The royal family of the New Song Kingdom bore the surname Zhao and had always followed a policy of caution when it came to granting royal titles.
Since the founding of the New Song Kingdom, the number of non-Zhao nobles granted the title of king could be counted on one hand.
On average, only one appeared every thousand years or so.
Zong Rulin was one of them.
That alone spoke volumes about Zong Rulin's capabilities.
His integrity was just as clear from the price he had paid to turn the tide in this crisis.
In the wake of their great rout, the drawbacks of the Royal Alliance's loose structure had been laid bare.
Every member clung to the mindset that as long as they retreated faster than their comrades, they could preserve their strength. Faced with the advance of the proxy forces of the three kingdoms, they fled in a desperate scramble.
Only Zong Rulin had led by example, gathering all the forces under his command and relying on the Defense System of a certain star system to fight a bloody battle that blunted one prong of the three kingdoms' advance.
Then, drawing on that record and his own prestige, he rallied a number of Royal Alliance members who understood the situation and managed to form a defensive line that held back the three kingdoms' offensive.
To be sure, internal conflicts within the proxy forces of the three kingdoms had also hindered their advance.
But no one could overlook Zong Rulin's role.
Without his efforts to turn the tide, even if internal conflicts had arisen among the three kingdoms' proxy forces, they would have been able to keep them at bay until after they had driven deep into enemy territory and completely crushed the Royal Alliance.
Although Zong Rulin had