Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

In addition to this, Li Ji also planned to build a road connecting the shipyard to the nearest Lou County, to facilitate future transportation, troop deployment, and material supply.

As for Sun Ce, after obtaining Li Ji's permission to leave the cavalry, he began, at Li Ji's suggestion, to search along the coast for fishermen and young men with sailing experience to build his own core crew.

Li Ji gave Sun Ce a quota of two hundred men, nominally having Sun Ce lead these two hundred men as the shipyard's garrison.

Of course, the shipyard was located on the eastern coast of Wu County, an area where neither the Shanyue nor bandits existed, making the possibility of an attack extremely small.

Unless there were pirates…

However, Li Ji recalled for a moment and realized that there actually seemed to be pirates in this era, and the pirate leader Guan Cheng was even a figure recorded in historical books.

It was just that Guan Cheng came from the Yellow Turbans, and his area of activity was not south of the Yangtze River, but in the Qingzhou area.

This made Li Ji's expression slightly strange…

Pirates or something, more or less made Li Ji feel like he was in the wrong play.

If Sun Ce, that kid, was really let loose to roam the seas and venture around, wouldn't he come back with the title of "Pirate King"?

The Pirate King destroys the Land of Wa?

Hiss, it doesn't seem like there's no potential in that!

This reminded Li Ji, but this wasn't destruction, it's not okay to talk nonsense!

This was liberating the Land of Wa, it's just that before the liberation, having the people of the Land of Wa mine some gold and silver mines, that's very reasonable, right?

However, Li Ji realized that he was indeed a little too impatient when he saw that the "civil engineering laborers" had only just dug the first handful of soil in the area he had designated.

He hadn't even carved out the first sampan for the seagoing ship, and he was already thinking about destroying the Land of Wa?

Just as Li Ji confirmed the initial progress of the shipyard and was preparing to personally inspect the progress of the water conservancy construction nearby, slowly returning to Wu County.

The messenger sent by Liu Bei hurriedly came over, urgently summoning Li Ji to return to Wu County.

And when Li Ji saw the sentence on Liu Bei's handwritten letter, he felt a chill in his heart: Great famine and plague in the Central Plains, return quickly!!!

…

While Li Ji was hurriedly embarking on his way back to Wu County.

Inside the Wu County government office, Liu Bei sat in the main seat, with Zhang Fei, Xiahou Bo, Jian Yong, Mi Zhu, and Gu Yong, who was responsible for recording, sitting below.

However, unlike the relatively relaxed atmosphere that was usually maintained during meetings, this meeting was extremely solemn.

Including Liu Bei, who usually kept his emotions hidden from his subordinates, everyone's face looked heavy.

Great famine and plague in the Central Plains!

This news first came from a scholar from the Central Plains, and then many people didn't take it seriously, and Liu Bei hadn't received any news from the imperial court either.

Until the number of refugees that Wu County had been receiving at a fairly steady pace suddenly surged, frantically trying to pour into Wu County through the passage opened up by Xuzhou to seek a way out.

Previously, due to natural and man-made disasters, the number of refugees had remained at a fairly high number, and almost every moment in the Great Han, people had to become refugees and flee.

Therefore, the passage that Liu Bei had opened up in Xuzhou had been continuously receiving refugees.

The number received each day had always remained in the range of several hundred people, and in the half year since Liu Bei took office as the governor of Wu County, nearly 60,000 refugees had been continuously received.

This was already a considerable number, knowing that before Liu Bei took office, the official number on the Wu County household registration was only over 700,000.

This had already increased the population base by nearly one-tenth through the reception of refugees.

Of course, after a large number of aristocratic families were destroyed and a large number of hidden households and unregistered households were recalculated, the actual population of Wu County was about 850,000.

Therefore, under the series of rules formulated by Li Ji, even though Wu County had been receiving refugees, it was not difficult to assimilate these new population bases.

Until, as the Central Plains region seemed to have experienced a severe drought and plague at the beginning of spring, the number of refugees seemed to have increased exponentially.

For a time, countless refugees poured through the Xuzhou passage to the north bank of the Yangtze River, trying to cross south to Wu County, and even the ferry crossings and ferry boats originally organized by the government to carry refugees across the river were unable to keep up even when overloaded.

And Mi Zhu, who was now in charge of Wu County's finances, spoke first under this solemn atmosphere and replied.

“Lord, the grain previously left in Xuzhou, which could have continuously supplied the refugees fleeing south, was originally enough for three months, but as the number of refugees surged, even if it has been diluted as much as possible, I am afraid that it will only last for more than ten days at most.”

“And due to the limited number of ferries, the original ferry crossings are overwhelmed, and even though refugees have been continuously transported, the number of refugees now stranded on the north bank of the Yangtze River waiting to cross the river has reached tens of thousands.”

Most of the people present had followed Liu Bei south from Julu, passing through Xuzhou before arriving in Wu County, and they knew very well what the refugees and disaster victims they saw along the way looked like.

Previously, Liu Bei did not hesitate to delay the marching time and personally communicated with the governors and magistrates of each county to leave that passage, which can be said to have left a glimmer of hope for those refugees.

If the grain supplied by that passage, which barely sustained life, ran out, one can imagine what a living hell it would be.

Eating children…

Even if these four words are written in ink on historical books, they are red to the point of being black.

“Cannot be cut off!”

Liu Bei frowned and shouted.

“Immediately organize people to transport grain to Xuzhou, and be sure to leave a glimmer of hope for those refugees as much as possible, otherwise they will starve to death before they can reach Wu County.”

At this time, it was Mi Zhu who stood up and said.

“Lord, please think twice! It is true that Wu County now has sufficient money and grain, but Mr. Zikun has also spread out a large stall, the Taoyuan crowd, the county soldiers, General Guan's soldiers stationed in Fuchun Mountain, a large number of prisoners who are developing water conservancy, and the laborers recruited from various counties, etc., cannot be cut off…”

“Once a large amount of money and grain is used for disaster relief, once Wu County's money and grain also fall into a state of shortage, not only will the consequences be unimaginable, but the great cause that the Lord and Mr. Zikun want to achieve will inevitably fall short.”

As soon as this remark came out, Liu Bei's face immediately became ugly.

Liu Bei was also very clear about the specific allocation of money and grain in Wu County.

In order to ensure the stability of Wu County, Li Ji even refused to take out even a single point of money and grain from the government treasury when he proposed the "city without walls", in order to avoid any risk that would interfere with the foundation.

Moreover, Liu Bei was even more clear that Mi Zhu had missed a point!

Whether Wu County's money and grain were sufficient was also related to the progress of the shipyard and seagoing ships!

Only when the seagoing ships were successfully built could people be sent out to sea to find rice seeds with greatly increased yields, and to develop the overseas gold and silver mountains that Li Ji spoke of.

‘Wu County’s money and grain cannot be moved lightly, at least not on a large scale within the plan set by Zikun…’

‘But, must Bei watch helplessly as many people starve to death?’

Liu Bei slammed his palm on the table unwillingly and said. “Why not give Bei a few more years, if there are a few more years… a few more years…”

Liu Bei clenched his teeth tightly, his face full of struggle.

On the one hand, it was reason and rationality; on the other hand, it was benevolence and sensibility.

Liu Bei looked at the people sitting below unwillingly, and asked in a slightly hoarse and low voice.

“Everyone, I want to save the refugees, are there any good strategies?”

Responding to Liu Bei was… silence.

Liu Bei's gaze looked at Mi Zhu, Jian Yong, Gu Yong, and even Xiahou Bo, and wherever he passed, they all lowered their heads.

Obviously, everyone's attitude was not to support disaster relief.

There were too many reasons!

Not to mention that now only the great drought and plague in the Central Plains are known, causing countless refugees to flee, and the scope of the impact is still unclear, and it is even more unclear how many refugees there are.

No matter how much money and grain Wu County has, even if it goes all out to save them, how many can it support?

More importantly, even if a large amount of grain is transported to Xuzhou, giving the refugees a glimmer of hope to reach the north bank of the Yangtze River, how many refugees can Wu County bear?

It should be known that Wu County's water conservancy has not yet been fully developed, the arable land is limited, and it can resettle another 30,000 to 50,000 refugees, but what if there are 300,000 to 500,000 refugees?

What's more, the great drought and plague in the Central Plains is originally a matter that the imperial court needs to consider how to provide disaster relief and save the people. For local governments in non-disaster areas, it is their responsibility to manage their own acre of land.

Therefore, even if Mi Zhu, Jian Yong, Gu Yong and others also intend to help the refugees, they also know that this matter cannot be done, and it is also beyond the current capabilities of Wu County.

In the end, it was Gu Yong who spoke and put forward a most moderate and faultless statement, saying. “The Lord can report this matter to the imperial court and ask the imperial court to decide.”

This sentence obviously made Liu Bei laugh, laughing in anger, directly smashing the bamboo slip in his hand on the ground and said.

“Report to the imperial court, how much time will it take to go back and forth? The refugees who should starve to death will have starved to death long ago, is it to let the imperial court send people to collect the corpses? Or is it purely to comfort oneself and shift responsibility?”

Gu Yong, who was frightened by Liu Bei's furious appearance, quickly prostrated himself on the ground to admit his mistake.

However, Liu Bei obviously did not want to hold anyone accountable, and Liu Bei had also heard Li Ji mention that Gu Yong was talented, but his character was too moderate and self-protective.

However, what Liu Bei needed now was not this kind of responsibility-shirking moderate strategy, but a practical plan that could truly do something for the refugees without affecting the people under his rule.

‘Alas, Zikun is not by my side…’

Liu Bei thought of Li Ji again, and once again felt Li Ji's importance.

If Li Ji was by his side, presumably Li Ji would also support disaster relief and saving the people, and would come up with a truly win-win solution.

Just then, a dusty figure rushed in.

"Zilong?" Liu Bei exclaimed, looking at Zhao Yun's weather-beaten face. "Zilong, why have you returned at this time? Where is Zikun?"

"Mr. Zikun has not yet returned. It was Mr. Zikun's concern that disaster relief and aid to the people would be delayed, so he ordered Yun to travel day and night at full speed to return and deliver this item to you, my lord," Zhao Yun said, carefully taking out a piece of cloth from his chest and handing it to Liu Bei.

(End of Chapter)