Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

After Li Ji had tidied his clothes, he let Sun Ce and Taishi Ci in.

However, after Sun Ce walked in, he suddenly knelt on the ground and spoke with a look of shame on his face.

"I am ashamed of my trust in you, teacher. Please punish me."

Li Ji frowned slightly and asked, "What's the matter with Bofu? How have you betrayed my trust?"

Sun Ce lowered his head and spoke with shame.

"He was too eager to achieve success in Qingzhou, which led to the Yellow River flooding and a great defeat. This is one of them.

"I was ordered to protect the young master and the prime minister, but was trapped by the snow on the way, putting the young master and the prime minister in danger, causing the teacher to go to the trouble of rescuing them. This is the second reason."

"With these two crimes, I have no face to see you again, teacher. Please chop off my head..."

Before Sun Ce could finish his words, a teacup flew over and hit him on the forehead, abruptly interrupting the rest of his words.

"madness!"

Li Ji shouted angrily.

"Not to mention that the Yellow River disaster and the heavy snowfall were both natural disasters that were beyond human control, and they were not caused by war."

"Even if it was a mistake at the time, you should never have the thought of committing suicide. This is what a coward does."

"If everyone followed this example, all the generals in the world would commit suicide when they were defeated, and the Han Dynasty would have been destroyed long ago. What's the point of talking about reviving the Han Dynasty?"

This remark made Sun Ce's face turn red.

At the end, Li Ji shouted angrily.

"Get off!"

Sun Ce lowered his head, not daring to look directly at Li Ji, and hurried out.

However, just as Sun Ce walked to the door, Li Ji remembered something and spoke again.

"return."

Sun Ce hurried back and asked, "Teacher, what do you want?"

Li Ji stared and spoke.

"Lift your head! A real man should have a strong backbone when he is born into this world. Didn't you, Sun Bofu, always boast that you wanted to be a fierce tiger when you were young? How come you don't have that courage now?"

"is teacher!"

Sun Ce held his head high and answered loudly.

Immediately, Li Ji's eyes fell on Taishi Ci who was standing next to Sun Ce and asked.

"The person next to you is Taishi Ci from Donglai?"

Taishi Ci, who had just found the opportunity to speak, quickly bowed.

"Donglai Taishi Ci, I pay my respects to the Marquis."

"I know your name. This time, Bofu and his soldiers were able to survive from death and even successfully blocked the gap in the Yellow River. It was all thanks to your help..."

Having said that, Li Ji stood up, bowed towards Taishi Ci and said.

"Please accept my gift as a token of my gratitude."

Taishi Ci was so frightened that he subconsciously dodged. He wanted to go forward to help Li Ji up, but he was afraid of offending Li Ji, so he seemed at a loss and waved his hands repeatedly.

"I am not worthy of your great gift, Lord. Even if it were someone else, they would definitely try their best to stop Cao the thief from doing what would infuriate the people. This is what we should do."

"What a righteous thing to do! If everyone were like this, how could the world be in such a mess?"

Li Ji first praised it, and then sighed with some emotion.

Sun Ce took the opportunity to recommend Taishi Ci to Li Ji. This was also the main purpose of Sun Ce's request for an audience, besides apologizing.

However, Taishi Ci stated that he would rather be a general of Sun Ce than leave Sun Ce for the sake of wealth and honor.

This made Sun Ce try his best to persuade Taishi Ci, but even in front of Li Ji, Taishi Ci still insisted on being Sun Ce's family general.

Apparently, this was not the first argument between Sun Ce and Taishi Ci.

This made Li Ji even wonder for a moment why Zhou Yu, who was always inseparable from Sun Ce, was not here. Could it be because he couldn't stand the existence of Taishi Ci, the "third party"?

Even though Li Ji admired Taishi Ci very much, since Taishi Ci was only willing to be Sun Ce's family general, Li Ji would not force him. Whether Taishi Ci was Sun Ce's family general or a general under Li Ji's command, the difference was not significant.

Li Ji specifically called Sun Ce back, of course, he had other instructions, which was to ask Sun Ce to carefully settle the soldiers in the army, and to hold a banquet to thank his many colleagues and powerful families for their search.

Moreover, Li Ji also asked Sun Ce to spread the news to the public, that is, Li Ji would also attend the banquet at that time.

Sun Ce was a little confused about this and didn't understand the deeper meaning, but he still kept Li Ji's instructions in mind and made arrangements, and scheduled the banquet for three days later.

This is also to give some people who are still searching outside the city time to get the news and rush back to the city.

Afterwards, Li Ji spent half a day with Adou and Li Xiang's siblings, then had the door of the county government office opened. He then handled government affairs in the office while waiting.

Just as Li Ji expected, half an hour later someone came to report that a Taoist priest who called himself "Mr. Wujiao" wanted to see him outside the county government office.

After Li Ji asked Xu Chu to accompany him closely as a guard, he asked someone to invite Zuo Ci in.

After Zuo Ci entered the meeting room where Li Ji was, he took the initiative to salute.

"Tianzhu Mountain Zuo Ci, I pay my respects to the Marquis."

Li Ji looked up at Zuo Ci, who looked like a hermit, and was also thinking in his mind.

From a political perspective, Zuo Ci had previously appeared to help Adou and Li Xiang, whether it was to express his desire to accept Li Xiang as his apprentice, or to lead the caravan to the valley to avoid the wind and snow.

In essence, it was an act of goodwill, the purpose of which was to show goodwill to Li Ji and to leave a good impression in front of Adou and Li Xiang, who were expected to have a good relationship in the future.

And when Li Ji chose to open the main gate of the county government office, Zuo Ci also followed.

All kinds of thoughts emerged and disappeared in Li Ji's mind. He then stood up, saluted Zuo Ci and said.

"Thank you for helping my son escape from the snowstorm. I would like to express my gratitude and I have prepared some gifts for you to show my appreciation. Please do not refuse."

Immediately, Li Ji lifted the black cloth on the lacquer tray beside the table, revealing neatly stacked gold bricks.

Three thousand gold.

Zuo Ci only took a glance and understood the size of the number, and even more so the hidden meaning of Li Ji.

Li Ji was merely expressing his gratitude as a father, but this was not what Zuo Ci wanted.

With Zuo Ci's means, how could he want anything but mundane things?
Zuo Ci didn't believe that Guo Shihou was unaware of this, but wasn't Guo Shihou's current attitude an implicit rejection?

“Thank you for the generous gift, Your Majesty. However, I know that the two states of Yu and Xu have just been settled, and they need money and grain to stabilize people’s hearts. So, I would like to trouble Your Majesty to donate the three thousand gold to the people on my behalf.” Zuo Ci replied.

"The Taoist priest really cares about the common people."

Li Ji said this with a smile, but there was a hint of murderous intent hidden deep in his eyes.

The Taoists of this era are too capable of causing trouble. Caring about the common people is not a good thing to say, but a way to death.

Zuo Ci naturally understood, and precisely because he knew this, if it weren't for the small favor he had done to Li Xiang, Zuo Ci wouldn't even dare to show up in front of Li Ji.

However, Zuo Ci had his reasons for showing up.

Just as the aristocratic families reached the end and began to seek change, the Taoists who are now developing under the influence of Huang-Lao philosophy are also seeking change.

In this era when true Taoism had not yet been truly formed, the choices made by Taoists were completely different.

Nanhua preached to Zhang Jue, who used this to establish the Taiping Dao as a path;
Zhang Lu, who inherited the Five Pecks of Rice Sect, chose to combine politics and religion and occupy Hanzhong County for self-government.
Yu Ji chose to preach in Yangzhou, which was also a choice. Unfortunately, he ran into Guo Shihou and died on the spot...

Zuo Ci, who had not yet made up his mind, suddenly found what he believed to be the right path of development when he unexpectedly saw that Buddhism, which had been advocating truth, goodness and beauty in an orderly manner, had survived under the rule of Yangzhou.

Furthermore, as Liu Bei's power grew and he had become a hegemon who could unify the world, and Li Ji used the foundation of the Taiping Dao to help Liu Bei secure his destiny, Zuo Ci could not help but become anxious.

If Taoism wanted to develop further, Zuo Ci believed that it should not rebel like the Taiping Dao, nor integrate politics and religion like the Five Pecks of Rice Sect, nor should it develop the lower classes like Yu Ji, but should be used for the Han Dynasty like Buddhism.

In short, that is to take the upper route.

That is to say...

Zuo Ci gritted his teeth, gave up on pretending to be mysterious in front of the state scholar, and spoke frankly.

"My Lord, Taoism can actually be used by my uncle and my Lord just like Buddhism."

? !
Li Ji.

So, Zuo Ci also wants to eat the emperor's food? (End of this chapter)