Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

“I have been thinking of you, Zikun.”

Liu Bei said with excitement, stepping forward to grasp Li Ji's hands, his eyes moving up and down, examining him with concern, as if afraid that Li Ji might have been suffering somewhere, and then he said.

“Although it has only been a few days since we last met, I feel like it has been a long time. It can be said that a single day apart is like three autumns.”

However, Li Ji felt that Liu Bei was simply afraid that he would run away, which was why he was so worried...…

This also made Li Ji truly feel that he had completely hooked Liu Bei. Very good, very good!

So he didn't expose Liu Bei's thoughts, but responded calmly.

“Brother Xuande is truly a man of great emotion.”

“Let's go, let's go, Zikun. This place is also where I and my two sworn brothers formed our brotherhood. The scenery is very beautiful, and I will accompany Zikun to tour it.” Liu Bei said.

“The tour of the garden is not urgent. I have something to tell Brother Xuande.”

Li Ji waved his hand, then pointed to the twenty or so bamboo scrolls piled in the corner of the desk, and said. “The two thousand children that Brother Xuande sent to the Peach Garden have been registered in detail above.”

“Thank you for your hard work, Zikun.” Liu Bei said.

Li Ji then pointed to Jian Yong, who had been standing behind Liu Bei for a while, and said modestly. “I have only done my best, and most of the arrangements were made by Xianhe.”

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei turned his head to look at Jian Yong, who was standing behind him, exuding a sloppy and embarrassed appearance. He was stunned for a moment before saying with joy.

“When did Xianhe arrive? Why didn't you tell me earlier so that I could welcome you?”

Jian Yong's face, which was originally showing a bitter expression, trembled slightly, and he said slowly.

“When Xuande had just arrived at the entrance of the manor, I was at the entrance, and I followed Xuande all the way in.”

Liu Bei widened his eyes, but he couldn't remember seeing Jian Yong's figure in his sight just now.

Immediately, Liu Bei did not hypocritically conceal his mistake, but frankly cupped his hands and apologized.

“It was my mistake. Xianhe, don't blame me. I was too anxious to see Zikun just now, so I completely ignored my surroundings, which led to neglecting Xianhe. Please allow me to host a banquet later to apologize to you.”

Upon hearing this, Jian Yong's heart, which had been somewhat neglected, warmed up instead.

If Liu Bei deliberately concealed his mistake, then Jian Yong would feel that Liu Bei was not a gentleman. However, this frank apology made Jian Yong take a higher look and understand Liu Bei.

Jian Yong had known Liu Bei for many years, and had long felt that Liu Bei had great ambitions in his heart.

Therefore, Liu Bei's eagerness for talents and his courteous treatment of Li Ji made Jian Yong feel that he was even more like a ruler than in the past, which made Jian Yong even more satisfied.

For a time, this made Jian Yong, who had only wanted to support his friend, couldn't help but have the idea of ​​worshiping Liu Bei as his lord.

“Xuande is being polite, how could I care about such trivial matters?”

Jian Yong cupped his hands and said.

“Furthermore, now that we are in troubled times, I only want to find a place to settle down with Xuande.”

These words were undoubtedly implicitly expressing his desire to worship Liu Bei as his lord. As long as Liu Bei agreed, Jian Yong would take the opportunity to formally worship him as his lord.

At the same time, this was also an agreement that Liu Bei and Jian Yong had made between them when they were drunk in the past.

However, what made Jian Yong a little puzzled was that Liu Bei's face showed joy when he heard this, but he also seemed to hesitate.

After a while, Liu Bei grabbed Jian Yong's wrist and said.

“Xianhe, you and I are close friends. My place is your place. Why do you say 'borrow'? You can just take care of it here.”

Jian Yong couldn't help but feel a little confused when he heard this.

Liu Bei seemed to be implicitly refusing, but also seemed to be trying his best to keep Jian Yong.

Not to mention Liu Bei, even Li Ji, who was on the side, saw a hint of weirdness, so he simply took the opportunity to push it forward and asked.

“Now Brother Xuande is in need of someone to assist him, why not let Xianhe help him?”

“I also hope that Xianhe will help, but I am now just a minor official supervising bandits, and I will lead troops south to fight the Yellow Turban bandits to the death. I have no place to stand, how dare I let Xianhe entrust himself to me?”

As Liu Bei spoke, he looked towards Li Ji...…

For some reason, Li Ji seemed to see a trace of resentment in Liu Bei's eyes.

？？？

Li Ji.

Jian Yong, who had not noticed the eye contact between Liu Bei and Li Ji at all, was undoubtedly extremely moved at this moment, deeply feeling that Liu Bei's way of being a ruler was also extremely benevolent, and that he truly regarded himself as a close friend, without any intention of using him.

However, in fact, only Liu Bei was very clear about the entanglement in his heart.

Liu Bei was naturally very clear about Jian Yong's abilities and character. Perhaps Jian Yong could not be regarded as a great talent, but he could also be regarded as a capable official and debater. If he could get Jian Yong's help, it would also be a great help.

It's just that Liu Bei already had his own ideas about the vision of his civil servants!

If he could really achieve a great cause, he would not want anyone other than Li Ji to be the head of the civil servants when he could open his own government in the future.

Therefore, if he took Jian Yong as his subordinate first, then Jian Yong's qualifications would be above Li Ji's, which would inevitably leave some hidden dangers for Li Ji.

And Liu Bei's little thought was also endlessly hoping that his first time would be to accept Li Ji...…

After all, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were sworn brothers with Liu Bei, which could not be regarded as a real recruitment of talents.

It's a pity that Li Ji really didn't understand Liu Bei's complicated thoughts at this moment, and understood that the resentful eyes were more implying that he should take the initiative to worship Liu Bei as his lord at this moment.

Only Jian Yong, who was moved in his heart, cupped his hands and bowed.

“Since that's the case, then I, Jian Yong, will temporarily disturb Xuande. If Xuande needs me in the future, I will definitely not refuse.”

“I understand Xianhe's heart, and I have heard Zikun say that Xianhe has been busy arranging children for me recently, and I feel really ashamed in my heart.”

Liu Bei patted Jian Yong's back of his hand and said sincerely.

“Please go and rest for a while, and I will host a banquet to thank you.”

Jian Yong nodded and replied. “Yes.”

After being busy for several days in a row, he couldn't even take care of his appearance at all. If he didn't take a good bath and wash up before attending the banquet, Jian Yong, who valued his appearance, would find it a little unbearable.

Immediately, Liu Bei asked Zhang Fei to take Jian Yong down to rest well, and then turned to Li Ji and said.

“Tonight's banquet is not only to thank Xianhe, but also to celebrate the victory. Zikun must come, and allow me to thank Zikun properly.”

“Then I won't be polite.”

Li Ji responded, then took out a roll of bamboo slips from his sleeve and handed it to Liu Bei, saying. “Xuande, please take a look.”

Although Liu Bei was a little unclear, he still took it over for the first time, looked at it carefully, and his expression became more and more serious.

After a long time, Liu Bei solemnly put away the bamboo slips, his eyebrows full of solemnity, and murmured.

“The Brocade-Clothed Guard?! There have been spies since ancient times. What is described in this is to create a spy network that spans the thirteen states.”

Li Ji didn't speak, but allowed Liu Bei to think and understand slowly, and didn't say that the Brocade-Clothed Guard was a huge spy organization in troubled times, and that the prosperous age could also be transformed into a pair of eyes monitoring the hundreds of officials and the world.

It's just that the matter of the prosperous age is too far away. The benefits brought by a systematic intelligence agency in troubled times alone are unimaginably huge.

As long as Liu Bei has a little foresight, he will understand the great benefits and effects of it.

However, Liu Bei's first reaction was not to evaluate the feasibility of the “Brocade-Clothed Guard”, but to sigh with emotion.

“You, sir, are in the Peach Garden, and your plans have already reached the world. How far is your thinking? In comparison, how strong is Xuande's luck? What virtue and ability do I have to let Zikun set up such a plan for me?”

“Xuande is too modest. In my opinion, there are few people in the world who are as benevolent as Xuande. Moreover, the establishment of the Brocade-Clothed Guard must be assisted by those children. Without Xuande's benevolent heart to win over the children's loyalty, it would not be possible to establish it.”

Li Ji said.

It must be known that these children are all people who have no support and no worries. If such people are conquered, they will mostly be loyal people, but there is also a defect that is difficult to control through their families. Only benevolence and righteousness can make them submit.

“It's just that if the Brocade-Clothed Guard is established according to Zikun's plan, these children will mostly be deeply trapped in darkness and uneasy for the rest of their lives, and I am afraid that there will be many sacrifices.” Liu Bei sighed and said.

Li Ji thought for a while and said.

“I have also thought about this matter for a long time. Not everyone is suitable to join the Brocade-Clothed Guard. Some honest and honest children can be selected from them to be servants for Brother Xuande and various important places.”

“In this way, it can be avoided that others insert spies among them and prevent leaks.”

After a pause, Li Ji continued.

“Of course, if there are some children with special talents, they should also be specially trained and used.”

When it came to this point, Li Ji's first thought was the three concubines who had once confused Liu Yan in the deduction.

The beauty trap can undoubtedly play a special role in dealing with certain specific targets.

Moreover, as Li Ji knew, the aristocratic families of this era also had the practice of training beautiful concubines and maids to give to others to make friends, such as Lu Bu, who suffered a great loss in this regard.

And Li Ji couldn't help but worry that Liu Bei would not eat a few more dishes in the enjoyment of beauty in his life, so would he come up with a “continue playing music, continue dancing” in the future.

Therefore, cultivating a few beautiful concubines can not only attack other people's weaknesses, but also periodically test one's own determination.

For example, Li Ji was also very curious whether he would have weaknesses in this regard, and needed to occasionally test and check it.

“Zikun's plan is already extremely comprehensive, but the establishment of the Brocade-Clothed Guard may require Zikun to put more effort into it.” As Liu Bei spoke, he did not forget to observe Li Ji's expression.

Li Ji knew that Liu Bei was taking this opportunity to test his thoughts and confirm whether he had the intention to stay with Liu Bei for a long time.

Knowing this perfectly well, Li Ji said, “It's still early, just a thought. These children are quite young and need several years of nurturing before they can be of use. Before that, it will require a large amount of money and provisions.”

“Money and provisions are but a small matter.”

Having completely seized the Yellow Turban Army's wealth, Liu Bei could be described as rich and powerful at this time, and he spoke without a care.

Li Ji sipped his tea unhurriedly while softly reminding him.

“That's good. For now, I have entrusted Xianhe with the matter of raising the children. Next, Brother Xuande will likely need to spend some time in Zhuo County reorganizing the army. Please don't forget to care for those children and win their hearts as soon as possible.”

Liu Bei wasn't worried at all about failing to win the children's hearts.

These children have experienced too much suffering. Putting himself in their shoes, if Liu Bei were alone and helpless, and a benefactor was willing to raise him, as long as he had a shred of conscience, he would serve them to the death.

Nowadays, powerful clans and wealthy families secretly raise assassins, also selecting strong orphans and raising them.

However, secretly raising assassins is quite costly, requiring a lot of meat to increase their strength.

These children, who are being prepared to become Embroidered Uniform Guards, don't need to be particularly brave or strong, and don't need to eat meat regularly. Otherwise, raising over two thousand children would be an enormous expense.

At this moment, Liu Bei also noticed that Li Ji's tea-drinking method seemed different from the mainstream, and he couldn't help but scrutinize it with curiosity.

Seeing this, Li Ji poured a cup of tea for Liu Bei and pushed it in front of him.

Liu Bei picked up the teacup, took a sip, and immediately frowned.

“So bitter.”

“Hahaha!”

Seeing this, Li Ji couldn't help but laugh, remembering how Jian Yong had downed a bellyful of bitter tea without uttering a word. He said,

“Bitterness can clear the mind.”

However, Liu Bei didn't have Jian Yong's desire to emulate refined scholars. He frowned, took a couple of sips, and put it down, saying,

“Although this way of drinking tea is more in line with nature, it is very bitter.”

Li Ji said,

“If you have the chance, Xuande can cast an iron pot and stir-fry the tea leaves. This will eliminate most of the bitterness, and then brewing the tea in this way will leave a sweet and fragrant aftertaste.”

Liu Bei smacked his lips and said, “If we were to cast a large number of iron pots, it would be too wasteful. However, if Zikun likes it, I can cast one and give it to Zikun.”

Li Ji also knew that the iron production in this era was extremely limited. The only ironware was almost entirely concentrated on important items such as weapons, agricultural tools, and armor. Therefore, this era was not yet extravagant enough to use iron to cast pots.

Smelting iron…

Li Ji's expression also became somewhat melancholy. He really didn't know much about how to smelt iron.

After all, who would spend their time studying ancient methods of smelting iron and copper if they weren't in that industry?

Soon after Zhang Fei returned, Liu Bei insisted on dragging Li Ji to tour the peach garden together.

As dusk approached, Guan Yu also led approximately six thousand soldiers to arrive at the manor and set up camp around it.

Although only about fifteen hundred of these six thousand soldiers had complete weapons and armor, and the remaining four thousand five hundred were empty-handed, Liu Yan was obviously unwilling to let these soldiers enter Zhuo County, so they could only temporarily camp outside Zhuo County.