Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Therefore, even when Li Ji was on leave at home, in reality, there were still many important matters that required Li Ji to make decisions or provide advice.

For example, the most urgent matter was naturally how to handle the more than ninety-six thousand prisoners captured in the annihilation battle of the Wu Commandery defensive war.

Even though Wu Commandery now had sufficient money and food, it was impossible to keep feeding such a huge number of prisoners for nothing.

However, most of these prisoners had inextricable connections with the aristocratic families, either as servants and retainers of the families, or as young and strong men who followed and admired the families in the area.

Obviously, if they wanted to weaken the power and influence of the aristocratic families in the region, these prisoners absolutely could not be easily released.

Similarly, Liu Bei, with his philosophy of benevolence and virtue, naturally could not abuse or even kill the prisoners.

As a result, Mi Zhu was the first to be overwhelmed.

Every day, Mi Zhu watched as a large amount of money and food were consumed by those prisoners, so that even before Li Ji returned to Wu Commandery, he received an urgent letter from Mi Zhu, asking Li Ji to come up with a plan to deal with those prisoners as soon as possible.

In Mi Zhu's urgent letter, Li Ji even read a bit of resentment as to why Jia Xu wasn't allowed to burn all the prisoners to ashes.

Mi Zhu may be a gentleman, and he quite agreed with Liu Bei's way of benevolence and virtue, but Mi Zhu was also a successful businessman who valued profit.

In Mi Zhu's view, those prisoners were a hot potato, burning his hands when he held them, scalding his mouth when he ate them, and giving aid to the enemy if he threw them away, so it would have been better to burn them to ashes in the first place.

Of course, this was just a small complaint from Mi Zhu, who was overwhelmed by this matter, but in reality, Mi Zhu also knew that if they were really burned to ashes, it was likely to cause many people in Yang Province to resent Liu Bei.

And in the past few days of rest at home, what Li Ji mainly focused on was undoubtedly this matter.

And in Li Ji's view, dealing with those prisoners was not difficult at all.

Reform through labor is the answer!

In the past, the reform through labor of Yan Baihu and other bandits and bandits was carried out, and it was beautifully named "earth and wood laborers", which made great contributions to Wu Commandery by adding bricks and tiles.

At least, more than 90% of the official roads in Wu Commandery were repaired by these "earth and wood laborers", and no corvée was ever forcibly conscripted from the people because of this.

Now, after six years, even though those bandits and bandits have relatively good physical fitness, more than half of the "earth and wood laborers" have been consumed, and it is time to add a large amount of labor.

At present, Yang Province has just been settled, and the infrastructure in various places can be described as dilapidated and in need of repair, and there are countless places where "earth and wood laborers" are needed.

However, after Li Ji told Liu Bei about this idea.

Liu Bei did not directly agree as usual, but after a little thought, he said.

"Zikun, if those bandits and bandits are inherently vicious and have more or less stained their hands with the blood of many innocent people, then there is nothing wrong with punishing them in this way."

"It's just that some of the prisoners are commandery soldiers, and they have no choice but to obey the commandery governor."

"And even the soldiers recruited by the aristocratic families, it is impossible to say how many servants and retainers or local young and strong men are willing to do so, so it is inevitable that it will be too cruel."

Perhaps Liu Bei didn't know anything else, but an aristocratic family that had been rooted in a certain place for hundreds of years undoubtedly had a huge influence.

Many times, it is not necessarily that the local young and strong men voluntarily follow the aristocratic family, but that they dare not not follow.

Ordinary people, not to mention that they cannot withstand the revenge of the aristocratic family, even a glare is enough to make ordinary people ruined.

Li Ji was naturally aware of this.

"My lord is benevolent!"

Li Ji first praised Liu Bei, and then continued.

"Therefore, the treatment of this batch of prisoners converted into 'earth and wood laborers' is naturally different from the previous bandits and bandits."

Involving a large number of people, Liu Bei's expression was also quite serious as he asked.

"Zikun, please explain in detail."

Li Ji organized his words and replied.

"To be honest, my lord, the idea that Ji held for the previous bandits and bandits was indeed to make the best use of everything, and the fact proves that forming such a team of 'earth and wood laborers' has an unparalleled effect on the prosperity of the territory and the construction of various infrastructures."

It should be noted that in this era, road repairs, river dredging, city construction, etc., it is naturally impossible for everyone to be a craftsman responsible for every link.

Therefore, there is also "corvée"!

In fact, as long as there is large-scale construction, it is basically necessary to summon corvée to carry out in this era.

This also leads to why every time an emperor wants to carry out large-scale construction, there must be a large number of ministers who advise against this matter, which is a waste of money and manpower.

The "labor" refers to the forced conscription of labor, and many laborers in harsh and difficult environments simply have no chance to return to their hometowns.

The "money" refers to the transportation of various materials in the process of large-scale construction, which undoubtedly requires the consumption of massive amounts of money.

For example, a good Phoebe zhennan wood may need to be transported and escorted layer by layer from thousands of miles away, and the money spent on it often exceeds the value of the Phoebe zhennan wood itself.

Even many local chief officials can only allow the roads to be deserted and the city walls to be dilapidated, on the one hand, because there is no hope for the court's allocation of funds, and on the other hand, because the local finances cannot support such a waste of money and manpower.

In fact, Liu Bei was also quite puzzled about this...

Often, large-scale construction will inevitably lead to resentment among the local people, but Wu Commandery has been completely renewed in the past six years while showing prosperity.

Even after the "work-for-relief" ended, Wu Commandery has never forcibly conscripted labor, and almost all of them are continuously responsible for the construction and maintenance of various infrastructures by "earth and wood laborers".

Liu Bei also had to admit the role of "earth and wood laborers", and the only thing Liu Bei didn't know was the logic behind it.

So, after thinking for a while, Liu Bei asked. "Zikun, from the surface, there seems to be no obvious difference between corvée and earth and wood laborers. Why does it seem that there is a huge difference?"

The difference between them... is huge.

Li Ji smiled, but he was not surprised that Liu Bei had always found it difficult to distinguish where the specific difference lay.

Corvée is a group of temporary workers who are forcibly conscripted. Naturally, they are not familiar with various technologies, and they are full of resentment in their hearts. It is normal for them to act slowly and grind their work;

However, "earth and wood laborers" are a group of bandits and bandits who can be executed at any time. Li Ji only needs to use a little trick, and there are ways to make them compete with each other, since they have no other hope.

As a result, that group of "earth and wood laborers" naturally slowly became more and more skilled construction teams.

Craftsmen in this era are almost all-rounders, but in terms of construction speed and efficiency, it can only be said that "earth and wood laborers" are professional.

In addition, with the roads inside Wu Commandery becoming more and more smooth and the water network outside Wu Commandery being dense, this naturally makes the cost of transporting various materials much lower than usual.

After years of verification, the existence of "earth and wood laborers" has undoubtedly completely confirmed its feasibility.

And after Li Ji explained the difference to Liu Bei in detail, Liu Bei had a feeling of sudden realization.

Immediately, Li Ji further expressed his meaning and said.

"My lord, since the long-term existence of 'earth and wood laborers' proves its feasibility, why not take this opportunity to truly evolve it into a profession?"

"Let these prisoners all over Yang Province be the first batch, and work for a year as a punishment without compensation. After they have mastered the skills required by 'earth and wood laborers', they will be paid a salary and voluntarily join them."

"In this way, in the future, the corvée system will be completely a thing of the past under the rule of the lord!"

In an instant, Liu Bei almost stood up in shock, his eyes widened, completely unexpected that what Li Ji was planning was to try to completely replace the "corvée" system. (End of this chapter)