Chapter 99 Just Pretend

Upon hearing this, Yuan Xi immediately bowed and said, "Thank you, Lord."

At this time, Yuan Shao was issuing orders as the governor of the province, and Yuan Xi was receiving orders as a subordinate.

Although this could be considered overstepping his authority and forging an edict, as it conflicted with the positions of officials sent by the Han court,

the Han court was weak at this time, and the various lords were effectively in rebellion, so the official positions they conferred were, in fact, not legitimate.

However, no one cared; whoever had the bigger fist had the say, whoever took office and controlled a territory was the winner, and whoever could obtain actual benefits was the victor.

In this regard, the officials appointed by the Han court were almost completely defeated because they had no soldiers and could not suppress the local powerful clans.

Apart from Liu Biao, a fierce man who entered Jing Province alone on horseback, others could only watch helplessly.

Yuan Xi sighed inwardly; having a good father was truly worth decades or even a lifetime of effort for others.

Going from a county magistrate of Beixin City with a salary of six hundred dan to a prefect with a salary of two thousand dan was a big step forward.

In the Han Dynasty's official system, according to salary from top to bottom, there were the Three Dukes with ten thousand dan (monthly salary of 350 hu; 1 hu = 1 dan = 10 dou, annual salary of 4200 dan), the Nine Ministers with middle two thousand dan (monthly salary of 180 hu, annual salary of 2160 dan), and the various marquises with true two thousand dan (monthly salary of 150 hu, annual salary of 1800 dan).

Below that were the prefects with two thousand dan, a monthly salary of 120 hu, and an annual salary of 1440 dan.

Below that were also generals and colonels with salaries higher than a thousand dan, and chancellors and chief clerks with salaries of a thousand dan; anything above a thousand dan was considered a high-ranking official.

At this time, the Han court was in turmoil, and the situation in various places was chaotic; it was common for Han court officials not to be able to issue salaries.

Ironically, in various places occupied by the lords, the fake officials who depended on the lords could issue salaries.

Therefore, the Han court at this time was almost dead in name only.

Although the position Yuan Shao gave Yuan Xi did not have a legitimate basis, the salary was real, and the wealth and abundance of Ji Province was the reason why Yuan Shao was so confident.

However, according to a soldier's monthly allowance of about two dan of grain, Yuan Xi would have to find ways to raise most of it himself; a salary of two thousand dan could only support a thousand soldiers at most.

If there was no money or grain to issue salaries, who would listen to you?

This was why Yuan Xi was fixated on Cao Song's property and would not let go.

Yuan Shao nodded in satisfaction and said, "In the next few days, you can select soldiers and raise money and grain yourself."

"Since you have become the prefect, there are many civil and military officials under your command. I will let Yuan Hao help you sort them out, and you can decide on the official positions under them yourself."

Yuan Xi and Tian Feng bowed and said, "Yes."

Yuan Shang gritted his teeth; if his eldest and second brothers conquered Qing Province, they would first establish their own power and leave him behind!

No, he had to break up the alliance between the two!

Yuan Xi and Tian Feng came out of Yuan Shao's room and went to the document room. Yuan Xi, seeing that there was no one around, said to Tian Feng, "This young man knows nothing about official positions, and I hope Mr. Yuan Hao can send some close people to assist me."

Tian Feng knew that Yuan Xi was trying to befriend him. Water that is too clear has no fish, and he was not an inflexible person. He nodded and said, "Don't worry, Gongzi, I will definitely do my best."

"However, in the next few days, Gongzi will have a headache. Gongzi's threshold will probably be broken by people."

Tian Feng was right; that night, people came to visit Yuan Xi in an endless stream.

Because there were hundreds of official positions under the prefect, although Yuan Xi only actually occupied three counties in Zhuo Commandery, there were at least a hundred or so positions, which were coveted by the gentry.

Yuan Xi had a headache. He didn't recognize most of the people inside, so he had to write down their names temporarily and ask Tian Feng later.

Among them was even Xu You, which made Yuan Xi even more troubled.

Xu You's personal morality was generally poor, and he was very greedy. His family members were also corrupt officials, and they had done some bad things by relying on their friendship with Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shu: "Xu Ziyuan is a fierce and lewd person with impure character."

Xun Yu: "Xu You is greedy and unruly."

With such evaluations, Yuan Xi would definitely keep his distance from Xu You.

Thinking that he had made great contributions to Cao Cao in later generations, and was killed by Cao Cao for an excuse after capturing Ye City, it shows that this person was really unpopular.

If Xu You's family members went to You Province to take office, the officialdom would probably become a mess in a few years.

He sent away the last group of guests and leaned back on the couch to rest for a while, sighing to Wu Zhao, who was helping him massage his shoulders, "This officialdom personnel is more tiring than fighting a war."

Wu Zhao deeply agreed: "The gentry think highly of themselves. It is not good for Gongzi to directly reject them, as it will only cause private criticism."

"Then what should I do?" Yuan Xi asked.

Wu Zhao smiled: "Isn't there going to be a war soon?"

"Let those who are just filling the ranks take up military positions. Make it clear to them that everything will be handled according to military law at that time."

"Eight or nine out of ten of them will retreat. If they really dare to go, let them go. At worst, let them hold idle positions, as long as they don't interfere with things."

Yuan Xi nodded and said, "Good idea, I will open the government office and assign official positions tomorrow."

He pondered, since Qu Yi could not enter Ji Province, he could only let him hold the position of colonel for now, and concurrently serve as the magistrate of Beixin City.

Qu Yi's health had not been good, and his strength lay in training soldiers. In addition, Beixin City was Yuan Xi's hometown, so he could only entrust it to Qu Yi with peace of mind.

As for Zhao Yun, he could finally free up time to fight for Yuan Xi.

But there were still too few military generals.

Although Gao Lan had secretly surrendered, he was still nominally Yuan Shang's man. Without a legitimate reason, he could not directly ask for him.

Moreover, Yuan Xi had not yet figured out how to use Zhang He and Gao Lan, after all, these two surrendered to Cao Cao on the battlefield in the Battle of Guandu, which laid the foundation for Yuan Shao's defeat.

There were actually very few truly loyal generals.

What Yuan Xi really coveted were the several major generals under Lu Bu, and he had been thinking of ways to poach them.

Keeping Gao Lan in the first place was also because he had ideas about a major general under Lu Bu, just like contacting Dong Zhao to contact Dong Fang and shake the relationship between Zhang Miao and Lu Bu.

The next day, as Wu Zhao expected, most of the scholars, upon hearing that they would have to go to Qing Province to fight after taking office, immediately declined and fled faster than rabbits.

They wanted to be comfortable civil officials, enjoying themselves in the rear, who would be willing to go to the battlefield to die!

Their actions were exactly what Yuan Xi wanted. The officialdom of You Province that he wanted to see in the future should be mainly composed of poor scholars and good families, not allowing these gentry to collude with each other, seek private interests, and exploit the people.

Yuan Xi woke up in the morning from beside Wu Zhao, seeing her sleeping soundly, her long hair spread out on the pillow, the spots on her face had faded a lot, and there were still some traces of tears in the corners of her eyes,

Yuan Xi was going to Qing Province to fight in a few days, and he didn't know when he would be able to come back.

Yuan Xi remembered that in his previous life, Yuan Xi married Zhen Mi and went to You Province to take office, leaving Zhen Mi alone in Ye City to guard her empty boudoir for several years. This Han system of not allowing one to take his legal wife to office was also too inhumane.

While Yuan Xi was punishing the plump sin, he remembered that Wu Zhao had mentioned last night that if she restored her identity as Cai Zhaoji, with Cai Yong's reputation, many of Cai Yong's students and scholars who admired his name would definitely come to join him.

Yuan Xi thought it over again and again, but still gave up, the timing was not yet ripe.

Cai Zhaoji is still a widow of the Wei family, and if her identity is exposed, the Wei family will get involved, which cannot be resolved in a short time.

His primary goal now is to conquer Qing Province and You Province, and he has no time to deal with these things.

So for the time being, he can only hide the identity of Cai Zhaoji, which may have greater use in the future.

Wu Zhao opened her eyes, she was already used to Yuan Xi's behavior, closed her eyes, and her face became hotter and hotter.

Yuan Xi exerted a little force, and Wu Zhao scolded, "You are hypocritical, I don't know where you learned all these bad skills."

"I remind you, the hundred carts of wealth from Cao Song must be disposed of as soon as possible to avoid complications."

"The only ones who can handle these things in a short time are the Zhen family."

Yuan Xi retracted his hand and nodded, "You're right, I sent someone to notify the Zhen family last night, and Zhang said that arrangements can be made today, and I will go to the Zhen family later."

Soon, a maid came in and brought out breakfast from the wooden tray.

Yuan Xi saw that there was fish and meat in several dishes, and even the porridge was made of white rice, which was much better than Beixin City.

He picked up the bowl, took a sip, and sighed, "This kind of comfortable life really makes people's ambition fade, I'm afraid that if I stay here for a long time, I will forget to return."

Wu Zhao covered her mouth and smiled, "Everyone wants to enjoy themselves, but you only want to suffer."

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "It's better to share happiness with everyone than to enjoy it alone."

Wu Zhao listened, pondered for a long time, and whispered, "Gongzi, you will surpass Father sooner or later."

After Yuan Xi finished eating, he went out and arrived at the government office. There, a hundred soldiers and coachmen were already waiting by the carts. With his order, everyone pulled the carts and went to the Zhen family.

At this time, the sky was just dawning, and there were few pedestrians on the street. He got up so early to cover people's eyes and ears, so as not to be coveted.

When he arrived at the back door of the Zhen family, the gate was opened, and someone was already waiting to lead everyone in.

The backyard of the Zhen family was very large, and after a hundred carts were pulled in, there was still a small half of the place left.

Zhang had already brought dozens of shopkeepers and clerks of the business firm to wait, specializing in evaluating the goods on the carts.

Yuan Xi knew nothing about the value of these jewels and wealth of Cao Song, and it was extremely difficult to keep them in his hands. Now, he could only rely on the Zhen family, one of the four richest merchants, to quickly sell them off.

Seeing that the carts had all been pulled in, Yuan Xi let the soldiers go out to guard the front and back doors.

Seeing this, Zhang smiled and said, "Gongzi, don't worry, my Zhen family has many servants and guarantees that there will be no problems."

Yuan Xi remembered the Mi family, who were also wealthy merchants, and it was said that they had tens of thousands of servants, and he thought that being a merchant was really rich.

Too sinful!

Shopkeepers and clerks had already gone up to open the ropes on a cart, uncovered several layers of linen, and revealed a dozen large boxes.

The clerks carried the boxes down one by one, opened the box lids, and the wealth inside immediately dazzled everyone's eyes.

After the shopkeepers evaluated the goods one by one, they roughly calculated that the things in these dozen boxes were worth as much as several million coins!

If each cart was roughly like this, these things would be worth at least hundreds of millions of coins!

No wonder Cao Song dared to buy an official position with one hundred million coins!

Too sinful!

Zhang looked at Yuan Xi with a complicated expression: "Gongzi is really amazing, he can actually snatch food from the tiger's mouth and grab such a large sum of money from the Cao family."

Yuan Xi was proud in his heart.

Zhang sighed: "It's almost as much as the dowry I prepared for Mi'er, I'm ashamed."

Yuan Xi: ...