Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator.

At this moment, Liu Bei, who was leading his troops and preparing to leave the city, was extremely anxious as he looked at the city gate, which was blocked and impenetrable.

After agreeing with Li Ji to place the battlefield on Daxing Mountain, the sooner Liu Bei could arrive at Daxing Mountain, the sooner he could gain a certain advantage.

Now, being stuck here and wasting time was truly making Liu Bei's gentle face show a bit of helplessness.

However, these wealthy families and landlords who were leaving the city to seek refuge had five or six carts at the least, and a dozen or more at the most, with accompanying servants and slaves ranging from hundreds to several hundred people, and some wealthy families even had a scale of thousands of people.

Although the volunteer army led by Liu Bei also had two thousand people, their shabby appearance from top to bottom was instead met with contempt from some of the surrounding wealthy families and landlords.

"Zikun, if these wealthy families and landlords were willing to contribute all their strength to resist the Yellow Turban bandits, why would there be any need to fear the Yellow Turban bandits?"

Liu Bei said with a somewhat complicated tone.

It turned out that within the vast Zhuo County, it was not that there was no power to contend with the Yellow Turban bandits, who were nothing more than a rabble, but that they simply had no intention of resisting.

At this moment, Li Ji, riding on a white horse, was carefully pulling the reins with both hands.

Although Li Ji had gone to a riding club for a period of time out of interest in his previous life, compared to the ample protective measures and stirrups and saddles in his previous life.

The horses of this era did not yet have such things, and one had to rely entirely on riding skills to control the horse. Falling off carelessly was no joke.

Fortunately, the white horse under Li Ji's crotch was quite docile. After trying to control it for a while, Li Ji's originally tense heart relaxed a lot, and he turned to look at Liu Bei, who had a complicated expression.

Li Ji could quite understand the complexity in Liu Bei's heart at this moment.

It was nothing more than Liu Bei, in order to protect the folks in Zhuo County, was willing to gamble everything with his two sworn brothers, fight to the death, and prepare to block the Yellow Turban bandits outside of Zhuo County.

However, Liu Yan, as the governor, decided to stick to the city out of many concerns, which was fine.

But these local wealthy families and landlords in Zhuo County were also focused on fleeing, which inevitably made Liu Bei's heart feel a sense of loss.

Perhaps, Liu Bei's psychology at this moment was as complex as Cao Cao's when he faced the coalition of lords against Dong Zhuo and roared, "These brats are not worth planning with."

"Brother Xuande, in fact, this is very easy to understand…"

Li Ji glanced at the group of wealthy families and landlords and said.

"Choosing between sacrificing their family business to stay in Zhuo County and live and die with the common people, and temporarily abandoning a part of their industry to move to a safe place, after all, the romanticists who are willing to sacrifice for the sake of righteousness are a minority."

Romanticism is something that people yearn for, but it is also a minority.

Obviously, Liu, Guan, and Zhang can be regarded as the representatives of romanticism in this era, and "righteousness, benevolence, and the revival of the Han Dynasty" runs through their lives from beginning to end.

This is also the main reason why Li Ji recognized and planned to choose Liu Bei.

Compared with Cao Cao, who slaughtered the city eight times in his life, the most questionable thing about Liu Bei's life is that he is a hypocrite, plotting for personal gain under the banner of "reviving the Han Dynasty."

However, Liu Bei, who had been displaced for most of his life in history, finally established the Shu Han regime, but he was willing to avenge his sworn brother, gambling on the fate of the country to send troops to avenge, until he died of illness in Baidi City.

Throughout his life, Liu Bei never coveted power, and he also gained the recognition of Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong in the name of benevolence, which shows that he is not the so-called hypocrite.

"Romanticist?"

Listening to this somewhat strange term, Liu Bei was slightly startled at first, and then roughly understood the meaning of the term.

"Then what about Zikun?" Liu Bei asked.

"Ji is also a romanticist."

Li Ji said with a smile.

"However, obviously these wealthy families and landlords are not romanticists, or their romantic pursuit does not care about protecting the people, but about revitalizing the family, etc."

"A bunch of short-sighted villains." Guan Yu said proudly.

"Yunchang doesn't need to be so extreme, this is the nature of the vast majority of people, just drive them with profit."

In this regard, Li Ji's attitude was obviously quite calm.

After all, the wealthy families and landlords are in a different class from the common people. In times of crisis, the common people have no chance to escape, but there is no point in deliberately resenting the instinct of these wealthy families and landlords to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages.

Relatively speaking, the choices similar to Liu, Guan, and Zhang are undoubtedly precious.

Liu Bei pondered for a long time, and slowly let out a long sigh, as if he understood something, and the whole person seemed more calm invisibly. He no longer accused these wealthy families and landlords, but patiently waited to leave the city.

However, just as it was finally about to be Liu Bei's turn to lead his volunteer army out of the city, a large number of county soldiers surrounded them from the left and right, vaguely making a defensive posture.

This volunteer army, which had just been established not long ago, suddenly became a little more riotous.

"Calm down."

Liu Bei shouted loudly, briefly stabilizing the morale of the army, and then looked up towards the top of the city gate.

Liu Yan and Zou Jing were standing on the city gate, coldly overlooking Liu Bei below.

Immediately, Liu Bei got off his horse and bowed his hands towards Liu Yan's direction, saying.

"Uncle, what does this mean?"

Previously, Liu Bei visited Liu Yan once under the pretext of forming a volunteer army. In view of Liu Bei's status as a member of the Han clan, Liu Yan tried to win over Liu Bei with the title of "righteous nephew".

Now, even though Liu Bei respectfully called him "uncle", Liu Yan's gaze was still quite cold, overlooking Liu Bei below, and said.

"Xuande, where do you want to go?"

"Bei, is about to lead the volunteer army out of the city to fight the bandits."

"Hmm? What bandits?"

"Yellow Turban bandits."

As soon as Liu Bei's voice came out, the entire city gate suddenly fell into a moment of silence, and then bursts of laughter began to sound from time to time.

"Hahahaha…"

In the midst of the laughter that seemed to be mocking Liu Bei's overestimation of his abilities, Liu Bei still did not change his expression, but the palms hidden in his sleeves clenched unconsciously.

Even Liu Yan's originally pretended dignified face also showed a hint of a smile, and then he waved his hand and said.

"Alright, Xuande, uncle also knows that you have a heart to serve the country, but the Yellow Turban bandits are powerful and must be discussed in the long term. You must not act rashly. You should lead the volunteer army back to the garrison. If there is anything you need to help you kill the enemy, your uncle will summon you."

Liu Bei bowed again and saluted. "Uncle, Bei is very clear about what he is doing."

Being publicly refuted by Liu Bei, Liu Yan's expression, which had originally shown a slight smile, turned cold again, and then his eyes swept around the two thousand volunteer soldiers behind Liu Bei, and said.

"Xuande, your two thousand volunteer soldiers have no armor and few bows and crossbows. What bandits can you kill?"

If Liu Yan did not need to stabilize the morale of the people in Zhuo County, and could not publicly say the number of Yellow Turban troops he knew, otherwise Liu Yan would have almost directly said that Liu Bei's two thousand so-called volunteer army was just an螳螂挡车 (mantis trying to stop a chariot).

Liu Bei naturally understood the meaning in Liu Yan's words, and even Liu Yan was questioning whether Liu Bei's leading the volunteer army out of the city at this moment was not to fight the bandits, but to preserve his strength, or even to lead two thousand men to become bandits.

However, before Liu Bei could refute and explain, the corner of his clothes was quietly pulled by Li Ji, and then a sentence entered Liu Bei's ears.

"Military order, ask for status…"

This sentence made Liu Bei calm down instantly and understand Li Ji's meaning.

Ask for status!

This is the most important point.

You must know that now, whether it is Liu, Guan, Zhang, or Li Ji, they are just commoners.

Even if Liu Bei claims to be a "member of the Han clan" and has already become the leader of the volunteer army, it still cannot change the fact that he is just a commoner.

In this era, the importance of status is extremely important.

Among the large and small warlords who divided and occupied territories in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, they often started as a prefect, and even Cao Cao, who was said to be from a poor family, his father Cao Song had also served as one of the three dukes, the Grand Commandant.

Although the gold content of the three dukes at the top of the official system pyramid in the late Eastern Han Dynasty was greatly reduced, it was enough to show that Cao Cao's family was still much more prominent than the real poor families.

After the Yellow Turban Rebellion ended, Cao Cao was directly appointed as the Chancellor of Jinan, equivalent to the position of prefect, with jurisdiction over more than a dozen counties.

In addition, Sun Jian, who also led more than a thousand people to follow Zhu Jun to crusade against the Yellow Turbans, was also promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and then three years later was appointed by the imperial court as the Prefect of Changsha.

Liu Bei, who conquered the Yellow Turbans as a volunteer army in the original trajectory, was only a county lieutenant, and even failed to get a county magistrate, the gap is conceivable.

Therefore, Li Ji deliberately reminded Liu Bei to seize this opportunity and first get an official position from Liu Yan's hands.

Of course, Liu Bei did not think as far as Li Ji, but only thought that Li Ji was reminding him that he could gain Liu Yan's trust to leave the city through the method of "military order".

"Uncle, Bei knows that the Yellow Turbans are coming, or the people in Zhuo County will not be harmed by the Yellow Turban bandits in a short time, but there are countless elders and folks outside the city. How can Bei ignore them?"

"Bei also knows that the Yellow Turban bandits are powerful, but Bei is not afraid of death, but only fears that the people will be harmed by the Yellow Turban bandits, so Bei is determined to lead two thousand volunteer soldiers out of the city to fight the bandits!!"

These words were spoken by Liu Bei with deep emotion, which was moving.

For a time, not only those powerful landlords waiting to leave the city took notice, but the volunteer soldiers also felt a surge of emotion.

And Liu Yan, standing on the city wall, also frowned, somewhat doubting his judgment, whether he had misunderstood Liu Bei's intentions.

However, when Liu Yan thought of the shortage of troops in the city today, he still shouted.

"His heart is commendable, but rashly doing so will not only harm your life, but also implicate the two thousand volunteer soldiers. As the prefect of Zhuo County, how can this official allow you to act recklessly?"

Liu Bei heard the words, gritted his teeth, and said. "Uncle, Bei is willing to make a military order."

A letter of undertaking?

These words greatly shocked Liu Yan.

Generally speaking, the consequences of violating a letter of undertaking are extremely serious. In the famous story of "Zhuge Liang executing Ma Su with tears," Zhuge Liang had no choice but to execute Ma Su because Ma Su had first signed a letter of undertaking.

Throughout the entire late Han Dynasty, only Xiahou Dun treated the letter of undertaking as toilet paper. Not only did he suffer no consequences for his defeats, but he was also continuously promoted.

"Xuande, you are a commoner. What can you use to sign a letter of undertaking? Can you bear the lives of these two thousand volunteer soldiers alone?" Liu Yan asked slowly.

The contempt revealed in his words caused Liu Bei's face to turn slightly red.

Perhaps others would think highly of Liu Bei because he was a descendant of Prince Jing of Zhongshan, but Liu Yan, as a Han Dynasty clansman officially recognized by the imperial court and holding the position of governor, would not value a commoner like Liu Bei at all.

Seeing this, Guan Yu's narrowed eyes revealed a hint of killing intent. He took a step forward, not bowing to Liu Yan, but loudly proclaiming.

"Guan is also willing to sign a letter of undertaking with my brother."

"And who are you?"

Liu Yan asked again, clearly not taking the unknown Guan Yu seriously.

However, what Liu Yan did not expect was that his series of words had unknowingly angered the two thousand volunteer soldiers.

Almost every one of these two thousand volunteer soldiers was personally recruited by Liu Bei. Perhaps Liu Bei could not be called knowledgeable about military affairs, but Liu Bei possessed an unspeakable personal charm that made these two thousand volunteer soldiers respect him greatly.

Now, the argument beneath the city gate, in addition to exposing the shamelessness of the governor Liu Yan as an outsider official, also highlighted Liu Bei's benevolence and righteousness.

In the eyes of these volunteer soldiers from Zhuo County, Liu Bei's actions were entirely for the sake of protecting the elders and folks of Zhuo County, for which he did not hesitate to exhaust his family wealth and risk his life to sign a letter of undertaking.

However, although Liu Yan spoke with great righteousness, he allowed those powerful clans and landlords to leave the city unhindered, while obstructing Liu Bei in every possible way, which undoubtedly seemed to have ulterior motives.

"I am also willing to follow Lord Liu in signing a letter of undertaking."

First, there were a few scattered voices, and then this sentence became more and more orderly and loud among the volunteer soldiers.

Finally, the loud voices erupted by the two thousand people completely resounded through half of Zhuo County, shocking some cowardly people who witnessed this scene, causing their faces to turn pale.

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei was extremely moved and turned to bow to the volunteer soldiers.

"What virtue or ability do I, Bei, possess to receive such love from you all? I, Bei, hereby swear that I will live and die with you all."

Responding to Liu Bei were volunteer soldiers kneeling on one knee one after another, expressing their determination to follow Liu Bei to protect Zhuo County.

This scene caused Li Ji's heart to tremble, and he secretly sighed that the morale of the army was available.

At the same time, he could not help but admire Liu Bei's unique personal charm.

Although the reason why Liu Bei so quickly won the hearts of the two thousand volunteer soldiers was because of the advantage of being fellow villagers, and everything Liu Bei did was to protect Zhuo County, it also implicitly revealed Liu Bei's personal charm.

In contrast, Li Ji admitted that he was far from having such charm and appeal, so it was no wonder that Liu Bei had a group of monarchs and generals following him despite repeated defeats in history.

And the fact that all the volunteer soldiers, including Liu Bei and Guan Yu, were willing to sign a letter of undertaking, also put Liu Yan in a rather embarrassing situation.

If he backed down, Liu Bei, a mere commoner, would dare not to respect the order of Liu Yan, who was the governor. What prestige would Liu Yan have in the future?

But if he insisted on keeping these two thousand volunteer soldiers, seeing that these two thousand volunteer soldiers were willing to sign a letter of undertaking with Liu Bei, Liu Yan also understood that not only would these two thousand volunteer soldiers no longer be used by him, but even staying in the city might be a hidden danger.