Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Li Ji, who had witnessed everything, looked at Xu Shu's expression, which showed he couldn't wait to devote himself to Liu Bei on the spot, and secretly sighed, "My lord's charisma is consistently effective."

Not to mention Xu Shu, even Shi Tao's eyes flickered with reverence as he looked at Liu Bei at this moment.

Loyalty + 2

However, Li Ji, watching Liu Bei's arrangement for Xu Shu, offered a reminder.

"The Central Plains is about to be in turmoil, leaving Xu Shu's mother alone in Yingchuan may not be safe. Why doesn't my lord bring Xu Shu's mother to Wu Jun as well? This would allow Xu Shu to be both loyal and filial, studying while also being able to fulfill his filial duties under his mother's care."

These words undoubtedly awakened both Liu Bei and Xu Shu from their reverie.

The two people who had hit it off had focused all their attention on each other, and for a moment, they really hadn't considered this point.

More importantly, Liu Bei now has a solid base in Wu Jun. Rather than leaving Xu Shu's mother in Yingchuan, which would only increase the risk, it would be better to bring her directly to Wu Jun to live.

The only thing that made Liu Bei hesitate was that if Xu Shu's mother was also brought to Wu Jun, Xu Shu would not be able to choose to serve others after completing his studies due to his mother's presence.

This was somewhat in conflict with Liu Bei's original intention of not wanting to take advantage of kindness.

After hesitating for a while, Liu Bei said gently.

"If you don't mind the humid heat of Jiangdong, you can bring your mother to Wu Jun as Zi Kun said. Moreover, you don't need to worry about anything else. Regardless of whether you can complete your studies, you can leave Wu Jun with your mother at any time."

"I am willing!"

Almost the instant Liu Bei finished speaking, Xu Shu agreed without hesitation.

"Xu Shu, don't be anxious. You can go home and discuss it with your mother first, and see what the old woman's opinion is before making a decision," Liu Bei said.

"No need."

Xu Shu shook his head and said.

"My mother greatly admires Liu Huangshu, and when I was worried about how to raise travel expenses to go to Rende Academy without affecting my mother's life, my mother strongly recommended that I seek help from Liu Huangshu, saying that Liu Huangshu is based on benevolence and virtue, and will definitely help."

Hearing this, Liu Bei said with both joy and surprise.

"Even the old woman knows my name, Liu Bei?"

"Indeed!"

Xu Shu nodded and said. "Therefore, if my mother knows that Liu Huangshu has invited her to settle in Wu Jun, she will definitely not refuse, but will be very happy."

"Good, good, good."

Liu Bei praised several times, feeling a bit of joy in his heart.

Liu Bei was not complacent because of the flattery of other lords, but he knew that even an old woman in the Central Plains knew that he was based on benevolence and virtue, and was very happy.

In Liu Bei's view, this was enough to prove that he had not been idle in recent years, and even the people in the Central Plains were deeply recognizing him.

No one knows Bei better than Ji!

How could Li Ji not know what Liu Bei was feeling at this moment?

Even more so, Liu Bei, overjoyed, personally went to visit Xu Shu's mother, stating that he wanted to invite her to settle in Wu Jun.

Xu Shu's mother can also be called virtuous. Facing such a major decision, she did not hesitate at all, and immediately chose to sell the family's fields and houses to fulfill Xu Shu's ambition to study in the south.

In his conversation with Liu Bei, Xu Shu's mother even mentioned that she had long had the idea of selling the fields to pay for Xu Shu's travel expenses.

It was only because the filial Xu Shu would rather die than accept it, unwilling to make his mother suffer for his ambition, that he had been staying in Yingchuan and had not traveled abroad for study.

This made Li Ji not only feel emotional about the relationship between Xu Shu and his mother, but also understand more deeply the difficulty of studying for scholars in this era.

This was still the case for Xu Shu's family, which could barely be considered to have some connection with the poor families, at least much better than ordinary people. Even so, it was difficult to obtain knowledge. The difficulty for other poor families or commoners to study can be imagined.

Private schools?

In addition to students with connections and backgrounds, private schools require students to fully demonstrate their talent and ability in order to join.

But to some extent, this would fall into a logical paradox similar to hiring recent graduates with many years of work experience.

Subsequently, Li Ji also specially examined Xu Shu and found that Xu Shu's thinking was sharp, but it was indeed as he said, his talent and learning were shallow.

He has talent, but it has not yet been developed…

On the contrary, Xu Shu's martial prowess was quite extraordinary. He was able to draw with Xiahou Lan in sparring.

Don't look at Xiahou Lan as if he is just a unit of measurement of martial arts in the Liu Bei Group. Any famous general can't beat him, but it also depends on who Xiahou Lan's opponents are.

Zhao, Guan, and Zhang are not to be mentioned, and the rest are all Gan Ning, Jiang Qin, Xu Sheng and the like…

So Xiahou Lan may feel that his martial arts are weak, but Li Ji feels that Xiahou Lan's martial arts level should be considered a top-notch second-rate level in the entire Han Dynasty.

But Xu Shu, who is determined to become a strategist, possesses such martial prowess, which makes Li Ji's heart quite complicated.

With the talent shown by Xu Shu, as long as he is carefully cultivated for a period of time, I am afraid that Xu Shu will become the strongest in martial arts among the strategists.

Those who are stronger than Xu Shu in martial arts probably won't have Xu Shu's brain.

After Xu Shu's affairs were generally arranged, Liu Bei, who valued Xu Shu very much, specially asked Li Ji to guide Xu Shu on the way.

Li Ji naturally would not refuse, and with the idea of teaching two is also teaching, even Shi Tao was included in the temporary small classroom for teaching.

Although after Li Ji's examination, Shi Tao's talent was a bit worse than Xu Shu's, he was also considered a good talent.

Moreover, Xu Shu's appearance also made Li Ji's planned "Talent Class" have the earliest batch of students.

In addition, Xu Shu's character is excellent, and he is loyal to Liu Bei.

Therefore, Li Ji's teaching of Xu Shu can be said to be quite attentive, with the intention of preparing Xu Shu to serve as the "Talent Class" monitor at that time, to suppress the subsequent talents that will be recruited.

After Liu Bei left Yingchuan County, he did not go directly to Qingzhou, but instead went in the direction of Qiao County, Peiguo, Yuzhou, at Li Ji's suggestion.

This is also where Cao Cao's hometown is located.

However, Li Ji naturally did not go to steal Cao Cao's home, but after the Jinyi Si's investigation, he finally confirmed Xu Chu's location.

The only thing that surprised Li Ji a bit was that Xu Chu was actually from the same hometown as Cao Cao…

This gave Li Ji the feeling that he was not going to steal Cao Cao's home, but he had the feeling of taking advantage of Cao Cao's absence to dig Cao Cao's corner.

This feeling is quite subtle, but inexplicably… pleasant…

…

While Liu Bei led his army in a small circle in Yuzhou.

Through the promotion of Rende Academy, coupled with the gift of a "Persuading People with Virtue" book to a large number of aristocratic families.

In a very short period of time, improved paper and printing techniques set off a storm in Wu Jun during this period, and even swept across the entire Yangzhou region.

Countless scholars were ecstatic and shouted that a new cultural prosperity was coming.

Different from the heavy and cumbersome bamboo slips, the lightness of the book and the neat font made countless scholars who had seen the book treasure it like a treasure.

Just like the excitement of the scholars, the appearance of the book was like a heavy hammer hitting the hearts of the Jiangdong aristocratic families.

The emergence of books is undoubtedly a heavy blow to the aristocratic families' cultural monopoly.

Especially since Liu Bei's power has shown signs of hegemony in Yangzhou, the appearance of books seems to be telling the aristocratic families brightly.

Even without the help of the aristocratic families, with the help of books, Liu Bei can quickly cultivate a considerable number of petty officials to maintain rule in a very short period of time.

The aristocratic families are no longer needed by Liu Bei!

This conclusion is no less than digging the roots of the Jiangdong aristocratic families!

In a sense, this also means that the day Liu Bei unifies Yangzhou is the time when the Jiangdong aristocratic families begin to decline.

At least, the Jiangdong aristocratic families can no longer sit up and share the cake like in the past!

For a time, whether it was the aristocratic families within Wu Jun and Kuaiji Jun, or the aristocratic families in the other counties of Yangzhou, people's hearts were fluctuating, and a large number of letters were constantly circulating and exchanging between the aristocratic families.

Until, a defense map of Wu Jun and Kuaiji Jun was circulated from an unknown channel and fell into the hands of the Zhu family in Yuzhang Jun.

Soon, under the connection of the Zhu family in Yuzhang Jun…

The news that the garrison in the entire Wu Jun was less than 20,000, and the garrison in Kuaiji Jun was less than 10,000 quickly spread.

Combined with the detailed defense map, the fact that Wu Jun and Kuaiji Jun were empty of troops was quickly known by a large number of aristocratic families.

The changes of the aristocratic families also gave those county guards who had long coveted the wealth of Wu Jun the confidence.

The speed of the alliance between the four county guards and the aristocratic families was frighteningly fast, and it seemed to become reasonable under the joint promotion of multiple forces…

Among them, more than 80% of the aristocratic families in Jiujiang Jun, Lujiang Jun, Danyang Jun, and Yuzhang Jun quickly responded, actively recruiting local villagers and retainers to form an army.

The four county guards also quickly transferred the county soldiers from various cities for assembly…

What made Jia Xu feel a bit comical was that the alliance formed by these four counties actually called themselves the "Anti-Wu Alliance" in private, as if echoing the "Anti-Dong Alliance" in the Central Plains.

The only thing that surprised Jia Xu slightly was that those aristocratic families exhausted their foundations and transferred a large number of retainers and slaves.

According to the intelligence feedback from various places of Jinyi Si, it is estimated that the aristocratic families, combined with the county soldiers of the other four counties in Yangzhou, can actually form an army of nearly 100,000.

Although in Jia Xu's view, most of this army is just miscellaneous soldiers, that is, the level of the Yellow Turban Army, but it is undeniable that the huge number is surprising.

(End of this chapter)