After sending Gongsun Zan away, Liu An found Xiahoulan and told Xiahoulan what Gongsun Zan had said.

Xia Houlan is currently the only person under Liu An who understands court politics, so Liu An can only discuss with him.

Going to Luoyang to seek an official position is definitely not as simple as Gongsun Zan said.

Although he was a member of the Han clan, he had no one close to him in the court, and Gongsun Zan's network of connections was not extensive, so his letter of recommendation was not as useful as he imagined.

As for relying on Gongsun Zan's relationship to gain access to Lu Zhi and Lu Shangshu, it is even more impossible.

Lu Zhihai was a great scholar and was known for his integrity. Even the recommendation from his own son might not be effective, not to mention that Gongsun Zan was only a disciple in name?

Moreover, Zhuo County is one of the major counties in Youzhou. Once an official position becomes vacant, many people rush to fill it. How can Liu An, a powerless and declining clan member, take his turn?

But although Liu An didn't have any hope, it was still possible to give it a try.

But after finally going to Luoyang, he definitely couldn't make only this preparation, so Liu An asked Xia Houlan if he had any other suggestions.

After thinking for a while, Xia Houlan said: "I wonder if you know that your Majesty is now promoting the system of selling officials and conferring titles?"

"What do you mean by Fu Zheng, let me buy an official position?" Liu An understood Xia Houlan's thoughts as soon as he heard this.

"It's a good idea. If you just protect the manor, you don't have to worry too much about being ostracized by the party members. Now that Duke Ming has thousands of people to fight for, if he is formally appointed by the court, he will use a two-pronged approach of making friends and suppressing them with force. I believe It will not be difficult to deal with the powerful families of Zhuo County and the new county magistrate."

Xia Houlan did not suggest that Liu An directly buy the county magistrate of Zhuojun, but still only the post of county magistrate of Zhuojun suggested by Gongsun Zan.

The reason is that the county magistrate is too expensive. A county magistrate with one thousand dan costs 10 million yuan, and a prefect with 2,000 dan costs 20 million yuan.

In the first year of Guanghe, when Liu Hongchu opened his west residence and sold his officials, he only paid tens of millions for the official and five million for the ministers. Later, when he found out that he got a lot of money from selling his officials, he intensified his efforts.

Nowadays, local officials can be sold for tens of thousands of dollars for whatever their annual salary is. In wealthy and sought-after large counties and counties, the highest bidder can get it.

The price of court positions was reduced by half because the oil and water were not as abundant as those of local officials.

That is to say, if Liu An wants to buy the magistrate of Zhuoxian County, he will need at least 10 million yuan, but it is obvious that Liu An cannot spend so much money to buy an official at once.

As far as Xia Houlan knew, all other expenses except food must be kept simple in the village now.

Although he didn't know how much savings Liu An had, based on his understanding of Liu An, if he didn't have enough money, Liu An would definitely do his best to take care of the villagers.

The county captain only has four hundred stone officials. Although four million yuan is not a small amount, it is at least half less than the county magistrate.

Liu An opened his inventory and took a look. There were many unsold high-priced prizes in it. Not to mention anything else, just the 150 cans of Lao Ganma in the inventory could be sold to Zhen Yi for 7.5 million yuan.

Coupled with the proceeds from Liu Bei's auction, he might be able to buy a county magistrate.

But if possible, Liu An really doesn't want to sell his official position.

All the money Liu Hong gained from selling his official position went into his pocket and had nothing to do with the aristocratic family. Therefore, the aristocratic family firmly resisted Liu Hong's selling of his official position and looked down upon those who bought the official position.

Once this is done, it will create many obstacles for Liu An to recruit talents from famous families in the future.

But it’s always good to be extra prepared.

Liu An later asked if there was any other way, but Xia Houlan had no idea.

So Liu An began to prepare to go to Luoyang.

He first extracted the cotton cloth from his inventory and asked Xia Houlan to take it to Lu's Garment Store to sell it.

Then he opened the military treasury and took out a hundred sabers to arm a group of people from the village led by Zuo Wei, ordering them to protect the manor in place of the escort.

Then he ordered Gao Sheng to select 50 members of the escort team to go with him to Luoyang. Zuo Wei was temporarily in charge of the other members of the escort team and the patrol team.

Liu An took out the horse gear from the inventory and checked it. Sure enough, it had double iron stirrups as he expected, so there was no need to worry about the members of the escort not being able to ride a horse.

After Liu An's practice during this period, his equestrian skills were already good, but none of the other people in the village knew how to ride a horse.

Liu An wanted to rush to Luoyang. He wanted to ensure his own safety but also didn't want to waste too much time on the road. It was the best choice to send 50 escorts on horseback to accompany him.

As for the iron stirrups, a weapon that was beyond the times, Liu An only had to take off the harness when entering the city and walk, then put the harness back on after leaving the city, and he would not be discovered.

There were actually stirrups in the Han Dynasty, but most of them were made of cloth or wood and existed only on one side. At this time, the stirrups were just a tool to assist in mounting a horse, not to assist in riding a horse.

Then Liu An took out 50 war horses, and called the escort team selected by Gao Sheng, and asked each of them to order a pair of harness and a horse, and put on the harness for a test ride.

At first, everyone was still in a hurry. After Liu An explained the function of the double stirrups, everyone gradually stabilized and tried to control the horses.

Liu An allowed the escort to practice freely while he summoned the village chiefs. Xia Houlan happened to be back from selling cloth, so Liu An told everyone about his preparations to go to Luoyang.

"During my absence, all matters concerning the village will be decided by Fu Zheng. I believe you all understand Fu Zheng's talents. Do you have any opinions?"

Seeing that no one was speaking, Liu An continued: "The finances are still in charge of Qu Ze. All expenses should be reported to Fu Zheng. After Fu Zheng agrees, he will go to Qu Ze to collect the money."

After saying that, Liu An looked at Xia Houlan and asked, "Fu Zheng, can you sell all the cloth?"

"Yes, we have sold them all to Lu's Clothing Shop for two thousand yuan each, making a total of four hundred thousand." Xia Houlan stood up and replied.

When Liu An heard Xia Houlan's words, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.

Two thousand dollars per horse... He had sold them for one thousand five hundred dollars each time... After Liu Bei took in the victims last time, Liu An once again noticed the gap between himself and his men.

He nodded calmly and praised: "Fu Zheng did a good job, I really saw you right!"

"Ming Gong is so complimentary." Xia Houlan replied modestly.

Liu An asked Xia Houlan to give him 200,000 yuan as travel expenses, and the remaining 200,000 yuan was given to Qu Ze for safekeeping.

Afterwards, Liu An reminded him one by one of other details that needed to be paid attention to after leaving, and then went home and told his mother Cui about going to Luoyang.

Needless to say, Cui was busy again. On the second day, Liu An took out five boxes of soap and five bottles of shampoo, and divided the rest into sixteen packages for the escorts to carry, and gave them to the sixteen escorts.

All of them used Death Cards.

After recruiting a total of 40 dead soldiers, Liu An received another 4 manor contribution points, but Liu An still focused all his attention on his own force.

In this way, his force value has risen to 33 points.

As his force exceeded 30 points, Liu An's charm also increased by 5 points, reaching 51 points.

This made Liu An wonder if his previous low charm was because he looked too weak, right?

In addition, Liu An's command also increased by 2 points, from 37 to 39.

Liu An guessed that various attributes should be able to influence each other.

For example, the command value does not only depend on the individual's understanding of the art of war, but also the impact of the individual on the combat effectiveness of the army.

Military abilities such as ranking and deploying formations and training soldiers are on the one hand, and the impact of personal bravery on the army led by one is also included in the command.

For a simple-minded person like Lu Bu, even if he is not skilled in military affairs, his personal force is extremely high, so his command value will not be low.

While thinking about the attributes, Liu An took Gao Sheng and 50 escorts to Zhuoxian City.

He put the horses in the city's courtyard and asked the guards to wait for him in the courtyard. He only took Gao Sheng with him, and the two of them walked to the county government office to get Gongsun Zan's letter of recommendation and merit.

After saying goodbye to Gongsun Zan, Liu An hurried back to the house, took his escort, mounted his horse and rushed to Luoyang.
Chapter completed!