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In the Han Dynasty, the first month of the lunar calendar came with a seven-day holiday. Combined with the seven-day holidays for the summer solstice and winter solstice, there were three "golden weeks" in a year. Additionally, there were holidays for the Spring Festival, the Dog Days of Summer, the Autumn Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Laba Festival, and other specific days like the 8th of the second month, the 3rd of the third month, and the 15th of the seventh month. Moreover, the Han Dynasty practiced a five-day workweek with one day off every five days. All in all, this added up to nearly a hundred days of holidays in a year.
The so-called "bath holiday" was meant to give people time to go home and bathe. However, what people did after bathing was generally not regulated by the authorities.
Similarly, after long holidays or bath holidays, the first day back was usually reserved for a work meeting to check on progress and discuss tasks. Thus, after the seven-day golden week of the first month, the Jingxiang Work Conference for the First Year of Chuping was convened. The relevant leaders in attendance included—
Wait, wrong script.
Mostly, Fei Qian had been sitting around for a long time and was bored out of his mind.
Fei Qian naturally had to attend as well. After all, he had been drawing a salary without doing much work for over a month. Even if he didn't care about Liu Biao's position as Assistant to the Governor, he at least had to respect the monthly stipend of money and grain.
In just a couple of months, Liu Biao's team had expanded significantly.
Setting aside Fei Qian, who held a largely ceremonial position, Liu Biao's roster now included not only the previously established figures like Pang Ji, Wen Ping, Fu Xun, Yi Ji, Cai He, Deng Xi, and Wang Wei, but also the Kuai brothers, Kuai Liang and Kuai Yue, as well as Cai Mao and Cai Zhong from the Cai family.
Additionally, Fei Qian noticed some new faces. Among the civil officials, there was Zhang Yun from Shanyang Commandery, who was said to be Liu Biao's nephew, and two great scholars, Song Zhong and Qimou Kai, who had come to join Liu Biao after he established the Imperial Academy. On the military side, there were also new additions like Zhang Yun, Su Fei, and Lü Jie.
Everyone sat with a serious and earnest demeanor, kneeling properly and waiting quietly for the big boss, Liu Biao, to arrive. Of course, Fei Qian was no exception.
Finally, Liu Biao arrived, swaying slightly as he walked.
After Liu Biao took his seat, everyone followed the usual protocol by congratulating him, and then took turns reporting on their work:
- The capture of bandit leaders, with 78 executed as a warning, and the rest incorporated into Cai Mao's troops for training.
- The construction and repair of roads and water conservancy projects around Xiangyang, employing over 30,000 laborers.
- The establishment of the Imperial Academy, which had attracted over a dozen scholars and more than a hundred students.
- The expansion of the southern market in Xiangyang, now hosting over sixty merchants.
- ...
As everyone spoke with varying tones and cadences, Fei Qian grew increasingly drowsy, wishing for the meeting to end soon so he could return to his wooden house and read.
Once everyone had finished speaking, an awkward silence fell.
Kuai Yue had thought that everything had been settled with Liu Biao beforehand, and this was the perfect opportunity. All Liu Biao needed to do was make some comments, and then naturally ask Fei Qian—"Assistant Fei, what have you been doing?"
Then Kuai Yue would follow up, unleashing a torrent of criticism at Fei Qian and ultimately kicking him out of his position as Assistant to the Governor.
But Kuai Yue suddenly realized that after everyone had finished speaking, Liu Biao simply sat there with a smile, nodding without saying a word—Hey! Liu Biao, what's the meaning of this? It's your turn now!
Kuai Yue couldn't hold back any longer and was about to speak when Kuai Liang beat him to it—
Kuai Liang spoke formally to Liu Biao, "My lord, the position of Nanyang's governor is currently vacant. Yuan Shu has been appointing officials without authorization, and if this continues, it will lead to chaos. This is a serious problem."
Liu Biao narrowed his eyes and glanced at Kuai Liang, then seemingly unintentionally swept his gaze over Kuai Yue. He nodded and said, "Zirou makes a good point. Do you have a solution?"
"If we attack Yuan Shu now, we would lack justification. Therefore, we can send a letter to Yuan Shu, pretending to recognize him as the governor to lull him into complacency. At the same time, we can urge the court to quickly appoint a new governor. This will inevitably create conflict, and when they turn to you for help, you can lead your troops and settle the matter once and for all."
Liu Biao pondered this and found it quite reasonable. He smiled and said, "Well said! We'll proceed according to Zirou's plan."
If it were anyone else, Liu Biao might have attacked without justification. But the Yuan family was different. With four generations of high-ranking officials and disciples everywhere, attacking Yuan Shu without a proper reason would be like poking a hornet's nest naked.
However, if the newly appointed governor of Nanyang were bullied by the Yuan family and sought justice from the Governor of Jing Province—then Liu Biao could righteously lead his men to mediate. Of course, how exactly he would mediate was another matter.
Liu Biao coughed and said solemnly, "Does anyone else have anything to report?"
Ah, is it time to wrap up already?
Fei Qian immediately perked up, looking around.
Fei Qian was eager for the meeting to end, but Kuai Yue was growing anxious. This wasn't how things were supposed to go! Weren't they supposed to deal with those who were slacking off? Why was the meeting ending without a word?
Cai Mao, sitting on the military side, stood up and said, "My lord, the newly recruited bandits are mostly rabble, and very few are skilled archers. In my opinion, we urgently need to train 2,000 archers. However, our current stock of arrows is insufficient. I request that you allocate 50,000 arrows for training." After speaking, Cai Mao glanced meaningfully at Kuai Liang and Kuai Yue, smiled, and sat down.
Indeed, the lack of archers was a significant problem. Liu Biao nodded and turned to Qimou Kai, asking, "How many arrows do we have in the armory?" As the current Registrar, Qimou Kai would know.
Qimou Kai frowned and said, "Only about 10,000 remain."—Xiangyang had used up a significant number during the Yellow Turban Rebellion and had not replenished its stock since. Now, they were short by about 40,000 arrows. This was not an easy problem to solve.
Kuai Yue immediately saw this as a golden opportunity, especially after Cai Mao's meaningful glance before sitting down. Was the Cai family also finding Fei Qian's position as Assistant to the Governor an eyesore and wanting to take it for themselves? Was this why Cai Mao had raised such a difficult issue?
The more Kuai Yue thought about it, the more he believed this to be the case. If so, the first step was to remove Fei Qian. As for whether the position would go to the Kuai family or the Cai family, that would depend on their respective strategies later.
With this in mind, Kuai Yue immediately stood up.
Kuai Liang, sitting beside him, reached out slightly as if to stop him, but seeing that Kuai Yue had already stepped forward, he sighed softly and let it go.
Kuai Yue spoke loudly, "Adequate supplies ensure military morale, and sufficient equipment ensures strong soldiers. General Cai's point is valid. Our current plan should be to allocate the existing stock from the armory and appoint a specialist to oversee arrow production. Within a month, we should have enough to meet military needs." After speaking, he noticed Cai Mao nodding with a smile and felt confident that, with the Cai family's support, they could easily bring Fei Qian down!
Liu Biao also nodded and said, "Yidu makes a good point. However, overseeing military equipment production is."
Kuai Yue immediately took over, "My lord, overseeing military equipment production is no small matter. It requires someone knowledgeable, capable, and of high rank to ensure the project is completed on time. Therefore—" He turned to look at Fei Qian.
Fei Qian blinked. What was this? Were they suggesting that he should oversee the production of arrows? Oh no, I'm not Zhuge Liang. Where am I supposed to get 40,000 to 50,000 arrows from.