Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Li Ji then turned to Chen Gong and asked at the opportune moment.

“Gongtai, what do you think of this flower?”

Chen Gong was now regretting claiming to have some understanding of exotic flowers and rare herbs, as Li Ji had casually put him on the spot.

What was there to see?

Just look at it!

Chen Gong looked left and right, and then, as if attracted by some flowers on the other side, he directly distanced himself from Li Ji and went to admire them on his own.

Of course, Chen Gong was careful not to go too far, maintaining a distance that made it inconvenient to exchange floral knowledge with Li Ji, but still allowed him to observe Li Ji's every move.

This further confirmed Li Ji's suspicion that Chen Gong's purpose in accompanying him was to guard against him.

He, Li Ji, entered the Royal Garden to "steal flowers," not to "chase skirts"; why was it necessary to go this far?

Li Ji smiled helplessly, then, without exposing Chen Gong, he began to stroll around the Royal Garden in earnest, looking for exotic flowers and rare herbs that might be useful.

Soon, Li Ji discovered some exotic flowers and rare herbs that had been introduced via the Silk Road but had never appeared among the common people.

Tulips, laurel, cockscomb flowers, aloe vera…

Among them, some had obvious medicinal or livelihood value.

In particular, pepper, carrots, and cumin made Li Ji feel a little hungry, as these were flavors he had not tasted for many years.

Especially pepper and cumin, which were essential for barbecue!

Even though the Han Dynasty had many varieties of spices, Li Ji searched for a long time and could only find a few that barely approximated the flavors for barbecue.

Li Ji paused briefly in front of the pepper and cumin, then continued to wander through the Royal Garden.

‘However, the Western Regions really do have a lot of good things, both people and goods, and that area has traditionally been under the jurisdiction of the Han Dynasty for hundreds of years…'

‘If the time and conditions are right, it would be excellent to have the Western Regions completely return to the embrace of the Han Dynasty in my lifetime.’

Li Ji thought to himself as he strolled leisurely through the Royal Garden, occasionally pausing in front of some exotic flowers and rare herbs, looking just like a scholar on a spring outing.

This made things difficult for Chen Gong, who carefully identified the flowers and plants in front of which Li Ji paused each time.

However, the scope of Chen Gong's miscellaneous knowledge did not yet include exotic flowers and rare herbs, and he could only recognize two or three out of ten of the common flowers and plants of the Han Dynasty.

Therefore, identifying various flowers and plants with different shapes and unknown uses made Chen Gong feel dizzy, but he dared not relax in the slightest.

Previously, Chen Gong had agreed to Li Ji's request without thinking carefully, but after returning to the palace, he habitually reviewed and studied the matter, and suddenly realized the problem.

Li Ji's reputation was so great that no one in the world dared to underestimate him in the slightest.

Even if Li Ji's request seemed reasonable, Chen Gong was more worried that Li Ji was laying a hidden trap, or had some grand plan, or even that there was something rare and precious in the Royal Garden.

In addition, the changes in the palace had not yet been resolved, which made Chen Gong even more worried.

However, after completely offending Yuan Shu, obtaining Liu Bei's support was extremely critical, so Chen Gong had no room to go back on his word even if he wanted to.

Therefore, out of caution, Chen Gong could only accompany him personally to confirm what exactly Li Ji was up to.

Chen Gong intended to write down all the exotic flowers and rare herbs that Li Ji paid attention to, and then find relevant people to study and understand whether they had any special uses.

Li Ji, in fact, had some guesses about Chen Gong's thoughts.

It was precisely because of this that Li Ji would deliberately pause.

The Emperor's Royal Garden contained too many good things from the Silk Road, and it would be a waste of resources if these good things were limited to ornamental purposes.

Li Ji's excuse for coming to the Royal Garden was to bring some exotic flowers and rare herbs back to Zhaoji as a gift, and with Chen Gong's guarded attitude, it was naturally impossible to take all the exotic flowers and rare herbs out for cultivation.

Therefore, if Chen Gong spent some effort studying the uses of these exotic flowers and rare herbs due to Li Ji's pauses, it would be beneficial to promoting these plants, which had certain benefits for medicine, food, and so on.

This would be a good thing for the common people!

Borrowing the efforts of Lu Bu and Chen Gong to do his own thing and benefit the people of the world, why not?

Therefore, Li Ji behaved quite leisurely, but seemed to be repeatedly attracted by certain exotic flowers and herbs, making it difficult for him to move his feet.

And each time Li Ji paused, he seemed to secretly observe Chen Gong's direction before reluctantly stepping away.

Suddenly, Li Ji's eyes narrowed slightly, and his gaze was completely attracted by a dozen or so clusters of white flowers planted together in the distance.

‘The plant is like a cocoon, and the silk in the cocoon is like fine floss…’

White Diezi!

Or, in later generations' terms, cotton!

At this moment, Li Ji's heart was beating wildly.

The use of cotton, needless to say, was the first choice for keeping out the cold and warmth.

Whether for civil or military purposes, it was irreplaceable for later generations.

Even though Li Ji had high expectations for the Royal Garden, he couldn't help but feel a little excited when he actually saw cotton.

However, Li Ji stood in front of the cotton and paused for a few breaths as before, then turned and continued to wander through the Royal Garden.

One reason was to avoid arousing Chen Gong's suspicion; the other was that Li Ji needed to confirm whether there were any more valuable exotic flowers and herbs in the Royal Garden.

However, Li Ji led Chen Gong, Zhao Yun, and others around the Royal Garden for a full circle, looking at almost all the types of flowers and plants, and pausing for more than fifty of them.

By the end, Chen Gong himself was almost confused and his memory was blurred.

To Li Ji's regret, there were more than twenty kinds of exotic flowers and rare herbs in the Royal Garden that had promotional value and could enrich the species of the Central Plains.

But the only one that could truly be called a strategic species was undoubtedly cotton.

Therefore, after Li Ji led Chen Gong around for another small circle, he returned to the cotton field and commented.

“After looking around, among the many exotic flowers and rare herbs introduced from the Western Regions, this flower is the purest white and flawless, restrained but not lacking in layers, just like the feelings between me and my wife.”

Immediately, Li Ji directly ordered Zhao Yun to lead three or five guards down to dig out the cotton, roots and soil, and put it into the prepared bamboo baskets.

This immediately aroused Chen Gong's vigilance, but he couldn't forcibly stop it, so he could only ask. “Mr. Zikun, since you are picking flowers, why go to the trouble of digging them up with their roots and soil?”

“Luoyang is more than a thousand miles away from Wu County. Without roots and soil to maintain it, what difference would there be between this flower and withered grass when we return to Wu County?”

As Li Ji spoke, his eyes showed a hint of surprise, as if he found it somewhat naive for Chen Gong to ask such a question.

This made Chen Gong, who was never good at quick wit, look a little embarrassed, but seeing Zhao Yun meticulously carrying out Li Ji's orders, about to dig up all ten or so clusters of cotton without leaving any behind, he quickly said.

“Mr. Zikun, please show mercy and be sure to leave three or five clusters in the Royal Garden, otherwise, if the Royal Garden lacks this flower, it will be difficult to explain if the Emperor investigates.”

This… was purely an excuse!

Nowadays, from the nobles to the aristocratic families, who doesn't know that Liu Xie is just a symbolic figure, with almost no real power left.

Not to mention the absence of cotton in the Royal Garden, even if Lu Bu wanted to set fire to the entire Royal Garden, Liu Xie would have to help blow on it.

In the end, it was just an excuse for Chen Gong to leave some cotton for research.

Li Ji pretended to think and remained silent, while Zhao Yun quickly sped up his pace.

Seeing that only two clusters of cotton were left, and Chen Gong was about to forcibly stop him, Li Ji finally seemed to have finished thinking and said.

“What Gongtai said is very true. Zilong, stop quickly. We can find some other flowers and plants later.”

Find others?

Chen Gong's expression was slightly unnatural, but looking at the two lonely clusters of cotton left behind, he was still too embarrassed to continue to stop him.

Afterwards, in order to lead Chen Gong into the ditch, Li Ji also found two kinds of pepper and cumin that could be used for food, and dug them up with their roots and soil like cotton.

And each time, Li Ji would comment on them from various angles, saying that this thing had some symbolic connection with his feelings with Zhaoji.

Seeing that the bamboo baskets carried by the soldiers led by Zhao Yun were almost full, Chen Gong finally couldn't help but remind Li Ji to stop at the right time.

Li Ji, who had already secretly achieved his goal, did not insist too much, but on the surface, he maintained a look of unfinished business before reluctantly leaving the Royal Garden.

After leaving the Royal Garden, Li Ji secretly asked Zhao Yun to take the cotton, pepper, and cumin back to the mansion and take good care of them, while he once again rode back to the Southern Palace with Chen Gong to wait for the end of the court meeting.

On the way back, Li Ji and Chen Gong had almost no communication.

Chen Gong was simply memorizing various flowers and plants, and while he was tired from remembering, he was constantly deliberating and thinking about Li Ji's actions.

Li Ji, on the other hand, was already thinking about how to promote the planting of cotton.

As a truly strategic material, the promotion of cotton would undoubtedly be better the faster it was.

But at the same time, the role of cotton should be kept secret as much as possible before the end of the troubled times.

After all, the Han people have a tradition of men farming and women weaving since ancient times. As long as they realize the role of cotton, there is no technical barrier at all.

Li Ji didn't want this thing to become an obstacle to unifying the world in the end.

Soon, Li Ji thought of a place that was the chosen place for planting cotton.

It would not lack the labor to pick cotton, nor would there be any possibility of leakage.

Yingzhou!!

Excellent, the Japanese men have all gone to mining, leaving the Japanese women with nothing to do. It's perfect to have them pick cotton.

Furthermore, Li Ji quickly formulated a plan in his mind for how to promote cotton cultivation in Japan.

He only needed to define cotton as the national flower of Japan and tie it to the internal religious reincarnation beliefs of Japan. He would say that the more one touched cotton, the better their fortune in the next life. He wasn't afraid that the newly civilized Japanese would develop any resistance to the idea.

(End of Chapter)