Chapter 214

Chapter 214

Can a strategist not ascend the throne? Volume 7: Eight Hundred Qin Rivers, Occupying Guanzhong Chapter 214: Tian Feng’s Thoughts

Belonging to the book:


Can a strategist not ascend the throne?

Chapter 214: Tian Feng’s Thoughts

But no matter how much the system can’t figure it out, it can’t change the fact.

Liu Xie, due to his position as the Son of Heaven of the Han Dynasty and Qiao Yan’s stance of clearing the court, was judged by the internal program as Qiao Yan’s “lord.”

He went from being a puppet emperor installed by Dong Zhuo to a free-living woodcutter today.

Who can say this isn’t an escape?

As for whether he is under Qiao Yan’s control, being used as a backup plan, that’s another matter.

After all, as a monitor of a woodcutter’s family, he has no official position, so he can’t be considered Qiao Yan’s subordinate.

If we delve into his origins, he can’t even be considered a local of Bingzhou, so it’s fine to treat him as someone who just happened to move to Yizhou.

For Liu Xie, his current situation is much better than when he was forced to issue decrees.

This is, of course, the effort of the “strategist”!

She deserves credit for this.

Qiao Yan is justified in this.

She even asked the system a question at this time: “If we successfully welcome Liu Yu to become the Son of Heaven, should we also be able to settle strategist points?”

To put it bluntly, Qiao Yan should be asking if there are corresponding achievements.

What is the ultimate goal of a strategist? It’s nothing more than elevating the lord from a regional warlord to the position of the Son of Heaven.

If even achieving this goal doesn’t come with an achievement, then this system can’t be considered a qualified strategist system.

If it weren’t for Dong Zhuo’s existence, she should have been able to complete this achievement when Liu Xie ascended the throne.

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

Holding the name of righteousness for the Han Dynasty is not only necessary for competing for power in troubled times but also a targeted measure proposed by Qiao Yan according to the settings of this strategist system.

The system has judged her faction as a question mark, but to the people of the world, she is still a staunch loyalist of the Han Dynasty.

It’s just that she has shifted from supporting Liu Xie to supporting Liu Yu.

The system really wants to吐槽 the authenticity of welcoming the Son of Heaven, but since even Liu Xie’s situation is considered a strategist’s operation, Liu Yu’s situation should obviously be counted as well. It can only reply: [Yes, but Liu Yu must agree to take over first.]

Qiao Yan replied: “You’re wrong. Whether Liu Yu agrees or not is not the point. The situation requires him to become the Son of Heaven at this time, and the people need him to succeed, so he can only sit in this position.”

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

Or, if Qiao Yan’s suggestion to elevate Liu Yu to the position of the Son of Heaven hadn’t appeared in the context of Liu Xie’s disappearance and the support of Lu Zhi, Huangfu Song, Huang Wan, Wang Yun, Xun Shuang, and others, Liu Yu might have, as in history, shown a refusal to Yuan Shao’s intention to elevate him to the Son of Heaven.

But now, his relatively mild personality, combined with the legitimacy and strength of the Chang’an court, can only push him towards the position of the Son of Heaven.

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

The system muttered: [Alright then, but why are you asking this now?]

At a time when the strategist points have undergone such astonishing changes, coveting another source of income is indeed too bold.

In response to the system’s question, Qiao Yan pointed to the attribute points on the transparent screen in front of her.

The system then realized that during the discussion, she had already allocated all her attributes.

But after seeing her allocation results, the system choked for a moment.

The system panel now displayed:

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

[Remaining distributable points: 0]

[Skills: History lv10, Eloquence lv9, Agitation lv10, Artifact Appraisal lv4, Archery lv12, Horse Riding lv11, Painting lv3, Calligraphy lv7, Field Archaeology lv5, Numismatics lv9, …]

[Remaining distributable skill points: 9]

To be honest, the speed at which she achieved full attributes was something the system hadn’t expected.

Even without the existence of a control group like the previous host, the system could easily judge that in the seven-plus years from the seventh year of Guanghe to the third year of Guangxi, achieving a full value in one attribute is extremely rare.

The achievements judged by the system as assistance are clearly not something you can just get by being in the team.

They can only be settled when her contribution reaches a certain ranking standard.

But not only did she get these achievements, she also maxed out two attributes. For a system aimed at cultivating the world’s top strategist, this is something that should make it overjoyed.

That said, after looking at this panel for a long time, the system couldn’t help but ask a question: [Why didn’t you max out Intelligence?]

The system can understand Qiao Yan’s choice.

The increase in Intelligence between 80-100 is more like giving her better logical thinking and multi-angle problem-solving abilities, as well as a higher level of mental concentration when evaluating things, so the difference between 96 and 100 isn’t that big.

Compared to these few points in Intelligence, it’s better to add a few more points in Luck and see if the upper limit marked with a question mark isn’t just 100, but a higher number.

But this point, apart from her stubbornly keeping Martial Power above Intelligence, which made the system quite helpless, it couldn’t help but ask another question: [Don’t you have OCD?]

This Intelligence 96 and Luck 101, she actually finds them acceptable.

Qiao Yan replied: “That’s why I’m asking about Liu Yu.”

She still wants to grab some attribute points.

What a simple logic.

The poor newbie system feels that it can’t handle these tricks of the host, so it might as well continue to lie flat.

But compared to Tian Feng, the spy, the system, which naturally took the right stance from the beginning, is much happier.

The September issue of the Leping Monthly Report shattered Tian Feng’s perception.

While his own farmland is still at a yield of 3 dan per mu, others’ farmland has tripled.

Although Tian Feng found out upon inquiry that Bingzhou’s farmland, due to benefits given to the incoming population, has a small additional value, and in reality, it hasn’t tripled, it’s still enough to make him feel uneasy.

The lords of other prefectures are the ones who turned Cai Yong’s Kingfisher Poem from an ideal into reality, while his own lord is the negative典型案例 in the monthly report’s arithmetic lessons.

Tian Feng isn’t the type to “despise the poor and love the rich.” Since he chose Yuan Shao as his object of loyalty, he doesn’t intend to switch sides just because of these unclear accounts, but he is very worried about the future of Ji Province.

They really should have included Bingzhou in their key observation targets earlier.

However, Bingzhou was deeply troubled by barbarians in the early years, forming a deep-rooted impression in their minds.

Even in the past two years, when Qiao Yan could still provide military rations to aid the allied forces, they thought it was just because her power formed earlier and she secured the title of governor earlier.

Her move to send troops to Liangzhou made people think that no matter how much surplus grain Bingzhou had, it would inevitably be consumed in this war.

Moreover, due to Emperor Ling’s unreliable actions, Qiao Yan was somewhat misunderstood by outsiders because of his reliance on her.

Fortunately…

Fortunately, Guanzhong is not yet stable, and Youzhou is still contested…








The battle is not yet over. As her territory expands, so do her neighboring regions. It’s impossible for her to immediately attack Ji Province and capture Liu Bian, who she still refers to as the Prince of Hongnong rather than the Son of Heaven.

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

Thinking of this, Tian Feng calmed his anxious heart a little.

Their efforts now are not too late!

Of course, he couldn’t just turn back to Ji Province and simply say, “It’s bad, the opponent’s yield per acre is already three times ours,” without knowing how it was achieved.

Instead, he decided to thoroughly understand the secrets of farming in this area!

He posed as a traveling merchant amazed by the development in Bingzhou and struck up a conversation with the local farmers.

The farmer seemed cautious, only discussing the methods of planting in wet fields.

When asked how they still had surplus labor, even though Tian Feng’s questioning was quite skillful, the farmer only said that if he settled in Bingzhou, he would naturally find out.

Tian Feng was indeed using a fake identity, but he had never intended to settle here. How could he possibly settle in Bingzhou?

Realizing this path was a dead end, Tian Feng decided to head towards Taiyuan.

He arrived at an unfortunate time, after the autumn harvest in Bingzhou, so he missed the season when most farming tools were in use.

But based on his experience, he thought that with so many people using farming tools, there must be some for sale.

However, upon arriving in Taiyuan County, he learned that farming tools were uniformly sold by the provincial government, and those with Bingzhou household registration could purchase them at a low price.

The same applied to various fertilizers and other tools.

For the farming people of Bingzhou, spending less money and needing to bring household registration proof was not a hassle but a way to strengthen their pride as Bingzhou citizens.

As a result, shops that originally sold farming tools turned to other woodworking jobs.

With most people having enough to eat, this shift was not an unfeasible move.

Tian Feng intuited that Qiao Yan’s operation was to prevent outsiders from easily buying the farming methods of this place.

If Qiao Yan were to explain, there was another reason: to provide a batch of job positions.

Making farming tools, especially producing curved shafts and plow arrows for the curved plow, which are not large but require precision, was a good job for those who lacked the strength for long-term farming.

These production departments, which generally existed in processing plants, could also be used to produce other things when needed.

But whatever the reason, Tian Feng was now facing some trouble.

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

For example, the monthly report was sold in bookstores in the city.

Although the price of the monthly report was similar to that of ordinary books, and it was definitely not cost-effective based on the amount of paper used, during the short time he stopped in front of the bookstore, there were still literate people rushing to buy it.

Seeing this, Tian Feng bought a copy and talked to the bookstore owner about it.

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

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

Tian Feng thought to himself, this is the place that lured Zheng Xuan away from Qingzhou.

But the owner in front of him obviously wasn’t talking about that, and continued, “Most of the talents from the academy will serve the lord, and it’s not impossible that one day they will become court officials or great scholars. Think about it, if Mr. Cai Bojie’s early manuscripts were to be released, would you buy them?”

“…”

Tian Feng was stunned for a moment, and it seemed he would indeed give a positive answer to this question he had never thought of before.

But this kind of marketing method was really something he had never seen before.

“Moreover, the information compiled in the monthly report also has its own collection value. Who can say this is not a kind of history book?”

Seeing Tian Feng lost in thought again, the bookstore owner asked, “By the way, I have a complete set of bound volumes from two years ago. Since you’re a foreigner, do you want to buy a copy to read?”

Bound volumes?

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

To fully understand the development of Bingzhou over the past few years, he had to get to the bottom of things.

Even after getting the items, when the bookstore owner mentioned that these bound volumes were copied by someone he hired for extra sales and had little collection value, Tian Feng didn’t feel any displeasure.

But he soon found out he was happy too early!

Although the bound volumes of the Leping Monthly Report contained diverse information, there was very little that revealed the root of Bingzhou’s agricultural and military strength.

It was more like providing supplementary information after assuming the readers already knew the basic farming process in Bingzhou.

Apart from the medical content, which Tian Feng thought could be directly sent back to Ji Province for use, the other content was far from being systematic.

Looking at the stack of bound volume pages in front of him, Tian Feng couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.

He had to think about his next move.

In this situation, one of his options was to steal a batch of farming tools and fertilizers and smuggle them back by crossing the Taihang Mountains.

But this method carried the risk of being discovered.

If he were really caught, the next issue of the Leping Monthly Report’s miscellaneous section would probably write—Tian Feng from Ji Province failed to steal Bingzhou’s farming methods and was caught.

And then naturally, the blame would be shifted to Yuan Shao.

Given the monthly report’s dissemination ability, he had no doubt that in a very short time, it could provoke a sense of unity in Bingzhou to protect the farming methods.

So he probably couldn’t do this.

Moreover, compared to stealing farming tools and fertilizers, Tian Feng actually wanted to infiltrate the place where fertilizers were produced to get the composition of the fertilizers that even the local people didn’t know.

But unfortunately, recruitment there also required Bingzhou household registration, and due to the need to prevent the formula from spreading, the confidentiality was much more meticulous.

It seemed that without household registration in Bingzhou, one could hardly move an inch, only watching others enjoy those welfare benefits.

After careful consideration, Tian Feng was forced to make a decision—

“Tian Feng” is still from Julu in Ji Province, so “Yuan Feng” becoming a registered resident of Bingzhou doesn’t seem to be a problem!

Since he’s here to investigate, he should be more professional.

Registering it is!

If Qiao Yan knew that Yuan Shao’s strategist had made such a decision after coming to Bingzhou for a few days, she would probably praise him a couple of times.

Those who register in Bingzhou are her subjects, Qiao Yan’s, and it’s not a place where one can come and go as they please.

Tian Feng was thinking too beautifully.

But what she’s focusing on now is not this matter, but the Princess Yang’an in front of her.

For today’s noblewomen, silk and Shu brocade are the main clothing materials.

But today, Princess Yang’an is wearing a cotton garment made of cotton thread.

The cotton cloth is adorned with a layer of silk gauze.

The weather in October is already a bit chilly, but the warmth of cotton cloth far exceeds that of satin, so she doesn’t need to wear an extra cloak over her outfit.

Qiao Yan looked at her attire for a long time, then returned to her face, which looked younger than two years ago, and said, “I would like to trouble the princess with a matter, to visit your eldest son in Ye City.”