Forgotten Legend of the Bloodied Flower

Chapter 2534  The Discussion of the Emperor and Prime Ministers (4)

*Warning: Some description might make readers uncomfortable in this chapter. If you have a weak heart or if you’re under 13 years old, you’re advised not to read this chapter.*

At the same time, such training also allowed Fei Yang Kingdom’s soldiers to become stronger. So even though there was some pity when seeing these soldiers worked so hard, Emperor Yang Zhou and the prime ministers ignored their wailings. “Will one year be enough?” Emperor Yang Zhou asked again as he looked at Prime Minister Xian. “The terrain out there might be different.”

Fan Yi Kingdom didn’t really explore the northern tribe’s area. After all, they were already in difficult situation because they have to defend against other kingdoms that attacked them and also their own border.

How could they have enough energy to explore and venture into the north?

That was impossible. So the areas further north was simply an unknown area.

Even if there were some records of some people in the past who tried to explore, but the number was actually not many. There were nothing worthy enough of attention so far. Though they still browsed through it in case there was something they could find. “If it’s not enough, then we’ll extend the time by another year,” Prime Minister Xian said slowly and then frowned. “The specific training will have to be arranged and adjusted. Moreover, not all soldiers can be selected to participate in this training.”

There were many soldiers in Fei Yang Kingdom and it was impossible for them to arrange everyone to train vigorously.

For example, Great General Long was still having ‘fun’ clearing up the areas on the east. They would hear the news of him destroying one bandit and quelling rebellions one after another in the past few years.

From the way he set his post, Great General Long might want to stay there for an extended period of time. Great General Wei has been cleaning up the area in Fan Yi Kingdom.

After all, some stubborn people still thought that it was possible for Fan Yi Kingdom to rise again and wanted to contribute. But the reality was that there were no one else who could possibly resurrect Fan Yi Kingdom. These kingdoms were merged into Fei Yang Kingdom. “But during the time when the soldiers are training, how about the north’s defense?” Prime Minister Lan asked with a frown. “It’s impossible to simply rely on General Yang to protect the entire line of defense.”

The border between the north of Fei Yang Kingdom with the northern tribe was very vast. Even in the past, General Yang could only protect a portion and the other one was handed over to other generals.

Now, there were two generals who were protecting the border: General Yang and General Gao. These two generals were indeed quite capable.

But asking them to protect such a long line with only two generals and a limited number of soldiers, it would be highly impossible. “There are a lot of cities at the border and the northern tribes often targeted these cities,” Emperor Yang Zhou started slowly as he looked at the map. The areas where these cities built were based on the suitable resources in the area.

These people were able to live quite prosperously.

But when the winter came, the northern tribe would definitely make trouble.

If it was not their city this year, they might be attacked the next year or the year afterwards. So for the people who lived in Fan Yi Kingdom, they have the mentality to be ready to be attacked.

The generals were not capable enough to completely protect them. “It’s indeed difficult for them to traverse the land,” Prime Minister Xian said. The terrains were composed of hills, forest, and even lake. It was difficult for these soldiers to move from one place to another rapidly. This was the main reason why the soldiers were delayed and many cities were raided over the years. There was already road connecting the city to one another, but the road was built many years ago and Fan Yi Kingdom hadn’t taken care of it for such a long time. This caused the road to be full of holes and uneven. Fei Yang Kingdom has already built a lot of roads over the years.

After all, for these soldiers to be able to go from one place to another, the importance of the road could not be underestimated. “First, we need to repair the roads,” Prime Minister Lan said in a low voice.

He felt that Fei Yang Kingdom should enter the rebuilding era soon with them having to build roads, building, and many others in the past few years. Rather than preparing for war, it was more like they were preparing to develop the land. But as long as the road was built… they would be able to connect from one city to another. “Let Great General Wei arrange the war prisoners to build the road,” Emperor Yang Zhou gave order. Over the years, the people who built the road changed from the workers that they hired to the prisoners of wars. There were many people who didn’t want to submit to Fei Yang Kingdom and then got caught instead of dying.

At the beginning, they wanted to kill these people.

After all, these people would only waste their food supply.

But later on, it was proposed that these war prisoners could be used to do hard work such as building the road.

In this way, many war prisoners turned into free worker.

They were only given enough food to work and not given anything else. Some of them whose crimes were not too big could go back after a few years of harsh building but the rest of them who commit big crimes had to work until their death. In this era where human lives could be bought and sold at will, there were many cases where war prisoners became slaves.

To be honest, just using them to work was already very humane to a certain degree.