Yuan Xi saw the young sergeant standing between him and Yang Feng and said with a smile, "I remember your name is Zhang Fang?"
The young sergeant bowed and said, "Yes, the envoy actually remembered my name."
Yuan Xi said: "Of course I remember. I also know that the military merits you won during these times were enough for all five of you to be promoted, but you ended up using your military merits to exchange for rewards."
Zhang Fang heard this and smiled bitterly, "Your Excellency is very capable. The brothers don't want to be separated. Besides, there are many people to support at home, and the military pay alone is not enough, so we simply exchanged the land."
Yuan Xi laughed and said, "You guys are really stupid. Don't you think you will get more money if you get promoted?"
Zhang Fang chuckled and said, "It's reassuring to have the land in your hands."
"Besides, I don't think I have much ability. There are too many people I can't lead. I can't manage them on the battlefield. It would be even worse if I hurt people."
Yuan Xi nodded slightly. Zhang Fang had a clear mind. Although he could get a lot more food and salary if he was promoted, if someone died in battle, it would only be a certain amount of compensation.
If they change it to dozens of acres of land, they can feed two more mouths. With these, the family can be considered a middle-class farmer. If the descendants join the army, they can become good soldiers with their own horses and weapons as children of good families. It can be said that this is also a very good path.
He asked, "Zhang Fei, Zhang Chun, Zhang Ju, are there any members of your family?"
Zhang Fang shook his head and said, "No, my family is not prosperous and there are not many people left."
Yuan Xi nodded, pointed at Yang Feng beside him, and said, "Are you afraid that she will harm me?"
Zhang Fang smiled bitterly and said, "This man is so powerful. My brother and I have been following the envoy all the time and have seen it all. We failed to stop him twice. We are really derelict in our duty and deserve to be punished. I am ashamed to face the envoy."
Yuan Xi smiled, patted Zhang Fang on the shoulder, pointed at Lu Lingqi behind him and said, "It's okay, my wife will protect you."
Seeing that Lü Lingqi and Yuan Xi were not far away from each other, Zhang Fang could only bow and say, "I will obey your orders."
He hesitated. "Sickle"
After hearing this, Yang Feng sneered, shook his hand and threw the sickle in his hand away. The sickle turned and flew towards them, and stuck in the ground at the feet of the two men.
Yang Feng strode into the wheat field, the chains under her feet jingling. She bent down slightly, hugged a bundle of wheat with one hand, and scratched the wheat with her fingernails with the other hand, and the layers of wheat broke.
Zhang Fang's face turned grim when he saw this. He was Yuan Xi's personal guard and had lived through thick and thin. Naturally, he knew how threatening Yang Feng was. Now, seeing that his nails were so sharp, he thought to himself that if the other party suddenly attacked, would he be able to protect the envoy if he wasn't careful?
When Yuan Xi saw this, he smiled slightly, and without paying any attention to Yang Feng, he took Lu Lingqi to the fields and started cutting wheat.
Lu Lingqi thought it was fun at first, but after an hour, she felt sore in her back and couldn't help but straighten up to rest.
She rested for a while, then bent down again. The pain in her waist came back, making her extremely depressed. She said aloud, "Bending down to cut wheat is so uncomfortable!"
Seeing this, Yuan Xi also straightened up and said, "It does take some time to get used to it. Farmers work like this all day long. If the posture is not right, after a long time, your waist will not be able to straighten up."
"You don't have to push yourself so hard, just do what you can."
After saying this, he looked at Yang Feng, who was silently marking the wheat field with her fingers in the distance, and said to his attendants, "Give her a sickle."
The soldier did as he was told and threw a wooden sickle at Yang Feng's feet. After Yang Feng picked it up, he looked at Yuan Xi sarcastically, as if mocking him for being too timid.
Lv Lingqi was a little angry and said to Yuan Xi, "Why do you still keep this evil that has tried to kill your husband several times?"
"I don't believe that my husband is attracted by her looks."
Yuan Xi said: "Of course not."
"I have my reasons for not killing her. Let's take it one step at a time."
Ever since he knew Yang Feng's identity, Yuan Xi had been thinking about how to use her. It would have been fine if she was just an ordinary Yellow Turban general, but she was Zhang Jue's daughter. If she died in his hands, there would be endless trouble for the Taiping Dao in the future.
Moreover, Yang Feng was so stubborn that it was unlikely that his opinion of him would improve, but it was impossible to let him go either, so imprisoning him in Youzhou could only be said to be a helpless move.
It was almost noon and the sun was getting hotter. People looked for some cool places under the shade of trees, built stoves on the spot, and started cooking over fires.
Cao Xian and Sun Li's wife came over with a bunch of washed wild vegetables. When Yuan Xi saw them, he told everyone to stop working and take a break. They threw the wild vegetables and rice into the pot and poured in clear stream water. The dead branches under the earthen stove were slowly lit, and soon the aroma mixed with the aroma spread from the pot.
Yuan Xi greeted the guard Zhang Fang, who then came over with his men and Yang Feng, and they all sat together around the pot.
When Yang Feng saw Yuan Xi and his personal guards chatting and laughing happily, she remembered that all the personal guards who followed her were wiped out at the hands of Yuan Xi. Her eyes became fierce and a murderous aura emanated from her body.
Lu Lingqi subconsciously reached for the sickle at hand, while Zhang Fang quickly stood up, ready to pounce on Yang Feng at any time.
Yuan Xi didn't take it seriously and said, "Sit down, let's talk after we have dinner."
This sentence mostly dispelled the tense atmosphere on the field. Yang Feng sneered and said, "Do you really think I can't kill you?"
Yuan Xi poked the firewood in the stove with a branch and said leisurely, "Even if you kill me, what does it matter?"
"Killing and fighting is not wrong in troubled times, and some people do deserve to be killed."
"But what happens after the killing?"
Yang Feng gritted his teeth and said, "Kill the corrupt officials of the noble families, and the world will naturally be peaceful!"
Yuan Xi sneered: "Does the food all fall from the sky?"
"You, the Montenegrin military, only care about killing and not burying. Have you ever allowed the Montenegrin people to have enough food in these years?"
Yang Feng was speechless for a moment, and said angrily: "You are just pretending to win people's hearts!"
Yuan Xi said leisurely: "I am buying people's hearts, but I have to pretend for the rest of my life. To the people of Youzhou, I am a good person."
"You think you have saved the world, but if you leave people hungry or even starving to death, you are evil in the eyes of others."
Yang Feng wanted to say something, but Yuan Xi waved his hand and said, "Don't use the Taiping Dao stuff as an excuse. I'm better at that stuff than you are. We're just the same."
"I don't want to waste my words arguing with you. After all, it's very difficult to change someone as stubborn as you."
Yang Feng sneered, "Don't think I don't know what you are up to. Aren't you just afraid that if you kill me, all the Yellow Turbans in the world will become your enemy?"
Yuan Xi smiled and said, "That's true. Although I have some concerns, I won't change my approach to this."
"After all, if I really want to achieve my goal, I don't mind killing them one by one, no matter if they are the Yellow Turbans or the Taiping Dao."
"Whoever stands in my way should be prepared to lose his life."
"So you should be worried about the remnants of the Taiping Dao who are my enemies, not me."
Yang Feng wanted to say something, but Yuan Xi ignored her and lifted the lid of the pot and said to everyone, "Let's eat!"
Yang Feng felt aggrieved. When she was the Saint of Taiping Dao, who dared to speak to her like this?
Moreover, the other party made a lot of absurd remarks and didn't even allow me to finish what I was saying!
All the rebuttals she had prepared were stuck in her throat, making her feel so uncomfortable!
But Yang Feng had to admit that judging from the results alone, Youzhou did much better than Heishan.
At least everyone can have food to eat. Although we can't say that they can eat well every day, it is still no problem to maintain a basic standard of food and clothing.
Thinking of the people who died of hunger and cold in the Black Mountains, Yang Feng fell into confusion. When his father started the rebellion, wasn't it because they had no food to eat and were about to starve to death that they rose up to resist?
Now, these nobles who they think are plundering the people's wealth are doing better than the Yellow Turban Army who claim to save the people from danger. What can they say about this?
Yang Feng fell into confusion.
The autumn harvest is here, and it is time for autumn planting. Everything in Beixin City seems to be back on track. Even the captured Black Mountain surrendered soldiers have changed a lot in the past two months. Things seem to be moving in a good direction.
However, at this time, Zhao Yun in Jicheng sent an urgent letter saying that the situation in Youbeiping and Liaoxi seemed to be unstable.
The main reason was the Wuhuan Chanyu Tadun.
Originally, when Gongsun Zan was in power, he only controlled half of Youzhou. From Yuyang to the east, Youbeiping Shanggu and part of Yuyang Liaoxi were occupied by Wuhuan Chanyu.
Of course, most of the big cities there were controlled by Gongsun Zan, and the officials were all appointed by the Han court, so the Wuhuan tribe could only graze and settle on the grasslands near the northern border.
However, with the defeat of Gongsun Zan, Yuan Xi captured several large cities in Yuyang and Youbeiping counties by water at an extremely fast speed, far exceeding the expectations of all forces.
At that time, the Wuhuan Chanyu Tadun was still thinking about forming an alliance with the Yuan family of Jizhou, and did not dare to offend Yuan Xi too much. So when Yuan Xi captured the remaining forces of Gongsun Zan, although he did not help, he just watched from the sidelines. At least he did not do anything bad.
However, as Yuan Xi's power continued to expand and he developed agriculture and animal husbandry around various cities, conflicts with the Wuhuan nomads were inevitable. At the beginning, both sides tried to find ways to settle the dispute, and nothing serious happened.
But now the situation has begun to deteriorate.
This was due to the fact that Chanyu Tatun married a daughter of the Yuan clan and secretly defected to Yuan Shang, which was a reason why he became a little arrogant, but the fundamental reason was that the climate was getting colder.
As the climate deteriorated, the grass production in the northern part of the Great Wall dropped sharply, and the border residents outside the Great Wall were forced to migrate south.
So the Wuhuan people who were grazing in the north and south of the border encountered the Xianbei tribe moving south, and many conflicts occurred between the two sides.
The relatively weaker Wuhuan had to take refuge inside the Great Wall, which undoubtedly squeezed the nomadic space inside the Great Wall. As a result, the Wuhuan people inside the Great Wall moved south again, and the territories of Bian and Yuan Xi intersected, and conflicts between the Hu and Han border people became frequent.
Although Zhao Yun tried his best to deal with these disputes, regardless of the ethnic minorities outside the Great Wall, the Wuhuan Chanyu inside the Great Wall had also made demands.
He said that although Yuan Xi occupied Youzhou, he occupied a larger territory with a smaller population, while the hundreds of thousands of Wuhuan people had nowhere to go. He hoped that Yuan Xi, as the lord of Youzhou, could come up with a proper solution, otherwise Youzhou would be in chaos sooner or later.
When Yuan Xi placed this letter with implicit threats in front of everyone, Guo Jia sneered: "I think these people will not give up until they see the Yellow River, and will not call their mothers until they see the execution ground."
"I think the Youzhou army has been well trained and its strength has increased a lot. Why not break into the Wuhuan's lair and kill them all?"
Everyone smiled bitterly at each other. They all knew that Guo Jia had a tough attitude, but it seemed that it was not the right time to resort to military action.
Guo Jia saw the doubts of the crowd and said, "If we indulge and tolerate at this moment, it will certainly bring trouble upon ourselves. It is better to cut the Gordian knot and put an end to it once and for all."
Ju Su said, "Who will deal with the Xianbei outside the Great Wall?"
Guo Jia said solemnly: "How do we know that Wuhuan and Xianbei will not join forces to deal with us?"
"If the weather gets colder for a few more years, they will definitely move south!"
When everyone heard this, they began to ponder, because what Guo Jia said was indeed correct.
The weather is getting colder. If the grass outside the Great Wall fails to grow, the foreign tribes outside the Great Wall will definitely invade the Great Wall. At that time, in order to compete for the limited living space, both sides will inevitably fight to the death.