Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

Upon returning to the State Duke's manor and resuming his duties, after dealing with the urgent preparations needed for the expedition to Linyi, Li Ji finally made time to peruse the latest intelligence from the Embroidered Uniform Guard regarding the movements of the Yangzhou aristocratic families.

Only three days remained until the one-month deadline that the aristocratic families believed they had.

Throughout Yangzhou, large and small aristocratic families, whether or not they had participated in the anti-Wu alliance, had already dispatched significant representatives to Wu County or were on their way.

Furthermore, the entire Yangzhou aristocratic class was now gradually dividing into three factions internally.

The first faction, the surrender faction, was led by Gu Yong's Gu family, along with families like Zhou Yu's.

The second, the bootlicking faction, was led by Zhu Zheng's Zhu family, along with many opportunistic families.

And the third, the stubborn faction, consisted of the vast majority who still harbored illusions or retained some pride.

The triangular relationship possessed stability; this was indeed true.

These three factions all disliked each other, and their intense conflicts made the previously elusive attitudes of each family noticeably clearer.

Of course, the stubborn faction among these three was not fearless; rather, they believed that by making certain concessions at a price, they could ensure the family's continued existence in the region.

It wasn't that they couldn't see the situation clearly; it was that everyone's perception was limited.

In the eyes of these stubborn families, giving up the power struggle with Liu Bei and compensating him with money and grain was already the greatest concession.

Today, Yangzhou might belong to Liu Bei, but tomorrow, it might not, but the aristocratic families would still exist in Yangzhou.

"Ultimately, it's still a lack of awe for the true 'iron fist'."

Li Ji couldn't help but chuckle.

Moreover, what these stubborn families didn't realize was that they assumed Liu Bei and Li Ji were forced to make concessions due to pressure, delaying the inevitable exchange of benefits for a month and dealing with some families to establish authority.

Little did they know that Li Ji simply needed this month to truly control every county in Yangzhou, to avoid causing severe turmoil in the region after moving against certain families.

This month, seemingly a concession, was actually a process of lulling the Yangzhou aristocratic families.

Including Zhu Zheng's bootlicking faction, which, under Li Ji's instructions, had been biting everywhere like mad dogs recently, causing particular anger among the stubborn faction.

But Zhu Zheng, besides being a target, was also a way to numb the Yangzhou aristocratic families, making them believe that revenge… was all there was.

"First… the number of Yangzhou aristocratic families is still too large…"

Li Ji chuckled, looking at the list reported by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, which conveniently included the names of 30% of the families who had participated in the anti-Wu alliance but had not yet arrived in Wu County.

Immediately, Li Ji picked up his brush and wrote his instructions at the end of the list.

【Execute them】

Xu Chu, standing beside Li Ji, couldn't help but click his tongue. The word Li Ji had inadvertently said in private—"wan la"—flashed in his mind.

The families on the list were probably going to be completely "wan la-ed."

As Li Ji's personal guard, no matter how honest and straightforward Xu Chu was, he already knew that with a wave of Li Ji's brush, many heads would fall.

Li Ji then had someone deliver the list with his instructions to Xiahou Bo. Xiahou Bo looked at the densely packed names and felt a chill run down his spine.

Each family, rooted for more than four generations, with children begetting grandchildren, and grandchildren begetting children, had at least a hundred members in their clan.

Xiahou Bo hesitated slightly. Involving the execution of thousands of people, he could only choose a good opportunity to present the list to Liu Bei.

Liu Bei opened it and glanced at it, looking at Xiahou Bo with some confusion, and asked.

"This list, didn't Zikun already make a decision? Why is it being submitted to me?"

??

Xiahou Bo.

Was the Lord's focus somewhat misplaced? These were thousands of heads!

However, Xiahou Bo naturally dared not say that he was somewhat worried about Li Ji's decision, and could only explain, "If only the Embroidered Uniform Guard executes it, their strength will be insufficient, and it will be necessary to mobilize troops from various places, so it is necessary to ask the Lord for instructions."

Liu Bei's Embroidered Uniform Guard was, in the end, merely an intelligence agency. Combat and assassination were not the areas in which the Embroidered Uniform Guard excelled.

"I see."

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei stamped the state duke's seal on the list and handed a troop deployment order to Xiahou Bo, allowing Xiahou Bo to mobilize soldiers from various places to assist the Embroidered Uniform Guard in carrying out their mission to a certain extent.

Seeing that Liu Bei had no objection, Xiahou Bo said no more.

While Xiahou Bo began to deal with the aristocratic families according to the list, Li Ji did not wait for three days before convening a family meeting. Instead, he summoned the families who were already waiting in Wu County that very day.

When the many aristocratic families with different thoughts arrived at the meeting place, the atmosphere was full of undercurrents.

Moreover, due to the presence of more than two hundred representatives from aristocratic families and powerful clans of all sizes, the State Duke's manor did not have a meeting hall large enough to accommodate so many people, so the meeting place was arranged in a spacious courtyard, which was implicitly divided into three groups, one large and two small.

Each family had its own prepared chips and plans, and because there were still three days until the one-month deadline, almost all families believed that this was a meeting to pre-negotiate the exchange of benefits.

However, after Xu Chu escorted Li Ji to the spacious courtyard.

Li Ji looked around at the family representatives standing in the courtyard, and without particularly offering seats, arranging tea, or serving refreshments, he spoke directly.

"The one-month deadline has arrived. I am very pleased to see you all here."

As soon as this was said, many family representatives were stunned.

Within the one-month rule set by Li Ji, the families naturally kept researching and could not possibly have mistaken the date, so a family representative immediately raised a question, saying.

"Wait, aren't there still three days left to make it a month?"

"Three days?"

Li Ji maintained a calm smile on his face and asked Zhu Zheng, "Ganglie, didn't you convey to everyone on behalf of this Marquis that the meeting would be held three days earlier?"

Zhu Zheng was slightly taken aback.

When did that happen?!

Was there?

Meeting Li Ji's gentle gaze, Zhu Zheng was now absolutely certain… that it definitely happened!

Immediately, Zhu Zheng replied loudly.

"Reporting to Marquis Guoshi, I have tried my best to personally inform each family, but some families drove me out before I could even open my mouth, so it is possible that one or two families do not know."

At this moment, facing Li Ji's calm and amiable gaze, everyone present felt a cold wind blowing into their hearts.

And after Zhu Zheng's words fell, the bootlicking faction, originally gathered around the Zhu family of Yuzhang, reacted one after another, taking the initiative to speak one after another.

"Indeed."

"Brother Ganglie did inform us personally."

"Could it be that some people are deliberately pretending not to know? Using this to be arrogant towards Marquis Guoshi?"

Before the others could react, Gu Yong, as the representative of the Gu family, trembled all over, realizing something.

At this moment, whether Li Ji's words were true or false, or whether Zhu Zheng took the opportunity to exclude dissidents and did not inform everyone, was no longer important.

Zhu Zheng, like Zhao Gao, bore all the infamy, while Li Ji was undoubtedly classifying those families with "fate."

Gu Yong stood up almost reflexively, taking the lead in expressing his position.

"I was also informed of this matter by Brother Ganglie early on."

Seeing this, the rest of the surrender faction naturally reacted one after another, speaking one after another.

However, compared to the original one-month deadline, although it seemed to be only three days apart, the difference was like the sea.

A portion of the stubborn families who had vaguely sensed something trembled all over, constantly breaking out in cold sweats.

Immediately, a stubborn family representative even disregarded arguing with Zhu Zheng about whether he had informed them, and hurriedly stepped forward to salute, pleading.

"Could you please, Marquis Guoshi, extend the time a little longer? Some families have not yet arrived in Wu County. I have received news that they will arrive the day after tomorrow… no, tomorrow, they will arrive tomorrow."

To this, Li Ji shook his head slightly and said, "There is no need for that. Even if we wait five or ten more days, no other families will arrive in Wu County."

After a pause, Li Ji sighed and said.

"Rules are rules, and deadlines are deadlines. Because I have been busy recently preparing money and grain for the army's expedition, I couldn't take care of everyone for a while, so I entrusted Wenhe with the matter of confirming the participating families."

"After I became free today, I found that Wenhe had already begun to deal with those families who did not come to participate in the meeting."

At this moment, speculation turned into reality.

In the eyes of every family member present, all that was revealed was horror.

Even if they did not have the specific list compiled by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, they could roughly judge how many families had not yet arrived in Wu County.

There were not a few Yangzhou aristocratic families who relied on their status or hoped to appear not too despicable, in order to prevent Liu Bei from making excessive demands.

One of the family representatives swayed obviously, clinging to the last shred of hope, and asked, "Please… Marquis Guoshi, clarify, what does 'deal with' mean?"

"Is Your Excellency perhaps related to those families?" Li Ji asked gently.

This sentence was tantamount to nonsense.

Marriage between aristocratic families was a common means of expanding their network of relationships and influence. For example, Sun Jian's wife, Lady Wu, came from the Wu family of Wu County.

It was just that the Wu family of Wu County was once deemed particularly annoying by Jia Xu, who believed that the Wu family's influence within Wu County was too great, which was not conducive to Liu Bei's entry into Wu County as the seat of Wu Prefecture, so the Wu family had long since perished.

Facing Li Ji's inquiry, the family representative nodded quickly.

"In that case, barring any unforeseen circumstances, I'm afraid it will be difficult for you to see him again," Li Ji replied with a hint of helplessness.

(End of Chapter)