I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 312 What is the Eldest Son?

Similar to Yuan Shao, Yuan Ji was very unhappy with everything he encountered when he returned to Luoyang.

As the eldest son of the Yuan family, he had never been reduced to a background figure like this.

When he was in Runan, even though he was not yet an adult and had not yet officially entered the official career, he already had a very virtuous reputation. Countless people lined up every day to meet him and get to know him.

In order to get a chance to meet him, some people even quarreled and fought with each other, and blood was even seen.

Regardless of whether they are officials or not, as long as they can see him, they will all put on a very respectful attitude and no one dares to show off in front of him.

From childhood to adulthood, he always felt that he was at the center of the stage, with the lights focused on him, making him extremely shining and respected by everyone.

There is no other reason.

Who made me the eldest son of Yuan Feng, the head of the next generation of the Runan Yuan family?

So even though Yuan Shu had shown extraordinary abilities when he was young, he didn't take Yuan Shu seriously. He just found it funny to watch Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu fighting every day.

However, I don't know when this situation changed.

Yuan Shu became more and more powerful and famous under Ma Rong in Guanxi. He even founded his own doctrine and school. He became a classics teacher at the age of twelve, and had thousands of disciples following him. In the end, he simply took over Ma Rong's academic heritage and became a famous scholar in the Han Dynasty.

Yuan Ji was still waiting to inherit the family business and become the next leader of the group of Yuan's disciples and former officials, so why did Yuan Shu take a different approach and establish his own sect?
At that time, Yuan Ji did not feel any sense of crisis, he just found it unbelievable and didn't know whether it was true or false.

But later, he vaguely heard some rumors that Yuan Feng was considering deposing the eldest son and enthroning the youngest son. This made him a little nervous, but he did not believe it immediately. He felt that Yuan Feng was a person who followed the rules and cared about them so much that he would not break the rules on his own initiative.

However, Yuan Feng wrote him a letter at that time, in which the content was about Yuan Shu's intention to establish another Yuan clan sect in Youfufeng. He also clearly stated in the letter that Yuan Shu refused to depose the eldest son and enthrone the youngest son, which was equivalent to a heavy blow to Yuan Ji.

It seems like dad has really thought about deposing the eldest son and enthroning the youngest son!
In other words, Yuan Shu refused. If Yuan Shu agreed, wouldn't his status as the natural heir be in jeopardy?

He clearly remembered that Yuan Feng had said many times that deposing the eldest son and enthroning the youngest son was a way to bring disaster, and had criticized rule-breaking behavior many times. He was clearly a staunch conservative. How could he suddenly change his mind and become a radical?
This is unscientific!
But despite this, if Yuan Shu wants to set up his own sect, then according to Yuan Feng's intention, a considerable portion of family resources from Runan should be allocated to Yuan Shu to help Yuan Shu gain a foothold and give Yuan Shu the same status as the future Yuan Ji.

Both of them are the leaders of a branch of the Yuan clan and have equal status.

This series of events had a severe impact on Yuan Ji. It made him realize for the first time that the identity of the eldest son was not completely reliable and stable. As long as his younger brothers were really outstanding, there would inevitably be a crisis of deposing the eldest son and enthroning the younger one.

Moreover, such a crisis had actually already occurred. He had already been defeated. If Yuan Shu had not actively refused, Yuan Ji would have lost his right of inheritance.

This……

Isn't this right?

For a long time afterwards, Yuan Ji was in confusion, hesitation and fear, and he would often feel uneasy, worrying that the situation would change again and he would completely lose his inheritance rights.

It's true that what you fear will come true.

After Yuan Feng and Yuan Shu launched a military coup to fight against the eunuchs, they successfully seized the Luoyang regime. The Yuan family was suddenly upgraded from a high-ranking bureaucratic family to a powerful official family. They actually controlled the power of the world, completed the task of deposing and enthroning emperors, and their prestige soared.

When Yuan Ji first received the news, he felt a little excited. He was excited to think about the future when Yuan Feng would pass the position to him after taking power. He even felt a little happy.

But it only lasted for a moment, and this feeling of excitement and happiness was swallowed up by boundless panic.

Because this mutiny was carried out by Yuan Feng and Yuan Shu together, and had nothing to do with him, and given Yuan Feng's preference for Yuan Shu, he was very worried that this incident would change the pattern of his succession.

He was extremely anxious and sent people to Luoyang many times to inquire about the news. Then, not long ago, he learned a piece of news that made him devastated.

Yuan Feng seemed to have decided to pass on his ruling position to Yuan Shu.

This matter has never been officially announced, but it has become an open secret in Luoyang, and almost all participants in the Yuan regime know about it.

Because Yuan Feng had said more than once that he would hand over the ruling position to Yuan Shu in the future. He believed that only Yuan Shu could lead the Yuan regime to glory, while his other sons could not.

As a result, a considerable number of Yuan's students and former officials chose to get closer to Yuan Shu, including some old friends who had had some dealings with Yuan Ji.

Yuan Ji's defense was immediately broken.

He gnashed his teeth and asked about the authenticity of the matter. He said he couldn't believe it was true. How could such a rebellious thing as deposing the eldest son and enthroning the youngest son be possible?

He is the eldest son! The eldest son!

He was born as the eldest son and heir of Yuan Feng!
Yuan Shu was only the second son, how could he replace him as the heir?

Yuan Feng’s status and everything should belong to him!
The effort he had put into cultivating his character over the years completely collapsed in that instant. He did not sleep the night he heard the news. The next morning, his wife woke up and exclaimed because Yuan Ji's eyes had turned red from staying up late. However, even if he turned his eyes into Sharingan, it would be useless.

Because according to the news, Yuan Shu's power in Luoyang is constantly growing, Yuan Feng has already assigned some important positions in the court to Yuan Shu, and Yuan Shu has placed many of his confidants into the court.

This means that Yuan Feng has actually begun to train Yuan Shu, and Yuan Shu has also begun to prepare for taking over in the future.

Everything he did was without any consideration for his brother Yuan Ji!
How could Yuan Ji not be furious?
He almost immediately wanted to go to Luoyang and loudly question his father in front of him - do you understand the value of the three words "eldest son"? !

If you don’t understand, you can go back to the Runan clan and ask everyone in the family to see if they also don’t understand what the three words “eldest son” mean!
But he was not in Luoyang at that time. He had work to do and could not leave without permission.

Fortunately, Yuan Shu was getting married, and Yuan Feng wrote a letter asking Yuan Ji to come back to celebrate Yuan Shu's wedding. Taking this opportunity, Yuan Ji hurried back to Luoyang, wanting to talk to Yuan Feng about this matter and try to make Yuan Feng realize his mistake.

However, the scene of his meeting with Yuan Feng and his son was very dull. There was not the excitement of reunion as he had imagined. Yuan Feng was still handling government affairs in the Shangshu Tai at that time. He just smiled at Yuan Ji and asked him to go back to Yuan Mansion to rest, or go find Yuan Shu and help Yuan Shu.

Yuan Ji had a lot to say but had no place to say it.

He wanted to say something, he wanted to confide, he wanted to protect his own interests, but in front of Yuan Feng, thousands of words turned into cholesterol and were swallowed by him.

He didn't dare argue with Yuan Feng.

He was afraid of making Yuan Feng angry.

So he could only leave the palace in shame.

What made him even more angry was yet to come.

No matter what he said, he is still the eldest son of the Yuan family, right?
At least there should be some appearance, right?
When people heard the news that he had returned to Luoyang, someone would come to curry favor with him and pay him a visit, right?

At least someone should come with gifts and visiting cards to try to get an audience with him, right?
Indeed, there were some, but they were all insignificant little people. No truly important figures had appeared since he returned to Luoyang, which made him feel as if he had been abandoned by the entire power class in Luoyang.

If the previous incident could be considered an accident because the news of his return had not yet spread, then at today's wedding, he made a formal and shining appearance and helped Yuan Shu deal with some procedures!

So many court officials and powerful figures came to the wedding, and they knew he was singing, but he didn't get much attention. He even had to take the initiative to find others to drink with, and few people came to him to drink or talk.

The panic, worry and dissatisfaction in his heart have gradually risen to a point that makes him unable to sleep or eat. He has realized that he must do something. If he can't do anything, he is afraid that he will really lose the possibility of becoming the head of the Yuan family.

All this fell into Yuan Shao's eyes, making him quite satisfied.

There was a big age gap between Yuan Shu and Yuan Ji, and Yuan Shu left the clan very early and had never interacted with Yuan Ji on a deep level, so naturally he didn't know his brother very well. But Yuan Shao was different. Yuan Shao had followed Yuan Ji for a long time when he was a child.

He knew very well that although his brother had mediocre abilities and qualifications and seemed to be nothing special in any way, his high self-esteem was very prominent, and he attached more importance to his position at the center of the stage than Yuan Shao did.

Although his family believed that Yuan Ji should cultivate his character and stay out of trouble, Yuan Ji did so. However, he was the absolute central figure in his own circle and never allowed other central figures to appear in his circle.

Yuan Shao therefore concluded that Yuan Ji would absolutely not tolerate the possibility of him losing his position as the head of the Yuan family.

Coincidentally, Yuan Shao was not very satisfied with the result that Yuan Shu became the heir, and his previous encounter with Cao Cao in the Luoyang Gold Market made him more determined in this idea.

He was filled with envy and jealousy, and felt the flames burning his whole body, causing him unbearable pain. He really couldn't persuade himself to lie down.

Since you can't lie flat, then struggle.

Even if you fail in the end, you can still convince yourself and make yourself feel better.

Before that, he wanted to pursue the possibility of surpassing Yuan Shu by any means necessary.

He did not have any particular obsession with being the head of the family. What he pursued was to surpass Yuan Shu, overwhelm Yuan Shu, and make Yuan Shu someone that people looked up to him.

On this point, his goals were the same as Yuan Ji's, and there was almost no conflict between the two.

Yuan Shao wanted to overwhelm Yuan Shu, and Yuan Ji wanted to overthrow Yuan Shu and obtain the position of head of the family, so as long as the two of them joined hands, Yuan Ji would be the head of the family in the future, and it would not be impossible for Yuan Shao to continue to be a wealthy and noble young man.

In a word.

It doesn’t matter whether Yuan Ji is the head of the family or not.

It is very important that Yuan Shu cannot become the head of the family!
This is the case for Yuan Shao.

But for Yuan Ji, this matter is not as simple as Yuan Shao imagined.

(End of this chapter)