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

Chapter 348 Lu Chen, Pushed Along by the Times

Just as Zhan Hong was inwardly mocking the Cloud City garrison for being ungrateful and naive, he soon realized that he was the truly naive one.

Just as he was about to give orders to the messenger, suddenly, an iron ball flew down from the sky. Zhan Hong didn't take it seriously. He drew his sword and slashed, sending a sword aura flying directly towards the iron ball in the air.

However, just as the sword energy was about to touch the iron ball, the iron ball exploded instantly.

Zhan Hong and Xu Xingwen immediately realized that something was wrong.

Xu Xingwen shouted, "Oh no!"

At this moment, the two grandmasters simultaneously used their protective qi.

After the iron ball exploded, countless pieces of iron flew out, and almost all the soldiers around, except for Xu Xingwen and Zhan Hong, were injured or killed by the blast.

Zhan Hong was stunned by the bloody scene.

What kind of weapon is this?

Why is it so powerful?

He had several ninth-rank martial artists around him, but they were all killed in the explosion. If they hadn't used their protective qi, they would probably have been seriously injured as well.

Even Zhan Hong, a grandmaster, was still shaken by the explosion.

When he came to his senses, his face was dark and his brows were furrowed.

What kind of weapon was that iron ball?! Why was it so powerful?!

They had never seen such a weapon before.

At this moment, Xu Xingwen said to Zhan Hong, "General Zhan, something is not right!"

Just as Xu Xingwen finished speaking, several more cannonballs fell from the sky. Zhan Hong hurriedly swung his sword, trying to cut down the cannonballs, but as soon as his sword energy touched them, the cannonballs exploded.

Although the shells were relatively far from the camp this time, the shrapnel inside the shells still killed and injured many soldiers on the ground.

Seeing this, Zhan Hong and Xu Xingwen's expressions became even more grim. They hadn't expected that the iron ball, even after being destroyed, would still possess such terrifying power.

No! We can't just sit here and wait to die. If the Northern Kingdom has a large number of these iron balls, their 300,000-strong army will probably be almost wiped out before they can even retaliate.

Immediately, Zhan Hong and Xu Xingwen braved the artillery fire, gathering soldiers and preparing for retreat.

The Northern Kingdom has unleashed such terrifying weapons; at this moment, we absolutely cannot afford to confront them head-on.

Under the bombardment of artillery, the soldiers of Da Wu quickly assembled and retreated in several batches. After all, artillery is heavy artillery with a certain range, so the Da Wu soldiers retreated very quickly. Before Song Xuelin and his men could attack, the Da Wu soldiers abandoned their camp and ran away for an unknown distance.

Dongmen Feiyue immediately led his soldiers to attack, but Zhan Hong left behind tens of thousands of men to set up a counter-ambush. Fortunately, Dongmen Feiyue and his men had brought some light artillery, and the tens of thousands of soldiers left by Zhan Hong were quickly defeated again. However, these tens of thousands of men bought a lot of time for the Da Wu army to retreat.

In the darkness, looking at the scattered torches not far away, Song Xuelin came to Dongmen Feiyue's side. "As expected of the main force of Dawu, their reaction speed is not simple. I didn't expect their soldiers to be able to react so late."

Dongmen Feiyue frowned, then asked, "Should we continue chasing?"

Song Xuelin said, "There's no need to chase them. The heavy artillery can't keep up, and Da Wu's 300,000 troops are elite. Even if we catch up, we will suffer heavy losses. The prince only ordered us to stop them, not to launch an attack."

Although they also wanted to destroy the main force of Da Wu and gain military merit, their mission was not to launch a counterattack. Moreover, their 200,000-strong army had just come from the far north. If they suffered too many losses in this war, it would leave a bad impression on the Northern King.

Upon hearing Song Xuelin's words, Dongmen Feiyue did not order his soldiers to continue the pursuit. Instead, he led his soldiers back to clear out the Dawu soldiers who had escaped.

At dawn, when the sky was still dimly lit, the soldiers of the Northern Kingdom were still cleaning up the spoils of war in the camp of the Great Wu army the night before.

The so-called spoils of war were Da Wu's food and weapons. If it were a year or two ago, these things would still be of some use to the Northern Kingdom. But now that the Northern Kingdom has firearms and other powerful weapons, Da Wu's weapons are basically of little use to the Northern Kingdom.

At this moment, a soldier approached Dongmen Feiyue and Song Xuelin, "General Song, General Dongmen, last night we eliminated approximately 80,000 enemy troops and captured over 20,000!"

Upon hearing this, Dongmen Feiyue's expression darkened. He frowned and said, "I didn't expect that with the help of firearms, nearly 200,000 people from Dawu could still escape. I'm afraid it will be difficult to explain to the King."

This was, after all, their first battle since arriving in the Northern Kingdom, and the fact that the enemy escaped in their very first battle made Dongmen Feiyue feel somewhat uneasy, fearing that their king would think they were useless.

Just then, a soldier with a small flag on his back rode directly towards them from a distance. When he arrived, the soldier dismounted and handed the letter bucket in his hand to Song Xuelin.

"Your Majesty's order!"

Upon hearing this, Song Xuelin quickly took the letter bucket from the red-robed messenger, opened it, and took out the military order, glancing at it.

At this moment, Dongmen Feiyue, who was standing nearby, asked impatiently, "What are your orders, Your Majesty? Are we to launch a counterattack?"

Dongmen Feiyue was still somewhat uneasy about not being able to eliminate the 300,000-strong army of Da Wu last night. He thought that if their king ordered them to counterattack, they should seize the opportunity and directly pursue the Da Wu soldiers.

After glancing at the military order in his hand, Song Xuelin handed it to Dongmen Feiyue and then said, "The King has no plans to attack Dayue for the time being. He has ordered us not to enter Dayue's territory. If any soldiers from Dawu escape into Dayue, we are to let them escape."

After Dongmen Feiyue took the military order from Song Xuelin, he glanced at it and immediately felt extremely frustrated.

Seeing Dongmen Feiyue's furrowed brows and displeased expression, Song Xuelin said, "General Dongmen, there's no need to worry. The King must have his reasons for making this arrangement. There will be a time for us to make contributions in the future."

Dongmen Feiyue sighed but didn't say anything.

Just as Song Xuelin said, Lu Chen did have his reasons for not letting them pursue the remnants of Da Wu's army or enter Dayue.

a few days later.

Yancheng.

In his study, Lu Chen was discussing the war with Zhuge Chongguang. Lu Chen already knew about what had happened in Yunzhong City. Dongmen Feiyue and his men had failed to eliminate the 300,000-strong army of Da Wu, which was normal in Lu Chen's opinion. After all, those 300,000 troops were the elite of Da Wu's elite forces and were not so easy to defeat.

Zhuge Chongguang looked at the map hanging on the wall of the study and said, "Your Highness, the 200,000 troops of Da Wu have now retreated to Dayue. They will most likely not launch another attack and will retreat back to Da Wu. However, if they retreat back to Da Wu, they will inevitably pass through Youping County, where they may very well engage in war with our soldiers. Although we have firearms, the army is led by two Grandmasters. It would be better to send Grandmasters to Youping County immediately."

Firearms can indeed suppress Grandmasters and continuously deplete their power, but killing a Grandmaster is not so easy.

Zhuge Chongguang was worried that if the 200,000-strong army retreated to Youping County, and if the two Grandmasters Zhan Hong and Xu Xingwen directly attacked Mu Changtian and Wenren Lie, Mu Changtian and Wenren Lie would definitely not be a match for the two Grandmasters. If Mu Changtian and Wenren Lie were killed, the Northern Kingdom's army would likely be leaderless.

In this situation, even if the northern army possessed firearms, it might still be defeated.

If Zhan Hong and his men confiscate the Northern Kingdom's firearms and use them to attack the Northern Kingdom in the future, it will not be a good thing for the Northern Kingdom.

The reason they were able to achieve an overwhelming victory against the army of Da Wu was mainly because the people of Da Wu did not understand firearms. The moment the cannons roared, the soldiers of Da Wu were terrified.

If the soldiers of Da Wu were to obtain the firearms of the Northern Kingdom, they would undoubtedly gain a certain understanding of them after disassembling and studying them. In future wars, it would probably not be so easy to achieve the same unexpected effect with firearms as before.

Therefore, at this stage, we absolutely cannot allow the people of Da Wu to obtain firearms.

Upon hearing Zhuge Chongguang's words, Lu Chen smiled faintly and then said, "After receiving the battle report from Yunzhong City, I immediately sent people to Youping County. As long as the soldiers of Dawu retreat to Youping County, they will surely be defeated. Grand Scholar, there is no need to worry."

Seeing Lu Chen's confidence, Zhuge Chongguang immediately thought of someone.

If we're talking about the easiest way to deal with a Grandmaster, then naturally we should send a Celestial Being. It seems that Xuanyuan Chaoge has already left Yancheng.

Since Lu Chen had already arranged for people to go to Youping County, Zhuge Chongguang didn't say anything more.

At this moment, Lu Chen stood in front of the map, his eyes scanning it repeatedly. After a while, Lu Chen asked Zhuge Chongguang a very important question.

"Does the Grand Scholar believe that the Northern Kingdom can continue to enjoy peace in the future?"

Upon hearing this question, Zhuge Chongguang seemed to understand what Lu Chen wanted to ask, and then he replied, "No, the moment firearms came out, the Northern Kingdom could no longer maintain long-term peace, unless Your Highness can destroy all the dynasties and unify the entire continent."

The power of firearms was simply too great. With the advent of firearms, Lu Chen had offended all the martial artists in the world and also threatened all dynasties.

Although this war between the Northern Kingdom and the Great Wu Kingdom can deter the major dynasties in the short term, in the long run, the major dynasties will inevitably form an alliance and unite to fight against the Northern Kingdom.

Furthermore, the various dynasties would also try to acquire the methods of manufacturing firearms. Once all the major dynasties possessed firearms, the situation in the Northern Kingdom would become even more difficult.

Lu Chen actually understood this principle as well.

He's been thinking lately that he doesn't actually like constant fighting. He wasn't a war fanatic before, he isn't now, and he never will be.

But even if he didn't want to start a war, he couldn't stop now. His firearms had been exposed, and many people would want him dead in the future. Moreover, his appearance posed a huge threat to the major dynasties of the world. Even if he did nothing, those dynasties would try every means to eliminate this threat.

So he is being pushed forward by this era. If he wants to live a peaceful life, he must destroy other dynasties in order to maintain lasting peace.

Lu Chen stared blankly at the map on the wall for a while, and after a long pause, he asked again, "If we want to achieve unification, which dynasty should we start with?"

The Northern Kingdom has so few people; it's impossible to destroy all the major dynasties all at once. There has to be a starting point. In other words, who should be the first target?

Zhuge Chongguang replied, "This old minister believes we should begin with the Great Xia."

Before Lu Chen could ask why, Zhuge Chongguang explained, "Your Highness is His Majesty's child and is qualified to inherit the throne of Great Xia. If Your Highness can inherit the throne, you can use Great Xia as a foundation to continue to increase your strength, and then wait for the right time to destroy the major dynasties."

"Your Highness is a prince. Even if Your Highness controls the entire Great Xia, it will not cause much resistance from the people of Great Xia."

"If we don't destroy the Great Xia Dynasty and instead destroy the other dynasties first, Your Highness will face great pressure in ruling. The people of the other dynasties may not necessarily obey our rule. The population of the Northern Kingdom is still too small. Once the other dynasties fall into chaos, it will be difficult for the Northern Kingdom's population to suppress the unrest on their lands."

Lu Chen instantly understood Zhuge Chongguang's meaning. Zhuge Chongguang wanted him to use the Great Xia as a base to first gain the support of the people of Great Xia, then use the resources of Great Xia to increase his strength, and once he was strong enough to destroy other dynasties, he would then use the people of Great Xia to manage the lands of the major dynasties.

With the current population of the Northern Kingdom, even if it conquers all the major dynasties, it will be unable to manage them, and it will only end up as a mess.

This is actually the order of starting with the easy and then moving to the difficult. Great Xia is the easiest to control, so we'll start with Great Xia.

Lu Chen was silent for a moment, then continued, "In your opinion, when would be a better time to head south?"

Lu Chen's so-called southward journey was actually a coup d'état.

Zhuge Chongguang said, "In my opinion, the time is ripe."

"The Great Xia Dynasty is currently embroiled in civil war, and the people hope to see someone emerge who can stop the civil war in the Great Xia Dynasty as soon as possible."

"Furthermore, there are persistent rumors among the people that His Majesty is nearing his end, and the ministers and princes in the court also believe that His Majesty will not live much longer. Although Your Highness knows what His Majesty is planning, we can completely accept that His Majesty is truly on his deathbed."

Lu Chen pondered for a moment. Zhuge Chongguang's idea was to use the fact that the Xia emperor was about to die as a pretext to give them an excuse to go south.

As for whether Emperor Xia actually had health problems, there's no need to worry about it. Even if Emperor Xia was healthy, his health would have deteriorated by the time the army marched south. Not only would he have health problems, but he might even die.

Seeing Lu Chen frowning, Zhuge Chongguang realized he had misspoke and quickly said, "Your Highness, please forgive me, it was an old minister who misspoke."

Lu Chen was, after all, the son of the Xia Emperor, while Zhuge Chongguang was merely a subject. For a subject to say in front of Lu Chen that "the Xia Emperor's life is nearing its end" did indeed sound quite treasonous.

Lu Chen snapped out of his daze and said nonchalantly, "It's alright, I don't care about these things."

"After some thought, I think the Grand Scholar makes a lot of sense. Once the war between Da Wu and the Northern Kingdom is over, I will prepare to head south."

(End of this chapter)