Yuan Shu heard that Cao Cao suffered a defeat in Jingzhou, and even the life of his eldest son was on the line, and he couldn't help but feel that this was a great blow to Cao Cao's prestige, and it was also a good opportunity for him to become emperor. Immediately, he chose a date to hold the enthronement ceremony, established the country as Zhong, set the capital Shouchun, and issued an edict to the world. Subsequently, he set up a hundred officials of the public secretary, and changed Jiujiang Taishou to Huainan Yin, as the highest administrator of the Beijing Division.

Yuan Shu planned to appoint Zhou Yu as a military advisor, but Zhou Yu thanked him politely because of his lack of qualifications. Jin Shang did not dare to join Yuan Shu, and after refusing, he planned to escape, but Yuan Shu sent someone to capture him, and then ordered him to be executed.

Sun Ce learned in Huiji that Yuan Shu had established himself as emperor in Shouchun, so he immediately wrote to him to sever relations. Originally, Yuan Shu also planned to promote Sun Ce's official position, but he didn't expect Sun Ce to suddenly cut off relations with him, this move couldn't help but make him feel a little headache, and he began to wonder if he was proclaimed emperor earlier. But now that the wood is in the boat, he has to bite the bullet and give this emperor to the present.

After Cao Cao of Xuchang learned of Yuan Shu's proclamation as emperor, he hurriedly convened hundreds of civil and military officials to discuss the next countermeasures. In the end, Cao Cao decided to call on the other princes to fight against Yuan Shu before carrying out the plan he had previously set.

Immediately, Cao Cao, in the name of Liu Xie, sent Kong Rong to pay homage to Yuan Shao as a general, and crowned the Marquis of Ye, the governor of Ji, Qing, You, and the affairs of the four states. He also sent Wang Pu Zhijie to appoint Sun Ce as the commander of the cavalry, inheriting his father Sun Jian Marquis Wucheng, and concurrently comprehending Ji Taishou, intending to let him assist in the crusade against Yuan Shu.

At that time, Xu Gong wrote to the imperial court and said: Sun Ce is a strong man, similar to Xiang Yu at the beginning, and he should be given more grace and recalled to Kyoto; If you let it out, it will be a curse in the future.

Immediately, Cao Cao sent an envoy to Xiapi to appoint Chen Yu as the Taishou of Wu County.

Soon after, locust plagues broke out in various places, and a large area of grain was destroyed. The locust hordes continued to rage for several months, and crops were almost wiped out in many places.

Since we had already experienced a locust plague in Yanzhou before, we were prepared in advance this time. In the villages east of Xuzhou near the sea, there are fishermen who depend on fishing for a living, numbering about tens of thousands, and we pay them to weave protective nets to protect the crops. In addition, a large number of frogs and toads were caught and released into the fields, although a few locusts would jump into the fields through the gaps in the top of the nets, but it was not enough to cause much damage.

This summer, we harvested millions of stone of grain, and the people of the state couldn't help but smile at such a rich harvest. This is not only because they have harvested a large amount of grain for survival, but more importantly, they do not need to pay taxes on the grain grown in their private fields, and they do not need to pay rent for renting the land they have cultivated, and even half of the grain harvested in the fields only needs to be paid.

In other words, only a few thousand of our non-commissioned officers are standing troops, and the rest are reserve troops, who train when the farm is not working, and go home to work when the farm is busy. Moreover, their families have land, so they do not need to pay additional military expenses except for taking care of food every day during training.

Defending one's homeland is a one's responsibility, and although the people of this era are not highly educated, their nature is very simple. As long as you have a reasonable system, they will be obedient to you.

When the scholars in Xuzhou saw that the system we had implemented was well received by the people, and that they themselves thought it was very good, they all came to us and asked us to accept and appoint them. However, due to the large number of people who came to apply for jobs, we selected some people with practical work experience for formal appointment, and the rest selected those with good qualifications for training as reserve talents.

Among these people, there is a man named Liu Yang, whose name is Yulang, who is from Peiguo. In addition, he is also a direct descendant of Liu Bang, although he is currently a little young, but he is very famous. Although Feng Xian only gave him a position as the county magistrate of Juxian County, he still expressed his pleasure and said: "I would rather take a small position under the Ming lord than be crowned a high lord by the side of the Yong lord." ”

We're a little embarrassed by what he said. After all, no matter how people say it, they are also the descendants of Han Gaozu, and being able to agree with our approach is already the greatest affirmation of us, not to mention that they are willing to serve as a county commander under us. Of course, if you can make the parents of a county impeccable, it will be quite remarkable.

But he said that after Cao Cao learned about our hiring people to weave nets and protect the fields, he also ordered us to do the same. Although his movements were a little slower, he was able to save a lot of his crops, and this season he harvested a million stone of grain.

As for the area around our two families, they weren't so lucky. Under the rule of Yuan Shao of Hebei and Yuan Shu of Huainan, they were caught off guard by the army of locusts. One relied on mulberries and wild vegetables to supply the army in the north, and the other relied on fishing in the river to catch shrimp and clams in the south to supply the army, and life can be described as quite embarrassing. What is particularly serious is that the people in the Jianghuai region, except for the people in the Guangling area, have been reduced to the point of cannibalism because they really have no food to eat, and many people have fled to Guangling for refuge.

Since most of the Jiangnan region is no longer under the control of Yuan Shu, he has a very difficult life without help. In desperation, he had no choice but to send Han Yin to Xuzhou to propose to Fengxian's daughter for his youngest son, wanting to borrow hundreds of thousands of stone grain from us to help.

We had already learned about the plight of the people in Jianghuai, so out of the spirit of humanitarianism, we lent them 200,000 quintals of rice to help them. But for the marriage of the two families, Feng Xian politely declined on the pretext that the doll was still young. Since marrying was originally an excuse for Yuan Shu, when he learned that Feng Xian was unwilling to agree, he was not reluctant.

Soon, Liu Bei's subordinate Pei Xiang Chen Jue sent an envoy to Xuzhou to persuade Feng Xian that he should not have anything to do with Yuan Shu, otherwise he would be in trouble. Feng Xian believed that although Yuan Shuqi set himself up as emperor was rebellious, this had nothing to do with the people, and we couldn't watch them starve to death.

Originally, we lent rice to Yuan Shu in the hope of relieving the local people. However, something surprising happened, when the first batch of tens of thousands of stone rice was transported to Shouchun, Yuan Shu did not use it to help the victims, but put it into the treasury and hid it privately, causing the local people to still starve all over the wilderness.

I've been watching where the rice ends up. Then when I told Feng Xian about this, he couldn't help but be angry immediately, but said, "This hateful Yuan Shu is really angry with me!" ”

I also said with a sigh: "At the beginning, I was a little worried that Yuan Shu would fill his pockets, but I didn't expect that he would come to worry about anything; But that's fine, we have a chance to crusade against him. ”

Feng Xian couldn't help asking: "I don't know what the plan of the virtuous brother is this time?" ”

I replied: "Immediately cut off the supply of food for Yuan Shu, and send someone to chase back the rice that is already on the way; Then we sent an envoy to the imperial court, expressing our willingness to send troops with the imperial court to fight against Yuan Shu. ”

Feng Xian said, "Okay, I will go and recover the rice myself." ”

Immediately, Feng Xian led his cavalry battalion to recover the other rice that had been transported on the way. Then, Yuan Yin wanted to take his subordinates to snatch the grain back, but was defeated by Feng Xian and captured Yuan Yin. After Feng Xian returned to Xiapi, he immediately ordered someone to bring Han Yin with a torture instrument, and Chen Wei was responsible for escorting people to Xuchang and handed over to the imperial court for disposal.

I have to say that Yuan Shu is really a bit of a fool, and what he did was tantamount to deliberately pushing himself into the fire pit. Originally, if he could use the borrowed rice to help the victims, it would mean that he also had the potential to be a good emperor, and it was okay to support him for a while. But the bad thing is that he is afraid that his army will not be fed, and he does nothing to watch the people starving. Moreover, even if there has been such a tragic situation under his rule, he still enjoys a luxurious life with the concubines and beauties of his harem. It's hard to imagine what he was being the emperor for.

Perhaps, the pursuit of an aristocratic ** life is the selfish nature of human beings. (To be continued.) )