I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 41 This kid is so terrifying!
Yuan Shu learned about all the unscrupulous things that Cai had done, and called Han Jin over to listen to Cai Zhen's confession, which made Han Jin break out in a cold sweat.

"Mr. Yuan, I have only been in Maoling for two years. The Cai family incident has been going on for more than 20 years. It did not happen during my tenure. This incident should have nothing to do with me, right?"

Han Jin immediately used the traditional bureaucratic skill of passing the buck.

Yuan Shu didn't want to talk nonsense with him, so he nodded.

"Of course, this matter has nothing to do with County Magistrate Han, but I need County Magistrate Han to report this matter to Lord Shen, let Lord Shen know, and get Lord Shen's support to deal with Cai."

"Yuan Jun, you are not..."

"Kill the chicken to scare the monkey!"

Yuan Shu said coldly: "He is just a local tyrant, but he dares to provoke me. I will make him lose his head!"

Han Jin swallowed his saliva and looked at Yuan Shu with murderous look on his face. He didn't dare to say anything. He wrote the official document according to Yuan Shu's instructions and handed it to Youfufeng Shen Ke.

Of course he could decide on the matter of executing a few people. Although the county magistrate was nothing in front of the big shots, he could still be regarded as a marquis in a certain place.

However, the Cai family has some connections with the big families in other places, and these big families are involved with many people behind them. If we really want to deal with them, we should ask Shen Ke for instructions and assess the risks.

As for Cai Zhen himself, he was doomed to die.

Yuan Shu put Cai Zhen in death row in the name of the county government, and sentenced him to death in the name of Han Jin, and then released the news. Sure enough, the Cai family could not sit still, and the head of the family, Cai Chong, personally came to the county government to meet Han Jin, hoping to find a gap from Han Jin.

But it's useless because this matter was not Han Jin's idea from the beginning to the end.

Han Jin was completely unmoved by Cai Chong's explanation and bribe, as well as the threats to the Jingzhao Du family and Pingling Jia family in his words.

"You can take the money back. It's useless for me to explain. As for Mrs. Du and Mrs. Jia...it's not up to me to decide. I have reported the matter to Lord Shen. Let's see what Lord Shen decides."

Han Jin sneered, "However, hoarding food and driving up food prices during a disaster is not a good thing for anyone. The Cai family is also a powerful family, how could they make such a mistake?"

Of course Cai Chong had no way of telling Han Jin the inside story. He thought Han Jin didn't know and he couldn't tell him either, so he was in a dilemma. Not to mention that this matter had actually been reported to Shen Ke. If Shen Ke intervened, it would not be easy to resolve.

Cai Chong felt a little regretful at this time, thinking that he shouldn't have tested Yuan Shu's bottom line.

But he was also angry, extremely angry, angry that his family's path to growth was blocked by Yuan Shu.

Poor Yuan Shu came up with some kind of agricultural assistance program to give those poor peasants a sigh of relief. He originally wanted to take advantage of the cold winter to freeze a group of peasants to death and then drive away another group, so that the family's land and property could be expanded a lot. However, Yuan Shu intervened and made his plan to expand his family fail.

He was so angry that he sent people to sabotage Yuan Shu's plan, but it didn't stop Yuan Shu and even got his own people involved. It seems that solving this problem is not easy at all.

He was particularly annoyed and felt that Yuan Shu was petty.

You are such a big family like the Yuan family of Runan, is it necessary for you to compete for food with my small family?

If there is not enough food for you in Runan County, why don’t you go and eat from other inland counties and kingdoms? Why do you come to Guanzhong to compete for food with us poor guys?
He was not a fool. He could see that Yuan Shu was definitely behind Han Jin's conspiracy. Cai Zhen was also captured by Yuan Shu's men. So the more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

I can't afford to mess with a tiger like you, but shouldn't you at least leave some food for me?
The old emperor still hypocritically says that he will not compete with the people for profit!

It is obvious that this matter is not easy to resolve at the moment, so Cai Chong can only arrange people to visit Jia and Du with gifts, hoping that the two families can use some of their connections to help him overcome the difficulties.

It can be said that Cai Chong had no idea from beginning to end how he had offended Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shu was already preparing to uproot them, but he was still thinking about finding connections.

And the speed is also very slow.

As for Yuan Shu, Shen Ke already knew about this matter. He was surprised at Yuan Shu's series of actions to intervene in this matter, and was also surprised at Yuan Shu's swift and decisive decision to kill people in order to deter the villains.

Qin Wuyang was thirteen years old when he killed someone, and you, Yuan boy, are not even twelve years old yet. Are you trying to break this record?

But he didn't think there was anything wrong with doing so.

The Cai family is unknown, but they are famous in the county. In his opinion, there is simply no such person. Even if they are the Pingling Jia family and the Jingzhao Du family, what does it matter?

Shen Ke was the one who was about to get on the Yuan family's good side. Yuan Shu informed him before doing anything, which showed respect and care for him, which Shen Ke enjoyed very much.

In addition, we are currently in a critical and sensitive period, and Shen Ke himself is very worried that some people will hoard food and drive up food prices, leading to mass incidents, which would be very detrimental to his official reputation.

Cai was equivalent to walking directly into the muzzle of his gun.

So Shen Ke immediately ordered Han Jin to cooperate with Yuan Shu to arrest Cai and bring him to justice, to serve as a warning to everyone and to warn everyone not to think about hoarding food and driving up food prices.

Youfufeng is not a wealthy place to begin with, and its population is not large, less than 100,000 people. If they do this, what if Shen Ke is left alone?
After Han Jin got Shen Ke's permission, he immediately notified Yuan Shu, who was also clear and told Han Jin that he could start working.

Before taking action, he even made a promotional slogan for this killing operation and decorated the facade very beautifully.

"A benevolent person does not seek profit by taking advantage of danger, and a wise person does not rely on luck to succeed. The rice merchant Cai Zhen hoarded grain and used rumors to trick people into buying grain at high prices in an attempt to make huge profits. He has no mercy at all. It is precisely because there are too many people like this that a large number of hungry people starved to death.

Now many people in Sili and Yuzhou have starved to death. In some counties, four or five out of ten people have starved to death. There are deaths in every household. The cries of mourning resound through the mountains and can be heard several miles away. Those who hear it are sad, and those who see it cry. This is also due to the unscrupulous merchants hoarding grain and raising the price of grain.

Cai Zhen's actions are unforgivable, and the Cai clan's actions are even more unscrupulous. The clan members colluded with bandits, committed banditry, and conspired to rob farmers, leaving them without food. The farmers had no choice but to sell their land at a low price, and then accumulated wealth to become the richest man in the county. Their actions are outrageous, and their crimes are too numerous to list! "

This announcement directly nailed Cai to the guillotine.

Before the Cai family could understand what was happening, they were surrounded by the county government’s armed forces and helpers sent by Yuan Shu, and all the members of the family were arrested.

Cai Chong and his son tried to resist and escape, but failed. Instead, they were shot dead or seven or eight people were injured by archers from the county government.

The Cai clan was thus exterminated. The public charges were that they colluded with bandits, drove up grain prices, and used force to resist arrest by the government. These were extremely serious, so they were reported to Youfufeng Shen Ke, who then reported them to the central government for record. All adult men in the Cai clan were executed, and the underage men and women were sold into slavery, and all their property was confiscated.

An attempt to raise food prices turned out to be a disaster that led to the genocide of the entire clan.

Although Han Jin was in charge of the public action, privately, all the prominent figures in Maoling County knew that this matter was initiated by Yuan Shu.

Cai had offended Yuan Shu and harassed his efforts to help farmers, so he was wiped out.

He is so cruel at such a young age. How strong will he be when he grows up?

This boy is so terrifying!
Yuan Shu's goal of deterring the scoundrels was achieved smoothly.

Throughout May, thanks to Yuan Shu's decisiveness, the grain price in Maoling County remained very stable without any fluctuations.

At the same time, the rumors that people from other places would come to Maoling County to buy low-priced grain did not happen.

Because local authorities have finally taken action.

In other words, the aging central court of the Eastern Han Dynasty finally realized that it had to take action, otherwise it would have caused a huge disaster. Officials in various places followed the court's instructions and began to crack down on the hoarding of grain and raising grain prices.

As a result, profiteers who drove up grain prices were killed in every county in the Sanfu area.

Chang'an County, where Yuan Feng was located, even executed 23 unscrupulous businessmen and punished three members of their family, in order to warn treacherous people not to try to profit from the national crisis.

Han Jin, who was originally a little worried, felt relieved after hearing the news, knowing that he had won the bet with Yuan Shu.

Cracking down on food hoarding and price gouging became politically correct. Han Jin, because of Yuan Shu, became the first person to "cracker down on profiteers who hoarded food and drove up food prices," and was praised by Youfufeng Shen Ke for this.

A true win without any effort.

In early June, news came from Hongnong County that the three ministers were on tour in Guandong and that the famine had been alleviated. Although it was not known whether it was true or not, since such news came from the court, it was enough to restore stability to the grain market in the three prefectures.

Moreover, the rumor that millions of starving people would rush to Kansai did not actually happen, so Kansai managed to get through this wave of food crisis without any major problems.

The best performing county, of course, was Maoling County, Youfufeng.

Compared with other counties which experienced more or less price gouging, food snatching and deaths, no one starved to death in Maoling County from beginning to end, and no one was injured in the fight for food.

Only one family that tried to profit from the national disaster was destroyed.

This situation not only earned Han Jin praise from Shen Ke, but Shen Ke also wrote a memorial to the court about Han Jin's case - which, of course, also included Yuan Shu's case.

Shen Ke learned from various channels that Yuan Shu's decisive actions and the organization of the Farmers' Assistance Association were the main factors for Maoling County to smoothly overcome the food crisis, and Han Jin was just providing a name. Therefore, while praising Han Jin, he also emphasized Yuan Shu's role.

Shen Ke even sent someone to inform Yuan Feng about this matter, fearing that Yuan Feng didn't know about it. His intention to curry favor with him was very obvious.

After Shen Ke's memorial entered Luoyang, it was soon noticed by someone with ulterior motives. The Yuan family forces in Luoyang city quickly took action, relying on the channel of the eunuch Yuan She, and went all the way up. The eunuch Cao Jie delivered the memorial to the desk of Emperor Huan Liu Zhi, where Liu Zhi saw it.

"Yuan Shu is only twelve years old, but he can actually do such a thing? Could it be that a child prodigy really exists?"

Liu Zhi, who had been fighting with court officials all the time, had some free time. He read the memorial from Youfufeng and became very interested. Then he turned his eyes and looked at Cao Jie.

"This memorial was sent to me. Did you receive a benefit or did Shen Ke receive a benefit?"

Cao Jie bowed and saluted.

"I dare not, Your Majesty. This incident happened in the Three Auxiliary Regions. When grain prices were raised and hungry people were rioting in many places, only Maoling County remained stable. Among them, Yuan Shu really put in a lot of effort and made great contributions. Because he was young, he was written about in great detail.

Your Majesty, I have heard that in ancient times, various auspicious signs would appear under the rule of sage emperors. Now, Yuan Shu, a mere child, can understand the state of the country and share the worries of the emperor. Isn't this a good thing for the country and Your Majesty? The birth of a child prodigy is an auspicious sign sent down by God because he understands Your Majesty's hard work in state affairs! "

Liu Zhi did not comment on this, just smiled, read the memorial again, and then slowly put it down.

"Don't lie to me. If it was anyone else, it would be fine, but it has to be the son of the Yuan family. I find it strange. Why do child prodigies always come from wealthy families?"

"That is the truth, and I don't know why."

Cao Jie smiled and said, "I have also heard that this little prodigy is a disciple of the famous scholar Ma Rong, and is admired by Ma Rong and the famous scholar Fa Zhen from Guanxi. He is also known as the undefeated Yuan Prodigy in debates. I think with such a great reputation, if it was fake, it would have been exposed long ago."

"That's it..."

Liu Zhi held his chin and thought for a while. He was silent for a while, then slowly said, "Then give Yuan Shu some rewards in the name of the court, praise his deeds, and then publicize it to the outside world, so that they can behave themselves a little and stop always going against me."

"The minister obeys the order!"

Cao Ji was secretly happy, but he never showed it on his face.

He knew that Liu Zhi was in a bad mood because he lost the competition with the ministers for the queen. This matter happened to be a good thing and quite fresh, so he brought it up to help Liu Zhi cheer up.

Sure enough, Liu Zhi didn't think this matter was really important, nor did he think Yuan Shu was really that awesome. He just felt that Yuan Shu, as a member of the Yuan family, had value in being used by him.

You want your children to become famous so that you can bring them to the emperor and let the emperor act as your supporting actor.

Okay, I'll take it.

Then I want to do something next. Shouldn’t you, Yuan, also contribute?

This is just like doing business. It is interesting only when there is give and take. If only one company takes everything, there will be no next business. Liu Zhi believes that Yuan will understand this.

(End of this chapter)