Three Kingdoms, Myth

Chen Xi pressed his forehead, unsure of what to say. "It's just a ritual, but do you really need to go this far? Even inviting Zuo Ci... What exactly are you planning?"

"Alright, keep up the good work. Is Zuo Yuanfang already on his way to Mount Tai? Also, since you have good connections, try to find Hua Yuanhua from Qiao County as well. He's also considered a top figure among the alchemists. If you can find him, I'll increase your activity budget. Right now, your arrangements seem a bit too modest. You need to represent us well, so make it grand and luxurious—don't be stingy. I'll give you an advance to help you set up a more impressive event. We need a large turnout for the ritual!"

Chen Xi stared at Liu Yan for a long time before deciding to assign him another task. As for the activity funds, as long as Hua Tuo could be found, the medicinal herbs could be cashed in—no, they could save lives, which in turn creates value. So, the event budget is just a minor issue!

"Hahaha, leave it to me!" Liu Yan, who now had friends all over the Han Empire, was used to living lavishly, and cutting back would be impossible for him. Back in the day, he might have been content inviting a few friends over to drink some homemade wine and snack on green beans, but now that was out of the question.

"Alright, I'll give you a note later. Take it to withdraw thirty million coins and use it to find Hua Yuanhua. As for Yu Ji and Master Zixu, if they want to show up, they will. If not, there's no point searching for them. They may not excel in everything, but they're certainly good at playing hide-and-seek," Chen Xi said as he began writing the note, casually mocking the immortals by reducing their lofty pursuits to mere games of hide-and-seek.

"Hey, Zichuan, isn't that too much? Thirty million coins? Are you serious? Can Weishuo even spend that much?" Lu Su, who initially paid no mind when Chen Xi allocated funds to Liu Yan, suddenly became alarmed when he heard the amount—thirty million coins! That was no small sum, even though Tai Mountain had more than enough resources to support such expenditures. But thirty million coins still sounded excessive.

"That's just a drop in the bucket. If we can find Hua Yuanhua, thirty million coins would be a small price to pay. Even three billion would be worth it. This is the one person who can put you back together after being torn apart, so if we can get him to Mount Tai and have him train a group of students, we could potentially cut battlefield casualties in half—that's no exaggeration," Chen Xi quickly stamped the note and handed it to Liu Yan, leaving no room for Lu Su to intervene. He wasn't joking; in ancient times, the primary cause of soldier fatalities wasn't the initial injury but the lack of timely medical treatment.

These soldiers, having survived battles, could be considered seasoned veterans. Any recruit who had fought ten or more battles and lived to tell the tale wasn't to be taken lightly. After some training and equipping, they could easily be branded as elite troops, fully capable of holding their own in combat.

Veterans who had fought in dozens of battles and survived were often promoted to lower-ranking officers. They knew better than anyone how to kill the enemy while protecting themselves. If they could establish a scalable medical corps to preserve enough veterans, things could get really interesting. A hundred battle-hardened veterans might struggle against five fresh recruits, but ten thousand veterans would easily crush fifty thousand new soldiers...

When Chen Xi considered the cost of training five hundred new soldiers for the battlefield, compared to the loss rate and combat effectiveness, he figured it was better to maintain three hundred seasoned veterans and thirty medical officers. Fighting new recruits would be a breeze, and the loss rate would be lower, the combat effectiveness higher, and the compensation for fallen soldiers would be minimal!

"Are you sure Hua Yuanhua is worth that much?" Lu Su raised an eyebrow, not because of the amount given to Liu Yan. Thirty million coins were significant, but they weren't enough to shake him. Recently, Lu Su had found himself becoming a wealthy young man with assets worth over a hundred million coins. He had already brought his grandmother to Tai Mountain and was looking to marry a good woman to expand the Lu family.

"With him, we can ignore epidemics. That alone makes him worth every coin," Chen Xi said seriously. In preparation for next year's potential epidemics, he had stockpiled an astonishing number of medicinal herbs.

Even if the historical records noted that only a few hundred thousand people were affected, Chen Xi was prepared to handle an outbreak across all of Qingzhou. He had gathered herbs of all kinds because he didn't know what would be needed, and he had enough ginseng to supply tens of thousands of people. As for other herbs, they were counted by the warehouse full. During the agricultural off-season, hundreds of thousands of people scouring the land had yielded an incredible bounty.

Chen Xi wasn't joking—while they might not completely eradicate disease, Hua Tuo and Zhang Zhongjing's efforts played a significant role in controlling the major epidemics and typhoid fever that emerged after 192 AD.

Although Zhang Zhongjing had lost his entire family to typhoid, his relentless research eventually helped control the epidemic that ravaged Jingzhou and Yangzhou. Meanwhile, Hua Tuo made it his mission to go wherever epidemics emerged, which is why Chen Xi couldn't find him—Hua Tuo was constantly on the move and had no fixed abode. With no major epidemics currently sweeping the land, who knew where he might be?

As for Zhang Zhongjing, Chen Xi dismissed that idea entirely. Zhang Zhongjing refused to leave Jingzhou until he found a cure for typhoid fever and completed his medical book, Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases. Having lost his entire family to the disease, he had vowed not to leave until he had conquered it.

In 200 AD, Zhang Zhongjing finally found a cure for typhoid and went against the tradition of keeping medical knowledge within the family by distributing his book widely. Hua Tuo famously praised it as "a book that truly saves lives."

In short, Zhang Zhongjing was practically obsessed at this point, wholly dedicated to his mission. Unless someone could eradicate typhoid, Zhang Zhongjing wasn't leaving Jingzhou. Unfortunately, Chen Xi had no recollection of how to cure typhoid fever, a disease that Zhang Zhongjing's treatments have successfully suppressed for over a millennium.

"I see," Lu Su nodded. Although Chen Xi could be unreliable at times, whenever he spoke with certainty, there was at least a 50% chance he was right. If there was even a 50% chance that Hua Yuanhua could help them combat epidemics, Lu Su thought it was worth spending thirty million coins to find him.

Besides, Chen Xi's medical corps initiative had been in the works for a while, but only a few units had been equipped so far. Lu Su believed this plan had real potential, offering a path to making the military elite. It was a far better option than the costly soldier training programs proposed by Yu Jin, so he didn't object to Chen Xi's idea. If they could train up a hundred thousand battle-hardened veterans, Lu Su would confidently urge Liu Bei to challenge anyone.

"Alright, since this plan is set, let's move on to the next one!" Chen Xi said seriously as he pulled out a stack of planning documents. Instantly, the room's previously light-hearted atmosphere turned serious. Whenever Chen Xi brought out plans like this, it meant a major long-term initiative was about to begin. What big move was in store this time?

"We haven't even completed our previous tasks yet—don't give us more work!" This was the shared thought of all the civil officials present.