When Yuan Xi entered the room, Mrs. Wu was breastfeeding her baby. Lu Lingqi was lying on the head of the bed, looking at the child curiously. She couldn't help but want to poke the little guy's forehead with her finger, but she finally restrained herself.
She heard the sound, looked up and saw Yuan Xi coming in. She uttered an "ah" and was about to cover the front of Mrs. Wu's clothes, while complaining, "Why did you come in without knocking?"
Yuan Xi smiled and said, "I've already seen it, and Madam Wu doesn't care."
After hearing this, Mrs. Wu rolled her eyes at Yuan Xi and concentrated on breastfeeding her child. Seeing this, Lu Lingqi felt bored and ran away after muttering something.
Yuan Xi sat next to Madam Wu and told her about his arranged marriage to Gongsun. He said, "If Madam doesn't want to, I will turn it down."
Madam Wu listened, looked at the baby in her arms, and said softly, "This is your child, you can do it, I have no other ideas."
Yuan Xi smiled and said, "It's also Madam's child."
Madam Wu shook her head helplessly. Lu Lingqi, who was secretly observing from the side, had already forced out the inside story of Yuan Xi. She thought to herself that her husband was too bold. This Madam Wu was the widow of Sun Jian, and Sun Jian was a fierce general as famous as her father!
If my father knew that my husband was having an affair with Sun Jian's widow, I'm afraid he would rush over and beat me to death, right?
No, according to my father's personality, he might even praise my husband!
Thinking about the bad things that Lu Bu had done, Lu Lingqi suddenly realized that, with her family tradition, it seemed that she had no right to criticize others?
It's all because of that embarrassing father!
Madam Wu looked at Lv Lingqi who was biting her finger beside her and whispered, "I have someone to serve me here, and I'm already familiar with giving birth. It's no big deal to always ask Madam Lu for help. Let her go back and have a good rest."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi saw that Lv Lingqi had also been up all night and looked a little tired, so he said to Madam Wu, "Then you should rest first. If you have any problems, please let someone come to me."
Madam Wu nodded, and after a moment's hesitation, she said, "There are things I shouldn't have said, but seeing how worried you are, I can't help but speak out."
"You are now in a high position, responsible for tens of millions of people. Now you have been hanging around in your boudoir for a few days. This is really putting the cart before the horse."
"Although offspring are important, we already have enough manpower here, and they are all experienced. Instead of staying here, it is better to go to a place where you are more needed, so that others will not criticize you."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi burst out laughing and said, "Madam is right. I am indeed a little confused because of my concern."
"I will go to the residence to handle official business."
He walked a few steps, turned his head and smiled, "Madam is indeed a good wife."
Mrs. Wu watched Yuan Xi and Lu Lingqi leave, feeling an indescribable feeling in her heart.
Yuan Xi walked out the door, feeling the increasingly cold weather, knowing that the days ahead would be even more difficult.
From the end of the Han Dynasty to the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, it was the longest ice age in Chinese history, spanning about four hundred years.
Due to the ravages of the severe cold climate, during this period of later generations, the dividing line for growing grain once reached the central Shaanxi area, and it was almost impossible to grow grain in the north, not to mention forage.
So the nomadic people, who were on the brink of life and death, moved south into the Central Plains with a strong desire to survive. Fortunately, they encountered the Jin Dynasty, which was an extremely poor regime.
After the Eight Kings Rebellion in the Jin Dynasty, Sima Yue became the final winner and controlled the government. When the Jin Dynasty was suffering from internal strife and was severely weakened, although Sima Yue interfered in government affairs and acted domineeringly, he was still able to resist foreign invaders.
However, when he was leading his troops to fight against Shi Le who was heading south, he was stabbed in the back by Emperor Huai of Jin, who ordered all parties to attack him. Sima Yue died of worry and fear. The hundreds of thousands of soldiers under his command were leaderless and were defeated and annihilated by Shi Le. The Western Jin Dynasty no longer had any soldiers to fight.
But the one who took advantage of the situation in the end was not Shi Le, but Liu Cong, the son of Liu Yuan. He led his troops to attack the capital Luoyang, captured Emperor Huai of Jin, and later poisoned him. A few years later, the Western Jin Dynasty was destroyed, and officials and people fled south.
Thus, without the interference of eunuchs and relatives of the emperor and without peasant uprisings, the Jin Dynasty miraculously lost the Central Plains for the first time as a Chinese regime, abandoned the Han people in the north and moved south, which started hundreds of years of humiliation for the Han Chinese.
Yuan Xi looked up at the sky where snowflakes were beginning to fall, knowing that he had nothing to do with what would happen a hundred years later, and that he would not live to see that time.
But what he could do in his lifetime was to do his best to build Youzhou into a solid line of defense.
If foreigners want to go south, they will pay a heavy price. Although they may not succeed in the end, if half of the ten who go south die in Youzhou, the Central Plains may not be lost.
This means that in the next few decades, Youzhou will become a huge meat grinder. Whether Youzhou can no longer hold on first, or the foreign tribes moving south will collapse first, it all depends on how Youzhou can be built.
So Yuan Xi was very anxious, very anxious. He found that time seemed to never be enough. This was true in Youzhou and in the Central Plains!
Every time he felt that his strength had grown a lot, but when he looked back at Cao Cao, Sun Ce, or even the Yuan brothers, he found that they were also getting stronger!
Come to think of it, with so many outstanding figures, they eventually formed a Three Kingdoms situation. After decades of fighting, the outcome was finally decided. Where did I get the confidence to think I could suppress everyone?
Moreover, Yuan Xi discovered that there were too few allies he could find now. After all the calculations, Liu Bei was the most reliable of all.
All the princes in the world, seeing Liu Bei's ability to win people's hearts, were reluctant to join forces with him, fearing that they might be the masters one day. But Yuan Xi was now helpless. His current situation did not allow him to be picky.
So he decided to form an alliance with Liu Bei at a deeper level. Only Liu Bei could become a solid fighting force for Yuan Xi to fight against Cao Cao.
Therefore, Yuan Xi sent a letter to Liu Xie and Liu Bei respectively, preparing to recommend Liu Bei for an important position in the court, because at this time, Liu Bei needed the name and status in the Liu clan the most.
Although Liu Bei was a descendant of King Jing of Zhongshan, there were at least 8,000 people in the entire world who were members of the Liu clan with a similar origin to Liu Bei.
The real core circle of the Liu clan were Liu Yu, Liu Yao, Liu Biao, Liu Zhang, Liu Yan and Liu Dai, clan members who were appointed as important officials. If Liu Bei had some connections with the upper class, he would not have to rely on his private army to fight the Yellow Turbans and make a fortune through military achievements.
Thinking of this, Yuan Xi was quite helpless. The situation at the end of the Han Dynasty was too complicated, with internal and external troubles. Now everyone was fighting for their lives, not knowing that the climate in the north would become increasingly severe, and it was possible that foreign races would take advantage in the future.
Even if Yuan Xi told it now, no one would believe it. Even if they believed it, who in the world would stop?
Therefore, the final and only solution is to fight on the battlefield.
Lu Lingqi nudged Yuan Xi with her elbow, pulling him back from his thoughts, and asked jokingly, "Why, are you upset after being scolded by Madam Wu?"
"How does it feel to be a father?"
Yuan Xi said helplessly: "Don't laugh at me all day long. When you give birth to a child, your performance might be even worse."
Lu Lingqi blushed and said viciously, "Who wants to give birth? The war is not over yet!"
Yuan Xi smiled and said, "I'm afraid that Marquis Wen is still waiting."
"It's not easy to fight a war. There will be a war soon."
Lu Lingqi asked happily: "Really?"
She wondered, "It's almost the New Year, who are we going to fight with?"
Yuan Xi replied: "Qingzhou pirates."
Yuan Xi was certain that the Qingzhou pirates were being instigated or condoned by Yuan Tan.
Qingzhou has a long coastline and has always had fixed shipping routes with Liaodong, with both passenger and cargo trade being of considerable scale.
Originally, the Qingzhou pirates were mostly used by the Yellow Turban Army for looting, and the ships they used were mostly for robbing fishermen and merchants, and most of them were small boats. However, in the past two years, large ships have gradually appeared.
These pirates were quite brutal. They not only robbed goods but also killed people. They were scattered along the coast of Donglai in the Shandong Peninsula and often appeared on the waterway from Youzhou to Xuzhou.
At first, these people would avoid the flags of the Zhen family caravan affiliated with Youzhou, but in recent days they have become more and more courageous and started to act unscrupulously.
Several ships of the Zhen family caravan have been lost, causing panic among the people. Those who managed to escape pointed out the people who boarded the ships and robbed them, and they all spoke the Qingzhou dialect.
Yuan Xi wrote a letter to Yuan Tan specifically about this matter, but Yuan Tan's reply was vague, saying that he was not aware of it.
Yuan Xi thought to himself that since that was the case, he would not be polite. After all, the trade route was his bottom line.
Although the two brothers were once an alliance, Yuan Xi was very unhappy with the other party's step-by-step probing behavior.
Moreover, the cessation of their own trade routes was equivalent to cutting off a major artery. The loss to Youzhou, which was in urgent need of transfusions to build water conservancy defenses, was incalculable.
Therefore, Yuan Xi decided that if he was going to fight, he had to fight hard, so that the Qingzhou pirates would be severely injured and would never dare to go out to sea again. It would be best if he could annihilate them.
Previously, Yuan Tan felt that there were too many hidden dangers from external enemies in Youzhou and he was too busy to deal with such a minor problem. However, after months of efforts, Yuan Xi finally suppressed the many external threats in Youzhou temporarily.
He secretly reached an agreement with Kebineng, the leader of the Central Xianbei outside the Great Wall, and used some benefits to get him to contain Budugen, the leader of the Western Xianbei, and Weisuli, the leader of the Eastern Xianbei.
Of course, this was not achieved through negotiations, but rather it was only after Yuan Xi mobilized all of his elite troops and fought several fierce battles with the Xianbei who had repeatedly invaded the border in the north over the past few months that Kobe surrendered.
In the past few months, the three major Xianbei tribes outside the Great Wall have not given up their evil intentions and have continued to send large numbers of light cavalry to invade the border.
During this period, Yuan Xi ordered the brothers Zhao Yun, Tian Yu, Yan Rou and Xianyu Fu to attack. The soldiers were equipped with the most sophisticated weapons and armor, and a death order was issued that no one should be left alive on the battlefield.
After several battles, the Xianbei outside the Great Wall, who had not anticipated the ferocity of the Youzhou army, suffered heavy casualties. Finally, after Tian Yu built a Jingguan with thousands of human heads on the gap in the Great Wall, the Xianbei all retreated in panic.
As to whether these dead people were from Eastern and Western Xianbei or Central Xianbei, it no longer matters.
After receiving the message from Kobineng, who had been delaying before, sincerely requesting peace talks, Yuan Xi sneered in his heart. It turned out that in this world, the only language that both sides could accept was killing and violence.
Now that he has lost all his thoughts of beating me up, he is naturally willing to talk. He is really a mean guy.