In the Yuan family's residence in Yecheng, Yuan Shao and Liu family were sitting together. Next were Yuan Shang, his wife Hong, and Yuan Xing.
Yuan Shao suddenly felt something and sighed: "It will be much deserted this year."
After hearing this, Mrs. Liu smiled and said: "What my husband said is just that there were more people together last year."
"In the past few years, Yuan Xi was only here last year, but now that he has been adopted, he is no longer a member of our family."
"On the other hand, I don't believe Tan'er when he says he can't escape. There's always been no war in Qingzhou."
After hearing this, Yuan Shang smiled and explained: "My mother didn't know something. My brother has made a great contribution to the Yuan family by acquiring Xuzhou Langya this time."
After hearing this, Mrs. Liu was surprised and said, "Is this happening?"
"Tan'er has grown so much?"
How could she not know what Yuan Tan was doing in Xuzhou? She was just singing harmony with Yuan Shang and giving Yuan Tan eye drops.
Yuan Shang smiled and said: "The cooperation between Xianyi and Brother this time is simply wonderful. They actually captured half of Xuzhou in one fell swoop. With them, why should the Yuan family be unhappy?"
"I would like to ask my father, with such a great opportunity, can the Yuan family annex Xuzhou?"
After hearing this, Yuan Shao frowned and said, "Although Xuzhou is good, it is not easy to defend."
"Moreover, the mobilization of troops from Qingzhou to Xuzhou is not in line with Yuan's plan to seize the annexed state. Now the counselors are still arguing."
Yuan Shang secretly laughed. He had figured out Yuan Shao's thoughts. Although Yuan Tan and Yuan Xi seemed to have done things beautifully this time, they were contrary to Yuan Shao's thoughts.
Although Xuzhou is rich, it requires a lot of troops to defend, and the Yangtze River is to the south. Unless there is a powerful navy, it is impossible to cross the river and occupy Yangzhou.
Therefore, Yuan Shao's original idea was to occupy only half of Xuzhou in the near future, leaving Xiapi Guangling in the south as a buffer.
In this way, even if Yuan Shu sends Sun Ce to attack the two counties, Yuan Shao will let Cao Cao continue to fight with him and consume him, causing both sides to lose.
This would not only consume Cao Cao's strength, but also drag Yuan Shu north of the Yangtze River, rendering his navy useless.
The top priority is that after the Yuan family defeats Gongsun Zan, they must establish a foothold in Youzhou, and then take the opportunity to expand to Bingzhou, thereby fully occupying the Beidi and Hetao areas.
There is a reason for this. Youzhou and Bingzhou have a large number of horse farms and Hu and Han herdsmen. As long as Yuan Shao controls these two states, he can obtain a large number of cavalry.
Although these two states cannot support so many cavalry, the wealthy Jizhou can.
With Jizhou as the backing, it can provide a large amount of food and grass to support tens of thousands of cavalry, so as to sweep across the north and occupy Guanzhong, so that the Central Plains can be conquered and occupy half of the country.
Then the army swept southward, who else in the world could resist?
Yuan Shang has been with Yuan Shao for a long time, so he naturally knows what Yuan Shao thinks, especially because this idea is the consensus of most of Yuan Shao's advisers.
Now Yuan Xi was smart enough to occupy Guangling in the south of Xuzhou. Although the raid by transporting troops with merchant ships from Youzhou was praised by a few Jizhou counselors, in Yuan Shang's view, this move was obviously a small gain.
Yuan Shao's expectation for Yuan Xi is to let him occupy Youzhou as soon as possible, so as to prepare for the alliance with the state. Now Yuan Xi quietly ran to Xuzhou and occupied an isolated county. Not only did he waste his troops, but he was also slowing down.
Yuan's plan seems particularly short-sighted.
Moreover, Guangling faces Yuan Shu's covetousness at any time. Can Yuan Xi hold on?
In Yuan Shang's view, as long as Yuan Shu defeated Liu Yao and occupied Yangzhou, sooner or later he would mobilize all his troops to attack Guangling northward. By then, Yuan Xi's entire county would be unable to withstand it, and he would have to abandon the city. Isn't this a marriage act?
Therefore, the more Yuan Shang thought about it, the more proud he became. Yuan Xi seemed to have taken advantage and would suffer a big loss in Xuzhou sooner or later!
Moreover, in order to kill the Taishan bandits this time, Yuan Tan invested all the Qingzhou troops, but hundreds of thousands of Taishan bandits could not be surrendered so easily. It can be said that Yuan Tan will not be able to do anything else in the next few years!
Yuan Shang felt proud, since you gave up the opportunity, in the next three years, I will let you see how I conquered the world!
He was about to say something sarcastic when Yuan Xing said to Hong, "My brother-in-law seems to be feeling unwell?"
Ms. Hong forced a smile and said, "Thank you so much, Sis. I just felt a bit cold by chance."
When Mrs. Liu heard this, she said, "Why didn't you tell me earlier? What if the news reaches your uncle?"
Hong quickly lowered his head to apologize, and Yuan Shao said: "It doesn't matter, people who are marching and fighting are not afraid of these things."
He said to Yuan Shang: "Go back and find a doctor to see if it's the cold, don't let it be delayed by other things."
After Yuan Shang heard this, he immediately lost his mind and had no choice but to agree. Liu's face also looked uncertain.
The two understood Yuan Shao's hint, which was to ask Yuan Shang to find someone to see if Hong was pregnant.
It is said that it has been three years since Yuan Shang got married, but the Hong family has not been pregnant. Since Yuan Shao regards Yuan Shang as his successor, he is naturally very concerned about his children.
Only Yuan Shang's mother and son know why Yuan Shang and Hong have not had sex so far. If the doctor found this, wouldn't the matter be exposed if traced back to it?
In this way, the identity of Yuan Shang's heir is very complicated, and the heir will definitely become Yuan Tan!
Yuan Shang was horrified. This kind of thing must not be covered up forever. He must find a way to solve it!
Yuan Shang also tried a variety of methods, but failed. If the disease could not be cured for a while, he would have to find another way.
To put it bluntly, the key is Yuan Shao, everything else is empty.
Yuan Shang suddenly had a terrible thought in his mind, if his father died early.
He was shocked, how could he think so!
My father is dead. Can I really dominate the world with my current self?
But if he wants to keep his position as heir, the only way is to give birth to an heir.
We must find a way to deal with it!
If you can't do it yourself, there's no point in exchanging wives and taking concubines. The most convincing thing is to find a way to get Hong pregnant, even if the child is not yours!
Since I can't give birth for the time being, the worst I can do is borrow seeds and wait until Yuan Shao dies, then kill both the Hong family and their children.
The Hong family is cowardly by nature and would not dare to resist her when it comes to borrowing seeds. After all, her family's life depends on her own thoughts.
Thinking of this, Yuan Shang stared at Yuan Xing who was talking to the Hong family. He, the eldest sister, was an eyesore and he had to find a way to get rid of her!
Although he had warned Mr. Hong not to talk to Yuan Xing about his secrets, the matter of borrowing seeds was extremely sensitive. Once Ms. Hong lost control of her emotions and exposed flaws in her words, Yuan Xing would probably see the clues!
Thinking of this, he raised his glass to Yuan Xing, "Little brother, here's a toast to eldest sister."
"Speaking of which, the eldest sister is not young anymore. Shang feels very sad when he thinks of where the eldest sister will marry."
"I heard that the Wuhuan Chanyu Tadun sent an envoy to marry the Yuan family."
After hearing this, Yuan Xing felt a little bad. When the wine reached her lips, she couldn't drink it anymore. She could only say: "I will obey my father's orders."
Mrs. Liu smiled and said: "Chan Yu Tatun has one hundred thousand troops, and he can be regarded as the overlord of the north. If Xing'er marries him, he can become the Yuan family's arm. In this way, most of the world will belong to our Yuan family."
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Yuan Shao waved his hand and said: "Be careful, we are still ministers of the Han Dynasty."
"Whoever risks the world's disapproval first will be attacked by all the princes."
When Mrs. Liu heard this, she had a sarcastic look on her face. She thought in her heart that the Han Dynasty had already fallen to this point, so why should they pretend?
I am still waiting to be the queen!
Yuan Xing held Hong's hand and spoke while looking at the people in the hall with their own thoughts, and couldn't help but sigh in her heart.
Now that she is the daughter of the Yuan family, she can only focus on her family. She can see something unusual about the Hong family, but she can't do anything.
Thinking that Yuan Shang was so eager to express his desire to marry far away, Yuan Xing became even more suspicious. How could she offend Yuan Shang just because she and Yuan Xi were closer?
In Guangling City, Yuan Xi stood on the pier, watching batch after batch of Youzhou soldiers disembarking from the ship, thinking that it was almost the same here.
After Liu He and Quyi Zhao Yun captured several cities in Yuyang and Guangyang, they recruited some soldiers on the spot, transported them from Piaoyuyi Port, and then garrisoned in Guangling.
The composition of these soldiers is extremely complex. They include not only Han people, but also Wuhuan and Xianbei people. But strictly speaking, Youzhou is a gathering place of many ethnic groups. They have been intermarried for hundreds of years and have long been mixed together without knowing anyone. They just rely on the customs of each ethnic group.
, can barely differentiate.
National integration has always been a major trend. In later generations, in the Tang Dynasty, the mixing of races became more intense. To bring them together, there must be a unified cultural identity.
In fact, at this point, the Qin Dynasty only made a start and then collapsed, which was far inferior to the Han Dynasty that connected the past and the future.
The Tang Dynasty inherited the cultural heritage of the Han Dynasty, so brilliant cultural customs were born. In fact, in terms of openness, some aspects of the Tang Dynasty can be said to be less open than the Han Dynasty.
Therefore, it is not unreasonable for the Chinese nation to be named Han in later generations.
The soldiers brought from Youzhou have their families in Youzhou, so after arriving in Guangling, they are far more reliable than the soldiers from Jiangdong who rebelled and fled at every turn.
On the other hand, compared to the bitter cold Youzhou, Guangling is relatively rich and prosperous, and many of the soldiers composed of border residents of Youzhou are happy to come to defend the city.
Youzhou has many soldiers, but Guangling is short of soldiers. The two sides hit it off immediately, so in the past few months, Youzhou has sent thousands of soldiers intermittently, plus the local soldiers recruited by Chen Deng. Even if Yuan Shu's army comes again, Guangling can handle it calmly.
He said to Chen Deng and Tai Shici: "I will leave this place to you two."
"I hope you two can work together sincerely. If you have any difficulties, please feel free to send me a letter."
After hearing this, the two of them clasped their hands together and said, "You will definitely live up to your master's orders!"
Yuan Xi smiled and said: "The only thing I can do to Brother Yuan Long is that I have to work hard for Mr. Han Yu and travel a long way to Youzhou."
Chen Deng said with a smile: "Young Master, you are too polite. This is my father's choice. He said he also wanted to see if the land in Youzhou is as fertile as the Young Master said."
"What's more, the other children of the Chen family don't have enough prestige to convince the public. Most of them are young and energetic. With their father suppressing them, they will be more honest."
Yuan Xi had previously planned to return to Youzhou before spring plowing to experiment with farming improvement methods, but Chen Deng, as the prefect of Guangling, could not leave. The level of other Chen family members was too different, and no one could take charge of the overall agricultural affairs.
After much searching, Cheng Deng's father, Chen Gui, finally decided to follow him to Youzhou himself.
Yuan Xi thought that Chen Gui was shrewd enough, so he used this to transfer the position of head of the family to Chen Deng, while he personally went to Youzhou to find a way out for the Chen family.
However, it can be said that the Chen family has placed a heavy bet on themselves. If they fail, the Chen family will probably be severely damaged.
After everything was arranged, Yuan Xi returned to the mansion and announced to everyone that he would leave for Youzhou in the near future.
Mrs. Wu held her daughter in her arms and stood behind the crowd. After hearing the news, she felt extremely calm.