Currently, roughly 500,000 Great Yu Remnants reside in Great Yu City, these are the subjects the system assigned to Lu Chen. However, these subjects each have their own thoughts, and although they are fully loyal to him as the North Prince, it does not necessarily mean they are willing to leave the land where their ancestors have lived for generations.
After defeating the Sky Wolf King, Lu Chen immediately communicated his ideas to Xuanyuan Chen and General Wenren, two Black Cavalry generals, hoping they would convey his thoughts to the people of Great Yu City.
If those 500,000 people are willing to relocate to North City, then the development of North City's wastelands would become much easier by comparison.
Hearing Lu Chen's query, Xuanyuan Chen stepped forward and said, "Prince, I have conveyed your intentions to the people of Great Yu City, but to the best of my knowledge, most of the common folk are unwilling to leave Great Yu City."
"Moreover, I believe, Prince, that there is no need to relocate the people of Great Yu City to North City. In the future, your territory will extend even further into the North Land, and Great Yu City will guard every inch of land for you in the North Land."
Upon hearing Xuanyuan Chen's response, Lu Chen fell into thought for a moment.
Xuanyuan Chen's words weren't without merit; Lu Chen had already planned to incorporate the entirety of the North Land into his feudal state, and Great Yu City would become a frontier city in his territory.
If it was going to be his land, it naturally needed to be defended, and the topography of Yan'an Mountain, where Great Yu City was situated, was easy to defend and hard to attack, making it an excellent location to station troops.
Consider this, Great Sum with its population of over ten million could only train twenty thousand Heavy Cavalry, while Great Yu City, with a mere population of 500,000, boasted fifty thousand Heavy Cavalry.
Although Great Sum also had to support several hundred thousand regular troops, an area where Great Yu City couldn't compare,
the fact that Great Yu City could train fifty thousand Heavy Cavalry alone spoke volumes about its potential for warfare.
After some consideration, Lu Chen ultimately decided not to relocate those 500,000 people to North City. Instead, he resolved to let them remain in Great Yu City and would send troops there later to garrison and defend the entire North Land.
While Lu Chen was lost in thought, General Wenren stepped forward and said, "Prince, I've heard that you plan to build a direct road connecting Yan County with all the counties and cities in North City. I believe, now that Great Yu City has become part of your territory and its inhabitants part of your subjects, a direct road should also be built to connect Great Yu City."
"With such a road joining Great Yu City, North City's soldiers would be able to quickly reach Great Yu City, and henceforth, the entire North Land would be under your control."
After thinking it over, Lu Chen then said, "General Wenren's suggestion is good, and I accept it."
If Great Yu City was to be treated as a military stronghold, it was indeed necessary to build a direct road there so that Lu Chen could swiftly dispatch troops to the North Land.
Most importantly, this would encourage interaction between the people of Great Yu City and those from North City, and in the future, Great Yu City would no longer remain isolated.
Lu Chen then said, "Alright, let's end this topic here. Does anyone else have anything else to discuss?"
Commander Qin Yushan then stood up and said, "Prince, currently the various kingdoms are frequently mobilizing troops. Great Jue has stationed 200,000 troops at the border with North City, but intelligence from the Brocade Guard has become outdated and we cannot ascertain the specific movements of the other kingdoms in realtime.
I believe it is time to expand the Brocade Guard, we should recruit more agents to infiltrate the other kingdoms and gather intelligence."
A Brocade Guard force of five thousand, if solely tasked with gathering intelligence within Great Sum, would face no problems. However, collecting intelligence from other kingdoms, or states, would prove more challenging.
The most critical issue is that the languages and scripts of the various countries are not necessarily the same; Brocade Guards from within Great Sum might not understand a word upon arriving in another kingdom, let alone gather intelligence.
Lu Chen responded, "Commander Qin, stay behind after this meeting to discuss this matter with me separately; we will not discuss it further at this moment."
After all, the Brocade Guard was a sharp knife in Lu Chen's hand, and he didn't intend to discuss matters pertaining to the Brocade Guard in front of everyone else, so as not to alarm others, especially Li Rui and the others who were not summoned through the system.
Hearing Lu Chen's words, Qin Yushan immediately replied, "Yes, Prince."
As the sound of his voice faded, Qin Yushan returned to his place.
Lu Chen asked again, "Any other matters? If not, then today's meeting is adjourned. You may all leave."
Subsequently, everyone, in unison, voiced, "We take our leave, may the Prince live for thousands, ten thousands of years!!!"
Afterward, everyone left the study, leaving only Qin Yushan behind.
In the following half an hour, Lu Chen and Qin Yushan discussed the expansion of the Brocade Guard.
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
In a courtyard of the North Prince Mansion.
Two exceedingly beautiful women were sitting in a pavilion, watching the people who were about to leave the North Prince Mansion from the outside of the pavilion.
This spot was not part of the inner court but was situated perfectly to observe the officials from North City as they passed by after leaving Lu Chen's study.
The Mysterious Moon Palace had little presence in North City; Chen Wanrong and Lin Wanyun had been in North City for quite some time, yet Chen Wanrong had still not managed to administer the Love Worm to Lu Chen.
At this moment, Lin Wanyun spoke, "Palace Master, it seems the North Prince has all but forgotten about the two of us."
They had been living in the North Prince Mansion for quite a long time, yet aside from some initial conversation, the North Prince had since had no further interactions with them.