Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

‘Is it better to give a man a fish or teach him how to fish? May I ask, General, what is the meaning of this?’ A tribal leader, seemingly realizing something, asked in disbelief.

“Farming, medicine, tools, writing, and so on. As long as your tribes make corresponding contributions, my lord Liu Xuande will allow you to directly exchange for the corresponding technology or knowledge.”

Xu Sheng slowly said, causing the breathing of the five tribal leaders in front of him to become much more rapid.

Is it that these Yue living in the deep mountains do not like to eat grains? Or do they naturally dislike using various tools? Or do they firmly believe that the various wooden and stone tools they grind themselves are better than iron tools?

Just as the history of Chinese civilization itself evolved from gathering and hunting to agricultural civilization, it is sufficient to prove that, in terms of productivity, agricultural civilization far surpasses gathering and hunting.

However, whether it is these Yue or the various Nanman tribes in even more difficult locations, it is not that they do not want to develop agriculture, but that there are various insurmountable difficulties.

The best land is occupied by the Han people. The areas where the Yue and Nanman live are, to put it nicely, deep mountains and old forests; to put it bluntly, they are poor mountains and bad waters. Without sufficient reclamation technology, they simply cannot open up fertile land.

In addition, farming may seem like everyone in the Han people knows how to do it, but it is essentially a technical job. It is by no means as simple as scattering some seeds in the ground and harvesting a lot of grain next year.

“Really?”

The tribal leader with the most robust and sturdy physique among them had his face flushed with excitement and repeatedly asked.

“Even medical skills… Are you Han adults willing to teach our tribes without any reservations?”

The other tribal leaders were very clear about why he was so excited. Last year, his only son died young from an illness, and his partner also died in childbirth.

It can be said that disease is a layer of haze that is difficult to dispel, shrouding every Yue tribe.

“My lord is a benevolent, virtuous, and trustworthy ruler. Since he has made such a promise to you, he will certainly not deceive you.”

Xu Sheng first affirmed, and then continued.

“However, various knowledge and technologies are valuable assets. My lord Liu Xuande cannot accept bartering, but requires your tribes to make contributions to my Wu Commandery before they can be exchanged.”

“For example, each young adult can accumulate one point for each month they work in Wu Commandery as labor at the disposal of the government. If you want to exchange for various knowledge and technologies, you need to exchange them through the total points accumulated by the young adults of each tribe.”

“Thus, do you understand?”

Immediately, the five tribal leaders nodded repeatedly. “Understood, understood, understood!”

What Xu Sheng said was not complicated, and was even described quite simply and clearly. Although these tribal leaders were ignorant, it did not mean they were stupid.

Essentially, Wu Commandery accepts bartering for resources, but if you want to directly exchange for various technologies, then the tribe needs to send young adults to work in Wu Commandery to accumulate enough points.

“May I ask how many points are needed to exchange for farming technology?”

One of the tribal leaders couldn’t wait to ask, and his soul of working was burning fiercely.

“It is too early to talk about this!”

However, Xu Sheng’s words stopped here, without any intention of continuing the discussion, and instead said.

“This is the condition for peace talks proposed by my lord Liu Xuande. You can go back and discuss with the other tribal leaders. If you are willing to abide by this condition of peace talks and serve as labor for two months and thirteen days, it will not be too late to discuss the specific details later.”

Immediately, Guan Yu waved his hand at them, and resumed reading the “Spring and Autumn Annals”. The five tribal leaders were directly taken out of the tent by the guards and sent out of the Han army camp.

Even at this time, they still had a slight sense of dizziness. Everything that had just happened was indeed a bit shocking to them.

Immediately, they did not dare to delay and quickly led the two thousand Yue waiting outside back to the camp on Fuchun Mountain, telling the other tribal leaders who had been waiting for a long time about the peace talk conditions of Wu Commandery.

Without exception, when they learned that the two thousand Yue had been beheaded on the spot, the hearts of many tribal leaders were almost panicked.

But when they learned that if they accepted the punishment of Wu Commandery, Wu Commandery would conduct mutual trade with the Yue in the future and allow them to exchange for various technologies and knowledge through that special method, all the tribal leaders were silent and tempted.

Life in the deep mountains and old forests… is bitter!

If it were truly a paradise, would they need to lead the tribe's young adults to go out and plunder the Han people?

Now, the peace talk conditions given by Wu Commandery are quite harsh, but hidden behind the harshness seems to be the hope for the tribe's prosperity and continuation.

Compared to the past when the entire tribe could only rely on gathering and hunting in the mountains, there now seems to be an extra way out.

Young adults go out to work for Wu Commandery to accumulate points and exchange for technology, while the old, weak, women, and children can still do some gathering work and barter with Wu Commandery for food.

“Since the Han people have proposed the condition that the tribe's young adults will work to accumulate points in the future, then it means that the Han people should not want to kill us all this time. Asking us to serve as labor for two months and thirteen days should not be to harm us.”

“The Han people are cunning, but they also value promises and trustworthiness. I think it may be credible.”

“It’s just that I don’t know how the bartering will be done specifically, how much stuff can be exchanged for a dan of grain, and how many points are needed to exchange for the so-called technology. These are still unknown.”

“But we actually have no choice. Either we fight the Han people here to the death, and in the end, perhaps less than one-tenth of us can escape back to the tribe. Losing so many young adults, the tribe will also be doomed. Or we believe what the Han people say, and this may become a new way out.”

“That makes sense. Since Liu Xuande is based on benevolence and virtue, and it seems that they also need our Yue, they will definitely not treat us too harshly.”

Faced with almost a turning point in the fate of the entire Wu Commandery, many tribal leaders discussed all night, with anxiety, unease, and anticipation filling the hearts of every tribal leader.

And Li Ji, who was far away in Wu County, was calculating the specific rules for bartering and exchanging knowledge with points.

From the moment these thirty thousand Yue were trapped in Fuchun Mountain, the initiative was no longer in their hands. What determined their fate from beginning to end were Liu Bei and Li Ji's ideas.

One thought creates life, one thought creates death.

However, the Yue people are lucky, because Li Ji is kind and gave them a way out as migrant workers.

Huddling in the deep mountains and old forests is simply a waste of life. Why not join the wave of migrant work to add bricks and tiles to my Great Han, wouldn’t that be wonderful?

As for the punishment of two months and thirteen days of labor, it is actually an important part of promoting Yue “work” .

People are undoubtedly full of doubts and worries about unknown things.

Especially since the conflict between the Han and Yue has lasted for who knows how many years, it is inevitable that they will be full of doubts. If they rely solely on the principle of voluntariness, then that is definitely wishful thinking.

Only through this method, forcing those Yue young adults to adapt in Wu Commandery for more than two months, will they naturally no longer have doubts and worries about the subsequent “work” .

Li Ji guarantees that he will calculate specific rules that can squeeze the value of the Yue clean, but also make them feel that everything seems to be much more hopeful than in the past, and will inevitably bind the Yue firmly to Wu Commandery's chariot and unable to leave.

On the contrary, Li Ji feels that the biggest hidden problem is how to promote harmonious coexistence between the Yue and Han people.

Although the Yue are only a minor ailment to the entire Han Dynasty, to many local people, they can be regarded as blood enemies.

And the number of Yue killed by the Han people is definitely not small.

However, Li Ji, who was contaminated by various knowledge in later generations, quickly found a solution.

Compared to the way of decorating the country by the “literary inquisition” and mass slaughter of the wild boar skin, Li Ji knows better what is called ideology and cultural invasion.

You can start with various works of art, and use beautiful nouns such as love, friendship, and dreams to modify and transfer the conflicts between the Han and Yue to groups such as corrupt officials.

As long as these works of art are popular and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, then the ideological concepts will naturally change.

“Perhaps, we can get some storytellers, ditties, and operas in the Wall-less City. The acceptance ability of the scholars is higher. As long as a trend is set off among the scholars, it will naturally flow to the lower-level common people.”

“After the first batch of students from the Rendé Academy can start using it, let these students go to each tribe in the name of technical guidance to conduct ideological construction…”

Soon, Li Ji initially improved his thinking, formulated a series of systems for the Yue, and did not forget to use the “strategy simulator” to deduce and confirm whether there were any loopholes that were not noticed.

And if it was only for the thirty thousand Yue young adults, Li Ji would naturally not need to go to such great lengths.

In fact, this is a prototype, and the Yue are only preliminary experimental products.

This time, it is only the Yue in Wu Commandery, but the total number of Yue in the entire Yangzhou range is actually as high as hundreds of thousands, which is definitely not a small number.

In the future, after Liu Bei completely unifies Yangzhou, in order to consolidate the rear rule, the hidden dangers of the Yue will definitely need to be properly resolved.

And blindly treating the Yue strongly may very likely lead to the same fate as Sun Quan in the original trajectory, who spent decades to suppress the Yue.

Therefore, in Li Ji's view, those thirty thousand Yue young adults are more like an important introduction.

With the Yue people of Wu Commandery as a visible example, as long as the lives of the Yue people in Wu Commandery visibly improved, there would be no need for Wu Commandery to extend invitations. I fear that the Yue people from other areas of Yang Province would proactively join the wave of "employment."

This is human nature, an inevitable trend, and a conclusion verified by history. (End of Chapter)