Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Can’t a strategist ascend the throne? Volume 1: The Yellow Turban Rebellion, The Clear Voice of a Young Phoenix Chapter 3: The Yellow Turban Commander

Belonging to the book:


Can’t a strategist ascend the throne?

Chapter 003

[…] The system froze for a moment.

It seemed to have just heard something strange.

Qiao Yan, however, didn’t seem to think she had said anything shocking.

How to put it, as long as you cover one shocking thing with another, people often won’t dwell on the first one. That’s the logic here.

The Strategist System 068, as Qiao Yan guessed, was indeed a newbie system.

It racked its “brain” to come up with a sentence to refute her.

[Although according to the strategist’s role, as long as you provide strategies for a faction, it counts. But… but the Yellow Turban Bandits will definitely be suppressed by Huangfu Song and other famous generals of the late Han Dynasty this year. Under Guangzong City, he even built a pyramid of skulls with 100,000 Yellow Turban heads.]

“I know,” Qiao Yan said calmly.

A pyramid of skulls made from 100,000 people is much more terrifying than the scene before her.

Under the “gaze” of the system, she walked up to a corpse in the area.

Having mentally prepared herself for the appearance of someone who died of starvation, and having seen dead bodies in tombs before, Qiao Yan calmly stripped off the outer garment of one of the corpses.

But calling it an outer garment was a stretch—it was just a tattered piece of cloth that no one would even want to steal.

Fortunately, it was enough for Qiao Yan to make a new outer cloak.

As she changed into this “new” garment and tied the sleeves with cloth strips, she said, “Of course I know. Not only will the Great Virtuous Teacher Zhang Jiao die of illness this year, accelerating the court’s three-pronged military campaign to suppress the Yellow Turban Rebellion, but I also know that the current Yellow Turban Army, despite its apparent momentum and thriving cause, is even less far-sighted than the later Yellow Turban Bandits.”

After the Zhongping era, the Yellow Turbans in Runan and Yingchuan regions even shifted from blind resistance and wandering to a more sustainable approach of farming, which was more enduring than their current tactic of coercing civilians to attack cities.

[Then why do you…] The system couldn’t understand her choice.

If she wasn’t careful and got killed by the Middle General sent to suppress the bandits, wouldn’t she not even live to see the twenty-year lifespan, completely wasting the identity it had chosen for her?

But all it saw was Qiao Yan’s dust-covered face, with only her clear eyes showing extreme calmness and determination.

“First, the Yellow Turban Army is chaotic, making it easiest for me to hide my identity. There probably aren’t too few young children among the nearby refugees. Second, the group that abandoned the corpses hasn’t gone far, and I can’t guarantee how long I can survive in the wild after nightfall. Third, I need strategist points to gain more resources.”

When Qiao Yan mentioned the word “resources,” the system noticed her touching the dagger in her chest.

The Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system, where private weapon ownership was legal. If it weren’t for this, there wouldn’t be records in the “Juyan New Bamboo Slips” of soldiers selling swords to civilians, with fellow villagers acting as guarantors.

This dagger was given to Qiao Yu and his wife and daughter by the Moth Bandits during their journey west to Luoyang.

Originally, it might have been a tool for ending one’s life in troubled times, but in her hands, it was just a handy weapon.

She should be thankful that in these people’s minds, the original body was on the verge of death due to illness. Not only did they not consider her as emergency rations, but they also didn’t search her, leaving her with this weapon.

This isn’t hard to understand.

During the reign of Emperor Liu Hong, the four major plagues in the fourth year of Jianning, the second year of Xiping, the spring of the second year of Guanghe, and the second month of the fifth year of Guanghe had left a deep-rooted fear in these people’s minds.

No one could guarantee whether a sudden illness would develop into something uncontrollable.

In fact, these people weren’t being overly cautious.

In the second year after the Yellow Turban Rebellion was suppressed, which was the spring of the second year of Zhongping, another major plague occurred, less than a year from now.

Qiao Yan continued, “In troubled times, heroes and capable ministers emerge. Before the Han Dynasty’s royal army marches into Yanzhou to suppress the rebellion, I need to establish myself first.”

In the face of her seemingly ready-to-draw dagger, the system couldn’t help but fall silent again, finally managing to blurt out:

[But you’re the descendant of loyal officials…]

This sentence somehow carried a tone of deep distress.

To the system, Qiao Yan’s choice was no different from making a quick buck.

Thinking that this host, who was aiming to become the world’s top strategist, would have a “bandit” record on her resume, it couldn’t help but want to black out the system.

After all, in this late Han era, reputation was a crucial thing.

However, just as it had mentally prepared itself, it heard its host mutter, “A dog-headed strategist is still a strategist, right?”

[…????]

Unfortunately, the system didn’t get a clear explanation from Qiao Yan.

Well-versed in the art of language, Qiao Yan smoothly diverted the topic again.

It did get a response from Qiao Yan, which was her reason for毫不犹豫地 (without hesitation) allocating her initial attribute points to constitution.

“As you said earlier, the top-tier strategists have intelligence ratings between 85-100. Going from 79 to 82 isn’t significant. It’s better to shore up my weaknesses first.”

“Zhou Yu, the Grand Commander of Eastern Wu, died at the age of 35. His successor, Lu Su, only lived to 45. The genius Guo Fengxiao fell at the age of 37. To me—”

“A strategist who laughs last…”





To live longer than anyone else, like Sima Yi, don’t you think that makes sense?” Qiao Yan asked.

[…] The system froze again.

For some reason, he felt that this statement was a bit of a twisted logic, yet it somehow made sense.

It was just that the person used as a positive example seemed a bit off.

It belatedly realized that its host, who adapted to situations extremely quickly, had just upgraded her [Eloquence] skill from lv4 to lv5.

It couldn’t help but suspect that it had become the target of her skill experimentation.

As for whether this skill should be called [Eloquence] or [Persuasion], the Strategist System 068, after rummaging through its database again, couldn’t find a single rebuttal and fell into silence.

It wasn’t until Qiao Yan followed the trail left by the Yellow Turban Army’s march that the system finally found a loophole in her actions and suddenly raised its voice: [Wait! You’re just a child around ten years old. As you said, even traveling long distances is still a problem. How do you plan to become a strategist in the Yellow Turban Army and gain the trust of Bu Ji, the Yellow Turban Commander of Yanzhou?]

Qiao Yan felt that having such a jumpy companion in her ear was, in a way, a good thing. For example, her current hunger pangs were somewhat alleviated.

She replied seriously, “But have you ever heard the saying, ‘When Zheng Xuan returned to Gaomi from Xuzhou, he encountered tens of thousands of Yellow Turban Bandits on the road, and they all bowed to him.'”

[…Speak human language]

Qiao Yan almost laughed.

A non-human system asking her to speak human language—how ironic.

But she still explained, “You can understand it as, although the Yellow Turbans are rebellious bandits, they still value educated people.”

She thought for a moment and added, “Besides, I don’t plan to approach that Bu Ji Commander.”

Qiao Yan had another idea.

This idea even received “friendly support” from the system.

To be precise, this support came from the beginner’s gift bag in the system’s inventory.

Inside, there was no beginner’s gear or anything like that, just a tool that might be useful for a strategist, called the [Character Locator].

In turbulent times, the lag in information transmission often leads to missed opportunities.

Cao Cao was still under Huangfu Song’s command at this time, without his own troops.

Liu Bei was wandering the Yellow Turban battlefields, not yet having earned the position of County Captain of Anxi for his efforts in quelling the Yellow Turbans.

Sun Jian had just gathered some youths from Xiapi County who worked together and was serving as a Military Commander under Zhu Jun.

To accurately locate these people, one might need a bit of a cheat.

But Qiao Yan had no intention of saving this locator for later use.

Under the system’s resigned gaze, she entered a name into the locator’s target field—

One of the 36 Yellow Turban Commanders, Liang Zhongning.

Just as she completed this step, a flicker of firelight appeared in the dim night of Daye Lake.

That was the temporary camp of the group that had abandoned her at dusk.

Qiao Yan was immensely grateful that the body she was using, due to years of illness, had undergone much dietary supplementation and thus didn’t suffer from the common night blindness of ancient times.

By the light of the stars and moon, she stood on a mound not far from the camp, clearly seeing the division between the Yellow Turban soldiers and the refugees.

Now was the time for her to blend in.

However, she was also truly starving and could barely move.

Having locked onto the location, Liang Zhongning, one of the three Yellow Turban Commanders in Yanzhou, had already arrived in Puyang.

Puyang was the same place where Cao Cao and Lü Bu would later fight their first battle for control of Yanzhou.

Before the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Zhang Jiao, holding the [Scripture of Great Peace], used the Way of Great Peace to teach the world, dividing his followers into 36 groups, with large groups numbering over ten thousand and small groups six to seven thousand, each led by a Commander.

After Ma Yuanyi’s plan to influence the capital was exposed by his disciples, the 36 Commanders in eight provinces rose up early, with three in Yanzhou: Bu Ji, Zhang Bo, and Liang Zhongning.

Zhongning wasn’t his given name but his courtesy name.

Liang Zhongning, whose given name should be Liang Jing, was sitting in the prefectural office of Puyang, staring at the lamp in front of him.

Most Yellow Turban Commanders were disciples who had followed the teachings of the Great Virtuous Teacher and had gained Zhang Jiao’s trust. They also distributed medicine according to the doctrine of Talisman Water, attracting followers who believed in the teachings of Huang-Lao. Liang Zhongning was no exception.

But among the 36 Commanders in eight provinces, there was a hierarchy. Although he had arrived in Puyang first, in the chain of command of the Yanzhou Yellow Turbans, he was subordinate to Bu Ji.

To be honest, Liang Zhongning looked down on Bu Ji.

In the Han dynasty, even commoners often had courtesy names upon reaching adulthood, but Bu Ji and Zhang Bo did not. When they were under the guidance of the Great Virtuous Teacher, they were not granted courtesy names by the General of Heaven. Yet, due to the hasty rebellion, they temporarily held positions above him.

Thinking that Bu Ji, leading troops from Juye City, would soon be above him, Liang Zhongning felt less pleased about his earlier capture of Puyang.

Just as he was feeling annoyed, a subordinate reported that the wealthy Tian family of Puyang had gathered the scattered officials and civilians from all directions, intending to retake Puyang City.

Liang Zhongning immediately slammed the table and stood up, “What ability does that old thief Tian have to challenge me?”

The subordinate trembled as he replied, “I heard he recently recruited a guest from Chenliu, a man of immense strength, named…”

“Named what?” He frowned, clearly ready to vent his frustration.

“Named Dian Wei!”