Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1338 Portal
Shouchun.

Under the sycamore tree in the yard, Bu Lianshi and Xiao Qiao were mixing paints while one was sketching the flowers and plants in the yard. They were using newly made bamboo rattan paper. Although it was still a little rough and the paint smudged where it fell on the brush and ink, it was more interesting than silk cloth.

Yuan Xi was lying on a bamboo chair in the shade of a tree, resting his eyes. Next to him, Da Qiao was kneeling on a bamboo mat, holding a bamboo slip in her hand, reading to Yuan Xi the information from the north.

At this time, Da Qiao was reading the news from Bingzhou. When she read that the Western Xianbei king's tent hosted a duel between Shamanism and Taiping Dao under the witness of Budugen, the result ended in a complete defeat for Shamanism, and even the high priest was seriously injured and died.

When hearing the details, Yuan Xi couldn't help but shake his head and sighed: "I've suffered from my lack of education."

Things like walking barefoot over charcoal fire and swallowing steel knives alive that the shamanism was doing were all left over from the old days of the Taiping Dao. The Taiping Dao alchemists not only knew how to do them, they also knew how to crack them.

For example, if you walk barefoot across charcoal fire, you need to wet the soles of your feet quickly to form a layer of water film, and then walk across as quickly as possible.

As for swallowing a steel knife raw, one has to train the throat muscles since childhood so that one can clamp the knife and spit it out. Although it is hard work, there are other props to replace it.

So the two were evenly matched on the issues of Shamanism, but when it came to Taiping Dao's questions, Shamanism was at a loss.

There were spies from the Procuratorate mixed in with the Taiping Dao alchemists. Many of these people had studied medicine and alchemy. Alchemy was no longer simply the alchemy knowledge of the Taiping Dao, but the basis of chemistry in later generations. These were naturally beyond the grasp of the shamans, and even if they opened their eyes wide, they could not see the secret clearly.

So after the Taiping Dao used a few tricks, Shamanism was completely defeated, and the old Shaman also died in the fight against the exploding bamboo tube. The prestige of Shamanism on the grassland suffered a major blow.

People are like this, they believe in whoever is spiritual. In later generations, Buddhism was introduced during the Northern Wei Dynasty. Relying on Indian physical skills and verbal debate skills, Buddhism won the trust of the Northern Wei emperor, and since then Buddhism has flourished.

The Taiping Dao that is causing trouble now is also following the same approach. In philosophical debates, with the support of great Confucian scholars behind them, they can beat a group of shamans. Physical skills have also been replaced by science and technology. Now the Taiping Dao is spreading very quickly on the grassland. Of course, there are some private agendas mixed in.

This was naturally one of Yuan Xi's plans. There were not many places where the Taiping Dao could be used in the Central Plains now. It would be better to send them outside the Great Wall to cause trouble for the Xianbei. Moreover, compared with victory by force, cutting off the cultural support was more fatal. If this continued, the Xianbei people's beliefs would sooner or later be replaced.

If we calculate the time now, that was two months ago. Now we are about to enter autumn, and it has been a year since Yuan Xi set out from Yecheng to inspect Jianghuai.

This year was unusually peaceful. Except for several small-scale conflicts on the border, no major wars occurred in the world. After Cao Wei moved to Chang'an, the Jin army did not attack Xu Du as they had expected, causing the fleeing Wei court to look like clowns.

There was a reason why Yuan Xi suspended the attack. He had conquered a lot of Cao Wei's territory in the previous two years. Compared with Jizhou, which had suffered severe damage, Yanzhou and Yuzhou were more like a mess. It would take quite a while for them to resume production.

So Yuan Xi first went to Dong'an, then to Wuchang, and finally to Shouchun for half a year, just to personally take charge of restoring production in Yuzhou in the north.

He was in charge personally, and the gentry in Jianghuai had to give him some face. After making a lot of money, Yuan Xi sent people to the military town and wharf on the north bank of the Huai River. At the same time, he set up water conservancy facilities, restored local farming, and the people gradually returned to their hometowns.

Yuzhou was originally one of the important granaries in the Central Plains, where fishing, mulberry and farming were all quite developed, making it a true land of fish and rice in this era.

In comparison, Jiangdong at this time was quite barbaric. It was not until hundreds of years of management in the Jin Dynasty, when its population and farming techniques had made great progress, that it replaced the war-torn Jianghuai region in the Tang Dynasty and earned the title of "the land of fish and rice". And this was under the premise of the construction of the Grand Canal from Beijing to Hangzhou.

Yuan Xi knew that the course of history had changed dramatically and that he could not blindly apply the experience of later generations. Therefore, he had to go to the field to investigate and distinguish the differences in the changes of the times. He adopted a completely different development plan in the Jiangdong region, which was to use sea transportation to drive local development.

The Jianghuai region with Shouchun as its center will be an important logistical base for the next ten years' plot against Cao Wei. Now he has Wei Yan and Huang Zhong deploy defenses in Zhoukou east of Xu Du and Jiangling south of Xu Du respectively, forcing Cao's army not to act rashly. He will take the opportunity to develop agriculture, industry and commerce to build up momentum for future actions.

At this time, the guard came in and said that Lu Xun had sent Yuan Qian back.

Yuan Qian is now learning government affairs with Lu Xun. Usually, Lu Xun would send him to the door and leave. But today, he sent someone to pass the message. Yuan Xi knew that he had something to report, so he asked a few women to enter the house and had Lu Xun brought in.

At this time, Lu Xun brought Yuan Qian in, and Yuan Xi came forward to greet him: "It must be very hard for Boyan to take care of Qian'er?"

Lu Xun smiled and said, "That's not the case. The Second Young Master is very smart and can understand things very quickly. It's very easy for me to teach him."

Then he showed a helpless look on his face, "When it comes to military strategy and political affairs, I am naturally not inferior to others, but the second young master is very interested in the art of stargazing, but I know nothing about it, so it is really difficult to answer the questions raised by the young master."

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "Is there such a thing?"

Seeing this, Yuan Qian quickly said, "It's the child who talked too much."

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "The art of stargazing is not simple. Wait for me to write a letter to Prime Minister Zhuge and ask him to write you a copy of his stargazing experience."

Lu Xun's expression changed slightly after hearing this, but he did not talk about the matter anymore. Instead, he said, "I came here this time to report something to the lord." "The Procuratorate sent back news from Chang'an that Cao Wei has not given Sima Yi the right to lead the army so far."

"But the more this happens, the more uneasy Xun feels. Sima Yi is extremely cunning. If he were to conceal his true intentions and act in advance, we would still be short of standing troops."

Yuan Xi nodded and said, "I know. Since there is no war this year, the soldiers have gone to farm."

"Although the taxes collected by our military farms are far less than those of Cao Wei, it is indeed slower to temporarily mobilize troops. But Boyan," he leaned forward, "I know what you mean, but there are too many things to consider when changing the military system."

"Whether it's government soldiers or recruited soldiers, farming or conscripting good family sons, they all have their own shortcomings."

"I have been taking a break for the past two years to try to find a more suitable method."

"Don't rush this. After a while, we can attack Xudu from all directions and then brainstorm to come up with a more appropriate solution."

After hearing this, Lu Xun was convinced and said, "Since my lord has a clear mind, I am relieved."

After seeing Lu Xun off, Yuan Xi sighed. While there were no external enemies for the time being, internal problems would arise. Lu Xun was a genius in military affairs, but he had some shortcomings in politics.

The problem with Jin's current military system is that no general has his own private army, resulting in that sometimes they are not as desperate as Wei's soldiers when fighting. Most of the time, the Wei army suppresses the Wei army purely by relying on technology and equipment.

Lu Xun sincerely wanted to strengthen his fighting power, but once the door was opened, it would be difficult to stop it. Yuan Xi knew the consequences of the Tang Dynasty's vassal states. In fact, the same was true in the Three Kingdoms period, but it was not as obvious.

At that time, every general in Jiangdong had his own private army, especially great commanders like Zhou Yu and Lu Xun, who even had tens of thousands of private soldiers. These people required a huge amount of land to support, and were almost the same as the military governors of the feudal states. So it was no wonder that Sun Quan would be suspicious.

Zhou Yu and Lu Xun were indeed loyal, but the king did not dare to take the risk, especially since these lands and populations were inherited by their families. What if they rebelled one day?
Under this kind of psychological suspicion, Sun Quan became extremely sensitive in his later years and made many moves to force his ministers to death. Yuan Xi did not want to go down this path, so he simply nipped this trend in the bud and prevented the Jin army generals from having private soldiers.

However, in this way, the rewards for subordinates, such as land and marquisate, would be reduced a lot. For the generals who had always followed Yuan Xi to conquer the world, this was not a big deal, but there was no guarantee that everyone would think so.

Especially now, people in Jin privately compare Yuan Xi to Emperor Gaozu who is still alive. However, although Liu Bang is powerful, he also caused rebellion among the kings and suspicion between the monarch and his ministers, which has been a difficult problem that has been difficult to solve throughout the ages.

It was because of Lu Xun's lack of political sense in later generations that he was suspected and died by Sun Quan, as he not only had tens of thousands of troops but also interfered in the selection of the heir. Fortunately, he met Yuan Xi this time, otherwise, if Sun Quan was in the current good situation, he would have taken action against Lu Xun.

Yuan Xi was quite reassured about this. The current system of Jin State was quite complex and sophisticated, full of mutual constraints and self-adjustments. Except for a few people like Zhuge Liang, few people could grasp the tricks.

This is also the reason why Yuan Xi chose Zhuge Liang to teach Yuan Rui and Lu Xun to teach Yuan Qian. The former needs to have the mentality of an emperor, while the latter only needs to manage his fiefdom and the people's livelihood well. It would be bad to learn so many intrigues.

At this time, footsteps were heard. It was Madam Wu who came out with a maid. Seeing that Lu Xun had left, she said in surprise, "Bo Yan has left."

Yuan Xi replied: "We talked for a while and then he left."

He cast his eyes on the maidservant beside Madam Wu. He felt that she looked familiar, but he couldn't remember who she was. He couldn't help but wonder, "Madam, I seem to have seen this maidservant before?"

The maid couldn't help but lower her head after hearing this. Madam Wu smiled and said, "Your Majesty has seen many women, so it's normal that you can't remember them clearly."

"She is Madam Xie, the original wife divorced by Quan Er. When I conquered Wu County, she was by my side. My husband has met her."

Yuan Xi then remembered and said suddenly, "I remember now. It turned out to be Madam Xie."

"Speaking of which, I am also responsible for my wife being divorced."

Madam Xie bit her lip and said, "It has nothing to do with the king. That person is just suspicious."

Yuan Xi asked, "Now that he has been exiled to Bingzhou, are you pleading for him?"

After hearing this, Madam Xie said bitterly, "I have already been divorced by him, so naturally I have nothing to do with him anymore."

(End of this chapter)