170Chapter 144: Sending Wives to the Men of North City_2

Translator: 549690339 |

Afterward, Li Rui returned to his place.

Lu Chen then continued, “By the way, let the Hall of Political Affairs be built next to North Prince Mansion. Don’t allow it to be too far away.”

Li Rui responded, “Prince, rest assured. When North Prince Mansion was constructed, we had already reserved a space next to it for the Hall of Political Affairs.”

Hearing this, Lu Chen did not press Li Rui on why the Hall of Political Affairs hadn’t been built initially; it was highly likely that officials like Li Rui from North City had assumed Lu Chen would have no use for the Hall, and thus simply did not bother to provide him with a venue for discussing political affairs.

Lu Chen did not intend to dwell on these issues and continued, “Does anyone else have a matter to report?”

Mu Changtian stepped forward at this moment and said, “Prince, the quantity of howitzer cannons is not abundant anymore. The soldiers in the Artillery camp mostly have nothing to do, and they cannot even proceed with training. I believe the Artillery camp should be dissolved and in the future, we should distribute the howitzer cannons among the regular troops.”

There were only a thousand rounds for the howitzers, and after the battle against the Barbarian Tribe in Wanning Valley, the ammunition had almost entirely been used up.

Being responsible for the Artillery camp, Mu Jingwu was unsure if Lu Chen still had any shells. They didn’t even dare to use live ammunition for training now, fearing that if they used it all up, they’d be completely out.

Mu Jingwu thought that if they were indeed out of shells, maintaining an Artillery camp with ten thousand men seemed somewhat wasteful. It might be better to distribute these soldiers to other camps. That’s why he had Mu Changtian bring up the Artillery camp to Lu Chen, to see what he thought about it.

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

This was indeed a problem.

They did not have the capability to manufacture howitzer cannons. Although the system rewards with howitzer cannons had helped him through the crisis in North City, after using up the shells and if the system did not provide additional ammunition rewards, these howitzer cannons would just sit there collecting dust.

At this thought, Lu Chen’s brow furrowed slightly.

It was only now that he remembered his women had not conceived for him for a long time.

His system was the System of Lots of Sons and Lots of Blessings. Only through their pregnancies or childbirth could he receive more substantial rewards.

Indeed, he hadn’t been idle lately, almost every night involved a bout of hard work.

Of course, the reason Mu Zixuan and the women from Great Yu and Dazhou weren’t quickly pregnant was mainly that they had just given birth, so Lu Chen controlled the situation, intentionally preventing these three from conceiving, fearing harm to their health.

Although his Rejuvenating Skill could help them recover from injuries, when it came to childbirth, who can foretell if there might be losses that couldn’t be restored? So in this regard, Lu Chen exercised some restraint.

However, for Wang Qingci, Bai Qingqing, and the recently arrived Yelv Nanyan, things were different; he took exceptionally good care of these three women. For instance, ever since Yelv Nanyan arrived at the Prince’s Mansion, Lu Chen even spent several hours on her every day.

Lu Chen’s expression changed continuously as he pondered for a long time, feeling that this could not go on. Wang Qingci, Bai Qingqing, and Yelv Nanyan were Martial Artists, and first and foremost, it wasn’t easy for Martial Artists to conceive. Another issue was that Martial Artists could circulate their skill to expel the impurities in their bodies.

In other words, if these three did not wish to carry his child, he had no way to force them to conceive.

So, did that mean he had to shift his focus back to his wife and the women from Great Yu and Dazhou?

Seeing that Lu Chen remained silent, Mu Changtian continued, “Prince, if you still have ammunition for the howitzer cannons, the Artillery camp doesn’t need to be dismantled. However, I believe we cannot allow them to remain idle everyday.”

Mu Changtian thought to himself that likely, North Prince intentionally withheld the howitzer shells because, after all, these terrifying weapons of mass destruction had an enormous destructive capacity. If one were to fire at North Prince Mansion, the outcome would be self-evident.

This type of weapon of mass destruction must definitely remain in the hands of North Prince.

Lu Chen said, “General Mu, set aside the Artillery camp matter for now. Does anyone else have any other matters?”

Since Lu Chen had said as much, Mu Changtian said no more.

“Yes, Prince.”

As he finished speaking, Mu Changtian returned to his seat.

At this moment, Qin Yushan stood up and said, “Prince, the Barbarian Tribe of the Sky Wolf King has already entered North City, and according to your plan, General Xiao has arranged them across the six counties of North City. However, General Xiao posed a question to his subordinates to relay to you.”

“With the sudden death of over a hundred thousand Barbarian men, there are now quite a few widows within the Sky Wolf King Tribe. If we were to build a house for each widow, that would require constructing twice as many homes as originally estimated.”

“Furthermore, after these Barbarian women have entered North City, they are not very familiar with life in Great Sum nor do they know how to farm, which makes it difficult for them to survive.”

“General Xiao hopes the Prince could think of a solution to deal with these Barbarian widows’ issue.”

Hearing this, Lu Chen said at once, “I have also been considering how to solve this issue lately. Since you all are here today, why don’t you discuss it and see if you can come up with a good solution.”

As Lu Chen’s words fell, the old fox Li Rui immediately responded, “Prince, the common folk of North City are poor, and some single men have been unable to find wives. Barbarian women are hardworking and enduring, I believe those single men will surely be very fond of them.”

” Why don’t we distribute these Barbarian widows to the single men of Great Sum? In doing so, we not only address the issue of the poor populace of North City being unable to find wives, but we also tackle the problem of the Barbarian widows’ inability to survive.”

No sooner had Li Rui finished speaking than Mu Xingping commented from the side, “Lord Li, your idea is indeed good, but the common folk of Great Sum have long harboured hatred towards the Barbary Tribes. Would the common folk of Great Sum truly be willing to marry those widows from the Barbarian Tribes?”

Hearing this, Li Rui chuckled and said, “Captain Mo, are you a well-fed man who does not know the plight of the hungry? Those bachelors who have been single for a long time find even a cow to possess graceful features, much less caring whether their wives are Barbarian women.”

“Moreover, from their appearance, Barbarian women are no different from the women of Great Sum. Why wouldn’t they marry them?”

Unsure of how to counter Li Rui’s argument, Mu Xingping simply chose to remain silent.

At this time, Lu Chen spoke up, “Lord Li’s method is good, and I have been considering the same. Does anyone else have any other suggestions?”

With that, Lu Chen scanned the others in the study, but not a single person spoke up.

Lu Chen was somewhat speechless.

There were over twenty people in the study, and only Li Rui and two of his subordinates could be considered Civil Officials; the rest were all Military Generals.

He surely couldn’t use Military Generals to govern North City!

Lu Chen then said, “Since no one has any other opinions, let’s settle on this.”

“By the way, to motivate the common folk of North City to marry the Barbarian widows, I have decided to take Yelv Nanyan and Xiao Wenyao as side consorts in a few days.”

At these words, Mu Changtian expressed his concern, “Prince, if you take Barbarian women as side consorts, it is very likely to cause dissatisfaction in the court.”

Having served in the Capital city for many years, Mu Changtian was very familiar with the court’s situation. If Lu Chen were to do so, there would certainly be numerous ministers impeaching him.

The ministers in the Capital city would undoubtedly argue that the North Prince, being a prince, should not disgrace the royal family by taking a woman from the Barbarian Tribes as a consort, and moreover, one being a widow.

Hearing Mu Changtian’s words, Lu Chen gave a faint smile, then responded, “The court will definitely be discontent with what I’m doing in North City, but for the next few months, they will be too preoccupied to care about what I am doing in North City.”

Mu Changtian immediately realized that the Sum Emperor was preparing to take action against the Aristocratic Families. The ministers of the court were, more or less, connected to the Aristocratic Families. As chaos approached Great Sum, the officials in the Capital city would certainly not overly concern themselves with what the North Prince was doing in North City.

Lu Chen said, “Alright, let’s settle this and move on to the next matter.”

As he spoke, Lu Chen once again surveyed the room, his gaze finally resting on Wenren Lie and Xuanyuan Chen.

“General Xuanyuan, I wonder if you have relayed the discussion we had last time to Great Yu City. Are the common folk of Great Yu City willing to relocate to North City?”