Having many children brings many blessings; the struggle for power begins with marriage.

Chapter 112 The Imperial Army Arrives Late

Upon seeing Xiao Pengtian's information, Lu Chen was taken aback. He hadn't expected that there was indeed a Grandmaster-level expert among the barbarian army.

Thinking about it this way, the tens of thousands of people behind the barbarian army at that time were led by this Xiao Pengtian.

Seeing that Lu Chen remained silent, Wenren Lie asked, "Your Highness, what do you intend to do with him? He is still alive, but severely injured and has fallen into a coma."

Lu Chen said, "Immediately have someone treat his wounds and revive him. After he wakes up, I have some questions to ask him."

"Yes, Your Highness."

The soldiers then led Xiao Pengtian away on horseback for treatment.

At this moment, Mu Changtian glanced at the 100,000 barbarian prisoners squatting on the ground, then whispered to Lu Chen, "Your Highness, what do you plan to do with these prisoners? There are quite a few of them. Our Yancheng doesn't have enough food to feed them all. Maybe we should just..."

At this point, Mu Changtian hesitated and stopped speaking.

Lu Chen understood Mu Changtian's meaning. Mu Changtian felt that these 100,000 barbarian prisoners were a burden and should all be killed.

Upon hearing this, Lu Chen laughed and said, "If we weren't in Beijun, I really would have buried all of these people."

This……

Judging from Lu Chen's words, he clearly didn't intend to kill them. Mu Changtian continued, "Your Highness, are you sparing them to subdue them?"

This kind of thing is quite common. Don't underestimate the barbarians just because they are a different race. There are still quite a few barbarian soldiers in the army of the Great Xia Dynasty.

When Mu Changtian went north to fight against the barbarian army, he captured many barbarian soldiers. In the end, after they educated these barbarian soldiers, they let these barbarian soldiers lead them north to find the barbarian royal court.

Although it is common for one side to slaughter the other when it comes to race, it is more often a matter of deterrence and subjugation. Population is very precious in this era, and unless it is truly impossible to support so many people, they will not kill them casually.

Lu Chen said, "After the war ends, I will need a large number of laborers to build up the Northern Prefecture. These 100,000 barbarian prisoners will solve my problem of labor shortage."

Lu Chen had already obtained the cement. He had long planned to rebuild Beijun, but he had been conserving his strength and had not taken any action until now.

But after the war ended, he could no longer hide it; everyone knew that he commanded a highly effective army.

Since it can no longer be hidden, there's nothing left to hide. As my fiefdom, North County should be properly developed.

As for the struggle for the throne in the imperial court, Lu Chen had no intention of getting involved at all. Since the Great Xia was not in chaos, he did not plan to return to the Great Xia. Staying in the Northern Prefecture was just fine.

Upon hearing Lu Chen's words, Mu Changtian immediately understood and said, "Your Highness's move is brilliant! If we can reform these 100,000 barbarian soldiers, we'll have another 100,000 slave soldiers! No one will dare to covet the Northern Commandery in the future!"

Mu Changtian's ideas were clearly different from Lu Chen's. Lu Chen wanted to use these 100,000 barbarian slaves to build up the Northern Prefecture, while Mu Changtian thought that Lu Chen left these 100,000 barbarian soldiers because he valued the barbarians' strong fighting power and intended to use these 100,000 barbarian slave soldiers to intimidate other forces.

Lu Chen now has 50,000 heavy cavalry under his command, and with the addition of the army expansion order, the number of soldiers in the Northern Commandery will soon reach 150,000.

If we add the 100,000 slave soldiers of the barbarian tribe, that's 250,000 soldiers!

With these 200,000 troops, not only could they not attack some small countries, but they could even launch a direct attack on the Great Xia Dynasty without any problem.

Of course, to win a war of annihilation, sometimes it's not just about having a large number of soldiers, but also about logistics.

Therefore, Mu Changtian believed that Lu Chen intended to continue conserving his energy and waiting for the right opportunity.

Just then, Mu Changtian suddenly thought of something and immediately said to Lu Chen, "Your Highness, the war is over. If the court finds out that you have tens of thousands of heavily armored cavalry, some people may have designs on your wife and children. The most urgent thing is to immediately send someone to bring the princess and the others back to Beijun, or send someone to guard Anping City."

Lu Chen immediately understood Mu Changtian's meaning.

In this era, heavy cavalry was not only a symbol of combat power, but also represented great overall strength, because it required a lot of resources to build a heavy cavalry force, and it also required a lot of silver to maintain one.

The entire Great Xia Dynasty did not have 50,000 heavy cavalry, yet the Northern Commandery alone had so many heavy cavalry. This was bound to arouse the court's suspicion.

At that time, someone in the imperial court might ask Emperor Xia to bring Lu Chen's wife or children to the capital as hostages to prevent Lu Chen from rebelling.

Using the children of vassal kings as hostages was the most common practice of the imperial court.

The Xia Emperor wouldn't have done this before because Lu Chen had shown himself to be a useless person, and there was no need to use Lu Chen's child as a hostage.

Things are different now. Lu Chen's Northern County soldiers have not only killed 200,000 barbarian soldiers, but also captured 100,000 barbarian troops.

This has reached the point where their achievements are so great that they overshadow their superiors.

Even if Lu Chen is the son of the Xia Emperor, the Xia Emperor will still be on guard. At that time, the Xia Emperor may take advantage of Lu Chen's lack of reaction and bring Lu Chen's wife and children from Anping City to the capital as hostages.

Lu Chen then said to Xuan Yuan Chen, "General Xuan Yuan, you should immediately lead five thousand Black Riders and head south with Lieutenant Mu to bring my queen and the rest of the family back to Yan City."

The people of Anping City were unaware that he possessed heavy cavalry, so they were likely to be wary of Xuan Yuan Chen's identity. Therefore, Lu Chen planned to send Mu Jingwu south as well to bring Mu Zixuan and the others back, to prevent the court from targeting his children.

Upon hearing Lu Chen's order, Xuan Yuan Chen and Mu Jing Wu immediately replied, "Yes, Your Highness!"

The two then turned and rode away.

at the same time.

Lin Xiuming and his men have led an army of 70,000 to approach the Wanning River Valley.

In order to reach Yancheng before the barbarian army arrived, they traveled through wind and rain, marching through the night with almost no rest.

Now the soldiers are starting to doze off while walking.

At that moment, a soldier spotted the city gate in the distance and immediately shouted, "We've arrived! We've finally reached Yancheng!"

Lin Xiuming frowned deeply, his expression very serious. He did not relax just because he had arrived in Yancheng.

Entering Yancheng was the most crucial step, as no one knew whether Yancheng had already been occupied by the barbarians at that time.

Lin Xiuming immediately shouted, "Stay alert! Send scouts to explore!"

As soon as he finished speaking, dozens of cavalrymen headed towards the south gate of Yancheng.

To defend against the barbarians, most of the soldiers in Yancheng went to the North Gate, and now there are only a few soldiers at the South Gate.

Upon seeing the imperial army approaching, the soldiers guarding the south gate of Yancheng were immediately startled.

The soldiers of Yancheng were not stupid; they knew very well that there were some things about the Northern King that could not be shown. If the imperial court found out, there would be a lot of trouble.

The squad leader guarding the city gate immediately ordered his soldiers, "Quickly! Go tell the prince that the imperial army is here!"

Without hesitation, the soldiers guarding the city mounted their fast horses and headed for the north gate.

(End of this chapter)