Chapter 214

“`html

Chapter 214

Can strategists not ascend the throne? Volume Seven, Eight Hundred Qin Chuan, Section 214: Tian Feng’s Thoughts

But no matter how much the system ponders, it can’t change one fact.

Liu Xie, due to his position as the Son of Heaven of the Han and Qiao Yan’s stance in favor of a clean court, is internally programmed as Qiao Yan’s “lord.”

He transformed from a puppet emperor supported by Dong Zhuo to a woodsman living freely today.

Who can say that isn’t a form of escape?

As for whether he’s actually under Qiao Yan’s control, being prepped by her is another issue altogether.

After all, as a watcher of a woodsman’s family, he holds no official position, so he can’t really be considered Qiao Yan’s subordinate.

Digging into his background, he can’t even be counted as a local of Bingzhou; he could simply be seen as someone who conveniently moved to Yizhou.

For Liu Xie, his current situation is a world better than the time when he had no choice but to issue edicts.

This is undoubtedly the strategist’s effort!

She definitely deserves credit for it.

Qiao Yan feels justified in all this.

She even asked the system a question at this point: “If I successfully flatter Liu Yu into becoming the Son of Heaven, should I also be able to score strategist points?”

If we were to be frank, what Qiao Yan really should have asked is whether there are corresponding achievements.

The ultimate goal of a strategist is simply to elevate the supported lord from a regional prince to the status of emperor.

If such an accomplishment doesn’t even yield achievements, then this system is hardly a competent strategist system.

Had it not been for Dong Zhuo, she would have probably secured that achievement early on when Liu Xie ascended.

Fortunately, it’s not too late with Liu Yu.

Holding the name of the Han dynasty’s righteousness in her hands is both a necessity in this chaotic era and a targeted maneuver proposed by Qiao Yan as per the system’s parameters.

The system has marked her faction as a question mark, but if asked by the people, she still appears as a loyal minister of the Han.

It’s just a shift from supporting Liu Xie to backing Liu Yu.

The system may want to scoff at the authenticity of this endeavor to curry favor with the emperor, but since even Liu Xie’s case counts as strategist maneuvers, Liu Yu’s scenario definitely qualifies. All it can say is: [Sure, but Liu Yu has to agree to accept the position first].

Qiao Yan replied, “You’re mistaken; whether Liu Yu agrees isn’t the point. The situation demands that he become the emperor now, the people need him to ascend, so he has no choice but to take that position.”

If Liu Yu were a character like Yuan Shao, he might refuse.

Or rather, Qiao Yan’s suggestion to elevate Liu Yu to emperor, if it hadn’t emerged during Liu Xie’s disappearance and lacked support from Lu Zhi, Huangfu Song, Huang Wan, Wang Yun, Xun Shuang, etc., Liu Yu might have behaved as he did in history and rejected Yuan Shao’s proposal.

But right now, his relatively mild personality meets the strong legitimacy from Chang’an’s court, compelling him closer to the throne.

At most, some delays might occur due to the war situation in Youzhou.

The system mumbled: [Alright then, but why do you ask this now?]

At a time when the strategist points are undergoing such remarkable changes, to still be eyeing another gain is truly audacious.

In response to the system’s question, Qiao Yan tapped on the attributes point displayed on her transparent screen as her answer.

Only then did the system realize that in the earlier discussions, she had allocated all her attribute points.

But upon seeing her distribution results, the system felt momentarily choked.

The system panel displayed—

[Physique: 100 (100), Strength: 100 (100), Intelligence: 96 (100), Luck: 101 (?)]

[Remaining Allocatable Points: 0]

[Skills: History lv10, Eloquence lv9, Incitement lv10, Artifact Identification lv4, Archery lv12, Horse Riding lv11, Painting lv3, Calligraphy lv7, Field Archaeology lv5, Ancient Currency Studies lv9, …]

[Remaining Skill Points: 9]

Honestly, for her to max out these attributes at such speed is something the system didn’t even imagine.

Even without the previous host as a reference group, the system could easily judge that from the time of her arrival to the present, seven years plus into the third year of Guangxi, achieving full value in any attribute is extremely rare.

The accomplishments labeled as “assisted” by the system clearly aren’t something she could just benefit from by merely being present in the group.

Only when her contributions reached a certain standard could they be accounted for.

Yet she not only gained those accolades, but also hit two maxed-out attributes, which is something the system couldn’t be more thrilled about for its goal to cultivate the world’s greatest strategist.

That said, the system had been looking at this panel for quite a while when it couldn’t help but ask: [Why didn’t you fill up your intelligence?]

The system can understand Qiao Yan’s choice.

The value of intelligence between 80 and 100 seems more about enhancing her ability to think and reason from various perspectives, leading to a highly-focused mental state when judging matters, so the difference between 96 and 100 isn’t considerable.

Instead of tweaking those intelligence numbers, wouldn’t it be better to sprinkle a few more points into luck and see if that question-marked ceiling isn’t just 100, but perhaps a higher figure?

But apart from her stubbornness in keeping her strength above intelligence, which the system found quite vexing, it couldn’t stop itself from asking another question: [Don’t you have any obsessive-compulsive disorder?]

This intelligence of 96 and luck value of 101, she really finds aesthetically pleasing.

Qiao Yan replied, “That’s why I want to ask Liu Yu about it.”

She wanted to snag a few more attribute points.

Such a simple logic.

The poor newbie system felt overwhelmed by its host’s schemes and thought it better to just take it easy.

However, compared to Tian Feng, this system, having naturally stood on the right side from the start, is much happier.

That September issue of the Leping Monthly Report shattered Tian Feng’s understanding into pieces.

His own land still hovers at a yield of 3 stones per acre, while other folks’ fields have tripled that.

Though Tian Feng only learned that Bingzhou’s farmland had some small added value due to concessions made to the incoming population, making it not quite three times as much, it was enough to alarm him greatly.

Others’ provincial governors, like Cai Yong, have turned dreams into reality with their emerald poems, while his own lord turns out to be the textbook example of the opposite from what’s taught in the monthly report.

Tian Feng isn’t one to “despise the poor and favor the rich”; having chosen Yuan Shao as his loyal lord, he doesn’t intend to shift allegiance over a few unclear calculations. He’s just deeply worried about Ji Province’s prospects.

They should really have made Bingzhou a prime observation target much sooner.

Unfortunately, Bingzhou had been deeply ravaged by the Hu thieves early on, leaving a deep-rooted impression on them.

Even in the past couple of years, while Qiao Yan could still supply food to support the allied forces, they just saw it as her power forming earlier, and she snagged the title of Governor early on.

Their perception of her actions in Liangzhou only reinforced the belief that no matter how much surplus Bingzhou may have, it was destined to be consumed in this war.

If we had to mention this, due to Emperor Ling of Han’s usual unreliability, Qiao Yan, more or less, was misunderstood due to his favoritism.

Fortunately…

Fortunately, with the situation in Guanzhong far from stable, Youzhou’s power struggles…

“`

“The battle’s not over yet, and with her territories expanding, her neighbors are multiplying too. She’s definitely not going to just waltz into Ji Province and take down Liu Bian, who still likes to call himself the King of Hongnong instead of the Emperor!”

The Taihang Mountains serve as a protective barrier for Bingzhou, but they also act as a shield for Ji Province.

Thinking this, Tian Feng managed to calm his tormented heart just a bit.

They still have time to work hard!

Of course, he couldn’t just turn back to Ji Province and say, “Oh no, their crop yield is already three times ours!” without having a clue how they achieved that.

He was determined to uncover the agricultural secrets of this place!

So, he disguised himself as a traveler astonished by the development in Bingzhou and struck up a conversation with local farmers.

The farmers seemed a bit wary and only shared some planting methods.

When he asked how they had extra laborers, even with his clever questioning, they just said, “If you settle in Bingzhou, you’ll naturally know.”

While Tian Feng was indeed using a fake identity, he never intended to settle down here, so the idea of being a Bingzhou resident was off the table.

Knowing that path was fruitless, he decided to head towards Taiyuan.

It was unfortunate that he arrived just as Bingzhou was finishing its autumn harvest, so he missed seeing most of the farming tools in the fields.

But using his experience, he figured that with so many people using farming tools, some must be for sale.

However, upon reaching Taiyuan, he learned that all farming tools were sold uniformly by the provincial government. If you had Bingzhou household registration, you could buy them at a low price.

The same went for various fertilizers and other tools.

For the farming folks of Bingzhou, saving a bit of money and carrying proof of their household registration was no hassle at all; it actually boosted their pride as Bingzhou citizens.

In such a case, shops that originally sold farming tools had turned to other woodworking businesses.

With most people well-fed, such a shift was not a crazy idea at all.

Tian Feng felt that Qiao Yan’s approach was precisely to prevent outsiders from easily acquiring their farming methods.

If you asked Qiao Yan, she’d probably have another reason: to provide job opportunities.

Manufacturing farming tools, especially producing smaller yet finely crafted items like curved plows and arrows, would be great work for those who couldn’t farm for long due to physical limitations.

These production departments could also be switched to making other products when needed.

But no matter the reasoning, Tian Feng was facing some trouble now.

He also discovered that the Leping Monthly Report was not exclusive to Chang Lin and the Bingzhou officials.

For instance, it was up for sale in the city’s bookstores.

Although the pricing on the monthly report was similar to that of ordinary books, based on the amount of paper used, it was definitely not cost-effective. Yet, even in the short time he lingered at the bookstore, there were many literate folks clamoring to buy it.

Tian Feng saw this scene and, after purchasing a copy, started talking to the bookstore owner about it.

After explaining that he was just a curious passing trader, he asked why the report could be sold at this price and still be so popular.

The bookstore owner explained, “There’s a reason for the popularity that you might not expect. These monthly reports are copied by students of Leping Academy. According to the lord’s idea, he hopes they can remember the knowledge while copying it. But think about it, what kind of place is Leping Academy?”

Tian Feng couldn’t help but think, that’s the place where they nabbed Zheng Xuan from Qingzhou.

However, the owner wasn’t done and continued, “Most talents who emerge from the academy will serve the lord. You never know, they might one day become ministers or scholars. Imagine if the early drafts of Mr. Cai Bojie were to leak out, would you buy it?”

“……”

Tian Feng was stunned for a moment, realizing that this was a question he’d never considered, and he might actually want to buy it.

But this kind of marketing was truly something he’d never seen before.

Seeing Tian Feng lost in thought, the owner said, “By the way, I also have a compiled edition that started being released two years ago. As you’re an outsider, would you like to buy a copy to check it out?”

Compiled edition?

Tian Feng’s eyes lit up, and without hesitation, he pulled out his money.

To fully understand the changes in Bingzhou over these years, he had to get to the bottom of things.

Even when the owner mentioned that the compiled version was put together by hiring someone extra to copy it for sales, and it didn’t have much collectible value, it didn’t spoil Tian Feng’s good mood.

But he quickly realized he’d celebrated too soon!

Despite the Leping Monthly Report’s compiled edition having a variety of information, it really didn’t reveal much about the agricultural and military strength of Bingzhou.

It seemed more like they assumed readers were already familiar with Bingzhou’s basic farming processes, offering only supplementary information.

Aside from medical topics, which Tian Feng thought had direct value for returning to Ji Province, the rest was far from systematic.

Tian Feng stared at the pile of compiled book pages in front of him and fell into contemplation.

He needed to think about his next move.

In this situation, one option was to steal a batch of farming tools and fertilizers and sneak them back over the Taihang Mountains.

But there was a risk of being caught.

If he really got nabbed, the next edition of the Leping Monthly Report would probably write—“Ji Province’s Tian Feng caught trying to steal Bingzhou’s farming methods!”

And naturally, it would be blamed on Yuan Shao.

With the publication power of the monthly report, he had no doubt that within a short time, it would incite a united resentment in Bingzhou against outsiders trying to protect their farming methods.

So he likely couldn’t go that route.

Moreover, instead of stealing farming tools and fertilizers, Tian Feng actually preferred to sneak into a fertilizer production place and find out what the local folks were using, since they seemed completely clueless about it.

But unfortunately, that place also required Bingzhou household registration to hire, and due to the reasons of keeping the formula secret, they were much more meticulous about confidentiality.

It seemed like without household registration, he barely stood a chance in Bingzhou, only able to watch others enjoy those benefits.

After weighing this, Tian Feng reluctantly made a decision—

“Tian Feng” could still be from the giant deer region in Ji Province, but “Yuan Feng” could pretend to be a resident of Bingzhou without much issue!

Since he was already here for inquiries, he might as well take his job seriously.

Settling down it is!

If Qiao Yan found out that a strategist under Yuan Shao came to Bingzhou, only to make such a decision after a few days, she’d probably compliment him a few times.

Once settled, he would be one of Qiao Yan’s subjects in Bingzhou, not someone who could easily come and go as he pleases.

Tian Feng might be overthinking it.

But now he wasn’t focused on that; his attention was on Princess Yang’an in front of him.

For noble ladies nowadays, silk and brocade were the primary fabric materials.

But today, Princess Yang’an was wearing a gown made of cotton thread.

Over the cotton fabric was a layer of thin silk gauze.

In the chilly October weather, the cotton offered warmth far superior to silk, so she didn’t need to throw on an additional cloak.

Qiao Yan gazed at her outfit for quite a while before returning her focus to the now younger-looking face of Princess Yang’an and said, “I’d like to trouble you with something, could you please take a trip to Ye City to visit your eldest son?”

---