Chapter 267 Harvest is Useless
Yuan Xi’s look is so unique!
Even Zhang He, who had interacted with him several times, almost failed to recognize him.
You know, although the second son of the Yuan family did not receive as much attention as his elder and younger brothers, and was sandwiched in the middle and in an awkward position, but at least when he and Ju Shou Gao Gan left Yecheng, even though he dressed simply to conceal his identity, his temperament still looked like a nobleman.
But now... even if we remove the dusty feeling of traveling, it is more or less like someone coming from the countryside to Yecheng to attend the market.
The contrast is really great.
But if Yuan Xi himself were to say it, this change in his temperament was something he had to do.
In order to prevent himself from being defined as a so-called great talent again, he could only appear in front of people in this way, otherwise "Yuan Xi" would be discovered to be Yuan Xi and detained in Chang'an.
Besides, the mule and the cotton bag...
Well, no matter whether it looks ugly or not, the only thing that matters is that it is suitable for use.
When Yuan Xi went to Chang'an, he had already learned this principle without any instruction.
"Junyi, why do you have to look at me like this? I haven't changed my face, have I?"
Yuan Xi touched his face as he spoke, feeling that no earth-shaking changes had taken place in him.
From other people's perspective, his face didn't change, but at first glance it was really confusing, as if he had taken the wrong medicine.
Fortunately, Zhang He found a reasonable explanation for what he saw. He thought that this was also a sign of the hardship Yuan Xi had suffered on his way to Chang'an. He quickly dismissed the guards who were looking at this place without knowing what was going on, and took Yuan Xi to meet Yuan Shao.
But the military general Zhang He was at most a little surprised by the comparison between this image and Yuan Xi's earlier appearance. But for Yuan Shao, his father, this must be a shock.
He looked at the mule that appeared in front of him because Zhang He was leading the way, then slowly shifted his gaze to Yuan Xi's face and clothes, and the corners of his lips moved slightly, "You... are you escaping back?"
Is Sili actually such a dangerous place?
Yuan Shao couldn't help but fall into deep thought, considering whether sending his son to Sili was the worst decision he had ever made.
This short trip made him even mentally unstable!
But seeing that Yuan Xi had a happy look on his face, as if he had really gained something, he temporarily gave up the idea of asking a doctor to check on Yuan Xi.
He first waved his hand to let Zhang He retreat, and asked him to be careful not to let anyone comment on Yuan Xi's special performance. Then he sent someone to invite his advisers over.
Between comforting his son and consulting about the situation, Yuan Shao decisively chose the latter.
And since we are going to report on the trip to Chang'an, everyone should come and listen.
Ju Shou, who arrived earlier, also subconsciously set his eyes on Yuan Xi and the mule beside him, and then looked at Yuan Shao.
What made him feel like the sun rising from the west was that Yuan Shao, who always attached great importance to his appearance, actually still had a smile on his face.
Ju Su had some guesses in his mind.
He bowed to Yuan Shao and said, "It seems that I can congratulate you first, sir?"
Yuan Shao replied, "It's a little early to congratulate you, but Gong Yuhe and Ziyuan's earlier judgment was not wrong. Xianyi has already told me that Yuan Hao did not betray me. He was forced to serve the enemy because of a desperate situation. He even cut off contact with his subordinates who went to Bingzhou with him, so that we almost thought he was dead."
"This time Xianyi was able to escape from Chang'an safely and bring back a lot of things, all thanks to Yuanhao's help."
Yuan Shao was so happy that when he saw Yuan Xi going to the city to attend the market, he no longer felt much disgust.
Tian Feng's failure to betray him, coupled with Ju Shou's victory in Runan, made him very proud of his subordinates' loyalty to him and their demonstrated abilities.
No matter how powerful the Chang'an court was, it was still defeated by Ju Su's sudden arrival of a miracle army in Runan, which disrupted Qiao Yan's plan to use Yuan Shu to deal with him. Tian Feng also infiltrated the interior and leaked the secrets of Chang'an.
How could he not be happy!
In such an excited mood, Yuan Shao even did not let his other two sons come here to listen to the gains of this trip because he thought that this son had risked his life to bring him the intelligence. This was a rare impartial action of his.
When everyone was present, Yuan Shao raised his hand, signaling Yuan Xi to bring the spoils of the trip one by one.
"It's too troublesome to talk about the other things, so just talk about the things I brought back." Yuan Xi thought about the excuse he had thought of on the way back to Yecheng, and began to speak.
Seeing Yuan Shao nod, Yuan Xi continued, "First, paper."
Yuan Xi took out the old clothes one by one from the box he carried back, used the short knife in his hand to pick open the seams between the two layers of clothes, and took out dozens of pieces of paper from them.
These papers were clearly divided into three categories on the ground: bamboo paper, celtis bark paper and mulberry bark paper.
Due to the toughness of these papers, there was no damage during folding, except for the creases caused by the way they were carried.
Most of the people present were scholars, and Yuan Xi didn't need to say much as they had already felt the specialness of these papers as they were unfolded one by one.
Yuan Xi explained: "When I arrived in Chang'an, the new road in Chang'an was just completed. The road from the south gate of Chang'an to the Gui Palace was paved. It was indestructible by footsteps and knives. I don't know what material it was made of. It was on this road that these new types of paper were displayed."
When Yuan Xi said the first half of the sentence, everyone around him looked a little confused.
What is a road that “cannot be destroyed by people or cut by knives”?
Soil is soil, stone is stone, even if it is a mixture of brick and stone, it always has a name. How can we not know what material it is made of?
But no matter how they thought about it, they felt that in a situation like Yuan Xi's, there was no need for him to come up with an unrealistic gimmick to attract their attention at the beginning. He just needed to tell them his gains truthfully.
So it seems that what he said is actually true?
Yuan Shao and the others were all confused. Without being able to see the scene in Chang'an, they could only listen to Yuan Xi continue to say: "The raw materials of these three kinds of paper are the same as the previous Lepinghou paper, which has not been made public. Their functions are also different. The first kind of paper is the most crude and the cheapest. The last two kinds of paper have better ink retention effect, especially the last kind of paper. When writing, you can vaguely see the surface of the paper with a bright and moist glimmer. It is what Qiao Bingzhou used to make friends with the upper class scholars."
When Yuan Xi said this, he handed the mulberry paper in his hand to Yuan Shao.
Although they were in the house at this time, the thin layer of mulberry bark on the mulberry paper became more and more clearly visible as the paper got closer to Yuan Shao.
Yuan Shao felt that as long as he was not blind, he would be able to see such peculiarity.
The beauty of the background color of this piece of paper is irreplaceable and unique to the aristocratic class, who have always been very concerned about their reputation.
If Yuan Shao were asked to compare this paper and the so-called precious silk to choose a medium for writing, he would probably choose this paper.
But how is this paper produced?
What material is it made of?
Yuan Xi seemed to see the confusion on Yuan Shao's face and replied, "In fact, there are many people in Chang'an who want to try to figure out the raw material of this paper, but perhaps Qiao Bingzhou has long been wary of this and specially had people fumigate the produced papers with the smell of other plants in order to interfere with other people's judgment. The real main material of these three types of paper may have been completely covered up."
"According to Mr. Yuan Hao's idea, instead of continuing to explore this matter in Chang'an, it is better to return to the more fundamental situation. Many of the people who produced Lepinghou paper in Bingzhou back then may not still be in their original positions. There should be quite a few who will come into contact with them recently. Father might as well learn something from it."
"But... Mr. Yuan Hao hopes that father will not put the cart before the horse. Paper is only a medium for recording. It will not have an influence on fundamentally changing the situation of the war at this time. If a large amount of paper is really needed, then come to Bingzhou to purchase the cheapest new paper. Mr. Yuan Hao hopes that father will pay more attention to the information recorded on the paper than to the paper."
Yuan Xi immediately took out a few other things from the lining of his clothes.
Seeing that all his advisers were concerned about the three new papers, Yuan Shao took a few steps forward and signaled Yuan Xi to hand the books to Ju Su and others.
Yuan Xi pointed to the book in Ju Su's hand and said, "This is the method of increasing grain production in Bingzhou that Mr. Yuan Hao saw when he sneaked into the place where farm tools were produced in Bingzhou. The only thing missing is the production of fertilizer."
Upon hearing the word "increase production", not to mention Yuan Shao, even Ju Su, who was usually steady, could hardly help but show a bit of surprise at this moment.
He also quickly opened the book in his hand.
If they had previously thought that Bingzhou's repeated paper improvements were bad news for them, then at this moment, it was actually very good news.
If there was no such news channel, if Yuan Xi wanted to bring such news back to Jizhou, he would either need dozens of bamboo slips or dozens of pieces of silk. But either way, it would not be as convenient to bring back as the method he was using now, and it would not be easy to be noticed.
But after Yuan Shao flipped through a few pages, he saw that Ju Shou's expression gradually changed from surprise to solemnity, and finally turned into a silent heaviness.
When Ju Su roughly turned to the last page of the book, he suddenly sighed and gave a reply that Yuan Shao never expected, "Ming Gong, the contents of this book...we can't use them."
Yuan Shao asked quickly: "Why is this happening? Is there a trick?"
"No, on the contrary, the farming methods recorded in it are very logical and can ensure that the benefits of each piece of land are maximized. I believe that Yuan Hao must have seen the mutual reflection of practice and theory to send this thing to us through Xianyi's hand."
When Ju Shou said this, he glanced at Yuan Xi, and Yuan Xi subconsciously replied: "Not only Mr. Yuan Hao, I have seen it too."
What Guo Jia saw when he took Yuan Xi around Chang'an gave him the confidence to testify for Ju Shou and Tian Feng at this time.
However, his answer not only failed to make the agricultural book he provided more valuable, but made Ju Shou even more certain that his judgment was correct.
Ju Su smiled bitterly and said, "Mingsir, Bingzhou can rely on this set of farming methods to achieve such an amazing per-acre yield today because they have gone through a process of more than five years of reshaping rules and developing order from Bingzhou to Liangzhou and then to Sili. Tell me, if you want to promote this way, how should you do it?"
Yuan Shao hesitated for a moment before replying, "Let the emperor issue an order to regulate farming?"
He regretted saying this the moment he said it, because he soon realized that Liu Bian's greater role as the emperor was the legitimacy represented by the emperor's edict, which allowed him to gather a group of court officials and make places like Yanzhou, Xuzhou, and Youzhou obey the orders of Yecheng. However, it did not mean that when what the emperor proposed was transformed from a political decree into a farming method, the people under his rule would also have to obey it.
Yuan Shao did not, like Qiao Yan, accumulate prestige in the civil affairs through years of expansion, nor did he form a pattern of alternating military and civilian settlements. This led to -
Even if he suddenly got such an agricultural "magic book" that had been proven effective in practice, it was still a piece of meat that he couldn't eat directly.
He can't, or doesn't have the conditions to do so!
If he rashly extended it to all the territories within Jizhou and Qingzhou, how would he explain that the measures he proposed could indeed increase production?
Tell them that under the rule of the Chang'an court, which is called the pseudo-dynasty, such regulations are being strictly enforced. With the help of these measures and special field fertilizers, their per-acre yield has reached three times ours, so we should learn from them?
If Yuan Shao really said that, what's the difference between that and promoting Qiao Yan's reputation!
It would even be a further blow to his reputation.
There will inevitably be people among the people who will ask, if this is the case, why didn’t Yuan Shao come up with these methods to benefit the people as early as Qiao Yan?
He is more than twice as old as Qiao Yan, but it is really shameful that he is so much worse than his opponent in long-term planning.
Ju Su had seen from Yuan Shao's expression that he had made up his mind, so he didn't say anything to dissuade him. He just said, "We still underestimated Qiao Bingzhou. Her early achievements in Bingzhou overshadowed her basic methods. As a result, we can only pursue her selectively. This book is not completely useless. There are some farming tools and medicines for dealing with pests in it. We can still make them as soon as possible."
Yuan Shao nodded.
It should have been a scene of great joy, but this analysis made him feel heavy all the way.
Even with Ju Shou's final words of comfort, he simply couldn't be happy.
Perhaps the only thing that made him somewhat fortunate was that the book was handed to Ju Shou first. If it had reached him first, he would have made a final evaluation and then Ju Shou would have refuted it, which would have made him even more embarrassed.
Qiao Yan...it's all Qiao Yan's fault!
Yuan Shao was furious. He turned around and saw Yuan Xi carefully observing his face. He shouted, "Why are you looking at me? Go to the next point."
Yuan Xi pointed to the book of emergency prescriptions in Shen Pei's hand and said, "This is a medical book compiled by Hua Tuo, Wu Pu and others in Qiao Bingzhou. This is the latest collated one. It explains common diseases and the treatment methods that ordinary people can use. Let it spread to the villages and towns to reduce casualties caused by diseases."
As the name suggests, this thing is indeed a good thing.
But after turning two pages, Shen Pei gave a similar judgment as Tian Feng's on the agricultural book, "Although this thing is of some use to you, it is very limited."
"If we copy a few more copies of this thing and send them to the county and township pavilions everywhere and let people keep them, it will indeed be useful for people to consult and see doctors, but the content of this book is quite a lot. We need to have at least a hundred copies. Who should be asked to copy it? If it is exactly the same as the one in Bingzhou, whose credit should be attributed to it?"
What he said was not pleasant to hear, but it was the truth.
The workload of copying this thing itself is not small, and when it is handed over to the village head, it will be another burden.
If they haven't yet gotten themselves free from the chores of settling taxes, this emergency prescription book probably won't be able to play the role of the local Chinese medicine office, and it may even cause disputes among neighbors.
Rather than passing it on to the general public, given the situation they are facing now, it seems that it would be better for this book to be kept in the central government as a reference book for medical officers.
Yuan Shao: “…”
Three new kinds of paper and two strange books, but none of them could bring him sufficiently beneficial changes. It even seemed that they were just emphasizing again and again the gap between him and Qiao Yan.
He was holding his breath and was about to explode.
But he couldn't blame Tian Feng for asking Yuan Xi to send these things back.
It was not easy for Tian Feng to get these things by putting himself in danger. If he were to be condemned in Yecheng, it would only dishearten his subordinates.
Yuan Shao couldn't help but wonder whether Tian Feng made such a judgment because in his experience of traveling from Bingzhou to Chang'an in the past six months, he regarded some things that were considered normal in Bingzhou and Sili as normal.
When he thought of this possibility, Yuan Shao felt even more uncomfortable.
He took a deep breath and shouted at Yuan Xi: "Do you want me to rush you for the next one?"
Yuan Xi saw Yuan Shao's anger clearly, and he knew at this point that he must not come up with something that looked like intelligence but was not of much use.
So he changed his mind and pulled the mule in front of everyone.
"This thing... this thing should be useful to my Jizhou! I tested its load-bearing capacity and endurance on the way back to Jizhou, and it was really amazing! Father, Bingzhou crossbred donkeys and horses to create mules for military transport, why don't we give it a try?"
This is completely different from the situation of spreading agricultural books and medical knowledge.
All the father needs to do is give an order!
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