Wait, please don't call me Emperor Zhaolie

Chapter 102 Yuan Shu: Xuande is still the best
Liu Bei adopted Bao Xin's method of how to treat the nobles and aristocrats in Yanzhou. Bao Xin, who also came from a noble family in Yanzhou, understood better the dirty deeds of the various families in the prefecture and county.

Let’s put the matter of Yanzhou aside for now.

Liu Bei focused his attention on dealing with the drought. He dug many ditches in Pingyuan, Jinan and Le'an, and built water wheels to draw river water to irrigate the fields.

Later, more ponds were built to store water in order to prevent drought.

In order to grow wheat until the harvest in June, Liu Bei personally led his assistants and soldiers to dig a tributary from the gradually decreasing main stream of the Yellow River to pass through the Luoshui and Jishui rivers.

Allow water to flow into the two almost dried-up rivers again. Once the water level of the Yellow River drops, these two waterways will also dry up.

That means that the entire Qingzhou, except for Pingyuan County, will be affected by drought.

Previously, Qi County, Beihai and Donglai did not have the mainstream of the Yellow River, so they had to gradually give up the use of water to divert farmland far away, otherwise the amount of water used to irrigate one hectare would far exceed that of farmland close to the river.

Fortunately, the crops cultivated this year are all wheat, which is more drought-resistant. If it were rice, we would have to give up.

This year's harvest was only good in the three counties close to the Yellow River, while the other three counties had almost no harvest.

Fortunately, they had defeated the troops of Yan Liang and Wen Chou earlier and harvested hundreds of thousands of hu of grain. In addition, they had slaughtered the Xiongnu's cattle and sheep and distributed them to the common people, who could barely survive for another three or four months with one meal a day. The famine was temporarily alleviated.

Officials in Qingzhou were reduced from three meals a day to two meals a day, and their salaries were changed from money, silk, and corn to money and silk, while grain distribution was suspended.

The officials of Qingzhou, Dongjun and Jibei all expressed their understanding and agreement. Guan Yu, Zhao Yun, Qian Zhao, Jian Yong, Xun Yu, Xun You and Guo Jia all wrote to Liu Bei in succession, expressing their willingness to reduce or exempt their salaries, and that it would not be too late to pay the salaries after the people of Qingzhou had safely survived the drought.

Liu Bei responded to each of their requests to comfort them, but of course he did not agree in the end.

Nowadays, money, cloth, and fine silk can only be used to buy some grain in Yanzhou and transport it to Dongjun, but they are of no use in other states.

Although the neighboring Jizhou did not suffer much from the drought, Yuan Shao would never sell its surplus grain to it, and the same was true for Xuzhou.

Although Tao Qian was in poor health, he still held great power and was politely declined when Liu Bei asked him to buy grain.

Other states and counties are too far away. Youzhou is separated by Jizhou, and the distances to Yangzhou and Jingzhou are too long. Far water cannot quench nearby fire, so even if they are bought, they cannot be transported.

Hearing that Qian Zhao could meet Yuan Shu through the help of the nobles of Jibei, Liu Bei personally wrote a letter and sent someone to cross the Lu and Pei counties in Yuzhou to Jiujiang Shouchun to meet Yuan Shu.

At that time, Yuan Shu had just returned Sun Jian's former subordinates to Sun Ce. When he heard that Liu Bei's Jibei Xiang was recruiting people to come, he felt very curious.

Waving his hand to let Sun Ce leave, Yuan Shu asked with interest: "Why did Liu Xuande's messenger come?"

The staff whispered something in his ear, and Yuan Shu narrowed his eyes, stroked his beard and smiled, "It turns out that there is no way to drive Yuan Benchu ​​away due to drought. I was wondering why Liu Bei suddenly withdrew his troops when he was fighting well. It turned out to be because of lack of food. Go and call the messenger to see me."

When the messenger arrived at the hall, he bowed and handed the letter to the clerk next to him. After the clerk checked it and confirmed it was correct, he stepped forward and handed it to Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shu was sitting at the table. As he opened the letter, he curiously asked, "Why did your Liu Qingzhou attack Yuan Benchu?"

The messenger bowed respectfully and replied, "Yuan Shao is the descendant of three ministers in the Yuan family for four generations, but he brought shame to the Yuan family and deposed the emperor. He also murdered Han Fu, the governor of Jizhou. That's why I raised an army to attack him in anger!"

"Good! Good job on the expedition." Yuan Shu studied the letter, clapped his hand on the table and said with a smile.

"Cough! Cough!" The staff member next to him took out a piece of silk from his sleeve and hurriedly coughed to cover it up.

Yuan Shu understood his intention and said seriously, "I mean that we should punish those who disrespect the emperor and bring harm to the Yuan family. Xuande did a good job."

Seeing that Liu Bei was respectful and polite in the letter, calling him the head of the Yuan family, a true descendant of three officials in four generations, he was worthy of being the great-great-grandson of Yuan An, and had quite a legacy.

Yuan Shu was very happy. It was rare to find someone who beat Yuan Shao up and then turned around to praise him.

Finally, in the letter, Liu Bei wanted to buy some food, and after the drought was over, he would continue to send troops to attack Yuan Shao to eliminate the tradition of the four generations of three officials. If Yuan Gong was in trouble, forget it, he would send someone to look elsewhere. After reading it, Yuan Shu laughed and said, "Xuan De, why do you want to provoke me? The Yuan family has always respected the emperor, and only Yuan Shao, a rebellious person, appeared. When Yuan Shao secretly deposed the emperor, I spoke out against it. Later, he sent people to murder Han Fu. I, Yuan Gonglu, was the first to speak out against Yuan Shao.

I am far away in Runan and cannot reach you. If I were closer to Jizhou, I would have defeated this insult to our family long ago."

After Yuan Shu finished speaking, he shook his head and sighed repeatedly.

The messenger bowed and said, "Your Excellency knows that Lord Yuan is loyal to the Emperor, so I came here to ask for food. I hope Lord Yuan will agree."

Yuan Shu looked at his staff and asked, "How many bushels of millet are left in the Jiujiang treasury?"

The staff member pondered for a while and said, "Excluding the military rations just allocated to Sun Bofu, there are still nearly 60,000 hu of surplus rations..."

Before he could finish his words, Yuan Shu interrupted and asked, "Why is it so few?"

The staff member smiled bitterly and explained: "In addition to the grain harvested by the counties and states in Yuzhou, the 30,000 hu of rice from Lu Kang, the governor of Lujiang, has not arrived yet."

A loud "bang" startled the people around.

"Lu Kang has repeatedly disrespected me and bullied me too much!" Yuan Shu slammed the table and stood up angrily.

What’s more important is that Liu Xuande had just praised me in a letter as a role model for the Yuan family, and the messenger was still here, but in the blink of an eye, I was slapped in the face by a prefect.

It would be fine if I heard it normally, but today I became more and more angry the more I thought about it.

Yuan Shu waved his sleeves and said to the senior official beside him, "Send someone to call Sun Bofu."

"Mr. Yuan, please calm down!" the aide said quickly with his hands clasped.

"Mr. Yuan, please calm down. The envoy once said that anger can easily hurt the body. Mr. Yuan, please take care of your health and don't make your relatives sad and your enemies happy." Liu Bei's messenger also saluted and said.

"Tsk!"

"Xuan De is right." Yuan Shu sighed slightly.

Unfortunately, Liu Bei was too far away. Reading the letter was like seeing the person. From his words, one could tell that Liu Xuande was a thoughtful person. It would be nice if he could become a good friend with him.

After a moment's silence, Yuan Shu said, "Take the 60,000 bushels of millet from the government treasury and sell it to Xuande at a price lower than the grain price in Yuzhou to help with the disaster relief."

The messenger bowed quickly to express his gratitude.

After tidying up his clothes, Yuan Shu personally escorted the messenger from Qingzhou out of his mansion and watched him go to the inn where officials were entertained.

The staff beside him asked in confusion: "He is just a messenger, why does Lord Yuan treat him with such courtesy?"

After hearing this, Yuan Shu gathered up his sleeves and said with a smile: "The one I treated with courtesy was not the messenger, but Liu Xuande."

"I asked you to send someone to invite Sun Bofu. Did you do that?"

"Ah!?" The staff didn't expect that Lord Yuan was not pretending and really wanted to deal with Lu Kang, so they couldn't help but be a little stunned.

"He dares to offend me, do you think I can let him go easily?" Yuan Shu sneered.

If I don't let Sun Lang kill Lu Kang, will the people in Yangzhou think that I, Yuan Gonglu, am weak and can be bullied?

(End of this chapter)