Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

During Liu Zhang's visit, Li Ji seemingly spent his days taking Liu Zhang out for a full course of wining, dining, and entertainment. In reality, Liu Zhang was completely unaware that Li Ji had subtly probed him hundreds of times.

Now, Liu Zhang's sudden ambition was entirely due to the pressure of having three older brothers ahead of him, creating a sense of crisis regarding inheriting the family business.

In truth, Liu Zhang had no grand ambitions. His aspirations were limited to inheriting Liu Yan's estate.

If Liu Zhang were to inherit Yi Province, he would only sink deeper into its comfortable embrace, a place seemingly untouched by the chaos of the world.

Therefore, from Liu Yan's perspective, he envisioned a grand strategy of carving out territory, establishing a kingdom, and waiting for the opportune moment to compete for the empire.

But from Li Ji's perspective, it was like holding up Yi Province as a target to attract the attention of the Emperor and the court, and truly turning Yi Province into a comfortable cage, trapping Liu Yan and his son for life.

Once the time was right, Liu Zhang, as a gate-keeping dog, would naturally welcome Liu Bei, the true master, into Yi Province.

When Li Ji received the letter from Yi Province, stating that they would be dispatching another 300,000 dan of grain to Wu Commandery within two months, a smile couldn't help but appear on his face.

600,000 dan of grain was enough to completely make up for the projected grain shortage in Wu Commandery, with a sufficient surplus to spare.

"Finally, the grain problem is solved. As long as we can get through this year, Wu Commandery will be completely free from the constraints of grain," Li Ji said, his tone filled with anticipation.

Even though there were still refugees flocking to Wu Commandery, Li Ji already felt like he was "seeing the light at the end of the tunnel."

Now, everything in Wu Commandery was gradually getting back on track. The influx of a large number of refugees had, in a sense, brought vitality to the sparsely populated Wu Commandery.

Moreover, with water conservancy projects being built almost everywhere in Wu Commandery, there was a sense of vigorous development, as if it was about to transform and take flight.

Li Ji had completely built a brand-new framework for the entire Wu Commandery, using a large number of "temporary" scholars as the backbone, the influx of refugees as the flesh and blood, and a sufficient supply of grain as the blood driving the scholars and refugees forward, thereby maintaining the smooth operation of "work-for-relief".

The subsequent problem was to continue absorbing scholars and refugees into the "work-for-relief" system within the scope that the grain could support, and finally completely transform Wu Commandery into the shape Li Ji wanted.

As Wu Commandery truly got back on track and could operate smoothly, Li Ji's workload suddenly dropped a lot, and he was able to return to the stage where he could occasionally stroll around the government office with a pot of tea during his duty hours.

In particular, occasionally coaching Gu Yong made Li Ji feel like he had found a different kind of fun.

"Yes, yes, Yuan Tan has made great progress, and his handling of government affairs is already quite skilled."

"This won't do. We must provide as much meat as possible to the laborers. Don't worry about the reserves. Solve the immediate need first…"

"Slurp, good tea. Would Yuan Tan like some?"

"Yuan Tan, your hair seems to be thinning a lot lately…"

Finally, Gu Yong, who was originally the best at playing dumb, completely lost his cool.

If Li Ji teased Gu Yong to take care of his health and protect his liver and kidneys, Gu Yong would just laugh it off, believing that he could last for a quarter of an hour without any problems in that regard.

But the issue of hair volume had struck Gu Yong's vital point!

Recently, Gu Yong had noticed that his hair volume… had plummeted. With Li Ji bringing it up, it was like a direct hit to the heart, causing Gu Yong to lose his cool.

In fact, even Li Ji was kicked out of the main hall by Gu Yong.

Of course, Li Ji could tolerate this little bit of temper from his subordinate, Gu Yong.

After all, Gu Yong was only sixteen or seventeen years old, in the prime of his youth, so it was understandable that he would be irritable because of his hair volume.

It was just that as the internal system of Wu Commandery got back on track, Li Ji was suddenly freed from the seemingly endless busy official duties, and he really felt a little at a loss.

Even Gu Yong was no longer fun to tease…

Suddenly, Li Ji slightly despised himself in his heart, not for his occasional amusement in teasing Gu Yong, but for actually complaining about being too idle.

Wasn't this a sign that there were no sudden incidents in Wu Commandery?

Li Ji was not the kind of person who insisted on handling all matters, big and small, himself. He preferred to delegate power to his subordinates.

Only when there were major changes that affected the development of Wu Commandery would Li Ji exercise his power in order to avoid unexpected occurrences.

The more idle Li Ji was, the more smoothly Wu Commandery developed.

It was just that within the government office, apart from Gu Yong, the other officials, big and small, were all respectful to Li Ji.

And after the incident of Du You Zhang Fei being whipped and Liu Bei cutting off his hair in lieu of his head, Li Ji's prestige in the bureaucratic system of Wu Commandery had been further enhanced.

Wherever Li Ji passed in the government office, the officials, big and small, would almost subconsciously tense up, for fear of making any mistakes or incurring Li Ji's displeasure.

This made Li Ji take another stroll around the government office under the guise of inspection, but he couldn't find any faults.

Meeting the respectful and admiring gazes of the officials, Li Ji couldn't help but put the teapot in his hand into his sleeve, and nodded slightly in response to the greetings.

For a moment, Li Ji even felt that his leisurely self was beginning to feel out of place with the overall still busy atmosphere inside the government office.

Immediately, Li Ji, after slightly stretching his muscles, returned to the side hall, which had almost become Liu Bei and Li Ji's exclusive small room, and then picked up a volume of military books and began to read it carefully.

As Li Ji immersed himself in the book, time passed quickly without him realizing it.

By the time the officials, big and small, left the government office with tired faces at the end of the day, Li Ji was still full of energy as he left the government office and got into the carriage.

The coachman on the carriage was a rather robust young man who respectfully asked after carefully helping Li Ji into the carriage.

"Sir, are we going back to the residence?"

This young man seemed unremarkable, wearing a loose linen shirt, but in fact, he was the most outstanding person in terms of martial arts among the Peach Garden Brotherhood, and was named Liu Wu by Liu Bei.

In order to protect his own safety and to place himself under the supervision of the Brocade-Clad Guards, Liu Wu naturally became the coachman of Li Ji's residence.

Although, with Li Ji's influence over the Brocade-Clad Guards, he could have completely exempted himself from the surveillance of the Brocade-Clad Guards, Li Ji would naturally not seek such privileges.

That Jia Mu would fanatically respect him and harbor rebellious thoughts was something Li Ji had not expected, so he simply allowed Jia Mu to become a member of the Brocade-Clad Guards to monitor Jia Xu.

In contrast, Li Ji had never thought of removing himself from the protection and surveillance of the Brocade-Clad Guards.

Li Ji had no intention of rebelling, so why would he do something that would make the monarch and his subjects suspicious?

Perhaps, at the beginning, as an unregistered person, Li Ji followed Liu Bei, not without the thought of wealth and status, but after truly reaching his current position, wealth and status, which were readily available, were no longer Li Ji's pursuit.

Even if Jia Xu realized that Jia Mu was a member of the Brocade-Clad Guards, Jia Xu, who was well versed in self-preservation and human nature, would understand that this was a good thing for him.

Having the monarch's eyes around him at all times made it easier to gain the monarch's further trust.

More importantly, even Li Ji had arranged for the Brocade-Clad Guards to supervise himself, so what objections could Jia Xu have?

Perhaps, what Jia Xu did not expect was that the eye was his son.

These thoughts flashed through Li Ji's mind. After settling down in the carriage, he replied to Liu Wu's inquiry, saying.

"Not back to the residence, go to Ren De Academy."

"Yes, sir."

Liu Wu maintained his past respectful address to Li Ji, steadily driving the carriage out of the city towards Ren De Academy.

Li Ji, sitting in the carriage, lifted a corner of the curtain, observing the situation along the way.

Several months had passed since the announcement of the establishment of "Ren De Academy" and the selection of the first batch of scholars through the "military" and "political" routes.

The day when "Ren De Academy" truly started teaching was also approaching, and this matter was far-reaching in terms of Wu Commandery's development and talent reserve.

It was just a pity that Li Ji had been busy with various official duties and had not been able to find time to pay attention to the current situation of "Ren De Academy", and could only understand it through some reports from the Brocade-Clad Guards.

Now that Li Ji had some free time, he planned to go out of the city to see "Ren De Academy" in person.

Moreover, Li Ji was also quite interested in how far the "Wall-less City" that Li Ji and the Mi family had jointly promoted had initially been developed by the Mi family.

After leaving the city, Li Ji was quite surprised to see that the road to "Ren De Academy" was bustling with people.

Most of them were dressed as scholars, followed by small merchants and peddlers carrying some goods.

At this time, merchants were not truly considered a lowly class. Noble families were allowed to engage in commerce, powerful clans were allowed to engage in commerce, and even ordinary people were allowed to engage in commerce.

For example, Liu, Guan, and Zhang initially had their own businesses, one selling shoes, one selling mung beans, and one selling pork.

It can be seen that the commercial atmosphere of this era was actually quite good.

It was just that Li Ji, looking at the small merchants and peddlers coming and going with their burdens, was quite surprised, realizing that the Wall-less City promoted by the Mi family had attracted these small merchants and peddlers.

Although Li Ji's carriage did not have any markings, this carriage was bestowed by Liu Bei, and its luxurious and grand scale was the best in Wu Commandery.

Therefore, naturally, no one would be so ignorant as to cause trouble along the way, and instead, they consciously made way.

However, despite Li Ji observing the surprisingly good order maintained by the crowd along the way, his mindset as a county magistrate made him subconsciously aware of certain potential security risks.

Within the city, with the presence of county soldiers and constables, coupled with Liu Bei's emphasis on治安 (zhì ān, public order), crime was naturally minimal.

But outside the city, there might be those who would take risks!

(End of Chapter)