Yuan Shu decided to rescue the old, weak and sick people in southern Liaoning who were penniless and had no food left.

Different from those military generals who wield swords and spears, Yuan Shu is a man who is well-read in poetry and books.

Mencius taught him: What makes people different from animals is very little. Common people get rid of it, and gentlemen keep it...

In Mencius' view, there is little difference between humans and animals.

The specific difference is that humans have four ends, while animals do not.

What are the four ends?

The heart of compassion is the beginning of benevolence; the heart of shame and disgust is the beginning of righteousness; the heart of courtesy and humility is the beginning of propriety; the heart of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom.

To sum it up, it is the beginning of benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom.

Those who have four ends are human beings.

Those who do not have the four ends are beasts.

When a person completely loses the four virtues, he can be said to be worse than beasts.

Yuan Shu has a strong sense of compassion.

He couldn't bear to see tens of thousands of people in southern Liaoning die, especially those starved to death.

But it is easy to save one person, but difficult to save ten thousand people.

This is not just a matter of money, it is a matter of tangible consequences.

Before landing in southern Liaoning, the imperial court had prepared sufficient food and fodder for Huang Fei's navy.

Now suddenly there are so many people without food.

If we want to save them, we need to transport tens of thousands of shi of grain to southern Liaoning in a short period of time.

The court’s transportation capacity is fixed in the short term and cannot fluctuate.

After all, there are a limited number of ships.

The carrying capacity of each ship also has an upper limit, and it cannot be increased just because you want to.

Without increasing the capacity.

If more food is given to the people, there will be less food for the army, which will affect the supply of military food and then the military deployment plan.

Yuan Shu’s method was to let the naval officers and soldiers who did not go ashore save their rations and give the civilians something to eat to prevent them from starving to death.

Then the navy warships were used to transport food.

Anyway, there was no trace of the Jiannu navy in southern Liaoning, so using warships to transport grain was the best use of the resources.

The solution is there, but there is no money.

Yuan Shu could only write letters to the court for help.

When people learned that Yuan Shu wanted to save the people in southern Liaoning, the government and the public were shocked.

Some people admire his courage.

Some recognized his mercy.

Some people also felt that Yuan Shu's move would delay the war and decided to write a petition to impeach him.

After Chongzhen learned about this, he began to look at Yuan Shu with a new respect.

If he were Yuan Shu, he might not care about this matter.

After all, the more you do, the more mistakes you make; the less you do, the fewer mistakes you make; and if you do nothing, no mistakes!

But Yuan Shu still took care of it.

I took the risk of being beheaded.

Chongzhen was very moved and ordered: Yuan Shu loves the people like his own children, and is a role model for all officials! He allocated 100,000 silver coins from the treasury and asked Yuan Shu to save the people.

There were two groups of imperial envoys who delivered the imperial edict.

The first group of people rushed to Dengzhou as quickly as possible and told Yuan Shu the news.

After receiving the news, Yuan Shu began to borrow grain from the Dengzhou treasury.

The second group of people was responsible for escorting the silver.

After they arrived, Yuan Shu could use the money to purchase grain to replenish the borrowed grain in the treasury.

Seven days had passed when the first batch of additional grain arrived in southern Liaoning.

During these seven days.

Although the navy saved a lot of food to help the people, many people still died.

In addition, a lot of things happened during these seven days.

Just as Yuan Shu got off the warship and was about to supervise the boatmen in transporting military supplies, he was met by the postman sent by Huang Fei.

"Your Excellency the Governor," the postman knelt on one knee and held up an official document with both hands, saying, "The Guanliao Dengjin navy has recovered Jinzhou and Fuzhou and is heading towards Gaizhou."

"In addition, Lord Wang, the governor of Ping Liao, has also led his troops to recapture Haizhou and is heading towards Liaoyang!"

After Yuan Shu took the letter and read it quickly, he felt deeply moved.

He didn't expect the war to go so smoothly.

If this trend continues, Liaodong will be recovered by next year at the latest.

As I was expressing my emotion, a young soldier in military uniform came over.

The personal soldiers around Yuan Shu immediately stopped him.

He bowed deeply to Yuan Shu through his personal guards and said, "Excuse me, are you Mr. Yuan, the governor of Dengzhou?"

Yuan Shu nodded and asked, "Who are you?"

"I am the guard of the advisor to Governor Wang of Ping Liao," the young soldier replied.

"The...guards of the adviser...of the Governor-General Ping Liao?" Yuan Shu repeated it subconsciously before remembering the identity of this adviser.

Not long after Prince Ding Zhu Cijiong entered Liao, he was kept by Wang Yongji as an adviser.

Although he never came up with any ideas, his identity as a counselor was real.

In addition, Zhu Cijiong could also command the Jinyiwei in Liaodong.

The identity is prominent and complex.

"What's the matter?" Yuan Shu asked.

"My master wants you to come over and have a chat." The young soldier said, pointing to a mound not far away.

Hundreds of riders were gathered there, and the young man in the lead was standing in front of the horse, kicking the dirt on the ground out of boredom.

"Let's go!" Yuan Shu did not dare to delay and walked over immediately.

When he was still a short distance away from Zhu Cijiong, Yuan Shu bowed and saluted: "Greetings to His Royal Highness Prince Ding."

"Wow!" Zhu Cijiong pretended to be surprised, "Isn't this Lord Yuan, the role model for all officials?"

"Your Highness, you are joking." Yuan Shu said with a wry smile, "Officials should be honest, cautious, and diligent. I just want those people to survive, and I cannot bear the title of a role model for all officials."

"How is it? Are the people in southern Liaoning okay?" Zhu Cilang asked.

"Alive partly." Yuan Shu said with sadness.

"It's better than having no life at all," Zhu Cixiong comforted.

Yuan Shu nodded, bowed again and asked, "Excuse me, why did you come to Liaonan...?"

"We are here to investigate smuggling!" Zhu Cixiong said straight to the point, "According to the Jinyiwei informant, smuggling was rampant here before the Jiannu navy withdrew from southern Liaoning. In pursuit of profit, merchants from coastal provinces brought their goods to southern Liaoning for smuggling."

"Smuggling did happen," Yuan Shu said frankly. "The Guanliao Dengjin Navy had previously captured some merchants and merchant ships near southern Liaoning. Although they were interrogated, except for a few who admitted to smuggling, most of them claimed that they had lost their way in a storm and denied smuggling."

"Was torture used during the interrogation?" Zhu Cixiong asked.

"Only some of the merchants were punished, and the rest were not punished..."

"What about those merchants who were not tortured?" Zhu Cijiong took a step forward, stared into Yuan Shu's eyes and asked, "Are they your own people, Master Yuan?"

"They are not my people," Yuan Shu denied. "These people have deep backgrounds and are very difficult to deal with. I, a mere governor, cannot afford to offend them."

"A strong background?" Zhu Cijiong became interested. "Could it be that his background is stronger than mine? More difficult to deal with than the Jinyiwei?"

Yuan Shu didn't say anything and nodded.

"How is that possible?" Zhu Cijiong's face was full of surprise.

"Indeed."

"Tell me, who is he?" Zhu Cijiong asked in an interrogative tone.

Yuan Shu spoke and stretched out his right hand pointing to the south.

Zhu Cijiong frowned in thought, then said in shock: "You are talking about...my eldest brother?"

"That's right," Yuan Shu nodded.

"Impossible!" Zhu Cijiong denied flatly, "My elder brother would never smuggle. Even if he did, he would not smuggle to the Jiannu in Liaodong."