"Have you heard? They say the Emperor is here."
"The Emperor? Is that true?"
"Word is he's raising an army to crush the rebels."
"Come on, we can't even get enough to eat. Why worry about all that?"
"Then what are you doing here?"
"Just here for the spectacle. I've never seen an Emperor before."
"Exactly, that's the Son of Heaven."
"Stop arguing, the Emperor is coming."
Someone pointed upward, where a man stood with his hands behind his back.
"Grand Tutor Fang, you are blocking the Emperor!" the old Commandery Governor fumed, smoke practically coming out of his ears.
"Alright, alright, I'll step aside." Fang Zhiyi moved out of the way. The young Emperor looked down at the surging crowd. It was his first time seeing so many people, and the nervousness in his heart was beyond words.
It was unclear who shouted it first: "Long live the Emperor!"
The other commoners and soldiers joined in, shouting "Long live!" and dropping to their knees in unison.
In this era, in the eyes of the common people, even a fallen Emperor was still the Emperor, the true Son of Heaven.
The young Emperor turned his head and exchanged a glance with his Grand Tutor. Seeing Fang Zhiyi's encouraging gaze, the hesitation in his eyes gradually faded. Then, he yelled at the top of his lungs, uttering a sentence that shocked the entire crowd.
"Long live the commoners! Long live the people!"
His youthful voice echoed through the air. Tens of thousands of people looked up at the young Son of Heaven, absolutely dumbfounded.
"Lao Wang, what did I just hear?" a heavily bearded man asked, picking his ear in disbelief.
"He, he, the Emperor, the Emperor, he said..."
The crowd below fell into a bit of chaos. The old Commandery Governor stared wide-eyed at the young Emperor, then realized what had happened. With a trembling hand, he pointed at Fang Zhiyi. "You, you, you insolent fool! Insolent fool!"
Fang Zhiyi ignored him, looking instead at the young Emperor once more.
The young Emperor took a deep breath.
"Long live the commoners! Long live the people of the world!"
This time, his voice carried out steadily. After a brief silence, the crowd below raised their heads one after another: "Long live the Emperor!!!"
If their previous cheers were merely following the crowd, now they were cheering willingly from the bottom of their hearts.
In the operas, it was always the commoners kneeling to the monarch and shouting "Long live." When had an Emperor ever shouted "Long live" to the commoners? They were just people who dug their food from the dirt; how could the Emperor wish them ten thousand years of life?
"A wise ruler! A wise ruler!" someone cried out, tears of excitement welling in their eyes.
"So this is the Emperor? That opera singer lied to me!"
"Your Majesty! Tell us who to fight! I, Erniu, will follow you!"
Several Black Armor Guards and two scholars who had escaped with them looked at the scene below, then at each other. They had never expected the Emperor to shout such a thing either.
Unlike the commoners, their hearts were surging with emotion, unable to calm down for a long time.
But hearing the cheers of the commoners below, they knew that the Emperor now had his own army.
The name of this army was the common people.
In short, aside from the old Commandery Governor who had fainted from anger, everyone else felt a complex mix of emotions.
Only the young Emperor stared blankly at the people cheering for him, an indescribable feeling in his heart threatening to overflow. The Grand Tutor had said that he who wins the hearts of the people wins the world. So these were the hearts of the people...
"Remember, you are the Emperor, but you are only the Emperor because the commoners acknowledge you as such." Fang Zhiyi patted him on the shoulder. This time, the young Emperor felt his shoulder grow a bit heavier. "This is a great start."
The news of the Emperor appearing in Zhangye Commandery reached the ears of the local noble families. They were naturally aware of the chaos outside. In such times, whoever held the Emperor held legitimacy, and might just become the next Guo or Huang family.
Just as the local noble families were getting restless, their gates were smashed open. Leading the charge were several Black Armor Guards, followed by a large number of soldiers wielding a wide variety of weapons. Before the noble families could react, their homes were looted clean, and their private armed forces were caught completely off guard. Immediately following this, they were put on trial directly in front of the commoners. Judging them were two unfamiliar young men. After their crimes were read out, the heads of the families were beheaded on the spot, and the younger family members were locked up, supposedly for labor reform.
"Look, the funding has arrived. These noble families are truly impressive; they can generate wealth even in the poorest of places." Fang Zhiyi grinned from ear to ear as he looked at the gold, silver, and valuables scraped from the noble families. His expression made it hard for the others not to doubt his motives.
"Remember, your Grand Tutor will teach you one more thing: be generous to your subordinates. Only when everyone shares the same interests will their efforts be directed toward the same goal. Do you understand?"
The young Emperor nodded, then turned and ordered, "Following the Grand Tutor's arrangements, carry this gold and silver out and distribute it."
"Your Majesty, these are..." A Black Armor Guard hesitated. They had finally acquired some assets, and now they were just going to give it all away to the commoners?
"Distribute it." For the first time, the young Emperor spoke with absolute resolution.
"Yes, sir!"
Fang Zhiyi gave him a gratified look. He was finally starting to look like a proper Emperor.
"Grand Tutor Fang, relying on these commoners, can we win?" Zhao Wu finally couldn't hold back and secretly asked Fang Zhiyi.
Fang Zhiyi didn't even bat an eyelid. "Remove the word 'can'. Why, weren't your ancestors commoners too, Zhao Wu?"
Zhao Wu blushed slightly. "No, that's not what this subordinate meant..."
"Are there more nobles, or more commoners? Do you not know the answer in your heart? Gathering an army to suppress the rebels seems feasible, but how much wealth would it consume, and how many people would die? If an Emperor doesn't even consider his own people, who would risk their lives for him? For money? Do we have the kind of wealth the noble families do? For fame? What kind of fame can an Emperor who can barely protect himself offer?"
"Therefore, doing everything for the commoners is our only way out."
Although Zhao Wu didn't fully understand, he vaguely felt that there was nothing wrong with what Fang Zhiyi said.
Previously, when he wanted to assassinate the traitor Guo, he had also planned to kill Fang Zhiyi in passing. Fortunately, Fang Zhiyi had found him first, otherwise...
The commoners who received some silver spread the news far and wide. While they found the recent events utterly unbelievable, the Emperor in Zhangye Commandery issued new decrees. He directly abolished the various exorbitant taxes and levies that the Guo family had previously imposed through him, and he opened the granaries to distribute food. In no time, commoners from the surrounding areas rushed over upon hearing the news. When they heard that the reigning Son of Heaven was actually standing guard at the granaries and personally distributing grain to the people, almost everyone's face was filled with immense excitement.
The title of wise ruler was passed from mouth to mouth. In just ten short days, the population of Zhangye Commandery had actually doubled, and many more commoners who had received the news were on their way.
"Your Majesty." Seeing the exhausted young Emperor, the former city gate officer Lin Shucheng felt a bit sympathetic, but the current situation made him uneasy. "Grand Tutor Fang, many commoners are coming here after hearing the rumors. With such a massive movement, the news of the Emperor being here will surely spread very soon..."
Zhao Wu also looked at Fang Zhiyi at the same time. If the Emperor's whereabouts became known to those people, he feared that everything would be over.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
orn and Humiliation】【Forced Love】 In his past life, Lin Ran was betrayed and murdered by his girlfriend and family, while the yandere female aristocrat, who had treated him as a mere plaything, avenged him by doing in his enemies. Upon seeing the yandere female aristocrat lying in the same coffin, ready to die with him, Lin Ran realized how profoundly mistaken he had been. Reborn, he abandoned the fickle campus beauty and wholeheartedly embraced the yandere female aristocrat's arms. "Ran! If I dig out your eyes and turn them into a specimen, you'll only be able to look at me!" Lin Ran: "Darling, kiss me!" "Ran! If I break your legs, you won't run away anymore, right?" Lin Ran: "Love, hold me tight!" "Ran! If..." Lin Ran: "Hush now! Love me more!" Luo Yao: ... Seeing his scumbag dad: "Take him out!" Seeing his stepmother: "Get rid of her!" Seeing his brother: "Eliminate him!" Seeing his white moonlight: "Send that to Southeast Asia!"
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
