The Three Kingdoms: I asked you to save Guan Yu, not to destroy Sun Quan.

Chapter 496 Even doing business with Zhuge Liang?

While bowing, Guan Xing couldn't help but secretly peek at Zhuge Liang, trying to see if he looked the same as the original owner of the body in his memories.

Prime Minister Zhuge is a national idol. I didn't get a good look at him before because of the crowd at the city gate. Now that I finally have the chance to get up close, I naturally want to take a good look at this Prime Minister Zhuge, who devoted himself to the Han Dynasty, but ended his life tragically with the words, "Oh, heavens, why have you treated me so badly?"

At this time, Zhuge Liang was not the emaciated figure he had when he died at Wuzhang Plains. On the contrary, he was in his prime, with a height of over 1.8 meters and a righteous and upright face. Sitting at his desk, he gave people a sense of security that no matter what happened, they would not have to worry as long as he was there.

Zhuge Liang, as if meeting Guan Xing for the first time, stared at him curiously for a long time before smiling and saying, "Anguo, I heard from the King that you've been working on a reconstruction plan for Jiangling recently. How's it going?"

Jiangling cannot remain like this forever; it must be rebuilt as soon as possible. Since it is to be rebuilt, it should be redesigned according to our own ideas, rather than simply restoring it to its original state.

Guan Xing smiled and said, "Reporting to the strategist, this is only a preliminary draft. The final plan can only be formulated after Elder Huang and Chief Secretary Sun Shao report the specific figures. I asked Chief Secretary Sun, and he said he can give me the specific figures in about seven days."

Zhuge Liang said, "Then tell me your draft, and I'll tell you mine. Let's combine them and start working as soon as Chief Clerk Sun reports the specific figures. Time waits for no one."

Guan Xing reached into Jiang Wei's robes, took out his recently acquired notebook, walked to the desk, squatted down, and began to explain to Zhuge Liang.

It's called a notebook, but it doesn't even have a cover. It's just a piece of A4 paper about one centimeter thick, sewn together with hemp rope on one side to keep it from falling apart.

Nevertheless, Zhuge Liang picked up the notebook and examined it curiously, his eyes shining as he said, "I heard that you improved Cai Hou paper in Kuaiji and built some kind of paper mill. Is this what the paper mill produced?"

Guan Xing nodded and said, "Yes, it hasn't been released to the market or circulated among the people yet. It's just given to the soldiers to practice calligraphy. We didn't bring many during the surprise attack on Jiangling, and now this is the only one left."

Zhuge Liang picked up his brush and wrote a few words on the blank space. When he found that the ink did not bleed, he was immediately amazed and exclaimed with great joy, "What a wonderful thing! This thing can completely replace bamboo slips."

At present, the main writing mediums in the Han Dynasty were bamboo slips and silk. Bamboo slips were too bulky, often requiring several cartloads, which seriously affected the speed of text dissemination. Silk was too expensive, and even warlords like Liu Bei and Cao Cao dared not use it freely, let alone ordinary families.

White paper combines the lightness of silk with the inexpensiveness of bamboo slips, making it the perfect choice for a writing medium. If it could be widely adopted, it would definitely bring about a qualitative leap in Han culture.

Guan Xing laughed and said, "Once the road is cleared, I'll have the paper mill send you a few truckloads. From now on, I'll take care of all your paper needs."

Zhuge Liang laughed and scolded, "You brat, let's get down to business. How do you plan to rebuild Jiangling City?"

Guan Xing opened his notebook and found the sketch of Jiangling New City, saying, "With the unification of Jiangnan, the population of Jiangling City will inevitably surge in the next few years. However, due to the city walls, the land area inside the city will not increase with the increase in population. Therefore, we must make good plans and make perfect use of every inch of land so that the limited land can accommodate more people."

"In view of this, I plan to divide Jiangling City into four districts centered on the Hanzhong Prince's Palace. In the eastern district, government offices will be built as offices for officials at all levels, and in the western district, official residences will be built as residences for officials and gentry."

"In the southern district, we will build residential buildings and small farmers' markets to provide convenience for the people and allow them to buy fruits, vegetables, rice, flour, cooking oil, and daily necessities such as cloth nearby."

"In the northern district, schools, hospitals, large trading markets, restaurants, and warehouses will be built to provide places for out-of-town merchants to live, store, and conduct large-scale transactions."

"In addition, the roads must be widened, and the main roads must be wide enough to allow four carriages to pass side by side to avoid traffic congestion. At the same time, wide drainage channels must be built to prevent the city from being flooded during heavy rains."

Zhuge Liang laughed and said, "You've even thought of roads and drainage. It seems you've considered everything very thoroughly. But this whole thing must cost a lot of money. Where will the money come from?"

The biggest factor affecting the progress of a project is funding. As long as the funding is in place, even tiling the Great Wall won't be a problem. But if the funding isn't in place, who knows how long it could drag on?

Liu Bei's years of wars had devastated the people, leaving him with no spare money for Guan Xing's extravagant spending.

Guan Xing laughed and said, "I'm planning to implement a pre-sale system. The official residence is built for the King, so we can't charge for it. But the private residences of the gentry are built for others, so shouldn't the gentry pay me for the labor and materials in advance?"

"And then there are the shops in the market. Jiangling is about to become the center of Jiangnan. The shops in the city are all prime locations. If you buy a shop, you can live off the rent for the rest of your life. How could the gentry not want these shops?"

"If you want it, give me the money to build the shop first and I'll build it for you. If you don't want it, that's fine too. There are plenty of wealthy merchants from Jiangnan and the Central Plains. We won't have to worry about finding buyers. In other words, there are more customers than shops, and the supply can't meet the demand, so we won't have to worry about selling. But if you want to buy it, you'll have to grab it. First come, first served."

Zhuge Liang was so shocked that his mouth dropped open in disbelief, and he asked, "This works?"

Guan Xing spread his hands and laughed, "What's wrong with that? The prices are clearly marked and fair to all, young and old. Whether they buy or not is entirely voluntary. I didn't force them, did I? By the way, strategist, do you need a mansion and shops? Tell me your needs and I'll tailor-make one for you, and I'll even give you an internal discount."

"Uh..." Zhuge Liang was so angry he almost overturned the table. You little brat, you're trying to do business with me?

Zhuge Liang waved his feather fan and tapped him on the head, saying irritably, "I thought you were a general, but I didn't expect you to be a merchant. Can't you do something more productive?"

"However, your plan is good. Once Chief Secretary Sun submits the figures, write me a detailed plan, and then we can discuss how to implement it."

"By the way, I heard that while you were teaching soldiers to read, you also held some kind of exam. Tell me about it."

The Han Dynasty did not have the imperial examination system, nor did it have the messy exams of later generations. Teachers mostly tested students verbally or by directly assigning tasks for them to perform, which was like going straight to the point without any preparation.

Therefore, Zhuge Liang was somewhat curious about the examinations that Guan Xing organized in the army.

Guan Xing sighed helplessly, "I was forced to take the exam. When I first went south to Jianye, I had no manpower, no food, and no guns. I couldn't even gather enough junior officers like captains and platoon leaders. Nobody in Jiangdong wanted me, and nobody wanted to join me. I could only teach the soldiers to read and train my own people."

“But there is a drawback to teaching soldiers to read: some are smart and can learn it at a glance, while others are clumsy and can’t learn it no matter how you teach them. That’s when I realized that the essence of education is not training but selection. Only by selecting the smart ones and training them in a concentrated manner can we improve efficiency, enable them to quickly become talented and be assigned to suitable positions to make contributions. But how can we select talented people? That’s when I thought of exams.”

"Strategist, humans are creatures that rely on talent. One percent talent is greater than ninety-nine percent effort. Without talent, no matter how hard you try, it's useless. Take Han Xin, for example. Countless outstanding talents have emerged in the four hundred years of the Han Dynasty. There are many who have better backgrounds and work harder than Han Xin, but how many are more capable than Han Xin? Not a single one. Don't you agree, strategist?"

"So I teach for a period of time and then organize an exam to select the top 10% to continue training, while sending the bottom 90% back to the military to study on their own. This way, we can improve teaching efficiency and save educational resources."

Zhuge Liang nodded and said, "You did the right thing. You have grasped the essence of the sage's teaching method of teaching according to aptitude. In that case, could we promote the examination and apply it to a larger stage, such as the selection of officials?"

What the hell?

Guan Xing's heart skipped a beat, and two words instinctively surfaced in his mind.

Imperial examination?