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

Chapter 144 Sending Wives to the Men of North County

If the northern barbarians were to migrate into the northern prefecture and be directly relocated to areas where the people of Daxia were gathered, it would likely cause conflict between the barbarians and the people of Daxia.

However, if there is no communication between the two sides, it is unlikely that the barbarians can completely assimilate into the Great Xia.

Therefore, Lu Chen proposed a compromise: to establish some counties in the Northern Prefecture specifically for the barbarians to live in. Of course, every household had to be registered and strictly controlled, but as long as they were allowed, they could also enter the cities inhabited by the Great Xia people.

Most importantly, the relatives of the barbarian captives were able to visit them directly, which made the barbarian women who had just moved to the Northern County very happy.

However, while some were happy, others were saddened. The barbarian women whose husbands had died could not find their husbands even when they arrived at the barbarian captive camp.

Moreover, there were many such women. The barbarians did not practice monogamy but polygamy. Two hundred thousand men died at once. Although some of them were from the Northern Xianwang tribe, more than one hundred thousand men were still gone. One can imagine how many widows were left behind by the Tianlangwang tribe.

The sudden influx of so many barbarian widows into the Northern Commandery is not a good thing for the commandery.

Early in the morning, after getting up and eating something simple, Lu Chen went to his study.

In the past few days, he has been going to Yelü Nanyan's place almost every day. Although he is very happy, Lu Chen did not stay in Yelü Nanyan's gentle embrace forever. He did what a vassal king should do every day.

His office is now the study in the foreign language department. He usually goes there to handle all sorts of political affairs after getting up in the morning.

When Lu Chen first came to Beijun, he didn't feel busy. However, suddenly there were many things to do in Beijun. Lu Chen spent almost every day in the study from morning to night, and most of the time he even ate his meals in the study.

This made Lu Chen realize that he had far too few people to do the work, or more accurately, far too few civil officials.

Although Beijun had its own administrative system, it didn't need any reforms in the past. Most of the time, it was governed by laissez-faire, and the officials in Beijun basically did nothing but wait for the imperial court to issue their salaries.

Now that I want to reform the entire North County, the first problem I face is a shortage of officials. Secondly, most officials lack the motivation to work, and many of their tasks cannot be completed in a timely manner.

At this moment, Lu Chen frowned as he looked at the information about the officials on the table.

All crows are black, and although Beijun is relatively poor, the officials there still have ways to make money.

Not only are they corrupt, but they also do no work. Such officials are no different from those good-for-nothings.

It needs to be cleaned up.

Just then, a maid's voice came from outside the study.

"Your Highness, Lord Li and Lord Mo have arrived."

Lu Chen said calmly, "Let them all come in."

As soon as Lu Chen finished speaking, the study door slowly opened, and then Li Rui and more than twenty others entered the study.

The study felt a little cramped at this moment.

Normally, princes have their own places to hold meetings. However, after Lu Chen came to Beijun, he did not handle political affairs at first and stayed in the Beiwang Mansion all day, so the main hall for holding meetings was not built.

Li Rui initially thought that since the Northern King didn't care about anything, and building a memorial hall for him would cost a lot of money, he decided to save money wherever possible and simply didn't bother building the memorial hall for the Northern King.

However, Li Rui has now realized that the Northern King is not indifferent to affairs at all; it's just that the time hasn't come yet. The Northern King will definitely make some big moves soon, and his previous perfunctory attitude will no longer work. Otherwise, the Northern King will eventually remove him from his position as prefect.

Upon entering the study, everyone immediately bowed to Lu Chen and said, "Greetings, Your Highness! Long live the Prince!!!"

Lu Chen nodded slightly, then said, "What is it? Tell me one by one."

Unlike the imperial court in the capital, Lu Chen's "small court" is still relatively orderly. They get down to business and don't start buzzing around like flies.

At this moment, Li Rui stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, with the increasing number of affairs in the Northern Prefecture, the study in the Northern Prince's Mansion is no longer suitable as a place to discuss politics. It is time to build the Hall of Political Advice."

In the Great Xia, the vassal kings who were granted fiefdoms wielded considerable power; aside from the fact that the lands nominally belonged to the Great Xia, they possessed virtually no other authority.

The fiefdom where the vassal king resided was also called a fiefdom. Each vassal king had his own administrative team and his own council hall.

Previously, Lu Chen didn't manage affairs, so it didn't matter whether there was a place to discuss politics or not. But things are different now.

As their administrative team grows larger and their workload increases, they can no longer afford to squeeze into such a small study when discussing political affairs.

There are only about twenty people now, and the study is already overflowing. If the number of advisors or officials under the Northern King increases, won't they have to stand in the courtyard to discuss political affairs?

That definitely won't work.

Upon hearing Li Rui's words, Lu Chen said calmly, "Alright, I'll leave this matter to Lord Li."

Li Rui immediately bowed and said, "Yes, Your Highness."

Li Rui then returned to his position.

Lu Chen then continued, "By the way, the Council Hall will eventually be built next to the Northern Prince's Mansion, not too far away."

Li Rui said, "Your Highness, rest assured, when we built the Northern Prince's Mansion, we reserved space for the Council Hall next to it."

Hearing this, Lu Chen didn't press Li Rui about why he hadn't built the Council Hall back then. It was highly likely that Li Rui and his group of officials from the Northern Commandery probably thought they had no need for the Council Hall, so they simply didn't build them a place to discuss political affairs.

Lu Chen didn't intend to dwell on these questions, and he continued to ask, "Is there anything else?"

Mu Changtian stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, the number of howitzers is now very small. Most of the time, the soldiers in the artillery battalion have nothing to do and cannot even conduct training. I believe that the artillery battalion should be disbanded and the howitzers should be distributed to the regular army in the future."

The howitzer only had a thousand shells, and after the battle with the barbarians in the Wanning River Valley, the shells were basically all used up.

Mu Jingwu, who was in charge of the artillery battalion, did not know if Lu Chen had any more shells. They did not even dare to use live ammunition for training, for fear that once they ran out, they would have nothing left.

Mu Jingwu's idea was that if there were no more shells, it would be a waste to continue maintaining an artillery battalion of 10,000 men. It would be better to distribute these soldiers to other battalions. So he asked Mu Changtian to mention the artillery battalion to Lu Chen and see what Lu Chen thought.

After hearing Mu Changtian's words, Lu Chen pondered for a moment.

This is indeed a problem.

They currently lack the capability to manufacture howitzers. Although the system's howitzer reward helped him overcome the crisis in North County, once the shells are used up, if the system doesn't provide further shell rewards, these howitzers will essentially just sit there collecting dust.

Thinking of this, Lu Chen frowned slightly.

It was only then that he realized his women hadn't conceived his child in a long time.

My system is a "many children, many blessings" system, where even richer rewards are only given when my children are pregnant or give birth.

Actually, he wasn't idle during this time; he worked almost every night.

Of course, the reason why Mu Zixuan and Da Zhou and Xiao Zhou didn't get pregnant so quickly was mainly because they had just given birth. So Lu Chen was controlling things; he deliberately didn't let the three of them get pregnant, fearing it would harm their health.

Although his Rejuvenating Hand technique could help them recover from their injuries, there was no guarantee that childbirth wouldn't result in some irreversible damage, so Lu Chen was still somewhat restrained in this regard.

However, Wang Qingci, Bai Qingqing, and recently Yelü Nanyan are different. He takes extra care of these three women. For example, since Yelü Nanyan came to the Wang Mansion, Lu Chen has even spent several hours on her every day.

Lu Chen's expression kept changing. He pondered for a long time and felt that things couldn't go on like this. Wang Qingci, Bai Qingqing, and Yelü Nanyan were all martial artists. First of all, it was not easy for martial artists to get pregnant. Another problem was that martial artists could not circulate their internal energy to expel impurities from their bodies.

In other words, if the three of them don't want to have their own children, there's no way for him to force them to.

So, will I have to focus my attention on my queen and Da Zhou and Xiao Zhou again?

Seeing that Lu Chen remained silent, Mu Changtian continued, "Your Highness, if you still have howitzer shells, the artillery battalion doesn't need to be disbanded. However, I believe we shouldn't let them just sit idle every day."

Mu Changtian thought to himself that the Northern King was probably deliberately not taking out the howitzer shells. After all, such a terrifying weapon of mass destruction was too destructive. If it were fired at the Northern King's mansion, the consequences would be obvious.

This powerful weapon must definitely be controlled by the Northern King.

Lu Chen said, "General Mu, let's put the artillery battalion matter aside for now. Is there anything else the others need to do?"

Seeing that Lu Chen had said so, Mu Changtian said no more.

"Yes, Your Highness."

After speaking, Mu Changtian returned to his seat.

At this moment, Qin Yushan stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, the barbarians of the Tianlang King tribe have entered Beijun. According to your plan, General Xiao has assigned them to the six counties of Beijun. However, General Xiao has asked me a question, which he asked me to pass on to you."

"The barbarians lost over 100,000 men in one fell swoop. Now the Sirius King's tribe has many widows. If each widow needs a house, then we will need to build twice as many houses as originally estimated."

"Secondly, these barbarian women were not very familiar with life in the Great Xia after entering the Northern County, and they did not know how to farm, so it was difficult for them to survive."

"General Xiao hopes that Your Highness can find a way to solve the problem of these barbarian widows."

Upon hearing this question, Lu Chen immediately said, "I have also been thinking about how to solve this problem recently. Since you are all here today, you can discuss it and see if you can come up with a good solution."

As soon as Lu Chen finished speaking, Li Rui, the old fox, immediately said, "Your Highness, the people of Beijun are poor, and some single men have been unable to find wives. Barbarian women are hardworking and resilient, and I believe those single men would really like them."

"Why not distribute those barbarian widows to the single men of Great Xia? This would not only solve the problem of the poor people of Beijun not being able to find wives, but also solve the problem of the barbarian widows not being able to survive."

As soon as Li Rui finished speaking, Mu Xingping said from the side, "Lord Li, your idea is not bad, but the hatred of the people of Great Xia towards the barbarians has a long history. Are the people of Great Xia really willing to marry those barbarian widows?"

Hearing this, Li Rui smiled and said, "Captain Mo, you are a well-fed man who doesn't know the hunger of the starving. Those bachelors have been single for so long that even a cow looks pretty. Why would they care if their wives are barbarian women?"

"Besides, there's not much difference in appearance between barbarian women and women from the Great Xia, so why don't they marry them?"

Mu Xingping didn't know how to refute Li Rui's words, so he simply remained silent.

Lu Chen then spoke up, "Lord Li's method is excellent, and I was thinking the same thing. I wonder if any of you have any other ideas?"

At this point, Lu Chen glanced at the other people in the study, but no one spoke again.

Lu Chen was speechless.

There were more than twenty people in the study, but only Li Rui and two of his subordinates could be considered civil officials; the rest were all military officers.

He can't possibly use military generals to govern Beijun!

Lu Chen then said, "Since no one has any other objections, then this matter is decided."

"By the way, in order to encourage the people of Beijun to marry barbarian widows, I have decided to take Yelü Nanyan and Xiao Wenyao as my concubines in a few days."

Hearing this, Mu Changtian said with some worry, "Your Highness, if you marry a barbarian woman as a concubine, it is very likely to cause dissatisfaction in the court."

Mu Changtian had served as an official in the capital for decades and was very familiar with the situation of the court. If Lu Chen really did that, a bunch of ministers would definitely impeach Lu Chen.

The ministers in the capital would surely say that the Northern King was, after all, a prince, yet he took a barbarian woman as a concubine, one of whom was a widow. This was a disgrace to the royal family.

Hearing Mu Changtian's words, Lu Chen smiled faintly and then said, "The imperial court will definitely be dissatisfied with what I did in Beijun, but in the next few months, they will not have the mind to care about what I did in Beijun."

Mu Changtian instantly realized that the Xia Emperor was about to take action against the aristocratic families. Most of the ministers in the court had some connection with these families. With the Great Xia Dynasty on the verge of chaos, the officials in the capital would certainly not care much about what the Northern King was doing in the Northern Prefecture.

Lu Chen said, "Alright, that's settled then. Let's move on to the next thing."

At this point, Lu Chen glanced at everyone again, his gaze finally settling on Wenren Lie and Xuan Yuan Chen.

"General Xuanyuan, I wonder if you have relayed what I said to you last time to the people of Dayu City? Are they willing to relocate to Beijun?"

(End of this chapter)