Zhong Xuanyin knew his history.
What did "build high walls, stockpile vast grain, and claim kingship slowly" mean?
Back when All-Under-Heaven was locked in great contention and Dragon-Tiger convened, Snow Grand Ancestor Hong Junyan rose in the northwest. Yet his first move was to close the borders and lock down the nation, falsely claiming that he was focused solely on dealing with the Asura and had no interest in power over The Present World. Thus, he gained time for stable development. His intention was to watch tigers fight from across the mountain, waiting until all the great powers were exhausted before sweeping up the shattered Mountains and Rivers...
This prudent, seasoned strategy of gradual advance had nearly become a joke because of Jing Grand Ancestor Tang Yu's rise.
The great powers had indeed grown weary, and the opportunity in All-Under-Heaven had indeed been offered—but the false closure of the borders had become a true one.
Hong Junyan had initially stood fast and refused to emerge; in the end, he found no road east.
It was not that he had never tried, but one eastern campaign after another had been smashed to pieces by Jing State.
Countless people mocked him behind his back, and some did not even bother doing so behind his back—Hong Junyan possessed grand ambitions and commanded mighty generals and valiant armies, yet his influence had never extended beyond the Snow Region. Born into an age of roiling winds and surging clouds, he had futilely become a spectator.
But who could have imagined that Hong Junyan would stockpile troops and grain to such an extreme, stockpiling them for three thousand eight hundred years in one go!
Only after the overlords of old had stepped down one by one, died, or gone into seclusion would he emerge to contend