Loyalty and Filial Piety

These four words clashed heavily with the Yellow Turban rebels!

Yet, when Qiao Yan spoke these words, even though the Tian brothers considered themselves experienced in the ways of the world, they couldn’t see any signs of deceit from her.

Besides, in such a situation where the enemy was strong and they were weak, there was no need for her to pull the banner of righteousness.

As the victor, she naturally stood in a position of superiority.

And as the defeated, Tian Tao had no capital to act willfully.

As the head of the Tian clan, he knew he must do everything to preserve the strength of the Tian clan.

For this, he even considered temporarily cooperating with the Yellow Turban army.

So, if this Mr. Yan Qiao truly wanted to represent Liang Zhongning and make them do something, she could completely use a more efficient approach.

Targeting their weak spot would be most effective for these powerful clan families.

Just by holding the lives of Tian Yan and the other young Tian clan members in her hands, she could make them bow down.

For this reason, Qiao Yan’s words made the cell fall into a brief silence, with only the sound of everyone’s breathing heard.

It wasn’t until a while later that Tian Tao, with a hoarse voice, asked, “What do you mean by loyalty and filial piety?”

The person he asked, holding a lantern, didn’t even sway for a moment.

She replied, unchanged in tone, “Loyal to Han, filial to parents.”

These four words, if there were Yellow Turban soldiers here, they would probably have immediately branded her as a traitor.

But precisely because Bu Ji and Zhang Bo led their trusted subordinates into Puyang City and met with Liang Zhongning inside the city, and because Liang Zhongning, despite his somewhat disdainful attitude towards these two colleagues, still had to be on full guard, there weren’t so many spare hands to supervise the prisoners.

Moreover, Qiao Yan’s reputation was gradually increasing under Liang Zhongning’s command, so there was no one to stop her from having a quiet conversation.

Before she entered the cell, she had already dismissed those who should be dismissed, ensuring that none of the Yellow Turban soldiers would hear the four words “loyal to Han.”

Tian Tao was startled by her words, then asked, “How about Yanzhou?”

In fact, most of the powerful families in Yanzhou were practical.

Of the three things Qiao Yan mentioned – “for Yanzhou,” “for Han,” and “loyalty and filial piety” – the only one that really touched him was “for Yanzhou.”

If it weren’t for this mentality, he wouldn’t have conspired with Chen Gong to welcome Lu Bu into Yanzhou in the original historical trajectory.

Under the circumstances, he would have also turned against Cao Cao, or even taken on the role of luring Cao Cao into the city to complete the ambush.

Loyalty and filial piety alone could not completely convince this head of a family, but there was one sentence that could.

Qiao Yan replied, “Yanzhou is still peaceful.”

As she said this, in Tian Tao’s gaze, although the light in the cell was a bit dim, it didn’t hinder him from seeing clearly.

At this moment, she was still holding the lantern with her right hand, but her left hand was placed behind her back.

This posture of standing with one hand behind should have appeared more arrogant, but for some reason, in front of this “Yellow Turban military advisor” who had already taken the lead, it inexplicably softened.

The young face also drooped slightly, perhaps due to the pressure on the lower jaw, and the gentle smile on her face made her look completely different from when she first entered the cell.

She seemed like a different person…

Still, a person that should have been seen in the impression of Tian Tao!

After a slight cough from Qiao Yan, Tian Tao suddenly had a flash of enlightenment in his heart, but the next moment he realized that the other party had already withdrawn the strange behavior and returned to the previous appearance.

A name lingered on his lips, but in the end, he didn’t say it.

It seemed that Qiao Yan was hinting at him in this way, rather than saying it directly, which was also a kind of tacit understanding between them.

Tian Yan had not yet recovered from this short exchange of words, but he heard his father suddenly ask, “I understand your meaning, so what do you need our Tian family to do?”

Tian Yan was not as experienced as his father and second uncle, but after years of interaction, he could judge in this instant that although his father’s words were not exactly a surrender, they could be considered as a withdrawal of hostility towards the other party.

Unfortunately, in this conversation between the two sides, he had no room to intervene.

In the almost tacit eye contact between the two sides, there was something that he couldn’t quite understand.

The gloomy and dim light in the dungeon was driven away by the wind lamp in Qiao Yan’s hand, shattering into a strange interweaving of light and darkness in his eyes.

Tian Yan on the boundary between light and darkness, the child, who was only half his age, after understanding his father’s attitude, said without hesitation, “There are two things I need the help of the Tian family for.”

————————

Until Qiao Yan walked out of the Puyang dungeon, there was still a sense of unreality as if in a dream.

It muttered, “This talk of loyalty and filial piety… why does it sound so strange?”

It had previously tried to thwart Qiao Yan’s plan to join the Yellow Turbans by saying, “You are the descendant of loyalty and righteousness,”

but when it truly heard such noble and righteous words from her mouth, spoken in the negotiation with the Tian family, it inexplicably felt that something was not quite right.

She was not the original, born-and-bred Qiao Yan.

For this Han Dynasty that had already reached its end, and had lost a layer of vitality due to the Yellow Turban Uprising, how much sense of belonging did she really have, even if the system did not have the ability to read minds, it felt that it could roughly judge.

Probably none.

She had indeed received the memories of the original host.

However, the system had seen clear explanations in its training before going on duty.

At most, this kind of memory transmission only allowed the host to receive the past events that happened to the original host in the form of an observer, and the emotional elements were completely stripped away.

So there was no situation where she would be bound by the original host’s family relationships.

In this case, loyalty cannot be mentioned, and filial piety cannot be mentioned either.

Qiao Yan was now walking on the streets of Puyang.

Perhaps because the city was occupied by the Yellow Turbans, there were almost no people on the streets.

She also didn’t mind explaining to the system in a low voice at this time, “Whether there is loyalty and filial piety is not important. In the late Han Dynasty, whether you are a strategist or any other profession, having a name for righteousness is always more stable than an ordinary background.”

“But… what do you want righteousness for?” The system was a bit confused.

Qiao Yan smiled and continued, “You should know about Kong Rong, right?”

【How could Beihai Kong Wenju not know?】

“Beihai Kong Rong hid Zhang Jian to avoid disaster and also had a casual chat about letting the pear go in his youth. With these deeds spreading for many years, he became a famous scholar, and it was only after this that Sima Yang appointed him as a subordinate official.”

“Even if it’s Zhuge Kongming, before serving Liu Xuande, he already had the title of Sleeping Dragon.”

“There are many talented people at the end of the Han Dynasty. To be worthy of the title of a famous scholar or a master, one must first discount it. If one cannot stand out from among them, how can they have the capital to wait and see?”

【Right…?】The system thought for a moment and felt that this reasoning made sense.

To be able to wait and see, one must first have this value.

“So, what reputation in this world is more effective than entering the enemy camp alone for the country and avenging one’s parents?”

“You really picked a good identity for me.”

Qiao Yan walked slowly.

If one did not come close to hear what she said, they would only feel her leisurely stroll.

However, the system felt that these few numbers spoken by Qiao Yan were like thunder.

It thought about how it had previously guided Liang Zhongning to break through the Tian family’s fortress and felt hopeful that she could become a top strategist.

But now, it felt that it had underestimated her true intentions!

The coldness in her eyes when she looked up was sharp.

It couldn’t help but sigh, “Liang Zhongning was really deceived by you enough!”

Who would have thought that Qiao Yan’s assistance in breaking through the Tian family’s fortress was not to gain his trust, nor to let the Yellow Turbans have a good meal and gain strategist points, but simply to have a more suitable environment for conversation with the Tian family, and to take advantage of the opportunity of the three-way Yellow Turban army’s convergence to do something more important.

Even in the process of achieving this goal, she did not care at all about the casualties caused to both sides in the previous fortress battle.

Underneath this always calm performance, there was an indescribable cold-heartedness.

“Do you sympathize with him?”

【No, no!】The system quickly replied. 【I am a strategist system, not the next-door saint system.】

Before coming to this world, it had at least studied.

In the strategic planning of the Three Kingdoms period, if one held onto ideas of persuading with reason and showing compassion, it would be better to withdraw from the conflict early on.

In any war, there would inevitably be casualties.

Even if it didn’t have to go as far as Cheng Yu, who, in order to raise military provisions for Cao Cao, “skimmed the local county, supplied three days’ worth of rations, mixed with human flesh,” it also didn’t have to have any psychological burden on necessary sacrifices.

If that were the case, the system would also worry that Qiao Yan would be hindered by something at a critical moment in the situation.

But her current mindset was just right.

Moreover, if her plan could really be make and Yanzhou could be pacified sooner, the Tian family would have nothing to say.

The system asked another question: 【But how can you be sure that the Tian family will help you? You know, if it weren’t for you, they would still be comfortably nestled in their own fortress!】

“If you ask like this, you’re underestimating the role of local factions,” Qiao Yan replied.

But this was also understandable.

The system had always been very humanized, but it showed a lack of understanding in worldly matters in its words.

“Do you know who I was imitating in the prison just now?” Without waiting for the system to ask, she answered herself and explained, “It was my father as I remember him.”

Qiao Yu, the Lord of Rencheng.

“Coincidentally, I saw in the records of the Tian family a few days ago that the Tian family was invited to the feast of the Taiwei of Dongjun, and among the participants was him.”

She brought back the scrolls found in the fortress, and it was proven that it was not a useless effort.

In this passage, “At the prefect’s banquet, the son of the Gong ancestor of Liangguo and the father talked and laughed very happily,” Qiao Yan saw hope for a united front with the Tian family.

If the relationship between Tian Tao and Qiao Yu was just a casual acquaintance, she might not dare to directly use the name of the Lord of Rencheng.

She would probably have to talk in a more roundabout way, giving herself more negotiating chips.

But now it was not necessary to go to such trouble.

“Strictly speaking, the definition of local factions originated from the Zhou system, with five hundred households as one faction and ten thousand and five hundred households as a township.

Whether it is Liangguo where the Qiao family is located or Renchengguo where Qiao Yu served, they are not considered local factions.

But as people from Yanzhou, there is a natural relationship of mutual prosperity and decline. This is the capital to start a conversation.”

Qiao Yan grasped this connection just right.

In the two things she discussed with Tian Tao just now, this was reflected.

If she directly asked Tian Tao to hand over the hidden power of the Tian family that might still exist in Puyang City, or to help in other ways, Tian Tao might still hesitate and consider her move to climb the relationship ladder, wondering if it would be another form of cutting off the nose to spite the face.

But the two things she mentioned could be achieved by Tian Tao with his eloquence without further harming himself.

The first thing was to find out from the head of the Tian family which fortress around Puyang was in bad relations with the Tian family and was easy to attack.

She quickly got the answer from Tian Tao: the Gao family.

It was even a pleasant surprise that, perhaps because of the prevalent chivalrous spirit at that time, the private feud between the Tian family and the Gao family, Tian Tao had once considered hiring knights to solve it and had even sent people to explore the layout of the Gao family’s fortress.

The map drawn was among the scrolls she brought back.

With the map, she could more accurately target the attack, probably without using any strategy to lure the enemy.

Of course, there were some uncertainties in this, and Qiao Yan had her own calculations.

The second thing was Dian Wei.

Qiao Yan asked if there was any connection between Dian Wei and the Tian family.

If she could learn more information, it would also give her more confidence in her previous plan to subdue the bodyguard.

According to Tian Tao, Dian Wei could be used by the Tian family because one of his local factions had killed someone in Chenliu in his early years and fled to Dongjun, where he was sheltered by the Tian family.

It was not uncommon for the powerful families at the end of the Han Dynasty to hide people, so this was not surprising.

In short, if the pursuers couldn’t find the person, then this matter would be considered settled.

When the Yellow Turban Uprising broke out, this person immediately mentioned Dian Wei’s bravery to Tian Tao.

As for why he was able to successfully invite Dian Wei, it was because Dian Wei’s local faction had done him a favor in the past.

And this person—

This person did not die in the previous battle to break the fortress!

This was truly a great piece of good news.

According to Tian Tao, this old favor from the past was obviously not so simple, at least not enough to repay with just this unsuccessful encounter with Dian Wei.

But what surprised Qiao Yan a bit was that when she approached Dian Wei, this fierce general known for his strength outright refused her request for a deal—to release his local faction in exchange for his temporary service to her within three months.

“This deal can be done, but it needs to be done in a different way,” Dian Wei said in a rough voice after hearing Qiao Yan’s words.

The restraints on him were slightly looser than when Liang Zhongning had just captured him, but he was still in a state where his brute strength was useless.

However, a hero has the courage of a tiger. Even with restraints, he did not lose his majesty, and Dian Wei displayed this to the fullest.

Qiao Yan asked with interest, “How can it be done in a different way?”

Dian Wei’s sudden objection made her realize that although he had been successfully deceived by her into falling into the trap and being captured, he was not completely lacking in brains.

Otherwise, Cao Cao would probably not appoint him as a captain in the future, patrolling and guarding his safety around the camp.

This was at least a position that required commanding several hundred personal soldiers and required some ingenuity.

Dian Wei’s answer was indeed interesting. He said, “Keep him locked up and provide him with food.”

Qiao Yan understood Dian Wei’s meaning after thinking about it.

His status as a local faction was still special.

He was hidden by the Tian family because of a murder case, and if he were to be released directly, he would still be considered a fugitive.

In the current barren state of Yanzhou, he could only survive by going to towns and counties where people gathered.

But these places were either threatened by the Yellow Turbans or could possibly capture him.

In this situation, he seemed to have only one path to survive, which was to join the Yellow Turbans.

But even the Yellow Turbans were not safe, and casualties were inevitable in the fighting.

Even if he escaped with Dian Wei, being with such a formidable general could not guarantee his safety in the current war.

But being locked up was different.

Being captured by the Yellow Turbans also meant that there was already an action to resist the Yellow Turbans.

If the Yellow Turbans were to win, it would not be too late for Qiao Yan to release him later, given her position in Liang Zhongning’s camp.

If the Yellow Turbans were to be defeated, he would become a righteous man.

Even if his actions against the Yellow Turbans were not enough to absolve him of all his crimes, at least they would reduce his guilt considerably.

If luck was on his side, and the court wanted to change the reign title for auspicious reasons after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, it would be even better.

Since the establishment of the Han Dynasty, there have been more than 130 general amnesties for various reasons, including but not limited to the death of the previous emperor.

The ascension of the current emperor, coming of age, establishing an heir, establishing a temple, and other reasons. One of the cases for general amnesty is the change of reign title.

In this case, serious crimes would be reduced, and the amnesty would be granted.

In this way, keeping someone locked up was indeed the safest option.

This was a position where, after the war subsided, regardless of which side emerged victorious, one could safely withdraw.

Dian Wei wasn’t stupid…

Qiao Yan inwardly criticized, but on the surface, she showed no sign of it, just giving a somewhat approving response.

Keeping someone in jail was not only not a loss for her, but it was also a safety measure.

In this way, Dian Wei was essentially handing over a handle to her.

However, there was no need to tell Dian Wei about this. He seemed quite pleased with how deeply she had thought about it.

After this transaction, both parties were happy.

Qiao Yan had a brave bodyguard, Dian Wei had a chance to move around, and the local faction who owed a favor to Dian Wei had a safe place to rest.

Wait, there was someone who was injured.

It was none other than Liang Zhongning.

The food in the prison was divided from the supplies stored in that fortress.

He was barely able to sustain his life by giving only one bowl of porridge a day.

Now, the Warrior he had his eye on had followed Qiao Yan!

He thought that with the strength of the other party, he might easily send Mr. Yan back to Gaomi.

All the reasons he had made up before were useless now. Perhaps he would receive news of Qiao Yan’s departure soon, and he felt both his toothache and heartache.

But curiosity still had its place.

“I wonder how Sir managed to convince this person to work for you?” Liang Zhongning decided to learn a bit, maybe it would come in handy later.

“He said he had long admired Mr. Zheng’s name, so…”

“So he also wants to follow and learn?” Liang Zhongning looked incredulous.

With Dian Wei’s physique, he was not at all suitable for studying Confucian classics! This reason was not convincing at all!

If that was really the reason, Liang Zhongning would have to suspect Dian Wei’s intentions.

“No,” Qiao Yan shook her head, “He said he couldn’t learn it himself and would supervise his son’s learning in the future. For now, he just wants to get acquainted with me, so it’s easier for his son to study under me in the future.”

“…”

Liang Zhongning was silent for a long time before replying, “To be honest, my father also thought the same way.”

….