Zhao City.
Luo Ling stood with his hands behind his back, gazing toward the distant North. Xiang Yu's choice did not surprise him.
Xiang Yu was an unfit ruler. He could not control the balance between mercy and brutality, nor grasp when to act without faith or honor.
Liu Bang was not a good man in the traditional sense, but time and again, he could do the right thing at critical moments.
It was only right that the realm should belong to Han. Next came the test of the Han Dynasty, for the Hu People in the North had risen.
In this world of All Xia established by the Sage King, a dynasty that could only squeeze its people at home and bend the knee abroad had no reason to exist.
Luo Ling did not care about the rise and fall of these dynasties.
But the Han ministers who had defeated Xiang Yu were already elated.
They could hardly wait to jointly acclaim Liu Bang as the Son of Heaven outside Xiangying City, settling his rightful status first and leaving the enthronement ceremony for later.
Naturally, Liu Bang did not decline. He said, "Years ago, when the First Emperor went out on procession, I once said: a true man should be like this.
"To think this day really would come. King of Han cannot express my exalted status, so let me be called emperor. I shall simply retain 'Zhen' as my form of self-address."
There were historical reasons why Xiang Yu had not called himself emperor, but none applied to Liu Bang. The title of emperor was drawn from the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and sounded more exalted than the increasingly numerous kings of the present.
The First Emperor had called himself "Zhen" precisely to distinguish himself from those