Ceding Another Nation's Land, Enfeoffing a King

Chen Geng and Zhang Juzheng truly admired them deeply as well!

But that was the current situation.

This succession to the Great Cang throne was entirely different from past changes of rulers. In the past, changes in imperial power were mostly accompanied by the bloody tempests of the military. Once the army took over the capital, those who obeyed prospered, while those who defied perished. The New Emperor would immediately carry out an iron-blooded purge, sweeping the court clean in one stroke. That was called tearing off all pretense and not caring about one's skin.

But this time, the transfer of imperial power went completely unnoticed by the common folk, completely unnoticed by the army, and the capital barely noticed it either. The emperor had been replaced with lightning speed, before anyone could cover their ears, and very few people were involved.

The benefits were naturally immense.

Great Cang had suffered no internal strife; even the imperial palace had remained perfectly preserved.

The system of court officials had not been scattered, and the officialdom continued operating smoothly.

The people had not been affected. Even the vendors selling fried dough sticks on the streets had not closed up shop.

Of course, there were drawbacks as well. The greatest drawback was that there was no real reason to deal with this batch of court officials...

One could say that they had closely followed a false ruler, but was following an emperor with legitimate authority really a mistake?

That was an official's duty!

Moreover, they could explain it all in a single breath: they had never known that false ruler was so shameless. Ignorance was no crime...

"King Chen sets forth! Let all ministers attend court!"

Accompanied by the eunuch's loud cry, the doors of Zhengde Hall slowly opened.

Two lines of ministers