Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

With all the civil and military officials assembled, Liu Bei directly cut to the chase.

“There are Shanyue bandits invading our territory, killing our people in Qiantang County. As the Governor of Wu Commandery, I, Liu Bei, will not allow this group of Shanyue to leave so easily. Last night, I already granted Zikun's request to send Zhao Yun with fifteen hundred light cavalry to provide swift aid to Qiantang County.”

Few words, but a big deal!

Liu Bei's short statement made most of those present sense a different kind of atmosphere.

Shanyue raiders appearing in Qiantang County?

Anyone with even a basic understanding of Wu Commandery's geography would realize that Qiantang County is not located near any deep mountains or forests. How could Shanyue appear there?

Jiang Qin, as the commander of the naval forces, subconsciously asked, “Lord, could it be that the Shanyue also have ships and landed in Qiantang County from the sea?”

However, this joke was clearly not very funny…

The Shanyue, a group of tribes primarily engaged in gathering and hunting in the deep mountains and forests, developing shipbuilding technology and then deliberately sailing from some other place to attack Qiantang County? Just thinking about it was unrealistic.

However, the matter of the Shanyue's suspected collusion with Kuaiji Commandery was, after all, only Li Ji's speculation on the current situation. Without evidence, it was not appropriate to announce it publicly.

After all, the Son of Heaven of the Han Dynasty still sat high on the dragon throne in Luoyang. Each commandery and state was a part of the great Han. Rashly speaking such words would affect unity and would not be allowed.

Therefore, after Liu Bei looked around and saw that no one else had offered any other reasonable speculation about the appearance of the Shanyue, he spoke.

“Let's not delve into how this group of Shanyue appeared in Qiantang County for the time being, but since such a small group of Shanyue can appear in Qiantang County, then there may very well be a larger-scale Shanyue invasion.”

“Therefore, I intend to immediately gather our forces to be ready to respond to the south at any time. Does anyone have any objections?”

As soon as Liu Bei's decisive words came out, the generals present all showed a hint of excitement on their faces, while the civil officials' expressions tightened slightly, and they subconsciously looked in Li Ji's direction.

After all, with Liu Bei's determination already made, there were not many people who could dissuade him.

In the opinion of many civil officials, Wu Commandery had only just managed to settle the refugees and get on the right track, and it was a time of great revival. Not to mention whether there was enough money and food for the military, more importantly, once military action was taken, it was likely to disrupt the pace of Wu Commandery's development.

This naturally made the civil officials present have the idea of opposing it, and they expected that Li Ji, who was in charge of the affairs of Wu Commandery, would also oppose it.

However, facing the expectant gazes of the other civil officials, Li Ji, who had not spoken, cupped his hands and said.

“Lord, your benevolence is admirable! To use arms to protect the people under your rule is not warmongering, but a move to pacify through force. I, Ji, second the motion to use troops, and it should be…”

“Wait a moment!”

Before Li Ji could finish speaking, Jian Yong finally couldn't help but interrupt, then stood up and bowed to Liu Bei before cupping his hands and saying.

“Lord, in my humble opinion, it is better to remain still than to act rashly in this matter. A mere three thousand Shanyue is but a minor ailment. Since Zizhong has already led fifteen hundred light cavalry south, I expect that it will be enough to drive away that group of Shanyue.”

“Moreover, General Guan has already stationed five thousand troops in Fuchun Mountain. Just let General Guan divide a detachment to cut off the retreat of that group of Shanyue from the rear, and that group of Shanyue will naturally become turtles in a jar. Why does the Lord need to personally gather the troops of Wu Commandery to prepare to respond to the south at any time?”

“This is really making a mountain out of a molehill and wasting money and food. Please, Lord, be aware of this!”

Jian Yong's words were undoubtedly reasonable and well-founded.

The military force of Wu Commandery today is mainly divided into three parts: one part is the five thousand troops led by Guan Yu stationed in Fuchun Mountain, one part is the direct line of troops left around Wu County to guard the administrative seat, and the other part is the commandery troops scattered in various counties.

Once Liu Bei wants to gather his forces, he needs to transfer commandery troops from various counties on a large scale.

However, how to transfer, how to arrange for food and grass, how to train the troops, etc., these require not only the energy of the officials, but also have an impact on various places.

It can be said that once the military is mobilized, it is no small matter.

More importantly, Guan Yu's force only needs to send a partial general to lead one or two thousand troops to cut off the retreat of that group of Shanyue, and with the cooperation of fifteen hundred light cavalry, it is even possible to completely annihilate that group of Shanyue.

Therefore, in Jian Yong's opinion, it is completely making a mountain out of a molehill to prepare to respond to Qiantang County solely for the sake of guarding against the Shanyue.

Mi Zhu also stood up to express his attitude, cupping his hands and saying.

“What Xianhe said is very true. The Shanyue are but a minor ailment. In previous years, there were also frequent looting incidents, but what was looted was only a small amount of money. Once troops are transferred, the money and food consumed may be more than ten times the damage caused by the Shanyue. It may not be worth the loss.”

Li Ji had also anticipated Mi Zhu and Jian Yong's opposition.

In his position, he seeks his government. Jian Yong is mainly responsible for the resettlement of refugees, and Mi Zhu is responsible for money and food. Both of them do not want Liu Bei to use troops.

Moreover, Mi Zhu and Jian Yong are not warlike personalities, so it is most normal for them to oppose it.

In short, in Jian Yong and Mi Zhu's opinion, the large-scale mobilization of troops is not worth the loss and is completely superfluous.

Facing the opposition of Jian Yong and Mi Zhu, the generals naturally spoke out in rebuttal.

However, Jian Yong and Mi Zhu are both eloquent people. Without Zhang Fei, who can forcefully suppress the other party with his voice, they were almost refuted by Jian Yong and Mi Zhu in a few words and dared not say a word.

Seeing this, Li Ji understood that as long as he further firmly stated his position with his prestige, Jian Yong and Mi Zhu would have no choice but to obey, but such a choice of using power to suppress people was a last resort.

If Li Ji always engaged in one-man rule in everything, then where would he place Liu Bei?

Moreover, even if Li Ji was ultimately right, he would still be unknowingly isolated and excluded by his other colleagues, affecting unity.

Immediately, Li Ji subtly gave Jia Xu a look.

Jia Xu, who was yawning fiercely, originally wanted to mind his own business, pretending not to see and not understand the look, but after thinking about it, he still stood up.

Although watching Li Ji personally debate was also an interesting thing, Jia Xu still wanted to solve this problem sooner.

Small meetings decide big things, and big meetings talk about small things.

The things that Liu Bei and Li Ji's small meetings have basically decided, this kind of big meeting is just a process to announce it to the public.

And Jia Xu is old and can't really stay up late.

The civil and military officials of the Liu Bei Group are almost all frighteningly young, mostly in their teens and twenties. Jia Xu, who is not even forty years old, is already the oldest.

This made Jia Xu secretly shout that he couldn't win against these people in terms of energy.

“General Guan's force must not be moved lightly.”

Jia Xu first denied Jian Yong's previous proposal with a single hammer, and said.

“Fuchun Mountain is an important place to guard the dense forest in the south of Wu Commandery, and at the same time, it blocks the passage for the Shanyue people to plunder the counties in the south of Wu Commandery.”

“The Shanyue's blatant attack on Qiantang County may not be intended to induce General Guan to send a part of his troops to rescue, and then try their best to break through the defense line set up by General Guan in Fuchun Mountain.”

“Once Fuchun Mountain is lost, the counties in the south of Wu Commandery will have no barrier to rely on, and many Shanyue will be able to enter the counties in the south of Wu Commandery at will to plunder.”

“In this way, not to mention maintaining the 'work-for-relief' to resettle refugees in the counties in the south of Wu Commandery, even the local people will be as uneasy as in the past, and can only hide in the city at all times.”

“Therefore, if we want to develop the south of Wu Commandery, this battle must not only be fought, but must be fought to completely cut off the Shanyue's delusion to plunder Wu Commandery, so as to seek development opportunities for Wu Commandery.”

Jia Xu's image on weekdays is that of a gentle gentleman, and his style of doing things is like a good old man, adhering to the principle that the relationship with other colleagues is neither good nor bad, and he does not offend anyone.

Therefore, what Jian Yong and Mi Zhu did not expect was that Jia Xu's words were so powerful, and what he said… was quite reasonable.

This made Jian Yong and Mi Zhu subconsciously associate this matter with Li Ji, secretly thinking that this was not what Li Ji taught Jia Xu to say, then Jia Xu was just Li Zikun's mouthpiece.

After all, the good relationship between Li Ji and Jia Xu is known to those who understand. It is said that it is only one step away from Li Ji worshiping Jia Xu as his adoptive father.

Therefore, in everyone's eyes, if you want to divide the factions under Liu Bei's command, Jia Xu is definitely a firm Zikun party, even if Jia Xu surrenders to another party, he will also be considered a spy sent by the Zikun party.

“The Shanyue also use tricks?”

Gu Yong, as a local aristocratic family in Wu Commandery, was the first to react like this, so that he, who had been pretending to be stupid, couldn't help but ask.

“It is precisely because the Shanyue often do not use tricks, but at this moment, they suddenly appeared around Qiantang County, so we have to guard against it.” Jia Xu replied.

As soon as these words came out, Mi Zhu and Jian Yong also couldn't help but fall into deep thought, realizing that what Jia Xu was worried about was not necessarily unreasonable.

Seeing this, Li Ji made the final summary, and said.

“The peaceful development and peaceful life that Wu Commandery and the people want can never be exchanged by blindly retreating. Moreover, my great Han has always been that those who offend my strong Han, even if they are far away, must be killed. How can we allow these villains to plunder and retreat easily?”

“What needs to be measured in this matter is by no means a temporary gain or loss, but to let the southern barbarians and Shanyue south of the Yangtze River know the prestige of my Wu Commandery! Only by showing the sword of Wu Commandery can we protect the peace of the land of Wu Commandery!”

Liu Bei couldn't help but stroke his palms and praised.

“Zikun's words are exactly what I, Bei, think! This is not a calculation of gains and losses, but is related to the peace of the people. Even if there is only that group of Shanyue today, and there is no follow-up, it can also make the Shanyue know my, Liu Xuande's, determination to protect the people!”

"If there truly is a conspiracy during this period, Bei will also use a righteous army to defeat it, teaching the Shanyue to be in awe, and ensuring that the people under my rule have no Shanyue troubles."

As the saying goes: A righteous cause lends authority to the army!

The significance of this lies not merely in providing a fig leaf, but more importantly, in forging a belief and determination.

This undoubtedly equates to a process of buffing one's own side.