A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

Cao Cao also knew Cao Pi's strength, which was his age.

Cao Cao recalled his graying hair that morning, which had been there for decades since the world fell into chaos.

He has reached the twilight of his life, now 58 years old, how many more years does he have left to live?

The fifth son was unruly and incompetent, the sixth son died young, and the seventh son, Cao Chong, although extremely intelligent, was not yet 12 years old. If he were to die soon, how could a 12-year-old possibly control the court?

After Cao Ang's death, he truly had no one else to choose from but Cao Pi.

This was Cao Pi's greatest asset.

He couldn't possibly expel Cao Pi!

Cao Pi knelt there, enduring Cao Cao's gaze, his fingernails digging deep into his flesh, blood flowing from his head into his eyes, turning everything before him a blood-red blur.

As time passed and the atmosphere grew increasingly tense, the breath that Cao Pi had been holding in slowly dissipated.

His father's decisiveness was rare in the world; the fact that he did not directly convict Cao Cao showed that Cao Cao had begun to hesitate.

He survived!

Cao Cao walked up to Cao Pi, looked at his son kneeling upright, and wiped the blood from the corner of Cao Pi's eye with his sleeve.

"Does it hurt?"

"My child is not in pain, but my heart is in pain."

Cao Cao sighed softly, "I believe in you, go back."

"Yes, Father."

Cao Pi suppressed his inner excitement, his expression remaining unchanged, still showing a look of grievance and indignation.

Watching Cao Pi's departing figure, Cao Cao called out again, "Be careful lately. Since they attacked your brother, they might attack you too."

"Xu Chu, for the next period of time, you will stay by the Second Prince's side and protect his safety."

Xu Chu clasped his hands in a fist salute to Cao Cao and followed closely behind Cao Pi, never leaving his side.

Cao Pi stopped and turned around, bowing to Cao Cao. "Your subject thanks Your Majesty."

Back in the palace, Cao Cao sat alone on the dragon throne, recalling the scene that had just occurred.

Throughout the entire process, Cao Pi did not reveal the slightest flaw.

"It seems I underestimated Ziheng."

With such temperament, such forbearance, and such acting skills, aside from a slight lack of ability, he already possesses the qualities of an excellent emperor.

The reason he hesitated to make Cao Ang the crown prince was because, under his tutelage, Cao Ang, though excellent, had become too upright and righteous.

Cao Cao always believed that when dealing with evil people, you should be more evil than them; when dealing with treacherous people, you should be more treacherous than them.

Only in this way can you beat them.

After his death, the court will be filled with ruthless figures who rose to power amidst the struggle for supremacy among the feudal lords.

Wei Xue, Xun Yu, Xun You, Cheng Yu, Sima Yi, Man Chong...

Xiahou Dun, Cao Chun, Huang Zhong, Zhang Liao, Yu Jin, Xu Huang...

Furthermore, those aristocratic families who survived the combined attack by him, Yuan Shao, and Dong Zhuo all possessed extremely sophisticated political skills.

Furthermore, those vassal states that had already broken away from the rule of the Great Qian Dynasty were eyeing the outside world with covetous intent, especially the first few vassal states, which were located between the land of China and the later vassal states, and had lost the ability to expand.

They would never mind tearing a piece of flesh from Daqian.

Cao Cao had some doubts about whether Cao Ang, a second-generation ruler who only knew how to act with dignity and was not good at intrigue, could withstand the schemes of these people and protect the foundation he had built.

Judging from their current performance, Cao Pi has undoubtedly done much better than Cao Ang in this regard.

He's ruthless, vicious, and shameless—he can be even more ruthless, vicious, despicable, and shameless than these people.

He is better able to support the foundation he laid than Cao Ang.

So even though Cao Cao knew that Cao Ang's death was inextricably linked to Cao Pi, he still chose to let Cao Pi go and even supported him to become the crown prince.

As for Cao Ang, he will enfeoff Cao Ang's son as a king and send him out to establish his own kingdom.

With Xiahou Yuan and Cao Ren around, he wouldn't be bullied.

However, a necessary deterrent was still required; Cao Pi dared to kill his own brother even before he was dead.

If we don't deter him, will we just kill him next?!

That's why Cao Cao had Xu Chu keep an eye on Cao Pi.

Ultimately, the matter ended with the remnants of the Han Dynasty attempting to force Cao Cao and his sons to fight each other to the death.

However, it is obvious to anyone with discerning eyes that this matter is inextricably linked to Cao Pi.

The one who was assassinated was the crown prince of this empire. The previous dynasty had been gone for many years. How could they still have the ability to assassinate the crown prince of a country?

Many people have labeled Cao Pi as someone who is not to be trifled with and is cold-blooded and ruthless.

Even Cao Pi's supporters couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.

After the aftermath of this incident subsided, Cao Cao gradually distanced himself from his most intelligent and quick-witted son, Cao Chong, in order to protect him.

In the ninth year of Emperor Gaozu's reign, the people Cao Cao sent to the far west to survey and map the region returned.

After Cao Cao got his hands on the map, he suddenly realized that it was very different from the map of their Great Qian Dynasty.

The current map of the Great Qian Dynasty is still based on the four major states and four major oceans established by the Wei family.

However, on this new map, a new piece of land has appeared in the south of Far West.

Moreover, the area of ​​this land is no less than that of the three known states, and may even be larger.

To the northeast of this new continent lay Roman territory.

However, taking advantage of the Roman wars, a large-scale uprising broke out in this area, which diverted a lot of Rome's energy.

In the southern provinces of Rome, further south, there seemed to be other countries, and the people of those countries were black, just like the Kunlun slaves in the southwest.

The Kingdom of Kushi, with only tens of thousands of soldiers, managed to occupy a vast territory roughly the size of half of Kyushu.

This remark infuriated Cao Cao and many of his ministers.

The Kush Kingdom didn't know, but did the Kunlun slaves not know?

Those are excellent subjects for enslavement, willing to be beaten and endured, nuclear-powered oxen and horses that can withstand three days of abuse after eating one meal.

What else is there to say? Fight! If we don't fight, we're not Chinese.

Cao Cao then took the opportunity to bestow the title of King of Qi upon Cao Ang's eldest son, entrusting him with some of the forces loyal to Cao Ang and allowing him to build the initial core of his army.

At the same time, conquering the Roman Empire and subjugating this continent became the national strategic policy of the Great Qian Empire.

After discussions at a court meeting, Cao Cao named this continent Heizhou (Black Province).

However, Cao Pi waited and waited, but still did not receive the imperial edict appointing him as crown prince.

He went to find Sima Yi again, and Sima Yi told him with certainty that the position of crown prince was rightfully his.

Although the fifth, sixth, and seventh princes are almost of age, despite receiving a formal royal education, they have no time to put it into practice. If they were to be put on the throne, the world would surely descend into chaos.

Cao Pi was the only option.

Cao Pi also thought this made a lot of sense, so he followed Sima Yi's advice and did nothing, which meant that nothing would go wrong. He patiently waited for the imperial edict to appoint him as the crown prince.

That night, Cao Pi dreamed that he received the imperial edict. After he completely consolidated the power of the crown prince, Cao Cao died of old age, and he officially ascended the throne, becoming the emperor of the empire.

Under his leadership, the empire reached a new level. The Roman Empire was destroyed, the Black Continent was completely occupied, and he sent people to find the legendary Far East Continent east of the East China Sea and sent troops to occupy it.

They truly achieved this, making the whole world a land of peace and the people their subjects.

To his surprise, in just a few days, his position as crown prince became precarious, and he was even about to be demoted to a commoner. If he and Sima Yi hadn't been so cunning, they probably wouldn't have had the chance to turn the tables in the future.