Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

The wealth of the Han Dynasty today seems far beyond the reach of the Wei Kingdom...

In a nutshell, the painting styles of both sides are subtly different.

Just when Jiang Gan was shocked, he found that Li Ji, who was watching the fleet sail away, had a look of sorrow and helplessness on his face.

After hesitating for a while, Jiang Gan asked carefully, "Why does the Prime Minister look so worried?"

"My concern is nothing but that Your Majesty has spent countless people's money to build a fleet just to sail far and open up the so-called Maritime Silk Road and plunder overseas treasures. Is it worth it..."

Li Ji could not hide his dissatisfaction with Liu Bei as he spoke.

This made Jiang Gan very shocked. He only now understood the purpose of this fleet.

Jiang Gan immediately noticed the key words and asked, "Open up the Maritime Silk Road?"

Li Ji sighed and told the story.

"Ziyi, you don't know that the wealth of the king's rule today is largely due to my previous voyage to Yingzhou, where I discovered that Yingzhou was full of gold and silver. However, the local Japanese people did not know the value of gold and silver and only regarded them as useless stones."

"Then, I will sign a trade agreement with Japan on behalf of the king, and we will be able to exchange porcelain, tea, grain, etc. for countless gold and silver from Japan."

Hearing this, Jiang Gan immediately understood why Yangzhou was the richest city in the world. This was also the puzzle that had always been in the minds of the princes of the time.

Even though no one doubted Li Ji's ability to govern,

But Yangzhou had always been a poor place, and its prosperity came too suddenly.

Now, the mystery finally has an answer.

Li Ji also paused and then continued.

"Of course, this also aroused the lord's interest in overseas countries. After taking back Linyi, he learned that there were countless city-states and small countries to the south of Linyi. In order to confirm whether there was a second Japanese country, the lord insisted on spending all the money and grain from the national treasury to build a fleet to go to sea."

Jiang Gan's heart tightened slightly, and he echoed.

"Your Majesty, obeying the will of heaven and blessed by heaven, the fleet will surely return with a full load and return to the Han Dynasty smoothly. Prime Minister, there is no need to worry."

Li Ji frowned, obviously not optimistic.

"The vast ocean is full of dangers. Even the Yangzhou is in danger of capsizing. It will take at least two to three years to return. Your Majesty's move is a bit unrealistic. I'm afraid it will waste countless money and food."

After a pause, Li Ji sighed and asked himself sadly.

"In this case, when can we launch the Northern Expedition?"

Jiang Gan listened silently and gradually understood the ideological conflict between Liu Bei and Li Ji.

The prime minister is dedicated to the public and has the Han Dynasty at heart. What he never forgets is an early Northern Expedition to revive the Han Dynasty.

In comparison, Liu Bei, whose image as a benevolent person to the outside world, is full of contrast.

This cost a huge amount of money and food, and a fleet of more than 200 ships and 20,000 personnel was formed to sail out to sea in search of the so-called second Japan, which showed their intentions.

In addition, this trip to Wujun with Li Ji allowed Jiang Gan to learn the secret of Liu Bei's incredible wealth.

The rumor that Yingzhou was full of gold and silver that had once been popular for a while turned out to be true...

As Jiang Gan quietly wrote down all the information he had gathered, his heartbeat quickened.

It was not until he accompanied Li Jishun on an inspection tour to Wu County that Jiang Gan took the opportunity to secretly deliver the intelligence to the Wei spies lurking in the area, which made Jiang Gan feel relieved.

This piece of information went through several twists and turns, and was finally delivered to Yecheng, the current capital of Wei State, under the escort of Wei State's spies.

Of course, Cao Cao didn't have the money to build a royal palace or anything like that, so he could only simply renovate and expand the government office to temporarily serve as it.

When this secret letter reached Cao Cao's hands, he read it over and over again. After thinking for a long time, he summoned Xun You, Xi Zhicai, Liu Ye and other trusted advisers to discuss the matter.

After the secret letter was read by everyone, the entire conference room fell silent for a moment.

After a long while, Cao Cao finally spoke.

"Please tell me what you think."

Xi Zhicai stood up and asked, "May I ask your Majesty, where did this secret letter come from?"

Cao Cao waved his hand and said, "It doesn't matter where it comes from. Do you think it's credible?"

After this question, all the counselors fell silent again. It was because the amount of information in the secret letter was too huge.

Not only did he reveal the secrets of Japan's gold and silver, he also described in detail the huge fleet's voyage out to sea as if he had witnessed it with his own eyes, and he also described the Han Dynasty's next moves in an almost clear manner.

Therefore, since the matter is so important, no one dares to make a decision lightly.

Seeing that no one said anything, Cao Cao simply called out the name.

"What does Gongda think?"

Xun You, with a foolish look on his face, stood up and bowed.

"I think that in order to determine the authenticity of this secret letter, the king only needs to send more spies to investigate the port of Wujun. If there really is such a large fleet sailing far away, it will be impossible to hide it."

"As long as the authenticity of the fleet is confirmed, then even if the contents of the secret letter cannot be fully trusted, we can still infer what Liu Bei's focus is."

Cao Cao nodded calmly, then turned to ask the other counselors, but they also had no good advice.

Moreover, what Xun You said was similar to Cao Cao's idea.

Cao Cao had high expectations for Jiang Gan and had been paying close attention to his every move.

Cao Cao believed 60% of what was said in the secret letter.

Whether it was true or not, Cao Cao understood that he needed to verify it more, but he couldn't help but feel a little more pressure in his heart.

The Han Dynasty governed by Li Ji was even richer and more powerful than Cao Cao had imagined.

It's not just the scale of the long-distance fleet that requires an astonishing amount of money and food. It's also important to understand that Liu Bei never slowed down the pace of building a new capital.

Jianye is still under construction.

According to the investigation of spies, the scale of Jianye City is large enough to be compared with Luoyang.

This terrifying financial strength made Cao Cao secretly envious, and he also had the hope that Liu Bei's excessive expansion and lack of money and food would trigger a chain reaction.

However, Cao Cao understood Li Ji's helplessness about when they could launch the Northern Expedition, as Jiang Gan repeated in the secret letter.

If it were him, Cao Cao would definitely not spend countless money and food on building cities and sailing like Liu Bei did. Instead, he would quickly and fully unify the world before thinking about other things.

"Liu Da'er, Liu Da'er, if you really mean this, I can breathe a sigh of relief..."

"Zikun, sooner or later you will regret not choosing me!"

……

However, Cao Cao, who had never actually been to the present-day Henan, Xu, Jing and Yang areas, did not understand based on what he read on paper that building a city would be a waste of money and labor, which was not the case.

On the contrary, the construction of the new capital further promoted the migration of a large number of people to the south, greatly promoting the development of the area south of the Yangtze River.

Moreover, this will only be a beginning, not an end.

It was for this reason that Li Ji, who had traveled around Wujun, deliberately did not go to see the Jianye City under construction, so as to avoid being discovered by Jiang Gan.

After taking Jiang Gan for a stroll in Wujun, Li Ji returned to Shouchun.

During this entire trip, Li Ji traveled in the wind and snow, and also inspected local government offices. His diligence was so great that even Jiang Gan had to secretly admire him.

However, when Li Ji, with a weather-beaten face, brought Jiang Gan and his party back to Shouchun and were heading to the government office to report to Liu Bei, he unexpectedly learned that Liu Bei had not been in charge of government for nearly ten days.

This made Li Ji frown, and he immediately took Jiang Gan and others to the Prince of Han's Palace.

"boom!"

As Li Ji pushed open the tightly closed door of the main hall of the Prince of Han's Mansion, a wave of heat suddenly rushed out from inside, and countless obscene sounds reached Li Ji's ears, making Li Ji's face look extremely ugly.

Jiang Gan saw Li Ji paused, carefully moved to the side, and looked into the hall...

For a moment, all that could be seen were beautiful dancers in thin clothes, performing seductively. Even Liu Bei, who was sitting in the seat of honor, had dancers on his arms who looked a little bit lustful.

This scene was far beyond Jiang Gan's expectations...

Li Ji even shouted in anger.

"Stop!" (End of Chapter)