Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

“Governor!”

Instantly, all the commandants in the tent stood up and saluted Li Ji.

Zhang Fei's expression stiffened, and he followed suit, saying, "Lord Governor... why didn't you send someone to inform us beforehand so I could have greeted you properly?"

“If I had informed you in advance, how would I have known about the great prestige of Yide?”

Li Ji walked up to Zhang Fei, his tone laced with sarcasm.

“Where would I dare to show off any prestige? Could it be that someone is slandering me?”

Zhang Fei said with a smile on his dark face, while hurriedly making way, saying.

“Come, come, Lord Governor, please take a seat, don't misunderstand me.”

Li Ji snorted lightly and spoke to the commandants in the tent.

“You may all dispense with the formalities.”

Immediately after Li Ji sat down, the others stood up and sat down as well, then ordered people to bring several stools from outside the tent.

(PS: The small stool can be traced back to the Eastern Han Dynasty when it was introduced to the Central Plains. The Book of the Later Han and the Records of the Three Kingdoms both contain relevant records, but at that time it was called 'Hu bed'. Here, I will directly use 'small stool' for easy understanding.)

When Wei Yan, Xu Chu, and Gu Wei were all seated, Zhang Fei also wanted to sit down, but Li Ji glanced at Zhang Fei and said.

“Yide, stand for now.”

Zhang Fei's dark face stiffened, and he stopped halfway through his sitting motion, then stood up again with a sheepish expression, saying somewhat unconvinced.

“Lord Governor, don't make things difficult for me like this. Even if I haven't conquered Ruyang yet, aren't the others the same?”

Li Ji slammed the table and said sternly, “Is this a matter of merit? This is because your attitude has a huge problem.”

Instantly, Zhang Fei was so startled that he stood up straight and quickly admitted his mistake.

“Lord Governor, don't be angry. If you hurt your body, my elder brother will definitely tear me apart. If I have any faults, you can punish me.”

Li Ji felt a headache when he heard this.

Zhang Fei was quick to admit his mistakes, but the problem was that Zhang Fei didn't even know where he was wrong. He was completely admitting his mistake for the sake of Liu Bei and Li Ji.

But what's the point of this?

Instead, Li Ji felt even more annoyed, and even felt like he was punching cotton without any force.

Li Ji couldn't help but sigh and asked.

“Just now, I heard Yide outside the tent saying something contemptuous about the surrendered generals. What is the reason for this?”

This time, Zhang Fei was a little silent.

It was not until Li Ji stared at him for more than ten breaths that Zhang Fei stiffened his neck and said, “I just think those people are not loyal and righteous, how can they be with me…”

Zhang Fei didn't continue to say the rest, because he really didn't dare to look directly at Li Ji's eyes.

In this way, Li Ji understood that Zhang Fei has always respected gentlemen and despised villains.

Even under Li Ji's influence, Zhang Fei, who had been punished to serve as a laborer for a period of time, had changed his bad habit of whipping soldiers at every turn, but in his bones, he still only respected gentlemen.

And surrendered generals such as Wen聘, Zang Ba, and Wei Yan have never been able to enter Zhang Fei's eyes.

However, once these words spread out, the impact will undoubtedly be bad.

Especially since Zhang Fei is Liu Bei's sworn brother and confidant, once these remarks are spread by someone with ulterior motives, the consequences may be serious.

The most obvious thing is that after Zhang Fei said this, Wei Yan's eyes towards Zhang Fei in the tent faintly showed a bit of hostility.

“Bang!”

Li Ji grabbed the inkstone and smashed it at Zhang Fei's feet, and shouted.

“Yide, kneel down for me. Today, I will teach you a good lesson on behalf of the Lord.”

Zhang Fei's dark face turned red, and then he knelt down on the spot, saying with his neck stuck out.

“Lord Governor, there is no need to borrow the name of my elder brother. I also regard Zikun as a brother. Since the elder brother has ordered, if you want to scold or punish me, I will accept it without any resentment.”

Zhang Fei's change of address obviously revealed a kind of dissatisfaction, just short of directly stating that I bowed my head and admitted my mistake for the sake of you, Li Zikun.

If it were another superior who dared to talk to me like this, even if he brought up my elder brother, I would have chopped him up.

This made Li Ji almost laugh out of anger, and couldn't help but get up and say.

“Yide, could it be that you are a spy sent by the enemy?”

“Why do you say that?” Zhang Fei asked puzzled.

Li Ji questioned, “If not, why do you repeatedly want to disturb the morale of the army? And ruin the Lord's good name?”

“Where did I disturb Zikun's morale? And ruin my elder brother's good name?” Zhang Fei retorted unconvinced.

“Let me ask you, can we restore the Han Dynasty and revive the great Han only by relying on the Lord, Yunchang, and you, Zhang Yide? Or can I, Li Ji, succeed alone?”

Li Ji shouted sternly.

Hearing this, Zhang Fei almost subconsciously wanted to answer: As long as Zikun is here, it will definitely be successful.

However, looking at Li Ji's appearance that was almost angry, Zhang Fei knew that he could no longer anger Li Ji no matter how dull he was.

Moreover, after thinking about it carefully, Zhang Fei realized that it was indeed impossible to achieve anything with just four people. The elder brother and Zikun both lacked people to command.

At this moment, Li Ji didn't completely stare at Zhang Fei, but was secretly observing the expressions of the others in the tent, including Wei Yan, and then said.

“The Great Han is the Great Han of the Han people.”

“The Lord wants to revive the Great Han not to achieve personal hegemony, but to make the Great Han prosperous and great again, so that all Han people can live and work in peace and contentment.”

“Therefore, the Lord has always wanted to unite all the Han people who can be united. Those surrendered generals in your mouth all have their hearts set on the Great Han and are convinced by the Lord's ambition to revive the Great Han.”

“Such people can be completely called comrades…”

Li Ji almost blurted out the word "comrade", and the voice reached his throat, and he quickly changed his words.

“People with the same ideals, people who are of the same mind and virtue as the Lord, how can they be called surrendered generals with contempt?”

Li Ji's words, under this burst of anger, seemed to contain sincerity.

Whether Zhang Fei was deeply touched or not is unknown, but everyone in the tent, including Wei Yan, was moved beyond words.

The reputation of surrendered generals has never been good.

Especially in this era where loyalty and righteousness are highly valued, there are countless people who have the same ideas as Zhang Fei, and they are born inferior.

But in Li Ji's mouth, how could they be surrendered generals? They were clearly abandoning the dark and turning to the light, and working with the Lord to restore the Han Dynasty, people with the same ideals.

At this moment, Wei Yan's eyes looking at Li Ji not only contained a desire for progress, but also a bit of unclear light.

Wei Yan didn't know whether Liu Bei was so great.

But the Marquis indeed treated himself equally, and truly hoped to unite the Han people as much as possible to realize the great ambition of reviving the Han Dynasty.

‘If this is the Marquis' ambition, I will do my best to achieve it.’

Wei Yan's vision seemed a little blurred, and he secretly swore an oath.

(End of this chapter)