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

When Dongfang Longyue appeared in the Imperial Study, it was already filled with a large pile of books. Dongfang Longyue was slightly stunned when she saw the books with exquisite illustrations.

This was the first time she had ever seen books so perfectly packaged, and the paper was exceptionally white with remarkably clear text.

After seeing Dongfang Longyue enter the imperial study, Lu Chen put down the book in his hand.

Dongfang Longyue snapped out of her daze and quickly bowed, saying, "This servant greets Your Majesty! Long live Your Majesty!"

Lu Chen smiled faintly, then said, "Longyue, from today onwards, you no longer need to refer to yourself as a servant. Today, you shall resign from your position as editor-in-chief of the Oriental Daily."

Dongfang Longyue was startled, but she quickly realized that Lu Chen must have given her something else, so she hurriedly said, "Yes, Your Majesty."

Lu Chen continued, "I know you're someone who can't sit still, so I don't intend for you to stay in the palace forever. I have a very important task for you."

Upon hearing Lu Chen's words, Dongfang Longyue thought to herself, "His Majesty really has something important to entrust to me."

Lu Chen glanced at the books on the table and said, "The contents of these books are all divinely bestowed knowledge. I plan to open a Great Xia Royal Library. You will be in charge of supervising the craftsmen to print these books. Each book will be printed in tens of thousands of copies. From now on, you will be the curator of the Great Xia Royal Library."

Hearing this, Dongfang Longyue was somewhat confused. Heaven-given knowledge?

Lu Chen continued, "The contents of these books are very important and cannot be leaked for the time being."

"Your Majesty understands. Your Majesty will take good care of the library and will not let anyone know about any of the books in the library."

Lu Chen said, "There's no need to be too strict. Library books are for imparting knowledge, and others should be able to read them. Of course, they are only for our own people to study and use."

Lu Chen thought for a moment, then said, "I will first have some people learn the knowledge in the book, train them to become teachers, and then have these teachers teach more students."

"From now on, only these students will be qualified to access the books in the Great Xia Royal Library."

Dongfang Longyue instantly understood what Lu Chen meant.

At this point, Lu Chen said to the maid outside, "Go and call Commander Qin here."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

At this point, Lu Chen looked at Dongfang Longyue and said, "I'll have Qin Yushan send some Imperial Guards to assist you."

Dongfang Longyue quickly expressed her gratitude, saying, "Thank you, Your Majesty."

At this moment, Dongfang Longyue asked with trepidation, "Your Majesty, may I read these books?"

Dongfang Longyue was very curious about these "divinely bestowed knowledge" and, as a studious person, she also wanted to learn something from these books.

Lu Chen replied, "Of course. The books in the Great Xia Royal Library are completely open to my wives, concubines, and children. You can read them and learn from them if you wish."

Dongfang Longyue thanked her again, saying, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Lu Chen then explained the library to Dongfang Longyue.

After Qin Yushan arrived, Lu Chen talked to him about the library. It wasn't until noon that Dongfang Longyue and Qin Yushan left the Imperial Study.

After lunch, Lu Chen rested for a while before meeting Zhuge Chongguang.

Lu Chen wanted to ask Zhuge Chongguang what they should do next and get his advice.

After all, Lu Chen had never done anything like unifying the world before, so he had no experience.

When Zhuge Chongguang arrived at the imperial study, he bowed to Lu Chen and said, "This old minister greets Your Majesty, long live Your Majesty!"

Lu Chen immediately said, "No need for formalities. Someone, please have a seat."

The maidservant in charge of serving in the Imperial Study quickly brought over a chair, and Zhuge Chongguang bowed again, saying, "Thank you, Your Majesty."

After Zhuge Chongguang sat down, Lu Chen spoke directly: "I summoned the Grand Secretary mainly to ask him to help me figure out the best course of action for my next step."

Upon hearing Lu Chen's words, Zhuge Chongguang instantly understood what Lu Chen meant.

Zhuge Chongguang then countered, "This old minister dares to ask Your Majesty, how many celestial beings can Your Majesty currently command?"

Although Zhuge Chongguang had heard that Lu Chen had four Celestials by his side, he still didn't know how much power Lu Chen actually possessed.

Lu Chen thought for a moment and replied, "Currently, there are two Celestial Beings who can be directly mobilized."

"However, there are five celestial beings on my side, and they can come immediately if needed."

Zhuge Chongguang said, "With such power, Your Majesty already possesses the strength to unify the world."

"But for Your Majesty, the real difficulty is not conquering the world, but governing it. The number of officials in Great Xia is not enough to manage the entire world for Your Majesty. Once Your Majesty destroys the major dynasties, you will inevitably have to use the original inhabitants of those dynasties to manage the remote areas for Your Majesty."

Lu Chen naturally understood this principle as well. He said, "I am indeed worried about these things. Once people from other dynasties enter the bureaucratic system of Great Xia, Great Xia's weapons and various knowledge will also be known to people from the other dynasties. Among them are some people who pretend to be loyal to Great Xia. When they take Great Xia's weapons, they may cause great losses to Great Xia."

Lu Chen had read history books and knew what the remnants of the six states did in secret after Qin Shi Huang unified the six states.

He strongly suspected that the remnants of the previous dynasty would secretly sabotage things, and that with the weapons of the Great Xia, their sabotage would be even more devastating.

Therefore, governing the world is a major challenge.

At this moment, Zhuge Chongguang said, "This old minister has a question he would like to ask Your Majesty, I wonder if it is permissible?"

Lu Chen said, "Grand Scholar, please ask whatever questions you have."

Zhuge Chongguang asked, "May I ask Your Majesty, will you choose the path of benevolence or the path of tyranny?"

Lu Chen was taken aback when he heard the question.

He pondered for a moment, then asked in return, "What's the difference between the two?"

Zhuge Chongguang said, "If Your Majesty chooses to be tyrannical, then the day you destroy other dynasties will also be the day their royal families perish. Once Your Majesty takes action against the royal families of the major dynasties, this action must continue. At that time, there will inevitably be many remnants who rebel against the Great Xia under the guise of resisting the tyrant. Your Majesty will then need to keep killing until no one dares to resist the Great Xia."

"If Your Majesty chooses the path of benevolence, you can use deterrence to make the royal families of the major dynasties surrender voluntarily. If the royal families of the major dynasties choose to surrender voluntarily, this can alleviate the hatred of the people of the major dynasties towards Great Xia to a certain extent. However, this will also sow the seeds of disaster. In the future, some members of the royal families of other dynasties may still harbor evil intentions and try to restore their dynasties."

Upon hearing Zhuge Chongguang's words, Lu Chen thought for a moment. After Qin Shi Huang destroyed the six states, he did not kill all the nobles. A large number of them were relocated to Xianyang or exiled.

Ultimately, among these surviving nobles, quite a few harbored thoughts of restoration, which was indeed a great calamity.

However, killing them all would likely leave the people of the various dynasties with the image of a tyrant, as it is impossible to achieve rule solely through violence.

After thinking for a moment, Lu Chen said, "I have decided to choose the path of the king."

Lu Chen's plan was that after placing the royal families and nobles of the various dynasties under house arrest, he would give some benefits to those who were obedient, and eliminate those who wanted to rebel.

By giving him a slap and then a treat, he could maintain his authority while also making the people less afraid of him.

Moreover, unlike Qin Shi Huang, he is now a pseudo-celestial being, and he can live longer than Qin Shi Huang. He has enough time to outlast those royal nobles.

He can take his time and solve them one by one.

Lu Chen then asked, "In the Grand Preceptor's opinion, which dynasty should we destroy first?"

Zhuge Chongguang did not answer directly, but said, "This matter should have been handled by starting with the easier one and then moving on to the more difficult one. The Great Qian is ravaged by plague and is at its weakest point. It would be the easiest time to destroy them now. However, it is precisely because their plague is still spreading that if the soldiers of the Great Xia are infected, it will be a huge disaster for the Great Xia."

"Da Yue's strength is inferior to that of Da Wu, but there are still barbarian tribes to the north of Da Yue who are eyeing it covetously. Some time ago, the Imperial Guards sent back news that a goddess has emerged among the barbarians and has unified the entire barbarian tribe."

"If we were to destroy Dayue, we would have to wipe out the barbarian tribes to the north as well. The northwest is too vast, and the barbarians can escape at any time. It won't be easy to destroy them." (End of Chapter)