The autumn rain in Yecheng had been falling intermittently for several days, but fortunately it cleared up on the day of Zhao Yun's wedding.
Yuan Xi vacated his own mansion and gave it to Zhao Yun, and he and Lu Lingqi moved to the Zhen family.
The only vacant space in the Zhen Mansion was naturally the small building where Zhen Mi once lived. Since Zhen Mi got married, the building had been almost empty. Now, after a little cleaning, the two of them moved in.
There was still a drizzle outside the window, causing Yuan Xi and Lu Lingqi's wedding date to be postponed for a few days. This made Yuan Xi a little absent-minded. Thinking that there were many things waiting for him to do in Youzhou, he unconsciously increased the strength of his hand in Lu Lingqi's arms.
Lu Lingqi was originally lying on the window, her face flushed, with a hint of charm in the corners of her eyes. Now she suddenly felt pain, and couldn't help but get furious, so she hit Yuan Xi in the chest with her elbow.
Yuan Xi fell backwards with a muffled groan, which scared Lu Lingqi. She grabbed Yuan Xi's belt with her backhand, but found that the other party's hand in her arms had not loosened. She was so angry that she laughed, and hit Yuan Xi back with her elbow, making Yuan Xi beg for mercy again and again.
Yuan Xi sat up straight again. Lu Lingqi knew what he was thinking and said, "If you are in a hurry to go back, you can go to Youzhou to do it."
Yuan Xi smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if we wait a few days. Besides, we have to give an explanation to Lord Wen."
"But looking at the weather, I'm afraid the harvest next year won't be very good. Although Mr. Han Yu is in charge of farming in Youzhou, the weather is getting colder, which makes people a little worried."
"What I am more worried about is that after the Black Mountain Passage is opened, Youzhou and the Southern Xiongnu will have contact."
"The hundreds of thousands of Southern Xiongnu are different from the Black Mountain Army. After all, they have had a complicated relationship with the Han court for hundreds of years. If the Southern and Northern Xiongnu collude again, the situation in the world will be in trouble."
"But we can't just kill all the Southern Xiongnu people. Some of them are plunderers, while others are honest and decent. Many of them live together with the Han and Qiang people in the border areas, so we can't tell them apart any more."
"Besides, most of the people here are registered as citizens of the Han Dynasty. Strictly speaking, they are legitimate citizens of the Han Dynasty, unlike the Northern Xiongnu outside the Great Wall."
"And it was originally used to deal with the Northern Xiongnu because of the policy of entanglement, but in the past hundred years, the Han court did not give them some of the things they deserved, which led to the disunity between the two sides. How to treat them in the future is also a troublesome matter."
"I heard that you grew up with Marquis Wen in Wuyuan, Bingzhou. There must be a lot of Southern Xiongnu there, right?"
Lu Lingqi recalled carefully and said, "It is indeed quite a lot."
"Strictly speaking, the Lu family is not considered a commoner in the local area. Although they have fallen on hard times, they have their own fields and houses, so they are more or less considered to be children of a good family."
"According to my father, although he had to farm when he was young, the family did not miss the money to support his martial arts training. After all, the people in the northern border areas are tough and if the children do not practice martial arts, they will not be able to keep the family property."
"Bingzhou is a mixed population of Hu and Han people, and their customs are actually quite barbaric. Fighting among each other is commonplace. When I was a child, I often saw my father coming home with a bruised face."
Yuan Xi didn't expect that Lu Bu would also be defeated, and couldn't help laughing, "Who is so bold as to hit Wen Hou?"
Lu Lingqi couldn't stop laughing. "At that time, when watering the fields and marking the boundaries of the fields, people often had to decide who would come first. The rule in the north was that whoever was standing last would water the fields first, so dozens or even hundreds of people got together and fought, wrestling and boxing, using all means possible."
"Although my father is powerful, he can't stand up to the crowd, and everyone knows he is strong, so everyone comes together to fight him."
Yuan Xi was surprised and said, "This is too unfair. Marquis Wen doesn't want to find someone to reason with?"
Lu Lingqi said helplessly: "My father wanted to save face, so he didn't bother to talk about this kind of thing, so he suffered a lot."
Yuan Xi sighed, "Wen Hou is fair and square in fighting, but think about it, this world is unreasonable."
"It's just like the current struggle in the world. Whoever stands out first will be attacked by everyone. No one will talk to you about fairness."
"Wen Hou realized this truth earlier than others."
Lu Lingqi said, "That's true, but at that time, all the tribes in the border areas were willing to accept defeat. After all, no one dared to break the rules, otherwise they would not even be eligible to water the plants next time."
"So at that time, there were many ethnic groups living in Wuyuan, such as the Xiongnu and Xianbei. We Han people didn't care, but the Xiongnu and Xianbei nobles often clashed because of their ancestral hatred."
Yuan Xi was stunned, "Just a noble?"
Lu Lingqi rolled her eyes at Yuan Xi and asked, "How about this?"
"Those nobles need face and a legitimate reason to maintain their status, so of course they have to try to suppress the other side."
"The common people down there need to eat. Who would fight to the death over something that happened hundreds of years ago?"
Yuan Xi was thoughtful, "I still took some things for granted. It seems that this time when I return to Youzhou, I will have time to go along the border of Youzhou and Bingzhou to see the local customs and habits with my own eyes, and think carefully before deciding what to do with the Southern Xiongnu and other foreign tribes."
"After all, if we could have fought for it, but instead pushed them to the opposite side and fought a meaningless battle, the only ones who would suffer would be the people on both sides."
Lu Lingqi nodded and said, "Indeed, the Southern Xiongnu nobles I met when I was a child included some who were strong and brutal, and some who were clear-headed. We can't generalize."
Yuan Xi fell into deep thought. Judging from later history, the current Chanyu Huhuxuan was a man who was quite good at getting along with everyone. He would have to find out whether he was truly loyal to the court or harbored evil intentions.
However, when Lu Lingqi was a child, she really drank a lot of milk and goat milk.
His thoughts were jumping around and he was daydreaming. When Lu Lingqi's breathing became heavier, a servant appeared in the garden holding an umbrella and carrying a wooden tray, and hurried to a small house in the corner.
There was vaguely a bowl of rice and two dishes of vegetables on the wooden tray. The servant walked to the front of the house. The guard Sun Li saw him and stood up to open the bolt.
The servant pushed open the door, put the wooden tray on the ground at the door, and quickly retreated. Sun Li laughed and bolted the door again.
Lu Lingqi whispered, "Did we catch the wrong person?"
"I have interrogated Yang Feng several times these days. It seems that he has no idea that Yang Chou was involved in the Huaicheng Rebellion and the pursuit of Master."
"There's no need to lie in her current situation."
Thinking of the meeting with Yang Feng the day before, Yuan Xi remained silent.
Yang Feng was quite stubborn at first. He even refused to drink the medicine prepared by Hua Tuo and just wanted to die.
In order to dig out the secrets of the Black Mountain Army from Yang Feng, Yuan Xi threatened Yang Feng with hundreds of soldiers. Although Yang Feng was angry, he still drank the medicine and revealed some of the inside story of the Black Mountain.
Yuan Xi gradually realized that Yang Feng had an independent position in the Black Mountain Army and had nothing to do with Zhang Yan. She also did not care about interpersonal relationships, so she was not very aware of many things happening in Black Mountain.
After understanding the situation, Yuan Xi said sarcastically, "No wonder Zhang Yan abandoned you. Now he has surrendered to the Han court, but you have become a prisoner. It turns out that you are of no use to him and are even an obstacle."
"Do you feel stupid?"
"What? He surrendered to the Han court?" Yang Feng was a little unbelievable. "Don't try to fool me!"
Yuan Xi took out the imperial edict sent by the Han court to various states and said, "Open your eyes and read it carefully."
Yang Feng took it and looked at it, then clenched her fingers tightly.
She naturally understood that the imperial edict in the announcement was true and Zhang Yan really betrayed her!
She laughed bitterly and said, "Zhang Yan, do you still have the same ambitions as the Yellow Turban Army did in the past?"
"You betrayed me and Huang Tian!"
Yuan Xi said coldly: "You are so arrogant. Can you represent Huang Tian?"
Yang Feng glared at him fiercely, "You worms should have been buried along with this corrupt world!"
"Sooner or later, someone will inherit Huang Tian's ambition and wipe out this world!"
Yuan Xi sneered and said, "Are you talking about Cao Cao or Cao Mengde?"
Yang Feng looked up in surprise, "You know that too?"
She then said disdainfully: "It's no wonder. You are spreading rumors under the guise of Taiping Dao and trying to seize the position of a real person. Only someone like you who disrespects Huang Tian can do such a despicable thing."
Yuan Xi sneered, "The Cao Mengde you're targeting is doing the same thing as me."
"You can do it, but I can't?"
He has now determined that the person behind Yang Chou is most likely Cao Cao. It is said that Cao Cao is quite capable. He was able to scare Yang Feng around and make her do things for him without even realizing it.
By this calculation, the real culprit for Qu Yi's death in battle was Cao Cao. It would be difficult for me to avenge him, and it would not be done in a short time.
It is possible that for ten, twenty, or thirty years, or even until Cao Cao dies of old age, he will be unable to do anything to him. Thinking of this, Yuan Xi felt extremely depressed.
He said coldly: "What real person, fake person? We are all liars. Big brother doesn't talk about second brother, but didn't Zhang Jiao also deceive the world?"
"He wanted to save the world and caused it to fall apart, but in the end he was taken advantage of and took advantage of it. How ridiculous."
After hearing this, Yang Feng let out a low growl, and stood up to pounce on Yuan Xi. However, her body was extremely weak, and Lu Lingqi stood in front of her and blocked her lightly, causing Yang Feng to fall back onto the pile of straw.
Yang Feng sat up with great effort, took a few breaths, and stared at Yuan Xi, "What do you know? You are a bunch of nobles and tyrants who exploit the people, and you are not worthy of talking about him!"
Yuan Xi saw that the conversation was not going his way, so he said disdainfully: "The root of the problem lies with Emperor Ling of Han, so many noble families also participated in the Yellow Turban Rebellion."
"But although his starting point was right, he ended up going the wrong way. I can only say that Zhang Jiao only cared about killing but not burying."
Yang Feng growled, "What do you know!"
"he"
She immediately reacted and kept silent.
Yuan Xi sneered and said, "No wonder, you probably have a high position in the Yellow Turban Army."
"You keep saying that it is Huang Tian's will, but in recent years, the Black Mountain Army has allowed its soldiers to plunder and torture the people. Is this also Huang Tian's will?"
"Don't worry, I won't let you die before I squeeze you dry."
Yang Feng stared at the wooden door that slammed shut in front of him and punched the ground hard. This ferocious tiger was so disrespectful to Huang Tianzhi's ambition. If he hadn't been threatened, he would have fought it to the death!
Now Yuan Xi and Lu Lingqi were talking about Yang Feng. Lu Lingqi sighed, "So after all, the real murderer who killed Master was Cao Cao?"
"Is Yang Feng actually a tool being used by others?"
"It's pretty miserable when you think about it."
Yuan Xi said calmly, "It's not a tragedy. He didn't do his job, didn't restrain the Black Mountain Army, and allowed them to plunder and harm the people. What's the difference between him and the evil nobles she mentioned?"
"The incompetent superiors should be punished, and the evil superiors should be put to death."
Lu Lingqi knew that Yuan Xi was referring to Emperor Ling of Han, so she covered her mouth and laughed, "This is extremely treasonous. Aren't you afraid that the Han court will settle accounts with you?"
Yuan Xi said calmly: "When the Han court was first established, it did save the people of the world, but the descendants were unfilial and repeatedly did immoral things, and they have already squandered the achievements of their ancestors."
"Since you have let down the people of the world, you can't blame the people of the world for rebelling."
Just as Lu Lingqi was about to speak, a maid came up and said, "Sir, someone is outside the door delivering a letter."