Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1148 Leaving
In the following days, Yuan Xi stayed in Guangling and did several things through Bu Zhi.

The first was to clean up the remnants of the Xuzhou rebellion and use this opportunity to completely eradicate the latent destabilizing factors while at the same time establishing Bu Zhi's authority.

The effect was immediate. In a short period of time, Bu Zhi formed his own team with the support of Yuan Xi and suppressed the rebellious momentum of the Xuzhou gentry, at least on the surface.

Secondly, the land of the offending nobles was confiscated, and land policies were implemented in Xuzhou to reorganize and resettle the refugees who were unwilling to join the army.

Xuzhou is different from the north. The land in the north is difficult to reclaim and can only be used to grow crops. But in comparison, Xuzhou has unique plains and water systems. It can not only grow crops, but also have sideline production such as fisheries. The same size of land can support a higher population than in the north.

Especially after the war, the population declined and many properties became vacant. Previously, many of these properties had been privately swallowed up by the aristocratic landlords. This time, when the land was distributed, Yuan Xi took these lands back, allowing the refugees and landless farmers to have a place to live again.

The reason why the landlords in Xuzhou had the courage to rebel before was that Yuan Xi had been fighting a series of wars and needed Xuzhou as a stable rear base. There was a certain degree of indulgence in this, and the Xuzhou gentry became more and more arrogant and domineering. Not only did they occupy land privately, but they also wanted to replace the person in charge of Xuzhou.

Yuan Xi was just wanting what he wanted. He uprooted dozens of noble families, big and small, and made them vomit out all they had eaten, including the profit. In the process, he also took the lives of these ungrateful ungrateful people.

Even his clan member Yuan Xi was not spared, and all were exiled to the Korean Peninsula and Wa Kingdom to do hard labor.

This was the most severe punishment Yuan Xi had imposed in all those years. The punishment for the gentry was tantamount to genocide. There were cries of grief everywhere in Xuzhou, and many people asked others to plead for mercy. Some families wanted to win people's hearts, so they used many tricks to bribe officials.

Bu Zhi was also annoyed. Every day, people came to his door to offer bribes. He told Yuan Xi about this. Yuan Xi sneered and said, "When they occupied the people's land and tried to assassinate me, why didn't anyone come to plead for mercy?"

"Thoroughly investigate the families with the most connections. We have given them too much face over the years, but now they are shameless. From now on, either humble yourself and prove yourself, or die."

"Tell them that there is no wall on the border of Xuzhou. If they are dissatisfied, they can go to Wei and Wu. I won't stop them."

After hearing this, Bu Zhi immediately followed the order. After several family heads were exiled, the Xuzhou gentry were completely shocked.

The nobles were bullies who only bullied the weak and feared the strong, and they were opportunistic. Now that they saw that this incident had really touched Yuan Xi's bottom line, they dared not step forward and immediately stayed at home obediently.

Only then did Yuan Xi feel relieved. Although some people were unwilling to give up, they would not dare to cause trouble again for at least a few years. Now he could finally free up his hands to deal with Cao Cao.

He found that what he was doing now was actually the same as what Cao Cao had done in Yanzhou. The only difference was that Cao Cao's actions at the time were not righteous enough, so the Yanzhou gentry formed a group to rebel.

The reason why the Yanzhou gentry were able to rebel and have such a great impact at that time was also because they found Lu Bu as their agent. With the right time, place and people, Lu Bu was able to succeed in his rebellion and almost destroy Cao Cao.

But today's Xuzhou no longer has such conditions. Its gentry rebelled first, and the surrounding hostile forces were wiped out by Yuan Xi, so that the Xuzhou gentry could not find anyone to help them fight against Yuan Xi.

Of course, part of Xuzhou borders Yuzhou, and Cao Cao's forces had infiltrated there to some extent in the past, but this route is no longer feasible now.

Because Lu Xun was now on the Huai River, he relied on the navy and land to block the offensive of Cao's army from Yuzhou.

This was a pleasant surprise for Yuan Xi, because a considerable portion of the troops in the Jianghuai region were used to contain the State of Wu. So when Yuan Xi ordered Lu Xun to send troops from Shouchun, there were actually not many troops left behind to defend the city, and they were at a numerical disadvantage compared to Cao's army.

But after several months of fighting, the Cao army led by Cao Zhen was defeated step by step. Not only was it defeated by water, but they were also defeated twice by Lu Xun on land.

When Yuan Xi received the letter from Lu Xun, he was quite surprised, because the land combat capability of the Jianghuai soldiers should be inferior to that of Cao's army. Was this a result of Lu Xun's successful military training?

Later, he went to look at the details of the battle report, and found that the two victories in the land battles were somewhat accidental, but the highlight was the performance of the strikers just appointed by Lu Xun.

When Yuan Xi saw the name Wei Yan, he felt quite complicated. Wei Yan's unexpected joining meant that he was finally not so stretched in terms of leading the army.

As the saying goes, money is easy to get, but a general is hard to find, but in comparison, a head coach is even harder to find.

Those who can serve as the commander-in-chief of an army are all geniuses who are able to take charge of the overall situation, especially the first-class commanders, of which there are no more than ten in this era, and most of them are under Yuan Xi's command.

Zhuge Liang, Lu Xun, Wei Yan, Zhang He, and Lu Su are considered to be capable of serving as head coach.

As for the rest, including Zhao Yun, Zhang Liao and other generals, it is not that they are not suitable for leading the army, but the role they play as vanguard generals is far greater than that of sitting in the central army. If they are made the main commanders, they may not be able to play to their strengths.

On Liu Bei's side, Guan Yu counts as one, and Liu Bei himself can only be counted as half.

On Cao Cao's side, there are Cao Cao, Sima Yi, and Xun You, and the others are far inferior.

After the death of Zhou Yu and Lu Meng, Sun Quan no longer had anyone who could calm the situation. Although Cheng Pu had seniority, there was a big gap in strategy between him and the counselors of other forces.

As the scale of the war grew and both sides deployed hundreds of thousands of troops, the role of the commander-in-chief became extremely important.

Previously, Yuan Xi was in charge of Xuzhou. On the one hand, he was to stabilize the situation, and on the other hand, he was to observe the changes on the Jizhou front. He was very confident in the combination of Zhuge Liang, Ju Shou and Tian Feng, and he was just waiting for them to make a breakthrough and then he would immediately carry out the next plan.

What Yuan Xi did not expect was that Zhuge Liang did push the front line forward by more than 200 miles, even to the border of Wei County, but it was Lu Xun who first broke through. After Wei Yan's extremely risky rear raid, Cao Zhen's fragile direction finally collapsed completely, and he was forced to retreat to Runan. Lu Xun took the opportunity to occupy the town on the north bank of the Huai River.

Logically speaking, Cao's army would definitely send reinforcements next, but afterwards, Cao's army seemed to have given up and retreated back into the city. Yuan Xi was puzzled. Did Cao's army even give up Yuzhou in order to defend Yecheng?
Later, the news brought by the spies in Yecheng made Yuan Xi realize that Cao Cao's health was indeed failing, so he summoned Cao Pi and Cao Zhi to come to Yecheng from Xudu. The two of them arrived in Yecheng half a month ago.

As soon as the two entered the city, the forces behind them began a fierce struggle, after all, it was a fight for the prince, the winner takes all and the loser eats dust.

Of course, the officials in Cao’s camp were well aware of the situation. After all, they were facing a powerful enemy and the biggest crisis came from Yuan Xi, so they were relatively restrained.

After Bu Zhi finished reporting all this, he said, "My lord, what are you going to do next?"

Yuan Xi thought for a moment and said, "It's time for me to leave."

Master Bu Lian, who was pouring tea, trembled slightly when she heard this.

Yuan Xi said: "Next, there will be a series of conspiracies and plots."

"I will go and meet Lu Xun first to continue to put pressure on Yuzhou and make Yecheng unable to cope with it. At the same time, it is time for the northern parties to show up."

"This battle for the crown prince in Cao's camp will definitely be very interesting. I want to see if Cao Cao can withstand this wave of pressure and whether he is really sick or just pretending."

"I will go and organize the troops first. Everything in Xuzhou depends on Zishan."

After Bu Zhi sent Yuan Xi away, he returned to the house and saw Bu Lianshi staring out the window in silence. He asked, "What do you think, niece?"

Bu Lianshi uttered a panicked cry and covered up by saying, "I don't understand what uncle is talking about."

Bu Zhi shook his head and said, "My niece's thoughts are all written on her face."

"The king is indeed a rare genius. It's not surprising that you have a crush on him, but the women around him have more legendary identities and experiences than each other. This is not easy."

Bu Lianshi's face was hot, and she said, "Don't worry, uncle. I won't have any delusions. Besides, the king has no interest in me at all, and he has never said a word to me. I'm afraid you are overthinking it."

Bu Zhi shook his head and said, "I don't think so."

"I'm not thinking of sacrificing you to rise to prominence. I just feel uneasy sitting in my current position, and I don't want to move up any further."

"You have reached the age to get married. What I am thinking about now is your fate."

Bu Lianshi whispered, "I am a girl from the Bu family, so I should contribute to the Bu family. As long as my uncle thinks that I can help the Bu family, I will obey."

Bu Zhi shook his head, "That's not what I meant."

"Your father entrusted you to me before he died, so I must find a good home for you. If you are willing to be the king's concubine, I will naturally help you find a way."

"But if you don't want to, I will find a scholar of equal status and let you marry as my first wife to fulfill my promise to your father."

"Now that I have some status in Xuzhou, I can help you find a good husband."

"But the key here lies in your thinking."

"I still hope that you won't regret it when you get married in the future."

Bu Lianshi was moved and bowed her head and said, "Uncle's words will be remembered forever. Please give me some time to think about it carefully."

However, before Bu Lianshi could make a decision, Yuan Xi hurriedly led his troops away the next day.

He went north from Guangling Han River, then west to Huai River to meet Lu Xun. He left in such a hurry that when Bu Lianshi got the news and rushed to the dock, the fleet had already set off half an hour ago.

Master Bu Lian looked at the empty river surface, feeling lost.

Bu Zhi came down from the dock, and when he saw Bu Lianshi, he handed her a silk book and said, "This is for you from the envoy."

Bu Lianshi took it with surprise and unfolded the silk book. There were only a few lines of words on it, but after Bu Lianshi finished reading it, a faint smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.

She turned her head and wiped her eyes silently.

(End of this chapter)