Chapter 252 Hidden Dangers in Youzhou

A few days later, when Yuan Xi and his party rushed back to Guangling, they were all beyond everyone's expectations.

Cai Zhaoji came out to greet them. She saw a long line of carriages following one after another outside the palace. She asked Yuan Xi who got off the carriage, "What good things did you bring?"

Yuan Xi told Chen Deng about the books he had taken out of his 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 transcribe them, and then you will be in charge of compiling them into a book, and then send a batch to Youzhou before the New Year."

"Next year will be the time for spring ploughing and sowing in Youzhou. If these things can be put to good use, that would be great."

"But you may be very tired in the next period of time, and I will let everyone in the mansion help you."

Cai Yan smiled and said, "This is a good thing. Isn't it that you want to combine the strengths of hundreds of schools of thought in the world and write a magnificent masterpiece?"

She then sighed and said, "There was a fire in Luoyang that year, and many ancient books were lost. What a pity."

Yuan Xi deeply agreed that the evolution of civilization was extremely difficult and required a long period of accumulation and sedimentation, but destruction was extremely easy. Just one sudden incident could burn down the efforts of countless people over hundreds and thousands of years.

Rolls of bamboo slips were moved into the house, and the Yuan residence became extremely busy. Almost everyone was assigned the task of transcribing, including Huan.

After spending so much time with Yuan Xi, everyone got used to it, with one exception.

Mrs. Wu.

Because she could read, she had to follow Cai Zhaoji to copy classics. Under normal circumstances, Mrs. Wu would not object to it. On the contrary, she liked it very much.

But now she felt extremely frustrated, because she had been planning to escape these few days!

Mrs. Wu has already figured out the work and rest schedules and free time of everyone in the mansion, including Cai Zhaoji and Huan's mother and daughter, after Yuan Xi left. She also deduced that the token to leave the city is most likely in Cai Zhaoji's room.

She had already found out the patrol routes of the city defenders and the opening and closing times of the city gates, and learned that among the four gates, the North Gate could be used to exit the city late at night with a token!

Her plan was to steal the token at night while everyone was asleep, escape from the city with her daughter, and then find a way to return to Lujiang County so that she could reunite with Sun Ce.

She had planned almost everything and was just waiting for a few days to start. However, despite all her calculations, she didn't expect Yuan Xi to come back early!

And judging from Cai Zhaoji's tone, in the next period of time, everyone in the palace will have to work all night long to copy the classics!

In this way, Mrs. Wu's chance to escape, which she had finally found, was gone!

She felt so bad that she was vomiting blood. 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 civilians in the city will be busy celebrating. That should be the time when the Yuan family is the most relaxed.

Before that, she could only pretend that everything was normal, wait for the best opportunity to come.

In the next few days, cartloads of blank bamboo slips, rolls of silk, and boxes of brushes and ink were delivered. Everyone in the mansion was mobilized, including Yuan Xi and Zhen Mi, who joined the copying army.

However, Yuan Xi was not at ease at the same time. There were so many letters sent from Youzhou that he was overwhelmed.

On Liu and Zhao Yun's side, with the help of Ju Shou who came with his troops, they had successfully captured Jicheng in Guangyang County.

Ju Su temporarily stayed in Yongcheng, and Qu Yi returned to Beixincheng to garrison.

Jicheng is a big city in Youzhou. Logically this should be good news, but Ju Su's actions indicate that Youzhou is showing signs of instability.

Ju Su was originally stationed in Beixin City to handle military affairs, but now he led his troops to help attack Yongcheng. Although he had the power to act independently as a sergeant, this action obviously crossed the line.

This should be because Ju Shou and Xu You had an unhappy quarrel in Beixin City. The letters sent by Liu, Zhao Yun and others also hinted at this.

Ju Shou even directly suggested that Beixincheng was too remote and unsuitable to be the seat of Youzhou. It would be ideal if it could be moved to Jicheng.

The confidential letter was sent back to Qu Yi in Beixin City, saying that after he went back and took inventory of the inventory, he found that many of the food, fodder and military equipment in Beixin City did not match the numbers.

Qu Yi ran to question Xu You, but the other party said that it was Ju Shou who led the troops to take him away and it had nothing to do with him.

Qu Yi naturally didn't believe it. Ju Shou had to report for duty when he led his troops to Yongcheng. Ju Shou had nothing to do but to embezzle money in such a place. It was obvious that Xu You framed him and wanted to get benefits.

Qu Yi was a straightforward person, and the two sides started arguing and ended up parting on bad terms.

When Yuan Xi saw this, his face darkened. If there was no shortage of food and grass in the city, and Xu You took less, he would have turned a blind eye to it, but he had set his sights on military equipment, which was crossing the line!

With Yuan Shang's support, Xu You was really bold enough to do such things!

But it is more likely that Xu You did these things under the instruction of Yuan Shang.

It was obvious that Yuan Shang wanted to muddy the waters in Youzhou, but given Yuan Xi's current status, it was not yet the time to openly break off relations with Yuan Shang.

Moreover, given Xu You's personality, it is still unknown whether he would sell Beixin City to enemies like the Black Mountain bandits if he was pushed into a corner.

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 didn't mind taking some extraordinary measures after returning to Beixin City.

To be fair, Xu You is quite capable in handling internal affairs, and the fact that Beixin City is relatively stable today is also due to his contribution.

But the bad thing is that if he brings the spirit of corruption into the officialdom of Youzhou, what is the difference between that and the time when the whole world was corrupt during the reign of Emperor Ling of Han?

In private, he sent two secret letters, one to let Ju Shou return to Beixincheng to continue to be in charge of military affairs, and the other to let Qu Yi set off directly to the south to Sili.

These two people are important parts of his future plans, and he must not cause unrest in Beixin City at this time.

In addition, there is also good news. After several large cities in Yuyang and Guangyang were captured, iron ore mining in the territory has been regularized. With the increase in ore output, weapons began to be forged continuously, and blacksmiths began to be in short supply.

However, it takes several years to become an apprentice blacksmith, so Liu He, who was temporarily in charge of the internal affairs of Jicheng, wrote to Yuan Xi and asked him what solutions he had.

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 notice, they were quite disdainful at first.

Youzhou is a bitter and cold place, far inferior to the prosperous Guangling. Only a fool would be willing to go there?

But when they saw the conditions on the list, their eyes widened immediately. Blacksmiths who went to Youzhou would be given a permanent farm of several dozen acres in the local area after passing the assessment.

This piece of land may not look like much, but it is what many blacksmiths dream of, because from now on, the household registration of their descendants can be changed from workers to farmers!

With agricultural registration, it will be much easier for descendants to do corvée and study, and even to pursue a career in officialdom. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

For a while, in addition to those who were reluctant to leave their hometown, there was an endless stream of people who wanted to go to Youzhou to give it a try. After a simple test, they boarded the ship bound for Youzhou with their families and apprentices.

After Yuan Xi finished these things, more than ten days had passed. The Chen family's classics had not yet been copied, but one day Taishi Ci came to report that Liu Yao of Wu County had sent someone.

Yuan Xi learned about the latest military situation from Taishi Ci and guessed that Liu Yao might be asking for help. He opened the letter and saw that it was true.

He called Guo Jia to discuss the matter with Taishi Ci. Guo Jia read the letter and said, "Is Sun Ce going to attack Liu Yao very urgently?"

"Let's not talk about whether you can help by crossing the river. Even if you help, it seems that there is no benefit. Instead, you will be trapped."

"Moreover, most of these soldiers of yours are good at land warfare, but not suitable for naval warfare."

Taishi Ci said, "Mr. Fengxiao is right. In naval warfare, ships need to be agile and flexible. They will rarely wear armor, or only protect vital parts."

"Now that our fully armored soldiers are on board, not only are they inconvenient to move, but their weapons are also not very suitable for naval warfare. With the same number of troops, we may not be able to gain an advantage."

Yuan Xi nodded. This was the characteristic of the army. For example, spearmen could only play their advantage when they were deployed in formation on the plains. If they were deployed in the rugged mountains, they would be vulnerable to attack.

Those who are suitable for land warfare are not suitable for naval warfare, and even if they are trained, they may not be as good as native local soldiers.

The best way is to recruit soldiers suitable for different combat methods and provide targeted training.

The northern troops went to fight on land, and the Jiangdong troops went to fight on water. It was roughly like this.

Yuan Xi suddenly thought of something and said to Taishi Ci, "I heard that Liu Yao, the governor of Yangzhou, is from the same hometown as Ziyi?"

Taishi Ci hesitated for a moment and said, "Although we are from the same hometown, I come from a humble background, so Liuzhou Mu may not think highly of me."

Yuan Xi noticed that Taishi Ci looked a little unnatural. After asking, he learned that the messenger who delivered the letter for Liu Yao, after knowing Taishi Ci's background, showed a look of disdain and blurted out, "So it was the person who made the bad comments about Xu Zijiang!"

Guo Jia frowned slightly after hearing this and said, "What a great General Xu! He is disrespectful to his elder brother. No wonder Yuedan, who was once so powerful, has become weak now."

Yuan Xi then realized that it was Xu Shao!

What Guo Jia was talking about was the matter of Xu Shao suppressing his cousin Xu Jing.

Yuedanping was jointly initiated by Xu Shao and Xu Jing, but they later fell out. After Xu Shao became the Gongcao of Runan, he tried his best to suppress Xu Jing, forcing him to pull a cart and grind flour for a living.

It was not until later when Liu Yi became the prefect that Xu Jing came out to work as a county official.

This incident caused a big stir. The Han Dynasty attached great importance to filial piety and family relationships, and the gentry all criticized Xu Shao for this, and Yuedanping gradually declined as a result.

Yuan Xi suddenly remembered that although Xu Jing in later generations was very famous, his ability was very average, but his luck was much better than Xu Shao.

Xu Shao died of illness in his forties. Xu Jing later first defected to Liu Zhang, then surrendered to Liu Bei, and finally became Si Tu and even Tai Fu. He held the highest position in Shu Kingdom and even Zhuge Liang had to bow to him when he met him.

When Yuan Xi heard the envoy being disrespectful to Taishi Ci, he sneered and said, "Zi Yi is the Sima of my other army. The envoy is disrespectful to him. Isn't that just looking down on me?"

"I think Liu Yao shouldn't be in a difficult situation since he is so confident. Let him wait for a few more days."

After hearing this, Guo Jia laughed and said, "Sir, aren't you afraid that Xu Shao will give you a bad review?"

After hearing this, Yuan Xi sneered and said, "Then he is courting death."

"Although one more friend is always better than one more enemy, Yangzhou is more troublesome to me now than Xuzhou."

"It takes at least three years to build a navy, and at most more than five years. It also requires the construction of warships, which is very expensive."

"Before this, I can't possibly rely on the dozens of merchant ships of the Zhen family to fight a naval battle, right?"

"Of course, I would like to ask, what do you think of Liu Yao's visit?"