I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 342 He's a Pervert
After conducting a raid on their homes and exterminating their entire families, Yuan Shu realized just how wealthy these guys who constantly complained about being poor actually were.

Therefore, he has only one attitude towards these people's complaints of poverty.

If we do business honestly, I won't let you down; I'll give you whatever money is due.

But if you try to play tricks on me and raise prices, I'll make you move your livelihood!
Bingzhou ultimately lacked a strong local power. The most famous Taiyuan Wang clan was wiped out by Yuan Shu. Under the intimidation of his powerful reputation, the aristocratic families and local tyrants dared not act recklessly and could only bow their heads and accept Yuan Shu's demands.

Large quantities of grain flowed into the five northern counties, satisfying the people's needs for development and supporting the consumption during the construction of Liangzhuang.

Of course, many of the good villages in the five northern counties were not located on pure wasteland. They had once been farmland and had been developed through reclamation. However, due to war and chaos, the population was scattered and no one continued to develop them. As a result, they were overgrown with weeds and were very different from pure wasteland.

Pure wasteland takes two to three years to become productive, but these abandoned farmlands can reduce the time required to start production and can be put into production much faster.

At the same time, the land acquired in Taiyuan and Shangdang counties was converted into farms by Yuan Shu. Since all production facilities were in place, the farms could be put into production and harvest grain immediately. Therefore, the income from these farms could also be used to support the construction of the five northern counties.

Overall, Yuan Shu tried his best to use local production to support local construction, thereby reducing transportation costs. If transportation was absolutely necessary, he made more use of rivers and less use of land routes.

During this process, Yuan Shu noticed that just as meticulous cultivation is needed in agricultural production, it is also needed in political governance.

The Han Empire was in a classical imperial state, and its governance was already very advanced and efficient compared to other parts of the world at the same time. However, compared to later governments, it was still quite rough and unrestrained, and many things were done on a whim without careful testing and verification.

This results in particularly severe resource depletion.

For example, the transport of grain from Taiyuan County to Yanmen County, if we follow the orders of the government in the past, would result in a loss of more than 40% in such a short distance.

After Yuan Shu took charge of government affairs, he set up a special transport office in the governor's office to be responsible for the transfer of materials. He also set up a special transport officer to be in charge of the transport office. He conducted in-depth research on the roads, rivers, mountains and geography between Taiyuan County and Yanmen County, and then conducted on-site visits to find the most suitable transportation plan.

With this transportation plan and some auxiliary plans along the way, the loss caused by transporting grain from Taiyuan County to Yanmen County was reduced by 60%.

Losses are unavoidable, but by designing a meticulous plan and making the most of all available resources, a significant amount of loss can be reduced.

If losses are reduced by 60% in one section of the route, then similarly designed sections can also reduce losses significantly. Combined, this can reduce losses during transit by a large margin each year, saving millions of kilograms of rice.

How many people and how many soldiers could this portion of food feed?

Therefore, Yuan Shu later raised this requirement at a routine meeting of the governor's office, demanding that all government offices must come up with practical and feasible solutions to improve efficiency and reduce waste, and that a plan should be made first for whatever task needs to be done.

We should walk all the roads, see all the rivers, and repair all the means of transportation. Even if we can only save a few pounds of grain, it's still a person's daily ration.

After the order was issued by the governor's office, it was then issued to nine prefectures, and then to ninety-three county prefectures. In short, it was issued to all places with government organizations.

While governing Bingzhou, Yuan Shu was also effectively training the entire bureaucratic system of Bingzhou.

When he was short-handed, he could tolerate some minor issues in the system where people sought personal gain. As long as they didn't go too far, he could temporarily ignore them because he couldn't assume that everyone was selfless.

But there is one thing.

You have something to do.

If I've taken the money and the job is done, then I'll accept it.

But if you take the money, don't do the job, or do it poorly, and then try to cover things up...

Then I'll make you pay five or even ten times the price.

The contradictions, problems, and difficulties accumulated within Bingzhou are being resolved at an unprecedented speed thanks to Yuan Shu's decisive actions. This war-torn and harsh border region is developing in a positive direction at an unprecedented pace.

This was something no one had anticipated.

No one believed that the nineteen-year-old Yuan Shu could handle this mess that many were unwilling to take on. Many thought that Yuan Shu had always been a nationally renowned genius, but this time, this genius was likely to fall. However, no one could have imagined that Yuan Shu not only did not fall, but instead grew at an even faster pace.

Previously, he could only handle matters in one county or prefecture, but now he can handle matters in nine prefectures or one state.

The entire Bingzhou was on his mind, and the burden of nine counties rested on his shoulders, but he did not feel particularly tired.

He transcended, he overclocked, he became a monster.

This situation was unexpected not only by certain individuals within the Luoyang court, but also by Tanshihuai, the Xianbei leader who was regarded as a formidable enemy on the border by the Han Empire and possessed considerable literary and military talents.

Since Yuan Shu successfully thwarted a probing raid last year, resulting in the loss of nine thousand able-bodied men, Tan Shihuai, somewhat apprehensive, began to rethink his development strategy.

Previously, after unifying the Xianbei, he planned to slowly bleed the Han Empire by launching frequent but limited raids to the south, gradually draining its resources to develop and strengthen himself, while trying not to provoke a strong reaction from the Han Empire.

Others may not know, but he himself knows: the Han Empire is too big and too strong, while the troops under his command number only over 600,000. Even if he tries his best to mobilize them, he can barely reach the level of "100,000 archers".

However, this is a one-off event, almost unsustainable. If it really comes to this, it means he is facing a life-or-death situation.

Over the past ten years, Tan Shihuai has fought in the north and south, and has indeed defeated many enemies. The enemies on the grasslands are no match for him, and he always manages to win. However, when he goes south, he encounters some obstacles from time to time.

He paid attention to learning from the experiences and lessons of the Han people, and also sought governance solutions and countermeasures from some Han people who had fled to the grasslands. Because of his emphasis on learning, he was able to build the Xianbei tribal alliance into an invincible force on the grasslands.

Therefore, over the past ten years, he has won many victories in his southern invasions, treating the borders of the Han Empire almost as his own backyard, from which he has frequently obtained large amounts of wealth to satisfy the needs of the Xianbei tribal alliance.

This also subtly increased his confidence and contempt for the border defense forces of the Han Empire.

So when the news of the change of leadership in Bingzhou came, he felt it was a good time to invade. Although it was cold at the time and the best time to invade had passed, he still wanted to test the mettle of this so-called governor of Bingzhou who wanted to eliminate the Xianbei.

If he's just another good-for-nothing who talks big but is useless, like the others before him, then the next invasion southward will be on a massive scale.

However, to Tan Shihuai's surprise, this probing invasion resulted in heavy losses and numerous casualties.

With the death of his trusted confidant Hulanji, the Central Xianbei tribe lost 9,000 able-bodied men, almost exhausting all their strength. Everywhere in the tribe, there were people wailing and crying, and every household had lost a loved one. The Central Xianbei were severely weakened.

Nine thousand men—almost one-tenth of the strongest fighting force the entire Xianbei tribal alliance could muster—was an unprecedented and devastating loss since Tan Shihuai became the tribal leader and launched the war of unification.

This not only dealt a heavy blow to the central Xianbei, but also severely damaged Tan Shihuai's personal prestige.

At this time, the Xianbei ethnic consciousness had not yet emerged, and the Xianbei people had not yet identified themselves as a whole. The Xianbei tribal alliance was just a large, generalized group, which was united by Tan Shihuai's personal strength and prestige.

It can be said that without Tan Shihuai, there would be no such tribe, and without Tan Shihuai's military power, there would be no unified tribal alliance.

Now, the very foundation upon which this tribal alliance exists is crumbling.

It's not that Tan Shihuai had never failed before, but that his failures had never been so severe, with such great losses, that those who once believed in Tan Shihuai's destiny began to doubt whether his destiny was real.

Tan Shihuai was a smart man, and he naturally noticed the wave of doubts he was facing. However, it was still the dead of winter, and the biting wind blocked people's doubts.

It wasn't until the spring breeze blew and new life blossomed on the grassland that the doubts about Tanshihuai finally gained momentum, and people began to attack Tanshihuai himself, making his ability to command the central and western Xianbei no longer as smooth as before.

Tan Shihuai was inwardly anxious, but outwardly remained unchanged. Instead of immediately retaliating against Bingzhou, he cautiously chose to launch a westward expedition, leading his troops to attack the Qiang tribes in the west and achieving a series of military victories.

While this strategy of picking on the weak did not completely dispel some people's doubts and dissatisfaction with Tan Shihuai, the successive military victories suppressed most people's suspicions, the voices of doubt were much quieter, and the previous failures seemed to be regarded as isolated incidents.

On this basis, Tan Shihuai punished some of the Xianbei in the central and western regions who did not obey him or who led the questioning of him. He exiled, arrested, and executed some tribal leaders and replaced them with new leaders, thereby stabilizing his position.

(End of this chapter)