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

Chapter 146 Mu Zixuan is pregnant again

Upon seeing Lu Chen return, Mu Zixuan and the other two quickly handed the children in their arms to their wet nurses and maids, and immediately came to serve Lu Chen.

Zhou Xiaoxiao quickly pulled out a chair, while Zhou Youyou brought a basin of water for Lu Chen to wash his hands, and Mu Zixuan brought a towel.

These tasks were originally meant for the maids; the three of them were Lu Chen's wives and concubines, and there was no need for them to personally serve Lu Chen.

However, they liked serving Lu Chen this way because, in their view, serving their man was also a way to get closer to him.

After washing his face and hands, Lu Chen sat down to eat.

At this moment, Mu Zixuan spoke up: "Your Highness, Wang Qingci came to me earlier and said that in the future, the products produced by the Prince's Mansion can be sold to other dynasties and countries through Tingyu Tower."

Mu Zixuan only mentioned this matter and did not ask what relationship Lu Chen had with Tingyu Tower.

Currently, not many people know that Tingyu Tower belongs to the Prince's Mansion. Even people inside the Prince's Mansion rarely know this, since it is an organization used by Lu Chen to collect intelligence, and the fewer people who know, the better.

However, when Mu Zixuan heard Wang Qingci say that Tingyulou was going to cooperate with the Wang Mansion to sell things, she roughly guessed who Tingyulou belonged to.

Wang Qingci was Lu Chen's woman, so it was obvious that Tingyu Tower was related to Lu Chen. In addition, after they came to Beijun, a Jinyiwei organization suddenly appeared around Lu Chen, along with 50,000 heavy cavalry. It didn't seem strange that there was another Tingyu Tower.

While eating, Lu Chen said, "The Prince's Mansion can do business with Tingyu Tower, but it must be done through official accounts."

Upon hearing Lu Chen's words, Mu Zixuan immediately understood his meaning and replied, "This concubine understands."

It was obvious that Lu Chen didn't want people to know that Tingyu Tower was part of the Northern Prince's Mansion. If they went through official channels, future business dealings between Tingyu Tower and the Prince's Mansion would be like transactions between the Prince's Mansion and other merchants.

Lu Chen then asked, "By the way, is business in the capital still good?"

Some time ago, because Mu Changtian's family was exiled, the Northern Prince's business in the capital suddenly had no one to take care of it, and as a result, many shops were smashed and had to be temporarily closed.

Lu Chen knew perfectly well who did it, after all, the perfume and soap business was the envy of many.

Mu Zixuan replied, "Since the war in Beijun ended, no one has smashed the shops in the capital. Now the Prince's soap and perfume are in short supply, and many times the shops have nothing to sell."

Upon hearing this, Lu Chen put down his chopsticks and fell into deep thought.

Although there are many buyers for soap and perfume, the business of their royal palace is relatively too singular. Most importantly, other families may be able to develop these products in the near future, and with so little money, it is simply not enough to support the large-scale construction of Beijun.

Don't be fooled by the millions of taels of silver they earned. If they had used all that money to forge heavy cavalry armor, they wouldn't have been able to produce even 20,000 sets.

Of course, if he didn't cause trouble, a few million taels of silver would be enough for Lu Chen to live a lavish life in Beijun.

However, how could he not cause trouble? Now that he had the system, and the Great Xia was about to descend into chaos, it was time for heroes to rise up again.

There's a saying, "If you don't row against the current, you'll fall behind." He's bound to make a fuss. His fiefdom must become powerful, otherwise, even if he doesn't have the ambition to become emperor, someone will still come looking for trouble for him one day.

Lu Chen thought to himself, "I really need to get Mu Zixuan and the others to have a few more children for me. Then the system rewards will give me some ways to make money."

Thinking of this, Lu Chen said, "Then let's recruit more workers."

Hearing Lu Chen's words, Mu Zixuan said worriedly, "Your Highness, I recently heard that some noble families are already producing counterfeit soaps and perfumes. Although their products are not as good as those produced by the Northern Prince's Mansion, their prices are much cheaper. If we continue to recruit workers, and the business of the Prince's Mansion becomes difficult, these people may have nowhere to go."

The concept of "worker" in Beijun was invented by Lu Chen. In layman's terms, it means "a person who does work." Now, both the Wangfu (Prince's Mansion) and the merchants of Beijun refer to those who manufacture perfumes and soaps in the Beiwangfu as workers.

Most of the workers at the Northern Prince's Mansion were originally poor people, and many were even vagrants. To ensure that these people would not sell the Northern Prince's Mansion's formula, Lu Chen signed indentured servitude contracts with them.

Even though they signed indentured servitude contracts, those workers still lived much better lives than ordinary people.

Having a lifetime job and no worries about food and clothing every day meant that, in ancient times, they were already living a better life than most ordinary people.

These workers were actually servants of the Northern Prince's Mansion. Mu Zixuan was thinking that she was recruiting a large number of workers now that business was good, but what would happen to these servants when business declined?

We can't possibly send them all to the Northern Prince's residence; the Northern Prince's residence simply doesn't need that many servants.

Hearing Mu Zixuan's words, Lu Chen smiled slightly and then said, "My dear consort, you don't need to worry about that. Just recruit workers. I will entrust you with more business in the future. And even if our business fails, we will still need people to reclaim wasteland in Beijun."

Upon hearing Lu Chen's words, Mu Zixuan recalled that a few days ago, Lu Chen seemed to have mentioned in bed that he had obtained a crop called "sweet potato," which, like potatoes, had a very high yield.

Now that Lu Chen has obtained this crop, he will definitely have people clear the land. So, no matter how many workers the Northern Prince's Mansion recruits, there is no need to worry about not having a place to put them.

Thinking of this, Mu Zixuan said, "I understand. I will continue recruiting tomorrow."

After that topic ended, they ate and chatted about everyday things.

After dinner, Da Zhou and Xiao Zhou took the child and left. After dinner, Lu Chen was going to take a shower. As for whose room Lu Chen would go to after showering, that was entirely up to Lu Chen's mood and didn't need to be arranged.

Lu Chen usually treats everyone equally. Although Lu Chen has been going to Yelü Nanyan's place every day these past few days, Mu Zixuan and the others are not worried at all that Lu Chen will stop visiting them because of his affection for Yelü Nanyan.

Any woman who knows Lu Chen knows that Yelü Nanyan alone cannot resist Lu Chen's enthusiasm, even if she is a martial artist.

Bai Qingqing and Wang Qingci are both martial artists. The two of them trembled uncontrollably at the mere mention of serving the emperor. Yelü Nanyan is already in her thirties, how could she possibly withstand it?

Lu Chen did not go to Yelü Nanyan's room tonight. After he finished showering, he came out of the room and saw Mu Zixuan taking care of the child.

Lu Chen approached Mu Zixuan, looked at Lu Changfeng in her arms, and said with a loving father's smile, "Feng'er, tonight Daddy's going to be fighting you for Mommy again, and also for food. You won't be angry with Daddy, will you?"

Hearing this, Mu Zixuan, who was coaxing the child, looked up and gave Lu Chen a resentful look. "Your Highness, what are you saying? Feng'er is still young and can't understand these things."

Lu Chen raised his hand and put it around Mu Zixuan's waist, then said with a smile, "I'm not just saying this to Feng'er alone, what do you think, my beloved?"

Hearing Lu Chen say this, Mu Zixuan blushed. Lu Chen's implication was that he would be spending the night here. As Lu Chen's woman, how could she not understand?

At this moment, Lu Chen glanced at the night outside the window and then continued, "My dear concubine, it's late. Let Feng'er go to sleep. Let's talk about other things."

Mu Zixuan hummed in agreement and then called the wet nurse over, instructing her to take the child to the next room.

After the wet nurse left, Lu Chen stood behind Mu Zixuan, tightly hugged her slender waist, pressed his whole body against her back, and whispered in her ear, "My beloved concubine, I want to discuss something with you."

Seeing that Lu Chen had taken a liking to her but did not act immediately, instead saying that he had something to discuss with her, Mu Zixuan immediately became suspicious.

With the atmosphere already at this point, what else is there to discuss at this time?

Mu Zixuan then asked curiously, "Your Highness, what is it you want to talk about?"

Lu Chen whispered in Mu Zixuan's ear, his deep, magnetic voice saying, "I feel that Feng'er is too lonely. She should have another younger brother or sister."

This……

Realistically speaking, Lu Changfeng could not possibly be alone, since the Prince's Mansion also has the children of Da Zhou and Xiao Zhou, and Lu Huanhuan and Lu Changsheng can be considered Lu Changfeng's younger siblings.

In addition, Mu Zixuan and Da Zhou and Xiao Zhou are like sisters and have a very good relationship. They are together every day, so Lu Changfeng will definitely not be lonely when he grows up.

Besides, there's no kinship in the royal family, and having many younger brothers and sisters isn't always a good thing.

However, Mu Zixuan quickly realized that Lu Chen didn't think Lu Changfeng was lonely at all; he clearly wanted her to have another child.

In other words, Lu Chen was saying sweet nothings to her.

She said, "How can Lu Chen still have the mind to talk about things at a time like this? This isn't anything important."

Mu Zixuan blushed and said, "Your Highness, I can have as many children as you want."

Upon hearing Mu Zixuan's reply, Lu Chen's hand reached for Mu Zixuan's belt, then he wrapped his arm around her slender waist and walked towards the bed while untying the belt.

"Since my beloved consort has agreed, let's not waste any more time."

Upon hearing Lu Chen's words, Mu Zixuan felt completely powerless and could only let Lu Chen do as he pleased.

……

[The host cultivates feelings with Mu Zixuan once, gaining 40 experience points for the Qi Refining Technique, 40 experience points for the Rejuvenating Hand Technique, and 40 experience points for the Dragon-Phoenix Yin-Yang Technique.]

[Congratulations, host, for getting Mu Zixuan pregnant. Reward: High-Explosive Gunpowder Formula and Red-Clad Cannon Manufacturing Technology.]

[The pregnancy reward is an encouragement reward. Please make every effort to ensure the child's birth. You will receive even richer rewards after the child is born.]

Seeing the system notification in front of him, Lu Chen was not surprised at all.

Ordinary women are different from martial artists. If you want an ordinary woman to get pregnant, she can easily conceive.

To Lu Chen's surprise, the system reward was actually a gunpowder recipe and a red-clothed cannon.

Previously, the weapons rewarded by the system were all given by the system, such as grenades, Barrett rifles, and 122mm howitzers.

These modern weapons are useful, but they have a major problem: ammunition and shells are limited. Once they're used up, they're gone, and you can only wait for the system to reward you next time.

Especially the howitzers; once they were all used up, they could only be left to gather dust in the cave.

However, having the gunpowder formula and the crafting process for the Red Cannon makes all the difference. Although the Red Cannon you make yourself is definitely not as good as the 122mm howitzer that the system rewards you with, the shells can be manufactured infinitely in this world.

With the gunpowder formula, we can make as many shells as we want, and we can also use simple bombs.

With gunpowder, he gained confidence.

At this moment, Mu Zixuan was nestled in Lu Chen's arms, her fair arms wrapped around his neck. Seeing Lu Chen rubbing his stomach and seemingly lost in thought, she asked, "Your Highness, what are you thinking about?"

Lu Chen just used the Rejuvenating Hand technique to help Mu Zixuan recover, and now Mu Zixuan is much more energetic and no longer feels the fatigue she felt afterward.

Lu Chen said directly, "My beloved concubine, you are pregnant with my child again."

Upon hearing this, Mu Zixuan was taken aback.

It wasn't that she felt there was anything wrong with being pregnant with her husband's child, but she felt it was all happening too fast. Just now, Lu Chen had said he wanted her to have another child, and only an hour had passed before she was pregnant.

Of course, Mu Zixuan did not disbelieve Lu Chen's words. After all, Lu Chen was an immortal who knew immortal magic and could easily check her physical condition.

Mu Zixuan then asked, "Your Highness, are you telling the truth?"

Lu Chen stroked Mu Zixuan's beautiful face and said with a smile, "Of course it's true. My beloved consort will have to work hard for another year."

Mu Zixuan nestled against Lu Chen's broad chest and said gently, "It is my duty to bear children for Your Highness; it is not hard work."

Lu Chen stroked Mu Zixuan's hair and comforted her, and soon the two of them fell asleep.

The next morning.

When Lu Chen got up, he ate breakfast and went to his study.

Once in the study, Lu Chen immediately sent someone to fetch Qin Yushan, Wenren Lie, and Xuan Yuan Chen.

As the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Qin Yushan was mostly near the Prince's Mansion. He arrived the fastest, and soon Qin Yushan appeared in Lu Chen's study.

Upon entering the study, Qin Yushan first bowed.

"Greetings, Your Highness."

Then Qin Yushan asked:

"Your Highness, you wanted to see me?"

Lu Chen didn't beat around the bush and said directly, "Commander Qin, I intend to entrust you with a very important task."

Upon hearing this, Qin Yushan was taken aback.

The fact that the Northern King said "very important" proves that the matter he was about to discuss must be extremely important to him.

Qin Yushan immediately replied, "Please give your orders, Your Highness. Even if it means going through fire and water, I will do my utmost to complete the task assigned to me by Your Highness."

Lu Chen said speechlessly, "It's not like I'll have to go through fire and water. I just want you to bring back a thousand Imperial Guards and help me supervise the manufacture of a weapon."

Upon hearing Lu Chen's words, Qin Yushan's first thought was of howitzers, and he cautiously asked, "Your Highness, could it be howitzers?"

Lu Chen said, "It's not a howitzer, but it's similar to one. It's a weapon with immense destructive power, and the principle is similar."

"Of course, the manufacturing method of this weapon is also simpler."

The main reason Lu Chen had the Embroidered Uniform Guard supervise the manufacture of gunpowder and cannons was because he was worried that the manufacturing methods of gunpowder and cannons would be leaked.

The Embroidered Uniform Guards were people he summoned through the system; they were his loyal followers and would never betray him. Only by having them oversee the construction could Lu Chen feel at ease.

(End of this chapter)