“Can a strategist not ascend the throne?”
Volume Five: The Two Factions of Han, War Settles in Hexi. Chapter 140: Xun You’s Plan.
Choosing to allocate the remaining points to luck rather than martial strength or intelligence was a well-considered decision by Qiao Yan.
She used to think that after starting as a Count and receiving visits from renowned scholars and warriors, her luck stat would be more than sufficient.
But seeing as it wasn’t the right time to hold the Imperial Seal, its presence could actually weaken her luck, and there was no telling what else might change that.
Especially since the campaign against Liangzhou, even with the system map’s assistance, was the least likely to rely on luck.
The roving Qiang cavalry could easily deliver a nasty surprise during a deep pursuit, and the climates in Hexi, Hetao, and Longyou were notoriously unpredictable.
What could happen with high luck was anyone’s guess, but one thing was certain—if it was too low, trouble was on the way.
The upper limit of luck values was a question mark instead of being capped at 100, prompting Qiao Yan to plan more carefully.
After determining how to allocate her points, Qiao Yan’s gaze fell upon the other parts of this panel.
The question marks behind the faction and strategist roles made her chuckle a bit.
“Why isn’t my faction labeled as the Han?” Qiao Yan asked the system.
Given that she was still the Bingzhou Governor of the Han, and had not done anything that could really be termed treasonous, it seemed a bit unfair to label her with a question mark. Didn’t she manage to project a pretty noble image during court debates?
【…Because the system’s internal records don’t have a category for ‘one Han in the east, another in the west.’】 The system took a moment to reply without words.
According to her current ranking, she seemed like she should belong to the Western Han faction—west in terms of direction—but the system’s internal timeline was set in the Eastern Han period, creating a conflict that resulted in her faction being a nebulous question mark. It made her look like quite the rogue.
As for the question mark behind the strategist role, that was a self-inflicted wound by the system.
Now that the air was clear, she figured… let’s just pretend it was playing blind.
Qiao Yan’s strategist points increased from 230 to 350, thanks to this recent campaign in Luoyang, but achieving this milestone definitely required more than just participating in historical events at the right time.
The judgement from the strategist system wasn’t so simple; if it were, everyone could just swim through murky waters to boost their stats.
Take the earlier completed achievement, “Plan to Obliterate a Power,” for instance; it could still be considered a rather vague title, more of a handout from the system to initially boost the host’s numbers, but that wasn’t the case anymore.
The four achievements Qiao Yan completed were called:
【Dong Zhuo’s Rebellion: Participate in the Suan Zao Conference and reach the top three in contributions】
【Dong Zhuo’s Rebellion: Defeat two or more Middle Generals of Dong Zhuo in one decisive plan】
【Dong Zhuo’s Rebellion: Persuade Lü Bu to not join Dong Zhuo】
【Complete a famous revolutionary manifesto against notorious historical figures, causing a circulation of over 100,000】
The second achievement could be whimsically titled “Combo! Taking Down Dong Zhuo’s Middle Generals,” but it wasn’t an easy feat; even knowing about this achievement could easily be misinterpreted as quelling the chaos of Li Jue and Guo Si.
Chances were slim for someone like Qiao Yan to have simultaneously run into Xu Rong and Niu Fu.
The third and fourth achievements tested her eloquence and writing skills, and ironically, Qiao Yan achieved them in ways the system had never imagined.
She could only comfort herself that, hey, getting anything was still a good thing.
With the 120 strategist points from those four achievements, Qiao Yan’s stats saw another boost, and she could even up her skills a bit more.
Critical skills like agitation, archery, and horsemanship were all enhanced, including the eloquence she had always valued.
This time, she didn’t leave any room for unspent skill points.
“Once the number of my subordinates has reached a sufficient scale, it’s unreasonable for a leader to do everything themselves and take control of everything; they need to let the subordinates have some room to work. So, intelligence is just enough as far as I’m concerned.” Qiao Yan stated firmly.
【You could just call yourself ‘Lord’ instead of ‘leader’… but whatever.】 The system internally reassured itself before responding.
“Oh, how rude of me.” Qiao Yan rubbed her hands together and activated the new feature, “Cunning Plans,” after reaching 300 strategist points.
More ways to milk the system for something good; she still wanted to maintain some face for it.
This feature had been there since she acquired the system but was just sitting there locked until now.
After successfully unlocking it, the corresponding explanation appeared in front of her.
Every month’s waiting time, the “Cunning Plans” feature would generate one card draw opportunity.
The content of the card draw would be intel on one of the current leaders.
It had been a month since Qiao Yan reached 300 strategist points, and she was ready for her first draw.
She had boosted her luck a bit, so surely it wouldn’t yield any absurd intel… right?
【You have obtained leader intel – Dong Zhuo】
【Rumor has it, like Liu Xiu, Dong Zhuo can also summon meteors. In the second year of Zhongping, Dong Zhuo defeated Han Sui in the Battle of Bian Zhang, and at night, meteors appeared like fire for more than ten zhang, frightening donkeys and horses, and taking advantage of that to defeat the enemy.】
Qiao Yan: “…?”
What kind of nonsense is this?
System! System, do you see this intel? Is this legit?
If it weren’t for Qiao Yan not being able to see the entity of the system, one might’ve thought they were exchanging glances of disbelief.
But this message referenced both Dong Zhuo and Han Sui, who Qiao Yan would soon face, so it seemed like a reminder that things hadn’t gone too dark yet.
Anyway, there was no rush to deploy, so Qiao Yan planned to draw again next month.
If the next intel was still not serious, she’d stockpile draws for ten consecutive pulls.
Exiting the system panel, she soon heard from a servant that Zhao Yun requested an audience.
Recalling the tasks she had assigned to Xu Shu and Zhao Yun earlier, she immediately had them bring Zhao Yun in.
Among Dong Zhuo’s officers, Qiao Yan had already accepted Xu Rong and had even appointed him as the chief of Shuofang County after returning to Bingzhou, but she didn’t want to appear too favorably disposed towards Zhang Xiu.
Currently, Zhang Xiu hadn’t yet taken command from his uncle and was only showing decent martial skills, but if Qiao Yan asked him to fill the last empty position and personally inquired about his allegiance, it might seem like she was favoring him over the old guard. So now she let Zhao Yun and Xu Shu handle that instead.
“There’s a difference in perspective, but that’s alright.”
So, Zhang Xiu is the one captured by Zhao Yun, and having him inquire about the surrender seems just right.
Zhao Yun bowed to her and replied, “Your Grace, Zhang Xiu means he can surrender, but he has a request.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“Zhang Xiu’s uncle is still under Dong Zhuo’s command, and if he rashly surrenders, Dong Zhuo might take action against Zhang Ji. This makes him hesitate, but along the way, Mr. Wenhe casually suggested a plan during their chat, and now he’s bringing it up.”
As Zhao Yun said this, his expression turned a bit strange. Noticing Qiao Yan looking at him, he continued, “When Zhang Ji was fleeing Luoyang alongside Dong Zhuo, he didn’t have the chance to gather his belongings and family. His wife, Mrs. Zou, was recently with the military and is currently in Luoyang. When we bring Zhang Xiu back, we’ll also bring Zhang Ji’s family, including Mrs. Zou.”
“Zhang Xiu wants Your Grace to hold Mrs. Zou as leverage rather than send her to Chang’an. He can defend Dingxiang for you, then write a mocking letter to his uncle, suggesting the uncle can’t even protect his nephew and wife, making it easier for the uncle to turn against that villain Dong. When Your Grace confronts Uncle Zhang Ji, if you manage to capture him, Zhang Xiu promises to persuade him to surrender.”
“…Did Jia Wenhe get carried away just because he ran into a fellow townsman from Liangzhou?” Qiao Yan pinched her brow, doubting that at this rate, one day she might hear from a secret informer that Zhang Xiu is actually a fan of married women, which would be totally unfair.
But anyway, whether it’s Ma Lun, Qin Yu, or Lu Yuan, she’s short on female assistants. If Mrs. Zou isn’t just pretty but also can be useful, plus the provocative letter to Chang’an doesn’t have to be written by her but can be left for Zhang Xiu, it might not be such a bad plan.
“Tell him I agree, but next time there’s a surrendering general from Liangzhou, let Jia Wenhe discuss it with me first.”
Jia Xu really had a good grasp of her temperament; this little joke wouldn’t make her feel like he was crossing a line. Rather, it openly put their interactions with the Liangzhou generals on the table, which would make her feel more at ease.
Jia Xu’s action was also a subtle reminder that her team was getting larger, which meant it would be easier for many from the same place to join her ranks, like the generals from Liangzhou and Bingzhou, or the scholars from Yingchuan.
In this era where geographical ties often lead to alliances, it’s tough for Qiao Yan to enforce strict rules against their normal interactions. She could only manage the balance between them and discern which suggestions were genuinely helpful and which were just power plays against other factions.
Fortunately, none of her civil or military officials had proposed anything stemming from internal strife yet, as she didn’t seem like someone who could be easily fooled.
While Qiao Yan pondered this, she had someone find Xun You.
Upon returning to Bingzhou, the first thing she did wasn’t to leverage Xun You’s strategic skills for planning an attack on Liangzhou.
Instead, she wrote a letter to Huangfu Song, instructing Fu Gan to send it to Liangzhou immediately, to prevent Dong Zhuo from sneaking back to Chang’an, rushing to boost his troops by bringing Huangfu Song into the court under the Son of Heaven’s orders.
This was a top priority.
Fu Gan never anticipated that in his third year serving Qiao Yan, he would get a chance to avenge his father.
Even though this was just a precursor to Qiao Yan’s military expedition to Liangzhou, it didn’t dampen his excitement upon receiving this task.
Fortunately, Fu Gan was always steady; he promised Qiao Yan that aside from delivering the letter, he wouldn’t engage in any irrelevant activities and wouldn’t let his hatred cloud his judgment regarding Han Sui and Ma Teng.
After half a month, there was still silence from Liangzhou, which didn’t alarm Qiao Yan at all.
At such a time, a lack of troop movements was actually good news.
By letting Xun You stay idle for half a month, he had a better grasp of the local situation and troop distribution, making subsequent military plans more targeted.
Xun You was a smart guy and quickly grasped the purpose behind Qiao Yan’s waiting strategy.
During these two weeks, he had taken on the responsibilities of Shangdang, but in reality, he had covered most of Bingzhou. Except for the fortress area in Leping, which he declined to visit, claiming he hadn’t done anything noteworthy yet, he was pretty much aware of everything.
Now was the right time to meet him.
When Xun You stepped into the governor’s study, he saw Qiao Yan sitting on the couch by the window, with two bowls of su shan placed on the table.
Bingzhou had “extracted” quite a bit of cattle and sheep from the Xianbei, so animal products were abundant in the governor’s office. Earlier, Xi Zhicai mentioned the delicious foods coming out of this governor’s office in his letters to Yingchuan, and now here was su shan.
But to Qiao Yan, su shan wasn’t something of particularly high technical skill; after all, this ancient version of ice cream existed from the Southern and Northern Dynasties all the way through the Tang Dynasty.
Bingzhou’s winter was harsh, so gathering ice to store in ice houses wasn’t hard; come summer, after heating and shaping the milk into peaks and placing them in the ice house to freeze, voilà, su shan.
Strictly speaking, she should have probably performed a classy tea ceremony right now, but Qiao Yan thought it better to stick to her personal preference.
What’s wrong with a dignitary enjoying ice cream in summer?
After all, she was the one who had brought back the cattle and sheep!
She lifted her hand, signaling Xun You to take a seat across from her, and asked, “You’ve been in Bingzhou for a while now. What do you think of it?”
Xun You, slow in demeanor, didn’t lose his composure just because he was in a place different from the Taihang Mountains. He simply replied, “I suddenly understand why Xi Zhicai and Feng Xiao have sent fewer letters these past two years.”
Because the strength Qiao Yan displayed during the attack on Luoyang was just the tip of the iceberg compared to the changes happening throughout Bingzhou, which had amassed so much that it couldn’t all be openly displayed.
To the common folk, these improvements merely made their lives better, allowing them to settle peacefully in Bingzhou.
But for someone like Xun You, who saw deeper, these building advantages and innovations made him increasingly wary of Qiao Yan’s power as Bingzhou’s governor, and he couldn’t help but feel pity for those outside Bingzhou lost in power struggles.
Some people had accumulated such tremendous advantages but were still striving for more, while others…
He followed Qiao Yan’s lead, tasting a bit of su shan. It had a hint of tea flavor mixed in, almost like a new way of experiencing tea, and that bitter cold taste brought his thoughts back to focus.
Then he heard Qiao Yan ask, “Since you know the situation in Bingzhou, what advice do you have for me?”
Xun You had prepared his thoughts beforehand, so he replied without hesitation, “Please, Your Grace, advance your forces to the Shagu Mountain line by early spring next year, and set up a military camp east of Muddy Water.”
