Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Zhang Fei was stunned!

Zhang Fei stared with his copper bell-like eyes at Guan Yu, who was half-眯着 eyes and speaking as if casually, completely unable to believe that his second brother would say such a thing.

"Second brother, please let your younger brother have this chance," Zhang Fei said in a loud voice.

Guan Yu, with a serious expression, said,

"Alas, third brother, subduing the island barbarians is a major national affair, not to be neglected in the slightest, how can we allow personal feelings to influence it? Your second brother acts with more prudence, so let your second brother go. If there is another battle next time, your second brother will yield to you."

If it were merely military merit, Guan Yu would naturally not compete with Zhang Fei…

However, this was about expanding territory and recovering lost lands!

As long as the island barbarians were brought back under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou, it would be enough to have one's name recorded in history and sung about for generations!

It could be said that any military general would be unable to resist such temptation.

And Guan Yu naturally did not want to let go of the glory that was enough to start his own family tree. Moreover, Zhang Fei's impulsiveness was indeed a fact, and Guan Yu was also worried that Zhang Fei might be careless and cause the relationship with the Kyushu descendants on the island to become too strained.

It was just that Zhang Fei rarely had the opportunity to go to war, so how could he be willing to give it up?

For a time, the red-faced and black-faced brothers were arguing with each other, trying to persuade the other to support their own leadership in subduing the island barbarians.

In fact, not to mention Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, even Liu Bei himself was tempted to personally go and subdue that "island barbarian" territory, which was comparable in size to Wu Commandery.

However, Liu Bei knew even better that Li Ji would definitely not agree to him leading troops out to sea, so watching Guan Yu and Zhang Fei trying to persuade each other, he not only did not try to dissuade them, but instead felt somewhat envious.

And Li Ji, watching Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's rare quarrel, felt quite amused and said,

"Yun Chang, Yi De, please listen to me finish, how about it?"

At this time, Li Ji's words were more effective than anything else, and Guan Yu and Zhang Fei responded almost one after another.

"Yes."

"Please speak, Mr. Zikun."

Li Ji leisurely sipped the warm wine in his cup, slightly organizing his thoughts, and said.

"According to the news reported by those who initially went to explore the island barbarians, there are indeed Kyushu descendants on the island, and the number has been preliminarily confirmed to be more than 50,000 households. Moreover, due to being separated from the land of Kyushu for a long time, the farming and lifestyle of the island's descendants are somewhat different from our Han people."

"Furthermore, the size of the island barbarians is no less than that of Wu Commandery, and the terrain is also mountainous and forested, much hotter and more humid than Wu Commandery, with various snakes, insects, and fierce beasts emerging endlessly."

"If we want to make the island barbarians return to the Great Han, the person who leads the troops must use both kindness and force, and must be stationed on the island barbarians for a long time. It is indeed a hard task."

"If both Yun Chang and Yi De are interested, you must also carefully consider it."

(PS: Before the Ming Dynasty, there was no concept of Gaoshan ethnicity in Yizhou, and the composition of the Gaoshan ethnicity mainly came from a branch of the ancient Yue people on the southeast coast.

And the "Records of Wu" in the "Records of the Three Kingdoms" records that the native residents of Yizhou occasionally crossed the sea to Kuaiji Commandery to trade. When Wei Wen returned across the sea, he also brought back thousands of native residents of Yizhou, so the native residents living in Yizhou at this time may be traced back to the period of the "Book of Yu Gong.")

As soon as Li Ji said this, both Guan Yu and Zhang Fei fell into deep thought.

The island barbarians were originally a part of what was recorded in Kyushu, so going to the island barbarians could not even be considered a conquest, but rather to make the island barbarians return to the embrace of the Great Han.

Therefore, even if it was necessary to use force, the emphasis was on both kindness and force, so that the descendants on the island barbarians would be convinced.

Moreover, the environment and climate of the island barbarians were extremely harsh.

In addition, the generals stationed on the island barbarians could not be changed frequently. In order to make the descendants on the island barbarians convinced, they would have to be stationed there for at least a few years at a time.

Under these various factors, it was indeed a hard task.

Especially for Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, who were northerners, they had spent a long time adapting to the climate of Wu Commandery, and the climate of the island barbarians must be even more unaccustomed.

"Zikun, it's not just a matter of generals, but even the soldiers may be a problem," Liu Bei suddenly realized something and said.

"If it is necessary to station troops on the island barbarians for a long time, not to mention whether the morale of the soldiers in Wu Commandery will decline seriously, but if the climate is really more hot and humid than Wu Commandery, and there are also high mountains and dense forests, the soldiers in Wu Commandery may not be able to adapt."

Li Ji nodded, and he could not deny this.

This era was far from later generations. When sending soldiers to garrison thousands of miles away, at least they could occasionally contact their relatives and friends with communication equipment.

Being away from home for too long, the harsh environment, and acclimatization, etc., could all lead to major problems with morale.

Perhaps, this was why Sun Quan in the original trajectory clearly sent Wei Wen to find Yizhou, but did not send troops to garrison it, nor did he truly incorporate Yizhou into the rule of Wu.

In the final analysis, Sun Quan felt that it was "not worth the loss."

Yangzhou was already sparsely populated, and there was never a shortage of deep mountains and old forests. What was lacking was good farmland and population. This was what Yizhou could not provide to Wu in a short period of time. On the contrary, if Wu wanted to completely control Yizhou, it would require a lot of manpower and material resources.

Therefore, the final result was that Wei Wen found Yizhou, and then brought back thousands of Yizhou descendants, and there was no follow-up.

At this moment, Liu Bei was also secretly analyzing the pros and cons in his heart, and raised similar concerns, saying.

"Zikun, is it not worth the loss to send heavy troops to garrison?"

"I know what you are worried about, but I have a preliminary plan in mind on how to send soldiers. You can listen to it," Li Ji said with a smile.

Liu Bei replied with some anticipation and curiosity. "Zikun, please speak."

Li Ji heard this and slowly said.

"If we want to completely return the island barbarians to the Great Han, it is not just about planting a Han flag on the island, but about making the island barbarians believe in the Han flag, understand the Han code, promote Han benevolence and righteousness, and use both kindness and force, so that the descendants are proud of the Great Han and call themselves Han people."

"And if we want to make the island barbarians initially recognize the Great Han, it will take at least three to five years, and a little slower, it may take ten or twenty years, a whole generation."

"Therefore, if the soldiers sent are all soldiers from Wu Commandery, it will inevitably make the soldiers from Wu Commandery feel impetuous and difficult to stay for a long time."

"Therefore, in my humble opinion, we might as well select a group of Han youths who have no worries at home, and then recruit the Yue people who are willing to come out of the mountains. Initially, we will train these Han youths and Yue people, and then send them to the island barbarians to garrison."

"These soldiers are either Han people who have no worries at home, or Yue people who are quite adapted to the deep mountains and dense forests. Moreover, those Yue people can bring their families with them, and the Han people who arrive on the island can also marry local descendant women as wives, and then use the method of military屯田, so that they can be self-sufficient without Wu Commandery constantly consuming money and food."

"In this way, in just three to five years, the island barbarians will become Han territory!"

In order to make Liu Bei understand clearly, Li Ji deliberately spoke quite slowly, just to make it easier for Liu Bei to understand.

After Li Ji's words completely fell, Liu Bei was obviously excited, and repeatedly said.

"Feasible! Feasible! Zikun is really a great talent. If we use this method, the money and food consumed by Wu Commandery will not only be minimal, but also the soldiers sent to the island barbarians do not need to be replaced frequently, and they can be allowed to multiply and live on the island."

"In three to five years, the island barbarians may even continuously give back food, wood, minerals, etc. to Wu Commandery."

And Guan Yu, who was on the side, was more concerned about another issue, saying.

"Mr. Zikun, could it be that you deliberately subdued the Yue people in Wu and Kuai, because you had already considered this, in order to send the Yue people who are good at deep mountains and dense forests to the island barbarians as soldiers?"

Li Ji smiled and replied. "That was just a coincidence."

However, whether it was Liu Bei and Guan Yu, or Zhang Fei, they all felt that this was purely Li Ji's modesty.

The main reason was that everything was interlinked, as if it had been planned for a long time, and the Yue people, who were originally a disaster for Wu Commandery, were arranged clearly, and also solved most of the soldier problem of wanting to bring the island barbarians back into Han territory.

Moreover, the triangle has stability!

In this way, there will be three parties on the island barbarians: the Han people, the Yue people, and the local descendants, which will also make the contradictions between the three parties not appear too sharp.

Furthermore, the appearance of the island barbarians undoubtedly solved the land problem of resettling the Yue people.

Now, the Yue people in Wu and Kuai have surrendered to Wu Commandery for only half a year. Not only have a large number of Yue people become accustomed to "working" in Wu Commandery.

Moreover, many tribes have quietly contacted Wu Commandery, wanting to move their tribes from the deep mountains and old forests to live within Wu Commandery.

However, Wu Commandery's good farmland is not even enough to recruit refugees, and it is also necessary to consider the conflict between the Yue tribes and the Han people living in the same place.

Therefore, Liu Bei could only politely refuse the requests of many Yue tribes, and appease them to "work" well, and strive to work hard to turn the tribe into a paradise.

And now, don't some Yue tribes want a piece of arable land as a reward?

It just so happens that that part of the Yue tribes can be completely moved to the island barbarians. The young and strong are soldiers, and the rest of the old, weak, women and children can also follow them to settle down.

The lifestyle of the island barbarians at this time is even worse than that of the Yue people. They are not good at farming, and live by gathering and hunting, which is a great waste of land that could be reclaimed into good farmland.

The more Liu Bei thought about it, the more beautiful it became. He only felt that this was truly a win-win-win strategy.

Han people, Yue people, and descendants, all three parties can be said to benefit.

"Zikun's wonderful plan, in this way, even if we recover the island barbarians, we don't need to spend much money and food, and the problem of the source of troops garrisoning the island barbarians can be said to be easily solved," Liu Bei said with full praise, and then said. "It's just, who can go to the island barbarians to serve as the commander and sit in town?"

At that moment, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei both knew that this was not a good assignment. Most of the time, they wouldn't be fighting on the battlefield, but rather enduring the heat and loneliness while mediating potential conflicts between the three parties, showing both kindness and might to the island's remaining inhabitants, and establishing the prestige of the Great Han.

However, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei still knelt on one knee before Liu Bei in unison, and said,

"Big Brother, Guan/I am willing to go!" (End of Chapter)