I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 360: Spring and Autumn Dream
The party members looked at each other, unsure how to respond.

After a period of silence, Chen Xiang, as the leader, finally made a decision.

"If we rise up, there is still a glimmer of hope. If we don't, we will be completely ruined in three days, becoming mere playthings in the hands of the Yuan family, never to have our own destiny again. What difference would that be from death? Since that's the case, why not fight with all our might?"

Chen Xiang's opinion was ultimately accepted by most of the party members, except for Zhang Xiu from Shu County, who expressed his inability to accept it.

He felt that even if he couldn't become a high-ranking official, he could still manage to preserve his family business. If he failed, he might end up like the Wang family of Taiyuan, uprooted by Yuan Shu and his entire family would cease to exist. He didn't want that kind of future.

Therefore, Zhang Xiu decided to withdraw from the group's scheme, choosing to observe the success or failure, accept mediocrity after failure, and only seek to preserve his family and obtain peace.

He got up, intending to leave.

Suddenly, with a "whoosh," Yuan Shao launched an attack, drawing his sword and holding it to Zhang Xiu's neck, startling everyone in the room.

Yuan Ji immediately jumped up and angrily rebuked him.

"Primordial! What are you going to do?"

Yuan Shao's expression remained unchanged as he glared angrily at Zhang Xiu, whose face had turned pale.

“Brother! He already knows about our plans, yet he wants to withdraw. If we let him go now, who can guarantee that he won't immediately go to the Ministry of Personnel and tell Uncle about our plans in exchange for his own wealth and glory?”

Yuan Shao's words stunned everyone present, including Yuan Ji. They all frowned and looked at Zhang Xiu with suspicion.

Zhang Xiu was so frightened that he trembled all over.

"I will never reveal a single word! I swear to God! Never!"

"Stop talking nonsense!"

Yuan Shao angrily said, "This is a matter of life and death. How can we trust someone who retreats in the face of battle? Brother, I suggest that this man be kept under strict guard. He must not be allowed to leave before the mission is accomplished!"

Yuan Ji remained silent for a moment, then looked at Chen Xiang.

Chen Xiang looked at Yuan Ji and slowly nodded.

So, the unfortunate Zhang Xiu was tied up by Yuan Ji's men and thrown into the woodshed in the mansion. They sent people to feed him at fixed times and places so that he wouldn't starve to death.

As for his family, he said he was working overtime and couldn't go home for a while, so there was no problem.

Anyway, it'll only take about three days.

After resolving Zhang Xiu's problem, the people in the room became noticeably more cautious. They discussed some details of the operation and even started talking about how they would share the spoils after the mission was accomplished.

They eventually reached a consensus.

The group of Yuan's protégés and former officials would naturally be inherited by Yuan Ji; they would not touch this benefit, it would all belong to Yuan Ji.

Everyone shared the profits from Yuan Shuyi's group's small share of "profit".

Although Yuan Shu's Yixinhui Group has only been established for a short time, it has already occupied a very important ecological position in the imperial court and is in a trend of rapid development and strengthening, almost controlling the executive power of the entire Luoyang court.

Centered on Luoyang, in the Sanhe and Sanfu regions, the vast majority of officials and executors were members of the Yixin Society. More than 80 percent of the governing team in the entire Sili Xiaowei jurisdiction were members of the Yixin Society.

Those young people who constantly preach conscience are running around doing things, and the influence of Yixinhui Group among the people is growing day by day.

In addition, among the five major provinces of the Central Plains—Yuzhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou, and Jizhou—there is an increasing number of grassroots officials and executive officers from the Yixin Society, and this trend has even appeared in the hometowns of the party members.

Among the officials appointed by the imperial court, such as county magistrates, county heads, county assistants, and county lieutenants, many were young people who were only interested in their family background. They had little experience, but they were full of energy and had strong execution capabilities. As soon as they arrived, they would start agricultural production, causing chaos in the local area.

Even more critically, the number of students joining the Zhixing Academy founded by Yuan Shu is also increasing.

More and more students, especially those from poor families, are joining Zhixing Academy. They don't study the New Text School of Confucianism, nor do they study the Old Text School of Confucianism. Instead, they are studying Yuan Shu's philosophy of mind.

As a result, the number of people who successfully joined the Yixin Society and took the philosophy of mind as their own learning is steadily increasing.

This means that Yuan Shu has built up a "group of protégés and former officials" for himself from scratch, relying on his prestige and influence.

This group is quite large, reportedly already numbering 30,000 to 50,000. If it continues to grow to this size, it's unimaginable!
It is obvious to the naked eye that Yuan Shu's power is expanding rapidly. The scale of this benefit is too large, and both Yuan Ji and Chen Xiang are very envious, fearful, and want to obtain it.

However, Yuan Shu's faction had its own set of theoretical and ideological systems, which were difficult to use for their own purposes, especially his die-hard followers, for whom there was no other way but to kill them.

So they agreed that after the deed was done, they would use the army to carry out a major purge of Yuan Shu's Yixin Society and Zhixing Academy forces, killing all the "stubborn" ones and accepting the "pragmatic" ones as their own. They would split Yuan Shu's niche in the political landscape 50/50!

As for Yuan Shu, who was leading troops far away in Bingzhou...

He still has a formidable army under his command; if they were to return...

That is indeed a problem.

However, Yuan Shao was not too worried about this.

"Although Yuan Zijia's army is capable of fighting, Bingzhou is bitterly cold and lacks food. Currently, it still needs the support of the imperial court to maintain its troops and to transport grain to Bingzhou. This shows that its foundation is weak. No matter how strong its military is, it is useless without food. When the time comes, as long as we cut off its supply lines, no matter how large its army is, it will be powerless and can only be controlled by us!"

Yuan Shao already had experience leading troops into battle, so he naturally understood just how important provisions were to an army.

However, he did not conduct an in-depth investigation into the current situation in Bingzhou, nor did he know where the grain and military expenses that the imperial court transferred to Bingzhou each year were used. He simply assumed that Yuan Shu's army could not function without the imperial court's supplies.

In fact, in the past three years, Bingzhou has initially completed the construction of the Liangzhuang system under Yuan Shu's management. Due to special care, all twenty-five Liangzhuang in the five northern counties have been completed and have even begun to produce and harvest grain.

Three fine estates were also built in Xihe County and Shang County respectively, and they began production.

Taiyuan and Shangdang counties already had a good agricultural foundation, and each had built two large, thriving estates that had long been producing grain.

Starting in the summer of the fourth year of the Zhengshi era, 31 of the 35 well-managed villages that had been built had begun storing grain.

From that time onward, Yuan Shu was able to supply the army's daily garrison and homeland defense operations with the grain harvested locally in Bingzhou. In fact, he had broken free from dependence on the imperial court for grain transport and had his own supply system.

By the summer of the fifth year of the Zhengshi era, all thirty-five well-manored villages that had been built had completed their grain storage tasks, and Xihe County, Shang County, Shangdang County, and Taiyuan County each began the expansion of three well-manored villages.

In addition to the Liangzhuang system, Yuan Shu also set annual grain reserve targets for each prefecture within the government system. By the time the summer grain harvest was completed in the fifth year of the Zhengshi era, all nine prefectures of Bingzhou had fulfilled this task.

Each prefecture's granary has stored the amount of grain stipulated by the Bingzhou Governor's Office, and all of them have been inspected by special personnel arranged by Yuan Shu.

In other words, while Yuan Ji, Chen Xiang, and others were plotting to starve Yuan Shu and his army by cutting off their supply lines, Bingzhou, under Yuan Shu's control, had already achieved 100% localization of its grain supply, and the 900,000 registered residents of Bingzhou no longer had to worry about going hungry.

Yuan Shudu even launched a second round of actions to force local powerful families and gentry to hand over their hidden lands and people, and began to "list" the old problems left over from the eighth year of Yanxi to the second year of Jianning.

Yuan Shu has almost revitalized Bingzhou, while Yuan Ji and Chen Xiang are still indulging in the same old dreams they had more than three years ago.

However, they themselves were unaware that they were dreaming, and were actually making intensive preparations for the "decapitation operation" against Yuan Feng, hoping to overthrow the political situation in Luoyang that Yuan Feng and his son Yuan Shu had managed for many years with a decapitation operation.

And that's when something interesting happened.

After Yuan Shu left Luoyang and Yuan Ji returned, Cheng Li, following Yuan Shu's instructions, planted surveillance agents in Yuan Ji's residence. Initially, there were three, but the number gradually increased to six, providing comprehensive surveillance.

Among them, one spies was the smartest and most capable, which is why they did exceptionally well.

Initially, this spy went from the Sikong Mansion to the Taipu Mansion as an ordinary servant of the Yuan family. However, because he worked diligently and conscientiously, was sweet-talking, and knew how to get things done, he quickly gained the appreciation of Yuan Ji's confidant, Yuan Tai, the head steward of the Taipu Mansion.

Yuan Tai trusted Cheng Li's informant implicitly and promoted him all the way up, so at this juncture, this informant was already the second-in-command in the entire Taipu Mansion.

Furthermore, because Yuan Tai was frequently ill, she always entrusted the affairs of the mansion to her informant, so this informant could be said to be the de facto head of the Taipu Mansion's servants.

Therefore, over the years, the Imperial Stud has been completely transparent to Cheng Li, with no secrets from him.

Under these circumstances, Cheng Li could not possibly be unaware of the numerous conversations and secret plots that Yuan Ji, Chen Xiang, and others had held in the Taipu Mansion.

And this time was no exception.

Yuan Ji and Chen Xiang were plotting in a separate room in Yuan Ji's study. The person who served them tea, water, added candles, and brought them food was this informant.

This informant was also assigned by Yuan Ji to keep watch outside and prevent any unauthorized personnel from appearing.

It was this same informant who took Zhang Xiu, who was trying to break away from the group and live a solitary life, to the woodshed and imprisoned him.

In the end, it was this same informant who escorted Chen Xiang, Wang Lei, and the others out of the Imperial Stud.

Therefore, everything they discussed and what happened between them was told to Cheng Li by the informant that very evening. Upon learning this, Cheng Li was overjoyed on the one hand, but also felt that it was a bit outrageous on the other.

How could someone so easily find out about something so serious, something that concerns the lives of so many people?
Don't these people have any backup plans, ways to keep things secret, or any Plan B or Plan C?

(End of this chapter)