I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 347 A Life of Wandering Without Meeting a Wise Ruler

Yuan Feng was very dissatisfied with the proposal of this group of party members, believing that they were putting the cart before the horse and talking nonsense.

The saying goes that a good warrior doesn't achieve great feats. Yuan Shu simply intimidated the Xianbei people, preventing them from moving south. Isn't this something that benefits the country?

Yuan Feng publicly refuted Chen Xiang in the court, arguing that the Xianbei's southward invasions had caused the court hundreds of millions of dollars in losses every year, while Yuan Shu had brought two consecutive years of peace to Bingzhou.

In the past two years, without the Xianbei invading southwards, how much loss did Bingzhou suffer? How much loss did the imperial court suffer?
Because of Yuan Feng's insistence and dissatisfaction, Chen Xiang did not express any further opinions, and the matter was dropped.

At the same time, Yuan Feng seemed to realize something and told Yuan Shu about it in their correspondence. He also expressed his dissatisfaction with Yuan Ji, believing that not only were these people ungrateful, but Yuan Ji was also very close to them, which was inappropriate.

He further told Yuan Shu that the successor must be Yuan Shu, not Yuan Ji. He warned Yuan Ji not to have too many ideas and to appropriately crack down on the party clique to prevent it from growing bigger.

Yuan Feng wasn't stupid; he clearly noticed what the party group's strange actions meant and was very dissatisfied with Yuan Ji's close relationship with this group. In Yuan Shu's view, Yuan Ji's move was particularly bad.

Yes, this group of party members is indeed very prestigious and has some influence in the local area, but Yuan Ji needs to understand that he does not have a base of support of his own, and he has not built his own political power.

Yuan Ji's current identity is still that of the eldest son of the Yuan family of Runan, and he has no other identity. Therefore, Yuan Feng can actually easily control him.

The status of the eldest son is indeed something that even Yuan Feng, the father, cannot shake or change. But the question is, does the father not have a way to deal with the eldest son?

Yes!

Once the label of "unfilial piety" was attached to Yuan Ji, he was finished!
The status of the eldest son of the legitimate wife needs to be supported by "filial piety" and endorsed by his father in order to support the actual status of the eldest son as the heir. Without these two prerequisites, the eldest son of the legitimate wife has no right to inherit.

They can't even achieve a nominal inheritance.

From this perspective, Yuan Ji was truly mediocre.

Yuan Shu sighed in this way.

Therefore, Yuan Ji accomplished nothing throughout the entire year—if incurring Yuan Feng's displeasure can be considered an achievement, then he could be said to have gained something.

Yuan Shu didn't even bother to pay attention to what Yuan Ji was up to; he'd rather focus on his five children.

Between July and September of the third year of the Zhengshi era, Yuan Shu's five children were born one after another. Perhaps it was because Yuan Feng had made many preparations in advance, or perhaps it was because his five women were all in good health, so they all gave birth naturally and both mother and child were safe.

Xiuxiu was the first to give birth, and she had a daughter.

Du Ning gave birth to her second child, a son.

Chunlian and Qiutong gave birth to sons within two days of each other.

Du Yue gave birth to a daughter.

Yuan Shu suddenly became the father of three sons and two daughters; he was not even twenty years old at the time.

For families that aren't extremely wealthy, having five children at once would definitely cause chaos and turmoil for quite some time. It's only because the Yuan family is a powerful family that they made thorough preparations before the birth of their children, setting up all postpartum care to the highest standards, that there were absolutely no problems.

After the five children were born, each was assigned a skilled and experienced old woman to help take care of them, and five wet nurses were also prepared in case their mothers did not have enough milk.

Yuan Feng and Yuan Kui were too busy with official duties to oversee the entire process, so Yuan Kui's wife, Ma Lun, took over the task, personally directing the operation and successfully completing this important mission.

With the Yuan family's resources, raising five more children is a piece of cake. Even if they need to prepare a team of up to 127 people to take care of the birth of these five children, it will be a piece of cake.

After the birth of the five children, Du Ning and the other four recovered well and had no particular problems.

Upon learning this, Yuan Shu, who was far away in Bingzhou, was very excited and longed to go back and see his child. However, due to his busy official duties, he could only arrange for Xu Chong to take the gifts he had personally prepared back to present to him and express his feelings.

Logically speaking, his position should also be entitled to leave for visiting relatives, but at that time, there were countless things to do in Bingzhou, and he was too busy to leave Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shu was unable to leave, so it wasn't until the end of the fourth year of the Zhengshi era that he was able to return from Bingzhou to Luoyang to visit his wife and children.

However, this brief reunion lasted only three days.

After three days of intimacy, Yuan Shu, with his schedule packed, had to return to Bingzhou, as there were simply too many things there that required his decision-making.

When the spring of the fifth year of the Zhengshi era arrived, the Xianbei people once again invaded Youzhou from the south. However, under the leadership of Tian Yan, the governor of Youzhou, the people of Youzhou put up strong resistance against the Xianbei people on both the Shanggu and Yuyang battlefields, so that the Xianbei people did not gain much spoils.

In a sense, it could be considered a successful defense. The imperial court increased Tian Yan's fiefdom in recognition of this.

However, Yuan Shu learned from intelligence that the Xianbei people's southward march this time was different from the past. In addition to cavalry, there was also a small infantry force that used siege equipment to attack Guangping County in Yuyang Commandery.

They employed very obvious infantry siege tactics, using battering rams, ladders, and other siege equipment commonly used by the Han army to attack, and almost breached the city walls of Guangping County.

If Tian Yan had not arrived with his troops in time, Guangping County would have been almost lost.

This intelligence confirmed Yuan Shu's earlier guess: Tan Shihuai's purpose in attacking the Buyeo and Goguryeo people was indeed to build an army capable of siege warfare, and his target was clearly the cities in Han territory.

This made Yuan Shu look at Tan Shihuai with much higher regard.

Since his own people didn't know how to fish, he attacked tribes that did, forcing them to fish for the Xianbei.

Since their own people were not good at siege warfare, they attacked small countries that possessed this technology, captured their soldiers, and made them siege for the Xianbei people.

This kind of thinking is something that ordinary nomadic leaders could not possess. If this guy had lived after the mid-Tang Dynasty or after the Song Dynasty, he would definitely have been a major threat to the Central Plains.

Fortunately, he lived at the end of the Han Dynasty. The Xianbei people were ultimately too small and did not have enough time to grow. This was a very lucky thing.

At least Yuan Shu is no longer so worried.

His Tianxiong Army already possessed the capability to decisively defeat the Xianbei army, whether in cavalry or infantry combat.

Especially in cavalry warfare, Yuan Shu invested heavily in recruiting and expanding his elite cavalry, which was far superior to ordinary Xianbei cavalry. From the moment he learned of this, Yuan Shu began to prepare plans for the war against the Xianbei.

On the one hand, he ordered the prefects of each prefecture to be cautious and to keep a close eye on the movements of the northern grasslands. On the other hand, he used the Yixin Society to send messages to the various villages, instructing them to strengthen their defenses.

In addition, he personally took charge of the cavalry training at the Xihe Pasture, and made several trips to the Xihe Pasture to inspect the situation, attempting to increase the number of cavalry available for combat to about 20,000 before the second war with the Xianbei.

In this way, he would be more confident in completely annihilating the Xianbei people.

On April 19th of the fifth year of the Zhengshi era, Yuan Shu once again led his personal guard cavalry to inspect the Xihe horse pasture. When his troops were still more than 20 li away from the pasture, they encountered a Han cavalry force that was conducting a training exercise.

And the leader of this team was none other than Lü Bu.

Yuan Shu was overjoyed and immediately asked Xu Chong to summon Lü Bu. Lü Bu was also delighted to see Yuan Shu and immediately went forward to pay his respects and report on his work over the past period.

"My lord, as per your request, Bu Duo has led his troops in numerous raid drills without a single day of slackening. These new recruits are becoming increasingly skilled, and they should be able to join the Tianxiong Army for combat soon!"

Yuan Shu was very pleased, patted Lü Bu on the shoulder, and gave him much encouragement.

Looking at the young, valiant, and tall general before him, Yuan Shu was very satisfied.

Recruiting Lü Bu into the Tianxiong Army was an unexpected surprise for Yuan Shu.

When he first started recruiting men, he didn't even think of Lü Bu. It wasn't until the list of recruits from Wuyuan County was delivered to him and the recruiter specifically mentioned Lü Bu's name that he remembered that Lü Bu was from Wuyuan County in Bingzhou.

According to the recruiters, Lü Bu was from Jiuyuan County in Wuyuan Commandery. His family was considered wealthy in the area, as they ran a livestock business and raised many cattle, sheep, and horses. Therefore, he was skilled at riding horses from a young age and often galloped across the northern grasslands.

He was an excellent horseman, a superb archer, and could hit the bullseye every time within eighty paces. He was also incredibly strong, able to fight on horseback with a spear held between his legs while gripping the horse's belly. He could also perform many exquisite mounted tactical maneuvers, making him unique among the recruits in the entire Wuyuan County.

Furthermore, Lü Bu was literate and could read and write. It was also said that there were military officers in his family who had passed down some cavalry tactics, indicating a family tradition of learning.

As far as Yuan Shu was concerned, Lü Bu could even be appointed as a military commander, easily leading a cavalry unit.

Yuan Shu later personally received Lü Bu, rewarded him with armor, fine horses, and fine swords, which made Lü Bu very happy.

Lu Bu said that he had long heard of Yuan Shu's reputation and heard about his victory over 10,000 Xianbei people. He admired and respected Yuan Shu very much, so he came to join the army, hoping to develop under Yuan Shu's command.

Yuan Shu, of course, would not let such a fierce general slip by, so he brought him under his command and placed him in his personal guard for further training, grooming him to be a cavalry general.

Yuan Shu fully believed that Lü Bu had the qualities to become a great general commanding cavalry. As for Lü Bu's personal character and the famous saying that he "drifted for half his life without ever meeting a wise ruler," Yuan Shu did not care much.

(End of this chapter)