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“So, um, you can’t become the emperor if you’re a strategist?”
Ah, Changshe…
It wasn’t until we hit the road to Yingchuan that halfway through the journey, the system jolted to life like a zombie and suddenly blurted out, “Wait! Were you seriously cooking up these dangerous thoughts from the very start?”
As Cheng Li said, Qiao Yan was cozying up to the Tian clan, taking out Bu Ji and Zhang Bo, two Yellow Turban commanders, while she was climbing the ranks under Liang Zhongning, all the while sending Dian Wei over to Dong’e to relay messages and pulling in Cheng Li for some backup in Puyang—
And the end goal? You guessed it, Changshe!
Don’t let Yanzhou’s calm fool you with the Yellow Turbans uniting; down south in Yuzhou, the battles between the Han army and the Yellow Turbans were getting seriously heated.
Changshe was anything but peaceful.
In the third month of the seventh year of Guanghe, Right Middle General Zhu Jun was trounced by Bo Cai.
Then, Left Middle General Huangfu Song rolled in with his troops, getting pressured to team up with Zhu Jun to defend Changshe.
And just outside Changshe’s county seat? A whole bunch of Yellow Turbans flocking together under Bo Cai.
To be precise, there were battles all over Yuzhou, but the Yellow Turbans held the upper hand, for instance—
In early April, the Yellow Turbans from Runan defeated Prefect Zhao Qian at Shaoling.
Three days later, the ever-tightening circle of Yellow Turbans completely surrounded the Han army in Changshe, clearly aiming to squash their opposition without mercy.
Meanwhile, just after Cheng Li arrived in Puyang, Qiao Yan sought out Liang Zhongning.
He thought Cheng Li, who had come with Dian Wei, was just another disciple of Zheng Xuan like Qiao Yan claimed, and was there to drag his strategist away. Little did he know Qiao Yan said her teacher’s instructions were if Yanzhou showed no signs of rebellion, it wouldn’t hurt to see if the Yellow Turbans actually had what it took to turn the world upside down.
“Master Zheng observed the stars at night and noticed a month ago that Mars was dim, indicating something was off in the Han Dynasty, yet the stars Di and Fang were bright, marking the lands of Yanzhou and Yuzhou.”
Hearing Qiao Yan say that left Liang Zhongning looking a bit lost.
The study of star omens was all the rage at the end of the Han, and for him, who barely had a chance to learn before the Yellow Turbans kicked off, this was a bit much.
Yet, some things clicked for him.
Right now, Mars had no name associated with it among the common folks, instead referred to as the Fire Virtue Star, and since Liu Bang, the founder of the Han, was thought to be the son of the Red Emperor who slayed the white snake to start the Han dynasty, the Han was recognized as the epitome of Fire Virtue—
So, Mars being dim and Fire Virtue stagnating? Definitely a silver lining for the Yellow Turbans.
And “Di and Fang shining bright”? That seemed like good news for the lands of Yanzhou and Yuzhou too?
Then Qiao Yan added, “Regarding the unusual phenomena amongst the stars, Master Zheng couldn’t quite pin down at Gaomi. He sent me with Zhongde to Yingchuan for a look, possibly related to the battle between Commander Bo Cai and General Huangfu. This is crucial, so forgive me for not sticking around Puyang any longer.”
After finishing, she bowed to Liang Zhongning, ready to take her leave.
Liang Zhongning was still scratching his head over the star stuff, but he caught that last bit perfectly.
He slapped his thigh and made a decision: “Why should you go alone? The Yellow Turbans in Yuzhou are at a standoff with the Han army, and it’s the perfect time for us Yellow Turbans from Yanzhou to throw in some help!”
Liang Zhongning was also harboring a little ambition.
With all the flattery from the Tian and Xue clans lately, he couldn’t help but feel like maybe he was born to be a natural commander. After all, if he wasn’t, how could he get his soldiers to follow so willingly?
Plus, this whole “Yanzhou and Yuzhou” dance had to mean something great was coming for him to shine in the battle at Yingchuan.
Not to mention, following Qiao Yan to Yingchuan had to be safer than letting her go alone!
There was really no argument left!
Just days before his inspection of the military camp, he overheard some well-fed soldiers asking when they’d finally get a chance to go to battle.
Earlier, Liang Zhongning had to give them vague answers since he didn’t have any battles to offer.
What could he say? Zhang Jiao was preoccupied fighting against Lu Zhi, and the closest Bo Cai’s troops clearly didn’t want to share the glory with him.
But now? Now it was different! He could use star-gazing as an excuse for his “unsanctioned” deployment!
This was just too perfect!
He quickly rallied his troops, stocked up on supplies, and within ten days of Qiao Yan mentioning her plans for the Changshe front, he led a large force out, leaving only enough to guard Puyang.
The system was taken aback yet again by this twist.
The skill points Qiao Yan gained by helping eliminate Bu Ji and Zhang Bo were already put into her Eloquence skill before Cheng Li even arrived at Puyang.
Such skill enhancements were tough to quantify.
But the system, picking up on her smooth talk about star phenomena, began to dawn on a grim truth.
Having a skill so useful for strategists in the hands of someone as clever as Qiao Yan? Now, that was downright scary.
Each piece of this puzzle, in the system’s eyes, wasn’t just a step-by-step plan but looked more like a scheme she’d plotted well in advance when she approached Liang Zhongning.
This chaotic mishmash of Yellow Turban forces charging from Yanzhou to Yingchuan definitely wasn’t to help Bo Cai besiege the Han army at Changshe. Quite the opposite…
The system felt it might need to send some candles to the Yellow Turbans.
And that’s why it posed that haunting question—
“Were you seriously harboring these dangerous thoughts from the get-go?”
“If I said no, would you believe me?” Qiao Yan shot back.
Nope.
The system silently replied to itself.
As it pondered, it glanced over at its host.
While waiting for Cheng Li and Liang Zhongning to show up in Puyang, Qiao Yan finally got some free time amidst the chaos, so she decided to give horseback riding a whirl.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the sort of skills you could just pick up overnight, and she couldn’t afford to waste her skill points on that.
So there she sat in a separate wagon, cruising along with the marching troop.
Meanwhile, Cheng Li was right on track with the classic Han scholar “Six Arts of a Gentleman,” trotting beside the wagon.
Qiao Yan pulled back the curtain to sneak a peek at him, then quickly averted her gaze, totally denying any bitterness about her short legs.
Yet, compared to Qiao Yan’s tiny thoughts, she was just getting started…
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“The dissatisfaction with the status quo is nothing compared to the system’s heavy grudge.”
From Qiao Yan’s overly calm expression, it suddenly realized it might have gotten slapped in the face—twice.
As a system with decent memory, it vividly remembered that when it was picking an identity for its host, it aimed for her to cozy up to the likes of Cao Cao and Huangfu Song.
But now, with Huangfu Song and the others stuck in Changshe, she had already rushed there, leading the Yellow Turban army from Yanzhou.
This scene of one being inside the city and the other outside was, to put it mildly, a bit awkward.
The second matter popped up when Qiao Yan mentioned that the Han army would sweep through Yanzhou by June, so she needed to find a chance to save her life before then. The system had suggested she seek shelter in a city within Yanzhou that was successfully fending off the Yellow Turbans, say, Dong’e.
But now, Dong’e’s strategist had already joined her ranks.
While it wasn’t exactly an official pledge, she had definitely influenced him with her talk of “suppressing the Yellow Turbans in Yanzhou,” which, in the system’s eyes, seemed like a collaborative effort of two high-level strategists.
Additionally, the Xue clan from Dong’e had contributed a lot of manpower to this trip.
It seemed to completely deviate from the system’s original suggestion—
This difference couldn’t even be described with the phrase “worlds apart!”
This was on an entirely different level!
The system fell into deep thought.
How had it ever seen Qiao Yan as a poor creature who had to endure humiliation just to survive while throwing herself into the arms of bandits?
It had barely been a month since she woke up among the corpses, but she had transformed from a clueless person into a commanding strategist exuding confidence.
Liang Zhongning, a bit aloof, still held great respect for Qiao Yan.
On the way to Changshe, he humbly asked her for more guidance.
What puzzled the system, however, was that Qiao Yan’s pointers to Liang Zhongning were anything but perfunctory.
For example, today she was discussing camp latrine arrangements based on the “Li Weigong Military Strategies” and relevant records from “Records of the Three Kingdoms” compiled by Wang Zongyi.
What’s a latrine? It’s the bathroom in the military camp.
This isn’t just child’s play.
Bathroom arrangements are especially crucial when marching with tens of thousands of soldiers; if mishandled, it could easily lead to an epidemic with devastating consequences.
Liang Zhongning took notes of what Qiao Yan said like a treasure and hopped off the carriage to discuss improvements with the logistics people in the Yellow Turban army.
Cheng Li looked at the other party’s performance and exchanged a knowing glance with Qiao Yan.
“Mr. Zhongde is quite close to the Xue clan youth guarding Dong’e, so he should know where these people are stationed in the army?”
After Cheng Li received her signal to step closer to the carriage, Qiao Yan quietly asked.
Previously in Puyang, Qiao Yan had avoided too much contact with these individuals, but the situation was different now.
On the march, amidst the Yellow Turban army’s preparedness, no matter how orderly they tried to be, some chaos was inevitable.
Which made it a perfect time for her to gather everyone together for a chat.
Hearing her inquiry, Cheng Li nodded and replied, “I’ll gather them tonight.”
She gave the same arrangement to Dian Wei, to gather the Tian clan’s people.
Liang Zhongning, now assigned a crucial role that could enhance his military formation skills, had no extra energy left to notice that this “thoughtful strategist” was gathering a few people for a pep talk in the wilderness at midnight.
The phrase “pep talk” was actually a name secretly coined by the strategist system itself.
After all, in its opinion, if Qiao Yan merely wanted to assign tasks to the undercover agents in the Yellow Turbans, she could easily send Cheng Li to relay her orders.
With Cheng Li’s cleverness, misunderstandings would be out of the question, not to mention that his decisive character ensured he’d carry out every task meticulously once he confirmed he was fighting alongside Qiao Yan.
However, Qiao Yan explained to the system that there were certain things Cheng Li would never think to mention given his past experiences.
And these points were crucial to get the Tian and Xue clans, originally powerful families in Yanzhou, to risk everything for her plans.
Standing before these people, Qiao Yan paced back and forth in front of them.
Among them, she recognized a few familiar faces.
Such as Tian Yan, the eldest son of the Tian clan—
She originally thought that Tian Tao, the clan head, would never let his son take such risks, but here he was.
Yet, his expression was worlds apart from the eager disdain he had shown during their meeting in the dungeons.
Over these days, both Tian Yan and the others around had witnessed her cunning maneuvers within the Yellow Turban army.
Even if she stood on a rock to make herself taller, it wouldn’t change the fact that the ten-year-old girl in front of them had an aura resembling that of towering mountains—something daunting.
When she finally stopped pacing and stood still, as if about to say something, they instinctively held their breaths, eager to hear what she had to say.
Qiao Yan slowly opened her mouth.
Her tone was calm, but it seemed to hold the weight of thunder.
The words that followed undoubtedly confirmed this intuition.
“In my childhood, I studied poetry and military strategy with my parents, gazing upon the vast world, filled with ambition and dreams of serving the country by defeating bandits, and after many years, I wrote on my tombstone: ‘The tomb of the former general Qiao Hou’.”
“Now I haven’t had the chance to fight the barbarous Xianbei and Western Qiang at the borders, nor the opportunity for accolades and titles. Yet today, with the Yellow Turban bandits rising everywhere and the Han royal house in turmoil, if we can quell the Yellow Turbans in Yanzhou and Pingyu, there’s a chance I can fulfill my past aspirations!”
She surveyed each face in the crowd and declared, word by word:
“If I can do it, so can you.”
“You were born into powerful families, and you should know that my Han Dynasty doesn’t grant titles to those of different surnames, but you can earn your own titles as County Marquis and leave your name in history instead of being fearful whispers in your local community.”
Under the starlit sky, a fervent persuasion flickered in her eyes, igniting the collective ambitions of these noble families.
“Qiao Yan may be lacking, but I dare to ask you all to follow my lead and fight for a place in history!”
