Can I get to the other side?.

Chapter 282 Yuan Shao: Yuan Hao, I was wrong!
"Your Majesty, do you want to reward Ma Chao?" Jia Xu asked Liu Xie.

Han Sui joined forces with Tian Feng to rebel, but both of them were killed by Ma Chao. Although the truth of this news remains to be discussed, a response must be given now.

One is a general who commands 50,000 Xiliang troops.

One is Yuan Shao's confidant and the remnant of the traitor.

Ma Chao's killing of these two men was undoubtedly a great achievement. It would be unreasonable if such a great achievement was not rewarded.

"Of course there will be a reward."

Liu Xie had already made a plan in mind. Hearing this, he instructed Guo Jia, "Draft an edict for me. Ma Chao, the son of Marquis Huaili, has made great contributions in eradicating the rebels. Order him to come to Yecheng as soon as possible to receive his reward."

"I want to see whether he will come or not!"

The best way to verify whether Ma Chao has other thoughts is to see whether he dares to come to Yecheng. If he doesn't even dare to come to accept the reward, then there must be a problem.

But in addition to this, he also had to secretly send people to find out what happened in Guanzhong and whether it was the same as what Ma Chao said in the memorial.

"Your Majesty is wise!"

Guo Jia bowed and accepted the order.

Whether Han Sui rebelled is only Ma Chao's one-sided statement, and the details are still unknown.

It would be unwise to reward Ma Chao directly without any hesitation.

The best way at the moment is to let Ma Chao come to Yecheng to receive the reward.

Liu Xie looked at the two heads again, thought for a moment, called Gao Lan over, and instructed again: "Keep Han Sui's head for now, and as for Tian Feng's head, give it to the Minister of Works, and have him bring it to see Yuan Shao in person."

"promise!"

Gao Lan clasped his fists in agreement, then left the Xuanshi Hall with the heads of Han Sui and Tian Feng.

Jia Xu then said, "Your Majesty, since we accepted those hundreds of thousands of refugees, refugees from other counties have also been gathering in Wei County."

"Should we accept these refugees or not?"

Years of war had caused the number of refugees to increase dramatically. When refugees from other counties learned that the emperor was accepting and settling refugees and providing them with food, they all flocked to Wei County.

Although their number is not as large as that of the refugees of the Black Mountain Army, it is still a big number. If we accept all of them, it would be a bit stressful to resettle them.

"All accepted."

Liu Xie answered without hesitation, his attitude was very clear, "I pardoned and resettled the rebellious Black Mountain Army, but ignored the ordinary refugees. Isn't that forcing them to rebel?"

"Besides, the money and food donated by the major families this time are sufficient. There is no reason not to accept these people. As long as they can get through this winter, they will be fine."

"All these people will be used as work-for-relief!"

There is food in hand and no panic in mind.

The supplies Liu Xie squeezed from the major families this time were more than enough to settle the refugees. Besides, these were all laborers, so why not take them?
Jia Xu nodded, then withdrew with Guo Jia.

……

Bei Ya, dungeon.

Yuan Shao leaned against the wall with a haggard look. His legs were broken, his eye sockets were sunken, his expression was numb, and he was almost unrecognizable.

There is absolutely no trace of her former elegance.

Witnessing the beheading of Yuan family members that day was an enormous blow to him. After cursing and crying like crazy for the first few days, he eventually became silent, not uttering a word all day, like a walking corpse.

"Squeak-"

There was the sound of the cell door opening.

Yuan Shao raised his eyelids and saw Yuan Xi walking into the cell, looking down at him with a cold and condescending expression.

Seeing Yuan Xi, Yuan Shao, who was originally listless, suddenly burst into incomparable anger and cursed: "Evil beast! How dare you come to see me!"

Because he hadn't spoken for such a long time, his voice had become particularly hoarse and hard, as unpleasant as the howl of a night crow.

But the hatred in his eyes seemed real!

He wanted to rush up and strangle Yuan Xi to death immediately, but his legs were broken and he couldn't do that at all, so he could only curse.

"You traded the lives of our entire Yuan family for your own future! You sold out your family for fame! You evil beast, I will kill you!"

Hearing Yuan Shao's angry curse, Yuan Xi's originally indifferent face suddenly showed anger. He stepped forward, grabbed Yuan Shao by the collar and slapped him hard!

"Old man! Shut up!"

Yuan Xi's expression was ferocious, and he roared in anger: "If you hadn't refused to repent and even made irresponsible remarks in the court, how could His Majesty have exterminated my Yuan family!"

"One thousand and thirty-seven people! A total of one thousand and thirty-seven people!"

"For your ridiculous dignity and face, as well as your ambition to make a comeback, you let my entire Yuan family be buried with you!"

"You are the one who deserves to die the most!"

Yuan Xi didn't want to pay any attention to Yuan Shao, but Yuan Shao's words directly brought out the anger buried in his heart.

"Sikong! Sikong, calm down!"

"Don't do it, Sikong!"

The jailer who came with Yuan Xi was horrified when he saw this, and hurried forward to pull the two men apart, fearing that Yuan Shao would die at the hands of Yuan Xi.

After all, the emperor had ordered that Yuan Shao's life should be spared for future use as a sacrifice. If he was strangled to death by Yuan Xi now, they would not be able to report to their superiors.

"Cough-cough-"

Yuan Shao started to cough violently, with blood oozing from the corners of his mouth. He stared at Yuan Xi with a resentful look and said, "All I did was to make the Yuan family more prosperous!"

"If Liu Xie hadn't used you to give him a chance to escape, how could I have failed? The reason why he was able to gradually erode my foundation and expand his power was all because you coveted the throne!"

"Now that my entire Yuan family is extinct, he gave you a position as a high official like giving a bone to a dog, and you are actually grateful?"

"What a good dog! Hahaha!"

Yuan Shao laughed at Yuan Xi and ridiculed him mercilessly, but beneath his laughter was an unconcealable resentment.

He did regret why he had insisted on not surrendering, but now that the dust had settled, it was useless for him to regret.

So he transferred all the hatred in his heart to the ruthless Liu Xie and Yuan Xi, who was willing to be Liu Xie's running dog!
Yuan Xi clenched his fists tightly. He looked at Yuan Shao, who was lying on the ground with a crazy expression. He endured it again and again in his heart, and finally suppressed his murderous intent.

Then he took the wooden box from the jailer beside him, threw it in front of Yuan Shao, and said expressionlessly: "Old man, this is a gift that His Majesty asked me to bring you!"

Seeing the wooden box in front of him, Yuan Shao couldn't help but sneer, "What? He wants you to kill your father and take my head back with you?"

"If you want to do it, do it now! If you frown, I'm not your father!"

Seeing that he was not going to open the box, Yuan Xi sneered and kicked the box, and the things inside immediately rolled out.

It was a bloody head. The head rolled in front of Yuan Shao, and the pair of eyes, which were full of reluctance and despair but had long lost their spirit, just happened to look at him.

Yuan Shao looked at this familiar face, his pupils shrank instantly, and an expression of disbelief gradually spread across his cheeks.

"Yuan...Hao?"

Yuan Shao's mind went blank. He wondered if he was hallucinating. He reached out his trembling hands to pick up the head.

The cold, stiff, yet real touch coming from his fingertips made his heart skip a beat. He retracted his hand as if he had been electrocuted, and his head fell to the ground.

This is exactly Tian Feng’s head!

Yuan Xi said coldly: "The traitor Tian Feng tried to persuade Ma Chao and Han Sui to rebel, but was beheaded on the spot by Ma Chao."

"He could have survived, but because of his loyalty to you, he chose to continue leading the remnants to fight stubbornly, and ended up with a death without a complete body!"

"Soon, His Majesty will send a large army to attack Bingzhou and wipe out all the remnants in one fell swoop. Your dream of making a comeback will end here!"

Yuan Xi's cruel and cold words hit Yuan Shao's heart like a heavy hammer, and every word made his face paler!
"impossible!"

Yuan Shao suddenly flew into a rage and interrupted Yuan Xi, shouting, "This must be your trick! Yuan Hao is extremely intelligent, how could he be killed by that kid Ma Chao!"

"It's winter now, how could Liu Xie send troops to attack Bingzhou? Don't try to fool me!"

"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!"

Yuan Shao didn't believe what Yuan Xi said at all, and even pushed Tian Feng's head away, thinking that everything in front of him was just an illusion created to deceive him!
"Lie to you?"

Yuan Xi sneered when he heard this, "You are always so arrogant. Believe it or not, we will recover Bingzhou this winter!"

"When all your remnants are wiped out, you will be nailed to the Yuan family's pillar of shame and will not even be qualified to be included in the family tree! You will be cursed by the descendants of the Yuan family for generations to come!"

"And I will inherit everything from the Yuan family. The new Yuan family will start from me. I will never repeat your mistakes!"

Yuan Xi was full of hope for rebuilding the Yuan family.

Although he donated all of the Yuan family's property, the emperor still allowed him to keep the Yuan Mansion where he lived and some of the family property.

Since the news of the annihilation of the Yuan family and his promotion to the position of Sikong spread, there was an endless stream of disciples and former officials from all over the country coming to seek refuge with him, and the threshold of Yuan's mansion was almost broken down.

the reason is simple.

He is the only remaining direct descendant of the Yuan family. In addition, he is valued by the emperor, holds a high position as one of the Three Dukes, and has a reputation as a loyal minister.

In addition, the Yuan family was exterminated, and he was in need of people right now, so those disciples and former officials of the Yuan family chose to come and join him, either to repay the Yuan family or to find a way out for themselves.

The future of the Yuan family depends on him alone!
After saying this, Yuan Xi didn't even look at Yuan Shao again. He turned around and walked out of the cell, his figure disappearing into the dungeon.

Yuan Shao kept cursing hysterically until his throat was hoarse and he was exhausted, and he was forced to stop.

At this moment, his eyes fell on Tian Feng's head in the corner of the cell. A huge grief suddenly hit him like a tide. He struggled to crawl over, then held the head in his arms, crying bitterly.

Even though he said that Yuan Xi was lying to him, he and Tian Feng were together day and night, so how could he not recognize that this was Tian Feng?
Yuan Shao cried, "I was wrong, I was really wrong! I shouldn't have disobeyed you, Yuan Hao, and shouldn't have attacked Hejian County!"

"I'm sorry Yuan Hao, it's all my fault!"

Yuan Shao's tears fell like rain, sprinkling on Tian Feng's head, gradually softening his stiff expression, and the unwillingness in his eyes seemed to slowly dissipate.

He seemed to hear Yuan Shao admitting his mistake.

……

The days passed by.

With the joint efforts of the major families and the imperial court, the refugees were properly resettled. Women and children were sent to work in weaving workshops, while men helped with iron smelting and ore mining, using work as a form of relief.

This did not cause any resentment.

For those refugees, being able to survive was a rare thing. The imperial court gave them the opportunity to work in exchange for food, shelter, clothing, and firewood, so that they would not starve to death or freeze to death. What else could they ask for?
This is countless times better than the previous corvee labor.

Of course, the most important thing is that Liu Xie would go out of the palace from time to time to comfort the people, which deeply moved the people.

How could they not think of repaying the emperor when he treated them like this?
So everyone worked extra hard.

A large number of sweaters, trousers, weapons and equipment were produced continuously and then sent directly to the army to be equipped to the soldiers of each army.

The end of the year is approaching.

……

Imperial Palace, Tai'an Hall.

Liu Xie asked the ministers in the hall: "In three days, we will send troops to attack Bingzhou. How are the preparations for the war going?"

"Report everything to me."

Upon hearing this, Sima Yi was the first to step out and said, "Your Majesty, the logistics and food supplies have been dispatched and can support the army for two months!"

Although this war requires the use of thunderous means to capture Bingzhou, it cannot be delayed and will only take one month at most.

But to be on the safe side, he still prepared enough food and fodder to last the army for two months, and stored them separately to ensure that nothing could go wrong.

After Sima Yi finished speaking, Zhen Yi followed up and said, "Winter clothes such as sweaters and trousers have been supplied to all soldiers in the army."

"However, we are still short of several thousand sets of headgear, gloves, socks, etc., but the various weaving workshops are also working hard to make them, and they will be completed before the troops are dispatched!"

"In addition, weapons and equipment are also available!"

In just two months, Zhen Yi looked visibly more haggard, which shows how much effort he had put in during this short period of time.

If it were not for the large amount of labor support, working in shifts day and night to produce clothes and weapons, it would have been impossible to meet Liu Xie's requirements in such a short time.

Even so, the weapons and equipment provided to the 30,000 Black Mountain troops are one level lower than normal equipment.

It’s not that they are reluctant, but they don’t have enough time, so they can only choose to compromise quality in order to gain quantity - of course, this compromise in quality is relative.

The overall iron smelting technology has improved, so the equipment produced is still of high quality.

"very good!"

Liu Xie's eyes sparkled with brilliance. He slapped the armrest of the dragon throne heavily, not disguising his joy, and said with great energy, "Lü Bu, Zhang Liao, listen to my orders!"

"The general is here!"

Lu Bu and Zhang Liao stepped out.

Liu Xie gave the order in a fierce voice: "Decree, order Lü Bu to be the main general, Zhang Liao to be the deputy general, and Sima Yi to be the military advisor. They will lead a total of 50,000 troops and divide them into two groups to attack Bingzhou. Send out in three days!"

"Give me—"

"Destroy Jinyang City!"

(End of this chapter)