Three Kingdoms: Let Yuan Shen be great again

Chapter 52 The War Resumes, But Not With Me

Jiujiang Prefecture, Shouchun City, the legal capital of the Zhong clan.

To resolve his financial problems, Yuan Yao returned to the city after nearly a year.

He was immediately filled with emotion.

The last time Yuan Yao left was when Cao Cao sent Liu Bei to attack Huainan. At that time, everyone in Shouchun was terrified by the threat of war, and many people hurriedly fled with their families, making the place even more sparsely populated.

Looking back now, perhaps because there were no more battles afterward and Yuan Shu was no longer a bloodsucker, Shouchun actually rebounded from its lowest point and showed some rare vitality.

Of course, this is also partly due to the good governance of Chen Ji, the former prefect of Jiujiang, who did a good job of allowing the people to recuperate and thrive.

It's a pity that he has passed away; it's truly a great loss.

Oh, don't get me wrong, Chen Ji isn't dead. He didn't leave the network; he was just captured.

During the Battle of Huainan, Chen Ji remained inactive, attempting to observe from the sidelines and play both sides, which nearly caused problems for Cao Xing's northern army.

If Yuan Yao can tolerate this, he might produce several relics after his cremation.

So when launching the purge, Yuan Yao simultaneously sent someone to Shouchun to invite Chen Ji to a meeting in Wancheng.

Chen Ji was clearly reluctant to go, but after a series of persuasive tactics, including reasoning, appealing to emotions, threatening him, enticing him with benefits, and bringing him to justice, he still came despite his reluctance.

Then, naturally, he followed in Yuan Shu's footsteps and was crowned as a member of the "Lao" generation.

In fact, Yuan Yao really wanted to kill Chen Ji, but the other party was extremely cunning and never left any obvious fatal evidence.

If Yuan Yao had been replaced by someone else, given the prevailing customs of the late Eastern Han Dynasty, they might have even held their noses and praised Chen Ji, commending him for his meritorious defense of the territory.

Unfortunately, Lao Chen encountered Yuan Xiaojiang.

Do you think Yuan Xiaojiang will tolerate this kind of behavior from you?

If you don't want to eat oranges, then go eat some garlic!

During the entire cleanup operation, Yuan Yao arrested more than 600 people and killed more than 400. The chain reaction caused more than 300 people to flee with the buckets. Adding Chen Ji would not have been a problem at all.

However, considering that Chen Ji was ultimately the Prefect of Jiujiang, and that Yang Hong and others pleaded for him, saying that forcibly killing someone without sufficient reason might cause resentment throughout Jiujiang, Yuan Yao decided to show leniency and spare his life, allowing him to become Yuan Yao's cellmate in prison.

Therefore, even if it weren't for the gold coins of the powerful families in Jiujiang, just to stabilize the situation in Shouchun, Yuan Yao had to personally make a trip here to reassure the people.

In addition, Jiujiang County happens to be adjacent to Guangling County, so Yuan Yao's grand economic colonization plan needs to be laid in advance.

For the next month, Yuan Yao patiently oversaw the work in Shouchun.

I'm ashamed to say that I only did three minor tasks.

The first thing was to crack down on the local powerful families in Jiujiang.

Although Yuan Yao has basically stopped pretending now, he still has to follow the proper procedures. First, he gathers evidence of the crimes of the lawless powerful families, then he publicly announces their evil deeds, arrests them under the pretext of punishing the wicked, and finally holds a public trial to ensure the family's wealth. He is very skilled at the whole process.

If there is any difference, it is that Jiujiang is obviously much poorer than Lujiang. Yuan Yao took drastic measures and confiscated the property of eight powerful families, but he still felt that it was not enough.

It seems we need to find other solutions to the financial problems; relying solely on these useless powerful figures is ultimately not enough.

The second thing was to develop commercial trade with Guangling.

Initially, Chen Deng felt that he had already pledged allegiance to Cao Cao and was now under the banner of the Xuchang court, so he was unwilling to get involved with traitors like the Zhong family—unlike his previous threats against Sun Ce, this was something Cao Cao was willing to see.

However, Yuan Yao had Yang Hong's influence, and Mi Zhu, who was unaware of the truth, also came to persuade him, so Chen Deng had no choice but to relent and say that as long as it did not involve civilian transactions of weapons, he would not take the initiative to interfere, since he couldn't manage it anyway.

In this way, Yuan Yao's long-cherished plan for the textile industry can be officially launched.

The third thing was to start reorganizing the Huai River defense line.

This matter concerned the life and death of the Zhong family, so Yuan Yao attached great importance to it and personally went to the site for on-site investigation and research several times.

When Liu Bei led his army on a southern expedition last time, the Zhongshi army was in a state of panic, and the Huai River defense line collapsed at the first touch. Yuan Yao did not want that outcome to happen again.

It's important to understand that regardless of who wins or loses between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, once they've consolidated Hebei and the Central Plains, they'll definitely head south. At that time, this defensive line will be the key to whether or not they can stop them.

only……

After struggling for more than a month, Yuan Yao realized that he was making some progress, and these matters had all visibly encountered bottlenecks.

The Huai River defense line is a military issue; it's not something that can be solved simply by building some defensive fortifications with plaster. It can only be truly strengthened after military reforms have made some progress.

Military reforms require substantial financial and logistical support, so the textile industry must get back on track as soon as possible. According to the economic structure at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, weaving cloth was essentially equivalent to weaving money.

However, the powerful families in Jiujiang County were truly broke. After being ravaged by Yuan Shu for many years and suffering continuous disasters and chaos, the landlords could no longer spare any grain.

Yuan Yao was very unhappy about this, and he only regretted that there were no usurers during the Three Kingdoms period, otherwise he would have been able to revitalize the situation in Huainan long ago.

Actually, it did happen, but in the private sector, it was mainly the powerful and wealthy who were in charge, while in the government, it was the powerful and wealthy officials who secretly handled it. It had nothing to do with Yuan Yao.

With these feelings in mind, Yuan Yao had no choice but to temporarily end his tour of Jiujiang and set off back to Wancheng, trying to come up with another plan.

Just two days after arriving in Wancheng, he received a special letter that forced him to immediately summon his key officials to discuss the matter.

Yuan Yao: "Hua Xin sent a message saying that Sun Ce is mustering troops to attack his Yuzhang Commandery and hopes we can send troops to his aid. The letter is almost a plea. What do you think, let's discuss how to respond?"

Upon hearing this, everyone's eyes flickered, clearly indicating that they had different thoughts.

This is normal.

The main reason is that Hua Xin and Yuan Yao don't have much of a relationship, and everyone has just witnessed Sun Ce's strength. It wouldn't be worth it to fight the Jiangdong army head-on again for the sake of him.

Moreover, when Sun Ce attacked Huainan, Hua Xin showed no intention of helping the Zhong family. Now, however, he is begging Yuan Yao for help. Where does he get the nerve?

In the end, everyone gradually turned their attention to Yang Hong.

Of all the high-ranking members of the Zhong family, only Hua Xin is related to them. If even Yang Hong doesn't want to support Yuzhang County, then there's no point in discussing it further.

Seeing this, Yang Hong stepped forward and said, "Your Highness need not worry, this old minister has a way to support Yuzhang County."

"Speaking of which..."

Yang Hong spoke eloquently, explaining his proposed plan to support Hua Xin.

In the first phase, we declared that nothing was wrong and provided Hua Xin with all support except for substantial assistance.

In the second phase, we said that something might happen, but no action should be taken at the moment; we were simply expressing our high level of concern about the situation in Yuzhang.

In the third phase, when the situation changes further, we say that something may happen, but there is nothing we can do for the time being.

In the fourth stage, when the situation is beyond repair, perhaps we could have done something back then, but it will be too late now.

Everyone exclaimed: "As expected of you, Yang Changshi, the most despicable person in the world."

In general, even Yang Hong has expressed this opinion, so the Zhong family is indeed not very interested in supporting Yuzhang. Although no one wants to see Sun Ce become stronger, their own family is at a critical stage of reform, and there is no reason to interrupt this process for Hua Xin.

Until this period, when Yuan Yao was almost desperate for money, he asked a profound question:

"Do you think Yuzhang Prefecture is wealthy?"