Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Chapter 124: The Peach Garden Troupe!! (Bonus Chapter!)

Li Ji was speechless, understanding that Cai Zhaoji was using the zither music to see him off.

Immediately, Li Ji looked at Cai Zhaoji again, his eyes slightly softened, knowing that the next meeting might be months later, or perhaps only after the wedding.

However, compared to the great cause he wanted to achieve in his heart, Li Ji could not stop for personal feelings.

On the contrary, being able to have Cai Zhaoji as his wife seemed to be quite fortunate.

Li Ji bowed to Cai Zhaoji, both to thank her for her help during this time and to say goodbye, before slowing down and drifting away.

Feeling Li Ji's figure moving away, Cai Zhaoji, who had been bowing her head, slowly raised her eyes, watching Li Ji's back, full of youthful spirit and refined calmness, disappear around the corner, and the melody of the scorched tail zither she played changed accordingly.

Not only was it the meaning of "seeing off a guest", but also a little bit of reluctance, and a hint of waiting, as if waiting to meet him again.

At this moment, Cai Zhaoji, who had previously felt no joy or sorrow about the marriage, merely seeing it as her father's arrangement, suddenly had a bit of anticipation.

And Li Ji, standing after the corner, silently listened to the end of the song before moving on again.

After saying goodbye to Cai Yong, Li Ji walked out of the Cai residence and walked towards Xiahou Lan and the guards who had been waiting for a long time.

"Sir, are we returning to the residence?"

Xiahou Lan confirmed.

"No, out of the city, to the Peach Garden Camp."

Li Ji said, got on his horse, and went straight towards the city gate.

The Peach Garden Camp was not a military camp, nor was it a refugee camp, but a camp where the Peach Garden Troupe recruited by Liu Bei earlier was settled.

At this moment, nearly a year had passed since the recruitment of the Peach Garden Troupe. The boys and girls recruited at that time were all between the ages of eight and fourteen, and Jian Yong taught them to read and write and divided them into different groups to teach different skills.

Moreover, the Peach Garden Troupe were all orphans, and they were given the surnames Liu and Li respectively. In addition, Li Ji formulated a lot of ideological education, which made these Peach Garden Troupe loyal.

When Li Ji arrived at this Peach Garden Camp, which looked no different from a military camp on the surface, he showed his seal before being allowed to enter it.

After entering it, unlike the seemingly strict defense on the periphery, the interior was clearly divided into different areas, separated by men and women, and divided again according to the different content they learned.

In this era, it was difficult to find someone willing to teach children to read, but it was very easy to find commoners who mastered various skills.

Therefore, in addition to Jian Yong being the literacy teacher and ideological education teacher, the rest who taught various unique skills were all found from the outside refugees.

Just as Li Ji was still observing the internal operation of the entire Peach Garden Camp, a burly man in full armor hurried towards Li Ji and bowed to salute.

"Greetings, Master Zikun."

Li Ji glanced at the burly man, who had a strong Zhang Fei style, with an untrimmed beard under his jaw, and even his skin was extremely dark.

However, Zhang Fei was born with dark skin, while the burly man in front of him was simply tanned on purpose because he admired Zhang Fei.

Thinking back to a year ago, when this man became one of Zhang Fei's Eighteen Yan Cloud Riders with only his courage, Li Ji still remembered that his appearance was quite heroic and not lacking in handsomeness.

Now, only heroism can be seen, but no handsomeness.

As Zhang Fei was now appointed as a督邮 (Du You, an official title in Han Dynasty), he needed to inspect the surrounding counties on weekdays. Liu Bei, who was short of middle-level generals, naturally discovered and promoted several usable talents from the Eighteen Yan Cloud Riders.

Among them, the person in charge of the Peach Garden Camp was this man from the original Eighteen Yan Cloud Riders, Zhang Sai.

"Du Bo Zhang, have there been any abnormalities recently?" Li Ji asked.

"Reporting to Master Zikun, there are no abnormalities," Zhang Sai replied without hesitation.

"That's good."

Li Ji undoubtedly attached great importance to this militarized Peach Garden Camp, which could be used to cultivate a large number of confidants loyal to Liu Bei, and these "seeds" were also needed to gradually create the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Afterwards, Li Ji, accompanied by Zhang Sai and Xiahou Lan, inspected the Peach Garden Camp.

The internal environment of the Peach Garden Camp was very different from that of ordinary military camps. The most conspicuous thing was the conspicuous slogans everywhere:

"Do not forget the oath of the Peach Garden of our lord, do not forget the ambition of our master to save the world", "Our bodies were saved and protected by our lord and master, and we will repay it in the future", "Are you ready? For the moment when you are needed"\n…

Wherever Li Ji passed, he could almost receive a lot of adoring and excited eyes from the boys and girls of the Peach Garden Troupe. Li Ji also responded warmly and encouraged them one by one.

In fact, not only Li Ji would come here occasionally, but even Liu Bei was asked by Li Ji to come here for a walk regularly.

If based on status, in this place similar to a militarized management school, Zhang Sai was just the chief of the security section, Liu Bei was the real principal, and Li Ji was the director of education…

Huh?

Why does this metaphor seem a little weird?

Suddenly, Li Ji noticed the expression of Zhang Sai, who was following him, as if he wanted to say something but stopped, and asked.

"Du Bo Zhang, is there anything you want to say?"

"Yes."

Hearing this, Zhang Sai quickly cupped his hands. "Master Zikun, you see, I… I just hope to return to General Zhang's command."

…

Li Ji.

The confidants brought out by Zhang Fei, this reckless man, are really all in the same style as Zhang Fei.

He actually doesn't want to be a good Du Bo, but wants to go back to being a soldier.

Li Ji felt a little helpless and shirked, saying.

"Du Bo Zhang should ask Yide about this matter. I am just the county magistrate and have no power to transfer."

Zhang Sai lowered his head slightly and replied.

"This subordinate has asked General Zhang about this matter. General Zhang said that these things need to be asked of Master Zikun. Without Master Zikun's nod, even if he begs the lord, the lord will still follow Master Zikun's opinion in the end."

？ ？！！

Li Ji.

Hearing this, Li Ji almost couldn't hold back his expression on the spot.

Zhang Yide, why are you saying everything?

Even if Zhang Sai can be regarded as a brother who has gone through life and death with you, can these words be said indiscriminately?

For a time, Li Ji couldn't help but feel that Zhang Fei seemed to be a little too idle as a督邮 (Du You), and he still needed to find something for him to do.

Looking at Zhang Sai's appearance after saying this, he lowered his head and didn't dare to raise it at all. Li Ji didn't mean to be harsh on him, knowing that letting Zhang Sai be this Du Bo was just forcing him.

Liu Bei didn't lack top generals, but middle-level generals were extremely scarce, which was a defect that needed time to train and promote step by step.

"Two years!"

Li Ji raised two fingers and replied.

"Du Bo Zhang, guard this place well. Two years later, if Du Bo Zhang wants to return to General Zhang's command, I will personally ask the lord for orders, how about that?"

Zhang Sai was overjoyed when he heard this and quickly replied. "Thank you, Master Zikun."

Li Ji smiled helplessly. He didn't dislike Zhang Sai's straightforwardness, and the reason why he let Zhang Sai guard the Peach Garden Camp was because Zhang Sai didn't have Zhang Fei's habit of drinking, but was a cautious and heroic type.

What Zhang Sai admired about Zhang Fei was Zhang Fei's martial arts, heroism, and kindness.

Immediately, Li Ji went to the main tent of the Peach Garden Camp and checked the specific roster of the Peach Garden Troupe.

At the beginning, the number of the Peach Garden Troupe was 1,639 boys and 513 girls.

However, due to the problems of the medical system in this era, coupled with the fact that the Peach Garden Troupe had followed Liu Bei from Zhuo County to Wu County in the past year, a series of acclimatization or colds and various major and minor diseases occurred.

As a result, there were only 1,220 boys and 480 girls in the Peach Garden Troupe today, and different areas were divided according to the physique, appearance, interests, etc. of these boys and girls for cultivation.

Afterwards, Li Ji searched the roster and circled two names in a volume of rosters of fifteen-year-old girls whose training direction was maids.

Soon, two unremarkable girls were summoned into the main tent with excitement on their faces.

Li Qin, Li Shu.

These two are twins, but they are of the type that is not outstanding in figure and appearance.

In addition to undergoing a series of maid training, Li Qin and Li Shu, despite their young age, are rare women with outstanding martial arts skills and were cultivated by Li Ji as similar to personal female bodyguards.

According to Li Qin and Li Shu, they had been helping their father in farming since they were young, so their strength and physique were much stronger than ordinary girls.

Therefore, for the planning of Li Qin and Li Shu, Li Ji was preparing to arrange them into the residences of scholars under Liu Bei in the future.

One is to closely protect the scholars, and the other is to monitor and find out whether there is any disloyalty.

There are more than 20 girls similar to Li Qin and Li Shu, but Li Qin and Li Shu are the oldest in that group of girls.

After Li Shu and Li Qin entered the main tent, they saw that it was indeed Li Ji standing in the tent, and they almost knelt on the ground subconsciously and saluted excitedly.

"Master Zikun! Li Shu/Li Qin, at your disposal!"

For these orphans, Liu Bei and Li Ji, who adopted and gave them their surnames, were almost like their reborn parents.

They knew very well that without Liu Bei and Li Ji, they might have wandered to who knows where and starved or frozen to death, which would be the final ending.

Li Ji quickly stepped forward to help Li Shu and Li Qin up, and looked at them with kind eyes, with one or two points of Liu Bei's demeanor that he had practiced for a long time, and said.

"Good children, I have always paid attention to your performance in the camp, knowing that you two have lived up to expectations and have completely become talents."

Upon hearing this, both Li Shu and Li Qin were overcome with excitement.

For them, and indeed for everyone in Taoyuan, the greatest wish was undoubtedly to hear these words, to be acknowledged by Liu Bei and Li Ji, and to be able to repay them with their own strength.

Li Shu and Li Qin bowed again, shouting loudly.

“We pledge our lives to serve Master Zikun.”

“Good.”

Li Ji nodded and replied, “I need the two of you to protect someone, would you be willing?”

“How dare we refuse? We will only serve until death!”