Mythical Three Kingdoms-Chapter 1812 - 1681: Finish the Job Before You Die

How should we describe this task? It’s another pit, even bigger than the last one, and Jia Mu almost went with a mournful face.

The result was almost a disaster again, but Li Youu once again tidied things up, and then sent Wan Peng to assist, of course, Wan Peng’s task was simply to lead the troops and fight, nothing more.

Without any guidance, Jia Mu was directly asked to clean up the mess he had left unfinished, and surprisingly, Jia Mu managed to tidy it up, and did quite well!

This made Li Youu somewhat satisfied. It seems that Jia Mu is salvageable after all. Although he was indeed spoiled, his abilities seem quite good, and if put in a challenging environment, he might mature late but greatly.

"Just leave it here." Li Youu didn’t even look at Jia Mu’s report; someone had been reporting Jia Mu’s every move throughout, and Li Youu already had a detailed evaluation before Jia Mu had finished, so there was no need to look at the content.

Jia Mu tried to remain calm and didn’t dare to ask Li Youu anything unnecessary, while Lub Su was busy correcting governmental affairs, not even raising his head to look at Jia Mu.

To be honest, Lub Su didn’t initially agree with wasting resources on Jia Mu. However, considering that Jia Mu’s father—Jia Xu—is indeed impressive, and with Li Youu supervising throughout to prevent things from going completely wrong, Lub Su pretended nothing happened.

Two months later, Lub Su noticed some signs that Jia Mu might be worth cultivating. If Li Youu keeps handling him this way, it might just lead to something fruitful.

Therefore, Lub Su admitted his oversight directly, letting Li Youu do whatever he wanted; a fellow at the Nine Ministers Rank, given Jia Xu’s influence, raising him like this could still be worthwhile.

Although Jia Mu is only slightly younger than Lub Su, Lub Su is truly a top sage who can look down on his peers, though certain people are not included among them.

"Zijing, give me that document Gong Youu submitted from the Yellow River— the one you’ve been holding back. I’ll handle it," Li Youu reached out to Lub Su for the document. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"You’re going to handle this?" Lub Su paused his writing and, after a moment’s thought, said, "Alright, this matter is of great historical significance, and leaving it unresolved isn’t ideal. If you’re taking care of it, I can rest easy."

Back when Chen Xi passed through the Yellow River on his way to Yuzhou, Sunx Qian and those grand craftsmen once discussed the craftsman grading issue with him. At that time, Chen Xi had pretty much understood the situation, so afterwards, Sunx Qian reported the whole context to Lub Su.

Lub Su isn’t a fool; he could figure out the situation just by looking at the document. But this matter isn’t as simple as those grand craftsmen thought. Chen Xi himself also submitted a document, explaining briefly, and Sunx Qian’s document similarly rejected the internal evaluation method where higher-level craftsmen assessed lower-level ones.

In fact, Chen Xi thought this over during the journey. With official evaluations, nine out of ten officials wouldn’t understand these technical aspects. Frankly, based on Chen Xi’s level, when investigating a craftsman set at level 5, regardless of the type, above level 5, as long as they crafted something themselves, Chen Xi couldn’t accurately gauge their level.

So, Chen Xi reckoned that if officials were the ones evaluating, the self-made works of craftsmen above level 5 would mostly be scored based on intuition.

Regarding that elder last time, Chen Xi specifically had someone investigate and incidentally checked those grand craftsmen who followed Sunx Qian around. They had all undergone grading under Liu Bei, but the highest was a Level 8, and the lowest was only level 5...

When Chen Xi saw this data at the time, he was somewhat stunned. These people are all grand craftsmen, already standing at the pinnacle of the industry, yet they were rated so lowly. It’s no wonder they left, turning their backs was reasonable.

Looking at it this way, those who were rated high must not be in the minority either. Even genuine grand craftsmen being rated at level 5 made Chen Xi think that the grand craftsman who went to repair the Yellow River Bridge for Sunx Qian was giving Liu Bei a lot of face.

If it had been Chen Xi, he would have cursed long ago and left. Yet, they’re still willing to work under Liu Bei, which is already doing him a favor.

Thus, the craftsman grading system must be reformed, and perhaps all related branches need reform, too. However, reforming in the way that elder proposed to Sunx Qian isn’t feasible.

If we let this group continue like this, it will quickly become an organization. Maybe initially this organization is beneficial, but very soon, it will become a cancerous growth. Such large-scale matters involving livelihood and welfare must be led by the government.

This is why Lub Su has left the matter unresolved for so long. Creating this regulation requires considering all aspects, and one has to think cautiously; handling it poorly could affect generations to come.

After all, the welfare following the grading of all craftsmen isn’t a one-size-fits-all situation; it also needs to reference some other things. If it’s not handled well, and a particular category is led to extinction, it would be troublesome when needed in the future, hence requiring a very detailed review process.

Now that Li Youu is willing to take on the work, Lub Su is naturally happy to pass it to him. He noticed that lately, Li Youu has become much more diligent. The quality of his work is without question, and the amount he’s completed is already significant. It turns out that Li Youu indeed has a lot of untapped potential.

Li Youu took the document, glanced at it briefly, compared it with the estimated difficulty, then handed it to Jia Mu, "Make a regulation, then verify it thoroughly, and you’ll be executing it later."