So Yu Xun refused the county magistrate and led fellow villagers in increasing yields. Then, when tax collectors came demanding taxes, he helped villagers underreport their production, allowing every household to have some stored grain.
Through years of accumulation, they not only protected an entire village and li of fellow villagers during famine years but also, because villagers intermarried and helped each other family by family, they actually sheltered several surrounding villages and towns.
When the Xiongnu came south and fires of war blazed everywhere, he had warned of several disasters in time, leading people to hide in the mountains and preserving most of the villagers.
When Zhao Hanzhang pacified the Xiongnu and re-established the capital in Luoyang, he told his father and brothers: “Now we can enter government service. The world should be stable.”
His father and brothers didn’t want to leave their homeland. Yu Xun said: “Our family’s reputation here is too high. It’s a good thing, but also a bad thing. Although we can continue to live prosperously if we stay, it will be hard to advance further, and we might conflict with the local county office over interests. The Grand General is a very capable and broad-minded person, but her subordinates may not have such magnanimity.”
The Yu family father and sons all trusted Yu Xun’s foresight greatly. So they reluctantly sold all the family’s farmland and property and moved the entire family to Luoyang.
That period was truly anxious and fearful. It was their first time traveling so far, leaving their hometown and entrusting their lives and fortunes to Zhao Hanzhang, whom they had never met…
Fortunately, heaven protected them. Relying on the Yu family’s good reputation and claiming they were going to Luoyang to take the talent recruitment examination, they managed to reach Luoyang safely. Well, they did encounter bandits twice on the road, who basically robbed them of all their family assets.
This was unfortunate. Fortunately, those bandits only dared rob property and didn’t dare harm lives.
The Grand General’s newly promulgated policies were very effective. Generals in various places were enthusiastic about bandit suppression. If they had no blood on their hands, they could be treated as refugees and directly registered for land allocation.
If they had blood debts, at best they’d be enslaved in the army, at worst they’d be beheaded. So bandits were also careful—they avoided killing when possible.
Yu Xun also felt lives were more important. Except for the family’s books, everything else—what they could preserve they preserved; what they couldn’t, they readily abandoned, as long as they could keep their lives.
Thus, their entire family arrived safely in Luoyang, except when entering the city, everyone had been thoroughly searched and cleaned out. The Yu father and sons weren’t without doubts about Yu Xun’s decision, but each time, just before speaking out, they would rebuild their trust in him. So they just recklessly charged into Luoyang.
Fortunately, Zhao Hanzhang lived outside the palace and often went out. She was also eager for worthy talent. Reportedly, any essays submitted to her, she would read.
So Yu Xun used an agricultural essay he had written to knock on Zhao Hanzhang’s door. Zhao Hanzhang even specially set aside an entire morning to meet him, and afterward personally introduced him to Fu Tinghan.
Then she immediately gave him a residence, settlement allowance, and registered them as Luoyang residents, allocating farmland to their family according to newly settled citizens. To facilitate their farming, half the land was allocated within Luoyang city, half outside, and they weren’t far apart.
Besides this, she let the family’s children directly enter school. Because Yu Xun was willing to become an Imperial Academy Agricultural Studies Scholar, he had an imperial favor quota for Imperial Academy admission under his name.
Yu Xun immediately gave this quota to his eldest nephew, who was reasonably good at studying.
Thus, the Yu family broke into the “scholar” class and could directly interact with Zhao Hanzhang, with quite high status at that.
From this point on, the Yu father and sons would never again doubt Yu Xun’s decisions. The results of this migration were undoubtedly successful.
After Yu Xun entered Zhao Hanzhang’s camp, it was like a mouse finding a rice bin. Previously, he had too many things to worry about—protecting his family, protecting those around him, protecting acquainted and unacquainted fellow villagers. He had very little time to study agricultural science.
But after finding Zhao Hanzhang, she quickly helped Yu Xun change his thinking pattern. From then on, he no longer needed to worry about other matters, only needed to focus on researching what he wanted to study.
Money, promotion—none of it was a problem. As long as what he studied was effective, Zhao Hanzhang could make the entire nation use it, and his name would become known nationwide along with it.
Although Yu Xun felt he didn’t care much about this, seeing his name spread throughout the land, with the improved varieties and increased production methods he developed saving countless lives, he still couldn’t help feeling his heart surge with emotion.
So although his official rank was very low, he had many privileges. He never felt Zhao Hanzhang treated him poorly. Entering government service naturally meant starting from a minor official and working up step by step.
Moreover, frankly speaking, wasn’t becoming an official just to have the power to do the research he wanted and gain prestige?
And now, except for not having a high enough official rank, didn’t he have everything else?
Regarding Li Tianhe, Censor Lu, and others intercepting and humiliating him, Yu Xun himself didn’t take it much to heart. Thinking unkindly, these people had higher official ranks than him yet still targeted him like this—wasn’t it just jealousy?
Jealous of his talent, jealous of his being valued by the Grand General.
So what did he have to be angry about?
This precisely proved he had talent!
Being intercepted once and receiving two bamboo scrolls in return—let the humiliation come even more fiercely!
Yu Xun clutched the bamboo scrolls, overwhelmed with excitement.
After seeing off Xi Lian, the Yu father and sons who gathered around to look at the bamboo scrolls also sighed endlessly, looking at Yu Xun with admiration. “Fourth Brother, why don’t you walk through the palace road a few more times tomorrow and see if anyone else will make things difficult for you?”
Their family had worked hard for three generations and currently only had twenty-eight books in their collection. Six of those were obtained after the eldest grandson entered the Imperial Academy. Five were borrowed by Yu Xun from Fu Tinghan and copied by family nephews. Nine were bought from bookshops this year. The remaining three were what he had added to the family in his lifetime.
This showed how difficult it was to accumulate books.
This was still because books were more plentiful now, with many available in bookshops. Otherwise, their family’s collection would be even smaller.
As for the kind of bamboo scrolls Xi Lian had brought, they were basically private collections of various families, completely unavailable outside.
Yu Xun shook his head, rationality returning. He said with infinite regret: “There won’t be more. The Grand General definitely won’t let me and Gentleman Shen suffer such grievances. After this time, no one will dare provoke us again.”
Yu Xun thought for a moment and said: “I think I might be getting promoted.”
Yu Xun’s thinking was correct. Zhao Hanzhang was indeed giving him a promotion. No, she was upgrading the entire Court of Agriculture.
The Court of Agriculture—well, this department didn’t exist before. Under the Ministry of Works, there was a small branch called the Field Office. When Zhao Hanzhang first became county magistrate in Xiping, valuing agricultural matters and wanting to focus on agricultural production research and grain storage to prevent disasters and warfare, she changed the Field Office to the Court of Agriculture.
When she became Yuzhou Inspector, this title and change spread to the entire province. When she entered Luoyang, this change was brought to all of Dajin.
She did this to demonstrate the importance placed on agricultural matters.
But looking at today’s events, it still wasn’t enough. So she planned to separate the Court of Agriculture independently, making it independent of the Six Ministries. Before the Six Ministries, there were Six Offices, with very dispersed functions and overlapping areas.
Why not take this opportunity to clarify the divisions again? Besides this, she also wanted to establish a Scientific Academy—a place that, though without official power, would have status and prestige.
Li Tianhe, Censor Lu, Shen Ruhui, and Yu Xun could never have imagined that because of a single incident of blocking and bullying on the road, it would actually change part of the official system and establish a Scientific Academy that could later change social structure.
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