Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

"No wonder."

After Li Ji responded, Pang Tong continued.

"Teacher, if we spend a lot of time and effort to provide disaster relief to the people, not to mention the impact it will have on the army that is now deep behind enemy lines, more importantly, they are all people from Yuzhou, which is tantamount to aiding the enemy."

"You can't do that!"

"Even if you are kindhearted and cannot bear to see the people suffer, you should allocate grain for disaster relief and quell the rebellion after pacifying Yuzhou. That would be the best policy."

In fact, Li Ji understood this point. It was precisely because he understood this point that he raised this question, hoping to convince himself through the words of others.

In response to what Pang Tong said, Li Ji lowered his eyes slightly, then spoke.

"Of course, those famine victims were first the people of the Han Dynasty, and only then the people of Yuzhou. As Han officials, how can we just ignore the division of land and region and feel at ease?"

"And if the lord were here, I'm afraid he would spare no effort to find a way to provide disaster relief on the spot, and would not turn a blind eye to the people."

Many people present were moved by these words, but there were also some who disagreed.

To some extent, this is the conflict between rationality and sensibility, reality and ideal.

Wei Yan spoke in a somewhat euphemistic tone.

"My Lord, for this reason, we should not delay the march because of the people. We should quickly surround Ruyang so that the people of Yuzhou will not suffer from the tyranny of the Yuan family."

Zhuge Liang frowned, looked at Wei Yan with a hint of displeasure in his eyes, and stood up and said.

"The current situation in the world means that Yuzhou has no external aid. We only need to capture Ruyang and pacify Yuzhou before winter. A few days of speed will not make a significant difference."

"But if we ignore the famine-stricken people, the famine will inevitably lead to riots. Once the riots start, the entire Yuzhou may be in chaos, which is not advisable."

Seeing Zhuge Liang's fate, Sima Yi couldn't help but sneer as well.

"Child's opinion!"

"In troubled times, the lives of ordinary people are worthless. If we stop moving forward today because of a few ordinary people, the enemy may use ordinary people as shields in the future. Should we hesitate and not move forward because of this?"

"If you want to save the people, you should try to quickly pacify the world. Even if you have to pay a small price for it, it will be much better than continuing to prolong the chaos."

Chen Deng frowned and retorted, "What you are thinking is inappropriate!"

"Today, you can use this as an excuse to ignore the people. Tomorrow, even if you want to pacify the world, should you use the excuse of building a palace to improve your dignity as an excuse to build a large-scale project and waste the people's money?"

"My lord has always been based on benevolence and virtue, so he should always be benevolent and virtuous. Only in this way can the world bow down to him and respect him, and live up to the destiny."

For a moment, the four members of the staff group not only failed to persuade Li Ji to make a decision, but instead they started arguing fiercely with their own opinions.

"enough!"

Li Ji shouted softly, and the scene returned to silence.

After a moment, Li Ji picked up a dead branch and threw it into the campfire, whispering.

"Only incompetent people make choices. Supporting the Han Dynasty and protecting the people is the goal; defeating Yuan Shu and taking Yuzhou is an indispensable process."

"You can't abandon one of the two, and you can't give up the other. If you have a good plan to get the best of both, please tell me."

Although this matter was said simply, it made everyone look bitter.

The most fundamental and direct way to solve famine is undoubtedly to solve the food problem.

But this is Yuzhou. How could Li Ji have enough food to provide disaster relief?
Even though the nearby cities must have stored a large amount of money and food, Yuan Shu sent a number of loyal supervisory teams into the cities.

Before this, even if Li Ji had captured the city of Yuzhou, those death-defying battle supervision teams would immediately burn down the grain warehouses in the city and not leave any money or food for Li Ji.

If this were not the case, why would Li Ji be in such a difficult situation?
Now Li Ji transferred the pressure to the staff, and everyone in the staff also had a bitter look on their faces. Not to mention Pang Tong's ugly face, even Zhuge Liang's brows were furrowed. Time passed little by little, and Gu Wei took the initiative to add firewood to the bonfire twice. The people gathered together could not come up with a good plan.

Even if some strategies work, they are often flawed or have too much impact...

At this moment, Sima Yi suddenly spoke out.

"Teacher, I have a plan."

"Yier, please speak."

Sima Yi whispered, "The only people in Yuzhou who can provide food to relieve the famine are the aristocratic families in Yuzhou."

Li Ji frowned slightly, did not rush to speak, but continued to listen.

The Yuzhou aristocratic families, Li Ji had also considered this group.

But when comparing the Jingyang family with the Yuzhou family, the difference is simply like the difference between a country bumpkin and the second-generation rich in the capital.

Almost all of the top families in the Han Dynasty were located in Yuzhou. Even though Yuzhou was in such chaos as it is now, the Yuzhou families have not been affected at all.

Faced with such a desperate situation, even a madman like Yuan Shu chose to attack the people of Yuzhou and did not dare to have any thoughts on the Yuzhou families.

Even in Yuzhou, which has been in chaos ever since, there were many people from small and medium-sized Yuzhou families who took advantage of the chaos to rob.

Making the common people poor while enriching one's own family is a traditional custom of quite a number of aristocratic families.

Therefore, Yuzhou may be chaotic and poor, but it does not mean that the Yuzhou families are poor.

On the contrary, the more turbulent the times, the faster the development of the aristocratic families tends to be.

Whether it was the two Yuans, Lu Bu, or even Cao Cao, they had to rely on the power of the aristocratic families to govern the local areas, which naturally increased the development of the aristocratic families.

In other words, the Jingyang family, which was now controlled by Liu Bei, was led to the overseas Yizhou by Li Ji's operation, which invisibly weakened the family within the Han Dynasty.

However, the aristocratic families in Yuzhou not only form strong cliques, but also have high status and huge influence.

Even when Yuan Shu was on the verge of collapse, they never showed any intention of completely siding with Liu Bei.

"If we use words to persuade them, I'm afraid the Yuzhou noble families won't help."

Li Ji gave a conclusion.

Even though Yuan Shu was about to be overthrown, many aristocratic families gradually distanced themselves from Yuan Shu in order to seek benefits and avoid harm, but Yuan Shu undoubtedly represented the interests of the aristocratic families better.

Under the premise that the Jingyang families have not yet been able to clearly gain huge benefits overseas, Liu Bei is undoubtedly not in the interests of the aristocratic families in the eyes of the world's aristocratic families, and naturally they will not take the initiative to approach Liu Bei.

Even if Yuan Shu really fell, in the eyes of the arrogant Yuzhou families, there were other options that were better than Liu Bei.

Sima Yi laughed and said, “Hehe.”

"Words are useless, but there are certainly other ways to get the noble families to hand over enough food for disaster relief."

"Elaborate."

Li Ji raised his eyebrows slightly and said.

However, after a slight pause, Sima Yi signaled to Li Ji with his eyes.

This look... has the gaze of an eagle and the back of a wolf, and also has a bit of the meaning of Jia Xu's strategy.

Immediately, Li Ji understood what was going on and stood up and walked to the side. Sima Yi quickly followed him and spoke in a low voice.

"Teacher..." (End of this chapter)