I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 34 Yuan Feng Protects His Child

After obtaining Ma Rong's help, the Ma family's steel production department did provide Yuan Shu with a batch of iron farm tools of fairly good quality.

However, the quantity was not large, and it was impossible to provide all the farmers who did not have farm tools in the statistics. There was simply not enough to distribute. So Yuan Shu discussed with Lu Zhi and took out the donations raised before to find a reliable channel to purchase them.

Or if you have connections, you can go out and find a reliable source of iron farm tools.

Let's brainstorm.

Many local scholars from wealthy families said that they could seek help from their families to get some good quality farm tools, but they were few in number and could not guarantee that they could get enough farm tools.

There are also many scholars from equally good families who are interested, but their homes are too far away, and by the time the money is transported over from thousands of miles away, it will be too late.

Yuan Shu thought about it carefully, and suddenly his eyes lit up. He picked up a pen and wrote a letter, and then asked someone to deliver the letter to the residence of Jingzhao Yin in Chang'an City.

"Although Maoling is not under the jurisdiction of Jingzhao Yin, the two places are not far apart. My father may have some ideas or be able to provide us with some farm tools. It is not enough to try all the methods before buying them."

Everyone then remembered Yuan Shu's superior background and that his father was the Jingzhao Yin. If they could get help from Yuan Feng, perhaps they could really get enough farm tools.

Lu Zhi was a little worried.

"Maoling belongs to Youfufeng after all. Would it be inconvenient for Jingzhao Yin to intervene?"

Yuan Shu shook his head.

"I am asking for help from my father as a son. This is a private act, not an official one. At most, I can pay taxes according to the rules. No matter how dissatisfied the Youfufeng officials are, do they still want to make trouble with the tax?"

Lu Zhi thought this made sense, so he stopped worrying about it.

Afterwards, Yuan Shu and Lu Zhi continued to organize personnel to go to the countryside to distribute farm tools and persuade farmers to go out to turn the soil to prevent insect pests in the spring of the following year.

The letter was soon delivered to Chang'an City, to the residence of Jingzhao Yin, and handed to Yuan Feng.

Ever since Yuan Shu entered Ma Rong's mansion to study, he had never written to him. This sudden letter surprised Yuan Feng a little.

This child has been very smart since he was young, and he does not need excessive intervention from his elders in anything. He is indeed a child prodigy, but as a father, Yuan Feng has always had a little regret and a slight sense of frustration.

There's no sense of accomplishment in being a father.

Compared to his eldest son Yuan Ji, who had a mediocre personality and talent but was relatively obedient, Yuan Shu seemed too outstanding, which greatly weakened his role as a father.

Yuan Shu didn't need him to teach him anything. He could learn things once he learned them and apply them to other situations. Later on, he even showed a tendency to surpass him in academic level.

How can this be taught?

Yuan Shao did need discipline, but on the one hand, Yuan Shao was a bastard's son, and on the other hand, Yuan Shao had been adopted by his elder brother Yuan Cheng who died early. In name, there was no need for him to discipline Yuan Shao.

So apart from disciplining the mediocre Yuan Ji, there was not much for him as a father to do. Now that Yuan Ji was gradually growing up, in two or three years he would be able to get married and enter the court to begin training. There was no need for him as a father to intervene too much.

Therefore, when it comes to housework, he really has nothing to do.

He and Yuan Shu, father and son, have never had much communication. The identities of strict father and kind father have no effect on Yuan Shu. Even Yuan Feng feels that Yuan Shu is too smart and does not take him as his father seriously.

It's just a bit sad.

Now, Yuan Shu actually took the initiative to write to him, and he was actually a little happy.

When he opened the letter, he was even happier.

Yuan Shu asked him for help!
I had heard before that Yuan Shu was able to make waves in the Ma family mansion, and that he remained undefeated in 300 debates, and even tied with the strongest disciple Lu Zhi. He then came up with the school of awakening conscience and gave lectures himself.

Not only did he give lectures himself, but he also attracted scholars and students from the Wuling area to attend his lectures, and also attracted many people who were interested in this theory, as if he was going to create a new theory.

This child is simply too outstanding, so as a father he feels little involvement in the child's growth and his sense of frustration grows stronger.

Now, the child finally asked him for help.

The request for help was for a large number of high-quality iron farm tools, preferably with about a hundred oxen.

Through this letter, Yuan Feng finally knew what big moves Yuan Shu had been making recently.

His study of conscience has progressed to the second stage - the action stage.

The specific action he took was to "help farmers", indicating that agriculture is the foundation of the country and agriculture is the most important thing, but farmers' lives are difficult and production is difficult, which is something that shakes the foundation of the country.

On the one hand, in order to follow their conscience, and on the other hand, for the highest goal of conscience - the world for all, they decided to launch an action to help farmers and safeguard agricultural production.

Therefore, they need a larger number of high-quality agricultural tools and oxen to help farmers solve the problem of insufficient agricultural tools and oxen, so as to increase agricultural output.

Yuan Feng was silent for a while.

Although getting help from his child made him feel somewhat involved as a father, for some reason he felt even more frustrated.

How old is this kid?

He hasn’t even had his eleventh birthday yet, but he’s already started this kind of action to pay attention to Kunimoto?
He also mobilized five to six hundred people to work with him, obtained a lot of assistance from Ma Rong, raised a lot of charity funds, and even launched a round of assistance to the poor self-cultivating farmers in Maoling County.

Yuan Feng originally thought that Yuan Shu's good knowledge and quick thinking were the most amazing things about him as a child prodigy, but he never expected that Yuan Shu could actually handle such a specific matter as agricultural production. He could even do a large-scale operation with five or six hundred people working together.

This ability to act and organize is something that not everyone can possess.

He is an official, and a veteran official with decades of experience. No one understands better than him what kind of material conditions are needed to do these things, and what kind of abilities and reputation are required for the people in charge.

but……

Yuan Feng's eyes suddenly widened and he thought of something.

Those more than 300 debates...

And the status of Ma's senior disciple...

Could it be that the study of awakening conscience was not a sudden idea, but something that had been planned for a long time?
Even this action to help farmers was something he had been prepared to do for a long time?

Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible for a little kid like him to accomplish these things. But it was different for a debate prodigy and a disciple of Ma who had great reputation.

He first gained fame through debates, then competed with Lu Zhi to gain the status of Ma's senior disciple, then gave lectures, mixed in his own ideas, and began to promote his own school of conscience, attracting interested people to listen to his lectures, and then attracting them to become his followers.

The last one is the action to help farmers.

Through this action, one can further enhance one's reputation, demonstrate one's abilities, connections and means, convince everyone, and finally accomplish the task, thus confirming the practicality of the science of conscience.

Connecting everything before and after together, all doubts seem to be solved.

Every step this kid takes is planned and premeditated!
This kid...isn't he too smart?

Putting down the letter in his hand, Yuan Feng was silent for a long time. Then he stood up and paced back and forth in the house, thinking for a long time.

Finally, he smiled.

"Prodigy, prodigy, my son is a prodigy, is it a blessing for me? Or a misfortune?"

He breathed a sigh of relief, sat down again, read the letter for help again, and felt completely relieved.

Yuan Feng called his personal clerk Wang Qiu and instructed him to collect a batch of iron tools and oxen, send them to Maoling County in the name of selling, and then hand them over to Yuan Shu.

Wang Qiu learned a little about the whole story and was amazed at Yuan Shu's magical behaviors. He complimented Yuan Feng again and again. His flattery was like a torrent of water, which made Yuan Feng feel very comfortable.

Then he raised his concerns.

"Mingsir, Maoling is under the jurisdiction of Youfufeng, not Jingzhao Yin. If this matter is limited to Maoling County, with Lord Ma here, it shouldn't be a big deal. But if you get involved, I'm worried that Youfufeng will have some opinions."

"What can he say?"

Yuan Feng said disdainfully: "If Zhao Dian was still in office, I would still need to consider it. Now? He himself is not clean, now he should think about how to find the next backer! Besides, it is only natural for a son to ask his father for help and for the father to help.

Moreover, this is a good thing to help farmers. It's a good thing, why not do it? They know how many people starve to death in Youfufeng every year. I am kind-hearted and can't bear to see the starving people everywhere, so I help them. Do they have any reason to hinder it? Don't blame me for severely reporting them!"

Wang Qiu stopped talking immediately.

It seems like this kid Yuan Feng is going to be protected.

But this is not Yuan Feng’s fault.

To be fair, if my son was as outstanding as Yuan Shu and could accomplish so many things, I would probably do my best to help him.

Apart from anything else, the entire family may benefit from the excellence of this child. This kind of thing will be recorded in the family tree and will be worshipped by future generations of the family. There will be endless incense and endless pork, mutton and beef to eat.

Wang Qiu quickly obtained a large number of high-quality farm tools through various channels, and obtained a batch of oxen from some merchants who heard the news and came to help. He soon set off.

Yuan Feng was still worried that Yuan Shu didn't have enough money, so he secretly asked Wang Qiu to bring some money to Yuan Shu. The amount was not too large, about the same as one month's fiscal revenue of a medium-sized county.

The source of this money is not easy to explain.

Previously, a governor of Yizhou was impeached and dismissed for corruption and tyranny. When the prison cart was dragging him past Jingzhao Yin, Yuan Feng counted more than 300 carts of stolen gold, silver and jewelry.

Most of the stolen goods were sent to Luoyang, but in accordance with the fine old tradition of "whoever sees it gets a share" and "whoever takes advantage of it gets a share", Yuan Feng also got a piece of the pie and enjoyed it very much.

Now he took out a part of the property and gave it to Yuan Shu to manage, allowing him to spend and squander it as he pleased, and do whatever he wanted with it, but not to bring shame to the Yuan family.

He also wrote a special letter to Yuan Shu, telling him to tell him if he needed anything. There was no need for too much worry between father and son. As long as what he did was beneficial to himself and the Yuan family, his father would help him in every possible way!

Want money? Want people? Want things?
Anything is fine, I'm just afraid you won't say it.

Don’t forget, our Yuan family has had three generations of officials, and our students and former officials are all over the world!

The inheritance left to you by your grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather is not something you can just sit there and sit there without touching!

Do you know how many officials in the Sanfu area are students or former officials of our Yuan family? Do you know how many of them have had contact with your father?
This hidden wealth is all resources that you can use in the future!
Don’t be afraid, act boldly!

The children of our Yuan family, if they do make a name for themselves, they will surely make a splash!
(End of this chapter)