Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

Chapter 74: The Kun of the Great Han

Li Ji thought for a moment and then asked, "My lord, do you think the 'humiliation under the crotch' is a praiseworthy tale of Marquis Huaiyin, Han Xin, or a scandal?"

"Naturally, it's a praiseworthy tale."

Liu Bei knew the Three Heroes of the Early Han Dynasty, who assisted Emperor Gaozu in establishing the Great Han, very well, and said,

"This has already been defined in the 'Biography of Marquis Huaiyin' in the 'Records of the Grand Historian'. A great man can endure what ordinary people cannot, and therefore can accomplish what ordinary people cannot. It implies that a person with talent can temporarily endure humiliation before achieving prominence."

"That's right, but if Marquis Huaiyin, Han Xin, had not achieved prominence after suffering the 'humiliation under the crotch,' or if the butcher had become more prominent than Han Xin because of it, would the 'humiliation under the crotch' be a praiseworthy tale or a scandal?" Li Ji asked again.

Liu Bei pondered for a moment before slowly answering, "This... it should be a scandal."

Jia Xu, sitting to Li Ji's lower side, looked at Li Ji with a slightly enlightened gaze, vaguely understanding the plan Li Ji intended to carry out.

"That's exactly it."

Li Ji didn't continue to beat around the bush but directly said,

"The conflict between you, my lord, and the Chancellor of Cao can be regarded as a contradiction, and also a small scandal between both of you as Prefect and Chancellor."

"However, if you want to naturally downplay this scandal, and even turn it into a praiseworthy tale like the 'humiliation under the crotch,' you just need to shift the focus to other angles."

Li Ji couldn't say he was very experienced in this, but he had seen it often enough.

For example, a woman accidentally falls into the river, and two men jump into the river to save her. As a result, some headline writers write: Shocking! In broad daylight, two men and one woman are actually doing that in the river, attracting passersby to watch non-stop.

This is undoubtedly a way to deliberately shift the focus, purely ignoring the facts and causes, and only focusing on a part of the process.

However, in this era when sensationalist headlines are not yet prevalent, and even few people have this kind of thinking, Liu Bei obviously still listened with some understanding and asked,

"Zikun, how do you shift the so-called focus?"

"Xuande, I understand what Zikun means."

Jia Xu said with great interest.

"For example, Xuande can vigorously publicize Zikun's reputation and ability. As long as Zikun's reputation reaches a certain level."

"Then, compared to Xuande and the Chancellor of Cao arguing and drawing swords for a mere staff member, which seems narrow-minded, it will naturally become a praiseworthy tale of both sides seeking a great talent and being courteous and unyielding."

"Is that right, Zikun?"

At the end, Jia Xu didn't forget to ask Li Ji.

Li Ji nodded helplessly. This matter could indeed be resolved in this way. As long as the focus was on Li Ji's presence, then the conflict between Liu Bei and Cao Cao would naturally not seem sharp.

Moreover, publicizing this matter would be a win-win situation for both Liu Bei and Cao Cao.

Liu Bei is willing to draw his sword to protect his subordinates and is unyielding, which is very beneficial for attracting talents to join him in the future.

Cao Cao hears that there is a great talent and visits with gifts, showing full sincerity, which is undoubtedly a virtue.

Only Li Ji felt like he had lost badly, and would leave behind a small hidden danger.

You should know that being an official in this era is not a civil service examination system, but a system of recommendation and selection.

Among them, the system of recommendation and selection is actually divided into two parts, one part is the recommendation system, and the other part is the selection system.

The so-called selection system is that local officials conduct inspections and judgments, and then recommend them to the court as officials with titles such as "Filial and Incorrupt," "Outstanding Talent," and "Virtuous and Upright."

Similar to Jia Xu, he was recommended as "Filial and Incorrupt" when he was young and served as a Lang official.

Another type of recommendation system is that the Emperor or the court directly appoints and grants official positions to great talents or capable people in the wild, and reuses them.

Among them, Lu Zhi, who already had a great reputation among the people, had been recommended by the states and counties many times but did not respond until he was recruited by the court as a Doctor before taking office.

And if you carefully observe this system of recommendation and selection, and open each of the above regulations, you will find that two words are written between the lines - "background."

Without a background, you will not be selected;

Without a background, how can you have a reputation, so naturally you will not be recruited.

Therefore, in this era, not to mention people who are truly from grassroots backgrounds, even those from poor families who have no way to display their talents are difficult to be valued by places controlled by aristocratic families.

It is true that you are talented, but my clan has descendants who are slightly inferior in talent, but the official positions are fixed, so why should I select you instead of selecting my clan's descendants?

However, if Li Ji's reputation is completely publicized now, it will easily attract the attention of the court, and maybe Li Ji will be directly recruited into the court as an official.

At this moment, Li Ji doesn't want to enter the whirlpool of the Luoyang Imperial Capital where he could be crushed to pieces at any time. He only wants to assist Liu Bei in building Wujun into a solid territory before the arrival of the chaotic world, and prepare to devour Yangzhou.

And although Li Ji can also refuse the court's recruitment, it will undoubtedly be a troublesome matter.

Similar to Lu Zhi's refusal, Lu Zhi also has a family background behind him.

But if Li Ji refuses, if a eunuch or someone with ulterior motives slanders him, saying that Li Ji's refusal is because he has rebellious intentions, it will be difficult to explain himself clearly.

Therefore, even if Li Ji knows the benefits of becoming famous at a young age, he has never deliberately publicized it. His original intention was to wait until the current Emperor dies and the Great Han is about to fall before publicizing his reputation, which would not be too late and would have no hidden dangers.

Unfortunately, compared to the current conflict between Liu Bei and Cao Cao, Li Ji can only choose to sacrifice himself a little.

After all, this matter has disadvantages for Li Ji, but it also has many advantages.

If Li Ji's reputation gradually increases, the resistance to governing the place as the Chief Clerk of Wujun in the future will naturally decrease, and reputation will also be an advantage and bargaining chip for any cooperation or exchanges with the surrounding states and counties.

Afterwards, Li Ji carefully explained the plan to Liu Bei...

Soon, a plan that Liu Bei thought was seamless was formed so simply, and the originally hidden conflicts and contradictions seemed to instantly become a win-win situation for all three parties.

Especially, this plan can vigorously publicize Li Ji's reputation, which made Liu Bei feel quite satisfied.

'With the ability of my family's Zikun, he shouldn't be unknown!'

Liu Bei thought secretly. 'Moreover, this matter can also let the world know that I and Zikun are lords and subjects who understand each other.'

The most important focus of this plan is to find someone willing to "endorse" Li Ji's reputation.

The so-called reputation is essentially a process of people spreading the word!

And the most important thing for people spreading the word is to have a "爆点" (explosive point) in Li Ji's words.

For example, the most important catalytic link in the electronic chicken plague in Li Ji's memory was undoubtedly the lawyer's letter warning!

However, after Li Ji finished talking about the plan, Jia Xu seemed to have a lot of insights and put forward several radical supplements, and suggested that this plan could be named: "The Kun of the Great Han," which means to push Li Ji's reputation to a certain peak in a very short time through a series of radical plans.

????!!

Li Ji.

"Ji, strongly oppose the code name of the 'Kun of the Great Han' plan."

Li Ji slapped the table and refused righteously.

This made Liu Bei, who almost always listened to Li Ji, feel a little embarrassed.

Liu Bei felt that the "Kun of the Great Han" proposed by Jia Xu was still quite reasonable and promising.

If the operation is proper, then when Liu Bei goes to Wujun to serve as the Prefect, Li Ji can also continuously summon a large number of admirers or haters, which may become the power for Liu Bei to govern Wujun.

Moreover, Li Ji's name may overwhelm the current world and become a person who leaves a great reputation in the history of the Great Han.

"Jia Wenhe, don't go too far."

Li Ji warned Jia Xu with a black face.

"Why?"

Jia Xu said with a smile.

"Since Zikun has absolute confidence in the way of deduction, then why not add more fuel to the fire and create the... explosive point that Zikun said?"

"In this way, Zikun's reputation will be like the scorching sun in the sky, so that all the scholars of the Great Han will hear Zikun's name like thunder."

"And Wujun is the land of Jiangdong. How many talents are needed to develop it? If you only employ local aristocratic scholars, what are the hidden dangers? I think Zikun also has some expectations, right?"

"And if the 'Kun of the Great Han' plan is successful, then Zikun will be able to continuously attract talents from the Great Han to Wujun to explore, even if only one or two out of ten are left to help Xuande, that will be a great help to Zikun's ambition to govern the world with one county."

As Jia Xu listed the benefits one by one, he almost made Li Ji speechless, and these are undoubtedly irrefutable facts.

Liu Bei's basic plan is very small. Now there are only six civil and military generals available: Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Xiahou Bo, Li Ji, and Jia Xu.

Although these six people can be regarded as first-class talents in the world, it is impossible for a county to be handled by only six people in all aspects. What's more, Li Ji plans to swallow the entire Yangzhou in the future, and the talent gap can be huge.

A large number of officials for upward communication, execution and implementation, supervision and management, etc. are all visible gaps, which are not only an important part of power, but also positions that are extremely easy to be controlled by local aristocratic families.

And once a large number of scholars can be attracted to Wujun, then the problem of being easily hollowed out or occupied by a large number of local aristocratic families will be almost solved.

Moreover, the greater Li Ji's reputation, the greater Liu Bei's reputation, and the greater Wujun's reputation, the easier it will be to attract a large number of refugees as in Li Ji's original plan, increasing the population south of the Yangtze River.

It can be said that as long as Li Ji himself is hurt, the world seems to have reached perfection at this moment. Except for Li Ji himself, everything seems to have great benefits.

However, Li Ji strongly suspected that Jia Xu was absolutely taking revenge, a flawless retaliation for Li Ji's previous coercion.

The Kun of the Great Han...?

Li Ji's eyes involuntarily lost their luster. This was an unforeseen situation, and Li Ji had never imagined that he would be reduced to this kind of protagonist.

Looking at Li Ji's seemingly extremely disheartened expression, Liu Bei bit his lip slightly and said,

“If Zikun is unwilling, then let's drop what Wenhe suggested.”

Li Ji opened his mouth with difficulty.

“No, my lord, let's do as Wenhe said…”