Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Chapter 55: He… …Doesn't Count as an Outsider?

Liu Bei's figure disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving not only Zhao Yun stunned, but even Zhang Fei momentarily dumbfounded, even inexplicably feeling:

“If I die, Big Brother should cry even more tragically than he is now, right?”

Yes, definitely!

I am Big Brother's third brother, and my true position in Big Brother's heart must still be above that of Mr. Zikun.

Zhang Fei nodded heavily, feeling that his thoughts were correct.

Afterward, Zhang Fei turned his gaze to Zhao Yun beside him.

Compared to Zhang Fei's image as a fierce warrior with a leopard's head, ringed eyes, and a swallow's jaw and tiger's whiskers, Zhao Yun was not only slightly shorter than Zhang Fei, but standing next to Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun's slender and well-proportioned physique made him look more like a scholar.

However, Zhang Fei's attitude towards Zhao Yun was surprisingly good, as he said.

“This brother Zilong, I thank you for helping Big Brother just now. I have remembered your kindness. In the future, feel free to ask if you need anything. Also, please don't take Big Brother's rudeness just now to heart. Big Brother was just anxious about Mr. Zikun and left in a hurry.”

Zhao Yun cupped his hands and smiled, saying. “Yun is not an unreasonable person, and Lord Cao's behavior shows that he is not a harsh and ungrateful person.”

“Hahaha, it's good that Brother Zilong thinks so.”

Zhang Fei patted Zhao Yun's shoulder, and then hurriedly followed Liu Bei's instructions to make arrangements, patrolling around Bo Luojin, collecting the weapons of those Yellow Turban warriors who had lost their fighting spirit, and also needing to clean up the tragic battlefield and rescue the wounded.

If it were before the Peach Garden Oath, even if Zhang Fei had learned about these things in military books, he would definitely be in a fluster.

Now, after experiencing several battles and nearly two months of marching, Zhang Fei is already completely skilled in these matters.

It was precisely because of this that Liu Bei could confidently entrust everything to Zhang Fei and rush to find Li Ji.

Soon, under the watchtower on the side of the main gate of Bo Luojin, Liu Bei saw that familiar white-robed figure, and quickly dismounted and ran to Li Ji's side to check on his condition.

After confirming that there were no wounds on Li Ji's body, and that he had not been injured by stray arrows, he was slightly relieved.

Just looking at Li Ji's unconscious appearance, Liu Bei couldn't help but recall the scene not long ago.

That day, when he first visited Zikun, Zikun seemed to have fainted in the same way.

That time, Zikun also exhausted his efforts to deduce the movements of the Yellow Turbans for the sake of the people of Zhuo County… …

This time, Zikun fainted after decisively planning and seizing that glimmer of victory.

Liu Bei took off the cloak on his body, intending to put it on Li Ji to avoid catching a cold, but seeing the blood stains all over the cloak, he frowned and gave up the idea.

Instead, Liu Bei personally carried Li Ji on his back, found an undamaged house in Bo Luojin, placed Li Ji in it, and then patted the back of Li Ji's hand, saying.

“Zikun, please rest well. The battle is settled, and I have not failed your expectations… … ”

Faintly, Li Ji seemed to hear these words, but his brain was like it was overclocked, his thinking was dull and slow, and even a slight use of his brain would cause a sharp stinging sensation.

Even though Li Ji's body repeatedly wanted to forcibly “boot up”, his brain was constantly refusing to “boot up”.

However, hearing Liu Bei's voice in a daze made Li Ji completely relax.

‘In any case, at least I don't have to worry about something unacceptable happening while I'm unconscious… …’

This thought flashed through Li Ji's mind slowly, and then Li Ji completely fell asleep.

When Li Ji woke up leisurely, he only felt a sense of soreness all over his body from lying still for a long time.

“Mr. Zikun, you're finally awake?!”

A joyful voice sounded in his ear. Li Ji opened his eyes and saw that it was Xiahou Bo who appeared in front of him.

“Jichang?”

Li Ji patted his still sluggish head, and after struggling to turn his thoughts, he said.

“You appeared here, so it seems that Julu City has surrendered.”

Xiahou Bo was slightly stunned, and then said with heartfelt admiration. “As expected of Mr. Zikun, seeing the subtle and knowing the obvious.”

“It's good that Jichang is okay. I asked you many times before if you were confident that you could hide in Julu City after burning the granary, and you were always full of confidence. In fact, Brother Xuande and I were quite worried.” Li Ji said.

“Thank you for Mr. Zikun's concern.” Xiahou Bo responded somewhat moved.

“Jichang, how long have I been unconscious? What happened during that time?”

Li Ji said, while rubbing his temples to ease his mind, listening attentively to Xiahou Bo's narration.

Although Xiahou Bo only returned to Liu Bei's command after Julu City surrendered, he was quite clear about what happened during Li Ji's coma.

After the Battle of Bo Luojin, Liu Bei, while guarding the surroundings, sent ferry boats to the east bank of the Zhang River, successfully contacting the Northern General Lu Zhi.

Upon learning that Liu Bei had led about five thousand soldiers to actually defeat five thousand Yellow Turban warriors led by Zhang Jiao, and had forced Zhang Jiao to self-immolate, Lu Zhi was undoubtedly greatly shocked.

Afterwards, regarding the more than three thousand captured Yellow Turban warriors, Lu Zhi and Liu Bei discussed overnight and decided to send them to Julu City.

As the more than three thousand Yellow Turban warriors entered Julu City, the news of Zhang Jiao's self-immolation completely spread throughout Julu City.

For a time, the city of Julu was filled with continuous wailing for a whole day.

After such a day, Zhang Liang, knowing that the general situation was over, followed his brother Zhang Jiao and also self-immolated to death in the government office.

The remaining Yellow Turban generals opened the gates of the four cities and drove a large number of Yellow Turban followers out of the city, while they led their personal guards and hid among the Yellow Turban followers, and then fled in all directions.

Julu City was taken without a fight.

Lu Zhi, who was also famous in the world for his benevolence, did not carry out a large-scale purge after entering Julu City.

Because Lu Zhi knew very well that if he wanted to kill all those who were related to the Yellow Turbans, the entire Julu City would probably be left with no survivors.

Therefore, Lu Zhi ordered the demolition and burning of all Taiping Dao buildings, Taoist robes, yellow cloths, and other items representing the Yellow Turbans in Julu City.

And he singled out a group of high-ranking Taiping Dao members who were reluctant to part with the large amount of real estate and wealth in Julu City and hid in the city and beheaded them, and then did not continue to investigate further.

This made Li Ji, who heard this, couldn't help but breathe a long sigh of relief.

Lu Zhi and Liu Bei's benevolent style were undoubtedly quite similar. They both had compassion for the common people at the bottom, which is why they lightly let go of a large number of Taiping Dao followers who had no choice but to join the Taiping Dao in order to survive.

Although, according to Xiahou Bo, Lu Zhi is currently implementing military control over Julu City, strictly prohibiting anyone from worshiping Zhang Jiao, wearing yellow cloth, or reciting any scriptures related to the Taiping Dao, and those who violate the order will be beheaded.

However, Li Ji knew very well that Lu Zhi was already doing his best to protect ordinary people, so as to avoid the court from investigating to the end.

If the ruthless Huangfu Song replaced Lu Zhi, with Huangfu Song's style of exterminating the Yellow Turbans, the entire Julu Commandery would probably be covered with corpses.

If there was a title of “Butcher of Men” at the end of the Han Dynasty, it should be crowned on Huangfu Song's head. The number of captives he killed was as high as more than 200,000, and he built Jingguan with the corpses of more than 100,000 Yellow Turbans.

Li Ji even suspected that Cao Cao's ruthless use of troops was not unrelated to his time as Huangfu Song's subordinate during this period, and was influenced by Huangfu Song.

And the reason why Li Ji didn't like the Yellow Turbans was actually because he didn't like the Yellow Turbans' behavior of forcibly sweeping and coercing ordinary people.

Unknowingly, he had destroyed the lives of many ordinary people who were still barely able to live, forcing a large number of people to join the Yellow Turbans in order to survive.

Li Ji worked hard to help Liu Bei defeat the Yellow Turbans, and he didn't fail to have the idea of ​​avoiding more innocent people from dying in this Yellow Turban Rebellion.

“I didn't expect that I have been unconscious for five days.”

Li Ji said with emotion, and looked at Xiahou Bo with a bit more appreciation.

Xiahou Bo retold the big and small things that had happened in the past five days. Not to mention that the logic was clear, what was more important was that Xiahou Bo knew clearly about many things that had not happened to Xiahou Bo himself.

‘Is this also one of the characteristics of rangers? Quite sensitive to various news.’

Li Ji secretly said, and at the same time, some thoughts appeared in his mind.

And just at this time, the door of the room where Li Ji was recuperating was suddenly pushed open.

In Li Ji's eyes, Liu Bei almost rushed in with a “whoosh”, and tears seemed to appear in his eyes. He was as excited as if he had been separated from life and death, and said.

“Zikun, God bless, you are finally awake.”

Seeing this, Li Ji almost subconsciously leaned back in a tactical manner, so as not to let the tears fall on his body, and he would have to taste the saltiness.

And Li Ji couldn't have any resonance with Liu Bei's excitement.

Li Ji's feeling was that he closed his eyes and opened them again, and in the blink of an eye, he saw Liu Bei again.

It's just that what Li Ji didn't know was that Liu Bei was afraid that Li Ji would close his eyes and never open them again in these five days.

During these five days, Li Ji was slow to wake up, and Liu Bei almost searched all the doctors he could find, and invited them to see Li Ji with their hands tied.

Immediately afterwards, following closely behind Liu Bei, strong men poured into this room one after another, warmly caring about Li Ji's condition.

Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Xiahou Bo, Liu Bei… …

Five strong men, each of whom can be described as seven feet tall and muscular.

This made Li Ji suddenly feel that this room, which was not very big in the first place, began to be filled with a sense of anxiety. Five strong men with full of energy gathered together, and even the temperature inside the room suddenly increased a lot.

Li Ji coughed a few times, thanked them for their concern one by one, and said.

“That… …Thank you for your concern, everyone, but Ji still needs a moment of rest… … ”

Immediately understanding, Liu Bei stood up and "shooed" everyone else out, not wanting to disturb Li Ji's rest.

"Bang!"

As the door closed, Li Ji looked at Liu Bei, who was still in the room, and his still-muddled brain couldn't quite process the situation.

Why did Brother Xuande think he should be inside and not outside?

Does… does he not count as one of the irrelevant people?