Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

A spontaneously formed order is easily disrupted by those who do not abide by it.

However, without an order from Liu Bei or Li Ji, even Mi Zhu could not mobilize a single soldier, let alone the Mi family.

Previously, Mi Zhu had to calculate the allocation of massive amounts of money and grain every day, so naturally, he had no time or inclination to discuss such precautionary details with Li Ji.

Immediately, Li Ji lightly knocked on the carriage three times, and the carriage came to a stop.

A person who had been following the carriage not too closely and not too far away quickly walked to the side of the carriage, waiting patiently.

After a while, an order to mobilize two hundred commandery soldiers to maintain daily order around the Rende Academy was written, stamped, and handed by Li Ji through the curtain to the Jinyi Si member waiting outside the carriage.

"Deliver it to Zhao Yun, the Supervising Thief Officer under the Ministry immediately."

Li Ji said.

The Jinyi Si member carefully put the order into his pocket and quickly left to return to Wu County.

For Li Ji, mobilizing two hundred commandery soldiers to maintain order around the Rende Academy was just a small matter, so there was no need to wait until he returned to the government office tomorrow to make special arrangements; a simple order would suffice.

Procrastination in governance has never been Li Ji's style.

After the Jinyi Si member who received the order quickly blended into the crowd and disappeared, Liu Wu, while vigilantly surveying the surroundings, steadily drove the carriage along the newly built official road towards the Rende Academy once again.

As they got closer and closer to the Rende Academy, even though it was nearly dusk, the area was surprisingly lively.

A large number of taverns and teahouses in the market had sprung up around the periphery of the Rende Academy, somewhat resembling the university town food streets in Li Ji's memory. Groups of scholars gathered in the taverns and teahouses, engaging in lively discussions.

Among the scholars of this era, there were many from humble backgrounds, but humble backgrounds did not necessarily mean abject poverty. They were more like the middle class of this era; otherwise, they could not afford the high cost of education.

As for scholars from aristocratic families, they were even wealthier!

Many small vendors, temporarily acting as merchants, had also sensed the business opportunity and were selling their homemade specialties near the taverns and teahouses, creating a bustling scene.

In contrast to the city, which was about to enter curfew, there was naturally no curfew here, making it feel more free and unrestrained, which is why it attracted many scholars who preferred to stay here rather than return to the post station in the city to rest.

Moreover, Li Ji, sitting in the carriage, circled around the periphery of this newly established market and discovered that many hostels had also been built around the market to provide lodging for the scholars.

Although the environment of these hostels was relatively simple, they were in great demand, with many hostels already displaying signs indicating that they had no rooms available.

Even though Li Ji had already learned about it briefly from the Jinyi Si's reports, seeing this lively atmosphere with his own eyes gave Li Ji a sense of closeness for no reason.

There were many reasons for establishing a "curfew," and for the city, it undoubtedly outweighed the disadvantages, so Li Ji would definitely not abolish the "curfew."

However, Li Ji did not intend to establish a "curfew" in this "walled-less city" in his blueprint.

Many scholars obviously could not resist the feeling of drinking wine, eating midnight snacks, and engaging in lively discussions with three or five classmates in the gradually descending night.

Even though the prices here were relatively high, it was obviously not within the consideration of these wealthy patrons.

After a simple tour, Li Ji was generally quite satisfied. At least during this period, even though Li Ji had not been focused on the "walled-less city," the Mi family had indeed gradually established the market step by step according to the blueprint planned by Li Ji.

The daily consumption of these scholars alone was a considerable figure.

Once the planning of the market continued to expand a little, and the "Rende Academy" truly had students enrolling, Li Ji could consider slightly speculating on "school district housing" in this era, using this method to harvest the money from the aristocratic families that was buried underground and almost moldy.

Wu County's daily expenses for money and grain were almost more exaggerated than that of a state. The shipbuilding factory and work-for-relief projects were like two gold-devouring beasts, constantly swallowing Wu County's money and grain.

Therefore, this market has now become a rare source of financial revenue for Wu County.

Even, Li Ji, looking at the initially bustling and prosperous market in front of him, his eyes flickered, and a more crazy harvesting plan was unconsciously brewing in his heart.

However, that would have to wait until the "walled-less city" had completely formed a scale.

Li Ji shook his head, temporarily putting aside that far from perfect harvesting plan, then directly changed out of his official robe in the carriage, put on an ordinary blue scholar's robe, picked up a folding fan, and got out of the carriage.

The most popular thing in this era was still feather fans. In the original trajectory, whether it was Zhuge Liang or Zhou Yu, they were actually dressed in feather fans and headscarves.

However, Li Ji was not used to feather fans, so he simply made some slight improvements to the predecessor of the folding fan that already existed in this era—the "waist fan"—and made it into a folding fan.

It was just a pity that the papermaking technique on the craftsman's side had not been successfully improved, so this folding fan, made of multiple layers of paper, was almost yellow, and the creases were not obvious enough.

However, the temperature in Wu County was already gradually warming up, so it was enough to occasionally fan the wind when traveling on weekdays.

Seeing that Li Ji seemed to want to go to the tavern himself, Liu Wu quickly followed up and said.

"Sir, please allow me to accompany you to protect you."

Knowing how Sun Ce died, Li Ji would naturally not be careless.

Even though there were still some Jinyi Si members hidden in the dark, Li Ji still nodded slightly to indicate his permission.

Liu Wu's martial strength was not low, and he was even slightly stronger than ordinary second-rate military generals on the battlefield, so he was sufficient to serve as a guard near Wu County.

After all, Zhao Yun already held multiple positions, and Li Ji could not always bring Zhao Yun with him whenever he traveled, truly treating Zhao Yun as a pure bodyguard.

Moreover, as far as Li Ji knew, his reputation around the Rende Academy was extremely resounding.

The Jinyi Si's report mentioned that almost all scholars who stayed around the Rende Academy for more than a month would gradually be divided into three categories.

Either they were quite fanatical in their praise of Li Ji; or they were disdainful and dismissive of Li Ji; or they seemed to be switching back and forth between the two.

So, if something unexpected really happened, Li Ji would raise his arms and call out, and there would probably be a cloud of followers, so there was no need to bring too many guards.

However, Li Ji had not taken a few steps when he saw a familiar figure in a teahouse next door.

Xiahou Lan!

Moreover, Xiahou Lan, who was sitting in the teahouse engaging in lively discussions, was surrounded by as many as seven or eight scholars.

Seeing this, Li Ji entered from the side door of the tavern without showing any emotion, and then found a seat behind Xiahou Lan in the teahouse.

Seeing Liu Wu consciously standing in the position between Li Ji and the door, vaguely blocking the assassination that might occur outside the door, Li Ji couldn't help but smile.

"Sit down, there are quite a few Jinyi Si members near the Rende Academy. If someone suspicious really appears, they would have been monitored long ago."

Immediately, Li Ji patted the seat next to him, signaling Liu Wu to sit down.

"I dare not sit with sir," Liu Wu said, somewhat flattered.

"Stop talking nonsense, just sit down. Besides, you are the only customer standing in the teahouse, wouldn't that be eye-catching?"

Li Ji scolded lightly, and Liu Wu dared not disobey, carefully sitting in the seat next to Li Ji.

Just as Liu Wu sat down, the waiter, who was busy greeting the guests, also brought over a stove, tea set, tea leaves, spices, and so on.

Obviously, apart from inside the government office, the mainstream way of drinking tea in this era was still boiling tea, and it was also an elegant matter highly praised by many scholars; otherwise, there would not be as many teahouses around the Rende Academy as there were taverns.

Li Ji was not very accustomed to the taste of boiled tea, but Li Ji still knew a thing or two about how to boil tea.

Li Ji casually fiddled with the tea set, enjoying this rare leisure, while most of his attention was focused on the content of the lively discussions behind him by Xiahou Lan and his group.

"Brother Mingzheng, you have defeated seven people again today, and no one has broken through to the edge of the sand table. It can be seen that Brother Mingzheng's level is really improving by leaps and bounds."

"That's right, that's right. During the third instruction, Brother Mingzheng almost preemptively predicted the opponent's military actions, completely blocking the opponent's marching route. It was truly wonderful to the extreme."

"In the future, Brother Mingzheng will definitely become a master of military strategy no less than Master Zikun…"

"Brother Mingzheng, I have gained some insights during this period, and I intend to try 'Four Crossings of the Red Water' again tomorrow. Please be merciful, Brother Mingzheng, and leave me a chance to enter 'Rende Academy'."

"This is a little token of my appreciation. Please accept it, Brother Mingzheng. There is no other meaning. It's just that I want to improve too much. I hope Brother Mingzheng will help me. In the future, I…"

Listening to the voice that was obviously lowered a lot when he said this, even though Li Ji was actually no more than a zhang away from Xiahou Lan, he still couldn't hear exactly what was being said later.

However, Li Ji's expression remained calm as usual, pouring the tea that had been boiled on the small stove into the teacup in front of Liu Wu first, which made Liu Wu hurriedly hold the teacup carefully, feeling flattered.

"Be careful, it's hot."

Li Ji smiled, not forgetting to remind Liu Wu, which made Liu Wu feel a warmth in his heart.

However, Liu Wu, who was sitting on the side, naturally knew that Li Ji was paying attention to the movements of the table behind him. While secretly observing, he whispered a real-time report to Li Ji, who was facing away from Xiahou Lan and the others.

"Sir, it's three gold cakes… he didn't accept them…"

Li Ji nodded slightly without showing any emotion, but he was somewhat surprised by Xiahou Lan's composure.

After all, Li Ji assigned Xiahou Lan to oversee the “Four Crossings of the Red River” campaign not only to give Xiahou Lan experience, but also, and more importantly, because he couldn't find anyone more suitable at the time. (End of Chapter)