Chapter 485: Abnormal Situation

Mi Fang thought for a long time, and finally mustered up the courage to speak, "Envoy."

At this time, Yuan Xi also had something to say, and he also said to Mi Fang: "Master."

The two were both stunned. Mi Fang hurriedly said, "Please speak first, sir."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi did not refuse and said, "I came here mainly to ask the governor if there have been any unusual movements in the East China Sea recently?"

"Unusual movement?" Mi Fang was not able to react for a moment. "Everything is fine here. Liu Yuzhou is a benevolent ruler and the people live in peace."

Ju Shou coughed and said, "Grandmaster, the envoy is referring to the area around Liu Yuzhou."

Mi Fang finally reacted and hesitated for a moment. Yuan Xi understood, "Go ahead, my Lord. I know that you and Yuan Qingzhou had some unpleasantness some time ago, so I came to see if there is any way to mediate."

Mi Fang thought that this was the purpose of Yuan Xi's coming. He was a little disappointed, but he knew that Yuan Xi was indeed the most suitable mediator for him at the moment, so he said honestly, "It is indeed a bit troublesome."

As the governor of Donghai, Mi Fang was naturally very familiar with the situation in the neighboring Langya County to the north. He said, "Since the Han court abolished Langya State, Langya has experienced Cao Cao's massacre of the city and has long been severely damaged. Famine often occurs and people's lives are quite difficult."

"Under such circumstances, the Taishan bandits from Yanzhou often come out to harass Langya County, which often gives Liu Yuzhou a headache."

"Later, when Yuan Qingzhou gained control of Langya County, he mobilized a large number of troops to encircle and suppress the Taishan bandits, making them afraid to leave the mountains easily. To be fair, this was very beneficial to the situation in the counties of Xuzhou."

"So at the beginning, Donghai and Langya lived in peace and harmony, and the two sides did not interfere with each other."

"But after Yuan Qingzhou invaded Mount Tai and recruited a large number of Mount Tai bandits, the situation in the two counties began to change."

"The soldiers recruited by Yuan Qingzhou gathered military rations in Langya, and their range of action gradually invaded the territory of Donghai County, and they often robbed the people."

"Of course, I heard that he not only robbed the people of Donghai, but also the people of Langya."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi's face darkened. He had heard about this matter a long time ago. The Yuan family could win the hearts of the people only by governing the territory with benevolence and righteousness. However, Yuan Tan was eager for quick success and profit, and indeed went too far.

Yuan Shang also used this matter to attack Yuan Tan, but Yuan Tan shirked the responsibility by saying that the soldiers were short of food and it would easily cause unrest. He also said that if Jizhou could provide enough military rations, he would work hard to restrain the soldiers.

Yuan Shang certainly did not agree. On the one hand, he was organizing his army to attack the Black Mountain Army at the time, so of course he had to give priority to using Jizhou's granary to protect his own soldiers.

On the other hand, he was not stupid. If he gave Yuan Tan food, Yuan Tan would not restrain his soldiers honestly, but would take the opportunity to expand his troops again. Lack of food was just an excuse!

In Yuan Shang's view, Yuan Tan's military strength expanded too quickly and posed a threat to himself, so he simply turned a deaf ear and turned a blind eye to Yuan Tan's actions.

Both sides had their own ulterior motives. With Yuan Shang's tacit indulgence, Yuan Tan continued to plunder and expand his army, and the people of Qingzhou became increasingly dissatisfied.

In Yuan Xi's opinion, both Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang had problems, but Yuan Tan's problems seemed to be bigger.

On the one hand, he violated the practice of being lenient to the people and allowed his soldiers to plunder, which had already touched the bottom line of the Yuan family.

On the other hand, Yuan Tan's lack of food was his own fault, because his military force after expansion was nominally 30,000 men, but according to estimates by Yuan Xi's advisers, the actual number was at least twice that!

Qingzhou, which had experienced war and the ravages of the Yellow Turbans, and Langya County, which had been massacred, could not possibly support such a large population. Anyone with a discerning eye knew that famine would result.

The reason why Yuan Xi controlled the number of soldiers under his command to less than 10,000 was due to this consideration. The soldiers were short of food and either mutinied or robbed. They were supposed to protect the people, but instead they became a rebellious army that harmed the people. What was the purpose of expanding the army?

Therefore, Yuan Xi was very suspicious of Yuan Tan's intention of retaining so many troops. What did the other party want to do?

Does he still want to attack Liu Bei?

After discussing with his advisers, Yuan Xi initially rejected this idea. After all, Yuan Tan was recommended by Liu Bei as a filial and honest official. The two sides had joined forces not long ago. Would Yuan Tan really risk ruining his reputation and turn against Liu Bei for a few counties in Xuzhou?

Except Yuan Shao agreed!

But according to Yuan Xi's judgment, Yuan Shao's main purpose in dealing with Liu Bei was to win him over. After all, there were not many people in the world who were better at fighting than Liu Bei.

Mi Fang continued, "When the Taishan bandits were wreaking havoc, they were rampant not only on land but also on the sea. The ships of my Mi family's merchant caravan heading north were repeatedly attacked, resulting in heavy casualties, and we were forced to stop sailing for a long time."

"My younger sister was in charge of the Mi family caravan's foreign affairs, and she was quite shocked. She was depressed for a long time."

"Fortunately, the envoy wiped out the Qingzhou pirates and restored peace to the sea. Please thank the envoy on my behalf!"

After saying this, Mi Fang raised the wine in the cup and drank it all in one gulp.

Yuan Xi saw Mi Fang bringing up Mi Zhen and smiled, "Pirates are unscrupulous, killing people and committing crimes. Anyone can punish them."

"Now that the three families in Xuzhou have joined forces, all parties have the responsibility to maintain stability. I am not targeting people, but the matter. No matter who is behind the pirates, I will do my best to uphold justice."

Seeing that Yuan Xi had diverted the topic with just a few words, Mi Fang could only smile and say, "Your Excellency is right, but after this incident, no one dares to go north to Youzhou and Liaodong anymore."

"Yangzhou is occupied by Sun Ce, the fierce tiger from Jiangdong. He is not easy to deal with. It is difficult to do business now."

Yuan Xi's mind moved, "I heard that there are islands east of the East China Sea, with hundreds of tribes on the islands. Why don't you look east?"

Mi Fang thought for a moment, "Are you talking about the Japanese who were received by Emperor Wu when he was still alive?"

"They are small in stature, and occasionally they cross the sea and drift to this side of the East China Sea, but according to them, their islands are extremely barren, and there are no good goods."

"Although it became a vassal state of the Han Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Guangwu, I heard that the tribute it paid was far less than that of the Han Dynasty."

"The tribute they paid to the emperor was actually their female slaves. It is really hard to describe."

The Book of the Later Han records: "In the second year of Jianwu Zhongyuan (57 AD), the Wa country offered tribute and sent people claiming to be officials. It was the southernmost border of Wa country, and Emperor Guangwu gave them seals and ribbons. In the first year of Emperor An's Yongchu (107 AD), the king of Wa country, Shuai Sheng, and others offered 160 captives and requested an audience."

The so-called living people are the name of slaves and servants. The Han Dynasty allowed the buying and selling of living people. A local tyrant often had thousands of living people, which was also an important source of private soldiers for the troops. The same was true for the slaves of the Mi family.

At that time, Japan was a loose alliance of hundreds of tribes and had no leader. Yuan Xi judged that the people who came were merely sent by one of the large tribes and were still in a slave society, so they offered female slaves. This was similar to the Kunlun slaves, Silla maids, and Bodhisattva barbarians in the Tang Dynasty in later generations, all of which were slave-like existences.

Although China had entered a feudal society at this time, many of the surrounding ethnic groups still retained tribal characteristics. The private property of the nobles among them were slaves of their own tribe, who could be bought and sold at will.

This situation was normal during the Han Dynasty. As the world fell into chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty, the slave trade intensified starting with Emperor Huan of Han. It was even worse during the later Wei State. Even Chen Qun, who was in charge of laws and regulations, and his son engaged in large-scale trade in Southern Xiongnu slaves.

Of course, there was also an outlier during the Han Dynasty.

Wang Mang.

He forced his son to commit suicide because he killed a slave. Although he was suspected of seeking fame and reputation, he banned the slave trade after he usurped the Han Dynasty and established the Xin Dynasty.

This ultimately infringed upon the interests of the big landlords and the aristocratic families. Of course, Wang Mang's most suicidal move was to prevent the big landlords from annexing the land by taking all the land under the rule of the imperial court, which was called the royal land.

Due to all these suicidal behaviors, the Xin Dynasty was finally strangled by the united gentry.

Yuan Xi didn't know whether Wang Mang was a time traveler, but his actions were obviously incompatible with this era. This was also a warning to Yuan Xi that if he wanted to achieve his goals, he must not be too hasty, otherwise he would become the enemy of everyone in the world.

In this era, the only way to deal with the gentry is to bribe and compromise appropriately, otherwise one would end up like Wang Mang, who had ideals but died and his family was destroyed, and ultimately failed to achieve his goals.

Yuan Xi knew that the reason why Mi Fang looked down on Japan was because the number of slaves it offered was too small. When the population of the Han Dynasty reached 50 million, there were nearly 10 million slaves. In comparison, Japan was indeed unsophisticated.

He smiled and said, "Japan is indeed not doing well at this time, but it is just lagging behind. But to say that there are no good things is not entirely true."

"According to what I have heard, there are many silver mines in the area, and they are all close to the ground and easy to obtain. However, the locals cannot even smelt iron now, so they naturally cannot be mined."

Mi Fang's eyes lit up, "If that's the case, we can give it a try!"

"I will discuss with my younger sister when I return and decide to send a ship to Japan to investigate."

At that time, there were very few silver mines in China and silverware was extremely valuable, so it is no wonder that Mi Fang was tempted.

Yuan Xi said, "The ocean currents in Japan are changeable, so please be careful."

"And iron smelting technology is extremely critical. It must not be leaked out."

Seeing Mi Fang nod, Yuan Xi was relieved, but he still felt a little uneasy, as if he had missed something, so he asked, "Besides Qingzhou, is there any news from Yanzhou recently?"

"What about Cao Cao?" Mi Fang thought for a while, "It seems there is no movement either."

"Although Cao Cao has always coveted Xuzhou, after the three families joined forces, Cao's army never approached the border of Xuzhou again."

"After all, half of Xuzhou is now in the hands of the Yuan family. There is nothing he can do, right?"

Speaking of this, Mi Fang couldn't help but look pleased.

Yuan Xi turned around and exchanged glances with Ju Shou and Lu Xun, but saw that Lu Xun seemed to have something to say, so he asked, "Bo Yan, what questions do you have?"

Lu Xun hesitated and said, "I heard that General Guan has trained a navy. Who is he going to fight against?"

Mi Fang did not know Lu Xun well, and was somewhat displeased, saying, "General Guan is Liu Yuzhou's general, and I have no right to comment on his actions."

"It was originally to deal with the Qingzhou pirates. Although the pirates have been destroyed, we can't disband the navy, right?"

"But I can guarantee that it is not used against the Envoy."

Lu Xun shook his head and said, "That's not what I meant."

He pondered for a while, "Does the governor think that General Guan knows something that the governor doesn't know?"

Mi Fang was even more displeased, "General Guan is the brother of Envoy Liu, so I must be one level lower than him."

Yuan Xi and Ju Shou seemed to be thinking about something. Lu Xun did not explain clearly, but there was no way to explain it clearly. He asked the question at this time with a purpose, but Mi Fang did not understand.

Guan Yu did not come today and continued to train the navy, which is unusual enough in itself.

You have to know that although Guan Yu looked down on the gentry, Yuan Xi had saved his life. Logically speaking, Guan Yu would never be so rude.

Does Guan Yu know something?

Mi Zhen sat in front of the window of the small building. In the hall in the distance, she could faintly hear the sound of clinking glasses. She picked up the bamboo tube, unconsciously put it in front of her eyes, and then slowly put it down.