Daming: Grandpa Emperor, please get up and sit on my throne!

A situation where one company dominates the market is not desirable.

Zhu Yunhuan's purpose in recruiting this group of alchemists was ostensibly to make elixirs, but in fact it was not. Instead, he wanted to find someone to be responsible for refining various chemical raw materials represented by three acids and two alkalis, and apply them to military, industry, life... and other aspects.

Consider it from this perspective.

Those who are finally chosen by him to "refine the elixir" for him will inevitably hold extremely heavy power in the future and be involved in various interest disputes. If these matters are left in the hands of one family or faction, it is easy for the superiors to deceive the subordinates.

If we can make good use of the disputes among these Taoist sects...

This can play a role in separating responsibilities and powers and supervising each other, thus avoiding the occurrence of such situations to a certain extent.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Sun Ming responded.

Then he slowly began to explain: "In today's Xin Dynasty, the Taoist sect is actually respected as the Zhengyi Sect, because the late emperor had a very disgusted attitude towards the Quanzhen Sect."

"The Quanzhen Sect was founded by its founder, Wang Chongyang, and subsequently flourished. However, after the fall of the Jin Dynasty, the Quanzhen Sect surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty. Since then, the Quanzhen Sect has had a deep entanglement with the former dynasty."

"The seventeenth generation leader was a Jin man named Wanyan Deming. He was a Miao nobleman of the Jin Dynasty royal family, Wanyan Aguda. He also died in battle while protecting Emperor Shun of Yuan Dynasty from escaping..." Sun Ming explained the origin of the matter concisely.

Zhu Yunhuan nodded thoughtfully, and said with some disdain: "No wonder, even the headmaster is a Jin person, so it's naturally difficult to achieve anything."

At the same time, I also understood why the Zhengyi Church is so dominant.

With Lao Zhu's temperament.

If the Quanzhen Sect still wants to continue to operate, then there must be something fishy going on.

Then Sun Ming continued, "The late emperor disliked this. In the seventh year of the Hongwu reign, he ordered the Ministry of Rites and Daoism to draft a ritual format. The 'Da Ming Xuan Jiao Li Cheng Zhai Jiao Yi' was promulgated and followed throughout the country. It stipulated that the Quanzhen Sect was forbidden from participating in any political affairs and could only focus on self-cultivation. It also restricted the Quanzhen Sect's missionary activities and forbade the Quanzhen Sect to have a chief priest forever."

"That is to say, those people outside are from the Zhengyi Sect, and the other group should be Quanzhen Taoist priests wandering in the mountains..." Zhu Yunhuan said.

"That's right, Your Majesty. Look, that person is Zhang Yuqing, the younger brother of the current leader of the Zhengyi Sect. As for the third group, they are factions other than Zhengyi and Quanzhen. However, their scale cannot be compared with these two factions. The leader is Liu Yuanran, a Taoist master with some fame." Sun Ming added.

"I understand." Zhu Yunhuan nodded and said calmly, having already made a rough estimate in his mind: "This time, I issued an imperial decree to recruit alchemists from all over the world, but I did not specify that Quanzhen Taoists were not allowed to participate..."

"Zhengyi Sect is already the only dominant sect, and they naturally want to maintain this situation. The wandering Taoists of Quanzhen Sect hiding in the mountains and wilderness are trying to seize this opportunity to make a comeback. Other factions outside of Zhengyi and Quanzhen also have this intention."

After learning the ins and outs of this, the intentions and thoughts of these people became clear at a glance.

Zhu Yunhuan was the emperor of the time and the most powerful figure. He could make things happen with a wave of his hand, and life and death were all decided by a thought. If one could gain his favor, the benefits would be far more than the title and money mentioned in his imperial edict.

The leader of this "other faction" is Liu Yuanran.

Historically, he was valued by Zhu Yuanzhang in the 26th year of Hongwu, and he made elixirs for Zhu Yuanzhang, which made him very famous for a while. Later, he independently founded the Changchun School of Taoism and became the so-called founder.

Of course, it was Yuan Gong who had been summoned by him yesterday.

At this time, he was mixed in the group of "other factions", seeming a little uneasy, with a dazed look on his face, and no one knew what he was thinking.

"Your Majesty is wise, and I am sincerely convinced!" Sun Ming, who was standing aside and wanted to explain something, immediately swallowed his words back into his stomach. There was a hint of surprise in his eyes, three parts of compliment and seven parts of admiration.

Like everyone else, he had no contact with Zhu Yunhuan before. He just did his job seriously, listened to all kinds of rumors about the new emperor in the court and the country, and prayed that he would not be targeted by the new emperor and tormented.

Now that I see it, I’m surprised to find that… it doesn’t seem to be the case!

Of course, although he thought so in his heart, he did not dare to show it on the surface. He could only stand aside with great respect, waiting for Zhu Yunhuan to ask.

Zhu Yunhuan raised his eyebrows, stood up and said, "Let's go and take a look."

However, when he was about to walk towards the outer hall, he saw some dispute happening in the outer hall.

"Master Zhang, I heard that your Zhengyi Sect focuses on practicing inner alchemy, and His Majesty's decree recruits people who are good at refining outer alchemy. How come you, who have always been aloof, are here too?" The person who spoke was naturally from the Quanzhen Sect.

Zhang Yuqing, the leader of the Zhengyi Sect, flung his Taoist robe and snorted softly. With a righteous air, he said, "Your Majesty's kindness to our Zhengyi Sect is as great as a mountain. Since Your Majesty has summoned me, I have come here to meet you. Our Zhengyi Sect is the orthodox Taoist school. How could you possibly match our alchemy skills?"

"It's you on the contrary. The late emperor once issued an edict that the Quanzhen Sect was not allowed to participate in any political affairs or preach, and could only focus on self-cultivation. You must have violated the taboo on this trip!" Zhang Yuqing retorted.

The Quanzhen Sect speaker paused.

Then he spoke somewhat weakly, "Your Majesty is recruiting alchemists. When it comes to alchemy, my Quanzhen lineage is no less capable than you..."

At the same time, the eyes of the Quanzhen Sect members seemed to be flickering and guilty.

After all, what Zhang Yuqing said was indeed correct. Over the years, the Taoists of the Quanzhen lineage have been living a depressed life. Now that the new emperor has come to the throne and issued this imperial edict, this is their only chance of survival!

In other words, there was a bit of a gambling element in their trip.

After all, the new emperor had only been on the throne for two months, but his reputation was already quite loud, and he often made decisions that went against his ancestors.

This is the opportunity they saw.

Of course, they are also absolutely confident in their alchemy skills.

Just now.

A voice came from the back hall: "Your Majesty has arrived!"