I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 323 One Shot, Five Blows: Yuan Zijia
After assigning Cheng Li a new task, Yuan Shu saw Cheng Li off and then stayed in the study for a while.

To be honest, although he knew that Yuan Ji might cause trouble while he was away from Luoyang and might even recruit some disgusting people to embarrass him, he really lacked effective means to prevent this from happening, apart from maintaining communication with Yuan Feng.

Unless he stays in Luoyang the whole time.

But if that's the case, how can we talk about making great achievements and gaining supreme prestige?

Therefore, he also has to face some seemingly difficult challenges.

However, he was not entirely without confidence.

In fact, he believes that regarding the matter of Yuan Feng's successor, many people inside and outside Luoyang City, including Yuan Shao and Yuan Ji, have a misunderstanding about one key point.

In other words, Yuan Feng would still consider the primogeniture system when choosing an heir.

Therefore, some people habitually have certain expectations of Yuan Jihuai from the perspective of a minister's family. Thus, although Yuan Shu was on the surface recognized by Yuan Feng and could inherit Yuan Feng's power, in reality, his position was not stable.

However, the situation was not so simple, because Yuan Feng and other leaders of the Yuan clan would certainly have considered another factor.

The Yuan family was no longer a simple Han Chinese official family; they wielded power far exceeding that of ordinary officials and faced enormous challenges and threats.

With the threat of the Han emperor above and the covetousness of some aristocratic families below, and with Yuan Fengnian already advanced in years, if the issue of succession is not handled properly, the Yuan family will face the great danger of extinction.

Therefore, compared to the primogeniture system that does not consider ability, the situation faced by the Yuan family would place higher demands on the ability of the heir.

The current situation of the Yuan family, as powerful officials, is not entirely the same as that of many prominent families in the past, which is a very delicate point.

Yuan Feng and Yuan Wei have realized this, so for the safety of the entire family, they will inevitably choose the more capable person to become the successor and control the situation, thereby ensuring the safety of the entire Yuan clan.

However, not everyone is able to realize this in time.

After all, the Yuan family is currently just powerful ministers; they haven't even formally established their status institutionally, nor have they built a new system.

They now rely solely on their achievements in eliminating the eunuchs, their high prestige, and their control over the military to maintain their control over the court, and in reality, they pose no threat to the Han Empire's system.

This presents an opportunity for others.

For the Yuan family, this was a matter of life and death.

Yuan Shao and Yuan Ji did not spend a long time in Luoyang City, nor did they personally experience the series of major changes that led to Yuan Feng and Yuan Shu's deadly struggle against the eunuch group and their control of power. Naturally, they could not deeply understand the current situation of the Yuan family.

Anyone who understands this would not easily associate with those who try to overthrow Yuan Shu's position as heir.

Of course, this is just Yuan Shu thinking in the best possible direction.

Throughout history, there have been many people who dug their own graves, and even more who disregarded their own future for immediate gains. Expecting Yuan Shao and Yuan Ji to consider this matter from the perspective of the entire family is like hoping a sow will fly.

Anyway, he had never had a pleasant relationship with these two elder brothers, and he was practically an enemy of Yuan Shao. So, in the end, he just wanted to save their lives and prevent any situation from arising where "Li Yuan had no eldest son and the two Fengs had no elder brother."

For some time afterward, Yuan Shu continued his monotonous lifestyle while strictly adhering to the first rule of the Yuan family, working diligently both to meet Yuan Feng's requirements as soon as possible and to better appease the five beauties.

Although he felt tired from time to time, he found this kind of life quite enjoyable in terms of spirit.

Cheng Li also strictly followed Yuan Shu's instructions, secretly sending many people to keep an eye on the party members in Luoyang City, to spy on their conversations, search for their network of relationships, and compile them into a book, which was updated for Yuan Shu every ten days to let him know exactly how many scheming people were coveting him.

To be honest, Yuan Shu felt somewhat gratified that Liu Biao and Xia Fu were never on this list. It seemed that the two of them had already distanced themselves from certain fanatical party members, and instead would occasionally come to Yuan Shu to chat and drink, reminisce about the past, and incidentally bring Yuan Shu some wine and meat to reward the troops.

It seems that these two have decided to stand with Yuan Shu.

The army's training continued, and the appearance of the 30,000-strong Tianxiong Army was different from before. They had become more disciplined and solemn, and were beginning to show signs of obeying orders. This made Yuan Shu very happy.

Of course, what pleased Yuan Shu most was that the large-scale rollout of Liangzhuang had begun, with the first targets being Dongjun, Jiyinjun, Peiguo, Liangguo, and Pengchengguo, which he had previously fought in. These five commanderies and kingdoms had not only undergone the purge of the eunuch clique but also the more thorough purge through war and military action, leaving a particularly clear local power niche. Therefore, Yuan Shu seized this opportunity and, upon returning to Luoyang, directly dispatched people from the Luoyang headquarters to survey the land area, population, and other conditions.

Finally, Yuan Shu easily established the influence of Yixin Hui Liangzhi Farm in these five prefectures, filling the ecological niches lost in the previous wars and becoming an indispensable force in these five prefectures.

The expansion plan for the sixty-six good villages included fifteen of these five prefectures, with three allocated to each prefecture. The aim was to acquire land and farmers on a large scale, concentrate them for grain production and military training, and lay the foundation for future major undertakings.

To this end, Yuan Shu also poured money into it on a large scale, with the same amount of money invested as he invested in building the army. Most of the wealth acquired in the previous wars was invested in these local prefectures and kingdoms and used for all aspects of building Liangzhuang.

Purchasing building materials, recruiting workers, storing grain, leveling land, digging drainage ditches, and repairing water conservancy projects—each of these requires money.

Therefore, Yuan Shu selected five men from the Thirteen Protectors who had not joined the army and sent them to these five prefectures and kingdoms to take full responsibility for this construction project.

In short, we must simultaneously build up the military and develop the country; we must grasp both aspects firmly.

Since so much wealth has been acquired from previous wars and there's no other use for it in the short term, using it for these things to stimulate the economic cycle is, in a sense, a good thing.

Time passed quickly, bit by bit, never to return. Yuan Shu spent more than four months in a fulfilling and busy schedule. During those four months, he devoted himself to completing many important tasks.

Leaving aside the matters concerning the army and Liangzhuang, it was only natural that he further recruited members of the Yixin Society and increased the number of students enrolled in Zhixing Academy. In terms of cultivation alone, he made great "merits".

All five of his women became pregnant.

Previously, he had taken measures to prevent his concubines from getting pregnant too early. But after Du Ning entered the household, he went all out, operating with full force and unleashing a barrage of attacks, finally succeeding in getting Xiu Xiu pregnant first...

Du Ning was the second.

This is a bit funny.

But no matter what, they all became pregnant one after another. When Du Yue finally conceived in late July, all of Yuan Shu's hard work paid off, and the next generation of Yuan Shu's family was about to have five more members.

When the news reached Yuan Feng's ears, he was overjoyed. He personally went to the General's Mansion to check on the health of Yuan Shu's five wives and concubines. He then praised Yuan Shu highly, commending him for his great efforts and contributions to the continuation of the Yuan family. For this, he directly rewarded Yuan Shu with two hundred million coins.

Yuan Shu was shocked at the time.

Good heavens, if I had known you'd pay me to have kids, I would have definitely worked hard and devoted myself to this job! I'd have to keep having kids until your entire family is completely bankrupt!

His Highness Prince Jing of Zhongshan is my senior!

A role model for our generation!

Then Yuan Shu poured all 200 million yuan of "sold-in-law money" into the construction of the army, buying food and non-staple foods for the soldiers.

As for Yuan Feng, he didn't care at all what Yuan Shu did with the money. He only asked the palace doctors to use the best nourishing ingredients and medicines to help Yuan Shu's five wives and concubines stabilize their pregnancies and ensure that they could safely give birth to healthy offspring. Everything else had to take a back seat.

He also dispatched the most experienced women in assisted reproduction from the Yuan clan's ancestral land, asking them to take care of the five women's diet and daily routine from this time onwards, in order to increase their chances of having a successful childbirth.

To be fair, Yuan Shu accepted this approach, because the success rate of childbirth was indeed not very high in those days, and cases of mothers and children not being able to give birth safely occurred frequently. Even noble families could not guarantee that their wives would give birth smoothly, which led to the social phenomenon that widows with experience in giving birth smoothly were very popular in the marriage market.

This is also a social reason why some people like the term "married woman".

But in any case, Yuan Feng's "task" for Yuan Shu can be considered complete at this point.

Yuan Feng was extremely proud of Yuan Shu's accurate marksmanship, which made him proud and boast everywhere that he had a son who could shoot five shots in one go. He also boasted that Yuan Shu had mastered great skills and was very accurate with his marksmanship, and that he was just like himself in every way.

Soon, the astonishing legend of Yuan Shu's cannon firing five shots spread throughout Luoyang City.

As a result, from Emperor Liu Kui to ordinary residents outside the city, everyone learned about this matter within three to five days. They were all very impressed by Yuan Shu's powerful fertility and even couldn't help but cast admiring glances at him when they saw him.

(End of this chapter)