Hou stretched out her hand and pushed open the window. A gust of cold wind from outside blew in her face. The bone-chilling coldness that was unique to the early morning in the north made her mind, which was still groggy from getting up, clear up a lot.
She felt the warmth in the room rushing out violently, and quickly pulled the window back, leaving only a crack.
She turned her head and saw that the child on the bed behind her was still sleeping soundly, and she felt a little relieved.
She supported herself on the windowsill with her hands and looked out through the gap in the window. From top to bottom, the upper part of the window was a strip of sky, and the lower part was the snowy scene of the house.
There was just a light snow in Beixincheng. This snow came very late because it should be the last snow before the weather gets warmer. It also came very early. It is already early spring, but because of the late spring cold, it became the first snow of the year.
However, as soon as the snow stopped, the weather began to warm up again, and the snow powder covering the walls and branches turned into trickles, flowing everywhere.
When Hou saw that the ice in the pond in the yard had melted and a fish jumped out of the water, she thought that spring was coming.
Outside the courtyard wall, there was a faint sound of noisy voices, which seemed quite lively. Hou knew that these were the refugees who had been waiting outside the city gates for a long time and were pouring into the city after the city gates were opened early in the morning. Most of these refugees were those who had escaped from Heishan.
It was bustling outside the wall, but deserted inside. Hou felt a little uncomfortable because the owner of the mansion had been away for more than half a year and had not returned.
In her spare time, she often listened to the dozen or so young ladies who stayed in the mansion chatting and talking about what happened after the owner of the mansion, Yuan Xi, left. These young ladies often regretted why they didn't follow the young master in the first place.
Now the young master is married and has become the governor of Youzhou!
Hou also felt a little uncomfortable. The feeling lingering on her hand after her chance encounter with Yuan Xi in the small building was just like what happened yesterday.
However, Hou had a feeling that Yuan Xi might never come back.
Hou had already heard from the young girl about what Yuan Xi had done in the past six months. He was now a local lord and had conquered large tracts of territory in Youzhou and Xuzhou. He had now returned to Jicheng, Guangyang County, which was adjacent to Zhuo County.
Hou heard the young girl mumbling that Yuan Xi had been in Jicheng for about a month and it seemed that he had no intention of leaving. He was afraid that he had already forgotten about Beixincheng.
When Gongsun Zan was still alive, Hou had been to Jicheng. Neither the population size nor the convenience of water transportation there could be compared with Beixincheng. In particular, most of the Heishan refugees were also led to Jicheng. This was clear evidence that Beixincheng was to be abandoned.
Speaking of these fleeing people from Heishan, Hou heard that Yuan Xi had issued a circular in Youzhou and Bingzhou, saying that if there were Heishan refugees who came to Youzhou to farm and work, they would be forgiven. This is why more and more people fled from Heishan.
Hou thought that although Yuan Xi was young, he acted in a mature manner that was not commensurate with his age, and his decisiveness was no less than that of her late husband when he was at the peak of his career.
This cut off the Montenegrin army's support, revealing their style of doing things.
It is true that there are hundreds of thousands of people in the Taihang Mountain area under the rule of the Black Mountain Army, but there are dozens of scattered forces within it. In order to suppress and annex each other, the Black Mountain bandit leaders use the young and strong people under their rule as soldiers.
This certainly ensured their military strength, but under the means of draining the pond to catch fish, the number of laborers engaged in production was much less, resulting in Montenegro being in an awkward situation of neither food nor clothing, neither progressing nor declining, in recent years.
Last year, the disaster was particularly severe, with locust plagues and droughts affecting states across the country, making it difficult for Montenegro forces to move forward in the back door of Texas.
Yuzhou and Yanzhou also suffered disasters. Yuan Shu and Cao Cao were short of food, so the intensity of their expansion was much lower, and there were almost no decent major battles.
On the contrary, Henei County, which was sandwiched between Bingzhou and Sili, had a good harvest because Zhang Yang had no intention of expansion and focused on farming.
The Black Mountain Army once sent people to Hanoi to borrow food, but the reply they received was that they were really powerless because Lu Bu's army had entered Hanoi, and the Baibo Army in Hedong and Hanoi was also short of food. The two forces had already borrowed most of the food.
Under such circumstances, farmers and people in Montenegro welcomed the spring plowing season.
There was already a shortage of food during the winter, and most people even ate the seeds. Not to mention that it took more than half a year from farming to harvesting, many people couldn't even survive the spring.
However, in order to maintain military operations, the leader of the Black Mountain Army forced the people to hand over the food. After all, the soldiers would not wait until the autumn harvest to eat. Hundreds of thousands of mouths need food every day.
But food cannot appear out of thin air, so what should we do?
When the people of Montenegro were in despair, a piece of news spread secretly.
When the governor of Youzhou arrived, he pardoned the past deeds of the people of Heishan. As long as they went to Youzhou for refuge, they would be given a piece of wasteland, on which they could reclaim the land and the land would be theirs!
This is certainly a great temptation, but it still does not solve the most troublesome problem of eating.
Then came another piece of news.
The people who escaped could buy food on credit and pay it back after the harvest, or they could work as apprentices to craftsmen to earn food. They could get paid for their work on the same day.
As for those who can join the army, the treatment is even more generous. As long as one person joins the army, the whole family can be exempted from labor and can get enough food to feed at least two people.
When this news came out, many people were immediately interested. They were already unable to survive, so why not find a way to survive?
Some people also doubt whether Youzhou can really afford to support so many refugees?
Could it be that they were tricked into coming here and then captured to work as slaves?
After waiting and watching hesitantly, some people could not hold on any longer and began to try to escape to Youzhou.
The northern part of Taihang Mountain, controlled by the Black Mountain Army, is located at the junction of Youzhou, Bingzhou and Jizhou, and is adjacent to Zhuo County. The northern pass of Taihang Mountain is only a hundred miles away from Beixincheng.
Although Jizhou has a better climate and is more prosperous, the Yuan family and the Black Mountain Army are at odds and are very wary of refugees. So if people want to escape, their only option now is Youzhou.
More than half a month later, the news came back that those who had escaped would indeed be provided with food as long as they worked!
Combined with the real-life rumors that Yuan Xi had spread in Heishan before, the people in Heishan were already unstable, and now when they heard that they could have enough food in Youzhou, they became completely confused and began to flee on a large scale.
When Zhang Yan heard this, he became furious and ordered several leaders to plunder the area near Beixin City.
As a result, as soon as they came out of the northern pass, they were ambushed by the Youzhou army and beaten badly. When the enemy leader appeared, several Black Mountain generals who still wanted to resist were terrified and turned around and fled in a panic.
The garrison commander of Beixin City was actually Ju Su, the military supervisor under Yuan Shao!
It is said that Ju Su and the Black Mountain Army were old enemies. In order to retaliate against the Black Mountain Army's sneak attack on Ye City, Yuan Shao led his entire army to attack Black Mountain, killing Hu Shou, Yu Du and others. All the Black Mountain generals were terrified.
At that time, the two most ruthless fighters against the Black Mountain Army under Yuan Shao were Lu Bu and Ju Su.
Therefore, in the eyes of the Black Mountain generals, Ju Su was a person who could not be provoked, and no one was willing to confront him head-on.
After hearing this, Zhang Yan became even more annoyed, and what gave him the most headache was Henei County in the south of Montenegro.
Originally, the Black Mountain Army and Zhang Yang had a good relationship, and sometimes they would support each other. But when Lu Bu, who had a better relationship with Zhang Yang, arrived, he couldn't deal with Zhang Yan.
Logically, Lu Bu and Zhang Yan were both enemies of Yuan Shao, but when Lu Bu was under Yuan Shao's command, he killed many of Zhang Yan's subordinates, which made Zhang Yan very uncomfortable.
Both of them were granted titles by the imperial court. Lu Bu had a high status while Zhang Yan had seniority, so neither of them was willing to take the initiative to make friends. From then on, the two sides became deadlocked.
Zhang Yan gritted his teeth. Lu Bu was just staying in Yanzhou, why did he come to Hanoi for no reason?
Hanoi is one of the two retreat routes of the Black Mountain Army. If Lu Bu becomes their enemy and they cannot resist him, won't they have no choice but to flee to the Southern Xiongnu territory in Bingzhou?
When Zhang Yan was hesitating and in a dilemma, Ju Shou in Beixin City felt even more at a loss.
It would have been fine if he had been exiled to Jizhou by Yuan Shao, but he had never met Yuan Xi since he took office. What was he thinking?
Ju Su felt more and more that Youzhou, this rotten place, was not suitable for him. He was left alone in Beixin City by Yuan Xi to guard the city. How could a dignified military supervisor of Jizhou fall to this point!
The key point came just as he fell out with Xu You in a blink of an eye. The other party relied on his higher position than him to trip him up everywhere. It was simply too much!
However, there is also good news. A month ago, Yuan Xi led his troops to inspect Jicheng and found out that the county magistrate Xu Jie was corrupt, opened the government treasury privately, abducted women, had evil intentions, and attempted to assassinate Yuan Xi. After investigation, the evidence was conclusive, and an order was issued to the whole city to behead him, and he was hung on the city wall for public display.
I heard that a month later, Xu Jie's head is still hanging on the top of Jicheng City.
When Xu You heard about this, Ju Shou was also present. He saw that Xu You's face was pale and he fell to the ground. If it was anything else, it would be fine, but the assassination of Yuan Xi would have serious consequences, and Xu You could not afford it!
Ju Shou felt secretly happy when he saw this. While he and the others were helping Xu You up, he secretly let go of him, causing Xu You to fall. Only then did the anger in his heart ease a little.
Xu You immediately wrote a letter to Jicheng to apologize. Yuan Xi's reply was kind and comforting, saying only that Xu Jie was bewitched and it had nothing to do with Xu You, so he should not worry.
Ju Shou felt quite regretful when he learned about it, and thought why not just get rid of Xu You!
He always felt that Yuan Xi had great ambitions, but Yuan Xi was acting mysterious in Jicheng and had not contacted him until now.
This made Ju Shou feel a little depressed. Was it because he didn't believe in himself, or did he feel that he was useless?
You can't stay in Beixincheng forever, right?
Should I write a letter and ask myself?
In the courtyard of Jicheng, Cao Xian and Cao Jie, one holding Cao Hua and the other holding A Xiang, were teaching them the Five Animal Exercises.
Cao Hua and A Xiang are of similar age, both at the toddler age. Based on Yuan Xi's idea that children should exercise from an early age, they were sadly forced to do the Five Animal Exercises.
Yuan Xi took a wooden spoon and scooped up the thick medicine in the bowl. He blew a few times and said to Mrs. Wu in front of him, "This medicine is a bit bitter. Do you want to add a piece of sugar?"
Mrs. Wu's face turned red, and she thought to herself, are you treating me like a child?
She whispered, "No need, I'll just drink it."
After hearing this, Yuan Xi said, "Well, Madam, please open your mouth."
As soon as these words came out, Madam Wu's face flushed, and she gritted her teeth and said, "I have hands, I don't need you to feed me!"