Chapter 1371

"Ziyi... if it were you, what would you do?"

Yuan Shao couldn't help but mutter to himself.

Thinking of Duan Yu, who was younger than himself but could support a piece of sky with his own hands, Yuan Shao felt nothing but admiration and envy.

Duan Yu was alone, and he could do anything without scruples or ties.

He acted decisively, without any dragging of feet.

But what about him?

Seemingly now the Inspector of Jizhou, a regional warlord.

But even he himself knew that if it weren't for the powerful backing of the Yuan clan, could he have achieved what he has today?

Guo Tu, Xun Chen, Xin Pi, Xin Ping...

Tian Feng, Ju Shou, Shen Pei...

Which of these people didn't look at the Yuan clan's gate behind him before falling under his command?

If he didn't rely on the Yuan clan... how could he have his current achievements.

But because of benefiting from it, he must have concerns because of it.

He must consider the interests of the Yuan clan, so he must make trade-offs.

Refusing the court's imperial edict will not only affect his own future, but also affect the Yuan clan.

There is no doubt about this.

But if he really collects grain from the people, he can't bear it.

Duan Yu said, when the world prospers, the people suffer; when the world perishes, the people also suffer.

In those days when he went to Liang Province, he saw the Liang Province people living in miserable places, the Huang Jin Rebellion, and saw the bones on the roadside in the chaotic world.

Wasn't that Luoyang city, where he lived for more than twenty years, prosperous and extravagant, painted with the blood and flesh of the people of the world?

Taking the flesh and blood of the people of Jizhou to fill the insatiable desire in Luoyang city, he couldn't do it.

Taking a deep breath, the look in Yuan Shao's eyes gradually became firm.

"Someone come."

The attendant outside the study bowed and walked in.

"Send my name card to the mansions of Assistant Tian, Attendant Ju, Administrator Shen, and Chief Clerk Cui, and say that I will have a night banquet in the mansion tomorrow evening."

"Also, send a letter to my cousin, and say that we will attend the banquet together tomorrow."

The attendant took the order and left the study.

"I will do the things that offend people alone. Jizhou can be without me, Yuan Shao, but the people of Jizhou..."

Yuan Shao gave a wry smile.

The setting sun melted into gold, and where the Zhang River flowed west, half the city rose in the color of rouge. Crossing the moat surrounding Yecheng, the golden phosphorescence reflected the silhouettes of people passing over the city gate's drawbridge.

In front of the vermilion gate of Yuan Shao's Inspector's mansion, several carriages with vermilion wheels crushed the twilight, leaving a string of long shadows connected together in the setting sun.

A corner of the gold-leafed carriage curtain was lifted by the evening breeze, revealing the Xiezhi pattern embroidered on the black-trimmed crimson robe of the person sitting upright; the drapes sewn around the band of their Jinxian cap were made of gold thread and dyed cicada silk.

The people on both sides of the long street looked at the noble sitting in the carriage with envious eyes.

Even the light reflected from the new autumn clothes of the servant holding the whip and driving the carriage was brighter than the light on the faces of the many commoners standing in the distance who could only watch from afar.

When the carriage with vermilion wheels stopped in front of the vermilion Inspector's mansion gate, the soap-clad servant driving the carriage swung the whip into the air and made three crisp sounds, startling the surrounding commoners to bow their heads quickly.

After the carriage stopped, Tian Feng, Ju Shou, and others sitting in the carriage, all wearing dark red robes, stepped off the carriage one after another with the help of attendants, facing the two open vermilion ceremonial gates of Yuan Shao's mansion.

Several people looked at each other, and it seemed that they all saw the implication of this banquet from each other's eyes.

And just after they got off the carriage, a narrow black carriage, in stark contrast to everyone's luxurious carriages, stopped together.

Yuan Ji, dressed in simple but not plain clothes, slowly got off the carriage with only one attendant.

Yuan Ji smiled politely after seeing everyone.

"I have seen you all."

Before everyone could bow, Yuan Ji greeted first.

"I dare not, I dare not."

Tian Feng, Ju Shou, and others quickly bowed in return.

"I have seen Young Master Yuan."

"I have seen Young Master Yuan..."

Yuan Ji asked with a light and breezy smile on his face: "Are you all here for the banquet today?"

Tian Feng, Ju Shou, and others quickly nodded and said yes.

"Eh..." Yuan Ji immediately bowed again and said: "I am really sorry, I am really sorry."

"Benchu didn't say that there were many distinguished guests today, just said it was a banquet. My plain clothes seem a bit rude."

Tian Feng and others quickly said no, absolutely not.

After exchanging pleasantries in front of the mansion gate, Tian Feng and others invited Yuan Ji to go first, and then walked into the mansion under the guidance of the attendants Yuan Shao had arranged to wait at the door.

And the coachmen left outside the mansion, after parking the carriages, naturally had people to entertain them to enter the mansion to dine in the ear rooms on both sides of the gate and wait for the master of the joyful night banquet inside.

When the two vermilion gates inlaid with copper nails slowly closed, they also closed the world that the people on the street could not spy on in their lifetime.

The people who stopped and stood on the long street to watch slowly dispersed.

In the meeting hall.

Before the hour of the rat, the firelight on the gilded black bird lamps on the walls around the hall had illuminated the courtyard as if it were daytime.

The four walls of the green hut were hung with Shu brocade curtains, on which the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" hundred beasts map was embroidered with gold thread. As the candlelight swayed, the red fierce beast seemed to want to break out of the silk.

Thirty-six mother-of-pearl cloud mica screens were surrounded to form a nine-fold lotus platform, each layer placed with a sandalwood armrest.

Yuan Shao sat in the main seat, and the precious light embedded in the jade belt hook at his waist made the bells on the ankles of the dancing girls in front of the steps shine with a faint blue.

In the courtyard, twelve maids dressed in brocade and light gauze wore white gauze masks, revealing only a pair of phoenix eyes.

Behind the light gauze curtains on both sides, thirty musicians in the east hall plucked the zither, and the nine Zhi-pattern bells on the chime rack rang in response.

On the eight-foot-long hawksbill food table, South Sea razor clam stewed with orangutan lips was served in a gilded carved bowl, with bear fat cold toad carved into the shape of Kunlun Mountain placed beside it.

When the wine was poured into the night-shining cup, it reflected a rainbow with the Hetian jade disc hanging on the top of the hall.

The maids brought a whole steamed musk deer covered with honey-marinated plum blossoms, and the deer fetus soup was kept warm under the gold-inlaid Boshan furnace, rising with white mist.

In the intermission of music and dance, Yuan Shao, sitting in the main seat, raised the night-shining cup in his hand.

"Brother, please drink."

"Gentlemen, drink freely."

Yuan Shao smiled.

Yuan Ji, sitting in the first seat below Yuan Shao, picked up the wine goblet, raised it and drank it down, then said with a smile: "I haven't tasted such fine wine for a long time. Today I want to thank Benchu."

Tian Feng, Ju Shou, Shen Pei, Cui Yan, and others also picked up their wine glasses one after another.

Yuan Shao picked up the wine glass and suddenly stood up.

Everyone looked at Yuan Shao, who stood up, with puzzled eyes.

"Gentlemen... today, are these fine wines and delicacies to your taste?" Yuan Shao asked, looking at Tian Feng and Ju Shou and others below the hall.

Tian Feng and others complimented him.

Yuan Shao's topic suddenly turned, looking at the west as if recalling: "I once went to Liang Province, and all I saw along the way were people who were starving. For a wild vegetable on the roadside, for a handful of grain, they could even fight each other."

"The roadside was piled with bones like mountains, and the starving people couldn't bear to eat their own children, so they had to exchange children with their neighbors to eat."

"Even the bark of the trees between the mountains and forests on the roadside was eaten clean."

As Yuan Shao spoke, Tian Feng, Ju Shou, and others sitting in the hall knew what Yuan Shao was going to say next.

The previous words and tonight's banquet were just paving the way.

"I know you haven't seen it, and you may not believe it, but I saw it with my own eyes..."

"The family members of the villagers who died yesterday were just buried in the wilderness and mountains, but the next day, the grave was dug up. Do you know why?"

Yuan Shao shook his head and said: "When I first arrived in Liang Province, I didn't know either, and I thought it was someone grave-robbing for money."

"But the soldiers accompanying me told me that poor families have no burial objects, and most of them are wrapped in a straw mat and finished in a hurry. There is no money in the dug-up grave; the grave-robber is just for the corpse in the dirt pit."

"People are dead... they are no longer people, but food that can fill the stomach."

"Just like the meat on this table."

Hearing this, Tian Feng, Ju Shou, and others sitting in the hall suddenly felt a sense of nausea.

Only Yuan Ji could listen to Yuan Shao continue with a calm face. ===== CHAPTER 1373 =====