Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1136 Chaos
After hearing Yuan Xi's words, Sun Li hesitated and said, "Brother... Your Majesty, will this be dangerous?"

"There is a possibility of rebellion among the Xuzhou nobles. If they gather their soldiers to cause chaos, it will be detrimental to the king, then..."

Yuan Xi said with a sullen face: "If Xuzhou was really in such a mess, Boyan would have sent troops long ago."

"There are no major changes now. It is said that these incompetent nobles in Xuzhou only dare to stir up trouble in secret. They are really impossible to help."

"Of course, I will not listen to one side and wrongly accuse them. I want to see with my own eyes what happened in the city."

Hearing this, Lu Lingqi turned the short spear in her hand and said with a smile: "My husband, what you said is exactly what I want. I haven't encountered such an interesting thing for a long time."

Sun Li had no choice but to follow Yuan Xi's arrangements and found a place to dock more than 20 miles away from Guangling Port.

He found hundreds of elite guards to disguise themselves as a merchant caravan, hid weapons in the cars, and followed Yuan Xi and Lu Lingqi to Guangling by land. The fleet dispersed and bypassed the river outside Guangling city, forming a subtle blockade.

Yuan Xi took Lu Lingqi and disguised themselves as rich kids, and led the convoy towards the Guangling city gate.

In less than half a day, the convoy arrived at the foot of Guangling City, but found the gate in a mess, with people constantly coming in and out in a panic. There were only three or five soldiers guarding the gate, all of whom were sitting or lying in a scattered manner. They only checked occasionally and ignored most people.

Yuan Xi sat in the car and watched the people they were interrogating. They were all dressed normally but carrying bags. After several inquiries, they would force the people being interrogated to hand over money and property. He was furious and wondered why Xuzhou, where he had always been at ease, had become so chaotic!
What on earth is Bu Zhi doing!
He suppressed his anger and ordered the convoy to move closer. When the soldiers saw so many people coming, they immediately stood up nervously, holding their spears in front of the convoy and shouted, "Who are you?"

Sun Li, who was driving, saw that the other party's spear was only a few inches away from his cheek. He couldn't help but want to yell, but Yuan Xi behind him didn't say anything, so he had to endure it and lowered his head in silence.

The leading sergeant became suspicious when he saw this. Just as he was about to call for help, he saw the curtain of the carriage opened, revealing a young face.

The sergeant looked at her carefully and couldn't help but pah. The face was decent, but it was covered with thick powder, which was several times heavier than the makeup of a woman.

However, the sergeant was knowledgeable and knew that this was the most popular makeup among the typical young scholars nowadays. There was a popular trend among the gentry in the world to put on rouge and powder, take the Five-Stone Powder, and make themselves look neither human nor ghost. However, this trend was still highly praised among the gentry.

The sergeant looked at the young man, whose brows were dark and whose eyes were narrowed, as if he had taken too much Wushisan. The woman dressed as a servant beside him had a fierce look in her eyes, like a shrew. He shouted, "Where are you from?"

The scholar was naturally Yuan Xi in disguise. He opened his mouth lazily, "Who are you? How dare you ask about my origins?"

"Tell your city guards to come over!"

After hearing this arrogant answer, the soldier hesitated and said unconsciously: "The city guard is away because of something, so he asked me to stay here."

"Unknown..." He paused, "Where did the noble come from?"

When Yuan Xi saw the sergeant's attire, he could be considered a sergeant at most, which made him even angrier. Guangling was the seat of a county, but the gatekeeper had deserted his post and they had a sergeant guarding such an important gate?

He snorted coldly and threw a sign into the sergeant's hand, "Zhen family caravan, coming from Qingzhou to purchase goods."

The sergeant took the sign and immediately realized that the Zhen family was the family of the wife of the Prince of Jin. He did not dare to neglect it and hurriedly handed the sign back with both hands, smiling and saying, "So it's the noble lady of the Zhen family. I was blind and offended you. I hope you will forgive me."

Looking at the large number of people in the caravan, he felt uneasy and wanted to interrogate them, but the other party's imposing manner made it difficult for him to open his mouth.

But at this moment, Yuan Xi asked: "Why is the city so chaotic?"

"Has Guangling City always been like this?"

The sergeant thought that this might be a fledgling sent out by the Zhen family for training, so he answered honestly, "Your Excellency, it's not like this usually. It's..."

He suddenly felt that it was inappropriate to say this. He opened his mouth with an embarrassed look on his face, and heard a cold snort from the other side, "Reward."

The sergeant saw the maid take out something from her sleeve and threw it towards his face. He quickly caught it and felt it was heavy. He took a closer look and was stunned. It turned out to be a green bean-sized, golden yellow gold.

He still couldn't believe it. Gold was extremely expensive in the world right now. If this piece of gold was real, it would be worth at least dozens of pieces of silk. Could the Zhen family be so generous?

He unconsciously put the gold in his mouth and bit it. When he saw the tiny mark, his heart started beating wildly. This was real!

He quietly blocked the view of the soldiers behind him, hid the gold in his sleeves, and then smiled flatteringly at Yuan Xi, took a half step closer, leaned over and whispered, "My lord, something did happen in the city."

"I heard that the governor is seriously ill and bedridden, and the deputy driver did something bad and is now under guard."

"If you are going to the city to do business, please be careful. After all, no one knows what will happen."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi's brows darkened. Bu Zhi was the deputy governor of Xuzhou, how could someone dare to imprison him openly?
Thinking of this, he restrained his expression and said proudly: "It doesn't matter. In this Qingxu territory, who dares not give face to my Zhen family?"

"Reward, enter the city!"

The guards behind him took a few pieces of silk and threw them into the hands of the sergeant. Yuan Xi lowered the curtains and no longer looked at the soldiers. The caravan proudly entered the city. The sergeant and his soldiers stood aside with smiles on their faces, watching the caravan enter the city. Several people divided the silk. One soldier said, "Look at the Zhen family. They are very generous. They are much more generous than the Mi family caravan."

The sergeant slapped him on the back of his head, "What do you know? The Mi family is a local tyrant. Do they need to give us face?"

"The Zhen family is just showing off. If they..." He came to his senses and pinched the gold beans in his sleeves, he said to the soldiers, "Go back and guard the gate. Don't worry about the affairs of these big families. If we anger them, we won't know how we died!"

When Yuan Xi's convoy entered the city, they saw that the roads were extremely messy, with discarded clothes and debris on the roadside. These should have been left behind by the fleeing people, who must have been afraid of accidents in the city, so they fled early.

Although Xuzhou was peaceful, there had been several disturbances before. In particular, the people were frightened by Cao Cao's massacre of the city. The people had a very sensitive sense of smell and would flee out of the city at the slightest sign of trouble to avoid being affected by the war.

This also shows that the situation in the city is not good, even the common people have noticed it. Moreover, if it were an ordinary day, the discarded clothes would have been picked up by someone long ago and would not have fallen on the ground at all.

At this time, Yuan Xi's team dared to enter the city, but the sergeant guarding the gate would not be suspicious. After all, the Zhen family had the King of Jin behind them, and no matter how chaotic Xuzhou was, it would never lead to rebellion.

This was also the reason why Yuan Xi dared to lead a hundred people into the city. Although Xuzhou had a precedent of betraying Liu Bei, Liu Bei only had Xuzhou at that time. If the Xuzhou gentry rebelled, they could immediately join forces with neighboring forces.

Now Xuzhou is surrounded by Yuan Xi's territory, which has surrounded Xuzhou from Jianghuai to Qingzhou. If the Xuzhou gentry want to rebel, they will definitely be suppressed by Yuan Xi's troops and will die without a burial place. The Xuzhou gentry should not do such a loss-making business.

Therefore, Yuan Xi speculated that the Xuzhou gentry took advantage of Chen Deng's serious illness to cause trouble. They were probably eyeing the division of official positions in Xuzhou after Chen Deng's death. Bu Zhi came from a poor family, so naturally he blocked their way. So what the Xuzhou gentry were doing now was to put the blame on Bu Zhi.

This is what Yuan Xi is worried about. This false accusation actually has a big loophole. If Yuan Xi gathers everyone to confront, the tricks of the Xuzhou gentry will be exposed.

So from the perspective of the Xuzhou gentry, if they want to accomplish this, they have to do it without any confrontation, so the key is that both Chen Deng and Bu Zhi have to die!

Chen Deng was already seriously ill, so Bu Zhi's situation was very dangerous. His life might be in danger at any time, so as soon as Yuan Xi entered the city, he ordered the convoy to go straight to Bu Zhi's residence.

The caravan traveled through most of Guangling City, and along the way they only encountered a group of soldiers who came up to check them. After seeing the sign of the Zhen family caravan, they let them go.

When the convoy arrived at the intersection where Bu Zhi's residence was located, just as Yuan Xi had expected, Bu Zhi's residence had already been surrounded by three layers of soldiers inside and outside, making it impossible to get in or out.

When the soldiers saw the convoy approaching, they raised their guns and knives and shouted, "Who are you?"

"Stop right now!"

"If you take one more step forward, you will die!"

Yuan Xi asked Lu Lingqi to open the city gate, waited for Lu Lingqi to go down, and then slowly got off the carriage.

When he got off the carriage, he staggered a bit. Lu Lingqi hurriedly supported him, which caused the soldiers next to him to look mocking.

However, Xuzhou has been at peace for several years now, and the life of the gentry has returned to its former luxurious state. Many scholars are living a life of debauchery and pleasure, and many have become like this. In the eyes of the soldiers, this behavior is quite normal.

Yuan Xi narrowed his eyes and said coldly, "I am here to visit an old friend of yours, ordered by the master. What happened?"

A soldier sneered and said, "What master of the house? Where are you from?"

Yuan Xi took out a sign and said calmly, "Jizhou Zhen Family."

As soon as these words were spoken, the leading centurion's face changed drastically. The lower-level soldiers might not know, but when it came to the level of centurions serving the nobles, they naturally had to be familiar with the situations of each family.

He naturally understood that the Jizhou Zhen family was the maiden family of Queen Zhen, and that the head of this family was currently also in the hands of the queen!

This means that the person in front of them is a direct descendant of Prince Jin. How could they dare to offend him?

He quickly apologized with a smile on his face and said, "So you are the noble of the Zhen family. We are just following orders to guard. I hope you will forgive me."

Yuan Xi snorted coldly, "Then can I come in?"

The centurion looked embarrassed and said, "I have been ordered to guard the place and no outsiders are allowed to enter. Please forgive me, sir."

Yuan Xi sneered, "Oh?"

"You are so bold that you dare to disobey the Queen's order?"

The centurion was sweating profusely and gritted his teeth and said, "I am under military orders, please don't embarrass me."

Seeing that the centurion was loyal to his duty, Yuan Xi nodded and said, "Then let me ask you, what did Bu Beijia do wrong?"

(End of this chapter)