Yuan Xi heard a commotion outside and lifted the car curtain to look. He saw a few civilians and soldiers shouting at each other on the roadside, and the crowd seemed to be growing larger and larger.
When Tian Yu saw this outside, he simply ordered the soldiers to rest on the spot and reorganize the troops.
Yuan Xi asked the coachman to stop the carriage on the side of the road, jumped off the carriage, and walked over with Sun Li.
He saw several soldiers gathered outside, so he patted someone on the shoulder and asked, "What's going on?"
The soldier said impatiently: "This villain is blackmailing us."
He turned around and asked, "What are you doing?"
When he saw Yuan Xi's face clearly, he immediately broke out in a cold sweat and shouted, "Envoy."
At this sound, the soldiers who were watching quieted down and moved aside. Only a few people who were arguing did not hear it and were still pulling each other.
Yuan Xi saw an old man lying at the feet of several people with his eyes closed, and he couldn't help but frown.
He walked over and asked, "What happened?"
When the soldiers saw that it was Yuan Xi, they all knelt on one knee to salute. When the civilians saw this, they also knelt down hurriedly.
The leading soldier said, "Sir, this scoundrel blocked our march on the road, and someone gave him a push. Unexpectedly, the old man fell down and couldn't get up."
"This old man's family caught us and made trouble, and wanted to extort money from us."
Opposite was a young couple with a child. All three of them were dressed in rags and looked pale.
The leading man had a dark face from being exposed to the wind and sun, his hands and feet were thick, and his torn linen clothes were full of holes, revealing a lot of hemp hay stuffed inside.
The woman next to him looked less than 20 years old, but her skin looked like that of a woman in her 40s. She already had many wrinkles and her hands were covered with chapped cuts.
The child was so thin that his bones were visible, his eye sockets were sunken, and the blood vessels under his skin were bulging.
The man said indignantly: "Father is hard of hearing and didn't hear us. We all got out of the way!"
"But Junye directly pushed my father down. Isn't that too unreasonable?"
The leading soldier turned around and said, "Shut up!"
"You are causing trouble in front of Youzhou Governor Yuan Shijun. Do you think you want to live?"
When the man heard this, he was so frightened that he trembled all over and quickly lowered his head.
The seven or eight-year-old child next to him was still indignant and said, "Why, just because you are a high-ranking official, you can be unreasonable?"
"Grandpa fainted, I..."
Before he could finish his words, his mouth was blocked by the woman next to him, and he kept making humming sounds.
Yuan Xi walked over, squatted down and sniffed the old man's breath, then turned to Sun Li and said, "Please ask Mr. Hua Tuo in the carriage behind to come over."
He paused, and then said, "Call Guo Rang as well."
Sun Li hesitated for a moment, whispered: "I'll go this way, big brother, be careful," then turned and ran towards the road.
Yuan Xi stood up and looked around. He found that people were watching in groups of three or four from a distance. Further away were dense forests and mountains. He thought that if there were enemies lying in ambush, it would be dangerous indeed.
He involuntarily pressed the hilt of the sword at his waist, which gave the surrounding soldiers a wrong signal. They all wanted to draw their swords, scaring several civilians so much that their faces turned pale.
Yuan Xi shouted: "What are you doing?"
The soldiers then realized that they had misunderstood them and put their hands down in embarrassment.
Seeing the reactions of the soldiers, Yuan Xi sighed inwardly and asked, "What did you guys do before?"
Several soldiers looked at each other, and finally the leader bravely said, "Your Excellency may not remember us. We all joined the army when you were in Beixin City, and we have been with you for four or five years."
Yuan Xi sneered: "You still remember it!"
"I only have a thousand elite soldiers under my command. How could I not recognize you?"
He held up his finger, "You, you dined with me at the foot of the city wall!"
"You, got married two years ago, had a son, and I brought you two pounds of meat!"
"You were injured two years ago, and you spent a whole year recovering before you came back!"
"You," he pointed at the sergeant who was leading the push, "got five kills last year and was promoted to sergeant!"
The soldiers who were pointed out smiled happily and said, "The envoy really remembers us!"
"We are grateful for your kindness, Lord. We are willing to die for you!"
The family next to them looked pale. It turned out that these people were the personal soldiers of the Youzhou governor. Their family was doomed!
Yuan Xi sneered, "I can't bear it!"
"I still remember that before you followed me, you were refugees just like them!"
"Why, now that you're rich, you look down on others?"
After hearing this, the soldier, who was so excited just now, suddenly became stiff and silent. He stood there speechless.
Yuan Xi became more and more angry. "When the master comes, if this old man gets killed, whoever started it will be the one to end it himself!"
"After you die, I will take care of your wife and children for you!"
Only then did everyone realize that Yuan Xi was really angry, and they immediately knelt down on their knees and kowtowed repeatedly.
The couple and the refugees watching from afar showed surprise on their faces. They could see that this young governor did not seem to want to shield his own soldiers?
Yuan Xi was still furious and paced back and forth on the ground. He used to think that in this world, if he wanted soldiers to fight for his life, he could only buy their hearts with money and military positions.
However, educating them to understand class oppression will take a long time. It requires first awakening the people's wisdom and then slowly letting them find a sense of belonging. It is not feasible in a short period of time.
Moreover, he is a member of the gentry and needs to rely on the gentry to do things for the time being. He can't educate soldiers and civilians to oppose the gentry, right?
So in this contradiction, Yuan Xi temporarily put these things on hold.
But now it seems that it is not advisable to completely abandon ideological work.
At least for these soldiers who were originally refugees, after they become rich, they will turn around and discriminate against refugees, just like when the landlords and merchants became gentry and despised the merchants, they will all wield their swords against the weaker ones.
This is a common human problem that has not changed for thousands of years, but Yuan Xi felt very uncomfortable.
At least for him, although he thought he was far inferior to Yue Fei, the goal of training his troops was to match Yue Fei's army. Now that he saw that his soldiers were of such a character, how could he not be angry?
Most of this anger came from his anger at himself, because he realized that he was too eager for quick success and neglected the efforts for the soldiers. His previous excuse of feudal society was completely an escape.
In the same feudal society, why did Yue's army and Qi's army do very well?
Amid the awkward silence of the crowd, Hua Tuo hurried over carrying a medicine box.
Before he could speak to Yuan Xi, he knelt beside the old man, checked his breathing, felt his pulse, and then looked at his eyelids. Then he took out several silver needles from the medicine box and injected them into the old man's head continuously.
Everyone held their breath, and after a moment, they saw the old man raise his eyelids and slowly open his eyes.
The onlookers couldn't help but cheer softly at the same time, all with happy expressions on their faces. They felt the same way. If they were in such a situation, they would naturally hope that someone would save them.
However, Hua Tuo's words made them worried again, "This man is old, and he fell hard this time. He may have difficulty moving in the future. Fortunately, he didn't break any bones."
"Now I have to rest for at least a few months, but no one can predict how I will recover after that."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi asked someone to find a cart, lifted the old man onto it, and said to the couple, "Please follow me to Jicheng. I will find someone to accommodate you, and I will send someone to bring you food, clothing, and other necessities."
The couple looked at each other and whispered "no" in a low voice, feeling even more surprised.
At this time, Tian Yu rushed over. He had already heard what happened from others. Then he saw Yuan Xi turned to him and said, "Guorang, you are the military supervisor. Tell me, how should we deal with this matter?"
Tian Yu hesitated for a moment and said, "If anyone injures civilians without reason, he will be beaten with twenty military sticks."
"Those who cause others to become disabled must provide for their daily lives."
"Those who injure others' lives shall, in addition to compensation, be stripped of their military status, reduced to the status of a slave, or, in serious cases, be put to death."
Yuan Xi turned to the crowd and asked, "Have you ever known these military laws before?"
Everyone murmured, "Of course we know."
Yuan Xi sneered: "So you think that military law is just for show?"
All the soldiers kowtowed and begged for mercy.
Tian Yu also bowed his head and said, "Yu did not discipline the army strictly, please be punished together."
Yuan Xi said: "It has nothing to do with Guo Rang. It's my problem."
He thought to himself that he had been thinking only about fighting over the past year and had neglected these issues.
What happened today was something I happened to see, but what about when I didn't see it?
There were definitely signs of this before!
Judging from the fearless look on these soldiers' faces just now, there must have been similar acts of disturbing the people in the army before.
If this trend is not stopped now, these soldiers will sooner or later become bandits!
At this time, the sergeant who led the push gritted his teeth and kowtowed, saying, "This was all done by me alone. It has nothing to do with others. Please punish me according to military law!"
The others understood and kowtowed, saying, "The captain was only acting on our behalf. We are also guilty."
Seeing this, Yuan Xi sneered and said, "You guys are quite clear about it, but I won't let it go. Since you guys are eager to take the blame, I'll beat you all."
"Come here, twenty in the lead, and the rest ten!"
After hearing this, Tian Yu immediately ordered the law enforcement soldiers to come, drag everyone down, and beat them up.
The soldiers endured the pain, bowed their heads and apologized to Yuan Xi again. They finally realized that Yuan Xi was serious this time!
However, the next sentence shocked everyone, "I didn't discipline the army strictly, so I will be punished with ten military sticks!"
Tian Yu knelt down immediately and said, "Sir, this is Yu's fault. How can I let you be punished?"
"If you want to fight, just fight Yu!"
Yuan Xi shouted, "The military supervisor is supposed to supervise illegal activities in the army. If you take the blame for everything, how many lives do you have left?"
He pointed at several soldiers and said, "They relied on being my personal soldiers to act recklessly. This is my fault for not disciplining them strictly enough."
"So it's only right that I be punished by military law!"
The voice spread far away, and when Zhen Mi and Madam Wu in the carriage heard it, their faces changed several times.
Madam Wu said to Zhen Mi, "Does the envoy really want to punish himself? What if he gets hurt? Madam, why don't you go and try to persuade him?"
Zhen Mi bit her lip and whispered, "I cannot go beyond the rules when it comes to my husband's military affairs. I have no choice but to trust him."
Mrs. Wu was thoughtful after hearing this, but when she thought about Yuan Xi being beaten, she felt a little distressed for some reason.
She knew that Zhen Mi must be feeling worse than herself, but she was able to hold it in. Although she appeared weak on the surface, she was actually very strong inside.
When the soldiers on the road saw Yuan Xi like this, their faces became much more serious, completely different from their previous playful and indifferent appearance.
Because before Yuan Xi arrived, they all thought that the refugees would be driven away, but they didn't expect this result!
This envoy even attacked his own guards, who were familiar to him. If I were among them, I would probably be beaten as well, right?
Yan Rou stood far away in the marching team, watching the whole process, and thought that this envoy's behavior was somewhat different from others.