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Fei Qian was startled when he saw Du Yuan. "Ah?! Wenzheng, I haven't seen you for days, how have you become like this..." During this period, Fei Qian himself had either been busy handling emergencies or visiting Huang Dou's iron smelting workshop to check output and offer suggestions. It had indeed been some time since he last saw Du Yuan.
Du Yuan rubbed his aching, swollen forehead, trying to suppress the sudden wave of exhaustion. "My Lord, why not recruit soldiers directly through the Hu leaders?"
"So that's it..." Fei Qian nodded, invited Du Yuan into the tent, called a personal guard, and instructed him to go brew some tea.
"Wenzheng, you've been working hard these past few days, haven't you?" Although Du Yuan didn't say it, after seeing him and thinking about it, Fei Qian could guess somewhat. After all, within this camp, Du Yuan didn't have any unhealthy habits like Guo Jia's. To become so haggard in just this period of time was most likely due to exhaustion...
However, in later eras, there's a saying in the workplace—working overtime is unavoidable, but working prolonged overtime is a matter of personal ability...
When first hearing this saying, one might not fully understand it. But if you think about it carefully, it often points to certain issues.
Legally, everyone's workday is eight hours. Sometimes work can't be completed within eight hours, or the company has sudden emergencies, requiring overtime. This is unavoidable, something every working person must face.
But—
If one works overtime long-term, month after month, year after year, and even when colleagues around have been promoted, moving from heavy overtime environments to middle or even senior management, no longer needing to miserably work overtime, while you remain at the grassroots level working overtime day after day, then surely something has gone wrong somewhere...
Similarly, if a person is already a senior manager, like Du Yuan, who, within Fei Qian's forces, is essentially the chief civilian official responsible for logistics—in modern corporate terms, equivalent to a Head of Logistics Department, or at least an Office Manager level in a small company—yet still constantly works overtime, even to the point now where basic rest isn't guaranteed, then there are certainly problems in delegation and manpower utilization.
Although during the Han Dynasty, the popularization and mastery of knowledge were far below later-era levels, every person could still be utilized. One shouldn't grasp everything in one's own hands, handling everything personally. That would, on one hand, leave oneself exhausted, and on the other, often delay matters, preventing timely handling of many urgent situations.
"Wenzheng, please take a seat."
Du Yuan sat down properly and upright. After sitting, he even used his hand to slightly straighten his outer garment, smoothing out some of the wrinkles.
Fei Qian noticed this and smiled slightly. "Previously, when we recruited Xiongnu or Qiang people, we indeed approached the Xiongnu or Qiang leaders first, having the Deputy Princes or Chieftains handle the recruitment. Then we'd wait for them to bring their gathered men, assemble them together, and based on the numbers these leaders brought, we'd allocate military pay, provisions, and such. That was generally the process, correct?"
Du Yuan nodded. "Exactly."
"Hmm, Wenzheng, according to the usual method... Ah, the tea is here. Let's have some tea first. Come on, no hurry, finish drinking before we talk..." Seeing the guard bringing in the tea, Fei Qian urged Du Yuan to drink first.
Though Du Yuan felt anxious and impatient, since Fei Qian said so, he suppressed his mood, picked up the tea bowl, took a sip, and was about to put it down...
"Ah, Wenzheng, this tea... you should finish it. Don't be hasty. No matter how urgent or numerous the matters, they won't suffer from the time it takes to drink one bowl of tea, right?" Fei Qian also held his tea bowl, persuading Du Yuan.
"Understood." Du Yuan was momentarily stunned, then assented. He held the tea bowl, let out a long breath, relaxed his tightly tensed body, blew on the foam floating on the tea broth, and took small sips, slowly finishing the entire bowl.
Watching Du Yuan finish the tea, Fei Qian put down his own bowl, which he had only taken a couple of sips from, and continued, "According to the usual method of recruiting Hu soldiers, it is certainly much simpler, and command is relatively easier because the Deputy Princes or Chieftains help us coordinate and manage these Hu people. But there is also one major inconvenience..."
Du Yuan felt his head somewhat drowsy and heavy, forcing himself to stay alert and listen.
"...That is, no matter how many provisions, how much military pay, or how much loot we give these Hu people, they will ultimately not stand on our side. They will only heed the words of the Deputy Princes or Chieftains. In other words, if we follow the previous method, what we are actually recruiting are the Deputy Princes or Chieftains, not..."
Before Fei Qian could finish, Du Yuan could no longer withstand the tide of weariness surging from within his body. He swayed a couple of times, then slumped forward onto the desk. His eyes felt like thousand-pound gates, impossible to open, and he heavily fell into a deep sleep...
Fei Qian smiled, had the guards outside the tent come in, and helped Du Yuan to the couch inside the tent to rest.
Seeing Du Yuan's spirit was truly poor earlier, Fei Qian had instructed the guard to add some calming herbs to the tea while brewing it. He then had Du Yuan drink it to ensure he got a good sleep and rest. Otherwise, judging by Du Yuan's current state, if he truly pushed himself until he collapsed, he would undoubtedly fall seriously ill.
After settling Du Yuan, Fei Qian took a few personal guards and headed towards the rear camp, to Du Yuan's tent. After all, he had given Du Yuan the calming tea to make him sleep, meaning Du Yuan's work would be unattended. So, he needed to step in and also see exactly where Du Yuan's problems lay.
Du Yuan's tent was located in the rear section of the Beiqu main camp.
Even before reaching Du Yuan's tent, Fei Qian saw a crowd of people waiting outside. There were Cui family shopkeepers from the market, soldiers from the rear camp, and others with various matters waiting for Du Yuan to handle, filling the area in front of the tent...
Seeing Fei Qian approach, these people hurriedly paid their respects and greeted him.
"No need for formalities, everyone!" Fei Qian nodded slightly, said nothing more, and entered Du Yuan's tent. Inside, he saw the tent was already piled high with wooden and bamboo slips of various sizes, even stacked on the bed couch, almost filling it. It was clear Du Yuan hadn't properly slept on his bed for a long time, as there was hardly any space to lie down...
Looking at the scene before him, Fei Qian shook his head slightly. He felt some pity for Du Yuan, but also felt he hadn't paid enough attention to Du Yuan and should have discovered this problem earlier.
Fei Qian slowly walked through the bamboo and wooden slips covering the ground, sat behind Du Yuan's desk, cleared a space on the desktop, then instructed the guards to bring in the people waiting outside one by one...