Chapter 53: Cao Cao's Deep Frustration

After careful selection, Lu Chuan ultimately took away fewer than six thousand men.

The remaining thousand or so had already developed a sense of belonging toward Cao Cao, so Lu Chuan left them behind for him.

When Cao Cao saw that Lu Chuan had genuinely left him a thousand soldiers, his internal feelings grew even more complicated.

What was Lu Chuan playing at?

Was he pitying him?

Although a thousand soldiers remained, and these men held a certain level of loyalty toward him, Cao Cao still could not bring himself to feel happy.

This sensation of being treated to charity felt extremely unpleasant.

Therefore, until Lu Chuan and his troops departed, Cao Cao remained standing in the exact same spot, gazing in the direction of their departure, speechless for a long time.

In truth, however, Lu Chuan had never once considered what Cao Cao might be thinking.

The future Cao Cao would be formidable, but the present Cao Cao was nothing more than a novice—the kind of person Lu Chuan could easily manipulate with a single hand.

Leaving a thousand soldiers behind for Cao Cao was already an act of consideration.

Had it not been for the fact that altering the course of history would deduct from Lu Chuan's lifespan, even if he did not kill Cao Cao, he would have locked him up to wear down his sharpness until he was willing to surrender.

Unfortunately, Lu Chuan's actions were constrained by the system, preventing him from doing so.

Thus, for Lu Chuan, the best option was to keep Cao Cao alive while taking the newly acquired five thousand and more able-bodied young men back to Lu County to participate in its construction.

Lu Chuan attached great importance to these returned young men.

Upon returning, he specifically sought out places to settle them, selected the three thousand with the best physical conditions from among them, and handed them over to Lu Huo.

Following Dian Wei's departure with Cao Cao, Lu Chuan had appointed Lu Huo as the County Commandant, primarily responsible for maintaining public order in Lu County, safeguarding its security, and training the army.

Several months prior, Lu Chuan had issued orders for Lu Huo to train troops, and months of effort had already yielded results, with last night's surprise raid on Cao Cao being the finest proof.

However, this minor achievement was still not enough; Lu Chuan required more soldiers, and they had to be elite troops!

When handing these men over to Lu Huo, Lu Chuan gave him clear instructions: train them rigorously. It did not matter if their individual combat prowess started low, but they had to achieve absolute obedience to orders, be able to skillfully form tactical battle formations on the battlefield, and coordinate seamlessly with others in combat.

As for their treatment and benefits, there was simply no comparison.

Lu Chuan understood well that the welfare of soldiers directly related to their combat effectiveness and morale. Therefore, not only did he provide them with ample military pay and three full meals a day, but he also introduced a policy exempting the entire family of anyone who served as a soldier from taxes.

The people of Lu County were already full of trust in Lu Chuan, and their loyalty was practically at its maximum. Otherwise, when Lu Chuan was constructing the northern outer city, a single public notice would not have sufficed to attract a massive amount of investment.

Based on this, Lu Chuan encountered zero difficulties in recruiting soldiers.

If not for the consideration that Lu County's population was only several hundred thousand, and that he needed to ensure agricultural production and normal daily life were not disrupted, raising an army of tens of thousands with a single wave of his arm would have been no trouble at all.

It was precisely because Lu Chuan hoped to foster sound, balanced development in Lu County rather than recklessly expanding his military force that his requirement to Lu Huo months ago had been to train ten thousand elite soldiers.

Now, with the addition of three thousand young men, Lu Huo's mission was revised to training thirteen thousand elite troops.

Lu Huo did not feel there was anything wrong with this. In any case, he did not need to overthink things; he simply had to execute whatever Lu Chuan said.

Too many past events had already proven the absolute correctness of all Lu Chuan's decisions.

Having handed the three thousand physically fit young men over to Lu Huo, there remained over two thousand, all of whom Lu Chuan assigned to Lu Tu.

Regardless of the various workshops Lu Tu was currently building or the construction of the northern outer city, a massive labor force was urgently needed.

The appearance of these two thousand-plus young men perfectly resolved Lu Tu's pressing needs.

Of course, Lu Chuan did not treat these two thousand-plus individuals as prisoners. Instead, he made things clear to them: work diligently every day, receive three square meals, eat meat at least once a week, and earn a monthly salary of one hundred cash.

It was just that their status was somewhat special; until the northern outer city was completed, they could not leave freely and had to submit to unified management.

Once the construction of the northern outer city concluded, Lu Chuan would grant them freedom, allowing them to choose between taking their accumulated wages back to their hometowns or settling down permanently in Lu County.

Lu Chuan believed that once these people witnessed the prosperity of Lu County, they would never want to return to their former lives back home.

Having settled these five thousand-plus people, Lu Chuan summoned Lu Jin and entrusted him with two tasks.

First, deploy more personnel to keep a close eye on these five thousand-plus individuals to ensure they did not stir up any trouble.

Second, strengthen the surveillance on Cao Cao. The operatives previously monitoring Cao Cao were to remain in place while new agents were inserted.

Having suffered this defeat, Cao Cao must have realized that there were moles planted around him by Lu Chuan. Consequently, upon returning, he would inevitably conduct internal vetting. If the original moles rashly transmitted information, they would likely be discovered by Cao Cao.

Moreover, after this incident, Cao Cao would act with even greater caution, making it truly necessary to dispatch more personnel and pay close attention to his movements.

Upon returning to Henei, the very first thing Cao Cao did was conduct a thorough purge.

He had to weed out every single person Lu Chuan had planted around him; otherwise, the moment he made the slightest move, Lu Chuan would know all about it.

To vent his frustration, Cao Cao made no attempt to conceal his actions, having all the servants in his residence locked up and interrogated individually, preferring to execute the innocent rather than let a single guilty person slip through.

Given Cao Cao's inherent temperament, once suspicion took root in his mind, no amount of explanation would be of any use.

Yet Cao Cao still had to factor in appearances and dared not execute all his servants outright, leaving him no choice but to patiently investigate them bit by bit.

This process proved rather time-consuming.

As a result, just as Cao Cao began taking action, Dian Wei arrived.

Hearing that Dian Wei had come, Cao Cao felt a trace of surprise, but still had him warmly welcomed inside.

"Dian Wei, is the wine running low?"

Cao Cao smiled as he stood up to greet him.

Although he had suffered a crushing defeat at Lu Chuan's hands, it still did not diminish his fondness for Dian Wei.

Dian Wei let out a muffled grunt. "Not at all! General Cao's wine is excellent, and I'm not short on wine either. I've come this time by order of Lord Lu, to take a few people back with me."

"Take a few people back?"

Cao Cao's expression shifted instantly, a certain possibility flashing through his mind.

"Take whom?"

"I have a name list here given to me by Lord Lu. Just hand these people over to me."

Without any polite pretense or regard for Cao Cao's feelings, Dian Wei placed the roster directly before him.

Cao Cao glanced down. There were seven names on the list in total.

Without needing to guess, these seven individuals were undoubtedly the moles Lu Chuan had planted by his side!

Yet, one had to realize that there were only twenty-odd servants in Cao Cao's entire household.

Out of a little over twenty servants, fully seven of them were Lu Chuan's moles.

No, it wasn't just seven—there were at least seven!

A fresh wave of stifled rage welled up inside Cao Cao, making him yearn to drag these seven people out and execute them right before Dian Wei, but... he could not.

He simply could not do that.

He feared that if he beheaded these seven, Dian Wei would have no way to report back to Lu Chuan, and even more, he feared that upon learning the news, Lu Chuan would personally come over to settle scores with him.

Having witnessed Lu Chuan's overwhelming might, Cao Cao could no longer muster any inclination to pit himself against Lu Chuan.

At least for the short term, Cao Cao did not dare to challenge Lu Chuan openly.