Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

"Zikun, is there something wrong with your moral character that makes you run into obstacles everywhere?"

Liu Bei's expression revealed a rare hint of melancholy.

Liu Bei, who was now determined to emulate Emperor Guangwu and accomplish the great feat of rebuilding the Han Dynasty, thought that after he arrived in Yingchuan County, countless noble families would come to him for support as if they had seen the reincarnation of Emperor Guangwu.

But the reality was like pouring a bucket of cold water on Liu Bei, making his heart feel very cold.

This also made Li Ji a little puzzled.

Logically speaking, considering the potential Liu Bei has shown now, and considering that it is a time of turmoil, the Yingchuan families should not have no intention of placing a bet.

It was precisely because of this that Li Ji suggested Liu Bei to go to Yingchuan County.

In addition to winning over talented people, the more important point is that if things go as expected, the Jiangdong family will not end well.

In order to avoid the outside world's misunderstanding that Liu Bei's group was hostile to the aristocratic families, even if he brought some of the Yingchuan aristocratic families' mascots back to Wujun, it would be of some help in terms of public opinion and reputation.

It’s a pity that Yingchuan County is the territory of aristocratic families and scholars. Even the Jinyisi has stationed some personnel in Yingchuan County.

However, even though the people of Taoyuan, who came from poor backgrounds, could read and write, they could not integrate into the circle of aristocratic families and scholars at all. So even through the channels of the Jinyi Division, they could not understand for a while why the Yingchuan aristocratic families had such a unified attitude.

Finally, when passing through Yangdi in Yingchuan County, Guo Jia returned to the Guo family after nearly five years in the name of visiting relatives, and only then did he secretly learn the whole story from some clan members.

The reasons are quite complicated...

Yingchuan was originally the most important cultural holy land in the entire Han Dynasty, attracting countless scholars from other states and counties to come to Yingchuan to study.

The endless influx of scholars not only brought vitality to Yingchuan, but also made countless Yingchuan families stronger.

It is true that the students and former officials of the Yuan family, whose four generations had three officials, are spread all over the world, but there are few scholars in the world who have no connection with Yingchuan, which made Yingchuan's status in the past almost unshakable.

Until the emergence of "Ren De Academy", it was as if a new cultural mountain was established within the Han Dynasty.

Although some of the Confucian scholars in Yingchuan did not take any direct action against "Rende Academy" because they were proud of their status or because of their high moral character, the competitive relationship between the two sides was undoubtedly inevitable.

In particular, the "Rende Academy" did not decline as quickly as the Yingchuan family had initially predicted. Instead, it flourished and the number of students it enrolled continued to increase year by year.

Even in Yingchuan County, there were quite a number of knowledgeable people who believed that the "Rende Academy" system was far more advanced than private schools, and they actively contacted aristocratic families from all over Yingchuan to jointly establish an "Yingchuan Academy."

However, just as the students and former officials of the Yuan family were related to the status of the Yuan family in the Han Dynasty, the scholars recruited by the private schools of the Yingchuan families were also related to the status and influence of each family.

The Chen family, the most prominent family in Yingchuan, was the most resistant to the academy format and even publicly declared that "the laws of our ancestors cannot be changed, and the academy format will soon become a place for filth and corruption."

Therefore, in the past few years, "Yingchuan Academy" has been repeatedly promoted by knowledgeable people, but it has repeatedly ended in failure due to conflicts of interest among various families.

It is precisely for this reason that almost all Yingchuan families treated Liu Bei and Rende Academy with an attitude of competition or struggle. They were unwilling to bet on Liu Bei and tried to prove that the "private school" system was better than the "academy" system.

In addition, there are various complex factors: for example, the Yingchuan family generally does not look favorably upon the Jiangdong area; Guo Tu and Xu You have been slandering Wujun in their respective circles for five years...

"besides……"

Having said this, Guo Jia paused, then coughed slightly and continued.

"That is, Mr. Zikun is already a trusted adviser to the lord. Many sons of noble families know that they cannot compete with Mr. Zikun, but because Mr. Zikun comes from a poor family, they are proud of their background and are unwilling to be inferior to him."

Hearing this, Li Ji could not help but reveal a bitter smile and helplessness, then turned to Liu Bei and bowed to apologize.

"I didn't expect that Ji had ruined the lord's plan to recruit talented people. Please punish me, lord."

The next moment, Liu Bei lifted up Li Ji's hands, which he had just lowered, and said.

"The most virtuous person in the world is by my side, so how can I be unsatisfied? My only regret is that I have not been able to find a few talented people to share the pressure for Zikun."

Even though he had heard Liu Bei's words of importance countless times, Li Ji was still deeply touched.

A scholar dies for a confidant!

How rare is it to have such a sincere and open-hearted person, and to have a leader who is never reluctant to entrust military and political power to you?
But before Li Ji could speak, Liu Bei continued speaking.

"The Yingchuan family is short-sighted. They look down on Yu Zikun's background and are unwilling to submit to him. They are a bunch of blind people. Even if they want to join my army in the future, I will definitely not accept them."

For a moment, Li Ji couldn't help but laugh at Liu Bei's words that sounded like a street hooligan.

This feeling was as if the treasure that Liu Bei treasured was insulted by an outsider, which made Liu Bei, who was already somewhat shocked, angry and started cursing.

"Well, well, my lord, what you said is absolutely right. Since the scholars from Yingchuan are blind and unwilling to serve you, then you can just not use them..."

After a pause, Li Ji suddenly thought of something and turned to speak to Guo Jia, who was standing beside him with an embarrassed look on his face.

"Of course, Feng Xiao is not one of those people who are blind. Looking at Yingchuan as a whole, I'm afraid Feng Xiao has the best vision."

Guo Jia bowed with a somewhat embarrassed look on his face. "Thank you for the compliment, sir!" However, Guo Jia did not intend to defend the Yingchuan family and scholars.

As Yingchuan's reputation grew and the aristocratic families gradually grew stronger, Guo Jia clearly felt that the entire Yingchuan County was beginning to become complacent and that there were indeed quite a few people who were blind to their own potential.

Even though there were many knowledgeable people in Yingchuan who were optimistic about Liu Bei's future development, due to the overall position of the family, they could not voluntarily join Liu Bei, otherwise the family's private school would inevitably be squeezed out by other private schools.

Guo Jia was originally an inconspicuous side branch and had already joined Liu Bei's army very early on.

When Guo Jia returned to the Guo family this time, some pleasant and unpleasant things happened. The Guo family completely removed Guo Jia from the side branch and completely severed ties with Guo Jia.

From then on, Guo Jia was no longer a member of the Yingchuan Yangdi Guo family, but became a separate branch of his own.

This was not only a way for Guo to avoid being excluded by other Yingchuan families, but also a secret bet.

Despite the weight of Guo Jia's investment, in Guo's eyes it was even less than a mosquito leg.

However, Guo Jia did not intend to tell this matter to Liu Bei to ask for some reward, but buried the matter deep in his heart.

Guo Jia believed in Liu Bei's future and believed that the Wujun Guo family might be more glorious than the Yangdi Guo family in the future.

The only thing that troubled Guo Jia was that after forming his own branch, he had to expand his branches as quickly as possible.

This made Guo Jia, who loved wine but not women, feel that this was really a hard and tiring job...

Thinking of this, Guo Jia sighed secretly, took off the wine gourd and took a big gulp, revealing a satisfied look.

However, this was different from Guo Jia's immersion in the difficult problem of how to choose between beauty and wine.

After realizing that the conflict in positions and interests made it almost impossible for Liu Bei to gain the support of the Yingchuan families or scholars, Li Ji revealed a sneer and said.

"My lord, even if the scholars of Yingchuan are unwilling to serve you, I will make sure they kneel down and beg you one day."

"When I return to Wu County and have some free time, I will vigorously develop Ren De Academy. I will also be a lecturer in Ren De Academy and personally teach and select some talents for you. I will make sure that you will not be without talents in the future."

If you mess with Li Ji, you'll be hitting a brick wall!

Especially when "Ren De Academy" passed its initial stage, Li Ji took all the books in Luoyang and prepared to release the improved paper and "movable type printing".

Soon, the Yingchuan family will realize that the educational resources of both sides are simply not on the same level.

Compared with the private school education where students were given a piece of bamboo slips to carve slowly.

What does one book per person mean?
That would only make the Yingchuan aristocratic families think that Wujun cannot print enough books, so they would simply give each student a hundred copies, so that every student would have the resources to have at least as many books as an aristocratic family.

And with the Dongguan collection of books, looking at the Han Dynasty...

No, looking around the world, there is absolutely no force with a deeper cultural heritage than Liu Bei's group.

If the scholars of Yingchuan do not surrender now, they will not have to do so in the future.

Li Ji, who gradually freed up his hands, prepared to personally win over a group of known talented young people, and then take time out regularly to personally water and teach the young people, so as to directly cultivate a group of talents who perfectly fit the shape of Liu Bei's group.

Feeling that Li Ji, who had always been calm and composed, was now showing a sharp edge, Liu Bei felt that the depression in his heart suddenly disappeared, and he said with a smile.

"With Zikun's words, there is nothing to worry about."

Soon, Liu Bei, who had no hope in the Yingchuan family, stopped visiting famous families along the way and instead prepared to speed up the army's march and leave.

On this day, two men dressed as scholars appeared at the main gate of the temporary camp, handing over a visiting card and requesting to see Liu Bei.

Although Liu Bei no longer had any hope for the scholars from Yingchuan, he did not directly turn them away. Instead, he asked the soldiers to invite the two scholars in.

Moreover, Liu Bei did not forget to greet them personally outside the tent. Such courtesy made the two scholars look flattered and grateful.

After the two sides exchanged greetings, Liu Bei looked at the young appearance of the two scholars who had just come of age, and without any intention of looking down on them, he asked in a gentle voice.

"What are your names?"

"Xu Shu/Shi Tao of Yingchuan pays homage to Uncle Liu."

These two uniform voices made Li Ji, who was originally sitting in a corner of the tent and communicating with the Jinyi Division, change his expression slightly and look in the direction of the two young scholars in the tent.

Both of them were dressed quite simply and it was obvious that they were not from any Yingchuan family.

One of them was Xu Shu, who was taller and stronger than the other warriors in the army.
The other one was Shi Tao, who was short and thin, with a sallow complexion and an honest look.

However, at this moment, Xu Shu and Shi Tao were undoubtedly still unknown, and it was even more impossible for Liu Bei to have heard of them, so after they introduced themselves, he asked.

"You two are here to visit me, are you planning to join my army?" (End of this chapter)