Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 334, Triumphant Return
The waiting process is the most anxious.

Although the women in Fang Yong's group had greatly improved their physical condition due to the cultivation technique, making it very unlikely that they would have a difficult childbirth, the situation still inevitably caused some anxiety.

Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened in the end.

Everything came to an end with the cry of a baby.

"Congratulations, Your Highness, it's a boy!"

The midwife came out to offer her congratulations.

Fang Yong was not surprised by the child's gender, because the imperial physician had already examined the child's pulse and concluded that it was a boy.

In a sense, this is a superstitious diagnostic method with no scientific basis, but experienced doctors do have a high success rate in this area and rarely make mistakes, which is an indisputable fact.

The baby was chubby and cried very loudly.

The skin has some wrinkles, but it's not serious. This is a sign of balanced nutrition during pregnancy. It's impossible for the baby to be particularly beautiful. Babies stay in amniotic fluid during pregnancy, and even if they develop very well, it's inevitable that their skin will have wrinkles. Therefore, newborns are generally not very good-looking.

Fang Yong's child is already considered to be among the best newborns.

Generally, at this time, the child's father will gather around the child, happily pick the child up, and then be pleasantly surprised to find that the child resembles him.

However, Fang Yong did not think so.

He found it hard to see any resemblance between the little guy and himself!

They didn't pay much attention to the baby the midwife was holding.

Fang Yong went directly into the delivery room to check on Jin Chuan'er's condition.

To his relief, Jin Chuan'er seemed to be in good condition at the time.

I was just a little exhausted and pale, but my spirits hadn't declined; on the contrary, I felt a sense of contentment and happiness.

"Your Majesty!"

Jin Chuan called out.

The voice was soft.

Fang Yong sat down beside Jin Chuan'er's bed.

He touched Jin Chuan'er's sweaty face and said:

"Take a good rest. I named my child Fangqi, which means 'reaching all directions without boundaries, connecting to the boundless.' It is both the beginning and the end."

Jin Chuan'er nodded with a smile.

She might not understand the meaning of the name Fang Yong mentioned, but she thought it sounded nice.

From now on, let's call her Qi'er.

Fang Yong leaned close to Jin Chuan'er's ear and kissed her.

"I've been with you these past few days!"

Jin Chuan'er was even happier.

However, Fang Yong broke his promise on the third day.

The reason was that Zhang Yuan's fleet returned to the capital.

This was an unprecedented victory.

They launched an expedition to Southeast Asia, defeated Siam, and captured the King of Siam!

His achievements are worthy of being recorded in history.

Fang Yong had to go and meet his army.

Soldiers risked their lives for his achievements, and no matter how busy he was, he had to take the time to go and greet them; this was his necessary responsibility as the supreme ruler.

He wanted to make a good impression on the soldiers and boost their morale.

If even this step is done by others, then it's probably not far from destruction.

Fang Yong, along with a group of court officials, arrived at the port half an hour early to welcome the triumphant army.

Emperor Longqing was still ill and unable to come.

The majestic warship docked in the harbor, and this behemoth of steel brought immense shock to these ministers of the old era.

The Nemesis is a newly manufactured warship. Some areas of the hull are not painted, and the metallic luster is dazzling under the sun, as if it is from another era!
Seeing that Fang Yong had come to greet him ahead of time, Zhang Yuan hurriedly disembarked from the boat.

The plank hadn't been laid out yet, and Zhang Yuan stumbled and fell as he came down from it.

Fang Yong immediately stepped forward to help him up.

Zhang Yuan knelt on one knee, clasped his hands in a fist salute, and said, "I have lived up to Your Highness's expectations!"

Whether Zhang Yuan was acting or genuinely expressing his feelings, his attitude was at least quite good.

Fang Yong was very satisfied.

In fact, Fang Yong was quite lenient in his demands on his generals.

This stems from his own strong self-confidence.

He was confident and unafraid that his subordinates' achievements threatened his authority.

Therefore, he could tolerate some of the behaviors of his subordinates.

For example, Wei Xing's greed for credit, etc.

He could accept anything as long as it wasn't like Nian Gengyao standing in front of him and slapping him in the face.

Following Zhang Yuan were the other generals.

Fang Yong met with them one by one, including Jia Rong.

Then it was the turn of all the soldiers. Fang Yong addressed the crowd, praising their bravery and victory.

The soldiers were in high spirits.

The reason is that Fang Yong offered many tangible rewards during his speech.

Fang Yong never engaged in empty rhetoric. He knew he didn't have the ability to build the kind of army based on faith that was rumored, so he settled for second best and used real money to buy off the soldiers.

It's a cliché, but it works.

Celebration banquets were held one after another.

Meanwhile, the spoils of war were unloaded from the warship one by one.

Rama III and some other members of the Siamese royal family, the rescued Prince Nam An, and a small amount of wealth extorted from Siam.

Fang Yong had many questions for King Rama III.

For example, why did he attack Dae Hee for no reason?

It couldn't possibly be that they wanted to invade Daehee, could it?
Fang Yong wanted to know his thoughts, but since it wasn't the right time, he ordered his men to take him away and imprison him temporarily.

As for the Prince of Nan'an and the others, they certainly need to be punished, but since today is a day of triumph, we shouldn't do anything to spoil the mood. We can announce the verdict later.

Finally, there's that tiny bit of treasure.

To be honest, Fang Yong's personal ability to appreciate art is not very high.

The only thing he could understand was the glittering gold, which was real wealth that hadn't changed in nearly five thousand years.

As for the others, like cultural relics and antiques.

To be honest, Fang Yong found it difficult to define their value.

Priceless treasure, worth billions?
If every single item truly possessed such high value and could be sold, Fang Yong wouldn't mind personally reselling these items and then using the proceeds to develop the nation's strength.

Anyway, once we become strong enough, we can always take it back.

Unfortunately, most of these items are "treasures to be admired from afar".

If we keep them on a high shelf, they will represent the heritage of history, the value of culture, and the crystallization of art, possessing immeasurable value and being priceless treasures.

But if they were ever sold in bulk, they probably wouldn't be as reliable as those vulgar, glittering gold ones.

The Longqing Emperor had thousands of these items in his palace, and he would smash a few whenever he was in a bad mood.

This demonstrates its true value.

Fang Yong eventually ordered a museum to be built next to Jingshan Hill in the imperial city, which was simply named the Zhongxia Museum, and all these things were put into the museum.

Let's just leave them on a high shelf; perhaps one day someone will come and redeem them...

The following day, Fang Yong interrogated the Siamese monarch, Rama III, alone.

To Fang Yong's surprise, King Rama III could speak Chinese, which saved him the trouble of translating.

This guy must have some talent to become the monarch of Siam.

Why did they send troops to provoke our country?

Fang Yong asked.

(End of this chapter)