I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 69 Conscience Farm
After returning to the thatched cottage, Xu Chong had already prepared a plate of egg teppanyaki rice, which was steaming hot and waiting for Yuan Shu to come and eat it.

This teppanyaki egg rice is also a new way of eating delicious food that Yuan Shu has come up with over the past few years.

The main reason was that he really missed fried rice with egg, and fried rice with egg was not on the list of restricted diets for those in mourning, or it did not exist at all at this time, so he had no scruples.

Making an iron pan requires some skills and is currently difficult to make, so Yuan Shu asked the blacksmiths of Yi Xin Steel Co., Ltd. to make an iron plate for barbecue.

There is no fried rice, but teppanyaki rice is also rice!
As for the rice, it was wheat and millet at first. Although it was edible, the taste was limited. As Yuan Shu ate it, he always felt that it didn't taste right.

Later, Yuan Shu heard that some places in Guanzhong had introduced Huainan rice, and even places like Youzhou had introduced rice. So he sent people to find seeds, planted them himself, and ate them himself, and the taste was not bad.

The leftover rice from last night was heated up on a iron plate this morning and added with eggs to make iron plate rice. It was delicious and Yuan Shu and Xu Chong both loved it very much.

The main reason is that both of them are at the age of growing up and eating, but they don’t know what it means to be full.

One of them was holding a huge bowl and slurping down rice, gobbling it up in big mouthfuls as if he had never eaten before, and only after he had finished every last grain of rice did he put down the bowl in satisfaction.

After dinner and a rest, Yuan Shu and Xu Chong left the thatched cottage and headed for Liangzhuang.

After arriving at Liangzhuang, Yuan Shu saw Cheng Li, who looked anxious, at the door of the Yi Xin Hui headquarters office.

Cheng Li saw Yuan Shu coming from afar and was overjoyed, and hurried to meet him.

"Master, you are finally here. I was so anxious!"

Seeing Cheng Li's anxious face, Yuan Shu smiled.

"Zhongde, why are you so anxious? Can those eunuchs really take my life?"

"You can't say that!"

Cheng Li hurriedly said, "Those eunuchs are really willing to kill people, and many people know that there are party members taking refuge here. I am very worried that someone will leak this news to outsiders. By then, even if Lord Du is an old official of the Yuan family, I am afraid he will have a hard time getting through this!"

"Zhongde, I know you are anxious, but please don't be anxious yet."

As Yuan Shu walked into the headquarters mansion, he slowly said, "Those eunuchs are not as scary as you think. If they were really that scary, would there be so many people in the world who dare to oppose them openly or secretly? They are just tyrannical for a while, and they will be punished sooner or later."

"How late is early?"

Cheng Li said helplessly: "You always seem to be so wise. I often feel worried about you, but you don't care at all. The ancients said that a son of a wealthy family should not sit in the hall. You should pay more attention to it."

Yuan Shu brought Cheng Li into the president's office and closed the door. Suddenly, Yuan Shu and Cheng Li were the only ones left in the office.

"There are so many sons of wealthy families, how can I be the only one?"

Yuan Shu shook his head and said slowly: "You also know all those who know about the existence of the party members, and you have also kept an eye on them. As long as we don't have any problems internally, it won't be difficult to solve the external problems. What kind of people are the eunuchs? Are they difficult to deal with?"

Yuan Shuyou realized that most of the people who failed in history were due to failure to keep secrets. He thought that what he was going to do in the future would be very difficult and dangerous, so there must not be any traitors in the team.

After comprehensive consideration, Yuan Shu took a fancy to Cheng Li, who came alone to join the army, and decided to secretly set up an intelligence team to monitor internal affairs and conduct external investigations.

The members of the intelligence team were selected from the refugees who had taken refuge with Yuan Shu, and the intelligence team was handed over to Cheng Li for command.

Cheng Li acts in the public capacity of the president's secretary, but his real responsibility is to lead the intelligence team and collect internal and external intelligence to ensure Yuan Shu's safety.

Cheng Li was very surprised at Yuan Shu's appointment. He never thought that Yuan Shu would use him, who had just joined the army, to take on such an important task. He was surprised and confused by this.

Yuan Shu solved his puzzle very easily.

"As the ancients said, don't doubt people when you employ them, and don't employ people you doubt. Since I have decided to employ you, I completely trust you. I hope you will not let me down."

Having said this, Cheng Li was speechless. He was deeply moved and felt that he was very lucky to have met a "wise leader" like Yuan Shu.

Speaking of which, Cheng Li's process of joining Yuan Shu was indeed quite tortuous.

Cheng Li, who lacked opportunities for advancement due to his family background, wanted to make progress very much, but could not find a way. By chance, he got a copy of "Mencius Interpretation". After studying it, he was greatly shocked and felt that the confusion in his heart was struck.

Unable to bear the urge to go, he set out from his hometown and prepared to go to Guanzhong to study under Yuan Shu.

However, the journey was dangerous and full of twists and turns. He experienced banditry, attacks by hungry people, extortion by officials, etc. It took him a year to finally reach Maoling from his hometown.

When he arrived at Maoling, three of the five guards who had accompanied him when he set out had died and two had escaped. He was now alone, in tattered clothes, with a pale face and thin body. If you didn't know him, you would have thought he had returned from the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures.

But his efforts were not in vain.

Although Yuan Shu was in mourning at the time, he was very moved after hearing about Cheng Li's story. He went to meet him in person. After asking about his courtesy name, he realized that he was the ruthless Cheng Yu.

Needless to say, how could I let go of a hardcore ruthless person who had gone through so much trouble to serve me?

With a series of smooth moves, Yuan Shu made Cheng Li sigh that he had come to the right place. Then Cheng Li became Yuan Shu's secretary, was entrusted with the important task of intelligence, and was promised a bright future by Yuan Shu.

In this way, Cheng Li's heart was completely tied to Yuan Shu. He respected and was grateful to Yuan Shu, and even felt a little bit of love for him. He was afraid that Yuan Shu would get bumped or hurt, and his hopes for the future would disappear along with him.

So seeing Yuan Shu not caring, he was of course worried. "For you, the pressure from the eunuchs is certainly not a big deal."

Cheng Li sighed, "But for most people in the world, eunuchs are evil spirits. When it comes to killing people, they really kill, and they are completely merciless. Many noble families have been wiped out by them. You must be careful!"

Seeing Cheng Li admonishing him like a mother telling her child to wear long johns, Yuan Shu felt very depressed.

This guy is only fourteen years older than Yuan Shu, and not even thirty years old. How come he has awakened his motherly attributes so quickly?

Others may not know, but doesn’t Cheng Li know how much Yuan Shu’s power has grown in the past few years?
Since he began to observe mourning, Yuan Shu has been sitting behind the scenes, remotely directing the specific development of Yi Xin Hui, secretly expanding the power of Yi Xin Hui, and making primitive accumulations for his future plans.

So far, he has accumulated considerable personal power, which is considerable even if it is separated from the Runan Yuan family.

One of the operations was to adopt the advice of his cheap father Yuan Feng, helping to hide party members, make friends with various celebrities, and gain excessive fame.

Purchasing land to build a "Conscience Farm" to accommodate refugees, reclaim wasteland, and restore agricultural production is an operation.

Using Liangzhuang as a base to train armed troops and enhance their ability to defend themselves is also an operation.

After writing "Mencius Interpretation", he wrote "On Knowledge and Action", thoroughly establishing the School of Mind as his representative doctrine. This was another operation that absorbed and digested all the academic foundation left by Ma Rong and turned it into his own academic group.

Among these operations, Yuan Shu did not think that making friends with party members and enhancing his reputation were the most important.

He believed that the most important operation was to obtain a large amount of land in Youfufeng through official means in a reasonable and legal manner, and to build his own industry, or that of the Yixin Society - the "Conscience Farm".

Referred to as Liangzhuang.

The reason why Yuan Shu planned to cultivate the land and build a good village in Youfufeng was because of two things that had a great impact on him.

One of them is a war.

After the Qiang raid in the spring of the first year of the Yongkang reign, Yuan Shu had only a few days of peace in the summer before the Qiang came again.

There were more Qiang people coming that time, and their goal was more clear. They went directly to Yongying and Chang'anying.

The two camps of Han troops were caught off guard and the battle was at a disadvantage. Their camps were breached, and more than 500 people from each camp were killed in the battle. The total loss reached more than 1,000 people, and there were countless injuries.

After one battle, the two camps of Han troops basically lost their combat effectiveness.

Maoling County continued the previous general mobilization under the leadership of Yuan Shu.

With the experience from the last time, the county residents were not so panicked this time. They packed their luggage in an orderly manner and entered the county town to take refuge.

And the armed forces that have received training have become stronger.

Lu Zhi and Lian Da led 600 people to defend the city, with 1,500 as reserve. All members of the Yi Xin Society took charge of logistics. The people of the entire county shared a common hatred of the enemy and defended Maoling County like an iron barrel.

That time, the Qiang people came with more than 500 cavalrymen.

Seeing that Maoling County was well-prepared with traps and chevaux de frise, and that there were many soldiers on the city walls with flags flying, they did not dare to attack and retreated in disappointment.

However, the farms of the Qi and Liu families, two local wealthy families in Maoling County, were attacked by Qiang cavalry. Their defenses were breached and the two wealthy families were looted and massacred.

Maoling County suffered the least losses.

Gaoling, Pingling and Mei County all suffered losses to varying degrees.

Everyone thought that the Qiang people should be satisfied now and would not come again in the short term.

What was unexpected was that after the two battalions of soldiers were defeated, the court had no time to replenish them, and in the winter of the first year of Yongkang, the Qiang people came again.

The scale was larger and the number of people was greater, reaching 20,000 to 30,000, and they once again swept across the Sanfu area. This time, they simply did not retreat on their own initiative, but instead attacked cities and killed Han people everywhere.

Within one year, the Qiang people attacked the Sanfu area three times!

Even the landlord’s donkey will be exhausted!
But the Qiang people did not. They were full of vigor and vitality, and with the pleasure of robbery and revenge, they rushed forward and ravaged the three prefectures.

Yuan Shu used the same old trick again and guarded Maoling County like an iron barrel.

At that time, after a period of military training and personnel replenishment, the number of militarily trained warriors within the Yi Xin Society who were able to go up to the city and fight reached more than 700.

Including more than 200 archers from the county government, the official city defenders reached a thousand people, and the emergency reserve team reached two thousand people, so the city defense force was relatively sufficient.

Lu Zhi and Lian Da arranged everything with ease, and there was no need for Yuan Shu to intervene deeply. Han Jin simply lay down and handed over the defense of the entire city to Lu Zhi and Lian Da.

But that time was also the most thrilling one.

Because at the beginning, five thousand Qiang soldiers headed directly for Maoling County.

(End of this chapter)