[Three Kingdoms] Do Historians Have to Be Strategists Too?

[Slow burn. The first three chapters are rather slow-paced, but things get better and lighter later.]

[Jia Xu makes his proper appearance in Chapter 13]

Xie Mian, courtesy name Yan Yang, was a native of Shanyin, Kuaiji. In the third year of Jingchu, he fell gravely ill and died at the age of sixty-two.

He spent his whole life compiling histories, yet never wrote a biography of himself.

Xie Mian was from Jiangnan and served three Wei rulers.

He had everything going for him: brilliant talent, but no ambition to become a strategist. He served three generations of Cao Wei and somehow went his entire career without ever being suspected. What an honor!

Thanks for asking. The truth is, he was hardly ever near the center of power.

In his previous life, he spent decades compiling histories, writing from Cao Cao to Cao Rui. For half his life he also copied documents in the Secretariat, and for the other half he served as background scenery at court.

His threat level was zero, and with two old friends like Jia Xu and Sima Yi taking the heat, nobody would ever think to suspect him!

Even Cao Cao felt at ease when he saw him in his later years.

Sima Yi would even humbly ask his advice.

Cao Shuang wouldn't bother kicking him even when passing by.

He opened his eyes again on his couch. He wasn't coughing or gasping anymore, and his back didn't hurt either.

It was the seventh year of Guanghe, or the first year of Zhongping.

The good news was that he was thirty-seven years younger and much healthier.

The bad news was that his father had become his older brother, his younger brother couldn't read yet, and his little sister hadn't even appeared. The family generations were so jumbled he wanted to drop dead on the spot. Oh, right, he'd only just come back to life. Never mind.

It was the seventh year of Guanghe, just over a month before the Yellow Turban Rebellion. The era name would change to Zhongping at the end of the year.

There were still plenty of old friends he could try to save. Even Zhi Shicai, whom he'd never met, was still alive at this point.

All right.

Xie Mian: ...Help me up.

Xie Mian: I have work to do.

Fortunately, this new Xie Mian was also renowned for his talent. He and his older brother got along well enough, and he had the post of Gentleman of the Secretariat to his name.

He rolled up his sleeves. How could he fail an open-book exam?

He wasn't a threat, and he wasn't a leader's trusted confidant either. If he put in some effort this time, perhaps he and a few old friends could take turns becoming the leaders' greatest headache.

Although he realized that something was off about this world, a man still had to work.

For now, he would set himself one small goal: stop his brother from marrying their sister off to Jiangdong again.

Whether she had been born yet could wait. Marrying Sun Quan was out of the question in this life.

But Xie Mian had another question.

This doesn't add up. Haven't I known Jia Xu for forty years? Aren't we close?

So why is he looking at me even more coldly this time?

Meanwhile, Jia Xu looked at this young man, who seemed far too much to his liking, and warned himself inwardly:

I've been living too comfortably. I nearly trusted him.

That won't do.

A master of self-preservation who never harms Wen He, the poison-tongued strategist x a reborn, regret-righting, unpredictable historian

tips

1. Not a traditional strategist. He specializes in information warfare, economic warfare, and sowing discord. He is weaker militarily and keeps learning. He has a special knack for poison schemes against Eastern Wu. He serves Wei.

2. Jia Xu is the love interest. There is a twelve-year age gap, with Jia Xu older. Before being reborn, they were more than thirty years apart in age and were only mentor and friend.

3. The Xie family members were all real people. I made educated guesses about their birth and death dates.

4. Xie Jiong will not have a son named Xie Mian.

5. The timelines are normal. The lives before and after being reborn are two separate worlds. Characters realize that something is wrong with Xie Mian, and he comes clean to Jia Xu.

6. The characters' values and actions do not represent the author.

Theme: What has left me cannot be kept; yesterday is gone.