My Master Knows It All-Chapter 429 - 168: State Preceptor_5

Cao Zhen thought for a moment but decided to start from the beginning.

"Let me put it this way, the founding emperor of the Great Ming King Dynasty used to be a beggar. Then, he led a rebellion, unified the land, and then..."

Cao Zhen gave a brief account of what Zhu Yuanzhang had done, including ordering farmers back to their land, rewarding land reclamation and military farming system; organizing repair of water conservancies across regions; vigorously promoting the cultivation of economically beneficial crops like mulberry and hemp to enrich the people, and suppressing the powerful clans; and issuing orders to emancipate slaves and so on.

Finally, he commented with a sneer, "And then you see, at the beginning when bestowing rewards on the heroes, he cast thirty-four Death Exemption Tokens and granted them to thirty-four of the most distinguished founding heroes or their descendants.

But in the end, twenty-eight of these thirty-four families died off, and the six that remained didn’t fare well either. These weren’t Death Exemption Tokens, they were clearly death warrants!"

Upon hearing this, the Grand Preceptor expressed his admiration, "He did so only to preserve his dynasty, for the sake of law and order. This man rose from being a beggar to conquering such a vast territory and was even able to benefit the populace. He truly deserves to be called an emperor of the ages."

"Yes, for him to rise step by step from a beggar to an emperor was indeed very difficult. In our era, dynasties have also changed, but most of those who become the new emperors are born of royalty and nobility.

Behind them, they have the support of their families and clans. They also represent the interests of the great clans, which is why they are able to become the new emperors.

In fact, for the great clans, changing to a new emperor is merely changing a ruler, their interests are not harmed, and they may even gain more. Therefore, they will offer their support.

However, for a beggar with no backing whatsoever, and even challenging the interests of the great clans, to be able to overthrow a dynasty and establish a new one is extremely difficult.

What’s even more rare is that after establishing the new dynasty, he continued to suppress the interests of the prominent families, rectify corrupt officials, and indeed, he can be sincerely called an emperor of the ages.

If he were here now, still alive, I would even be willing to relinquish my throne to him."

Cao Zhen was completely convinced, looking at the emperor with a grave face, he could only give a thumbs up and say, "Impressive, Your Majesty, your enlightenment is truly profound. I am indeed convinced."

After all, in his past life, he was merely a civil servant, and now he’s just a Peak Master. He didn’t have the awareness to worry about the world, nor the position to consider such issues, and he didn’t want to discuss them anymore. He turned to the Grand Preceptor and said, "As I said, I have five apprentices, four of whom possess the Ancient Immortal Body, and I myself need Pill for my cultivation. I need to refine a large quantity of Pill, so I require a vast amount of medicinal ingredients, the rarer the better."

"Medicinal ingredients?"

Upon hearing this, the emperor suddenly turned to the Grand Preceptor and asked, "Grand Preceptor, if I were to have a grand wedding, the ten Immortal Sects, as well as those from our Town Immortal Dynasty, should bring some fine gifts, right? There ought to be quite a few rare medicinal ingredients among them, shouldn’t there?"

Cao Zhen was stunned for a moment and then looked at the emperor in disbelief, "Your Majesty, you haven’t married yet? You must be at least thirty already, right? You’re not married?"

He didn’t know exactly how old the emperor was, and though the emperor was just a mortal, he could easily sense his vitality but only to a rough extent; the exact age was unclear to him.

Even if the emperor was only thirty, it was quite late to not be married by that age.

This...

No, that’s not right.

He suddenly remembered some gossip about the Guardian Immortal Dynasty that Lan Pili had told him on the road.

Among them was the fact that the royal family of the Guardian Immortal Dynasty was very peculiar. For some unknown reason, every emperor of the Guardian Immortal Dynasty lived to be exactly one hundred years old and then died.

Thus, they should know when it is appropriate to marry, sire children, and select their successors.

However...

Cao Zhen asked with some confusion, "This time, we are here for the new emperor’s enthronement ceremony. Your Majesty, have you not yet ascended to the throne? You..."

"Are you curious as to why I have not ascended to the throne, despite my age?" the emperor said frankly, without any intention of hiding the matter: "This was the rule set by the previous emperor. His appointed successor was not me, but my elder brother.

However, later my brother experienced some issues, and it was decided that I would succeed to the throne.

But the age gap between the previous emperor and me was too great. Therefore, before his passing, he specifically decreed that the Grand Preceptor was to act as the regent until I had sufficient experience and knew how to be an emperor, after which I would be allowed to ascend to the throne.

This period was to last at least ten years.

This year, those ten years have just ended, so I will ascend to the throne this year."

That’s when Cao Zhen finally understood why the emperor could only ascend this year. In fact, it was more precise to say that the current emperor was not yet the emperor and would only become the rightful emperor after the enthronement ceremony.

He didn’t inquire further about what issues the emperor’s elder brother had encountered, whether he was unfit to rule, or had died prematurely.

After all, not every person in the imperial family of the Guardian Immortal Dynasty lived to be one hundred.

After explaining, the emperor turned his head to the Grand Preceptor and said, "Grand Preceptor, are you truly about to enter your long slumber this time?"