“Can strategists not ascend to the throne?”
Chapter 96: Dance and Music Performances
She truly didn’t disappoint Liu Hong’s expectations; just look at Jian Shuo’s attitude when he came knocking.
Liu Hong, wanting to ensure Jian Shuo made it into the top nine, purposely left him the easiest opponent in this round. Fortunately, Jian Shuo wasn’t entirely useless and managed to win quite handsomely.
But the burden on Qiao Yan was to eliminate those Liu Hong didn’t want in the mix, and that was a whole different ball game.
Perhaps because Liu Hong was quite pleased with her performance, there was a hint of trying to curry favor in Jian Shuo’s demeanor.
His words were full of compliments towards Qiao Yan.
“Your Majesty, do you have any other orders?” Qiao Yan interrupted his ramblings to ask. “Now that two rounds of combat have passed, there are nine people left. Apart from you and me, Zhao Rong and Feng Fang are the weakest in commanding troops. However, they’re facing Ji Ling and Meng De next, so there’s no way they could win.”
“The Counsellor is getting a pass this round; he has some experience in battling bandits, and his performance is decent. To me, it seems he could take the position of General of Duluo.”
“Of course, if Your Majesty believes there are still some unsatisfactory candidates, I’ll do my best.”
After this exchange, even if Jian Shuo had something to say, he had to hold it back.
This guy was just waiting for the Emperor’s orders.
As Qiao Yan mentioned, with two rounds done, we went from thirty-six to nine. If we follow Liu Hong’s earlier plan, these nine would be the candidates for General of Duluo and the eight school captains from Xiyuan. The plan was nearly complete.
Of course, we had to exclude Qiao Yan, the outlier, first, and then let one more person in.
But it was merely promoting one person; getting Liu Hong to provide a reason wasn’t too hard.
All in all, this was still a list that aligned well with Liu Hong’s expectations.
Aside from Zhao Rong and Feng Fang, the Counsellor going free, Xia Mu, was originally one of the eight school captains of Xiyuan. Compared to the original lineup, it was just Yuan Shao who didn’t choose to participate himself and passed up on the increasingly obvious Chunyu Qiong, instead opting for Ji Ling and Han Fu to represent the Yuan clan’s interests.
These two also didn’t let Yuan Shao and others down, successfully winning the first two rounds.
And now, the remaining two were Cao Cao and Bao Hong.
The next matchups, aside from the absent Xia Mu, had Ji Ling facing Zhao Rong, Feng Fang against Cao Cao, Jian Shuo versus Bao Hong, and Qiao Yan against Han Fu.
So Liu Hong didn’t give Qiao Yan any extra instructions this time.
Jian Shuo merely came to cultivate relations, at most vaguely suggesting that the Emperor said Qiao Yan could keep winning.
Qiao Yan learned in two days’ time why Jian Shuo wasn’t even a bit worried about losing to Bao Hong.
With Liu Hong planning for Jian Shuo to become the top of the eight school captains, he certainly wouldn’t let Jian Shuo’s rank drop too low.
Bao Hong had probably been prepped by Liu Hong.
So now, with fewer matchups, they’d have the people come out one by one, allowing Qiao Yan to see Bao Hong’s performance clearly.
He made several mistakes that couldn’t be explained as simple errors, giving Jian Shuo the “opportunity.”
Let alone someone like Qiao Yan, who clearly understood the intricacies, even those who weren’t too savvy wanted to complain about Bao Hong’s performance.
Qiao Yan had mingled well enough with her team, and at this moment, she overheard the sergeant from the cavalry camp whispering, “I was actually planning to smack that guy around, but now there’s no chance. He really seems to be riding a high horse.”
Because of Bao Hong’s earlier role as a morale booster, Qiao Yan’s elite cavalry and the cavalry camp were just waiting for a chance to encounter Bao Hong, itching to teach him a lesson, but who would’ve guessed he’d go down like this.
After Bao Hong’s match, Qiao Yan’s hunch was confirmed.
He cast her a grateful look.
Of course, that gratitude was tinged with an indescribable conflict, since Bao Hong originally thought his promotion was to become General of Duluo, but now he was merely a captain under the Emperor’s direct command.
But hey, that’s still a promotion, right?
Qiao Yan shifted her gaze from Bao Hong to her next opponent, Han Fu, and replied to the cavalry sergeant, “If you’ve got any extra energy, save it for our opponents. If you can keep winning, you might even earn a name for yourself with His Majesty.”
“As you command, Qiao Hou.”
At this point, the cavalry sergeant couldn’t help but see, even though Qiao Yan wasn’t directly involved in this selection process, the Emperor had never skimped on attention toward her.
In the first match, that archer who shot Wang Kuang received a reward from the Emperor, and after thriving with Qiao Yan in battle, he too was inquired upon by the Emperor.
So what about the third and fourth matches?
He might just snag a promotion too!
This was far more profitable than others who merely supported their assigned leaders and got some incidental rewards!
Even if Qiao Yan’s opponents didn’t seem easy to deal with, it didn’t dampen his ambition at all.
But Qiao Yan didn’t dare look down on Han Fu.
While Han Fu wasn’t as tough as Dong Min, his officer Qu Yi wasn’t too shabby either.
With Dong Min’s lesson in mind, Qu Yi clearly wouldn’t fall for Qiao Yan’s strategy of dividing forces.
This raised the difficulty of Qiao Yan’s breakthrough.
But Han Fu — was actually a leader even less competent than Dong Min.
He thought that if he relied solely on Qu Yi’s skills to win the battle, he’d be no different from a mere decoration living off others’ efforts.
So when he saw Qu Yi leading cavalry to break through the flank, he confidently pushed his infantry forward.
However, this time, Qiao Yan didn’t even send Guo Jia to the field, but had the captain of the infantry impersonate Guo Jia.
Qu Yi’s intended loss of an arm ended up just sacrificing a captain, but what Qiao Yan hooked was the enemy commander.
And once Qu Yi broke into the center camp, those infantry troops seeing their cavalry flourish wouldn’t give up that credit, forming an encirclement with an impressive aura until Qiao Yan returned to support after taking down Han Fu.
After Han Fu fell, Qu Yi didn’t last long on the field either.
But winning another round, facing an unusual enemy, didn’t make Qiao Yan let her guard down; she suspected her next match would still be a tough one.
Sure enough, she soon saw the next matchups —
Jian Shuo against Xia Mu, her against Ji Ling, and Cao Cao had a free pass.
Once again, Cao Cao arrived at Qiao Yan’s main tent.
This time, he jumped right in with a very straightforward question: “From Ye Shu’s perspective, has the Emperor chosen Jian Changshi as General of Duluo?”
Having a eunuch promoted to an external official was truly a bizarre thing, yet someone with Liu Hong’s temperament was capable of such actions.
From the current situation, it was difficult for Cao Cao not to come to that conclusion.
When it was down to nine people, a new rule had been added, stating that anyone could only get a free pass once, so the later the free pass appeared, the more advantageous it was.
Counsellor Xia Mu’s free pass wasn’t so much luck as it was letting Jian Shuo be the tool to complete this five-to-three selection.
With Qu Yi and Xu Rong both falling to Qiao Yan, Ji Ling would obviously follow suit.
Then the next round would see just three remaining: Qiao Yan, Jian Shuo, and Cao Cao.
From his perspective, in this situation, the only one who could get a pass was Jian Shuo, whereas Qiao Yan couldn’t!
So it would end up being one of them against Jian Shuo.
But what if Jian Shuo lost?
The position of General of Duluo likely held a greater chance for Jian Shuo than for Qiao Yan.
Cao Cao could deduce this battle situation, and of course, so could Qiao Yan.
“How about I let Mengde win? That way, as you and I discussed over drinks, you could be the General of Dulu?”
She said that in a teasing manner, but Cao Cao could tell it was mostly a joke.
Sure, it was a battle of five hundred against five hundred, but it wasn’t like they could just let each other win.
With a laugh, he replied, “If it were really that easy, Yeshū has underestimated me, Cao Cao. Winning or losing is just a matter of luck; even if I lose, it’s no big deal. Everyone has their good officers in this fight, and with my cousin Lian’s help, I won’t necessarily need to concede.”
What he said wasn’t wrong.
Cao Cao had a ton of excellent talent within his own family, and Cao Ziliang, who was accompanying him, was one of them.
Cao Hong, who fought alongside Cao Cao, might be a bit stingy and hasty, but he was undoubtedly a talented general.
Even if he hadn’t earned any battle merits yet, he had the potential to do so.
Qiao Yan thought about how her troops had to face the combination of Cao Cao and Cao Hong after fighting Ji Ling, and it gave her a headache.
But this was a match she had to win!
She even felt grateful to Liu Hong. It was because he thought highly of her that he set her opponent up like this.
Wang Kuang, Dong Min, Han Fu, Ji Ling, Cao Cao!
Regardless of whether both sides had the same configuration or whether this five hundred versus five hundred battle would yield a completely different outcome in a larger scale clash, at the very least, if Liu Hong made any jaw-dropping decisions, she’d have a solid performance to back her up.
This wasn’t some battle record against those Black Mountain Bandits or White Wave Bandits, but against these “elite forces from the court!”
After stringing Gao Shuo along with the idea of “If Mengde could perform like this, he would surely catch His Majesty’s eye,” and sending Cao Cao off, she called for Guo Jia.
“In ordinary battles, there aren’t situations like this where we fight every two days against opponents of similar strength…” Qiao Yan said, her face showing some worry, “Is there any way to resolve this, Fengxiao?”
Initially, fostering a sense of competition among the three cavalry camps to boost morale only worked for a while. Rewarding the centurions in the Cavalry and Garrison Camps to motivate them wasn’t a method that spread throughout the whole camp.
Especially the idea of fighting every two days…
Although the scale of five hundred kept the consumption of troops within a certain range, it was clearly a fatigue-inducing state of combat.
In ancient siege warfare, why would the commander let the soldiers vent their emotions through plundering the city’s wealth or even slaughtering the city?
Firstly, to win the soldiers’ hearts, and secondly, it was a theory of balance between tension and relaxation.
Of course, this way of relieving stress merely directed the slaughter towards the victims, and Qiao Yan didn’t find it admirable.
Putting aside the large-scale combat, the situation she faced was a bit similar.
After fighting Wang Kuang, Dong Min, Xu Rong, Han Fu, and Qu Yi, her troops were already strung up like a bowstring.
After fighting Ji Ling, or before, she had to find a way to ease the tension in her ranks.
Guo Jia thought for a moment before replying, “Against Ji Ling, I’m not worried about Qiao Hou. I don’t think I need to assist in the command, but may I trouble you for two days’ time? I need to prepare some things.”
Qiao Yan met Guo Jia’s gaze, confirming he had a plan, and let him go do his thing.
As Guo Jia said, Ji Ling wasn’t a troublesome opponent.
In the future, he would be known for his bravery under Yuan Shu, but in essence, he was known for his brute strength, not his wits.
But he had muscle; did that mean Dian Wei would be any worse?
Even when Qiao Yan held her ground and gradually advanced to engage, Ji Ling’s rhythm was broken as he charged at her, ultimately getting sent off the field.
Liu Hong was getting a bit tired of showering praise on Qiao Yan; after all, he was seeing exactly what he wanted.
Gao Shuo had been gifted a spot in the top two by luck, and the next match was Qiao Yan against Cao Cao. No matter who won between them, he had a way to spin it.
This made him more hopeful for success.
With that in mind, Liu Hong didn’t stop Qiao Yan from wanting to send something into the camp; after all, according to her, these things weren’t meant for the competition, just a little entertainment for the soldiers.
And it was indeed a nice distraction.
The soldiers in the camp followed Qiao Yan’s instructions and gathered in the open ground before sleep, where they were surprised to see a small stage set up.
However, this stage was a bit different from the bustling entertainment stages they were used to seeing on the streets.
The stage was smaller and higher, with a piece of cloth hanging from above, and when the candlelight hit it from the back, it lit up before their eyes.
Before they could figure out what was going on with that fabric, a silhouette of a rider waving a whip appeared on the stage, followed by a whole row of small figures.
From behind the cloth, someone sang, “In this capital city, the Marquis of Leping comes, leading five hundred soldiers, suddenly someone comes to the camp gate, wanting to trade for a hundred or so soldiers.”
Before the song could finish, another figure, a general, appeared and pointed in their direction.
“Hey, that’s that Bao Xiaowei!” someone immediately confirmed the situation from the lyrics.
They were being put on a stage to perform!
Although shadow puppetry isn’t mainstream now, and not that nobody had seen it, none of them had ever been a participant!
This was fresh!
The previously tired soldiers instantly perked up.
Sure enough, they then saw the little shadow figure representing Qiao Yan whip Bao Hong off the stage.
At this sight, a wave of joyous laughter erupted in the camp.
Even though part of the puppetry was made of people connected together, to these soldiers who had hardly any entertainment in their lives, this was nothing short of a delightful surprise.
Most pleased was the centurion of the Cavalry, who had his own solo image, performing a scene where he shot Wang Kuang with an arrow, complete with a line from the song.
“It’s said that the Cavalry rides up and down, moving between streams, with swift horses and arrows, truly formidable, just like that Wang Gongjie shot off his horse, winning the Emperor a round of applause.”
The centurion was so proud he memorized the line.
This was his bragging material for his descendants!
Then came the skirmish with Dong Min, and it was unclear what they used behind the screen to create a scene of two hundred long sticks firing all at once.
Everyone was glued to the spectacle, and then they saw—
That hasty general Han Fu rushing in for battle only to fall into a trap.
That muscle-bound Ji Ling.
And then…
And then the screen suddenly went dark, all the lyrics and music vanished, and the entire camp fell into a quiet and dark atmosphere.
It… it’s gone?
The soldiers, who were just getting into it, suddenly realized there was nothing else to perform.
Because this was as far as it went.
Guo Jia waved off the performing masters to pack up and leave. Since he was Qiao Yan’s deputy commander, he’d already gained some authority among the five hundred men, and as he had something to say, everyone turned to him.
He slowly stated, “If you all want to see this puppet show continue, you’d better win the next round. Of course, even if you lose, there’s always another way to perform.”
“……”
What other way?
The soldiers were almost ready to jump up.
They clearly wanted to see themselves looking magnificent on that screen.
Win! They had to win!
