Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

"That's certainly true."

Li Ji responded and said, "As early as the third year of the Zhongping era, my lord found the location of Yizhou and sent the Marquis of Hanshou to lead troops to garrison there and investigate the local situation…"

After a pause, Li Ji turned his gaze towards Gu Yong and said.

"On this point, Yuan Tan should be quite clear."

In an instant, Gu Yong, who had been sitting silently among the representatives of the aristocratic families, became the focus of attention.

"At that time, Yuan Tan was originally going to Kuaiji Commandery to take office as the Vice Prefect, but after learning that the Marquis of Hanshou was going to develop Yizhou, he did not hesitate to resign from the Kuaiji Commandery and followed the Marquis of Hanshou to Yizhou for several years."

"Therefore, even I learned about the situation in Yizhou from Yuan Tan's reports."

As soon as these words came out, some people who already had complicated thoughts immediately understood why Gu Yong had always stood on Liu Bei's side.

Those pairs of eyes looking at Gu Yong, filled with suspicion and inquiry, seemed to see through everything, feeling that Gu Yong knew about the existence of Yizhou in advance, and also knew about Li Ji's plans in advance.

A fertile land comparable in size to Wu Commandery, a fertile land close to Yangzhou.

If it were really divided and given to the aristocratic families for self-governance, this would undoubtedly be a temptation that the aristocratic families could hardly resist.

Gu Yong opened his mouth, wanting to explain, but for a moment he didn't know how to start.

Yizhou, Gu Yong really knows it well!

It's just that Gu Yong didn't know that Li Ji was actually preparing to hand over Yizhou to the aristocratic families for self-governance.

As a result, when Gu Yong learned of this news, his mind was a little dazed, but in addition to being dazed, Gu Yong almost subconsciously prepared to select an excellent area for the Gu family in the Yizhou map that emerged in his mind.

However, seeing Gu Yong in a daze under the gaze of everyone, some impatient representatives of the aristocratic families simply pushed Gu Yong and asked anxiously.

"Brother Yuan Tan, Brother Yuan Tan, please say something, what is Yizhou like? Is the land really as fertile and the climate as pleasant as Marquis Guoshi said?"

Coming back to his senses, Gu Yong nodded subconsciously.

This point… is indeed true!

Although Yizhou is now covered with forests, the land is indeed quite fertile, and the plains account for more than one-third, so its potential is not small.

It's just that the native population of Yizhou is limited. Even though Gu Yong had previously followed the army to garrison in Yizhou, he only opened up a garrison port and established contact with many native residents' gathering points in Yizhou.

As for wanting to truly develop Yizhou, in Gu Yong's opinion, the lack of population alone is a difficult problem to overcome…

Wait!

Suddenly, Gu Yong's pupils shrank slightly.

Based on his understanding of Li Ji, Gu Yong vaguely understood the calculation in this moment.

Grain needs to grow from the ground, and the population needs to multiply and grow from generation to generation. These cannot appear out of thin air.

Gu Yong previously did not pay attention to Yizhou for the same reason, because Yizhou's population was limited.

The limitation of his vision made Gu Yong only feel that the role of sending troops to garrison in Yizhou seemed to be just to obtain some resources lacking in Wu Commandery.

If you want to truly develop Yizhou into a fertile land, the inherent problem of insufficient population makes this simply a fool's dream.

However, what if Yizhou is divided to the aristocratic families in the name of "self-governance"?

Even if the aristocratic families enjoy special privileges within the territory of the Han Dynasty, there is still an upper limit.

But if they occupy a place exclusively in Yizhou, what is the difference from becoming a king?

Moreover, the aristocratic families have considerable influence in the local area, and they secretly hide an unknown number of unregistered people to cultivate their land.

Therefore, the aristocratic families also face the problem of insufficient population when they go to Yizhou. How will they choose?

Without a doubt, they will definitely choose to bring a part of the population to Yizhou as much as possible…

As long as Li Ji intervenes or trades slightly in this process, there are ways to make the aristocratic families hand over the land in Yangzhou, and a part of the people who firmly depend on the aristocratic families will also be transferred to Yizhou.

At this thought, Gu Yong couldn't help but tremble, only feeling as if a big game was unfolding before his eyes.

Li Ji then picked up a chess piece and placed it in Yangzhou. With a combination of kindness and power, he was preparing to transfer all the aristocratic families in Yangzhou to Yizhou.

From the perspective of the aristocratic families in Yangzhou, this is undoubtedly a brand new path, allowing the aristocratic families to break through the limitations of the past and obtain countless lands, power, and opportunities to be famous for thousands of years.

But from Li Ji's perspective, it is borrowing all the background and influence of the aristocratic families.

Let them take away the population that does not pay taxes and may cause instability in their rule to Yizhou, and while developing Yizhou, it also allows Liu Bei to achieve complete control over the entire territory of Yangzhou.

Li Ji took Gu Yong's reaction into his eyes.

With Gu Yong's ability, even if he cannot guess the whole picture at this moment, he must be able to deduce one or two truths.

In fact, Yizhou is also like a chicken rib for Liu Bei. Rather than spending a lot of energy and resources to develop Yizhou, it is better to put those energy and resources on the local Yangzhou.

If Yizhou really wants to be developed into a livable and prosperous place, not to mention a hundred years, but at least it will take more than fifty years of effort.

But if Yizhou is handed over to the aristocratic families for self-development, perhaps a situation of "a hundred schools of thought contending" will appear in Yizhou, and Li Ji will not have to worry about it.

For their own interests, the aristocratic families will do their best to develop Yizhou.

And in Li Ji's view, Yizhou… is just the beginning, just a hook to initially transform the aristocratic families.

The Han people's desire for fertile land will not be satisfied. As a collective of Han elites, the aristocratic families' desire for fertile land is even endless.

When Liu Bei's forces expand outward from Yangzhou, and lead the remaining aristocratic families to overseas in a similar way, the territory of Yizhou may not be enough for the aristocratic families to share.

At that time, continuing to expand from Yizhou to more distant fertile lands is an inevitable trend of human nature.

The endless pursuit of fertile land makes the aristocratic families like hungry wolves in the land of the Han Dynasty, constantly squeezing the living space of the bottom people.

But placed overseas outside the Han Dynasty, the endless pursuit of fertile land is undoubtedly a good quality, prompting the aristocratic families to expand outward.

Perhaps, then is the prosperous age of "Under the whole heaven, there is no land that is not the king's; within the borders of the land, there is no subject who is not the king's."

As long as there is fertile land, there will be Han people, Han language, and Han characters.

That's all.

Thinking of this, Li Ji couldn't help but smile knowingly, nodded to Gu Yong, and then announced.

"I also know that this matter is of great importance and cannot be decided in a moment. Therefore, you can ask Yuan Tan about the many details related to Yizhou."

"And in twenty days, a fleet will go to Yizhou from Wu Commandery to transport supplies. You can go along at that time. It's not too late to make a decision after seeing it with your own eyes."

(End of this chapter)