Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Li Ji's eyes changed slightly upon hearing this.

Regret not meeting earlier?

However, Li Ji knew very well that it was just an unrealistic assumption.

Without Liu Bei, Li Ji would not have been praised by Lu Zhi as "no one can match him," and he probably wouldn't have even made it to the historical stage, still struggling to make a living in Zhuo County alone.

After the Yellow Turban Rebellion was quelled, even if Li Ji embarked on the path of seeking a virtuous lord to serve, without reputation or household registration, who could Li Ji possibly come into contact with?

How many talented people have failed to find their time throughout history?

Therefore, as long as Liu Bei does not fail Li Ji, Li Ji will certainly not fail him.

"Mengde, I also hope that you will go straight to your goal, soar to great heights, and when we meet again in the future, we will have all achieved our ambitions."

Li Ji said, then cupped his fist in farewell, and rode his warhorse back into the ranks.

Cao Cao just stared fixedly at Li Ji as he rode away, his heart churning with emotions, and for the first time, he truly felt the bitterness of wanting something but not being able to get it.

As Li Ji returned to the ranks, Jia Xu sighed with some surprise.

"Although Cao Mengde is from a family of eunuchs, he truly seeks talent eagerly, and his actions are not hindered by material things. This man of ambition will surely achieve something in the future."

"Ordinary ethical principles cannot restrain Mengde."

Li Ji also followed up with a comment.

Moreover, Li Ji believed this in every sense of the word.

Whether it was to seek talent, ambition, or pleasure, Cao Cao was definitely not someone who cared about ethical principles.

"However, Cao Mengde's courteous treatment of me is not only to seek talent, but also to seek a reputation for seeking talent…"

"The rumors in Julu City about the alias 'Li Three Thousand,' even if not spread by Cao Mengde, must have had Cao Mengde's involvement as a promoter, in order to use my name to spread Cao Mengde's good name of eagerly seeking talent…"

"In ancient times, there was the purchase of horse bones for a thousand gold pieces. Now, Mengde gives three thousand gold pieces to a great talent, all of which are calculations."

Li Ji said, his eyes slightly flickering, causing Zhang Fei, who was beside him, to look askance and say in a loud voice.

"Mr. Zikun, I think I understand. That Cao thief just wants to freeload off Mr. Zikun, right?"

Li Ji: "…"

What freeload?

You big fool, Fei, reorganize your language for me…

But I'm afraid that the more I explain to Zhang Fei, the easier it is to get confused. Li Ji quietly ground his teeth and said.

"Yide, don't be rude. Cao Mengde is the Chancellor of Jinan. How can you call him a thief? Even if Cao Mengde doesn't mind, even if he punishes you, no one can find fault with it."

Zhang Fei retorted angrily, somewhat unconvinced.

"Isn't that Cao thief a thief? As soon as I returned to Julu City, I heard everyone saying that Cao Mengde was coveting our Mr. Zikun. How could I bear it? I couldn't wait to stab a few holes in him on the spot."

"Yide, don't you know that Cao Mengde is not only the Chancellor of Jinan, but also has the friendship of the Yuan family behind him? If he wholeheartedly obstructs us, Lord might be deprived of his official position before even reaching Wu County. Therefore, are you really not worried about causing such a big trouble for Lord?"

Li Ji narrowed his eyes and threatened.

As soon as these words came out, Zhang Fei seemed honest and stared blankly at Li Ji.

Jia Xu, who was beside him, found it quite amusing and did not expose Li Ji.

However, in Jia Xu's opinion, Li Ji's statement was correct.

In the corrupt and dark Han Dynasty, simply being able to lead troops in battle was useless. When you're out there, what matters is background and connections.

The current General-in-Chief, who nominally controls the world's troops, He Jin, is actually just a wine bag and rice sack. He was originally just a vulgar butcher, but his sister became the Empress, and he gained power in one fell swoop, becoming the head of the Empress's relatives.

When Liu Bei and Lu Zhi bid farewell one by one and returned to the ranks, they found Zhang Fei looking uncharacteristically honest, and their expressions immediately became much more serious.

Liu Bei, who knew Zhang Fei's character well, knew very well that if Zhang Fei had a few more points of honesty and quietness on his face, he must have caused trouble again.

And the only people who could make Zhang Fei show such an attitude, apart from Guan Yu, his second brother, were Li Ji, whom Zhang Fei respected.

Immediately, Liu Bei reprimanded in a low voice. "Third brother, did you cause any trouble again by not listening to Zikun?"

"Big brother, I didn't," Zhang Fei replied.

"Still saying you didn't? Whenever you speak with a slightly insufficient confidence, you must have caused trouble. Didn't I tell you to listen to Zikun in everything and never act rashly?"

After a pause, Liu Bei asked in a deep voice. "Tell me, what trouble have you caused again?"

"I just scolded Cao thief, and Mr. Zikun has already taught me a lesson," Zhang Fei replied honestly, the more he thought about it, the more afraid he became.

Suddenly, Liu Bei was also a little embarrassed to continue reprimanding Zhang Fei.

After all, Zhang Fei just trash-talked a little, but Liu Bei directly drew his sword at Cao Cao.

Immediately, Liu Bei's gaze couldn't help but turn to Li Ji, who understood and offered a way out.

"Lord, Yide is only trying to protect Ji, and this is just an unintentional remark. Please do not blame Yide too much."

Liu Bei coughed lightly and said. "Not to be repeated."

"Yes, big brother."

Immediately, Liu Bei sent a message to Guan Yu, who was suppressing the rear army, and then the entire mighty team began to set off towards Wu County in Yangzhou.

And Li Ji had already planned the marching route along the way.

Going south from Julu County to Wei County, entering Yanzhou, entering Xuzhou, and then going south along the Xuzhou official road to Guangling County, crossing the Yangtze River, is where Wu County in Yangzhou is located.

Since the team had the "Peach Garden Three," a considerable number of wounded and disabled soldiers, as well as a large amount of money and food, even if the entire team traveled along the official road all the way, it was estimated that it would take at least two months to reach Wu County.

However, when Li Ji truly had the leisure to start paying attention to the various details along the way, he noticed that the official roads in various places were actually full of potholes and dilapidated.

Not to mention horse-drawn carriages and flatbed carts, even soldiers were walking with one foot deep and one foot shallow.

Encountering rainy weather along the way, the difficulty of marching was even only slightly less than that of mountain roads.

'Have the basic facilities already been damaged to this extent?'

Traveling through Yanzhou all the way, Liu Bei and his party, who arrived at the edge of Xuzhou in mid-July, encountered rainy weather again and could only hurriedly set up camp to avoid the rain.

After all, in this kind of rainy weather, not to mention the old, weak, women, and children, even strong soldiers, once they get caught in the rain and unfortunately contract a cold, in an era of lack of medical conditions, they are likely to die from illness.

During the rainy season, they had to avoid the rain from time to time along the way, and the official road was also full of potholes, which greatly slowed down the marching speed, so that it took nearly a month and a half to pass through Yanzhou.

Based on the current speed, it would probably take until early September at the earliest to reach Wu County.

Although the drizzle outside the camp did not affect the warmth inside the camp, Li Ji frowned and stared at the continuous drizzle outside.

After stirring up the firewood in the camp, Xia Houlan held a cup of hot tea and placed it in front of Li Ji, and said in a low voice.

"Sir, have a cup of tea to warm your body and drive away the cold."

"Thank you for your hard work."

Li Ji nodded, sipped the tea, and then pointed to a roll of bamboo slips placed aside, and said.

"I have annotated this 'Wei Liao Zi'. Take it as your homework for the next ten days, and give me a feeling after ten days."

"Yes, sir."

Xia Houlan quickly picked up the 'Wei Liao Zi' and held it in his arms as if it were a treasure.

Li Ji shook his head helplessly at Xia Houlan's seemingly calm, but still unrestrained nature.

Xia Houlan is the younger brother of Xia Houbo, who was brought back from Changshan, and also a fellow villager of Zhao Yun.

He is three years younger than Zhao Yun, and is now only thirteen years old, which is the age of being unrestrained.

After Xia Houbo officially worshiped Liu Bei as his lord, Xia Houbo replaced Zhang Fei in charge of scouting in the army, so naturally he had no time to take care of Xia Houlan.

As for Zhao Yun's gentle nature, he couldn't deter Xia Houlan at all.

Therefore, after thinking about it, Xia Houbo asked Li Ji to take Xia Houlan as a book boy.

Li Ji hesitated slightly about this, but he agreed.

Regardless of whether Xia Houlan is qualified as a book boy, what is more important is that Xia Houlan's martial arts are not weak. Although he has not yet reached adulthood, ordinary thieves cannot really get close to Xia Houlan.

After Xia Houlan's strength is fully grown, even if he is not as good as his brother Xia Houbo, his martial prowess cannot be compared with ordinary second-rate generals.

Therefore, with such a book boy by his side, Li Ji felt that his sense of security had improved a lot.

Xia Houlan carefully held the 'Wei Liao Zi' and found that Li Ji seemed to have some gloom between his brows, and asked with concern.

"Sir, is there anything bothering you?"

Li Ji sighed and said.

"What I sigh for is that even the official roads of Yanzhou and Xuzhou are abandoned to this point. What should be the scene in Wu County, which is located in Yangzhou?"

"It doesn't matter if the official road is a little difficult to walk, right?" Xia Houlan asked with some confusion.

Li Ji shook his head and did not continue to explain to the young Xia Houlan, but continued to frown and look at the continuous drizzle outside.

In this era, most people would underestimate the role of roads, generally thinking that it is enough to be able to walk, but roads are the real meaning of connecting the veins of agriculture, industry, and commerce in different regions.

If it is in wartime, roads are even more concerned with logistics support and transportation losses and other issues.

Once the military food is cut off, the army will collapse!

What's more, knowing the whole by looking at the part, the basic maintenance of the official road consumes very little manpower and material resources, but the official roads in various places are still abandoned like this, it is conceivable that the local governments are probably corrupt and inactive.

Even the Yan and Xu provinces in the Central Plains are like this. I'm afraid the infrastructure in the more remote Wu Commandery is even more of a mess.

‘I always have a sense of a bleak future...’

Li Ji silently cursed with a phrase that didn't fit his image, then took out a bamboo slip from his sleeve and added the words "roads" to it.

But as Li Ji looked at the dense words on it, the more he looked, the more depressed he became.