A few days later, when Yuan Xi and his party rushed back to Guangling, their surprise was beyond everyone's expectations.
Cai Zhaoji came out and saw carriages following each other in a long queue outside the house. She said to Yuan Xi who got off the car, "What good things are you bringing?"
Yuan Xi told Chen Deng about taking out the book collection at home, and said with a smile: "I may have to trouble you next."
"I will gather the literate people in the city to copy and write, and then you will take charge of the compilation, organize this batch of things into a volume, and then transport a batch to Youzhou before the New Year."
"The next year will be the time for spring plowing and sowing in Youzhou. It would be best if these things can be put to use."
"But you may be very tired during the next period of time, so I will ask everyone in the house to help you."
Cai Yan smiled and said: "This is a good thing. Don't you just want to gather the best of hundreds of schools in the world and write a magnificent masterpiece?"
She immediately sighed and said: "There was a big fire in Luoyang and so many classics were lost. It's such a pity."
Yuan Xi deeply agrees. The evolution of civilization is extremely difficult and requires a long period of accumulation, but destruction is extremely easy. Just one sudden incident can wipe out the efforts of countless people over hundreds of thousands of years.
Rolls of bamboo slips were moved into the house, and the Yuan Mansion became completely busy. Almost everyone, including Huan, was assigned the task of transcribing.
Everyone has been with Yuan Xi for a long time, and they are all used to it, except for one person.
Mrs. Wu.
Because she is also literate, she wants to copy classics with Cai Zhaoji. Normally, Mrs. Wu would not object to it. On the contrary, she likes it very much.
But now she feels extremely frustrated, because she was planning to run away in the past few days!
Mrs. Wu has already figured out the work and rest time and vacancies of everyone in the mansion after Yuan Xi left, including Cai Zhaoji's mother and daughter, and she also deduced that the exit token was probably in Cai Zhaoji's house.
She has found out the patrol routes of the city's defenders and the opening and closing times of the city gates, and learned that among the four gates, the north gate can leave the city late at night with a token!
Her plan was to steal the token while everyone was sleeping at night, escape from the city with her daughter, and then find a way to return to Lujiang County so that she could join Sun Ce.
She had almost planned all of this, and she only waited for a few days to take action. She had no idea what the outcome would be, but she didn't expect that Yuan Xi would come back early!
And listening to Cai Zhaoji's tone, in the next period of time. Everyone in the house had to work all night long in order to copy the classics!
In this way, the opportunity for escape that Mrs. Wu finally found disappeared just like that!
She vomited blood in her heart, this was a bit too unlucky!
However, Mrs. Wu is a person who will not give up. The New Year is less than a month away. Before and after the New Year, the soldiers and people in the city are busy celebrating. At that time, the Yuan family should be the most relaxed.
Before that, she could only pretend that everything was normal, wait for the opportunity, and wait for the best time to come.
In the next few days, carts of blank bamboo slips, bolts of silk, and boxes of writing brushes and loose ink were delivered. Everyone in the mansion mobilized, including Yuan Xi and Zhen Mi, who joined the copying army. in.
However, Yuan Xi was not relaxed at the same time. There were so many letters from Youzhou that he was overwhelmed.
Liu and Zhao Yun, with the help of Jushou who came with troops, had successfully captured Jicheng in Guangyang County.
Jushou temporarily took charge of Yongcheng, and Quyi returned to Beixin City to garrison.
Jicheng is a big city in Youzhou, so this is good news in theory, but Jushou's actions show that there are faint signs of instability in Youzhou.
Jushu was originally based in Beixin City to handle military affairs, but now he led troops to help Dayong City. Although he was working as a sergeant and had the power to act independently, this action obviously crossed the line.
This should be because Ju Shou had an unpleasant quarrel with Xu You in Beixin City. The letters sent by Liu, Zhao Yun and others also vaguely hinted at this.
Jushou directly suggested that the location of Beixin City was too remote to be the seat of Youzhou government. It would be ideal if it could be moved to Jicheng.
He contacted Qu Yi's secret message back to Beixin City and said that he would check the inventory after returning and found that there were many grains, grass and weapons in Beixin City that did not match the quantity.
Qu Yi ran to question Xu You, but the other party said that it was Jushu who led the troops and took it away and it had nothing to do with him.
Naturally, Qu Yi didn't believe it. Jushou led his troops to Yongcheng and wanted to get some benefits. Jushou had nothing to do and was greedy for ink in a place like this. It was obviously Xu You's frame-up and he wanted to reap the benefits.
Qu Yi has a straight temper, and the two sides quarreled and eventually broke up.
When Yuan Xi saw this, his face became gloomy. If there was no shortage of food and grass in the city, Xu You could just turn a blind eye and turn a blind eye. But if he focused on weapons, he would have crossed the line!
With Yuan Shang's back, Xu You is really bold and dares to do these things!
But it is more likely that Xu Youben did these things under the instruction of Yuan Shang.
Yuan Shang made it clear that he wanted to muddy the waters in Youzhou, but according to Yuan Xi's current status, it was not time to openly break up with Yuan Shang.
And according to Xu You's character, if he is pushed into a hurry, it is still unknown whether he will sell Beixin City to enemies such as Black Mountain bandits.
Therefore, Yuan Xi could only temporarily stabilize Xu You. He wrote a letter to Xu You, politely hinting at his bottom line.
Yuan Xi felt that with Xu You's intelligence, he should be able to understand what he meant. If the other party pretended to be stupid, Yuan Xi would not mind taking some extraordinary measures after returning to Beixin City.
To be fair, Xu You is very capable in handling internal affairs, and Beixin City is still relatively stable now, which is partly due to his contribution.
But the bad thing is that if he brings the trend of corruption into the officialdom of Youzhou, what is the difference between it and the world of corruption during the period of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty?
In private, he sent two secret letters, one asking Jushou to return to Beixin City and still take charge of military affairs, and the other asking Qu Yi to leave directly and secretly to go south to Sili.
These two people are important parts of his subsequent plans, and they must not cause unrest in Beixin City at this time.
In addition, there is also good news. After several big cities in Yuyang and Guangyang were captured, iron ore mining in the territory has become regular. With the increase in ore production, weapons have begun to be continuously produced, and blacksmiths have begun to be in short supply. .
However, it would take several years to become a blacksmith apprentice, so Liu He, who was temporarily in charge of Jicheng's internal affairs, sent a letter asking Yuan Xi what he could do.
After reading it, Yuan Xi discussed it with Guo Jia and began to recruit blacksmiths and apprentices from Guangling County to Youzhou.
When the blacksmiths in Guangling City saw the recruitment list, they were quite disdainful at first.
The bitter cold in Youzhou is far worse than that of wealthy Guangling. Only a fool would be willing to go there?
But when they saw the conditions on the list, their eyes widened immediately. The blacksmiths who went to Youzhou, after passing the examination, would have dozens of acres of Yongye field in the local area.
This field may not look like much, but it is the dream of many blacksmiths, because from now on, their descendants can change their household registration from working to farming!
With a farm registration, it will be much easier for the children and grandchildren to work as slaves, study, and even have official careers. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!
For a time, there was an endless stream of people who came to sign up, except for those who were in love with their hometown and wanted to give it a try in Youzhou. After a simple assessment, they took their families and apprentices and boarded the ship bound for Youzhou.
After Yuan Xi finished these things, it was already more than ten days later. The Chen family's classics had not been copied yet, but Tai Shici came to report that Liu Yao of Wu County had sent someone.
Yuan Xi learned about the recent military situation from Tai Shici and guessed that Liu Yao might be here for help. He opened the letter and saw that it was indeed the case.
He called Guo Jia to discuss with Taishi Ci. Guo Jia read the letter and said, "Is Sun Ce in a hurry to attack Liu Yao?"
"Not to mention whether the young master can cross the river to help. Even if he helps, it seems that there is no benefit. Instead, he will fall into trouble."
"Besides, most of the young master's soldiers are good at land warfare, but water warfare is not suitable."
Taishi Ci spoke up: "Mr. Fengxiao's words are very reasonable. Ship water warfare requires agility and flexibility. It is almost impossible to wear armor, or only protect the vital points."
"Now that our fully armored soldiers are on board, not only are they unable to move, but their weapons are not suitable for water warfare. With the same number, we may not be able to gain an advantage."
Yuan Xi nodded, this is the characteristic of the military type. Just like the pikemen can only exert their advantages by forming formations on the plains, but if they reach the rugged mountains, they will become the prey of everyone.
Those who are suitable for land warfare are not suitable for water warfare. Even if they are trained and trained, they may not be as good as native-born local soldiers.
The best way is to recruit soldiers suitable for different combat methods and conduct targeted training.
The soldiers from the north went to fight on land, and the soldiers from Jiangdong went to fight on the water. This was generally the case.
Yuan Xi suddenly thought of something and said to Tai Shici: "I heard that Liu Yao, the shepherd of Yangzhou, is also from Ziyi?"
Taishi Ci hesitated for a moment and then said: "Although I am from the same hometown, Ci comes from a humble background, so Liuzhou Mu may not think highly of me."
Yuan Xi saw that Taishi Ci looked a little unnatural. After questioning, he learned that the messenger who sent the message for Liu Yao showed some disdain when he learned about Taishi Ci's parentage. !”
After hearing this, Guo Jia frowned slightly and said, "What a good Xu Zijiang, but he is disrespectful to his eldest brother. No wonder Yuedan, who was once in the limelight, is now in decline."
Only then did Yuan Xi realize that it was Xu Shao!
What Guo Jia was talking about was Xu Shao's suppression of his cousin Xu Jing.
The Yuedan Commentary was jointly initiated by Xu Shao and Xu Jing, but the two later turned against each other. After Xu Shao became the Runan Gongcao, he tried his best to suppress Xu Jing, forcing him to make a living by pulling carts and grinding noodles.
It was not until Liu Yi became the prefect that Xu Jing became a county official.
This incident made a big fuss. The Han Dynasty valued filial piety and family relationships. The nobles criticized Xu Shao because of this, and the Yuedan comment gradually declined.
Yuan Xi suddenly remembered that although Xu Jing was famous but average in ability, his luck was much better than that of Xu Shao.
Xu Shao died of illness in his forties. Xu Jing later surrendered to Liu Zhang first, and then to Liu Bei, and finally became Situ and even Taifu. He was so popular in Shu that even Zhuge Liang would take the initiative to bow down to him when he saw him.
Now when Yuan Xi heard that the envoy was disrespectful to Taishi Ci, he sneered and said, "Ziyi is a Sima of my other department. If the envoy is disrespectful to him, doesn't that mean he looks down on me?"
"I think it won't be very difficult for Liu Yao if he is so confident. Just let him wait a few more days."
After hearing this, Guo Jia smiled and said, "Master, aren't you afraid of a bad comment from Xu Shao?"
After hearing this, Yuan Xi sneered: "Then he is seeking death."
"Although one more friend is better than one more enemy, but for me right now, Yangzhou is more troublesome than Xuzhou."
"It can take at least three years or more than five years to build a naval force, and it also takes a lot of money to build warships."
"Before this, it was impossible for me to rely on the dozens of merchant ships of the Zhen family to fight water?"
"Of course, I would like to ask, what do you think of Liu Yao's envoy?"
(End of chapter)
