Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Liu Bei nodded in agreement.

Someone who values righteousness over wealth and status is naturally someone people can trust and rely on.

Just as Liu Bei subconsciously thought of directly solving this problem for Xu Chu, a thought flickered in his mind, and he instead said:

"Since the fine horse has already been promised to Zhongkang, how could I possibly take it back? However, if Zhongkang wants to properly settle the brave warriors who follow you, why not consult Zikun?"

"Zikun's talent is such that he could even govern a country, let alone settle the affairs of three hundred warriors."

Upon hearing this, Xu Chu immediately looked towards Li Ji.

Li Ji naturally understood that Liu Bei's actions were not because he hadn't made a decision, but rather to deliberately allow Li Ji to also bestow favor upon Xu Chu, so that the honorable and righteous Xu Chu would swear to serve him with his life.

And for the Liu Bei group, which was about to take control of Yangzhou, if they were to simply bestow rewards, even if a little money slipped through Li Ji's fingers, it would be enough for these three hundred people to live a life of plenty.

However, compared to simply bestowing rewards, Li Ji undoubtedly believed that there was a better solution, and these three hundred local braves were also loyal and righteous people, otherwise they would not have followed Xu Chu for many years without complaint.

If these three hundred local braves were not taken along as a whole, Li Ji felt that it would be a waste.

Immediately, Li Ji calmly and gently said:

"Zhongkang is probably unaware, but a chaotic world is approaching, order is collapsing, and there is already a trend of heroes rising together. And our lord cherishes the world, has the great ambition to support the Han Dynasty and recreate the universe, and is in need of talented people."

"Therefore, if there are any among the local brave team who are willing to follow Zhongkang, they can also join Lord's command, and be under Zhongkang's jurisdiction. Otherwise, Zhongkang, as a mere commandant, would not have anyone to use, would he?"

"Moreover, now that our lord has been appointed as the Governor of Yangzhou, he intends to open up vast fertile lands in Yangzhou, but there is fertile land without anyone to cultivate it."

"Therefore, if the families of the local brave team are willing to move to Yangzhou, they can also follow the army south along the way to Yangzhou, and then our lord will grant them fertile land and houses to settle them."

"Of course, even if there are family members who are unwilling to go south with them, it doesn't matter, our lord will definitely not reduce their resettlement fees by even a single penny."

After a pause, Li Ji cupped his hands towards Liu Bei and asked, "What does Lord think?"

"Excellent."

Liu Bei nodded in satisfaction.

This series of arrangements not only avoided obviously breaking the military rules for Xu Chu's sake, but also took into account all aspects.

After all, in this era where order is about to collapse, apart from Liu Bei's rule, the other warlords often do not have any resettlement fees when conscripting soldiers.

Even when forcibly conscripting young men, they would just grab anyone who was healthy and stuff them into the army.

Even if these untrained young men could not form ranks to kill the enemy, they could still serve as auxiliary soldiers for transporting food and supplies.

Xu Chu may be simple and honest, but he obviously knew what was good and bad.

Liu Bei and Li Ji's arrangement could be described as benevolent and generous.

Immediately, Xu Chu repeatedly thanked Liu Bei and Li Ji, saying:

"Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Military Advisor! !"

And Liu Bei also knew that since this matter involved the families of many local braves, it could not be completely decided that day.

Moreover, due to the lack of information, the families of those local braves might not clearly know and believe in Liu Bei's identity. In order to minimize the concerns of those local brave families.

Therefore, without waiting for Xu Chu to speak, Liu Bei took the initiative to propose staying overnight in Xu Chu's village.

And after arriving at Xu Village, Liu Bei directly sent people to summon the local heads of the villages, stating his identity, showing his seals of office, and then asking the local heads of the villages to obtain the trust of those local braves and their families one by one.

Perhaps, for those who hold great power, this is just a decision made casually.

But Liu Bei came from the bottom and deeply understood the hardships of the people, knowing that for himself, it might just be a trivial matter decided casually, but for the relevant people, it was a major turning point concerning the entire family.

Therefore, while letting the village heads obtain the trust of the local brave families one by one, Liu Bei also painstakingly visited the relevant local braves and their families one by one, making promises.

This also allowed Liu Bei to completely win the gratitude and loyalty of those local braves.

For these grassroots people, they had never received such attention and courtesy from dignitaries like Liu Bei.

With such generous treatment, how could the local braves not develop a heart of serving him to the death?!

Four days later, all of the three hundred local braves who originally followed Xu Chu were willing to join Liu Bei's command, and more than two-thirds of the local braves' families were willing to go south with them.

The only remaining one-third of the local braves, that is, a portion of the elderly who were reluctant to leave their homeland, but those who had wives, children, all were willing to follow them south.

This was undoubtedly a terrifying proportion.

And four days ago, those local braves only had Xu Chu in their eyes, but now, they were all looking at Liu Bei with excitement and enthusiasm, as if they were willing to go through fire and water for Liu Bei.

A scholar dies for his confidant, this is indeed a kind of quality buried in the bones of the Han people.

But Li Ji was even more clear that the "Great Han Succubus"… was steadily performing.

This time, Li Ji could be considered to have further understood it.

In addition to Liu Bei's special bonus to the charm of famous ministers and fierce generals, there was also an extremely high charm bonus to the grassroots people, but only the charm value bonus to the aristocratic families seemed to be not high.

In this way, it was no wonder that in the original trajectory, Liu Bei would have the scene of "carrying the people across the river".

However, in this way, Liu Bei could be said to have completely won the hearts of these three hundred local braves, but it also gave Li Ji's envisioned "Tiger Guards" the initial suitable candidates, without having to select a group from the army one by one.

As long as the first batch of "Tiger Guards" was trained, the scale could be gradually expanded as needed in the future, which could also guarantee the safety of Liu Bei's counselors as much as possible.

And although Liu Bei went out for a stroll and brought back more than three hundred households of people after returning to the camp, Li Ji had already begun to urgently mobilize a batch of flatbed carts from the Mi Clan merchants around to ensure that the old, weak, women, and children could also keep up with the normal march.

Therefore, there was not much impact on the marching speed.

In addition, Qiao County was not far from Lujiang Commandery. South of Qiao County was Runan Commandery. After passing through Runan Commandery from north to south, it was Lujiang Commandery.

As Liu Bei's army passed, some petty thieves naturally did not dare to commit any offenses. Although many official roads were in disrepair for a long time, or rather, it was not a smooth road, there were no obstacles.

And just as Liu Bei's army was about to return to Yangzhou, the news of Sun Jian's death and the annihilation of the anti-Wu alliance were spread to the ears of many warlords.

… …

Luoyang, the Residence of the Peerless Great General.

This mansion was originally built by the former Great General He Jin, with pavilions, terraces, and towers, extremely luxurious and extravagant, with everything one could wish for.

After He Jin's death and Dong Zhuo's entry into the capital to take control of the government, he directly changed the Great General's Residence into the Prime Minister's Residence.

After the anti-Dong alliance armies left Luoyang one after another, Lu Bu was relieved to take up the post of Great General, taking charge of the world's soldiers and horses, and also inheriting his father's business by entering the Prime Minister's Residence, and then changing this mansion to the "Residence of the Peerless Great General."

And the previous imperial court had already undergone a cleansing by Dong Zhuo, killing all the officials related to the Guandong aristocratic families, and then Lu Bu cleansed the court again, clearing out the officials who were originally loyal to Dong Zhuo.

This made the imperial court completely empty, and even the daily operations could no longer be maintained.

Of course, now the imperial court's orders could not even leave Sili, so Lu Bu simply opened a government in the name of the Great General, directly governing the controlled Sili area with a small imperial court.

For a time, it could be said that everything outside the palace walls was controlled by the Emperor's father-in-law, Lu Bu, and even everything inside the palace walls was controlled by Empress Lu.

The young Emperor Liu Xie, in addition to continuing to grow up healthily in the palace, had completely lost the ability to hold court meetings.

Except that Lu Bu would not be obscene in the harem, Emperor Liu Xie felt that he was even worse off.

More importantly, Lu Bu's daughter, Lu Lingqi, was completely worthy of being a tiger daughter of a general's family, and her martial prowess was unmatched in the entire palace.

And Lu Lingqi, even though she was the Empress and had to wear gorgeous and dignified palace attire every day, she also carried a sword around her waist, and completely looked down on the cowardly Emperor.

Therefore, the young Emperor Liu Xie had not even touched Lu Lingqi, and even if Lu Lingqi glared at him slightly, he would be so frightened that he did not dare to speak loudly.

Therefore, even Empress Lu in the palace was completely unable to deal with Emperor Liu Xie, and had no energy to regain power from Lu Bu's hands.

This made Chen Gong feel very headache.

Originally, Chen Gong's idea was to use Lu Lingqi, who had become the Empress, as a bond to reconcile the relationship between the Emperor and Lu Bu.

Chen Gong only knew before that Lu Bu had a daughter waiting to be married, but Chen Gong did not expect that Lu Lingqi would be such a strong character, to the point of suppressing Liu Xie to the point of obedience.

Even more dumbfounded Chen Gong was that, in a sense, it maintained a balance that he was unwilling to see.

But the affairs in the palace, the matter of the Emperor and the Empress's mode of getting along, even if Chen Gong felt it was inappropriate, he could not open his mouth to advise on how it should be.

He could only watch helplessly as Lu Bu established a small imperial court without any obstacles, and it operated very smoothly.

And when the death of Sun Jian and the annihilation of the anti-Wu alliance were transmitted to Luoyang, Lu Bu also directly took this matter to the small imperial court in the Great General's Residence for discussion.

Lu Bu did not care about Sun Jian's death…

What Lu Bu cared about was only the whereabouts of the Imperial Jade Seal.

After all, according to Chen Gong's speculation, the Imperial Jade Seal was likely stolen by Sun Jian.

It's just that these were ultimately just Chen Gong's speculations, and in addition to the affairs of Jingzhou, Lu Bu was temporarily unable to take care of it, so everyone expressed their opinions on this matter in an indifferent manner.

The final decision was to, in the name of the imperial court, reprimand Liu Biao for his unauthorized killing of Sun Jian, the governor under his jurisdiction, in order to test whether the imperial jade seal was in Liu Biao's possession.

In contrast, the rise and fall of the Anti-Wu Coalition undoubtedly shocked and impressed everyone, including Lu Bu and Chen Gong. (End of Chapter)