Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Liu Bei's words caught Li Ji somewhat off guard.

In Li Ji's impression, Liu Bei's attitude towards the common people was always quite benevolent, so much so that Li Ji sometimes worried that Liu Bei's attitude towards the foreign tribes might be too friendly, which could be difficult to handle.

But what Li Ji didn't expect was that Liu Bei's word choice was actually… slaughter!

This was a term usually reserved for thoughts of exterminating a clan, a word that completely contradicted Li Ji's past impressions of Liu Bei.

Immediately, Li Ji realized that his preconceived notions had probably misled him.

Zhuge Liang's seven captures of Meng Huo demonstrated benevolence and virtue, but that had nothing to do with Liu Bei, as Liu Bei was already buried underground at that time.

And Liu Bei, as a close friend of a ruthless person like Gongsun Zan, and having lived for a long time in You and Yan regions, which suffered greatly from foreign invasions, how could his attitude towards foreign tribes be like that of a pedantic scholar, only advocating appeasement?

On the contrary, Liu Bei was undoubtedly the kind of person who was benevolent internally and tough externally.

Or rather, this should also be the culture of the warlords at the end of the Han Dynasty, with few warlords holding appeasement ideas towards foreign tribes.

Even Ma Chao, who had half-Qiang blood, was merciless when attacking the Qiang people.

Li Ji, lost in thought, remained silent for a long time, which instead made Liu Bei think that Li Ji had concerns. He immediately got up and cupped his hands towards Li Ji.

"Zikun, please help me. You must not allow the Shanyue to harm even one more of my people."

Seeing this, Li Ji quickly replied.

"That is also my thought. And to prevent the situation from getting out of control, last night, without your permission, I took the liberty of ordering Zixiong to lead 1,500 light cavalry to Qiantang County for support."

Liu Bei breathed a slight sigh of relief and said.

"This matter is thanks to Zikun's quick decision. I am grateful beyond words. How could I blame you?"

"Otherwise, if I waited until I sobered up from the wine to mobilize troops, I'm afraid I would have missed the opportunity. Moreover, when I handed the military seal to Zikun, it was to allow Zikun to mobilize the troops within the commandery at will, without needing to worry too much."

Immediately, Li Ji did not waste time on unnecessary pleasantries, but analyzed the current situation to Liu Bei based on the intelligence reported by the Brocade-Clothed Guards.

The sudden appearance of this group of Shanyue in Qiantang County was too strange, and could be described as a divine descent.

After a night of thinking, Li Ji was increasingly certain that the group of Shanyue must have come from the direction of Kuaiji Commandery, and the possibility that Kuaiji Commandery was colluding with the group of Shanyue… was extremely high!

If this were the case, then it was likely that the situation would not be resolved by a conflict between just a few thousand troops. There was even the possibility that a large area of counties centered on Qiantang County would fall, and that Guan Yu's unit would have their supply lines cut off.

Hearing that Guan Yu's unit might be besieged in Fuchun Mountain, a trace of anxiety flashed in Liu Bei's eyes.

Although this was only based on the worst-case scenario, it made Liu Bei completely vigilant.

"Shanyue! Shanyue!!"

Liu Bei frowned, constantly muttering the word.

Unlike the few large tribes on the northern grasslands, the situation south of the Yangtze River was undoubtedly much more complicated.

Although the Han government officially referred to all the foreign tribes south of the Yangtze River as Nanman Shanyue, in reality, Nanman and Shanyue were separate.

The Man!

As early as the time of Emperor Shun, there was a record, saying: "The Man and Yi confuse the Xia," meaning that the Man and Yi disturbed the Huaxia.

Of course, in fact, in that period it was tribal warfare. The victor, the orthodox, was called "Xia", and the defeated were driven out of the Central Plains, hence the name "Man".

In addition, the "Man" gradually settled and lived in the dangerous areas south of the Yangtze River that were not influenced by the culture of the Central Plains, and gradually became collectively known as "Nanman".

Therefore, the Nanman were actually a group of different ethnic groups settled in different areas south of the Yangtze River, some of whom even had their own cultures and traditions.

As for the "Shanyue", Liu Bei understood that it was even more complicated from occasional information he learned from Li Ji or other local documents.

The "Shanyue" were mainly divided into two parts: one part was descendants of the ancient Baiyue tribes, but they did not truly form a unique ethnic group. Instead, they continued to be scattered in the mountains and forests, living together in small tribes.

The other part was the remnants of people who had hidden in the mountains and forests south of the Yangtze River since the Warring States Period and the pre-Qin period, either due to war, crimes, or exile.

Over time, they naturally formed Shanyue tribes in the mountains and forests, living by gathering, hunting, or plundering.

It was just that the situation of the Shanyue was extremely complicated, and even the documents within Wu Commandery did not record further details, so Liu Bei naturally knew nothing about it.

Liu Bei quickly understood Li Ji's thoughts and worries, and said.

"Zikun, do you suspect that someone is colluding with the various Shanyue tribes behind the scenes, and that the group of three thousand Shanyue is just a test?"

"That's right."

Li Ji nodded and said. "We must guard against this."

"Zikun is right. In my opinion, we should gather troops and prepare for the possibility of resisting the Shanyue in the south, but I don't know about the food and supplies…"

Speaking of the end, Liu Bei's voice unconsciously became smaller, revealing a sense of guilt.

After all, Liu Bei had also suddenly decided to provide disaster relief and save the people last time, so that Wu Commandery was so busy up and down for so long before the situation in Wu Commandery barely got on track.

As a result, he hadn't even sobered up from the celebration wine, and now Liu Bei was about to mobilize a large army again, recklessly wielding weapons.

This made Liu Bei feel inexplicably regretful as soon as he opened his mouth. Even if Zikun was talented in managing the world, he shouldn't be used like this. He should at least let Zikun rest for a while before speaking.

However, as soon as Liu Bei's words fell, Li Ji had already taken out a roll of bamboo slips from his sleeve and held it in front of Liu Bei.

Liu Bei subconsciously took the bamboo slips and asked.

"What is this?"

"The allocation and supply of money, food, weapons, and other materials needed for the logistics of the army have all been calculated clearly and recorded on the bamboo slips."

Speaking of this, Li Ji couldn't help but chuckle, then waved his hand and made a chopping motion, saying.

"As long as you are willing, with just an order, there is no need to worry about logistics issues. You can immediately draw troops from the cities and commanderies to gather forces and go south."

Hearing this, Liu Bei opened the bamboo slips in some shock, only to see that everything was indeed recorded clearly, even the troops that Wu Commandery could mobilize now were listed clearly.

Not counting Guan Yu's unit, Zhao Yun's cavalry, Xu Sheng and Jiang Qin's small part of the navy, and considering that at least the most basic commandery soldiers to maintain law and order must be left in each county, plus a part of Liu Bei's direct line brought from the north.

Currently, Liu Bei could mobilize about 12,000 troops, and counting Guan Yu's unit and Zhao Yun's cavalry, Wu Commandery could now mobilize about 20,000 troops.

Of course, this was because Li Ji had previously focused on developing the people's livelihood in Wu Commandery and had not deliberately expanded the army. Moreover, the young and middle-aged people who were "employed in place of relief" had not been converted into soldiers. Therefore, after Li Ji replenished the original commandery army vacancies in Wu Commandery, the overall size of the army was only maintained at 20,000 troops.

However, although the troops in Wu Commandery were streamlined, their combat power was far from comparable to ordinary commandery soldiers.

Especially the part of Liu Bei's direct line soldiers brought in from the north, who had originally experienced high-intensity warfare, and after nearly a year of training, had truly become elite soldiers.

Looking at the bamboo slips in his hand, Liu Bei couldn't help but feel happy and said "Good!".

It could be said that Li Ji had almost finished the preparatory work.

If Liu Bei wanted to use troops, then he only needed to arrange things directly according to the content on the bamboo slips.

"Zikun knows my intentions!"

Liu Bei couldn't help but praise, then suddenly reacted and said.

"These bamboo slips, when did Zikun calculate them? Could it be that Zikun stayed up all night last night?"

Li Ji smiled and cupped his hands. "This was calculated by Ji and Wenhe together last night, thinking that it would be useful for you to convene a military conference this morning."

Hearing this, Liu Bei couldn't help but feel a strong sense of emotion and peace of mind.

Last night, he was at a drunken banquet, and then he fell into a deep sleep and had a good dream.

However, in order not to spoil his interest, and also to avoid interrupting a rare banquet for everyone to vent their stress, Li Ji was busy all night, just so that he could wake up and make quick decisions without having to worry too much.

"Zikun, with you behind me, I have no worries!"

Liu Bei did not make any promises of sharing wealth and honor, understanding that such things were already insignificant to the two of them, but said a thought in his heart with emotion.

Seeing this, a smile appeared on Li Ji's originally somewhat heavy face, and he replied. "Thank you for your attention and trust, how dare Ji not serve you?"

"Let's go, Zikun, I will convene a military conference now, and let me see who is so bold as to dare to stroke the tiger's whiskers of Wu Commandery under Zikun's rule, and also let those Shanyue people know what is called thunderous means."

Liu Bei said, then did not tidy up the somewhat messy clothes on his body after the hangover, and went straight out of the room with Li Ji, and then ordered his personal guards to notify the civil and military generals one by one to quickly go to the council hall for a military conference.

Everyone except Li Ji, Jia Xu, and Zhao Yun were drunk at the banquet last night.

Therefore, most people simply slept in the government office after getting drunk. When the personal guards woke everyone up one by one to participate in the emergency military conference, almost everyone who reacted broke out in a cold sweat and hurried towards the council hall.

However, when Xiahou Bo, Xu Sheng, Jiang Qin, Mi Zhu, Jian Yong, Gu Yong and others stepped into the council hall one after another, seeing Liu Bei, Li Ji, and Jia Xu sitting steadily in it, the anxiety in their hearts dissipated a little.

These lords are not in a hurry, it seems that the matter should not be very big.

However, Jia Xu, who was sitting in a position subordinate to Li Ji, yawned repeatedly, drawing the attention of many. In particular, Jia Xu's face, which usually looked radiant, now seemed to have been drained of color after being up for days and nights, to the point of appearing somewhat withered, prompting much speculation. (End of Chapter)