Liu Bei: My younger brother is a deity.

Chapter 49 Famous Throughout Luoyang

Zhang Fei inquired about what Liu Bei and the other two had seen and heard at Cai Yong's residence.

Upon learning that Ah Quan had made a name for himself, he felt both envious and admiring.

Suddenly remembering something, he hurriedly said:

"By the way, Quan, a servant from the Yuan family came by this morning, asking when you're going to visit the Yuan residence?"

"The Yuan family mansion? Yuan Shu?"

"Yes, yes, it's Yuan Shu." Zhang Fei nodded hurriedly. "That servant said that his master sent you a visiting card, but you accepted it without visiting him. What kind of logic is that? He also said that you should give him a reply as soon as possible, so that his master won't get impatient."

At this point, Zhang Fei's face showed anger. "That fellow was quite arrogant, as if his master giving A-Quan a name card was some great favor. I was so angry just looking at him that I almost kicked him out."

Liu Bei looked worried. "A-Quan, should we really not pay a visit to Yuan Shu? He's a member of the Yuan family. The Yuan family has held high office for four generations, and their disciples and former officials are all over the country. Their influence in Luoyang is unfathomable. If we offend Yuan Shu, we'll probably find it difficult to move an inch in the future."

Liu Quan shook his head. "I'm not going."

Then he laughed and said, "Don't worry, Abei, we have a better option. Yuan Shao is coming back."

Liu Bei asked in confusion, "Does A-Quan mean we should ignore Yuan Shu and instead visit Yuan Shao?"

"good."

"Why? Can't we visit both?" This time, the question was asked of Liu Deran.

Liu Quan laughed, "Deran, Abei, you don't know this, although these two are both sons of the Yuan family, they are mortal enemies. We can only choose one of them."

Liu Quan's choice was naturally made possible by detailed intelligence.

It includes not only the historical information about these two individuals stored in the Pangu database, but also the information he gathered using the Hummingbird drone.

Before even reaching Goushi County, Liu Quan released his four hummingbirds to search for information at the mansions of various prominent families in Luoyang.

During this process, he heard quite a few comments about this Yuan Gonglu:

As a teenager, Yuan Gonglu loved hunting hawks and dogs, and he did a lot of things like bullying men and women, but the Yuan family and their vassals praised him as "chivalrous".

Later, he was recommended as a filial and incorruptible official and came to Luoyang to serve as a court physician. Relying on the prestige of the Yuan family, he acted arrogantly and recklessly, earning the nickname "the fierce ghost on the road".

Initially, many prominent families, powerful clans, and even those from humble backgrounds sought to curry favor with the Yuan family and actively cultivated good relations with him.

Later, they discovered that this guy not only had a terrible temper, but also didn't treat them as friends at all; he treated them all like servants.

What's most despicable is that after doing things for him, he often fails to keep the promises he made.

As a result, the powerful and wealthy families, as well as the sons of the poor, all grew to despise him and turned to Yuan Shao, who had a better reputation.

Instead of looking for problems within himself, Yuan Shu developed a deep hatred for Yuan Shao, that little brat, and used some tricks to send this annoying man away to serve as the magistrate of Puyang.

Even though Yuan Shao was not in Luoyang, Yuan Shu still couldn't recruit anyone, and in the end, he had no choice but to recruit men from the wandering knights in the city.

Liu Quan had no desire to associate with such a person.

Yuan Shao was the opposite of Yuan Shu.

This man was born into a lowly family. Although he was the son of Yuan Feng, just like Yuan Shu, his mother was a slave.

His mother died of illness not long after giving birth to him (or perhaps she was "forced to die of illness"), and Yuan Shao was raised by his stepmother, where he was constantly disliked and humiliated by the arrogant Yuan Shu.

However, Yuan Shao was patient and knew how to act obediently, which made him quite popular within his family.

After Yuan Fengzhi's elder brother Yuan Cheng died of illness, having no children, he prepared to adopt a son from the Yuan family to carry on the family line.

Yuan Cheng's wife then chose Yuan Shao, who had a very good reputation in the clan.

Yuan Shao thus went from being a son of a concubine to a son of the legitimate wife, completing a crucial leap in his life.

Yuan Shao's return to Luoyang from Puyang was due to the death of his adoptive mother. He resigned from his post to return and observe mourning, taking the opportunity to return to Luoyang, the political center of the Han Dynasty, and win a good reputation.

Although Yuan Shao has various shortcomings in historical evaluations, at least before he became a warlord, he was definitely a reliable ally.

Since Yuan Shao has been chosen, Yuan Shu cannot be chosen next.

After all, the Liu family of Zhuoxian County was neither a prominent family nor a local clan of Luoyang, so they had no means to manipulate events and play both sides.

This is also why Liu Quan showed his talent after arriving in Luoyang.

Although Yuan Shao was known for his humility and willingness to treat people with respect, regardless of whether they came from a noble family, a powerful clan, or a humble background, there was a prerequisite: he had to know who you were.

Fame!

In this era, it's the key to getting things done.

…………

For the next few days, Liu Quan, Liu Bei, and Liu Deran studied at the foot of Mount Goushi every day.

Although it was called reading, Liu Quan actually did most of the teaching, while Liu Bei and Liu Deran listened.

Zhang Fei also audited the class.

Life was peaceful and fulfilling.

Liu Quan's fame, however, spread rapidly throughout Luoyang.

This time, the news was no longer about his good looks and football skills, but about his scholarship and poetic talent. Even Liu Hong in the palace heard of Liu Quan's name.

The main reason is that this "stepping stone" is just too famous.

From a young age, the Kong family cultivated Kong Rong's image as a genius, with various "stories" emerging one after another, and even invited many big shots to cooperate in the performance.

Kong Rong's act of sharing pears: When he was four years old, he was eating pears with his brothers. He always picked the smallest one, saying, "A child should take the smallest one." This became a model of humility and deference.

At the age of ten, he recognized his relatives: He visited the famous scholar Li Ying, claiming to be a relative, and explained the "family friendship" by saying that Confucius and Lao Tzu had a teacher-student relationship, which surprised everyone present.

A witty retort: ​​In response to Chen Wei's "mockery" that "a child prodigy may not necessarily be a great adult," he countered with "I imagine you must have been a prodigy when you were young," demonstrating his quick thinking.

Brothers arguing over guilt: When Zhang Jian was sixteen, his family hid him while he was being pursued. After the incident, he argued with his elder brother Kong Bao and their mother about who should take the blame. In the end, his elder brother was convicted, and Kong Rong became famous as a result.

The Kong family is really good at marketing; all of these things are popular with the common people and spread quickly and widely.

Over time, Kong Rong's reputation as a child prodigy became deeply ingrained in people's minds.

Of course, Kong Rong himself was indeed intelligent; otherwise, his family would not have gone to such great lengths to promote him.

His scholarship, his talent, and his eloquence are all first-rate.

However, without the marketing efforts of the family, these "top-notch" products could never have spread throughout the world.

However, greater fame has both advantages and disadvantages.

After Kong Rong became famous, his biggest problem was that there were always people who wanted to step on him to become famous.

The Confucius family generally dealt with such matters in two ways.

First, they sent out members of their clan to test the waters.

Those who are truly talented are invited in, and everyone sits down to discuss and praise each other.

For those who lack talent or have only average talent, they were given free rein to pursue Kong Rong and were given a strong attack, which became nourishment for Kong Rong's reputation.

These two methods have been used for many years and have proven effective time and again.

Moreover, as Kong Rong grew older, his reputation grew, and his knowledge deepened, such people gradually disappeared.

Thus, Kong Rong developed a misconception that Lao Tzu's knowledge was unparalleled.

It was precisely this arrogance that led him to stumble at Cai Yong's home, where he was defeated by the young boy Liu Quan.

This time, by stepping on Kong Rong's fame, Liu Quan truly became famous throughout Luoyang.