Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1408 Urgent Letter
In the spring of the fifth year of Chenghan, Yecheng held an extremely grand ceremony. Because the war had been going smoothly before, there was a surplus of mobilized supplies and grain, so Yecheng also opened its warehouses to release grain to help the poor people.

Yuan Xi, with Zhen Mi and other women, stood on the Bronze Sparrow Tower, looking at the New Year atmosphere in Yecheng below.

However, the view of Yecheng this spring was the most blurry one, because every household had been lighting their stoves for too long, and smoke rose from the chimneys and gathered over Yecheng, spreading over the city, causing the entire sky to appear hazy, and even the streets below the Bronze Sparrow Tower appeared blurry.

Zhen Mi said, "Your Majesty has not been in Yecheng to welcome the new year in the past two years. During the New Year's Day in recent years, the sky in Yecheng has become increasingly hazy due to the smoke from the fires, and it was especially severe today."

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "This is a good thing."

"The Spring Festival is the most important day of the year. Unless you really have no money to eat, you have to light a fire and cook."

"Even the poor who cannot guarantee to light a fire to cook every day and are forced to eat leftovers or raw food will light a fire and cook on this day to pray for blessings for the coming year."

"The length of time it takes to make a fire indicates not only that there is food, but also that there is sufficient firewood. Among the necessities of life, firewood is put first, and there is a reason for that."

"I am very happy that I can see every household in Yecheng making fire and cooking, which means they at least have food and firewood to spend this Spring Festival.

"In just a few years, Yecheng was able to fully recover from the fire and even better than before. This is the best affirmation of my achievements in the past few years."

"Because if the people of Yecheng live worse than before, then my efforts to pacify the world would be meaningless, wouldn't it?"

Zhen Mi smiled and said, "What your majesty has done over the years has been watched by the whole world. If it had not been recognized by the people, the Great Jin would not be so prosperous now."

"I have been married to Your Majesty for nearly fifteen years. Although I have not met Your Majesty many times in these years, every time I meet Your Majesty, the world is constantly moving forward and undergoing earth-shaking changes."

"Sometimes I see new and strange things appearing around me, as if hundreds of years have passed."

Yuan Xi pointed to the distance and said, "This has just begun."

"I once said that the Chinese people are the most hardworking and motivated people in the world. As long as we provide them with a peaceful and stable environment, as long as we do not exploit them and allow them to move forward without restraint, they will unleash potential that no other nation can match."

"As the Son of Heaven, I rule the world on behalf of the people, not enslave them. What I need to do in this position is to open up this path for them, guarantee their safety, and allow them to walk on it with peace of mind."

"Since ancient times, wars and turmoil have been the norm compared to peaceful times. Although wars caused by dynasty changes and foreign invasions only lasted for a short period of time, the damage they caused was countless times greater than that of peaceful times."

"In the days without these threats, people are not having a good time either. Droughts, floods, diseases and insect pests are threatening their livelihoods all the time, making a year's hard work go to waste."

"This is what is called natural disasters and man-made disasters. All dynasties believed that man-made disasters were wars and could be eliminated and avoided, but natural disasters were something that only the emperor could blame himself for. I don't think so."

"In the final analysis, natural disasters are still rampant because we are not capable enough of transforming nature. Just like droughts, if we build reservoirs and protect river sources in advance, we can minimize the impact of disasters."

"As time progresses, people's ability to transform nature will become stronger and stronger. I believe that sooner or later, while protecting nature, humans will be able to coexist harmoniously with nature and will no longer be troubled by natural disasters."

Zhen Mi said, "So this is why the king rejected the petition submitted by his ministers to build the Great Wall outside the Great Wall, and instead used most of the tax revenue for mining and dredging the river?"

Yuan Xi said in a deep voice: "That's right."

"If the interior of the pass is weak, even if we build two more walls, it will be useless. The key is to be strong yourself before you can forge iron."

"As long as our technology and strategic thinking can crush the barbarians outside the Great Wall, then no matter what kind of foreign race appears outside the Great Wall in the future, they will only be fit for Chinese soldiers to train."

"We should strengthen ourselves and take the initiative to make the foreigners outside the pass become Indians, so that China's borders can be stable and peaceful for a long time."

Zhen Mi didn't react for a moment, "Isn't Tianzhu in the south?"

"Why did the northern barbarians become Indians?"

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "Because Tianzhu is a good place."

"Hundreds of tribes are independent, and no one can suppress the other. There are many religious sects. They have great ambitions, but their strength does not match their ambitions. They have strong and mysterious self-confidence. They will fight at the slightest disagreement and will be defeated as soon as they fight. They are simply the most ideal neighboring country."

"In comparison, Jiaozhi is much more threatening than Tianzhu."

"I am prepared to make great efforts to transform Xianbei outside the Great Wall into Tianzhu."

"Now, not only the Taiping Dao, Buddhism, Qiang Lamas, Zoroastrianism from the Western Regions, and the evil cults from various places, almost all of these believers have been settled outside the Great Wall by me." "Of course, I gave them money to settle down, and promised that if they made a name for themselves, I would also give them fiefs and titles outside the Great Wall in the future, so that they can enjoy offerings for generations."

"Now they are very active, using various means to establish their own power base among the Xianbei people who believe in shamanism."

"So when I think about the scene of various religious sects flourishing, competing with each other, singing and dancing, a hundred or even hundreds of years from now, I am looking forward to it."

After hearing this, all the ladies cast suspicious glances at him. Xiao Qiao, who was holding the child, couldn't help but wonder, "Your Majesty looks so strange, are you lying to us?"

After hearing this, Yuan Xi laughed out loud with relief, "Do I look like a bad guy?"

The women all said in unison: "Your Majesty, this is not convincing at all!"

Yuan Xi looked into the distance with high spirits. The path he was taking now and the most upright path in the future, although the core was the same, were quite different in operation.

Some of these methods are actually not easy to bring to the table, but Yuan Xi clearly realized that the world today is still a true feudal society after all.

In this cannibalistic world, it is already very difficult to stick to one's original intention. The way of governing the country cannot transcend the limitations of the times. If it were not for the mature industrial revolution and the situation and rules of the entire world, it would still be inseparable from the law of the jungle and the competition for resources.

Yuan Xi knew his own abilities very well, and he could only help to speed up China's car a little bit. The limit of what he could do was to ensure long-term stability for the Chinese people. As for China's foreign enemies, he would not hesitate to use the most despicable means to eliminate them before they could grow stronger.

Fortunately, he was able to stand on the shoulders of his predecessors and avoid many of the pitfalls they had encountered, such as the explosive growth in population as the world became more peaceful, which would inevitably lead to insufficient arable land and thus a food crisis, and then inevitably civil strife and social unrest, and then another century-long cycle.

Yuan Xi predicted that it would take five to ten years for this phenomenon to begin to emerge, so he had to prepare for it now.

He said to Zhen Mi and the other ladies, "After the New Year, I will leave."

The ladies listened, although they were reluctant, but they all knew that Yuan Xi must have a purpose when he spoke. Zhen Mi said, "Wei retreated to Yizhou, and hundreds of Xianbei tribes outside the pass annexed each other. There will be no threat for at least a few years. Your Majesty wants to go south?"

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "The Queen is the one who sees things clearly."

"The chaos of the Xianbei will continue for many years. Even if they don't cause chaos, I will let them continue to cause chaos. Those who can't stand it will either enter the pass and become Han Chinese, or go north to the North Sea to fish."

The North Sea of ​​this era is the Lake Baikal of later generations. What Yuan Xi needs to do is to create a chaotic uninhabited zone outside the Great Wall, which is the best protection for China.

"There are currently three directions, and the North and West Sichuan are not causing any trouble for the time being, so I will go to Shouchun and Nanchang to discuss with Hannan Kingdom how to start with Jiaozhi and make arrangements in advance."

“Although the effects may not be seen until decades later, it is better to act sooner rather than later.”

After hearing this, all the ladies of Zhen Mi bowed and said, "Then we wish the king a successful start."

Two months after the Spring Festival, the weather turned warmer. Yuan Xi had almost arranged all the domestic affairs and was preparing to set off on a certain day when an urgent letter came from Shouchun in the south.

When Yuan Xi received the letter, he couldn't help but be stunned, because the letter was actually from Mrs. Xie, and the channel of sending the letter was also very strange. It was sent directly through the Procuratorate channel on Lu Xun's side.

Strictly speaking, this behavior was an overstepping of authority for both Mrs. Xie and Lu Xun. Yuan Xi knew that Lu Xun was not particular about details and was not very sensitive to politics, but what about Mrs. Xie?

He opened the bamboo tube that was tightly sealed with wax and pulled out a thin silk book. After reading a few lines of words clearly, his face suddenly changed and he stood up subconsciously.

Mrs. Xie said in the letter that Mrs. Wu was seriously ill and in critical condition, but she had always refused to write to Yuan Xi. Mrs. Xie could not bear it any longer, so she had to write a letter secretly and asked her brother Xie Jing, who was a military officer under Lu Xun, to deliver the letter directly to Yuan Xi.

Yuan Xi put down the silk book in his hand, stood in front of the window for a while, then called Bu Lianshi who was outside the house and asked him to issue an imperial decree, asking the Yecheng wharf to prepare the fleet and set off for Shouchun tomorrow.

After receiving the news, everyone in Yecheng was in a state of panic, but fortunately, preparations had been made for Yuan Xi's departure in the near future. The relevant people worked until dark, transported all the necessary supplies to the fleet, and made preparations for departure.

After Yuan Xi told Zhen Mi the inside story, Zhen Mi listened and said, "Your Majesty, please go quickly. You must see Madam Wu no matter what."

She sighed, "I don't know what Madam Wu is thinking. Now that there is no war, she...ah..."

Yuan Xi said in a deep voice: "I won't be back in the short term."

He turned to Da Qiao and said, "Pack up and take the child with you. You will need to stay in Shouchun for quite a long time."

(End of this chapter)