Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

Chapter 81: The Problem of Refugees

"Water Conservancy," "Rice Seeds," "Land Reclamation," "Population Migration," "Bandit Suppression," "Noble Families," "Money and Provisions"\n\nThis bamboo scroll is, in a sense, Li Ji's "memorandum," with each word written on it representing a problem he has thought of that needs to be solved in order to develop Wu Commandery.

Hmm...

Just words, not solutions.

If he were to actually seek solutions, a whole scroll wouldn't be enough to contain the solution for just one of those words.

Compared to the lack of arable land in the Central Plains, Wu Commandery, despite its future reputation as "When Su and Hu are plentiful, the world is satisfied," that proverb didn't appear until the Southern Song Dynasty, eight hundred years later.

In between, there were the Five Barbarians' invasion of China, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and three consecutive waves of southward migration during the Southern Song Dynasty, along with continuous development of the Jiangnan region, which led to this reputation.

Today, in the eyes of most people, Jiangnan is just a remote and desolate place.

Even in Li Ji's eyes, he is well aware that Wu Commandery has great potential, but how to develop that potential step by step is a huge challenge.

And now that Li Ji has not yet arrived in Wu Commandery, even with a head full of thoughts, he can't start anywhere.

Only realizing that Wu Commandery's infrastructure may be worse than he imagined, this inevitably adds another layer of gloom to the heart of this sunny young man, Li Ji.

Just then, a voice rang out from outside the camp.

"Zikun, may I come in?"

"If it's Lord, then just come in."

Li Ji replied quickly, and as he stood up to greet Liu Bei, he suddenly felt like something was off.

However, when he saw Liu Bei, half of his body was wet and his face was full of worry, Li Ji quickly went up to him, pulled Liu Bei to the charcoal fire to dry his clothes, and quickly asked Xiahou Lan to prepare hot tea to warm Liu Bei up.

"Thank you, Mingzheng."

Liu Bei took the hot tea and smiled gently at Xiahou Lan, causing Xiahou Lan to suddenly become a little shy.

Compared to his strict older brother Xiahou Bo and the always rigid Zhao Yun, Xiahou Lan obviously had no resistance to Liu Bei's gentle, older brother-like lord.

Seeing this, Li Ji couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Alas, Lord, please restrain your overflowing charm...

This is still a boy, not yet of age, this is not okay!

"Mingzheng, go down and study first, I have some important matters to discuss with the Lord," Li Ji said.

"Yes, Sir."

Xiahou Lan quickly responded, preparing to withdraw outside the camp to guard.

"Zikun, this child Mingzheng is not bad, he is much more stable than when he first arrived in Julu, perhaps he is a promising talent, you can put your heart into cultivating him."

Liu Bei said this when Xiahou Lan had not yet gone far, just barely able to hear the voice inside the camp.

To this, Li Ji also cooperated and said.

"What the Lord says is absolutely true, I see that Mingzheng will soon wash away his callowness and become a pillar of talent, skilled in both civil and military affairs, under the Lord's command."

In an instant, Xiahou Lan's heart was filled with emotion.

Under the misty rain, Xiahou Lan couldn't even distinguish whether the flowing on his face was tears or rain.

A scholar dies for his confidant!

Xiahou Lan's rather immature face flushed red, and he only felt a red heart in his chest become exceptionally hot, subconsciously hugging the "Wei Liao Zi" in his arms tightly, secretly vowing.

'I must not fail Sir's expectations, and even more so, I must not fail Lord Xuande's high regard...'

'Mingzheng! Mingzheng! I must not fail the courtesy name that Lord took for me, when I come of age in the future, I must be worthy of this name.'

(PS: Generally speaking, a courtesy name is only taken when one comes of age, but Xiahou Lan's name, whether called "Xiao Lan" or "Lan'er," is too outrageous, so let's take the name first and call it that on weekdays, and then come of age later.)

And inside the camp, after Li Ji skillfully cooperated with Liu Bei to win over a wave of people's hearts, he shifted the topic to the main matter and asked.

"Why does Lord look so worried, has something happened?"

"Zikun, I... alas..."

Liu Bei sighed, looking like he didn't know how to start.

"Lord, you can speak frankly about anything," Li Ji said.

Liu Bei sighed again, then said.

"Zikun, I just explored the vicinity with Jichang for a while, the refugees... are very numerous, and the rain is continuous, suffering from hunger and cold, I'm afraid it will be difficult to survive."

Hearing this, Li Ji's expression was also a little unbearable.

Regardless of what the original intention of the Yellow Turban Rebellion was, for the bottom-level common people, it led to a large number of originally still able to live "bankrupting" rapidly and becoming refugees.

And for the government offices of the various prefectures and commanderies, local refugees might still be taken care of and arranged, but many non-local refugees are an unstable factor.

It's not that the government offices of the various prefectures and commanderies are unwilling to settle the refugees, but there is simply no extra arable land to settle them.

Therefore, the attitude of most government offices towards refugees is to turn a blind eye and not allow refugees to enter the city to disrupt public order.

"Lord, you can act as before, cook some thin porridge and distribute it to the refugees, letting them go south to Wu Commandery, Wu Commandery has a sparse population, and these refugees can be easily settled," Li Ji suggested.

"It's different."

Liu Bei shook his head and said. "The rain is continuous, I see that many refugees already have symptoms of fever and wind-chill, if there is no place to shelter from the rain, it will be difficult to survive."

As soon as these words came out, Li Ji understood Liu Bei's meaning.

To solve this problem, either find a place where the refugees can shelter from the rain, or let the army take in the refugees and continue to Wu Commandery together.

Obviously, Liu Bei's heart is more inclined to the latter, but reason makes Liu Bei clearly aware that this is inappropriate, so it is difficult to say.

"Lord, now our army not only has a large amount of money and provisions, but also more than two thousand Taoyuan followers who are burdening the march, of which the more than two thousand Taoyuan followers are managed by those wounded and disabled soldiers, so even if we encounter bandits along the way, there has been no trouble."

"However, if we recruit refugees along the way and mix them into the army, if there is any accident at that time, the refugees will inevitably panic, and if they impact our army formation, I am afraid we will be defeated."

Li Ji said Liu Bei's concerns, making Liu Bei's face full of helplessness.

Li Ji also understood that Liu Bei was not unaware of this, but he was unwilling to say it because he couldn't bear it in his heart, so he came to Li Ji specifically to let Li Ji persuade himself.

"I understand."

Liu Bei sighed again and responded.

And Li Ji pondered for a while and said.

"Lord, in fact, rather than the army taking the refugees to Wu Commandery, how many can it take? And in the end, it is only a temporary measure."

"And what the Lord has seen along the way, a large number of refugees are fleeing in all directions, among them there are many refugees who are seeking a chance to survive all the way south."

"Therefore, it is better to consider how to find some places for the refugees passing along the way to shelter from the rain, so that they can have the opportunity to reach the land of Jiangdong?"

Hearing this, Liu Bei also said with a bitter face. "The government offices in various places will not allow refugees to enter the city and settle down in large numbers."

"I am not begging the government offices in various places to help..."

Li Ji shook his head, understanding that this kind of thing is almost impossible, and for the government offices in various places, it is a thankless task, unless there are very few people who care about the people, most officials will not make trouble for themselves.

Immediately, Li Ji continued to say.

"Lord, what I mean is that when building a camp during the march, you can consider cutting down more trees to build a wooden camp, and then leave the camp in place after leaving as a place where refugees can barely shelter from the rain and sleep."

"Afterwards, you can send an envoy to inform the government offices passing along the way, indicating that they can lead the refugees to Wu Commandery."

"The government offices in various places will certainly not want a large number of refugees to stay in the local area and cause unrest, even if they don't help, I think they will not stop or make things difficult."

Hearing this, Liu Bei thought carefully for a while and found that what Li Ji said was indeed feasible, and for Liu Bei, it was only a little troublesome when setting up camp, and a large number of trees needed to be cut down.

However, compared to the possibility of saving a large number of refugees, Liu Bei was obviously very willing.

However, just as Liu Bei was about to start arranging it immediately, he suddenly thought of something and asked worriedly.

"Zikun, but in this way, perhaps not long after we arrive in Wu Commandery, a large number of refugees will come one after another, in terms of money and provisions, and whether Wu Commandery can accommodate a constant stream of refugees?"

"Lord, rest assured, I have a solution."

Li Ji responded with a relaxed and confident look.

Immediately, Liu Bei no longer worried and immediately went down to start arranging the construction of wooden camps, and sent people to contact the local government offices to negotiate, in order to give the refugees some help.

And after Liu Bei left, Li Ji took out the "memorandum" bamboo slip from his sleeve with a bitter face.

The money and provisions that Liu Bei had seized in Daxing Mountain before were very large, enough for two thousand people to consume for nearly two or three years, but it was definitely not able to withstand such squandering.

What's more, whether it is developing water conservancy, or reclaiming good fields, leveling roads, etc., all require a lot of labor and money and provisions.

Not enough...

Completely not enough...

Li Ji simply calculated a preliminary account and felt his scalp tingling.

Just recruiting refugees to increase the population and labor force of Wu Commandery is a necessary process for developing Wu Commandery on a large scale.

Now, under Liu Bei's influence, this process has been brought forward.

In this way, if you are not careful, refugees will not only not become an aid to the development of Wu Commandery, but will become a major burden for Liu Bei to control Wu Commandery.

"Money and provisions!!!"

In the end, it is still this problem.

As long as there are sufficient money and provisions, Li Ji will have ways to quickly settle more refugees in Wu Commandery.

But where to get so much money and provisions?

It's not an exaggeration to say that even if it meant asking Lord Liu Bei himself to sell his…

‘Eh…’

Li Ji stroked his chin, suddenly feeling that this might not be a bad idea after all.

Of course, Li Ji didn't mean anything of the sort regarding homosexual proclivities, but rather that in Xu Province, there was a wealthy merchant family, the Mi family, who in the original timeline had been so captivated by Liu Bei that they not only offered up their entire fortune of over a hundred million, but even the whole family boarded Liu Bei's ship of thieves.

It wasn't just the Mi family's wool that was fleeced; one could say that even their bone marrow was sucked dry by Liu Bei's charm.

Regardless of success or failure, it wouldn't hurt to let the "Great Han Charisma Demon" Liu Bei give it a try.