I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 71 If I don’t take over, who will?
Most of the political resources of the previous head of the family, Yuan Tang, were given to Yuan Feng.

Yuan Tang's eldest son Yuan Cheng had a bad fate and died earlier than Yuan Tang. So after Yuan Tang's death, most of the inheritance was given to Yuan Feng, and a small part was given to Yuan Wei.

Yuan Cheng's successor Yuan Shao was still young at that time and had no need for these things at all. For a long time, Yuan Feng held the main resources of the Yuan family.

Therefore, it is not impossible for Yuan Feng to make some adjustments to allow Yuan Shu to gain more political resources.

If the operation was really successful, the conditions for Yuan Shu to set up his own family would definitely be much better than the conditions that Yuan Liang and Yuan Chang, father and son, had when they set up the Yuan family of Runan.

After this matter was confirmed, Yuan Shu was determined to stay in Youfufeng to develop his own power and decided to lay the foundation of the future "Fufeng Yuan Family" here.

However, Yuan Feng was still a little worried. He still felt that Youfufeng was not safe enough and wanted Yuan Shu to move to another place to develop.

"Shu, if you really have such an idea, your father will support you, but the Guanzhong area is difficult and dangerous, and there are threats from the Qiang and Xiongnu. Whether it is Youfufeng or Jingzhaoyin, it is difficult to say that it is a place to make a living. Your father still suggests that you choose Hongnong County. What do you think?"

Yuan Shu thought about it and shook his head.

They have all decided to embark on a lofty path of rebellion. The safer the place, the more dangerous it is, and the more dangerous the place, the safer it is. Yuan Shu is not unaware of this.

Guanzhong and Liangzhou are indeed dangerous and there will be unrest from time to time, but unrest means insufficient ruling power, which means the possibility of the court's constraints is reduced, which means that operability is greatly increased.

Chaos is the ladder, whether it is for those of humble origins or those of noble births.

Anyone who wants to achieve something will naturally have very limited success without the help of chaos.

Moreover, he gained crucial growth here, and his mentor Ma Rong is buried here.

He also fought here, and more than a hundred Yi Xin members who followed and protected him died in the battle, and their blood was spilled on this land.

So Yuan Shu rejected Yuan Feng's kindness, and said that if he really set up his own business, he would definitely be in Maoling or Youfufeng. Otherwise, Yuan Shu would always feel that he was sorry for those who died because they believed in him.

Yuan Feng did not force it.

He felt that Yuan Shu had indeed grown a lot after experiencing a war, and it was natural for him to have feelings for this land, so he did not dissuade him further.

Afterwards, Yuan Shu began to actively build Liangzhuang.

It should be said that Yuan Shu's process of acquiring land in Youfufeng was very smooth.

The main reason is that Youfufeng is such a large area, but the registered population is less than 100,000, and most of the land is abandoned and unowned. It has also become an area of net population outflow due to the war, so even if you want to give away land, you can’t find anyone to give it to, so the land price naturally cannot be very high.

It is rare that Mr. Yuan is kind-hearted and willing to spend some money to buy these lands and resume production. This is really a good thing for local finances.

Yuan Shu would have to bear all the risks that would follow. If he was attacked by the Qiang people or robbed by bandits, the government would not compensate for the losses.

So Shen Ke kindly advised Yuan Shu not to buy so much land at the beginning. If he wanted to buy any, he should not buy it in Youfufeng. Some things are cheap for a reason. He was worried that Yuan Shu would not be able to manage the land and would end up losing all his money.

Yuan Shu smiled and said righteously: The Han Dynasty is in danger, and taking over for the country is the right thing to do! If I don't take over, who will?
You Fu Fengdu was filled with awe and looked at Yuan Shu with admiration, saying that it was a great blessing for His Majesty the Emperor that a great injustice... no, a great good man of noble birth like you could appear in the Han Dynasty!
He had no idea that Yuan Shu was preparing to raise an army, so without saying a word, he half sold and half gave away 100 hectares of land to Yuan Shu at a relatively low price, and quickly completed the handover procedures, delivered the land quickly, and received the sale proceeds, for fear that Yuan Shu would go back on his word.

To maintain an army, you need people, land, food, equipment, training space, and other daily expenses, and the prerequisite for all of this is to have a base of your own.

Liangzhuang was Yuan Shu’s base.

He spent money to buy so much land that he could start military farming and build up his own armed forces.

With land and money, he could gather displaced persons and refugees, gather the scattered population into his own farm, and provide them with living supplies and means of production.

Then, they are part of Liangzhuang and are die-hard supporters of Yuan Shu and Yi Xin Hui.

The members of Yi Xin Hui are the backbone of Yuan Shu, and the farmers in Liang Zhuang are their flesh and blood. On the one hand, the banner of helping farmers is flying high, and on the other hand, human and material resources are accumulated secretly.

There are many growing agricultural talents under the Yixin Society. With the support of Yuan Shu and the Yixin Society, they have sufficient supplies, so they practice the Daitian method, promote agricultural tools and ox-drawn plowing, and pass on the most advanced farming techniques to the farmers in Liangzhuang.

These operations have greatly improved the agricultural production level in Liangzhuang, making the grain output in Liangzhuang much higher than that in other regions.

In addition, Yi Xin Hui also has a supporting Yi Xin Steel Co., Ltd.

After Liangzhuang was established, Yuan Shu moved the two workshops located in Youfufeng and Jingzhaoyin to Liangzhuang, and from then on he mainly provided high-quality agricultural tools for Liangzhuang.

As time went by, Liangzhuang took in more and more refugees and displaced persons, even Qiang people fleeing from Qiang land. Yuan Shu accepted them all without hesitation and allowed them to live together with the Han people.

As the population increased, the land needed to be increased. In the following two years, Yuan Shu purchased more wasteland in batches under the banner of helping farmers and restoring production.

These actions also went very smoothly.

The main reason is that the newly appointed You Fu Fengdu was a former official of the Yuan family, and he was even more willing to ask for anything from Yuan Shu. Moreover, Yuan Shu's management of the good farm and restoration of production were good things for the local area, which would retain the population and increase prosperity.

Moreover, Yuan Shu was different from other playboys. He was very law-abiding and did not forget to pay taxes to the government. Every quarter, he sent all the taxes to the government steadily and not a bit less. As a result, Yuan Shu and Liangzhuang left a very good impression in the Youfufeng official system.

How could Du Ze, a former official of the Yuan family, refuse something that would benefit both himself and Yuan Shu?

Half sold and half given away, Du Ze handed over another 130 hectares of unowned farmland and wasteland to Yuan Shu's Liangzhuang, which doubled the size of Liangzhuang. Yuan Shu also accepted a larger number of Han and Hu refugees from Sanfu, Hanzhong and even Liangzhou into Liangzhuang.

From the end of the first year of Yongkang to the third year of Jianning, a period of almost two years, Liangzhuang accepted more than 8,000 households and more than 45,000 people to farm and live there.

With land, food and people, we have the initial foundation for establishing an army and can then raise a serious armed force to protect ourselves.

Yuan Shu did the same.

The Yi Xin Hui Security Department is the department that Yuan Shu pays the most attention to and is also the department he is directly responsible for. This department is the foundation of the army he is building.

Initially, the Security Department had only 350 members. After the expansion, there were 800 official members and 2,500 peripheral assistants, with a total number of 3,300 people.

Formal members are easy to understand. They are people with a regular position. They are all members of Yi Xin Hui and have an interest in the military. Even if they cannot become officials through the channels of filial piety and integrity or outstanding talent in the future, they can still enter the official career and obtain an official position through special subjects such as bravery and knowledge of military tactics.

In a sense, they are Liangzhuang's "professional soldiers".

They are not only proficient in martial arts, but also understand military tactics, have complete skills and tactics, and are both civil and military. They are an absolutely high-quality group and are "professional soldiers" who are very close to well-educated modern professional soldiers.

Because of the agreement between Yuan Shu and Dong Xuan, they all received serious training in archery and horsemanship. Even if they did not become officers, they could become technical soldiers.

The external assistants are all from farmers' families in Liangzhuang.

They usually need to engage in production, but during the slack season they will follow the formal members to participate in military training, which in a sense is to combine farming with soldiers, and to farm and fight at the same time.

Moreover, after the battle in the winter of the first year of Yongkang, Yuan Shu no longer ignored the imperial ban and privately ordered the steel workshop of Yi Xin Hui to forge armor and crossbows.

Although the imperial court had issued an order prohibiting private ownership of armor and crossbows, that was only for ordinary people. For someone of Yuan Shu's level, as long as he didn't show them off openly and let others see them and the royal family know about it, it would be the same as not having them.

Moreover, being in Youfufeng and running such a large industry, facing threats from Qiang, Xiongnu, Xianbei and all kinds of bandits, how could they gain a foothold without these armed forces?

After the chaos in Sanfu, the newly appointed Youfu Feng Du Ze also understood the critical situation here. Yuan Shu did not completely deceive Du Ze, but told Du Ze that he had fifty suits of armor and three hundred bows and crossbows.

Du Ze was not surprised.

In private, he said to Yuan Shu - you have it, and the government knows it's not easy for you, so they turn a blind eye. But you should not reveal it casually, otherwise the government will have a hard time explaining it.

In fact, for Du Ze, he was also very happy that Liangzhuang had such a combat force in the gray area.

Because this means that even if he does not have enough directly-controlled armed forces and even if he does not have military funds, he can still deal with some less serious military conflicts by relying on the armed forces of Liangzhuang.

After Zhang Huan's attack and before Duan Xing's attack, the three prefectures represented by Youfufeng were in a state of extreme lack of military strength.
The Yongying Camp, Youfufeng's most important military armed force, was destroyed. Before it had time to rest and recuperate, it was besieged by the Qiang people again. The soldiers in the camp suffered heavy losses and could hardly continue fighting, and urgently needed to be rebuilt.

But reconstruction is progressing slowly.

The new captain requested the court to allocate funds to send people several times, but all requests fell on deaf ears.

Du Ze was also panicked, fearing that the Qiang people would make a comeback and he would not have the power to protect himself.

But after the Liangzhuang troops appeared, he had someone to rely on.

He is protecting the armed forces of Liangzhuang, and Liangzhuang will also protect his personal safety, right?

Therefore, Du Ze made an agreement with Yuan Shu that if anything happened, the armed forces of Liangzhuang would be directly pulled out to serve as the armed forces directly under Youfufeng, and they would be given an official status and temporarily commanded by the government. This would be a good thing for both the government and Liangzhuang.

To this end, Du Ze would regularly provide military equipment assistance to the Liangzhuang troops, helping to arm and train them, making them more like regular troops.

(End of this chapter)