Chapter 820: To pacify the world, first conquer the Western Regions

The second day of the second month in the fourth year of Guangwu’s reign.

The dragon raises its head!
After ten months of pregnancy, Queen Jiang Ni of the Great Shu Kingdom finally gave birth to the eldest son Su Yingjian.

Su Mingzhe stood in the main hall of Changchun Palace, took his son from the midwife, teased him for a while, and was in a good mood:

"Very good, looks like me!"

"let me see--"

Jiang Ni's voice came from the bedroom.

Although she had lost a lot of energy due to giving birth, Su Mingzhe had fed her qi-replenishing and mind-nourishing pills before giving birth, so when she spoke at this moment, she was still full of energy.

When Su Mingzhe walked into the bedroom, he saw Jiang Ni's cute little face, which was rosy and radiant with maternal love. Her big eyes were fixed on the swaddling baby in the man's arms.

"Queen, please take a look at our good son. Isn't he adorable..."

Su Mingzhe held his son in his arms, walked a few steps to the bed, and slowly placed his son in Jiang Ni's arms.

As soon as Jiang Ni received the swaddling clothes and saw the son inside, the glow of maternal love on her body instantly disappeared without a trace, and she spoke with a tone of disgust:

"So ugly!"

Jiang Ni looked at her son's red and purple skin, pouted her lips, and asked the man:

"Your Majesty, is this really my child?"

"Why is your head so long?"

"Your skin is still so red?"

"Of course this is your son! I've been staying here all the time, and no one dares to play the trick of 'changing the prince' under my nose!"

Su Mingzhe's words could barely be considered a consolation.

Both Jiang Ni and Su Mingzhe have very fair skin.

But the newborn Su Yingjian's baby was rosy.

No wonder Jiang Ni couldn't believe it.

By the way, the head is particularly big and long!

Not like her and a man at all!

Seeing that Jiang Ni still had a look of disgust on her face, Su Mingzhe had to explain to her:

"All newborns are like this. It will be fine in two days."

As Su Mingzhe spoke, he reached out to untie Jiang Ni's sweat-soaked clothes and began to guide Jiang Ni in feeding her son.

Jiang Ni was a little afraid of pain at first.

However, maternal love is great. The smile on her son's face after eating made her forget her fear of pain.

My son was just born and he has a small appetite.

Two steamed dumplings with ginger paste can barely feed my son.

When her son had finished his meal and was ready to go to bed, Jiang Ni, a new mother, looked at her son's well-behaved and lovely appearance and couldn't help but hum the Xichu tune from her memory, and slowly accompanied her son to sleep.

The news that the queen had given birth to the eldest prince was immediately reported to the court.

In the more than three years before this, Su Mingzhe had taken in nearly a hundred concubines and beauties, but none of them became pregnant.

Under the instigation of some people with ulterior motives, there was a lot of discussion inside and outside the court, and it can be said that there were all kinds of strange and bizarre ideas.

For example, the queen is jealous, the emperor is incompetent, and so on.

In early summer last year, the news that the queen was pregnant spread, which slightly dispelled other people's suspicious eyes.

Now that the queen has given birth to a prince, everyone can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Although Su Mingzhe had long said that his cultivation had reached the level of a terrestrial immortal and that he could live forever, so that everyone didn't have to worry about the issue of offspring.

But in the eyes of court officials, royal heirs are still very important.

Isn’t there an old saying, don’t be afraid of ten thousand, just be prepared for one!

What if Su Mingzhe suddenly passed away and had no offspring left? Wouldn’t the Great Shu be in chaos?
In the blink of an eye, another month passed.

The prince’s full moon banquet was held as scheduled.

Led by Cao Changqing, Sun Xiji and others, the old ministers of Western Chu submitted a memorial, wanting to meet Queen Jiang Ni and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Great Shu.

At the full moon banquet, Su Mingzhe formally appointed the eldest son of the emperor, Su Yingjian, as the Crown Prince of Da Shu.

With this enthronement, the increasingly fierce power struggle between the old ministers of Western Shu and Western Chu came to an end.

Now, the old ministers of Western Chu came to congratulate the Queen and the Prince.

Jiang Ni came to meet everyone with her son in her arms.

Su Yingjian was only one month old. Under the care of two wet nurses, he grew up plump and fair and was very energetic.

As the ministers finished giving their gifts, the little guy stared with his big black eyes, wanting to grab a handful of gifts from everyone he saw.

Jiang Ni carried her son, who loved to stretch his arms and stick out his butt, down from the dragon throne and let everyone meet him in turn.

After everyone confirmed the prince's appearance, Jiang Ni made the excuse that she was tired and prepared to let everyone go.

The harem is not allowed to interfere in politics!

This is the ancestral rule!

Jiang Ni had no interest in state affairs.

In her opinion, she was just a woman. It was enough for her to be favored by the emperor and give birth to two sons, one to inherit Da Shu and the other to inherit Xi Chu.

No matter how many important court affairs there are, they have nothing to do with a little woman like her.

"Your Highness!"

Cao Changqing finally got to see Jiang Ni, so he didn't want to leave just like that. He quickly called out to her:
"Your Highness, do you know that His Majesty sent envoys to the Western Regions last month to demand that the Western Regions submit to the Great Shu Kingdom?"

"do not know."

Jiang Ni was a little confused when she heard this. She shook her head at first, and then asked nervously with a simple look in her eyes:
"Uncle Qizhao, are we going to have a war?" "Yes!"

Cao Changqing saw that he had attracted Jiang Ni's attention, so he explained to her:

"Your Highness, although the Western Region is vast, its population is not as large as that of Great Shu, and the land is barren and the products are not abundant. The only thing that is worth considering for Great Shu is that the people there are tough and there are many natural horse farms!"

Jiang Ni didn't understand after hearing this:
"Since the Western Regions are not as good as Great Shu, why does Your Majesty want the Western Regions to submit to Great Shu?"

“It’s because of the geographical location!”

Cao Changqing explained:

"If the Great Shu Kingdom wants to swallow up the world, it simply won't be enough to rely on just the 30-odd cities and 2 million people of the Great Shu Kingdom!"

"If we can first annex the weaker Western Region, then the land area and population of Dashu can be easily doubled. In addition, the Western Region has war horses and the people are tough, which can also provide manpower..."

"The most important point is that the terrain of the world is high in the northwest and low in the southeast."

"If the Great Shu Kingdom occupies the Western Regions, it can attack Northern Liang from high to low!"

Cao Changqing talked about a lot of reasons.

Finally, Jiang Ni nodded, not quite understanding.

Cao Changqing finally said:

"Your Highness, I think that if Your Majesty sends envoys to ask the Western Regions to submit, the Western Regions will definitely not obey obediently, and a war will still be necessary in the end!"

"This battle is the first since the restoration of the Great Shu Kingdom, and it is particularly important."

"So, I want to be the commander-in-chief of this battle!"

Facing Cao Changqing's request, Jiang Ni thought for a moment and nodded this time:
"Uncle Qizhao, I will tell His Majesty about this."

Although Jiang Ni is simple and too lazy to care about important matters in the court, she is not stupid.

Cao Changqing's leading troops in battle will be helpful to his future children.

For the sake of her son, Jiang Ni would definitely support it.

Everyone discussed it again.

Finally, Jiang Ni saw that the prince in her arms kept pulling off her palace skirt, so she asked everyone to leave.

In the evening, when Su Mingzhe came to Changchun Palace to visit his son, Jiang Ni did not beat around the bush and directly told him that Cao Changqing wanted to lead the troops to fight.

After hearing this, Su Mingzhe felt a little embarrassed.

Before this, he had already promised Hongshu that he would take her with him to lead an expedition to the Western Regions in person.

The richest place in the world is the Central Plains occupied by the Liyang Dynasty.

However, the most central location in the entire world is the three states of Beiliang.

With the three states of Beiliang as the center, the four major forces in clockwise order are the Liyang Dynasty, Western Shu, Western Regions, and Northern Mang.

Su Mingzhe is not ready to go to war with the Liyang Dynasty for the time being, so he can only deal with the Western Regions in the west first.

After occupying the Western Regions, Su Mingzhe was not prepared to go to war with the Liyang Dynasty, but to go north to pacify the Northern Mang.

Among the many forces in the world today, the strength of the Western Regions is far inferior to that of Liyang, Beimang, Beiliang, Dashu, and even the King of Southern Xinjiang.

If we really compare, the strength of Mount Nalanda in the Western Region is roughly equal to that of the Jing'an King, Jiaodong King, Langya King and other forces of the Liyang Dynasty.

It is precisely because the Western Region is relatively weak that Su Mingzhe plans to take over the Western Region first and then conquer the Northern Mang from the Western Region!

And Hongshu is the niece of the mayor of Dunhuang City in Beimang.

The lord of Dunhuang City is a member of the royal family of Beimang.

In other words, sweet potatoes also have the royal blood of the Northern Mang family flowing through their veins.

Back then, the city of Dunhuang was destroyed due to an old incident of conflict between Buddhism and Taoism.

Hongshu's aunt, the lord of Dunhuang City, had no choice but to send her niece Hongshu to the Beiliang Palace as a "hostage" in order to protect Dunhuang City.

After Hongshu was sent to the Beiliang Palace, he was trained by Beiliang Princess Wu Su to be a death warrior and became a maid in Wutong Garden.

Su Mingzhe was preparing to attack the Western Regions, so naturally he had to have a legitimate reason.

And what happened to Hongshu gave Su Mingzhe a legitimate reason to send troops.

"What? No?"

Jiang Ni noticed that Su Mingzhe was hesitating and quickly said:

"I was just saying it casually. Military and national affairs should still be based on you."

Seeing Jiang Ni being so considerate, Su Mingzhe looked at her with a little more tenderness:
"It's not difficult. With Cao Changqing's ability, the Western Region will be easily captured."

"It's just that the Western Region is related to the 'Conquest of the Northern Wilds' four years later."

"If Cao Changqing were to go to the Western Regions, I'm afraid he would have to stay there for four years!"

When Su Mingzhe said this, he smiled at Jiang Ni and said:

"Send someone to tell Cao Changqing tomorrow that if he is willing to stay in the Western Regions for four or five years, he will be in charge of this expedition to the Western Regions!"

"it is good!"

Jiang Ni didn't want to ask too much about state affairs. When she saw that the matter was over, she reached out to take her son from the man's arms:

"It's getting late, you should go."

She knew that men were almost always attracted to women, but now that she had a son to take care of, she could only let the man find other women.

"I'm leaving."

Su Mingzhe had originally planned to stay at Changchun Palace tonight.

Since he found out that Jiang Ni was pregnant last year, and now the baby is already a month old, Su Mingzhe misses Jiang Ni very much.

However, there might be changes in the emperor's personal expedition to the Western Regions, so he has to go find Xiang Fei Hongshu to explain.

(End of this chapter)