Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Li Ji's gaze swept across the crowd, taking in the fearful and reverent expressions of the assembled aristocratic families.

However, Li Ji was even more aware that these Yangzhou aristocratic families weren't admitting their mistakes because they truly regretted them, but because the knife was at their throats, and they knew they were about to die.

Zhou Yu's method of stabilizing the aristocratic families of Lujiang Commandery had been quite effective. Before Jia Xu could even free up his hands, Sun Ce had completely stabilized the entire Lujiang Commandery.

With that precedent in place, Jiujiang, Danyang, and Yuzhang largely followed the same methods of stabilizing Lujiang Commandery, allowing the many Yangzhou aristocratic families to remain hesitant and indecisive, harboring hopes of good fortune whether they chose to leave or stay, be strong or humble.

Until the military households and soldiers subsequently drawn from Wu Commandery were stationed one after another in various strategic passes and ferries throughout the four commanderies, completely and substantively establishing preliminary control over the entire Yangzhou.

Furthermore, the extremely slow channels through which the Yangzhou aristocratic families received information from the Central Plains meant that by the time they fully realized the Allied Forces Against Dong Zhuo had achieved a great victory and Liu Bei had been promoted to "Governor of Yangzhou," it was already too late to make any decisions.

The fact that one aristocratic family was willing to publicly request instructions from Li Ji undoubtedly proved that they were truly terrified, their desire to cut off a piece of themselves to survive overflowing in their words.

Moreover, the remaining aristocratic families did not voice any opposition or reprimands, but instead turned their gazes to Li Ji, awaiting his pronouncements.

However, in Li Ji's view, this was not enough, not nearly enough!

The Yangzhou aristocratic families only saw Yangzhou, only saw that Liu Bei now had the ability to cleanse the Yangzhou aristocratic families directly, both rationally and emotionally.

But in Li Ji's eyes, his concerns had never been limited to Yangzhou alone.

Compared to the aristocratic families of the entire Han Dynasty, the influence and capabilities of the Yangzhou aristocratic families were simply insignificant.

It was easy to simply and brutally cleanse the Yangzhou aristocratic families, but to cleanse the aristocratic families of the entire Han Dynasty would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.

More importantly, blindly cleansing the aristocratic families was meaningless.

Without aristocratic families, there would be scholarly cliques, powerful clans, local gentry and landlords…

At least, with the current level of productivity, the emergence of a privileged class was inevitable. Eradicating one privileged class would only give rise to a new privileged class to fill the void.

More importantly, was not the privileged class an important pillar supporting the social structure, and the driving force behind countless people striving to climb upwards?

People do not hate the privileged class itself; they often only hate that they themselves do not enjoy the privileges, and hate that the privileged class abuses its privileges.

Therefore, Li Ji was never a binary thinker who blindly wanted to deny and erase the contributions of aristocratic families.

Among the aristocratic families, there were also talented individuals filled with national righteousness, selfless heroes, and those who loved the people like their own children.

To say nothing of the distant past, Zhang Zhongjing was the son of an aristocratic family, Zhuge Liang was also the son of an aristocratic family, and even Qian, who forged swords for the country in later generations, was not a family that had been passed down through generations?

In any case, in the current Han Dynasty, more than 90% of the elite class were sons of aristocratic families. Completely destroying the aristocratic families was not only digging one's own grave, but also cutting off the foundation of the entire Han Dynasty.

Therefore, Li Ji's goal from the beginning was to use the Yangzhou aristocratic families as a starting point to transform the aristocratic families in terms of ideology and foundation.

Of course, the Yangzhou aristocratic families would naturally not easily and willingly accept external transformation, so the prerequisite for all of this was sufficient means…

And the Yangzhou aristocratic families were sufficiently panicked and at a loss!

Perhaps the analogy is not appropriate, but when a heinous criminal faces sentencing, and is given the choice between being shot or circumcised with a Barrett sniper rifle, many people would make a wise choice.

And after many prisoners have been circumcised with a Barrett, Li Ji would then give each of these prisoners a copy of the 'Sunflower Manual' and the 'Evil-Resisting Swordplay,' allowing their martial power to greatly increase and fiercely dominate the martial world.

Then the remaining martial artists who are completely no match actually only have two choices:

Either follow the trend and get circumcised with a Barrett, and also practice the 'Sunflower Manual' and the 'Evil-Resisting Swordplay';

Or stubbornly resist and then be completely slapped to death on the beach by this wave of the "Circumcision with a Barrett" era.

This was the strategy that Li Ji prepared to implement on the Yangzhou aristocratic families, and then gradually change the entire Han Dynasty aristocratic families step by step through the transformed Yangzhou aristocratic families, and finally transform all the aristocratic families into the shape Li Ji wanted.

This was a poisonous scheme, but also a blatant plot.

Originally, Li Ji's plan was to have Jia Xu, who had greatly defeated the 'Alliance Against Wu,' implement it. With the deterrent power of destroying more than 100,000 troops in an instant, Jia Xu was also sufficient to replace Li Ji's role in transforming the Yangzhou aristocratic families.

It was a pity that the old fox Jia Xu was truly cunning and sly, and actually pushed all the credit onto Li Ji, continuing to maintain a harmless image to the outside world.

As a result, within the entire Liu Bei Group, the only one with enough prestige to subdue the Yangzhou aristocratic families was Li Ji.

And the first and most difficult point in transforming the Yangzhou aristocratic families was how to make them voluntarily choose to be circumcised with a Barrett in exchange for survival.

Therefore, Li Ji must give them enough pressure…

"Alas…"

Li Ji sighed, and the folding fan tapping in his palm slowly reopened, saying.

"It seems that you still do not understand the magnitude of the crimes you have committed. Colluding with the traitor Dong and gathering private soldiers to attack Wu Commandery is tantamount to rebellion."

"It is ridiculous that you falsely claim to be aristocratic families of the Han Dynasty. How can you be worthy of the Han salaries you consume? And gathering here, each of you is eloquent, but without any remorse, intending to exchange flattery for temporary good fortune…"

"Without a ruler, without a father, disloyal and unrighteous… how are you different from rebels? Failing to kill you would not be enough to deter the world…"

Finally, Li Ji's gaze drooped slightly, as if revealing a trace of intolerance, and said coldly.

"Then… kill them all."

As Li Ji's last light words fell, the aristocratic families present were all startled. The Wu Commandery elites who had long been waiting in formation almost all drew their swords and surrounded the group of aristocratic families.

"Puchi!!"

The aristocratic son who had originally stood at the forefront, asking Li Ji how the Yangzhou aristocratic families should cut off their flesh, was the first to be chopped down with a knife and silenced.

The scene of blood spurting out instantly jolted all the still-stunned aristocratic families out of their shock and bewilderment.

At the beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in order to gain the support of the aristocratic families and quickly stabilize the situation in the world, allowing the people to live and work in peace, Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu had to grant the aristocratic families a large number of privileges, allowing the aristocratic families to rapidly grow and expand.

In the eyes of many aristocratic families, the aristocratic families shared the world with the Han Dynasty.

Even though Liu Bei's knife had already been placed on the necks of the Yangzhou aristocratic families, many of the aristocratic elders who had enjoyed privileges all their lives still found it difficult to accept this upside-down scene.

Some of the aristocratic elders present glared angrily, subconsciously scolding out loud.

"Li Zikun, how dare you?!" (End of this chapter)