Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 674
When Yuan Xi returned to Jicheng, it was already late winter as an envoy, and the New Year was about to begin. He found a place outside the city, buried the bodies of Lu Bu and his wife, and had a log cabin built next to them.

According to the Han system, Lu Lingqi had to stay here for at least three months. She wore sackcloth and mourning and settled down directly. Originally, she wanted to kneel in front of the funeral. But Yuan Xi saw that the weather was too cold, so she had to coax her to live in a wooden house. .

Lu Lingqi said softly: "I can't accompany my husband during this period. Because of my filial piety, I can't participate in the celebration ceremony. I won't go to the city during the New Year, so as not to spoil everyone's mood."

"Around the Spring Festival, my husband doesn't have to worry about me anymore."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi could only nod his head and said comfortingly: "Relax, come to me anytime if you need anything."

"Gao Shun and Zhang Liao will take turns leading the troops to protect him, and they will also guard the funeral of Marquis Wen."

"Around the Chinese New Year, I will bring Zhen Mi and the others over to pay homage."

He was also very helpless. It stands to reason that today's etiquette is broken, and the mourning should not be so strict. However, Lu Bu's status was sensitive, and he had a high official position before his death. Lu Lingqi also had the status of a county king canonized by the emperor, so she was very popular. Attention.

If there was a big problem with the funeral ceremony, it would be easy for people in the world to criticize him and implicate Yuan Xi's reputation. Therefore, after Lu Lingqi thought about it, she decided to keep the funeral for three months in accordance with the ceremony.

She said softly: "My husband has many affairs, so don't worry about me."

"As for the girl from the Mi family whom you left behind in Haixi, after the mourning period, even if you don't bring her back, you still have to give her an explanation, right?"

"Mrs. Du is still there with her. Let's go south to Haixi and leave her there for a year. It can't be justified."

Yuan Xi also felt quite embarrassed, "We've been at war this year, how can we have time to go back?"

"And we may have to use troops next year. I will think about it then."

After hearing this, Lu Lingqi could only nod her head in agreement. She has made such a circle in the world this year, which can be regarded as a start to the end.

In fact, until the Battle of Shouchun, Yuan Xi still gained great benefits, but since Yecheng, the pace has fallen into Cao Cao's rhythm. Not to mention running back and forth, the final result can only be said to be unsatisfactory.

The lack of Huaicheng represents the frustration of Yuan Xi's strategy of besieging Cao Cao. Yuan Xi will definitely regain his position in the coming year. Counting the time, after Lu Lingqi's filial piety is over, he will almost start taking action.

What Yuan Xi is most worried about now is Liu Bei's expansion in Yuzhou.

If it can attack steadily and slowly encroach on Cao Cao's hinterland and rear, Cao Cao will have trouble sleeping and eating. When the time comes, Jizhou will send troops to attack Yanzhou, which will make him even more uncomfortable.

But Yuan Xi knew that things would never go as smoothly as imagined. Whether Liu Bei could stop him or not was a matter of debate, but there was almost no possibility of Jizhou, Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang working together.

He had received news from the direction of Jizhou that Yuan Tan retreated from Yecheng, returned to Qingzhou to reorganize his troops, and then announced his preparations to invade Yanzhou.

Yuan Xi was very suspicious of this. Yuan Tan had been blinded by his position as the head of the family. In addition, his two great advisers, Guo Tuxinping, were both from Yingchuan. From Yuan Xi's point of view, it seemed extremely unreliable.

However, Yuan Shang, with the assistance of Shen Pei, did a great job after Yuan Tan retreated. He first reorganized the officialdom in the city and assigned his own people to key positions. Then he recruited young people from various counties in Jizhou and Bingzhou. The soldiers and horses supported by senior cadres reorganized an army of [-] to go south, established a ferry camp on the north bank of the Yellow River, and deployed a long defense line.

Since then, he has taken the initiative to go south to Yanzhou, and has even begun to take advantage of the winter to cross the river to harass Yanzhou. This strategy is extremely vicious and is just to test Cao Cao's ideas.

Yuan Xi discovered that as long as the counselors in Jizhou did not fight among themselves and were singled out to control the overall situation, everyone seemed to be doing well, and this was the case with the trial match.

But Yuan Shang's side is not without hidden dangers. First, a large number of Yuan Shu's clan members are employed, and second, his other counselor is Xu You.

Especially the second point made Yuan Xi very worried, but he couldn't use the experience of later generations to hint that Yuan Shang Xu You might have different intentions.

Because Yuan Xi has no evidence, and Xu You has been Yuan Shang's person since early on and has won his trust. Yuan Xi's unnecessary actions at this time will only make Yuan Shang's internal people unstable.

Therefore, Yuan Xi can only wait and see what happens now. Due to the lag in intelligence, Yuan Xi does not yet know how Cao Cao's side will respond, but Yuan Shang's exploratory attack will definitely expose some of Cao Cao's intentions.

Yuan Xi guessed that if Cao Cao had not sent troops to resist, he would probably have sent the main force elsewhere!
This was actually what he was most worried about. In Yanzhou, Cao Cao could mobilize troops in four directions, and the most dangerous one was the one Liu Bei was defending.

Yuan Xi can only hope that Liu Bei can block Cao Cao's attack, otherwise, Yuan Xi's defense in Shouchun, Hefei will also be greatly threatened.

The last thing that worries Yuan Xi is the situation in Jiangdong.

Sun Ce was assassinated, and his life and death are still unknown. If Jiangdong is in chaos, it is not the worst outcome. If Cao Cao's forces take the opportunity to take power, it will be a big trouble.

Thinking of this, Yuan Xi also expressed his disdain for the way intelligence is disseminated in this era. Although he has consciously invested a lot of money and established an intelligence network over the years, it often takes months to obtain information that is thousands of miles apart. By then, the situation had already changed again.

This is the most troublesome shortcoming in restricting planning and layout in this era. Except for a few experts who can predict the future, many operations of all parties are made without sufficient intelligence.

This is also the reason why counselors who can predict events are so popular. Now everyone is fighting for the world, just like playing a real-time strategy game where the map is always covered with black fog. No one knows what they are doing. What will happen in the black mist?Yuan Xi settled down with Lu Lingqi, and took Zhao Yun, Gao Shun and others into Jicheng.

At that time, Taishi Ci Xuhuang had arrived two days earlier. When Yuan Xi entered the city, the people in the city did not know that there was another army, so everyone entered the city one by one in silence.

Yuan Xi looked at the wide trail in the early morning and found that it had changed a lot since he left. The road became cleaner and tidier, and the drainage ditches on both sides were dug very deep and covered with stone strips, giving it a big-city feel.

Many houses in the city used to be thatched cottages, but now some have been renovated, and some have simply been replaced with more solid brick and earth houses. From this alone, Yuan Xi can also infer that the people of Jicheng are living a good life this year. , otherwise if you don’t have enough to eat, you won’t have the manpower and material resources to renovate your house.

Hearing the sound of cars and horses on the street, someone poked his head out of the window and opened his mouth in surprise when he saw the scene on the street.

Some residents, obviously relatives of soldiers, hurried out and crowded on both sides of the road, anxiously looking for the faces of their relatives in the crowd.

When Yuan Xi saw this, he felt a little heavy because probably twenty-three out of ten of the soldiers he had brought out had not returned.

Although the families of these dead soldiers can still receive a pension, the amount can only last for a few years. Although the family has land, they lack labor for farming, so the only way out for many widows is to remarry.

In this troubled world, it is already very difficult to have land to farm and food to eat. In contrast, the sadness of life, death, and death of loved ones will slowly fade over time, right?
When everyone came to the house, Yuan Xi looked at the door that was exactly the same as before leaving, even a little bit crude. He was quite satisfied. It seemed that the women still understood his thoughts very well. If he was fighting outside, his own house was repaired. It is so magnificent that the families of the soldiers who went to war will feel uncomfortable.

The door opened slowly, and Yuan Xi rode in. He saw seven or eight women, led by Zhen Mi, standing in the cold wind waiting. When Yuan Xi came in, all the women bowed down and said, "Welcome your husband home."

Yuan Xi scratched his head, jumped off the horse and said: "It's so cold, don't engage in such a big battle, be careful of getting cold."

He took Zhen Mi's hand and said to the girls, "Thank you for your hard work these days."

The girls didn't dare to talk to each other. Yuan Xi vaguely felt that since he hadn't come back for a year, he seemed to be separated from everyone?
Zhen Mi whispered: "Mrs. Lu."

Yuan Xi said: "She is keeping vigil outside the city for three months."

"If you miss her, you can find a carriage in the mansion and go over to see her."

The girls responded quickly, and for a while no one said anything first. They just looked at me and I looked at you. Yuan Xi understood and said, "You guys go back to your room first and we'll talk later."

The girls then breathed a sigh of relief and went back to their houses.

Yuan Xi took Zhen Mi and first paid a visit to the Huan family, and then went to visit Zhen Mi's mother, Zhang family. Zhang sighed: "What happened in Yecheng depends entirely on the envoy's rescue."

Yuan Xi said: "This is all within one's duties. However, Yecheng has settled down, but I always feel that there may still be war. Madam, please stay for a while, and wait until Yecheng is completely calmed down. go back."

Zhang hurriedly said: "But depending on the envoy's arrangement, Youzhou is also very good, and there are many undeveloped trade routes, so it may not be worse than Jizhou."

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "It's up to Madam Lai to take the trouble."

After hearing this, Ms. Zhang showed a look of relief on her face. Because the Zhen family moved north and gave up a lot of profits from the Jizhou trade route, the family's livelihood has become a problem and they are quite stretched. Just now she was testing She asked Yuan Xi if she could allow the Zhen family to expand their business in Youzhou. After receiving confirmation from Yuan Xi, she felt relieved.

Yuan Xi saw that Zhen Rong, who was waiting behind Mr. Zhang, was hesitant to speak, so he said, "Brother Gao has been treated by Mr. Yuanhua. His injuries are recovering, so he should be fine."

"I have a good relationship with Yuan Shang now. Madam, you don't have to worry about him being embarrassed."

After hearing this, Zhen Rong quickly bowed his head and thanked her.

Yuan Xi pulled Zhen Mi out and all the way back to the house. Yuan Xi said, "Do you want to recognize your ancestors again and return to the Zhen family?"

Zhen Mi hesitated for a moment and said: "I once asked my mother, but she felt that it is not appropriate to act arbitrarily now, otherwise the Huan family and the Zhen family will be criticized for being capricious."

Yuan Xi sighed: "Then I will wrong you for the time being. When the day comes, I can make the world unable to say anything. Then it will be easier for me to do things."

Zhen Mi whispered: "I just want my husband to be safe."

She saw that Yuan Xi's face looked a little more weathered than when he left, and she couldn't help feeling a little distressed, and said, "My husband has suffered a lot this year."

Yuan Xi sighed, "The same goes for the people who follow me. There is no difference between them."

"It's just that too many people died this year."

(End of this chapter)