prefect Liu's place was definitely the right decision."

Liu Bei rubbed his head and decided to give one-sixth of the credit to Changwen, who had been working really hard lately.

Then came the application from Xiao He and Zhang Liang, which detailed their plans to build something new in various locations, and Liu Bei readily agreed. Another one-sixth gone.

With one-sixth of the funds remaining, Liu Bei continued to look at the remaining funds.

Repairing roads...okay. Clearing fields? Let's wait. Expanding the caravan? Sure...

After Liu Bei finished reading the documents, he discovered that not only did he not have enough money, but he would also have to add a considerable amount to maintain a balance. Even a hero like him couldn't help but sigh, "Even a hero can't get by with just a penny."