Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 26: Bargaining on Book Collection

Zhao Yunji sat on the ground, stared at Yuan Xi and said, "My lord, do you want to revive the Han Dynasty?"

When Yuan Xi met Zhao Yun with a solemn expression in front of him, he sighed in his heart, in this troubled world, how many people can stick to their ambitions throughout their lives?
But he can't promise Zhao Yun now.

Seeing Yuan Xi's silence, Zhao Yun's expression on his expectant face gradually dimmed.

Yuan Xi suddenly said, "Brother Zhao, how can we call it Xingfu Han Dynasty?"

Zhao Yun was taken aback, just when he thought Yuan Xi wanted to convince him, he heard Yuan Xi say: "Brother Zhao, has he ever farmed?"

Zhao Yun replied: "I planted it when I was young."

Yuan Xi heard this, and said, "I'm not very eloquent, if tomorrow when the wheat is harvested, Brother Zhao can come and have a look, you will understand what I want to say."

Zhao Yun was full of suspicion, but still nodded. Seeing that Yuan Xi was exhausted, he knew that his injury was not healed, so he got up and left.

After a while, Wu Zhao came in with two bowls of porridge on the wooden plate. Seeing that Yuan Xi was alone in the room, she said in a daze, "General Zhao is gone? The concubine boiled an extra bowl..."

Yuan Xi laughed and said, "You just eat it."

Upon hearing this, Wu Zhao bowed his head and said, "How can this be done, the mansion is running out of food."

For the past two days, Yuan Xi was in a coma, and the servants in the mansion were too busy, so Qu Yi asked her to take care of Yuan Xi. Fortunately, she had done these things before taking care of her father, so she was able to handle it.

But what surprised her was that there were only a few bags of food stored in the entire mansion, which made her puzzled.

Later, the servants said that this Mr. Yuan Xi, as the city guard of Beixin, actually concentrated the grain in the city and put it in the granary in the city, and distributed it to the people in the city evenly every day, so even in the mansion, there was no extra grain.

Also because of this saving of food, there are very few servants in the city lord's mansion, and most of the chores are done by Yuan Xi's personal soldiers Sun Li and others.

So Wu Zhao was very tired these few days, but she still gritted her teeth and persisted when she remembered that she had to find a way to get back her father's books.

Seeing her troubled expression, Yuan Xi thought she was reluctant to eat porridge, so he smiled and said, "It's okay, when the wheat outside the city is harvested tomorrow, at least this winter, the people in this city can live well."

He picked up a bowl of porridge and got up, motioning Wu Zhao to take another bowl. Wu Zhao had no choice but to pick up the bowl and sip it.

Seeing that Wu Zhao was preoccupied, Yuan Xi only said that she missed her hometown, and said, "Don't worry, since you saved my life, I will repay this kindness no matter what I say."

"In a few days, I will go back to Yecheng, and then I will send you back to my hometown."

Wu Zhao felt that he should be happy, but for some reason there was a trace of disappointment in his heart and a tangled look on his face.

Yuan Xi got it wrong and said, "Are you still thinking about the woman who was taken captive with you that day?"

He sighed, "I was also very troubled at the beginning. If I marry these women to soldiers, there will be hundreds more dead soldiers."

Wu Zhao didn't expect Yuan Xi to admit it in such a bachelor way, bowed his head and said, "We were rescued by the young master, we couldn't help ourselves, so we have no right to speak."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi smiled and said, "You must have a lot of resentment in your heart when you say that."

"Do you think that I am no different from Dong Zhuo who used his troops to plunder the common people's women?"

Wu Zhao said softly, "My lord, don't belittle yourself. How can one save people and the other harm others?"

Yuan Xi shook his head and said, "Your look can't fool me."

"By the way, when the wheat is harvested tomorrow, all the people in the city are willing to go, including those women."

"I also told Brother Zhao just now, you can go and have a look at that time, maybe you can find the answer you want."

Wu Zhao listened and nodded slightly.

Yuan Xi saw that although Wu Zhao's face was destroyed, his sitting posture was extremely elegant, and his body curve was set off by the underskirt. Yuan Xi moved his heart and said, "Are you from Luoyang?"

"Whose house was it in?"

Wu Zhao's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly said the name of a small official. She thought to herself that this person was Yuan Shao's son, and she might have stayed in Luoyang before, so could it be that she was showing her flaws?

Unexpectedly, Yuan Xi just let out an oh, he was already in Yecheng when he crossed over, and his memories of earlier times were already very blurred.

However, Wu Zhao's mind was full of thoughts. This is a great opportunity. If he can't get back his father's belongings, he may not have the opportunity in the future.

She said: "My concubine's master likes to collect books. At that time, the Huns invaded the city and killed my concubine's master, taking away some precious books."

"Some of them are orphans, and now they are owned by the general. I don't know how the general will deal with them?"

Yuan Xi heard this, and said with a smile: "You are interesting, you can still think about these things."

Wu Zhao said softly: "There are some books whose value is difficult to measure with money."

Yuan Xi sighed: "It's a pity that Dudu can't be eaten."

"I let Mr. Dong read those books a few days ago, and they are indeed quite rare."

After hearing this, Wu Zhao quickly asked, "How should the young master deal with it?"

Yuan Xi said without hesitation: "I'm going to take it back to Yecheng, give it away as a favor, or sell it for money."

After hearing this, Wu Zhao couldn't help but said, "Why, these are extremely rare things!"

Her heart was bleeding. Most of the more than 4000 volumes of books that her father gave him were either destroyed or missing when she was taken away. Only a few boxes contained the most rare hundreds of volumes of silk books.

Her purpose was to try to get it back, otherwise how could she be worthy of her dead father?

And Yuan Xi actually said that he wanted to sell it?
She stammered: "Many of those books are orphans. If they are lost, it will be a loss to the scholars of the world!"

Yuan Xi listened, nodded and said: "What you said is not unreasonable. If I ask someone who can read to copy a few copies, isn't it not a lonely copy?"

Wu Zhao was dumbfounded, can this still happen?

"That's the original," Wu Zhao insisted.

Yuan Xi said: "The original value lies in the fact that someone is willing to spend a lot of money to buy it, but I only need the words on it."

"The value of books lies in the knowledge on them, and has nothing to do with the original."

"It is precisely because of this kind of thinking that knowledge cannot be widely spread, and the common people cannot get a glimpse."

Wu Zhao was speechless, and said, "My lord is very different from the scholars I know."

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "That's true, otherwise, I wouldn't be in Beixincheng at all."

Wu Zhao looked at Yuan Xi's injuries and fell silent.

After a while, she hesitated and said, "If I can help the general transcribe, can the general give me some originals?"

Yuan Xi was surprised when he heard this, "You can still read?"

Wu Zhao nodded.

"How much do you know?"

"It should be quite a lot."

Yuan Xi listened, thought for a while, and said with a smile: "How can a person who can read and write be an ordinary servant girl."

"I'm afraid the girl has an unusual background, right?"

Wu Zhao was panicked when he heard this, and quickly covered it up: "The concubine learned some words with her husband, but the husband died early."

When Wu Zhao said this, he couldn't help but look gloomy.

After hearing this, Yuan Xi sighed: "Madam also has a lot of bad luck, anyway, as long as Madam helps me do something, I will give those books to Madam, why not?"

Wu Zhao was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "What's the matter?"

(End of this chapter)