Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

The Han Dynasty went through another year in such a turbulent situation, and it was the second year of Chuping, which was the year 191 in Li Ji's memory.

This year, Liu Bei was exactly thirty years old.

Li Ji became more and more handsome, and as he grew older, he finally grew some beard, which made him look more steady and dignified.

Also within a single winter, under the influence of many factors, more than 90% of the remaining Yangzhou families, either voluntarily or forced by the current situation, began to choose to move to Yizhou for governance and development.

Ships constantly traveled between Yangzhou and Yizhou. In addition to transporting people from Yangzhou's aristocratic families, they also sent a large number of supplies, slaves, etc. that the Yangzhou aristocratic families needed to govern and develop Yizhou to Yizhou.

Of course, none of this is free.

The charity that Li Ji opened for the noble families was never a charity.

The land of Yizhou also requires the Yangzhou families to exchange it for land.

Depending on the value of the land, the exchange rate ranges from 1:20 to 1:100.

The purpose of land in the hands of Yangzhou families is also to cultivate it, so as to ensure basic food and clothing for future generations.

But after it became clear that the land in Yizhou was more suitable for farming, and the focus of the Yangzhou families would be shifted to Yizhou, they naturally had no spare capacity to cultivate the land in Yangzhou, coupled with the astonishing exchange ratio.

Therefore, most of the aristocratic families chose to retain only a small part of the land in Yangzhou, and exchanged the rest of the land for the land in Yizhou.

It was also through this method that Li Ji quickly acquired a large amount of land from the hands of the aristocratic families in the winter of the first year of Chuping.

These lands also ensured the smooth implementation of the military household system in the remaining prefectures and counties of Yangzhou that had not yet been widely cultivated, without harming the interests of ordinary people in Yangzhou.

In addition, the transportation between Yangzhou and Yizhou was monopolized by Liu Bei, which was a way to maximize the tax payments of the Yangzhou families at this stage.

To this end, Li Ji did not forget to urgently finalize a draft of the "Maritime Tax Law" for implementation, further scraping off a layer of the Yangzhou family's oil, and will continue to scrape off more in the future.

Yizhou was temporarily developed by the Yangzhou family, but since sea transportation was completely controlled by Liu Bei, the only sales channel for the various resources developed was undoubtedly Yangzhou.

With benefits, it is natural that many Yangzhou families that originally favored Yangzhou could be given preferential treatment through various means, thus forming a situation of internal competition.

Moreover, even if Li Ji promised the Yangzhou families the autonomy in Yizhou as he said, he had quietly buried a trap in the agreement between the two parties.

Yangzhou promised not to interfere in all government affairs during the development and governance of the Yangzhou family, but required Yizhou to abide by the laws of the Han Dynasty, and Yangzhou would send personnel to various places to supervise and enforce them.

The Yangzhou families had some objections to this, but they also understood that they were not prepared to completely break away from the Han Dynasty, so they agreed.

Obviously, they are not aware of the pitfalls of separation of powers.

All they had was administrative power, which was inevitably handed over in order to get the Yangzhou families to actively develop and govern Yizhou.

But Li Ji quietly retained the legislative and judicial powers.

In a sense, the Yangzhou family was the athletes heading to Yizhou for a race, but Li Ji was also the referee and the one who made the rules.

Perhaps, this point may not show any significance in the initial stage, but in the long run, it can ensure that Yizhou will never have the opportunity to break away from the Han Dynasty.

And from then on, the Yangzhou family was in a sense completely tied to Liu Bei.

Only with Liu Bei's support could they continue to guarantee their interests and foundation in Yizhou. It took more than half a year, but finally Liu Bei's decrees could reach every village and household in Yangzhou unimpeded.

In addition, Liu Bei abolished a large number of exorbitant taxes and the labor service system, which also made his prestige in the hearts of the people of Yangzhou soar rapidly.

Li Ji has seen this point very clearly.

Having money and food is the basis for implementing benevolent governance.

If the money and grain profits from benevolent policies are directly distributed to the people at the bottom of society instead of being deducted by the middlemen, they will quickly gain the support of countless people.

The truth has always been so simple.

The winter in Yangzhou in the first year of Chuping seemed three times colder than ever before, but the people felt unprecedented hope and enthusiasm.

Yangzhou, with Wu County as its center, seemed to have undergone a transformation.

Even though it was not yet spring, Li Ji, who took time out to inspect other counties in Yangzhou with Liu Bei, felt a sense of vitality from the people.

The Han Dynasty had indeed just entered a period of chaos, but the people had already suffered for many years.

However, Li Ji couldn't help showing a bit of helplessness on his face when he saw the many pedestrians hurrying through the snow and shivering from the cold.

Even though the craftsmen in Wu County had gradually formed a scale, a lot of innovations were achieved under the promotion of Li Ji.

For example, coal briquettes, which had already appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty, were used to promote the innovation of cheaper and safer anthracite.

Although Yangzhou's coal resources were not sufficient, a large amount of coal could be easily brought back by sea transportation. The Mi Chamber of Commerce also made a fortune by cooperating with different merchants in various states to manufacture anthracite.

However, cheap anthracite could only ensure that the thinly clothed people would not freeze to death at home, but they could not avoid freezing when they went out.

This is a limitation on clothing materials. The clothes worn by ordinary people are often coarse linen, and they cannot afford more expensive clothes at all.

Li Ji is also helpless about this at the moment.

The only solution is cotton.

However, although Zuo Rong did work hard after going to Yingzhou, it would obviously take at least five years to spread the pure white flowers throughout the entire island country.

And even if the first batch of cotton was produced, it could only be supplied to soldiers first, and then gradually spread to the public.

However, thanks to the existence of anthracite, even though there was more snowfall this winter, winter is about to pass and the statistical results show that only a few people died of freezing in the entire Yangzhou, which makes Li Ji quite relieved.

However, as spring was approaching, people like Liu Bei and Li Ji who knew the inside story were most concerned about the news of Linyi rice.

If we delay any longer, it will be too late.

Thinking of this, Li Ji couldn't help but frowned slightly.

Although the Linyi rice that Liu Ji brought back was far from enough to be popularized, it was enough for Wujun to conduct research and trial planting. (End of this chapter)