Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Seeing this, Jia Xu silently walked behind Li Ji, watching Li Ji sketch the drunkenly sword-dancing Gu Yong at an extremely fast speed.

Although Li Ji's sketch was much inferior to the traditional paintings Jia Xu knew in terms of vividness and artistic conception, it was realistic enough!

Looking at the posture and appearance under Li Ji's charcoal pencil, which was almost identical to Gu Yong at this moment, it almost completely imprinted Gu Yong's unrestrained drunken state.

As Gu Yong's sword dance ended, the painting in Li Ji's hand was almost completed as well.

Finally, Li Ji thought for a moment, and wrote next to the painting: "In the summer of the second year of Zhongping, Gu Yong of Wu Commandery danced with a sword while drunk at a banquet, painted by his friend Li Ji."

Li Ji even remembered to stamp his seal as the Assistant of the Commandery on it as a private seal.

This scene made Jia Xu's eyebrows twitch involuntarily. This was completely and thoroughly confirming Gu Yong's embarrassing past!

With this seal stamped, Gu Yong couldn't even hide it if he wanted to.

With Li Ji's reputation, even without considering Li Ji's unique painting style, this painting would undoubtedly be a collectible sought after by famous people.

And if this painting were preserved for future generations, Gu Yong's image in later generations might be that of a drunken, eccentric scholar, and a large number of wild, unofficial histories would be derived.

Thinking of the scene where he might not be able to preserve his reputation in his later years after his death, Jia Xu couldn't help but smack his lips and muttered.

"From now on, I will never get drunk in front of Zikun, even if I die!"

Beware of fire, beware of thieves, beware of Zikun!

Feeling Jia Xu's gaze behind him, Li Ji carefully put away this hard-won work and looked at Jia Xu and asked.

"Wenhe, perhaps you are also interested in being painted by me?"

"Absolutely not."

Jia Xu immediately refused sternly to prevent the possibility of his reputation being ruined.

Even if Jia Xu didn't care much about his reputation, it didn't mean that Jia Xu didn't care at all about his reputation evolving into some strange situation.

"Speaking of which, Wenhe was originally ordered to persuade the commandery administrators of various commanderies to accept refugees, but I didn't expect that you would end up throwing the matter back to me, which is really heartbreaking and chilling."

Li Ji said with a betrayed expression, looking grief-stricken.

"In order to help Wenhe deal with the officials from various commanderies who have their own agendas, I have worked hard and exhausted countless energy. Does Wenhe not feel a trace of guilt?"

Jia Xu glanced at Li Ji. Naturally, he didn't believe this statement at all.

Perhaps Yangzhou also had great talents, but based on Jia Xu's experiences traveling around the various commanderies of Yangzhou, most of the officials in the commanderies were mediocre. Li Ji could completely treat dealing with officials of this level as a leisurely digestive program.

However, as a wise man, being vigilant, Jia Xu would naturally not be firmly grasped by Li Ji and led by the rhythm of the conversation, lest he fall into Li Ji's linguistic trap at some point. Instead, he said.

"After I returned to the refugee camp, I heard the lord mention the matter of the耕牛, Zikun handled it wonderfully. It seemed like a big problem, but in fact, it was solved without spending any effort. Zikun, you kept the matter of the shipyard a secret from me."

"Or are you saying that Zikun has never trusted me from beginning to end? Alas..."

Jia Xu had always been a gentlemanly figure, especially since he had become a little rounder recently, making him look like a sincere gentleman. Pretending to weep, he made people subconsciously feel the helplessness and resentment of Jia Xu not being trusted.

"I always regard Zikun as my closest nephew and junior, and all I think about is Zikun's good. I think about how to worry about Zikun on weekdays, and also to share the worries for the lord. I didn't expect Zikun to be on guard against me in secret, alas..."

That faint sigh...

If Li Ji didn't have a record of Jia Xu's daily words and deeds, he might have believed it a little bit.

Even if Jia Xu scolded Li Ji a few fewer times as a "rascal" behind his back, Li Ji might have really felt that Jia Xu's heart hadn't completely turned black.

However, Li Ji's main focus was on going along with the flow, with a look of inexplicable emotion, he said.

"I didn't expect that Wenhe was of this mind. I... I will definitely not let you down. Coincidentally, I have a small matter here that requires Wenhe..."

Before Li Ji could finish speaking, Jia Xu's face changed on the spot. He looked towards Liu Bei, who was already drunk and unconscious above, stood up abruptly, and said.

"Zikun, excuse me, the lord seems to be calling me."

After saying that, Jia Xu pretended to be deaf and completely couldn't hear Li Ji's voice. He held a cup of wine and walked towards Liu Bei's direction, cursing endlessly in his heart.

'Last time, you used advance as retreat, and this time you're playing the emotional card, huh? Do you really think Jia will be fooled again?'

What small matter?

Didn't Jia Xu understand Li Ji?

If it was really a small matter, Li Ji would have solved it easily himself. It must be something that Li Ji didn't want to get involved in and was mostly a troublesome matter that would be criticized behind people's backs!

In this regard, Jia Xu was led by Li Ji's thoughts and didn't react last time. This time, how could Jia Xu be fooled again?

'Sure enough, one must never get drunk in front of Zikun...'

While Jia Xu was once again rejoicing in his choice, a dusty scout suddenly rushed into the originally lively banquet hall and shouted.

"Urgent military report! Urgent military report!!"

In an instant, the entire banquet fell silent.

Li Ji even stood up abruptly, walked to the scout, quickly took the bamboo slip, checked that the seal was intact, and then opened it to read.

Li Ji's eyebrows also furrowed slightly.

Jia Xu walked over, observing Li Ji's expression, and suddenly felt a slight unease in his heart.

With Li Ji's composure, even his expression was like this, the matter must be no small matter.

"How is it? What happened?"

"The Mountain Yue are invading!"

Li Ji briefly said the content, glanced around the banquet where a large number of people were drunk, and understood that even if he wanted to discuss matters, he couldn't.

The officials from Liu Bei down had been working hard day and night for a long time, and they rarely had a chance to relax and vent their stress. Unexpectedly, it came so coincidentally.

However, the commotion caused by the scout also attracted the attention of some people.

Even Liu Bei struggled to raise his drunken and blurred eyelids, looked in Li Ji's direction, and asked drunkenly. "Zikun, did something happen?"

"It's nothing!"

Li Ji said with a smile, simply not disturbing the interest of the others, and said. "Everyone, continue singing and dancing. I'll go down and deal with some small matters."

Immediately, Li Ji gave Zhao Yun and Jia Xu a look respectively.

Zhao Yun and Jia Xu understood and followed Li Ji out of the banquet hall, heading straight for the side hall where Li Ji usually handled affairs.

Due to Li Ji's usual handling of government affairs and living habits, the side hall was piled with stacks upon stacks of bamboo slips everywhere.

Li Ji quickly rummaged through a pile of bamboo slips and found a piece of cloth carefully preserved in it, and then hung it up.

This was a detailed topographic map of the southern part of Wu Commandery.

The overall map of Wu Commandery was a bit like a bird's head with a neck. The central and northern parts formed the bird's head, occupying most of the area.

The counties of Qiantang, Fuchun, and Yuhang were located at the throat below the bird's head, and further south was a neck-like area, mostly deep mountains and old forests that extended extremely long.

The military strategy previously formulated by Li Ji to have Guan Yu lead troops to garrison Fuchun Mountain was because Fuchun Mountain was located south of the counties of Qiantang, Yuhang, and Fuchun in the southern part of Wu Commandery, guarding a large area of plains in the rear, and also preventing the southern barbarians and Mountain Yue lurking in the large area of deep mountains and old forests.

It can be said that, logically speaking, as long as Guan Yu could firmly guard Fuchun Mountain, then even if the Mountain Yue wanted to loot Wu Commandery, at most only small groups of Mountain Yue would sporadically evade the defense line and enter the rear, unable to form a force.

This was also why Li Ji dared to carry out "work-for-relief" on a large scale within the scope of Wu Commandery.

First, the bandits and mountain bandits within the scope of Wu Commandery had been almost completely wiped out; second, it was that as long as Guan Yu guarded the terrain, the Mountain Yue would not be able to form any force even if they wanted to loot Wu Commandery.

However, the current situation was...

Li Ji stared at the map in front of him, handed the military report that he had just rolled up to Jia Xu and Zhao Yun behind him, and said.

"Xu Wen, the magistrate of Qiantang County, urgently reports that a large number of Mountain Yue have appeared in the surrounding area, and the initial judgment is that the number is no less than three thousand."

Jia Xu was also a little surprised when he heard this.

Jia Xu had also participated in the planning of the military strategy of Wu Commandery.

Similarly, Jia Xu did not question Li Ji's strategy of arranging Guan Yu to garrison the Fuchun Mountain area. On the contrary, he felt that it was a bit of an overreaction.

Compared to the enemies of the Han Dynasty on the northern grasslands, Jia Xu held a contemptuous attitude towards the southern barbarians and Mountain Yue, believing that they were nothing more than minor ailments that could only cause limited damage.

Maintaining the money and food consumption for Guan Yu to garrison the Fuchun Mountain area might be more than the losses caused by the Mountain Yue looting Wu Commandery in previous years.

However, what Li Ji was considering was not simply the issue of money and food consumption, but maintaining the overall stable environment and security of Wu Commandery, which would undoubtedly be of great benefit to the people's hearts and development.

"A large number of Mountain Yue appeared in Qiantang County? Could it be that General Guan is slackening? Or is the defense line maintained by General Guan collapsing?" Jia Xu said subconsciously.

"No way."

Li Ji frowned and thought for a moment, first ruling out this possibility.

Under the circumstances that the military food in the rear was continuous, it was almost impossible to silently defeat a defense line that was guarded by a base.

Although the terrain of Fuchun Mountain was not dangerous, it could also give Guan Yu's troops a great terrain advantage. No matter how he thought about it, it was impossible for them to be surrounded and annihilated by the Mountain Yue, so that there was no movement at all.

"It's impossible for the defense line to have collapsed. Although Yun Chang might be arrogant, he's extremely strict in managing his troops. The possibility of him漏ing a large group of Yue tribesmen across the border is also very slim," Li Ji said, stating his judgment.

"The greatest possibility is that Yun Chang was completely unaware of this group of Yue tribesmen's existence, or even that this group of Yue tribesmen didn't pass through Fuchun Mountain at all."

(End of Chapter)