Chapter 68

Chapter 68

Can a strategist not ascend the throne? Volume 2: At the Foot of Taihang Mountains, A Small Test of Skills Chapter 68 The Arrival of the Envoy

Book:


Can a Strategist Not Ascend the Throne?

Chapter 68 The Arrival of the Envoy

One million stones!

This is indeed an incredibly uplifting number, especially after the locust plague that almost made people believe there would be a reduction in grain yield.

Fortunately, the efforts made in patrolling and killing locusts overnight, and carefully tending to the sixty thousand acres of mountain fields have undoubtedly paid off with remarkable returns!

As Zhang Niujiao’s voice, unable to contain his excitement, rang out, the people around also burst into cheers of joy for the bountiful harvest.

When Qiao Yan planted these yams, she told them that these were reserve grains for Leping County, just like the thirty thousand stones of grain she initially brought. If there were no disaster years, they would be the county’s storage, but in case of drought or famine, they would be life-saving provisions.

First, there was the pacification of the bandits, then the cheap paper mulberry winter clothing, followed by the control of the locust plague—

Under the gradually accumulated prestige, Qiao Yan even received the support of the county folks through word of mouth when she returned to Leping. How could they doubt her words?

This meant that Leping had the capital to survive the next year!

Who wouldn’t be excited about this!

Even Qiao Yan—

Even though she had already estimated the yield of yams when Qin Yu reported the number of mountain fields to her, when the conservative estimate of nine hundred thousand stones turned into a solid one million stones before her eyes, she couldn’t help but feel her heart surge with the rising and falling voices around her.

This is life-saving grain…

She took a deep breath to calm her emotions slightly.

However, she couldn’t relax too much at this moment because although the one million stones sounded astonishing, not all of it could be directly consumed.

A portion of it would be reserved as tubers for planting yams next year, stored in the same way as last autumn’s harvest from the mountains, which was a layer of sand and a layer of yams.

In fact, the yams grown this year were far more suitable as planting tubers than those obtained from the mountains last year. Due to various operations like fertilization and care that improved their quality, the survival rate of seedlings next year would inevitably increase.

“Lord Marquis, are you considering planting a bit more area next year?” Seeing Qiao Yan standing in front of the sand table model that had completely turned into an agricultural distribution map of Leping, Qin Yu couldn’t help but ask.

“No, no expansion.”

In the face of such an astonishing yield, Qiao Yan tried hard to restrain her desire to increase yam planting, “Let’s stick to the original plan, using the other half of the land reserved for planting yams, and this year’s yam fields will be rotated with beans for maintenance. Take people to separate the seed yams and store them in a separate warehouse.”

Greed leads to indigestion, and the fields that couldn’t be directly planted in the next round still needed to grow bean sprouts, which also required some management personnel. Leping’s manpower couldn’t handle more fields.

Moreover, this part of the yam harvest was entirely based on the premise that the Black Mountain Bandits had no fields of their own, and nearly ten thousand people were completely mobile—

If all the county folks were to plant, it would only backfire.

“Bring Chu Yan to see me,” Qiao Yan added as Qin Yu left.

She had only brought Dian Wei back to Leping earlier, and Chu Yan, after settling his followers, also hurried back. Hearing Qiao Yan’s summons, he didn’t take long to arrive.

For him, there was no such thing as too much fatigue; he felt this was a sign of Qiao Yan entrusting him with important responsibilities.

Upon hearing Qiao Yan’s words, Chu Yan couldn’t help but feel invigorated.

“I want you to take three hundred thousand stones of yams to the Central Plains. Decide how many people to bring yourself, sell them as medicinal herbs to pharmacies along the way, and as grain to areas affected by the locust plague. Bring back the cash to Bingzhou and purchase rice and grain in Taiyuan, Shangdang, and other counties. I’ll have Xu Fu accompany you to avoid miscalculations in transactions. You two must support each other and ensure this matter is handled properly.”

Although the yam yield was large, they couldn’t be stored for years like millet. Even with proper ventilation and the extended winter making storage more convenient, they could only be stored for a little over six months at most. Therefore, Qiao Yan couldn’t let these yams rot here.

Some would be directly distributed to the Black Mountain Bandits as food reserves, some would be exchanged with the county folks, and during the winter when there was spare manpower, a batch of yam powder could be made and sold elsewhere in Bingzhou, but this still wasn’t enough!

There would still be a considerable surplus.

A suitable way to handle this is, considering that Bingzhou was less affected by the locust plague and there was still surplus grain in various places, yams could be exchanged with other counties. However, since it wasn’t urgently needed, there would inevitably be losses in the exchanged grain. It would be better to choose a slightly more troublesome method.

Only in places where grain was urgently needed could yams completely transform from medicinal herbs to relief rations, and the profits obtained would be higher.

However, going to famine-stricken areas also faced dangers, and dealing with these people required enough toughness. Therefore, after weighing the options, Qiao Yan felt that this matter could only be entrusted to Chu Yan.

“I have two questions for Marquis Qiao,” entrusted with such a significant task, the quick-witted Black Mountain leader didn’t lose his composure and immediately spoke up.

“Speak.”

“First, Marquis Qiao entrusting me with three hundred thousand stones of yams, aren’t you afraid I might run away with them and never return?” Chu Yan asked seriously.

“Since you chose to come before me to recommend yourself, I assume you’re not such a short-sighted person. Why should I doubt you?” Qiao Yan replied calmly.

Of course, Chu Yan wouldn’t be so short-sighted.

This year, in a completely novice state of exploration, such a yield could be achieved. What about next year?

Moreover, he followed Qiao Yan to Jinyang and witnessed her shooting an arrow to subdue the prefect. He had a high evaluation of her decisiveness in killing, knowing she was someone capable of great deeds. He wouldn’t think running away with this batch of grain was a wise decision.

Perhaps it was because he had gone through a rather difficult questioning process to secure a position under Marquis Leping, making him value his current position even more.

As Qiao Yan said, he indeed wouldn’t choose to leave at this time.

He then spoke again, “Second question, dare I ask Marquis Qiao, when passing through famine-stricken areas after the locust plague, if we encounter refugees who can be taken in, how should we handle them?”

Qiao Yan smiled, “Isn’t that one of the reasons I sent you to these places?”

Of course, the refugees gathered in such circumstances couldn’t complete their settlement in Leping.

They were different from the Black Mountain Bandits.

The Black Mountain Bandits had a traceable origin, and Qiao Yan didn’t mind letting the surroundings know she had captured them. It was precisely because of this information that she received some “start-up funds” from the prefect of Changshan County.

However, Qiao Yan had no intention of publicizing the fact that the yam yield reached one million stones. Even when she told the supportive Prefect Guo, she only mentioned a yield of four to five hundred thousand stones. Therefore, transporting surplus grain for money and recruiting some refugees naturally didn’t need to be told to everyone.

Thus, these people could only temporarily exist as hidden populations under Marquis Leping.

Only at the right time could they become people with proper household registration.








For some people, even survival seems like a luxury, so how could they care about such things?

Qiao Yan can’t really be considered as profiting from the people’s hardships.

She is merely seeking more benefits for herself within a reasonable range.

With Qiao Yan’s attitude, Chu Yan knew exactly what he should do.

He immediately prepared to go out and find Xu Fu to discuss how many people they needed to bring along. Just as he was about to step out, he suddenly heard Qiao Yan say, “It’s also good for you to go out and avoid things for a while.”

Chu Yan paused, his expression slightly moved, until it gradually returned to its usual calmness, and he resumed his actions.

Although he didn’t make any promises at this moment, he had already made a decision in his heart: no matter what, he would definitely accomplish the task for Marquis Qiao!

With this part of the external trade, the pressure of trading with the county’s people was also much lighter.

The output of the 500,000 mu of farmland in Leping County was roughly around a million dan. Due to the slight damage from the locust plague, there was indeed a slight reduction, but not much. The irrigation from the Dragon Bone Waterwheel could even make up for this loss.

So, exchanging millet for yams to allow the county’s grain reserves to last longer was not something Leping County couldn’t do.

After weighing whether there would be a wind disease reaction to yams and how many yams could be stored through the winter, households came to the county office to respond to the exchange.

Thanks to the previous locust plague, during the process of exchanging locusts for grain, the Leping County officials led by Cheng Li had already formed a complete system for reception, trading, and registration. At this time, there would definitely be no chaos, just an additional process of warehousing.

Seeing the yams exchanged for grain with a slight loss, as a more stable grain inventory, Qiao Yan couldn’t help but feel a bit relieved.

Unfortunately, this part of the trade couldn’t be too heavy. After all, although yams are filling, they are not as high in calories as millet, and are not as useful as rice and flour in high-intensity labor.

Now it’s just at the right limit.

Once this exchange is settled, it will be time to deal with the settlement of the Black Mountain Army.

At this time of population registration, it’s not difficult to complete the transfer of this population from Changshan to Leping.

Qiao Yan had previously mentioned this in her correspondence with the Changshan County Governor, who was more than happy to have these bandits and refugees out of his territory, so why would he refuse Qiao Yan’s suggestion?

The only problem is that for the nearly ten thousand Black Mountain Army, only three thousand people can be settled based on their merits this year, which is really too few.

With a Leping household registration, they can follow the new regulations proposed by Marquis Qiao: either reclaim enough land on the mountains to sustain themselves, or continue to cultivate the current yam fields, with half of the harvest belonging to themselves. Both options are good.

And in July of this year, before Qiao Yan stormed the state government, the temporary one-year exemption of poll tax and land tax was extended for another year. In this case, Leping’s treatment is better than elsewhere, so who wouldn’t want to settle here?

Unfortunately, only three thousand people.

This requires strict adherence to the rules for selection, otherwise those who are not selected will be quite dissatisfied.

Xi Zhicai, who was the first to receive a Leping household registration, simply took on the role of judge and registration officer, and enlisted Cai Yan and Yang Xiu as assistants.

When Qiao Yan saw Zhang Niujiao walking over with the bamboo slips recording his workload, a man who could match the combined volume of these three officers, but with the expression of a primary school student handing in homework to the teacher, she couldn’t help but laugh.

The scene was indescribably comical.

Zhang Niujiao didn’t notice Qiao Yan’s reaction.

For him, getting the household registration was an important step in the career plan Chu Yan had set for him. His heart was filled with excitement, so how could he notice anything else?

By the way, what’s the next step?

Right, it’s learning to read!

I heard that Marquis Qiao intends to expand the production of mulberry bark paper this winter, in addition to continuing the mulberry bark clothing business, obviously to increase the number of literate people.

But learning to read is really a bit difficult for him…

Zhang Niujiao thought rather complacently that learning to read is inevitable, so preparing the paper in advance is always right. If he finds learning to read a headache, he might as well go cut down more mulberry trees first.

After discussing with his brothers who also earned their household registration through farming, he found that those who got along well with him had the same idea, so he immediately gathered a group of people and headed towards the mountains.

“If I hadn’t just seen this guy’s expression of holding the household registration like a marriage certificate, I would have thought he was planning to become a bandit again,” Qiao Yan couldn’t help but complain to the system. “This behavior has a very appropriate term in modern times—poor students have more stationery.”

[…] The system fell silent.

It wanted to ask Qiao Yan if recruiting people like this was inconsistent with her role as a strategist, but then it heard her say: “Fortunately, planting yams is not just a labor-intensive task; women are more outstanding in meticulous management. In the early preparations and the merits of mulberry bark clothing, women are in the majority. More than half of these three thousand people are women. If they have the opportunity to learn to read, do you think they could do more, rather than just being followers of the Black Mountain Army in the mountains?”

The hopeful look in Qiao Yan’s eyes made the system completely forget what it wanted to say before.

As a still qualified atmosphere group, it immediately responded: [Host, rest assured, they definitely will!]

Qiao Yan was satisfied.

This wasn’t entirely to fool the system, but also her vision for the future.

But before that, she had to solve another problem.

At the end of the harvest and settlement, she received an urgent report from her subordinates guarding the Zhiguan Pass: the imperial envoy was entering Bingzhou.

Qiao Yan immediately set off back to Jinyang.

When Cui Lie arrived at the state government, what he saw was this young county marquis in black clothes and red crown, with the demeanor of a noble gentleman in a troubled world. Although she called out “Welcome, Envoy,” she actually had a calm aura far beyond her age.

Even though Cui Lie had guessed that this bold marquis would not do anything like disheveled hair, bare feet, or carrying thorns to plead guilty when welcoming the envoy, he was still startled by her host-like demeanor.

When he left the capital, Liu Hong specifically instructed him to teach Qiao Yan well, at least to slightly suppress her arrogance with his reputation as a scholar.

But Cui Lie felt more and more that—

He couldn’t suppress her!

Compared to Qiao Yan’s graceful demeanor, the performance of Governor Zhang Yi was really disappointing.

Although he was confined by Qiao Yan, she didn’t stint on his food and even made him gain some weight.

Now this fair and plump guy grabbed Cui Lie’s hand, crying and complaining about how rudely Marquis Leping had treated him, hoping that Envoy Cui would truthfully report the situation here to the Son of Heaven. It really seemed like he was far inferior to Qiao Yan.

“Zitai…” Cui Lie replied with a conflicted look, “The title of Envoy can refer to the Son of Heaven’s envoy or the governor of a state. I’m really sorry, I’m the latter.”

Cui Lie, under Zhang Yi’s sudden silence, whispered, “I am the new Governor of Bingzhou appointed by His Majesty.”