I, Altria, only want to rule China.

Chapter 131 Morgan is pregnant again

After finishing this matter, Leah talked for a while about people's livelihood issues, which were all about asking for money here and there.

In short, although the lives of the people are much better than before, if Leah wants to carry out various projects, she still needs the help of the people.

But she did not force the people to do corvée work for free. Instead, she stipulated that they must be paid. So no matter what Leah wanted to do, she would need money.

Especially for cement roads, basically all the money taken out from the national treasury is used to pave the roads.

In addition to these projects, there are also some areas that suffer from floods every year, and the national treasury needs to pay for food and clothing for rescue.

In short, the more you earn, the more you spend. At the end of the year, all the money you collect will soon be used up.

Then not long after, something happened that made Leah numb: Morgan was pregnant again.

"Why are you pregnant again?"

She obviously didn't have the ability to make someone pregnant. Although she was close to her sister from time to time, she really didn't know how Morgan got pregnant.

The news of Morgan's pregnancy spread directly in the court. This time Morgan did not choose to hide it, but directly told everyone that she was pregnant with the Queen's child.

Thinking of the previous incident with the Khitans, Leah immediately understood the meaning of Morgan's sudden announcement.

She just wanted to let the people of Wu country know about her relationship with Liya, and that even women can give birth to offspring between the two of them, but can the women in your family do the same?

So don't think that your Majesty likes women and think about sending the female vixens in your family to the palace. The women in your family and your Majesty cannot give birth to children, and that will be fruitless.

Morgan's action was to dissuade the ministers who had such ideas. Her position as queen was unshakable.

After figuring out this key point, Leah felt a little helpless.

"Sister, how did you get pregnant?" The two of them were together in an imperial garden, basking in the sun and drinking tea. Leah looked at Morgan's belly curiously.

"Why? Sister, you really want to know? Then I can make you pregnant right away within this month." Morgan heard this, took a sip of the tea in the cup, and smiled slightly.

"Forget it, I don't want to know." Upon hearing this, Leah quickly waved her hand.

The thought of herself with a big belly made Leah feel horrible, so she quickly shook her hands.

"Father, give me a hug~" At this time, Long Luxin came from the garden gate. When she saw the two people in the garden, she immediately ran over happily. Behind Long Luxin were two maids.

"Okay, okay, where is your grandmother?" Liya picked up the two-year-old Long Luxin. As expected of her daughter, she could speak clearly at the age of two and was running around in the palace.

This little guy perfectly inherited her and Morgan's powers.

"The Empress Dowager is behind us." In Leah's arms, Long Luxin kissed Leah on the face.

"Just spoil her." Morgan shook his head.

"Mother, I heard from Grandma Empress that you are going to give me a younger sister or brother?" Long Luxin turned to look at Morgan.

"It's not a brother, it's a sister." Morgan corrected.

"Sister? Why not brother?" Long Luxin tilted her head.

"Because your father and I are both women, our children can only be female," Morgan explained.

If it is a normal birth, there will be both boys and girls, but the way they give birth is not the normal intercourse between men and women, so she can only give birth to girls.

"Oh." Long Luxin nodded, not quite understanding. At this moment, she was too young to comprehend the meaning of Morgan's words.

"Liya, Morgan, are you also resting in the Imperial Garden?" At this moment, a woman who looked similar to Leah Morgan walked in from the Imperial Garden to the entrance.

Although she is already a mother of two children, time has not taken away much of her youth, and she looks only about 25 years old.

"Mother." Seeing the woman, Leah and Morgan stood up from the stone chairs and bowed to Igraine.

"Grandma Empress~" Long Luxin waved to Igraine in Leah's arms.

"This little guy is so active that he disappeared in a moment." Seeing Long Luxin in Leah's arms, Igraine shook his head helplessly.

She was actually quite bored in the palace. Alice used to accompany her, but now Alice was sent to school for further studies by Leah, and there were even fewer people who could talk to her.

Now only Long Luxin is able to accompany her from time to time, but the little guy is very active and often plays hide-and-seek with her, which makes her feel helpless.

"Don't run around in the palace next time, so as not to make your grandmother worry, okay?" Liya looked at Long Luxin and said.

But Long Luxin didn't say anything. Instead, she grabbed the snack on the stone table and put it in her mouth. It was obvious that she didn't hear what Leah said.

Seeing that the little girl dared to ignore her, Leah felt that she needed to teach her a little lesson.

"Okay, don't reply to me. Didn't you hear what I said? Are you pretending not to hear it on purpose?" Liya grabbed one of Long Luxin's little ears.

"Oh, it hurts! I heard it, father. Let go, it hurts, it hurts!" Long Luxin begged for mercy quickly.

"Hmph, you are so young, but you just pretend to be deaf and dumb. You don't have any manners at all. I will throw you to those Confucian scholars in a few days and let them teach you what the rules are." Leah put her hand down and said with a stern face.

"No, father. I don't like those things that just sound like Confucius said something. They're so boring." When Long Luxin heard that Leah was going to leave her to those old men, she panicked.

"I think what your father said is right. Lu Xin, you are too naughty. It would be good if those old teachers could teach you the rules." Morgan on the side also nodded in agreement.

Although those Confucian ideas are not very good, they are still good in terms of etiquette. Just teach etiquette. Girls should act like girls. Jumping up and down like a little monkey is really inappropriate.

Hearing Morgan say this, Long Luxin realized that she might really suffer in the next few days. If she had known, she should not have come here!

Her expression at this moment was like that of a child who had suffered endless grievances.

Seeing Long Luxin's aggrieved look, Liya snorted softly, "Little guy, can't I punish you? You are being naughty in front of me!"

"Okay, okay. Little Luxin is still young, it's time for her to play. Look how aggrieved she is." At this time, Igline stood up and spoke for his granddaughter.

Chapter 132: I got used to being stuck on so many times

"Ha!" Hearing the Empress Dowager speaking for her, Long Luxin's aggrieved expression finally relaxed. She quickly got off Leah's body and ran to Igraine's side.

"Grandma Empress, you are the best!" Long Luxin grabbed Igraine's hand and said happily.

"Now you know that the Empress Dowager is fine? Let's go and don't disturb your mother and father." As he said that, Igline took Long Luxin's hand.

"Yeah, yeah!" Long Luxin nodded quickly, fearing that Leah's next sentence would include the word "not allowed".

Seeing their mother taking Long Luxin away, Leah and Morgan looked at each other and smiled helplessly.

Then the two started talking about other things, but as they were talking, Morgan started to touch Leah again, which made Leah very helpless.

Seeing this, some maids who were serving on the side tactfully retreated.

"Look at you, these palace maids have misunderstood!" Seeing this, Leah said with a blushing face and squeezed her legs together.

"What misunderstanding? Isn't what we are doing now what they are thinking, huh?"

Morgan put a little force on the right hand on Leah's waist and pulled Leah into her arms, burying her face in her arms. The scent of frankincense filled her nose.

"Ah!" Leah exclaimed.

“Mmmmm…” Leah put her hands on Morgan’s heart and tried to get up, but after struggling for a while, she gave up resisting.

Before long, the garden was filled with the scent of tangerine and the faint sound of spring.

When the time came to February of the year 2 AD, halfway through the year, Liya received the news that Liu Yilong was dead!

Although Liya knew that Liu Yilong might die this year, she was still a little surprised that he would die so early.

However, Liu Yilong's death was good news for her.

Once Liu Yilong died, Liu Song would become even more chaotic. She could also take advantage of this opportunity to send troops and capture several cities of Song State first, thus paving the way for future attacks on Song State.

The death of Liu Yilong is also very interesting. Liu Yilong's sons Liu Shao and Liu Rong believed the witch's words and did many things that angered God and people. They were afraid that Liu Yilong would find out, so they made a small statue of Liu Yilong and wanted to curse him to death.

Unfortunately, the witchcraft incident was exposed and known to Liu Yilong, which made Liu Yilong furious and planned to depose Liu Shao, but Liu Shao knew about it, so he decided to take the initiative and assassinate Liu Yilong.

Afterwards, Liu Shao proclaimed himself emperor. When Liu Yilong's third son Liu Jun learned about this, he began to campaign against the emperor's will, and the entire Liu Song Dynasty fell into chaos.

Since there is such a good opportunity, Leah naturally will not let it go.

Therefore, when she learned that Liu Yilong was dead, Liya immediately decided to lead 30,000 troops to directly attack the Liu Song Kingdom, with Hubei (Jingzhou) as the first target.

In addition to Hubei, Sichuan, Shu, and the areas that were previously captured in Henan were all Liya's targets. In other words, Liya opened up three battlefields at once.

Although she wanted to live in peace with the people, she couldn't let go of such a good opportunity. Liya didn't plan to crush the Song State all at once, but just wanted to take over a place first.

Liya chose the Xiangyang area as the direction of attack, and Li Lin captured Nanyang and Xinyang in Henan that were occupied by the Liu Song Kingdom.

As for Sichuan Shu, Liya sent a general named Xuchang Huang.

In short, Leah doesn't have high requirements for them. They can get as much as they can. It's okay if they can't get it. In short, don't force yourself too much.

With the help of cannons, Leah was able to break through the barriers and reach Xiangyang City in half a month. As long as she could take Xiangyang City, she would have achieved her combat goal.

Leah did not stop either. After the army rested for a day, it began to attack Xiangyang.

Liu 2 was stunned when he received the news. The Wu Kingdom was really good at taking advantage of opportunities. Wasn't it because the Wei Kingdom was attacked by the Wu Kingdom as soon as Tuoba Tao died that the Wei Kingdom was destroyed?

Is the Song Dynasty going to follow in the footsteps of the Northern Wei Dynasty?

If Liu Shao was full of confidence and wanted to realize his grand ambitions when he ascended the throne, he suddenly came to his senses after being beaten by Liya.

In the court of Song, Liu Shao sat on the throne of his former father, his face as gloomy as smelly dog ​​shit, pointing to the sky and the ground and cursing: "Is there something wrong with the Wu Kingdom? I didn't attack it, why did it jump out on its own? Or does it mean that the whole world belongs to him!"

At this point, Liu Shao's face suddenly became even uglier: "And my third brother Liu Jun, who raised the slogan of clearing the court of evil officials, he obviously wants the throne. I am the crown prince, and it is legitimate for me to inherit the throne. Why does he have the right? Why!!!"

Upon hearing this, the ministers below lowered their heads and pretended to be stupid, but they were muttering to themselves in their hearts.

"You also said that you are the crown prince. Since you are the crown prince, the throne will be yours sooner or later. But look at what you have done. Is it possible for a human to do that?"

However, because of what Liu Yilong had done before, the ministers did not have much good impression of him. Now that he was dead, this stupid emperor was much easier to control.

However, because of this incident, the State of Wu took advantage of the chaos to attack. Liu Shao had an unshirkable responsibility for this. Although the situation was so bad, the ministers here had no intention of surrendering to the State of Wu.

After all, every minister here owns tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of acres of land. If they are captured by the Wu State, they will at least lose a lot of money.

But the current situation is very grim. According to the latest news, the defenders in Xiangyang clearly put on an heroic appearance, but after being bombarded by Wu State's artillery, they chose to surrender.

The Wu Kingdom easily captured Xiangyang without any soldiers. This is simply outrageous!

Although the Xiangyang defenders were determined to die, they held a swearing-in ceremony before the decisive battle: "As long as the city survives, the people will live; if the city is destroyed, the people will die." However, it was different for the other soldiers.

This oath is worthless. The garrison commander and officials of Xiangyang took all the benefits. Why should these soldiers die with you?

So under the bombardment of dozens of artillery shells from Leah, the soldiers decided to tie up the governor of Xiangyang and the general guarding the city, and then surrendered to Leah.

This did make Leah a little confused, but it was also great to be able to capture Xiangyang without bloodshed.

Chapter 133: National Land Growth

Liu Shao felt overwhelmed when he thought that he not only had to face the Wu Kingdom, but also his third brother Liu Jun. How could he be such a coward as an emperor?

He regretted that he should not have killed his father so early. Now he had to deal with a lot of messes by himself. If he didn't handle one of them well, he would lose his head.

Liu Shao shook his head vigorously, threw these thoughts out of his mind, looked at the ministers below and said: "My dear ministers, what should we do now?"

"What should we do? Shouldn't we ask the military commanders about this? How can it be useful to ask us civil officials?"

Looking at Liu Shao who was already in a state of panic, the ministers didn't know what to say. For a moment, the atmosphere fell into a strange silence again.

If we were only facing Liu Jun, we could still talk about how to send troops to resist, but the Wu Kingdom was completely unreasonable!

Now no matter which general goes to stop it, he will basically be sent away. Even if a large army is sent, it will require countless money.

There were rebellions everywhere in Liu Song. If they hadn't dealt with the rebels, how could they deal with the affairs of Wu State? At least they had to deal with the affairs of the country first, right?

"Your Majesty, I think our most important task right now is to deal with the domestic rebellion first, otherwise we simply won't have the energy to deal with the Wu Kingdom." After thinking for a moment, a minister stood up and said.

"According to what you mean, all we can do now is watch the State of Wu attack and seize cities in our country?" Liu Shao said angrily when he heard this.

The minister continued:

"Your Majesty, I don't think there's anything wrong with this. Except for Yangzhou, other regions basically don't listen to the imperial court's orders, which has caused us to lose a lot of tax revenue. Since these regions are no longer under our control, let them fight with Wu State, and we only need to defend Yangzhou."

At this time, another minister came forward and spoke.

"I think what Grand Master Wen said is right. The enemy army has traveled a long distance, and their food will definitely not last long. Moreover, the enemy army is known for being a benevolent and righteous army, and they will definitely not rob ordinary people's homes. So I guess they will at most capture a few places and then they will be unable to move forward."

"Yes, we don't need to worry about Wu State now. We can send troops to take back the seized lands when the time comes. For Your Majesty, the most important thing now is the problem of domestic rebels and Liu Jun who is under the banner of clearing the court of evil. As long as Your Majesty solves these two forces and reorganizes the soldiers, there will be a chance to take back the lands that were taken away from Wu State."

The group of ministers below also agreed.

You must know that after the Wu State captured a city, the first thing it did was to reform, and this reform was very time-consuming for the Wu State, so it will take a long time for the Wu State to capture the capital now.

After listening to the words of the ministers, Liu Shao calmed down. The ministers were right. Compared with the threat from the State of Wu, the one who was more dangerous now was his third brother.

Thinking of this, Liu Shao decided to suppress the rebellion of his third brother Liu Jun first. Thinking of this, he immediately sent his generals to attack Liu Jun.