Seeing Yuan Xi riding a little white horse and running towards him excitedly, Zhao Yun swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.
To be honest, he wanted to complain a few words.
As the newly appointed governor of Youzhou, you have been away for nearly half a year, and all the affairs of Youzhou are left to you. Don't you feel guilty?
However, seeing Yuan Xi's happy look, Zhao Yun thought of the time when the other party had fooled him on the city wall, and his heart softened again.
He jumped off his horse, clasped his fists and said in a deep voice: "I am here to see you, my Lord."
Yuan Xi chuckled and said, "What's the point of being an envoy or not? I'm sorry to bother you during this period, Brother Zilong. You may be even busier next time."
Tian Yu and others came to meet Zhao Yun one by one. When Zhao Yun greeted them, he saw Yan Rou following behind him. He bowed and said, "General, how are you?"
Yan Rou felt a little embarrassed and bowed in return.
The two had met several times before. At that time, Yan Rou was under Liu Yu, and Zhao Yun was under Gongsun Zan. The two lords did not get along well, so the people under them were not close friends.
However, they did not expect that things are unpredictable. After going around in circles, Zhao Yun switched to Yuan Xi's army, while Yan Rou got up early and arrived late.
First, Liu Yu, to whom he had defected, was killed by Gongsun Zan. Later, Liu He, to whom he had defected, disappeared during the attack on Yijing. Yan Rou could only join forces with Xianyu Fu and others to harass Gongsun Zan's rear, but he never found a force to defect to.
Now that the Yuan family has conquered Gongsun Zan, Yan Rou discovers that Yuan Xi is quite an extraordinary person. In less than two years, he has risen rapidly from Beixincheng to become the governor of Youzhou.
Seeing that it was too late if he didn't take side, he decisively defected. At this time, Zhao Yun had already made great contributions under Yuan Xi two years ago and had long been promoted to a captain, becoming the second most important person under Yuan Xi.
In contrast, because Yan Rou had a previous record of murdering Zou Dan, the Wuhuan Sima of the Han Dynasty, he could not establish himself as the Wuhuan Sima legitimately, so he could only start as the prefect of Shanggu, which was lower than Zhao Yun.
When Yan Rou was the Sima of Wuhuan and commanded tens of thousands of people in the north, Zhao Yun was just a small cavalryman under Liu Bei, so it is impossible to say that Yan Rou did not have any ideas in his mind.
Yuan Xi also noticed Yan Rou's expression. He thought that from now on, these troublesome matters would have to be left to Zhao Yun to solve on his own.
He deliberately suppressed Yan Rou. The matter of killing a senior official of the Han court was not a small matter, but it would be very troublesome if it was investigated. Now Yuan Xi did this, on the one hand to let him integrate as soon as possible, and on the other hand it was also a kind of protection.
In order to select talents, Cao Cao could have proposed valuing talent over morality to show his respect for the wise and humble. This move indeed recruited many talented people, including people like Yan Rou who had committed crimes.
The reason why Yuan Xi accepted Yan Rou was, on the one hand, because Yan Rou was an important link between the Yuan family and the Wuhuan and Xianbei. Chanyu Tatun had already become disloyal, and if he forced Yan Rou to rebel, Youzhou would be in complete chaos.
On the other hand, Yan Rou in later generations guarded the north and fought diligently against the Hu people throughout his life, which was also the reason why Yuan Xi accepted him.
But not everyone was as loyal to his duties as Yan Rou. Cao Cao's mechanism for selecting talents gradually revealed its evil consequences after his death.
Because they neglected to examine their moral character, many of the aristocratic officials appointed by Cao Cao had very low moral standards. They only knew how to seek benefits and avoid harm, which gave rise to many disasters. One of the consequences was that the Sima family usurped the Wei Dynasty and few people at the time opposed it.
Yuan Xi naturally remembered this lesson, and if possible, he still wanted to give priority to promoting people with both moral integrity and ability.
Yuan Xi sighed. If we were to talk about a group of officials with high moral standards, it would undoubtedly be Shu Han. It was a pity that those people were too far away from Youzhou.
Especially Zhuge Liang, was he farming in Nanyang at that time?
Thinking of the name Zhuge Liang, Yuan Xi couldn't stop drooling. This was a top talent with perfect morals and domestic affairs. Unfortunately, he had one problem: he was too loyal to the Han Dynasty.
The Yuan family's current banner is unclear, but everyone knows that they will definitely set up their own faction in the future. Most of the people who come to join them have this in mind, so Yuan Xi is inherently at a disadvantage when trying to win over people like Zhuge Liang.
Although Zhao Yun also had the ambition to support the Han Dynasty, he was taken action against by Yuan Xi early on. Because the Han court was in disrepute, no prince would openly raise this banner, not even Liu Bei at that time.
But a year later, things were different.
Emperor Liu Xie returned to Luoyang in the east. Cao Cao took the opportunity to defeat other princes and took Liu Xie to Xu County, thus starting to use the emperor to control the other princes.
From then on, for a long time, Cao Cao fought under the banner of supporting the Han Dynasty, causing the gentry all over the world to rush to submit to him.
What Yuan Xi has to do is to do his best to sabotage this matter.
Now the two people he trusts the most are Qu Yi and Zhao Yun. Qu Yi has been sent to Lu Bu, waiting for the opportunity to act, which can be regarded as a hidden chess move.
In addition to Dong Zhao who was sent first, Yuan Xi arranged two backup plans in Henei County. Once the passage to Taihang Mountains was opened, it would be Zhao Yun's turn to take action and make the final decision.
The crowd arrived in front of Jicheng and found that the city was not small, but the city wall was not high, only about ten feet high.
Yuan Xi stopped, looked around at everyone and said, "If we want to build a strong city here that can accommodate hundreds of thousands of people, is it possible within five years?"
Guo Jia had already gotten out of the carriage at this time, and he thought to himself that the young master indeed had such an idea.
During the past few days, Guo Jia talked with Yuan Xi and found that the other party was very obsessed with Jicheng. Guo Jia didn't quite understand. Jicheng was a place where Han and Hu people lived together. Even if a city was built, it would be difficult to develop within a dozen years, right?
Zhao Yun, Tian Yu and others had heard of such a thing for the first time and could not help but look at each other in surprise. Building a city is not a simple matter!
Not to mention that building a city wall alone is quite time-consuming and laborious. Even if the outer city is built, it will take many years to plan the inner city, divert water and drain water, dig canals and pave roads!
Today, all the big cities in the world have a history of hundreds of years. They all started as villages, attracted people to gather, became towns, then county towns, and finally, as the population grew, they became big cities.
During this period, population is the decisive factor, and the corresponding grain fields, water conservancy facilities, transportation and trade routes, various types of buildings, and the proportions of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans are all essential.
Now Yuan Xi suddenly said that he wanted to build a fortified city with hundreds of thousands of people here. Everyone was a little confused. There are less than 50,000 people in Jicheng now, and there are indeed large tracts of wasteland around it, but where will the extra population come from?
Seeing that everyone was silent, Yuan Xi knew that he was getting a little anxious, so he smiled and said, "We are all tired today. Let's go back and rest for a day, think about it carefully at night, and discuss it tomorrow."
After hearing this, everyone followed the order.
Yuan Xi and Zhao Yun walked into the city and found that its residents looked very different from those in Jiangdong. Many of them had high noses and deep eyes, but they were wearing Han clothes, while some who looked like people from the Central Plains were wearing Hu clothes.
There are many small stalls on both sides of the street, selling exotic foods such as Hu Bing and mutton soup.
Yuan Xi thought that this was a good thing. Chinese culture is inherently inclusive. It is through constant communication and cultural integration that the Chinese nation has been built.
If we simply reject others and close our doors to the outside world, we will only stagnate.
However, he found that the roads were all muddy and bumpy. Compared with the bluestone roads in Yecheng, the difference was like heaven and earth. He thought that he really needed to take it step by step.
But speaking of it, Yecheng can also be ranked among the top three in the world today. It is a bit bullying to compare Jicheng with Yecheng.
Yuan Xi also saw the people on the road dodging to the sides when they saw the crowd leading troops into the city, so he casually asked Zhao Yun: "Was this place occupied by the remnants of Gongsun Zan before?"
"How has the city responded to our entry?"
Yuan Xi was quite pleased when he said this.
Because the Ji city where they were at that time was the place where Liu Yu was killed by Gongsun Zan.
On that day, Liu Yu was defeated by Gongsun Zan. After fleeing to Juyong Pass with his wife and children, he was caught up by Gongsun Zan and his entire family was captured and imprisoned in Jicheng.
At this time, the Han court sent an envoy, Duan Xun, to bring Liu Xie's edict, naming Liu Yu as the general manager of the affairs of the six states and conferring the title of Marquis of Yi on Gongsun Zan.
This was originally an act of appeasement, but Gongsun Zan took the opportunity to accuse Liu Yu of proclaiming himself emperor. For some unknown reason, Duan Xun actually executed Liu Yu's entire family in a busy city.
Sun Jin, the former prime minister of Changshan, and his subordinates Zhang Yi and Zhang Zan, gathered around the execution ground on their own accord, cursing Gongsun Zan, and were killed along with Liu Yu.
Gongsun Zan sent Liu Yu's head to the capital Chang'an, but it was intercepted by Liu Yu's old subordinate Wei Dun on the way and sent back for burial.
At that time, Liu Yu was benevolent and righteous in Youzhou and was deeply loved by the people. When he was killed, the people of Youzhou cried for him. From then on, Youzhou was in chaos and Gongsun Zan lost the support of the people.
Yuan Xi had previously thought that the news that he had avenged Liu Yu and defeated Gongsun Zan had spread throughout Youzhou. Whether it was the people of Youzhou or Jicheng, they would be grateful to him to some extent, right?
Unexpectedly, Zhao Yun hesitated and finally whispered, "Some problems have occurred."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi felt something was wrong and asked, "What's going on?"
After Zhao Yun finished explaining the whole story, Yuan Xi's face suddenly turned gloomy.
It's Xu You who is causing trouble again!
This was actually Yuan Xi's own mistake. Before he left Youzhou for Guangling, he handed over military affairs to Zhao Yun and internal affairs to Liu He.
The two men fought from Yuyang to Guangyang. Every time they captured a city, they appeased the people and recruited officials. Zhao Yun was good at military affairs and Liu He had been a court attendant. The two cooperated well and no major problems arose.
But the bad thing was that above them were two other Beijia officials who were responsible for the lives of the people of Jizhou, and who were in charge of internal affairs and military affairs respectively.
Xu You and Ju Su.
Ju Su had been training his troops in Beixin City. He was originally squeezed out by Yuan Shao and was a little disheartened, but he didn't cause any trouble. However, Xu You was different.
Behind him is Yuan Shang, who already has the intention of causing trouble. Now that Zhao Yun and Liu He have captured several big cities and a large number of official positions are vacant, how could he not think about it?
Therefore, Xu You immediately summoned many officials in the name of Beijia Attendant and rushed them to various cities to take up their posts.
Especially since Jicheng is closest to Beixincheng, Xu You placed several descendants of the Xu family in important positions. After taking office, these people had the same character as Xu You, and were greedy and cruel in doing things, which caused dissatisfaction among the people in the city.
The reason why this matter fell into vain was that Ju Shou and Xu You complained about each other in a letter to Yuan Xi. Yuan Xi adopted Guo Jia's strategy, temporarily ignored Xu You, and asked Zhao Yun and Liu He to be tolerant for the time being.
Yuan Xi had not expected that things would become so chaotic in just a few short months!