I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 359 Yuan Ji's Heart Surges
Yuan Ji was naturally unwilling to accept it.

Yuan Feng's ruthlessness and heartlessness hurt him deeply, breaking his heart. Yuan Shao's words constantly agitated his nerves, eventually leading him to have the idea of ​​"great rebellion".

He carefully examined the current situation and realized that if he didn't want to be Yuan Shu's prisoner for life, he only had one choice.

Taking advantage of Yuan Shu's absence from Luoyang, they launched a fierce attack, imitating what Yuan Shu and Yuan Feng had done before. They launched a counterattack against Yuan Shu and Yuan Feng, took control of Yuan Feng, forcibly took over his position, and seized control of the Luoyang military.

In this way, perhaps his destined fate can be changed.

However, there are still many prerequisites for doing so.

He took a deep breath and looked at Yuan Shao.

"In the beginning, when Father and Zijia started their uprising, they held a large army. Zijia had six thousand elite soldiers, and Father had several thousand Yuan clan warriors. In addition, the five battalions of the Northern Army and the troops under the Commander of the Imperial Guard joined in to help, and there were countless inside agents. That's how they succeeded."

The initial success was the result of half a year of preparation by Father and Zijia. Without that half a year of preparation, how could we have successfully eliminated the eunuchs? Currently, the military power in Luoyang is in Father's hands, and you and I can only mobilize a little over a thousand men. How can a little over a thousand men possibly fight against the Luoyang army?
Putting everything else aside, even if we seal off Luoyang City and isolate the Northern Army, there are still two armies, the Tiger Legion and the Feathered Forest Army, inside the palace. Wang Chong and Dong Xuan are my father and Zijia's trusted confidants. They control these two armies to protect the capital. How can we possibly fight against them?
Even with the addition of Chen Xiang and other party members, how many troops could they hastily gather? Putting aside everything else, the various units of the city gate command are all controlled by Zi Jia's confidants. If they want to seal off Luoyang City, this is a problem that must be solved, isn't it?
Even if we manage to defeat the city gate guards and seize control of Luoyang, obtaining weapons from the Luoyang armory is still essential. However, the armory is guarded by the Commander of the Imperial Guards, who is Father's confidant. Will he betray Father and side with us?

Yuan Ji had a clear understanding of the problem and was much more level-headed than Yuan Shao, who was driven by passion.

Upon hearing these questions, Yuan Shao was clearly hesitant and troubled.

Indeed, after the previous coup, Yuan Feng and Yuan Shu had clearly patched up the defenses of Luoyang. They were also worried that someone else might follow suit and stage another Luoyang coup, so they took precautions in many ways.

The city gate captain was controlled by Yuan Shu's trusted confidants from the Yixin Society, who were Yuan Shu's loyal followers. They had never had any dealings with Yuan Ji, Yuan Shao, or the other party members. They were completely impenetrable and had never been involved in any of the affairs of the city.

This is the first hurdle.

And right after that comes a second, equally challenging hurdle.

Luoyang Armory.

Yuan Feng and Yuan Shu were able to greatly increase their strength and suppress the palace army by controlling the Luoyang arsenal and obtaining weapons and equipment. If they could not control the Luoyang arsenal, most of Yuan Ji and Yuan Shao's men would not have been able to obtain enough equipment to fight against the Luoyang garrison.

If you do it this way, it's completely impossible to succeed.

To control the Luoyang armory, they would have to get past the Commander of the Imperial Guard. Currently, the Commander of the Imperial Guard is still Yuan Feng's trusted confidant and is responsible only to him. So how can Yuan Ji and Yuan Shao win his cooperation?
Will he betray Yuan Feng and side with Yuan Ji and Yuan Shao?
Unlikely.

Even if the first two problems are solved, the palace is still heavily guarded. Back then, Yuan Feng and Yuan Shu used more than 10,000 people to storm in and take control of the palace. Now, how can they do the same thing with just over 1,000 people?

After the coup, the Tiger Legion and the Imperial Guard were reformed by Yuan Feng and Yuan Shu, and were respectively handed over to their trusted confidants Wang Chong and Dong Xuan to lead, and were responsible for guarding the South Palace and the North Palace respectively. Their military strength was greatly enhanced, and the troops were also replaced.

Now they are an absolutely solid and reliable Yuan family guard.

Yuan Feng himself resides in the Imperial Secretariat, which is heavily guarded, making it no easy task to capture him.

The two brothers schemed and plotted, but the more they schemed, the more frustrated and helpless they became. They felt that with the power they had, they simply couldn't accomplish these things!
However, as the saying goes, as long as one's mindset doesn't falter, there are always more solutions than problems. As a staunch feudalist reactionary fighter, Yuan Shao's mindset never faltered, so he quickly came up with an alternative plan.

If Yuan Feng were always in the palace, they certainly wouldn't have any good way to deal with him. But what if Yuan Feng were not in the palace but in the Sikong Mansion?

Yuan Ji's eyes lit up immediately after thinking about it.

Yup!

Although Yuan Feng is currently the de facto ruler of the court and works at the Ministry of Personnel, his real position is Minister of Works, one of the Three Dukes of the court. He has a special residence in Luoyang City, located in the southeast corner of the city.

There, the residences of the three top officials—the Grand Commandant, the Minister of Works, and the Minister of Education—were lined up in a row, not within the imperial city.

Based on past experience, Yuan Ji and Yuan Shao knew that Yuan Feng would leave the palace on the first and fifteenth of each month to eat and sleep at the Sikong Mansion, and also meet with friends, which were considered Yuan Feng's days off.

Coincidentally, three days later, Yuan Feng gave Yuan Ji the final deadline of the 15th, which was the day Yuan Feng went home to eat and sleep.

At that time, Yuan Feng left the palace, the protection of the Tiger Guard and the Imperial Guard, and the palace guards; he was only accompanied by his own family retainers. That was when Yuan Feng's security was at its weakest.

At that time, if Yuan Ji and Yuan Shao had chosen to take action, they could have easily taken down Yuan Feng from within the Yuan family compound, secured his personal safety, forced him to relinquish his military power, and then had Yuan Ji take control of the Luoyang military, thus completing a "generational change" of power.

Yuan Shao told Yuan Ji about this possibility.

"If we can keep my uncle under control in the mansion, we won't need to worry about the influence of the troops in and outside the city. We can even accomplish this without using the Changshui Camp troops. We just need to arrange more of our manpower in the Sikong Mansion."

Moreover, at that time, my third uncle, fifth uncle, and other elders of the clan would all be in the mansion, as would my father's friends and confidants in the court. We could take direct action and wipe them all out in one fell swoop, then immediately send someone to take over their positions!

Upon reflection, Yuan Ji was also filled with excitement.

He is not worried about not having enough people to help them.

They are indeed lacking in actual power, such as military and political power, but they are not short of manpower.

Those party members, and their eager children, were all craning their necks, waiting for enough positions to fall into their mouths so they could feast on them!
Because of Yuan Feng's preferential treatment of his protégés and former officials, and Yuan Shu's preferential treatment of the Yixinhui group, the party members have not been able to obtain enough official positions for a long time, and they are very dissatisfied with this situation.

They would be absolutely satisfied if this status quo could be broken!

Upon realizing this, Yuan Ji immediately instructed Yuan Shao to bring Chen Xiang, Wang Lei, Zhang Xiu, and other key figures among the partisans to his Taipu Mansion to discuss the feasibility of the plan and gain their support.

When Chen Xiang and the others learned of this news, they were very surprised. They did not expect that Yuan Feng would make up his mind so quickly and take action in just three days.

This completely prevents them from having time to react and gather manpower!
If Yuan Feng succeeds in removing Yuan Ji from the position of successor and establishing Yuan Shu's position, then they will really have no chance of turning things around in the short term.

Yuan Feng had his own base of support, and Yuan Shu even had his own base of support. Neither of these two forces really needed the party group to do anything for them; they could form their own factions and do their own thing.

The party members were ultimately rescued and welcomed back to Luoyang by Yuan Shikai; they did not return on their own merits, and therefore faced numerous obstacles from Yuan Shikai in this regard.

They were unable to match the Yuan regime militarily, so their only hope lay with Yuan Ji.

Lacking a solid base, Yuan Ji had only one option if he wanted to compete with Yuan Shu for the position of successor: the party members.

With shared interests, both sides quickly reached an agreement.

However, on this specific issue, apart from Chen Xiang quickly expressing his support, Wang Lei, Zhang Xiu, and others had some concerns, feeling that doing it this way was too risky.

The operation took place within Luoyang City, which was filled with Yuan Feng and Yuan Shu's men: the Tiger Guard and Feathered Forest Guard in the imperial palace, the Imperial Guard and the City Gate Commandant's troops within the city, and the Northern Army outside the city—all of these were Yuan Feng and Yuan Shu's forces.

Apart from the household guards and servants of their respective residences, their armed forces consisted of only one Changshui Battalion of eight hundred men, which together amounted to more than a thousand men. Compared with Yuan Feng's forces, they could not be said to have an advantage, but they were completely at a disadvantage.

Even if Yuan Feng were to return to the Yuan Mansion of the Minister of Works and leave the direct protection of the Tiger Legion and the Feathered Forest Army, if anything happened to him, the guards in the Yuan Mansion would certainly not sit idly by and would quickly be able to call upon the troops of the Imperial Guard and the City Gate Captain to come and provide support.

In less than an hour, the Tiger Legion, the Feathered Forest Army, and even the Northern Army will arrive. Even those from the Yixin Society outside the city who obey Yuan Shu's orders will arrive. At that time, these instigators will be surrounded and unable to extricate themselves.

What if Yuan Feng refuses to budge, refuses to agree to their demands, and refuses to relinquish power? What can Yuan Ji and Yuan Shao do then?

Yuan Ji looked at Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shao gritted his teeth.

"We can't worry about that now. You all should know that once the dust settles and the succession dispute ends, my brother and I will both lose all power and become playthings in Yuan Zijia's hands. And none of you will have a good life either."

Yuan Zijia has his own subordinates, plus his protégés and former officials; he has more than enough manpower. It's virtually impossible for you gentlemen to turn things around and return to the state before the Partisan Prohibitions. Is that the outcome you desire?

(End of this chapter)