Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Chapter 323 How can my biological father be as good as my uncle?
"Good good."

Li Ji helped the naive Adou up with a gentle face, then reached into his sleeve and took out a handful of golden beans, stuffed them into Adou's hand without even looking at them, and said.

"I just returned from Yingzhou, and I have nothing to give you, young master. I only have some special products from Yingzhou that can serve as gifts. I hope you will not despise them."

Adou looked at the handful of golden beans that he could hardly hold with both hands, and was almost dazzled by the golden light and subconsciously squinted his eyes.

Although Adou was young, he was not so ignorant as to not know what gold was.

Liu Bei had never given Adou even a copper coin as pocket money, which meant that when Adou occasionally went out, even if he was craving for street snacks, he was always short of money.

Looking at this handful of golden beans, Adou seemed to see countless gossips rushing towards him, trying to drown him alive.

For a moment, the image of Li Ji, the "father-in-law" who was always mentioned by Liu Bei, in Adou's mind almost instantly became extremely glorious and majestic, and he was even so moved that he wanted to cry.

How can my biological father be as good as my uncle?

However, before Adou could imagine enjoying the endless snacks with the golden beans in his hands, Liu Bei's big hand swept towards the golden beans in Adou's hands, took all the golden beans away in an instant, and stuffed them into Li Ji's arms, saying.

"Zikun, no, no, not to mention that Ah Dou is very young, it is useless for him to take so many golden beans, and how valuable are these golden beans?"

"A few golden beans are nothing..."

After a pause, Li Ji blocked Liu Bei's hand that was pushing back, and moved his mouth slightly closer to Liu Bei's ear and whispered.

"The ballast of every ship in the returning fleet is all gold and silver mined in Yingzhou in the past one or two years. What's wrong with using these gold beans as a toy?"

Liu Bei's eyes widened and his pupils shrank. He looked at Li Ji who was so close to him in disbelief. He subconsciously thought that he had heard it wrong and confirmed it.

"Zi Kun is talking about just one ship, right?"

Li Ji repeated it again with a laugh.

"My lord, it's every ship."

At this moment, Liu Bei suddenly felt that Li Ji's light words were so deafening that Liu Bei felt his head buzzing.

In the past, in order to develop Wujun and Kuaijijun, Liu Bei was very frugal. Apart from being extravagant on Li Ji's wedding day, he kept even such important events as marrying Lady Gan and the birth of A Dou as simple as possible.

Even though Li Ji repeatedly claimed that Yingzhou was full of gold and silver, Liu Bei never had any delusions and never expected that Li Ji would return with a ship full of gold and silver.

Suddenly, Liu Bei realized something, slapped the car body hard and shouted.

"Stop! Return to the port immediately..."

Just now, only a group of soldiers got off the boat, but those ships were still anchored in the port.

Now that he knew that the ships were still full of gold and silver, how could Liu Bei feel at ease? He immediately returned to Wujun to move the gold and silver down first.

However, Li Ji stopped Liu Bei and said.

"Don't worry, my lord. There are many people in the port, and there are probably many spies or people with ulterior motives. If you openly move gold and silver, it will definitely not escape the eyes of those who are interested."

"Therefore, I have secretly ordered Zilong to lead the White Horse Volunteers to temporarily station in the port. After nightfall, Jiang Qin will lead the fleet directly to the shipyard. Under the pretext of repairing the damaged ships, the lord will send his trusted soldiers to carry the goods down from the shipyard and deliver them to the treasury."

After hearing this, Liu Bei finally calmed down from his shock, took a long breath and said.

"Zikun was the one who thought things through, but it was Bei who lost his composure for a moment."

"Moreover, these are only the amounts mined this year. In the future, the amount of gold and silver that can be mined from Yingzhou will only increase, so you don't have to worry about financial shortages in the future..."

After a pause, looking at Liu Bei's gradually stiffening expression, Li Ji continued, "At least, my lord, you can repair the government office and the mansion at will..."

After saying that, Li Ji did not forget to look at Adou, revealing a gentle expression, and said, "And change Adou into a better set of clothes, so there is no need to worry about affecting people's livelihood development."

At least, judging from the clothes of Li Xiang and Adou, the clothes worn by Li Xiang were obviously three times better than those worn by Adou, and Adou was even wearing a pair of straw sandals.

How could Liu Bei not be moved by these words? Even Adou's eyes seemed to be glowing when he looked at Li Ji.

"Zikun..."

Liu Bei couldn't help but pat Li Ji on the shoulder. His voice became a little choked up, and it took a while before he continued speaking.

"Without you, how could we be here today?"

"If there were no lord, there would be no Ji at this moment." Li Ji replied.

At this moment, Liu Bei didn't say anything else. Everything was implied. The knowledge between a master and his subject was undoubtedly a blessing in life.

"Dong dong!"

At this moment, Xiahou Bo knocked lightly and confirmed. "My lord, did you just say that you want to return to the port?" Liu Bei quickly collected his thoughts and said in his usual calm and gentle voice.

"No need, let's continue back to Wu County."

"Yes, my lord."

Xiahou Bo responded, and then the carriage continued to move forward steadily.

Li Jize also took the opportunity to lift a corner of the curtain and looked at the scene outside the carriage. What he saw was countless fertile fields.

In addition, the official road that carriages travel on now is obviously much smoother and wider than before.

From this we can see that Liu Bei had indeed been controlling the development of Wujun in accordance with the various development directions set by Li Ji before he left Wujun.

At the very least, in this era where the importance of transportation efficiency is often overlooked, the importance of official roads is too easily overlooked.

If Liu Bei had not strongly advocated it, Wujun would never have been able to go to such great lengths to repair the official road, which would have required a lot of money, food and labor.

After Li Ji lowered the curtain, Liu Bei gradually sorted out his thoughts and realized that Li Ji's gains in Yingzhou might be even greater than he had imagined.

From now on, I don’t have to worry about finances anymore!
Thinking of this, Liu Bei no longer insisted on returning the handful of golden beans to Li Ji, and then happily took it and said.

"In that case, I will accept these golden beans on behalf of Adou."

After a pause, Liu Bei reprimanded Adou. "Adou, why don't you thank your father-in-law for the gift?"

Adou looked at his empty hands, and then at the sleeve of Liu Bei where the golden beans had been placed. There was a hint of resentment in his clear eyes, but he could only bow respectfully to Li Ji and thank him.

"Young Master, there is no need to do this."

Li Ji hurried forward and helped Adou up.

Suddenly, Adou felt as if there was some round hard object in his palm, which startled him a little. He didn't react for a moment and subconsciously looked up, just in time to meet Li Ji's gaze.

Li Ji winked at Adou gently, and Adou suddenly felt his wisdom opened up, and realized how similar the feeling was to golden beans.

This is the love of my father!
At this moment, Adou was so moved that his eyes filled with tears. He wanted to look up and sigh: Why didn’t my father return to Wu County earlier?

Immediately, Adou quickly stuffed the golden beans in his hand into his sleeves, fearing that Liu Bei would see them, and felt very happy.

What Adou didn't know was that Liu Bei had seen all of this, but for Li Ji's sake, he didn't plan to expose it on the spot. He planned to send Adou back home and then find a reason to confiscate the money.

Liu Bei did not talk about official business afterwards. Instead, he chatted with Li Ji about family matters along the way and headed for a grand banquet that had been prepared early in the city to celebrate Li Ji's victory in leading the soldiers to resist the Wuhuan and conquer Yingzhou.

There was a natural sense of celebration at the banquet.

Especially the generals who had followed Li Ji on overseas expeditions for more than two years missed the fine wine and delicious food of the Han Dynasty very much, so this time everyone was having a great time.

The banquet lasted until the moon was bright and the stars were sparse, and most people were drunk before it ended.

When Liu Bei personally sent Li Ji and Li Xiang back home, he also reminded Li Ji to rest at home for a few days to relieve the fatigue of the journey.

However, after Li Ji and Li Xiang got off the carriage and bid farewell to Liu Bei, they looked at the plaque "Zhao Ting Hou Mansion" hanging on their own mansion and were unable to react for a moment.

"When was the plaque changed?" Li Ji asked.

Just when Li Ji thought that no one would answer him, Li Xiang, who had been following him almost all the time and was quite calm and taciturn, answered in an orderly manner in a childish voice.

"Before that, my father helped Youzhou defeat the Wuhuan. The imperial edict was sent to Wujun to confer the title of governor of Liaoxi Prefecture and Marquis of Zhaoting. Although my father was not in Wujun to receive the edict, my uncle ordered the craftsmen to replace the plaque."

Hearing this, Li Ji turned his head to look at Li Xiang who was standing beside him with his hands behind his back. Li Xiang also looked up at Li Ji.

After a few breaths, Li Ji asked, "Who taught Xiang'er to say this?"

Li Xiang answered respectfully, "My mother taught me."

Hearing this, Li Ji's eyes softened a bit, then he reached out and tapped Li Xiang's forehead, saying.

"Xiang'er, there's no need to be like this. I've been away from home for these years, and I feel guilty towards you and your son. I can only make it up to you slowly..."

"And Xiang'er must have suffered a lot in private for him to say such things, right? In fact, there is no need to be so. As a father, I am confident that I can still support you and your son. Xiang'er is still young and just needs to be naive and romantic."

After saying that, Li Ji squatted down, stroked Li Xiang's head with one hand, and looked at Li Xiang in front of him carefully.

It has to be said that Li Xiang, as the son of Li Ji and Cai Zhaoji, was born with a good-looking appearance, and his eyes were full of intelligence, as if he was thinking about Li Ji's words.

(End of this chapter)