Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 94 Visiting the Zhen Mansion
During the Han Dynasty, there was a saying of bathing for three days and bathing for five days, and there was even a special bathing holiday for officials every week.

When Yuan Xi was in Beixincheng, he didn't have a special bathroom due to limited conditions, but obviously there was no shortage of places like Yuan's Mansion in Yecheng.

By the time Yuan Xi came out of the shower, half an hour had passed, and the exhaustion from the past month was almost wiped away.

When he came out wiping his hair, he found Wu Zhao was kneeling on the ground, struggling to turn over his armor, holding a wet sackcloth in one hand to wipe off the blood on the armor.

If the blood is not cleaned in time on the iron armor plate, it will rust for a long time.

Wu Zhao cleaned up the nail leaves one by one, pulled the leather rope on it to make sure the attachment was firm, and then dipped another piece of linen cloth into lard, and spread a layer of grease on the nail leaves. Only in this way can the nail leaves be prevented from rusting.

Yuan Xi walked over and said, "Let the soldiers and servants take care of these things, so why bother you so much?"

Wu Zhao shook his head and said, "I don't worry if they do it."

She saw that there were many new marks from the cutting of weapons on the armor plate, and she knew that Yuan Xi had encountered a vicious battle again this time, and she felt terrified in her heart.

Yuan Xi took the sackcloth from her hand, and the two of them wiped off the remaining nail leaves and put them aside to dry in the shade.

Wu Zhao picked up a piece of bath bean, which was made of plant ash mixed with saponin soap. Her fair fingers were soaked in clean water to wash off all the remaining oil on her hands, and a fresh fragrance wafted out in the air.

Yuan Xi took a wooden box, opened it, took out a gold hairpin, and put it on Wu Zhao's bun.

Wu Zhao saw it and said, "Isn't it appropriate for me to bring such a valuable thing?"

Yuan Xi smiled and said: "Whatever is suitable or not is the people's fat and people's anointing that old man Cao scavenged. If I save his life, these things will all be mine."

"In the future, if I use those things on the people, it can be regarded as returning them to the people."

Wu Zhao wiped his hands, sat down on the mat, and said with a smile, "I'm afraid he hates you to death."

Yuan Xi took the opportunity to sit behind Wu Zhao, and put his hand into Wu Zhao's sleeve.

Wu Zhao's body trembled, but he didn't stop it. He just sat down, but his trembling fingers occasionally betrayed her.

Yuan Xi began to push forward, and Wu Zhao's breathing became rapid, and he said softly, "It's still bright, and we may have to attend a family banquet at night."

As soon as Yuan Xi heard this, he thought of the plot against the last banquet, and said, "This Yecheng mansion is much more dangerous than Beixincheng. As soon as the incident here is over, let's go back to Beixincheng."

Wu Zhao chuckled: "Officials cannot take their regular wives with them when they take office. If you marry a girl from Zhen's family, you will leave later. Wouldn't it make her sad?"

Yuan Xi sighed: "I'm afraid that the marriage with the Zhen family will not go so smoothly. My third younger brother is determined to ruin the marriage of the two families. I can't think of a good way yet."

Wu Zhao recalled what happened to Zhen Rong, and said sadly, "Then Zhen Rong was also used by others. She was a widow and was deceived by the third son. It is also very pitiful."

Yuan Xi poked his head over, smelled the smell of Wu Zhao's back neck, and said, "Don't worry, Gao Lan is not dead yet."

After Wu Zhao heard this, he breathed a sigh of relief: "This is the best. If General Gao dies, you and the Zhen family's Liangzi will be married, and the matter of marrying the Zhen family's daughter will be even more troublesome."

Yuan Xi exerted a little force, "You keep talking about the Zhen family, but what about yourself?"

"If you regain your identity, it's more than enough to be a regular wife."

Wu Zhao immediately shook his head and said, "I can't."

"I'm still the widow of the Wei family. If the matter with you gets out, the reputation of the three families will be ruined."

"Let me be Wu Zhao, at least I have nothing to worry about."

Yuan Xi had some headaches, it was true, Wu Zhao wanted to restore Cai Zhaoji's identity, and as the son of the Yuan family, he had no way to explain to the world.

Maybe when I have enough strength in the future, I can completely solve this problem.

Wu Zhao saw that Yuan Xi's face was a bit disappointed, and said with a hint of slyness on his face, "Besides, as your regular wife, you have to stay in Yecheng. When you just get married, you stay alone in the empty boudoir. What's the difference between that and being a widow?"

"As a maidservant now, I can justifiably follow you back to Beixin City, which is better than a big lady."

After hearing this, Yuan Xi smiled wryly and said, "I guess we won't be able to return to Beixin City for the time being."

"I talked with my father a while ago. I'm afraid that my father still has to fight Tian Kai and Kong Rong in Qingzhou before he can deal with Gongsun Zan in Yijing."

Wu Zhao nodded and said, "This is actually good. There are many noble families in Yecheng, and you can take this opportunity to cultivate and build your own power."

"So it is still necessary to marry the Zhen family, but we still need to solve Zhen Rong's problem before."

Yuan Xi nodded and said: "You are right, let me think about it."

"But those gentry, the price of buying them is very high, and it's hard to talk about not giving them benefits."

"The low-ranking commoners are better, but in terms of governing the land, the overall situation is indeed somewhat lacking compared to the big nobles."

"I want to emulate Liu Jingsheng's Jianyi School, but it will take at least three to five years to see the effect. Time waits for no one."

Wu Zhao leaned into his arms and said softly, "Your Master, do you think that the local gentry in Youzhou are unreliable?"

Yuan Xi nodded, "Exactly. When Liu Yu raised his troops to attack Gongsun Zan, most of his generals and advisers had informers."

"Because Gongsun Zan bought a large number of local nobles in Youzhou in terms of land and property, so that they are extremely loyal to Gongsun Zan. Even if you subdue them, they may not betray me for profit in the future."

"I don't have that much money. Even if I did, I wouldn't waste it on them. The two sides bribe each other. In the end, I will only buy a group of people who are ungrateful for their profits."

"Youzhou's gentry are already weak, so I thought about shoveling them out, establishing free schools to select officials, and reorganizing."

Wu Zhao nodded and said, "What I admire the most is that the young master not only allows common people to enter the free school, but also allows women to enter, which is truly unprecedented."

Yuan Xi knew that some of his actions were indeed shocking to people at this time, so it took Wu Zhao a long time to accept.

In this era, the gentry are nobles, and the common people are no different from livestock in the eyes of the gentry.

Women are often regarded as men's vassals. In the Han and Tang dynasties, when women had the highest status, women also had a lot of helplessness.

In fact, the free school for women was not Yuan Xi's pioneering work. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a village school, allowing women to study.

But since the Han and Tang Dynasties, the status of women began to decline.

Yuan Xi opened his mouth and said: "Nowadays there have been years of wars, men have gone to the battlefield, there is a shortage of labor, women can actually do many things."

"Moreover, scholars and common people, the noble and the poor, men and women, have things that are not determined by their family background and can change their own destiny when they are born."

Wu Zhao was startled: "What is it?"

Yuan Xi pointed to his own head: "This."

"There are also stupid people among the wealthy and scholars, and there are also extremely smart people among the poor and common people."

"What is lacking is whether you can read and read and open your mind."

"Nowadays the world is in chaos and there is an urgent shortage of talents, so I want to give it a try and let more people get the ability to change their lives."

Wu Zhao heard this, and said in a low voice, "I also want to see how far the young master can go."

The two looked at each other, and the atmosphere gradually became ambiguous.

Yuan Xi stood up resolutely, and closed the door from the inside.

More than an hour later, Wu Zhao lay in Yuan Xi's arms and gasped, "Master, you seem to be very knowledgeable in a certain aspect."

Yuan Xiqiang said with a smile: "I said that I know how to watch the stars. The stars in the sky can tell me many interesting things."

Wu Zhao thought to himself, who are you lying to?

Yuan Xi looked at Wu Zhao's fair neck, and quickly changed the subject, "I see that the scars on your face seem to be much lighter?"

Wu Zhao blushed a little: "Since I'm the son's man, I don't want to face this face all day long. Although the pine ink cinnabar has penetrated into the skin, but soak it with bath beans, plant ash, etc., it can still wash off a little."

"However, it will take a year or two to return to its original appearance."

Seeing Yuan Xi pressing her face, she quickly turned to her side and said, "Isn't it ugly?"

Yuan Xi shook his head and said, "No, it looks good inside and out."

Wu Zhao's face turned red again.

She hurriedly said: "Let's think about your unmarried wife.

"Have you noticed that every strategy of the third son kills two birds with one stone, and he will never suffer."

"I suspect that while destroying the marriage of the two families, he also wanted to blackmail the Zhen family."

Yuan Xi thought about it carefully, and agreed: "What you said is really possible."

The Zhen family doesn't have a hereditary title, so what is there to calculate?
Could it be that he has taken a fancy to Zhen Mi?
It's possible!
Immediately, Yuan Xi became suspicious again, the daughter of the Zhen family would not be a concubine, and Yuan Shang already had a regular wife, what else could he do?
He vaguely felt that there was something he hadn't figured out, but it was impossible for Yuan Shang to let the wind out.

As for Yuan Shao, Mrs. Liu and Yuan Shang were always talking about it, so I'm afraid he already had preconceived notions. If he wanted to convince Yuan Shao, he still needed to know the truth of the matter in advance.

Thinking of this, he said to Wu Zhao, "Let's go to Zhen's house."

Wu Zhao was taken aback: "Now?"

"Now."

Inside the Zhen family's mansion, Zhen Mi was sitting in front of the window on the second floor of the small building. Through the window, she could see seven or eight soldiers guarding the gate of Zhen's mansion.

She looked sideways at Zhen Rong, who was in a daze beside her, and sighed in her heart.

Zhen Rong's personality is usually eccentric and lively, but today he has been hit continuously, but he has become like this.

Her husband died, and she was also accused of seducing the Yuan family's son. If Yuan Shao didn't care about the reputation among the nobles, the Zhen family would have been implicated in the crime.

After mother Zhang found out what had happened, she severely scolded Zhen Rong. Now Zhen Rong is like a living dead, out of her mind.

Zhen Mi couldn't help comforting her and said, "Sister, the matter may not be that bad, and the news about brother-in-law is just the words of Third Young Master Yuan."

Zhen Rong came back to his senses, shook his head and said, "Little sister, don't comfort me, why is the leading general missing for no reason?"

"It's fine if you die in battle, but if you surrender to the enemy, the Zhen family will also be implicated."

"Oh, I forgot, I have already dragged the Zhen family into the water."

Seeing that Zhen Rong started talking nonsense, Zhen Mi was about to comfort her when she saw a carriage approaching on the street and stopped at the gate of Zhen's residence.

(End of this chapter)