Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Several breaths passed before Li Ji asked, "I wonder who this woman you speak of is? Please be clear, for I am unaware of any sister existing."

This question, in turn, surprised Ma Dai somewhat, and he asked.

"Master Zikun, could it be that the Longxi Li clan is not related to you?"

Suddenly, Li Ji finally understood.

Initially, Li Ji's identity was that of an unregistered person. He barely managed to spread a nursery rhyme and rumors in Zhuo County through the mouths of children, hinting at a hidden great talent, which attracted Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei.

Afterward, with Jia Xu's help, he successfully fabricated a background as a member of the impoverished Li clan of Longxi.

Of course, since the Longxi Li clan was already quite declining, and nominally Li Ji's parents were deceased, Wu Commandery was more than a thousand miles away from Longxi.

Therefore, Li Ji only had Jia Xu send people to Xiliang to bring his family to Wu Commandery. At that time, he had Jia Xu use local connections to perfect any potential loopholes in this identity and then stopped paying attention.

Five or six years passed, and with the Longxi Li clan never sending anyone to visit Wu Commandery to verify, Li Ji gradually forgot about the matter.

Unexpectedly, it now seemed that Jia Xu's arrangements were quite appropriate. Not only did the Longxi Li clan acknowledge Li Ji's branch of surviving relatives, but they even directly regarded Li Ji as the face of the Longxi Li clan, using Li Ji's name to form a marriage alliance with the Ma family.

"I am indeed from the Longxi Li clan, but I encountered war and disaster in my youth and wandered to other lands. Therefore, I have never returned to Longxi to worship my ancestors in this life."

Li Ji's tone revealed deep regret, demonstrating his loyalty and filial piety. He also took the opportunity to clarify his relationship with the Longxi Li clan, explaining that even if Ma Dai married Li Ji's nominal clan sister, it would be difficult to establish much of a connection with Li Ji.

Upon hearing this, Ma Dai's expression clearly changed somewhat.

Perceptive, Li Ji observed Ma Dai's expression and roughly guessed that the Longxi Li clan had probably created a separate genealogy for him, hanging the plaque of "Family of National Scholars" high in the Liang Province area.

"What? Could it be that the Longxi Li clan requires you to seek my approval before marrying your clan sister?" Li Ji asked.

"That's not the case."

Ma Dai shook his head and then replied. "It's just that the Longxi Li clan said that she is Master Zikun's cousin, so I wish to seek Master Zikun's permission."

Li Ji smiled gently upon hearing this and said. "The words of the matchmaker, the orders of the parents. As long as General Ma nods and the clan sister's parents agree, that is sufficient."

After hesitating slightly, Ma Dai replied.

"My uncle believes that Master Zikun comes from the Longxi Li clan, which is enough to show the excellence of his bloodline. Therefore, he has already sent a betrothal gift to the Longxi Li clan. As long as Master Zikun has no objections, I will marry her soon."

Bloodline?

Following Ma Chao, Li Ji heard this term again from Ma Dai, and Ma Teng's external propaganda was almost inseparable from being a descendant of General Fubo.

This couldn't help but make Li Ji feel that Ma Teng seemed to particularly value bloodlines, to the extent that Ma Chao and Ma Dai were both deeply influenced.

If that was the case, then Ma Teng would probably be disappointed. Li Ji had no blood relation with the Longxi Li clan at all.

With this matter concluded, concerned about the somewhat distraught Ma Chao, Pang De and Ma Dai bowed to Liu Bei and Li Ji respectively and hurriedly left the camp with Ma Chao.

After Ma Chao and the others left, Li Ji was still thinking about the Longxi Li clan, his expression somewhat deep.

This, in turn, caused Liu Bei to misunderstand somewhat, and he opened his mouth to comfort him.

"Zikun, if you are willing, after we have suppressed the traitor Dong Zhuo, I will accompany you to Longxi to worship your ancestors before returning to Wu Commandery."

Why not let Li Ji go alone? Safety was one issue.

But what Liu Bei was even more concerned about was that with Li Ji's current popularity, coveted by many warlords, letting Li Ji go to Longxi to worship his ancestors alone might result in him being abducted by other warlords halfway.

"This matter is absolutely impossible. How can we abandon matters of state for trivial family affairs?"

Li Ji refused sternly and then said.

"However, just now Ma Dai said that she is my cousin, closely related by blood. If I show no sign, it would seem that I, this older cousin, am not kind enough."

"Therefore, I would like to ask the lord for a favor, which is to give that cousin some gold, silver, and jewels as a dowry, so that the Ma family will not underestimate my cousin."

Liu Bei naturally would not have the slightest objection to such a small matter. In fact, in Liu Bei's view, this was a rare instance of Li Ji actively asking for something.

Immediately, Liu Bei expressed that he would handle the matter himself, ensuring that Li Ji's cousin would be married off in a grand and glorious manner, making her famous in the Northwest.

Li Ji was naturally quite relieved about this.

Especially since Wu Commandery currently had no shortage of vulgar items such as gold and silver. Li Ji believed that Liu Bei would certainly do it beautifully.

It's just…

Li Ji slowly unfolded the folding fan in his hand, covering half of his face, and thought secretly.

If you want to wear the crown, you must bear its weight.

Since the Longxi Li clan wanted to borrow Li Ji's reputation, Li Ji would simply agree. He just didn't know if the Longxi Li clan could bear it.

If previously the Longxi Li clan was only promoting their relationship with Li Ji in a self-directed and self-acted manner, then as long as Liu Bei openly sent a grand and glorious gift for the marriage of Li Ji's cousin.

Then, in a sense, it would be equivalent to widely announcing the relationship between Li Ji and the Longxi Li clan within the Han Dynasty.

However, it should be known that the distance between Longxi Commandery and the Three Auxiliary Regions is not far.

Yuan Shao was ruthless and decisive, using the lives of blood relatives to achieve his position as the leader of the alliance and a reputation as a "model of the Han Dynasty."

He just didn't know if Dong Zhuo would retaliate against Li Ji…

Thinking of this, Li Ji's lips twitched slightly.

Essentially, they were two parties mutually exploiting each other. Li Ji would not feel the slightest bit of heartache. On the contrary, once the Longxi Li clan was also slaughtered by Dong Zhuo.

Then, in the eyes of the world, Li Ji would have paid a much more tragic price for the Han Dynasty than Yuan Shao.

Of course, Li Ji was kind-hearted and would not deliberately push the matter. He was merely complying with the Longxi Li clan's wishes, going along with the flow to fulfill the fame they desired.

It was just a pity that Jia Xu had other important tasks to attend to in Wu Commandery. Otherwise, if Jia Xu had followed the army, entrusting the matter to Jia Xu would have undoubtedly been handled quite beautifully.

However, this matter was only a minor episode within the entire allied forces. Not long after Ma Chao and the others left, Sun Jian, who had completed his military preparations, led his main force as the vanguard, leaving Suanzao and preparing to head straight for the direction of Hulao Pass.

Many warlords, including Liu Bei, personally came to see him off.

Sun Jian, who had dedicated his life to revitalizing the name of the Sun clan of Eastern Wu, clearly enjoyed this feeling of being the center of attention, appearing complacent, which made Li Ji frown secretly.

This also dispelled Li Ji's idea of giving a few words of advice to Sun Jian before his departure, understanding that Sun Jian would not be able to listen to anything at this moment, which would only cause Sun Jian displeasure.

'Such a stubborn person, acting willfully, is difficult to persuade…'

Li Ji thought silently, then realized that Sun Ce was the same as Sun Jian in this regard.

However, Sun Ce was slightly better than Sun Jian, in that Sun Ce especially valued those close to him, so he would always keep the suggestions of those close to him in mind.

Enjoying his role as the vanguard of the allied forces, Sun Jian had obviously forgotten the slight displeasure he had had with Li Ji before. Before leaving, he also signaled to Li Ji from afar. Li Ji also cupped his hands in return, watching Sun Jian leave with his main force.

After Sun Jian led his main force as the vanguard, although Yuan Shao had said that the army would set off immediately to suppress Dong Zhuo in the west, the entire allied forces had a full thirty-six warlords, with varying levels of quality. Clearly, Yuan Shao alone could not command them as easily as his own limbs.

Therefore, in order to facilitate command, Yuan Shao divided the entire allied forces into two parts: large warlords and small warlords. The large warlord part totaled about 200,000 troops, and the small warlord part had about 50,000 troops.

The large warlord part was the central army, and the small warlord part was the rear army.

This took a full seven days, and the entire large and bloated allied forces finally completed the initial deployment and slowly began to advance in the direction of Sili.

This was enough to show that Yuan Shao had almost no real experience in commanding troops.

Even with the assistance of many warlords, it still took so many days.

However, watching the mighty army of more than 200,000 troops set off to suppress the west at his command, Yuan Shao could not control his complacent expression, and he hosted banquets for the warlords every night to drink and gather.

This scene made Liu Bei, who had originally had high expectations for the allied forces, frown tightly, gradually realizing that Li Ji's lack of hope for the two Yuan and the allied forces was not without reason.

Of course, Liu Bei had not been idle during this time either. He had openly or secretly won over many warlords who were dissatisfied with Yuan Shao to form alliances with each other.

Gongsun Zan, Tao Qian, Wang Kuang, Kong Rong, Pang De representing Ma Teng, and Liu Zhang and Liu Qi representing Yi and Jing, respectively, and so on.

Therefore, the entire allied forces were clearly divided into three small groups: Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, and Liu Bei, mutually restraining and supervising each other.

Naturally, the marching speed of the internally bloated and complex allied forces was far from fast.

After Sun Jian, as the vanguard, had fought fiercely under Hulao Pass for nearly seven days, most of the allied forces were still on the way.

Therefore, although Sun Jian had repeatedly achieved some military merits, the majestic Hulao Pass still stood firmly in front of him.

That night, in the camp established by Sun Jian.

While Sun Jian had Huang Gai bandage the wounds on his body, he was cursing angrily.

"Hua Xiong! A hateful villain, helping the wicked!"

"If it weren't for that villain repeatedly blocking me, I would have certainly captured a section of the city wall and then relied on it to seize this Hulao Pass. How could I have been hindered until now?"

While skillfully bandaging Sun Jian, Huang Gai said.

“My lord, please do not be anxious. After several days of continuous battles, the casualties among our soldiers have been quite heavy, and their morale is low. Furthermore, you, my lord, as the vanguard, have thoroughly investigated the strengths and weaknesses of Hulao Pass.”

“Once the main force of the allied army arrives, as long as they press forward in a large-scale attack according to your instructions, they will surely create an opportunity for you to seize Hulao Pass.” (End of Chapter)