Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

However, since it was something that could be passed up through layers of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, its origin must be clear, and it must have been personally ordered by Liu Bei or Li Ji.

‘Could it be the lord?’

While this thought surfaced in Li Ji's mind, he reached out, unwrapped the cloth package, took out the silk fabric inside, and began to read it.

In the next moment, as a delicate and familiar handwriting appeared before Li Ji's eyes, Li Ji suddenly realized that it was Cai Zhaoji's reply.

However, unlike Li Ji's almost official report-like letter, Cai Zhaoji's choice of words revealed a faint concern, and the delicate handwriting seemed to directly convey some girlish thoughts.

When Li Ji saw the sentence written by Cai Zhaoji: [However, your letter is no different from an official document, and there is no mention between the lines of whether you miss me or not], an inexplicable feeling of sweetness welled up in his heart, and even the corners of his mouth unconsciously curved into a smile.

Only after a moment did Li Ji suddenly wake up a little, his eyes widened slightly, and he murmured.

“Me, am I being flirted with?”

Li Ji's fingers gently traced the words on the silk fabric, as if crossing the distance and time to touch a bit of Cai Zhaoji's heart when she wrote this letter.

A letter is worth a thousand gold…

Suddenly, Li Ji experienced this feeling.

Perhaps due to the inconvenience of communication in this era, each letter carries a heavy emotion.

Cai Zhaoji seems… to be the same.

Because the next reply is unknown when it will arrive, even if she is very shy when writing the letter, she can't help but reveal her affection in the words.

Li Ji carefully savored this unfamiliar and pleasant feeling, even silently conceiving in his mind how to reply to Cai Zhaoji.

“Zikun! Zikun!!”

Suddenly, Liu Bei's voice came quickly from outside the camp, from far to near, scaring Li Ji so much that he shuddered, and subconsciously stuffed the silk fabric in his hand into his sleeve in a bit of panic.

Just as Li Ji had just hidden the silk fabric, Liu Bei's figure, full of joy and exhaustion, directly pulled open the curtain of the camp and rushed in, saying.

“Bei has not seen Zikun for many days, and misses Zikun very much…”

However, at this moment, Li Ji inexplicably had a sense of surprise and panic, as if he had been caught by the teacher while passing a love letter in class, and he got up a little at a loss and returned the salute to Liu Bei.

“Why did the lord return so quickly, and without sending someone to inform me, so that I could go to welcome you.”

“Bei knows that Zikun has also worked very hard during this period, how can I trouble Zikun to specially welcome me again? That ‘work-for-food’ is truly a good strategy for governing a country, which can not only settle the refugees, but also use it to govern and develop the Wu region, which is wonderful.”

When talking about Li Ji's affairs, the exhaustion on Liu Bei's face seemed to be swept away, and he talked endlessly with a face full of joy, looking like the number one Li Ji fan in the Han Dynasty.

However, just as Liu Bei was getting excited, he suddenly noticed the abrupt feminine cloth bag on the desk full of bamboo slips, and subconsciously reached out to pick it up.

Unexpectedly, Li Ji reacted like a conditioned reflex and reached out to snatch it first, directly taking the cloth bag and stuffing it into his sleeve.

“Zikun, what is this?”

Liu Bei blinked, confirming that he definitely hadn't seen it wrong just now, it was definitely a cloth bag used by a woman.

And Li Ji, who has always been indifferent and calm, now has a bit more shyness on his face.

Li Ji's moral bottom line is flexible, but it doesn't mean that Li Ji is usually a thick-skinned person. Being caught by Liu Bei delivering a love letter is simply too embarrassing.

And Liu Bei gradually came back to his senses and asked.

“Zikun, that… did Bei come at a bad time?”

Li Ji coughed lightly, naturally it was impossible to say please leave, my lord, and let your subordinate finish writing the love letter before coming in again, so he could only bite the bullet and say.

“No, my lord, you came at the right time.”

“Hmm?”

“Coincidentally, I have important matters to discuss with the lord.”

As Li Ji said this, his mind was almost running at full speed, wondering what the "important matter" was.

Fortunately, it is not difficult to find the process with the answer in mind!

Especially now that the Wu region is constantly changing, it will inevitably produce as many problems as hairs in the process of change that need to be solved.

Immediately, Li Ji said solemnly.

“My lord, if ‘work-for-food’ goes smoothly, not only can the water conservancy development plan that I have planned be completed within a year, but it is also estimated that it will be able to settle as many as 600,000 people.”

As soon as these words came out, for Liu Bei, those trivial matters just now were almost instantly thrown out of his mind, and he said with a look of excitement.

“In this way, it is truly a great thing that benefits the country and the people. The people are fortunate, the Wu region is fortunate, and the Han Dynasty is fortunate.”

Li Ji nodded and then continued.

“My lord, even if the water conservancy development is completed, which can make countless arable lands available in the Wu region, it will still be difficult for the people to cultivate and plant with their bare hands, and a large number of plowing cattle are urgently needed.”

This made Liu Bei, who was overjoyed, gradually furrow his brows.

Liu Bei, who came from a poor background, is not someone who says “why not eat meat porridge”, and Liu Bei's plowing level is quite good. He knows quite a bit about agricultural affairs, so he naturally knows what plowing cattle mean.

Especially if new fields need to be reclaimed, plowing cattle are even more important!

Liu Bei said in a deep voice. “Bei will try his best to contact merchants from all sides, spare no money or food, and do everything possible to purchase them, so as not to delay the people's major farming affairs.”

However, Liu Bei also knows that being in the Wu region means that even the price of buying a few usable warhorses is frighteningly expensive, let alone plowing cattle, which are even more valuable.

Wanting to purchase enough plowing cattle from merchants within a year to meet the needs of 600,000 people is simply a fool's dream.

However, even if Liu Bei knows that this matter is extremely difficult, he is not someone who will give up. Even if he buys one more plowing cattle, it can benefit many people and allow them to be full.

“My lord, according to my humble opinion, the lord may write a letter to his old friends in the You and Yan regions for help in this matter.”

Li Ji reminded him gently.

“The Central Plains is constantly plagued by wars and disasters, and plowing cattle are becoming increasingly scarce, but the Yellow Turban Rebellion has not had a great impact on You and Bing, and the two states are connected to the grassland in the north, and various horses and cattle are frequently traded. With a year to slowly plan it, it should not be difficult.”

Liu Bei nodded. As a native of Youzhou, he naturally knew that Li Ji was right.

Horse dealers like Zhang Shiping are not uncommon in Youzhou.

Or rather, almost all horse dealers are drilling into Youzhou and Bingzhou, doing business of reselling warhorses to earn the price difference.

And perhaps in other places, horses and cattle are rare items. The entire Yangzhou cannot even put together a fully staffed three-thousand cavalry team.

However, in Youzhou, Gongsun Zan can gather three thousand pure white horses to form the “White Horse Righteous Volunteers” to serve as the imperial guards just because he likes white horses. The difference is conceivable.

“Zikun, it is indeed not difficult to buy and sell horses and cattle in Youzhou, but how to transport them to the Wu region is a big problem.”

Liu Bei said with a sigh, apparently aware of the difficulty of transportation.

“Could it be that the lord has forgotten the shipyard?”

Li Ji said with a smile, and then rummaged through the bamboo slips on the desk and handed a copy to Liu Bei, saying.

“My lord, please take a look.”

Liu Bei opened the bamboo slips and looked at them, and found that they contained news about the shipyard.

With the unreserved support of the Wu region, the shipyard can be said to have been established at an incredible speed.

In particular, Li Ji has been continuously selecting craftsmen from among the refugees and placing them in the shipyard during this period, which has allowed the progress of the shipyard to be greatly improved.

In terms of “mutual cooperation”, the people living on this land are too good at it.

With sufficient manpower, all kinds of incredible miracles often break out.

Especially those craftsmen who escaped from the Central Plains are very grateful to Liu Bei, and they almost want to risk their lives to repay Liu Bei's kindness of saving their lives.

Therefore, not only has the shipyard been established, but it has even begun to try to build the first seagoing ship according to the ship blueprints collected by Liu Bei.

“If all goes well, the first seagoing ship for testing purposes can be completed in just three to five months.”

“And then, after those craftsmen have accumulated a certain amount of experience, they can be allowed to make certain modifications to the seagoing ship, turning it into a seagoing ship suitable for transporting horses, cattle, or various goods, and use it to trade back and forth between Youzhou.”

Upon hearing this, Liu Bei felt excited.

Liu Bei also couldn't help but sigh that Li Ji's way of governing the country is one step and ten calculations. The seagoing ship, which was originally intended to go overseas to find rice seeds, gold mines, and silver mines, has instead solved a major problem at the moment.

However, only Li Ji knows how important the emergence of seagoing ships will be.

As long as the maritime advantage is fully mastered, then Liu Bei, who seems to occupy the Jiangnan region, is actually guarding a corner, but in fact, he has completely controlled the long coastline of the Han Dynasty and can deploy troops to land anywhere in the Central Plains or the Northern Territory at any time.

“If that seagoing ship can really transport plowing cattle as Zikun said, then I will contact my friends who are still in the You and Yan regions and ask for their help.”

Liu Bei said with some joy.

“Then I will trouble the lord.” Li Ji cupped his hands.

Liu Bei was not ambiguous, and immediately got up to bid farewell and left, hurrying to prepare a letter to contact him.

After Liu Bei left, Li Ji slightly breathed a sigh of relief and took out the cloth bag and silk fabric from his sleeve.

Then, Li Ji first took out the small bamboo slip for notes, drew a circle on the “plowing cattle” in the bamboo slip, and then picked up the silk fabric again and carefully browsed it again.

He inexplicably felt as if honey water had entered his throat and moisturized his heart.

However, when Li Ji thought about how to reply to Cai Zhaoji, this made Li Ji feel embarrassed.

After pondering for quite a while, he only managed to write one word—'Miss'!

Compared to a woman of talent like Cai Zhaoji, Li Ji's literary talent was clearly lacking; he was a complete novice when it came to writing love letters.

But, besides writing 'Miss,' what else could he write? (End of Chapter)