Chapter 1074: Western Regions’ Submission, Linked to Military Merit
The fourth year of Jianwu, mid-July.

Su Mingzhe led the Han army and arrived in Luoyang by boat.

Wei Yi, the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty, along with hundreds of civil and military officials, went out of the city and arrived at the government office pier to greet them.

The emperor and his ministers had not seen each other for several months, but not only did they not feel strange, but instead felt somewhat familiar.

This is mainly because Emperor Su Mingzhe is not arrogant and has no gap with his ministers.

While everyone was chatting and laughing, they came to the Taimiao to offer captives.

After the sacrifice, everyone returned to the Golden Palace.

As soon as Su Mingzhe sat down on the dragon throne, Wei Yi reported a happy event.

In early July, the Guiyi Army hiding in the Western Regions surrendered together with the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions.

"Oh? All the countries in the Western Regions surrendered?"

When Su Mingzhe heard this, his face was full of regret.

The beauties from the Western Regions, he even wanted to go there in person and select them.

"Yes, all the thirty-six countries north and south of Tianshan have surrendered and request His Majesty to establish a Protectorate!"

Wei Yi happily reported his work.

After the founding of the Han Dynasty, all the vassal states, big or small, were attacked by the Han Emperor Su Mingzhe.

The name of the Han Emperor shook the world, but it also overshadowed the glory of the Han generals.

Now, the border troops guarding the Western Regions can force the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions and the Guiyi Army to surrender with just a little effort.

In the opinion of Prime Minister Wei Yi, this situation is reasonable.

The emperor should have the emperor's work, and things like fighting on the battlefield should be left to the generals.

Afterwards, some ministers in the court reported good news, while others reported bad news.

Since May, it has been raining continuously in Kyushu.

Flooding often occurs in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River

On the Yellow River side, large areas of prefectures were flooded.

Fortunately, the war has just ended and the world is peaceful.

The Han court received Su Mingzhe's instructions and made all-out efforts to provide disaster relief. Although many people were affected, the casualties were not heavy.

An impromptu grand court meeting ended in peace.

When Su Mingzhe returned to the harem, the four beauties, Empress Wan, Qingping, Xiaoai and Qingnu, who had returned with the Han Emperor, were kneeling in the hall, accepting instructions from Empress Cui Yingying.

This is exactly the same as the rules of ordinary wealthy families.

New concubines must learn the family rules in front of the wife.

The same is true in the imperial palace. All new concubines entering the palace must come to the queen and listen to her instructions.

Cui Yingying is now seven months pregnant. She is heavy and does not have much energy to convey. After she spoke a few words, she asked the four girls to stand up.

This time, the man only brought back four beauties, which was less than before.

When Su Mingzhe arrived at Qixia Palace, he saw the girls were already chatting happily:
"Thank you for your hard work, Queen."

When the women saw the man coming, they quickly stood up and saluted.

Queen Cui Yingying, supported by Hongniang and Chuntao, also had to stand up and salute.

Su Mingzhe hurriedly took a few steps and stopped the woman who was about to salute:
"Queen, please don't be so polite!"

At this time, Cui Yingying had a big round and pointed belly and had difficulty walking. It was naturally impossible for Su Mingzhe to let her salute him.

Not only did Su Mingzhe stop the woman from bowing, but before he supported and touched Cui Yingying, he first warmed up his palms before touching Cui Yingying's arms and lower back.

Cui Yingying was naturally satisfied with the man's care.

However, she also knew her current condition and was unable to serve a man, so she winked at Hongniang and Chuntao beside her.

Chuntao and Hongniang are old acquaintances, and their relationship with Su Mingzhe is much closer than that of ordinary concubines.

But Hongniang was a woman who could never stop talking. Once she started talking, she was like a magpie, chirping non-stop.

Chatted for a while.

As the mistress of the harem, Cui Yingying then spoke and arranged palaces for the four beauties: Queen Wan, Qingping, Xiao Ai, and Qingnu.

Seeing that there were no outsiders in the palace, Cui Yingying began to arrange a banquet for the man to celebrate his victorious return.

The steps of the Tang Dynasty royal banquet would be very complicated if they were carried out in a rigid manner. Not only would there be performances by court musicians, but there would also be various singing and dancing performances.

At the same time, there were officials who recorded the daily records, and even painters who were there to paint the scene.

The banquet that Cui Yingying prepared for the man was not that complicated.

He simply called over musicians and dancers and prepared a sumptuous meal.

Since the founding of the Han Dynasty, it has successively destroyed the Qi State, Dingnan Army, Uighur Tribe, Tang State, Shu State, Khitan, Liang State, Pei State, and Nanping State.

Every time a country is destroyed, there will be many more beauties in Su Mingzhe's harem.

At present, there are more than sixty concubines and more than seven hundred beauties and talented women in the Han Dynasty's harem.

Women in the Tang Dynasty considered plumpness to be beautiful.

However, most of Su Mingzhe's concubines in the harem are beauties with slender figures.

The King of Chu had such a thin waist that many people died of starvation in the palace.

The women in the harem will be like what kind of women Su Mingzhe likes.

The dancers who were able to stay and serve in Cui Yingying's palace were naturally the best among them.

After a night of absurdity.

Su Mingzhe returned to the imperial study and began to deal with the complicated affairs of state.

When the Han Dynasty was founded, the Ding tax was abolished.

Without the male tax, ordinary people would not have much pressure to have children.

In recent years, the number of births in the Han Kingdom has been increasing rapidly.

According to last year's summer statistics, the total population of the country was more than 20 million, of which more than 3 million were newborns.

Unfortunately, the infant mortality rate in ancient times was too high, as high as 60% to 70%.

Of these more than three million children, only more than one million will grow up to adulthood.

At this rate, it would take at least fifty or sixty years of effort for the Han Dynasty to restore its population to the 80 million during the Han and Tang dynasties.

If the infant mortality rate is lowered, this time can be shortened to thirty years or even twenty years.

After Su Mingzhe finished dealing with state affairs, he ordered someone to summon the imperial physician from the Imperial Medical Bureau to come to the imperial study.

During this southern expedition, the Han army was not adapted to the southern climate and it was entirely dependent on the various pills and ointments refined by Su Mingzhe that prevented them from suffering major losses.

Throughout the dynasties, when the northern armies went to fight in the south, the casualty rate was frighteningly high.

During this southern expedition, the Han army's casualty rate was no different from usual, and the Imperial Medical Bureau had some credit for this.

If there is merit, there will be reward; if there is goods, there will be punishment.

Although the pills and ointments were all made by Su Mingzhe, the Imperial Medical Bureau's collection of herbs could also be considered a contribution to logistics support.

Therefore, those who deserve reward should be rewarded.

After the reward was given, Su Mingzhe talked about two more things.

The first thing is to develop gynecology and pediatrics.

The Chief Physician naturally would not have any objection to this. After all, with the addition of a new department, more people would be hired.

Then, the second thing left the imperial physician at a loss.

Su Mingzhe announced that starting from this year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs would send 300 smart and clever palace maids to the Imperial Medical Bureau every year.

The Imperial Medical Bureau needs to be responsible for training these palace maids into talented people.

The time cannot exceed ten years.

When the imperial physician heard this, his face turned black on the spot.

Fortunately, Su Mingzhe then said that if a royal physician could successfully train a palace maid, he would be rewarded with ten gold coins.

When the Imperial Physician heard that he could gain military merit by successfully training a female 'Imperial Physician', he immediately kowtowed in joy to express his gratitude.

The method of calculating military merit in the Han Dynasty was the same as that in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Killing ten enemies will earn you one military merit.

A lower-ranking title can be promoted to the first rank after three military merits.

The Chief Physician ran back to the Imperial Medical Bureau with a smile on his face. He decided that he must at least earn a baron for his descendants before he retired!
(End of this chapter)