Three Kingdoms: Let Yuan Shen be great again

"Your Highness, executing those powerful figures in the name of traitors is the most brilliant method I have seen in recent years!"

After the public trial at Wancheng Square concluded successfully, Huang Yi was filled with admiration for Yuan Yao.

That was a really brilliant move.

As the saying goes, the eyes of the people are discerning. Those anthropomorphic figures on trial already had a notorious reputation among the people. Now that everyone sees these wicked and evil-doers being arrested and making a fool of themselves during the trial, they are overjoyed and the cheers have never stopped.

With this one move, Yuan Yao instantly reversed his disadvantage in public opinion. Previously, everyone was speculating about conspiracy theories and whether there were any hidden secrets behind Liu Xun's rebellion, or whether Yuan Yao was manipulating everything. Presumably, such phenomena will be greatly reduced in the future.

The gains in public support were merely incidental.

The biggest gain, of course, was seizing all the wealth accumulated by those five powerful families over decades or even centuries through confiscation, making a fortune, including but not limited to copper coins, gold and silver, grain, land, livestock, clothing, weapons, and so on.

And the population, which Yuan Yao was most concerned about.

The tenant farmers and servants who had been imprisoned by the powerful families, as well as the hidden households, were all unearthed this time, totaling more than three thousand people.

The number of over three thousand may not seem like much at first glance, but it is not. Firstly, more than half of them are high-quality young adults. Secondly, they have long suffered from severe oppression by powerful figures and are extremely grateful to Yuan Yao for rescuing them, immediately becoming Yuan Yao's most steadfast base.

So Yuan Yao was very happy and grinned from ear to ear.

Huang Yi, however, looked worried and asked the question that Yan Xiang and Liu Ye had previously worried about: "Your Highness, our methods are so ruthless, won't that make other powerful families feel a sense of shared vulnerability and trigger a large-scale backlash?"

In response, Yuan Yao smiled confidently and said, "Don't worry, it won't happen."

That's why he used the pretext of eliminating harm for the people to hold a public trial.

There are indeed many powerful families in Lujiang County, perhaps nearly a hundred in number, but this does not mean that they will unconditionally stand on the same side and protect and support each other simply because they are all called powerful families.

On the contrary, Yuan Yao painstakingly selected five outrageously expensive and rotten items to mislead others into thinking that they were different from them, and even to believe that such unseemly and disgraceful things should have been dealt with long ago.

In addition, Yuan Yao auctioned off most of the valuable items that were difficult to circulate, after taking them into the national treasury and distributing them proportionally to the rescued civilians. This gave other wealthy families a considerable discount and also appeased and won them over to some extent.

Ultimately, Yuan Yaoming swiftly and decisively eliminated five powerful families, yet there was almost no opposition within the entire Lujiang County, and everyone was quite satisfied.

Anyway, I didn't hear what the most dissatisfied group was saying.

Thus, the newly established Zhong regime was finally on the right track, and the entire Huainan region gradually began to recover. Yuan Yao firmly grasped the two words of farming and warfare, encouraging production on one hand and training troops for war on the other. Whenever he was short of money, he would go and pick two powerful families to win gold coins. Such a great situation can only be described as full of vitality and thriving.

So much so that when Yuan Yao had nothing else to do, he even started to pay attention to international affairs and offer his opinions.

It was August of the fourth year of Jian'an. Cao Cao was advancing on Liyang and was still confronting the menacing Yuan Shao. Meanwhile, Liu Bei on his flank was constantly harassing him from the direction of Xuzhou, forcing Cao Cao to send Zang Ba with a portion of elite troops to assist in the defense.

This was precisely the important matter that Yuan Yao was concerned about. Although Huainan was in the reconstruction phase and temporarily unable to send troops to help, he could still offer advice to the other families as a master of rhetoric.

After more than a month, all my efforts were in vain.

Yuan Yao wrote to Yuan Shao, suggesting that his uncle should quickly send troops south, while the Zhong family would provide support and sabotage, like sandwiching cheese between two loaves of bread, to annihilate the increasingly powerful and uncontrollable Cao Cao in one fell swoop.

Yuan Shao has read the message but has not replied.

When Yuan Yao heard that Cao Cao was recruiting Zhang Xiu from Nanyang, he quickly wrote a letter to Zhang Xiu, saying that Zhang Xiu had a deep hatred for Cao Cao and that even if Cao Cao could tolerate him, his son would settle scores with him after Cao Cao died. He should be very careful.

The messenger had only gone halfway when he heard that Zhang Xiu had killed the messenger sent by Yuan Shao, and he was so frightened that he immediately fled.

The most infuriating person was Liu Bei.

Since successfully seizing power through a coup, Yuan Yao wrote no fewer than ten letters to Liu Bei, urging them to join forces against Cao Cao from various angles and for various reasons, but Liu Bei simply wouldn't listen.

Yuan Yao was furious. Just because the Zhong clan had usurped the title of emperor and were considered traitors, did Liu Bei refuse to cooperate with them?

That's incredibly narrow-minded!

On this day, Yang Hong suddenly rushed over to report that Mi Zhu, the envoy of Liu Bei's army, had arrived.

Yuan Yao was overjoyed and immediately summoned Mi Zhu.

"Master Zizhong!" Yuan Yao asked with a smile, "Has Lord Xuande finally come to his senses and is willing to join forces with me against Cao Cao?"

"Young Master Yuan, you misunderstand." Mi Zhu's expression immediately became somewhat awkward: "I've come to discuss business with your army, intending to purchase some military rations."

Yuan Yao's face immediately fell.

Upon seeing this, Mi Zhu quickly explained the whole story, stating that his lord was not trying to trick Yuan Yao, but had a different reason.

That is, Cao Cao gradually stabilized the Yellow River front and began to deal with the unstable factors in the rear, and specially dispatched generals Liu Dai and Wang Zhong to attack Liu Bei in Xuzhou.

Yuan Yao thought to himself, "This Wang Zhong isn't from the Ant Empire, so what do you, Liu Bei, have to be afraid of?"

"Indeed, we are not afraid," Mi Zhu said. "My lord regards Liu Daiwang as nothing, and even if a hundred of them came, it would be no problem. However, Xuzhou is devastated, and the people are displaced..."

Yuan Yao roughly understood. Mi Zhu meant that no matter how incompetent Liu Dai and Wang Zhong were, they would still suffer losses in a war. Xuzhou had been ravaged by war for years and was even worse off than Huainan. Liu Bei couldn't bear to take food from the people, so he wanted to ask Yuan Yao if he would be willing to sell him some.

Of course I would.

Yuan Yao had dealt with many local tyrants and bullies recently, and his grain reserves were indeed somewhat surplus, so he could take the opportunity to make a profit at a high price.

Anyway, the Mi family has plenty of money.

Since they weren't there to discuss an alliance, Yuan Yao had little interest and put Yang Hong in charge of negotiating the grain trade, knowing that this scoundrel would definitely not let Mi Zhu take advantage of him.

However, Yuan Yao did not completely ignore the situation. He persevered and fought on despite repeated defeats. He wrote another letter and asked Mi Zhu to deliver it to Liu Bei.

This time, the alliance was not discussed again. Instead, Liu Bei was given a very practical warning not to be careless. Although Liu Dai and Wang Zhong were not a threat, Liu Bei should not think that Cao Cao was nothing special just because he had defeated them. Otherwise, he would become an arrogant army, and an arrogant army will inevitably be defeated.

In short, Yuan Yao repeatedly warned Liu Bei that Cao Cao would definitely personally lead an expedition to Xuzhou in the future, and that he must avoid Cao Cao's sharp edge and never try to win a decisive battle in the field.

Several days after Mi Zhu left, Liu Bei's reply arrived.

There is only one sentence above—

Liu Bei: "Should I avoid his sharp edge?"