I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 346 Yuan Shu Under Attack

After the Southern Xiongnu migrated south and surrendered to the Han Dynasty, they were sometimes hostile and sometimes allied with the Xianbei, depending entirely on their needs. There was no question of any principles or grudges between them.

When the Han Empire was stable, they were honest mercenaries who served to guard the borders of the Han Empire.

When the Han Empire was in chaos, these guys weren't necessarily honest either; they would sometimes resort to petty tricks that were unpleasant.

Therefore, we must be vigilant.

As for the economic aspect, Yuan Shu also engaged in various businesses, contributing greatly to the construction plans of the army and Bingzhou.

He invested almost all of his original savings into Bingzhou, and all the money he received from accepting gifts and cleaning up the internal spies was thrown into Bingzhou. He purchased a large amount of supplies and transported them to Bingzhou, giving Bingzhou a lifeline.

This investment truly surprised and moved the local officials of Bingzhou in the governor's office.

They had never seen an official so willing to help Bingzhou develop, even though he wasn't from Bingzhou and had no connection with it whatsoever.

But he genuinely donated blood to Bingzhou, which suffered from chronic anemia, and his dedication was truly heartfelt.

Not only his savings, but also the high profits he earned from his caravans traveling all over the country were all invested in Bingzhou.

The profits from selling hard currencies such as wine were mostly used to transport goods to Bingzhou, becoming part of Bingzhou's development.

Another major expense is maintaining the army, which is similar to the construction of Bingzhou. Moreover, the investment in Bingzhou construction is limited, and the investment will yield returns, so it is not difficult to recoup the investment.

The training of troops is a continuous process, and whether it will yield any benefits depends on the specific battle results.

The imperial court originally only provided the Tianxiong Army with 30,000 men, which meant that Yuan Shu had to pay for all 25,000 cavalrymen he recruited later, which put too much pressure on him.

So he kept pestering Yuan Feng, showering him with concern and gifts, and even personally selecting a fine, pure white horse and sending it to Luoyang in a grand display, finally persuading Yuan Feng to agree to cover the military expenses of another 10,000 cavalrymen.

Yuan Shu himself was responsible for the military expenses of the remaining 15,000 cavalrymen.

This is not bad. At least the Luoyang treasury is willing to give him some support, so he can support these troops in Bingzhou and make the Han army in Bingzhou stronger.

In conclusion, as things stand, Tan Shihuai has absolutely missed the best opportunity to attack Bingzhou. Strategically, he truly has no chance of winning.

Both sides are developing, but does that mean the one with the larger size will develop better?
Take the Northern Expeditions of Shu Han as an example. They had no choice but to launch them. Both sides were developing peacefully. How could one province defeat ten provinces?

Even the Land of Abundance won't do.

By the end of the fourth year of the Zhengshi era, Yuan Shu had basically concluded that Tan Shihuai no longer had the ability to intimidate Bingzhou. If he were to send troops to Bingzhou again, Yuan Shu would be able to launch a swift counterattack, leaving him in a sorry state and his entire army wiped out.

Unless he really spares no effort to bring "100,000 archers" with him, Yuan Shu might need Luoyang to provide assistance and Duan Jiong to lead troops north to cooperate with him.

However, this also meant the complete demise of the Xianbei people.

Yuan Shu believed that Tan Shihuai would not act recklessly, and that the longer time went on, the smaller the probability of Tan Shihuai succeeding would become, and the less likely it would be.

Time is on his side, and he won't choose to take the initiative lightly.

In his spare time from handling government affairs, Yuan Shu would lead his personal guard cavalry all over Bingzhou, from Shuofang County in the far west to Yanmen County in the far east, and then to Shang County and Xihe County. He had been to every county.

He would personally inspect the local villages, the training of the local soldiers, and the repair of the local roads, and dispatch observation teams to various places to review the performance and actions of officials.

He truly doesn't let anyone who is corrupt or derelict in their duties go unpunished.

In the middle of the fourth year of the Zhengshi era, he punished four county magistrates and county heads in Xihe County and Shang County for embezzling project funds and people's food rations. He executed the four men, exiled their families to Jiaozhou, and sentenced one of them to never return.

Corruption broke out in the military farms of Yanmen County. A group of officers were secretly selling off the grain stored in the farms and oppressing the soldiers, to the point that some of them starved to death.

This situation was discovered by the observation group sent out by Yuan Shu, and as a result, the officers were arrested, executed, and their families were exiled to Jiaozhou.

The three families of Wang, Zhang, and Zhuang in Shangdang County, who had joined forces with these officers, were completely eradicated by Yuan Shu. All the men were executed, the women were sold into slavery, all their property was confiscated, and their heads were displayed throughout Bingzhou.

This series of actions further solidified Yuan Shu's control over the official power and local influence in Bingzhou. He arranged for a large number of Yixin Society members to enter Bingzhou and assume positions, essentially turning the Yixin Society into the "ruling party" of Bingzhou. To his relief, at least in the third and fourth years of the Zhengshi era, there were no problems with officials who were members of the Yixin Society, and no cases of corruption or dereliction of duty occurred.

Of course, he didn't think that everyone in the Yixin Society was a saint, otherwise there would be no need for the Yixin Society's rules. It's just that the Yixin Society's strict internal screening mechanism makes it impossible for scum to join, and those who do join are easily discovered.

Nevertheless, he did not let his guard down. When arranging positions for Yixin members, he would warn them that if they misbehaved, they would face double punishment under national law and the association's rules, a burden they could not bear.

However, not everything that happened in the past two years was favorable to Yuan Shu.

At the beginning of the fourth year of the Zhengshi era, Yuan Ji ended his term as the Prefect of Nanyang and returned to Luoyang to take up the post of Grand Master of the Palace, thus becoming an official in Luoyang.

According to the message conveyed by Cheng Li, Yuan Shu learned that only about a month after Yuan Ji returned to Luoyang, he quickly mingled with a group of party members and, through his connections, secured many official positions for these party members and their children.

Since Yuan Ji's return, this group of party members, who had previously been relatively silent and did not express their opinions much on important political matters, suddenly became active and began to actively interfere in important political affairs and defend their own interests.

For example, the drought in Qingzhou and the locust plague in Yanzhou caused disasters in both prefectures, leading to rising grain prices and eventually famine.

Yuan Feng originally planned to mobilize grain from Yuzhou, Jizhou, and Xuzhou to provide relief, based on Jia Xu's suggestion, but this was opposed by a group of party officials led by Chen Xiang.

They believed that the food supplies in the various states were already tight, and if large-scale mobilization were carried out to support Qingzhou and Yanzhou, it would be difficult to guarantee that it would not affect Yuzhou, Xuzhou and Jizhou, causing food prices in these three states to rise and affecting the livelihoods of the people in these three states.

They suggested that Yanzhou and Qingzhou should each find their own solutions, or mobilize grain supplies from other prefectures on a small scale and to a limited extent, in order to avoid expanding the scope of the impact.

This seems to be a strategic thinking that considers the overall situation, but according to information that Jia Xu learned in private, this proposal from the party members was put forward by some of them who came from Yanzhou and Qingzhou.

As for why this group of people are so indifferent to their hometown, the reason is quite simple.

The disaster situation in Yanzhou and Qingzhou was not too serious, and the impact on powerful families was minimal, but the impact on ordinary people was quite significant.

As a result, powerful and wealthy families remained unscathed, while small and ordinary families were prone to bankruptcy and starvation, and were forced to sell their land and children to survive.

Jia Xu and Cheng Li both came from wealthy landlord families and were very knowledgeable about the ins and outs of such matters.

When natural disasters or man-made calamities occur, they are a catastrophe for ordinary people, but for powerful and wealthy families, they are an opportunity for development, a good chance for them to expand their private property and annex land.
They can acquire high-quality assets that were previously difficult to obtain with less money, so they want to take advantage of the disaster to seize a large amount of land, make a big profit, and strengthen themselves.

If the imperial court provides effective disaster relief and ordinary people have enough food to eat, they will not choose to sell their land or their children at low prices, and then the powerful and wealthy families will not make any money.

It is far more difficult to annex land during a bumper harvest than during a famine.

This group of people doesn't care about ordinary farmers; they only care about themselves. They only care about the survival of their own families for thousands of years, nothing more.

But if they're only after the land, then at least they have some self-awareness.

The problem is that they didn't stop there; they also questioned Yuan Shu's power.

They expressed dissatisfaction with Yuan Shu's continuous expansion of the army, believing that Yuan Shu increased the number of troops without consulting the court, expanded his cavalry by a large number and made the court bear so much military expenses for him, which would greatly affect the court's financial expenditures.

The imperial court was already facing financial difficulties, which is why it kept the number of standing troops at a relatively low level to reduce the financial burden. Now that Yuan Shu is carrying out a large-scale expansion of the army in a poor and remote place like Bingzhou, is the imperial court really that well-off?
He claimed it was to deal with the Xianbei, but he did not launch an offensive against them.

Just because they thwarted one Xianbei invasion, does that mean they can stay in Bingzhou and live off their past achievements forever?

As a result, the party members expressed their dissatisfaction with Yuan Shu's expansion of the army and demanded that the court order a reduction in the number of troops in Bingzhou.

This suggestion is not entirely without merit; in fact, there are quite a few people who share the same view. In fact, it can be said that in this matter, there is no distinction between Yuan Feng's forces, Yuan Ji's forces, and Yuan Shu's forces; there are only two opposing groups: those who support Yuan Shu and those who oppose Yuan Shu.

This is the first time Yuan Shu has faced such a large-scale political attack since the Luoyang coup.

When he learned of this news, he naturally knew without a doubt who was behind it and who would benefit from it.

But he was not worried, because his power base and prestige could not be shaken by a mere Yuan Ji and a group of party members who were being persecuted to death by the eunuchs.

Moreover, they couldn't get past Yuan Feng from the very beginning.

(End of this chapter)