The Old Confucian

Dingzhou City.

After Wu Zhi had pacified Lingzhou, launched a surprise attack on Xuzhou, captured the secondary capital in a single day, and been appointed Chancellor, she had taken the Son of Heaven hostage to command the Vassal Lords. The first thing she did was submit a memorial declaring the secondary capital too dilapidated to serve as a capital and requesting that the Son of Heaven make a royal progress to Dingzhou. She had more or less forced the entire ****** to move to her base in Dingzhou.

That same year, she changed the era name from Ping'an to Dading.

An emperor's era name often carried prayers for good fortune and special meaning. Some emperors used only one era name throughout their lives, while others changed theirs several times in a single year. Auspicious signs and the like could all serve as reasons to change an era name.

The name Dading, used now, naturally meant pacifying the world. In the eyes of the other Vassal Lords, Wu Zhi's ambition was plain for all to see.

Unfortunately, even knowing this, the other warlords could not avoid falling into mutual conflict as they fought for the moral authority to rule. Wu Zhi's Open Conspiracy had left the first anti-Wu alliance in tatters before it could even be formed.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Wu Zhi had, for once, laid down her arms to let the people recover and quietly build up her strength.

After all, years of warfare had pushed Dingzhou's potential to its limit. If she forced it to produce more and neglected its foundations, her great enterprise could collapse in a single day.

Time slipped by. With Wu Zhi, the mightiest warlord, having ceased hostilities, the whole realm remained in turmoil, but no large-scale battles involving more than a hundred