Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Therefore, even though Li Ji was on leave at home, there were still many important matters that required Li Ji to make decisions or give advice.

For example, the most urgent matter is naturally how to deal with the more than 96,000 prisoners captured in the Wujun defense battle which turned into an annihilation war.

Even though Wu County has enough money and food now, it is impossible to keep such a large number of captives for nothing.

But most of these captives had close ties with the aristocratic families. They were either slaves and retainers of the aristocratic families, or local young and strong people who followed and admired the aristocratic families.

Obviously, if one wants to weaken the power and influence of the aristocratic families in the local area, these captives must not be released easily.

Similarly, Liu Bei, who believed in benevolence, naturally could not abuse or even kill prisoners.

As a result, Mi Zhu was the first to feel numb.

Mi Zhu watched a large amount of money and food being consumed by the captives every day, so before Li Ji even returned to Wujun, he received an urgent document from Mi Zhu, asking Li Ji to come up with a plan to deal with the captives as soon as possible.

In Mi Zhu's urgent document, Li Ji even read some resentment as to why Jia Xu was not allowed to burn all the captives completely.

Mi Zhu might be a gentleman, and he quite agrees with Liu Bei's benevolence, but Mi Zhu is also a successful businessman who puts profit first.

In Mi Zhu's view, those captives were like hot potatoes. They were hot to hold in your hands, hot to eat, and would aid the enemy if thrown away. It would be better to burn them to ashes.

Of course, this was just a small complaint from Mi Zhu, who was very worried about this. In fact, Mi Zhu also knew that if it was really burned clean, many people in Yangzhou would probably resent Liu Bei.

During the few days of rest at home, Li Ji was undoubtedly mainly dealing with this matter.

And in Li Ji's opinion, it was not difficult to deal with those prisoners.

Just do labor reform!

At that time, Yan Baihu and other captives including bandits and robbers were subjected to labor reform, and they were beautifully called "civil workers". They made great contributions to Wu County and made outstanding contributions.

At least, more than 90% of the official roads in Wu County were repaired by these "civil engineering workers", and no forced labor was ever imposed on the people.

Now, after six years, even though the physical fitness of those bandits and robbers is relatively good, more than half of the "civil engineering workers" have been consumed, and a large number of laborers are needed to replenish them.

At present, Yangzhou is just being settled, and the infrastructure in various places is visibly dilapidated, and there are countless places that need "civil engineering workers".

However, after Li Ji told Liu Bei about this idea.

However, Liu Bei did not agree immediately as usual. Instead, he thought for a moment and then spoke.

"Zi Kun, if those bandits are extremely vicious and have the blood of innocent people on their hands, it is not wrong to punish them in this way."

"But some of the captives were county soldiers, so we had to obey the county governor's orders."

"Even among the soldiers recruited by the noble families, there is no telling how many of their slaves, retainers, or local young men are willing to serve. This is a bit too cruel."

Liu Bei might not know other things, but the influence of a family that has been rooted in a certain place for hundreds of years is undoubtedly huge.

Many times, it is not necessarily that the local young and strong people are willing to follow the noble families, but they dare not not to follow them.

Ordinary people, let alone being unable to withstand the revenge of the noble families, even a glare from them would be enough to destroy their families.

Li Ji was naturally clear about this.

"My lord is kind!"

Li Ji first praised Liu Bei, then continued speaking.

"Therefore, the treatment of the captives who are converted into 'civil engineering laborers' this time will naturally be different from that of the previous bandits and robbers." As a large number of civilians were involved, Liu Bei asked in a very serious manner.

"Zikun, please elaborate."

Li Ji organized his words and began to answer.

"To be honest, lord, the idea of ​​Ji to deal with those bandits before was indeed to make the best use of them. Facts have proved that forming a team of such 'civil engineering workers' has an incomparable effect on the prosperity of the area under his rule and the construction of various infrastructures."

It should be noted that in this era, it is naturally impossible for everyone to be a craftsman and be responsible for every link of road repair, canal digging, city construction, etc.

Therefore, there was "labor"!
In fact, in this era, any large-scale construction project basically required the conscription of laborers to carry out.

This is why whenever an emperor wanted to build a large-scale project, there would always be a large number of ministers who would advise him not to do so as it would be a waste of money and manpower.

“Toiling the people” actually refers to forced labor, and many of the laborers are forced to work in harsh and difficult environments without any chance to return to their hometowns.

"Loss of money" refers to the transportation of various materials during the large-scale construction process, which undoubtedly requires a huge amount of money.

For example, a piece of top-quality golden nanmu may need to be escorted from thousands of miles away, and the money spent on it often exceeds the value of the golden nanmu itself.

Even many local officials had to allow roads to be abandoned and city walls to fall into disrepair, because, on the one hand, they had no hope of receiving funding from the imperial court, and on the other hand, the local finances could not afford such a waste of money and labor.

In fact, Liu Bei was also quite confused about this...

Large-scale construction projects are bound to lead to resentment among local people, but in six years, Wu County had almost completely renovated its infrastructure and was also prosperous.

Even after the end of "work-for-relief", Wu County never conscripted forced labor, and it was almost always "civil workers" who continued to be responsible for the construction and maintenance of various infrastructure.

Liu Bei had to acknowledge the role of "civil engineering workers". The only thing he didn't understand was the logic behind it.

So, after thinking for a while, Liu Bei asked, "Zikun, on the surface, there seems to be no obvious difference between laborers and civil engineering workers. Why do they seem to be so different?"

The difference... is as vast as the sea.

Li Ji smiled, but he was not surprised that Liu Bei still found it difficult to tell the specific differences.

The forced laborers were a group of temporary workers who were forcibly conscripted. They were naturally unfamiliar with various techniques and had a lot of resentment in their hearts. It was normal for them to be slow and slack in their work.
But the "civil engineering workers" were actually a group of bandits who could be executed at any time. Li Ji only needed to use a little trick, and there were plenty of ways to make them, who had no other hope, rush to roll up their sleeves.

In this way, that group of "civil workers" were naturally trained to become a more and more skilled construction team.

The craftsmen of this era are almost omnipotent, but when it comes to construction speed and efficiency, only "civil engineering workers" can be said to be professionals.

In addition, as the roads within Wu County become more and more accessible and the water network outside Wu County is dense, the cost of transporting various materials is naturally much lower than normal.

After years of verification, the existence of "civil workers" has undoubtedly thoroughly confirmed its feasibility.

After Li Ji explained the difference to Liu Bei in detail, Liu Bei felt as if he was suddenly enlightened.

Then, Li Ji further revealed his meaning and spoke.

"My Lord, since the long-term existence of 'Civil Workers' has proven its feasibility, why not take this opportunity to truly transform it into a profession?"

"The first batch of prisoners, who were scattered all over Yangzhou, were to work for free for a year as punishment. After they had mastered the skills required of 'civil engineering workers', they would be paid and voluntarily join the ranks."

"In this way, from now on, under the rule of the lord, labor will completely become history!"

Instantly, Liu Bei was so shocked that he stood up suddenly, his eyes wide open. He had never expected that Li Ji was trying to completely replace the "labor service" system. (End of this chapter)