Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Chapter 118: You Are Worse Than a Beast

(PS: After reminders from fellow book lovers, Cai Yan's courtesy name has been changed from Wenji to Zhaoji, and the previous text has been modified.)

After Liu Bei left, Li Ji resumed his usual pace of life, leisurely enjoying tea, reading books, and perusing the water conservancy classics he had brought back from Cai Yong's collection.

With Gu Yong's help, Li Ji had almost unearthed all the water conservancy-related classics from the collection and was now carefully studying them.

Previously, Li Ji had completed a survey of the entire Wu Commandery's Five Lakes and the water network topography along the northern Yangtze River, and had attempted to use the "Strategy Simulator" to deduce the best development plan.

The deduction did not fail, but Li Ji was not very satisfied.

47%!

This value was not the success rate, but rather the calculated maximum extent to which the deduced development plan could guarantee the development of Wu Commandery's cultivated land.

Of course, the current cultivated land area of Wu Commandery is only about 12% of Li Ji's estimated maximum.

However, even a three-fold increase was not enough to satisfy Li Ji, and he understood that the reason was probably due to his limited understanding and accumulation of water conservancy knowledge.

However, before the appearance of the *Shui Jing Zhu* (Waterways Classic), there was not even a truly complete work on water conservancy in the world.

The classics that Li Ji had found were only scattered records of some water conservancy-related content.

This was the norm of the era, just as the development process of the Zheng Guo Canal was recorded in a volume of historical classics related to the Qin State.

Therefore, the talents of this era might each have considerable insights into "water attack," but there were probably no real water conservancy system talents at all, and even if Li Ji wanted to find external assistance, it would be almost impossible.

"Alas…"

Li Ji sighed, continuing to enrich the "database" in his brain, providing greater support for the "Strategy Simulator's" deductions.

70%!

In Li Ji's estimated goal, without affecting the native ecology of Wu Commandery, the deduced plan should at least be able to develop the cultivated land area of Wu Commandery to more than 70% of its maximum.

Perhaps it was a bit greedy, but Li Ji never wanted to be slow and sloppy in his actions, hoping to accomplish everything in one battle.

While the world had not yet truly entered a chaotic era, and the Han Dynasty still maintained a certain order, this was the best time to develop Wu Commandery.

Otherwise, once the chaotic world truly arrived, war would be the main theme, and even if one wanted to "farm" well, they might not have the energy for it.

Three days!

Li Ji read through all the water conservancy classics he had brought back from Cai Yong's collection, and then performed another deduction.

This time, the deduced plan was optimized to a certain extent, and could affect more areas of cultivated land, reaching approximately "53% of the maximum."

This caused Li Ji to put down the bamboo slip in his hand on the stone table, and then helplessly rub his temples, relieving the somewhat dizzy head.

'Cai-shi's collection is already the greatest in the Han Dynasty besides the imperial family. If I want to find more water conservancy-related books next, I'm afraid that besides going to the imperial palace, I will have to search through other classics volume by volume for records related to water conservancy.'

However, Li Ji knew very well that if he wanted to search through Cai Yong's collection one by one, Li Ji would probably barely manage to do so even if he did not sleep for the next year.

And Wu Commandery could not wait for a year, not even three months.

As Wu Commandery continued to recruit and resettle refugees, it was naturally necessary to allocate cultivated land to the refugees as soon as possible, so that the refugees could quickly be transformed into labor and productivity; otherwise, simply supporting the refugees would only be a burden.

Although after the destruction of 70% of the aristocratic families, Liu Bei had rearranged personnel to clear the cultivated land and recovered a large amount of "unowned" cultivated land belonging to the aristocratic families.

However, the population of Wu Commandery was insufficient before, and the imperial court did not pay attention to the development of the area south of the Yangtze River at all.

Therefore, in the case that Wu Commandery itself did not have much cultivated land, even if a large amount of aristocratic family land was taken in and distributed to the refugees, it would not last long.

Therefore, Li Ji had to come up with a plan within three months at the latest, so as not to delay this year's spring plowing to the greatest extent.

At that time, he would be able to quickly mobilize labor to start developing Wu Commandery, and gradually or in advance prepare for the resettlement areas and land allocation of the refugees according to the plan.

At the thought of this, Li Ji could not help but feel a little anxious, the kind of anxiety that a clever woman cannot cook without rice, so anxious that he even stood up from the four-wheeled carriage and paced back and forth, seeking a solution to break the situation.

Or, should he first prepare according to the current development plan, and then slowly patch up this development plan on this basis in the future?

However, if this is the case, Li Ji knew very well that, not to mention the efficiency problem, more importantly, this kind of thing cannot be completed at one time, but is constantly patched up little by little in the future…

Digging today and filling tomorrow, wouldn't that be letting the "civil engineering laborers" transformed from those prisoners cheat the lord of money and food every day?

Where would there be an end to this kind of play?

Your position determines your perspective, Li Ji would never allow this kind of thing to happen.

At this time, an elegant figure with delicate branches bearing abundant fruit suddenly appeared in Li Ji's mind.

'Gu Yong once said: Cai Zhaoji has memorized most of Cai Yong's collection…'

Li Ji's heart moved suddenly, and a bit of excitement appeared on his face. Wasn't this the object he was looking for?

A human-shaped walking library, also with a built-in manual retrieval function!

As long as Cai Zhaoji was willing to cooperate, then would there still be a need to worry that Wu Commandery's rivers would not be able to pass water?

Immediately, Li Ji wanted to visit Cai's residence again, but his footsteps could not help but pause.

Cai Zhaoji had previously married Wei Zhongdao of Hedong, but Wei Zhongdao died early. Cai Zhaoji seemed to have a name similar to "ominous," and could only leave Hedong and return to her home. Then, as Cai Yong was exiled, she eventually lived in seclusion with Cai Yong in Jiangdong.

Therefore, Cai Zhaoji could be completely regarded as a widow.

It was fine that they had accidentally met in the partial courtyard of Cai's residence before, but if Li Ji took the liberty to visit, it would seem a bit inappropriate no matter how you looked at it.

Even if Liu Bei was asked to come forward and explain the reason, since the Han Dynasty did not have a precedent for women to hold office, Cai Yong would probably not be willing to let his daughter show her face due to etiquette.

"Tsk, etiquette is indeed an inconvenient thing…"

Li Ji muttered, and sat back on the four-wheeled carriage, thinking about how to get Cai Zhaoji to cooperate with him and dig out all the water conservancy knowledge in her mind.

On: How to open a widow's door…

At this time, Li Ji even missed Boss Cao a little. Presumably, if Boss Cao was here, he would definitely be able to impart a lot of experience to Li Ji.

Relatively speaking, Liu, Guan, and Zhang were all rough men busy with their careers, and had never smelled the scent of women, so what did they know about widows?

Li Ji had never had the opportunity to open the doors of widows before, so naturally he had no experience to speak of.

'Or, should I truthfully ask Cai-shi for permission?'

Li Ji was a little hesitant about this, as this matter was undoubtedly a bit sensitive.

If he were to borrow classics from Cai Yong, he would not refuse with Cai Yong's magnanimity, but to directly say that Li Ji, a stranger with no relatives, needed to contact Cai Yong's daughter, and then needed his daughter to quickly silently write out all the water conservancy classics she knew.

What's the difference between this and a yellow-haired boy coming to the door to ask an old codger to spend some money, and then take his daughter out to play?

After thinking for a while, Li Ji subconsciously used the "Strategy Simulator" to perform a deduction for reference.

[For the development of Wu Commandery, water conservancy is the most important thing, affecting the potential cultivated land area that can be reclaimed in Wu Commandery in the future.

However, limited by knowledge and the limitations of the era, you lack a lot of water conservancy knowledge to fill the gaps, and then plan the most suitable plan.

At this time, you suddenly thought of Cai Zhaoji, understanding that as long as Cai Zhaoji can cooperate, then perhaps you can get the knowledge you urgently need in a very short time.

In this regard, your choices are:

1, Soft; 2, Hard.]

Ah?

Looking at the options of the "Strategy Simulator," even a pure-hearted person like Li Ji could not help but be slightly stunned.

Is it that the "Strategy Simulator" has become improper, or has Li Ji been contaminated?

As for whether Li Ji's knowledge as a "database" has contaminated the "Strategy Simulator," Li Ji believes that it is absolutely impossible.

Although Li Ji felt a little clueless about these two choices, he still subconsciously chose the second choice that all men would choose, "Hard."

[As a man who intends to rule the world with one commandery, you decisively chose the most efficient way—"Hard," hoping to make Cai Zhaoji submit as soon as possible.

Since this choice is somewhat obscene and should not be known by others, you secretly went to Taoyuan to select twenty young men who are loyal to you.

After more than half a year of training, some of the older young men have already taken on the basic qualifications, and their combat ability is not inferior to ordinary commandery soldiers.

And as the commandery assistant, you easily concealed a batch of weapons from everyone and used them to equip these twenty young men.]

[Then, on a dark and windy night, you secretly sent these twenty young men to sneak into the weakly defended Cai residence, silently abducting Cai Zhaoji, and placing her in a small dark room in the dungeon you had prepared in advance in the mansion.

After obtaining Cai Zhaoji, who had originally aroused a bit of admiration in your heart, you were not shaken by personal feelings, and unhesitatingly chose to use both coercion and inducement against Cai Zhaoji, even threatening her with the life of Cai Zhaoji's father, Cai Yong, forcing Cai Zhaoji to obey you.

Cai Zhaoji's psychological defenses were quickly broken down by your unscrupulous methods. Under your demands, she began to constantly recite and compile the records related to water conservancy from her mind.

To maximize the exploitation of Cai Zhaoji, you kept her locked up in the dungeon's small dark room, providing her with a number of grains of rice based on the number of words she transcribed each day to satiate her hunger.

Soon, you obtained what you wanted and successfully completed a water conservancy plan that satisfied you.

As for the slight disturbances in Wu County caused by Cai Zhaoji's abduction by bandits, they were quickly forgotten by the world. Only Cai Yong, worried about his daughter, died in sorrow in less than three years.

And after obtaining all of the tens of thousands of books left behind after Cai Yong's death through some means, in your eyes, Cai Zhaoji completely lost all value and was completely abandoned by you in the dungeon's small dark room to starve to death…

Scheme Evaluation: Between "beast" and "worse than a beast," you chose "worse than you, beast"…