Empress: Your Majesty, please respect yourself, I don't want to be promoted

"Huai Yu."

That day, when Lu Chen was working in Lingyun Mansion, Fu Hua came in with a golden talisman.

"Urgent news from the south."

Hearing this, Lu Chen's face suddenly froze and he put down the document in his hand.

"Did something happen?"

"Yes."

Fu Hua said in a deep voice: "Ten days ago, King Jiang Yunrang of Chu raised the banner of [clearing the court, punishing treacherous ministers, protecting the right and defending the legal system] in Wuning, raised an army of 100,000, and issued a letter to all directions. The southeast, south, southwest and provinces responded one after another. The royal families of the Shu King, Wu King, Yue King, Zhao King, Liang King, Zhou King and other royal families rose up, and most of the garrisons in various places rebelled. The situation in the south has been completely corrupted."

As soon as these words came out, Chai Hongyu and Jiang Chengyue beside Lu Chen both looked tense.

"Really."

Lu Chen pondered.

Although it was expected, after all, since the empress directly ordered the arrest of all the princes, nobles, and aristocratic families who participated in the Xingping incident and took ruthless action against the ruling class of Daxia, this result was already doomed.

But I didn't expect those people to act so quickly and decisively.

Then he raised his head, looked at Fu Ya, and asked: "How is the Xuanji Guard in the rebellious land?"

Fu Ya sighed: "Due to prior preparations, the losses of Xuanji Guard are not great. The branches have switched from open to covert. Now they are still gathering intelligence in various places, but the communication array has been destroyed, so the transmission of information will be much slower."

"It's good that the people are fine. It's slow. It's not easy to build an intelligence network. You can tell the Xuanji Guards in various places not to act hastily. Everything should be done to protect themselves."

Hearing this very Lu Chen style, Fu Ya nodded helplessly.

"Well, I'll send a message when I get back."

Lu Chen then said, "What is the attitude of the generals in the south towards this rebellion?"

Fu Ya replied solemnly, "Governor Chen Ba of Dianzhou, Governor Xue Shiqing of Mingzhou, and Governor Sima Ning of Xuzhou raised the banner of rebellion. Governor Fu Guang of Bozhou refused the imperial order on the grounds that the Qiangyi were making unusual movements and kept his troops in place. Governor Ruan Min of Zhuzhou angrily denounced the rebels and dispatched heavy troops to garrison Wanshan Pass."

With just a few simple sentences, Lu Chen understood the general situation of the five major generals in the southeast, southwest, south, and east and west.

"In other words, three of the five generals rebelled, and the one closest to the court chose to sit on the fence and wait and see, but was sandwiched on three sides. The governor of Zhuzhou, who was farthest from the court, was loyal to the court."

Fu Ya nodded slightly.

"It is true at present."

Lu Chen stood up and walked to the map of Daxia hanging on the side. Looking at the distribution of cities, mountains and rivers in each province and the garrison situation before the rebellion, his face gradually showed a thoughtful look.

Although his mission is to stabilize the seven provinces in the central part of the empire and ensure the safety of the central and western lines, the northern part is handed over to Gu Simiao, the empress sits in the center, and the southeastern provinces, which are the core areas of the rebellion, are personally led by the invincible Cangming Saint King.

But this does not mean that he does not need to pay attention to the situation in other regions.

Compared with others, the pressure he faces is not too great. After all, the Bashu land in the west of Daxia and the Baiyue land in the south are vast, but due to complex terrain, frequent monsters, and barbarians, the war potential is not very large, which is not as good as the highly developed Central Plains and southeastern provinces.

The elite of the Daxia Empire has always been in the north, not in the south, in the east, not in the west.

Moreover, the rebel forces are composed of the powerful and wealthy who have lost their power, the aristocratic families who have sensed the crisis of the new policy, and the ambitious royal family. Most of them have their roots in the southeast, which is no longer under the control of the court.

Therefore, the main battlefield of this rebellion must be in the east. Even if there are other troops pointing to the seven provinces he is responsible for, they will not be too strong.

Under this premise, there are two ceiling-level masters, Fu Hua and Chai Hongyu, and the Xingping New Army that can be compared with the cultivators, as well as the tempered Qingning Army. Even if the garrisons in various places are all rotten, there is no need to worry too much about the war.

If there is no accident, at least self-protection is no problem.

As the saying goes, a good fighter will be in an invincible position and then seek war. Since there is no problem with self-protection, then it is time to consider whether he can do something with the resources in his hands.

And the resources he has now

Needless to say, the land of the two states has money, people, and soldiers. This is also his current basic base, but it is hard to say beyond that.

After all, three of the seven provinces had been plagued by the rebels for many years, and were only recently pacified by the Qingning Army, so people's livelihood was still in the recovery stage.

The other four provinces were also affected by the rebels, and the interests of the powerful were naturally not damaged. There were even many who took the opportunity to seize resources and grow stronger, but ordinary people were miserable. Therefore, for the current seven provinces, restoring people's livelihood is the most important thing. The people can no longer bear the high-intensity war pressure.

Of course, as the governor of the seven provinces, Lu Chen has the right to forcibly recruit people, but being able to do it is one thing, and whether or not to do it is another.

At least he would never give such an order anyway.

'If we don't integrate resources, we really have to start with those people, but they are not fools, and they can't sit and wait for death. Turbulence is inevitable. No matter how fast and decisive the action is, it can't be completely resolved in a short time. '

'Relying on Suizhou and Yuzhou alone is a bit stretched in a short time'

Seeing Lu Chen pondering over the map, the three women didn't dare to interrupt him, but just walked to his side quietly, waiting for him to speak.

After a while, Lu Chen's gaze stopped at the complex water system that ran through Sui and Yu states.

In other words, it is the area where the Tianmen River Dam was reinforced and repaired when Xiao Yun was the chief water control officer the year before last.

"your Highness."

As if something suddenly occurred to him, he suddenly raised his head, looked at Jiang Chengyue beside him, and asked:

"What is the current burden of Kaiyuan Cave under the Tianmen River? How many Wanliuling ships can it accommodate at one time? How many routes are there? What is the current status of each route?"

Hearing this, Jiang Chengyue couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, a little confused as to why Lu Chen asked this.

She naturally knows about Tianmen River and Kaiyuan Cave, and she understood it before coming to Yuzhou.

Yuzhou has not been an ordinary state or county since ancient times.

You can tell from the name.

The reason why Yuzhou is called Yuzhou is because it is the place where an ancient great power named "Yu" was seated.

Legend has it that before Yu's death, the rivers here were extremely overflowing, which often caused this land of thousands of miles to become a marsh country, and spread outward at an extremely fast speed.

The people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait were suffering terribly, and countless ancestors were drowned in the monstrous floods.

Yu couldn't bear the suffering of the living beings, so at the cost of the spirit of the source, he transformed it into a supreme power comparable to the stars, and struck a shocking blow at the place where the flood was most severe. It actually directly penetrated the marrow of the earth and opened up a just right place. A cave that leads to another continent.

That is Kaiyuan Cave Heaven.

Tianmen River also got its name from this.

The monstrous floods that originally caused disasters were diverted and released by Kaiyuan Cave, and then the later Qingning River System was gradually formed.

Although the Qingjiang and Ningjiang rivers still flood from time to time, compared to the monstrous floods in ancient times that continued to spread and seemed to submerge the entire Central Continent, they were as docile as a kitten.

The Kaiyuan Cave is the fastest and most dangerous passage for people from Xizhou to reach the interior of the Central Continent Dynasty.

After being stunned for a moment, although Jiang Chengyue didn't know what Lu Chen wanted to do, she still told him what she knew:

"About five ships. There are only two routes now, namely the Western Route and the Far Ning Route. The Western Route goes directly to the Holy Sword Principality ruled by Sword Princess in the eastern border of Xizhou. It is the shortest voyage, but because it passes through the West Sea, it is very likely to be captured by the people there. Sea Tribe attacks, so it is also the most dangerous route.”

"The Yuanning route is the opposite of the Western route. Its voyage is all the way north. After leaving Dongtian, it passes through the barren Tiege Mountains and reaches the Yongji Land in the far north. Then it goes all the way west. When you see the purple sky, it is Go all the way south and finally reach the Osco Empire, which is also the main route for the people of Xizhou."

"If the Western route goes well, it can be reached in at most two months. However, the Yuan-Ning route takes at least two years one way, and you must rush to the supply point at a specific time. If there is a slight delay, you must return. Otherwise, if you force the voyage, it will be very difficult. There is a risk of shipwreck and loss of life in extreme weather conditions, but it is still much safer than the Western route.”

Listening to Jiang Chengyue's unhurried explanation, Chai Hongyu and Fu Hua couldn't help but look at Lu Chen curiously.

These two routes didn't look like they could be used. How could Lu Chen suddenly care about this?

It can't be that he is planning to organize a caravan to go to Xizhou to pack money in sacks, right? (End of chapter)