King Zhou's ten crimes were known throughout the world. They had shaken the morale of Great Shang's soldiers, let alone the common people.
Especially in the border regions adjoining the various Feudal Lords' territories, rumors ran rampant. Many commoners actually believed the Feudal Lords' lies, accepted the ten charges as truth, and joined the ranks denouncing King Zhou.
But nothing was absolute. Though they were very few, there were still people who believed King Zhou was a sage monarch for the ages, worthy of standing alongside the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and that he truly deserved the title First Emperor of Shang.
A young man dressed like a woodcutter carried a rust-covered axe and a ragged newspaper printed and distributed in some Feudal Lord's territory as he entered the mountains.
These mountains were exceedingly remote, and in their deepest reaches stood a small, dilapidated wooden hut.
Inside the hut was a man wearing a hemp robe, whose hair and beard had gone untrimmed for years.
Over the past few years, the people of the Southern Borderlands had all heard of this hemp-robed man. He lived deep in the mountain forests, fearing neither snakes, rats, insects, and ants nor jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards. It was said he could even move freely through the forests like the Yue People. He was quite a legend.
But no one knew his identity or origins. Since he never tended to his beard or hair, they could not even tell his age, so they called him the Old Man of the Mountain.
The Old Man of the Mountain was intently reading through a stack of old newspapers.
King Zhou had made enemies of the world's Feudal Lords. With public opinion in their hands, the Feudal Lords naturally seized every opportunity to slander him. Newspapers