Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

The next day.

Li Ji woke up and felt a headache from the hangover. He drank some hangover soup that Zhaoji had prepared early in the morning, which relieved him a little.

He had enjoyed chatting with Liu Bei and Guan Yu so much that he didn't realize he was drunk.

Immediately, Li Ji got up and took a walk in the mansion to sober up, and also took a look at Li Xiang, who was sleeping soundly on the couch.

Don't ask why he was sleeping face down; the answer is that he was reflecting on his mistakes.

After that, Li Ji took a bath and changed his clothes before leaving the mansion to go to the State Duke's office to handle official business.

Although the group had arrived in Shouchun yesterday, Liu Bei was not familiar with the officials, generals, and aristocratic families of the Jingzhou faction.

Therefore, Liu Bei arranged for the rest of the people who arrived in Shouchun to rest for three days in the name of settling down before discussing official business.

In fact, during these three days, Liu Bei needed to contact many key officials and generals of the Jingzhou faction one by one, and then prepare to make corresponding arrangements.

The official office in Shouchun City, which had been renovated, was naturally not comparable to the small official office in Wuxian before.

Moreover, in the State Duke's office, Liu Bei had reserved an entire corner area for Li Ji in advance, which made Li Ji feel a little dumbfounded.

In these three days, Li Ji roughly sorted out the overall changes in Yangzhou in recent years, and also briefly understood the State Duke's office and Shouchun.

In addition to the obvious changes in the environment, what Li Ji felt most directly was that there were many new faces among the officials and clerks.

However, this was also a normal change in the promotion of officials.

As Liu Bei's territory continued to expand, he naturally needed to transfer reliable officials to various places to stabilize the local area, and the Rendeshuyuan was also continuously transporting talents to Liu Bei.

It would be strange if there were no changes in faces.

In addition, Liu Bei also discussed decisions with Li Ji from time to time during these three days, and soon finalized a final charter.

In the subsequent rewards, Liu Bei generously promoted and enfeoffed many meritorious people, and rewarded them with countless wealth.

However, the truly key official changes were that Guan Yu was appointed as the Prefect of Nan Commandery, controlling the military affairs of Jingzhou, and Jiang Qin, Wen聘, Kuailiang, Cai He, Cai Zhong, Zhou Cang and others were transferred to Jingzhou to take charge of their respective responsibilities.

Among them, Zhou Cang was a group of mountain bandits entrenched around Runan when Guan Yu captured Runan City.

Zhou Cang heard of Guan Yu's name and wanted to join him. He took the initiative to assist Guan Yu in laying an ambush. Guan Yu also saw that he was brave and had some loyalty, so he took him as a general under his command.

In addition, what made Li Ji quite helpless was that Liu Bei not only insisted on retaining Li Ji's title of Commander-in-Chief, but even promoted him to Grand Commander-in-Chief of Jing and Yang, holding the festival, and supervising the political and military affairs of the two states.

Of course, this reward has actually far exceeded the scope of Liu Bei's power, so Liu Bei nominally changed the reward to a recommendation to the imperial court.

As for whether the imperial court agrees or not, in the current situation where the imperial court is gradually becoming a formality, it is not entirely up to the imperial court to decide.

Liu Bei is already considered to be abiding by the rules. Many princes have reached the point where they don't even bother to put on a show.

Last winter, as Cao Cao completely unified Qingzhou, he proclaimed himself the Duke of Qingzhou, constantly rewarding the civil and military officials under his command, and finally submitted a list to Sili as a formality.

Whether this list entered Sili, reached Lu Bu's small court, or was sent to the emperor for his personal review, no one knows.

Compared with this, Liu Bei still maintains respect for the emperor on the surface. He not only sent envoys to Luoyang to pay homage to the emperor, but also sent a large amount of wealth.

This made Emperor Liu Xie, who was tightly controlled by Empress Lu, feel very moved.

With Lu Bu seizing power outside and Empress Lu suppressing him inside, Emperor Liu Xie's life can't be said to be in dire straits, but he doesn't have any freedom at all, and even the inner treasury is controlled by Empress Lu.

Sometimes, even if Emperor Liu Xie rewards the eunuchs in the palace to follow in the footsteps of his late father and win over the eunuchs to fight against the foreign relatives, his pockets are cleaner than his face.

At a time when the princes of the world are increasingly ignoring Emperor Liu Xie, Liu Bei still sent a large amount of wealth from thousands of miles away, how could Emperor Liu Xie not feel warm in his heart?

Therefore, even though Emperor Liu Xie's voice cannot leave the palace now, he still publicly said to Sun Qian, who came as Liu Bei's envoy, in return.

"The Imperial Uncle is the pillar of the Han Dynasty. The affairs of the local government can be decided by the Imperial Uncle, without the need to report everything."

This statement, in addition to reciprocating, is undoubtedly Emperor Liu Xie deliberately disgusting Lu Bu, publicly giving Lu Bu an eye drop, and resisting Lu Bu's control of the government.

Even if Emperor Liu Xie's edict cannot leave Luoyang now, he is unable to take the initiative to promote Liu Bei, but with this statement, Liu Bei has great convenience.

When Sun Qian brought this statement back to Shouchun, Liu Bei was so moved that he couldn't control himself, and even prepared to burn incense for three days to thank the emperor.

Seeing this, Li Ji did not dissuade Liu Bei, but instead encouraged Liu Bei to continue to send gifts to the emperor in Luoyang to thank the emperor.

And let Liu Bei find reasons to send gifts during festivals, even if it is a small gift every three days and a big gift every five days.

Now, under Jia Xu's recommendation, Jia Mu, who entered the State Duke's office as an official, looked at the long list of tributes and couldn't help but ask Jia Xu after returning home.

"Father, why does Lord Marquis let the Lord repeatedly send gifts to the emperor? Now the power of the imperial court is completely controlled by Marquis Wushuang, even if the emperor is inclined to the Lord, it will not be of much help. On the contrary, the weight of those gift lists is enough to support three thousand elites."

Jia Xu, sipping tea and listening to the songs sung by the maids in the mansion, closed his eyes slightly and asked casually.

"Does Mu'er know how the situation in Luoyang is?"

"I know a little."

Jia Mu replied.

"In that case, does Mu'er think that the gift can be sent to the emperor's hands?"

Jia Xu asked again.

This question touched Jia Mu's blind spot.

The situation in Luoyang is actually quite complicated. Whether the gift can be sent to the emperor's hands or intercepted by Lu Bu is really hard to say.

In the end, after hesitating for a while, Jia Mu said. "It should... it should be able to be sent to the emperor's hands. Even if Marquis Wushuang is arrogant, he will not openly damage the emperor's prestige."

After hearing this, Jia Xu sighed secretly, feeling a little disappointed in his heart, and then explained.

"In fact, it doesn't matter whether the gift can be sent to the emperor's hands at all."

"At a time when the heroes of the world despise the imperial court and the emperor, only by showing the world the Lord's respect for the emperor can this gift be sent without loss."

"After all, what the Lord wants to do is not a rebellious minister, but to carry out the kingly way of supporting the Han Dynasty. Moreover..."

Jia Xu chuckled lightly, and sipped his tea unhurriedly, and said.

"Zikun's constant request for the Lord to constantly pay tribute to the emperor also intends to muddy the waters of Luoyang."

"If the gift can reach the emperor's hands, then the emperor will have some capital to try to win over all parties to fight against Lu Bu and Empress Lu;"

"If the gift is constantly intercepted by Lu Bu or Empress Lu, it can also aggravate the gap between the emperor and the Lu family, and the Lord will not be afraid of having no name to attack Lu Bu in the future."

"This is a conspiracy with three birds with one stone..." (End of this chapter)