Along the way, Ji Changze said, “No, I don’t want to be a bookkeeper.” He didn’t forget to ask them, “Do you two really think that with my appearance, the general will let me be a bookkeeper when he sees me?”
The two soldiers looked up and down at him inexplicably, “What about you? Seeing you talk, aren’t you very clever?”
Ji Changze spread his hands helplessly, showed them the blood on his body, and pointed to his face.
“With this appearance, if you said I was a beggar, people would believe you. As they say, a gentleman should be dressed properly. With my appearance, not to mention the General, even if a random passerby comes, I’m afraid they won’t believe that I’m a scholar.”
What he said was reasonable, well-founded, and his facial expression was very appropriate.
The two soldiers looked at each other.
“Brother, I think what he said seems to make a lot of sense.”
When they had finished chattering, one of them looked at Ji Changze with the expression of ‘you have a lot of wants’, and said, “Then what are you thinking? Let me make it clear, we won’t let you go.”
General Hou was a Great General of the imperial court, either expedition to the north or expedition to the south. As soldiers under his command, they had to go to war sooner or later.
Originally, both were very clear about their fate. As they were such small soldiers in the barracks, their mission was to be at the forefront of every battle.
They were the ones who died first.
But as this man said, a little military merit made a big difference. With military merit, at least they didn’t have to be cannon fodder.
It would be a wonder if these two gave up this opportunity.
They both watched Ji Changze warily, for fear that he might run away.
Ji Changze had no such idea at all. He just shook his sleeves and kindly said, “I need a new set of clothes. I’d better have good material for my clothes, and change these shoes to better ones. In addition, my hair tie is dirty.”
Both of them listened with a ‘are you f*cking kidding me?’ expression.
“Do you know how much new clothes and shoes cost? It is because we think highly of you that we invite you to work as a bookkeeper in the barracks. Don’t get ahead of yourself.”
“Since you know how to read, you must have read a few books. Dare I ask you when you two recommend a bookkeeper to the General, will he feel that you two are doing your best when he sees that you are recommending a bookkeeper whose clothes are as bloodstained as a disaster victim as if he was pulled out of a pile of dead people?”
The two soldiers looked at each other.
“Aren’t you the one we pulled out of the pile of dead people?”
Ji Changze waved, “It doesn’t matter.”
“Think about it, how easy it is to pull a person out of a pile of dead people? But what if the bookkeeper you recommend is well dressed, immaculate, and elegant in his speech? You then tell the General that you were able to hire this bookkeeper to work for the army, and that you had to waste a lot of breath to convince this gentleman, who seems to have no shortage of money, to come to the barracks to work as a bookkeeper. Will the General think that you two are loyal and think of the army all the time?”
He spoke slowly, but his words were clear. Every word reached both of them clearly.
Both men listened thoughtfully.
“Brother, he seems to have a point. If we dress him up and take him to the barracks; once he’s well dressed, we would get credit for ‘inviting’ him.”
As they spoke, they looked at Ji Changze again.
Ji Changze smiled and nodded, “That’s exactly it, little brother, you have great insight.”
The two men muttered again, finally agreed, and straightened up again.
“Okay, we’ll take you to buy clothes, but you’ll have to pay for it yourself.”
Ji Changze waved his sleeves with a look of innocence, “I have nothing on my body, no silver.”
“Who are you fooling? Just now, you took away the coins from both of us, which we worked so hard to scrape off the dead.”
“Yes, we saw it with our own eyes.”
Ji Changze didn’t panic, “That is used to buy straw mats, at least they were once from the same village as me. Naturally, they should have a good burial.”
(TNote: In ancient times, poor people were usually buried wrapped in straw mats. It was at least more decent than burying them just like that.)
With the blood on his face that had dried up but still looked scary, he smiled gently at the two of them, “Or was it a lie when you both said you were collecting the bodies? You’re rummaging around in those corpses, just for their money?”
After saying that, a cold wind happened to blow between the three.
The two soldiers trembled, and then they remembered that they had just been frightened by Ji Changze. After they listened to what the ‘bookkeeper’ said, they rushed while pulling the person away before, and actually forgot to collect the corpses.
When they looked at the scholar standing in front of them with blood on his face, both of them couldn’t help swallowing.
Their original disposition of ‘ I’m a soldier, and you’re a civilian, you have to listen to what I say’, was gone.
They were in the wilderness. This person couldn’t really be a ghost, could he?
“Then, let’s do as you say. We’ll buy you clothes with our own money, and buy some straw mats to bury everyone.”
Seeing the frightened appearance of the two, Ji Changze didn’t clarify anything. He nodded and smiled, and took the lead.
The two soldiers looked at each other, although a little afraid, but in the end still reluctant to give up the military merit, and carefully followed behind.
When they reached a marketplace, and saw people coming and going; with so many people here, they straightened up a bit.
After entering a shop, when Ji Changze picked out the expensive ones, they couldn’t help it.
“Are you going to spend our money like it’s your own? It’s just a garment. Why does it need to be the expensive one? “
Ji Changze looked at the material patterns, and did not look back, “I was thinking that the more expensive the clothes are, the more the General would think that the two of you contribute more. If you don’t want me to wear expensive clothes, I’ll choose the cheap ones. A scholar, won’t care too much about what they wear.”
With that, sure enough, he turned around and went to the cheap side of the shop.
The two men were so affected by him that when they saw that he was going to look at the cheap clothes, they went to stop him.
“Buy the expensive one, just buy the expensive one!”
“Is there something bad about it?” Ji Changze looked back at the two, smiling shyly and embarrassed, “I think I’d better buy a cheap one. You two are also good people. You saved me anyway. How could I let you spend so much money? I thought that if I really became the bookkeeper in the barracks, I should repay you well.”
Now, the two men didn’t hesitate at all.
They also came to their senses.
Right now, soldiers are easy to find, but the barracks couldn’t find any scholars.
In fact, at first, the civilian staff in the barracks were very easy to find. But they had fought many wars in the past few years, either those people joined the rebels or Zhao next door. And from time to time, they had to fight with the people next door.
These literati weren’t very mobile, and their bodies were relatively weak. So, they need the people protecting them to be strong and tough.
When they were stationed at another place, the weather was too cold, the bookkeeper died.
When the battle was won, everyone celebrated, they drank too much, the bookkeeper died.
When the enemy stealthily attacked and shot arrows at their barracks, the bookkeeper died.
It was said that the bookkeepers for other Generals weren’t so miserable, at least not like their bookkeeper. They would always die, so no one dared to apply for the job.
It was only bookkeeping, but it also became a crisis-ridden occupation.
It was always difficult for the General to find a bookkeeper. And they were people of the court, not bandits, so they couldn’t forcefully kidnap someone.
But everyone who took the initiative to join died miserably, and it could imagine that in the short term, there would be no bookkeeper willing to come to the barracks.
At this time, if they brought a well-dressed and well-spoken gentleman to recommend, it would be a meritorious service.