Where did the brilliance lie?
In public opinion, of course.
What had put Great Shang in the greatest difficulty was not the enemy's menacing advance or the troops massed along its borders, but the unrest stirred up by King Zhou's ten crimes.
This was the Feudal Lords' tactic: seize control of public opinion.
Standing on the moral high ground, the Feudal Lords could point fingers and even spit wherever they pleased, while Great Shang stood below and could only endure it in silence.
Great Shang's ministers had worked for a year to turn this passive situation around, yet had barely managed to keep the people within Great Shang from believing those outside rumors. Beyond its borders, they could do nothing. They had been looking for a way to claw back the advantage all along.
And posthumous titles were precisely the way to win back a round.
First, they would follow the proper procedures and earnestly bestow posthumous titles upon the ancestors.
After all, the ancestors' coffins and statues were all in Ancient Kunlun City. Some people had originally wanted to move them, but now that the ancestors had manifested their spirits, they naturally had to remain there.
And Ancient Kunlun City lay within Great Shang's borders and belonged to Great Shang.
Although the ancestors had erased the monuments recording their achievements, posthumous titles were only broad summaries. Surely they would not erase those.
Once people had accepted the ancestors' posthumous titles and taken the titles established by Great Shang as authoritative, they could erect a statue of Ji Chang in Ancient Kunlun City and establish his posthumous title as well.
Ji Chang's posthumous title went without saying: it would certainly be a derogatory one. Though this tactic was not entirely aboveboard, it could undoubtedly reverse public opinion.
Everyone had accepted