After Ren Baqian left the palace, another person entered the palace.
He was about 40 to 50 years old and looked very ordinary. He was the kind of person that would be hard to spot in a crowd. He was wearing ordinary clothes made of coarse cloth. His height was average among the aboriginals, about 1.7 meters. However, he stood there like a towering mountain, giving off an unshakable vibe.
"Your Majesty!" The burly man cupped his fists and shouted loudly.
"Someone, give the General-in-Chief Who Supports the Nation a seat of honor." The empress had a rare gentle smile on her face.
All these years, she only behaved like this when she saw the General-in-Chief Who Supports the Nation, Hong Wu.
The empress was only 16 years old when she ascended to the throne. It was very difficult for a 16-year-old girl to sit in this position. Countless people in Dayao, Great Xia, the Yun Nation, and the Chen Nation stared at her.
At that time, her strength was far from being able to look down on the world.
It was all thanks to the General-in-Chief Who Supports the Nation, Hong Wu, that she was able to secure her position.
The General-in-Chief Who Supports the Nation was conferred by the late emperor. From this, one could see the late emperor's expectations of Hong Wu.
Hong Wu did not disappoint the late emperor.
Therefore, to the empress, Hong Wu was like an uncle and the only person she could rely on.
Seven years had passed, and this relationship had been preserved until now.
Every year, when the empress celebrated her birthday, Hong Wu would come to the palace for a chat after returning from the north.
To the empress, this was a rare moment of warmth.
"Your Majesty is getting more and more powerful, and I am also getting older." Hong Wu smiled after sitting down. He looked at the empress with a gentle gaze that even Hong Xian rarely saw.
"The General-in-Chief is no different from ten years ago." The empress smiled as she sat on the couch. "Qing Luan, fill up the General-in-Chief's cup."
Hong Wu said, "Even though my face hasn't changed, time is unforgiving. I am indeed old."
Then, he took the cup and drank it in one gulp while laughing heartily. "Thank you for the wine, Your Majesty!"
"Fill it up again. This cup is for the General-in-Chief. Great Xia only dared not act rashly because you were stationed in the north. Great Xia has worked hard and made great contributions. "
The empress finished speaking and drank the wine in one gulp.
After the toast, the two of them began to talk about other things.
"I feel that Great Xia will not be content with their lot in the future. The Emperor of the Great Xia Dynasty is very ambitious. After ascending to the throne, he has been working hard for many years. Now that the strength of the Great Xia Dynasty is far greater than before, I'm afraid he has some ideas, "Hong Wu said.
Then, he said with some regret, "Back then, before he succeeded the throne, I wanted to kill him at the border. Unfortunately, he escaped."
The empress nodded her head slightly and said, "I'm afraid that they are making preparations. I'm afraid we'll have to trouble Great General next."
If Ren Baqian heard their conversation, he would know why Great Xia sent that white bear over.
"Although Great Xia has a large number of elite soldiers, the aboriginal warriors aren't afraid of them. If they come, I'll show them what I've got, "Hong Wu said heroically.
"I will send an order to the mountains to recruit 20,000 soldiers." The empress nodded.
One had to know that even the ordinary aboriginal warriors weren't weak. After undergoing training, their strength far surpassed that of the elite soldiers of Great Xia.
In terms of individual strength, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he could fight against twenty people alone.
Furthermore, this was under the circumstances that Dayao lacked armor and weapons.
However, a duel in the army wasn't a simple matter.
Currently, Dayao had a total of 90,000 soldiers. Among them, 15,000 elite soldiers from the Protectorate of the South guarded the remnant citizens of the Hao Nation. 20,000 elite soldiers from the Protectorate of the Northeast guarded the border with the Yun Nation. 15,000 elite soldiers from the Protectorate of the Southeast guarded the border with the Chen Nation. 30,000 elite soldiers from the Protectorate of the North guarded the border with Great Xia in the north.
The remaining 20,000 elite soldiers from the Protectorate of the South guarded the whole of Dayao.
However, these 100,000 elite soldiers were the foundation of Dayao over the years. It could be said that all the taxes collected by Dayao in the south were used to support these 100,000 elite soldiers.
The most elite soldiers were the 30,000 elite soldiers from the Protectorate of the North. However, the equipment of these 30,000 elite soldiers was far inferior to that of Great Xia's.
They completely relied on their valiant individual strength to firmly suppress the 200,000 soldiers on the opposite side. However, if Great Xia really wanted to attack Dayao, they could deploy at least 500,000 soldiers.
Thirty thousand soldiers against 500,000 soldiers. Their equipment and equipment were inferior to that of the other party. Furthermore, under the circumstances that they were defending, even Hong Wu couldn't do anything.
After all, the other party could choose to break through in any direction, but it was impossible for Hong Wu to defend only one place.
Now that the empress had recruited another 20,000 soldiers, Hong Wu could have more cards in his hands. At least, he could maintain a considerable number of soldiers at each pass.
This was already the best she could do. It was difficult to equip the weapons of these 20,000 soldiers in a short period of time.
Great Xia's storehouse could be said to be poor.
However, she immediately thought of Ren Baqian. This fellow had a lot of tricks up his sleeves and knew a lot of things. She wondered if he could be of some use in this aspect.
In fact, Ren Baqian had mentioned smelting a few times before. However, he was usually referring to forging. The empress didn't understand what he meant and didn't take it to heart.
If Ren Baqian had said from the start that he could smelt more iron and forge more weapons, he wouldn't have been nearly killed.
Now, the empress thought that it would be best if Ren Baqian could be of some help in this aspect. Even if he couldn't, he could get some other things out and use the channels to exchange for some weapons from the Yun Nation and the Chen Nation. At present, he should still be able to get some from the Yun Nation and the Chen Nation. If Great Xia really made a move, she was afraid that it would be really difficult to get more from the outside world.
Not only weapons, but salt, rations, and the like were also the same.
Fortunately, Great Xia should still be in the preparatory stage and there was still some time.
"Your Majesty, you have to pay attention to the Yun Nation and the Chen Nation," Hong Wu said again.
The empress nodded. She understood that Dayao was different from the other three nations because the aboriginals were different from them. Naturally, the nations that they established were different as well.
It was just like a wolf sneaking into a flock of sheep.
The Yun Nation and the Chen Nation had been feeling uneasy about Dayao for a long time. Dayao even almost attacked the capital of the Yun Nation. If Great Xia wanted to send troops, it was impossible that they didn't send people to contact them first.
If the Yun Nation and the Chen Nation attacked together, it would indeed be somewhat dangerous.
After talking about national affairs, Hong Wu and the empress talked about other things. Most of them talked about the past and reminisced about the past. Both of them chatted rather happily and laughed out loud from time to time.
Just as the empress was in high spirits, Hong Wu looked at her and sighed.
"Great General, what's the matter?" The empress asked. Hong Wu had always been like a tall mountain that everyone looked up to. She had never seen him sigh like this before.
"Your Majesty ascended the throne at the age of 16. It has been seven years since then, and you have grown from a frail young lady to an empress that is praised by the people of the world. I am very gratified to see that Your Majesty has grown over the years. However, Your Majesty is now 23 years old, and you have to have a descendant. "When Hong Wu said this, he immediately turned into an old man who was worried about his wife.
He even brought up his seniority.
The empress's face immediately turned ugly. The year before last, Hong Wu used all kinds of methods to celebrate her birthday. This year, he changed to playing the emotional card.
She shouldn't have asked him that question and let him perform his own one-man show.
"Your Majesty, I don't have many years left. Before I leave, I still want to see Your Majesty get married. Besides, I am not the only one who is anxious. The entire imperial court is anxious. "Hong Wu continued to sigh. He sighed while looking at the empress's face. He wasn't even so worried about his own granddaughter.
However, he couldn't not worry about the person in front of him. Back then, the former emperor entrusted his granddaughter to him. Now, the empress was doing well in other aspects, was stronger than him, and was doing well in other areas. However, he still couldn't let go of this matter.
Outsiders would never think that the number nine in the world and number seven in the world would actually sit together to discuss this matter.
The empress immediately frowned.
Originally, she was in a good mood when she saw Hong Wu. It was also very heartwarming to talk about the past with him, but her mood immediately turned sour when he mentioned this matter.
If it wasn't for the fact that Hong Wu was in front of her, she would have directly thrown him out.
Two days ago, everyone in the imperial court had talked about this matter. Today, Hong Wu brought it up again, which really annoyed her.
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