Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

Chapter 89: Uprooting and Eliminating?

As if sensing Li Ji's gaze, Zhang Fei grinned at Li Ji, baring his teeth.

Perhaps it was because Zhang Fei's skin was too dark, but Li Ji felt that Zhang Fei's teeth were so white that they reflected light, making it somewhat difficult for Li Ji to look directly at him.

On the contrary, Guan Yu, who was nominally in charge of the military affairs of the entire county as a Commandant, still narrowed his eyes, with a calm and indifferent expression, as if this was only what he deserved.

Only Li Ji, who already knew Guan Yu quite well, slightly observed the redness of Guan Yu's face, and clearly noticed that Guan Yu was far from as calm as he appeared on the surface.

Think about it, half a year ago, Guan Yu was just a wanted criminal forced to flee his hometown, but now he was already a Commandant of a county, how could he not be happy?

Among those present, perhaps only Jia Xu was truly calm, and the slight joy on his face was probably just a pretense to integrate into the group.

After all, unlike the humble origins of the others present, Jia Xu was recommended as an official at a young age and had been hiding his talents for many years, so he didn't care about the position of Chief Clerk of a mere county.

If Li Ji hadn't dug out this deeply buried old corpse from the mountains, Jia Xu would probably still be comfortably lingering in Niu Fu's army.

A full half a day later, the joyful atmosphere in the main hall gradually calmed down, and Liu Bei then opened his mouth with a solemn expression.

"Since I, Bei, first arrived in Wu County, I didn't expect the scourge of bandits in Wu County to be so deep, and I even heard from the aristocratic families that there are remnants of the Yellow Turbans who have fled from the north."

"Therefore, the top priority must be to suppress the bandits in order to appease the people's hearts."

The most warlike Zhang Fei grinned when he heard this and said loudly.

"Big brother is right, suppressing bandits is good, I am willing to be the vanguard and kill all those Yellow Turban remnants and Wu County bandits cleanly."

Seeing this, Li Ji couldn't help but look in Jia Xu's direction and gave him a look.

[Doesn't Zhang Fei know that he himself is the Yellow Turban remnant that the Wu County aristocratic families fear?]

Jia Xu, understanding, shook his head.

Immediately, Li Ji completely understood why Jia Xu insisted on Zhang Fei and not Zhao Yun.

What Jia Xu valued, besides Zhang Fei's martial power, was probably Zhang Fei's pure and foolish energy.

If it were Guan Yu or Zhao Yun, they would have discovered the trickiness and abnormality in Jia Xu's arrangements long ago.

Only Zhang Fei didn't think much about it at all, and probably just acted according to Jia Xu's arrangements, so he didn't realize that he himself was a Yellow Turban.

"Third brother, don't be anxious, Wu County is not like Zhuo County, it is mostly mountainous land, most bandits, if they drill into the mountains, or lurk in the river and lake strongholds, how can we find them?"

Liu Bei expressed his worries, and then asked Li Ji. "Zikun, according to your opinion, how should this bandit matter in Wu County be handled?"

"My lord, just as I said just now, bandits must be suppressed no matter what."

Li Ji gave his attitude without hesitation, and immediately received a smiling thank you from Zhang Fei.

"Now, the scourge of bandits in Wu County has reached a point where it cannot be ignored. If we want to win the hearts of the people in Wu County, we must first eliminate the bandits, otherwise, how can we talk about developing Wu County?"

Of course, there was also a sentence that Li Ji didn't say.

That is, the Wu County bandits have plundered countless money and food from the local aristocratic families in Wu County, and this is what Li Ji must make those bandits spit out no matter what.

Originally, Li Ji had long coveted the money and food accumulated by the aristocratic families, but it was difficult to use reasonable means to make the aristocratic families generously support the local development.

Now, after the money and food have passed through the hands of the bandits, Li Ji will confiscate them back, and they will be completely clean.

As long as more than 70% of the money and food of the entire Wu County local aristocratic families are recovered, not to mention letting Liu Bei sit firmly in the position of Wu County Governor and win over the hearts of the people, I am afraid that even the money and food needed for the development of Wu County in the next three to five years will be enough.

Therefore, the bandits must be suppressed, if they are not suppressed, how can we get rich, and how can the Liu Bei Group continue to progress?

What made Li Ji slightly tangled was whether to raise the Wu County bandits a little fatter before killing them.

Jia Xu used this method to kill the Wu County aristocratic families to only 30%, and by the way, slaughter the entire Wu County aristocratic families cleanly, which seemed to be a good choice.

Especially since the list of surviving Wu County aristocratic families has been listed, point them out one by one, and guide the bandits to loot their homes one by one…

This can both lure the snakes out of their holes and let those bandits walk out of the mountains and forests, and after those bandits have looted the aristocratic families, Liu Bei can take the name of avenging the aristocratic families and maintaining love and justice…

Ahem, maintaining law and order, and wipe out those bandits in one fell swoop.

If the aristocratic families are all dead, the stolen goods confiscated will naturally not need to be returned.

At that time, the Wu County aristocratic families will be dead, the Wu County bandits will also be dead, and only the world where Liu Bei and the people are happy will be achieved, and Li Ji will be able to take advantage of the situation to arbitrarily transform and develop Wu County according to the shape he wants.

The more he thought about it, the more excited he became, and Li Ji immediately started… Original…

Ah no, "Scheme Simulator"!

[Under your instructions, Jia Xu used the knife of the bandits to slaughter most of the Wu County aristocratic families.

This is undoubtedly a turning point, a turning point that guides Wu County in a different direction.

Therefore, now, as the Chief Clerk of Wu County, you are determined to suppress the local bandits, while considering how to treat the local aristocratic families next…

[1. Uproot and eliminate; 2. Treat with kindness; 3. Cut off their foundations.]

These three choices…

Li Ji's eyes narrowed slightly, and then he first chose the first choice that could be bottomed out and maximized short-term profits.

[Knowing that the opportunity is rare, under Jia Xu's influence, you decided to take advantage of the situation to uproot and eliminate them, so as to prevent the possible obstacles from the aristocratic families in the development of Wu County next and other future troubles.

Therefore, you, who have fully grasped the positions of the Wu County aristocratic families and bandits at the same time, started to arrange a good show.

On the one hand, you first blocked the main passages from Wu County to the surrounding counties, preventing the Wu County bandits from escaping to other places with money and food;

On the other hand, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were ordered to lead troops to suppress the bandits with great fanfare, and in order to increase the troops, you also drew nearly half of the slaves and young adults from various aristocratic families as auxiliary soldiers.

Afterwards, you personally drafted a bandit suppression route…]

[With Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's martial prowess, coupled with the three thousand elite soldiers who have been through battles and a large number of aristocratic family slaves and young adults as auxiliary soldiers, how could the bandits fighting on their own be their opponents?

Immediately, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei successively broke more than a dozen bandit strongholds, beheaded and captured countless bandits, and seized even more money and food that was difficult to measure, making the Wu County aristocratic families feel excited and relieved when they heard about it.

However, this bandit suppression route from west to east unknowingly forced all the bandits to the east side, and the strength of the bandits on the east side of Wu County was not damaged at all.

When the rabbit dies, the fox grieves, when the lips are gone, the teeth are cold…

The bandits who knew that they were no match for Guan Yu and Zhang Fei did not have the courage to challenge the Han army head-on, but they heard in due course that the aristocratic families were deeply aware of righteousness, and in order to support the Wu County Han army in suppressing bandits, they not only supported money and food, but also mobilized more than half of the young adults in the family to join the Han army.

Then, you mobilized the hidden agents that Jia Xu had colluded with the bandits before, and told the surviving bandits all the information of the remaining aristocratic families in Wu County.]

[For a time, the panicked bandits were forced to unite and launched a big riot, and the target was directly at those weak and wealthy Wu County aristocratic families, intending to loot first, leading the Han army to rush to rescue them, and being forced to open the passage to escape to Wu County, and then each escaped outside Wu County.

However, the great riot launched by the Wu County bandits had just looted and slaughtered the aristocratic families, and was almost completely surrounded and killed by the Han army that arrived in time.

So far, the public order in Wu County has been completely renewed, and the aristocratic families are even cleaner.

It's just that, even if no one has evidence to prove that the complete destruction of the Wu County aristocratic families was your deliberate act, the situation that the Wu County aristocratic families were almost completely destroyed has inevitably caused layers of doubts from the outside world.]

[And now you, who do not yet have the means to intervene and guide the outside world, can only watch the rumors become more and more intense, and finally regard you and Liu Bei as jackals and tigers, and dare not easily enter Wu County.

In this way, when you really start to develop Wu County, since there are no local aristocratic family members to serve as officials, and no scholars from outside to help Wu County, even if there is sufficient money and food, there is also a lack of a large number of officials.

The progress of developing Wu County is much slower than you expected…

When the world changes drastically, Liu Bei, who leads the land of Wu County, is also full of hostility from the aristocratic families and finds it difficult to move forward.]

[Scheme Evaluation: Extremes meet, too much is as bad as too little, this is not a good strategy.

Even if you have done it flawlessly, and even no one can find any evidence that you are deliberately destroying the aristocratic families, at most they can only think that your intention to block Wu County was to uproot the bandits, and that the disaster to the local aristocratic families was only an accident.

But the fact that the Wu County aristocratic families do not exist is enough to trigger a lot of rumors, and then make the situation go in an uncontrollable direction.]

After browsing all the information deduced by the "Scheme Simulator", Li Ji can only say that he is not surprised at all.

Some things are useless no matter how cleanly they are done, and there is no shortage of wise men in the world, and some people will inevitably guess the truth in general.

And even the most ignorant people understand that if a species is extinct in a certain place, it can only mean that this place is not suitable for this species to survive, and not just an accident.

Even more serious is that the extinction of the local aristocratic families, in addition to making Liu Bei's subordinates lack a large number of available officials, will also make foreign scholars dare not easily enter the land of Wu County.

In this way, how can Wu County, which lacks a large number of middle-level officials, develop?

'Sure enough, we can't drain the pond to get the fish…'

'Aristocratic families are not floods and beasts, and to a certain extent, they still need to be regarded as an important human resource.'

Li Ji thought silently, and actively corrected some of the radical ideas from later generations.

Perhaps the chaos of the late Eastern Han Dynasty was largely due to the extensive land annexation by powerful aristocratic families. However, even in the Song and Ming dynasties, where these families didn't exist, severe land annexation still occurred; only the annexers had changed from aristocratic families to others.

In this era, over 99% of those who can read are from powerful and wealthy families. Currently, if one truly wants to rule a region, it's impossible to completely abandon these families and play the game alone.