Chapter 470

Chapter 470

Can’t a strategist ascend the throne? Side Story Side Story Ten (3)

Sima Zhao: He’s not, he doesn’t!

Damn it! How could anyone think that Cao Pi and Cai Zhaoji made political progress because of Cai Yong’s guidance, and even chose Cai Yong’s course hoping to find some connection?

He swears that he chose this course for no reason related to what his deskmate said.

This was entirely because Sima Yi, after evaluating the talents of his eldest and second sons, decided to send them to Leping Academy one after another, instructing the second son to keep a low profile and focus on literature, hence taking this course.

After all, Sima Yi couldn’t be sure whether Qiao Yan’s criticism of Cao Ang was because Cao Ang, Cao Pi, and even Cao Zhang, Cao Zhi, and Cao Chong were all talents, and she didn’t want one family to dominate, or if it was really as Cao Ang said—that he felt more suited to teaching after reading many books during his tenure as the Prefect of Hanzhong.

But in any case, with noble families being suppressed, it was no problem to let the second son lay low while focusing on the eldest son.

Sima Shi, three years older than Sima Zhao, was indeed smarter and a standout among the next generation.

Even if the Emperor felt there was something wrong with this balance, Sima Yi could perfectly explain the decision.

Sima Zhao also felt that this way, he was relieved.

But how could someone suddenly make such a crazy misinterpretation?

Though young, Sima Zhao was sensitive to this matter due to his father’s constant reminders. He immediately realized that whether Cai Yong had the ability to make his students excel or not, he couldn’t let Qiao Huan’s statement spread and cause him trouble.

He quickly whispered back, “What nonsense are you talking about! Cai Bojie is a great scholar of the world. Being able to study literature under him and appreciate his inscriptions on the Five Classics is already the luckiest thing in the world. How dare we hope for more!”

“Why are you so nervous?” Qiao Huan tilted her head, seemingly unaware that her words had put her deskmate on edge. “I didn’t say Cai Bojie’s literary achievements are fake. Cao Zihuan, as a high official, has poems circulating, and Cai Zhaoji, who holds the literary world in her hands, must also be closely related to Cai Bojie.”

“Even if we can’t see any mysterious tricks, being influenced and cultivating our character is still good, right?”

Sima Zhao decided to play dead.

After all, his father said that as long as his elder brother was there, it didn’t matter if he acted a bit foolish.

Tortured by the thought of whether he should drop the course, Sima Zhao waited until class ended and rushed to his elder brother.

But to his despair, his elder brother’s advice was—to get along with Qiao Huan.

According to Sima Shi, since they couldn’t find out Qiao Huan’s background, she might have been sent by the Emperor to monitor movements at Leping Academy.

Although it’s a bit far-fetched to have a seven-year-old do this, in an era where people could marry at thirteen or fourteen, a seven-year-old could already be influenced by elders and act as a medium for insight.

If understood this way, her disputes with Sun Luban and her ability to escape unscathed from Cao Ang and Cai Qiong seemed much more nuanced.

Oh no, under the Emperor’s special decree, the marriage age had been raised from unrestricted to over eighteen.

“So… you just got a follower out of nowhere?” Jiang Wei asked helplessly.

Apart from the basic required courses, Qiao Huan and he only had Go and literature appreciation as separate courses.

As a result, the former got her Zhang Changpu, and the latter got her Sima Zhao.

This doesn’t seem right, does it?

Is her popularity a bit too good?

Moreover, while Zhang Changpu clearly interacted with Qiao Huan as a friend, Sima Zhao had other intentions.

“It’s not exactly out of nowhere…” Qiao Huan replied while looking at her Go manual, realizing she still had a long way to go before she could play Go with the demeanor of a master, and sighed.

But Jiang Wei misunderstood her sigh, saying, “If you want to solve this trouble, we can help brainstorm ideas.”

“Oh no,” Qiao Huan put down the Go manual, glanced at Sima Zhao, and said, “My mother once told me that smart people tend to overthink. I didn’t understand it then, but now I do.”

“Smart people really—overthink a lot.”

Especially young smart people.

Ah, extra labor, might as well use it.

Jiang Wei: “…”

Although he didn’t know what happened between Qiao Huan and Sima Zhao, it seemed he didn’t need to worry about his partner.

Instead of worrying about Qiao Huan being schemed against by the Sima brothers, he should worry about Sima Zhao, who became a bag carrier to test Qiao Huan’s depth, right?

After all, Leping Academy has a tradition dating back over a decade to cultivate students’ patience—growing yams.

Initially, this activity was set up by Qiao Yan to temper the Black Mountain Bandits and White Wave Bandits, making them more useful to her.

Now, these people have become law-abiding citizens or capable soldiers under the Emperor, and Da Yong no longer needs these yams as a food source. So, yam farming has become a student life experience.

Since yams, like sweet potatoes, deplete soil fertility and require crop rotation, Sima Zhao, who entered Leping Academy a year earlier than Qiao Huan, also had to start this special task this year.

Thus, Jiang Wei wasn’t surprised to see that the area Sima Zhao was responsible for seemed a bit larger than it should be.

Clearly, someone had assigned him extra tasks.

And it wasn’t just Jiang Wei who noticed this, but also someone who had fought with Qiao Huan before.

Qiao Huan didn’t mention the fight to Qiao Yan when she returned to Luoyang for the New Year, and Sun Luban didn’t tell Sun Quan either.

Proud Sun Luban wanted to reclaim her honor on her own, but in the few overlapping courses with Qiao Huan, she still fell short. Now, she finally caught Qiao Huan’s mistake and rushed over.

“How can you treat classmates like servants?” Sun Luban angrily asked. “Can you really get credits with such shoddy work?”

“How can you slander me like this?” Qiao Huan widened her innocent eyes. “I did all my own work. Sima Zishang took on part of Zhang Changpu’s responsibility because she’s allergic to yams, and the teacher approved it.”

“Zishang has the heart to help classmates and should be praised, not called a servant.”

Sun Luban: “…”

Damn, I messed up.

How could I forget that “Mu Huan” could even turn a fight into a rehearsal of Dian Wei fighting a tiger in front of Cao Ang? How could I think she’d leave such an obvious flaw!

Now I’m really stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Before she could think of a way to respond, Qiao Huan preempted her, “Ah, it’s not your fault for misunderstanding. After all, we got to know each other through a fight. But last time you came looking for trouble, and this time you’re accusing me of being unfriendly to classmates. If I just swallow this, I won’t be able to survive in this academy.”

Although upper-class students mostly come from officials under Qiao Yan, there’s no bullying, just some unspoken rules, like Sima Zhao following Qiao Huan under Sima Shi’s instructions. But Sun Luban, who once wanted to be the top student, didn’t find anything wrong with Qiao Huan’s words.

She asked, “Then what do you suggest?”

Qiao Huan pointed to the yam field, “Each student is responsible for half an acre. With a yield of a thousand catties per acre, the academy requires a submission of four hundred catties. If there’s extra, I want you to give it to me as a gift.”

Sun Luban frowned, “Can’t I give you something else?”

Don’t think that half of a thousand catties is five hundred, and four hundred is an easy task.

Even though yams have been optimized over the years, it’s still not easy.

Sun Luban had asked her father and heard from Sun Quan that when he came to Leping, he underestimated this task and was quickly taught a lesson.

What Qiao Yan used to temper bandits isn’t so easily achieved, and you have to ensure no reduction in yield due to weather or pests, all while keeping up with academy studies!

This means she must devote all her time to tending the yam field, with no room for slacking.

But Qiao Huan clearly wasn’t going to let her bargain, slowly asking, “What if I had encouraged you to report to the teacher directly?”

Sun Luban: “…”

Still young and naive, she only knew she had to strive for the top but hadn’t figured out where to focus or understood underhanded methods. So when Qiao Huan made this assumption, she really felt like she had a point.








According to this reasoning, sending the extra yams she harvested to Qiao Huan, whether to fill her own deficits or use as food, would still be a compromise.

“Then… let’s do as you say.”

But only after she walked back did she realize—Wait, even if she wronged her classmate, at most she’d have to make a public apology or write a few self-criticism essays. Why take on a half-year-long chore?

It’s only March or April now, and yams won’t be harvested until August at the earliest!

Sun Luban felt her vision darken.

But her temperament had long been figured out by Qiao Huan through their several interactions.

Qiao Huan could clearly see that this girl was stubborn.

Last time, she chose the explanation of “Dian Wei fighting a tiger” because of the phrase “next time we’ll settle the score.”

This time, she could also keep her promise because she had already agreed to Qiao Huan.

“Mother Empress is truly amazing,” Qiao Huan muttered to herself. “The methods she used to feed the people of Bingzhou back then can still be reused today.”

“No wonder she was the only one who could end the chaos of the late Han and become the ruler of the world.”

Jiang Wei heard her muttering and asked, “What are you talking about?”

Qiao Huan replied seriously, “I’m saying we’re really lucky. The famines during the Jian’an era didn’t affect us, and the locust plagues during the Guangxi and Zhongping eras are long gone. We didn’t have to experience the desperate times when people relied on yams for survival. No wonder the academy keeps reminding us to remember hardship and cherish sweetness.”

This “remember hardship and cherish sweetness” training wasn’t limited to the extracurricular yam planting.

Sun Luban, refusing to admit defeat, finished weeding the fields during her free time. She wanted to show off to Qiao Huan, but found that Qiao Huan wasn’t in the field she was supposed to be responsible for, and even Sima Zhao, whom Sun Luban once mistook for Qiao Huan’s enforcer, was also absent.

“…What’s going on now?”

After asking around, she learned that Cai Yong had been lecturing on war songs, starting with the “No Clothes” poem from the Book of Songs, and then moving on to frontier poems.

This inevitably led to Emperor Wu of Han’s “Song of the Heavenly Horses” and the “Fight South of the City” from the “Eighteen Songs of the Nao.”

The former was easier to understand, as Emperor Wu had obtained a batch of sweat-blood horses from the Western Regions, completing his conquest of foreign lands, naturally expressing pride in his poetry.

But the latter… was far beyond what someone of Qiao Huan’s age could comprehend.

At most, when they read lines like “The water roars, the reeds are dark. Brave cavalry die in battle, while weak horses wander and neigh,” they sensed that this wasn’t a thrilling fight but a tragic war.

But no matter how smart Qiao Huan was, having been born into a peaceful world, she had never seen a real battle.

And she wasn’t the only one in this situation.

Cai Yong had always been meticulous, and he had high hopes for this course he started teaching this year. He even hoped it would be passed down after his death and become a course at Leping Academy. So he made a decision.

He would take the students of this course on a trip beyond the frontier.

Only by personally experiencing the scenery beyond the frontier could they truly understand the grandeur of frontier poems.

So now Cai Yong had taken the students to Yanmen Pass and gone on a trip beyond the frontier.

“…” Sun Luban was silent for a long time before asking, “Who was it that said Cai Bojie’s class was boring, didn’t take attendance, and was too relaxed, inevitably breeding a bunch of idlers?”

Now these idlers, with someone ensuring their yam fields were growing properly, had all gone on a trip beyond the frontier.

What made Sun Luban even more annoyed was that His Majesty, concerned about Cai Yong’s health and to prevent any accidents, had allocated a batch of carriages with rubber tires to Bingzhou and ordered Lü Bu, stationed at Baidao River, to protect the trip.

If anything went wrong under these circumstances, it would be a huge joke!

So the traveling group, originally planning to go just a hundred miles beyond the frontier to see the scenery north of Yinshan, decided before leaving Yanmen Pass to head directly to Saiyin Mountain Ridge.

Lü Bu certainly wouldn’t refuse this suggestion.

Look, the group included Cai Yong and his students. Given Cai Yong’s practical and truth-seeking teaching philosophy, wouldn’t he have to explain the historical events when they saw the victory monument at Saiyin Mountain Ridge?

Although, given Cai Yong’s temperament, he might end up talking about His Majesty’s calligraphy skills halfway through, but Lü Bu felt he was getting a great deal.

Moreover, the group also included the interesting little princess, Qiao Huaixu.

Lü Bu could take the opportunity to discuss with her whether some scenes could be written more excitingly.

“By the way, why is that kid always looking at you?” Lü Bu, far more perceptive of danger than others, immediately noticed Sima Zhao’s unusual behavior.

Qiao Huan shook her head helplessly, “No choice, I inherited my mother’s brilliance, so of course I get more attention.”

Lü Bu: “…”

If she had said this when she was tall enough to ride a horse, it might have been slightly more convincing.

But somehow, Qiao Huan didn’t feel like she was lying.

Look, she was indeed welcomed warmly upon returning from beyond the frontier.

By Sun Luban.

The yam planting had indeed made her seem more patient, but when that patience was used to say “You didn’t die out there” and then leave, she suggested planting a few more days.

The trip beyond the frontier, though without any battles, was extremely exhausting for a child of Qiao Huan’s age.

When she returned to her dorm and collapsed into bed, she felt she had finally gained a real sense of the historical records of her mother leading the northern campaign against the Xianbei.

Soon, she had to catch up on a month’s worth of missed classes and had no time to deal with Sun Luban.

During this time, she made another friend, Kong Yu, the daughter of Kong Rong, who had been studying at Leping Academy for several years. At just over ten years old, with outstanding talent in mathematics and spatial reasoning, Kong Yu had become a student of Lu Ji, despite Kong Rong not being favored by Qiao Yan.

By the time Qiao Huan saw Sun Luban again, it was already harvest season.

And the extra harvest Sun Luban brought amounted to a whopping 150 pounds.

Sun Luban lifted her chin and said, “This is what I promised you. I didn’t break my word, did I?”

“Of course not,” Qiao Huan smiled. “Let me treat you to a meal, to make up for the two things between us.”

When yams first appeared on the dining tables in Leping, it was in yam and pork rib soup. But today, perhaps because the yams were grown by herself, Sun Luban felt the yam and chicken soup was more delicious than any dish she had ever tasted.

Even the chicken was tender and melted in her mouth.

Indeed…

Wait, chicken soup?

Sun Luban was shocked, “Where did you get the chicken?”

The academy was a self-contained area, with little interaction with the outside world. Roasting yams was one thing, but where could she get a chicken?

If she remembered correctly, the only chickens in the academy were the ones Cai Yong raised for cooking!

This… this…

Qiao Huan nodded, confirming Sun Luban’s guess.

Yes, the chicken was Cai Yong’s.

“I left money for the chicken there. It’s not stolen,” Qiao Huan replied calmly.

Sun Luban: “…”

She had no idea that Qiao Huan had gotten the chicken by explaining it to Cai Yong. All she knew was—

Cai Yong was highly respected here, and no one had ever dared to force a sale on him!

This girl really had guts!!!

Thinking of this, Sun Luban angrily said, “Are you crazy? Aren’t you afraid Cai Yong will expel you?”

But halfway through her words, she suddenly realized that the chicken was also her share, and the yams as a side dish… were grown by herself.

“We’re now people with a shared secret. Be nicer,” Qiao Huan patted Sun Luban’s shoulder. “Friends should keep each other’s secrets.”

Sun Luban immediately jumped, “Who’s your friend!”

Qiao Huan pointed at the chicken bones on the ground and blinked.

If you’ve eaten together, doesn’t that make us friends?

Author’s Note:

Cai Yong: The children of Leping bully me in my old age, taking my chickens to make soup.

Qiao Huaixu: Don’t make such a clear transaction sound so tragic, Master Bojie!

The poetry contest has ended. I selected six most relevant entries and have compensated the five runners-up with the same amount of Jinjiang coins as the first prize. They have been submitted for Jinjiang’s final selection. I hope everyone wins, and thank you for participating (heart~).

Here’s the last line of my favorite poem—

The peaks of Lanxiu, towering and majestic. The swan flies in the sky, the pheasant emerges from the cage. A daughter should be like Qiao of Bingzhou.

I didn’t expect someone to include Qiao Lan, Qiao Ting, Ren Hong, and little Lü.

Really touched.

The full poem is—

Alone entering the enemy camp, strategizing to quell the Yellow Turbans. In plain clothes, beheading bandits, offering their heads to honor family.

Twelve military achievements, enfeoffed as a marquis, appointed as a regional governor. The army marches beyond the frontier like tigers, martial arts unparalleled under heaven, the Xiongnu submit at the sight. Encouraging farming, the harvest of millet and grain is bountiful.

The peaks of Lanxiu, towering and majestic. The swan flies in the sky, the pheasant emerges from the cage. A daughter should be like Qiao of Bingzhou.

See you tomorrow at 9:30 AM.