I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 84 His Own “Disciples and Former Officials”

The eunuchs began to take action with great interest, and first set their sights on the Yuan family.

The Yuan family had a special status. They were a powerful family and collaborators of eunuchs, with an ambiguous attitude. It was not strange to let someone from the Yuan family hold the position of one of the Three Dukes.

Moreover, in order to repair relations and avoid conflicts, it is also appropriate to use the positions of the three highest officials to win over the Yuan family.

Furthermore, the Yuan family has benefited from the positions of three highest officials, so shouldn’t they also return the favor and give us some equal feedback?
Currently, there are only two people in the Yuan family who have the ability and prestige to serve as one of the Three Dukes. Yuan Feng and Yuan Wei. Even if these two people become one of the Three Dukes together, one position can still be vacant and arranged for someone who is truly one of the eunuch group's own.

As long as this precedent is set, it will be a matter of course for the eunuch group to arrange for their own people to ascend to the positions of the Three Dukes and promote their students and former officials. The Three Dukes will no longer be the exclusive province of scholars, but eunuchs will also be able to get involved and get a piece of the pie.

Wow, this soup is neither salty nor bland, it tastes amazing!

The eunuchs had such a beautiful dream and hoped that it would come true.

Although Yuan She was born into a branch of the Yuan family, he was also a eunuch. Naturally, it was impossible for him to completely align with the Yuan family and he would also consider the eunuch group. He could not refuse such a win-win situation.

So Yuan She made this suggestion to Yuan Wei.

Yuan Wei was very excited about this.

However, Yuan Wei did not expect that Yuan Feng had thought so deeply, and could directly see the purpose of the eunuchs' actions, and was deeply worried about it.

Yuan Wei had no way to refute this possibility, because he himself thought it was very likely. However, the temptation of the three highest officials was too great, and the personnel power in the court brought by the position of three highest officials was even more crucial. This directly determined the development of the sixth generation of the Runan Yuan family.

As long as they hold the three highest positions, they can naturally set up their own governments to govern and appoint officials. They can also openly cultivate their own political power and not just that of the Yuan family. This will be a great help to their personal political ambitions.

Compared with Yuan Feng, Yuan Wei was a man with great political ambitions.

He did not attach much importance to the position of the head of the Yuan family, but he still attached great importance to the official position in the court and his personal fame and fortune.

"Brother Zhong, you and I are no longer young. We don't know how long we can live. If we continue to lie dormant and wait, what if something happens to our eldest brother... what should we do?"

After Yuan Wei finished speaking, he was completely dejected and depressed.
Yuan Feng saw Yuan Wei's hesitation and entanglement.

Ever since the death of the eldest brother Yuan Cheng, the person who knows his younger brother best is Yuan Feng.

Yuan Feng was well aware of Yuan Wei's ambition for fame and political success. He knew that his younger brother was very strict with himself and also had a tendency to think too highly of himself.

The early death of his eldest brother Yuan Cheng was a great blow to Yuan Wei, making him realize that none of them were young anymore.

In this era, human life was worthless. Emperors often died in their prime, and high-ranking officials might not live longer than ordinary people. If one was not careful, a cold could take one's life.

Yuan Wei didn't know how long he could live, but he absolutely did not want to die before he became one of the Three Dukes and inherited the reputation of his ancestors.

That's so sad.

Thinking of this, Yuan Feng also fell silent.

No one knows which will come first, the accident or the surprise, and no one even knows whether they will be alive tomorrow. Death is a sword hanging over everyone's head and may fall at any time. It is impossible to say that you are not afraid.

Both brothers are not young anymore. Yuan Feng’s eldest son, Yuan Ji, is about to get married and have children. In this era, he is already an “old man”. How long will he have to wait before he can become one of the Three Dukes and continue the legend of the Yuan family of Runan?
Yuan Feng couldn't answer this question.

So in the end, Yuan Feng finally relented, nodded, and agreed to let Yuan Feng and Yuan She discuss the matter.

Yuan Wei can decide for himself when to ascend to the position of one of the Three Dukes, but Yuan Feng himself will not pursue the possibility of ascending to the position of one of the Three Dukes.

The two brothers must never ascend to the positions of the Three Dukes at the same time, otherwise the Yuan family will inevitably be in trouble.

Yuan Wei was overjoyed and thanked Yuan Feng for his understanding, then started to work on this matter.

He also took one third of the wine sent by Yuan Shu and gave it to several leading figures in the eunuch group, in order to make friends with them, repair their relationship, and further reach a private political alliance.

Yuan Feng continued to do normal things and maximize the utility of the remaining two-thirds of the wine.

Part of it was given as a gift to high-ranking officials or clan officials, to continue to contribute to the Yuan family's political power in Luoyang.

A portion of it was used as a reward to the students and former officials who had contributed the most to the Yuan family and their families, so as to motivate more students and former officials and their families to continue working hard for the political goals of the Yuan family and move to a higher level. Yuan Shu was also praised by Yuan Feng for this matter.

Yuan Feng praised Yuan Shu highly in the letter and asked him to continue to maintain his current state and demonstrate his necessity to the entire Yuan family as much as possible.

In this way, his earlier lack of respect for the elders in the family can be completely offset, and in the future, Yuan Feng will be able to gain greater benefits for Yuan Shu.

After receiving feedback from all sides, Yuan Shu knew that his move was truly brilliant.

He used Yuan's resources to leverage Liangzhou's official resources, and used his own academic status to leverage Liangzhou's local resources. While gaining the benefits of spreading the School of Mind and winning people's hearts, he also obtained a stable batch of wine resources.

This batch of wine can not only make money, but also help the Yuan family to conduct interpersonal communication among high-level officials, obtain personal connections for the Yuan family, and in turn increase the Yuan family's regard for Yuan Shu himself.

The input-output ratio of this series of operations is simply outrageous.

Therefore, taking the opportunity of Yuan Shu ending his mourning period and resuming normal activities, during the period of peaceful recuperation after the conflict between the eunuchs and the Yuan family ended, Yuan Shu brought the development of Liangzhuang to a new level.

On the economic level, he had more funds, which he used to purchase more land from the Youfufeng government, expanding the land scale of Liangzhuang to more than 30,000 acres, and the number is still growing.

On the human resources level, from March of the third year of Jianning to the end of the third year of Jianning, with the continuous propaganda, more and more "refugees" arrived in Liangzhuang through "wandering", which led to a significant increase in the number of farmers there.

The number of farmers has officially exceeded 9,000, and is heading towards 10,000, moving towards a higher order of magnitude.

On the academic level, Yuan Shu not only gained a large number of "Yuan's disciples", but also increased the number of members of Yi Xin Hui.

During the mourning period, Yuan Shu did not formally take over Ma Rong's mantle and teachings. On the one hand, it was because of the mourning period, and on the other hand, he wanted to give himself more time to grow and accumulate.

Now that the mourning period is over, Yuan Shu's reputation and power are no longer the same as they were before. Of course, at the age of fifteen, he dared to formally take over Ma Rong's mantle, formally accept him as a disciple, and officially teach him.

He wanted to create a group of "disciples and former officials" that strictly belonged to him alone.

This is his personal political power and also an important foundation for the future "Fufeng Yuan Family".

Before that, Yuan Shu arranged preschool classes for all these students so that they could learn some necessary prerequisite knowledge. After the mourning period ended in March of the third year of Jianning, he began to formally select students in mid-April.

Yuan Shu has his own set of management methods for the academic education system.

First, he changed the original selection method which was mainly based on the students' background and family wealth to an assessment of academic ability. All students must first enter a preschool class to learn preliminary knowledge.

Only after passing the assessment and selection of the preschool class can one officially enter the Yuan family's School of Mind system, be recognized as a disciple of Yuan Shu, and begin to study the School of Mind and the ancient classics passed down by Ma Rong.

Because this is a preliminary selection, it is not difficult. As long as you study hard, even if your learning ability is not strong, you can pass and become a student.

Then comes the stage of becoming a disciple from a student.

This stage also uses the results of the selection examination as the main basis, supplemented by an interview session in which Yuan Shu personally participates. Based on a comprehensive judgment of the examination and interview results, outstanding candidates are selected as disciples to enter the core circle of the Yuan family's psychology group.

As for disciples, Yuan Shu currently does not have any, nor has he announced when he will accept a disciple.

As for the selection criteria for Yi Xin Hui, it is not based on academic performance. Both students and disciples can participate. The main selection criteria are the agricultural assistance and responsibility meeting links. Only those who can gain the recognition of the Yi Xin Hui inspection organization in these practical actions will be accepted into Yi Xin Hui.

Those who are not active in helping farmers and do not participate in the part of encouraging good deeds, even if their test scores are good and they can become disciples, will not have the opportunity to join the Yi Xin Society.

The main target of Yuan Shu's power building was the members of Yi Xin Hui. Disciples were just a prerequisite for him to recruit members of Yi Xin Hui.

What he really focused on was the Yixin Society.

Therefore, as long as there are problems in the aspects of helping farmers and enforcing charity, no matter how strong their academic ability is, they will not be accepted by Yuan Shu as one of his own. Instead, they will be directly expelled in the future.

What he wants are people who truly recognize him, people who are truly willing to believe in conscience and the unity of knowledge and action. Only such people can become his support in the future to make great changes. As for those easily swayed fence-sitters, he doesn't care at all.

As the number of members of Yi Xin Hui increased, Yuan Shu began to further tighten the entry threshold for Yi Xin Hui members. He also set up an exit mechanism, set higher thresholds for new members, and imposed strict disciplinary constraints on people within the Yi Xin Hui system.

(End of this chapter)