"Where governing the state and planning from the command tent are concerned, I am not as good as Chief Minister Ye."
"Where personal valor and campaigning on the battlefield are concerned, I am even less than the Grand Marshal."
"Where seeing through worldly affairs, divining and laying formations are concerned, I am likewise not as good as the National Preceptor."
"Ziheng, why do you think I have been able to sit securely upon this throne?"
"Because Father Emperor is wise and virtuous, and his rule is ordained by Heaven!"
"Hahaha, those words might fool the ignorant commoners below, but that is all."
"...Because Father Emperor holds the National Fortune of an entire country. By sitting in the Imperial Palace, he can suppress the pinnacle. Even outside the Imperial Palace, he can empower loyal and courageous soldiers with the National Fortune and secure victory from a thousand miles away!"
"What else?"
"Also because our Great Blue Dynasty has four Imperial Guard Armies, capable of encircling and killing those at the pinnacle and intimidating the four seas!"
"What else?"
"Father Emperor knows how to employ people. Within, he has wise and virtuous officials; without, he has valiant generals. All of them are loyal to Father Emperor!"
"What else?"
"...Father Emperor..."
"Ziheng, everything you said is right. In that essay, The Art of Governance, which your Grand Tutor taught you, there is a line: 'The strength of mountains and rivers lies in virtue, not peril.'"
"I have always kept it in my heart."
"Wenren Zheng was my study companion. We grew up together and were as close as brothers. But I made him Grand Marshal not because of our friendship, but because I knew that all he sought in this life was to wage war on the battlefield and Ascend Peak in the