Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1370 Ending
The impact of the defeat of one million Xianbei might last for several years or even more than a decade, because the momentum that had finally been gathered together to unify the world was interrupted at its peak, which was a devastating blow to the morale of the Xianbei people.

Although these tribes left behind nearly 200,000 corpses in Dai County, nearly four-fifths of them still escaped back. This base number was extremely large, and even if the Eastern and Western Xianbei joined forces, they would not be able to defeat them all in a short time.

The Wuhuan and Xiongnu tribes who took advantage of the situation were even eyeing them covetously in the northern grasslands. The tribes that had previously had grudges against the Xianbei were now ready to tear a piece of flesh from the fleeing Xianbei people at any time.

At this time, Yan Rou and Xian Yuyin's troops, which had been harassing the Xianbei rear in the far north, received an order from Yuan Xi to withdraw.

Xian Yuyin was still not satisfied with this and said, "If we fight for a few more years, the Xianbei might collapse completely. Why give up now?"

Yan Rou thought for a moment and said, "I'm afraid that your majesty wants to drive the Xianbei people north, so he doesn't want us to push them too hard, lest they simply surrender completely to the Eastern and Western Xianbei, which would make them stronger and become the next Central Xianbei."

"Now that we have opened the northern passage, many Xianbei tribes that do not want to rely on others may decide to move north or west. In this way, there will be no need for the Jin State to mobilize a large army to attack them."

Xian Yuyin listened and thought about it carefully. He had to admit that Yan Rou's words made sense, but he couldn't help but ask: "Will they really go north?"

"The grassland has been so cold in recent years. If we go further north, wouldn't that be suicide?"

Yan Rou smiled and said, "Who knows? Anyway, we have seen colder years, and some people have survived."

"Perhaps there is another world in the north, but that is not what we need to consider. Now that we have been fighting for more than a year, isn't it a good thing to let the soldiers return home and reunite?"

In the following days, the soldiers of Jin State returned to Youzhou one after another, and the war came to a temporary end.

Due to the unprecedented large-scale conscription in Jin State, the tens of thousands of extra soldiers needed to be properly resettled. So in the following days, Yuan Xi asked all the officials in the court to go to the battlefield to arrange the aftermath. Except for retaining a part of the standing troops, the others were temporarily sent to farm the land.

As for the unmarried soldiers, they were not only allocated a piece of land, but also surrendered Xianbei women.

In this great defeat of the Xianbei, although only one-fifth of the people died, the vast majority of them were young and strong. The rest abandoned the old and young in the tribe during the retreat and fled north to the outside of the Great Wall, leaving behind a large number of Xianbei women.

The tribes where these women lived were already in name only. The old and young who were not good at resisting had already died in the epidemic, leaving them helplessly waiting for an unknown fate.

Yuan Xi did not indulge them. He directly issued an edict, ordering them to either surrender or return to the grassland on their own feet. There would be no idle people in the pass.

Therefore, some people chose to return to the grassland, but they continued to collapse on the road under the dual torture of hunger, fatigue and epidemics. As for how many of them could return to their hometown, it all depended on the blessing of their Xianbei ancestors.

The rest became captives and underwent Han transformation. As a result, there were a lot more women at once, and Yuan Xi did not have the extra energy to distinguish and identify them, so he allowed the women of marriageable age to get married, and the others were sent to the border to build bridges and roads.

As for some young Xianbei children, they were transported directly to Baekje, the Three Kingdoms of Korea, to receive training to become ocean-going sailors in the future. A few years later, they would board ships to America and serve as the first generation of pioneers to build ports and roads along the American coastline.

This was the fastest and most effective way Yuan Xi could think of to assimilate the Xianbei. He would not talk about humanitarianism like later generations did. This was a feudal era. You talk about humanitarianism, but would your enemies do the same?

The remaining question is how to rebuild Youzhou.

The wars in recent years have destroyed many of the water conservancy and road facilities built in Youzhou in previous years. It is obviously impossible to re-mobilize so much manpower, so Yuan Xi allocated special funds to expand the production of steam engines and supporting equipment.

Although the steam engines of this era had imperfect structures and high failure and scrap rates, they could be replaced with components or scrapped and recycled. When steam engine production was not yet fully developed, the maintenance and manufacturing costs were very high, but the greater the output, the lower the average cost. Today, Yuan Xi is using this wave of steam engine production to greatly promote the development of related industrial and mining manufacturing.

According to Yuan Xi's later memories, the craftsmen sent to various places to explore surface mineral deposits lived up to expectations and discovered several iron and coal mines, laying a solid foundation for the large-scale manufacture of steam engines.

As one steam engine after another was manufactured, the related excavation and stamping manufacturing components were also produced, which in turn promoted the improvement of steam engines. If this continues, with the wisdom of Chinese craftsmen, it will surely be improved to a greater perfection in the next few decades.

However, due to the great epidemic, Dai County was left with dead bodies all over the ground, which took a long time to clean up. By the time these things were almost done, half a year had passed in a flash.

At this time, news also came from the north that hundreds of escaped Xianbei tribes were forced to flee northward under the siege of various forces. The temporary alliance formed when they fled also completely fell apart. Now that winter is about to come, each tribe can only try to protect itself and can no longer care about the lives of others.

Yuan Xi was extremely satisfied with the result of this battle with the Xianbei. He was able to defeat the Xianbei so easily because of two advantages that were ahead of their time: his craftsmanship and his military thinking. But apart from that, the fact that Wei did not cause trouble was somewhat beyond Yuan Xi's expectations. From the beginning to the end, Liangzhou did not send troops to hinder them. Yuan Xi guessed that it might be because his previous method of alienating Ma Chao and Han Sui worked, which led to the two sides being on guard against each other. No one was willing to send troops first, and they only passively defended at the border.

But the most crucial thing is Cao Pi's attitude. Yuan Xi felt that Cao Pi's performance this year seemed like he was sleepwalking, and was far less impressive than last year. He wondered if he was sick.
However, the other party threw a difficult problem to Yuan Xi, that is, to exchange Madam Liu for Yu Jin and other captives. Yuan Xi thought about it again and again, and had to accept it.

After all, firstly, he had to give an explanation as the head of the Yuan family. Secondly, although Cao Pi sent Liu Xie out last time, it was suspected of provocation, but it was a preliminary agreement after all. It was not easy for Yuan Xi to keep Yu Jin and other captives in his hands.

As for whether releasing Yu Jin would pose a threat to the Jin army, Yuan Xi asked someone to observe and found that Yu Jin's spirit was almost destroyed in the battle with Guan Yu, and given Cao Pi's character, he would not make any use of Yu Jin again.

Madam Liu, who was brought back, hanged herself in the carriage on the way back to Yecheng.

Yuan Xi asked the Procuratorate to handle the matter. Yuan Xi did not force her directly, but let Madam Liu make her own choice. All Yuan Xi did was to have someone send a set of clothes worn by Yuan Shao to Madam Liu.

As Yuan Xi expected, Mrs. Liu remained silent for a long time looking at Yuan Shao's clothes, and then chose to commit suicide.

Yuan Xi found that his heart was becoming colder and colder. He didn't know whether it was this era that made him like this or he had always been like this. But after seeing so many people die, he found that he had indeed changed.

Thinking of this, Yuan Xi couldn't help but sigh. Only after witnessing the countless tragic things in this era with his own eyes could he realize how happy the future generations were. That was paid for with the blood of countless martyrs. It was hard to imagine that in just a hundred years, China could stand up from the dark oppression that was no less than that of this era and create so many jaw-dropping achievements.

The correct path and leadership, as well as the hard work and struggle of the people, are both indispensable. Yuan Xi cannot say that he fully meets the requirements, but at least he has moved this era slightly in that direction.

As the threat from the Central Xianbei disappeared, many ministers wrote to the emperor, suggesting that Yuan Xi return to Yecheng to offer sacrifices to the heavens and ancestors.

As for why it was the secondary capital Yecheng instead of Jicheng, the nominal capital, the reason was the origin of the name Jin State. After all, Jizhou was the location of the ancient Jin State, not Youzhou where Yan State was located.

Moreover, defeating the Zhong Xianbei and achieving such a large-scale victory has already gone down in history as an achievement comparable to Emperor Wu of Han's conquest of the Xiongnu. It must be announced to the world to increase the prestige of the Jin State and the King of Wei.

This dispute over status was also a hidden danger, but it could not be resolved in a short time. In the end, Yuan Xi could not withstand the petitions from his ministers, so he decided to return to Yecheng before the New Year and offer sacrifices to heaven in the city to make it known to the world.

Because it was close to winter, the women in the inner house either had to take care of their children or were physically disabled. After asking around, Yuan Xi found that no one was willing to go back to Yecheng with him. He couldn't help but ask angrily, "Am I too old? Do you all dislike me?"

After hearing this, all the ladies couldn't help laughing. Finally, Lu Lingqi said to Madam Du, "You should just accompany the king. I'll help take care of your child. Otherwise, he will nag us about this for years."

Madam Du held back her laughter and agreed. After following Yuan Xi out, she whispered to Yuan Xi in private: "Your Majesty, please don't blame the ladies. It's mainly because your Majesty lives frugally. The ladies try to take care of themselves and don't hire extra maids."

"But we are all His Majesty's wives and concubines now, and we have our own set of complicated etiquette inherited from the Han Dynasty, from clothing to decorations. This takes a lot of energy every day, not to mention taking care of His Majesty's appearance to avoid being criticized and disrespected."

"So the ladies are either pregnant or carrying children, so it's inevitable that they may not take good care of them. The ladies are afraid of making mistakes that will damage the king's reputation, so they have such concerns."

Yuan Xi finally understood and sighed, "I didn't expect that the higher I stand, the more chains I have on my body, and the less free I am."

"You have reminded me that this kind of thing needs to be fundamentally changed. It is time to revise some of the cumbersome etiquette and rituals."

Madam Du smiled and said, "With your majesty's current prestige, it should be much easier to do this, but please don't say it was me who said it, lest some nobles think I am meddling."

Yuan Xi smiled and shook Madam Du's hand. "Don't worry. When I unify the world, there will be a new atmosphere. People will abandon empty talk and focus on practical work. The times are progressive. How can it remain unchanged?"

"Pack up in the next two days, and we will leave the day after tomorrow."

While the two were talking, a maid came in and said that Hong wanted to see her.

(End of this chapter)