Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

Chapter 100: Proposal Regarding the Settlement of Refugees

Watching the government treasury and granaries being rapidly filled with cart after cart of money and grain, Li Ji inexplicably felt a sense of security and satisfaction.

With food in hand, one doesn't panic.

Previously, Liu Bei's initial operations in Wu Commandery relied entirely on the financial support of the Mi family, but such a large commandery couldn't depend on the Mi family forever. Moreover, the money and grain required for the subsequent development of Wu Commandery would inevitably be an astronomical figure.

Under such circumstances, even completely emptying the entire Mi family would be a drop in the bucket.

But now, with the endless stream of money and grain laundered clean by the bandits of Wu Commandery...

Li Ji slightly estimated that even if Wu Commandery's grain production could only barely maintain a balance of income and expenditure for the next three to five years, it would be entirely sufficient to support Wu Commandery in continuously resettling refugees while continuing large-scale development.

The wealth accumulated by the seven major families of Wu Commandery for decades, or even centuries, was more than Li Ji had imagined.

Li Ji even mobilized his subordinates, but they couldn't tally it all up in a short time. They could only supervise its storage in the government treasury and slowly calculate it into the accounts later.

'Thank you, my noble families and bandit friends...'

'And you are the true heroes of Wu Commandery's development. Your lives were great, and your deaths are glorious...'

Li Ji silently praised them.

That their deaths were glorious goes without saying.

That their lives were great referred to those captured bandits who would have to atone for their sins through labor. As for how long they would need to atone, that would naturally be decided by the judge.

What?

There are no judges in this era?

Nonsense, isn't Li Ji, who handles all the large and small administrative affairs of Wu Commandery, the grand judge of Wu Commandery?

Justice is executed without imprisonment, directly through forced labor.

While Guan Yu and others led troops to transport the money and grain back, Li Ji had already ordered Xiahou Bo to divide the captives into ten groups, each with 1,500 people, and each group was further divided into ten teams of 150 people, and then each team was divided into ten rows of fifteen people each.

In addition to each group of captives being guarded by 150 commandery soldiers, Li Ji also formulated an internal supervision system.

Besides establishing the positions of group leader, team leader, and row leader internally to allow the captives to supervise themselves, the most important thing was that if one person escaped, the entire row would be punished together. If someone reported an escape and it was confirmed, the reporter would be promoted to row leader.

The entire seemingly simple internal supervision system actually completely eliminated the possibility of anyone escaping. Even those 150 commandery soldiers were essentially just there to provide them with food.

Li Ji also changed the name of these captives to "Earthwork Laborers," and also regularly sent scholars to give them ideological education, declaring that their current labor was glorious, was to atone for the past, and was also to create a better world.

Ideological education may not be useful, but some people will definitely believe it, and it will give those group leaders, team leaders, and row leaders an excuse to strictly manage (suppress) (exploit) them with a self-comforting pretext.

Li Ji was estimating when to have Liu Bei take a trip among the Earthwork Laborers again, and give the bottom-level Earthwork Laborers a little favor, which might directly reap a large wave of gratitude from them, making them willingly work to death for the development of Wu Commandery.

Moreover, in this way, it was likely that the conflict of the Earthwork Laborers would be transferred from the conflict between "captor and captive" and "exploiter and exploited" to the conflict between "manager and managed."

After the entire "Earthwork Laborer" plan was implemented by Li Ji, Li Ji didn't know why, but when he saw the poles on the side of the road, he inexplicably had a sense of déjà vu that he would be hanged on them sooner or later.

And the most urgent task of these "Earthwork Laborers" at the moment was to build a large number of houses to facilitate the initial resettlement of refugees.

In addition, there was also repairing city walls, reclaiming farmland, dredging rivers, leveling roads...

It could be said that there were too many places in the entire Wu Commandery that needed them to exert their strength, and their tasks were almost completely filled.

Under the circumstances that Liu Bei had only initially controlled Wu Commandery to gain the support of the people and it was not appropriate to launch large-scale corvée, he could only rely on these "Earthwork Laborers."

For a time, the entire Wu Commandery, with Wu County as the center, seemed to be full of vigor and vitality. Everyone in the government office, including Liu Bei, was almost too busy.

Although Liu Bei mainly focused on the arrangement of the noble families and refugees in Wu Commandery, taking all aspects into consideration still left Liu Bei with almost no free time in his daily schedule.

Documents regarding the arrangement of refugees would eventually be summarized and sent to Liu Bei for final review.

Just when Liu Bei thought that today's documents had been processed almost completely, Jian Yong, who was now more like Liu Bei's secretary, hurriedly handed over another bamboo scroll.

Liu Bei subconsciously took it and opened it to read.

"Proposal Regarding the Settlement of Refugees"

Liu Bei's spirit was shaken, and he began to read it seriously.

Liu Bei had been in Wu Commandery for nearly a month now. Due to the arrangements in Xu Province before, there was an almost constant stream of refugees pouring into Wu Commandery.

Liu Bei also accepted the refugees without refusal, and to date, he had already taken in tens of thousands of refugees.

And this was only the beginning.

The speed at which refugees poured into Wu Commandery was still increasing, and it was foreseeable that this number would only continue to climb.

However, because Liu Bei had only just arrived in Wu Commandery, he had only provided temporary shelter to the tens of thousands of refugees to ensure their basic needs were met, but Liu Bei had not yet made a decision on how to arrange them specifically in the future.

Now that he rarely saw a proposal related to the resettlement of refugees, Liu Bei naturally read it carefully word by word, hoping to find some help.

However, the more Liu Bei read, the more unsightly his face became.

After reading the last sentence, Liu Bei, who rarely got angry, slammed the bamboo scroll in his hand heavily on the desk and said angrily.

"Xianhe, nonsense! How can you treat the people like this? Those many refugees trust in the name of Liu Xuande and traveled thousands of miles to come to the land of Wu Commandery. To exploit them like this, how is that benevolence and righteousness?"

Immediately, Liu Bei threw the bamboo scroll in his hand directly in front of Jian Yong and said in a deep voice.

"Xianhe, I will pretend that I have not seen this bamboo scroll. It was written by you in a moment of confusion. Take it back."

Jian Yong, who had been frightened to his knees by Liu Bei's sudden anger, looked at the bamboo scroll in front of him, and cold sweat involuntarily oozed from his forehead. He quickly explained.

"My lord, I did not write this bamboo scroll."

Liu Bei was taken aback and asked, "You didn't write it? Didn't you just hand it up to me separately?"

Hearing Liu Bei's tone had eased a lot, Jian Yong carefully wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart that the so-called "environment changes one's temperament, and upbringing changes one's body" was indeed true.

His lord was good when his attitude was gentle on weekdays, but once he got angry, his momentum was far from what it used to be, even surpassing Liu Yan, whom Jian Yong had seen before.

Jian Yong explained.

"Last night, when I visited Zikun to learn the art of tea, Zikun asked me to hand it over to my lord separately today. In order to avoid leakage, I have not read the contents."

Zikun?

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei immediately got up, walked to Jian Yong, helped Jian Yong up, comforted him, and then picked up the bamboo scroll that had just been thrown on the ground, reopened it, and patiently read it again, muttering.

"Since it is Zikun's words, there must be a deep meaning. Could it be that there is something that I have not understood clearly? Or is there something that I have misunderstood?"

Jian Yong looked at Liu Bei in front of him, and the difference from when he was just angry was more than a thousand miles away. He couldn't help but secretly sigh at Liu Bei's tolerance and trust in Li Ji. He couldn't help but secretly scold Li Ji for tricking him and causing him to be scolded by Liu Bei for nothing.

In addition, Jian Yong couldn't help but be quite curious about what Li Ji had written that had caused Liu Bei to be so失态 and angry at the beginning.

And Liu Bei repeatedly pondered the bamboo scroll in his hand several times, but his brows became more and more tightly knitted, and he seemed even more puzzled.

"My lord, what did Zikun write?" Jian Yong asked when he saw this.

Liu Bei asked. "Haven't you read it yet, Xianhe?"

"No."

Jian Yong shook his head and replied.

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei handed the bamboo scroll in his hand to Jian Yong and did not forget to exhort him, saying.

"Then Xianhe, take a look, but the contents of this scroll must not be leaked, otherwise it may damage Zikun's reputation."

"Yes."

Jian Yong took the bamboo scroll and quickly browsed it, and the look of shock on his face became more and more obvious.

After reading the contents of the bamboo scroll, Jian Yong's expression also changed drastically, and he said in shock. "Is this really Zikun's words?"

"I can't believe it either. Could it be that Zikun was deceived by a traitor, and he didn't know the specific contents of the bamboo scroll?" Liu Bei guessed.

Jian Yong shook his head upon hearing this.

Jian Yong had personally watched Li Ji write this bamboo scroll on the desk last night and then handed it to his own hands.

However, the contents of the bamboo scroll still made Jian Yong somewhat unbelievable.

To simply summarize the contents of the bamboo scroll, that was that almost all the expenses incurred in resettling the refugees would be passed on to the refugees themselves.

Food, clothing, houses, fields, etc., would all be lent to the refugees in a paid manner, and the refugees would need to repay them little by little.

'This... what's the difference between taking all the refugees as tenant farmers of the government and taking all the refugees' lifetime income for oneself?'

Jian Yong unconsciously thought of this sentence in his heart, but he didn't dare to say it in front of Liu Bei.

And Liu Bei pondered for a long time and said.

"Inappropriate, there must be a problem. Either Zikun was deceived by a treacherous person, or there is something in the contents of the bamboo scroll that we have not understood correctly."

Jian Yong: "..."

“My lord, you're too biased!”

As Liu Bei's childhood playmate, Jian Yong couldn't help but feel a little jealous of Liu Bei's trust.

“Xianhe, let's go!”

Liu Bei put away the bamboo slip and placed it in his sleeve, then said, “We'll go find Zikun and ask him in person to find out.”