Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1273 Rushing
Yuan Xi and Zhen Mi led Madam Wu to the Bronze Sparrow Tower. The three of them walked up hundreds of steps before they reached the platform.

The Bronze Sparrow Tower was built by Cao Cao after he conquered Ye City, in order to build momentum for his later ennoblement as Duke of Wei and King of Wei, and to manifest the Mandate of Heaven. Built together with the other three towers were the Golden Tiger Ice Well Tower, known as the Three Towers of Ye. Among them, the Bronze Sparrow Tower is the most spectacular. It is more than ten feet high, with hundreds of rooms, interconnected buildings, flying eaves and brackets, and is magnificent. It can be said to be an extremely huge project.

The base of this platform, which is more than ten meters high, was made of rammed earth. It took several years to build and wasted a lot of manpower and material resources. By the time Cao Cao lost Yecheng, only the Bronze Sparrow Tower among the three towers had been completed. The other two towers had only their foundations laid, and there was no financial support to continue their construction.

Yuan Xi could more or less understand Cao Cao's idea. Cao Cao obviously wanted to get rid of the influence of Xu Du and make Yecheng the capital of Wei. After all, this place belonged to Wei County, where the Wei State was located during the Spring and Autumn Period. It was also the place where Cao Wei manifested its destiny. Naturally, he had to build some wonders to echo it.

However, neither Cao Cao nor Yuan Xi had expected that due to various unexpected factors, the Wei army would collapse so quickly in Jizhou, so that when Cao Cao left Yecheng to use fire attack, he left too hastily and did not have time to completely destroy the three Bronze Sparrow Towers. He just set two fires, but the three Bronze Sparrow Towers were mostly made of earth and stones, and the fire was quickly extinguished, so they were preserved.

Afterwards, Yuan Xi had the house repaired a bit and it became habitable. He was not a rigid person, so he couldn't just tear down the platform.

The three of them had only walked around the Bronze Sparrow Tower for a short while when Madam Wu was already sweating a little. She looked up at the several seven- or eight-story towers several feet high in front of her, with flying bridges connecting them. She couldn't help but exclaim, "Too luxurious. The aristocrats in Jiangdong like to build tall buildings, but none of them are as luxurious as this tower."

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "Really?"

"Compared to our mansion in Jicheng, we are just bumpkins coming to the city."

This made the two girls laugh. Zhen Mi said, "Your Majesty's ancestors were all dukes for four generations. If you want to talk about country bumpkins, then our family has all gone to the dirt."

Yuan Xi looked at the streets of Yecheng below the platform and sighed, "So what? We almost wiped out our clan."

"This world is actually very cruel. If you make a mistake, you may be doomed forever."

"Cao Cao's experience tells me that people should always be prepared for danger and not get carried away, otherwise they will be taught a lesson by reality."

"When I first entered the city, I saw the luxurious appearance of the Bronze Sparrow Tower and wanted to tear it down, but I gave up because I thought it would cost more manpower and resources."

"But I also use this to warn myself not to be blinded by extravagant life and lead to defeat. The lesson of Cao Wei is still before our eyes."

As the three of them were talking, they came up to the double-story building. They saw a red wall surrounding it and bluestone paved inside. There was a stone well in the distance and two women were struggling to turn the windlass to draw water from the well.

As Yuan Xi and his two companions approached, Zhen and Wu realized that it was Xiao Qiao and Da Qiao, and they could not help but greet them. Xiao Qiao nodded in return and said, "Please forgive me, Madam. It is difficult to draw this barrel of water. I will greet you after I draw it."

It took them a whole cup of tea to finally get the bucket up. Then they turned the machine to jam the rope, and then they struggled to move the bucket out.

The two men came over to greet each other with sweat on their foreheads. After Mrs. Wu returned the greeting, she said, "Is this well very deep?"

Xiao Qiao pouted and said, "More than that, the Bronze Sparrow Tower is high and the scenery is indeed beautiful, but the water used is underground well water, and it is very inconvenient to draw water."

"The platform is already ten feet high, plus the height of the underground well water, it will take more than ten feet to pump the water up."

"Fetching water every day is exhausting."

Madam Wu knew that Yuan Xi's mansion had far fewer maids than those of ordinary families, and each lady had to do what she could, including fetching water and cleaning. If this happened in other families, people would definitely laugh at her, but Yuan Xi was now in a high position and powerful, so other noble families dared not criticize him, and some even followed suit.

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "This is great. Water fetching and exercise, and more activity every day are good for the body."

Da Qiao replied, "Your Majesty is right. In the past few years, my sister and I occasionally got sick, but we haven't been sick in the past two years. Mr. Yuanhua's health regimen is still very useful."

Xiao Qiao said angrily, "This Bronze Sparrow Tower is just Cao Cao looking for trouble. He doesn't have to fetch water himself, so he's naturally happy. I'm afraid it would take a lot of manpower every day just to fetch water!"

Everyone laughed when they saw Xiao Qiao's innocent look. Yuan Xi pointed to the two cloud bridges in the distance that connected the tall buildings and said, "You know what, maybe Cao Cao built the Bronze Sparrow Tower because he coveted you two."

Zhen Mi was surprised and asked, "What's the logic behind this?"

Yuan Xi said seriously: "Have you ever heard of the Tongque Tower Fu written by Cao Cao?"

Seeing the ladies nod, Yuan Xi held back his laughter. "There are two lines in it, 'Lembracing the two bridges in the east and west, like clouds in the sky'. It's obvious that Cao Cao coveted the beauty of the two ladies and built this Bronze Sparrow Tower thinking about them day and night."

Everyone couldn't help laughing in unison. Da Qiao covered her face and Xiao Qiao stamped her feet in anger, "Your Majesty, you are such a powerful person, yet you still make fun of me!"

"What the hell! If I ever meet Cao Cao, I'll dig a hole in the ground and then throw a bucket of water at him!"

Only then did she remember that Cao Cao had passed away, and she still said bitterly, "The thief Cao is dead, and the whole world is celebrating. In the end, the Bronze Sparrow Tower has been given to the king for nothing, hehehe."

Yuan Xi sighed, "The three high platforms were probably built with the lives of thousands of people. They are not places to stay for long. The wind and rain will always blow them away. Even a high platform will eventually collapse one day."

"Only by keeping our feet on the ground and being close to the people can we sleep peacefully and allow the dynasty to survive longer. Moreover, once the world is pacified, the location of Yecheng will lose its strategic significance."

Everyone knew that Yuan Xi meant that Yecheng would not become the capital in the future. Zhen Mi said, "Jicheng is indeed important, but the barbarians outside the pass will not give up." Yuan Xi replied, "The emperor guards the country's gates. If the country is lost, there is no need for the emperor to exist."

"I will pacify Wei and Wu as soon as possible, and then find a way to resolve the hidden dangers outside the Great Wall in my lifetime."

He turned to Xiao Qiao and Da Qiao, "But before that, your return to Wankou to worship your father will be delayed. There will be a war in Wankou soon, and it is not safe for you to go, so you should stay in Yecheng for a while."

Da Qiao whispered, "Is my husband going to Jianghuai?"

Yuan Xi nodded and said, "Now that Madam Wu is back, I feel relieved. We will leave in a few days."

Madam Wu showed a look of disappointment on her face. "I didn't do a good job this time. I didn't expect that he would be so heartless."

Xiao Qiao had also heard the news before and said indignantly: "He is indeed a ruthless person. How could he kill his own mother?"

Seeing that Madam Wu looked even more unhappy, Yuan Xi comforted her: "In order to fight for the world, sometimes you have to give up a lot of things."

"But I have always believed that the emperor also has human nature. Otherwise, if he doesn't even love his own family, how can he love the common people?"

"Sun Quan has gone astray. I will wake him up."

Madam Wu felt relieved. She told her about the situation at Wankou and said, "When I left, the Wu army's offensive was not fierce. On the one hand, Governor Lu responded well. On the other hand, I heard that the offensive of Hannan was extremely fierce. Both sides suffered heavy casualties. Corpses floated in the river day and night, and most of the river water even turned red."

"In contrast, the Wu army in Wankou has hardly taken the initiative to launch a few decent attacks. This has something to do with the fact that the king's naval commanders are Lu Zijing and Jiang Gongyi, and Governor Lu did not force them to attack."

Yuan Xi nodded and said, "This is my instruction. Their family is still in Jiangdong and they are said to be not doing well. I don't want to push Sun Quan too much and make him do something that would hurt their family."

"My real main attack direction is Jiangxia and Danyang. Wei Yan and Huang Zhong are already in place, but they have not yet launched their attack."

"Now the time is almost ripe. I will send a letter now and ask them to cooperate with Lord Xuande to launch a full-scale attack on the State of Wu."

"I will go south to Shouchun the day after tomorrow. You can wait here with peace of mind. There are many things to do in Yecheng. If you are free, you can help the queen with domestic affairs."

After hearing this, Mrs. Wu and the two Qiao sisters stood up quickly to answer. Although they knew that Yuan Xi was leaving again, they were not as worried as before. This was because Yuan Xi had always returned victorious over the years, which made them, who were initially nervous, take it for granted.

A few days later, it was the day of departure. Yuan Xi left Yecheng, entered the Yellow River by water, and then went to Shouchun by sea.

At that time, Hannan and Wu had already gone to war. Sun Quan mobilized the entire country to recruit soldiers from Danyang and sent almost all the captured Shanyue people to the battlefield. Yan Jun, Kan Ze and others advised against it, saying that if the Shanyue people were pushed too hard, chaos would easily occur. However, given the current situation of Wu, it was unable to send extra troops to quell the rebellion.

Sun Quan was sitting in the court, and seeing the ministers talking about it, he couldn't help but feel annoyed and said angrily: "At this time, how can I care about the Shanyue people?"

"I want to ask you, why can't I defeat Liu Bei even though I sent 20,000 reinforcements?"

Everyone thought to themselves, isn't this obvious? Isn't it because you, the king, hired someone to assassinate Zhang Fei?

In fact, even some officials in Jiangdong felt that this was not a decent thing to do. The people in Jiangdong were very fond of false surrenders, such as Huang Gai in the past and Zhu Ran in the later period. However, this kind of behavior was rare in the Central Plains, because not many people would betray their leader, and it would also be subject to many doubts.

This is also why Zhang Fei fell into the trap in the first place. Although his arrogance was indeed a reason, he did not expect that the State of Wu would go back on its word and openly assassinate him.

Liu Bei could not swallow this humiliation. It was okay to lose the battle on the battlefield, but since the State of Wu did not care, he would help the State of Wu to care.

While the ministers were discussing the matter, urgent news came from outside the palace. A spy rushed up and reported: "My king, the Shanyue have rebelled!"

Sun Quan initially didn't take it seriously, "They rebel every year, what kind of trouble can they cause?"

The spy reported: "Dozens of locations rebelled at the same time!"

"Moreover, tens of thousands of Jin troops are attacking the border of Wu from Wu County in the east and have already reached Danyang!"

"What!" Everyone was shocked. A lot of the border between Wu County and Wu State was mountainous, making it difficult to travel. Therefore, Wu State did not make too many defenses, but instead placed them all in the Yangtze River area. Now the other side actually chose to attack from the mountains?
At the same time, Yuan Xi's fleet did not go to Shouchun, but went directly to Guangling. Its route of advance was temporarily changed from the Huai River to the Yangtze River, in an attempt to reach Wujun as quickly as possible.

Bu Zhi, who had come to greet him, was puzzled and asked, "Why is the king in such a hurry?"

"Is the war going badly in the south?"

Yuan Xi sighed, "No, I'm afraid if I don't hurry over there, the Wu Kingdom will be destroyed."

(End of this chapter)