Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1440 Chapter Control of the Situation
Madam Du was packing up her writing brushes and ink. She paused for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, you are joking again. If it were really as Your Majesty said, I'm afraid the world would not be like this now, right?"

Yuan Xi was amused. "Among all the ladies, you are the first one to know me. You must have seen how I started my career."

"The current situation is not something that I can achieve on my own, but we are working towards this goal."

Madam Du said softly, "Many people in the world think that Your Majesty is omnipotent, but in fact, what makes Your Majesty better than others is that you have been doing it yourself for so many years, and you are self-disciplined and self-reflective. I have been watching you all the time, so I naturally know how hard Your Majesty has worked. It is not just luck or fortune that has brought you to this point."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi's thoughts seemed to go back many years. "The earliest time we could meet was in Puyang City, right?"

"At that time, Marquis Wen sent you here to test my strength, but Madam Lu misunderstood that I was asking Marquis Wen for you, so she rushed to settle the score with me. Her fists were very powerful at that time. If she had hit me hard, I'm afraid I would have no future."

Mrs. Du was also reminded of the past and couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Mrs. Lu was young and energetic at that time. She was very enthusiastic in everything she did. Now she is much calmer."

Yuan Xi sighed, "Yes, more than a decade has passed, and she has changed a lot. It seems that the lively and high-spirited girl will never come back."

"These few times when I came back, she talked to me and met me just like she did with other ladies. She seemed to be quite distant from me. I'm afraid she was blaming me for not seeing her often."

Madam Du hesitated for a moment before speaking out, "Your Majesty may have misunderstood. Madam Lu definitely doesn't think so."

"She once mentioned to me that she had accompanied His Majesty on his campaigns over the past few years, and that the time they had spent together was far greater than that of the Empress, and she was very satisfied with this."

"Madam Lu feels that since His Majesty is constantly surrounded by new and old people, and rarely comes back, she has taken up too much of His Majesty's time, and it's time to leave some opportunities for others."

"That's why she focused on educating her son and had fewer opportunities to meet His Majesty, just to give others the opportunity to spend time with His Majesty."

Yuan Xi was stunned after hearing this, and after a while he said, "If that's the case, why didn't she tell me in person?"

Madam Du said softly, "Your Majesty, you have gone too far. Sometimes we are getting further and further away from Your Majesty. We know that Your Majesty is the emperor of the world, so how dare we pester Your Majesty?"

After hearing this, Yuan Xi felt even more upset. He pulled Madam Du into his arms and said, "I was young and foolish. I just met one and fell in love with her. After that, I didn't take good care of you. I left you here for several years. Although I have not let down the world, I am sorry for you."

Madam Du nestled in Yuan Xi's arms and whispered, "It is my blessing to meet Your Majesty."

"If it hadn't been for your majesty's help, I really can't imagine what would have happened to me now."

Mrs. Du was abandoned and almost forced to marry. She finally escaped to Youzhou with the help of Qu Yi. Her family in Bingzhou had already been separated in the war and could not return home. If it had not been for Yuan Xi's protection, she would have no idea where she would have ended up.

Yuan Xi thought of Qu Yi and said sadly: "My earliest general was Dezhou, but he did not live to see this day."

"Call Lingqi in a few days, and let's go outside the city to pay tribute to him."

Mrs. Du agreed, and remembered that next to Qu Yi's tomb was the grave of Lu Bu and his wife. She thought that in her life, apart from His Majesty, she was most deeply involved with the Lu family. Perhaps this was the wonder of fate.

As the days passed, the fields of Youzhou were greened by the spring breeze, dyed with colorful spots by the summer sunshine, and appeared golden in the autumn wind. People came out from every household to welcome another good harvest.

What they harvested in the autumn was not only grain, but also cotton, which had been planted on a gradually expanding scale.

After years of continuous hybridization and breeding, Youzhou finally screened out several cotton varieties that took into account both yield and quality, and began to test cultivation in other areas.

Areas suitable for cotton cultivation have sufficient sunlight, large temperature differences between day and night, and a dry climate with little rain. The cotton grown in this way has long and strong fibers and better quality. Therefore, the most suitable area is the area north of the Yellow River, especially Bingzhou and Liangzhou.

As an important economic crop that promoted the development of history in later generations, cotton has a huge yield advantage over silk and linen. In addition, related tools and equipment can be improved in a series of links from seed rolling to spinning, and each improvement can greatly promote the leap of the cotton textile industry. The woven cotton cloth and cotton greatly enhanced the people's ability to keep warm. With the mining of coal and other fuels, Youzhou has changed from a borderland suffering from severe cold to a large farming state that can safely spend the winter.

Nowadays, there are more than 100,000 households engaged in cotton planting in Youzhou alone. In the past, people in the north grew hemp and people in the south raised silkworms, and every household planted these crops. Now, they have switched to growing cotton in large numbers.

There were also tens of thousands of craftsmen engaged in the cotton textile industry, and thousands of them, with the support of Yuan Xi, were constantly improving spinning and weaving machinery, with the aim of one day being able to cooperate with steam engines to form a large-scale textile industry.

This concept may not see any major breakthroughs within decades or even hundreds of years, but once it succeeds, it will be a dimensionality reduction attack on the entire world. By then, China's foreign trade will rely not only on powerful weapons such as iron and porcelain, but also on cotton cloth, which is hundreds or thousands of years ahead of the world. Once the route for ocean trade is established, it will be able to advance all the way.

Yuan Xi still hasn't found the whereabouts of the inventor Ma Jun as passed down in later generations. He once sent people to look for him in Fufeng, Liangzhou and Bingzhou where the Ma family lived, but they all returned empty-handed. At first, Yuan Xi was quite regretful, thinking to himself, if Ma Jun had helped, to what extent would Jin's technological innovation have reached?
But in recent years, with the increase in the number of craftsmen who had learned to read and master mathematics after successfully eliminating illiteracy in charity schools, Yuan Xi suddenly discovered that the manufacturing inventions of Jin State had experienced a blowout growth.

As more and more equipment was invented and improved at a speed far exceeding that of any other time before, Yuan Xi finally realized that he was unknowingly promoting the enlightenment of the people, and that the first step was reflected in the improvement of technical processes.

It's not that ancient China was without science, but that there was less science and more technology. Today, the former relies on the mathematics, physics and chemistry teaching promoted by Yuan Xi to be taught from a young age. Although the effect cannot be seen in the short term, the latter has a profound historical accumulation. Many craftsmen rely on the handed down technology. In fact, they have the ability to innovate and progress long ago, but they lack the key stepping stone, which is scientific literacy and cultural level.

Today, Yuan Xi's charity school is gradually making up for this shortcoming. As the craftsmen gradually become enlightened, they already have practical experience and only lack the right support. Many inventions are beginning to emerge in a blowout manner.

Yuan Xi suddenly discovered that one more or one less Ma Jun no longer made much sense. Thousands and thousands of craftsmen were constantly gaining insights and progress through practice every day. The combined force they formed was no longer something that one or two geniuses could match.

After that, as people's wisdom continued to grow, inventions continued to emerge. Even if there was no Ma Jun, there were Niu Jun and Zhu Jun. No one could stop the tide of the times.

Yuan Xi sighed more and more. If there had been no wars and disasters, with the intelligence and hardworking of the Chinese people, they would probably be most suitable for farming and inventing. However, the fact that Youzhou, which had suffered from the disasters in the border areas, could reach its current state was inseparable from Yuan Xi's foreign policy.

There are two Great Walls in Youzhou today. One is the Qin Great Wall, which serves as a physical defense, and the other is an invisible Great Wall, which is the result of years of diplomatic and military policies.

With the support of Jizhou, Qingzhou and other places, Youzhou always maintained enough rotation troops to deal with the Hu people outside the Great Wall. But the most important point is that the Hu people outside the Great Wall have been torn apart by the Jin State and are unable to take care of themselves.

The most important reason was the so-called joint northward pioneering group of various ethnic groups launched by the State of Jin.

This so-called pioneer group, strictly speaking, is actually an alliance that seems loose but actually has a strictly designed structure, which is very similar to the parliament of later generations.

Among them, the Jin State was the dominant one, and it absorbed representatives of various ethnic groups including Wuhuan, Goguryeo, and even Xiongnu and Xianbei. Each force had the right to vote. When encountering major events, each ethnic group would vote and must obey the results of the vote.

As more and more tribal forces joined, the strength of this so-called alliance grew stronger. A considerable portion of the assets behind it were provided by Jin State, and most of them were Jin State's allies, so Yuan Xi was able to control the situation and lead the development of events.

The influence of this alliance is growing, and it can even begin to affect the replacement of tribal leaders on the grassland, and even the appointment of shamans or religious masters.

Especially for shamans whose previous generation passed away and who did not have time to find successors, the alliance also introduced the method of drawing lots from the golden urn. Because the process was fair, the grassland tribes began to adopt this method on a large scale.

Naturally, these actions were pushed by Yuan Xi. Yuan Xi himself would not do this within the State of Jin, but this approach was extremely effective outside the State of Jin.

This seemingly loose alliance actually had a very rigorous behavioral logic within it. On the one hand, it continued to expand in size, and on the other hand, it completely blocked the communication and integration between the Eastern and Western Xianbei from a geographical and cultural perspective, and instead began to gradually absorb and assimilate both culturally.

As the leaders of the Eastern and Western Xianbei, Budugen and Suli naturally could not be unaware of this, but now they have few cards to play. The Xianbei tribe has lost its unified goal, and at some time in the future it will inevitably be absorbed and integrated into the more advanced Chinese culture.

While Youzhou was thriving, Wei and Hannan, which were deliberately controlled in a corner of the southwest, had been badly damaged and their national strength had declined instead of increased, but they were unable to extricate themselves.

Now, the rulers of both sides, upon learning of the current situation in Jin, have developed varying degrees of worry.

(End of this chapter)