Three Kingdoms: Let Yuan Shen be great again

Chapter 61 The waters of Chaisang are too deep, Hua Xin, you can't handle it.

Regarding the Battle of Yuzhang, according to normal people's thinking, Yuan Yao's side could at most boast that it was a draw, and it would be shameless to insist that he won.

So here's the question: Is Yuan Yao a normal person?

"The highest directive is that we must publicize this, publicize it well, publicize it vigorously, so that the people of Huainan and even those in the Central Plains know that we have once again defeated Sun Ce!"

Indeed, Yuan Yao is going to whitewash the situation again and promote Yingxue.

Some might ask, how could we possibly win the Battle of Yuzhang, which was such a crushing defeat? Even disregarding the casualty ratio, just looking at the battle lines, we lost an entire prefecture, leaving only Chaisang barely clinging to life.

Very simple.

You only need to define victory flexibly.

Yuan Yao: "First, we exaggerated Sun Ce's intentions, telling the people that Sun Ce not only wanted to seize Yuzhang, but also wanted to take advantage of the situation to launch a pincer attack on Huainan to avenge the defeat at Hefei. However, after our arduous and courageous battle, Sun Ce could only occupy Yuzhang, and we successfully defended Huainan. This was of course a great victory!"

Everyone: "..."

Fine, you're the Grand Commander anyway, so you're in charge.

After all, with Yuan Shu's pig-and-jade incident as an example, Yuan Yao's claim that he merely had a fondness for fooling the people was truly overly wise and powerful.

Moreover, while the theory of winning may seem to have endless harmful effects and will eventually lead to its collapse and ruin, it has a real stimulating effect on the present, boosting morale in Huainan and enhancing the cohesion of the Zhong regime.

As for Yuan Yao, the Zhong family has been struggling to survive so far. It's good to be realistic, but the reality is that the Zhong family's future is worrying. So, let's use some journalistic techniques.

Of course, this propaganda is mainly aimed at ordinary people and outsiders; the core decision-making level of the Zhong family is very clear-headed.

Upon returning from Yuzhang, Yuan Yao immediately convened a supreme meeting at the Grand General's Office, requiring senior military and political officials, as well as representatives of the officers' inspection team who had participated in the Battle of Yuzhang, to attend collectively.

Yuan Yao sat in the central seat, flanked by Liu Ye, the Military Advisor; Cao Xing, the General of the Vanguard; Ji Ling, the Cavalry General; Yang Hong, the Chief Clerk; Yan Xiang, the Chief Secretary; Huang Yi, the Left General of the Household; and Lü Meng, the Tiger Commandant, among others.

In addition, there was Lu Yi, who, as a newcomer, was not qualified to attend the meeting, but Yuan Yao forced him in on the grounds that his brother-in-law was not an outsider.

The theme of this meeting was to discuss and summarize the gains and losses of the Battle of Yuzhang, and to analyze the combat characteristics and military styles of various warlords, including Sun Ce, as a reference for the future.

This is when we can see Yuan Yao's role in the Zhong clan's regime.

If it were during Yuan Shu's lifetime, similar meetings would have been held during his reign, but they were all useless and often turned into blame-shifting sessions.

It's not that Yuan Shu lacked capable people. In fact, the former officials of the Zhong clan, though seemingly incompetent, all possessed some real talent and ability. With the Yuan family's reputation of four generations of high-ranking officials, it would be difficult for ordinary people to join them without some exceptional skills.

But Lao Yuan... when he's in a good mood, he can pretend to be humble and welcome everyone's valuable opinions, but as soon as someone actually makes a suggestion, he immediately gets unhappy and starts to sulk and huff.

The whole process was like this: "Please point out my problem," "Is this even a problem?" "What problem do I have?" "Where do you get so many questions!" "Are you kidding me?"

Yuan Yao was different. He didn't have many merits, but one of them was that he listened to advice.

However, the people who listen to advice are usually quite limited.

The character used to be Yan Xiang, then Liu Ye, and during this meeting, it seemed to have vaguely changed back to Lu Yi.

Yang Hong was the first to notice this. As a despicable person, he was most sensitive to this subtle flow of power.

On the contrary, Liu Ye was blinded by his own involvement and did not realize that he was at risk of falling out of favor.

After summarizing the Battle of Yuzhang, Liu Ye reported on the progress of military reforms during this period.

Yuan Yao listened very attentively and was quite satisfied with the current situation.

To be fair, Liu Ye's abilities are only decent in terms of political skills, and he is still some distance from the top level. However, his intelligence is exceptional, and he is not easily fooled, which makes him useful enough.

Moreover, Liu Ye had another major characteristic: he was deeply favored by Yuan Yao.

That is, the other party has shown considerable expertise in the field of engineering. Yuan Yao once asked to recruit more craftsmen so that he could personally guide the research of various new gadgets. Liu Ye went a step further and separated this part of the work from the Shaofu (Imperial Household Department) to establish a special agency similar to the Military Equipment Bureau.

Yuan Yao highly praised this emphasis on technological progress and commended Liu Ye. Then, with a wave of his hand, he indicated that the military reform should continue as planned. In addition, he noted that he had some extra funds available recently and could allocate additional military funds.

The military officers all wore expressions of joy, while the civil officials organized the materials in their hands, preparing to speak.

Yang Hong reported on the financial sector, but the core issue was commerce and trade.

"In the salt industry, we have basically integrated the private salt production and sales. In the future, we will set unified prices and taxes, and allocate quotas in advance based on each company's production capacity and quality. We have already received our first revenue."

"As for the textile industry, the government-run workshops were just completed half a month ago and are now in use, but the current situation... there is a lot of room for improvement. It is expected that it will take more than six months to achieve a balance between income and expenditure."

Yuan Yao didn't take it seriously. He had expected this long ago. It was certain that Huai cloth would suffer losses in the early stages, which was why he used the army's orders to support them, and then dumped it on the outside world after it matured a bit.

However, Yang Hong changed the subject and made an additional suggestion: "Your Highness, if you want to further develop commerce, I suggest you consider elevating the status of Chaisang."

Chaisang?

Yuan Shu's heart skipped a beat.

After the Battle of Yuzhang, Chaisang became the place where Hua Xin's remnants of his forces survived. But everyone who knew Hua Xin knew his true abilities; he was completely Yuan Yao's puppet.

Even the safety of Chaisang itself was ensured by Yuan Yao's troops stationed there. For example, Gan Ning, who had just joined Yuan Yao's forces, was deployed there.

Yang Hong pointed out that Chaisang's geographical location is very crucial, as it is an important node on the Yangtze River shipping route. If it can be directly controlled, it will be easier to do business with Jingzhou, which will be of great help in selling salt or cloth in the future.

However, the cost of doing so is that Yuan Yao's carefully cultivated public image may collapse. Hua Xin did not die at the hands of Sun Ce, but was instead swallowed up by Yuan Yao. It would be much more difficult for him to form alliances with the surrounding warlords in the future.

On one hand, there's the potential trade revenue; on the other, there's Yuan Yao's personal reputation. What should he choose?

"I want money! What do I care about face?"

Without even a second's hesitation, Yuan Yao made a quick decision.

The reason for leaving Chaisang to Hua Xin was purely to plunder the population of Yuzhang, and incidentally to establish a strategic buffer zone between Huainan and Jiangdong.

Now that Chaisang is related to the further development of your business, I can only say sorry, the waters here are too deep for you, Mr. Huafu.

Let me do it.

However... this matter cannot be made too blatant. Yuan Yao is, after all, a prominent figure, so it would be best to let Hua Xin know her place and back down on her own initiative.

It's not difficult to do.

Under the pretext of strengthening Chaisang's defenses, Yuan Yao added another batch of soldiers and gave Lu Meng, who was leading the team, a few extra instructions.

Half a month later, Yuan Yao estimated that the time was right, so he personally went to inspect the process and held a banquet to entertain Hua Xin and others.

Sure enough, the people on Hua Xin's side didn't look very natural, and their movements were quite restrained.

It seems that Lü Meng's intimidation mission was completed quite well.

Oh, right, there was another person who also contributed a lot.

During the banquet, Yuan Yao casually glanced around and happened to catch a glimpse of Gan Ning.

Gan Ning was struggling with a whole roasted lamb, holding it in his hands and gnawing on it in a very unseemly manner.

Yuan Yao couldn't stand the way he was eating and couldn't help but advise, "Xingba, use a knife."

Gan Ning immediately stood up, sword in hand: "Grand Commander, who do you intend to kill?"