Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Having said that, Jia Xu picked up the bamboo scroll in his hand and began to read the information in it carefully, gently stroking his thin beard with one hand.

Anyone who glanced at Jia Xu at this moment would genuinely feel that he possessed the demeanor of a famous scholar and gentleman, subconsciously inspiring goodwill.

However, the bamboo scroll in Jia Xu's hand recorded the intelligence of various counties in Yangzhou, and one "poisonous scheme" after another emerged from Jia Xu's mind like bamboo shoots after a rain.

"Alas…"

After a moment, Jia Xu sighed helplessly.

"Father, why do you sigh?" Jia Mu asked.

Jia Xu replied, "It's just that Li Zikun has too many requirements, which makes me worried. Even if I have many more convenient good strategies in my heart, I cannot use them, hence my helplessness."

Perhaps Li Ji didn't explicitly draw too many lines for Jia Xu on the surface, but Jia Xu also knew that this matter should not be handled too harshly, nor should it harm Liu Bei's reputation for benevolence. This made it much more difficult.

And this was also the reason why Jia Xu deliberately cultivated Jia Mu in the direction of a true gentleman.

Jia Xu's specialty was poisonous schemes, which were ultimately not upright strategies.

Excessively playing with people's hearts and breaking the bottom line made Jia Xu realize the shackles of his life and that he must be very cautious, otherwise he would surely die an unnatural death.

Fortunately, Jia Xu knew that he had enough value to Li Ji, and that Liu Bei was a benevolent gentleman, so the matter of killing the dog after the rabbit was dead would not happen to him.

However, Liu Bei being like this did not mean that Liu Bei's successors would also be like this in the future.

Therefore, for the sake of Jia Mu's future and safety, Jia Xu taught Jia Mu the way of the gentleman, and did not want him to come into contact with or learn so-called poisonous schemes.

Suddenly, Jia Xu's eyebrows furrowed. Looking at Jia Mu, who was bowing his head in silence, he sensed something and asked.

"Mu'er, why did you fall silent when Zikun was mentioned?"

"Yes, I dare not hide anything from Father," Jia Mu replied quickly.

"It's just that I previously encountered Mr. Zikun. Mr. Zikun examined me and asserted that Father… Father is hiding his talent from me. I should have the potential of a famous strategist and should ask Father for guidance or study further in the Ren De Academy."

Upon hearing this, Jia Xu's face turned a few shades of green, and he shouted.

"You wretch!"

Immediately, Jia Mu was so frightened that he knelt down.

Seeing this, Jia Xu pulled Jia Mu up and said, "It's not you I'm scolding, but that Li Zikun. He's actually so despicable as to sow discord between us, father and son. He's truly hateful."

After a pause, seeing that Jia Mu had obediently gotten up, Jia Xu couldn't help but grind his teeth and said, "In the future, you should avoid Li Zikun. Do not have too much contact with him."

"Yes, Father," Jia Mu replied obediently, but the fingers hidden in his sleeves couldn't help but caress a hard object.

It was a small iron piece representing the identity of the Brocade-Clothed Guards.

Moreover, Jia Mu couldn't help but recall the scene when he met Li Zikun, whose reputation was soaring like the sun, in the government office that day.

As rumored, he was graceful and elegant. Although he was only a few years older than Jia Mu, he had already become famous throughout the Han Dynasty and become the ceiling of strategists that countless people had to look up to.

Jia Mu had also personally witnessed the sand table deduction of the "Four Crossings of the Red Water."

Unbreakable!

Only by standing in front of that sand table could Jia Mu clearly feel the insurmountable gap between himself and Li Sanqian.

They were clearly the same age, so why was Li Ji so… as if standing on a cloud?

This made Jia Mu, who had been strictly taught Confucian classics under Jia Xu's orders since childhood, feel intense envy and admiration in his heart.

A man should not bury himself in studying classics in a small desk, but should become famous at a young age like Li Zikun, pursued and challenged by thousands of scholars.

Unconsciously, Jia Mu even felt that his father Jia Xu, whom he had always admired and who seemed to be able to see through everything, had paled in comparison to Li Zikun.

There was one sentence that Jia Mu deliberately concealed from Jia Xu.

That was that the encounter in the government office that day was not Li Ji taking the initiative to ask Jia Mu, but Jia Mu restraining his inner admiration and taking the initiative to talk to Li Ji.

After expressing his desire to follow Li Ji and serve him, Li Ji quietly stared at Jia Mu for a while.

【Are you interested in becoming a Brocade-Clothed Guard? Secretly monitor everything and become the eyes and ears of the lord and me.】

At this moment, Jia Xu did not notice that Jia Mu, who was bowing his head, did not have his usual well-behaved expression on his face. Instead, the corners of his mouth were raised in a somewhat excited smile.

Deceiving his father, who seemed to be able to see through everything in the past, gave Jia Mu an unparalleled sense of accomplishment.

Secretly inspecting and recording everything gave Jia Mu a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, rather than being a hollow tool who only knew how to recite Confucian classics in the past.

'Father, you have your path, and I have my choice,' Jia Mu thought silently. His filial piety towards Jia Xu remained, but it did not prevent Jia Mu from recording Jia Xu's every move through his own eyes and reporting it to the Brocade-Clothed Guards' system to be reported to Liu Bei and Li Ji.

Including the fact that Jia Xu angrily scolded Li Ji as a "wretch" just now, Jia Mu would not have the slightest thought of favoritism or concealment.

In fact, what Jia Xu didn't know was that even the intelligence in his hand, which was compiled by Li Ji and ordered by the Brocade-Clothed Guards, was actually compiled by Jia Mu.

Years of Confucian classics may have made Jia Mu not good at strategy and governance, but Jia Mu knew how to be more like a Confucian gentleman, more in line with the harmless gentleman image in the eyes of the world, and Jia Mu's ability to remember everything he saw without error could record everything he saw without error.

Jia Xu was completely unaware of this, and did not realize that his eldest son, whom he was cultivating with a gentleman's template in mind, had already thrown himself into Li Ji's arms and sold him clean.

In fact, before Li Ji even had time to beckon, Jia Mu had taken the initiative to throw himself into Li Ji's arms.

Under the escort of hundreds of soldiers, Jia Xu quickly arrived at Shuxian, the seat of Lujiang County.

The governor of Lujiang County, Lu Kang, personally led a group of officials from Lujiang County to wait at the city gate in advance, giving Liu Bei a lot of face.

After all, in addition to being the governor of Wu County, Liu Bei was also the Inspector of Yangzhou, and Lu Kang himself was from the Lu family in Wu County.

Now that the large Lu family was still in Wuxian, Lu Kang would naturally not lose Liu Bei's face, and even took the initiative to lead a group of officials to wait at the city gate.

Although Lu Kang was already around sixty years old, which was considered long-lived in this era, his condition was still quite good, and the vitality he showed in his words and deeds seemed no different from that of an ordinary middle-aged man.

Therefore, although Jia Xu's eloquence may not have been his forte, he was also a very skilled person. After a few moments of conversation between the two parties, they addressed each other as brothers, as if old friends who had not seen each other for a long time had reunited.

After Lu Kang's banquet for Jia Xu ended in a merry atmosphere, Lu Kang asked.

"Wenhe is here on behalf of Lord Liu, I wonder if there is anything important?"

Jia Xu's face seemed to still have a few traces of drunkenness, and he said with a flushed face, "It's not about the lord's affairs, but an order from the imperial court that I have to come."

"Oh? I wonder what the imperial court's decree is?" Lu Kang asked again.

"Does Brother Jining know about the great disaster in the Central Plains?" Jia Xu asked.

"Of course I know, and I also know that Lord Liu is carrying out large-scale disaster relief to save the people, which has a benevolent style and is admirable," Lu Kang said with emotion.

"That's exactly the matter."

Jia Xu shook his head and said, "If we only provide disaster relief, those refugees will not be able to be resettled. Therefore, after learning about this, the imperial court ordered that the refugees be resettled within Yangzhou, and the lord, as the Inspector of Yangzhou, will supervise it."

After a pause, without waiting for Lu Kang to digest the news, Jia Xu directly dropped a bombshell and said.

"The lord has already estimated the number of refugees. Adding the refugees who can escape to Wu County one after another, the total is about 800,000."

"Therefore, it can be solved by each county in Yangzhou taking in 130,000 refugees for resettlement."

130,000?!

This news almost completely stunned Lu Kang.

It is true that Yangzhou can be described as sparsely populated, but it does not mean that Yangzhou currently has enough arable land.

Lujiang County is not Wu County. First, 70% of the aristocratic families in the county were directly destroyed, and a large amount of land occupied by the aristocratic families was vacated and distributed to the refugees. Then, a huge amount of manpower and material resources were mobilized to develop water conservancy and reclaim fertile land on a large scale.

If we are serious about it, Lujiang County does not have any extra farmland waiting to be distributed to the refugees.

Even if Lu Kang intends to let the resettled refugees reclaim wasteland and then resettle them, Lujiang County's treasury is also empty.

"Inappropriate!"

Lu Kang, who knew that Lujiang County's capabilities were limited, said urgently.

"Wenhe, it's not that I intentionally do not respond to the imperial court's decree, but Lujiang County completely does not have the ability to resettle 130,000 refugees."

Immediately, Jia Xu threw the wine glass in his hand to the ground and said angrily.

"Then why can Wu County, led by the lord, resettle 130,000 refugees, but Lujiang County, led by Brother Jining, cannot? Both are in the Yangzhou region, what difference can there be?"

This sentence completely blocked any excuses Lu Kang could make.

Both were governors of Yangzhou. Liu Bei had only been in office for a year. Why could Wu County resettle 130,000 refugees, but Lujiang County was powerless?

Excluding all the external conditions that were almost the same, wouldn't the biggest variable be Lu Kang, the governor?

This made Lu Kang's face flush red at once, and he felt angry but didn't know how to speak.

And Jia Xu seemed to be really drunk, and even staggered as he stood up. Then, he flicked his sleeves and said.

"In short, this… this is the imperial court's order. If Brother Jining does nothing, don't blame the lord for reporting this matter in his capacity as Inspector and taking away Brother Jining's position as governor and replacing him with a governor who can do this."

For a moment, Lu Kang, who had been treating Jia Xu with goodwill, had a change of expression. He then stood up, cupped his hands, gestured to the left and right, and said.

“Wenhe is drunk, why don't you help Wenhe to go down and rest.”

Immediately, two minor officials hurried forward to support Jia Xu, but Jia Mu, who was sitting behind Jia Xu, saw this and quickly helped Jia Xu leave the government office and head towards the city's post house.

After Jia Mu helped Jia Xu return to the post house and closed the door, Jia Xu's eyes almost instantly regained clarity, with not a trace of drunkenness. (End of this chapter)