Yuan Shang was drinking wine one cup after another. Hong knelt down carefully and held up the wine pot. Seeing Yuan Shang put down the empty wine glass, she quickly raised her hand to fill it up.
Yuan Shang glanced sideways at Mr. Hong, feeling a little irritated. Logically speaking, Ms. Hong was also a beauty and had a very docile temperament, but they had been married for three years and still had nothing to do.
The Hong family always felt that it was her own fault, and she tried to get a concubine for Yuan Shang, but Yuan Shang refused, and the Hong family became even more grateful.
But Yuan Shang's idea is that if he takes a concubine and can't produce any children, he has no legitimate reason to divorce his wife!
At present, Yuan Shang has not divorced the Hong family for the time being because of Yuan's reputation.
When Mrs. Hong saw Yuan Shang drinking wine one cup after another, and in the blink of an eye the pot of wine was empty again, she couldn't help but whisper: "Husband, drinking too much is harmful to your health, so why not drink less..."
Yuan Shang glared at Ms. Hong, who quickly lowered her head and trembled slightly.
A corner of her sleeve was lifted up, revealing a jade wrist, but there were several shocking scars on it.
When Yuan Shang saw it, he frowned slightly and said, "Go down first and wrap it up properly, lest others see it and criticize it!"
Hong quickly responded and retreated cautiously.
Yuan Shang opened the cabinet next to him, and the bottle of Five Stones Powder was still there. His eyes were gloomy. What kind of magic medicine? That Taoist priest is a liar!
The second brother took the medicine, but didn't see any effects in the end. Later, he became confused and tried it himself, but found that it had no effect!
I must have been deceived. This medicine is fake and has no effect on my second brother!
He lowered his head and pondered.
The second brother is now a bigger threat. Even if he does not join forces with Yuan Tan, this hidden danger must be dealt with in time.
I regret that I was deceived by him for so long. I thought that my second brother was a coward and incompetent person, but I didn't expect that he was hiding it so deeply!
Xu You, Pang Ji and Shen Pei have all proposed to adopt Yuan Xi as soon as possible and cut off Yuan Tan's great help.
When Yuan Xi becomes Yuan Ji's branch, it will be separated from Yuan Shao's branch. Even if Yuan Xi occupies Youzhou, his troops, horses, money and food will all be mobilized by Yuan Shang and can be taken back at any time!
In this way, Yuan Xi will be tightly controlled by Yuan Shang and will be forced to break up with Yuan Tan!
If Yuan Xi refuses to hand over his troops, Yuan Shangda can use his mother Liu to encourage Yuan Shao and let Yuan Tan attack Yuan Xi.
Don't the two of them have to be obedient by then?
A plan to drive away tigers and devour wolves!
In Yuan Xi's house, Wu Zhao was squatting next to the clay stove to boil water.
The water in the copper pot started rolling, and the spout made a whining sound. Yuan Xi turned his head slightly when he heard the sound, and thought of Wu Zhao making a similar sound in the dead of night, and couldn't help but laugh.
Naturally, Wu Zhao didn't know Yuan Xi's dirty thoughts. She stood up, lifted the copper kettle, poured the boiling water into the tea bowl, but stared at the rolling tea leaves in a daze.
Yuan Xi said aloud: "What are you thinking about?"
Wu Zhao turned around and said, "The girl from the Zhen family is very nice."
"Master, please don't let her down."
Yuan Xi didn't know the reason, so he nodded and said, "That's natural."
Wu Zhao said softly: "There is no news about the marriage yet?"
"No," Yuan Xi said in a deep voice, "I'm afraid that my third brother is thinking about how to adopt me. I'm afraid that he thinks that this way, the Zhen family will look down on me, and the marriage will naturally fall through."
Wu Zhao sighed and said, "Nowadays, there are undercurrents surging in Ye City and the situation is unclear. It would be great if there were advisers to advise the young master."
Yuan Xi smiled and said: "It's not so easy to bribe counselors. They are all the best among the great scholar families."
"And a counselor is in charge of the overall situation and needs to know all the secrets. It is very difficult to find someone who I can completely trust."
"Besides, all the great counselors have obvious problems."
Wu Zhao became interested, "How do you say this?"
Yuan Xi thought for a while and said: "The selection process is arbitrary, Xu You is greedy for money, Guo Tu is vacillating, Pang Ji is arrogant, Xin Pi is repetitive, and Xun Chen is suspicious."
"Ju Shou is good at both civil and military affairs, while Tian Feng is autistic and stubborn. These two people have the most ideas and are extremely difficult to persuade."
"I think it's better to let nature take its course. They have been under my father's command for a long time, and their horizons and appetites have become very high. They cannot be bribed easily."
"I thought about it and decided to go to Puyang City again in the next few days."
Wu Zhao's heart skipped a beat: "Going to see Marquis Wen?"
"If General Qu is not around, will there be any danger?"
Yuan Xi laughed and said: "It doesn't matter, my hidden tiger's prediction has come true, and he has benefited a lot from it, and he will not be disadvantageous to me for the time being."
"Then I'll go with you." Wu Zhao said.
Seeing Wu Zhao's firm gaze, Yuan Xi had no choice but to say: "That's fine, I'll ask a few guards outside the city to prepare carriages in advance."
A few days later, Yuan Xi left Yecheng with Wu Zhao on the pretext of going out for a few days to hunt.
It was almost the twelfth lunar month at that time, and Jizhou was peaceful. Although fighting was fierce in Yanzhou to the south, most of the fighting started near Juancheng in the east county.
Therefore, when Yuan Xi's carriage arrived at Puyang City in Chenliu County, there was no fighting on the way. Generals from Lu Bu's army had already left the city and welcomed Yuan Xi's carriage in.
Yuan Xi opened the curtains and saw that the leading general was quite young, so he asked: "What is your surname, general?"
Among the generals under Lu Bu, the name of Hidden Tiger had already spread. The general did not dare to neglect him and said with cupped fists: "The last general is Qin Yilu."
Yuan Xi was startled, then he laughed and said: "Nice to meet you."
Monk Qin Yilu was confused. He was one of Lu Bu's subordinates. Was he famous?
The carriage entered the city and arrived at the city guard's palace. Yuan Xi and Wu Zhao, who was covering their faces, got off the carriage and saw Lu Bu striding out of the house. He laughed and said: "Bu has a great day today, Mr. Dorai!"
He walked up to Yuan Xi, took Yuan Xi's arm and walked inside.
Yuan Xi felt like he was being lifted up like a chicken, but his feet did not touch the ground. Chen Gong also walked out, following Lu Bu, and couldn't help coughing.
Lu Bu reacted and put Yuan Xi down. He looked at the carriage and said in surprise: "Dezhou is not here?"
Yuan Xi smiled and said: "He has something to do, so only Zhuo Jing and I are here."
Lu Bu laughed loudly after hearing this, "Sir, you are so courageous, which shows your trust in Bu!"
"Sir, you have come from afar. If Bu doesn't receive you this time, it will be unreasonable."
"Come here, put the wine on the table!"
Lu Bu was obviously in a good mood, and ordered his soldiers to send a message to the city, asking all his generals to come to the banquet.
As people arrived one after another and reported their names one by one, Yuan Xi was surprised to find that most of Lu Bu's generals, including Song Xian, Wei Xu Houcheng and others, had arrived!
He wondered: "Marquis Wen has called back all the generals and doesn't plan to attack Dongjun?"
After everyone heard this, they all looked at Chen Gong. Chen Gong said: "The two sides are in a stalemate. Even Gong can't make a decision. Please give me some advice, sir."
Yuan Xi secretly scolded the old fox for asking me to work for free again. Is this an addiction?
When Chen Gong saw Yuan Xi pretending to be stupid, he could only laugh and said: "It's Gong who's being abrupt. Please take a seat, sir."
Yuan Xi humbly yielded and sat on the guest seat, followed by Wu Zhao sitting behind him.
When everyone sat down, Yuan Xi saw the maid coming up to pour him wine, and said humbly: "Sorry, I don't drink."
Lu Bu was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and said, "How can a man not drink?"
Yuan Xi smiled and said: "Drinking affects stargazing."
When Lu Bu heard this, he had nothing to say and said angrily: "Sir, your temper is somewhat similar to that of Gao Shun."
"Hey, why hasn't Gao Shun come yet?"
"Qin Yilu, how do you do things!"
Qin Yilu, who was sitting in the last seat, stood up quickly and said with a forced smile: "The last general has already been invited. General Gao said he was preparing troops, and General Zhang said he was patrolling the city and may have to arrive later."
Lu Bu snorted coldly: "There is no danger in Puyang City. I think the two of them are just lazy and procrastinating!"
"It's okay if Gao Shun doesn't drink. Zhang Liao has also learned to lie!"
"Forget it, don't let this matter spoil your mood. Qin Yilu, Mrs. You is in the back house, let her come out and drink with you!"
Qin Yilu quickly stood up and said with a smile on his face: "Respect Marquis Wen's order."
At this time, two generals came in at the door of the mansion. When they heard Lu Bu's words, they couldn't help but look at each other and frown slightly.
Lu Bu smiled at Yuan Xi and said: "Qin Yilu is a fellow from my hometown. He is not good at fighting, but he is married to a beautiful wife. It is our custom in Bingzhou that when meeting distinguished guests, we have to ask the wife to come out and toast to show respect!"
Two generals came in. One of them had a serious look on his face. He seemed to be an extremely rigid person. He opened his mouth to speak, but the other general quickly stopped him.
In the compartment in the hall where everyone was sitting, there was a graceful and beautiful woman waiting anxiously. When she heard Lu Bu's words next door, her face turned slightly pale, she bit her lips and was about to get up and come in.
At this time, Yuan Xi said: "I have heard for a long time that Marquis Wen also has a wife, why not let her come out to accompany her for wine?"
As soon as these words came out, everyone stopped breathing.
Lu Bu was startled, then became furious, slammed the table, and shouted: "How dare Shu Zian bully me?"
"I am a high-ranking prince, how can I have my family members accompanying me for wine?"
"If it weren't for the fact that you helped me so much, I would have stabbed you to death!"
As soon as these words came out, all the generals in the hall turned pale. They had not seen Marquis Wen so angry for a long time!
Wu Zhao was also trembling slightly. He leaned closer to Yuan Xi and saw that his figure was sitting upright like a mountain, and he felt a little at ease.
Yuan Xi Lingran was not afraid, he sat up straight and said, "Don't Marquis Wen hear that you don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you?"
The beautiful woman in the next room couldn't help but sweat when she heard that the hidden tiger was openly contradicting Marquis Wen for the sake of herself, whom she had never met before.
Lu Bu snorted coldly: "How do you know that this kid Qin Yilu is unwilling?"
He pointed at Qin Yilu and said, "Do you want to do it?"
Qin Yilu said with a smile on his face: "Yes, of course I do."
Lu Bu said proudly: "Look, he is willing to do it himself, I didn't force him!"
Yuan Xi shook his head and said, "No, I'm talking about General Qin's wife."
Lu Bu was startled, then laughed and said, "I thought that Sir had such high opinions. When you marry and obey your husband, his wife dares not to listen to him?"
After hearing this, all the generals nodded slightly.
Yuan Xi smiled and said, "Would Marquis Wen be willing to send his family members to entertain the guests?"
Lu Bu choked.
He felt increasingly embarrassed and said displeasedly: "The words of corrupt scholars!"
"I am the lord, and he is my general, how can we talk the same thing!"
Yuan Xi said slowly: "May I ask, what are Marquis Wen's plans for the future?"
Lu Bu didn't expect Yuan Xi to ask this suddenly, and couldn't help but ask: "What do you mean?"
Seeing that the time was ripe, Yuan Xi said, "Marquis Wen is satisfied with occupying a county now?"
"If you have sex with wives and have no intention of making progress, is this still a warm prince who looks down on the world?"